Something I love...

Okay, something I love about the holidays is that my kids have their cousins close by to enjoy fun days together. Jake and Isaac had such fun living together that they really have a great time when Isaac comes back over to play. Even though they eventually end up with bite marks, scratches and in time-out they do have cute moments like this. When they are sharing and smiling! I just had to take a picture because not more than a few minutes before they were fighting and crying. Oh, well I just enjoy these cute little moments!

Are you ready for Christmas???

6 Months old and counting...he's a heavy weight weighing in over 20 lbs!

A great tip...

Don't you just love watching kids use their imagination? Well, it's actually one of those great mom moments that I cherish. I love having friends and cousins come over and do things together. Some may look at this table and think..AH a mess, but for me it was HOURS of a great activity.

The other thing I did, was compiled all my random scrapbooking goodies in a tote and allow the kids to have free reign with it! They just love all the stickers, paper, etc. Finally I found something to do with all this scrapbooking stuff!

(I love her concentrated look...her tongue is sticking out!)

Okay, now this is the best kept secret out there. The reason that I could literally care less about what these kids do on my new table...because we bought a thick piece of "grandma" plastic to cover it. I got this idea from so many mom's out there and finally with my own table I went out and spent a whopping $4.00 and let me tell you I just LOVE IT! After the kids have had there fun with out me worrying about every little thing, we clean up and I wipe it off and put my decorations back on. And honestly you can't even tell it's there. Jared joked to Alayna we were going to cover our couch with the same plastic and she said, "But that wouldn't even be comfortable!" She didn't think it was even funny that some people did that...Anyways, here's to the BEST idea out there!

Cutest Baby Ever!

Really could any little guy be any cuter??? I must admit I love this age. He sleeps 12+ hours each night, eats 4 times a day, loves baby food and just smiles non-stop...oh and I forgot he's still taking two naps a day that are LONG 3-4 hours...I love it! I just had to have Jared take a picture of my favorite little baby. I must admit however that at church today I realized I don't have a "quiet" newborn anymore...let's just say I will be bringing "cheerios" next week. He squealed and squealed and required "actual - Mommy or Daddy" attention, toys, a bottle, etc. I think it's only fair to have three hands when we have three kids.

30 seconds = a mess

On a very busy day this week I wasn't expecting a mess from Jake. Really, when am I going to learn better. I should have expected that he would make a mess of my very clean kitchen that Jared had made for me. I was ready to make rolls for our wards Relief Society quarterly meeting aka Enrichment night. I just happened to walk Alayna out to her preschool carpool when Jake joined us covered in white head to toe. I just had to laugh...why would I be the first one to make the kitchen messy. This little dude got to the ONE thing left on the counter that wasn't kid proof...CORNSTARCH. Let's just say this doesn't clean up as easily as sugar or flour. Because when it's dry it leaves a film...but when it's wet it turns all goopy. I even had to take out my contacts to clean them off because they had a layer of film on them. Needless to say we had a fun mess to clean up! I just love this kid...

Disney on Ice - Princess Classics

A mommy daughter date...

Disney on Ice...Princess Classics

Really does it get any better than Disney Princesses? Well for me...yes, but for little girls I think not!

Alayna and I had a great time...earlier that day I had finally showed her on my computer pictures and video of what we were going too! She was so excited. She was thrilled to dress up. She sat so still while I curled every inch of her hair. I should have taken a picture earlier in the night before all the curls disappeared but she looked adorable. These are a few of her little friends from our old ward. I personally LOVED it. I can't wait to make this an on going tradition.

What boys think Barbies are for...

So Alayna and I were attempting to "sew" barbie doll clothes for all her naked barbies...Am I the only one that get's tired of seeing naked barbies? So I figured I have tons of scraps of fabric from making my pillows, that I can come up with something. Thanks to Aunt Krista who helped make them much cuter...but in all this "barbie" talk Jake decided to put her to good use...

I asked Jake, "What are you doing Jake?"
Jake responded..."I'm golfing with "Wayna's" Baw-bie's"...you can mom, it's so funny!" (That's his new line to say to everything..."It's so funny!")

He was very pleased with his hit from the Barbie...It really is so fun to see the difference between Alayna and Jake.

So as we are entering the "winter season" which means we are indoors more the kids are actually playing with there toys. Except I heard these words from Jake, "Mom I want to play with a new toy...one with train tracks" I was laughing to myself thinking..."A new toy with a train track?" But then I realized that I had purchased 2 toy sets like this over a year ago. I forgot to give him one for his birthday so I said, "Hold on I'll be right back..." Jake and Isaac (he was over playing w/ Jake) just stared at me...Jake asked if I was going to the store to buy him one...I said no. I climbed up on the ladder in the garage and found it. I came inside to two boys jumping with excitement screaming, "Yeah, Play with new toy!!"

