Enjoying the Season

I love Christmas decorating! Whether its decorating my house, or presents or gingerbread houses it just makes me happy.

Our town has a great Christmas parade.  It's so fun to go out at night and see all the floats lit up, plus I think my kids got more candy from that parade than they did at Halloween, now what we're going to do with it all is beyond me.

This year for our Advent calendar, we mixed squinkies in with some different Christmas activities (most of which we would have done anyway).  Somehow having those activities come from little boxes made them even more fun.  Some of the things we did with the advent calendar were make gingerbread houses, play Christmas charades, eat a snowflake, play pin the nose on Rudolph, have a Christmas movie party with red and green popcorn, get peppermint milkshakes, take treats to neighbors.  I am really loving doing the advent calendar this way, it has definitely helped me get into the Christmas spirit.

Santa take two.  We were doing a little Christmas shopping at Bass Pro Shop.  So we decided to check out Santa's workshop, the kids had so much fun at all the games, on the carousel, coloring and of course seeing Santa, I think Owen might have added a few things to his list since last time.

Brooke made her Christmas presents for her friends, her teacher, and Owen.  I forgot to get a picture of all the notebooks before we gave them away, but here is a picture of the notebooks she made for Owen and herself.  She did such a great job decoupaging them all and it was so fun to work on this project with her.  I also think they turned out pretty cute!

I am really enjoying the holiday season this year! What fun stuff have you guys been up to?

Copycat

'Tis the season!  I saw both of these DIY wreaths on line and they looked so cheap and easy I had to try them.  I think they both look really cool, see what you think.

Split Pea Wreath
From See Kate Sew

Coffee Filter Wreath
From Lowes

Santa Pictures

Success! We haven't had the best luck at getting pictures of our kids with Santa, but I was determined this was going to be the year. And after standing in a ridiculously long line at Dollywood, right during Owen's naptime, miracle of miracle we have a halfway decent picture.

2011

2010

2009

Owen has been really funny about Santa this year.  I think he thinks that Santa is like his own personal genie.  He keeps telling me he needs to see Santa again to ask for more things from a new toy, to shoes that fit, to more apples and ice cream, it's kind of funny!

Our Christmas Tree

I was dreading putting our Christmas tree up this year.  I kept thinking about how little and ugly it is and how we really NEED a new Christmas tree, and how it was going to look so silly in our living room with our higher ceilings.  But somebody went a little over budget on Christmas shopping this year and we're trying to save up for a few things so the line was drawn at getting a beautiful, new 9 foot, pre-lit Christmas tree.  So we put up our little 5 1/2  foot, little Christmas tree.  And you know what?  I love it! Looking at that tree reminds me of when we bought it.  It was our first Christmas after we were married, it was early to mid November and it had snowed.  So Reid and I were out sledding one Friday night, when we started talking about how excited we were for Christmas and we decided to go get a Christmas tree right then.  So we went down to Big Lots and bought a 6 foot (there is one branch at the top that sticks up about a foot so even though it is only 5 feet, it counts as 6) Christmas tree for $25 which was basically a small fortune to us at the time.  We took it  home with the lights that we had bought and set it up and later we painted wooden ornaments to hang on it.  Looking at that Christmas tree brings back so many memories of how excited we were to spend Christmas together and how beautiful I thought that sad, little Christmas tree was.  It helps me to remember that it isn't all about how gorgeous and big and fancy your Christmas decorations are (not that there is anything wrong with a 9 ft. Christmas tree) but the memories that you create that bring your family closer together.

No Sew Christmas Throw Pillows

So I can't really sew and sometimes this can be a bit of a problem for my crafty plans.  But sometimes my sewing limitations force me to be more creative and come up with something I might not have thought of if I was a sewing genius.  These pillows are like that.  I was looking through some magazines and kept thinking how just a few simple holiday pillows really made a huge difference.  I thought about looking at HomeGoods or Ross but then I remembered the burlap sacks I used for our Halloween costumes and I thought I could use them to make some cool pillows.

  I really like them and I love that it cost me $2.50 for 2 throw pillows, awesome!

Delicious!

So when we were in Utah, I saw my sister in law's Our Best Bites Cookbook and I remembered hearing people talk about that website before.  So I looked through the cookbook and everything looked so good. So when we got home I checked it out and I've gotten a little carried away. So far (keep in mind we've been home little over a week) I've made Cheesy Tortellini Bake, Black Bean Soup, Southwestern Cobb Salad, Apple Cider Floats (seriously, so good), Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, Buttermilk Caramel Syrup, Caramel Apple Cider, and Apple Cider Doughnuts.  Everything has been soooo good.  My favorites are definitely the pancakes, syrup, and apple cider floats.  And I will say, while the doughnuts were delicious they were enough trouble and work that I probably won't be making them again soon. So if you haven't checked it out, do- such great recipes! And if you happen to want to get me a little gift- I'm kind of dying for that cookbook right now!

