Brr!!!

 I love Christmas! Unlike many, I am insistent on waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate or listen to Christmas music. I don't like to rob Thanksgiving of it's uniqueness and recognition. But I do love it when it comes time to bring out all the stuff and go get the tree (yeah, we're suckers and still get a real tree every year, although this is the first year we have debated on which to do)

 So here are just a couple pic's of how I "decorate" - I really wanted my nativity to be on my shelf, but after putting it up there, the shelf was leaning downwards, so I moved it to the piano, which I actually like more because you can see it better and it is the first thing you see when you walk in to my house. And don't worry, Mark has an awesome stocking just like the other kids waiting for him at Grandma's house.

 A pic of my YW at our Christmas kick off activity where I showed them some cake decorating stuff for cupcakes that we ate (of course!) and also delivered to those who weren't at the activity and to some of the leaders in the ward who do alot (like the bishop, YW president, Elder's Quorum president, etc)

 This a pic during the construction of a storage shelf in our garage Robert built himself. Don't worry, that 2X4 is just there for temporary support. It now has three chains going up into the ceiling for permanent support. We liked this concept so much when we saw it at my sister's house and Robert found it to be so simple and relatively inexpensive, so he built a second one on the other side of the garage. We are still debating whether we really need a third over the freezers on the back wall, but this simply fabulous for now. Very excited to have so much more storage so the garage won't be so cluttered!

 A horrible pic of the parade Sam was in last week. Our little town has a light parade every December and then what they call Midnight Madness after where most of the businesses are open until midnight and have sales and specials going. Kinda like our own Black Friday. Well this year they decided to do a float for the kids in the Spanish language immersion program. Sam had a blast riding on the float and throwing candy! He was so caught up in it that he didn't even see us even though both Robert and I were screaming his name at him :)

 A picture of our gorgeous tree this year. This thing was such a pain to decorate. I don't know why, but every year I forget to plug in and test the lights before I put them on the tree. Of course the top two strands didn't work. I get them off the tree and start going through them to try and find the broken bulb and Sam does something to make the other half of the string not work. Robert tried and couldn't fix them, so we were going to just get a new strand of lights. But everything kept happening preventing us from getting to the store to get more lights. During all of this Sam is bugging me every day with "Can we decorate the tree yet?" I finally just decided to take off the blue lights and only do white this year so we could just get the dang thing done.

 The traditional decorating sugar cookies with our favorite peeps! The reason why I say Brrr! for the post title is because we have been having temps in the single digits for the past two weeks. Not fun to walk Sam down and wait for the bus for 20 mins when it is -2 outside! And last week we woke up to no power. We went over to the Potter's house which was slightly warmer than ours due to their gas fireplace and hung out until after lunchtime when the power finally came back. It is supposed to start to warm up the end of this week coming back up into the 30's, which will be nice. But today is a great day because even though it is still quite cold, there are huge snowflakes gently falling outside. Makes it all worth it!

 Our cute Amy showing off the new skirt she got from our friends. I have been so grateful to have found a person who has 2 very girly girls that are just older than Amy to get hand-me-downs from! Just about all of our Christmas shopping is done and a few more projects to finish up before we leave town for the warm country next Saturday. Tonight Sam gets to go to the school board meeting to sing a song in Spanish so they can see how the kids are doing. Tomorrow night Robert and I get to go out for his work's Christmas dinner at Johnny Carino's (I know, I'm in heaven!). Then Saturday is our ward's Christmas breakfast. Let the holiday madness commence!!

November Wrapped Up

These are literally the only pictures I have taken the last 2 weeks. First Mark got a runny nose, then Mommy ended up with a head cold, and now Amy has a cough, too. It must be fall time. The last couple weeks of November whizzed by with not alot going on. We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving break, a first for us and it has been fun! Here, we went shooting with Robert's aunt and uncle and Sam is trying out Mommy's new handgun (more on that below)

This is Mark after the Thanksgiving feast. This kid has had a hard time sleeping lately, which makes it hard for Mommy to get better, but somehow we are surviving. We had Thanksgiving with our friends, the Potters and then on Saturday we had a second, mini feast of different appetizers - very yum!

And the aforementioned new addition to the family. My Christmas present! It is a Ruger SR .22. Which basically means it is a sweet little handgun that shoots .22 bullets so it isn't crazy scary to shoot and makes me feel like a bad guy in the movies and wanting to say "stick 'em up" :) Robert figured it was probably my turn to get a new gun since he has 5 guns to my (then) 1 gun. I absolutely love this little baby!!

