A Wonderful Christmas

What a Christmas! We had such a wonderful day...we are truly blessed! On Christmas Eve, it actually snowed!!!, so we had a white Christmas...probably one of the few that I've ever had. It was pretty magical!
Our day started at 7am. That's more my doing than anyone else's. What can I say? I'm 25, married, the mother two, soon to be three, children, and I still find it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve. I would have been ready to open presents MUCH earlier (4 am), but I tried to practice some patience. Matthew is definitely my kid, because when I got up to take the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge to rise, he came running out...apparently he had been waiting for the slightest noise as his cue that it was okay to get up. When I asked him if Santa had come, he replied "nope, not yet". I asked "what do you mean? Where did all these presents come from? He looked around and then said "oh yeah, I guess he has". I don't know what he was expecting...
We woke up James and Ethan, and then it was time to open presents!!

Ethan was so tired, but he managed to pull off a sleepy "cheese!" for the camera.

This year was the first year that we haven't been at someone else's house for Christmas morning. As much as I enjoy opeining presents with everyone else, I thought it was fun to do our own thing and go at our own pace. The kids started with the stockings. We stopped to let them indulge in a few treats, and then we opened one package at a time. Most of the time, they would open their present, and then they would want to stop and play with it, so we let them. It took awhile to make it through the presents, but I really liked doing it that way.

Ethan is really enjoying having a pre-breakfast juice box.

This was a present from my parents to the boys. This book is special because it was a favorite in my house growing up. To this day, my brothers and sister and I quote it. Matthew and Ethan really love it too, and I would highly recommend it!

Matthew asked for puzzles this year, and he got them! He was pretty excited because he's been asking for "the firetruck puzzle" for a few months, now.


Ethan LOVED the bag of balls that his uncle Brett (Hays) gave him. He really got into opening presents, and apparently this present was very exciting for him!

This is James with his new drill. In case you can't tell, he's as excited about the drill as Ethan was about the bag o' balls.

Um...wow. I can't believe that I'm posting this picture of myself, but it's the only one that got taken of me. I really should have brushed my hair or something! It's really not fair...James looks handsome and bright-eyed, and I well, don't. Oh well. This is me in the robe that James got me, holding a Cuttlebug die-cutting/embossing machine for scrapbooking and other craft projects...and I'm very excited about it! I also really love the robe that James got me. I told him that he can't let me become a "robe person". When the robe starts to become a permanent all-occasion fixture of my wardrobe, and/or I start wearing curlers as an accessory, he needs to stage an intervention! I've been wanting a flannel robe for a long time, and I finally got one...probably the most comfy-cozy one on the planet (which is why I can see myself crossing over into "all robes all the time-ville").

Other than the things pictured, the boys got new tool sets, books (including a jr. Book of Mormon), clothes, a Tonka truck (Ethan), more puzzles (Matthew), soccer ball (Matthew), slippers, and spiderman watches.

I got James a chisel set and chisel accessories, and some clamps. James also got a novelty Dodgers golf ball and tees set.

And James got me perfume, and a CD. I also got a She-ra dvd (awesome!!)

We also each open a book on Christmas Eve. James got the Messiah series by Bruce R. McConkie, I got the complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, Matthew got the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and Ethan got a dinosaur board book.

We also received a lot of generous cash presents, a nativity set, a framed family picture and delicious baked goods, and cards. Thank you to everyone.

After opening presents, and talking to my family on the phone, we headed out to Morgan to spend the rest of the day relaxing with James' parents and his brother and family. For dinner, we had enchiladas (his family makes AWESOME enchiladas!!), tamales, a huge assortment of sweets and appetizers, and ice cream cake for dessert. We also played TV Scene It (a game) and we won't mention who won...

We had such a wonderful Christmas and hope that you all did, too.

