Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

So, we started what is to be an annual occasion last week.  We kicked off the Christmas season with an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party and it was a huge success (if I do say so myself).  We had ugly tablecloths and wall hangings to set the mood.  We ate soups, appetizers, and lots of yummy Christmas treats (thank to all of you who helped out with that).  We had a white elephant gift exchange, and ugliest sweater contest, and a rousing game of Christmas Bunko. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I loved the sweaters that people came up with. 

Here are the invitations that I made.

Some of the girls playing Bunko.
Lucky Kyle picked this box to open, he didn't keep it for long though!
Another table during Bunko (do you love the hat for traveling Bunko?).
This was one of the great white elephant gifts!

Yes, I am aware that there are a million pictures on this post and I apologize that I am not smart enough to know how to do one of those blog slideshow thingies, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't leave out any of the great sweaters (I think we missed pictures of a few), so for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the great sweaters that appeared (vests and sweatshirts were allowed).







(sorry that this picture is blurry, I have one in focus but they are sitting down so you can't see how gloriously short Nick's vest is)



Now, which sweater do you think was the winner of the 'Ugliest Sweater Contest'?

Thanksgiving Pictures

So, again, I know that this is late, but here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving, it was our first time hosting a Thanksgiving and it was a huge sucess.  We had our friends the Cupps and the Nickles come for dinner and everyone contributed to the dinner making it very low stress and very yummy for all of us.  Here is the whole crew (Jacob is behind Jared) and my seat is next to Claire.

We had a perfectly cooked turkey (moist and flavorful), homemade cornbread stuffing, Cranberry pomegranate grape salad, sweet potatoes with a sugar pecan topping, whole grain rolls, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pickles and olives.  Here is Jared carving a turkey for the first time.
We all had a great dinner and talked for awhile and watched football, then we got ourselves and our kids in their pj's and watched "Elf" while we ate the delicious chocolate mousse cake and pumpkin pie that we had for dessert.

So, I feel so ungrateful because Thanksgiving has come and gone and I have not posted one thing that I am thankful for, so here is a short list:

*Great family and family that is close by

*Great friend that leave near and great friends that live far

*Two beautiful, healthy, hilarious children

*Jared, he is a great husband, daddy, provider, and friend.

*Potties (even though they don't always get use when they need to, I change ALOT less diapers

*Blogs...I am excited for Christmas cards, but I feel like I know what most everyone is up to

*Food..I LOVE food

*The gospel of Jesus Christ

*My Savior Jesus Christ

..Stay tuned for pictures of our latest party...

Too Much Temptation

We put up our Christmas tree on Monday for FHE and Jacob and Claire were beside themselves with excitement.  I have been constantly coaching them about not touching the tree or the nativity set or any of the decorations.  This morning I woke up just after 8 to a totally silent house…bad bad news.  I just knew that my two little sneaky stinkers had made their way downstairs as quietly as possible instead of waking me up like they do every other morning.  I ran downstairs and found two little children undecorating the tree, they probably had almost 20 ornaments off, one of them in about 40 pieces (luckily it was an ugly nutcracker bulb that I got for free on fountain square one summer).  They really new they were in trouble because they sat in total silence as they watched me put all of the ornaments back on.  I then had to give them a good talking to about how I could never use the ornament again because it was broken and they are not to touch the tree but only to look at it.  Anyway…they have their own little Little People Nativity set that is for them to play with that I keep finding characters mixed in with my nice Willow Tree Nativity Set.  Now they keep setting up the pieces from their Little People set on tables all over the house and telling me “No Touch my decorations Mom.” Oh Brother!

Just hop on in, little buddy

Funny story from last night.  At either 3:00 or 4:00 (my mind was in a fog, so I don't remember when), I woke up and thought something was weird because I was sleeping on the edge of the bed... and I was awake.  I started scooting over, and realized a little person was right next to me - it was Jacob, and he was fast asleep, on top of our comforter, right next to my pillow!  He'd climbed up onto our bed (and maybe right over me!), and fell asleep between us.  

So, I picked him up and put him back into his bed (having to 'cuddle' and turn on the fan because he woke up just enough that he could request those necessities).

Around 5:30, I heard Dani telling Jacob to go back to his bed - he was apparently back on his way up into our bed!  The funny thing is that we've never even let him or Claire sleep in our bed, even when they were really little!  How does he think of these things?

Big Kid Beds update

Jacob and Claire have been sleeping in their big-kid beds for a month or so now, so we figured it's time for an update.  First, here's a picture that we think is hilarious that didn't make it into the first post - this is Claire showing us how she was going to sleep on her big-kid bed.  Look at that face!

