Brody's Thanksgiving Feast

Brody's preschool had its Thanksgiving Feast party the Friday before the holiday break. At the end of the day, they sang songs for the parents. Brody was so cute and did a great job knowing the words and actions. He is hard to see in this picture, but he is the 5th in from the right behind the girl dressed in pink.Their class in action.

They made so many fun things that day. He was so excited about his turkey hat and goody bag filled with gold coins, cereal, and animal cookies. Funny story about the coins. Brody thought they were real coins and was very excited about them. I think he realized there was something different about them and when he found the chocolate, it was like the best thing in the world to him. He was so shocked and excited at the same time. It is so fun to see kids have those "a ha" moments. Along with the treats and hat, they made a special turkey plate from their hand print. It is a nice little keepsake from his year in preschool.

A Fun Day With Cousins

My sister Lindsey and her family have recently moved back down here, so they came over for the day two weeks ago. The came bearing gifts for Piper since her birthday was the next week. Piper was pretty excited to see her pretty pink bag, but still a little timid about her cousins being here.

Brody and Brooklyn helped her with opening it since they just couldn't wait.Oh a pretty picture by Brooklyn. Great job writing all those P's and 2's Brookie!Piper got a darling pink outfit that she just had to try on right away. She is showing us her pretty outfit. Can't you tell how excited she is? She is such a girl!
All dressed up ready to pose for pictures. Aunt Lindsey made her adorable headband that she is so obsessed with right now.After present time, they were off to play toys. They were having so much fun we had to pry them away just to go get some lunch.We went over to the kids favorite fast food, McDonalds of course, to eat and play outside. Brody had been asking forever to go and I thought today was the perfect day.

Brooklyn and Brody having too much fun out in the play area. Easton kept wanting to climb the tunnel, but never knew quite how to do it.Piper was surprisingly climbing everywhere and having so much fun.Brody found her climbing height to be unsafe, so he helped her back down many times. I love this picture! It shows me how much he loves and protects her. He is always sticking up for Piper when other kids aren't. It always makes me smile. :) What a good big brother.There is cute Easton again. Ever since he learned how to walk, this kid is everywhere! It is funny to see him like that, since the last time we saw him in Sept. he was just learning.I see Piper!

After wearing these kids out, we went back to my house and sat outside watching them ride bikes while Easton napped. It was a beautiful day to be sitting outside and we enjoyed every minute of it. Then it was back in side for more playing and getting dinner ready before John got home. After dinner, we showed Lindsey all about the Kinect and we got our grove on. It was fun times. They ended up leaving just before bedtime, so they could make their drive home a peaceful one. Thanks for hanging out with us Lindsey and for the adorable outfit for Piper!

Halloween

After church on Halloween day, we went up to John's parents to spend the evening with them. We thought it would be best if we left town to avoid the craziness that would be on our street. We have lots of kids in our neighborhood, which is great, but when we were trying to keep the kids from trick or treating, seeing all their friends would have been too hard. We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house. We had potato cheese soup for dinner that Aneta made and then celebrated John's birthday with a tasty cake.

Brody loved helping daddy blow out his candles.

After dinner and cake, we got the kids dressed in their costumes. We had a "happy spider" (because he was smiling), kangaroo, monkey, skeleton, and Optimus Prime.All ready to go trick or treating! I forgot to bring our buckets, so our kids had ghetto plastic bags. It got the job done, but I was feeling pretty bad for them. They didn't care though.First door was uncle Tyler's! He gave out some great candy, not the chintzy stuff.

The little ones finally got their candy as they were beat out by the big boys.Then it was on to Grandma's door! She has glow sticks for the kids. Yeah!Lastly, we finished off with uncle John's door. Always love Pez!Piper what did you get?Checking out their stash.
After taking a candy break, we went over to Great Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house to trick or treat at their door. They had already turned out their lights and the street was deserted, but they knew we were coming and were waiting for us. Piper was extremely shy most of the time and sat on my lap the whole time.
The boys had fun wrestling and getting all the energy out of their systems.
Just before we were going to leave, she thought it was fun to hide behind the chair. It was a very fun night and I am glad that we were able to see all the Brown grandparents. Thanks for the soup, cake, and fun Aneta!

Yay, all my Halloween posts are over! Here's to next year!

Trunk or Treats

We hit up two Trunk or Treats this year. First, we went to our new ward's Halloween party and had a traditional chili and hot dog dinner and played games, and then it was on to our old ward where we crashed their Trunk or Treat party. Since it was timed so nicely, we wanted to be able to see all our friends both old and new. It was a great night for us all.

Here is Piper trying on her costume. She was a darling kangaroo. She was pretty happy with her hand-me-down costume from Brody when he was just over a year old. It is crazy that she is so much smaller than him, or rather thank goodness she is. When she found out that she had a pouch with a baby in it, she was in heaven. All though, it never managed to stay in its pouch.

Here we are waiting in line for Brody to play the fishing game. We tried to let Piper have a turn, but she turned scared at the least minute.

Oh, here he goes. . . .lets see what you get Brody. . . . . . .silly bandz!After the games, it was off to our other building to trunk and treat. I passed out the candy in the back of our undecorated van, while John took the kids around to all the other cars. It was pretty packed since they had combined with another ward, but still fun all the same. Piper is a bit nervous at first, clinging on to her bucket.But not Brody, he was very excited. Bring on the candy!All ready to go!A quick pic with John and the kids and they were off. My mom had brought them a glow sword and glow wand when she was down here. They were awesome! So much better than the flimsy little glow sticks you usually get. I tried finding some more, but had no such luck. I am keeping my eye out though. . . . .Now Piper's having some fun.By the end of the night, her bucket weighted a ton, but she refused to let anyone touch and help her carry it. She was holding on to that thing for dear life and enjoying all of its yummy goodness.

