My Birthday!!!

Christmas Eve was my birthday! I get excited for my birthday like a little kid. Not because of presents or anything like that, (okay, that's fun too!) but I just love having a day all my own! And being the day before my favorite holiday doesn't hurt either!

We started celebrating my birthday the day before when Mike took me to the Deseret Star Theater. I have wanted to go there for a long time and was so excited he had gotten tickets! It was a really fun show, and they even embarrassed me a little because Mike had told them in advance it was my birthday! We had a great time though!First thing in the morning of my birthday Mike was so excited to give me one of my presents. Usually he blows the secret early, but this time he was good and gave me a surprise! It was a new phone! I needed one so bad and this one is awesome! It's one of the new Android phones - it's going to take me awhile to figure it all out, but I love it! Mike did great! Since I was still in my pajamas when I opened it I wouldn't allow pictures, but this is my new phone!Mike was going to make me a big breakfast but we had too much fun messing with my new phone we didn't have time before going to see a movie with the kids. We ended up just stopping by McDonalds for breakfast but they had already stopped serving it, so we had hamburgers for breakfast! Nice! Then we headed for the movie. The kids were dying to see the new Chipmunk movie, so that's what we saw! We met my parents and brother back at our house for presents and cake! Mike made my favorite, German chocolate cake from scratch!My kids were so excited to help blow out my candles! I don't think I blew any out myself! I'm getting too old to blow out that many candles anyway! :)Present time!The kids each gave me a necklace!My bro was sweet to give me some yummy smelling lotions and shower gel!With my hubby and his present to me! Thanks, hunny, for making my birthday so special!!!I also got money from my parents and then Mike's parents who stopped by later. I'm excited to go do some shopping! Later we went to Benihana for my birthday dinner! Other than worrying about Ashton climbing onto the hot stove table and that it was 100 degrees in the restaurant, it was fun!

I think everyone was having too much fun with their chopsticks!Then we went home and it was no longer my birthday, it was Christmas Eve! Those pics to come!!!

Santa Came to Visit!

Santa decided to pay the kids a visit a few days before Christmas to make sure they were still on the good list! They really believe that out of all of the many Santas they have seen this year, THIS is the real one! Ashton was so funny, he got his turn, got off of his lap, then during Brayden's turn he was showing off for Santa so bad! He definitely didn't realize that his Christmas morning fate was all in Santa's hands, because he was being a little naughty! Do you remember the guy from Mad TV that would go "Look what I can do! Look what I can do!"??? That would be Ashton! I wish I videotaped it! He kept leaping sideways one way, then the other way, right in front of Santa the whole time he was trying to talk to Brayden. Oh my son can be SO embarrassing!!!

Lots of SANTAS!!!

I think my kids are going to be tired of seeing Santa by the time it's Christmas! They've seen 4 so far, one at Chick-Fil-A, one handing out candy canes at a neighborhood we go to to look at Christmas lights, one at Sam's, and one at the church party, and they still have one more Santa to go! Luckily my kids have never been scared of Santa, in fact, last year Ashton started to call him Pop!

Last Wednesday we went to Chick-Fil-A on their kids' night to get free kids meals and to use a free coupon thing Brayden was given at school, but it just so happened that that was the night they had planned for Santa to come visit, and we had gotten there just minutes before his arrival! The kids were in heaven between their kids meal prizes, animal balloons, Santa, and candy canes! I don't think they touched their food though, too much excitement - good thing it was free! Anyway, they gave out free Santa pics for the first so many guests.Then, I saw at Sam's Club that every Friday and Saturday they do Santa pictures there for only $5 and the money goes to Primary Children's Medical Center - because of my niece I'm always all for anything to do with helping Primary Children's, so I got the kids all dressed up Friday after school for pics with Santa! It was nice because we were the only ones there when we got there so the photographer took her time to get both of my kids to look at the camera and smile, which took FOREVER with Ashton, but she was patient, even when the line started piling up, and finally got one! It was sooo much better and tons cheaper than going to the mall like we did last year!Saturday night we had our ward Christmas party. I guess Ashton wasn't too sick of Santa yet because we literally had to hold him back from cutting in front of everyone in line! And then there's Brayden, who does love Santa, but is so freakin shy once she gets on his lap!

