Thanksgiving

We had such a fun time up at my brother Andrew’s house for Thanksgiving this year.   In the past we’ve usually all gotten together at my parents house in Bountiful and all of my brother’s and sisters, and the grandkids would sleep over for the holiday and weekend.  It was always SO much fun.  So I knew I was going to be sad about missing that when I found out about my parents moving to Hong Kong.  But thankfully, Andrew and Jessica invited us and Marci and Trent’s family up to their house for dinner and then to stay the night.  We had a BLAST!!   Dinner was delicious, my kids were in heaven playing non-stop, and the adults had some serious Ticket to Ride gaming going on.  Andrew and Jess hadn’t ever played it, so we brought it up there, and we ended up playing probably 8 times.  Which is a lot, considering each game is about 45 minutes.  It was way fun! 

Poor Trent had just had his tonsils out the day before, so he was not feeling great.  He’s a trooper!  

Ever since we put up our tree, Madi has been really funny about wanting to get pictures with it.  So she’ll just stand by it and say, “take my picture with the tree!”  Which got us this one:

and this one:

It’s safe to say that Sparky has become one of the family :).  We really do like him!  Even Mike loves having him around.  He was a little hesitant about having a dog.  But luckily it turned out that he’s really liked it.  Here he is tucked in our bed.  And no, we don’t let him sleep up there at night.  He was just laying there one day and so I covered him up so he’d be snuggly :)

This is how I found the kids yesterday morning after I got out of the shower.  Max found his baby bath seat in the bathroom and has taken a liking to it.  He totes it around and relaxes in it watching TV :)

Today I brought Max home from church after Sacrament meeting, because he’s had a little bit of a cold.  I put him down for his nap, and planned on only letting him sleep for an hour or so because it was already a little late in the afternoon.  When I went in to get him, I looked in his crib, and had a little panic attack because he wasn’t in there.  I immediately walked out and looked in the other room to see if he had gone in to his big boy bed (he’s still taking naps in his crib…).  Anyway, he wasn’t in there either.  So I rush back in to his room and look over and he’s asleep in the recliner.  It was the cutest thing ever.  He even had his cowboy hat with him. 

Here’s a little video of the kids dancing to Elmo’s Christmas DVD.  They LOVE to dance!!  Had to post this so the grandparents could see them growing up :)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!  Now on to Christmas!!! 

Haha!

So today after I picked up Madi from school, the kids and I went to Wal-Mart to get some mousetraps (sadly, there’s a mouse in my garage).  Anyway, they were both sitting in the big area of the grocery cart and started playing a game.  They would huddle together and hug and yell, “There’s the SCARY MAN!!!”.  Their “scary man” was actually just pretend and invisible, but in the mean time I keep walking through the aisles and my kids are pointing randomly, “There he is!  That’s the scary man!”.   Of course, there are men everywhere!!  I was so embarrassed.  I kept telling them to play a different game and be quiet, but they weren’t in a listening mood.  Finally I just had to laugh and call Mike and tell him.  Haha :)  On our way out the doors, a guy walked right by us, and just as he was passing Madi said matter-of-factly, “that’s the scary guy”.  I’m positive he heard her.  Poor guy, whoever you are, you really didn’t look scary! 

Lots of Stuff…

Be prepared, there’s gonna be lots of pictures!!  Today Madi and I had TONS of fun going up to SLC for Disney’s Princesses on Ice.   Madi didn’t know what we were doing, she only knew it was going to be a special day with mom.  So that was fun to surprise her!  We rode Trax from Sandy, and she really like riding the train :).  Thankfully we even made it up to Sandy safely.  It was a full on white-out blizzard on our way there.  It was SCARY!  Thankfully the snow only lasted a little bit.  Anyway, Madi just LOVED all the princesses and had her popcorn, Sprite, and skittles, so by the time we were done she was bouncing off the walls!  Good memories :)

She was a little bit sad when Minnie came out, because Minnie was in a PINK dress, NOT red!  How dare she!  Luckily Madi got over it pretty quick.   She wanted Minnie to look just like her! 

 

Madi hasn’t seen the movie Cinderella, and she couldn’t figure out for a little bit why we don’t like the step-sisters too.  She thought their dresses were really twirly and pretty.  Haha! 

 

We bought bunk beds for our kids last weekend and were able to set them up today.  It was really bitter-sweet for me.  I kinda wanted to cry my eyes out; thinking that Max isn’t in a crib anymore :(.  But it was ok, and the beds look really cute!  They went to sleep easy, and so far they’re sleeping good!  So hopefully that continues. 

