Rockin' around the Christmas Tree

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree.  This stems clear back from when I was a little girl.  It was usually after we recovered from Black Friday shopping.  But I wasn't in dire need of anything this year so I spared my sanity and didn't go.  Ok, honestly, Jason had to work a graveyard and didn't get home until 7 am so I would have had to drag the kids with me.....not a good idea with all the crazies out.  and I really didn't see anything advertised that was on my shopping list. Anywho....so we decorated the tree today.

We're lame and have a fake tree, with the lights already on it.  With kids and dogs....that's always been the safest and cleanest route to go.  One day we'll get a real tree.  Plus, this year I was smart and used shatter-proof ornaments.  Last year, Ian would take the ornaments off the tree and say "Ball!" and then proceed to throw them or smash them together.  Not a lot of my ornaments survived.  So after Christmas I got some on sale =)

We had a few kinks getting started.  I plugged in the tree and there was a row of lights burned out.  EEK!!  Especially since this I a prelit tree, you can't just take the lights off.  The lights are supposed to be the type that if one bulb burns out the rest stay lit (which I saw demonstrated on a few other spots).  I changed the fuses....nothing....made sure all the bulbs were plugged in....nothing....I really didn't want to take every bulb out and test them....that's a pain.  So I decided to just buy a strand of lights and wrap them around it.  So I shuffled off to the store and got some lights.  As I was wrapping them around the unlit branches....all of a sudden, they weren't unlit anymore!  I guess I jiggled something and the lit back up!  YAY!!!  So then I put the lights around my window =)

Then I let the kids get down to business:

I let tehm decorate this little mini tree while I was getting everything ready =)

Of course you need window clings!  Especially when you have a huge window!

Now the fun part:

I think this was longest they went all day without fighting!  It was wonderful =)  Until we ran out of ornaments......

They were pleased with themselves.  I let them do pretty much all of it.  I did move some ornaments because I hung all the ornaments on one branch =) Silly boy!

Happy Turkey Day!

We didn't do much for Thanksgiving.  Just stuffed ourselves silly with turkey and mashed potatoes.  We stayed home this year.  My dad came down and ate with us.  The kids were excited because Papa is their favorite toy =)  Nothing too eventful but here are some pictures of the kids (and Papa) having fun:

I love my chitlins =)

Even Sasha had to give some loves to Papa =)  She knows she can wrestle and play rough with him.  As soon as the kids come around she stops.  

Had to include this =)  We love deep fried Turkey so that is Jason's contribution to the fest.  I do everything else and he throws a turnkey in pot of boiling oil.....hmm...I think he gets the easy job.

Do I have cute kids or what?!

My friend, Dallas, took some super cute pictures of my kids a few weeks ago.  I LOVE them!!!  She did such an awesome job!  Of course, when you have such cute little models to work with it's hard not to get cute pictures. =)  Here are some of my favorites: 

(I couldn't get this to flip the right way for some reason)

(This one wouldn't flip either)

~Happy Halloween~

I hope everyone had a good Halloween.  We did =)  I was so glad that the weather decided to stay nice.  It was great being able to take the kids trick-or-treating without bundling them up in 50 layers.  We went around our neighborhood this year and did some actual foot work, no trunk-or-treat this year.  I was bummed at the lack of Halloween activities this year.  Usually there is something for the kids to do everyday for a week before.  Maybe I'm just out of the loop but it seemed like there weren't many going on.  Oh well.  We had fun with our corn maze, pumpkin carving, and a few parades.

We did a little bit of pumpkin carving this year.  Jason wanted to do a mean looking one:

I didn't want the usual face so I did a skeleton face:













 usually get little pumpkins for the kids to decorate and paint but I didn't this year.  I know, I should have.

We had our ward Halloween party Saturday.  It was fun to go see our friends and neighbors.  I did a post earlier about it.  I was excited to win the costume contest.  Then right after the party, Ian had a costume birthday party.  He had a blast!  I need to get some pictures from my friend since my camera broke.  He was dressed as Superman (a pair of his jammies that have a cape =)  )

I had both the kids dress as skeleton's this year.  I don't think I'll get a way with dressing them the same much longer so I'm enjoying it.

