Picts. Cont.

Christmas Pictures

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve we went to Matt's mom's house and the kids got to open their gifts from her. Paige got an adorable new outfit and Parker got a jacket and some new toys. Matt and I got a picture frame and a throw blanket. After we opened gifts we went to Matt's brother's house and had home made tamales. They were so good!! It was fun to be with Matt's siblings and spend some time with them!

Christmas day was a little different this year because I was by myself with kids...well not really by myself, but had to handle them without Matt's help. We had the traditional Yancey breakfast at my parents house in the morning. then the kids and I went to Matt's parents and the kids got to open their gifts from grandpa and grandma C. They were both spoiled with a new outfit and several new toys. Parker got about 4 new guns and a dinosaur toy. Paige got a life sized doll, with clothes and a blanket and a smaller baby doll, a stuffed pony and a little my little pony. Paige sat on the couch for about 20 minutes right by her new stuff and wouldn't let me even touch anything to look at it. I think she was in heaven loving all the new stuff and didn't want me taking it from her. She finally let me look at it, but not for long. She played with he dolly for most of the time we were there. After a few hours we went to Matt's uncle Kendall's for lunch and a gift exchange. The family is getting quite big and the exchange game took an hour and a half to play. Which is shorter than years past. It was fun to be together and spend time with them on Christmas. In the evening we got together at my Parents house and had dinner with my sister and her fiance. Matt was able to join us when he got home while we opened presents. I was spoiled and got a new dishwasher...which I am loving. The kids got several new outfits and a lot of toys. By the end of the night Paige was a pro at opening gifts, although she wanted to open the packages all the way, so the process took us a while. My sister and I also got a new cricut cartridge and Matt got a chess set and a golf scorer. We had a great time spending the holiday with all our family. We love each and every one of them so much a truly appreciate all they do for us. It was a great 2009!!!

Christmas

Well better late than never. I just realized I had a only a few hours to post for the year 2009. I thought I had better get a post in about our wonderful Christmas. We were all spoiled and had a wonderful holiday. Matt had to work the entire day of Christmas form 7 in the morning until 7 at night so we had to do things a little different this year. The kids had "Santa" come on Christmas Eve morning. They are still small enough to not really know the difference. We had a good day, Matt and I kept it pretty simple and didn't really go crazy with a ton of toys this year. Parker got a Ben 10 watch, some Cars from the movie Cars, Play dough, some learning games, and a church bag that I made both kids that had coloring books, crayons, stickers, magnet sets, treats, a book, and a clipboard. That was a big project that took me about 1 month to complete. I think they will like them once they finally get to use them. Paige got some pots and pans to go in her little kitchen, a my little pony, play dough and a church bag. They also got the game candy land to share. So we had a fun little morning and enjoyed spending time together playing with the kids.

Ward Party

Our ward had their Annual Christmas party on the 11th and we were able to go. This year they did something different than they normally do and it was a fun change. Instead of the usual potatoes/ham and salads they had different soups/chili's with a baked potato and cobblers. It was fun to see all the different soups that people brought and to be able to try them out. I even came home with a new recipe from my friend Lauri for a White Chili. I am excited to try it out at home. The kids did alright, but during the program part of the evening they got a little restless and wanted to run around like some of the other kids there. The primary had a little part in the program and sang The Shepherd's Carol and Christmas Bells. They did a good job and started the program off on a good note. Parker was in the front row and tried his hardest to sing the words to the songs. It is pretty hard for those little kids to learn a Christmas song in a couple of weeks and then not sing them again for an entire year. We have a pretty small ward and every voice we had there that night was needed. I ended up helping during the round of A Shepherds Carol and I hope my voice didn't drown out the voices of the kids. It was a fun night out and we were able to visit with some of our friends from the ward that we don't get to visit with on a regular basis.

Gingerbread Train

I am just a little bit behind in updating the blog. We had a fairly busy December and I can't believe it is almost over along with 2009. So here are a few new posts of the things we have been up to lately. My mom had the kids over on the 2nd to decorate a gingerbread train. Parker had a fun time decorating and most of all eating the decorations and frosting as we went along. Parker is still a bit too small and wasn't that interested in helping, although she did have her fair share of candy as well. This was fun to start us off for the month of December and to get us in the Holiday Spirit!

