Thrill of the hunt!

It's 8am and my house is still quiet. Which isn't too unusual since my kids normally sleep in until 8 or 8:30. Although, we did have them in bed at 6:50pm last night (which for Sadie came with a price tag; in the middle of the night she wanted to eat at 11:30pm, 1:30am, and 4:00am!). So my point to that last sentence is, I would have thought the kids would have been awake by now. I should be in bed too...but I have a problem; one I hope will go away after Christmas. I have been obsessing over finding a certain sold out toy online and in stores for 3 weeks. I get up early every morning to see if Target has gotten any 'in stock 'so I can send Ryan to wait for the doors to open. If nothing there I check to see if Kmart has any online, then Amazon to see if their price has gone down on their stock, and then reluctantly check [gasp] Walmart (we are not on speaking terms, maybe I will write a blog post about my defective jogger I bought that they refuse to return someday).

The problem with my problem is that....We already have this toy purchased, and in our possession, tucked way back in the guestroom closet. I should be happy we found it, and move on! So why can't I give up the hunt? Because, it's the thrill of the hunt. It's exciting.

Last week, to my surprise the Target online said at 7:05am the Target on Decatur had the toy 'in stock.' I woke Ryan up and he waited the freezing cold (35 degrees) outside Target to race the crowd to the toy....actually he raced one woman who was dressed in a rent-a-cop uniform. Ryan swooped down grabbed one, and she swooped down and grabbed the 1 other. He came home with this toy, and secretly I was a little disappointed because I thought I had to give up my hunt. I haven't, and probably won't until this toy is back in stock everywhere, then hunting would be pointless obviously.

This is a bunch of rambles! But my point to this post is that, when Connor was younger it didn't matter what we got him he loved it either way. But now that he is getting older, I feel much more pressure to get him what he wants, with some surprise factor still and within a budget. Am I the only one who feels this toy pressure as their kids get older?

P.S. We saw Santa at the mall a few weeks ago and Connor asked Santa to bring Grandma and Grandpa a present. Santa asked "Well, what do they like and what do they do?" Connor said, "Oh, they just walk around their house all day."

HO HO HO!

CA for Thanksgiving

This year we went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. I think it's been 4 years since we have had Thanksgiving with them. Connor was 1 month old last time we had Thanksgiving there. We had a great time! This year was especially fun because the age gap between my nieces and nephew and Connor is starting to close; so that meant the kids played non stop together! It was so nice to not have to entertain! Sadie was a good girl too, she loved all of grandma's toys. We ate a lot, shopped a lot, slept a lot, and laughed a ton! I wish we lived closer to family. And in typical Stephanie fashion...I didn't take nearly enough pictures. But trust me we had fun!

Dallin 5, Alyssa 5, Connor 4, Kaylee 6, Sadie 8 months.

Sugar Cookies! The original plan was to make turkey shaped sugar cookies using a cookie cutout of our hands.... but instead the kids just went crazy with the sprinkles and the frosting! They had a blast (and so did Grandpa!).



Connor helped my dad rake the leaves, which meant he made more of a mess than helped.

The kiddos made the center piece. Grandma sent them outside and they gathered up leaves and made this all by themselves. It turned out cute, and they were pretty proud of it! The Fall leaves this year were so amazing!

My sister Amy is going to have baby! So we did a baby reveal party one night. A bunch of blue baby boy balloons came floating out of the box! We are super excited for them!

8 months

Sadie turned 8 months on the 4th of November. This last month has been by far my most favorite stage! She has been learning so much and catches onto things really quick.

-At about 7 months 1 week she started crawling,

-2 days later she learned to go from laying/crawling to a full sit.

-About 6-7 after she learned to crawl she learned to pull herself up to a stand.

-She takes 1-2 steps along the couch, hanging on of course.

-She still wakes up 1 time a time. She did sleep through the night 2 times this month.

-Bottle is still her food of preference, with rice cereal close behind.

-She likes veggie baby food like peas over the fruit. And spits up when she eats carrots.

-She does like bananas, cheerios, and the little sweet potato baby puffs.

-She says momma, dada.....sooooo cute!

She got her first tooth around the middle of October (I don't remember the date, but it was a Saturday). Front bottom right tooth.

-She's still a pretty serious baby. She smiles a lot, but is tough to get a giggle out of. Connor is one of the only ones who can get her to giggle. She's just a little silent observer, and her eyes express all her emotions.

