playing with his Christmas toys

Thanks Mamas and Papas for the awesome Christmas gift; Chase loves it!

We Love Christmas!

Right after Thanksgiving I'm begging Bruce to go get our Christmas tree! I love this time of year and want to enjoy it as long as possible! So, we set off with Gramma and Granpapas to find our tree and the boys were all excited to help...

 Chase couldn't wait to get the Christmas decorations out and kept peeking in the bins each day until I said we could put them up. He was especially anxious to put up the star on the tree...he and daddy have done that together for the past few years.

 Chase is loving pre-school and doing really well! He was VERY excited about this gingerbread house he made today and the teachers said he was very focused and intent on making it perfect! He was excited to take a picture and share it with daddy.

 Also exciting about Christmas...it means I'm almost done with pregnancy! I've only got about 7 or 8 weeks left and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm not a fan of pregnancy, so I'm ready to be done with all the uncomfortableness! We still have a lot to do to get ready for our baby girl and other than some fancy church dresses and shoes (I can't get enough of those baby girl dress clothes!) we don't really have anything yet! Oh darn, I guess I'll have to go shopping for baby girl clothes...! ;)

making Christmas

 I made a Christmas wrapping paper wreath (super easy), and I really wanted to do an advent calendar with the boys this year, so I found one that was really easy to make and that I didn't have to store (not ready to commit yet!).  This was a cute idea to make cones from wrapping paper then tie them to branches. Each of the cones have a scripture or quote having to do with Christmas inside, and every few days the boys also get some type of surprise (a new book, a Christmas movie, special activity, etc.). It's been fun and the boys like counting down to Christmas!

We finally got real stockings this year! I had everyone's name put on them and even baby Tempe has one! The boys are a little too into the tree this year and so I wasn't too eager to put too many decorations on it. Especially when I'm not really thrilled about having to clean all this up and put it away in a couple weeks (that's why I get my tree the weekend after Thanksgiving...so we can enjoy it longer!).               

turning 4

 He's been looking forward to his birthday for months! He practiced holding up 4 fingers so he could tell everyone he was 4 on his special day (he does 3 like his mommy...putting his pointer and thumb together...kinda silly!)  He may have peaked at a couple gifts early, but that didn't stop his excitement when he got to actually open them!
He's still obsessed with trains and was super happy to get more train stuff from both sets of Grandparents!

When it came time for cake; which he couldn't stop talking about all day, he got a little freaked out by the candles and refused to get near them, so daddy had to help blow them out.

Both boys' love trains and quickly got to looking at the list of other toys available in the collection and picking out what ones they wanted...

I think this is all he ate of the cake I worked so hard on...oh well.

and of course, no birthday is truly complete without balloons! this is my boys' favorite part about birthdays...getting to play with balloons!

It was fun to see him so excited about his birthday and its so fun to watch him grow and become his own little personality...strong and stubborn as it is!!!

Pumpkin Patch & Halloween

Chase got to go on his very first field trip for school! They went to a local orchard/pumpkin patch and he had a blast! He loved riding the tractor and picking hid own pumpkin and apple from the farm!

He also did awesome in the corn maze! I let him lead the way and he found all the little hidden attractions inside the maze all on his own. His favorite was the slide...

 Chase loved the pumpkin patch so much that we decided to go back again a couple days later as a family. It was a little chilly, but the boys still loved it! Chase kept talking about the tractor ride and was so glad he got to go on it again.

 This was the best we could do as a family picture...not sure why Chase wouldn't show his face!

 We couldn't drag him away from these little mini tractors!

 My city cowboy!

 For halloween this year, Chase finally decided he wanted to be a monster truck after looking at dozens of costume pictures online. I wanted to make the boys' costumes this year so this was going to be a task!

 They looked so great and they loved their costumes!

I got the pattern for the trucks from this website;

http://www.fivehens.com/cardboard-halloween-costumes/

I ran out of time so I had to improvise a little, but they still had fun!

Awesome give-away!

Check out my sister's health and fitness blog http://fabulouslyfitwithfive.blogspot.com/. She's got a really great give-away going on right now! With just a few more months left to go with this pregnancy I'm gearing up for another round of "battle with the body" and losing the extra weight. She's a big inspiration and help for me to do that...and you'd think that having the same genetics would mean I could have her abs too...!
Check it out! Fabulously Fit With Five

homemade halloween

I haven't really decorated my house for halloween before and I decided I would start this year! I want my kids to be excited about different traditions and holidays, but they don't ever really know what's going on 'cause I'm too grinch-like to take the time to decorate usually! All I can think is....'but I'm just going to have to take it all down in a few weeks and pack it away again...'!

