It's Santa!

Since in my last post I stated that I really do love my kids more then my dogs I decided I better post pictures of my real babies with Santa. Santa happened to be visiting RC Willeys on the same Saturday as FREE hot dogs. Oh how I love free hot dogs!

I was so proud of Liza. We went to see Santa a couple weeks ago at a different store and Liza wouldn't even touch him. But for some reason on this day she was first in line and practically ran and jumped on his lap.

Allie asked Santa for TEN packages of makeup. That's right ten!

Morgan was very excited as well. But being the bad mom that I am, I cannot remember for the life of me what she asked for. It changes every time you ask.

This is the first Santa we have seen this year that Cam didn't say "he's not the real Santa, he must be a helper".

Doggie Christmas

OK. Before we go on I have to say that I am not one of those people who are completely crazy about their dogs. Now, don't get me wrong I do love my puppies, but I love my kids and hubby much more. BUT, some friends of mine own a grooming shop and held a grand opening this last weekend and had pictures with Santa (for dogs only, no kids - that cracked me up). Since I will probably never do this again I just had to share.

Eva

Chloe

decorating the tree

My favorite thing to kick off the Christmas season is decorating the Christmas tree. The kids always have a ball. Every year they get their own new ornament so when they move out they will already have a collection. They love finding and hanging their own ornaments. We always listen to Christmas music while decorating and then finish off with a cup of hot chocolate. My favorite part of Christmas is the traditions. Even though some seem silly or small, they are things I look most forward too.

Advent Boxes

Every year for Christmas we have some kind advent calander so we can count down to Christmas. It has usually been the cheap ones at the store that have the doors and behind it is a nasty chocolate. This year I decided to make advent boxes and then we could choose the candy that we put in them plus we could use them year after year. The kdis had a blast decorating their own boxes however they wanted. After they finished they got to eat their first piece of candy. (We started on Nov 30 so the last piece would be on Christmas Eve)

Morgan and Liza gluing and sparkling it up!

Cam and Allie doing their thing

All the boxes

Pies Pies and more Pies!!!!!

Me and my MIL

Juicing a lemon (baking from scratch even!! No pudding mixes!!)

Pecan pie

My Mother-in-law and I spent all day Wednesday baking pies for Thanksgiving. We made a total of 11 pies! We had lemon merangue, Cream cheese with cherry topping, pecan, chocolate, banana cream, apple and pumpkin. It was a lot of baking, but we also had a lot of fun!

Advent Calander

My Mommy and I

My Mommy

My sister Carla

Our finished boxes!!

I love my craft robo! On ebay I found a file to cut out these fun little advent calander boxes. Each box takes 22 sheets of paper, an hour and a half of cut-out time and about the same in put together time. But they are totally worth it!. On Saturday I got together with my sister and mom and had a little craft day. We made these boxes plus got Christmas presents finished. Now I get to start looking for treats to put inside!

Christmas Ornaments

Every year my sisters and sister-in-laws do an ornament exchange. This is one of my favorite traditions. I love pulling out the ornaments from years past and it makes our tree very unique. This year I found a really neat paper pattern for a snowflake and it was actually very easy to assemble just a little time consuming. So here are my ornaments. I can't wait to see what all of my sisters came up with!

Googly Eyes

So I just had to share these because I thought they were hilarious!! While we were taking the pictures Paul and I were laughing so hard and I could barely breath.

I guess this is what we would look like if we were all cartoons!

Halloween

I know I am a week late but but better late then never, right?!

As usual the kids got way too much Halloween candy. So since Paul and I are such nice parents we have agreed to help our kids eat it!

Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year we actually got to spend the whole day together doing fun activities. We went to a shopping center in Holladay where the kids got their hair styled and colored, face painted, girls got their nails painted, Allie got a FREE haircut, and of course lots of candy. Then we went to the Sandy Mall and trick or treated and got TONS of candy. (The best part was it was all pretty good candy, not just the kiddie mix stuff you usually get.) Then we went trick or Treating in our own neighborhood and got even MORE candy! The kids had a ton of fun, and keep on the look-out for two larger butts walking down the street very soon!

Ya Gotta Love the Library

Ya just gotta love the library. Tonight at our local library there was a "Wild Things" Storytelling. I didn't tell the kids where or what we were doing but once we got there and I explained it to them theyw ere pretty excited. In the room there was a table and a couple dog sized crates and Allie looked at me with excitement in her eyes and said "I bet there's a baby elephant in one of those!" I hated to disappoint her but before I could tell her I didn't think so, I had to control my chuckles. The stroy was about a dragon from Australia and her adventures. I can't remember all of the countries she visited but she met a cockatoo...

I can't remember what they called this guy, but the kids thought it was pretty cool that he ate the WHOLE peanut...

...a HUGE snake called Bo, a lion bunny, and the cutest little hedgehog...

(the kids listening)

...and a 30 year old tortoise (yes Cam made sure everyone know the turtle was as old as me) that gave the dragon a ride...

(the kids were still listening, AMAZING!)

The story she told was very entertaining and I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids. After the story she brought out a couple of the animals again and we all got to touch and hold them.

The cockatoo had a crush on Cam. Right after I took the picture the cuddled right under his chin, it was soo cute.

The girls and I loved the lion bunny, she was supper soft.

I just loved Liza's face here. Her smile says everything!

Morgan said she wanted to have one so she could sleep in her bed with her.

It was a very fun night. And best of all it was FREE!! You should check out what activities your local library has. Tonight was definitely a night we will never forget.

Halloween Cards

See what you missed out on! October 1st was the first due date for cards for my little card club. I was so excited when 5 people turned in cards to me! I love all of them and thought they all turned out so cute. In fact I am already trying to think up cute ideas for next month!

I have had lots of requests for Christmas cards so we will be doing Christmas/Winter Cards for both November and December. I already have a couple ideas I am trying to work out. I hope next month we can do better then 6, so I want everyone to join. We don't care about skill level or age, so if your kids want to participate too that would be great!! So please invite anyone you know and have your cards to me by November 1st (wow that feels weird to type, it shouldn't be even close to November yet!) I can't wait to see what all of you amazingly talented people come up with.

A Cold camping Weekend

Liza eating her nummy pancake breakfast

I am such a good lookin' camper!

Just hanging out, trying to stay warm

The kiddos getting ready for the oreo eating contest, Cam won!

Lick it Cam!

I think I looked in a mirror and it scared me!

This was Sunday morning. I stayed in the trailer most of the morning.

The amazing breakfast chef John Brewer

For conference weekend someone (I think it was John) said this would be a great weekend for camping. We did have a lot of fun but we also spent a lot of time huddled around the camp fire. The kids did a lot of exploring and I finished a lot of sudoku puzzles. We ate tons of really yummy food and jsut had a lot of fun hanging out and visiting. But I would have to say that my favorite part was being able to watch conference in this beautiful setting.