Snow, A Thanksgiving Feast, A Christmas Parade & Santa

Last weekend we got about 8 inches of snow! It's funny how that Monday we were outside playing with just a light jacket and then 6 days later the snow is coming down on us! It was our first real snowfall of the season and the kids were dying to play in it. As soon as they woke up last Saturday morning, they wanted to go outside, worried it might just melt away (which, trust me, was not gonna happen that day). It was great packing snow and the kids had a blast. Me, I just got depressed realizing how close we are to the never ending snows of winter.

On Tuesday Benny had his Thanksgiving Feast at school and I was lucky enough to help out at it because Tyler was able to watch the girls. It was so fun being in his classroom and helping them get their hats on for the feast and then passing out all sorts of different food to a room full of picky eaters. I tried my hardest to persuade them to eat new things but 5 year olds are not easily persuaded. Most of them didn't even like my marshmallow topped sweet potatoes! Silly kids, don't know what they're missing out on. I also enjoyed everyone asking me if I was Benny's mom, made me feel so special ;) Seriously though, I wish I could volunteer in the classroom more, I love it!

Thanksgiving morning Lucy woke up super upset and crying about her ears hurting so Tyler took to a CVS minute clinic where she was indeed diagnosed with an ear infection. Poor Tyler woke up feeling super sick that day too so it was not a great start to Thanksgiving but it did get better. I spent most of the day cooking which I actually really enjoyed. I made crescent rolls from scratch for my first time ever, I made Tyler's Hatch Family Cranberry juice which I think is disgusting, I made an Oreo pie that the kids absolutely gobbled down and I made some garlic mashed potatoes that were a hit with everyone. I was proud of myself for being so domestic! 

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our buddies the Mark, Laci and Wesley and with Mark's sister and brother who were in town. The food all turned out so amazing and the company was complete perfection that between it all, I was able to not feel too sad about being away from family for my first Thanksgiving ever! I think that's a pretty big accomplishment :) And to top of a great Thanksgiving I did some Black Thursday shopping that night and scored myself a few good deals. Whoop, whoop!

This morning we went to Milford's Christmas Parade with our neighbors. There was candy, dance troops, marching bands and of course, Santa! The kids had a good time despite the cold temperatures:

Afterwards I took the kids to go visit with the Milford Santa (all but Penny because she fell asleep so Tyler took her home). There were 4 families in front of us so I figured the wait was totally doable. Oh. My. Goodness. The first family told Santa what they wanted, snapped their pictures and then went on their way but the next family, which included 2 OLDER girls (like 9 &10) spent literally 15 minutes with Santa. The family in front of me ended up leaving because their toddler was throwing a tantrum. I just don't understand how people can hear that toddler crying to see Santa and just continue on their Santa hogging ways. Oi! To be honest I was little creeped out wondering if maybe Santa was enjoying his time with these older girls a bit too much. Needles to say we kept our time with Santa brief and I am not sure I would return there, even though it's just a short walk from our home. At least Lucy got a chance to tell Santa that she wanted a Barbie Horse!

Fun Times & Sick Times

Monday the weather warmed up a bit so as soon as the boys got off of school we all walked down to the park. We had a pretty fun last hurrah at the park! Lucy enjoyed making all sorts of "funny" faces for the camera:

Lucy also had her first dentist appointment on Monday. She was so quiet and shy and literally did not talk the entire time we were there. She kept her eyes glued on the "Sofia the First" episode that was playing and did what she was told. The whole staff was impressed with how well she did! I just smiled and pretended like she is always this angelic. As soon as we got out of the office she yammered on about the "strawberry shortcake" toothpaste they gave her (it was strawberry flavored). She, as typical, still points to her teeth and says "dentist put strawberry shortcake." 

This week Steven got lucky and found not only a jacket that he had lost at school, but I found his $6 that he had lost ages ago. He had worked hard to earn that money to get a Minecraft book at the Bookfair and somewhere between getting it and the next morning, it was gone! There was a lot of wailing and weeping and him claiming that he put it in his backpack but weeks later I found it under the couch so hmmm...

Benny seems to be enjoying school these days, no more tears! He's also started "reading" books to me. Basically he memorizes the repetitive sentence and will recite them to me but it's still fun to have him read to me. He also gets really excited about things he does in class. This week he made a paper turkey and made sure to tell me his progress on it each day. Love my little Kindergartner. 

