Day 30

Yesterday the kids and I decorated for Christmas

tada.....

the stockings

Ethan and Emma got in on the action of decorating the tree
...wow...they both look goofy! :)
(don't anyone take this the wrong way)
I'm very grateful that I get to spend this Christmas with these guys
just the 4 of us in our home on Christmas day...
I can't wait!
Merry Christmas season!!

Day 29

The Friend

we use it every Monday for FHE!

Day 28

Books

Books
And more books

I love children's books and I have them everywhere in my house.

I love getting more and when I am stumpped about what to get my kids for their birthday or Christmas, I get them a book!

Day 27

I went Christmas shopping today to

and I used this
(not really my card)
but in doing so, I got all my shopping done, all but a few things that I need to get next week and order online on my next credit card cycle, and because I used my credit card, I got 8 points for every dollar I spent in rewards!
I also had a few coupons to save me some moola and I will get 10% back in rewards to Toys R Us after Christmas!
It was a great shopping day!

Day 26

Emma's new footie jammies*

And that the footies don't bother her as much as I thought they would. (She hates socks and pulls them off as soon as she can-that's why she's barefoot most of the time!)

*She picked the pattern our herself. I picked one that was brown and pink with flowers and she insisted on the monkeys. They fit her personality better than the flowers, we think.

Day 25

(No picture here)

But I have a lot of memoires of my childhood Thanksgivings that have come back to me this week. I've been trying to share them with Ethan and tell him what I did when I was his age. I'm very grateful for the fun memories that I have from those years and here are a few:

*driving in the suburban to Howe, ID

*staying at my grandparents' house

*the smell of the farm

*the cold air in Howe

*seeing Julie

*playing "Stacey and Kristen"

*the homemade candy-carmels (I still make them every year for my own benefit), pinoch ("poo candy"), divinity, Grandma's suckers

*super Jell-o

*playing trick-or-treat up and down the stairs at Grandma's

*riding the calves after Thanksgiving dinner

*dipping the homemade carmels, and the other fillings that I didn't eat and when the carmels were gone but there was still more chocolate, we'd dump in nuts and marshmallows from the kitchen

*reading Archies and watching TV after dinner in the living room

*puttin gon all the clothes I packed, almost, piling in the truck beds with the hay and Grandma's blankets, and heading up the mountain for our Christmas tree hunt

*eating vanilla wafers and drinking hot chocolate around the fire on the hunt

*piling back in the truck to head home!

*telling ghost stories with Zane

*playing "I've never" with David

*having a lot of fun with my cousins

*one time, I actually cried leaving Howe!

*having so much fun and getting to make all these memories!!

Day 24

Ethan took part in the reading program at the Orem library this summer and one of his "prizes" was half off admission to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Mike took this week off so we went.

I'm grateful that my kids enjoy reading as much as they do so we could have fun together as a family doing all these things!

Climbing through the tunnel

posing with Utahraptor
exploring all by herself

dressing up like dinosaurs

sitting on a dino

being fed to the shark

digging for dinosaur bones

more digging

still more digging and discovering what is used to dig

posing with the BYU dino

GO COUGARS!!

Day 23

Ethan's preschool teacher He comes home with fun, cute stuff like this!

Doesn't he look awesome?

Day 22

It removes EVERYTHING!

Even chocolate just by spraying and rubbing!

Day 21

All my recipes!

And my ability to cook!

In the last month or so I've come to really appreciate that I know how to take just a few ingredients and put them together to make dinner for my family. It astounds me that there are women, and men, out there who don't know what to do with a pound of ground beef! Oh the endless possibilities that I can think of to do with that pound of ground beef!

Thank you Mom for teaching me to cook and making me cook when I was living at home.

Thank you to all of you who have shared your recipes with me so that I can make more yummy foods and have more endless ideas of what to do with a pound of ground beef or chicken or pork chops or whatever else you have made for me.

Day 20

My house

It's not big, fancy, my "dream home," or what you might want, but it kept me warm last night while the wind was raging outside my window.

In the last 3 years, it's grown on me and I'm going to be sad to move, when that day comes.

Day 19

My very own washer and dryer!

Inside my house!!

It wasn't all that bad to not have a washer and a dryer in my house, but now that I've had them, I never want to go back to being without them.

Day 18

And lots of em!!