An Early Christmas Present From Ashton!

HE IS POTTY TRAINED!!! Okay, maybe I'll say like 99% potty trained, but still, he's doing GREAT! This has been SO HARD with him! Especially since Brayden started potty training at 18 months and was completely potty trained by the time she was 2! And here Ashton is 3 1/2 and has FINALLY got it down! I had heard boys are usually way harder than girls, so that made me feel a little better, but still, it was frusterating for the longest time! He has so much energy and is so stubborn on top of it, so I guess it just took him deciding it was time on his own!

Gotta have the undies pictures!

Scandal at the North Pole, and Sugar Cookies!

Friday we went to a Christmas murder mystery party hosted by friends in our neighborhood, Heather and James. Mike's character was Abim Nable the Abominable Snowman, and I was Jackie Frost the ice fairy. It was so fun to figure out our costumes and dress up. I loved seeing what everyone else came up with for their costumes at the party too. Some went all out, and some stayed in character all night. I laughed so much all night just watching everyone! I had never been to a murder mystery party before so I was a little nervous, but it was really fun!

The Gingerbread Man was the first person to be killed, and part of the game for Mike and I was that we had been secretly married and we had gingerbread cookies at our reception the night before, so we couldn't tell anyone because then we would be suspects! But now looking at the pictures of my Abominable Snowman husband, I'm so glad we kept our marriage a secret!!!I didn't get any pictures while we were there, but I had to steal this one of our hosts, Santa and Mrs. Claus! They did so much work and it turned out so fun! Thanks James and Heather!For like the past 2 weeks the kids have been BEGGING to make and decorate sugar cookie. I really don't enjoy making them, it's so much work! But I finally gave in and we made them last night. I think this was the first year Brayden could do them as well, if not better, than me! And Ashton was able to do everything too, though he went a little overboard on the frosting!

Brayden's 6 Year & Kids' Christmas Pics!

So I am too cheap to hire a photographer, especially since my sister does them for free when she's in town, but also Ashton is so goofy in ALL of his pictures I won't pay for any with him until he is older! So these are what I got taking them myself! :)

Thanksgiving weekend I decided to take some 6 year pictures of Brayden - I try to every year but have been so busy it took me forever to finally do them this year.Here are my attempts at getting cute pics of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Of course Brayden posed perfectly for all of the pictures, but Ashton, anytime he was smiling normally he wasn't looking at the camera, then when he looked he had a weird or goofy look on his face! He barely looked like himself in most of the pictures! Ugh! He did sit through it all okay, so maybe by next year he will finally get it!

You're Invited...

I thought I would put this out there for my mom in case anyone is interested! It's kind of last minute since it's this coming Saturday, but someone in her neighborhood is throwing a party/open house for her and some other people who have things to sell (more details above!) . My mom sells something she calls Photobursts that she makes - you can check them out through the link I have for them on the right column of my blog or click here: http://photobursts.com/ They are picture or card holders, all different shapes, colors, sizes and styles. They are great for the holiday season whether you get one (or more!) for yourself for all of your Christmas cards and pictures, or get it as a gift for someone. I've found they are great for grandparents who have tons of kids and grandkids with not enough wall space for all of their pictures! They are only between $8-$20 so very affordable. So my mom will have a bunch of those to choose from (plus she will take orders if you want something different than what she has there), and there will also be tons of other things from other sellers, like $200 jeans for $80 (I'm excited to check those out!), jewelry such as charm necklaces, and more! You just might find something for someone on your Christmas list, or a little gift for yourself! Anyway, it should be fun, so you are more than welcome to stop by!

Christmas Traditions!

It feels like I'm so behind on my blog updates, but it's probably because we fit SO MUCH in to this past week, it feels like it's been forever!

