Christmas and other December events

Since I have been putting all of my blogging off until after Christmas, I figured it's time to document all the fun things we have been doing. December 1st, put up the tree. Christmas music blaring, we had so much fun together.

Carter knows that he gets to put the star on top

Not to be outdone, Preston also put the star on for good measure.

I think they had the most fun with the Christmas tree box as their spaceship

Preston loved ripping all the ornaments off the tree-this is what it looked like most of the time! We decided to put the tree in the front room this year and I liked it better.

James and Carter went skiing again. Carter didn't want to do the "pizza slice" (snowplow) because it made him go too slow. Crazy kid!

I hope we make this a new family tradition-going out to breakfast at Dennys on Christmas Eve morning. There were 18 of us at one table! I somehow got stuck with all the kids at the end of the table, but eventually found my way over to the adults.

All the kids got this powder to put in their drinks to turn it a different color. Great idea, it kept them occupied for a few minutes.

Brevin, Halle, and Preston waiting for their food

Christmas Eve was a blast, I didn't take any pictures, oh well.My brother Scott and Lisa got stuck in a snow storm the night before and had to sleep in Pocatello. We haven't seen them since June so it was amazing how much their kids had grown! My cousin Bekah came out with her new husband Rob and it was fun to see her pregnant. We had a yummy turkey dinner with my dad's famous stuffing. It was delish. Then it was off to the hospital to sing. The highlight of the singing this year was trying to remember the words to Frosty the Snowman. None of us knew them except my sister Shauna who was getting annoyed singing a solo. Do you know the words in order? I'm telling you, it's hard! After the hospital we stopped at Joann Luke's house to carol to her family going on year number 10 now. Her husband died around Christmas time 10 years ago and we came to sing to her and she just appreciated it so much we keep coming back! We also stopped at some old neighbors of ours, the Cleggs, to say hi to their family. James did another Christmas quiz for us to play when we got back. I didn't help at all so I actually got to play this time! We did a family feud round that was so fun. The "Tremors" round had to be my favorite. It's a Tenney classic favorite movie.

The presents did get wrapped BEFORE Christmas Eve this year which was nice. Here's the tree with all the ornaments on it and all the presents underneath.

The stockings filled with lots of yummy candy-also an ice scraper :)

The mince pies for Santa

Carter at Grammy's house showing me the lovely makeup that Jenna put on his eyes

He got a fun kid's cd player complete with microphone from my parents-it was a hit with all the kids!

James with one of his new workout shirts I got him and a HUGE bag of swedish fish from my parents. My dad always delivers with a big box of popcorn and a fun treat.

This is a typical picture of my dad-he can sleep anywhere! That night me and my mom went to the movies to see 4 Christmases. I thought it was pretty funny. I love Reese Witherspoon and thought Vince Vaughn was hilarious. James took the boys over to Kevin's house and watched Aliens with my brothers and Dad. Driving home from there was the worst snowstorm I have ever been in. It took us 40 minutes to drive 3 1/2 miles. We had to help 2 people that were stuck and we could barely see in front of us. All in all, a great Christmas! I was spoiled with a new quilt for my bed from my parents and some workout gear from James.

We got a ton of snow the week of Christmas so the boys finally went out to build a snowman. Carter refused to put his hood up and Preston didn't do much but eat the snow off of his gloves. James built the head and just as they were coming inside Carter knocked it off because he didn't want a head on it. Alrighty then!

Presto's little nose and cheek were so red from the cold!

From Saturday the 27th to Monday the 29th we watched Kevin and Bethany's kids while they were in Denver for their 10th anniversary. Keeping 6 kids occupied is quite the task! We had forgotten to make our gingerbread house before Christmas and so we brought it over to do with the cousins. Don't worry they didn't let it stay up for long! It was all gone by the next day.