Utah Trip

After our very busy and very fun weekend in New Mexico we drove back up to Utah and spent 5 days with my family. It was so fun to see everyone, I'm so glad we made it out for a visit.

Arches

 

On our way back we stopped at Arches and did a little hiking.  It was a great break from driving and so beautiful!

Owen was not feeling well and by the end of our hike he was very, very done.



 Riverwoods
My mom and Jim took us out to Malawi Pizza for dinner, which was really good and then took the kids to this arcade/fun center there.  The kids loved the carousel and all of the fun games.

Friends

I got to get together with a couple friends.  We didn't really have time to do a lot but it was fun to see them and their cute kids.

This is my friend Lora and her cute little girl Maya.  Lora and I have been friends since 2nd grade.  Can you believe I've been friends with someone for over 20 years- kind of makes me seem old, huh.

I also got together with my friend Katie, Katie and I taught 2nd grade together, and her little boy Nick and Brooke are both in kindergarten this year.  It was so fun to see her and the kids had so much fun playing at the park.

We also got together with our friends Kirt and Emily, for dinner on night, but I forgot to take pictures.  Reid and Kirt went to high school together, and they were roomates when Reid and I were dating.  It was so fun to see them and there cute kids.



 Family Dinner

My family that lives in Utah got together for dinner one night.  It was so fun to see them all, and have one of those fun family dinners we miss so much. 

Feeding the Ducks

My mom took Brooke out somewhere so Reid and I took Owen to go feed some ducks.  I don't know why I suggest things like this, because the sight of a bunch of hungry, greedy ducks crowding around my little guy kind of freaked me out.  But Owen seemed to enjoy it and none of the ducks tried to bite him or anything.

Horses

Brooke got to go ride horses with her cousin Joelle and just loved it.

 Going Out

So my favorite part of this trip was probably getting to go running with Reid every morning. It got so cold, but it was so fun to be able to leave our kids and just run together.  Thanks to our nice parents, for watching our kids when they are grouchy and hungry in the morning.  Also, my mom watched the kids while Reid and I went to the temple, and  Jim watched them (they were asleep) while we went and saw Moneyball (we liked it).  It was so fun to be able to get out and do so many fun things together.  Thanks again!

Halloween Party

My brother Nate and his wife Glaucia threw an awesome Halloween party.  It was so fun, they had a place to make caramel apples, a pumpkin carving contest, a costume contest and it was so fun. 

I am still pretty excited I managed to come up with a Halloween theme for our family.  And that I was able to come up with such cheap and easy and kind of cute potato head costumes.  This is not really my strong suit, so it probably won't happen again but it was fun to match one year.

My sister-in-law Adi is kind of awesome at themed costumes.  She always comes up with something really cute.  This year they did Wicked/Wizard of Oz.

This is my niece Kaity and her little girl Mailey.  Isn't that yoda hat adorable?

 The kids did really well with all the traveling.  We're glad we went and now we're glad we're home.

New Mexico Trip

Brooke had a week off for Fall break so we decided to take a trip out West to visit our families.  We flew in to Salt Lake City spent the night at my mom's and then rented a car and drove down to visit Reid's family in New Mexico. 

The Drive

For the first time ever we didn't have a dvd player on a long drive, so we took a lot of breaks.  I gave Reid a hard time about not bringing the dvd player but it was kind of fun to actually talk and play games in the car. I have also found that taking pictures in the car keeps me from getting to motion sick so there are kind of a lot of random scenery pictures shot through the window.

 Salmon Snagging

We went salmon snagging and had a lot of fun.  The kids just loved it.  Brooke loved fishing with her dad and Owen loved throwing rocks in the water and running around.  We caught a lot of Salmon, we brought a 5 gallon bucket and filled it to the top.

Farm

They were branding cattle at Reid's grandpas farm so we went down to "help" them. The kids weren't at all nervous about the cattle, they just got the paddle and started swatting them down the chute.  It  was fun taking pictures of cows and cowboys I felt very Pioneer womanesque.  Its so fun to go down to the farm I'm glad they put up with our "help".

Joseph's 5th Birthday Party

Family Pictures

We had a really nice photographer come out and take pictures of us at Grandpa Hamblin's farm.  There were so many cool places to take pictures, it was so fun.  These are just a few I got while the photographer was doing other stuff.

Aren't these pictures of little Keith adorable?  He's such a cutie!

These are all the grandkids except for 4 day old Sophia.

Pumpkin Carving

After pictures we all went to Reid's parents house to carve pumpkins.  Brooke was very excited about her 2 sided pumpkin.

Grandmas and Family

We got to visit with all three of Reid's grandma's although I didn't get a picture of Great Grandma Smith.  It is so fun to get a chance to see so much family!

Isn't the horizon gorgeous?