Lights at Temple Square

Last night, we went to see the lights at Temple Square. It was a lot of fun, and a lot warmer than other years that we've gone (though you probably can't tell from the way I bundled the kids up!) A nice couple offered to take our picture, and Matthew refused to smile...so you get to see him pouting. I don't even know what was bothering him.

We haven't been to see the lights the last couple of years, so this was the first time that Ethan has gone, and the first time that Matthew can remember going.

They both had a lot of fun.

Ethan really enjoyed just sitting in the stroller and taking in all the sights. He's really trying to talk lately, and after we were done, he gave a long oration in Ethan-ese on all the things he saw. I wish we could have understood what he was saying, because it was quite a production. He threw in hand motions, facial expressions, the works. It was pretty cute.

Matthew enjoyed the lights, but the highlight of the trip for him was getting to see the water, not the reflection pool with all the floating lights in it, mainly the streams of water that fed in to the fountains. The big fountain was turned off, but he loved the pool of just standing water.

I really liked the luminaries that they had. There were some beautifully intricate tin ones that depicted different events in the Savior's life, and I LOVED them. I couldn't believe how pretty they were. It was all I could do not to take them all home with me...just kidding.

I also really love the Assembly Hall. I like to call it "The Gingerbread House on Temple Square" because that's what I've always thought that it looks like. It really seems in its element at Christmas time surrounded by all the lights.

And of course, the temple always looks beautiful! We had a lot of fun, and I have to really thank James because he pushed our behemoth of a stroller the whole time so that his pregnant wife wouldn't have to. He didn't have any gloves, and his hands froze, so it really was a sacrifice on his part!!

We love you all and hope you have a merry Christmas!

James' work party

Last night was James' work party. They had a dinner at the Raddison Hotel in downtown Salt Lake, and then we all got tickets to go to the Jazz/Trailblazers game. I was really looking forward to the party, because I would finally get to meet the people James works with and be able to put faces to the names that I hear about.
We didn't know what they would be serving for dinner, and so on the drive over, we made a pact not to let each other get the salmon, if that was an option. Why, you ask? Time after time, we both keep thinking that salmon is good, only to remember, when we eat it, that we don't really like salmon at all. Not 20 seconds after we made our pact, James says, referring to salmon, "unless there is some sort of sauce on it, if it's swimming sauce, maybe I'll try it" to which I responded "yeah, and it is supposed to be really good for you..." then I came to my senses and said "see what just happened there? We can't let that happen. We're already trying to talk ourselves into the salmon...we are so weak". We decided no matter what, NO SALMON!!!
Well, we got there and sat down, and James introduced me to some of his work people. Then the president of the bank stood up and welcomed all of us, and said that dinner would be buffet-style, and we could help ourselves to whatever we wanted, and excused us to eat. We made our way over to the buffet table and James nudges me and says "Look, they have salmon, and it looks like it's swimming in some sort of cream sauce..." I said, "don't do it, you'll regret it." We made our way through the line and came to the end where they had a selection of meats...somehow we both ended up with salmon on our plates. We looked at each other and just shook our heads. We sat down to eat, and it turns out, the salmon was really good...better than the prime rib and the chicken (we tried all three). I can't remember...do we or don't we like salmon?
I also have to mention that I had a "Survivor" moment with the prime rib. James had gone to get us dessert, and I put the last bite of my prime rib in my mouth, only to discover that it was ALL gristle... I couldn't even chew it, I tried. So I sat there with a dilemma: We had cloth napkins, so I couldn't really spit it out into the napkin, and I was at a table surrounded by people I didn't know, and I was trying to be on my best behavior, so spitting it back out onto my plate was definitely NOT an option, but keeping that thing in my mouth was making my stomach turn. I'm really picky about the texture of my beef...if I'm at home, I cut around fat veins, and if it's the least bit tough, into the garbage it goes. Well, I sat there, trying to act all cool, while deciding what to do, and then I thought "hey, just pretend that you're on Survivor and that this is a reward challenge, and if you do this, your team wins." Stupid, I know, but it worked, and I was able to somehow get it down, and more importantly keep it down. I keep saying that I need to get out more, but on second thought, with my poor manners, maybe I should never leave the house!!
Well, we had a really good time at dinner, and then we headed over to the Jazz game. James, having grown up in Southern CA, is a Lakers fan, and I can't seem to get too jazzed (get it, jazzed) about professional sports. We were amidst a sea of avid fans, and all the two of us really cared about was enjoying our ice cream (sound familiar, dad?) People were booing, and cheering and getting really into it, and James and I were just having a good time being with each other without the kids around. Then, during one of the timeouts, they had a short blurb sponsored by this restaurant: Costa Vida. A little bit of background: while James and I were at BYU, we, like so many others of our time, developed what I like to call a Cafe Rio "habit"... not an addiction, mind you, simply a habit. Cafe Rio is this restaurant, not really fast food, not really a sit-down place, but really good fresh food. They classify themselves as a "mexican grill". Anyways, we are passionate about our Cafe Rio. It is as much a part of our BYU experience as our actual classes were, and we spent many a date night there, as well. Well, shortly after we left BYU, this new chain of restaurants started to pop up called Costa Vida. Their food is very similar to Cafe Rio's, but we pretty much hate them...we are Cafe Rio purists. With us, you either like Cafe Rio, or Costa Vida...you like good, or you like evil...catch my drift? Anyways, back to my point, this ad comes up for Costa Vida, and suddenly James and I feel like jumping to our feet and booing. In fact, we did boo, just not very loudly. We looked at each other and laughed. There we were, at a close, relatively exciting game, and the thing that really excites our passion is an ad for the arch enemy of our favorite restaurant...we are a couple of wacky nuts. It's a good thing we found each other...