We had quite an eventful December with all the neighbor gifts, Christmas cards, wrapping, shopping, parties, post office trips, work, and trying to squeeze a little exercise in there too. Hopefully next year I will be a little bit less stressed and enjoy it more. Last year seemed to be that way and I think it is because I ordered stuff online! Stores make me crazy, especially Walmart. Tonight we are going to my sister's house to bring in the New Year. Here's to a great 2009! My annual resolutions post to come...

Return of the Birthday Bash

For those who don't know, my husband throws me a birthday party every year for the past 6 years. We always have so much fun and come up with new ideas every year to switch it up. The first year was 80's trivia since I was born in 1980 and it has evolved into several different rounds of random trivia and crazy tasks since then. One year we had a hot pepper eating contest fear factor style. Each pepper was worth certain points. Another was to see how fast someone could chug a cold bottle of sprite. This year we had a cake decorating contest to see who could frost their cake the fastest, best presentation, and taste. Bethany my sis-in-law used to decorate cakes for Baskin Robbins so she has a little advantage so she won for fastest frosting and presentation.

After the cakes were frosted we threw a twist in the competition and had each team pick one person to see how much they could eat in 1 minute 30 seconds. Who would you pick to win out of these three?
My oldest sister Shauna was AMAZING! We weighed the cakes before they started and she ended up winning by eating an ENTIRE POUND of cake in 90 seconds. Wow. Needless to say, she doesn't want to see any cake again for a long time! I am still in shock that she beat both of those boys!

Another addition to the party this year was ugly sweater/outfit contest. If you participated, your team got points. The funny thing was that this decided the winner for the night. All three teams were tied in points and the outfits were the deciding factor. Team Naughty Pirates took the title and D.I. trophy home for bragging rights! My sister Melanie took the trophy home for worst outfit/sweater. It was so awesome. She bought the polygamist dress with some friends this year on a girls retreat for a joke picture and decided to hang on to it! She found this cat sweater vest at D. I. for three dollars and rounded out the outfit complete with sneakers to complete the polygamist wife look!! haha Carl is wearing a lovely "blazer". It has seashells and huge shoulderpads inside! So great. He always has to wear this ugly wig with everything too. We had a good laugh at everyone's finds.

Notice the mouse buttons on the vest, it was so hilarious!

My mom had a sweater with little gardening people on the bottom and the sweater was way too short so she had to wear a shirt underneath. Mike H. also let her sport the Santa hat for most of the evening to complete the look!

Here are all of the ugly outfits in all their glory. (the people that didn't dress up aren't pictured) I wish we could do them all justice. My sweatshirt I actually just received from my 5k for Thanksgiving. It looks like it was from 1983 and has no hood on the back. SO hideous. Next year I plan to step it up but just didn't have a lot of time to search.


I got all of these pictures from my sister's blog so if you have already seen them, I'm sorry! My camera battery of course died right before the party so I didn't get any pictures. We also don't have pictures of the singing audition for "birthday Idol". Greg sang "Hearts on Fire" and danced for us, which is always a treat. Mel did "Hit me baby one more time" hoping I would pick her since I love Britney Spears so much, and Leah rounded it out with some R-e-s-p-e-c-t. Some other highlights were the Twilight trivia, and my most hated songs name that tune. Christmas shoes was on the list, along with Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, and Butterfly kisses. If you like these songs, no offense, but they are the worst!! My family is so competitive sometimes it gets pretty heated, we can't stand to lose! Thanks to all who came, it was such a blast of course! I am hoping to do a Christmas post of what else we have been up to this month, we'll see if it happens...until next time...Merry Christmas!

Gone Baby Gone

I chopped my hair off! Wahoo!!

Quiz

Does this sound like me? I can't decide.

You Are 9: The Peacemaker

You are emotionally stable and willing to find common ground with others. Your friends and family often look to you to be the mediator when there is conflict. You are easy going and accepting. You take things as they come. Avoiding conflict at all costs, you're content when things are calm. At Your Best: You feel connected, trusting, and fulfilled. You feel at peace with your place in the world. At Your Worst: You compromise your values to make sure peace is maintained. You give in to bullies. Your Fixation: Harmony Your Primary Fear: Causing conflict Your Primary Desire: To preserve things as they are Other Number 9's: Marge Simpson, Ronald Reagan, Audrey Hepburn, Jerry Seinfeld, and Abraham Lincoln.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatnumberareyouquiz/">What Number Are You?

