Advent Calendar

I spent most of the day today putting this thing together. As much as I love felt, I am not the greatest at sewing with it. As you can see. No matter what I did, I just could not get them to sew on straight. Oh well. I guess it gives it character. :)

I didn't put as much effort into it as the person I got my inspiration from. She did the tree with all the different ornaments. I new I wouldn't have the time or the patience for all those little details. She also embroidered all the #'s on her squares and used coordinating thread colors to sew her squares on. I embroidered 1 number and could tell it would take me months to finish doing it that way. So, in the end I stuck with my good ol' sharpie. And I think it would be a pain in the tush to thread my sewing machine with a different color for each square. So, I just used white for the entire thing. Lazy I know. But what can I say. *shrug*

I got my inspiration for the top from my friend Marisa. This is the advent calendar she made for her family. The very last one opens up to a picture of the nativity. I thought that was brilliant. So I stole the idea.

Inside each pocket there is a piece of paper that has an activity to do for each day. They are all very toddler friendly. If you would like my list of activities let me know.

So there ya have it folks. I'm surprised I finished so soon. I was expecting it to take me a couple days at least. But the kids were very cooperative and I finished it just before dinner time. So now it is hanging in my living room for all to see.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This has been the centerpiece on my table for the last month. Isn't he cute? We actually had him sitting at the head of the table for a while during Thanksgiving dinner. But then he had to be moved to make way for the real turkey. :)

This is one of many Thanksgivings we've spent away from our families. But I think this is the first time we have just had our own little family Thanksgiving dinner. I was a little worried it would be depressing since I usually get pretty homesick during the holidays. But, since I just spent a few weeks at home not long ago, it lessened the homesickness. And while I missed being in UT for our big, crazy family celebration, we really enjoyed having our own dinner here. And I must say, I was rather impressed with my sweet culinary skills. All my food turned out great. :) (That's sparkling cider people!)
This is the first year I have had to roast my own turkey. Boy was I nervous. But thanks to all sorts of helpful advice from various people, my first turkey turned out great. So did all the other food I made. The whole meal turned out really good and I was pleasantly surprised when my kids did more than just pick at their food and then beg to get down and play after 5 minutes. They actually sat at the table for the whole meal and ATE! Yes, they ate. And they liked trying all the different foods I dished out for them. They didn't like it all, but they at least tried all of it. They didn't ask to get out of their chairs until Mike and I had both finished eating. I was so amazed. It was great.

We spent the rest of the day watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, scoping out black Friday deals and just relaxing. (No football, thank goodness.) It was a wonderful day and we have so much to be grateful for. Now on to Christmas. :)

Almost Count Down Time

That's right. December first is right around the corner. Then advent calendars all around the world will start making their appearances in homes everywhere. When I was little someone gave us a really cute advent calendar. I wish I had a picture of it, but I don't. I just have the memories. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I've always thought advent calendars are fun, but I've never really had one in my own house. But then I saw this one and I just have to have it. I found it here. This one is perfect because it's made out of felt and I LOVE felt. ( Remember last years Christmas project?) It's so easy and fun to work with (and cheap). So this will be the perfect project for me. And seriously, how cute is this???

I plan to start on this as soon as I finish my tree skirt. :) Should be fun. I only hope it turns out as cute.

Is there really any question??

As soon as we saw this image Mike and I both responded at the same time "oh wow...look at that." Really, there was no missing it. Funny though, he was more shy about showing us his face than his nether regions.

What We've Been Up To

I know it's been a while since I've posted any dancing videos. Jacob still has some pretty sweet moves, but he has become a little camera shy when it comes to dancing. However, Lizzie is not yet camera shy and is more than happy to shake it for the camera. She's got her own little bootie shake.