Happy to see Santa?

Last Friday was our ward Christmas Party, and it was a lot of fun. I keep mentioning that Matthew has been all about the traditions this year, and seeing Santa at the ward party was the thing he was most excited about. That day, I told him that we were going to a Christmas party at the church, and his eyes lit up and asked if they were going to have yummy food and if Santa was going to come. I said yes, and then he got really excited and asked if he would get an orange and a candy cane (because he got those last year) and I said I didn't know, but that he would probably get something. Well, that pretty much made his whole day, and he couldn't wait. In fact, he is such a funny kid, he asked if I could give him and Ethan haircuts before the party. Apparently, he wanted to look his best when he saw Santa. So I did, and gave them baths, and then we headed out to the party. The minute we sat down at our table, Matthew leaned over to me and whispered "Is Santa going to bring his reindeer?" He was really concerned because the gym, where we all were, was completely packed and Matthew didn't think that Santa and his reindeer were going to fit. I told him, probably not, it would just be Santa. He looked relieved and then continued to ask literally every two minutes when Santa was going to come. Finally, after we had all eaten our dinner (delicious ham, green beans, salad and the best potatoes I've ever had) and our desserts (pie!!), and after the Bishop spoke a little bit (that made Matthew really nervous...he thought we were starting Sacrament Meeting, and that he would have to sit there and listen forever to speakers), they announced that we would be singing some Christmas carols, and then a special visitor would come. At this point, I'd like to say that Matthew was excited, but I think the poor kid had given up hope that Santa would really be there...but then, in came the Jolly Elf himself, and Matthew was star-struck. He grabbed my hand, and we got in line to go sit on his lap. Matthew was actually doing a little happy dance, he was so excited, and he couldn't stop smiling. Well, it was FINALLY our turn, and Matthew hopped up on Santa's lap, and then...proceeded to ignore Santa. Suddenly Matthew was very interested in his own hands, and wouldn't look at Santa, wouldn't respond to any of his questions, it was like he didn't even care that he was finally sitting on Santa's lap, like he hadn't insisted on me cutting his hair so that he could look good, like he hadn't been counting down the seconds until this very moment...basically, Matthew looked as though he couldn't care less. And Ethan...don't even get me started. James put him on Santa's lap, and all he tried to do was get DOWN! That actually surprised me because he's usually pretty friendly, but apparently Santa's not his thing. So, as you can see, we have the classic Santa picture of nonchalant Matthew, and mad Ethan. All I can do is laugh...I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words. This one just reminds me of my crazy silly little boys.

