A 'Friendly' Christmas Evening

Well, friendly for all of us that attended, wish we could invite EVERYONE over for a gathering........hard to pick & choose because we have sooo many great friends & people in our lives and soooo little time in December, but that's life ;).........

We always have family parties and get-togethers, which we look forward to, LOVE and cherish every year. This year we also wanted to do a nice dinner with just a few friends (and ALL the kids). Their were 8 of us and 8 kids. We had an adult table & a kids' table. The dinner was traditional with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, Katie's yummy (and naughty) creamed corn, sweet potatoes, rolls etc....... lots of pies! Everything was delicious and we all had a great night. Trevor brined, massaged and injected the turkey with 'stuff', it was really really good! It was a fun and festive way to celebrate with others we love!

Afterward, the kids totally piled on Michael-Ryan, my kids love him, poor guy. But they had a blast. He's great with them.




Thanks all for coming, we had a great night and love having good friends in our lives and our kids' lives, you all have more impact than you know. Thank you for your friendship!

December at our house

A few more cute shots of the kids, I decided their cute sweaters are not just for wearing to church, they are going to wear them all winter long and get lots of use. Most of them are hand me downs but are in great condition because the other kids probably only wore them a couple times for church too!

I've been keep Christmas music on all day.......everyday and Carter LOVES 'jingle bells' and 'rub a bum bum' (that's how Tannon said it........soooo funny!!)- the little drummer boy. When jingle bells came on the other day, Carter wanted to put on his cute reindeer hat and his 'jingle' bracelet and sing! It was so cute, he's such a funny kid.

A couple more shots of their towers they like to build with blocks. They always want pictures of their creations. Love these boys and love this age.



Hope you and your family are having fun celebrating this special time of year!

Christmas all month long!

,

We've been getting ready for Christmas at our home, have you? I love this Season and I love sharing it with my children. As they get a little older, they understand more.

For example, this year, Tannon has remained consistent with what he wants Santa to bring him. It hasn't changed since August of this year!!!! That's one serious kid! Want to know what it is??? It's a large plastic boat that comes with a little cage on top which holds sand toys (shovel, small pail etc). When we went camping this past summer at Red Fish Lake with some friends, one of the younger boys (Sam, 15 mos at the time?) had this boat........Tannon played with it the WHOLE time and has wanted one ever since. I tried to find one after summer on clearance but couldn't!!! I figured he'd just forget about it...........nope......... we saw one @ Winco on clearance and he shrieked with joy in the store hoping I would buy it for him.......I did, but them promptly told him that it was for another little boy's birthday gift. He was disappointed, but understood very well that it was not his. He then said that maybe Santa would bring him one for Christmas. I hid it as soon as we got home. He has seen Santa Claus twice now and both times he's said he wants the boat. Santa always thinks it's some big boat to ride in/on, but Tannon corrects him by saying it's a toy boat to play with in the water.

So, we started the month off with crazy early Black Friday shopping (just Heather), I pretty much got what I went for, but the thing that made my day was when I pulled up to my house and I saw Trevor putting up the lights on the house, I think a little coaxing from the kids helped! They look great and I LOVE having a festive home this time of year. Thanks Trevor!!

'
I only love snow for special effects, it makes the lights look so pretty........ but brrrr it's cold!!


The next fun 'Christmas-y' thing we did (another great idea from Trevor) was head to Pocatello on Saturday (Nov 28), Trevor had to finish up a countertop job for PermaGlaze for a few hours. I took the kids to a park to play and then to Costco while he worked. But that evening at the Pocatello Fairgrounds there was a Toys for Tots event, a wrapped toy was the admission and they had 3 HUGE bonfires, hot chocolate, chili dogs, and a visit from Santa! What a fun way to do something different spend the day together.

Carter wasn't too sure about Santa, but the candy cane changed his mind........



Santa was pretty interested in Tannon's 'boat'.



The next day (Sun 29th). We put our tree up and did a family ornament exchange. Carter loves his ornament (Winnie the Pooh glass ball) and was sure to put it rigtht at his eye level so he can see it whenver he wants too. The tree was one of my "doorbusters". Decided to get a new one, we needed something tall & thin to fit our space. Our other one is great, but you feel like it's going to eat you the moment you walk in the door..... there's just nowhere else in our living to put one and our basement isn't finished. So this works for us.

The kids LOVE helping Daddy get the tree up and lights/ornaments on. They did so good and were actually very helpful......only one ornament broke this year.


Tannon & Carter asked me to take their picture in front of the finished tree, funny kids. I did this last year too (in their Christmas jammies) and they saw a picture of it and wanted me to do it again.

That's a pretty skinny tree!!

Just a quick shot of my tiny Nativity (I finally got one last year!), maybe someday I'll have a really nice one that's a little larger, but this works perfectly for right now (and the price was right!) We always hang a stocking for the 'baby Jesus', there's a story that goes along with it and it's tradition for us to give him a 'gift' each year. On Christmas Eve, we read what our gifts were to Jesus from the previous year (personal spiritual goals) and then we write new ones and place them in the stocking to be read the following year.

