It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving has turned into our put of Christmas day. It's been fun this year because I feel like I've been given an extra week before I "have" to start traditions. Thankfully, I've had all week to gather ideas, and get more prepared for traditions. This year we have added a few that I'm excited about. Mainly, I just wanted to share a quick 85 page book with you. It's from my personal favorite speaker/author. I LOVE Emily Freeman. Yes, I totally adore her and admire her wisdom and knowledge of the scriptures. She's truly inspiring...anyways, I picked up this book and was finished in just a few short minutes. I loved every second of it. Anyways, it's simple ideas to just "focus" a little more on the Savior and adapt it to what traditions you already have in place. If you read it you'll have that quiet peaceful feeling of, "Oh, I want that all season long!" That really good feeling.

These are our families little way of earning $ for the upcoming service families, siblings gifts, etc. I haven't figured out exactly WHAT I'm going to do with them other than do something...if you have any ideas or suggestions let me know. We are not starting this till December!
Other traditions we are starting...I splurged and bought tickets to the Nutcracker. I'm going with a HUGE group of ladies and their daughters, it's going to be WONDERFUL.
We also have booked a night in a local hotel downtown SLC to spend the night, see the Christmas lights, swim, eat breakfast, dinner, you name it have a wonderful time with just our little kids. I can't even wait!
Alayna tonight just told me about a tradition we MUST start..."The Elf on the Shelf" Well I was just informed by my visiting teachers yesterday what it actually is, and then tonight Alayna told me how excited she was IF we could EVER get one too. I guess that's another thing we need to do....TELL ME YOUR TRADITIONS THAT YOU LOVE! I am soaking new ones in this year so I'd hate to miss out on some really great ones you might do! THANKS.

Alayna got a hold of the camera the other day...so here is what she ended up taking pictures of...Her cute brother Jake.

Her silly Face.

Cute jake.

Jake hard at work.

His adorable turkey painting.

I wish I had taken a good picture. But FINALLY a lemon meringue pie turned out for me! Hip Hip Hooray! I'll post the recipe soon on Shan's blog, but man alive it was delicious!!!

Jared found a beauty of a Christmas tree on KSL this year. We scored big time and I couldn't be more pleased with his choice. We all LOVE it!

Alayna so excited about hanging ornaments.

Ben is in awe of the tree. Thankfully he hasn't paid much attention to it or the decorations....he would rather climb up on everything and everywhere and ran away super fast, and knock other things down, dive in the toilets, climb on chairs, stools, eat crayons, markers, erasers off of pencils, climb in the dishwasher, etc. Oh, this boy is turning into a super speedy quiet little guy. Thank heavens he is as soft as a mouse because if he talked as much as he moves I would BE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE! Between Ben and Caleb let's just say I should be burning MORE calories than I do each day! That's about it this week...I'm having computer issues once again...so wish me luck that I can blog again soon!!! AHHHHHH (No worries Ashley I will ONLY buy a Mac!)

Happenings here at Home...

On any given day we always have extra boys around. They just might be trying to find places to hide, but there are plenty of boys to play with.

Silly spaces our boys have found to play.

When the winter weather hit the kids had to organize (with Jared's help) our mud room. So out with the summer stuff and back to winter clothing...Oh the joys of an on going messy room!! :) Grateful to have a space to actually store it all so that's a bonus.

Our little boys wild head of hair! This was some great hair he woke up with one Saturday morning.

Jared got me in the picture...thanks hun. But then I realized WHO am I to make fun of him when my hair looks like that in the morning!!! I did just get back from a run, but either way we have some great hair at our house.

Seriously, how is that Mohawk possible? And those cheeks...Oh, I want to kiss him right now!!!

Seriously, it cracks me up!

Well, our little Ben is a full on walker...no more crawling. He's completely switched over. He walks. Hello Adulthood...Goodbye my baby! Sad.

One of his favorite spots to perch himself in the house. It's just his size and he has a great view of all his siblings running around like crazy people. Because THAT is what they do around here.

Sometimes they run around without shirts on too...Anyways, this was a darling moment to cherish...So LONG ago I had put these helpful little laundry tags on the different bins to organize laundry..darling idea I know. I thought just because they were there the kids would JUMP with excitement at the opportunity for sorting laundry. Well, the older kids are smart enough they have now memorized the slots. BUT today I actually SAW Caleb looking at them to match where his dirty shirt was supposed to go. This little moment warmed my heart so much I had to jump at the chance to get my camera, so I could cherish this moment FOREVER!!!

