friendsgiving

We have been so grateful these past couple years to be invited to spend Thanksgiving with friends and their extended families. This year we ate with a big group in a church building - they were mostly all related but there were others like us that just didn't have family around. 

We were told just to bring a side, and of course Jared and I had different ideas in mind. So we made both! 

Mine was a mix of butternut squash, cranberries, herbs, and feta. Jared's was a green bean casserole. I feel like these two dishes are pretty good depictions of Jared and I, no?!

 Emmett was excited because both of his favorite friends, Riggdon and Dylan were there. (Not the best pic, but its what we have to work with). They colored pictures of pilgrims while they ate.

 Surprise, surprise - guess who loved the food?

 ...and still loving it

There was even a room set up for the kids to watch a movie. I think it was "Brave"

Taters and I showing off our Turkey day ensembles

This was my favorite part of dinner (nothing new here). German Chocolate Pie. Mmmmm. Not the best foodtography. But it was delish.

 This is my friend Kristi who invited us

 After dinner Jared and Tate came home and succumbed to their food comas...

...While Emmy and I headed for a night on the town.

Walmart to be exact! Turns out Emmett was a great little Black Friday shopper! Other than that he kept getting distracted and wanting to look at the toy aisles. I was like "Em! This is not the time! We've got a strict order of operations here!" We happened upon this shield which he used to protect us from the mobs. We conquered and got everything we came for!

And then along with the rest of the world, we pulled out our tree the following day. I LOVE Christmas trees. The beauty and magic they bring to the house, and the happy nostalgia of decorating it every year. The collecting of ornaments that hold special meanings and memories, and unwrapping them each year and reliving them. It was fun to have both boys old enough to get into hanging the ornaments. Actually Tate was a little too into the ornaments so after a couple days our tree ended up only having ornaments on the top half, where chubby mischievous fingers couldn't reach.

It was, as always, a great season to reflect on our blessings, which are too numerous to count. 

happy haunts

If I'm gonna catch up on this blog I'm gonna do it right! We started the month of October by taking Emmett's first preschool field trip to a pumpkin patch. 

Lucky little Taters got to come along

 And even picked out his own tater sized pumpkin

Emmett with some of his classmates. They fed animals at a petting zoo, picked out pumpkins, jumped in bounce houses and went on a hayride.

Their favorite part ended up being racing down a giant dirt hill over and over.

 
Later in the month we went to our ward Halloween party. Here's our Toy Story family. Emmett was too busy having fun to join in the photo.

Here he is completing the obstacle course. Notice he's not dressed as Toy Story this time. The boy has enough costumes he wore a different one to every Halloween event he went to.

On Halloween day, he chose to be Darth Vader, A new fascination had been struck since his Jedi Training School days at Disneyland.

His preschool had a fun Halloween party where they jumped on the trampoline, trick or treated to all the parents, and showed us their "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" routine. 

 Being October in AZ it was too warm to run around in their costumes for long.

 Finally it was time to trick or treat. We started the evening by roasting marshmallows with some friends.

Tate was a perfect plumpy Dumbo. Recognize this costume?

Here it is worn by Emmett three years before!

 The gang- Emmett, Colin, Jaylee and Logan

 This was one of Emmetts favorite houses because he got to choose whether to take candy from the dark side or light. Being Darth, he chose Dark of course

We ended the month by having our first family campout. In none other than our backyard. The boys were so excited and loved reading books and telling scary stories by lantern light. High maintenance Taters didnt make it all night and had to be taken inside to a real mattress.

Maybe camping in the backyard is just the way to go for this family ;)

november (For lack of a better title)

I was originally just going to write a thanksgiving post, but as I was sorting through my photos I realized I'd be leaving out some good things. So I'll just lump all of November together.

In the beginning of November, we went to a pretty park near us, scouting picture locations for our family photos. The park has a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a couple other little carnival rides, and a train that circles the perimeter of the park. So we made a fun little afternoon of it and walked around, played on the playground, then rode the train. I wanted to take some of our family pictures by the Ferris wheel and carousel but Jared wasn't having it!

Emmett also went to the dentist, and it was the first time he laid back on the chair by himself like a big boy.

 

Now every time I brush his teeth at night we have to play "dentist" and he loves me to pretend to put on his glasses and lay him back.

 

Here are a few shots of Tate while he was 3 months old

I love that chub picture in the bumbo. He was just checkin out Emmett's morning cartoons.

 

 

As you can see, month 3 was when this guy really started smiling and laughing

 

And a few shots of brotherly love

 

Despite what it looks like, Emmett does have underwear on in the big picture. Some day its just hard to get clothes on that boy (as evidenced in all shots above)

 

Morning snuggles are the best

Can you tell how much Emmett loves his baby brother?

 

(and Me too!)

 

Emmett had his share of fun in November

Fishing with Dad by our house (and catching one while we weren't paying attention!), playing in the rain, and taking another Pee Wee PE class. It amazes me how coordinated and athletic he is.

 

And now... we've finally made it up to Thanksgiving!

 

I wanted to add some more Thanksgiving décor this year. I've accumulated some Halloween and Christmas, but had nothing for in between. The problem was I didn't feel like spending money on it! So I was proud of myself when I pieced this together with scraps in my scrap bin.

 

 

For the first time in our married life, we didn't do Thanksgiving with our families this year. We decided to save our money and travel time up for Christmas Break. Fortunately we were invited to share Thanksgiving with our friends Josh & Aubrey and their extended family, so we weren't alone!

 

Josh's family all traveled in from out of state, and they rented a "guesthouse" while they were here. The owner of the main property was an ex tennis pro, and often uses his guesthouse to bring players in and train them.  So needless to say the compound (as I like to call it) was very nice!

