Deck the Halls...

Our babes thought it was already Christmas morning when Carson brought out the boxes of decorations.

I have a picture of Braxton loving on this bear from last year too.

 Emery really embraced the whole decorating process, so much that she even slept with this plastic ball that night.

 She also kept reaching for this gingerbread man, and when I handed him to her, she immediately wrapped him up in a big hug.

 Kynlee helped me set up my Chrismas village. I really love my village, it is an assortment of pieces that I started collecting when Carson and I got married, and pieces that are from my Mom's village that was set up under our Christmas tree when I was younger.

Happy Decorating!!!

I am also happy to report that our tree is still standing and has not been pulled over even once... yet.

Meeting Santa!

Kynlee was very brave with Santa this year.  She was nevous the whole time leading up to the visit, but when it came her turn, she walked right up to him and told him that she wants a Play Doh Princess set for Christmas.

 My babes won't go to anyone but Carson and I right now and I didn't think they would want anything to do with Santa. But it turns out that if you give them candy canes, even my Momma loving babes will sit by Santa for a quick picture.

Hunting our Christmas Tree

Carson and I have a favorite place that we go every year to get our Christmas tree. It has never disappointed us. This year we thought we were being very nice by inviting 2 of my sisters and their families to get trees with us. Unfortunately it had snowed the day before, and what is normally a quick and fun outing turned into a full day of pulling each others vehicles out of the snow.

Luckily Carson brought chains and shovels. Even if the chains didn't fit all the vehicles very well, they still got them unstuck.

By the end of the day I don't think anyone was thinking we were very NICE for inviting them. 

Sorry everyone!!!

There has never been much snow when we have gone before.

The babes spent the whole trip exploring the inside of the warm truck.

 This really brings back childhood memories of getting Christmas trees. I'm pretty sure my dad felt like it was a requirement to get the truck stuck before we could go home every year when we would get our tree. 

 At least the kids had fun.

 And this is what the ride home looked like.

Underwear

The other day Kynlee was staying the night at her cousin's house. It was a lazy Saturday morning. Daddy was playing with the babes in Kynlee's room, and I was in the kitchen making breakfast.

I laughed out loud when Braxton came down the hall to greet me wearing a pair of Kynlee's underwear over his pajamas.

This is what I found when I went down the hall to investigate the situation. 

Apparently Carson wants to assemble his own team of superheros.

Melting Snow

After our first snow in November we got some very warm weather that melted it very rapidly.

Our babes enjoyed experiencing the snow in the warmer weather much more than they did when we bundled them all up.

Emery tried to throw snowballs at me, the accuracy of a 1 year old resulted in the snow going straight to the ground. She really disapproved of the impromptu snowball fight Mom and Dad had with each other before Dad had to go back to work, but apparently if she is the one throwing the snow she is okay with it.

 Braxton kept dropping the snow onto the warm sidewalk and then wondering where it went because all he could find was a puddle.

 Korbin just likes to eat the snow

I love watching my babes experience new things!

Experiencing snow!

We got our first snow back in November.

Isn't it fun watching little babes experience snow for the first time?

But getting them dressed for the snow was a pain. 

We do not have an abundance of snow gear for our kids, so we spent a good 45 minutes outfitting them in a strange assortment of what we do have.  

Braxton looks pretty content.

Kynlee had a blast. Emery and Korbin don't really know what to think.

But the fun sadly turned to this!

Mom saved the day with some hot chocolate.

The snow was not great for packing, so this little snowman is all that we could manage.

Going to Church!!!

I took a picture of my cute kids before church the other day. Don't they all look sharp?

I had to take a picture BEFORE church because the after picture would be very different.

Atter church everyone's hair is messed up, 1 or more shoe is missing from each child, and Carson and I are covered with smeared graham crackers and other various snacks. Do any other parents stuggle with 11:00 church because it ecompasses lunchtime? 

Three hours of church is a very long time for our little family right now. I feel like high fiving Carson at the end of sacrament meeting every week. Even though we still have 2 hours of church left, I can't help thinking, "Yes we survived another one!!!"

