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Merry Christmas!

I know this week is going to be crazy, so I thought I would post this before the craziness started. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

WARNING: Picture Overload!

I just uploaded all the pictures from my camera and realized that I had pictures from before Thanksgiving on it. I'm a little behind...oops! Because of that, there will be lots of pictures. Sorry.

I'll work a backwards, I guess. Here's Bryn showing us her new trick. She won't even take her binky anymore. Oh well. At least it helps her sleep through the night! We don't have to swaddle her through the night anymore. Yippee!! (I didn't think that was going to happen anytime soon.)

"You caught me, Mom!"
Paige and Austin were very excited to go outside and build a snowman. Can you tell?!? I love seeing proof that they can get along and really do love each other!



Some more pics of Bryn. She's getting so big!!

Look at the creases in her arms. Chunkers!! :0)

Austin and Paige can't get enough of Bryn. They are constantly asking to hold her. I love seeing how Bryn's eyes light up whenever they come to play/talk with her!

Bryn with Grandpa N! Have to love the "deer-in-the-headlights" look! :0)

Hangin' out with Grandpa A. She looks so tiny compared to him!
Oh, how I love having Kandra, Brandon, Sydnee and Dawson living so close to us!! It's so fun seeing these two grow up together!!

Bekah, my SIL, sent me this adorable "Thanksgiving Jar" idea. It's a countdown to Thanksgiving and every day we pulled out a piece of paper that said what we were thankful for that day. It also had an activity to go along with it. For example, we were thankful for neighbors one day and we gave each of our neighbors some apple butter I made with a little note saying how thankful we are for them. It was so much fun. The kids made sure that we never forgot and it was wonderful realizing (again) that we are so very blessed. This will definitely be our Thanksgiving tradition from now on!!

Doesn't Paige look so old in this picture?!? Crazy!

Here are a few projects I've been working on lately. I have a few more that I've done, but I can't post those pictures until after Christmas since it would ruin the surprise!! :0)

I LOVE this bag! It fits so many things in it! I used to have a couple bags to take to church every Sunday, but now I just have to take this! WONDERFUL!!!

I decided to make stockings this year because none of the others matched and we needed another one for Bryn. I think they turned out pretty well. I did stitch our names on the cuff but you can't tell very well in this picture. (I didn't have embroidery floss in a color I liked. Oh well!)

A couple aprons for the kids. Sooooo very easy to make and soooo very cute!

Bows, bows and more bows. A friend of mine sells beaded watch bands and she told me that she would sell my bows for me at different craft shows she goes to if I wanted her to. I thought it was a great idea, so I spent a few hours making these bows. It was fun making so many! I think my favorites are the "Crazy" bows in the top left. So cute!

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, for the last 4-5 weeks I've been telling myself that I need to get on the computer and update my blog but other things just have had higher priority, I guess. Between taking care of the kids, making Christmas presents and treats, teaching piano lessons, making bows, trying to get our house more "put together", and just doing what a normal mother has to do, I haven't had much time to sit down for more than 5 minutes and that just isn't enough time to blog!! :0)

Things have been going pretty well in our little household. I've been having to work with Paige and Austin on listening and not destroying the house while I'm feeding Bryn, but besides that... ;0) Bryn is growing like a weed. We love our chubby little girl. She had her 4 month appointment the beginning of this month and she was in the 61st percentile for weight (14 lbs), 32nd for height (23.8 in) and 24th for head (15.8). We're so used to having the tall, skinny babies we aren't sure what to think of it! :0) She definitely doesn't have the bigger head like her brother, that's for sure! ;0) She's usually a very happy baby. The only time she really gets fussy is when I'm trying to feed her. Crazy, I know. She eats great once she's pretty much asleep and at night, but she just doesn't like to settle down and eat. She wants to look around and see what's going on, even if I'm feeding her in her room with the door closed and no one else in the room. She is doing a little better with it, though, because she has begun to sleep through the night and hunger usually wins over the curiousity after 10-11 hours of not eating. But she would still rather look at me and smile than eat a lot. C R A Z Y girl!! Oh well. So more about Bryn, she's getting really close to rolling over. She rolls onto her side but can't seem to figure out how to get past her arm (Brian says it's her fat rolls, but it's her arm!!) ;0) She can go in a circle if you leave her on the floor long enough, though, because every time she rolls to her side she moves a little. It's pretty funny. We started her on rice cereal today. She actually liked it. She wasn't too sure of it at first because of the different texture, but she started to open her mouth in anticipation for more, so that's a good sign. Maybe it's because she realized she could eat that and still look around and see everything!! Also, she has discovered her thumb. We've never had a thumb-sucker before and I'm a little worried about breaking the habit, but boy, it has been nice at night. That's the reason she sleeps through the night now. I'm really liking that part of it, so we'll let it be for now! ;0)

