It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

December has been busy busy but lots of fun.

We started out the month with the Christmas decorating and added 2 new ornaments to our tree this year.

Austin added our Cinderella's castle that we bought at DisneyWorld back in May.

Seeing it on the tree reminds me of all the fun we had there.....I am already wanting to go back.

Kayla added the CareBear ornament to the tree.

My kids LOVE watching CareBears so I was super excited when we found this ornament.

During the rest of the month we continued to add several homemade ornaments that the kids made at school. Austin requested his dad to come to his school party with him where they made 6 different ornaments together. Kayla loved putting all the new ornaments on the tree which now looks like this.

Our children's Nativity

Our stockings and Willow Tree Nativity

We have also been busy making Christmas goodies.....these ones I made for Craig's work: Chocolate Pretzels, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, Homemade Oreos, and Oreo Truffles. YUMMY!!

The kids also made gingerbread christmas trees with their cousins. They were super easy to do and super cute too.

We love Christmas time!!

November Door of Fame

There are so many pictures on this door that are my favorites. To highlight a few: I love how Austin draws rainbows with a cloud on one end of the rainbow and a sun on the other end. I also loved his drawing of leaves (pictured next to his rainbow). The 5 pumpkins picture was from a book that Austin LOVES and recites often. 

Kayla's pictures on the door are a colored picture of piglet coming out of a present and next to that it a picture she did at mother's day out. I was told by her MDO teacher that it was a turkey. It looks like a bunch of different colors of paper cut into random shapes. I am guessing she was too independent to let the teacher help her cut and glue the paper to make a turkey but instead wanted to do it all herself.

Austin also came home with 2 "thumbs up" awards: one for helping clean and one for helping a friend.  

This is a close-up of Austin's "Leaf Man" that he made with leaves, sticks, acorns....so cute and creative. 

And here is a picture Austin drew of our family. What I find cute about this picture is that he drew Abby and Brady as well. Even better is that they are stick figures with four legs and Abby looks like she is laying down and Brady standing up......insightful since Abby is our lazy, chunky dog and Brady is our active, thin dog.   

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we jumped into my parents car and drove with them (and my 2 little sisters who still live at home) to Colorado Springs where we met up with the rest of my family. My sister and her husband drove down from Utah and my brother and his new wife drove down from Utah also.

 So we were all there together
(except for my brother Nathan who is on his mission in Argentina)

Thanksgiving morning several of us went and played some frisbee golf. That afternoon we had our thanksgiving meal. I found it funny how everyone was sitting around watching as my dad carved the turkey.....we were hungry!!

And the food was worth the waiting!! Sitting at the head of the table is Jeff and my sister Jamie next to him---they so willing let us all invade their house for 3 days.

  

Even the kids had their own table.

Mikayla enjoyed playing with her cousin Rachel.  

And Austin and Tyler instantly bonded...especially playing Mario on the DS together. 

It was fun getting to know Jenna (our new sister in law)

Thursday night me and Craig stood outside Best Buy for 2 hours so we could get a good deal on some Christmas presents. Meanwhile my dad, Brandon, and Jenna went to Wal-mart to do some Black Friday shopping. They picked up these Mario sweatshirts for the boys.  

Around the corner from my sister's house was Dairy Queen...which is one of Craig's favorite places he went to with his family growing up. So of course we had to go, and he got Butterscotch dilly bars for the kids just as he always used to do. 

It was fun being able to spend a few days with my family. We played games, did some shopping, went to see the movie "The Help" (loved it!!!), and just enjoyed spending time together. 

And the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. 

It was a Happy Thanksgiving for sure!!

Kids Being Kids

Kayla the cowgirl and Austin the ghost 

Austin sleeping with a tank on one side and a carebear on the other 

Kayla likes to put her animals to sleep 

My kids are in there somewhere 

Austin and Kayla lined up all of their animals and babies like this and explained to me that they were all watching TV. 

Guess what this is?  The TV they were watching.

These kids love to make tents and do so frequently with furniture and blankets. Craig went camping one night with the scouts and Austin was a little sad he couldn't go along so we made this tent. 

 

Austin enjoyed sleeping in it that night.

Austin "reading" books to Kayla.

Just another day of kids being kids.

Primary Program

This year in Primary, the theme was "I know the scriptures are true." The first week of this year we had a FHE lesson and I wrapped up the scriptures like a present that the kids opened and we talked about how Heavenly Father gave us this amazing gift....the scriptures.

Ever since that lesson, Austin was intrigued with those scriptures. He would thumb through the pages like they were magical, he was always excited to take them to church, and he called them his "scripture power". He even once wanted to sleep with them and when we asked him why he responded "because I am building my house upon a rock." I am always amazed by the things these kids learn. I tried to do a better job this year at reading the scripture stories with Austin before he went to bed. It has been fun to see him learn the scripture stories and even watch him tell them to Kayla.  

Austin did great for the Primary Program. He sang the songs very well. His favorite song was "Scripture Power" which both Austin and Kayla know all the words to. He also said his line into the microphone this year. Last year he had his line memorized but once he got up to the microphone he got stage fright and wouldn't say anything. This year he had his line memorized but still waited for the teacher to whisper it to him. Then he timidly said into the microphone "The prophet teaching me how to choose the right." Great job Austin!

Leaves Are Falling

I love Fall....especially after a long hot summer. It is fun to watch all the trees change colors and see the leaves falling to the ground. And every year I try to make sure and point out to my kids the beautiful colors of the leaves.

And ever year we collect them and make leaf collages. This year, I decided to press the leaves in my nursing textbooks and then the kids were able to glue them onto the trees I made for them. This worked out GREAT and was super fun both for the kids and for me. I thought they turned out so cute!

Fall Soccer

This last fall we decided to put Austin on his first soccer team. Most all of Craig's family play soccer so we figured he would enjoy it since it is in his genes. He had practice on thursday nights and then a game on saturday. Sometimes he wasn't very eager to get dressed to go to soccer but once we got there he always had a good time.

Craig signed up to be Austin's coach which made it even more fun. He did a great job with these little 4 and 5 year olds.

Here are some pictures of Austin in action.

Durin the first few practices and the first game he would run around and occasionally get a kick on the ball but wasn't too focused and sometimes just played around. However, during his second game he started to figure out how to kick the ball, run after it, and kick it again etc.....and he scored 4 goals that game.

For the rest of the season he scored at least 1 goal every game.

Here he is just before taking a shot at the goal.

Austin's cousin Klayton was also on the team and they had a fun time playing soccer together.

Here they are listening to each other snap their fingers.

I caught this photo of them walking back to their side of the field holding hands after their team just scored a goal. So cute.

Austin's friend from his school, Braxton, was also on his team.

More action shots.

Austin on a breakaway.

And while Austin and Klayton were playing soccer these 2 girls had fun entertaining each other....which usually involved running around, a bag of fruit loops, and their own mini-chairs.

Craig's brother was the assistant coach of the team.

It was a great season and lots of fun.

Austin was really excited about getting a trophy.