I can't even tell you how much joy and fun this added to our day! Jake was in heaven. I must ad that these pictures were true faces of excitement...he didn't even pay attention to the fact I was taking pictures! The best part about this new toy is that he will appreciate it from now until Christmas...and then on Christmas he will be ready for more new toys to enjoy!

Trying to be FUN...

Okay, so this post is a shout out to Missy. (Yes, you Miss!) I know you are laughing but let's just say you have inspired many. Let's just say that Missy wins the award for being "the BEST and FUN Mom of the Year!" (really, Miss it's true) Anyways, I was telling Missy a few days ago how I hear Alayna say these words in each prayer..."Pray that we can have fun...that we can do something fun...that mom will do fun stuff with us..." So I took the hint that YES I need to improve in the FUN department.

Well thanks to Missy as a good role model I can hopefully only do better. So last week I had had a VERY busy week. Where it required my kids to go to bed early, wake up and be perfect, obedient, cooking, cleaning, etc. So I finally got to a point where I was living, "Groundhog's Day" it seemed exactly the same. I needed something FUN to break it all up. So on Wednesday Jared ended up having to work and the kids were VERY disappointed because they were planning on going for a bike ride to the park with Jared. After dinner I was about to put them to bed and I just couldn't. As I looked in there cute little messy faces I thought, you have been SO good and we really should do something FUN together as a family. Ya know, enjoying each other! So I told them that as soon as Daddy got home we were going to do something FUN and they could stay up late!! (That's a big deal at our house because their bed time is 7pm). So I thought about how it is GREAT weather and that is going to change so I had an idea to head to the park with our flashlights and play! They were all in screams and excitement. We piled in the car and headed for the park to enjoy every minute of chasing each other, sliding down the slides and really laughing and having a great time. I must admit I had the "fun" feeling. It felt great to enjoy the laughter, fresh air, and the complete joy on the kids faces. We of coarse had to end the night with ice cream cones!

So a few days later I was exercising with my sister and friend. I was telling them about the FUN friend I have that truly inspires me to be a little more FUN. (Yes, you Missy!) So we chatted for an hour or so on really how our children anticipate and enjoy the simplest things in life. And if we as the mother have excitement and spontaneity then the kids will really have a FUN childhood. So we brainstormed several ideas on how to relax about bed time and loosen up and do FUN things! So here's to reporting to Missy...not that you were expecting an update!

This is an idea from Shandra who has done this every November with her kids. She makes individual "Gratitude Tree's" for her kids. And each day in November the kids write down something they are thankful for. I took a picture of this on the first day to simply document the activity, but since the kids have added several leaves to our tree, listing things they are thankful for. It really is something SO simple that the kids anticipate and look forward to each morning!

On Friday night I didn't want to cook. I wanted to do something FUN...so I spoke with Jared and he agreed that as a family WE needed to do something fun together. I told Alayna and Jake that we had a special "family date" to look forward too. So as you can see Alayna was all smiles for a date...a cute thing that I have apparently taught them is that on dates you were your nice clothes. Alayna has worn this same black shirt on every daddy daughter date for about 2 years....thankfully it's not getting to small yet! So as we were driving in the car on our date I had the kids ask me questions to try and figure out where we were going.

Alayna said, "Why are we going right now?" I said, "Well, our tummies are hungry and it's dinner time." She paused and thought up her next question..."Is it somewhere we've been just a few days ago or a really really long time ago?" Good question...I said, "We haven't been there for a long time." She said almost in a disappointed way..."Oh, I know where we are going, The Mayan." I laughed...and asked, "Are you said or happy!" She gave a HUGE smile and giggled. She was very pleased! So I had to capture her SMILE!!!

This was Jake trying to smile for me...notice the ball...he had to be bribed to put on "date" clothes...this kid it's impossible to get him to wear anything OTHER than basketball shorts and a t-shirt! So thanks to Aunt Ashley she pulled out the fabulous bribe technique with a new basketball toy! It worked great...

This was just a funny picture of Alayna at the Mayan. She no longer thinks this is a FUN place. She decided that everything "scared" her!

So much for trying to have a FUN evening. Either way, I have now a daily fun thing that helps encourage conversation with the kids about being grateful and we've done two FUN activities already in the month of November! Now, PLEASE let me know some other simple, quick FUN activities...I have to do it enough to make it a habit. But the best part of these days have been Alayna's prayers at the end of the night, she has thanked Heavenly Father for Mommy and Daddy DOING something FUN with them! Really does it get any better than that when your children recognize the things we do for them day after day...I think not!

Halloween Night...

Here's to Hot Dog Halloween 2009...The Madsen's were passing out the hot dogs again. It's amazing how so many people love a hot dog...I must admit there wasn't a hot dog for me this year!

Ashley and I posing for a picture to show off our Halloween costumes we made.