Here's Jacob in his big-kid bed.  He still loves to sleep sideways in his bed.  He's fallen out of bed twice, though it's been a few weeks since the last time he's fallen.  Since the wall his bed is next to is our bedroom's wall, we often hear his feet, hands, and head hitting the wall as he rolls over in his sleep.  Normally, he'll hit the wall pretty consistently for 2-3 minutes, then it'll all stop.

Claire is our adventurous sleeper - she's fallen out at least 4 times.   At least twice, she didn't wake up from the crash.  She often is sleeping this way when we check on her, and even after moving her close to the wall, she falls out.  She also often sleeps on top of her covers with her head at the foot of the bed.  We couldn't figure out why, until we discovered that the top-bunk warning sticker that says 'do not remove this sticker!' was being slowly removed by little fingers.

We recently experimented with putting some books on the bookshelf in their room for the first time.  One night a week and half later, I went in to check on the kids after I heard a little crash upstairs around 10:00, thinking it was a child.  It turned out it was a book Claire was reading, and Jacob was caught red-handed sitting on top of his bed with a book!  I took their books and put them away, and Jacob immediately ducked under his covers, pulling them all the way over his eyes.  He knew he was in trouble, I didn't really even need to say anything.  Claire, on the other hand, was not happy I had put her books away.

Last night, we returned from a Nacho Libre party at our friends' house.  Our babysitter told us she'd had to negotiate with our kids to keep them in bed, as they thought of any way possible to stay out of bed.  When we got upstairs to check on kiddos, Claire's bed was empty!  She had gotten out and gone to 'Jacob's napping bed,' or the pack-and-play in the guest room.  Overnight, she discovered she'd been moved and got out, crying, until she was helped back into the pack-and-play.

Last story - Claire sometimes gets out of her bed at night and comes into our room.  One night, after she'd fought sleep from 2-4 am, she ended up in our room again, on Dani's side of the bed.  We just ignored her and, eventually, she fell asleep on the floor, and Dani put her back in her bed.

Imaginary fights and fall pics.

So, I thought I should share this lovely story for journaling purposes.  No, the fight itself was not imaginary, it was oh so real.  A few weeks ago I was shopping in HomeGoods (one of my favorite stores) with my children who after finishing their goldfish snack imagined up a cookie. I love that they imagine, but there is a little problem with their imaginations.  This cookie they had both imagined was only one cookie and they started to fight over this cookie, then the fight turned into a full force screaming and hitting brawl, Jacob would rip the imaginary cookie out of Claire's fingers and scream "my cookie" which would lead Claire to a full fledged fit and Jacob would take the i.c. straight to his mouth.  At this point Claire shoved her fat little fingers into Jacob's mouth to retrieve the i.c. and loudly declared "NO, my cookie!"  This exchange went back and forth and pushing, hitting, pulling, and screaming got involved.  I quickly tried to separate them and settle the whole thing, but the screaming was out of control, I was able to control the screaming long enough to create an i.c. for each of them so they had 2 instead of one and no longer needed to fight and I evacuated the store as quickly as possible.  On the sidewalk outside of HomeGoods they both got a good talking to and neither one would look up at me because they knew they were in really big trouble.  After that I went in and quickly made my purchases.  Anyhow, the imaginary food fight continue to pop up, today at lunch they were pretending to take food off of each others' plates from across the table and eat it which created a huge fit and a snowball of more problems.  Like I said, I love that they imagine, I just wish they could learn to imagine an extra cookie. 

   These are pictures from our trip to Shaw Farms over a month ago, it is where we bought our pumpkins that are sitting on our front porch uncarved.

Shaw farms has a lot of cheesy fairtale/cartoon related kids play stuff with their pumpkins. This llama picture is for Amber because Jared thought that she would think the llama was funny!?!?!???
This is the pirate ship and all the pirates, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy, and my screaming son.
Claire was pretty good at posing for me.
Jacob peaking through the window on the pirate ship.
I dared Jared to get a picture of both of them with the pumpkins looking at the camera, he took the dare even though I told him it was impossible.  This is the best he got, not too bad actually, they are both looking up, there are pumpkins, and they are saying cheese.

Come What May and Love It

I am referring to this great talk by Elder Wirthlin that I read yesterday....great timing for it since today we have a new president and it obviously was not the man I was hoping for.

Today I am not thrilled about this, but I can't say I am surprised or that I am devastated.  I am trying not to be afraid and to be faithful and hopeful instead, last week at church someone mentioned in their testimony "there is no room for fear in faith" which I believe is true so I am trying to leave behind fears that I have of Obama being our next president.  I am going to try to trust in our Father in Heaven, remember to laugh, and also remember that these next four years are going to be such a small moment of time in the eternal perspective.  I am also going to try to dwell on the positive, so here is the positive:

-Barack Obama is the first black president, that is historical and inspiring

-Barack Obama is a great speaker, he is motivating and convincing

-The majority of the USA is happy about this president and looking forward to this time

-Proposition 8 passed in California.....REALLY GREAT NEWS!

