Christmas Time?

We have had the weirdest weather lately and so it has been hard to let it feel like Christmas. My little sister Julie was here for Thanksgiving and on that Friday we were outside all day in short sleeves and no coats making marshmallow guns and playing at the park. It was like 70 degrees. Beautiful!!! but not conducive to Holiday spirit in my opinion.

We proceeded to put up the Christmas tree for Family Home Evening last Monday and after Brian had some egg nog it felt a little more like the Holidays to him but all I had was Christmas music to keep me going.

Last night we had the most wonderful Relief Society Christmas evening where we had a "Christmas Carol" theme. We had an ornament to go with each, past, present, future and had sister share amazing stories of past Christmas's, present (or current family traditions and what we can do now to feel the spirit of Christmas) and how to find JOY in Christmas's future. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong. Then I woke up this morning to find frost all over my deck and windows. It was such a wonderful experience. I feel like I can make this season wonderful no matter what the circumstances may be. I am so thankful to have such amazing influences in my life and such a wonderful family to share this happy time with! I am also Thankful to know the importance of the birth of the Savior and I hope with all my heart that I can portray that importance to my children so they may also love Christmas as much as I do.

okay, okay, here is Halloween

Okay, okay, I will post about Halloween.

I fear I would look back and be disappointed if these cute kids did not have at least a picture to show for this Halloween. They kind of got jipped this year. I am not a huge advocate for Halloween anyway (expensive costumes, too much candy, no lesson involved) but I do love going to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, apple cider, dry ice, cooler weather and thing like that. Because of my current pregnant situation I could not convince Brian that Going to a pumpkin patch would be a good idea and I can not just buy a pumpkin at the store. So we had to forgo all Fun Halloween this year. Luckily I do not think the kids even had a clue what they were missing because they are so young still. Thank goodness! Basically, we just went trick or treating. The kids did absolutely love it. Brian had them out for over an hour and a half with one stop home in the middle to scare mommy and dump out full buckets. They got SOOO much. And were so excited the whole time! Seriously!
My little Ninja and pretty princess!

(A borrowed ninja costume,thanks Kietra, and dress up princess dress, That is how it is done!)

It was a little cold on Halloween but that did not phase the kids at all!

The one thing that I could control was Addie's hair and it was so adorable and it had glitter in it, unfortunately you can not tell in any of these pictures. Oh well!

Here are three cute things the kids did do this Halloween.

1. They are at a cute age where they enjoy sharing their candy as much as eating it. Right when the kids got home for the night I had just run out of candy to hand out. We still had kids approaching our door and Callen had so much fun handing out candy before he left with Brian that he proceeded to take candy out of his own bucket and put it in the approaching kids buckets and saying, "Here you go, Happy Halloween!" It was so cute! Then I hurried and turned off our lights as quick as I could when there was a break in the kids!

2. Our kids are at the perfect age where all the candy they want to eat is the stuff like suckers, starbursts, tootsie rolls, smarties and things like that. They completely over look the good stuff. So every time we ask if we can have a piece of candy they happily hand us chocolate! It is awesome. I do not know how many years that will last but we sure love it right now. Addie looked in her bucket yesterday and said, "I can't see very much good stuff left!" I looked in and saw snickers, milkyway, butterfinger, and a whole ton load of chocolate. SCORE!

3. They are so good about sharing. They always take one out for them and one out for the other. It is very sweet. Their new game the last few days (so cute) is to unwrap a piece of candy and throw it across the room and say "go get it puppy!" and the other one will take off on all fours to get it. Hilarious! Then it is the other ones turn. Callen asked me to open a piece of candy and I asked him if I could have a bite and he said, "no, it is for my puppy!" as he turns and throws it across the room and Addie takes off. They are funny kids!

It was a happy Halloween at our house despite our lack of traditions this year. I guess any holiday is fun as long as you are with the ones you love. My family can make any occasion fun!!

comfy!

This can not be a comfortable way to sleep

Don't worry, I moved him. He had all sorts of lines all over his face.

Idaho

We have safely arrived in Idaho and are having such a wonderful time. It is always something special to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house when you do not get to see them very often. My kids just jump right in as if they saw them the day before and it is so wonderful.

I will have pictures to follow soon but here are just a few things that have happened. My dad Flew out to St. Louis to drive home with me and on the drive he was trying to explain to the kids, "Now, I just want to let you know that Grandma is really old!" (I know right?) Addie just said, "Noooo." and said proceeded to explain that she was old. So the next morning at the Hotel we said we were leaving for Idaho and Addie said, "So grandma is old right?" it was so funny. So this morning My mom told Callen to wake up my little brother Jake and he would not get up. Callen asked my mom Why (of course he would ask that) Jake would not get up and my mom responded with an answer that she uses a lot. "Oh, he is just old." and Callen looked at her and said, "No, ew old!" Very matter of factly. It was so great. Thanks Grandpa Bob!!!

