More Build and Grow

On Saturday we went to Lowe's Build and Grow workshop. Peyton had such a great time with the guys.

Peyton and Drew worked really hard on their projects. Corey and Johny worked hard on trying to figure out the directions. Peyton had a hard time because his snowman's head kept falling off. I guess the nails were not long enough to go through all of the wood. Nothing a little wood glue would not fix at home.

After the workshop, we went back to our house. Drew and Peyton played for the rest of the afternoon. They had such a great time playing cars and acting silly. Pretty soon they were both so tired, they were laying down beside the racetrack barely lifting there heads to play. 

A little Christmas each day...

Every day I am trying to do a little something involving Christmas. So if you have any fun things that you have done at your house, let me know. Here are a few of the things we have done.

Peyton and Annisten have helped with holiday treats. They are my test tasters on every thing I make.

Peyton and I made a gingerbread train together. Somehow we only had enough candy for us to decorate the front side of the train. I think that Peyton might be the cause, but I'm not sure. :0)

 

For some reason the candy on the train continues to disappear. I caught the thief last night.

Holiday Festivities

We have been getting ready for the holidays at our house.  Our tree has been laying on its side since before Thanksgiving. I have tried numerous times to fix it, but have not has any luck. After Thanksgiving I planned on throwing it out. 

The other day I was out pricing new trees and could not believe the price tag. Maybe waiting until after Christmas for the sales is a better option.  I was looking at Christmas lights at 

Wal-Mart and found a base replacement for artificial trees for $7.50. I thought it was worth a try. To my amazement, it worked! I am so glad that I did not throw our tree away!

After the kids went to bed, I decorated the tree with lights, ribbon, and poinsettia flowers. We have one too many little curious hands wondering around our house for anything else on our tree. The next morning the Peyton and Annisten were so thrilled to see the tree and all the decorations for Christmas. Annisten could not get over how pretty the tree looked. She kept coming to get me to look at the tree over and over again. Annisten would ooh, ahh, and wow! 

When ever you ask Annisten a question, she tells you no. Even if it is something she wants to say yes too. She knows the difference between yes and no. I think it is just a matter of her being able to say no to things now. When I asked her if she liked the Christmas tree, she told me no of coarse. This was one of the first times that she immediately told said yes after words though.

    

It is a tradition for us to put lights in the kids room every year. Now these are not just any lights. They blink to Christmas music. Peyton and Annisten are crazy over them. The lights were mine as a kid. Hopefully these lights will last. They are fun, but the music does get old after a while.

Twilight Movie

Corey and I went on a double date with his brother Brandon and his girlfriend Ashley to see Twilight. Corey and I had heard mixed things about the movie and did not have high expectations for it. All of us ended up liking it and are anxious for the next one to come out. I get things organized in my house for the holidays, I am going to re-read all of the books again. Ashley has not read the books yet. I cannot believe it! After seeing the movie, Brandon and Ashely want to read the books now. I have Corey hooked on the books. He is reading New Moon. Corey is all mad at me for not telling him about parts of the book. So if he asks, don't tell him.

I need a bandade

"Dr. Dan the Bandage Man" is the book of the week for Peyton. The story is about a boy who gets hurt and needs a band aid. After reading the book tonight, we had to find the latest injury and bandage it all up just like Dr. Dan in the book. Peyton says that only bad guy band aids are allowed on his ouies, because they are the ones who make the ouie hurt. So I have to dig through all the cartoon band aids and find the band aid with the villain. The things I do to make the ouies (new or old) feel better.

 

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving our family went to Missouri and Iowa to visit our family. The two day drive there did not seem so bad because we were so excited to see our family. First stop was  Nana T and Papa Mike (my parents). We had a great time. We actually celebrated a double holiday, Thanksgiving and Christmas, since we were not going to see them at Christmas time. 

Peyton helped his Nana T with cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Most of the time he would sneak drinks from Papa Mike's cool-aid, leaving cracker or other various left overs in the glass from his dunking habits. Papa Mike was not thrilled about it. He kept hiding his glass, but Peyton some how always found it.

This is how most of the guys prepared Thanksgiving dinner.

Peyton, Annisten, and Gwennie all had a great time playing together. They were so busy playing that they did not want to take pictures.

We could not find Annisten and Gwendolyn. They had snuck off with a bag of gold fish and were having a good'Ol time eating their snacks.

The kids were so excited about opening presents. Peyton could hardly wait. He tried every trick in the book to open the presents early. Peyton even tried to convince Nana T to open his present. He told her that he had a present for her and that she should open it right now. Annisten on the other hand, just would open every present she found. Once we did open presents, Peyton repeated over and over, "I am so Happy!" Once Annisten found the candy, she did not care to see anything else. She went around stealing every one's candy for the rest of the night.

 

Next we went to Nana Sonia and Papa Alex's house (Corey's Mom and step-dad). Alex had a huge pile of leaves waiting for the kids. Peyton had a great time. Annisten was not sure about the leaves. Aspen just watched all the commotion.

We went to the town square of Fairfield to check out all of the lights and festivities. By then the temperature was dropping and starting to get pretty cold. The kids loved all the lights despite all of the cold weather.

 

Santa was on the square too. Annisten was not thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap. Peyton on the other had was so excited he kept bouncing around and could not stop grinning.

   

The next day we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow covering the ground. The temperature was freezing too! What a change from the fall weather we had the day before. 