Candy Making

Growing up around Christmas time my mom always made holiday candy. We looked forward to it every year and we would eat enough to last us the entire year as well. As I got older I paid attention in the kitchen and my mom taught me how to make some of her recipes. After I got married, for some reason I was hesitant to try the recipes on my own and would get together with my mom to help her makes the candy so it wouldn't get messed up. Well this year I decided to try it out on my own. I made fudge (which I have made on my own before, it is pretty easy) English Toffee and Homemade Caramels. I am proud to say they all turned out quite delicious. There is something about eating a homemade caramel, it puts all others to shame. Now my family will enjoy the product of this day for the next couple of weeks. As I was stirring and stirring and stirring my pot of sugar and butter, I realized that there is a lot more work put into making homemade candy than you realize. I especially didn't realize it when I was younger, but it does take a long time to get it to the right temperature and requires constant attention and stirring. Good thing I have been lifting weights! My kids were surprisingly well behaved and I was able to get all three things done in one afternoon. But cutting and wrapping the caramels took me a whole other day. If you have never attempted to try a new recipe or to make some homemade candy, you should give it a try. I think it is becoming a lost art and it is always so wonderful to give something homemade to the ones you love. I am so glad my mom, and her mom as well, started this "tradition" and that it is something that helps us remember certain times in our lives and reminds us of the people we love!! I am sure I will regret it when I step on the scale, but I am going to hit the gym even harder in January and the season only comes once a year, might as well enjoy it!!

More pictures

For some reason I can't download more than 3 pictures. So here are some more!

Pictures

I have been trying to post some of the pictures from our session and for some reason they would not post, so sorry it has taken so long. These are some of my favorites!

Family Pictures

I finally got the disc back with all our family pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Christmas Bells are Ringing

I can't believe that it is December 3rd today! Where did November go?? Seriously! I am really excited about the Christmas season and all that goes along with it. We are staying busy at our house with the normal everyday stuff and a few fun holiday things in between. Parker and I put up the Christmas tree last Saturday along with the rest of our holiday decorations and we are enjoying them. I have been listening to Christmas music as much as I can and singing along with some of my favorite songs. I am just amazed at how many different versions there are of some songs. I went to my annual ornament exchange on Tuesday and I had a great time. I came home with 15 new ornaments and 15 new recipes. It was a fun time with friends, something we look forward to each year. Today I worked really hard on a few projects I am working on for Christmas. I have got quite a bit in my "To do" list before Christmas and have been trying to work on some a little bit each day. Today Matt was home and I took advantage of the time and had him keep an eye on the kids while I was in my "workshop". I hope the kids like what I am working on and appreciate it. Well they probably won't, but I will each time I look at it. I am hoping to get all of our Christmas done by about the 15th, cutting it a little close for my comfort, but we have to work with what we got, right! Next week is our ward party, I should have some pictures from that and hopefully more pictures from our photo session. Until then....Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow! It's December we need snow now!

Family Pictures

For my mom's birthday my sister and I went in on a gift for her. She has been wanting to get a big family picture professionally taken and Charyn and I decided that would make the perfect gift. It has taken us about 2 months to correlate all of our schedules so that we could all be there. Well we finally got something scheduled and the weather was looking pretty bad. It had snowed all morning and the Photographer called and cancelled. We decided that we would still get together and snap a few picture for the holidays for cards and stuff. After that the snow stopped and the photographer called back and said she could still do them. So we hurried over and met her and got some great shots I am hoping. The poor kids were freezing, but we managed to get the entire family. She will have the proofs ready to look at in about 1 week. I am excited and can hardly wait. In the meantime here is a little snapshot we took after the photo shoot. Oh and check out this blog: www.mysticmemories.blogspot.com She does a great job and is priced really well and Charyn also went to High School with her so it is supporting a friend as well. Thanks again Misty, we can't wait to see the pictures!!!