This past week was the PAT (parents as teachers) Christmas get together. The kids got to make these adorable reindeer hats, make jingle bell bracelets and sing until Santa came. He gave them each a special book and a candy cane! Such a fun time, the kids looked sooo cute in their hats!

Then , we had the kids' "playgroup" Christmas party at a good friend's house. She was brave to host 16 kids, but they all had a blast giving/receiving little gifts. I'm grateful for good friends to do fun things with and also grateful that my kids have a few little friends of their own.

Tried to get a group picture with everyone looking, but they lost interest pretty quickly.

So this is a really LONG post, so I must try harder to update more often! Hope this brings you all up to speed on what our family is doing. We are doing well and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Blessed Season!

A few pics

Whenever I clip coupons, I tend to make a huge mess, but it's all worth it in the end. The kids actually delight in the mess, telling Mommy that she made such a big mess. They think they are doing such good work to clean it up (and they are!). It seems to be a totally fun chore to them (wish that would last forever!).

While Carter would rather take all the waste and put it in the large garbage can in the garage, Tannon gets more creative. He had quite a time of building his garbage tower, making sure none of the crumples hit the ground, he was so proud of it!

Funny kids






The first thing Tannon said when it snowed this week (just a few days before Halloween) was, "Oh my......., I guess I'm going to have to go out and shovel all that snow". So, we battled with the mittens for a bit, got the snow boots and out and off he went to do his job.

Tannon's generally a very happy helper and quite a big help at times, too. I'm thankful for this, he teaches Carter so many things and is a good example more often than not!

Our Halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone, our neighbors are all out putting up their Christmas lights and we will soon do the same.....

I love Halloween, I have great childhood memories of this (and every) holiday. I truly enjoy re-living it through my kids!


We had a really fun Halloween week/weekend. Our highlights were:

Tuesday- Trunk or Treat at Grandma & Grandpa Bluth's church house. There's always really fun carnival type games, cookie decorating and of course, Trunk or Treat

Friday- Pumpkin carving, we had a really fun night as a family doing this. Trevor printed out a couple outlines and we did those. The kids drew faces on their pumpkins w/markers and then Trevor carved them out as closely as he could to their drawings, they did such a good job! I was very impressed, they turned out so adorable!

Our pumpkin family


Daddy's shy pumpkin

Mommy's mean pumpkin


Tannon's on the left, Carter on right (so cute!)

Saturday morning (Halloween)- Michelle & I hosted a kiddie Halloween party at her house. I think there were 15 or 16 kids? I don't know, but there were plenty and they had a great time. I've actually never hosted a kid party before, but I think it turned out great! We did these fun things:

• "Jack Jack Pumpkin" (duck duck goose)
• "Jack says" (simon says)
• Musical chairs
• Witches Corner- story time
• Pinata
• Decorated Sugar Cookies
• Had pizza & veggies for lunch
  

Saturday night (Halloween)- Hosted "A Chili Night" at my house with all the family. We had baked potatoes w/chili, broccoli, cheese (all the regular fix ins), lots of cookies, rolls etc.

Then, of course, we headed out for trick or treating. The kids had a blast and it was a really fun holiday for everyone (i think!).

I know gripe about my kids growing up too fast; they are learning/changing growing every day it seems. However, I'm so glad I have this time to enjoy them and do fun things making memories with them. I'm thankful to have family close by whom are part of my children's lives, and I'm thankful for those whom aren't close by but choose to be close to us nonetheless. Families are such a blessing. You all play a much bigger part than you may know.

Hope everyone had a fun & safe Halloween!

Food Storage Analyzer (from Emergency Essentials)

Hey Friends & Family,

Have you checked this out yet? You can enter your food storage items into this analyzer and see what your total calorie count is to determine how much food and what types (carb protein, fat etc) your family will need to have a well-rounded food storage supply.

I've used an excel spreadsheet in the past just to keep track of everything, but this far surpasses that, it will be quite the process to get mine all converted, but what a GREAT idea and it's so easy! Plus, you get a free $10 gift card just for trying it out!

Check it out for yourself!

This is how to Shop!!

While I am not going to list all the details of my purchase. I will tell you that coupon shopping is the only way to go these days.......it takes a bit of planning and time, but it is sooooooo worth it in the end. However, today I had to do A LOT of running to get these deals, I don't always try to hit 4 stores in one day, but today is the last day of many sales and I've been out of town......so I did it anyway (and my kids were pretty good..........most of the time)

Here is my breakdown for today:
Albertsons $10.55
(check out my CASE of Post Selects Blueberry Morning cereal!! I got 16 boxes!)
Smiths $19.95
(i got some misc sale stuff i hadn't planned on buying there)
Walgreens $6.83

Total $37.33

Here's the best part, I get a $20 rebate, a $10 rebate, plus I got back $17.00 in catalinas @ Albertsons (to use just like cash in the store for my next purchase!) So, when I add it all up, ($47.00 in rebates/cash back)I actually got paid $10 to shop today!

Oops, I also got these shirts that I forgot to put in the pic, they're just knit sport shirts- they're nice! (already added into my Walgreens total above), but they were $1.74 ea. You can see my catalinas below too (just in case you didn't know what they were).

I love Albertsons (especially the Broadway location), they've been having some GREAT deals lately. Hope you all are able to get in on some of the goods!!