James Birthday!

January was a pretty low key month ( I was totally fine with that!) Mostly we spend a lot of time sledding behind the house, drinking hot chocolate, and working on the vehicles at night in a very cold garage. But we dud gave James birthday which gave us something fun to plan for. We didn't do a big birthday party this year but we had a family party Friday night

 He wanted lasagna, salad, jello, and french bread and he wanted a pokemon ball cake.  You can't see it well but he made labels for all the food like a pokemon had made it.

 He was pretty thrilled to get a huge pack of pokemon cards from Bridger.

 And because he wants to be a paleontologist he got a dinosaur excavation kit.

Saturday we planned on going to Scales and Tails (a reptile zoo) as his birthday activity, however we woke up to about 6 inches of snow and very icy roads and decided not to go. Instead we had Bridger and James friend Kayden who lived a few housed down from us but moved last month over to play. They played hard all day. They went sledding in the new snow, played some pokemon together, had some downtime watching a show and then went on a dinosaur dig for real fossils.

This was probably the best part. They worked so well together and got so excited as they found each fossil. They had a great time with it! It is crazy for me to think that James is 7 already! He is so much fun and such a big helper in our family I don't know what I would do without him. 

Christmas Fun.

Somehow between all the December activities we manged to pull of getting ready for Christmas although I may have been up until 1 two nights in a row before Christmas actually wrapping presents. Let's just saw I am typically one of those people with Christmas done in November but will all the extra rehearsals and such it just didn't happen this year. 

We spend Christmas Eve with my sister Michelle and Kimberly. WE had a great meal and then some games and the Nativity. We had a mini piano recital after and sang some Carols. 

We headed home and opened our Christmas Eve present. I even managed to pull of matching pajamas for the first time!!! 

 I could not get Madie to look up. 

I'm not going to lie, Christmas morning was a bit chaotic this year. It was a mix of squeals of joyful excitement and screams of frustration as Levi tried to steal every single toy that was opened. We did our best to keep him distracted by opening his own but he wasn't going to let everyone else's presents go unnoticed or unplayed with either. But we survived and overall it was more happy that arguing so that is a win :)

All Titus wanted this year was a firetruck with a long ladder. He was so excited to see Santa got him exactly what he wanted.

Madie's favorite gifts by far were her new baby doll and her doctors kit. And the fact that she could then play doctor with a patient that wouldn't run away was even better.

Levi loves pulling his Fisher Price phone along with him. Even to the table.

And to make things even better we woke up to a white Christmas! It had been raining on and off all week but no snow.  Even coming home Christmas Eve it was still just light rain. Then Christmas morning snow! We made the kids wait until after we got back from church but once we got back they had a great time.

December Insanity!

Well to say the least December is already typically a very busy month but this year was certainly one for the books. Way back in September my sister tagged me a post looking for local dancers to audition for a community ballet of the Nativity. Well after some encouragement and a big push from Aaron I decided that despite not having dance in nearly 12 YEARS I was going to audition. I ended up getting a part in 4 dances and for the next 3 months danced like crazy to get back into ballet shape and my poor toes back into pointe shoes. Despite the fact that I could hardly make it up and down the stairs after every rehearsal and a toenail that is still black and blue 3 months after the fact it was an amazing experience. It obviously wasn't professional by any means but it felt amazing to be dancing again. So the entire first week of December was dedicated wholly to rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and the performances.

We had so much much help from our neighbors, to Aaron's mom who came and stayed for 3 days so I could make all my performances and Aaron could come and watch, and my niece BreAnna who hitched a ride up from Snow College to come and see the Friday night performance as well as stay through the weekend and help all day Saturday while we ran around going to choir rehearsals, Aaron getting the ward party set up, cooking 12 hams Yes 12, our house smelled amazing, and then she went with Aaron to the ward party to help wrangle the kids while I had my final performance. It was an incredible experience and one I am so glad I got to be in.