They are Emma's favorite treat and they keep her happy which in turn keeps me happy :)

Day 17

My pediatrician, and his office!

Last night Emma was up all night long and thank goodness we have a great doctor, and even though we didn't see him, we saw one of the great PA's at the office.

She has a double ear infection, again!

Here's hoping that tonight she gets some sleep so I can too.

Amoxicillin may be what I'm grateful for tomorrow :)!!

Day 16

Music and what it makes my baby do!

This was her favorite song the other day, she even sang "oh, oh, oh"!

Make sure to pause the music to the right and enjoy the sideways action of Emma!

(Sorry it's sideways!)

Day 15

My dishwasher

This is a great blessing and I'm glad that after 2 1/2 years in our house, we bought a new one with our tax refund last February!!

Day 14

Brings me heat in the fall and winter and cold air in the summer!

Day 13

Today I am grateful for LIFE!! And my health because despite the cold that is making it's way through the family, I wouldn't want to miss any of this!

Day 12

I know, I know, I already posted about Ethan and Emma, but this post is about the pile of blankets that they are on.

I'm grateful for blankets, especially the last few days that have been so cold!

Day 11

My new purple glasses!!

And my new soft contacts!

They are the best-I can't even feel them and in a wind storm...I don't have to go running to take them out!

Ahh comfort!

Day 10

All day marathon (last night and) today and a NEW episode tonight!!

I can't wait!

Day 9

Our deep freeze

Helps me have even more food storage so I only have to buy bread, meat, and all things freezable once a month!!

Day 8

My food storage

(I realize these next 2 pictures are really food, but they are things I use and need all the time)

It may be small, but it's growing...

Day 7

Bed time!!

Day 6

The view from my back deck

Day 5

My and Mike's bed

I am grateful for my bed, Ethan's bed, and Emma's bed because we all have our own bed that we don't have to share...and I only share with Mike. There will be no getting a bigger bed at my house just so kids can get in bed with us. I love lazy Saturday mornings when the kids come climb on us and we all snuggle for a few minutes, but that's all I can take, a few minutes.

Day 4

Ethan's bed

Emma's bed

Day 3

My new couch

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have my grandpa, but this couch is so comfy I just can't get enough of it.

Day 2

Ethan and Emma

My two beater lickers!

Day 1

I love Thanksgiving! And because it's that time of the year again, I'm going to blog about all that I'm thankful for. I have to catch up for the last few days because our internet was on the fritz.

If you kept up with me last year, a few of these will be the same, but what can I say, I'm very thankful for a lot in my life not just at Thanksgiving, but always!!

Mike

Goofiness and all!

That's what makes me laugh.

Not a fan...

I don't really like Halloween, I know you all think less of me now, but I do LOVE these two

and their dad.

So everything I do from the decorating to the trick-or-treating I do for them.

The Thursday before Halloween we had a mummy for dinner

(it's kind of hard to see so if you can't see it I'm not offended)

It's a meatloaf covered in cheese. It was pretty good.

For the first time in Ethan's life we carved pumpkins. Messy and not as much fun as I thought it would be for Ethan. But he was excited about the final product.

He designed his own, a cyclops, and I carved boring triangle eyes and boring mouths. I'm not that good so don't blow those pictures up too big.
So proud and excited for Halloween.
Mike's pumpkin was cool, he cheated and used a pattern.

Our ward had a carnival and trunk-or-treat Saturday afternoon, and I was glad it was then and not at 5 in the evening, it was pouring rain!!

Emma had a great time and ate a whole donut all by herself! I dunno where all those calories go she's still so so skinny. Lucky duck!

Ethan was a ninja and very proud of the moves he could do unside-down on the couch.

Pretty cool, huh?

Ethan wanted to go trick-or-treating with Meg, his cousin, so we headed to my parents' and met Meg there and they went and had lots of fun (the rain had stopped by then).

When I tried to get this picture, Emma squeezed right in between Meg and Ethan. I guess she wanted to be in the picture too.

Emma is still too young to go trick-or-treating, I have strong feelings about that I won't vent here, so she stayed with me and my parents. When trick-or-treaters came to the house Emma was very excited to see them. She was almost as excited to see them as she was to see the big bowl of candy the was pulled out every time the door bell rang. She got mad and yelled when the kids were gone and she didn't get a piece of candy. Silly girl!

We had a fun day and I hope you all did too!