So, I decided to make as much of the halloween decor as I could...I'm not that great with this kind of stuff so it was a little frustrating and challenging because I just wanted stuff to be done! But, I'm pretty happy with what we have this year...and even better; a lot of it can get thrown away rather than packed!

I made the halloween clock, "boo blocks", and apothecary jars (that was a ward 'super saturday' craft this year) and a few other things around the house. I had the boys color and glue together pumpkin faces on some paper plates to make a garland for the fireplace and they loved that! Chase loves turn on the spotlight over the mantle and talk about his halloween pumpkins he made.

And...it wouldn't be a real homemade halloween if I didn't make the boys' costumes too! So...pics to come as soon as I'm done (I had to start early enough to make sure there was time to go to the store if the costumes don't work out!)

school days are here!

Chase started pre-school this year and so far he absolutely LOVES it! We were really nervous about how he would do and if it would be a huge waste of money, but it's been the best thing for all of us so far! He FINALLY decided to cooperate with potty-training, weeks before school started (good thing too, because the registration fee was non-refundable and we had to send in the first month's tuition too!) and he's done great ever since (took him long enough!).

Little brother is a little jealous he doesn't get to go too. Ever time we have to drop Chase off and pick him up, Bennett gets upset that he can't stay. Next year little one!

Chase loves his back-pack and his favorite thing to do on pre-school days is to pick out his snack and pack it in his back-pack! We even had his name put on his back-pack and it makes him feel very special!

We're so glad he loves pre-school and grateful he gets to have the experience it provides! We really wanted him to be in an environment where he could play with other kids his age or older and learn to cooperate in a group and with someone other than his parents telling him what to do!

He's also been doing great at church in Sunbeams and that's all thanks to his AWESOME teachers! Sis. Brock is AMAZING with him and that has made all the difference in how he acts and does at church now!

skirts and bows and painted little toes!

So we are expecting baby #3 in early February and we were quit surprised to find out its a girl! Chase has been telling us from the beginning that it was a girl and he even offered to let us name her "Chase" (so thoughtful of him) ;) But, we really weren't counting on it!

I'm about 23 weeks now and over all the sickness, just really tired...but I can never tell if that's from the pregnancy or the 2 toddler boys, probably both!

I really didn't think I would have a little girl, and now that I am I've gone way girly! I'm not usually into frills and girly-girl stuff, but somehow that's where my tastes have gone lately when it comes to the baby stuff! Probably to make up for all the cars, trucks and superheroes I've been surrounded with!

As for her name...

I first heard the name on a show we really like, and thought it was interesting. Both our boys have family names and I kinda wanted to keep that going. For Christmas, my mom gave each of us kids a family history book she'd compiled with tons of geneology including pictures and stories. While looking through that I discovered this same name way back in the family line - that made me instantly like it that much more! I don't expect everyone to like it, but TOUGH! ;)

We're excited to meet Temperance Elizabeth in less than 4 months!

fixing the quad

Daddy had his tools out so he could fix the garbage disposal and apparently that was a perfect opportunity for the boys to "fix" the toy quad...

I wonder where they learned to do this?! Like Grandfather, father, and son!

Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary!!

We celebrated the little guy's 2nd birthday a couple weeks ago! Right now his favorite thing is trains (thanks to big brother) so he got his very own train set to play with (hopefully that means no more sneaking off with his brother's while no one is looking!)

My boys are so different when it comes to eating cake...this one avoids the mess and just "dabbles" or licks the frosting

while this one really knows how to enjoy a cupcake!!!

Both the boys really love balloons and I think they had more fun playing with the balloons I got rather than any of the toys!

We also celebrated our 8 year anniversary the same week! We had a lot going on so we ended up celebrating over a couple different days...all the more memorable and fun!

My absolute favorite is lillies! There were 8 purple roses scattered throughout the lilly bouquet! Along with a beautiful silver locket, a couple dinners out and a night at the movies, we really know how to celebrate ;)

I got him a new wedding ring (since he lost his last year) and now he has to get used to wearing one all over again (ahhh, poor guy).

I LOVE YOU, and I'm still so happy with you and glad we are together!