Brenna was excited to dress up for school!

While Brenna got to have fun at hew Halloween party at school, me and Ian went trick-or-treating with Jason at his work.

While we were walking in the parking lot, Ian told me "Mommy!  Take a picture!" and he struck a pose =)  What a goober! 

Here are the kids, ready to go =)  We had friends come with us and i forgot to get a picture of all of them together =(

Here's Jason in the white out contacts that he insisted he just HAD to have for Halloween =P

Trick or Treat!!!

Brains......brains.....brains.....

We had our ward Halloween party yesterday and I thought I would share this lovely picture with you.  Of course, they were having a costume contest too.  Don't you love costume contests?  I remember many times feeling jipped because the sparkly princess won instead of me.  There was oneyear brenna was dressed up as a transformer (seriously, how many girls want to be transformers?) and of course the fairy princess won. grr!!!  I rebelled this year at our ward halloween party and dressed as ugly as I could, a zombie, just to show them you don't have to be cutsie....guess who won the contest....yup, me! not those pretty pirates or princesses.  I had fun doing my costume.  Found the dress at Saver's, ripped it and rolled it in dirt, made soem fake blood, and viola!  A zombie is born....or unborn?  There were some people in our ward that didn't recognize me and had to ask other people who I was.  It was great!

Stay tuned for some really cute kiddos pictures after Halloween.

Harvest Moon Festival

In case you couldn't tell, I've been a slacker and now I've been playing catch up on my posts.  At the end of September we went to the Harvest Moon Festival on 25th Street in Ogden.  They had lots of vendors, a farmer's market and kids activities.

We did this last year and the kids loved it.  they got to make their own pumpkin bread bowl.  Brenna loved it so much last year that the next day me and her made our own pumpkin bread bowls and that got me started on my bread bowls, which I love to make with soups.

Some good, clean fun!  They ahd a big pool filled with bubbles!  There was a bubble machine that kept the supply of bubbles going.  The kids would have spent all day playing here if I would have let them.

They were covered head to to....I guess they didn't need a bath that night. =)

There were free pumpkins for the kids to decorate.   They did such a good job.  Too bad that the pumpkins got mushy the next week....and then Sasha got a hold of them.  Come to find out, our dog likes to eat pumpkins.  I won't be surprise if we have a few random pumpkin plants growing around from the mess she made of the seeds.

The kids remembered the train ride from last year so of course they went again this year.  Brenna even ran into Eleanor, her best friend from the townhouses we used to live in (her family actually moved into our townhouse after we moved too).  

Ian and Daddy got to ride the train.  He won't admit it, but I'm sure Jason had fun riding with his little mini-me.

It was fun to go this year.  The kids liked all the activities.  There were a ton!  The best part of all.....it was FREE!!! (remember, I'm cheap and all about free stuff!)

I'm a big boy now!

My cute little guy is almost potty trained!  We have been potty training for about 2 weeks now.  For the longest time he has wanted nothing to do with it.  Then one morning he told me he wanted to wear underwear.  I though the would wear them for 5 minutes and then want them off like he usually does.  But nope, he kept them on.  then I expected him to pee in them right away....which he did.  He still wanted to wear underwear so I put a new pair on and then we got him to go on the potty.  It took a few tries before he figured out how to make himself go, but once he did, he was good to go!  Now he is telling us when he has to go or even going in on his own.  But each time he goes he makes sure to tell us to come and look.  he is staying dry through his naps and even at night!   We are still working on getting him to go #2 in the potty.  He's gone a few times, but it seems like each time he needs to go is when we're somewhere other than at home or near a potty.  I know that one will take a bit longer.  I am so proud of how good he is doing!  I was fully expecting him to not want anything to to do with it until after he was 3.  He's growing up way too fast!  I sure love my little Bubba =)