The two day trip back seemed to take a week. We had to wait until Monday to leave. Iowa had some pretty bad weather. When we left the next morning, the roads were icy and snowy in spots. There were cars in the ditches every where. The going was slow and we were glad to make it to Nebraska. Then the boredom took over. 

I think Corey and I were more restless than the kids. Everyone was so board. The kids were tired of the movies, games, and toys they had in the car. There was so much stuff in the back seat that we could hardly see the kids. Most of it was all the stuff we tossed at them to keep them entertained. When we finally made it to Utah, Peyton said "I'm so excited to be at our orange and gray house." 

We are glad that we were able to go see out families for the Holidays. Our trip seemed so short and we were sad to leave our family. 

No More Passifier

Annisten loves her pacifier. She carries it around with her every where she goes. At times, Annisten thinks she needs every pacifier she can find. Now that she is one, it is time to take it away. We have been dreading this day, knowing that it will turn things upside down at our house. 

We started by slowly taking it away from her during the day. Annisten complained a little bit but it was not to bad.  Then came taking it away from her at night. She screamed and screamed! Then screamed some more. The poor girl was hysterical! Corey made me feel guilty about taking it away from her. He said that "her pacifier is her favorite thing in the world and you are taking it away from her. Let her keep until she is five, who cares." In the end, she got her pacifier back. Annisten was so mad that she continued to scream.

I was talking to my friend Susan about the pacifier situation. She suggested that I do what her sister did with one of her kids. Susan said to snip a little bit off every day and eventually she will not want it anymore. So I gave it a try and it worked like magic; it was amazing!

The first day I snipped off the very top. Annisten brought it to me. She pointed at it and said, "uh-oh!" It was so cute. That was her way of telling me it was broken. I continued to snip away at the pacifier. After about four days, she had no interest in it anymore. There were no tears or anything. 

Winter is on its way...

According to the weatherman as winter storm is on the way. So the kids and I went to the park to enjoy the beautiful fall weather while we can. I'm sure are 60 degree weather is about to end as winter heads our way.

Peyton and Annisten had a great time at the park. My poor arms could not push the kids one more time. I seriously thought my arms were going to fall off.  I tired to convince them to play in the leaves and on the play ground. That worked for about 15 minutes. Then we were back to the swings. Oh well they had a good time.

 

Don't Forget to Vote!

The big day to cast your vote is tomorrow. Don't forget to vote for your favorite candidate!

Getting Caught Up With October

Things That Go Bump in the Night!

Last night about 11:00 at night, Corey and I were in bed and just about to fall asleep. We heard a light wrap on a window. Before I could even get out of the room, Corey hopped out of bed and was at the front door. We just figured a neighbor did not want to wake the kids and needed something. The strange thing was... nobody was there. Several thoughts raced through our minds... was someone messing with our house or maybe it was kids playing a prank. Either way it made us uneasy. Both of us heard a couple strange noises outside the house as well. We did the usual checking of turning on all the lights, checking on the kids, and looking downstairs (Corey did that part. I'm too much of a chicken). Nothing turned up. 

The strange thing is we are not even sure the knock came from the front door because we did not hear it through the monitor. (Yeah, I know I'm one of those moms who leaves the monitor on every night. Once I'm out, I'm out for the night. I always worry that I will not hear the kids wondering or if they need something). I'm grateful for having an alarm on the house. Otherwise I probably would have brought the kids in bed with us and would have not fallen asleep until morning. I defiantly did not forget to say a prayer before going to bed.

Trick or Treating Fun!

The kids had a great time on Halloween. During the day, we watched Halloween cartoons and talked about trick or treating. Peyton practiced saying "trick or treat" and "thank you." He asked numerous times, "When do I get to put my cartoon (aka costume) on? Will other kids be wearing cartoons?" He could hardly wait to go trick or treating. When I got out Annisten's costume, she clapped her hands and squealed with delight. She did not mind wearing the headband, much to my surprise. If it fell off, she would get very upset until we put it back on.

Once again, I tried numerous times to get that picture perfect picture of the kids in their costumes. They were way to excited about their flashlights and trick or treating.

 

After only a few houses, it started to rain. Corey and Annisten went back to the house to hand out candy. Peyton and I continued to trick or treat with our umbrella. We met up with the our neighbors. Peyton was thrilled to go trick or treating with Bentley. It did not matter to Peyton if someone was not home. He would just open the door, stick his head in and call trick or treat anyway. Corey said Annisten had a good time helping him had out candy. She would get excited each time the doorbell would ring and run for the door. In the end the kids made out with a ton of candy and had a good time.

Neighborhood Mom and Me Party!

  

There was a Halloween party for the little kids in our neighborhood. The kids had a great time. Peyton and Annisten were so excited to wear their costumes. All morning Peyton asked a million questions. "Who was going to be there? If the other kids were going to wear their cartoons? What we were going to do there at the party?" 

When I was getting my witch costume on, he got mad at me. He told me that I should be a princess and not a witch. What a sweet little boy! I explained that I was a nice witch.

All the kids looked so cute in their costumes. Peyton and Annisten loved the party. Anni liked the food. Peyton enjoyed the games and playing with all of his friends from the neighborhood and church. 

  

Scarecrow Festival

Last Friday night, we took the kids to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Every one had a great time, well almost. Except when we made Annisten take her picture with the pumpkins. For some reason she did not want anything to do with pumpkins or Peyton touching her. So Peyton ended up picking out the pumpkin by himself. He had a great time going from pumpkin to pumpkin and checking them all out.

We played games, bounced in bounce houses, went down huge slides, played games, and ate carmel apples. What a fun family night outing!