This was his genuine happy face when he found the match! Oh, I love this kid!!

Here he goes again...finding the orange spot. Oh, yeah for cute kid moments like this! They REALLY are learning a few things around here! Love it.

Back to cute Ben. He LOVES his newest winter hat. Jared's Grandma makes these darling hats and my kids have MORE than enough to enjoy all winter. So I'm getting Ben used to it early.

He LOVES being outside and he LOVES his car! As soon as his siblings open this back door he whimpers and cries until you let him out. It's really adorable that he has an opinion...

So cute and content being outside. Gotta love this 55 degree weather in November! Yeah, for some sunshine still!!!

My fat happy cold baby!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon 2012

Snow Canyon Half Marathon - November 3rd, 2012

We survived and and loved it! Thanks to all that made this awesome weekend happen. We had so many great friends and family. It was such a great training. Early morning runs, long runs, oh, seriously, I just love this. Who would have known that three years ago I would have started this new hobby and fallen in love. It's a good thing we follow inspiration sometimes because it leads us on a journey that is meant for us. This is my fourth half marathon and I can't wait to do another. Thanks one and all for enduring my endless passion for this activity. Especially for Jared who not only endures me leaving often to run, but to join in the fun with me. He's really been so good to not only support me but to torture himself and run, instead of bike - like he'd rather be doing. Either way, he loves the feeling of accomplishment as much as I do. I love you!

 

  Emily, Jen and myself - we had a great time! Emily and I ran EVERY SINGLE minute of this race together. Speaking for me I LOVED it. Em, was suffering from an injury but man, look at that smile. She is such a trooper. Either way, I loved our 2 hours of non-stop girl chatting. It's always an inspiration to be with her. And for these two hours we didn't have little kids or schedules interrupting us! At the end of the race Em said, "This was a fun two hour phone call!" I couldn't agree more. Let's get Em healed and sign up for another one! I wish I could have taken pictures with all the friends who ran the race...man we just should have ran with our camera!

A few more friends that enjoyed the race as much as we did.

The best part of the race...the finish line. Just kidding! I honestly love every single minute of it.
Our dang comfy shirts we got this year. I couldn't be happier...don't tell but I think I've worn it 3 days straight...and I am even wearing it as I type this up!

Fieldtrip to the Farm

For our little preschool group we were able to visit our dear friends Amanda's farm in Riverton. Honestly, Caleb was in HEAVEN. From the second we got out of the car he started running down and said, "Mom, that tractor is waiting for me!" He has always loved tractors and this kid wanted to ride on it the entire time. Like I said, he was in heaven. It looks like we will be moving to the farm!

Darling cute friends, Brody and Kloe.

A little horse riding action.

My sick little baby enjoying watching all the kids ride the horse.

Loving feeding the ducks too.

Look at the arm on that kid!

He was even able to search for the eggs! It was awesome. I think we might just have to return to the farm and take some family pictures or something! Because honestly, this property is AMAZING. Thanks Amanda we loved every minute of it.

Happy Halloween 2012

It's Halloween! Because we are gathered at the elementary school awaiting the fun kids costume parade. They walk SUPER fast, so I was lucky to even catch Alayna in all her Magician glory.

Caleb escaped from us and began singing in the microphone..."I'm an astronaut...flying in space..."

The kids posing by Alayna's mummy door. 

Jake during his Kindergarten parade. 

Happy Halloween 2012

Dr. Jake

Magician Alayna

 

Donald Trump

 

He's been SUPER sick all week...(Yeah, finally I took him in...mother of the year award went to me...yup two ear infections (yet again) and some random nose infection. He's on some serious doses of meds and it's been AMAZING...he actually SMILED at me today! It's been about 11 days since he even acknowledge me. I love my happy baby.)

Visiting Great Grandma, Aunt Kath and Uncle Duane

A picture with me to prove I did exist on this holiday. 

Uncle Todd in all his Hot Dog glory. They pass out hot dogs to all the trick or treaters. This year they ran out of their 300 dogs. Unreal. (FYI I didn't even eat one! I just can't do it..but man alive my kids can pound them down!)

 

 

 

Our little astronaut!