Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner and as always it seems to come too fast but we've had fun with all the holiday festivities and parties.

Emma's Ballet class had us come and see what they've been learning. Emma really enjoys ballet and the slow music as she says. She is a very graceful dancer and it was really cool to see how much she has learned in a short amount of time. So excited for her recital in the Spring!
We had our ward Christmas party which was really nice. They had a band playing fun music, fantastic food and Santa and Mrs. Clause paid a visit with reindeer cake pops. I missed having Santa at our ward Christmas parties in Texas, that's how it was at my ward parties growing up and what's a Christmas party without Santa? It's fun for the kids and I don't think it takes away from the true meaning, it's not like we bring Santa to primary on Sundays. Anywho, that's my two cents.
I love this picture.
I look forward to my families Christmas party every year, it's always so much fun! There are 14 grandkids with one on the way :) and they're starting to take over the parties now but instead of doing a gift exchange between the siblings we go on a sibling date with no kids! Its fantastic and we have so much fun! Here are the kids doing the Nativity and poor Ben who is the oldest grandchild (12) went up to his Mom after getting into costume and said, "Shoot me now" Lol, I remember feeling that way at my Grandmas Christmas parties. There should be an age limit. :)
Each family tries to contribute something to the program. My brother Spencer is an amazing clogger and his girls have picked up on that talent, so fun to watch!
My sister stepped out of the norm and did an hilarious Muppet skit.
And my hubby did his Christmas jam, very proud am I. The kids were just mesmerized while Aaron played, they loved it!
We had a craft table to distract the kids so us adults could play Christmas song pictionary.
I love pinterest, so many great ideas, like this one I just finished as a gift for my mom and Mother-in-laws. I took makeup compacts, cleaned them out and turned them into mini photo albums they can carry around with them in their purse.
I was able to get 7 pictures of the girls into one and they come out accordion style. Pretty cool huh? Way cheap and super easy!
It's not Christmas without gingerbread houses. I found this package of a cute mini village, so fun!

Watch out, it's giant Emma and Chloe!
And my Texas girl Shelley made me this shirt, hehe I Love it!


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Getting in the holiday mood

I can't believe it's December already, craziness! Our holidays have been really nice so far. We got to have 3 Thanksgivings, one at Aaron's Dads house, one at my Moms house, and one in Delta. Lot of Turkey, yummy! I think I gained some extra pounds.

The best part of Thanksgiving weekend for me was shooting guns in Grandma Dutsons backyard for 3 hours. We have 3 different 22's and it's been years since we've had the chance to shoot them and it was so much fun! We set up a bunch of targets and I got really good, quite proud of myself :) After hours of shooting, Sheena's boyfriend brought out his shotguns and after trying that once Grandma Dutson got a little freaked and made us call it quits.

This is my very own little 22, cute huh? It might look little but it's quite loud and way fun to shoot!

Tonight we braved the chilly weather and layered up like The Christmas Story to take Trax to see the lights at Temple Square. We had so many layers, even our pajama bottoms under our jeans, but even after all the "Oh Mom leave us alone, we're fine" and the rolling eyes from Aaron, everyone was quite thankful I made them layer up.


Halfway through Chloe rebelled and refused to wear her coat but she had an undershirt, two long sleeve shirts, a sweatshirt, scarf and was still fine.




My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Fall Colors at Stewart Falls

Last month we took advantage of the last nice weather Sunday and went on a hike up to Stewart Falls. It was such a pretty hike with all the Fall leaves and I love a hike with a great destination at the end, makes it all worth it.

Isn't it pretty?

This was the longest, hardest hike we've taken the girls on yet and they loved it as much as we did. The hike was 4 miles total and the girls were so proud of themselves for making it all the way. Im so glad that hiking is something we have done since the girls were really little, they have fun and never complain. They're such troopers.


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Parties and Pumpkins, Costumes and Candy!

I wasn't ready for summer to end, it seems like we just had the Holidays, and they always put all the Christmas stuff up way too early in the stores, give me a break, I can't deal with that right now....but a few Halloween parties and a visit to the pumpkin patch has gotten me in the mood for the Holidays. I've wanted to dress Aaron up as Harry Potter for years. Looking online costumes are $70+ so we had to figure something else out. Aaron already had the suit part with the sweater vest, white button up shirt, slacks, dress shoes. I found a black cape in our costume box, a pair of glasses and a tie that looks almost exactly like Harry's at DI. All we needed was a wand and we found a pretty good looking one among the sticks in Aaron's mom's yard in Delta. I think he makes a great Harry Potter, don't you? Tho I think he looks more like Harry Potter's Dad. I wish I had made time to put together a Ginny costume for me, would have been perfect, but the best I could do was witches for me and the girls.

Emma on her way to her Ballet Halloween Dance Party, had no idea she could be so sassy.

Chloe heading to her Preschool Party as Miss Kitty.

My Mom throws a Halloween party for the grand kids every year and it's so much fun for the kids. We got all 14 kids together for a picture and I took a ton and they all looked like this, someone blinked, looking the other way, or poor little Will unhappy and crying BUT

I got Lucky! My last picture I just happened to get all the kids looking, no one blinking, Will stopped crying and they're all smiling, amazing! And check out the wide arrange of costumes we have this year, my personal favorite was my niece Christine as Flo from Progressive, she looked just like her LOL! Will as Charlie Brown, Adorable! A mime, Pippy Longstocking, a giant banana and many more. Such creative kiddos.
Check out the spread! My Mom went all out for the food this year and she likes to work under pressure so she put off all the shopping and setting up till that morning so we all chipped into to get it put together.
We had cheese fingers,
rotten mouths,
delicious bones,
mummy pizzas,
and a severed hand in bloody punch.

After the party we headed to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins. The girls loved the smaller sized wheelbarrows they got to push around, even though they were a little tough to push sometimes.







Decorating them is half the fun, and I found some fun ideas on pinterest this year.

The girls were so cute as we went Trick or Treating. They ran from house to house yelling at the top of their lungs 'Trick or Treat!' And then Chloe would end by saying in her sweet little voice 'Have a Happy Halloween,' she said they practiced at preschool. :) After an hour and half of trying to keep up with the girls, their buckets were full to the brim with goodies, we had to call it a night. Hope you all had a fun Halloween.

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com