Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend this year. Mark got snowed in out at work Monday night and made it home Wednesday morning. I was so grateful because I was really worried he would miss Thanksgiving. And his birthday! He turned 29 on Wednesday (yes Baby, face it, it's the last year of your 20's). I felt bad that we didn't do a lot of special things for him because he was catching up on his sleep from working the night before and then helping me get ready for Thanksgiving at our house the next day. Oh well, there's always next year right? We did go see the new Harry Potter movie though and that was great!

We had Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year, minus Amy who went to Utah since her brother-in-law got home from his mission and Sarah who went with Lynn's family. It was still great fun and my mom was glad to not have to deal with the clean up at her house this year!

My turkey turned out so good this year and I was so proud! But then as Mark started cutting it we realized I cooked it upside down! In my defense, it was six in the morning and I had been going off very little sleep for the whole week. =) At least it wasn't my first turkey so they couldn't harass me too much since I DO know what I'm doing!

Miss took this picture while Saydi was clinging to my apron as I was making mashed potatoes and we all fell in love with it. Miss kept turning her camera back on to look at it. =)

The kids.

The group.

We played games and had lots of fun together. It was a great (and very filling!) day. The next day Mark stood in line for THREE HOURS at Target to get some deals on black Friday. It cracks me up that my husband who refuses to go in public on Saturdays because there are "too many people" will go and participate in the chaos of black Friday. He says it's totally worth the deals he got so we will see on Christmas morning. After he got a little sleep we headed to Shelley and had lunch with Mark's brothers and mom. His dad stopped by later in the evening so it was great to get to see everyone in one day. Weston and Saydi love playing with their cousins and it was fun to spend time with everyone.

On Saturday we put up our Christmas stuff and we've had one broken bulb but for the most part Weston and Saydi are doing very good at obeying and not touching the tree. Weston is watching the classic Christmas cartoons like Rudolph and Santa non-stop. I've decided Christmas is in December to help combat cabin fever! I hope I can wait until the 25th to break out some new entertainment!

These last pictures have nothing to do with Thanksgiving but I can't resist posting them. I've been doing Saydi's hair curly lately because it stays out of her face so much better and her bows don't fall out as much. She looked so cute on Sunday that I just had to snag a picture! Of course, what's a picture of Saydi without her tongue hanging out?!

Weston and Saydi have been buddies lately. Which is nice for a good chunk of the day but it also gets ugly very often and very quickly. This picture is from happy buddy-time though and you can see how much fun they have together. They're under my coffee table having the time of their lives!

So all in all it has been a great weekend and we are looking forward to the full swing of the holiday season. We're hoping to have a more Christ-centered holiday this year and do something special for a family in need. It definitely is the most wonderful time of the year! At least at our house!

Perfect Timing

Things have been chaotic around my house lately. And not because I'm so busy. Mostly just because I'm overwhelmed so for whatever reason I just do nothing instead of something. I get in little funks like this every now and then where I am lazy and pretty much accomplish nothing new all day. Then for the next couple weeks I'll go on a rampage and be super productive. I'm not sure it's healthy but it is what it is. Well today my sister sent me an email with a link to this blog post and I couldn't resist sharing (because I can't be the only one out there right?)

http://diapersanddivinity.com/2010/11/16/a-womans-work-is-never-done/

I feel different about my approach to my house now. And I really do think at the end of the day I can say: I did my best. Even on days where my best was just feeding my kids and making sure they didn't kill each other. My best is enough for my Heavenly Father and it's time it was enough for me too.

Blast Off

I have wanted to post these pictures for a long time and with Mark's birthday and Thanksgiving coming this week I knew I'd better stop procrastinating and get it done before they get overshadowed! When Becky had her boys a couple weekends ago we decided to take all the kids to Blast Off. I had always thought it was more expensive then just $4 so when I found out I was anxious to go since I love seeing my kids have fun and I knew this would do it. It's pretty obvious from the pictures that yes, my kids loved every minute of it! They really didn't want to leave when it was time to go. It was money well spent and we'll definitely be going back!

Weston was so busy this was pretty much the best we could get as far as pictures go. He was running non-stop.

I do realize that this is a germ fest. But that's what hand sanitizer is for right? How can I say no to this face?

Saydi LOVED the big bouncy balls. She loves balls just as much as Weston so she was in heaven.

By the time we left Saydi was exhausted! Who knew it was such hard work having so much fun?

Alive and Not Well

You know that part on Ice Age: The Meltdown where that guy (I forget what kind of animal he is) says, "my stomach hates me"? Yep - that is pretty much how everyone in my household has been feeling lately. We caught some kind of NASTY stomach flu from Becky's boys when they were here last weekend and man oh man, we have been miserable. All four of us (five with Becky) have been down and out and the worst was having Mark and I both get it at the same time. So grateful for family who helps though! Our poor kids were so confused as to why both mommy and daddy were in bed literally all day. The silver lining - it happened during Mark's days off work so he didn't have to call in sick. We're on the mend but still feeling too weak to do all the scrubbing with Clorox wipes that will need to be done before I feel like I can stand to even live in this house any more. I don't know why but for some reason when I get sick I'm always convinced that other moms manage to keep their houses spic and span and running just fine despite being sick and that I need to buck up and do a better job. Oh well, as soon as my stomach stops doing flips every time I exert myself I'll get to it!

So anyway, before our house became the subject of quarantine we had some fun playing in the snow and doing other stuff that I wanted to post pictures of before I forget about them.