Worst Blogger Award

Ok I win. I have been a total slacker, I admit it. I have pictures from Halloween night that I haven't even posted. Since it isn't Thanksgiving until Thursday I guess they can still be relevant right? Heres a little run down on what we have been up to...(ALOT)
I am beyond irritated right now considering all of my photos are out of order, but you get the idea,because I am not changing them!

Ryan was the cutest bat for Halloween

The Karate Kid and the ninja (Austin and Carter)

The boys at home with their stash after trick or treating

getting ready to go-ninja, coal miner, and chewbacca

I love these boys. I decided to stay home this year and pass out candy. The weather was great with only a few sprinkles of rain here and there. Chewbacca-what a great investment for that costume. I laugh every time I see it.

Preston's 2nd Birthday party at Grammys

The party goers

Birthday boy did not want his picture taken

The dinosaur cake that ran out of frosting. Don't make fun of it, I already did enough of that to James and hurt his feelings. oops :( It's cute enough right?

Kate being hannah montana for Halloween

The Relief Society was in charge of our emergency preparedness activity so we had a tasting table for those who had made things from their food storage. James always jumps on an opportunity to cook so he made two things-one were these no egg pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Pretty good I thought!

Mom and Dad at Presto's party

Magnetic Dinoaurs from Grammy which he loves! Carter does too which makes it nice!

Blake's birthday was on the 13th so he got to blow out the candles on the half frosted dinosaur cake too! Big numer 8, I can't believe it!

Carter's preschool has been talking about Thanksgiving these past couple of weeks and we were told to bring in a paper grocery bag, a large can, and think of an indian name. Carter came up with Spinning Bear as he was twirling around the kitchen. They came out of school on Thursday looking like this and I had to capture the cuteness on film. He was so proud of his little Indian outfit.

They used the can for a drum. That got old real fast!

James and I finally got a date night last Saturday to the Real Salt Lake soccer game. It was so fun! I have to admit soccer is not my favorite, but James was excited about it since we were in the western conference final game, so I decided to go. The fans were great-throwing flares and crate paper on the field. We lost 1-0, we hit the post of the goal 3 times! So frustrating! It was a fun and REALLY cold night.

The stadium was so cool looking. I had never been there before.

The other thing James made for the activity was an alfredo chicken pizza. I'm sure he will post the recipe on his cooking blog eventually. It was tasty!

This month has flown by! Some other highlights have been my girls night out to see Twilight the movie. I'm waiting for pictures from others, then I will blog about it! I loved it by the way. Yesterday I went to my BFF Karynn's bridal shower and laughed at all the lingerie she got. To be a newlywed again...haha. Last night we threw a party for my brother Kevin's 30th birthday. It was supposed to be a surprise but he found out early of course. James catered the whole thing for about 50 people and the food turned out great. Then he did a quiz all about Kevin afterward. He amazes me with how talented he is in so many areas. Needless to say, I'm tired! My eye has been twitching for 2 days due to lack of sleep. Hope you enjoyed the jumbled and random update on us!

*Thing I am grateful for today-Church. It always makes me feel better about my life. I feel like everything taught today was for me directly. I love those kind of days.

Calling all Runners

So I think I have decided to run the Salt Lake marathon in April. I know, I'm crazy, and I said I would never run a full marathon, but here I am! I am so nervous about it. It is going to be tough. I need as much advice as I can get on different tricks you use to keep you going. How do you get mentally strong? What do you use to hold your water? Which training program do you recommend? What do you eat during training and on race day? I feel like I can do so much better on my training as far as these things are concerned which I know that it will make a huge difference on race day. Any tips or suggestions would be very helpful! Thanks!