So our drive was so much fun. I absolutely loved being with my dad for all that time. One time I happened to dose off and i guess Addie was trying to get my attention and she was saying my name over and over again. The normal, "Mooom, Mooom, Mommm." type stuff in a normal voice. And then Callen says, "Addie Addie, do it like this MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM!" at the top of his lungs over and over again. My dad was dying laughing and needless to say it worked and I woke up!

My kids love it here. Callen tells everyone that he is 5 and lives in Idaho.

My dad has had the kids "help" out around the apartments (my parents manage a mens housing complex at BYU-I) complete with mini home depot aprons and everything. It is very cute so every morning they want to put on their "tool belts" and go find Grandpa bob to help him work. It is so fun. The first day they were cleaning out some apartments that boys had moved out of and left a bunch of junk in. This was on the third floor so my dad would give them things to go throw over the balcony to the ground to where Julie was waiting to put it in the dumpster. Man, That was great fun. They would laugh and giggle every time they threw something off. One time Callen found a glass bottle and chucked it over the side. We all watched it go down and thud o the grass and not break. After which Grandpa had to explain that he could only throw things that he gave him to throw. It was so funny. They are great helpers. They have put on their tool belts and picked up sticks, swept side walks, helped grandpa screw in screws and so much more. They just live out side here in this beautiful weather. Cool crisp air in the morning and mildly hot in the afternoon and back to cool and crisp at night. I know you all want to be here!! That is all for now. I will post pictures soon.

Easter

So here is a very very late Easter post.

I know that I am very artistic in my decorations but this is what the kids like. They made Easter pictures to hang on the wall and they found treats on the table when they woke up in the nests that they made the night before.

Here are Addie and Callen's Easter morning. they made their nests on Saturday with the Elders. I did not have as much ingredients as i thought so everyone had to make small ones and Brian and i did not even get to make one. Oh well, it is better than nothing. It was pretty funny watching the Elders try to form a nest out of a little bit of noodles. It was fun though.

Here are the Elders nests. We LOVE having them live at our house. they are so much fun. It was a holiday (obviously) and they could not find anyone home so they were able to hang out with a bit on Easter. They ate dinner with us and then we watched some church videos about Jesus and we played games.

They also played with the kids. Elder Anderson took Addie on a trip around they world. And Addie got to drive (most of the time, she did get tired a few times and ask him to drive). It was very cute.

I know that Elder Loakes does not look to excited in either of these pictures but we did have a lot of fun. They bring such a great spirit into our home.

Here is our Easter family outside church on Easter. It was quite an experience getting this picture. I know it is not very good but I could not pass up posting the picture with Addie looking like this. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Roller skate party!

I was asked by my friend Vickie to make roller skate invitations and a cake for her daughter's birthday.

I was very very please with the invitations and not so much with the cake. It tasted awesome but i did not love the finished product. (these are pictures of the invitations but not the cake I used, This is the preliminary one I made the real one taller like the top picture)

I actually like the design of the practice one better.

These are two of my practice ones. I do not know what I was thinking when i did the real one!

Oh, well. The party was very very fun and Jaidyn liked it and that is all the matters. Addie and I were invited to the party. Addie had never been rollerskating before and she had such a blast and could even do it by herself (a little).

She was so stinking cute in those roller skates. They were so little.

Watch how good she was. She is so cute.

Okay so she needs a little work but at least she falls gracefully.

here is the hokey-pokey. We definitely need to go skating again. She had so much fun.

Big boy bed

This is how Callen sleeps in his new big boy bed!!

But of course you can not go to sleep without first putting the sticker from the wipes on your chin. Why would you?

He has been in this bed for about 4 days. He has done really great. He has never once gotten out when he should not have. He plays at nap time until I lay with him for a few minutes but within 5 minutes he goes to sleep. It has been great. The first night i was so nervous and I put him to bed and did the normal bedtime routine and he went right to sleep. I thought. Wow, this is great. This is going to be easy. So the next morning, around 5:45 he comes into our bedroom, throws open the door, throws his arms up in the air and cheerfully yells, "I'm awake now!!" (if you could just picture his little voice, it was hilarious) He was so thrilled that he could walk out on his own when he was ready to get up. It was so funny. But of course he could not come in to us before going to wake up his sister. So needless to say we had a very early morning on Sunday and Addie was not very happy. "Mom, Callen got in bed with me and I did not like it!" Poor girl. She really has a rough life! Since then it has been fine and no more early mornings!

