Decorating for the Holidays!
I finally finished last night decorating for Christmas. I started before thanksgiving so it took me awhile! I wanted to share some of my new favorite things that I've gotten this year! I have gotten some ornaments and words that are glittered. I love them! I have several around the house. This Merry Christmas is right inside my front door:
These are some new ornaments that Morgan picked out to match her new room. We found them at Target. Love them!
My last picture will be of my biggest purchase this year. We finally broke down and bought a fake tree! I have been thinking about getting one for a few years. I couldn't resist the great deal I got on it on my "After Thanksgiving " shopping trip.
The movie started at midnight! We were so excited to see the movie along with thousands of teenagers in Littleton, CO. It's sad to say but I don't have many pictures of us together. We were able to live in the same state for one short year! It was one of the best year's of my life! It was great to get together almost monthly! Our kids became great buddies also. I was so sad when they moved from the Seattle area! The other day Jon asked me "If you could choose anywhere to live where would that be?" I replied, "anywhere near my sister!" Happy Birthday Sis! I love you and miss you tons!
It was so much fun. We bought our tickets with Temple, Paige, Mckenna, and some others friends (Kim and Micaela Grahm, Kim is Morgan's ballet teacher) The dancing was incredible and the show was fantastic! We all had so much fun we just wanted to dance right out of there! It made it for a late night though.
The show was 2 and a half hours long so we didn't get home until 11:30 pm! A big thanks to my friend Joni for watching the other kids since Jon is still out of town. I went to bed at 1 am after I watched "Dancing with the Stars" (I just couldn't get enough dancing for one night!) At 2 am Maddie woke up and kept me up until 430am! I felt like I had a newborn again. I'm dragging today but it was all worth it for a great evening!
We ended our fun holiday weekend with the Dustins Annual Pie Night. Some of our great friends invite families over to enjoy several holiday pies. It is always very filling, and fun evening. It is now back to regular bed times, our crazy schedule, and more holidays to come!
Morgan counted all the Ravioli's and the grand total was 154! It's a good thing we didn't double the recipe! The great thing is that I can freeze some and have them now for Christmas.
She packed that thing around for days before and after Halloween. It got so worn out and used that the wire that was giving its shape kept coming out. She would put everything and anything in that bucket. For example: books, stuffed animals, her favorite DVD's, play phones, socks, and of course candy. She filled that bucket up fast with candy on Halloween! She then proceeded to carry it around until all the candy was gone! I finally had to take it away because I kept on finding wrappers everywhere and candy stuck to my brand new carpet! Last week at the Gymboree sale I got these PJ's for her. I thought they were appropriate!
We then went to another store for a return, and that was it! I stopped at See's Candy to pick up Jon's favorite treat, Rum Nougot, and I was going to get a sucker for the girls. Well, they were both whining for this expensive Thanksgiving candy! I ended up just getting Jon's candy and our free samples. I left with both girls in tears and the employee's starring at me! When we got home I immediately fed them and put them both to bed. About 30 minutes later I heard them upstairs talking and playing around so I decided to see what they were up to. They had taken every book and puzzle out of their hutch and were playing with them on the floor.
Brinley said it was all Maddie, Yeah right! I then separated them and decided that this is definitely going to be a Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry Day!
I took pictures of both sides of the room: Jon's side
It's very similar to my old den. Although, I do have much more storage and shelving in the closet. Sometimes Jon and I will both be in here together (on our own sides of course) in the evenings working on projects. Jon often gets tired before me and will lay on the carpet and immediately fall asleep. Yesterday, I was working on some thanksgiving invitations.(inmy scrapbook room) I think they turned out really cute!
For FHE last night we delivered them to our family members that will be invited for the feast. I also made them a gratitude jar. Each day every family member must put something they are thankful for in the gratitude jar. I told everyone to bring their jar to my house on Thanksgiving day and we will share with each other what we are grateful for. Both Temple and Becky loved the idea. Thanks to Monique for the great idea. It will make us appreciate everything we are blessed with!
glasses down, so I had to take a picture! We were enjoying our Christmas music in the back ground as we carved. I have been itching to put it on the past week. This is very late for me this year! I usually break out the Christmas tunes in September. It has taken us awhile to get all the electronics set up in the new house. We're needing to get our new surround system set up, maybe Santa will bring that for us this year for Christmas!
"Wizard of Oz". Luckily, she let me borrow everything for the evening. It was a little uncomfortable with her heels and tight fitting dress. It was fun to dress up for one night since I will not be dressing up for Halloween, it will just be the kiddos!
It was Morgan's last and Brinley's first. Morgan's birthday is only a week away so she was not too excited about doing the program. Everyone in her class has already moved into the YM/YW program except her and one other boy. She had a small part and did great. Mason and Brooklyn also had a small part and Brinley's Sunbeam class recited a part all together. Although we could not see Brinley at all! Her class was behind the Sacrament table. She was standing up but we could only see her little forehead and occasionally her eyes! 
urgent care and was in and out of there in 30 Minutes! Shocker! Took Morgan to swim team. Kidnapped two new beehives (one of them being 
Morgan 2wks early) and then came back to my house for a sleepover. Watched High School Musical 2 with all the beehives! Went to bed at 1am I'm tired! 
bedding when he got home. We were both so excited to have sheets! We have been sleeping with just one flat sheet on top of the mattress and then our duvet cover over us. The joke between us was that we felt like we were camping because it reminded us of our sleeping bags! We both love our bed and are excited for all the room a king size bed has to offer!!!
When we were driving to their cabin it reminded me of my trip to the NE three years ago. Now that trip had some amazing fall colors. I know that this sadden's Monique since she is still suffering through the heat! I did ask her last week " Do the cactus change color?" HEE, HEE. Here are just a couple pictures taken on Saturday 
by the lake. All the other kids were off exploring. 
obsessed with this outfit that she has from Gymboree with frogs on it. (the cute frog is from grandma baldwin) So I decided to have a frog themed birthday. (Nothing big just a frog cake, some frog presents, and green plates, cups & napkins) We had a big barbeque at Aunt Becky's and then we had cake and presents. She got some
fun toys and some real frogs from Aunt Temple and her kids. (here she is looking at her new present) At first Maddie was really scared of them, but then she really liked them and always wanted to hold them. We had them for about five days and then we let them go when we went camping the following weekend. Some fun things about Maddie at age two!
There have been five babies sleep in the crib, four sets of bedding (by kid #5 you don't care what the bedding looks like!), several blankets, four different homes, and the crib has been in many different rooms! It's exciting to be moving to a new stage in our life which includes getting rid of baby items, but it also is sad to think that our babies are growing up so fast! Not one of my children have ever climbed out of this crib. We always put this kids into a big bed because another baby was always on the way. We just didn't have the space in the girls new room for the crib. So for the first month we lived in our new home Maddie was sleeping in the travel crib. Jon was paranoid that it was hurting her back! I reminded him that Morgan slept in a travel crib for ONE year when we lived @ my in-laws! I know that there are many more Milestones like this that we will be making over the next several years! What am I going to do when she goes to first grade? By the way Madelyn is doing great in her big girl bed! +of+IMG_0794.JPG)
responsible fourth grader. He made sure that he was not going to miss any school last Friday when I told them that we were going to our friends cabin for the weekend. I think Brooklyn is just enjoying eating at school and her three recesses. She's smoothly adjusted to first grade! Brinley was so excited to start pre-kindergarten today. All last week she kept asking me when was she going to be able to go to school! We're off to another great school year!