Decorating for Christmas

Well, it's that time of year, and we made our annual trek to the oh-so-festive Home Depot to pick out our "live" Christmas tree (they were probably cut a long time ago, so I don't know how fresh they really are!) We went for FHE and it seems that everyone had the same idea, because we saw family after family there picking out their trees, too. Matthew was so excited, and had to make sure that we did everything just like we did it last year (that means we had to have hot chocolate with marshmallows and watch whatever Christmas special was on TV...a Charlie Brown Christmas...while we decorated). Ethan thought that the lights were great, and "helped" as much as he could. Matthew was pretty much as excited as he could be, and could hardly contain himself. Of course, some of that excitement could have had something to do with the fact that I used real candy canes to decorate the tree, and more than a few have made their way into the boys' tummies...pretty much everytime I turn around one or both of them have a candy cane dangling from their sticky little mouths. I also suspect that Ethan may have consumed some of the plastic wrapping on the candycanes. He tries to be sneaky (he knows he's being naughty) so it's not like he can run up and ask me to unwrap it...little monkey! Matthew's solution is to just blame Ethan..."he took it off the tree, I'm just eating it. It was Ethan!" Right. In retrospect, maybe the candycane decorations weren't such a great idea after all.

Other than the tree, we haven't invested too much money in other decorations, but it seems we've collected a few things here and there over the last few years, and I'm sure in no time, we'll have more things than spaces to fill! Anyways, hope that you all are having a good Christmas season!! We love you all, and take care!

Watching the Tractor

One of the things that we really love about our house is the fact that we have a field behind us (we just hope it stays that way, at least for a couple more years!) Sometimes the field is home to horses, but this year, they planted corn. The boys have really enjoyed getting to see different types of tractors doing all sorts of jobs, and can spend a lot of time just watching them from our sliding glass door. It's fun because they now know what a tractor sounds like, and they go running for the back of the kitchen, whenever they hear one, so that they can watch it.

Thanksgiving

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving is over, but what a day it was! I love this time of year, and I love Thanksgiving. There is just something really wonderful about a day dedicated to reflection and remembering all the many things that we have been blessed with. It really sets the tone for the start of the holiday season. It helps me to get in the mood for giving and thinking about others, and not just about myself. I also love being with family, cooking good food, smelling good food, and eating good food.
We really had a good time spending the day out in Morgan with James' parents and two of his sisters, and their families.
We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, as well, and wish you the best.

Five Things Challenge

Five things I was doing 10 years ago...

I have to say that I don't love the fact that I have a "10 years ago" to write about...What? I'm not 18 anymore?

1. I had just decided that I wanted to be a free-lance photographer for National Geographic (My family had recently taken an impromptu trip to Glacier...when we got in the car, we had no idea where we were headed. We ended up in Glacier and spent the night in Kallispell...we hadn't even brought a change of clothes because we hadn't planned on spending the night anywhere. It was on that trip, surrounded by the beautiful autumn colors at Lake Macdonald, that I decided I wanted to be a photographer...I got my Nikon SLR for my 16th birthday about 6 months later.)

2. I was really involved in Pep Band...my favorite extra-curricular activity

3. I was counting down the days to my 16th birthday, even though I didn't go on my first "real" date until I was a freshman at BYU (blind dates to prom don't count as "real dates"!!)

4. My friend, Jennifer, and I decided to "hit the weight room" everyday after school in preparation for tennis season in the spring...yeah, that lasted like two days!

