Thanksgiving through Christmas 2014

It's always my goal to write a post at least once a month. Well, FAIL for me these past two months! haha It has been very busy though, so it's not surprising. So since Halloween, what has all happened?

In November, I honestly don't really remember much. I went down to Utah by myself to visit my friends Stacey and Kamrie. I think that was either in October or early November. We went shipping at Ikea, other clothing stores, and ate at CULVERS!!! They actually have TWO in Utah now! One is in Lehi, about 30 minutes from their house. It was awesome. I can't wait until Culvers comes to Idaho some day.

Then, for Thanksgiving, Stacey and Kamrie came up here to visit. For the actual Thanksgiving meals, our family went to Josh's sister, Heather's, house and ate lunch with them and Brad and Diane. But we had to leave there by 3 because Josh had to go into work at 5 pm. Then he worked until 1 am. Stacey and I went Black Friday shopping early the next morning, about 7 am. It was pretty dead in Idaho Falls in the morning but got busier the longer we were there. I think most people had started shopping the previous evening and were home sleeping. We got home by about 3pm. I got a good little start on some Christmas shopping for the kids.

The first weekend in December (so exactly a week after Thanksgiving) my mom came out here to visit for five days. She was here from Thursday through Tuesday. While she was here we went to a spontaneous "Night in Bethlehem" celebration that we came across on our way home from the airport. We were sucked in by the sight of camels standing outside of the church (not your usual scene). Then we were told by a wise man (haha - literally) that there was more to see inside the church. When we walked in, my mom got as giddy as a school girl because it was this huge production and she was able to get all these ideas for her church's own "night in bethlehem" that she was in charge of in a couple weeks. So we spent some time there, making crafts and eating snacks, then we finally tore her away (as she kept snapping pictures on her phone) and drove home.

The next few days were a blur of mostly shopping and eating out. I don't remember what I all bought, but I pretty much got all of my Christmas shopping done, wrapped, and under the tree in that weekend. It was awesome.

Oh, another crazy thing that happened right after Thanksgiving was, I somehow got put in charge of Gabe's third grade Christmas play! I had signed up to help under "wherever needed" on the first day of school. And apparently what ended up being needed was a person to take charge of the whole Christmas play. I won't be signing up under "wherever needed" again…

So basically any free time I had between doing Etsy orders, fulfilling church obligations, getting ready for Christmas, and taking care of my kids was spent planning that play. I did rope some of my friends who had kids in third grade into helping me as well. We ended up doing this play called "The Littlest Christmas Tree" and it had lots of fun songs and dancing in it (that we made up and taught the kids.) I was worried about it as we only had a few rehearsals all together, but it all came together in the end. Gabe even was chosen by the teachers (not by me - I swear) to play the big role of Santa Claus. The whole thing was a ton of work, but I hope it will be a memory that Gabe will always appreciate. It was so cute. Then on the last day of school before Christmas break, I went into Caleb's class and did a "Rudolph"craft activity. He had been feeling a little left out I think because he made a point of telling me, "Mom, you helped at Gabe's Halloween party and with his play and you said at Halloween that you would do MY class's Christmas party. So you still are, right?!" (I was feeling so exhausted that it took every "good mom" bone in my body to call Caleb's room mother and volunteer my services for the party.) But I figure, there are only a few precious years that your kids actually WANT you to come to their school and help. I better cherish them while I can. But one of the teacher aides that works at the school saw me in the hallway that day (sprinkling glitter onto the kids' Rudolphs that they had made and laid in the hall to dry) and she goes, "Are you here again?! What, do you work here now?! You are here more than me!!" I know… it felt that way…. Gabe's teacher even was like "The teachers and I know who we are nominating for PTO president next year!" and I was like, "NO!" with a little too much force in my voice. lol But seriously… they better not.

Anyways! So the kids got done with school on the Friday before Christmas (the 19th) and then I closed my Etsy shop for the holidays that same day. So I finally was able to settle down and relax and just enjoy the holidays. We made sugar cookies, we did neighbor gifts (we made caramel popcorn for everyone in the neighborhood - which means a lot because our neighborhood has majorly grown since we moved in. There were only about 6 houses when we moved in three years ago and now there are about 30…. it took three nights of popcorn making and delivering to get every house done.) But then the next week was really fun as everyone started bringing us treats back! The kids loved answering the door (sometimes multiple times per evening) to get fun treats all the time! ;)

Josh luckily had off for almost the whole week leading up to Christmas (and Christmas day), so we got to spend a lot of time together. His big "want" this year was a gun safe, and he was able to pick one out and buy it a few days before Christmas. That was officially my mom's present to him. She gave him money to spend on one. Then I got to clean out my closet and donate some of my clothes to make room for it in there! Lucky me! haha I know where his priorities lie…

