Fall Randoms

 I have been terrible at posting and taking pictures, Partly because I spend so much time doing school documentation and logging that I just don't feel like up dating our blog, Part of me thinks if I didn't know I would hate my choice later and that the few people who read my blog would hate it I would just use our school notes as our blog alas I am not there yet, but evernote and I we are tight! And I am so much better at keeping it to date so a lot of pictures are on my phone as that makes the process slick. Which means I have pictures in two places now instead of one and these ones are actually from my mom's camera. These two are the kids hard at work on our remodel. In November my parents decided it was time for a remodel, so we tore out their floor, their trim, a fridge and an oven , we repainted the kitchen , dining room and front room, and put in new flooring in those area's it looks pretty good. Doug worked really hard on it, and got it done before thanksgiving the day before thanksgiving but that was our goal. The kids love to build and work with Doug they think it is great.

 While the house was under construction we didn't have a front room to watch shows in so the kids would pile into bed with Grandma or Grandpa and watch a show or two, A couple times Audryn got to join the fun she thought that was great. She loves it when she gets to do what the big kids are doing.

 Addy went to the Christmas parade with my mom the Day after Thanksgiving. She was the only kiddo that wanted to go so Grandma took her on a date they had a great time.

 A birthday picture of the cake eating fun

 Halloween pictures. The kids went half the time as a Race Car driver, a Pilot, and a pig and the other half the time as Monsters. Since we do so many halloween activities it usually pays to have more then one costume it also solves many an angry kiddo.

 Doug in his Monster costume, and below the Family of Monsters.

Lego Birthday Party

 I can't believe we have a four year old and a 6 year old now!!! They decided to have a lego party for their birthday this year. My mom and I took them to Legoland this year and ever since they have loved legos and we created a great party themed around them. We Sent out invites to our friends that I had put together I would add it if I knew how to fuzzy info hahaha Anyways after the invites were out we switched our gears normally we play a game at night as a family before bed but we switched to building a lego item together to get our decor put together for the party it was fun and they loved helping. Finally the day of the party came, We waited and did it the sat before their birthdays which is kind of late in December with Christmas and  people traveling we were not sure we would have many of our friends show, We were pleasantly surprised a good number of our friends made it which made it that much more fun. Some of my dear friends as in Mom's stayed to help which made the party a success.Grandma and Grandpa were also a HUGE help. We could not have pulled it off without them. We started with a photo booth where the kids could make themselves lego men. Above Addy 6 and below James 4.  We had construction hats and building passes with their names on them for each kid so everyone could quickly be identified by name by all mom's not just me.

 Some of our friends and their fun photo shots....

 We set up in two rooms and a corridor at Doug's office which is perfect since he is a builder, it totally tied to our theme. Some of our other games were pin the parts on the lego man, Toss the brick which was a lego bean bag into a box made to look like a large lego...

 We served lunch which was made up of the kids favorites so it was kind of random things that don't really go together, but they did for this party. When we got food for all the kids there was a moment where it was silent, which was crazy for the number of kids we had.

 We had buckets of lego's (we had gotten on a black friday sale so worth it) that we set around and gave all the kids a set of wheels so they could build a car these are all the cars that were made. There were some really clever ones.

 The party goers. Our kids are blessed to have good friends that are good people we are thankful to have each of them in our lives and for the friendship they give to our family.

 Doug put together a ramp so the kids could race their cars which was a hit.

 I made lego brick cupcakes, The bricks were made of chocolate and turned out so cute.

 We played pass the lego, kind of like hot potato.

 Audryn came over after the party for a little bit to play, During the party since I knew I was going to be busy she went to a friends house and played which is so her style anyways.

 The three kiddos together. The kids had so much fun at the party, I am glad it all came together. We saved the presents and they opened them on their actual birthdays

 We all had a blast to be quite honest. Who knew lego's would be so much fun.

 Here are some pictures of the decor we put together, normally these frames have sports illustrated magazine covers in them, we just taped paper over the top and added  some lego decor, It was fun. Some of the decor came from a friend that had thrown a lego party for her son awhile back she gave me all her stuff to put to use, I gladly took it, tweaked it a bit and added to it. We had the lego movie playing in the back ground but when we got home the kids said we didn't even get to watch the movie and I said it was playing the whole time, they both were shocked they had no idea. They were too busy having fun.

 We made name plaques for both the kids with their age and we even made lego crayons! Doug melted crayons into molds to make minifig's Below is our coloring station

It was really a lot of fun to have all our friends together and have such a fun party. I wish I had taken better picture of all the decor even the straws had lego heads on them it looked so good alas I was too busy with everything else I left the picture taking up to others, at least I have some pictures.  The next day was James birthday and we did a birthday dinner with the cousins. We got to have the cousins all to ourselves and we played some of the same lego games and reused some of the decor. Addy choose to go to dinner on her birthday after going to scheels and riding on the ferris wheel. .