5. I was super obsessed with my grades, I just HAD to get into BYU!

Five things on my "to-do" list today

1. Shower and get dressed (done)...yes, basic hygiene makes my to-do list these days

2. Do some Christmas shopping

3. Make toffee (why? because I like it)

4. Finish up a project I've been working on

5. Check e-bay to make sure the thing I'm bidding on is still mine

Five snacks I enjoy

1. Gala apples

2. Cheese

3. Chocolate

4. Tootsie Pops

5. Toffee

Five songs I know the lyrics to

People actually know lyrics to songs?

1. Super Why theme song (PBS kids show)

2. Bob the Builder theme song

3. Change Your Mind (All American Rejects)

4. 100 Years (Five For Fighting)

5. Winter Wonderland (yes, I've been listening to Christmas music already)

Five of my bad habits

1. PROCRASTINATION!!!

2. Stressing out over little things that don't matter

3. Spending too much time on ebay (I've only bought two things my whole life, but I spend a lot of time just looking at things)

4. Saying "just a second" when the kids want things, which really means "I hope you forget about it so I can keep doing what I'm doing"

5. This is embarrassing, but not getting out of my pajamas all day...he he

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. Pay off our house/move to a bigger "permanent" house

2. Go on a really nice vacation with James

3. Buy the best digital SLR camera on the market

4. Hire a housekeeper

5. Save and invest

Five things I will never wear again

1. Pink stretch pants with purple and white layered scrunch socks

2. Hot pink anything...that used to be my color of choice back in the day

3. Huge colorful bows in my hair

4. A perm...they don't hold in my hair, they look bad (on me), and it's just not a good thing for me

5. A t-shirt tied in a knot on one side

Five of my favorite toys

1. Digital camera

2. Stereo

3. Lip gloss

4. Little Women (the book)

5. All my scrapbook supplies

Five friends I am going to "tag"

1. James

2. Andrea

3. Lisa

4-5. I don't know anymore people with blogs, so EVERYONE else has to email me their list

Matthew Says the Darndest Things

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, where do I even begin? I'll guess I'll start with yesterday. I was helping out with Matthew's senior nursery class, because they were a little short-handed. Well, the lesson was on reading the scriptures, and the girl giving the lesson pointed to her scriptures and asked, "how many of you read these with your family?". A couple of kids raised their hands, and she was about to go on when Matthew's hand shot up and he said "We don't read those in my family, I don't even know what those are!" I think I turned about 14 shades of red, I was so embarrassed. The girl teaching was trying really hard not to laugh, but had a hard time composing herself. I didn't know what to say, so I just said "Matthew, shhh! Stop telling on us!" And, just for the record, James and I read our scriptures together every night, we just haven't included the boys in it, yet. My plan is to get a Book of Mormon reader for Matthew and Ethan for Christmas and that will be their bedtime story, but it's just not Christmas, yet, so I haven't done it. And, as far as not reading the scriptures together as a family, no we don't, I'll give him that...but to say that he doesn't even know what they are?! It's not like he's never seen them before...I don't know what he's talking about...

It kinda makes me wonder what else he says about us when we're not there...maybe I don't want to know.

Then, the other night, while we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking, the boys were at the sliding glass door in our kitchen watching this big tractor harvest the corn in the field behind our house. James came in and gave me a kiss, and Matthew turned around in time to see us, and said "Not again! Would you guys please stop kissing, you can come watch this tractor if you want." I know, obviously the kitchen is no place to be kissing, and it's totally disgusting that your parents would even think of kissing...yuck!