Me and the kiddos! So my newest sewing adventure was these caps for the witch costumes. I fell in love with the purple and black witch cape I had to make one for me. I loved it!

And Halloween wouldn't be the same if my dad didn't take the kids out trick-or-treating all night long. We went until 9:30PM...We had to stop half way and dump out our pumpkins because they were too heavy to carry. The kids learned..."We must keep pressing on...run...run...You don't walk on the sidewalk you RUN!"

Candy...Candy...Candy...

It's totally like my cousins to step up the standard Halloween treats for kids...Yes, they rented a cotton candy machine and passed that out. On the other side of the table they had homemade fresh donuts being made...Really this was the BEST stop all night long. I knew I was in trouble when I saw Jake and he said, "Mom, I came back here again...so yummy mom!" He was on to his SECOND cotton candy! So much sugar...ahhh

Since we were out WAY TOO late on Halloween night the kids were too exhausted to dump out their candy to see their stash. So we waited until the next day. Here is Alayna showing off her favorite treat of the night a long laffy taffy treat...mother like daughter...I just love laffy taffy.

Here is Jake showing off his favorite treat a "casserole" or also known as a tootsie roll.

Here is a new trait of Alayna...little Miss Organization. I remember doing this with all my Halloween candy too, sorting them to see what I received. Jared and I learned something about Alayna though. She picked suckers and candy instead of CHOCOLATE CANDY BARS!!! Because Jake had more candy bars than she did...she had all sugar candy. We had such a limited selection to choose from her pumpkin for us...I wonder if she knew exactly what she did. But she was so sweet because she remembered from last year my favorite candy bars...Almond Joys and Laffy Taffy and she gave all the Reese's peanut butter cups to Jared. What a good girl!

Visiting Great-Grandparents!

We have been carrying on a new tradition before Halloween to dress the kids up and go visit all the Great-Grandparents. So this was a fun stop to see Grandma Denny and Grandpa Ludd. These are Jared's mothers parents. They just adore the kids and anticipate our visit for days! The kids were in luck this year they got the best cookies ever...Lofthouse cookies...Thankfully they were given two cookies each so we could have one! Plus Caleb really didn't need his right?

I think you can tell from their faces that they approved very highly of their first Halloween treat. When we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Suker they were given each a flashlight. Now, they know kids well because they gave them a bag of extra batteries knowing full well that those flashlights would be on day and night! Grandma Suker you would be proud because on Halloween night Alayna was trick-or-treating and the kids said, "It's so dark I can't see..." Alayna said, "Don't worry guys I have a flashlight!" She pulled it out and used it all night long to shine on the sidewalk! And yes, we have used some of the extra batteries all ready!

Great Grandkid Halloween Party

What a fun party! My Aunt Kath and my grandparents had planned a very fun party for all these great-grandkids. They were able to frost and decorate pumpkin cookies.

This is Jake's pride and joy...He was in heaven!!

Olivia and Alayna were matching witches! Just so you know I sewed those caps!

This game was the highlight for all of us. We had to eat donuts by a string...with no hands. Well, after the kids tried for several minutes we said okay use them! They loved it!

More Pictures...Great Grandkid Halloween Party

Conner = a hunter and Alayna = a witch

Kierra = a giesha (I think) Jake= himself in a random pajama shirt and basketball shorts. They were waiting in line to have a turn playing a game.

And I was able to get a cute picture of my Grandpa Perry with Alayna. He is 88 years old and still loves to watch all the grandkids have fun. He was teasing Alayna as she was sitting next to him, so I wanted to catch a cute picture of the two of them together.

Here's to my Aunt Kathleen who hosted such a GREAT party for all these kids. She had games, prizes, treats and pumpkins for everyone! It was such a success. This was Jake winning a game because he tossed his necklace over the witch hat! Way to go Jake.

Preschool Halloween Parade

Here is to a simple Halloween Parade. All the mom's and dad's waiting outside and the kids paraded around and then when they found their parents they threw candy at us. It was cute to see this group of kids.

Here is Alayna singing a few Halloween songs and reciting a few poems.

What a cute little witch! Then after the parents were there for a few short minutes we were kicked out so they could have a SUPER fun Halloween party!

A few pictures...of Caleb...

My adorable CHUBBY baby! Why is it so cute when they have all those rolls around their tummy? He ended up with Suker feet...look how crooked all of his toes are!

He was starting to get tired and we happened to put in on his tummy with his hands by his mouth and he instantly stuck his thumb in his mouth...we had to take a picture to say yes you sucked your thumb!! (AHH - I have yet to think it's cute yet!)

I went to JCPenney and had a few photos taken of Caleb. He was such a trooper...this was actually when he was 3 months old. I can't believe that two months have already gone by. In a few more weeks I'll have to get picture taken again...