Thankful

In this month of Thanksgiving, I figured I would start it out right with a post of things I am thankful for today.
*Kosy playing Christmas music all day long on their station. I can't get enough!
*Preston saying keenk-koo (thank you) Mommy after I give him something
*a clean kitchen (for today that is)
*good visiting teachers
*a healthy body that can run, jump, and play with my kids
*I got to vote
*James' cooking and baking skills
*new shoes
*a hot shower, socks and warm blankets-I was frozen yesterday!
*thought provoking conversations
*great parents
*blogs
*our upcoming trip to Florida
*Carter being the big brother and watching out for Preston
*preschool

I have so much to be thankful for, the list could go on and on. I think with every post in the month of November I will list something I am thankful for, even if it has nothing to do with what I am posting about. Happy November!

October Activities

It seems like we are so busy the month of October because of all of the fun activities for the kids to do. We went to the annual Scarecrow festival the day after we got back from the cabin and had a blast. We only had a couple of hours because I was helping serve the food for my uncle Richard's wedding to Tina. (Congrats to them!) We packed a lot in those two hours and Carter was not ready to leave. Here are some of the highlights of the night:

*blow up slides

*kid friendly games

*yummy food and rootbeer

*haunted house

*pumpkins and witches everywhere

*shark face painting for Carter

Next on the agenda was the Legacy Center Halloween party on Friday. The kids love going trick or treating around the track and seeing all of the fun costumes. Carter was in front of a little boy that was Optimus Prime the transformer and thought he had died and gone to heaven. Sloppy joes and lemonade didn't hurt either!

James and our little chewbacca Preston
Carter is a blue ninja. He loved twirling around his glow necklace that he separated and turned into a light saber.


Megan, Mike, and Peter enjoying some food with us


Nate, Marie, Sophia, and Ryan watching the Spiderwick Chronicles with us while eating dinner. That movie is a bit scary for little kids.


James and I went on a date that night so we dropped the kids off at my parents house. The boys wanted to show off their costumes. Preston was all sugared up from trick or treating and wasn't in the mood to smile. This picture scares me with how much he looks like his older brother. Twins!

Thanks for watching the kids Grammy and Grandad!

Monday rolled around again and for Family Night we had to carve our pumpkins so we were ready for Halloween night. Carter wanted a vampire (I must be talking about Twilight too much) and Preston wanted a ghost. Carter learned this monkey face from my cousin Kiersten at Peter's birthday party the day before. What a little performer Carter is, he cracks me up.

Scary pumpkins

We are FINALLY getting the last of our harvest of zucchini. I won't be buying it or eating it for atleast a few weeks. We pulled all of the flowers, weeds, and plants out this week getting ready for snow. This week has been such nice weather I have been enjoying it while it lasts.

Wednesday Grammy made up Halloween bags for the grandkids equipped with glowstick necklaces, Halloween stickers, hologram cards, Hannah Montana candy bracelets, super hero candy sticks, and lots of candy. They have been whining about them ever since. That night we had pizza and cake at 5 Buck for Austin's birthday. James has been teaching him tennis lessons and so he wanted him to come to his laser tag party with him. They were on the same team and ended up winning. Happy 10th birthday Austin!

I want deedee! (candy)

Carter's preschool Halloween party was yesterday and they got to dress up and had a parade around the neighborhood. Melanie lives close by so she loaded the kids up and came to watch with me. Carter felt so special to have his cousins there.



His teacher Miss Carrie is so great and really makes it so fun for the kids. Where is Carter?

Oh he ran ahead to meet up with his cousins. What a surprise! Also notice he isn't the blue ninja anymore. He decided he wanted to be a dragon again his costume from last year. Hey fine by me, it still fits! Tonight we go trick or treating and end it all with chicken soup and french bread at Grammys house. They get one last hoorah with the candy eating and then it gets taken away tomorrow. I hope you all have a very fun and safe Halloween!