Temple Square at Christmastime

My wonderful sister-in-law, S, called Sunday night to invite us to Temple Square with their family for FHE. Being the smart, smart woman that she is, she'd checked out the weather and realized that this would be one of the last "warm" nights to go. And after our nearly frost-bitten experience last year, we thought it was a good idea to go earlier rather than later. So off we went.

I LOVE Temple Square at Christmastime! The lights are always amazing and the manger scene is beautiful. And it was even more enjoyable last night since the air wasn't trying to bite my nose off. The evening would've been perfect had it not been for 2 little girls who didn't get good naps that day. After about 30 mins of walking, they'd had it. But we stretched their patience as far as we could and kept plugging a mouth with a binky before we finally headed for home, much to the reluctance of our older 2 kids.

Thanks for sharing your night with us, M & S!!!!

Here are some fun pics.

This was at the beginning of the night when smiles were aplenty!

Notice the gappy smile? This kid has had 3 teeth fall out in the last 3 weeks or so. And there's another one on its way. He'll soon be unable to whistle. :)
Here's the group of kids. Lady was still on Brent's back and Brent was taking the pic....so she missed the photo op. But I stuck my fanny in there so that Tink could get in on the action. Isn't the temple beautiful?

My cute nephew, A, who just got new glasses and couldn't be more proud! Don't you just want to chew on his cheeks a little? I know I have a hard time resisting.Here's a great night-shot of this majestic building. I love this temple!

And here's handsome Brent carrying cute Lady. She enjoyed riding on his back for a change.And the reason she got to is because her sister was being ultra-picky and only wanted to go on my back. So I obliged. And don't ask me what that face is that I'm making....I must've been in the middle of saying something to Brent. But he doesn't do the "1, 2, 3...smile" thing. He just clicks. Lovely. Oh, and you can see the great mood that Tink was in by the end of the night. Doesn't she just look huggable?

The day after Thanksgiving

I'm not one to participate in "Black Friday."

(Which, by the way, WHO named it that? Brent's parents and I agreed last night that it's a terrible name for the first day of the Christmas season).

I don't like to go shopping at all, let alone with 5 million other people all pushing and shoving trying to get the best deal. Sorry, I'd rather spend an extra $5 and get it a week later.

SOOOOO, that means the day after Thanksgiving is usually spent having a relaxing day at home. And what better way to celebrate the beginning of Christmastime than by decorating for it? So here are a few pics of the fun morning (and part of the afternoon......it sure takes longer than you think) the girls and I had decorating.

After wrangling the tree to get it upright and beautiful (not an easy task, just so you know.....my arms have the cuts/scrapes/rash to prove it), the girls went to town decorating it. Last year we bought some kid-friendly (read: non-breakable) ornaments from IKEA. So Tink's job was putting up all the red (plastic) ornaments and AJ's job was putting up all the red and white "presents." You can tell what height each girl is by where on the tree they put their ornaments. It's a very "clustered" tree, but I think it's great!

Here's one of AJ's clusters.....to make it even, she put a similar-sized cluster on the other side of the tree.

And here's Tink's cluster....hers were clustered all over the bottom of the tree.Here's the finished product of the family room. But the tree is no longer topped with a Santa hat. AJ made a star out of tongue depressors. She colored them all yellow and glued them into the shape of a star. I love it. There are also quite a few other decorations now adorning the upper part of the tree. All homemade by the 3 oldest kids.

Here's the window AJ decorated with the "clings."

And here's the storm door Tink got to decorate with the "clings." I had to hold her up to do the the upper part and as you can see, we decorated a bit with finger prints/streaks as well. :) Nothing new around here.

Brent made the comment last night, as we were looking at the tree, that we definitely have a kid-oriented house. And I told him it was only fair since they outnumber us
2 to 1.

I love the holidays!

Here are some pics from T-Day!

Here's where the turkey started to kick in.


Here is Brent's beautiful sister (well, all 3 of them are beautiful....but this one works magic when it comes to chocolate) who makes AWESOME fudge.And here's the fudge....you see those things in the middle? Rolos! YUM!!!!
Here's my sweet nephew, M. Love that kid! When's it my turn for a kid with hair like that?

Speaking of hair.....here are 2 cute cousins, Tink and V, playing with cousin A's hair.
And by the end of the night, cousin S had Lady wrapped around his finger. He enchanted her somehow and she gave him loves for a LONG time. This is a rare thing for her.

And then when it was time for him to go, this is what happened......"Don't go, S!"

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Can't wait for next year!

Halloween

I know I'm past-due for a Halloween post, but I was lazy and didn't get the pics uploaded until today. So here's what our Halloween looked like.

Lady HATED her costume. She was trying so hard to pull it off. But I made her suffer through it anyway. (Mean mom!) Once she was in the stroller, she was fine.

The hat lasted all of 20 seconds and then it went into the stroller basket. It was cute while it lasted, though! :)

Don't they look enthusiastic here? I have no idea what the lack of smiles is about, but we really did have fun trick-or-treating.

The stash!!!

These are some bloody fingers our friends made for us. Brent wouldn't even try one and got a little disgusted when I did. He thought they looked too real.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!