 The ward party. I heard it went well and the kids loved seeing Santa, however I can't say for sure since I was not there. But I heard good things :)

 As for other December activities. We made sure to stay busy with cookie decorating

 Some book reading and cuddling be BreNaNa (Who by the way also spent all Saturday cutting snowflakes with James is a total pro at snowflake cutting )

 They had Frozen day at school so this was our last minute costume for James.

 Oh and Levi had a great time knocking down the Christmas tree in order to get a candy cane that was at the very top.

The following weekend after my ballet performances we had tickets to go to the Yule Ball. It was so much fun to dress fancy go dancing and enjoy a little Harry Potter fun on the side. It was even better that we convinced our good friends and neighbors to come as well so we had friends to hang out with.  It was a pretty fantastic night. 

Also we had a neighbor who was doing a coat and diapers drive for refugees in exchange for a mini Christmas photo sessions. We ended up with these super cute Christmas pictures. 

November Fun and Titus's Birthday

We got to have a fun trip to the zoo with my sister Kimberly The kids had a great time. Two trips to the zoo in the same year has never happened for us. 

 Levi liked being the front seat this time around. 

 The Polar Bear was actually up and around this time. 

 This is Levi's favorite way to have a bottle. He and Max are best buds. 

 At the end of November was Titus's birthday. Although he was in somewhat denial about turning 3 (It took him nearly a month before he wouldn't get mad at you and insist he was still 2).  He had a Captain America birthday complete with a trip to Hill Air Force Museum.

 They had a great time seeing all the planes. 

 That night we invited some friends over for the cake and ice cream and presents. 

 Titus is our little spit fire. He is determined to get things done his way and just when you think he is going to drive you crazy he says "I Love Yoooooou!" In the sweetest voice. He is always trying to keep up with James and loves telling horrible knock knock jokes. He knows his numbers and shapes and colors and is dying to go to school with the big kids. When Madie's bus pulls up in the afternoon he tells Madie to let him go instead.  He certainly brings a spark of attitude to our house you never quite know what will happen next.

October and Halloween

We had a lot of fun this month to start out with we have a couple pictures from our day to day life.  First is the leanin tower of children and second is Levi and his obsession with the goggles. I finally had to hide them because he would only wear them for 5 seconds, take them off and then bring them to be to put on again. The game got old very quickly (for me at least, he would have played it all day) 

I really wanted to get in some of the fall colors but we weren't getting alot down in the valley so we took a drive up American Fork canyon on a Saturday and found a picnic area to pull over and eat lunch at. It was bit chilly so we didn't stay long but I got my bit of fall beauty in.

Levi tried leaves for the first time and wasn't a huge fan.

On our way back we stopped a pumpkin patch and let the kids pick some pumpkins. Titus was so excited to pick one just his size!

Mid-October we drove out to my parents for fall break. It was a short trip but the kids had a great time playing in leaves, riding the horses, and seeing cousins.

We got in Friday morning and that afternoon my cousin called saying they drove by and saw we were home and asked if James wanted to come to a halloween party that night. We dug through Grandma's dress up clothes and found him a costume. He had a great time although he was a bit nervous to eat the "poisonous pizza" and the "goblin tongues" (mandarin oranges) and at 8 o'clock he asked to be brought home because it was his bedtime (I guess I should have told him beforehand he could stay up late :) )

Also Madie got on a horse for the first time ever! She is terrified of horses and has very slowly been warming up to them over the year. She always thinks she wants to ride them and then as you get close she changes her mind this time she didn't! However did not like it when the horse started to move. We'll eventually get there.

Halloween is always so much fun and we always have a great time carving pumpkins.

Madie decided to go as a cat to her class Halloween party. She pretty much likes any costume that includes face paint.

This year we had a butterfly, a dragon, a power ranger and Robin. Aaron and I were biker for the ward trunk or treat. 

 As you can see Titus decided to be batman for halloween when I put Levi in his pumpkin costume. So we did have a batman and Robin just not together Titus did not want a sidekick. We had a great time getting together with friends for dinner on Halloween and trick or treating with them.