See What i can do

 James and Addy had their See what I can do at Gymnastics mid December. The kids both did so GREAT! James is very good at gymnastics he is strong and picks things up quickly, Addy has kind of struggled with gymnastics she loves it but she has to work much harder to do things and to learn the material but this 8 week session she nailed it she was able to show us and do all the moves fully and the way they were intended to be done, we were so proud of her and all her progress. She also lost tooth number eight that day, She knocked it out flying on a body swing earlier that day, It need to come out, but probably wouldn't have fallen out on it's own for a couple days man we need teeth to start growing back in, Her and Audryn are about to have the same number of teeth in their mouth.

Tis' the Season

 Here are some of the pictures from our festivities before Christmas, I don't have pictures from us seeing the Christmas lights, or from any of our really fun family home evenings that were Christmas based, Which included the First Presidency Christmas message, We did a gift of giving learning how to give and what to give to others, a give to other's fhe where we did cards for serviceman and women as well as did some local gift giving to those in need and our friends The kids and I made play dough for our friends here in town Peppermint scented and colored it red and white, they turned out cute and it was fun to do together.. And we did  a Christ/ Santa Comparison which I actually did on Christmas Eve. I told the kids that there was going to be a very special visitor coming to our home and I wanted to describe him to them, I described him and the kids of course thought I was talking about Santa, I had James knock on a door I had made out of paper and attached to a cookie sheet then he opened the door it was a Picture of Jesus We talked about the true meaning of Christmas and about the symbols of Christmas again. It was a perfect set up for Christmas morning. We opened our traditional one gift, put out food for the reindeer and santa and sent the kids to bed. When the kids got up at almost 8:00 we let them check out and play with the stuff from Santa then we did breakfast, while we were at the table Addy was listing off all the things she wanted to do on Christmas, which included going sledding (we got snow) playing lego's (a new fave at our house) playing pirates and watching a new show they had received I laughed and said what about opening presents, She said, oh yeah we should do that too! We all got a good laugh out it. Anyways Earlier in December We took the kids to see Santa at Doug's office, it was a Coop field trip so all our friends were there I had put together homemade hot chocolate and sugar cookies for everyone to decorate after they saw Santa. James told santa he had to sit on his lap and smile once at the camera that was the only reason he was there, LOL Addy was all about seeing Santa although she explained to him she knew he wasn't the real Santa but she would appreciate him passing on to the Real Santa how good she had in fact been this year and Audryn well she wanted nothing to do with him.

 Santa always gives out presents at the office Addy picked this Cute HUH!!!

 My sugar cookies turned out sooo beautiful and tasted good too, I had to take a picture since that is really not the norm. James helped me make the cookies, He really loves to help in the kitchen.

 Addy's class program had a special visitor so we gave it a try with Dryn to see if she would like it any better a second time, she didn't. But Addy explained the same to this Santa as she did the other one. It was really cute.

 Addy's class production was kind of a big deal the practiced for weeks and had rehearsals Addy had her own line she had to practice and memorize. She did great and loved it, She memorized all the songs and could not wait to show us how hard she had worked and what she had learned.  We were very proud of her and all her progress she has made.

 James Coop had a Christmas party, we got to make Christmas trees and did fun stories and games and we did the  living Nativity complete with music it was so cute!

 James was an Adorable Joseph and Mary well she has asked James to Marry her, which side note we would love, she is such a great girl. But since they are three we will you know give them some time to figure that all out. LOL

 Isn't she cute?

 Seriously so cute together, I tell James all the time that him and Riley together would be a reckoning force, He is a natural leader and she is Charismatic and has a solid sense of self, together they are fun really fun I love it when we have play dates and these two are my Mateys so fun!

 My friends costumes for the nativity were fun too, all handmade except the Roman Soldiers which is what Addy is above.

One of our last festivities was James Preschool Christmas party which was nice it was low key and he did great they sang and put on a show but there was no pressure, James was dancing and singing and loved it. I love his Preschool and the head teacher she is so centered, the kind of teacher that brings her guitar to class and sings her way through the day, Yep love that. We had oodles of other Christmas Adventures and spent as much time together and enjoying the season as we could. Including we went to a showing of It's a wonderful life and Mary Poppins on Stage The kids loved loved loved it. They love the performing arts.  We also made it to the Art museum to see the Lego exhibit. We have been busy, but totally loved every minute of it. It will be hard for us to let Doug go back to work and get back to life as we know it....