Saturday, December 5, 2015

Thanksgiving and 1st half of December:)

Wow, time sure flies! I can't believe it's already December!
The kids have been enjoying the snow.
Sam had Crazy Hair Day at Preschool. When I took this picture I was trying to get him to hold still so I was trying to find a spot for him to stand so I could take a picture, so he insisted on standing on a small puddle. Now I realize it looks like he peed his pants:)
Our furnace went out for 3 1/2 days. Luckily it wasn't as cold then as it is now during the days and the nights.The coldest it got in our home was 54 degrees!
We used our 3 small portable heaters and turned the oven on and opened the door to it, so it would help warm up the house (at least the main level).
Sam had a field trip to Macey's Grocery Store. His class got a tour of Macey's and got to see behind the scene stuff where only the employees go, like the refrigerated area and freezer and such.
The kids love to play "Life" (the Junior version). It sure makes for a good activity on a Sunday.
On this particularly cold and snowy day, Sam went outside while I was on the phone. He was running around in his bare feet and was throwing snowballs at the window. What a silly kid!
Morgan took a day off a couple weeks ago to go do some Christmas Shopping with me while the kids were in school and then we picked them up from school, went to their swimming lesson together and then went out to lunch. It was such a nice day. 
After going out to lunch we went to go see "The Peanuts Movie" in 3D!
This is "Golden Lightning".
If Sam had a turkey, he would take it fishing apparently.
He's learning to write his name very well.
Sam's been having fun with his nerf gun:)
This is Sam's drawing of our family. Noel is the one flying above us all:)
We went over to Chris and Kareena's for dinner and did a couple movies in their man cave (a movie for the kids and then for the adults later). After the kids movie we put our kids down in another room and we watched a movie as just us adults. It was so fun. It brought back awesome memories of when we lived in Chris and Kareena's basement and how we would put the kids down and just hang out and play games or watch a movie altogether.

Noel's Roast Turkey Recipe. Haha!
Beautiful sunset.
Noel made some Native American stuff in school as well and her name was "Sweet Meadow".
For Thanksgiving we had a Family Reunion on my side of the family. We always have a traditional Talent Show each Family Reunion and this is the only picture I have of our talent. If you haven't seen Disney Pixar's Short Film called "Lava", you should. It is so cute. Well, for our family's talent we recreated that song and the kids were the volcanoes and mouthed the words and acted everything out, while Morgan and I sang.
The travel to Orderville, UT where our Thanksgiving Family Reunion took place was pretty scary.
The view from the home that we all stayed in was gorgeous.
The kids all got in their jammies and watched "Inside Out".
Maddie and Noel.
Sam with Mya, Libby and Brianna.
Noel loves babies. She got to hold Baby Ruth for the first time. She just melted.

Morgan was in charge of the turkey. He did an AMAZING job! It was delicious!

Mmmmmm...
My dad with his youngest grandchild, Baby Ruth.
The Thanksgiving Feast.





We were celebrating a few November birthdays while we were there.
We went to go to see some buffalo.

And fed some goats.
We went to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and shot off Tennis Ball Launchers back and forth from one dune peak to the other. It was so fun, but FREEZING! It started snowing as we arrived and after we left their was no pink/orange sand dunes to be found. It was all covered in white!

We had some fun games for the kiddos to play including putting tennis balls in the foot of tights and sticking them on your head and knocking over partially filled water bottles. It was hilarious!

Then it was pinata time. Kareena made this dinosaur pinata. She did an AMAZING job!
The chaos unfolding as the pinata was hit open by Ty.

The grandkids picture. 13 grandkids!
The family picture. All of us were there this year!!
My sister Emilie and family packed up there entire home in AZ, brought it all with them to the reunion and after the reunion, continued on north to move to our neck of the woods here in Utah County. They will temporarily be living in Chris and Kareena's basement (where we used to reside:) until they sell their home in AZ and find a home hopefully in Spanish Fork:)
While we were helping them move in, the kiddos were watching Veggietales in the man cave.
We had quite a bit of snow come down the night that we got home from the reunion. I would say at least a couple inches. The kiddos of course played in it the following day:)
We set up our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening the day after we got back from the reunion. I love this time of year:)

Our backyard stays mostly shaded in one section, so the kiddos went out a couple nights ago and shoveled the snow. We found these awesome kid snow shovels from Lowes for only $7. They were so excited to use them!
The kids had a sleepover last night. Morgan was gone all day at work and then came home briefly to get a few things and went off to a Star Wars Movie Marathon with a bunch of his buddies from work, so I put the kiddos down early to catch a break (which they didn't mind at all, they read and played for a couple hours or so) and then I sat down and relaxed and watched a chick flick. 

