Wednesday, January 16, 2013

An activity a day...

Every year I have tried to do a Christmas advent calendar with an activity a day...this year I actually did it!  We did one activity a day starting December 1st all the way til Christmas Day.  Some of the things we did were: make sugar cookies, read a Christmas story, make snowflakes, sing Christmas songs, watch a Christmas movie, do a sticker book, color a picture, make a countdown Christmas chain.  Most of the activities weren't anything big, but Trevor loved coming downstairs every morning and opening the envelope to read what we were going to do.

The envelopes are hanging on the wall...I love this advent calendar idea.  It was very easy to make and I love how it looks.  I got it from this blog: inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com
One activity was decorating gingerbread men and gingerbread house fronts
(much easier then the whole house :))
 Kate working away...
Jacob's work of art...
 Trevor with his finished product...
 Brooke with her finished work...

Another activity was watching a Christmas movie in a fort
 
Another activity was going to Brooke's dance recital.
My mom took the boys. 
 Brooke with her sisters after she danced
All the cousins! 

My Birthday!

Jeana and I celebrated our birthday the beginning of December.  Nick and Rob made us dinner and the kids (with the help of Nick and Rob) decorated these Christmas tree cupcakes!  I love that we live so close to Jeana and her family! 

Jeana and I  

A picture with me and my boys

November Snow...

Nick took the boys outside to play in the snow in November...they built a snowman!








Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Here are a lot of pictures of what we have been up to the last couple of days!  We had a fun filled Halloween Eve and Halloween Day.   

HALLOWEEN EVE

THE WITCHES AT GARDNER VILLAGE...
Tuesday after school got out, Jeana and I took our kids to see the witches.  Trevor and Brooke loved running around finding all the witches and then writing it down on their scavenger hunt paper.  Jacob and Kate loved seeing the witches as well!  It was such a beautiful day to go, and I glad we did!

The gang.

They were screaming and yelling the whole time, they were so excited!

Looking at the witch on the pond

Me and my boys (and Kate)

Trevor and Jacob "sitting-a-spell"

And after finding all the witches...the cookie! 


PUMPKIN CARVING TIME...
Tuesday afternoon the boys and I set out to carve some pumpkins.  I was sad Nick couldn't do it with us this year as we had just run out of time (where did October go?!).  This year we actually grew our own pumpkins in Jeana's yard!  We got 3 and she got 3...not bad for novice pumpkin growers. 
Just starting out...Jacob and Trevor scooping out the guts.  
They did it for a little while and the I stepped in and finished...they weren't a huge fun of the slimy feeling (Trevor did better then Jacob)!

Jacob getting down to work

Trevor getting his hands dirty.

Jacob's finished product!  I asked him what he wanted "circle eyes, triangle, square?"  He said, "oval!"
And then he wanted an oval nose and  an oval mouth...that is what he got!   

Trevor's finished jack-o-lantern!  Trevor drew on the face and I cute it out.  He did a great job!  

THE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!
I love that we do themed costumes...I am not sure how much longer my boys will let me, but they loved this year so hopefully for many years to come!  

This year's theme was Super Mario Brothers.  Trevor loves to play this Wii game (and so does the rest of the family) so I thought it was great when he wanted to be Luigi and Jacob wanted to be Mario.

Trevor is Luigi and Jacob is Mario!  
(When we went up to Idaho a couple of weeks earlier my mom helped me make the overalls (okay, my mom made the overalls.  Thanks mom, you are amazing!).  To make them we took old pairs of blue scrubs and altered them into overalls.  I got the scrubs at Savers.  They turned out great!  The hats were made out of fleece from a tutorial I found online.  The boys were the best looking Luigi and Mario around! 
  Nick and I were the star power and Goomba from Super Mario Brothers.  I made our costumes just out of poster board.  (I didn't realize before I made mine, but when I was done and was trying it on for the first time I realized  how fitting it was that I had a question mark on my stomach :)!  Other people thought it was funny as well!)   


