Decorating the Tree

Lights......

String of Beads......

Ornaments

Christmas Tree Hunt

This year we went to cut our own tree down to decorate for the house. We drove about 45 minutes southwest to cut it down. It was cold, but everyone had fun. It had snowed that morning just enough to feel a little wintery while looking for our tree. We looked for over an hour and finally found one on the top of the mountain. Ava didn't like the cold at all, we were all walking and hiking, she was being carried so she wasn't getting warm. We took our brother in law Drew and nephew Tanner to go with us to help out with the hunt and the tree.

Last year I started some stocking for this Christmas. With my wonderful and talented mom's help I was able to complete these super cute snowmen stockings. Thanks mom, I love them.

Thanksgivng Trip

All lot of us went to swim at the hotel Brad's parents were staying at. Everyone knows that you can still swim in Arizona in the month of November!! It was a little windy to make it a bit colder when you got out of the pool, but kids really don't care about things like that.

Here is Alyssa at the Mesa Temple. It is so amazing how many lights they put up everywhere along with nativity statues to see.

Ava loved putting the lights in her hands and watching them glow.

Thanksgiving in Arizona

We went to Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. We stayed with Brad's sister and met up with the rest of his family that was coming from out of town too. Wonderful food and ate too much. Great weather (as always in the winter there). We saw some friends and hung out with the family. We got to take the kids to the zoo, mesa temple Christmas lights, had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and the kids had a great time visiting with their cousins. We had a talent show after Thanksgiving Dinner which was fun. Everybody did something..song, trick, poem... Our Family performed a song that Alyssa taught us about Thanksgiving that she did for her school performance.

Peggy surprised all the girls with a cute Thanksgiving scrapbook for the weekend. So we worked on that one of the nights. Its nice to have a book all done, now we just have to get some pictures in it. Thanks peggy you are so creative.

Trains, Trains, and more Trains

All week and everyday this is whats going on around my house. The kids build tracks all around, under and over things all day long. It gets a little crazy and everywhere, but it keeps them busy. Definantly one of the best toy investments
we have made!!!

Thanksgiving Program

We went to Alyssa's 1st grade program last night. It was a lot of fun. They sang songs and had some speaking parts. Alyssa was excited and nervous all week, she doesn't like to be in front of people.

Snow is here....

We had a big storm last weekend and the snow was a few inches and stayed long enough for the kids to have some fun. Corbin and Alyssa had just as much fun as last year and Ava liked the snow tons more now than last year (because she's older now of course). The kids ate the snow, made snow angels, built a snow castle and ran through the snow to make tracks with their boots. The best thing is we get another season for their snow clothes because they still fit!!! yeah.

Hot Cocoa

Its that time of year again, hot chocolate, marshmallows, milk, mugs and spoons. We love hot chocolate around here and it is so yummy when you are cold it warms you up so fast!!

Whats Fall without some leaves!!!

Halloween Carnival

Susan & (the YM and YW) were in charge of the Halloween Carnival in her ward and we went along for some yummy chili and another chance for the kids to wear their costumes!! We had a great time. They had a cake walk, (where we found Ava everytime she went missing), a haunted house, and a fishing game.

Meet Nacho Libre

Corbin was Nacho Libre for our Halloween Party we went to this week. I thought we couldn't make it happen (couldn't find the tights), but Brad found some leggings and I was out of excuses, so Between Brad and I we made it happen for Corbin and he was a happy boy. The second picture is Corbin saying "Naaaaaachooooooooo".

Tanner, Corbin, Alyssa, Addison, and Ava

Halloween Night.....

We went to Trick or Treating in the Thompson's neighborhood again this year. The kids wanted to go together and we live on a dark
cul-de-sac that wouldn't get any trick or treaters. Corbin was a pirate, Alyssa and Addison were Queens, Ava was an elephant, and Tanner was a vampire. They got a lot of candy and had a fun time. Happy Halloween to everyone

Remember this?

I found this game at a garage sale last Saturday. I posted these pictures for my brothers and sisters to see if it brings back some memories like it did for me. Who knows maybe you played the same game with your family too? I love finding things like this and an added bonus it was .50 cents and all the matches were there!! We played this exact game when we were kids and now my kids can play with the same memory game. Some of the matches that really brought back memories for me I took a picture of.

Who needs to invite friends over when you can dress up your animals and have a party all day long! Corbin has always loved playing with stuffed animals. This big bear is big enough to wear his clothes and sit up and play games with him. He has such a great imagination, its fun to see what we comes up with when he plays.

Camping

We went camping with the Thompsons last weekend. Spencer needs more campouts to get his eagle scout award so we agreed to this campout. We all love camping, but It is October and it has been getting really cold at night! Everything was great and fun until we had to go to sleep. I thought we were prepared, but still with my 3 layers of clothes, 2 jackets, 2 socks, a beanie and 5 big blankets it felt like I had nothing on!!! Brad slept with Corbin and I slept with Ava to keep each other warm. The two girls slept together in the little tent to keep each other warm, but we all were just waiting for morning to come fast. The fun parts were yummy Hobo dinners, marshmallows, Hot chocolate and roasted starburst.....so basically all the food. What we do for our nephew!! We can't wait for next year's summer camping with you Spencer!