And speaking of babies, here's our little Marky again :) We were having fun with this hat on his head one day :) When he isn't sick, he has begun to sleep 12 hrs at night - so very nice!! And that is about it for us. Hopefully we will get this sickness thing done and overwith this week and start cranking on all the Christmas projects I have started but not finished. Merry Christmas!!

First Part of November

 So at least I'm back again before 2 months went by. Here is a pic of Katie Potter "holding" Mark. She is around 18 months (but super tiny) and thinks she is big enough to hold Mark and be one of the big kids! She loves Mark so much, it's adorable to see how excited she gets around him!

 Mark had his 4 month check-up and the Dr. gave me a little rebuking because he doesn't spend much time on the floor and thus hasn't started to roll yet. So we went home and I put him on the floor and left him there for a while. He screamed and cried until he finally just gave up the fight and fell asleep. Not my favorite thing about being a parent - tough love.

 Sam showing me his creation with the cardboard from the new set of sheets I had to get for our bed (does anyone else have the problem of sheets only lasting a year before shredding? Even 500 count sheets!) He decided to make himself a weapon belt with hand granades and such drawn on. He was so devastated when I finally made him throw it away. Oh the joys of recycling!

 And one night I decided to try to make more of an effort to play with my kids, so we made a fort in the front room using the flat sheets we never use on our bed and chairs. Sad to say this is our first fort ever. Robert's mom made Sam a tepee for Christmas one year, so if they ever want one, we just set that one up. But now my kids can check that off their childhood bucket list :)

 Watching TV one day and I look down to see Sam holding Mark's hand to his face. I just love how tender and sweet Sam is with his baby brother. And Mark just adores him, too!

 For kindergarten, the kids brought home a turkey that they had to disguise however they wanted so their turkeys (named Tom) wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. Since Sam was doing this for his Spanish class, we decided to do Vaquero Tom (or Cowboy Tom). He was pretty thrilled and I am learning just how little artistic skill I have (see later on for further affirmation of this)

 (not here necessarily) In planning for Christmas, I decided to try out an idea I found on Pinterest a while back to pay out Q-tips in a design and then spray paint on top. It looks pretty cool, but not quite what I wanted, so this idea is nixed for other people, but I think I will put these up in the kids' rooms

 And apparently this is what I look like when I am feeding Mark, because Amy told me she was feeding her baby just like Mommy. I guess I better work on my posture.

 And a couple pic's of the kids hold Mark. Sam can barely carry Mark, but he can do it. It just doesn't happen very often.

 If anyone has suggestions on how to keep Amy from picking at this sore on her nose, PLEASE HELP ME! We have tried bandaids (cute and regular), gloves, rewards, threats, etc. and we can not keep her from messing with it both when she is awake and asleep. It has been over a month now and is driving me nuts!!!!

 And the pic of the day I finally got our Gratitude Tree up. This is the further affirmation of my non-artistic abilities. But now there are many, many more leaves on our tree and it doesn't look so terrible. This year I wanted to start more of the traditions I see other people do with their kids because Sam is old enough to understand and Amy is old enough to be excited about whatever we are doing.

 A sweet little pic of how those mesh bumper pads don't always quite do their job. I have a pic of Amy asleep with her arm slung over it, too!

 We got our first snowfall and the kids were super excited to go out and play in it. The wind was blowing like crazy so I thought they would only be out for five minutes, but those crazy kids stayed out for over half an hour! When I finally made them come inside their hands and faces were so red!! But they had fun and every day Amy asks if she can go out and play in the snow. Soon enough, sweetie!

 When we were doing our shopping at Winco, Amy saw a little boy who had slumped over and fallen asleep on his mom's purse. So she wanted to give it a try and pretended to be sleeping. Hey, whatever keeps her happy, right?

My sweet little guy! He has been teething (at least the bottom two, possibly more), so has been fussy and sleepy and now has a little bit of a cold. So he has also been snuffly and sometimes chokes on the drainage, causing him to gag and choke until he empties his tummy all over me and the couch. Lots of fun.

Rest of October

And here are the others from October

 One day Mark was just super smiley and happy, so we had fun taking lots of pictures of him and Amy on the couch.

 It was my birthday this month! And that is about where it ends. Later that week I celebrated with two of my friends who also have birthdays that week. We had dinner and yummy cupcakes (not made by me) and then sent the menfolk to the Priesthood session and the kids downstairs to destroy play while the birthday ladies chatted and watched "Just Like Heaven"

 After Conference on Sunday, we drove up Swan Valley a little ways to do some "treasure hunting". For those of you who don't know what this is, there are crazy people out there who go hide boxes, or caches as they are known, and then post the coordinates online for others to go and find. We use Robert's GPS from work and it can be loads of fun trying to find just where they have hidden those silly things. The area was just gorgeous along the Snake River.