We really were going to have a "small" Christmas thing year because we are going to Disney World in February. But it turned out to be one of the biggest we've ever had. I really don't know how that happened. Our kids are spoiled rotten. I did buy a lot of clothes this year though. Gabe is kind of getting hard to shop for because he's kind of growing out of a lot of the traditional toys. He did still get some Lego sets and some Pokeman cards. Caleb did too. Then they both asked for these "Slug terra" guns. (Kind of like nerd guns but the bullets look like little colorful creatures) They are from this TV show they watch on Netfllix. My mom and I had searched high and low for them when she was here and didn't find a thing. I resorted to ordering them from Amazon and paying a pretty high price for them, but it was the thing they wanted most, so oh well. They were each about $25, so not horrible. Other things they got included: laser tag, books, soccer cleats, pajamas, underwear (yay!), clothes, slippers, a nightlight that projects onto the ceiling, a beymax action figure (my dad sent that for Caleb - he sent chapter books for Gabe that he wanted) sleds, and they each got a big remote control car from Santa too. Caleb was a little nervous that Santa wouldn't leave him anything. (He was pretty naughty) I will have to post a picture of the letter he wrote to Santa and left out with the milk and cookies. ;)

Avery, the little princess, got way more this year than she has any other year. When they're young, it's hard to justify spending a lot on them because you know they won't really care. But this year, we really went crazy. She's really into Play Doh and princesses right now. She got a play doh princess castle and a carriage to go with it (my dad sent that), a doctor's kit, LOTS of clothes, LOTS of princess Barbie dolls (Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, Aurora, Ariel), some princess dresses to wear to Disney world (Belle, Princess Sophia) lots of Frozen stuff (Melissa sent a blanket and a nightgown as well), and lots more stuff. I can't even remember it all. She actually stopped opening presents at one point and just played for a few hours and we ate dinner and cleaned up the paper and left the remaining stack under the tree. Then, in the evening, she opened the second round of presents! It was funny. She like, suddenly realized she had more presents and then was like, "Presents! Presents!" and went into the second opening-fury. She even opened Brad and Diane's presents before we could stop her. (We had to re-warp those)

So speaking of that! We celebrated Christmas with Josh's family on December 20th at the Ashton church. It was the only day that everyone could get together. So our actual Christmas was spent quietly in our home! It worked out for the best because a huge snowstorm came in on Christmas Eve. We went from having totally green grass on our front lawn, to having eight inches of snow when we woke up on Christmas morning! I guess a lot of kids were praying for a white Christmas!

Well, it is now the day after Christmas at 12:25 am. I am officially exhausted. Tomorrow, my goal is to get my house a little more organized and get some Christmas things put away. The boys are wanting me to take them over to the church gym so they can drive their remote control cars around. Josh has to work tomorrow and Sunday from 7 am to 5 pm and then is off Monday - Wednesday. The kids are still off school all next week as well. I probably won't reopen my Etsy shop until after New Year's. I have really enjoyed the break. (I am sure I will miss the money though! haha) Our next big thing to look forward to is Disney World! We are so excited for that!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Some November Pics

Random Pictures…

Halloween

Quick story before I forget!
So we did the trick-or-treating tonight in our own neighborhood first, but a lot of people had decided to go to the trunk-or-treat at church instead and were not home. So then we left a bowl of candy on our doorstep and took our kids up on the hill in town (aka: the rich people neighborhoods) and let them knock on doors there. As we were walking up to a house, I said to Gabe something about, "This is where the rich people live…." And then he responded something like, "I am so excited to go to this house! This house is so HUGE! These people  are really rich, right mom?!" I quickly shushed him and was like, "Shh… yes, but they probably don't like people saying that!" And then Gabe asked in a confused way, "Why? Don't they know?" (Like, "don't they know they are rich?")
hahaha it just made me laugh….

Okay - but more about Halloween now!

On the Saturday before Halloween, we went down town to the little Hemming Village Party. That's where this cute first picture of all of us was taken. They had a Photo Booth set up and were taking free pictures. They also had bobbing for apples and a hay ride that we all did. (The hay ride, not the apples - just the boys did that - gross.)

Thursday night (Halloween Eve) it was the school Halloween carnival. They really went all out this year! It was so much fun! They even did BINGO and had some amazing prizes that were donated - including a TV, HUGE Barbie DreamHouse, Big basket full of Nerf guns, etc. Sadly, we did not win anything though. :( But I;m sure the pTO made a ton of money for the school so that's always good! ;)

Friday at school, the boys both had spectacular halloween class parties (I'm serious, these room mothers are amazing this year - I was at Gabe's helping out and I was blown away. There was a mom dressed as a wicked with conducting all the games, then another dressed as a Mad Scientist showing them how to make their "experimental" treats, and another mom dressed as a fortune teller with her husband sitting under a table and his head sitting "on top" of the table, inside of a crystal ball, telling fortunes. They are crazy overachievers here.) They also did a big Halloween costume parade around the school that everyone came to watch.

In the evening, we started our Trick-or-treating at about 5:00 when Josh got home. Like i said, we did our neighborhood first, then a few houses in the Willowbrook neighborhood, then went up on the hill. We were going to go to the Fat Cats indoor party (movie theater/bowling alley place) but when we drove by the line was wrapped around the building and we were like, "Um… no." So then we went up on the hill. We got back home at about 8:30 and the kids had PLENTY of candy and we rounded out the night watching movies in my bed and falling asleep in sugar comas.