Austin is doing well. He's doing much better in the "toileting" area. It just has to be his idea to go #2. He has a little bit of a stubborn side in him. (That's a slight understatement!!) He talks up a storm and always makes me smile and laugh with some of the things he says. He loves to sing, especially Christmas songs right now. I think Jingle Bells is his favorite. He is fascinated by the Christmas tree and rearranges the ornaments daily! He's also fascinated by presents. He seems to have a 6th sense on where I'm hiding the presents. He found some in my hope chest in my room but I don't think he saw individual items, he just saw "lots of cool toys and things" (his own words). Then he found the present Paige got for him in the guest room. They usually don't go in there so I thought it would be OK to put the bag in the room for the day. I guess I thought wrong. I was in feeding Bryn and I heard some rustling in the guest room next door. When I finished with Bryn, I went in there and found Austin playing with the toy tools. Luckily they were still in the box. When I saw him he said, "Mom, I'm getting some cool Bob the Builder toys! They're so cool!!" Nice, Austin, nice!! At least I know he will like them!! :o) He was very mad the next morning when they weren't in the guest room anymore! Hopefully he won't find the next hiding spot!! :0)

Paige is our little drama queen and smarty-pants. She lets us know exactly how she's feeling, whether it's happy, ecstatic, sad, angry, confused, etc. She really keeps us on our toes. She is loving preschool, her preschool and primary teachers, her friends, and pretty much life as a whole!! She's very creative and loves to draw, make up words to songs and play pretend. She puts on her Cinderella dress everytime I turn on music and dances like there's no tomorrow! Every time I see the Primary chorister in our ward, she tells me how much she loves Paige. She says that she knows almost every word of every song they sing and she loves to answer questions during Sharing time. She gave me piece of paper after church on Sunday and I opened it to find a thank you card. She drew me a picture and then at the top she had written Thank You. I asked her if she had help writing it and she said, "No, Mom. I just saw what the Bishop wrote on the board and then I copied it on my paper!" She was very proud of herself and I have to say that I don't blame her. Now she asks me all the time how to spell different words and she writes the letters on the paper. I have a feeling she's going to LOVE school in the fall!!

As for Brian, he's doing well. He's busy with work and church as always. He's such a good provider for us and a wonderful example of hard work. I love it because he's so willing to help with the kids when he's home. He usually puts Austin down for his nap when he's home for lunch and then usually puts the kids to bed if he's home. The kids just adore him and love it when he comes home from work. He's getting very excited to go snowboarding!! We're hoping to go this weekend. We'll see if we can work something out so I can go for at least 1/2 a day. I haven't been for years, so hopefully we can do it!

I'm sorry I don't have pictures this time. I have lots of pictures to post, but I didn't have time to upload them to the computer from my camera and then post. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pics up. I still have a lot of things to do by the end of this week, so we'll see. At least I can cross "update blog" off my list!! :0)

Our Halloween post....just a few days late!

I really did have good intentions and planned on posting some pics throughout the day on Halloween, but life just got in the way like it usually does. Oh well! Anyway, here's some pics of our fun day!!

Happy Halloween!!!

It took us several days to get this picture because every time I tried to take it, Bryn had a blow-out in her Halloween shirt. And I'm being serious, EVERY TIME!! I think this was attempt #5. And FYI, she blew out of it again later on in the day! :0)

Paige's Preschool Halloween Party

Can you see Paige in back, 3rd from the left. She saw that I had my camera out and she started posing. Crazy girl!! ;0)

"Mom, seriously, I'm eating here!!"

