O Christmas Tree

I wish I said "NO" less often. I normally wouldn't let my kids ride on the bottom of a cart. But tonight I didn't care one bit. As Chad was wheeling them with our Christmas tree I had one of those moments where I had this overwhelming feeling of love for them! Glad I had my camera in my pocket to remember it forever.

Decorating the tree.

Owen is not smiling on demand but he will smile randomly. Today, Alexis was holding him and singing her school songs to him and he smiled a couple of times. It seemed coincidental since I still can't get him to smile at me. As we were decorating the tree I was trying to get him to smile for a while to get a picture. NOTHING. I had been trying for a few minutes when Alexis walks over and IMMEDIATELY when she starts talking to him he does this...
You can tell by the way he turns to look at Alexis and Carter when ever he hears their voices that he loves being around them. And now this. Maybe he'll smile at me one day.

A 5 year old trying to repent.

Have you ever heard it? Sure, I've heard her say she's sorry. But, tonight, she took her repentance process to the next level without telling us.

We put the kids to bed at Chad's mom's so we could all watch a movie in their family room. The kids were told if they get out of bed the door to the room they were sleeping in would get closed. Simple concept. One we work on constantly.

Carter got out twice in the first 10 minutes.

"A bad dream" he says. HA!

Alexis didn't come out for at least 30 minutes.

"I need a drink" she says.

So Chad responds, "Alexis get a drink then close your door. You knew the rules."

Alexis does as told. A few minutes later Chad's sister, Alissa goes to get something from one of the back rooms. She hears Alexis crying in her room. But she is also talking. Alissa listens at the door wondering who she is talking to and this is what she hears.

"I just wanted a drink of water. I'm trying so hard to be good.
I'm sorry. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

We were dying laughing to say the least. So, although, she still doesn't know we heard her prayer...Chad intervened with another drink of water and let her have the door open "just because."

Happy Thanksgiving

I am so thankful and feel blessed to be surrounded by this cute company every single day!
Today we had a relaxing morning watching the parade and getting ready for our day. Then we were off to my parents for a Thanksgiving feast with 2 of my sister's families, my brother's family, my cousin's family, my parents and my Grandparents. It was quite relaxing even with all the little munchkin's running around. We spent the entire time at my families because last minute Chad's family went to Big Bear to have Thanksgiving with his Grandma.

We don't get to see my Grandparents that often so we took another picture with them before we left.
Mmm. He is SOOO sweet. I love this little boy!
Yeah, pretty much the coolest place to hang out.
The feast is over. The kids are in bed. Chad's playing x-box. And I'm searching ads hoping to find sales on the few items we need for Christmas presents. We are keeping the spending to a MINIMUM this year. So the fabric store is going to be my main stop tomorrow to make some homemade gifts I know the kids will love.

Thanksgiving Advent Calendar

My project this month was trying to make the pottery barn advent calendar myself. It ended up being a HUGE undertaking. I'm pretty good at copying things exactly. It turned out super cute but don't look too close...there are definitely things that aren't straight! The question I get asked most often is if I use my cricut to cut out the felt numbers, etc. And my answer is NO. I haven't forked over the money for the cricut brand felt/fabric yet. To be honest I haven't looked into it much. I do know there aren't all the options in colors I need though. I use my cricut to cut the cardstock and then pin that to the felt and hand cut everything. Now I know why Pottery Barn charges $55! It cost me less than $10 and a ton of time.

Inside each pocket are these little thankful cards. They have circulated all over the blog world. You can print them here. Most people put them in jars. But I just love a cute advent calendar.

Photo Shoot with the kids

I realized that I didn't have any pictures with all three kids yet, so we piled them together and took a few quick pics.

Newborn Gowns

Owen's friend was born on Saturday. (aka Natalie's little boy) We've spent so much time together during our pregnancy they are bound to already know each other. When Natalie asked to pay me to make her a newborn gown...I laughed. Pay me! Yah right! Natalie does anything and everything for me. She even took my kids in the middle of the night when Chad's Grandma was sick. She's awesome...so these gowns were the least I could do.
PS: They are her husbands old t-shirts.

Some good laughs...

This is only funny to me now that I am through the worst part. One of my favorite blogs posted these and I was cracking up so hard I had to share.

Halloween

Yes, I love candy. Why do you ask?

The prettiest "Hershey Kiss" I've ever seen.

We re-used Alexis costume from her 4th of July parade. I honestly wrapped two pieces of fabric around a $2 pool floaty from Wal-mart and sewed it together. I used ribbon to cinch the top closed. It deflates flat to store.

As if he needed the title "Big Hunk"...he's always one in my eyes.

I post-poned making his costume thinking I would have my baby earlier. So I had to whip it together on Saturday afternoon. Good thing it was super easy.

Our SWEET little "Candy Corn." I just love the sweet smell of newborns. And I can help but LOVE every second with this little boy. Everything about him makes my heart melt.

After I finished Carter's costume I figured I might as well cut out a few pieces of felt and make a candy corn for Owen's shirt. He needed to join in on the candy fun. I tried taking pictures of him but I think he hated the over-sized felt piece. He tried eating it and then resorted to his fingers instead.

I was happy to not be in the hospital for Halloween. It's bad enough not being able to walk from house to house with them watching the excitement on their face. Owen and I had a relaxing evening...and the kids got me lots of "Snickers" as promised.

Having the kids be candy for Halloween turned out to be IRONIC. That's the same night Owen let me know of my need to give up chocolate completely or else we would be up all night every night because of his tummy aches. Oh well, maybe it will help me slim down a little quicker.

To welcome November...we carved some pumpkins Sunday afternoon. Better late than never. Between Alexis' soccer game and rehearsals for the stake play...we had no time on Saturday.
The kids loved drawing their own faces on these little pumpkins Grandma Pitt picked up for them.