Less than 2 months until our babes can go to nursery!!!!

The countdown is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Sick...

None of my kids have puked on me, and I have not had to scrub puke out of carpet today.
I have not been able to say that for the last 5 days.
It has been a rough 5 days.
One sick kid is awful... 4 small sick kids is a nightmare.
On the positive side, I have gotten lots of cuddle time with each child. We seem to be over the worst of it, and I have spent the last two days vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, and doing nonstop laundry. And since Carson dusted on Saturday, my house is about as clean as it ever gets. (I rarely dust).
Now everyone is bathed and in bed with clean sheets, and tomorrow is looking like a new start with the fresh white snow that is falling.
Here's to tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!!!

I have so much fun dressing up my little family. I got the idea to dress up the babes as Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach thinking that Kynlee would want to pick her own costume. But then Kynlee wanted to be a princess, and Grandma Ree got her the perfect pink princess dress so she became Princess Peach and Emery became Princess Daisy (although Kynlee thinks she was Princess Daisy).

I got all the costumes ready, but then 2 days before Halloween Carson and I decided that we would dress up too, and we looked up some more characters and decided on Toadstool and Bowser, and though our costumes weren't as cool as our kids, there was a guy at the "Trunk or Treat" who correctly named all of us, so we must have looked pretty convincing. 

I thought the babes would like trick or treating, and they did, for 1 piece of candy, then the boys were too focused on that one piece to even care about getting any more. Which was fine with me. Emery and Kynlee had fun getting a little more candy and then we headed home. Kynlee still wanted to "Trick or Treat" around our neighborhood but it was still a little too early to go door to door. Carson decided that after we got our first trick or treater then Kynlee could go out. So she ran an errand with Carson and then we had dinner. Well by the time we were done with all that we had had many trick or treaters and it was getting pretty late so I was trying to hurry Kynlee out the door before it got any later. She wanted to go with both Mommy and Daddy, so Grandma and Grandpa stayed with the babes and we headed out with Kynlee. We were standing in our driveway deciding which direction to start when we looked over and saw our neighbors head laying out his front door on his doormat... 

No this was not some really cool Halloween decoration, it was really him.

 Carson ran over, and was helping him up by the time Kynlee and I made our way over, luckily I don't think Kynlee saw him laying on the ground because I am still a bit tramatized for the few seconds where I thought we were going to find him dead. We don't really know how long he was laying there, but I have never been so glad that we got a late start "Trick or Treating."  Our neighbor is 87 or so, and his wife is bedridden. I didn't think he was there alone very often, his daughter in law has come over a few times to have Carson help her get him up when he has fallen. He has been falling a lot lately. Carson stayed with him while Kynlee and I went around the neighborhood, then Carson checked on him a few times until we went to bed. Talk about scary. 

 Next year I am not doing costumes that need any props, hats, masks, or accessories of any kind. We gave the kids fruit snacks and tried to hurry and get a picture before the babes took their hats off, and this is still the best we could do for our ward Halloween party. After this I went in and added elastic straps to the hats. 

 Kynlee is growing up into such a beautiful girl. I straightened her hair, which I always regret because it makes her look so grown up.

 This Halloween stuff is pretty great!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Carving Pumpkins!

We used to carve detailed pumpkins for Halloween. We would look up patterns online, and spend a good hour working on our really cool pumpkins.

Now we have kids!!!

We are lucky if we even draw a quick face on the pumpkin before we start carving away. 

And you know what?

 Our pumpkins still look pretty awesome.

 Even though they are not as time consuming or detailed, we get lots of laughs watching the babes try to eat pumpkin guts. And I think they even had fun too. 

This is one of the large pumpkins we grew in our garden.

 We had to get the power tools involved. 

 I thought Kynlee would want to carve the big pumpkin, but I was wrong, she wanted to carve the smallest pumpkin we grew. And you know what? It was super fast and easy, and I will be getting small pumpkins for my kids forevermore.

 Dallen and Shaylee joined us.

And a good time was had by all!!!