-Proposition 6 (casino for Ohio) failed in Ohio

I am sure there are more, but I am still working on the positive thing....so, with that said, please pray for our country, please pray for our new president and remember to Love what is coming, because it is coming!

Meet the Flinstones

Claire and Jacob really got the trick-or-treating thing this year and LOVED it.  These pictures showed up in the reverse order of what I wanted them to, but I am not redoing it so we will start from the end.  They went to town on the candy and at as much as they could as fast as they could.

Claire would not let anybody touch her bag or help her with it in any way....so, she walked around from driveway to driveway (in our neighborhood everyone sits in their driveway handing out candy...SOOO many kids) like this all night...really!
The whole family.
Pebbles and BamBam at the beginning of their trick-or-treating.
A very excited Pebbles and BamBam.  They would walk until they spotted a candy bowl at which point they would run and yell "I'm coming, I'm coming, Trick-or-Treat, I'm Coming."  It was really funny to watch and sometimes they would linger at each candy bowl after the giving of the candy and the "thank-you" and then they would repeat "trick-or-treat."  Jacob also decided that since he was BamBam he needed to hit everything with his club.  He started pounding on the sidewalk and then later he declared "Bubba hit car" and he whacked some car on the side of the road...luckily his club is a hollow plastic bat.

My Talented Friend

On of my great friends is doing a launch party for her incredible online budding business. She did my blog design and a bunch of others, she does custom blogs but also has free blog templates that are great.  Anyhow, she has all kinds of great giveaways from lots of different people using their talents.  Check it out and enter to win something

"http://Leeloublogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">

Proof

So my last post was about how my kids are growing up.  Here is the proof.  Here are their new big kid beds (and the bedding that I am trying to decide on.  I love both and both were a great deal, but I am trying to decide if they work ok in the same bedroom, trying to play off the yellow and green).

This is Jacob's big boy bed, which he LOVES and has done really well at sleeping in (only fell out once).  I love the bedding and it has the same green gingham as their window valance.
This is Claire's big girl bed which she loves loves loves and sleeps in so well at night and for naps.  I am hoping to play off the green and yellow in hers that coordinates with Jacob's, I just put the new quilts on this morning.  Please help, tell me if this is ok!!!!
Jacob his first night in a big kid bed....he was so excited!
This is my so big girl (who is currently throwing a fit on my lap).  She has started to really like posing for a camera.  She is also wearing a ponytail (even if it is messy), big girl panties, and her new favorite rainboots. Doesn't she look so grown up?

Growing Up

For journaling purposes I thought I should post how much my two little kiddos are growing up.  I promise to post pictures soon, but I just needed to get this down quickly.   The following are the ways that they are really becoming "big kids":

*No longer have milk before bed and drink all milk out of a 'big kid' cup.  We actually have stopped using sippy cups and only use regular cups, or for on the go those cups with the straws that pop up.

*This week moved into 'big kid' beds.  We purchased twin bunk beds which we don't have bunked but they are sleeping in their 'big kid' beds and couldn't be more proud of themselves.

*Claire has been wearing 'big girl' panties all day and has kept them dry and almost everytime she sits on the potty she is successful(she is in a pull-up right now because she is napping in her 'big girl bed').  Note: I said dry, not clean...

*Talk in full sentences...sometimes I can't believe the words just streaming out of their mouths.  Yesterday I woke up to two little kids walking into my room and saying in unison "Good Morning Mommy, Breakfast Time?"  then Claire proceeded to say "Get out, Get out Mom" and pull off all my covers. (She can be kind of bossy).  I also love the way they figure out how to say what they want, like when I told Jacob to close his eyes for a little bit in the car he said "Momma, Bubba no SO tired, Bubba No so tired mommy".

*Get their own shoes on and walk to the car and climb up in their car seats (they have been doing this for awhile but it is really helpful...usually).

*Forming their own opinions and making decisions...this became clear as we pulled up to the drive-thru at Wendy's one day where I always get my kids nuggets and Jacob declared "I want a hamburger" (he has never had a hamburger) so I asked him if he wanted nuggets and he said "NO, I want a hamburger" so I asked Claire what she wanted and she said "Nuggets"  anyhow, Jacob ate his hamburger in no time and when I asked him if it was good he said "Uh huh, Bubba like hamburger."  (Last time we went to Wendy's Claire asked for a hamburger and Jacob asked for nuggets.)

*Can climb just about any type of ladder/climbing wall/stairs on the playground at the park by themselves.  It is so nice to be able to sit down for a minute at the park.  Every once in awhile I have to get up to protect some unsuspecting child at the park from my rambunctious little ones, but I still get a little time to sit down.