Here are some pictures of our Halloween adventures!

Parent Teacher Conferences

It's been a while! I have a lot to catch up on, but I just wanted to write briefly about the boys' parent teacher conferences. A little back story…. so Gabe has always seemed to be a little behind. Ever since the day he was born, it was "This is what he needs to catch up on…" from day one in the NICU. And then in preschool it was his speech, and then in kindergarten his reading, and so on and so on. It's always seemed like things have been a little bit harder for him and he's always had to work a little extra than everyone else to just keep with the pace. So, going into his parent-teacher conference, I was expecting kind of the usual "Gabe is such a sweet kid. *smile* But here's a few things you need to work on with him…." (And then the list of things he's behind on…) So I get into his teacher's classroom, and I have to say, Gabe LOVES his teacher. He has loved her since day one. He just kept saying "My teacher is SO NICE!" after the first day of school. And let me tell you - that kid wasn't lying. She is amazing. I actually cried during our parent teacher conference. (It was kind of an emotional moment I guess… lol… but she cried too!!! I swear! It was like an episode of Oprah.) But so this is what happens…
I go in there and she's like, "Do you have any questions for me to start off…?" and I am like, "Well, I know he's behind in reading so…. what can we do to help him… etc. etc…" and she kind of gave me this look like she wasn't sure what to say. Then she's like, "Well let me show you his scores…" and then she probably thought I was the bad reader because I looked at them and was like, "Wait… you're saying he ISN'T behind?" And she just looked at me like I was this crazy lady and went on to say, "Gabe is my class leader. He is a marvelous child. He is the child that I try to keep up with throughout the day because he is just ON IT all the time. I can't even keep up with him sometimes. He is excelling in every area. HE. IS. AMAZING." And I just sat there like, in shock. I said to her, "Well, this is like night and day to his first grade and even second grade parent teacher conference. He has always been trying to catch up. ever since he was born, he was behind and I feel like for years we've just been trying to get caught up." And she looks me in the eye and goes, "He's caught up." Like, as in, "Your child is amazing and I'm sitting here telling you he's one of my best students and you're not believing me?" haha No, but she was super sweet and not at all judgmental. I think she may have just thought I was a little crazy. But i even was like, "Yeah, yeah, you're saying he has amazing behavior and i get that, but are we talking about his actual academics here?" And then she showed me his scores in math, reading, etc. and they were actually all nearly perfect! She said his reading must have just taken off during the Summer because at the end of second grade when he was tested, he was reading 45 words per minute and at the beginning of this Fall he was reading at 96 wpm, which is the benchmark for Winter of this year! And not just that, but his comprehension was even above average! I was just so floored. It was like, the best experience with a parent teacher conference I have ever had. It lasted an hour. I am not lying. Luckily I was the last one of the evening so no one was waiting. But she probably felt like she needed to spend that long to convince me that my son was actually doing WELL in school! haha

Anyways! And little Caleb… He is also doing well (academically) haha, no his teacher is really nice too, but the one negative thing I heard all night was that Caleb can be a little bit…. um… loud. Which, I already knew, so that was no surprise. She said that sometimes he has a hard time not, "Jumping the gun," and he's always in a hurry to move onto something else, be the life of the party, get the focus onto him and off the boring school work type of thing! haha I can totally see that. But she didn't seem too offended by it. So I think we're good.

Well that is my little blog for now. I will try to do more later when it is not midnight! ;)

Fall Fun

I am trying to play catch up again, but I had to mention a  few of the fun things we did this Fall!
1 - Mesa Falls, hiked around, saw a rainbow over the waterfall! Fed the fish at Warm River.
2 - Bike ride down the mountain (I picked them up in the car at the bottom… haha)
3 - Trip to Jackson - went swimming at the indoor watermark with cousins Berrick and Wylder and Aunt Heather; also ate pastries at a ridiculously overpriced upscale bakery (they WERE very good though)
4 - Went to a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins and a Farmer's market on the way home for some fresh apples, corn, grapes…. I would've bought pears if I wasn't all "peared out" from canning the two huge boxes of pears I had bought from the church people. I do not want to see another pear for a long time.
5 - Josh went fishing with his boyfriends (actually they are both his cousins, on two different sides… so I guess that would be incest…They really do have too much fun together though)
6 - Dog sat for Josh's dream dog - a little Gareman Shepherd puppy named Axl. he even took him to work in the K9 SUV a few times.
7 - The boys each played on a Flag Football team - they get assigned to a real NFL team and are given jerseys of that team. Sadly, neither of our boys were the Packers. :( Caleb was the Arizona Cardinals and Gabe was the Jets.

The weather this fall had been pretty amazing, I gotta say. Even Halloween was in the upper 60s. Can't beat that! If only we had tons of tree-lined streets with amazing fall colors…. oh well. I will post this first picture of what I wish it looked like on my street.

Here's some pictures!