Birthday time!!!

Happy Birthday Callen!!!!!


He is finally two. I hope that is a good thing. I really don't see how he could get any more ornery so I am not too worried about the terrible twos.

Anyway, On a better note, we had a great birthday weekend with Callen. On Friday, His birthday, we went to cici's pizza with our friends. The stokes were there(yay, we love them) and Laura and Connel came (my kids are absolutely in love with them)It was fun and Callen got some awesome presents (which I was not expecting, thanks guys you are awesome!)




Then on Saturday He got to go to that SLU basketball game with his dad (that was for both of their birthdays).



Then on Sunday Brian's family came over and we had a little party with dinner, cake, presents, balloons, etc.

Callen (after many conversations with Addie) wanted a basketball cake, of course!! So Brian and I found what we needed and made a pretty cool cake. He was taking a nap while we made it and when he woke up he was not very happy until i showed him his cake and he said, "Ohhhh, Thank you mommy. basketball cake!" It was great.





He also did a great job blowing out the candles!! Here is a video.


We had a fun time and Callen got some really great things. We love birthdays at our house!!! It is great to have a special day just for you. On Wednesday we get to do it all again for Brian. YAY!!

Mommy, come look!

So the other night Brian and I were reading our scriptures together and we decided not to invite the kids because everything was so peaceful in their rooms and they were actually getting along. We thought, hmm how nice, lets just read while we have peace. So we had finished reading and were just talking and discussing our reading when Addie comes running in and says, "Mommy come see, come see!" She is so excited that she can not even stand still and she is skipping around in circles with an excited voice. So she darts down the hallway to Callen's room, throws her arms up in the air and says, "ta-da!" As I round the corner and see into his room I just fell on the floor laughing. There was nothing else to do but laugh.

Yes! Every single toy in Callen's room was in his bed. (and he had taken all of his clothes off, He is in a weird stage) Addie was so excited to show us all of their hard work. Callen was just chillin in there and then decided he could not get out and said, " I'm stuck, I'm stuck." What made it even funnier is when I looked in the closet and found this

Not a single item on the shelves. No books, No puzzles, No toys, nothing!!!! It was so funny. Too bad it happened after it was all ready past bed time. We were up pretty late cleaning it all up.

While this was one of the greatest sights that I had every been invited to "come see" We did have to explain to Addie that yes we were laughing but this is something that she should never do again. I am just glad that Brian and I were both in the mood for a good laugh instead of being annoyed that they had done this at bed time. It really is good to laugh at things in life. Especially when it involves your two incredibly adorable, incredibly crazy, incredibly wonderful children. Life is wonderful!!

poop money

So last night we went out to eat and when it was time to pay we gave Callen a penny because he wanted to help pay. Well, of course he wouldn't give his money to the lady because he wanted to keep it. That was fine, so we got in the car. A little while down the road we heard Callen gagging. I knew he wasn't eating any food so I was confused. After we were scared and then he stopped I asked, "Callen, where is your money?" and he said. "Mouth." So I asked him to get it and he put his finger in his mouth and twirled it around for a while and said. "help, get money." so Brian and I started to laugh and talk about what would happen to the money and I guess Callen was listening because he started saying, "poop money -poop, money -" It was so funny. then Addie said, "Mom that is so funny we need to call Grandpa Bob and tell him. So we did and we gave the phone to Callen and he just said, "Bob, poop, money" It was so funny!!

Then today we were surprised that is passed so quickly. We were going to take a picture to post but we didn't want to gross everyone out. (I would never post that don't worry!:) We never know what we are going to get with this boy!!

Pee Wee Picasso

So we went to a pee wee Picasso class today sponsored by parents as teachers (a fabulous organization!) the kids got to do so many artistic things and we all had a blast. It was a fight to get the smock on Callen but it was well worth it.

There was spin art (Callen looks like he night be doing something that he is not supposed to)

Then we did bubble wrap painting. Look at those messy hands! We made hand prints on white paper with the paint on our hands when we were done playing on the bubble wrap.

Then there was play dough and stamping.

Followed by Karo syrup and tissue paper art

And good old fashioned art easel painting

Last but not least,

some fun sponge painting and rolling





WE HAD A BLAST!!!

We had a beautiful day this last week and we got to go to the park. So basically I just wanted to say Ha Ha Ha to my Idaho friends and family who are still deep with snow. Love you guys! and I love our February weather!!!

(the top picture is of Elder Morrison pushing Addie and her friend Hayden on the swings. It was their P-day)