Christmas tree hunt

Instead of pulling out the fake Christmas tree this year we decided to go find something a little fresher.  Being early in the season I hadn't seen a lot of local tree lots around so we just picked the first one we found.  It wasn't large, but that didn't stop the girls from running around and having a great time.  In fact, had it been any bigger I don't know if we could have settled on a tree.

 

As soon as we found the perfect tree we realized we left our checkbook at home.  I hopped in the car (with a sleeping Kelton) and intended to hurry home while they prepped the tree to go home.  If only it was that simple.  On the four-minute drive home Kelton threw up all over himself and his carseat.  I couldn't very well leave him in his mess so when we got home I put him in the tub, even though I left his carseat for later.  He was sleepy, sick, and uncooperative so it took awhile for me to get him back in the car.  When I made it back to the tree lot they all teased me about abandoning them.  McKenzie had forgotten her jacket so Jeremy had given her his, and he was huddled around the barrel fire that was burning.  

The girls also took the time to find a cute reindeer decoration that we decided to take home with us.  We are super excited to hand the decorations on our new tree!

Thanksgiving

This year we were lucky enough to host Thanksgiving at our house!  It meant we had a full house with my parents, Alan & Hannah and their kiddos, Faye and Sam, Camille & Jake, and Ryan, but it was definitely worth the chaos.  The cousins don't get that many opportunities to see each other and hang out, but when they do they jump right in with no reservations.  Between running around like crazies, doing crafts together, and just hanging out they had a fantastic time.  I'm glad they had fun inside because it was freezing outside that weekend! 

Since all of our crew flew in or drove in from Utah, we did all of the prep in my kitchen.  There was a lot of Thanksgiving food to cook up, and even though we were busy it was a lot of fun and not too stressful to be enjoyed.  Snacks to tide everyone over while we cooked up the feast.  

Jeremy and I picked up a new dining room table for the occasion (and to fit our growing family), and it was used for the first time while everyone was here.  It was awesome being able to fit everyone at the same table.  The box the table came in.  

I admit that I'm proud of how pretty the table looked when it was all set.  I, however, forgot to take pictures with my camera and am waiting for other generous souls to send me the pictures they took of the evening (hint, hint :)  After dinner we all helped ourselves to pie!  We made short work of the six pies that evening.  Kelton decided that forks were too much of an inconvenience.  

On the morning of black Friday we loaded up a couple carloads of shoppers to do some deal finding, that is, after we scraped a frozen ice cap off my parents' car.  Nice work boys!  

The only thing we were really on the hunt for was a new TV for the basement.  The guys wanted to watch some movies, play some games, and set up the "man cave" before it could be claimed by children's toys.  I think they were pretty proud of the results.  

The girls went out later to look for shoes, which was equally exciting!  After a successful round of shoe shopping we picked up mugs of hot cocoa to warm up.  I think this should definitely become a tradition.  

We were really sad to see everyone leave on Sunday.  Kelton felt the loss pretty strongly the next day when he realized that not only were his cousins gone, but his sisters were at school all day.  I'm so glad everyone was able to come celebrate with us!

Park day with friends

I have to say that we live in an amazing ward and neighborhood.  My kids have oodles of friends their age, which means I do too.  Those amazing friends are also really good at scheduling park days, for which I am very grateful.  We met up for one last park day before the weather turned cold and snapped a picture with everyone who came.  How did we get so lucky?

Little basement helpers

So our basement is really, really close to being done.  Here are some more of our progress pictures.  The concrete shower pad was poured and the concrete guy put the girls' initials in it per their request.  They were pretty excited even if they will be covered up by tile.

  

My mom came out to help me tile the bathroom and laundry room which was a huge, huge, help.  Little did we know that McKenzie is also a superb little grouter.  She loved spreading that mud all over her fingers and smearing it in the cracks.  

Kelton did he best to help and stay out of the way at the same time.  When things were drying we had to explain to him that they were "sticky" simply because I couldn't think of a better way to explain the drying process of quick-set and grout to a two-year old.  He started playing hopscotch on the tiles after awhile which I thought was a pretty creative game. 

During this whole basement finishing process, my poor kids have been ignored a lot  All the adults will be downstairs working with power tools while the kids hang out upstairs and do whatever they want.  For the most part it really hasn't been that bad.  I typically have to vacuum the entire floor because of cracker crumbs, and I always have a lot of toys to put away, but they haven't complained and have been good little troopers.  After a long day of tiling I came upstairs to find that Kelton had found a red Sharpie and had colored on the kitchen floor.  The funny thing was, I wasn't even mad.  I laughed, got out the Magic Eraser, and went to work.  The Magic Eraser did it's magic and the Sharpie luckily came off without a problem.  I think we'll all be relieved when this project is done!

Do you want to build a snowman?