I am sure I am forgetting something, but for now this is what I am remembering.

More Mexico

Ok, remember how I said we have SOOO many pictures...we do, so I apologize to all of you who this is too many pictures for.

On the day away from the resort we did SOOOOO much.  We started off the day with a trip to Tulum to see some Mayan ruins.  From what I understand Chichenitza is way bigger and grander, but having never seen Mayan ruins before, Tulum was pretty big and grand.  

I love the detail you can still see on some parts of this structure.

Lucky for us Tulum is next to the beach.  It was SOOOOO hot that day so we went for a nice swim in the middle of our tour to cool off.  (and yes...the water in Mexico really is that beautiful color.
Proof that we were all on vacation together...again, the water really is that color.
The steps leading up to this place (which was obviously the most important building in Tulum) were so steep and so long.
After we toured Tulum we stopped to get som "comida typica" (typical food) and it was really really good.  Here is a picture of my beef tacos.
This is all of us with our yummy comida typica from some place called Frosties which was recommended by the man who soon became our snorkeling tour guide.  On our way out of Tulum we hired Gabrielle to take us snorkeling in 3 different places.  He brought the gear and hopped in our funny tiny rental car with us and showed us how to get to the places.  He took us to a cenote which is like a natural limestone water cave.  The cenote we went to was called dos ojos cenote and was really really cool and beautiful.  He showed us around the whole place and it was incredible.  Next he took us to a particular stretch of beach where we swam out in the ocean a ways and swam with giant sea turtles.  I think we probably saw between 7 and 12 different sea turtles and they were so big and cool.  Last we went to a little non-commercialized lagoon.  There were several different kinds of fish in the lagoon including a whole bunch of Dori fish (you know the blue one from Finding Nemo).  The weather was good to us and only poured rain like crazy between each of our destinations and didn't rain as we were snorkeling.
Here is our funny rental car.  It was pretty tight with the 4 of us and Gabrielle.  Also, for the first half of our trip we couldn't figure out how to get the car into reverse, so every time we needed to back up Mel, Jared, and I would hop out and push it back.  Luckily, Gabrielle (our Mayan guide who never has owned a car and lives in a palapa) taught us how to put the car in reverse.
On our last evening we went to downtown Playa Del Carmen and walked around and did some shopping.  It is a pretty neat place.
This was one of the many cool looking buildings.
While we were here I picked up some of this to help my poor body through the comida typica that we had after Tulum.
And here is a small sampling of just how beautiful the whole resort was where we stayed.  Jared is also holding a non-alcoholic specialty fruity drink.
For those of you who made it this far thank you for your patience, we really loved our trip.  I do have to put out a warning that there were a suprising number of people without tops on the beach, so if you go, just be warned.  Hopefully I am not displaying any of them in the background of any pictures, I promise I was very careful not to get any.

Viva Mexico

Ok, again, I know I am so behind, but we have SOOOO many pictures and it makes blogging a daunting task.  I decided to at least do a first post of our lovely kid free trip to Mexico...which, by the way, I highly recommend.

So here are some of the highlights or our first day and a half at the resort.  We ate dinner at the resort steakhouse the first night (by the way, all-inclusive is so much fun).  This is while we were waiting for our dinner call, this is half of one of the pools behind us and just a tiny portion of the resort.

Here is our lovely friend Mel modeling for the other half of this particular pool.  I should note that Mel is 5 months pregnant.
Here is the view that Mel and I had from our dinner at the steak house.  Aren't they handsome?  The beach is pretty nice too!
We had to capture Jim in his heroics.  He was so proud of himself for saving this little fiddler crab from sure death in the swimming pool.  I am not kidding about how proud he was of himself...so proud!
This is our lovely room.  It really was pretty dang nice!  It was really big and clean!  We loved it (the bed was extra firm).  Just the way I like it.
This was our excitement the night we got there...kid free vacation!
Enjoying the beach on our first night.
At our resort we tried to take advantage of as many things as possible.  We went sailing... (that picture I took when just Jim and Mel were out on the sailboat, but we went out on it with them a little bit later...Jim stepped on a sea urchin  (woops). 
We also did some sea kayaking on the beautiful clear water and also on a day with more waves.  We went snorkeling on the resort (and off, more to come on that in future posts).

We also did our share of relaxing on the beach.  We ate ALOT, there was so much food to be had, and we had lots and lots of non-alcoholic fruity specialty drinks.  The bartenders were so funny whenever we told them No alcohol.  
Other things we enjoyed on our first two days were beach volleyball and beach soccer, reading, napping, and the show put on by the sports and entertainment team.  So much more about our trip to come...