And speaking of turkeys, we found this one in front of a nearby business:

Penny Pants and Lucy both came down with colds Tuesday (runny noses and a fever for Lucy) and they have both been terrible sleepers, waking up several times at night. And on top of that, poor Penny is still figuring out this walking thing and keeps falling. She ended up hitting her eye on the corner of our coffee table and got a terrible black eye from that. It was perfect timing for the pictures we got done Friday. My friend did the kids individual pictures Friday (she had done the family ones already) and while the boys were super cooperative, the whiny, fussy, black eyed, runny nose girls did not do so fabulous. I don't have hopes for their pictures. Maybe we'll just have to put this cute pic of her on the Christmas card instead:

Other going ons: 

I ended up getting the book for my Book Club super last minute (it was unattainable from the library so I had to wati for someone to share) and I finished reading all 10 hours of it in 3 days. I was impressed with myself and also equally exhausted. But at least I got to reward myself by going to book club with my friends and eating yummy pear cake there. 

We went to Milford's Big Reveal Thursday night. This is where businesses put wrapping paper up on their windows and then the kids get to rip it off and see the Christmas displays behind them. It was FREEZING! Low 40's with strong winds and I just wanted to get back into my warm bed but I think the kids enjoyed it. Steven was especially proud of himself for pulling off such a big piece of wrapping paper. The window they revealed was unexciting but they really loved the windows that had real live people in them (one with a winter prince and princess dancing) and they of course enjoyed the hot chocolate that my neighbor bought for them. She is much too nice! 

Gratitude Pumpkins, Doctor Visits & Other Things

Another super unexciting week which makes me happy. Unfortunately, this week the weather decided to take a turn for the cold which doesn't make me happy. We even got some snow flurries yesterday- boo!

Some of our happenings this week...

*On Monday we printed out pictures of everything the boys wanted for Christmas and then narrowed down the list to how much they can actually get. This was a good move because now they can stop focusing on what they want. The list is made and it is final. No more thinking about it.

*To counteract with all the greediness, for family home evening that night, each kid received a gratitude pumpkin. Every night at dinner the kids write one thing they are grateful for on it. So at least for one minute of each day they remember to be grateful:

*On Tuesday we had lunch bunch at our house since the lady in my Ward who normally hosts it needed a break. Unfortunately hosting it here made me have to do some intense (but much needed) cleaning. I'm not sure why I bothered though, the kids who came just exploded everything anyways. 

*Wednesday night I had my BUNCO group and I rolled 4 BUNCO's pretty much in a row! I had such amazing luck for one round and then, it disappeared :( It was fun while it lasted and at least I still placed second but I was a depressing 3 points away from first place and from that $50 Target giftcard. Sad day!

*Thursday Miss Lucy had her three year checkup. All is well with her and she is just growing big, big, big! She now weighs 34 pounds and is 3 feet 3 inches tall. She was really nervous for the appointment (thanks to Steven traumatizing her last time) and kept saying "I'm scared of the doctor!" But luckily she didn't need any shots so hopefully she'll be less scared for next time. The doctor did tell her to pat dry after peeing and now every time she pees she says, "Doctor say pat pat pat!" She's such a little parrot. She's also been super crazy this week, into anything and everything, constant messes and destruction and with her not napping but once a week....I'm exhausted!

*Thursday we had a belated birthday celebration for my friend Laci at the Cheesecake Factory. We had a good turn out with about 7 other ladies there and we had way too much fun. Goodness I love me a good girl's night!

* On Friday we went over to Laci's house to entertain Wesley so she could get some packing done (she's moving out of her condo into a house 5 minutes away). Wesley adores Lucy and they had fun hiding in a box together. This was the best picture I could get though because Wesley always runs as soon as someone tries to take his picture:

* Also on Friday Lucy fell asleep in the car when we picked up the boys from school. Since it was too cold to leave her in the car, I carried her inside expecting her to wake up but when I set her down on Benny's little trampoline she stayed sleeping. She must of been exhausted from all her craziness at last:

*This week Penny has really become a walker! Already the days of her walking just to me are over! She walks on her own quite often so I think very soon we will be able to officially call her a walker! It's crazy how much they change in just a week! Love her and her cheesy smile:

A Calm Week

The last couple weeks have been kind of crazy between having Grandma in town, Halloween and Lucy's birthday. This week, things finally felt like they went back to normal and it was nice to have a pretty unexciting week for once. Also this week the weather warmed up and we were blessed with lots of days in the 70's. It was a good week!

What we did...The kids had no school Tuesday and we spent the morning grocery shopping! Lucky kids! Wednesday was my friend Laci's birthday so we pigged out on cinnamon rolls while the kids played at the mall. Thursday was spent visiting teaching and going to a stake primary meeting. Friday morning I watched a friend's little boy and Friday night Tyler and I took the kids out to Red Robin's where they all behaved surprisingly well. And today was the Primary Program Practice. I have been placed behind the microphone and entrusted with too much responsibility. We'll see how tomorrow goes *gulp*! So as you can see, a nice and normal week!

