Utah Baby Blessing

We were able to go to Utah a couple weekends ago for my niece, Everly's, baby blessing. It was a fun filled, frantic weekend. We got in Friday night and enjoyed a little pizza party with Sam and Summer and their families' and my parents. There was a little Just Dance involved, and it got a little out of control. On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast, did a little shopping, and then hit the Children's Museum in downtown SLC.After the museum we went to my niece, Reece's, dance recital. It was super cute. Then we headed to temple square to see the Christmas lights. It was perfect because just a couple weeks before we were watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and they showed Temple Square and Andi said she wanted to go there and see all the lights. It was freezing cold, even bundled up, but we loved seeing the lights and the nativities from all around the world. It truly is an amazing sight.
Saturday we hung out at my sisters until it was time for church. My brother did a beautiful job on Everly's blessing. After church we headed home.We were so glad we got to be there. It was a fun time! Welcome to the world Everly Jane!

Christmas Spirit

We are so excited for Christmas in our house, and have been for weeks! My kids are always asking for green and red everything... the green plate, the red cup, the red and green markers... They want Christmas music on 24/7. Andi will come into my room first thing in the morning and ask if I'll come turn on Christmas music. We'll be playing in the living room and she'll say, "I think we should turn on some Christmas music." The past few days Carter and Andi keep saying, "Don't my ears look pointy?" They are trying to convince me that they are turning into elves. It's really cute! They love finding Jingles every morning. This morning he was caught in a marshmallow fight with Woody. It's been magical around here. I love the ages of my kids.

This week is full of fun leading up to Christmas. Yesterday Carter's class went on the Polar Express in his class. It was really cute. They wore pajamas and set their chairs up in a train, got train tickets and then choo-choo'd around the hall, got their tickets punched and then listened to the Polar Express on cd while they illuminated the picture book with a lantern. Of course hot chocolate and cookies were served after. I felt lucky it was my day to volunteer in class so I got to watch and help.

It was also Andi's Christmas party and they wore pajamas too. Not sure all they did, but she came home with lots of goodies and seemed to have a grand time.

Today was Carter's class Christmas party. It was fun. They had a bunch of fun stations, ornament making, sugar cookie decorating, reindeer ring toss, treats, pony bead wreath making... And now we are out of school for two weeks. I am so looking forward to it. No rushing out the door in the morning. More hot breakfasts. Lots of winter/Christmas crafts. Christmas movies. Visitors. Playdates. Good times.

We have something every night this week which is going to make Christmas come even faster! Last night we delivered our friend gifts and went Christmas light looking. It was so fun. I absolutely love spending time with my little family. They make my heart happy.

Thanksgiving '11

We had such a fabulous Thanksgiving this year, like every year that I can remember. I just love my family and love that we all get along so well and enjoy spending time together. I think that is kind of rare, and feel pretty grateful that we are all so close. We made the drive to Klamath the day before Thanksgiving and hit the ground running to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. There was so much delicious food. We added smoked prime rib to the mix, and it was amazing.
So thankful for this beautiful bunch of people that I get to call family.
Christmas pajamas from Gramzee and Grandpa Paul!
All the grandkids (that were there + Everly) in their Christmas jammies:
We went on our traditional tree hunt the day after Thanksgiving. The weather was absolutely perfect, no snow+no rain+no wind+sunny= warm, dry, happy kids.
Taytum thought she would help the men get the tree on our car.
Here is the process that is now known as the "birth of the tree." Instead of hoisting this beast of a tree up over the outside balcony to bring it in through the double doors, the men did all they could to get it in the front door.... and it worked. Hudson was crying by the end of it from all the hootin' and hollerin' and cheering when it finally came through.
The men in the hot tub... no lady dared venture in there with them.
The cousins did their gift exchange sine we won't be seeing any of them at Christmas. It got them pretty excited for Christmas and the prospect of more presents.
We spent time feeding the horses, riding the john deer, and spent an afternoon at the movies and saw "Arthur Christmas."
Jefferson's attempt at trying to calm the kids down before bed. These four cousins shared a room for the first time and rather enjoyed it. They were up for about three hours the first night!
We played really hard:
We missed you Andrus family!

Boh-Boh 9 month stats

Little Bentley is 9 1/2 months! And about the size of a two month old. The weigh in:

13lbs 8 oz - not even on the charts
26.5 inches - 12%
Head circumference 17 1/4" - 39%

Our doctor isn't too concerned with her weight, but did say she would be more comfortable if Bentley would put on a few extra pounds and hop back onto that chart. Bentley will most likely always be on the smaller/thinner side (think Carter), but a few pounds of reserve would make me feel better. So operation fatten up Bentley has commenced. I started adding pediasure to her oatmeal today and the smell almost makes me queasy. It reminds me of the kiddos that I used to take care of because they always got pediasure through their g-tubes because of the high calories and nutrients in them. Anyways, Bentley seemed to like it just fine and we're going to try to get her to eat a few more high calorie, high fat foods and hope that helps. We are also trying to be aware of not affecting her taste for foods or making her a picky eater, so wish us luck!