Monday, November 9, 2015

Halloween and Birthdays

The kids started up another 4 week session of Swimming Lessons. They are doing very well!
 Sam is learning how to write his name in Preschool. It's so fun to see him learn and progress.
 Sam was a Velociraptor for Halloween. He enjoyed dressing up for his Halloween Party at Preschool.
 Noel was the My Lil' Pony, Rainbow Dash. She also dressed up for her Halloween Party in her class.
 She enjoyed the Kindergarten Halloween Parade. Sam and I had fun watching for her in the parade.
 Sam lately likes to add odd foods to his toast. On this particular morning he added his scrambled eggs to his toast with jam. Sometimes he adds apple slices as well.
 Me and the kiddos.
 The Monday before Halloween for Family Home Evening, we carved our pumpkins.
 Sam's pumpkin.
 Sam's 2nd pumpkin. (He also got one from his preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch)
 Noel's pumpkin.
 My pumpkin.
 Morgan's pumpkin.

 I made this Fall Themed Wreath. It was pretty easy and fun:)
 Chris and Kareena came over on Halloween and we had dinner and then went trick or treating in our neighborhood. Kareena was a witch and Chris was a tattooed punk.
 Yummy Sloppy Joe Dinner that Kareena made:)

 Morgan tried on Chris's tattoo sleeves. Those tattoos look legit!
 The kids in their costumes before trick or treating.


 Libby stealing from the stash:) I actually told Libby to go grab some candy, to make for a cute picture.
 The kids did good!
 The following Monday for Family Home Evening we went potato picking. There is a family that we know from church that owns a potato and pumpkin farm and they invited whomever from the ward to come pick and take home potatoes. It was really actually very fun! We came home with 2 huge bags!

 Morgan got himself a whiteboard. He's been wanting/needing one for his office here at home. A few days after installing it, Noel wrote "I love you Daddy" on it to surprise him and little did she know she was writing with Permanent Marker! I called Morgan at work and we found out that there was a way to take care of it. You write over the permanent marker with dry erase markers and then wipe it all off and wah-lah!  
 Noel is too stinkin' cute. We couldn't be mad at her.
 Noel turned 6 on November 4th. I can't believe how fast time has flown. I made her Birthday Cake Pancakes that morning. 

 Out of all the restaurants out there for her birthday dinner, she chose to go to Chuck a Rama (which the kids call Chuck A Gramma). It's a buffet place.

We then came home and she opened up a few gifts.

She got some really cute black boots from Grandma and Grandpa Watkins (thank you mom and dad! she needed those!).
 Morgan and I gave her a doll.
 She loves playing Mommy.
 The day after her birthday we got our first snow fall here in Spanish Fork. It snowed before or after this picture, I forget.
This last Saturday we had newly married Mikey and Caitlin over as well as Chris and Kareena and their kiddos to celebrate Noel's birthday and Mikey's birthday (which is this week). I made Noel a Rainbow Dash cake since that is what she is into lately.
 And for Mikey's cake, it was the Operation Game cake. He broke his back during the summer and had surgery on it a couple months ago. So since that was his big thing this last year, Morgan gave me this idea and it worked out really well. Notice the broken spine in the game pinchers on the side of the cake. 
 Caitlin got Mikey a pet ferret named Oscar, for his birthday, and they brought him over for the kids to play with and see.
 Singing Happy Birthday to Noel. I loved seeing the look on her face when she saw her cake.
 Blowing out her candles.

Singing Happy Birthday to Mikey. I loved seeing his reaction as well to his cake.


Eating cake!

It was a fun time!