I am Thankful For...

This Thanksgiving season we have been trying to teach David about being grateful to our Heavenly Father for all of our blessings.It's been the focus of our last two Family Home Evenings, and also of the last two Nursery Lessons. Well today I thought it would be fun to also do a little craft with David. He was very excited about his turkey! I asked him after what he was thankful for and we wrote them on the turkeys feathers. He kept saying he was thankful for Jesus over and over which is great and so cute, but after some coaxing I was also able to get a few others out of him. He is 3 after all. =)

And not to leave Sydney completely out of this post, here is a cute picture of her.

And for those of you who have scrolled down this far here is a list of the things that I am very thankful for right now...

-My Savior and His gospel.

-A wonderful, priesthood holding husband who does so much for our family.

-Our beautiful children who bring so much joy and purpose into my life.

-A warm, cosy apartment that keeps us warm from these bitter winters.

-Mine and my family's health and safety.

There are so many things I am grateful for but these are the things that are overwhelming right now in my life. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

5 Years!

Friday marked five years of marriage for Scott and I! It seems like I should be saying about now that I can't believe it, but I can. In fact, it feels like I have been with Scott my whole life. We did date in highschool, so I knew him when I was 16, but I think I feel this way because I can no longer imagine life with out him. Sorry for the cheesiness, but it's true. We have been through a lot together and we love each other so much more now than we did the day we got married. We celebrated by spending Saturday away with out the kids. It was SO wonderful! We have not done that ummmmm... ever. As you can see we didn't try to dress up really, but we had fun! We went to see A Christmas Carol and ate an AMAZING lunch at Sizzler's. We both loved the movie(Scott announced to me yesterday that he wants to buy it), but I would not take kids to watch it. There was even a part where I was scared! lol. But a lot of it is pretty dark. I thought they did a great job with it though. Then we came home, fed the kids dinner, and then left them with another set of babysitters(who put them to bed) and went to our nephew's highschool play, or musical, in Sugar city. I think it was called Don da la Mancha? It was really random but enjoyable and entertaining! The lead had an amazing voice. After that we spent the rest of the evening with my brother and sister in law whom we hadn't hung out with in quite a while. It was such a great day!!! I needed that so much. Thank you Scott, and here's to forever!

David Turns Three!

I can't believe it, but my boy has turned 3 years old! He is growing so fast! The last 3 years have been so wonderful and I can't imagine life with out this little bundle of joy. He is such a blessing to us. It is so much fun to see his enthusiasm for life! He is such a good little talker too and I love hearing all the things he has to say.
We threw him a party with some friends tonight and he was SO excited I can't even describe it really. We did a Mickey Mouse theme because that's the show he watches and loves. And I have a friend who has recently gotten into cake decorating and for now only charges for ingredients. So I asked her to make a Mickey Mouse Club House cake for David. It was awesome! Didn't she do a great job? Thanks Megan! And it was delicious too! =)


When David finally saw his cake(which he'd been asking for desperately ALL day) he tried to take a big bite out of it. It was pretty hilarious. You can see in the pictures how excited he was...
The first thing we did was Pin the Nose on Mickey. I had fun making it and the kids all seemed to enjoy playing it, so that went well! After David saw that he wasn't on the nose, he took it off and placed it correctly. So cute.

I guess this is what Sydney looks like from Scott's point of view. Scott took most of these pictures.

The other game we played was "Pass the parcel" or atleast a variation of it, and the kids had fun with that one too. It's where when the music stops the kids holding the ball of wadded paper gets to take off a layer, and each layer has a treat inside. Sydney and her friend in the middle didn't actually play, but of course had to be a part of it. =)

Beginning to open presents...

I know this one is blurry but I loved David's expression as he shows his Daddy what he got.

He'd just eaten a hershey's kiss. Must've been good!

Blowing out the candles...

I had David pose(kind of) with his friend Tanner because they hardly see each other any more now that they've move a little further away. They had a lot of fun with those balloons and actually in this picture David was trying to tackle Tanner at the same time. I think that's why he looks so much shorter. I mean he is a little shorter than his friend, but not that much. And I was very lucky to get it in the split second they were both looking at the camera!

Sydney's new favorite book

Just in the last couple weeks Sydney has discovered the Noah's Ark "flap" book that Grandma Sorenson gave to David a couple years ago. She LOVES this book, and multiple times through the day I will find her like this...


I haven't had much to post about for a while, but tomorrow is David's 3rd birthday and the next day is our 5 year anniversary, so I will be posting more soon!

Letter Blocks

So I am not a crafty person at all, but when the Relief Society of our church does easy crafts that will look good in my house, I like to do them. Last Wednesday I stained the blocks at the activity and then I chose the paper(the "O" and "E" are lightly polka dotted), cut the letters out and modpdged everything today on my own. They had a cool letter cutter thing(no idea what it's called) at the craft store where I bought the paper so that's how I got the nice looking letters. Anyway, they're not amazing, but I think they'll make a nice addition to our household decor. And they do look better in person.

Last Warm Day

This fall has been extremely cold, but last week their were a couple nicer days and one where we could even take our coats off! We definitely took advantage of it and stayed at the park longer than we normally do. Mostly though we have been stuck inside or just going to the store, while I've been speed walking in the evening with out the kids. I don't mind being cold! Anyways, I mostly put these pictures up for family. I know they enjoy seeing the pictures. =)

30 Weeks

Tomorrow I will be 30 weeks along! How exciting! =) I thought it would be fun to do a comparison between me at 24 weeks, and 30 weeks. The top is 30, the bottom one is 24. I feel huge compared to before. Definately starting to make things harder. Everything is looking good and baby is healthy!