"Me, too?!?" (She fell asleep in this position soon after this picture was taken.)

Trunk-or-Treat

Two witches and a pirate

The fam

We even decorated our trunk for the first time ever! ;0) I had jars of yucky "ingredients" for spells out of my "Abra Cadabra Spell Book". There were Worms (gummy worms), Intestines (egg noodles cooked in green water), Crocodile eyeballs (grapes with pupils drawn in), Snake skins (carrot peels) and Vomit (cooked oatmeal with cinnamon chips and thyme leaves). It was pretty funny how real the vomit one looked!! :0)

The Amish guy getting a little lovin' from the Witch

Max the leopard and Bryn the flower

Max trying on Paige's witch hair. Stylin'!! How we love having him closer to us!! He is such a good, happy boy!!

The Food

Eyeballs (carrots, cream cheese and olives) and Witch fingers (cheese sticks, cream cheese and green peppers)

The kids LOVED these!!! :0)

Mummy "dogs"

The kids loved these, too. They helped wrap the hot dogs with the roll dough and thought it was the funniest thing. Paige was the one who thought we should have hash browns with them and together we thought of calling them "graveyard grass". Creative, I know! ;0)

Just a fun pic of Pirate Austin. If he sees the camera, he asks for a picture to be taken of him. Silly boy!!

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

Can I tell you...we LOVE living right next to a great big softball field with lots of trees lining it because it means LOTS of leaves that we can play with and not have to worry about raking. (Unless we're making leave piles to jump in, that is!!!) :0) The kids thought this was the best thing ever and have done it many times since. I'm sure you notice Austin's bike helmet. He LOVES this thing. He was riding the trike before this but refused to take it off. Silly boy.

I've been trying to do more projects with the kids because I've been slacking in that area lately. But how can you NOT do projects in the Fall with all of the leaves, Halloween, etc.!! :0) We've made little puppets, owls, and many leaf projects. I don't have pics of all the projects, but here's a couple.

My sweet little kiddos

Paige had her Primary Program yesterday at church and she did a great job. She was so excited to sing all of the songs and say her little line. The whole time she was up there she made sure I was watching her. She would get a huge grin on her face and wave whenever I looked at her (which was almost the whole time, of course!) :0) She had her line, "Heavenly Father loves me and has a plan for me" memorized and she had no problem saying it except she was a little too close to the mic. Oh well, I knew what she was saying! :0) She knew almost all the words to each of the songs and wasn't afraid to sing! I love that about Paige! She is always singing, making up new songs, dancing, etc. If music is involved, she's a happy camper! Anyway, all 3 kids looked so cute yesterday so I had to take some pics of them. Aren't they the cutest?!? (Or am I just a little biased?) :0)

Oh, how we love this sweet little girl!

A couple projects I've been doing

A friend of mine saw Paige's halloween bow and wanted some like it for her girls. The only request was that it had a little purple. Kelly definitely has great taste because the purple in these bows made them complete!! I LOVE them!! If I had had a little more time, I would have made another bow just like these for Paige. You can never have too many bows, right?!? :0)

Austin's walls are looking a little bare, so I decided to do a little project to fix that! I have Bri make some very simple 12"x12" frames (I could have done it, but I wanted Bri to have a chance to help me! :0)) and then I covered the frames with fabric and painted these adorable pics on them. I just found the pics online, printed them out and used them as stencils. Very easy. I had to include the Jeep because Austin absolutely LOVES his Uncle Brandon and Uncle Brandon LOVES Jeeps! ;0) I have to say, they turned out so cute!!

June pool party with the monkeys

Every month a bunch of moms and the kids try to get together to do an activity or a project. In June, we had a little pool party, except it wasn't really little. There were A LOT of little kiddos, but that's what made it fun. Paige and Austin had a blast, as you can see from the pics! Can't wait to do it again next summer!!

A view of all the pools. I think we had 5 or 6 pools set up and each one had kids in it the entire time. :0)