 

 

Though the weather was still pretty nice (around the 60s), it was too cold for pool. The kids were happy to spend their time in the hot tub.

 

And playing on the tennis court

We also had a fun minute to win it competition, and I'm sad I can't find this cute picture I had of Emmett swinging a tennis ball around from a hanging pantyhose on his head.... lol. Can you picture it?

 

And  I didn't even take any obligatory food or table pictures! That right there tells you it wasn't your typical Thanksgiving :) We all ate outside buffet style since there were so many of us, and between that and the nice weather, the absence of our own families, and the mini resort we were at, you could almost forget it was Thanksgiving! I didn't actually didn't mind though, because being a little different than our traditional Thanksgiving around the table - made us not feel homesick the way I was afraid we might be. And Emmett had SO much fun, we had to carry him kicking and screaming to the car on the way out.

 

We have so much to be grateful for this year, and I swear the list of things just keeps getting longer and longer with each passing year. Since moving away from home I've been particularly grateful for my sisters (not that I'm not grateful for the rest of the family!), and the close friendship we share. I realize that not many people are blessed to have a relationship like us four. Since moving here they've each already been out to visit us here in Arizona, and I'd be concerned if a day passed and I hadn't heard from any of them! I'm grateful for Jared's job and this great place we live. I'm so thankful the move went pretty seamlessly, and despite never having stepped foot in the state other than coming to look at rental properties, it became home surprisingly quick. I almost don't even want to write about being grateful my pregnancy went well and Tate arrived safely, because I know no words can express that gratitude properly. I'm very grateful for our health and that of our extended family. I'm grateful for Jared and the great husband and Dad he is, and the opportunity he provides me to be home with our boys. I'm grateful for the new friendships we've made, and the ones that are just blooming. And lastly I'm grateful that to know that Heavenly Father knows me individually and all my wants/needs/strengths and weaknesses.

 

I think we will always remember this Thanksgiving, as it was a big milestone year for us and our first away from home. And I'm glad to say it was wonderful! :-)

all hallows eve (and its festivities)

I love the holidays (and you KNOW I particularly love Halloween). I love packing them full of as many events as possible. My affection has grown exponentially since the day Emmett was born. Kids just make every little part of them so much more fun. We attended a little community "Fall Festival" when Kirsten was still here (I had to strongly resist the urge to refer to her as Bicki - Her aunt nickname).

There was crafts and games and a little children's costume parade at the end.

 

Next up came our ward trunk or treat party. I couldn't let Halloween come and go without dressing up! So at last minute Kirsten and I ran to Goodwill and scored some finds. Jared was the party pooper... like every year! He just doesn't have the love for costumes like I do!

 

 When he realized that everyone else in the family was going dressed up, he consented at last minute to let me shove a pillow in the back of his shirt. (I was dressed as Esmerelda and said he could be the hunchback). But you know Jar, he was too bashful and took it out as soon as we got there.

 

 

 I just love both my little superheroes

 

 

  Next up on the Halloween bucket list was taking Emmett to a fun pumpkin patch. I was totally going through withdrawals for Cornbelly's. I LOVE Cornbelly's! Everyone was posting pictures and making me jealous. We found a pretty good substitute, called Vertuccio Farms. STILL not Cornbellys, but it worked and Emmett had a grand ole time.

 

 

That smile in the left photo is what I do it all for. Nothing can explain how fulfilled I feel when I see Emmett purely happy.

 

And THEN on Halloween day, I gave in and decided to take the boys to Schnepf Farms - the big attraction around here. There was a ton of stuff to do (even carnival rides), but since it was the last day it was far too busy for my taste. If we go back again I'll make sure to go early in the month!

 

We went with our good friend Whitney - who, believe it or not, lived in our basement in Provo. We both got hit by a wind that landed us in the same place! :)

First we headed over to Farmer Bob's pig races (which was pretty hilarious)

They even had a goat race, which was far less entertaining. The goats missed the memo it was a RACE.

After the races we played at a park, waited in line for some rides (then after 15 minutes decided the lines weren't moving and decided to get OUT of line, ate Italian ice, then walked over to the pumpkin patch area. Em was thoroughly occupied by pushing pumpkins around in his wheelbarrow.

 

 

 

Whitney had to take off early, but being early on in my reign of two boys I was feeling pretty brave, so I decided to stick around and take them on the hay ride.

 

They had some type of reindeer from (Africa? I cant remember), but we got to stop, pick some orange leaves and feed them, which was pretty neat.

 

When the hayride was over, Emmett stared to go crazy/run off - and in a crowd of that many people where I couldn't chase him because I was tied to the baby's stroller - I had to think quick! I spotted a candy store up ahead, lured him in, then told him I'd only buy the candy if he'd be a good boy and walk to the car with me after. Hook line and sink 'em. Bribery never fails.

 

All that was left in our Halloween extravaganza was getting ready for the actual night! I got the boys all dressed and forgoed my own costume this time. I didn't want to be that weird mom walking around all dressed up by herself for trick or treating.

 

ahhh heart melting

 

Emmett loved all the decorations

 

OR I just made him pose by all the decorations. You decide.

PHEW!! Are you still with me?! Congratulations! That takes endurance. I know it did on my end. This may be the most time consuming post I've ever done. But man does it feel good! Remind me not to get so far behind next time...

As you can see we really did pack Halloween full of a lot of fun things. Aside from just being plain fun, I hope to create strong memories for the boys. When they're grown (which will never happen, because they're going to stay babies forever!!) I want them to look back with fondness and remember what good times we had as a family, and how much their parents loved them.

Stay tuned for lots more holiday adventures to come! Hopefully sooner rather than later... :)