December/Christmas 2011

I know...I'm am beyond BEHIND! so why am I even trying? Well because I'm hoping to catch up for myself; to maybe be able to print my blog in books year by year like I've seen others do. So if anyone is actually still reading this neglected blog, LOL, and wants to ignore these next few "catch up" posts, I would totally understand!

So I didn't take a lot of pictures in November. :( I was suppose to work Thanksgiving so we didn't have a lot of plans. We ended up having Jamie & Dal and the kids over for soup, pie and a movie! ha ha. It was very un-traditional, but fun. :) I ended up on call for Thanksgiving so my little brother stayed the night and Adam and I were out all night shopping, catching crazy deals! :) We enjoyed some 4 a.m. Burger King, caught a few 5 a.m. and came home and CRASHED! It was actually pretty fun; Adam was a trooper. :)

We usually put up our Christmas tree Thanksgiving night, but since I was suppose to work, we put it up the weekend before. Plus...the kids were driving us crazy about doing it. :) We're easy push overs that way, because both me and Adam LOVE having all our Christmas stuff up and the spirit that it brings in our home! It did take us a few days to do it since we have 2 trees to put up.

Our blue/silver tree in the front sitting room.

Our green/red one in the sun room.

This year we tried to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas since our kids are a little older and able to understand, also Christmas fell on Sunday this year so we would be going to church and we wanted it to be meaningful for them. The other thing we tried to do was help them understand how so many kids don't have very much and that they are very blessed. Mady grasped the concept a little more. We let her choose a name off of a giving tree, a little girl her age, and then pick her out some presents. When we bought barbie stuff, she cried at first that they weren't hers...but after a little explaining she was very excited to wrap them and take them back to the store for the little girl. She was very proud of herself for it.


We also did a late Thanksgiving/early Christmas with Adams mom and sisters. It really worked out great. No one was in a hurry to go anywhere and we all got to enjoy the day together. Plus we got turkey AND ham, yum!



The only thing that was hard is our kids couldn't understand why we couldn't just open all the presents under our tree. LOL.


The kids filled there marble jars at almost the same time and decided they wanted to see Arthur Christmas as their reward. So we took them to the museum where they had a ginger bread house display. We didn't know it when we got there but it ended up that Santa was there too. Mady was BEYOND excited. Noah...not so much. we had to drag him in. lol.
He would only stand by Santa IF Adam was there and he refused Santa's candy cane. ha ha. dang kid.


Mady loved it. :) and then we went and saw our movie.

Also that month we decorated ginger bread houses with my friend Jessica and of course did our goody plates. The kids had a lot of fun helping.




CHRISTMAS EVE
We started like we always do. :) We made a yummy breakfast and then made cookies for Santa. We did pumpkin chocolate chip since those are Santa's favorite.

We just hung out that day and then went to Gr'pa and Gr'ma Huntsman's. We enjoyed some YUMMY food, including some amazing shrimp and then exchanged gifts. It's always great to get together with family, especially on the holidays.




After we left we drove around looking at Christmas lights, but it didn't last long because we had some tired kids. So we headed home after a bit and put cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The kids also get to open Christmas jammies from mom and dad every year.


Then Santa got to work!


*CHRISTMAS*
Mady was the 1st one up and SO EXCITED! She was SO MUCH FUN this year! We loved it and her excitement was totally infectious. She found her stocking and jumped on our bed to show us.

We had to wake Noah up and he was pretty crabby, but when mady told him Santa came, his attitude changed pretty quick.





Their presents to each other. :)

We let the kids play with their stuff from Santa and open 1 or 2 gifts, and then we had belgian waffles and bacon before heading to church. It was an AMAZING church meeting. I wish Christmas fell on Sunday every year. The spirit was amazing and it was so good for our kids to realize that the focus of Christmas is not on presents. we all enjoyed it. Then of course we came home and dug into the presents!


Noah by his loot!

Mady by hers!

Our house was a huge disaster...so we took a nap. :) LOL. That night my mom & John, Jamie & Dal and Craig & Brigitte all came over for dinner. We had MORE food and then opened presents AGAIN. Then we let the kids play and all the adults watched Planet of the Apes. ha ha. we were tuckered out.

It's crazy how much planning goes into Christmas and then it's over so quick! We were all pretty lazy the next day. We hung out in our jammies and played with our new toys. I got Just Dance 3 for the wii and the we played that. Mady loved it. :) We had a pretty amazing Christmas and are so grateful for Christ's birth and all of the blessings we've been given!

Trick or Treat

A couple weeks late...:) but Halloween was tons of fun this year. It's actually one of our favorite Holidays. This year was no exception. Everything started Friday night. We went with our friends Brian and JaLayn and their kiddos to the Boo at the Zoo. The kids loved it again this year. It's probably their favorite Halloween activity.
After much debate and mind changing...Mady decided to be a witch.

Noah wanted to be Optimus Prime. Which was perfect because we already had a costume for it. However, he had a fit when he figured out he would have to wear a mask. Then it was an even bigger fit when I said I would paint his face. Sooo...Halloween was Monday and Friday he decided he wanted to be a cowboy. Good thing JaLayn had what we needed! He was a cute cowboy too!

All the kids at the zoo. :)

After all the fun we all went out to Sizzler. It was a great night and Mady was definitely tuckered out. :)

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday night with Dal and Jamie and the kids. :)well...the kids stabbed and drew on the pumpkins...we carved them. :) but it was tons of fun!


The finished products!
Mine, Adam's and Brooklyns. :)

Mady's, Noah's and Jamie's.

Kru's :)

It was a fun display at our house! :)
On Monday both kids got to wear their costumes to pre-school. Mady's school did a big Halloween party and she loved it! That night we did the trunk-or-treat at the church and then came back home so the kids could trick-or-treat to our neighbors. We had everyone over for chili and just visited. Our neighborhood is so fun because we get so many trick or treaters. :) our kids like giving the candy out as much as they like getting it. :)
Josh and Dax handing out candy at the trunk-or-treat.

The kids trick or treating. :) they loved running up to doors the old fashioned way. Me and Adam were talking about how we EARNED our candy doing it that way. LOL.





It was a fun year...hope everyone else had a great halloween too!

Quick Summer review in photos (since I'm so behind!!!)

-4th of July-
We had lot of fun on the 4th. It's actually one of our favorite holidays! We went to the parade, then to the park...where we walked through the booths and the kids played. Then we had a simple BBQ at our house. After that we enjoyed a nap. :) On a spur of the moment we went to the IF fireworks which we haven't gone to since we had kids. First we went and had dinner and then headed over. Noah didn't love it so much but Mady did. :-) Took us forever to get home, but it was a good day!





-Dentist Appointments-
Both kids were super brave and NEITHER of them had any cavities. :)


-Swim Lessons-
They built a water park in Rexburg and this was the 1st year it was opened. Mady did swim lessons there this summer and LOVED it. She actually cried every day that we had to leave. :) Her cousins Kynden and Ashton took them also, so every day afterwards we went to the free lunch they do at the park. :)




-Rexburg Rapids-
We spent several days at the water park this summer with the kids. :) It was tons of fun. It was even more fun when Adam's parents went with us so we could go down the water slide. we were like little kids again. lol.


-Gymnastics-
The kids took gymnastics this summer from June-August. The first time Noah cried his eyes out, but then he decided he liked it. :) It was good for them.


-Mountain View Company Party-
For our company party they catered lunch and gave wrist bands out at the Riot Zone. We had lots of fun. :) and it was free...even better. :)