They were REALLY excited to get up there and play!

Max’s new bedding

Yikes!!  Makes me kind of nervous having her sleep up there.  But it’ll be ok.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself :)

Sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time!

Here’s an example of what I’ve tried to do now with the room.  I don’t want it to be too girly, or to boyish, because it’s BOTH of their rooms!  So after I put the purple and pink kitchen in there, I thought it needed something boyish, so I moved Max’s superman picture in there above it :).  On their nightstand there’s Madi’s Hello Kitty bank and Max’s antique pickup truck.  Haha. 

Madi got this stroller with her dolls for Christmas last year, but last spring she broke it one of the fabric pieces that holds the seats up.  So I just stuck in in the closet, and kept putting off fixing it.  I finally got around to it, and now she LOVES the stroller.  She’ll take Holly and Molly on walks around our kitchen table. 

And feed them some lunch. 

While I was taking pictures of Madi playing with her dolls, Max kept begging me for applesauce.  I kept telling him no, because we had already had snack time.  But when I went back in the kitchen I found him diligently trying to open the can of applesauce, with tongs. 

We were up stairs today setting up the bed and when we came down to check on Max, this is what we saw :)

He was just hiding in there watching Toy Story.  Then he started playing peek a boo with Sparky.  He’s such a funny kid!

Just hanging out in the fort Mike made them

Max in his very favorite cowboy hat.  He runs around the house yelling, “I’m a cowboy, MEE HAW!!!”

My handsome boy before church.  Please ignore the messy house in these pictures!  

I was vacuuming off the ceiling fans and the kids had lots of fun joining in!  I need to put them to work more often.  Haha

This is what I found when I got out of the shower this morning…

Haha!  Max was very dutifully getting his hair cut :)

I’ve got a good husband!

What would I do without him?!  I love coming home and finding pictures of him and the kids on the camera, showing me all the fun they had while I was gone :)

I’m so happy my kids have such a good dad!  He’s always playing with them and wrestling with them.   They sure love him!  In fact, right now Max is obsessed with sitting on Mike’s lap during dinner time.  Haha, makes it kinda hard for Mike to eat anything!  But Max sure does look up to him :)

HALLOWEEN!

This Halloween has been one of THE best ever!  I love having kids that are getting old enough to be really excited about everything.  Madi had her preschool Halloween Program and Carnival.  It was the cutest thing ever!  I would have had Max and Mike come with us if I would have known.  Madi told me while we were there, “this is the greatest party EVER!”

Patiently waiting to go to the school.  She loves sitting like this with her dress all around her.  I SO remember doing the exact same thing when I was little :)

We had a ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night that we were planning on going to.  But the kids weren’t feeling great, and it was COLD!!!  Mike was also staying late at work because his office was moving to a new location, so we ended up staying home and putting the kids to bed early.  I was kind of bummed, because we’ve gone to it the last couple of years, and I think it’s pretty fun.  But oh well!  We got lots of trick or treating in on Halloween night and WAY too much candy.  So it all turned out fun!

My poor Max has those dumb canker sores all over in his mouth AGAIN!  He gets them anytime I get a cold sore :(.  I’m really hoping he grows out of it or something.   I feel so bad, because I’m sure he got it from me.  It must be his version of a cold sore or something???  I really am careful not to share with him when I get them.  So I think I must have shared a straw with him or something before I knew I had it.  I took him to the Dr. last week but all they could do was test him for Strep (which was negative).  So I guess there’s nothing we can do for him.  He is SO miserable.  I don’t blame him!  Anyway, we wanted to at least take him to a few houses so he could experience it.  At first I didn’t think we’d even be able to take him, he was pretty sad.  But luckily he perked up and had a TON of fun! 

This is how the night began….

 

One of the big sores on his lip.  (Excuse the drool…)

But once he started playing he was a happy kid.  YAY!

Here he is intimidating our neighbors.  He’s saying RAWRRRR!!!

My little Minnie Madi :)  She giggled every time I called her that. 

Sadly, it was getting dark and I forgot the flash for this picture, so it’s kinda blurry.  But I had to include it.  His face is so SWEET!

Madi and her cute friend Ava. 

This is what Max wanted to do after every door, take the candy out and eat it. 

It was SO adorable seeing them walk up to the houses and say “Trick or Treat”.  Even Max would say it so good.  They had so much FUN!!  I already can’t wait for next year :)