Tis the season

We have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit at our house. I have been a kindof a scrouge this year because there was only 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I thought it was silly to get all of our Christmas decorations out for only 3 weeks. But when you have kids, sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to....So we got out the decorations and Noah, Cole, and Emery HELPED (as much as 5, 3 and 8 month olds do) decorate our house.

The kids decorated the tree, then I redecorated it.

We decorated a gingerbread house. The boys had a lot of fun but it made a huge mess. I am still finding frosting on my table from it.

We went and saw Santa last weekend. It went so much better than last year (1st photo). Cole was nervous but kept telling himself that he wasn't scared. Noah jumped right up on santa's lap and Emery was fine until she looked up and saw that a strange guy with a hat was holding her, then she lost it. But it was at the very end so it all worked out. It was fun to hang out with the Jamieson's and the kids had a ball.

Tis the season!!!

Family pictures

Thanks to my great friend and very talented photographer, Heidi (heidilynnphotography.blogspot.com), we got family pictures done for the first time in a very long time. I was pleasantly surprised with the results (thanks to Heidi) being how Noah was sick, Cole wouldn't stop pulling crazy faces and Emery wouldn't stop eating anything and everything around her. Here are a few of my favorites. Thanks Heid for putting up with us and making it look like it was easy, although we both know how it really was. Ü. You are the best!!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, thanks to my sister's great idea, we decided on a Mario Bros. theme. And, thanks AGAIN to my very own Martha Stewart (mom). We made what I think are the cutest dang Mario Bros. & princess that I have ever seen. Every year our neighbors load up on a trailer and go trick-or-treating together. It is alot of fun for both the kids and adults. Our driver has mastered a plan that works quite well. He dropped us off at the top of a street and picked everybody up at the bottom of the street and grabbed the stragglers in between. Thanks to the Woods for dragging us around for almost 3 hours.

Froggy

If you are wondering why there is a stuffed frog in most of the pictures from when grandma was here, here's why. Noah was star of the week last week and he got to bring home froggy. We had to take froggy everywhere we went and then document it so his teacher and class could see what we did. I'm telling ya, I am tired of school already and it has really just begun. That was the second project we have had to do already. The first was very difficult for someone who isn't a Martha Stewart, like myself. So I called the next closest thing to Martha, my mom. We were supposed to make a snake costume for zoo day. I couldn't figure out how to make a snake costume and after a sleepless night of thinking, my mom and I figured out what to do. Since my mom is in Idaho, it was up to me to put it together....Scary thought, I know, BUT I have to say that I am very proud of myself. It actually turned out. I took an old pillowcase, cut it up, tie dyed the top to look like a snake, sewed, stuffed, glued and there you have it, a snake. My brain actually hurt after it was done, but it worked and he was the cutest snake I had ever seen. Here are some pictures of froggy and the snake.

White grandma and grandpa's visit

No wonder my kids love it when grandma's and grandpa's come to visit. This time it was Ryan's parents, aka white grandma and white grandma's grandpa. They got in on Friday night and we didn't stop playing until they left on Thursday morning.
On Monday, Grandma and Grandpa were brave and took Ryan, Noah and Cole to the movie. They saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Tuesday we went to Thanksgiving Point. The kids had a blast. There was so much for them to do. Here are just a few pictures from there. Wednesday we went to Trunk-or-treat and then they had to go. My kids were very sad to see them go. I'm not sure if they were more sad to see them leave or to get back to their regular boring life with just mom and dad. Noah came down crying at 7:15 am because he missed them already (it had been 3 hours since they left). Thank you grandma and grandpa for coming to spend time with us. You spoiled us rotten, but we loved it. We had a blast with you here.

We love you.

The many faces of Emery

Emery was being so funny the other day. I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of her silly faces. Here are a few.

Big brother

The other day, I pulled a risky move and walked out of the room leaving Cole and Emery alone, together. I never do that because I never know what Cole has in mind. He loves her to death, and when I say that, I really mean it. He mauls her with his version of loves and kisses which to the rest of us means laying on her, poking her in the face, giving her very long, hard kisses on the cheek, etc. So I was very suprised when I walked in and he was reading a story to her. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Happy Birthday Black Grandma

Happy 60th Birthday mom!! Thank you for coming down here to spend the weekend with Britney and I. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I feel very blessed to have you in my life and I only hope I can be even 1/2 the mother to my kids as you have been to me. I love you always!!!!

Cole's 1st day

Cole started Pre-school this week. We went to his open house last week and it was so cute to see Noah take him in and show him around. He didn't miss a spot in the school. He even showed him both potties and said "and you don't even have to ask" to use them. On Tuesday, he had his backpack on all day and as we were driving to school, I kept hearing him say under his breath, "I am so sited to go to school". It makes it way easier to send him off when he is excited about it. I was really worried that he would be bored on the days that he doesn't have school, without Noah around, but he has been an angel and I have really enjoyed having him home by himself.

So big....

Emery started sitting up last week. I Can't believe she is already 5 months old . If only she would let me put her down to get stuff done. Now that will be a milestone. And that face....Ohhh how I love her!!!

Noah's first day of school.....

So Noah started kindergarten this week. I have had such mixed emotions about it but when it came down to it, he was soooo excited so it made me very excited also. On Wednesday (his first day) he came down at 7:00am with his kitar (guitar) shirt. He said "Mom, I picked out my clothes that I want to wear to school and I want to put them on and get my backpack and go wait for the bus." He is in afternoon school so I told him that he would be waiting for a very long time for the bus. When the bus came, I told him I would meet him at the school to show him where to go. He told me that I didn't need to go and he KNEW where his class was. So much for being my little boy anymore.



Wednesday was a big day for him. He went to school and that evening we went to get his stitches taken out of his chin. It was our first experience with stitches. The week before he and Cole were in the bath. I was putting Emery's p.j.'s on so of course I wasn't in there to see what actually happened. Noah started to cry and said that he fell. I went in and looked at his chin and knew we needed to go to instacare. He got 5 stitches under his chin. I felt so bad for him at instacare because he was really scared and nervous. He wasn't cooperating at all. So much so that the Dr. said she might have to send us to Primary's so he could be sedated. Finally, after much bribing, he settled down and was very brave. When we went to get them taken out, he was very aprehensive but as you can see from the picture, he did great.