Holiday Cheer

December is in full swing and the holidays just around the corner.  

As busy as this month can be, it's always so fun... especially with the kiddos enthusiasm for all the little things:)

We've been keeping busy with a little of this and that...

:decking the halls:

:putting up the tree:

:Jolly Days at the Children's Museum:

Checked out the house stuffed silly with Christmas trees again!

Pretty darn awesome.

Ugly sweaters really are the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season:)

and white elephant gifts...

Thanks to the Carlsons for such a fun and festive party!

best little shopping buddy ever

Christmas PJs and treats!

the Sunday get-up :)

pretty sure we wear red all month long:)

Christmas crafts and story time at the library.  Even Santa came one day;)

(Jaden used our village snow as his Santa beard)

On a side note: Jaden had his adenoids removed and tubes placed in his ears earlier this month.

Such a champ and so stinkin' cute in his little hospital gown... just sayin'.

We've made our way West and are enjoying the many Christmas festivities with our families!  

Happy December!

* Thanksgiving 2012 *

This year we are especially thankful for great friends.  At times it's hard to have so many miles separating you from family, and we've been very fortunate to have such amazing friends to fill that void and really become like family to us.  Some of our best friends, the Rollins, came to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us.  Cody, Paul, and Kyla all grew up in Green River, WY.  As newlyweds, we hung out together while finishing school in Utah.  Kyla hooked me up with a great job our last year in Logan.  Ohhh, good times:)  It had been over two years since we got together, so we were looking forward to catching up and enjoying a bit of turkey. 

Jaden and MaKendree hit it off almost instantly.  They got along great as babies...

so why not as 3-year-olds as well? :)

:sidewalk chalk:

:riding bikes/trikes:

Playing "princess & king" was probably their favorite activity of the week.  I love how they completed their costumes with some of Jaden's shoes.  They must have been huge on Mac's little feet:) 

She joined him in playing superheroes, and he joined her in playing dollhouse.

Although after so many "earthquakes" in order to wake the sleeping dolls, J had to take a little break from the dollhouse;)

The babes (Brielle and Lydia) were so cute just playing together & swapping toys.

The four of them together was a total riot.  Lydia and Jaden had multiple screaming wars back and forth:)

The night before Thanksgiving, we took the Rollins to one of our favorite burger places.  Good ol' Bub's.. home of the big ugly burger.  We opted out of the "big ugly" challenge in order to save room for turkey the next day, but it was still satisfying and delicious:)

:turkey time:

Cody did a great job!

:pies from start to finish... ohhh they were yummy:

we used Grandma Jo's famous "pie-in-a-bag" recipe for the apple (Kyla rocked it:)

we used my fam's recipe for the pumpkin

Loved seeing the men in the kitchen after a morning of turkey bowl.

This meal was most definitely a team effort!

Paul took great pride in every dish he contributed to... even the cheese ball & cracker plate:)

what a feast!

Paul's drink of choice: red velvet milk

the cute kiddos

(Jaden's favorite part: the cranberry sauce)

we were stuffed.  we were tired.

Brielle and Jaden sported their cute Thanksgiving PJs the rest of the evening.

:just lounging:

Cody and Paul hit up some black Friday deals the next day.  Then we said our goodbyes!  It was great spending time with the Rollins again.  Thanks for making the drive, and spending the holiday with us!:)

It appears our lively bunch can't hold quite as still as those cute Rollins girls;)

Cody ran a marathon!

So proud of my husband:)

He's always talked about running a marathon.  He ran the mini last year.  Then about 6 months ago, he decided he was going to do the full marathon and signed himself up for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.  No one talked him into it, he simply did it because he wanted to.  So he trained off and on throughout the summer.  Life is busy though, and it's not easy to set aside 6-8 hours of your time each week to run.  But he trained what he could and then the day of the race arrived.

The kids and I waited at the finish line to cheer Daddy on.  

I cried like a little baby the whole time.  Something about seeing those runners cross the finish line after 26 grueling miles just chokes me up.  They did it, and they are amazing.

It got a little cold and kiddos started to get cranky, but we were not going to miss Cody's big moment:)

After 26.2 long miles through the freezing cold rain and sleet...

we spotted our guy!

Holy smokes... we were SO happy to see him!

he hurt. a lot.

but he did it, and we couldn't be more proud:)

6 months!

Baby B has reached her half-year mark!:)

Simply cannot get enough of this little sweetheart. 

Brielle is getting so big!

17 lbs. 13 oz.
27 3/4 in.

She twists, turns, scoots, and rolls to wherever she needs to go.
She sleeps on her tummy now, and switches corners of the crib throughout the night.

She's eating solid foods:
rice & oatmeal cereal
carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas
and her all-time favorite... avocado! (seriously, she eats it like chocolate ice cream)


She's learning how to sit and can sit for a minute at a time.

random pics: she loves to stare out the window

stories with daddy

snuggling with her doll

rolled over in my lap to stare out the window some more:)

can't remember if this was on purpose...

coordinating outfits!

1st Halloween

and just for kicks:

camille . brielle . brielle

cody . jaden . jaden

and for the grandparents:

Halloween!

The ward trunk-or-treat was a lot of fun.  They had a cupcake walk, carnival games, and costume parade.

Jaden loves his Batman costume, but was pretty timid about showing it off for the parade.

Brielle was adorable as ever in her little flower costume.  She's our social little butterfly and enjoyed being passed around the entire night.

It was raining, so they brought the trunk-or-treat inside.  The only thing Jaden cared about was getting a lollipop.  So we found someone with a bucket of suckers and then he was done:)

Jaden got bored half way through the cupcake walk and just walked over to the table and helped himself.  Luckily, they called his number next:)  His favorite of the carnival activities was the spooky fishing, box maze, and mini-golf.

Our friends know how to party it up.  The costumes totally rocked this year!

Best: Dumb & Dumber

Scariest: Vendetta

Funniest: white trash couple

We teamed up with the Wades to pull off Wayne & Garth from Waynes World.

Mikal and Cody were Edward and Jacob... ya know, from Twilight.

Such a fun group!

We ate out at Chili's Halloween night.  It was perfect.. kids ate free and Cody and I used a gift card:)

We passed the police station on the way home.  They had a couple fire engines out and were passing out candy.  Of course we had to stop!  Jaden loved it.  He met their resuce dogs and then trick-or-treated around the block real quick when we got home.  Again, he only had interest in the single lollipop amongst his candy:)

Happy (belated) Halloween!