The day after Thankgiving I was SOOO excited to put our tree up! We bought a new one this year after using a 6 foot one borrowed from Mike's parents for the past 5 years! The one we got is 12 feet, which I have been wanting for so long, and I LOVE that it's pre-lit because I hated stringing lights every year! I know it's kind of sad that it's gone from real trees, to the more convenient fake trees, to now where you don't even have to string lights with the pre-lit ones! I love it though, anything to save some time during this season!!!So since our tree is so tall and it was the first year I wanted to have the tree just so, the kids couldn't do much to help, so it was nice that my parents invited us over for the kids to decorate their tree with them! It was fun seeing all of the old ornaments I remembered from growing up! My parents have kept them all!After decorating the tree, we decorated gingerbread houses! My parents had one big one, then made 2 small ones out of graham crackers so the kids could do their own to take home! The kids' houses kept falling apart, but they still had a blast decorating them and eating tons of candy!Big smile!Ashton with his mouth too full of candy to smile!Growing up we always had a fun neighborhood we went to to look at Christmas lights. We found one here that's pretty small, but still is cute for the kids. For those who live around here it's in Taylorsville - you go east on 5400 S, then left on 32nd then take the first left on Royalwood, and you should see the neighborhood with all the lights. Let me know if anyone knows of another neighborhood that's fun to go look at! Our kids LOVE it!All of the houses have one of these signs in front doing different parts of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".In addition to all of that, I got to go to my mom's ward's Relief Society dinner which was so fun! I love her being close now so we can do stuff like that together! They had a singing group of women come to sing Christmas songs for us. I loved it and it was a great way to start off the month and get into the spirit of this season! I LOVE December!!!

A Thanksgiving birthday, and a BIG surprise!

I think this has been the most exciting Thanksgiving ever! We hosted it, and it just happened to be Mike's sister Kara's birthday on that day too, so the kids and I had fun decorating our house for a birthday party on Thanksgiving!

We made this poster for Kara - the kids had a blast paintng the glitter onto the letters and putting sparkly foam stickers all over it. Ashton took the left side and Brayden did the right!I LOVE decorating and was so excited to have the excuse to do more than just typical Thanksgiving decor! Here's Brayden with her new haircut she had done the day before - it's way shorter which is how she wanted it, and I think it turned out way cute!Brayden loved helping! She had this idea to make a flower bouquet and made this cute picture for Kara. Ashton drew a picture for her too but I forgot to get a pic of it - it was another x-rated one though, so it's probably better not to put it up here! :)We thought WE were surprising Kara with all the decorations for her birthday, but little did we know the HUGE SURPRISE that SHE had in store for US...

So after everyone showed up at our house, before dinner we all gathered in the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday to Kara, and we got Mike's brother and sister on the phone who weren't with us so they could join in too. After we sang, Kara started opening a present from Mike's parents, and we noticed that she was pulling out boy baby clothes...We were all like "What the heck???" and she announced that SHE'S PREGNANT! 15 weeks along and they already know it's a boy! This was a SHOCK to all of us, but beyond exciting! I think I'm more excited about her being pregnant than I have ever been about anyone else before. Her and her husband, Steve, just lost their daughter Emmalee to liver cancer the beginning of October. They knew back then that they were pregnant and were able to tell Emmalee before she died. This to me just shows the love Heavenly Father has for them and their family by giving them this gift of life, something so amazing to look forward to after all they have been through this past year. It wasn't planned but I can tell they are so happy and excited! This little baby boy is such a miracle! I am so happy for them!

After that big announcement, we started dinner. OH MY GOSH we had a lot of food!!! I think every square inch of our kitchen was COVERED! This picture doesn't do it justice!Not to mention the desserts, we had probably around 10 pies...(They weren't all in this picture, they were spread out everywhere!!!)Kara's giant Costco birthday cake Steve brought...And we didn't think to coordinate with Steve so Kara got 2 birthday cakes! This messy-looking cake is an icecream cake Mike and I made! I guess people liked it though, this is what it looked like just a couple of minutes after pulling it out!We had such a fun Thanksgiving and were so glad we got to spend Kara's birthday with her, and LOVED her surprise for us!!!