Halloween

October is always a crazy busy month. By the time Halloween day rolled around we were burnt out big time! I actually took the decorations down on the 31st because we were ready to move on. October consisted of preschool parties, trunk-or-treat, Connor's birthday party, adult costume party and then finally Halloween. Our anniversary is the day after Halloween, Nov 1st and by the time we got to that day we were pooped. We had a babysitter come over and we went to the Geisha Steakhouse! Delicious as always, but I think we were home by like 7pm (we are big party animals!).

On Halloween we had a little pizza party at our friends the Bailey's before we headed out trick-or-treating. It was fun to go with some friends!

Sadie made the cutest little ladybug! Connor LOVED his Batman costume that grandma Denise made and he loved his cool mask! He would wear it for hours, even eat with it on.

Ryan ended up working late and couldn't make it to our ward trunk-or-treat. But we still had fun even though we missed our dad.

Connor turned 4!!!

How did this happen? I love watching him grow up, and he says the funniest things; he is just too smart. Nonetheless, he is literally growing up before our eyes.

Connor has been planning his birthday party since April; 7 months before his birthday. He has said from day 1 he wanted a Handy Manny party. So we went with it. When we were in Disneyland a few weeks before he got a picture with Handy Manny and so I decided to turn that into his birthday card. We borrowed the caution A frame stands from Western Single Ply. We also, bought each kiddo a construction hat, and then little constructions aprons for when they did the craft so they didn't get paint on them. I am bummed I didn't get the kids together for a picture with their hats and aprons.

My friend Kaydee stopped by towards the end of the party and took some pictures for us (they are the ones above). They turned out so cute! Thank you so much!

We bought little wooden cars at Joann's for the kiddos to build and then paint. There were a few minor issueds when we put the cars together. The wheels were cheap and when we'd hammer the nails in the wheels would break :(. But it's okay, I am sure that, that isn't what Connor will remember from his party. He will remember the fun times.

Overall it was a success!

Halloween Party

Our friends the Shakespears and the Allreds hosted their annual Halloween Party. We had a blast this year. We enjoyed 'name that tune', donut on a string, home made soup contest, and a toilet-papered mummy contest which we failed miserably at. Oh well, there is always next year. I can't take any credit for the party or the pictures (i borrowed them off of Kaydee's blog). I just wanted to document a really fun night. A big thanks to the Shakespears and Allreds!

Nacho libre and the nun won a couple awards, cute and original.

I was the toilet paperee, and Ryan, Whitney, Kirk, and Darin were the toilet paperers....we will need to step it up next year. I am pretty sure the only thing that was wrapped was my face; But I couldn't tell for sure because my eyes were covered.

Here are the wonderful Hosts!

The Allred's on the left are dressed up in authentic Afghan clothes. Darin was deployed last Summer/Fall to Afghanistan and brought those clothes home.

I used my graduation gown and cut it up into a witch dress. I knew that gown would come in handy for something.

Pumpkins

We didn't make it to our favorite pumpkin farm in St. George this year...too busy :(. So we settled on a little pumpkin park near our house. There were a couple of fun rides Connor enjoyed. There was also a little petting farm there as well.

I love these 2 boys.

and my Miss Sadie.

Connor loved this little swing ride. He had a serious face the whole time, then he'd pass us and smile, then go back to Mr. Serious. It was cracking us up.

Connor, also loved the jump house and jumped for a half hour.

Shark Reef

As we were leaving the show Lion King, a man approached us and gave us 3 tickets to the Shark Reef that he didn't have time to use on his vacation. Score! We made an evening of it a few days later by going to dinner at the Luxor and checking out the Sharks at the Mandalay Bay.

Soccer Boy

Week 1: Lost :(

There once was a boy who started his very first soccer season. He played on a fun team with a bunch of boys from his church ward.

At the very first soccer game he wasn't sure what to do. So he chit chatted with his friend Will, probably about the grass.

Then his mom and dad told him to get in there and play. So he just kind of ran with the crowd...or behind the crowd, but nonetheless he was moving.

Then he decided to get in there and kick the ball once, and then he'd stop and ran back to us to see if we'd been watching. He likes words of affirmation.

By the end of his first game he was getting the hang of it.

WEEK 2: Tie =/

Week 2 went well. He started getting the concept a little better, and got in there and kicked the ball a couple times. It was much warmer week 2 and the heat was wearing the little boys out by the end of the game.

Look at that runner!