 The pumpkins we carved for Halloween with glowsticks inside (my favorite way to light them, but not every night). "We" being the kids who chose the pictures and me who did the muscle work. I think they turned out quite cute, especially with the different colored glowsticks inside!

 Sam and Amy holding the medical play dolls I made for patients at Primary Children's Hospital. Even though I had a gazillion things going on, a friend of mine posted on FB that she would be going to Primary's and was taking donations down. I have always wanted to do something in honor of our Kaylie, but the right situation never presented itsself. Until now. So I did it. According to their directions, you needed 1/3 yd of fabric to make one doll. So I bought 2 yds so I could make six dolls. Well, it made 11. That turned into a huge project real fast to cut, sew, trim, turn, fill, handstitch and then make gowns for 11 dolls. It ended up being nearly 12 straight hours of sewing and working, but it was well worth the effort!

 Kids being crazy at bedtime

 Sam showing off his ghost while waiting for our first parent teacher conference. Sam is doing really well in school. He is at grade level in everything and above grade level in a couple areas. He is loving the Spanish immersion program and I enjoy being able to help in both classes on Thursdays.

 This is a quick pic from the Halloween Mystery Dinner we did for our YM/YW combined that I was mainly in charge of. It was a ton of work and kinda crazy the night of while serving the dinner, but it was definitely memorable and I think the youth really enjoyed it!

 Next comes our awesome trip to St. George for my family's reunion. I know most families do theirs in the summertime, but that just doesn't work for our family, so we tried it in the fall. It worked out pretty well because it was UEA for my brothers, my oldest sister home-schools her children, the next does year round school and they were off, and Sam had Friday off of school so he only ended up missing 1 day.

 We had a blast doing all of the "usual" Whatcott activities like four-wheeling, shooting, hiking, pictures, eating, etc.

 Sam was a pretty good shot with the bow and arrow.

 The older kids painting rocks

 Out on the hike to see the hieroglyphs - I packed Mark in the front carrier the whole way in and out - I was pretty proud of myself!

 Shooting skeets

 Sam and Daddy pulling for everyone

 Isn't this an awesome pic? Yeah, my sister is gorgeous even while shooting in the desert.

 Some of the grandkids lined up on the Pine Valley Church. We went to see this, the oldest chapel in LDS history, but it wasn't open this day, darnit!

 Kisses for Opa

 And the day after we got home, I did a cake for my friend who took the awesome family pictures you see on the side of the blog. We traded a cake for pictures - it was sweet!

 And a glance at how Sam has changed over the years. My favorite part about getting new pictures is to take out the old ones and line them up! I definitely have a handsome little guy!

So photogenic, even while sleeping! Maybe I should try that? :)

More from September

So I guess it wasn't just October I was missing pictures from, so here is the other half of pictures from September.

 Just a random picture of my favorite guy actually getting some floor time. It is dangerous to leave him on the floor for too long! And for some reason, all of my kids sleep this way with their arms up over their heads.

 Amy and Sam playing airplane one day with an on-board medic :)

 In September is when Amy, Mark, and I flew to Arizona for a couple of days to join the other sisters and sister-in-law who came home for a visit. It was a pleasant, short trip! These are the older kids who came: Amy, Holly, Cayden, and Luke.

 Amy and Holly are only a few months apart in age and had so much fun playing together!

 On the way back to the airport they both sacked out, but Amy was sure to comfort her brother :)

 I loved this random pic from this month where he is totally asleep, but keeping his binky in his mouth for himself

 This is Julie and her youngest, Katie. This girl LOVES Mark - it is so adorable to watch!! Especially when she yells to "hold" Mark

 In the adorable Cabela's outfit Aunt Candace bought for Sam when he was the same age

 Mark is my super happy guy. This is him hanging out on the floor while we were waiting to fly to Arizona.

 I was so especially excited to meet this new little guy, Landon. He is about 10 weeks younger than Mark and was the last grandson born this summer. The things on his ears (because I know you are going to ask) are to help shape his ears (apparently they were quite misshapen when he was born). He ended up wearing them for a solid month and a half, but now has perfect little ears!

 Robert's mom making a massive amount of the tradition Skousen gooey rolls for the RS broadcast

 The girls of the family: Sister Kayla, Sister Shanna, Mother Trixie, Sister Lisa, Sister-in-Law Stacey, and Sister-in-Law Me

The three grandsons born this summer going from youngest to oldest. They were nicknamed Sleepy, Grumpy, and Happy :)