Preschool Halloween Party

Brody had his preschool Halloween party the day of John's birthday and they sang songs to all the parents just before it was time to go. They were all so cute and did a great job learning their Halloween songs and chants. Brody is in the far left of this picture.

He was a spider this year and without his hat it is hard to tell. Months before he would tell me, "I want to be a spider with a web for Halloween, mom, not Spiderman." I tried to get him to do other things, but he was set on being that spider. We didn't end up finding a web, but he was really happy with his costume.

He was so excited to show his friends and his teachers what he was.Doing some hand motions to a song. He was very happy I was there to see him perform, which always makes me feel good. I love to see his reaction anytime I pick him up. It is like I have been gone for a week without him he is so happy to see me. I am loving this age, he is so excited about everything he gets to do and learn.Here is some videos of this performance. They are for all to enjoy, but mainly for the grandparents.

The did lots of fun things for their Halloween party. They made caramel apples, cut out and made a skeleton and other fun art projects, got a goodie bag to take home, played Halloween games, and even had a storyteller come all dressed as a witch. Some of the kids were taking pictures with her and, when I asked him if he wanted to get a picture, he shied away. I am pretty sure he was a little afraid of her. She was definitely in character when I saw her. Later I learned that she was the grandmother of one of the boys in his class. How fun is that!
I'd say it was a rousing success. His teachers do such fun stuff for the kids. We are really happy with it all.

Another Year, Another Great Celebration

John turned the Big 3 3 this year. We were kind of able to celebrate most of the week, with going to Disneyland and seeing the preview of the new Disney movie TRON. They had a special 20 min. sneak preview happening at the Spectrum with a Q&A with the screenwriters, Adam Horowitz (Lost writer) and some other guy, (I can't remember his name, but who also is from Lost). We had to be in line an hour before just to make it inside. The crowd was kind of funny, some people dressed up like Tron characters, like the guy next to us. There were a lot of Sci Fi guys there, but a lot were pretty normal, so we didn't feel too out of place. The preview was really good. They pretty much showed the first part of the movie and then clips of the rest of it. I really liked the first part, but I am not sure how well I will be interested in the rest of it. I never saw the original 80's movie, so I am still kind of lost with it all. I'll be the good wife though and end up going this Christmas.

After our TRON night, the next day (Friday) was John's birthday. Brody woke him up very early (4 AM) because he was hungry. That is Brody, always growing. He either wakes up in the middle of the night starving, leg pains, or done sleeping. I felt really bad that I didn't hear him wake up and John had to be up with him on his bday. He didn't complain though and worked while Brody ate his quesadilla and peas. How many of you crave that first thing in the morning? Definitely not me.

They went back to bed after a few hours and then woke up when we all did. I never even knew they were up. First thing in the morning, we let John open all his gifts.

The kids were very excited to help Daddy.

Piper picked out and gave Daddy a measuring tape and Brody picked out gummy worms and caramel popcorn. Brody was ready to open up those worms right then, since they are his favorite candy. :)

John also got a great looking shirt and movie gift card from my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad!

John's big gift was the Kinect for the XBOX 360, but it didn't come out until the next week. It ended up arriving about a week later. For those that don't know, it is a camera attachment to the XBOX that tracks your body and movements instead of having to hold on to a controller. It is really cool and we all have had fun playing it. Much like the Wii, it is for action games, like sports, dancing, adventure, and fitness. Our favorite has been Dance Central and Kinect Adventures. It is a bit hard to do, though, with Piper around since she is always wanting to do exactly what we are doing. The camera has trouble tracking if she is running around . I would still recommend it, especially if you already have an XBOX.

The rest of the day was spent working (John worked a bit from home), working in the yard (me), shuffling kids to preschool and back, and running around the lake (me). In the afternoon, we took a trip to South Coast Plaza and made a stop at the Best Buy for John to spend his birthday money. Then we went for dinner at Ruby's Diner, which the kids love. I had tried to plan some fun things for John's birthday and asked him over and over again to tell me what he would like me to make him for his birthday dinner, but he never would tell me. I made suggestions of his usual favorites, but they were all shot down. So, I felt pretty awful when I didn't end up making any dinner or even a cake. That is just him though, never wanting me to more than I have to and especially not for him. So, we ate Ruby's and had a lot of fun because the kids had so much fun. He did request some chocolate chip cookies instead of the traditional cake, so when we got home I made him some.

The next day was a total surprise for him. I had said we were going to somewhere as a family after lunch, so we did our normal Saturday morning grocery shopping, came home and then started the kids with lunch. Just then the doorbell rings and it is our babysitter Patrick! Instead of a family day out, it was a date for us. Oh how sneaky I am. Apparently, he had no idea. So, we took off and went to Philly's Best for their cheesesteak sandwiches for lunch. I am glad he got to go somewhere that was definitely only where he wanted to go. After lunch it was on to the movies where we went to see the movie RED.

Great movie! It was really quite funny and the casting was great. I definitely would like to see it again when it is out on video. After that we came home to relieve Patrick of his duty and get ready for the ward Trunk or Treat (more on that to come). It was a fun week(end) for us all. Happy Birthday John!!!