The other thing he said also happened at church yesterday. They let the senior nursery kids go to opening exercises and sharing time, just so that they could get used to it before they become sunbeams at the beginning of the year. We gathered them up, and were heading out of our classroom towards the chapel, where they have opening exercises. As they were leaving the classroom, one of the little girls in Matthew's class tried to grab Matthew's hand, but Matthew didn't see her, and she looked heart-broken, so I asked Matthew if he would hold Savannah's hand as they walked to the chapel. He said okay, and the two of them walked hand in hand all the way down the hall. Well, the little girl was wearing a big poofy white dress, and Matthew was all spiffed up, and they did look really cute together, but everyone we passed kept saying things or humming the wedding march, and I don't think Matthew appreciated it. When we got home, I asked him how he liked going to primary and he said "I didn't like it, I don't want to be a big kid, and I'm definitely NOT holding Savannah's hand again!" I guess I'm okay with him not wanting to hold girls hands, that can wait for awhile, but I hope he changes his mind about primary!

Well, that's it. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Call for low-salt/low-sodium recipes

On Sunday, I signed up to take a meal to the Bishop of our ward and his wife (a little while ago, she fell, and shattered her ankle. She's had to have at least two surgeries on it, so far, and can't get around very well). Anyways, after I signed up, I found out that they would prefer to have a dinner that has no broccoli, and low-salt. Well, my style of cooking is more what I like to call "cardiac arrest on a plate", and I don't think I have anything that fits the bill. I've been doing a lot of searching on the internet, and found lots of recipes, but I'm nervous to make something for someone else that I've never tried before. So, I was wondering if any of you have any low-salt recipes that are good...if you do, send them my way. Thanks.

Super Saturday

Well, yesterday was Super Saturday for our Relief Society, and this is what I made! If you can't tell from the picture, it's a Family Home Evening chart. I haven't hung it on the wall yet, and the lighting is kind of bad, but I think you get the idea. Our ward had a lot of different projects to choose from, but I only wanted to do one...I couldn't decide between doing a cute little wooden FHE board, and doing a magnet board, so I combined the two. I signed up to do a magnet board (basically a piece of sheet metal in a wooden frame that you could paint any way you wanted), and then brought a lot of my own things from home, and turned it into an FHE board. It was a lot of fun, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm also glad that James took care of the boys, so I could spend four hours having fun, eating delicious soup (they had TEN to choose from!) and mint brownies (the mormon dessert classic), and that I got to know some of the other girls in our ward.

Uh, I guess I should also mention that I feel kind of dumb saying "hey guys, look what I made", but not dumb enough not to do it...sorry...

What a ham!

Ethan is such a ham! I don't know where he got it from, but whenever I get out the camera, this is his pose of choice. I usually get several of him making this face before I ever get a "nice" picture of him. The maddening part is that he holds really still while striking this pose, making it easy to get a nice clear picture...however, when he gives me a nice smile, it's rather fleeting, and he moves...the end result is a blurry picture. Oh well, at least it's funny. He'll look back at his baby pictures, and this is the face he'll constantly see...funny. The one good thing is that when I brush his teeth, I just have to tell him to say "Cheese!!" and then I can scrub all his little pearly whites. Hope you get a kick out of the pictures...I sure do.

Oh, and the ones of him holding the cookie are two different pictures, they just look really similar because he's got that pose down!

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun. Matthew and Ethan both really enjoyed getting dressed up...I think Ethan even enjoyed his sideburns and glasses, because he never touched them, and if I ever took off the glasses, he would beg me to put them back on. We went trick-or-treating in the mall, mainly because Ethan could walk around on his own a little bit, and because it's indoors and we could get away with putting Ethan in a T-shirt and shorts. As you can see, they were both very excited...Matthew even got into character a little bit, and insisted on carrying his bag with his hook.
I don't know if Ethan really knew what was going on, he just knew that it was awesome. Any place that just gives you candy for walking around is a place that Ethan wants to be. He would get so happy when people would give him treats, that at the very first store, he grabbed the sucker they gave him, and chucked his trick-or-treat bag on the ground so that he could use both hands to try and rip into his precious candy. It was pretty funny. Later, we got him to understand that if he held onto the bag, people would continue to fill it up with the good stuff.

