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!)

Scrapbooking

I just got back yesterday from a weekend filled with paper, brads, ribbon, stamps, eyelets, ink, staples and pictures and it was so fun. I went with my mom, my sister and a close family friend of ours to a place in Lava where we stayed the entire weekend indoors scrappin til our hearts content. We arrived on Thursday night and unloaded all our stuff, it was a miracle we got it all into one vehicle. Our overnight bags were so small compared to all the stuff we took along "just in case" we needed it for scrapbooking. We stayed up until about midnight getting things organized and ready to go before heading to bed. When we woke up we went straight to the table to start on out projects. I completed an 8x8 album with 20 pages from our Cruise to Baja and also did 23 12x12 pages mostly of the kids. I stayed up until 3 in the morning Saturday and got quite a bit done. Towards the ends of the weekend I hit a creative wall and couldn't' seem to get anything done. Everything I started didn't end up working or I didn't like it so I pretty much looked through magazines and watched everyone else there work. I was still pleased with all I got done. My goal was to get the 8x8 book done, so everything else I accomplished was just a bonus. We had a great time with lots of great food and made some new friends. There were about 25 women there scrabooking and sewing. It was a great getaway and a great birthday present! Thanks for letting me go Matt while you watched the kids!!

When I got home Matt asked if he could go golfing in Buhl with a friend...how can I possibly say no after he watched the kids all weekend so I could go. Nice timing Matt, you knew I couldn't say no!!

Today I have been busy getting the house back to normal after a weekend with just Matt and the kids. No matter how hard he tries he can't seem to keep the house out of shambles while I am away. So today I am working on 10 loads of laundry and picking up many toys and garbage that was left lying around. It will sure feel good to have a clean house once again!