St. Patrick's Day

I did a similar thing for St. Patrick's day as I did on Valentine's Day for the kids. We celebrated with all things GREEN. They woke up to a special package from a little leprachaun with fun things that were green and gold. Balloons, Gum, Bubbles, Shampoo, Shirt, and gold candies. They loved it. For breakfast we had lucky charms and green milk. No one seemed to eat their cereal that day.

Gingerbread House Building

The kids look forward to making gingerbread houses each year. I think it is one of their favorite traditions. We had Grandma Yancey over to help us out and she brought a bag full of goodies to contribute to the house building. I helped Paige and Parker was helped by grandma. Paxten decided he wasn't too interested and ended up laying with Matt and taking a nap. Between Paige and Parker we used 2 batched of frosting and about 6 bags of candy! It seemed like it became a competition to see who could put the most candy on their house without it collapsing.  We didn't decied on a winner, but I am sure it would have been a tie. They both had gobs of candy on it and wanted more and more. I finally had to tell Paige that there was no where else to put any more candy! Both houses turned out fun and reflected the personalities of both the kids. It was a fun evening and we had table centerpieces for the next 2 weeks! December 18th, 2012.

St. Patrick's Day

I am a little behind so it is Blog catch up day! For St. Patrick's Day I wanted to do something fun for the kids, but I kept forgetting about it and ran out of time to do a treasure hunt to search for a pot of gold. Maybe next year! So instead I wanted to do all green meals for them for the day. I started with breakfast, Leprechaun pancakes, scrambled cheesy eggs, and milk. I told the kids that a Leprechaun had come and colored all our food green. Parker loved that idea, since his favorite color is green. Paige wasn't too sure, in fact she refused to eat any of it because it was green. She kept telling me she wanted "regular" pancakes and eggs. Paxten ate some of it. I do have to admit that the eggs were kind of on the far side for me as well. The tasted good, but they sure didn't look appetizing. It is true that how a food is presented affects the taste. I am not sure why, but I had a hard time eating them too. Probable wont do these again next year. The pancakes and milk were fine and Parker ate all of his breakfast! Since breakfast didn't go over the way I had envisioned I changed my plans for dinner. I was going to do a pot roast with green potatoes and green gravy, pistachio salad, green beans, and green sherbet for dessert. Instead I did "regular" potatoes and gravy and the rest of the "green" themed meal. It was a fun day and we enjoyed spending the Saturday together as a family!
 

Valentine's Day

 

I try to do something special for each of the kids on all the holidays, whether it is a special activity, or suprise or a special treat. This year each of the kids woke up to a small gift bag with some candy, a gumball machine, and valentine pencils. Paxten got a stuffed sock money instead of pencils. I just always want my kids to know they are loved and that Matt and I think each one of them is special. We are so lucky to have 3 wonderful kids in our home that bring so much LOVE into our lives. Yay for a day filled with LOVE!!!

Matt got me the next movie in the Twilight Series: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and a box of chcolates. I got him some of his favorite candy, Reeses Peanut Butter Hearts and a Play Station 3 game, Madden 2012. Today we got enganged 8 years ago so Valentines day will always be special to us!! Happy Heart day!!

Father's Day

 

For Father's Day the kids and I created a candy poster for Matt that included snickers, extra gum, 100 grand, sweetarts, payday, mounds, and some other candy bars. We also gave him these cute sodas. I made the ones with the ties and the kids got the other ones in Primary. I thought it was funny that we had come up with the same idea to give the dad pop. I found the idea online at How Does She, I love that site!

We also visited the grandpas and gave them similar posters and pop as well. It was a hit and I felt like the kids were able to contribute this year so it felt like it was from them a little more than me.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Matt has decided that in addition to lawn care in the summer he will be doing some snow removal as well. He just has three buildings he is doing right now, but when it does snow he has to get up early to get it done. Some mornings when he has to be to work, he leaves to do snow removal at 4:30!! That is really hard for Matt. But it gets him going for the day and he seems to enjoy it. With all the snow we have gotten the last few weeks I think this Winter is going to be a cold and wet Winter with lots of snow. I think we have more now than we got the entire year last year.

Matt had to work on Thanksgiving this year so the kids and I enjoyed turkey without him. I was a little bummed that he didn't get to spend it with us, but I guess everyone has to take a turn working holidays. His family had a Thanksgiving dinner the night before so we (the kids and I) got to have 2 dinners and enjoyed every minute of it. We had received a bad snow storm earlier in the week and the roads were horrible. I was a little nervous to be on the roads by myself with the 2 kids, but we made it home safely, it only took us 3 times as long as usual.

The day of Thanksgiving I went with my mom out to my grandparents house and once again enjoyed good food and company. Matt was able to join us later in the afternoon once he got off work. We were all stuffed as we played a few games and visited with each other.

We put our Christmas tree and decorations up the next day, no early shopping for me!! The kids were eager to help decorate and are excited for Santa to come. I am almost done with all my shopping and I think I will enjoy the month of December not having to be in the busy stores. We are excited for Christmas to come and then the arrival of our new little baby. I am already counting down the weeks, I think more with anticipation than misery. I am feeling good and staying busy. Can't wait for all the Holiday fun to begin!!

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!

OCTOBER

I can hardly believe that it is October already. As I have already said I love this time of year, maybe because it is the start of the holiday season and there is always so much to do. I know that from now until the end of the year we will be busy getting ready for the holiday and I am excited about that. Some of the things we will be doing are:
1. Matt's graduations from school with a BS in Business Management. YAY!!!!
2. Enrichment night/ making watches!!
3. Scrapbook retreat with my mom and sister, no kids and no husband. I am just a little excited about that!!! Matt will be watching the kids for 3 days and 3 nights and I am excited/nervous about how that goes, maybe a little appreciation for me will come of it!
4. My Birthday
5. Parker's preschool Halloween Party
6. Halloween
7. Parker's 4th Birthday
8. Wedding of a close family friend
9. Craft fair
10. Thanksgiving
11. Christmas shopping/parties
12. Wedding of my cousin
13. Christmas

I am sure there will be some more things that happen in the midst of all that and I am okay with that. I am realizing that I need to get busy and start working on some projects and get some gifts in the work because I know it will sneak up on me and be here before I know it!! What are your plans for the Holiday season??

Ginger bread house

Last week Parker and I went to my mom's house and Parker made his first gingerbread house. Well I guess he helped me and my mom make it. He wasn't as into it as I thought he would be. I guess he is still a little bit too young. But he sure enjoyed eating the candy as we were making it. I have a picture of the house, but when I went to download it from the disk, the disk was blank. Thanks to WalMart. So hopefully I can get it fixed and posted soon.