Result of Day Light Savings

Halloween

This Halloween was the first time I'd actually made an effort as my kids are now old enough to appreciate it. Well David is. He was a lion and Sydney was a pumkin. Both costumes found at the DI for about $10 total. Scott was unfortunately sick and bed ridden all day, so I did everything with the kids by myself. At 4pm we went to our ward activity. The kids had fun and got some fun little prizes from the booths they had. And then we joined up with Kelly, my old walking partner who moved, and her kids to go trick or treating. David and Tanner had such a fun time together. They kept running ahead and we'd have to call them back. And then whenever a door opened David stepped right in to get his candy. Not shy about it at all. When we trick or treated at my cousins house, that he's been to several times, he just ran all the way in to the kitchen. lol. It was so much fun to see them again and over all too quickly. Then I put the kids to bed and Scott and I finished watching Prince Caspian which he'd been watching in bed, and then watched "17 again" for the first time. I actually was surprised cause I really liked that movie. So that was our Halloween! Now David keeps asking for candy but I'm really regulating it!

Saying goodbye to his friend.

Supplement to the Last Post

I mentioned in the last post that Sydney likes to say "Budiss". Well here ya go.

I would say she's saying "What's this", except for she says it for a lot of other things also. This is just one example. I think she just made it up! =)

Sydney at 16 months

I feel like I haven't talked at all about Sydney for a while. She is just growing so fast. And I guess I mean that in a mental way, because she is still so little! She's 16 1/2 months now and weighs only 21lbs. What a joy she is to our family. She has quite a lot of personality. She is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle or sit on my lap(She loves to cuddle with Daddy especially though I think). She grunts in dissagreement if we make her stop doing something(like dig in the trash for "goodies"). She tries to throw fits if she doesn't get what she wants(they don't last long and I like to think it's because I don't ever give in. Who knows). She walks up to me randomly throughout the day and starts talking to me with the cutest face. She says things like "diss", and "budiss" often. Wish I knew what she meant! She's usually showing me something atleast. She loves her older brother and tries to emulate him in every way(even the bad things sometimes). She is basically over her stranger anxiet. Now she just burries her head in my shoulder or lap acting like they can't see her that way. She has the cutest laugh when you tickle her. She loves to tickle us as well. She loves to read books on her own as well as with us. She loves music and dancing(though now her dance is more like stomping her feet than what it was before. So cute!). And she loves giving kisses! I could go on more but it's late! I do however want to record some of her newer words. It seems that all of a sudden she's saying a lot.
-About a month or so ago she learned "help" and she says it for everything. If she wants up, or down, or she wants something we're holding, or the fridge opened, or actual help with something she can't do herself. Everything.
-Three weeks ago she learned "bubye", and she likes to use it a lot. I'll hear her saying it in her crib over and over. And she likes to look out the window at the people and cars and say it.
-Two weeks ago she learned "cheese" and "apple". She also learned "yeah". One day I asked if they wanted a banana with their lunch and Sydney immediately said "yeah". I was so shocked!
-Last week was not such a good week. She learned "no" and "mine", and now she likes to say them. Here we go!
-Then this week she has learned "hot". I'm always telling her to stay away from the oven when I open it because it's hot, and she's tested the outside of it a few times. She says it more with a silent H. It's really cute!
And that's my little girl in a simplified nutshell. We love her so much. She adds so much to the family and it's so fun to watch her learn and grow.

One way she copies David and her Daddy is by putting on their hats. She LOVES them. If I'm not careful I'm going to have a tom boy on my hands being all surrounded by boys! \

For My Sake

Most of you probably won't care much about this post, but I had to put it up for me. Yesterday I got the urge to collect a few pretty leaves from the park and take fun pictures of them. So that's just what I did earlier today. I haven't had much business with advertising on BYU-I's bulletin board lately because the market is SO saturated. I miss taking pictures, so I had a moment of going back to what I started out doing. Pictures of inanimate objects. =) Sure was fun!

Don't miss our pumpkin carving post below. I posted these closer together than I normally do.

Carving Pumpkins

Letting the kids help scoop out the insides.
I finally got David to grab a little with his hands after much persuasion, but he thought it was really gross! lol.

Then the kids sat down to draw faces on their little pumpkins. They seriously were so excited about this. They've been wanting to play with their pumpkins ever since we bought them several days ago.

Scott and I both helped them draw a little face on them to go along with their colorings.

And then we carved the big pumpkin. Or Scott did. I've found that my favorite part is cleaning it out,and Scott is great at carving. I take FOREVER.

The kids thought it was pretty cool when we lit it and turned out the lights. Well except for after a few minutes David said quietly, "I'm scared". I don't think he really was, just not sure about the shadows it made on the ceiling.

Making Peppermint Ice Cream

About a week ago I made peppermint ice cream with the kids. When I was little I remember my Mom making this with us and so I was excited when I thought of it again. David and Sydney loved smashing the candy canes especially!
Ingredients:
vanilla ice cream
crushed candy canes
Let it sit in the freezer for a couple days because ours started tasting more pepperminty throughout, the longer it sat.

The Proper Gear

The other morning David watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while wearing my broken sun glasses, his winter hat backwards, and his backpack. I just had to get a picture!