Bentley has become such a better baby! Remember, how I always have said that I wish my babies would pop out at 8-9 months old. I am reminded now of why. She is so fun and interactive. She isn't mobile yet, but enjoys sitting and watching the other kids and play with whatever toy they bring her. She is back to her non-picky, super fantastic eating. I cut out her last feeding, which I was having to wake her up for right before I went to bed, and she's been sleeping right through, from 6-7pm to 7-8am. It is glorious!! She takes two naps when we're home to give her them. Otherwise she usually skips one and is pretty good with just rolling with it. She usually gets really giggly right before I put her down for bed. She LOVES it when I sing, or anyone else for that matter, I'm sure, but usually I'm the only one who sings to her. She also thinks it's funny to watch any one of us dance. Not sure if we should be offended by that or not. I am starting to see what a fun addition to our family this little one is going to be.

PS... I'm not sure if I've posted this or not, but those pictures are of her doing her silly breathing thing where she'll squish up her nose and breath in and out really fast. It's pretty funny.

Carter's kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving feast yesterday on their last day before the break. All family was invited, so the girls and I loaded up and headed on over to feast. The class had all made placemats, Indian headdresses, and pilgrim hats. Don't we look smashing? It was really cute and the girls loved being at Carter's big school.
PS... Bentley was there, in her stroller, mushing on graham crackers. She was so good that I totally neglected her.

We put in a movie the kids had never seen last night called "Valiant." It's an animated Disney movie about birds during WWII, so a little bit darker than your typical Disney show, I think. It got to a little bit of a scary spot and Carter turned to Jefferson and said, "Is this appropriate for me?"

(He must have been watching Brian Regan recently. :) )

Academic Achievement

Carter was chosen to receive one of two Academic Achievement awards for this first trimester for his kindergarten class. We went to our first awards assembly this morning at the school to see him receive his certificate.

We are so proud of your hard work in school Carter. You are so smart and do such good work! Keep it up!

Primary Program

Today was our ward primary program and it was so stinkin' cute, as always. I was so impressed with how well the kids knew all the songs. We've learned (or rather, were reminded) that Andi was born to be a performer. On the first verse of "I Love to See the Temple" only the Sunbeams sang, and Andi was by far the loudest, in a good way, and right on pitch, singing every word. We had a couple of people comment on her beautiful, albeit loud, singing. Carter did a great job memorizing his part and sang I think every word to every song. Every time he would look at me or Jefferson he would try so hard not to smile. Andi on the other hand smiled freely and waved a few times to us. Andi also had her part memorized perfectly, but when she got up there, the teacher helped her. I don't think she knew that Andi had her part memorized. She still said it nice and loud and clear. I get all emotional and teary every time the primary program comes around. I am reminded of how sweet and tender our children are and how innocent and pure their testimonies are. I am so grateful that we have the gospel and that there are such amazing people in our primary teaching our kids and helping build their gospel foundation. Great job Carter and Andi!

Andi was helping Taytum off the step stool in the kitchen and says to her, "There you go darling."

They are darling.

Books

Carter just drew a little picture book and had me help him spell out the words for the story. When we were done Carter says, "I'm the author and the illustrator!" It just sounded funny coming out of my five year old for some reason.

HALLOWEEN.

Our Halloween was filled with fun festivities all weekend long. It started with Andi's preschool Halloween party. Here she is with her bestie Abby:And Tay had to get in on the picture taking.FALL FESTIVAL

Then we had our ward Fall Festival. There was a chili cook off, sugar cookie decorating, a picture booth, and trick or treating around the building.It was so crowded there! What a great problem to have at a ward party. It really did turn out great, and I was thrilled because we (the Relief Society presidency) were in charge. There was plenty to eat, candy at all the doors, and lots of happy children.
My door at the end, hence no candy. I brought about 175 pieces of candy. You can bet that a lot of the older kids double and triple dipped.

SCHOOL PARTY

On Monday Carter had his Halloween class party, and I somehow got roped into pretty much being in charge. Nobody volunteered to be in charge, but I had signed up to help, so Carter's teacher asked me to come up with some of the stations. There was pin the nose on the pumpkin, q-tip skeletons, monster making, Halloween matching, Halloween I Spy game, and then of course treats, candy, cookies, and juice. The kids all had fun (I hope).

TRICK-or-TREAT

Finally it was time for actual trick-or-treating after our traditional chili and scones dinner. The kids were so excited! They ran door to door and braved the cold, windy weather.
Bentley was a doll and slept in the stroller the whole time.Mario got tired of wearing his mustache... we didn't!
Taytum cried when she realized we were done trick-or-treating and tried to run away from the house, but this pile of candy eased the blow.
Andi is just like her mother. She loves handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that come to our door. She would seriously stand there and wait til she saw people coming and then get ready with the candy bucket. She was a great helper.