Too Early?

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. I LOVE it! Everything about it. My sister recently reminded me of my feelings for Christmas night. It is the worst, it's over, all the anticipation, the feelings, emotions, it is over and that is depressing. I normally take all my decorations down immediately. They are just cruel reminders to me that the season is no more.

That being said, I do normally respect Thanksgiving and wait until the day after to set up my Christmas decorations. Although the Christmas music starts in our home in early November. For some reason my boys are extra anxious for Christmas this year. They started asking right after Halloween if we could put our Christmas decorations up. I was able to hold them off until last weekend, when we made a deal. They could put their tree up in their room and paint the nutcrackers they have been bugging about for their own little decorations. They were so excited, and now keep asking to put the rest of the decorations up. I think this weekend I will cave. (Who am I kidding, I can't wait either!) After all, if we go to Colorado for Thanksgiving, I will want to come home to a Christmas house!

It's a Healthy Baby!

We had so much fun being surprised with Clay that we are doing it again! We found a healthy baby growing inside of me and couldn't be more thrilled. I feel like I push my luck with every baby I have. How lucky to have strong and healthy babies with no major complications. The boys (especially our impatient Koby) wanted to find out so bad. Koby kept telling the ultrasound tech to just tell him if it was a boy or girl. She has four girls, so she got a kick out of our boys. We decided we live in different worlds from each other. I don't know how to use our scanner, so I tried to take a picture of one of our pictures. It's kind of hard to see, but it's one of the baby trying to eat his (or her) arm off. Too cute!

Wicked!

Thanks to my wonderful mother and father-in-law, I had a fabulous couple of days last week. I left childless (and husbandless) on Thursday to fly to Colorado. Just one bump in the trip - my luggage was lost for a couple of hours. A few minutes after I gave up any hopes of seeing it until noon the next day, someone returned it. They had taken it by mistake. Seriously? Don't people check? Plus, there was a gripper on the handle to help distinguish it. With that out of the way, we were ready to party. The trip was specifically to see Wicked on Friday night! I had such a great time leaving my worries behind. We had fun shopping, crafting, catching up and laughing. Oh, and we had an amazing night on Friday. After the Cheesecake Factory, we walked down a few blocks to the theater. I knew VERY little about the story line. And I had only heard a few of the more popular songs before. I am glad I went in this way because I had nothing to gripe about afterwards. My family is known for picking apart every detail of a play, but I had no comparisons, so it made it nothing but enjoyable for me.

To top it off, I came home to a CLEAN house! My boys are awesome! Thanks everyone for making this trip so great!

Kelsey (B's sister), me, Dawn (B's aunt from Washington)...

Mallory, Marcie, Chenel (my darling sisters-in-law)...

Gary and Jennis (B's parents) with Kaylie (my niece)...

The whole gang...

Why?

I will never understand why...
I spend a good amount of time straightening the house after my boys go to bed every night so it is perfect before I go to bed...
...then, I wake up and spend the first hour of my morning cleaning.

Can anyone explain this? It baffles me about as much as my laundry baskets being full of dirty clothes before I am done putting the clean laundry away.

Indecisive Halloween

I made my boys make a final decision on Halloween costumes two weeks before Halloween. Koby told me a mummy and Spencer said a ghost. They were not allowed to change their minds.

Of course, Spencer found some black hooded thing at my mom's and wanted to change to that. Since it was free and easy I gave my okay. Koby thought a mummy might be hard to go potty in, etc. so he asked if he could change to a ghost. I thought it might be easier to make, so I agreed. I spent $4 on a sheet and ripped it apart and cut a few holes - don't be impressed. Especially after you see it! Clay like the elephant costume the night of the ward party, so he went as that.

My mom and dad - aren't they cute? I love them!

After the party, Koby told me he didn't like his costume and he wanted to be something else. It had to be free. So, we came up with a surfer, which Spencer and Clay picked up on. Brandon made them surfboards the night before and they painted them. They were all too cute for Halloween parties, parades and programs at school.

Another problem - it's cold in Colorado on Halloween night. So, onto costume #3! Again, it has to be free. Koby found that his old skeleton costume was just a little small, so we reused that. Spencer changed to dracula. But, it was just a spin off of what he was for the ward party. He was happy. A little blood and a black cape go a long way for a boy on Halloween. Clay changed to a monkey for trick-or-treating. Someone asked why I didn't dress up. Seriously? I put more than my fair share of costumes together!

My mom and I put together some cute dishes for part of dinner on Halloween night. Witches fingers and mouths...

Bones and blood...
Mummies...

Can't wait to hear about everyone else's Halloween adventures!

Jack-O-Lanterns

After my kids bugging me for several days to carve pumpkins, I finally caved on Saturday afternoon. It is so much fun for them, but such a mess for me to deal with afterwards. This was just a day after I was a nice mom and we did the whole sugar cookie mess - cutting dough, frosting, sprinkles and kids - another messy combination!

Koby and Spencer both designed their own faces and drew them on the pumpkins. Spencer cut his with Brandon's help. And Koby cut his all by himself.

BYU Parade

Saturday was BYU's homecoming. We always love a parade. And this one was perfect. No traffic, and we parked right where we sat. The boys were excited to have blue hair for the event (especially Clay) who looked down to be sure that everyone saw the top of his head. Most people in the parade yelled something out to them about how cool their hair was - that was fun for them!

Before the parade, there was a race. We watched for 20 minutes or so as the racers ran down the street. A few times Koby joined in and ran down a little ways with the runners. The people were cheering for him as he ran. He thought he was pretty cool and funny!

With cousins Chamberlain (well, he's a cousin of a cousin!) and Hudson (and Tim in the background - my bro and Hudson's dad)...

With Grandma JuJu...

High-Fives to the scooter gang...

The best part was when the parade was starting and Koby was in the middle of the street trying to watch as it slowly moved our way. There was a cannon that kept going off and Spencer yelled, "Koby, get out of the street. You're gonna get shot!"