Sleeping Boy

Since my last post was about Paige and her crazy sleeping I had to post this picture and story about Parker. We were up late one evening and Parker was watching Transformers and was adamant about watching the entire movie before he went to bed. Well after about half of the movie I came into the living room and saw him asleep like this. It was so funny!! He was so tired that he just couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. I had to move him into his bed soon after because I didn't want him to fall off the couch. I sure have silly kids!!

Crazy Napper

A couple of weeks ago, Matt and I were exhausted, happens a lot with 2 kids. We thought it would be great if we could get both kids to sleep for a nap and then be able to take a Sunday nap as well. I fell asleep before anyone else and Matt and Parker fell asleep soon after, but Paige didn't think that sounded fun and must have been wandering around the house for a little while (Now I am a pretty light sleeper and wasn't completely out, so she wasn't in any danger!). I woke up after about 1 hour and noticed Matt and Parker sleeping and wondered where Paige was. I looked all around the house, and even in her room and didn't see her anywhere. As I was walking out of her room, this is what I saw. She must have decided that taking a nap wasn't such a bad idea after all. I just thought it was hilarious that she climbed up in this chair and got in this position and fell asleep. She sleeps in some of the strangest positions I have ever seen!!

Turning 4

Well my little boy is now 4 years old. My how the time has flown by!! I can hardly believe he is that old, that means I am getting old as well! I don't really feel like I am getting older, but I did find a grey hair the other day *sob, sob*! Anyways I can't dwell on that, but we did have a fun day, week, in celebration of Parker turning 4. The week before his actual birthday we had a celebration at Matt's dad's house and had a great time. Then we had a fun day on Halloween and I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and we ate inside! They loved it, it isn't something we do often so to them, especially Parker, it was a real treat. We played outside in the leaves for a while and then we had pizza and a little party for him with my parents. We did it the day before because my parents were leaving the next day to go on a cruise to Mexico and weren't going to be around. How rude! I hope they are having a great time. We miss them and can't wait until they get home. Anyways we had pizza, opened presents, and had a Transformers cake. I was a little disappointed in the cake. Parker said he wanted a Sponge bob cake fore his birthday about 6 months ago. So I had found pictures and had figured out what I was going to do. Well he changed his mind a few weeks before to a Transformer cake and I wasn't about to attempt that. My cake decorating skills have improved, but not to that extent. So I went to the WalMart bakery and they told me they do have a Transformer cake, we looked at a picture and Parker was excited, he liked it and that made me happy. So that was the plan. I went to order the cake and in the middle of the store renovation they hadn't ordered the figures and cake toppers needed for the one we had looked at. Crappy huh!! So they had a few plastic pieces that represented the Autobots and the Decepticons so we said alright do that. Well When I saw the finished cake I was a little disappointed for various reasons, but it was soooooooo plain. I will definitely be making my own kids birthday cakes from now on. Then I have no one to be disappointed in by myself and will have saved some money. Anyways, the cake tasted good and Parker loved it. He was spoiled rotten and got a few new pairs of jammies, some transformers, a Book of Mormon, a movie, some clothes, and a new pair of shoes. So the birthday was a success after all. I think we as adults sometime think kids will be disappointed if we don't go all out on parties and stuff. He would have been perfectly fine with one toy and a cupcake. But he is worth the extra work and effort and we love him so much. He is a fun and rambunctious little boy, but we love having him in our family!! Happy Birthday Parker!!!

Halloween

So I am almost a week late in posting this but I figured it is better late than never. We had our ward Halloween party last Friday so the kids got to dress up in their costumes to go to the little carnival they had planned. Parker was Bumblebee Transformer and Paige was supposed to be a cute little lady bug, but she wouldn't keep her costume on for any length of time. Right after I put it on her she was having a fit trying to get it off. I didn't want to be fighting her about it the entire night so I took it off and improvised with what I had at home. I put on a little tutu, some makeup and some earrings and called it good. So she was a ballerina/princess/cute girl what ever you want to call it. Parker on the other hand loved loved loved his costume and had worn it several times and I am sure he will be wearing it until it wears out. We can't wear masks in the church building so I painted his face and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I can't believe he was able to hold still for that long for me to do it. It was only about 10 minutes but to him it seemed like forever. Matt had to work that day and met us over there after he was finished and so was the party. So much for the family fun night! We had a good time anyways and the kids got plenty of candy. Enough for me to make the decision to NOT take the kids trick or treating on Halloween. Isn't that bad of me? I figured they are still small enough to not know the difference and I didn't want to have to dress them up again and carry them door to door just to get more junk food. And we had decided to celebrate a certain boys birthday so I didn't want to cram too much into one night. The kids will never know the difference. I just don't know how many more years I will be able to pull that off!