 TRUNK OR TREATING...
 This year the boys got to participate in not one trunk or treat, but two!  When we were in Idaho we went with my brother and his family to their wards trunk or treat!  The boys loved it.  It was indoors so you went to each classroom to get a treat.  It was a lot of fun and very well done!
   
Before they went trunk or treating, they had a costume parade.  It was so cute they told the kids to dance while they were walking around and Trevor had a great time dancing! 

Blake, Trevor and Carter (side story: Trevor was able to spend the night at Carter and Blake's house while we were in Idaho.  He talked about it for at least a month and was so excited to sleepover!  So the boys had their sleepover and they were ALL super excited because they woke up at woke up at 5:45 AM to play!  Cousins are the best!)   

Jacob at the trunk or treat.  They had someone that made balloon animals.  Jacob got a dog!

 Our Wards Trunk or Treat was on Tuesday Night.  
It was the first year our ward has done a trunk or treat, it is usually a Halloween carnival, and it was a lot of fun!  The kids had a blast.  In keeping with the Super Mario Brothers theme, we decked out the car with Mario Brothers.  Nick even had Mario Brothers music playing in the background!   
 There was a sign that said, "Quest: to save the Halloween candy before Bowser eats it all."  As someone was walking around he noticed the sign and said "I thought you would have had a sign that said, sorry but your candy is in another castle!"  I thought that was so funny.


Here we are all finished with trunk or treating! 



 HALLOWEEN DAY...
 Halloween Day started out with Jacob and I going to Trevor's school to see him in his Halloween parade.  He was so cute walking around!

 After the parade he went back to his classroom for a Halloween party!  He said it was a lot of fun and he made these Halloween pictures! 

 After we had lunch I thought it would be fun to rake the leaves and let the boys play in them.  It was a beautiful day again!  They loved it!
Jacob and Trevor in the leaves.
 Throwing the leaves in the air.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT...
Jeana came over with her family and we had dinner and then Nick's mom and step dad come over with Jackson so everyone could go trick or treating!
Right before we set out...

The cousins ready to go...

 Brooke, Jackson and Trevor were so fun to watch this year...they literally ran from door to door and couldn't get enough!  Jacob and Kate were a little slower, but got plenty of candy as well! 
 The whole group at a neighbor's door.
 
 Until next year...

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Red Ribbon Week...

Trevor had his first Red Ribbon Week at school Oct. 22-26.  It was fun to get him dressed up for all the different days that they had to help the kids "Say No to Drugs!"  He loved doing it as well!

Tuesday:  Crazy Hair Day (I had wanted to cut Trevor's hair for a few days, but I hadn't gotten to it yet,  but it worked out great because I was able to spike his hair for Crazy Hair Day.)
Wednesday:  Nerd Day (Notice he got a hair cut!)
Thursday: Superhero Day
Friday:  Crazy Sock Day


.

Trip to Idaho

Over UEA weekend we headed to Idaho for a quick trip.  It was so much fun hanging out with my family.  While there, it was my mom's birthday so I tried to put together a little surprise party with my siblings.  It worked pretty good, she didn't suspect anything until she was coming home from dinner with my dad... when they drove past the house the lights were on, but when she came inside the lights were off...but she was pleasantly surprised.  Happy Birthday Mom!  

(Side story about the cake...my sister Janessa only had about 1 hour to make, bake and frost the cake and cupcakes.  The cupcakes weren't a problem, but the cake wasn't baking.  I felt like we were on cupcakes wars with the time crunch :).  But it worked out, the frosting was a little runny but it still tasted delicious!)    

One main reason I really wanted to go Idaho, of course to see my family, but also the Boise Temple is being rededicated in November so they are having an open house for a few weeks.  Nick and I were married in the Boise Temple so it was neat to take Trevor and Jacob to see it.  The temple is stunning (always was) but it is amazing now!  
Here is the group of my family that went. 
 Our family
 The boys loved playing, finding, and catching the leaves outside the temple as we were waiting to take pictures and head home.