Christmas at the Claytons!

We had one little snooper this year, he loved to go sit by the tree and try to open the presents!

We got to see the big man in his winter singing program

we had 2 weeks off of school, so we tried to do a fun activity everyday. this was gingerbread houses (aka graham cracker houses at our house)

we visited the Jelly Belly factory! it was lots of fun we got to go on a tour and try all different kinds of jelly beans and see how they were all made.

sadly this was the only picture that turned out of Christmas morning, but she got her princesses and that's all that matters right?!

Happy Holidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

surprisingly they all loved Santa this year! even the littlest couldn't get enough of him! it was so cute!

We went to cut down a Christmas tree but ended up with a pre-cut this year that I chose. Next year the kids can choose, they chose last year.

You'll have to excuse the red heads mouth full of donut, but they both were in a Christmas piano recital. it was so fun to see them perform, and they both did a great job! this is their teacher Abner he's the best!

They had to change location at the last minute (hence the keyboard) but they pulled it off and it was really fun!

Thanksgiving vacation

We once again made the trip home to UT and visited the grandparents in ID. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and then baptised #1, I can't believe he's 8 it's crazy! We had so much fun visiting all the fam.

These kids are totally crazy when we get together, but it's tons of fun!

The baptism day! he had a little pre baptism soccer game with uncle Charles (that's why the pants are rolled up)

These little cousins were so cute together. They loved playing.

Got to see my cute friend Amy- thanks for coming to see me! Wish we could live by each other again!

Pops named this one Pistol Pete, he loved the cowboy hat and loved the big trucks and tractors at the ranch. He's right on path learning the ways of the ranch!

the little princess couldn't get enough of the horsies!

We love auntie Hannah! maybe not when she kisses us, he looks a little worried!

Jeff went on a cattle drive! I drove in the truck with all the kids.

SNOW!! sadly we brought the nice CA weather with us and this was all the snow we got. We were hoping to build some snow men and go sledding but throwing ice chunks instead of snowballs was still fun for these two.

birthdays

Here are my birthday boys, 2 years and 1 day apart makes for a crazy party week and it always happens to be near all the Thanksgiving partying. So we just party party party!

this one chose cupcakes from the cupcake store for his dessert

the kindergarten thanksgiving program was so cute, we keep singing the fun turkey songs

He was so excited that we got to bring a treat to school, sugar cookies with a 6 on it, yum!

look at that focus, blow out those candles! I can't believe he's 8!

After 2 birthdays, 2 birthday treats and 2 thanksgiving parties at school we ended with a end of season soccer party! I think we might go through a little sugar withdrawal in the next few days!

Halloween + Vacation

= way to much junk food

We had a super fun Halloween, the boys just wanted to keep trick or treating all night. We promptly ended at 7:30 and put them to bed!

notice the steeling of candy in this picture! what she doesn't know won't hurt, right?!

The next morning it was off to the beach for a week with Grandpa! flex your muscles, or show off your bones!

The boys were completely covered in sand everyday, head to toe

this little guy would have gone swimming if we let him. He just kept running into the waves and the water was quite cold!

Thanks for the fun vacation Grandpa!!

Pumpkin farm

We visited the local pumpkin farm, they have train rides, tractor rides, goats to pet and barns to play in and of course huge pumpkins.

little P LOVED the train, it was so cute!

Happy Halloween next week!

Marathon

Not only was it a marathon, it was on trail, 2,000 foot gain in elevation and we ended up at just under 30 miles (29.7 to be exact.) I just remember one guy behind me say "they should have called this the meat grinder" Yeah, NEVER doing that again! BUT I did it and I'm super proud!

Jeff came and ran the last 1/4 mile with me, I was so dead. Thanks babe for letting me take all the time for training!

The greatest running partner EVER! would have never done it without her.

SURPRISE!

Granny and Pops showed up at our house! it was such a great surprise! the kids were so excited

Pops couldn't get enough of my cruiser. It was great he'd take the kids all for a bike ride and give me and granny a chance to play scrabble!

and of course there was lots of music played

we had great weather and played a ton in the back yard. Pops even mowed, edged and did some gardening.

Thanks for the visit - we love you guys (maybe not banjo, but definitely granny and pops)!

projects!

I've been wanting to get these projects done and put away but needed my handy man to help me.

He finally had a day off and I put him to work! thanks honey! gotta love Columbus Day

We got this cute little hutch a while ago it's just been taking up space in the garage. I didn't know what to do with it, I love it but it had a dingy brown finish...

surprise surprise I painted it white! and distressed it. I love it now and we put it in the little girl room and she immediately filled it with dolls

I painted the inside a greenish gray and did a little stencil on the back, I think it turned out really cute

And this turn out so great! our fridge isn't magnetic! so no where to hang my kids cute artwork that they bring home from school.

This is just a metal sheet 3x3 (thanks to my man he cut it down for me) covered it in fabric and tied with a bow to hang it. We also made a little coat rack. It's right at the entrance from our garage, so perfect for unloading coats and seeing reminders of my cute kiddos!