Almost Christmas!

I wanted to quick write a blog update before the craziness of Christmas sets in! What have we been up to this past month?

First, Gabe had his science fair (yes he did one in third grade too… why do they have them do it two years in a  row? I'm not really sure…) But this year we did an easy experiment that tested "Are dogs' and cats' mouths really cleaner than humans'?" Josh actually came up with the idea. We had Kitty lick a piece of bread, and Piper lick a piece of bread, and Gabe lick a piece of bread, and then had one that NO ONE licked. We put them all in plastic baggies and watched them over the course of three weeks. Kitty's grew mold the fastest! Ewww… But hers and Piper's both got waaaay moldier than the other two. Therefore, do NOT let your pet kiss you. Gross.

What else? Avery finished up her Fall BYUI semester of preschool. In some form of paperwork error or sheer carelessness, somehow her application was "lost" for the Winter semester, so she may or may not be having a place again starting in January. Stinkin' people over there. We can't all be an organized and perfect as me. ;) We are hoping she gets in since she is "first one the waiting list" (they say) but who knows. Maybe she will be home with me on M,W, and F mornings. She will still go to the Burton one across the street though on Tues and Thurs. She also finished her little gymnastics class and even got a little "gold medal" on the last day. If she doesn't end up doing the M,W, F preschool again I may sign her up for a regular weekly gymnastics class. She tried dance for a few months, but I ultimately decided she wasn't quite ready for it and pulled her out in November. She just stood there half the time so I figured I would save myself the $30 a month! But I DO plan to try it again with her next Fall! A highlight for Avery as well was going to ride on the city Carousel for one night that Santa was there. She LOVES the carousel but it has been closed since labor day for the winter. So she was completely elated to actually be able to go ride it again for one night! (She couldn't have cared less about the Santa part)

What can I say about Caleb? He is still our little funny Caleb with his Eeyore attitude sometimes. He is so picked on. (sarcasm) His second grade class did their yearly "Wizard of Oz" Christmas play (it's kind of weird…) and the funniest part was that he was cast by the teacher as Toto. He is the biggest kid in the second grade and yet he was playing the little dog. haha

We have had a TON of snow the past week so the kids have really enjoyed that. They have been off of school since last Friday (today is Wednesday) and they are already bored I think. My Etsy shop has been closed since the 14th so I am pretty bored too! haha But I am enjoying the free time! It has been another successful year! Our goal is to get our house paid off as soon as possible. ;) Josh is still at the police department and people seem to be dropping like flies (quitting…. not dying thankfully…) so maybe he will move up faster in the ranks than we had originally planned on! hahaha He talks about quitting too, but in all reality he is probably a "lifer." I always tell him he's the future chief. ;)

Tonight we are going to the Ashton church for Josh's family's little Christmas shin-dig. We will do a white elephant exchange for the adults and then a separate kid gift exchange. We are also doing breakfast for dinner. It's hard adjusting to other family's weird traditions but oh well. ;) At least my mom sent us her Christmas cookies in the mail! Maybe some day we will go back home to Wisconsin again for Christmas!  Or, if I had my way, to Hawaii…. ;)

Okay, here are some pictures of the past month!

The Best Baby Shower Ever

Well, after working on this baby shower for my friend, Sam, for about the past two months, I think it deserves its own special post. It all started when I missed out on the opportunity to have a shower for my friend, Lindsey, because I was going to be in Wisconsin on the day the other friends wanted to do it. So then I said, "Hey! Wait a minute! I have lots of pregnant friends! This is Rexburg!" ;) But seriously, Sam is one of my closer friends who lives in my neighborhood and so me, Barb, and Brittaini  decided at the end of September that we needed to throw her an amazing baby shower. So finally, the big day was here! We had about 25 people at it and it turned out beautiful. Here are some pictures!

Halloween 2015

This year for Halloween, sadly, Josh had to work all weekend. :( That meant I had to do a lot of the Halloween activities myself (with the three kids…)

Thursday was Avery's preschool Halloween party. I volunteered to help and the teach had set up a station where I helped them make little mummies. Then Friday, it was Caleb and Gabe's class parties. I had been asked by the room mom to help at Caleb's class, so I went in there and made little "graveyard" dirt cups with them. I had printed out little tomb stones with each kid's name on them that they stuck in there at the very end (if they weren't eating it first.) It was cute. I wanted to get a picture of Caleb with his, but he ate it too fast.

Then Friday night was the Burton school Halloween carnival. This is always a madhouse. I was not looking forward to it, but knew my kids would totally freak if we didn't go. So I bought all these punch passes (each little classroom has a game in it and costs one "punch" and there's also food and Bingo) and when we got there I just gave the boys each a couple and sent them on their way while me and Avery did stuff at our own pace. Well Caleb came running up to us a little later and was soooo mad because he had "spent FOUR punches and all he got was a lousy Bingo card!" But then I explained to him that we could use it to go play Bingo and possibly win a prize! So we all went to the gym and I bought three more Bingo cards, (one for each of us) and we sat down to try our luck. Well what would you know… we actually won! That very first round! Which was good too because we were only going to play that one round! So our prize included a bunch of movie passes to the local theater, some Dr. Seuss DVDs, some gift cards to Wendy's and other local restaurant, a small ping pong table (don't know where to put that..) and more! It was a dang cool thing to win! The kids were pretty excited.

So then the excitement continued! While we were there, I had missed a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. But luckily, that person called Josh after me. So I had sighed up for a chance to participate in the filming of a reality tv show with Gordon Ramsey called "Hotel Hell" that was going to be being filmed at Angler's Lodge (a place I worked while in college for a Summer.) I didn't think anything would come of it because they said it would be a "lottery system" who they picked. But they called and said "We have a spot for you and three friends to come dine with us the night of filming!" So I quickly called up my only three friends… lol… and they were so excited! So it was me, Brittaini, Barbara, and Sam (all neighbors of mine) and we went up there on Sunday night. I have to admit it somewhat jaded my opinion of reality TV because honestly the food wasn't even that bad, but of course there were people that were making it out to be the WORST meal ever just because then the camera guy and microphone guy would literally RUN over to their table and film them. It was hard for me because I actually knew the owners and their family and they were all there and we had chatted before we started filming, so I wasn't going to suddenly be all rude about their restaurant as soon as the cameras came on! So I stayed pretty quiet. Therefore I may not actually be seen on TV unless it's in the background. Oh well. It was still a fun and interesting experience to be part of a reality tv show!

Saturday was of course trick or treating. We went to the Hemming Village party in the afternoon and did a hay ride and had a picture taken and stuff. After that we went up to Ashton to look at a house that Brad and Diane are thinking of buying. It needs a lot of work but I think they should go for it! Then at about 5:00 we went trick or treating. We ended up only doing our neighborhood and then it was already getting dark and the kids had plenty of candy. So then we put on a movie and stayed in. Caleb handed out some more candy at our house for the next hour or so and then by about 8 we turned off our light and were done.

So that was our exciting Halloween weekend!

I am also putting some pictures in go some other fall fun! We went to this pumpkin patch at Treehouse Nursery when Stacey and Kamrie came up to visit for a weekend. And then the kids had to decorate pumpkins like their favorite storybook characters for a contest at school!