Saydi had some serious static in her hair the other night! Too funny.

Saydi decided to fend for herself yesterday and climbed onto the chair to finish of her soup from lunch. Normally, I don't leave her food on the table for hours after she's done but nothing is normal around here when we're all sick. She was grateful since apparently she was still hungry. =)

When we had that awesome snow storm last week Mark immediately set to work making a snowman and bit off a little more then he could chew. It took him several minutes to get enough leverage on this sucker to get it on! Pretty funny from my perspective.

The final product. Except, he did add some arms later that I didn't get a picture of.I just love my kids all bundled up. When I can see nothing but their little faces I can better picture them the way they looked as babies. And yes, Weston is wearing doubled up socks on his hands. In my defense winter snuck up on me before I had time to make sure everyone had things to cover all their extremities!

So we're praying for health (and let's be honest, happiness) to return to our household soon and hopefully with that we'll have some more fun posts of GOOD things going on around here!

A New Niece!

Channing Lillie Stone - November 10 @4:47 pm. 6 lbs. 3 oz. 19.5 inches. Miss is feeling well and I can hardly wait to get my hands on this baby girl!

I'm a Fan

I'm a fan of nice people who hold onto people's cameras when they find them in the street. I'm a bigger fan of people who randomly find two postings on craigslist - one for a found camera, one for a lost camera, and match you up to each other just because they're nice. Especially since now I can post these pictures that would have been lost forever.

Although I'm not a big fan of Halloween, I am definitely a huge fan of cuteness and my kids having fun - and Halloween provides both for them, so...sort of a fan.

Call me crazy but since the snow has not quit this morning I've decided I am a big fan of fanter. It's my new season - fall/winter. First I was irritated that the snow came before I had time to get all my leaves raked up. But it will melt anyway and I'll clean it up then. I really do like it! Maybe it's just my bias for snow. I would love snow any time, any where!

Things I Love

I love that Weston climbs in bed with me every morning for ten minutes (even though he does nothing but toss and turn) before having to go potty. I love how he's so independent that he'll repeat things from starfall.com or his videos, but not from his mama! I LOVE that nine times out of ten he will get the right shoes to go with his outfit without me mentioning one word to him - great fashion sense! I love how Weston has lots of fears - some that he is blatantly open about, and some that he tries very hard to conceal. For example:

He is secretly scared of the vacuum and runs from it if I get too close to him. So to combat this he insists that he turns it on. I think his logic is that this way he knows when it's going to be loud and he feels in charge of determining when I start using it.

Another example: we put in Finding Nemo tonight and before the sucker was even in the DVD player he was saying that he wanted the "scayee whale". I repeatedly asked him if he said he WANTED it, which he said yes. A couple more times he mentioned it. Then I go into the bathroom to blow dry my hair (not realizing the whale part is coming up) and he comes and stands in the hall, barely peeking around the corner to watch the "scayee whale". I told him I'd come sit and watch it with him but I couldn't get him back in there for anything until the whale part was over. So proud he didn't have a melt down in fear though!

Dogs and flies on the other hand...grab your ear plugs.

I love that Saydi is so adaptable. Getting off the bottle, the paci, out of the crib - all of it has been easy as pie because she adjusts so well. I also love that Saydi folds her arms only because she sees everyone else do it. Weston let us fold his arms for him at about 10 months but Saydi wouldn't have it. Now she sees that she's the only one left out and she can't have that! This is also the reason why Saydi avidly sustains people who get new callings in church on Sunday. =) I love that she wears shoes around the house all the time, even if she's only in her diaper. I love the way she always comes and sits in my lap if I sit on the floor - usually with a book in hand. I love that this little girl has a crazy expression for every conversation, mood, story, you name it. She makes funny faces!

And I love things like blogspot.com that let you document the things you think about when you can't sleep at night so that one day your kids will know - yes, I may have been a crazy person today and hollered at you a few times (after asking politely about 50 times) and yes, I may not have fed you your fruits and vegetables the way I should have because I wasn't feeling up to making dinner, and yes, we may have spent too much time in front of the TV; but at the end of the day, I was more grateful then ever to be your mom because I know you still love me in spite of it all. And I LOVE THAT.

Trick-or-Treating and Tragedy

I'll start with the bad news - I lost my camera while we were trick-or-treating! I'm so devastated! I don't know what I was thinking putting it in the empty stroller on top of the pile of coats. Doi. Not good with the holidays and Mark and Weston's birthdays coming up. ='(

We had a fun Halloween though. It's kind of tradition to go to my parents since my dad's birthday is on Halloween. We had dinner and then we all went out around my parents neighborhood. It was fun and my kids were so excited. Saydi kept a death grip on her bucket the whole time and would reluctantly loosen it only to let people put more treats in. If it wasn't for me losing my stinking camera it would have been a perfect holiday!

Luckily had some pictures of my kids in their costumes on my phone. My sister emailed me one of all the cousins too.

Bryce, Kaden, Brenon, Trevor, Saydi, Weston, Emma, and Makoy

Weston was a fireman and Saydi was a lamb. Saydi cracked me up walking around the house in her costume. It was great comedy. She was so good about not touching her costume!

Here they are at the library's little costume party last week. There were so many kids there! They loved the story time though and going to all the different stations to get treats.

And I wanted to include some of these fall pictures of the kids "helping" me rake leaves the other day. It's funny how kids are instinctively born to know that leaves are fun to scatter around everywhere. Especially when mommy's trying to make a pile!