My kids in a nutshell:

Penny has been a fussy child as of late and some days she can make me sooo cRaZy! But she makes up for it by loving me lots. I am the only person she'll walk too which makes me feel pretty special. She takes a handful of steps but still isn't walking like a champ. And she has officially worn out the bottoms in one pair of leggings thanks to her butt scootin' ways. She is also a pretty picky eater and pretty much survives on milk, go-gurt, and goldfish. Every once in awhile she will expand her horizons to include some sort of fruit or toast but that is not an always thing.

Steven and Benny keep busy with school and homework. They both have also been very into the Target Christmas Toy Catalog we have got and deciding what Santa is going to get them. They have some very high aspirations. They just need to work on making sure their behavior doesn't exclude them from getting these things. Ben for the most part does good because he is easily motivated by the jewels we earn for screen time- these jewels have finally gotten him eating all his lunch instead of just one or two bites. Steven, on the other hand, has been struggling with fighting with his siblings and isn't as easily motivated to be good. They are both lucky that they are just so darn handsome:

And Lucy. Oh my Lucy. Anytime I tell her about anyone from Nursery she says "he my friend!" Always "he," even for the girls. And you CAN NOT say they're your friend because she will get very upset and say, "NO! He MY friend!" She also has started to say "No problem" when asked to do something. Which is nice right, except she doesn't actually do what she was asked to do. And this little stinker is all mine, all the time because she only takes a nice, long nap about once a week. Most days she will stay upstairs and take a break for like 30 minutes but then she's back down, ready to play. Lucky that I love her.

This week she spent the money her great grandparents gave her for her birthday on these lovely accessories and an Elsa dress. She is such a Diva:

And to end this post here is Lucy with what she believes to be a snack sized bowl:

I was in the bathroom when she asked for some goldfish so I told her to get a bowl and I would pour it for her when I was done. She decided to pick the largest bowl possible and then pour it herself. Quite ambitious!

Halloween!

After carving our pumpkins Halloween morning we raked leaves! Super exciting, right!? The boys earned $10 that morning by filling up 10 bags of leaves. We still have at least 10 more bags of leaves left to do. This whole Fall thing makes for a lot of work. But Steven was pretty excited about this working and earning money thing, he kept telling me that today was the best day ever. So of course, immediately after earning this money, the boys wanted to go spend it. So Tyler obliged and the boys spent the afternoon spending their new found wealth. They also made a stop at Verizon where they got me a new phone- whoop whoop! I finally have a phone that can handle group and picture texts and the battery will get me through the day and then some! Yippee!

Then night came and it was time to go trick-or-treating! As I was trying to finish getting the kids ready, people started coming to our door. It stressed me out a bit but we just turned off lights, shut the door and headed to the backyard for some pre-trick-or-treating pictures. The boys are into Star Wars, and Target had a sale so a Star Wars theme it was. I don't normally get into the dressing  up thing but due to a costume party we were invited to I got into the spirit and it was quite fun. Here we are:

Tyler and Penny came with us to a few houses and then they went back to the house to hand out candy.

They were lucky that they got to hand out candy under the safety of the porch because after we got nice and far from our house, the rain came down. It wasn't a super heavy rain but enough to get us damp and to make the 48 degree temp feel a little colder. The boys were all about persevering through the rain for a bit but eventually the cold got to Steven and he started complaining that he couldn't feel his hands and that the wet and cold was going to make him sick and he wanted to go home. So home we went. Here are our after pictures:

Our lucky Penny, nice and dry:

Pumpkin Time!

Last week we picked up Steven, Ben and Penny's pumpkins. On the night before Halloween we finally had some time to turn them into jack-o-lanterns. We decided that we would only worry about getting the pumpkin guts out that night though, and the next morning we would carve them. I'm glad we split it up like that, it made the whole process way less overwhelming since they all need lots of help still.

Here are the before shots of the kids with their pumpkins: 

Since Penny didn't have her own pumpkin she spent the time climbing the stairs, getting into trouble and throwing tantrums:

Penny does this awesome thing now where she throws herself back when she's upset. I swear she is going to knock herself out one of these days!

The kids are all still pretty squeamish about pumpkin guts:

It took a lot of courage for them to pretend like they were eating them...

The next morning the boys and I scanned Pinterest for ideas for their pumpkins. Once they decided what they wanted they sketched it out on paper and then they used a dry erase marker to draw it on their pumpkin:

Then, because Tyler is much better at it then I, he cut them out:

Lucy went a different route with her pumpkin. She took a drill to it and made "flowers" It was super fun that she actually got to help "carve" hers and it was super fun to watch her use a drill:

And here are the results:

Benny was adamant that he wanted his pumpkin to have a loose tooth 

Of course, Steven wanted a Creeper

Lucy and her flowers