We decided to do some Thanksgiving crafts since it's coming up here. I originally planned to help Jacob make one of these as well as make my own. So I went outside and gathered to beautiful, perfect, big pine cones. Then we started to glue on the feathers and found that the glue we were using wasn't going to work. I decided we were going to have to use a glue gun. And since Jacob is not yet old enough to use one of those I decided to do a different kind of turkey with him. But this is mine. This is Jacob's. I found this print out here. Which is one of my favorite websites. But I didn't use the feathers they had there because Jacob decided he wanted to cut them up. So I just used the same ones I used. He had fun using that glue stick. After I helped him glue everything together, he added his own little touch to it by gluing on the pom poms and pasta. He was very proud of his turkey.

I got out my ice cream a couple nights ago and was sharing it with Lizzie. I wasn't spooning it in her mouth fast enough, so I gave her her own spoon and let her have at it. Jacob doesn't usually like ice cream, but since Lizzie was eating it, he felt he should to. :)

She decided she wanted to share with me.

Mike is post call today. (Meaning he went in yesterday morning and got home this afternoon.) Since he was able to get a few hours of sleep last night, he was able to go play with Jacob instead of sleep the rest of the day away. We like when dad gets home early and gets to play. :) Jacob had lots of fun kicking the ball around the back yard with him.

Now for a fun filled 3 day weekend. Wahoo!! Having a full weekend off in general is rare for Mike. So we are SUPER excited for a 3 day weekend. Yay.

"Wanna see the guys." "Wanna see puppies."

Two statements I hear from Jacob on a regular basis since we've been home. That and "Where Gramma go? where Gampa go?" It's very sad. "The guys" = his cousins. Usually referring to my sister Jolynn's kids. I think he learned one name while we were there and that was Max. An easy name to remember. That and "Lyn". He was always asking to go to "Lyn's house" to see the puppies. Anytime he referred to another cousin it was "da nudder guy". Translation, "the other guy". Life is so boring to him now. He had lots of fun with all his cousins and especially those puppies at Jolynn's house. They have 5 new little puppies that just opened their eyes (cutest little rolly polly puppies you've ever seen!) and a bigger puppy named Lizzy. Jacob especially loved the bigger puppy because he could run around and torture...I mean play with her. That poor dog was constantly getting pushed or her tail pulled or a ball thrown at her head. I felt bad for her. Anyhoo...life will never be the same for him now and I am sure he will be asking about his cousins and puppies for a long time.

Oh and another cute/sad story, depending on how you look at it. While we were there my sister Steph came down as well. Steph and Kacey look a lot alike and it was quite confusing to Jacob. When he saw her he says, "anudder Kacey!!" And that is what he called her most of the time we were there. By the time we left I think he finally started calling her "Aunt Stephy". I say cute/sad story because I think it is both. It's sad because we are never there so he has no idea who anyone is. It's like he is meeting everyone for the first time all over again. Poor kid. I am sure it will be the same story next spring when we go to Texas to visit Grandma Arnold. Oh to live closer to everyone...or at least be able to find a direct flight home. :)

FINALLY!

I found my usb cable and was finally able to upload pictures. I put them in a few different posts since there are so many of them. So keep scrolling down. :)

Happy half way to me.

I have hit my 20 week mark. This was actually my 19 week belly shot, but it looks about the same now. :) I took these pictures about 5 minutes apart. I thought the difference between the 2 pictures was quite interesting. I guess it really is all about the angle.

Picture 1

Picture 2. Everything looks bigger in this one. I think I prefer picture 1. :)

When I went to my dr. appt. the OB nurse calculated my due date as the 24th of March. But when I saw my Dr. he calculated the 25th. That is what is on my charts. However, I am going with the 24th, since when I checked the OB wheel (same one they use at the dr. office) it said the 24th. And since my dr. doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in general (thus the reason I'm switching) I think the 24th is more accurate. I know you all are thinking "it's just one day". But believe me, one day is a long time when your in your last month and ready to pop. So, I'm sticking with the 24th!!!! :D

Oh yes, and just FYI, I find out on the 17th if this little one is a girl or a boy. :)

Halloween

We had a lot of fun things going on for Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of all the activities. We decided to have a party. The kids got to do some crafts and frost cookies and then they got to have a go at this pinata.