The only slightly disappointing thing was that people kept thinking Ethan was Santa Claus. It's hard not to get irritated, since I went to so much trouble to get in every possible detail of Smee...and then to have some people not get it... But, enough people did get who he was, that I can't be too disappointed.

After the mall, we went out to Morgan so that Matthew could go "real" trick-or-treating with his cousins. We bundled Ethan up in a stroller, and would let him get out every now and then (like when a house would hand out full-sized candy bars or soda) so that he could get in on the experience, too. Mostly, though I think he was happy to just go along for the ride in his warm, cozy stroller.

Matthew had a GREAT time trick or treating with his cousins. It was the first time that he had actually gone door-to-door, and he thought it was the best thing ever. He would run from house to house, and the parents had a hard time keeping up with him. He loved saying "trick or treat" and then shouting "Happy Halloween!" over his shoulder as he steamed ahead to the next, glorious, candy-giving house.

The only thing that he didn't like was once, he tripped, fell, and then skidded down the sidewalk, en route to the next house. Luckily, by that time, we were almost done, because falling down really seemed to take the wind out of his sails, and he wanted to be carried to every house.

All in all, we had a good time, and the kids made quite a haul (which I'm as excited about as them, due to the "mommy tax").

I can't believe it, but now that Halloween is over, we're starting to think ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! Where did the time go?

Well, hope you all had a Happy Halloween, and are looking forward to the Holidays as much as we are.

Carving Pupmkins

For FHE last night, we carved pumpkins. Matthew was really exctited...he's been asking for the past three days if it was time to carve pumpkins yet. James and I have been really surprised, but Matthew remembers last Halloween in surprising detail. He even knows where I hid (I guess I didn't do such a great job of "hiding") all the pumpkin carving tools and tried to hack his way through one the other day (eek!!). Ethan really got into it this year, too. Let's see, he ate the pumpkin pulp, he tried to eat a pumpkin seed, he ate part of a crayon that we used to draw on the pumpkins with...you know Ethan!

Anyways, this year has been a lot of fun for me because both kids are old enough to really have fun with traditions. This year we even let Matthew choose what he wanted to be for Halloween...I guess that's why it's something more normal...sadly, no more Harpo Marx or Magnum PI.

I guess I'm just trying to say, it's fun to be able to do some of the things that James and I did with our families growing up and have it not be just for us, but have Matthew and Ethan really enjoy it, too.

Matthew LOVED scooping out the pulp.

Ethan just enjoyed everything pumpkin carving had to offer...the pulp, the crayons, the messiness in general...

Matthew had to put his own creative stamp on the face and "fix" what I drew.

Yay, they're done!

Happy Halloween!!

Making Halloween Cookies

My parents came down for the weekend. My dad was presiding over a funeral for one of the members of my home ward that passed away. It was held in Provo. I'm sad for their family, but I'm glad that we got to see my parents. While they were here, my mom gave us some fun Halloween cookie cutters to use...and today we did! As you can see we made quite a mess (I'm not the cleanest person when I cook!), but it was a lot of fun.





These are the finished cookies.

Matthew had fun choosing which shapes to use and pressing them into the dough.

Ethan had fun making a mess...

...and eating the finished product.

And mom, if you're reading this, Matthew just pretended to call you. He said, "the cookies are selicious (that's what he said, it's not a typo), thank you for giving them!"

Halloween Preview

I know it's not quite Halloween yet, but I couldn't resist posting these pictures. James' parents are going to be out of town for Halloween, so we got the kids dressed up for them today so that they could see their costumes. It was also good for me to have a trial run, so that I can work any kinks out of their costumes before the big day. Surprisingly, Ethan didn't seem to mind the hat, glasses, or sideburns, so I hope that holds true for Wednesday night as well. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll post more of them after Halloween...and maybe even some video of them trick or treating at the mall...I know, too exciting for words...

Oh, and in case you can't tell, Matthew is Captain Hook, and Ethan is Mr. Smee.