Brothers

I couldn't help but post this picture of Kaden and Ethan. Man, I love those two!

Ethan

Ethan had a lot of fun this year with the Christmas bears from Grandma/pa Marley. He would pile them up, lay down and cuddle with them. He called them his babies. It was so sweet.

Copper was a pretty compliant pillow as well. Copper and Ethan are great buddies. I love the look on Copper's face. You know exactly what he's thinking. What a good puppy!

Christmas Crafting

Saturday morning Kaden and Jase came to me and said, "Mom we want to do a craft." I thought, well bust my buttons, when is this ever going to happen again? My boys want to craft! So I made trip to the craft store and came home with oodles of kid friendly Christmas crafts.

We had puff balls, felt and tacky glue everywhere! The crafts turned out to be a little trickier than anticipated. But with a solid team effort we prevailed!

Jase and I totally rocked that snow man....and guess what, almost a week later he's still intact!

Grandma Marley and Kaden had a little more trouble with the Santa Claus, apparently he had a lot of parts. Whatev, they got him mostly together and he looks great...Santa doesn't really need arms anyway.
Sunday when we got home from church the boys were still in a crafting mood, so I pulled out the foam gingerbread kit I picked up. Since I was busy making bread Jason was up as team captain.

Jase had a great time decorating the house, he has a real eye for detail.
I couldn't stay away from the fun, although in this shot I'm looking a little intense. The gingerbread house turned out fabulous, the boys had a lot of fun, and are so proud of their creations. Not a bad weekend, eh?!

Grandpa Santa

We had a special visit last weekend from Santa! That's right, the jolly big man himself....well sort of. Grandpa Byrd was on special assignment that evening as one of Santa's helpers and he made a pass by our house to spread some Christmas cheer.

It took Kaden about 10 seconds to figure out that this red suited character was his Grandpa.

Ethan was only slightly freaked out. He was fine as long as Santa didn't try to touch him.

Santa brought little goodies and plenty of ho ho ho's. The boys really enjoyed their visit from Santa. The best part.....as Santa was leaving he reminded them that he would be watching to make sure they were still on the Good List. As soon as he was out the door, the boys were in their room cleaning! It was awesome!!!

Chocolate Cake

I love to cook. Love to bake....ehh....not so much. What does Jason love to eat? Sweet sugar laden confections. So....now I bake. I started with cookies. A new cookie recipe every week sometimes more. In the past month I think I've baked about 30 dozen cookies. That's not to mention the pies, pumpkin bars and this beautiful triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate and vanilla buttercream frosting (yeah you know it's all from scratch too!). Our weekends have turned into sugar filled dreams come true.

While Christmas shopping I came upon the KitchenAid cake decorating kit I've wanted for some time on a screamin' deal. So Jason bought it for me. (For me or for himself to get more sweet treats, you be the judge.) So I'm far from securing my spot on Ace of Cakes, but what the cake lacked in design it more than made up in taste. Holy mother of chocolate that cake was divine!

Thanksgiving

"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. It's a day set aside from all others to count our blessings, enjoy our loved ones, dine together and most importantly offer up our thanksgivings unto our Father in Heaven.

We had the pleasure of opening our home to my parents and my mom's sister Becky, who was recently diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and is living in a Skilled Nursing Facility in Blackfoot, and her daughter Shaliegh. What a blessing it was to share the holiday with family.

I love to cook and I especially enjoy preparing Thanksgiving dinner. There is so much tradition involved in our meal and I always feel the love and memories from those who are not with us as I prepare recipes they have passed on.

I was proud to deliver an American Icon to the table, a perfectly roasted deliciously succulent turkey. Pardon the cliche, but it was the best turkey I've ever eaten. Soooooo good.

See, I told ya!! That was good turkey!

I have so much gratitude in my heart for all the blessings I have in my life. I have a wonderful husband who loves me despite my many flaws and sees the beauty in me that I don't always make so easy to see. I have 3 beautiful children, whom I love in a way words cannot hope to convey. They are my light and my stregnth. I have an amazing family who are always a comfort and support to me. Friends who are dependable and loyal are mine. I have the truth of the everlasting gospel in my life to lead and guide me. And I know I have a Father in Heaven who not only knows me, but loves me without end. And a Savior who gave his perfect life for me that I might return to live with him and my family for eternity. I am without doubt blessed beyond words.

Friendship Feast

Jase's pre-school hosted a Friendship Feast for Thanksgiving. Jase brought Grandma Marley. They had a wonderul time making turkey hats.

So cute.

Chocolate

So I stepped out of the kitchen for 5 seconds and when I came back in I found Ethan on top of the counter eating a bag of chocolate chips. Oh he is sooo my child. We go to whatever lengths for chocolate!

Ouch!

During the construction (actually it was the destruction process) of the fireplace Jase was a big helper. He got a little over excited about helping carry out the torn off pieces of sheetrock. As he ran out the door he hit a patch of ice and smacked his head into the concrete. OUCH!!

Band-Aid's and Oreo's made it better.

The Fireplace Makeover

The first time I walked into our new house I felt at home. It was a wonderful feeling. And I loved everything about the house, apart from the fireplace. It was.....boring. Shortly after we bought the house we had a mantle built to match the cabinetry, but it still wasn't enough.