I made Travis wait until very last to have his turn, because I knew once he went it would be all over. I was right. He took one swing and it cracked right open. In fact all the goodies went flying across the garden.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of Jeff wearing Allayna's crown while he worked on her costume. I don't know what he is doing. Sewing I think?? Anyways, he wasn't too happy about having this picture taken.

In this picture Debbie is working on her costume and Lizzie was quite fascinated with it.

Before we went trick or treating we had some really yummy soup (made by Jolynn) in some really yummy bread bowls (made by my mom). There was also lots of other good food as well. Jolynn made a really good spinach dip and 7 layer dip among other things. Yum, yum, yum!

Then came trick or treating. This was the kids first time going and I think they had fun...for about 10 minutes. We only went down one street pretty much and before we were halfway done Jacob was ready to head back indoors. He sure enjoyed the candy he got though. Don't they make cute little bees?

Here they are with their cousin Spencer, waiting at a door.

Here is Kacey and Debbie. Didn't they have awesome costumes?! My camera was on a weird setting, so you can't see the details of Debs costume very well, but she was a jelly fish. I thought these girls both had very creative costumes.

Fall, Fall, Fall

We love fall. There are so many fun things to do. At Grandma's house, the kids were always wanting to go outside and play. Jacob could usually either be found on the trampoline, jumping away, or here on this bank playing in the dirt.
They loved playing in the leaves. You'll notice there are also lots of leaves on the trampoline. This picture was taken just after they finished jumping around in those leaves. They had a great time.

Jolynn invited us to go to the pumpkin patch with her and her family. We got to go on a hay ride and pick out pumpkins. Some of the kids were really looking forward to the little train ride they do, but the day we went, there just happened to be 2 big school groups show up. There were just to many kids waiting to ride, so we skipped it. They had fun anyways though.

Jacob was so excited to pick a pumpkin.

Here's Brea and Jacob scouting out pumpkins.

Lizzie wasn't all to thrilled when I made her pose with this pumpkin.

She was even less thrilled when I stuck her on the tractor for a picture. Jacob just flat out refused to get up on it. My poor, poor kids have been away from the country for way to long. lol.

Here is Jacob guarding our pumpkins.

I decided to teach Jacob some of our country ways. Here is is chewing on some straw. :)

Here is Jolynn and Dallin hanging out on the wagon with their pumpkin/squash stash.

This pumpkin patch trip cost me a total of $5 and that was for my 3 pumpkins we picked. I was totally impressed. Anywhere else ya go you are going to pay to get in, extra for the train ride (which was also free at this place) and then even more for your pumpkins. These people obviously weren't doing it for the money. We had a great time and if I'm there next year in the fall I will definitely be taking the kids there again. Only, hopefully this time there won't be so many school kids there.

The Zoo

The Wednesday after we got there, everyone headed to SLC for family pictures. We headed down (from Logan) early and met Kate at the Zoo. We had lots of fun and we enjoyed spending a little extra time with Kate and her family, since they weren't able to make it down to Richfield at all this month.

This was Jacob's favorite part. He loves lions and tigers and especially JAGUARS! He saw that cat and went running towards it yelling, "JAGUAR!!!!!!" I tried to tell him it was a leopard, not a jaguar, but he wasn't convinced.

Several of the animals were nice enough to poop for us. This one came right up to the window to do it just as I was taking a picture. Lovely.

Here is my cute niece Cambree smoochin' the gorilla statue.

And here is Lizzie smoochin' a real monkey.

This was a very entertaining monkey. The only reason it got this close is because there was a lady there that it seemed to be quite taken with. It followed her all the way around the display. In this picture she is behind the kids.

It was a fun trip and I'm glad we got to go to spend some time with Katie and her family. I'm sad we didn't get to see more of them.