This is a little girl in our ward that Paige just loves, they are good friends and hug every time they see each other! It is so cute!

Spider's On My Cookie?

I had been searching for something fun to make for a little Halloween treat and was searching some of my favorite sites and I came across these adorable little cookies from Bakerella. I just love Bakerella, she does things that any ordinary person can do and gives step by step instructions which make the recipes pretty much fool proof. When I saw these cookies I knew I had to do them sometime this week and I knew Parker would love to help me make them. Well I had the chance to make them yesterday and can I just say they were a huge hit!! We had a little birthday party out at Matt's dad's house to celebrate Parker's upcoming birthday as well as his little cousins Macee and Avery. We had a great time as usual, good food, good company, and lots of sugar!! The kids were running around like crazy from all the sugar and treats they had eaten. We had such a fun time and Parker really got spoiled from all the gifts he received. Thank you so much everyone for being so good to our family. And thank you Chris and Kerry for hosting. We love you all!!! I am going to post the recipe on our family's recipe sharing blog. It is on the right side of my blog, titled Family Recipes go there to check it out!


Bakerella's Cookies

My Cookies

They aren't as perfect as Bakerella's, nor are the pictures as clear, but you get the point and I am sure they were equally delicious if not more, I made the cookies from scratch and she used a mix. Nothing wrong with a mix, but scratch is definitely better!!

Pumpkin Carving

I hesitated to carve pumpkins at all this year because the squirrels on our block are such a nuisance. I felt like we planted a garden just to feed the squirrels since we didn't get any corn, any pumpkins of the 5 we grew, and no butternut squash. So I was pretty upset that the squirrels benefited from our hard work and we didn't get to reap the rewards, so I was hesitant to carve pumpkins with the kids because I didn't want to spend all the time and money just to have them out one day before the squirrels destroy them. But I decided that I just had to do a pumpkin carving night, it has become a tradition in out little family and Parker was really excited about it. So Parker went to the store with Matt and picked out 4 pumpkins for out family. I called my parents to see if they wanted to participate, they said they would come over and just watch. (we were bored on a Friday night, and so were they) So when Matt returned with a daddy, a mommy, a kid size, and a baby pumpkin we were all set and ready to go. My dad ended up helping Parker and my mom helped Paige, who could care less what was going on. Matt and I were able to carve our own and before we knew it we had a family of pumpkins. I decided to go off the normal and I carved out a pumpkin that said "BOO" it turned out rather cute and I think I got the award for most detailed and longest time taken. I finished way after everyone else. Parker was anxious for me to finish so we could light them all and see them together. Finally I finished and we had 4 very cute Jack-o-Lanterns. Now we are hoping the squirrels don't devour them before we can really enjoy them. Anyone got any ideas how to keep the squirrels away??

Fall Leaves

Parker had been bugging me for a few days to go outside with him and rake the leaves into a BIG pile so he could jump in them. Well I had been putting it off, and kept forgetting about it until it was usually dark or too cold outside, (convenient huh!) Well the other day I remembered and took him outside to rake the few leaves that had fallen in our back yard. I was surprised at how much help he really was this year. He can actually rake the leaves into a pile and he did help quite a bit! After we had gotten them in a pile I told him he could jump in them, but first he had to go find his daddy to show him the BIG PILE! He can't do anything without his daddy! So Matt and Paige came out and Parker dove right into the pile of leaves laughing as he went. He had a great time playing in the leaves, we even burried him a few times. Paige on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the leaves, she hated the feel of them on her and started crying when we tried to bury her in the leaves. I love the fall colors and the cool crisp mornings. I love going outside with the kids and seeing them have so much fun with nature. Most of all I love taking pictures with all of the fall colors and the 2 cutest kids in the world!! (I'm the mother, I can say that about my kids, right!)