So about 2 weeks ago I went out shopping with my mom and came home to this scene unfolding before me. The boys decided, while I was gone, that now was the perfect time to tear apart the fireplace. Hammers were pounding and sheet rock dust was everywhere. But the process had begun, and boy was I excited!
Only took about an hour to strip the fireplace down. We even found buried treasure secretly encased behind the sheet rock too. 2 soda cans and a bottle of oil....random!
As soon as the sheetrock was off, Jason recased the fireplace in 1/2 inch cement Durock. Better to be safe than sorry.

Since the cement was going to be on for a few days before we could get it rocked, Jason let the boys decorate it for me. After all we simply must be fabulous even amid construction.
My little Picassos.
Jason and I found some beautiful slate that matches the slate in other parts of the house. The tricky part was that I wanted different sized pieces to make it more astetically appealing. Who knew that would mean more intellectually challenging? I mean don't we learn patterns in like kindergarten? Mercy it was certainly a challenge to find a pattern that would keep us on track while still maintaining that random look. But we did it! Oh and check me out...I totally helped! My job was, sticky gray stuff putter oner. I was amazing!
Ok, ok I know my job sounded really intense, but truth be told Jason did most of the work (shocker I know). I wasn't about to touch the tile saw and when it comes to measuring....um not so much. But together we knocked it out in about 3 days. We had a great time together all workin' and stuff with dirty things and power tools. Getting our Bob Villa on. Wow, sorry about that I'm still pretty proud of our combined efforts! Here's me putting in the final piece.
What do you think? Pretty amazing right! It really enriched the room and brought an added warmth. Thank you again Jason, I absolutely love it!

Basketball

Kaden decided that this year he wanted to play basketball. We've tried soccor and baseball and neither appealed to him. So wouldn't you know it basketball is his sport!! The one sport Jason can't stand and has no real idea about. Lucky for us, I played a little basketball back in the day. Ha!!! Church ball! Awesome! So this has been a growing experience for us all. I've brushed up on the rules and Kaden and I are able to practice on the court in the park behind our house in the afternoons after school. It's a blast. And guess what....Kaden is phenominal! And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom either. He's really good. He's got like spin moves and everything.

Watch out NBA!!

Halloween

Yes, yes I know, I know....I'm behind. I working on it.

Halloween!! We had so much fun this year.

Bear with me, this posted out of order and for the life of me I can get these photos to change position. Sorry. I love getting all dressed up for Halloween, and I don't care if I am, certainly not old (after all I'm still enjoying my 20's), but well past adolences. Jason costume cracked me up, he's an inmate from the psycho ward, can you say ironic?!

Check out those guns!! Kaden and Jase both had school parties this year. We had tons of candy before Halloween was even officially here!

Without breaking in tradition Jase was a super hero. Since he is Spiderman or Batman nearly everyother day of the year, he opted for The Incredible Hulk as his costume of choice this year. I don't know about you, but I think he totally pulled this one off.

2 years running Kaden was a Star Wars character. Funny enough he always gravitates to characters from the Dark Side. This year he was Boba Fett the Bounty Hunter.

As Room Mom for Kaden's class I got the priviledge of organizing the Halloween Party for his class. It was a lot of fun. Kaden has a great bunch of kids in his class. If you would like to see more pictures check out his classroom blog. It's listed at the side under Mrs. Randklev's Class.

See because of course I'm an awesome mom I took my camera to Kaden's class party on Friday...where it spent the weekend. Ooops. When we visited some friends on Halloween night they graciously took some pictures for us. Ethan was King Kong. He had a cute little gorilla hat, but that lasted all of about 5 seconds. He's still stinkin' cute! Oh and that's me as Batgirl. Yeah...I'm hot!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the boys to the Swore's Farm this year to pick out some pumpkins. We all ready had ten that were delivered by the Pumpkin Genie, and 2 from a trip to a different pumpkin patch so clearly we were pumpkin deficient. A trip to Swore's was most certainly a necessity.

What cute kids we have!

The corn maze was a lot of fun and educational. For instance, did you know that the grain most consumed by the Chinese is wheat? I know you were thinking rice, and you would be wrong.

The maze was pretty intense and Ethan was pretty much over it. He just laid down right in the middle of it like this. Nice!!!

In the end we walked away with 2 huge pumpkins, a pile of Pre-Halloween candy and smiles all around!

Tats

So my sweet little boy overheard me telling a friend I had always wanted a tatoo. A few days later he asked me, "Mom, what is a tatoo?' I told him it's when someone puts ink into your skin and makes a picture that won't wash off. Jase was absolutely intrigued. Immediatly he said, "I do want a tatoo!" I told him he was much too young to make such a choice. Ever the obedient child, as soon as we got home he snuck a marker downstairs and colored all over himself. He put his shirt back on and came upstairs. I looked at his hand and asked him what happened as I took him into the bathroom to wash up. I removed his shirt and found the coloring extended much further than his hand. He just started giggling and said, "I did give myself a tatoo!"

He's totally hard core with his tats! Nice.

Jase Goes to the Fire Department

Jase's pre-school class went on a field trip to the Fire Department in October. They learned all about fire safety. They Stopped, Dropped, and Rolled. Then they learned that fire fighters are your friend and are there to help you. Jase loved the way the fire fighter sounded when he breathed, he said, "He does sound like Darth Vader." He was right, he did.

All the kids were given the opportunity to spray the fire hose.

They also learned the difference between toys and tools and found that matches, lighters and candles are not toys, but in fact tools! I hope he remembers that when he's 15!

See the cute one in the middle....yep that's my boy!