Family Daze: November 2008

I know that I have been absent from the blogging scence for a while now and I apologize to everyone. Time just seems to slip away from me. So much has been going on its hard to keep up. In October we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. They had a wonderful time. Charlie liked sitting in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins. The girls had to have their own wheelbarrow to cart around the patch. They all loved putting pumpkins in an out of the wheelbarrows. Amazingly we were actually able to get a picture of all us together.

Just a few days after the pumpkin patch it was off to California for Uncle Sean and Aunt Liz's Wedding. The girls were flower girls and Jason was best man. The girls were so beautiful (thank you Sean and Liz for the dresses). They had a wonderful time getting their hair and make-up done. They even got to ride in a limo to the ceremony. They also loved the reception. They had their own little kids table that they shared with the ring bearers. It had coloring books and crayons, bubbles and toys on it. It also had one more thing, Pixie Sticks. They thought they had gone to heaven. Instead of eating their dinner they filled their bellies mostly with colored sugar. Yeah for Mommy!!!! Daddy was "convientely" seated at the head table and was "unable" to help monitor the girls sugar intake. Needless to say they were on a major sugar rush. All that sugar came in handy for all the dancing they did. The girls partnered off with the ringbearers. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The kids litterally danced till the party was over. Then they passed out into sugar induced comas. Emma literally fell asleep the minute we picked her up to take her out to the car. It was a wonderful wedding and a great day. Faith also got to celebrate her fifth birthday in California. Nana bought her her very own little Strawberry Shortcake cake. Not only did she get spoiled with gifts, but all the kids did. They had a wonderful time at the party. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

Just two days after we got back from California, my family came out to visit. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law and my niece came out. It was so wonderful to have them all here. Faith go to have another birthday party here as well. And of course she got more presents. I think she started to think that every few days it was time to have a party with cake and presents. My family joined us at church for Hyrum's blessing. It was so wonderful to have them there to share that with us. We all were very emotional. It was one of the greatest days we had on their visit. We got to hang out a lot and the kids got to know their cousin. We are trying to convince my sister and brother-in-law to move out here. I'm using every trick in the book to get them out here. I have even offered free babysitting whenever they want. But hey, no pressure. The kids all got to go trick-or-treating together for Halloween. They had so much fun. Faith was Slivermist from the new Tinker Bell movie (in other words she was a fairy). Emma of course had to do the same thing as her sister so she was also a fairy. Charlie was a duck. It was the cutest thing. I can't believe that he actually let us put the hat and the foot covers on him. He didn't even try to take them off. All the guys took the kids while the womenfolk hung back at the house with Hyrum and all the good candy. We loved having all of them here.

So that puts us up to date. Everyone is doing well considering they are all sick. The only healthy people in the house are Hyrum and myself. Faith is enjoying school. Although we are getting a good dose of the "parental curse". You know the one that all of our parents have cast upon us; "I hope you have children just like yourself." Well we got that. Of course it would have been nice to have some of our traits more evenly distributed among the children. The case in point; Faith had received a couple of straight faces and a sad face at school over the last couple of weeks. She received them for getting out of her seat to talk to her friends. I know right about now my parents are cracking up. I used to get in trouble for the same thing. In case that weren't enough Jason was also a talker in class. So we have double the problem. She loves to talk to her friends. I can only imagine what our phone bill will be like when she reaches her teen years. Heaven help us. Emma and Charlie love hanging out together when they aren't fighting. We have a lot of fun together. Emma has really begun to be more of a motherly type since Faith has gone off to school. She very much wants to be just like her sister. Every morning she askes me when she gets to ride the bus with Faith. She can't hardly wait. Neither can I. It will be nice to only have two kids at home next school year. Charlie is such a boy. He is constantly tearing down Emma's "castles" when they are playing with the blocks. Not only does he tear them down he then laughs about it. He also loves to throw anything that remotely looks like a ball. Which means he likes to throw everything. He is such a cutie though. He is also a very loving boy. I love watching him with Hyrum. He is so gentle with him. He loves to rub his head and give him kisses. They will be the best of friends and the worst of enemies I'm sure. Hyrum is doing great. He gets chubbier everyday. I love nibbling on his leg rolls. He is just a great baby. He started smiling about two weeks ago. He has the biggest smile. Right now his favorite thing to smile at is the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving was great. For the first time we did Thanksgiving with just our "little" family. Now that there are so many of us it feels like we have company over. The kids loved watching us cook all the food. Faith kept saying she couldn't wait to have a feast. She loved telling us (about 100 times) about the Piligrams and the Indians. She even did a little Thanksgiving reenactment with her Little People Thanksgiving set (Thanks again Nana). We all hung out in our pj's all day and stuffed ourselves with lots of yummy food. Next year we'll probably let the girls help out with some of the cooking. I think their favorite part was when I made fresh whipped cream. I put it in a pipping bag to decorate the pie and I had some left over. So naturally I squeased a little into my mouth, you know, quality check. Of course then everyone wanted a little. They pretty much had whipped cream for dessert. I wish we had gotten them on camera enjoying it.

We started decorating the house for Christmas. I tried to convince Jason to start on Thanksgiving. He said he refused to start decorating before the day after Thanksgiving. So Friday we started :). The girls are looking forward to decorating the tree and hanging their stockings. I LOVE Christmas time. Now its time to finish the decorating and start making our gifts for family.

On another note Jason and I will be expanding our family soon. That's right Jason and I are getting a dog (probably). I bet you all thought we were pregnant, didn't you? Her name is Lady and she is a 2 1/2 yr old, pit bull/terrier mix. We have been allowed to keep her for a week to see how we like her. So far she has been wonderful. She is already house trained. She is trained so well that when she has to go outside she rings these bells we have placed on the back door. She then barks at the back door to tell us she is ready to come back inside. She has been great with the kids as well. She loves to follow me around and I think she is closer to me than anyone else. We think she will be a great addition to our family. Once we make a final decision I will post pictures of her.

Well that is it from our house. I am including some recent pictures as well. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and we hope the Christmas spirit has begun to touch your heart. We love you all.