Getting ready for Christmas!

Shane and I have been ready to decorate for Christmas for the last two months, but made ourselves wait until the Monday before Thanksgiving (we seriously couldn't wait any longer than that). We blasted Michael Buble's Christmas album and went to town!

Shane fluffs while I get the ornaments ready.

The kids helped fluff, too.

Ready, set, go!

Time for the star! See the patience on his face? haha

Tying the tree skirt

Ta-da!!

 The kids and Shane watched a Christmas show so that I could put up the rest of the decorations in peace. ;)

One is mismatched because Ari.

My "mantle" on top of the piano.

I made this years ago and it's showing it's wear and tear, but the kids still adore it.

New this year: a wreath! Finally!

Let the joyous season begin!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual, we had three yummy Thanksgiving dinners!

The first was the Saturday before Thanksgiving at my dad's.

The second was at my mom's the night before Thanksgiving.

Cardboard Natalie and the baby of the family, Christopher.

Jacquelyn and her husband, Gary.

My adorable grandpa and grandma.

I just want you to know that I'm the only one who can get my grandpa to smile with his teeth for pictures. Normally he just grins with his lips together, but he and I started a little inside joke earlier this year (where I treat him like a toddler getting their picture taken) and he always smiles so big for me. He's had a lot of health issues this last six months, so it's always nice to see him really smiling.

Kids table!

Everyone said Cardboard Natalie was looking thin, so we fed her some rolls. ;)

Our third and last Thanksgiving dinner was at Shane's parent's house, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of that. I was running on 4 hours of sleep, so that's my excuse. haha After filling up on good food, I went to work at Old Navy. I'm down to one day every three months, so you won't hear me complaining. I worked until 1:00 am, came home, and crashed for 9 hours. It was heavenly. 

A great holiday for us!

Tower of Terror

Alright, it wasn't a tower of terror, but that sounded better than control tower. My cousin's significant other, Chris, works in the control tower at the Salt Lake airport and invited us all to go down for a tour. I'm 99% sure I was more excited than the kids.

It was a stormy Saturday and extremely windy. Going up 300 feet (25 floors) didn't really help that, either. ;) The kids loved watching the planes come and go (although there weren't too many because of the storm), but Kaden was entranced. He asked so many questions and was genuinely interested in all of the equipment and what it did. There's a catwalk at the top that we're allowed to walk on (with a very thick, concrete, almost shoulder high railing), but when we went out there the wind was CRAZY and Kaden was sure we were all going to fall off, so we didn't spend much time out there (maybe 20 seconds). haha

The super nice guards at the front let the kids keep their visitor's badges, which they all loved. :) 

With her badge  :)

 

Community Circle

November 14th was the first grade's turn to lead community circle for the school (which is their name for the assembly). Out of 90 kids, about 10 are picked to help with the program and Kaden was thrilled that he was asked to report the weather. His shyness has come so far the last couple of years. Before he would have been paralyzed with fear to stand up and speak in front of the entire school and their parents, but he wasn't nervous at all. It only lasted about 30 seconds, so I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a video. I should figure out how to post that because he did a great job. :)

After the morning updates, the administration did a presentation that I loved. It's really crappy quality pics because of how they keep the lighting in the gym, so sorry.

Anyway, one of the lunch ladies has been battling cancer. They've done fundraisers for her and are doing as much as they can for her two children who attend school there as well. It was announced that someone on staff had gone around the school a few weeks before and gotten a thumbprint from every one of the kids, then they used those to make a huge quilt for her (she gets REALLY cold) and it has hearts all over it and just let her know she's so loved. 

They also made blankets for both of her kids as well. One thing that I absolutely love about Voyage is that every child is treated like family. The entire school bands together to help a family when needed and I love it. Last year there was a girl in Kaden's class whose mom died of cancer and the school did a fundraiser for her as well. They truly, truly care about these kids.

 After the assembly, Shane and I got to go see Kaden in his classroom to see what they've been working on. They've been learning about the plant life cycle.

The kids also had parent/teacher conferences and they are both doing amazingly well. 

I'm so proud of them!

Cinderella

My mom was asked to play in the symphony for Olympus High's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. She and Kent bought tickets for us all for Saturday November 1st. I warned the kids that it would be a different Cinderella with different songs, so they were prepared and not shouting, "She doesn't sing that in the movie!!"

Ari didn't want to leave Grandpa Kent's side the whole night.

Overall, they did a really good job with the play! I was impressed. During intermission, Kent bought cupcakes for all of the grandkids because they have him wrapped around their fingers. (McKayla and Serenity and their parents were there as well, sitting behind us.) Ari struggled with the length of the play. She was done before the curtain fell for intermission. But Kaden and Lexi loved the whole thing! 

Funny Lexi story: when I was explaining to the kids beforehand about what a play is, I casually mentioned that I had done a number of plays in junior high and high school. Lexi excitedly said, "Were you in Cinderella?!" I said, "No, but I was in a lot of other fun plays." She cynically raised her eyebrows at me, turned, and walked away. I was dying laughing. Her whole attitude was "you weren't in Cinderella, you weren't in anything good."

It was a fun night!

Happy Halloween Day!

We had a very busy Halloween! We started out going to the kids' school for the costume parade. Ari just had to wear hers, too. :) I love that the parade was early enough that Shane could come before going into work!

Running around beforehand.

Silly faces for mom.

A blurry pic of Lexi's teacher, Mrs. LeFevre.

For fun, we started out counting the Elsa's. After 20, we lost track. It was ridiculous and I'm glad Lexi went with Rapunzel. 

We dropped Shane off at work, picked Serenity (my niece) up, and then went back to get Lexi. While we waited for Kaden to get out of school, we hit up Krispy Kreme for a free donut (for kids in costumes).

Nom, nom.

 When Kaden got out of school, I asked him if he was still hungry (he'd eaten lunch there about an hour before). He said, "Mom. I'm always hungry."

I don't know how moms with more than one boy handle their teenage eating habits without declaring bankruptcy. Anyway, next we headed to Warren's for a free kids meal for kids dressed up. The line was the longest I've ever seen it, but the kids insisted they didn't mind waiting.

I made her change out of her costume before eating because I don't trust her.

Cheesin' it again. ;)

Shane got off work at 6:00 and we began trick-or-treating as soon as we got home. I loved that we knew so many more neighbors than we did last year. The kids had a blast, then came home and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas while eating candy. A very successful night.

Carving Pumpkins!

I hate carving pumpkins. Everything about it is a big, smelly pain. I mentioned this to Shane and when he wholeheartedly agreed, I found a solution. Walmart had these things that you just stick in the pumpkins! No mess or cutting required! I showed them to the kids (at the store) and asked if they would rather carve the pumpkins or use these things. They all chose the decorations. Yay!

I LOVE her expression when she saw the finished pumpkin.

My kids are adorable.

Kaden is giving his Power Ranger bunny ears. Silly kids.

Mess and crying free and done in ten minutes! Woo!!