The first snowfall of the season turned out to be perfect, and I mean absolutely perfect for building snowmen.  It wasn't cold, the snow was just wet enough to pack together without any stress, and there was a lot of it.  Even though we "should" have been in the basement tiling a bathroom, we decided to go outside and play instead.  It was too perfect of an opportunity to waste.  I pulled out all of our snow gear and realized Cambrie and Kelton didn't have boots.  Surprisingly we weren't missing anything else so the kids made do with what they had-Cambrie's school boots, and Kelton's boots from last year that are at least a size too small.  I had pants...but they didn't come close to closing and so they kept falling down, but I guess that's not too bad.  

The kids' first attempt before I suited up to join them.

Kelton wanted to be a helper but each time the snow fell out of his hands before he made it to us.

Because the snow was so perfect our bottom ball of our snowman grew really big really quickly.  No problem right?  Well, the problem came as soon as we tried making his belly ball in proportion to his bottom.  It was too big for me to lift, my stomach kept getting in the way.  We tried and failed to get that belly up for 15 minutes, but shrinking the balls just wasn't an option.  Finally I had a crazy idea to use Cambrie as my leverage.  She crawled down on her hands and knees and I rolled the ball up onto her back.  From there she rose up a bit and I was able to finish rolling the ball onto our snowman.  She thought it was hysterical and she claimed it didn't even squish her.  I don't know about that, it was heavy!  But either way we were able to get that belly up there.  The head wasn't nearly as bad and that went up without a hitch.  

The kids with our snowman pieces waiting to be assembled.

While the girls and I were working on the snowman, Kelton learned that he could eat snow.  He thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever and sat there very contentedly munching on snow while we worked.  

Finally it was time for the buttons, face and arms.  When our snowman was finished he was almost taller than me!  I think the last time I built a snowman that big was when Jeremy and I built one on Old Main Hill at USU.   The girls named their snowman Oliver, a spin-off of Olaf, and he lasted for a grand total of 20 minutes before he tipped over.  Apparently I didn't do a very good job of making sure he was centered with those heavy pieces.  We put him back together again but he wasn't as tall.  Luckily we snapped the picture of him in his glory.  We were sure spoiled that day.

Quick Aquarium Visit

We have loved having an annual pass to the aquarium-especially when it means we can take a break from Saturday morning chores.  My kids don't seem to grow tired of seeing all the fish.  They love the stingrays, especially when they swim over them in the fish tunnel.  I wasn't fast enough to capture both girls pressed up against the glass watching this stingray swim by.  There is one with a gimpy tail that they have named Fred and they look for him each time.  Kelton found a fish that played peek-a-boo with him for a few minutes.  It peeked its head up out of its hole, then would go back down, and pop up again moments later.  Kelton thought it was great.  When the kids climbed up onto this bench on our way out I had to snap a picture of my cute kiddos.  We'll be so sad when our pass expires!

Happy Halloween!

Another successful Halloween has come and gone.  It kind of snuck up on me this year, but luckily the kids didn't seem to notice.  We picked up our pumpkins almost a month ago since we knew our October was going to be crazy with our Hawaii trip.  McKenzie has been anxious to carve her massive pumpkin and I was a little apprehensive about how much work it would take.  Thankfully when we opened them up yesterday to carve them we discovered that they were really clean pumpkins.  Yea!  Kelton followed tradition and didn't want to touch the pumpkin slime at all, but the girls have finally outgrown their squimishness and dug right in to clean out the guts.  

Cambrie did all of the carving by herself this year,  She did a great job and I was proud of her for sticking with it and doing such a good job.  

McKenzie carved the large lines and I helped her finish it off.  Kelton chose his pumpkin design...a flaming skull.  Jeremy laughed and we both realized that we definitely have a boy in the family.  Jeremy went with Jack Skeleton.  Nearly all the trick-or-treaters commented on how awesome our pumpkins looked-yes, we will take credit for our aweseomness.  

I panicked a little when we came home from Hawaii and I realized I had two short weeks to pull everyone's costumes together.  The girls had found ideas in a magazine and it was up to me to bring their visions to reality from scratch.  I was really nervous about pulling it off, but the girls loved them.  "Mom, it looks even better than the picture!"  Whew!  Kelton didn't get to choose so I tried to choose something for him that he would at least recognize and hopefully be excited about. 

 So this year we had an Indian princess.

  

A pink Ninja.  

And Jake from the Neverland Pirates cartoon.  We had to wake Kelton up from his nap so he could go trick-or-treating and he wasn't quite ready to smile for the camera.  The smiles didn't come until a few houses in and he realized he was filling his candy bag again.  At least he had the ward trunk-or-treat as a warm-up last week.  

Jeremy took the kids out while I stayed home passing out candy.  We were really lucky to have mild weather this year but after about an hour the girls came home asking for gloves for their cold hands.  Kelton didn't seem to notice the cold at all and wanted to go back out, so out they went for another hour of candy collecting.  They came home pretty pleased with their haul.  

Kelton just wanted to eat everyone's candy and grabbed whatever looked good.  Yes, the girls are good sports but they drew the line at candy stealing.  

We sent three super tired and sugar-crazed kids to bed around 9:00 and I was extremely grateful for daylight savings as it helped them sleep in just a bit today.  Now all I have to worry about are the candy battles for the next few weeks.  Happy Halloween!