Dear Santa,

 The Primary children had a Christmas activity where Santa came to visit.  On the way to the church, Ben and I had a very interesting conversation.  He asked what religion Santa is.  Ben has been studying several different religions in school, so I could see where this question was coming from.  He came to the conclusion that this a very busy time of year, so Santa must just not go to church at all because he has to make so many toys for kids....hmmm. 

 I kind of turned the question back of him.  Well, why does Santa bring presents?  To celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of the world, which makes him Christian.  We've had several conversations about Christians, Mormons, Catholics, etc and how they are similar and different.  It's been a really fun holiday season.  I love to delve into these subjects with this 8 year old who has such a THIRST for knowledge!  Then, I bring in the spiritual aspect and ask him how he FEELS to know the truth.  We've also talked about Santa's helpers - like this helper that has the most beautiful blue eyes!

Happy Thanksgiving

 We had such a fun Thanksgiving!  Our friend, JJ, came to visit for 5 days and we kept him busy!  We haven't seen him since July 2009 when he left Texas for Canada to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Cantonese.  We loved having him here and seeing him again!  I so much enjoyed having an extra pair of hands to help in the kitchen.  JJ made Sloppy Joes, pumpkin pie, and apple pie - all with little helping hands included! 

 I think scriptures was his favorite time of night!  Andy and Ben took him to see the Church History Sites one day, he was a stay-at-home mom another day, and then did flag football (where he and Andy both got hurt...oops!), frisbee, food prep, Black Friday shopping, leaf-raking, and any other about-the-house chores we had to do!

 We love to play keep-away frisbee.  If the neighbor girl comes over, it's adults vs kids.  If not, the adults split up.  The kids love it and I love it to coax Andy away from studying (which, he did have the BEST grades yet this past semester).  I had fun running with a friend to do the 5K Turkey Trot and then my first-EVER 9mile morning run.  Jaime was here visiting her parents and was patient with me as we slowly ran those 9 miles.  :)   Then I came hope to help rake the yard, only to find the boys did most of it!

 Time to put up Christmas lights!  Ben is scared of heights.  He really wanted to be on the roof with the girls, but he just cried once he was up there.  I wouldn't let him come down until I had a picture.  hehehe...I know I'm such a nice mom!  Mitchell was enthralled with the whole 'light' process.  We were all happy to have such a mild Thanksgiving - very grateful for it!  Nights were filled with games and goodies and deep conversations about the joys of college-life!  Such a fun holiday!!!

Cutie Boys

 Ben loves Cub Scouts.  Yes, Ben really loves Cub Scouts.  He just loves learning in general, and for the most part, each week he gets to learn something new.  This is his school troop at the monthly Pack Meeting.  (We also go to the church troop and pack meetings, but Ben is the only boy his age there, so we decided to double up on Scouts; good thing he loves it!)

 Mitchell just loves to climb.  Until we moved the living room around and put the couch in front of the computer to 'protect' it, this was Mitchell's perch of choice during scriptures and books at night, regardless of the computer being on or off....  Also, an open fridge is an open invitation, right?  The girls will pull "Mitchell's" stool over to get yogurts from the top shelf.  Mitchell knows the sound of the fridge opening and hustles over to see what snacks he can find for himself as well!

 Sweet baby - time for bed!

Sunday afternoon Baking!

With Mitchell asleep, we took advantage of our time to cook!  Except for last year, each year we make sugar cookies to pass along to those special few recipients...  The kids and I made 4 batches of cookies to roll, cut, bake and frost!  Andy spent most of those 4 hours completely cleaning out the fridge and putting back on the handle that has been broken for a loooooong time! 

 Mitchell was enthralled with the drill!  (Side note: sad story...  The next morning, Ben was moving the defrosting turkey to get to the gallon of milk.  Somehow, the turkey outer bag had a hole and the turkey juice dripped down two shelves and into the veggie drawer...all spaces that had been lovingly cleaned the night before.  Also had to toss all the awesome veggies I had purchased for Thanksgiving, resulting in yet another trip to the store!!!)  The kids invited Tara, our neighbor, over to decorate with us!  Uncle Roy and Uncle David, hope you liked your cookies!  It was an all-day effort!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

 Mitchell woke up so happy on his first birthday, much like he wakes up each morning!  Such a cheerful and busy little guy! This stool is his favorite place to sit and climb.  As such, he is not afraid to strong-arm any sibling that may be standing/sitting in his way!

 Everyone took off to school and we cleaned up the kitchen and headed to the gym.  Then I treated us to Chipotle for lunch.  After nap time, the kids came home and we played until Mitchell's special dinner, which I can't recall two months after the fact....so sad I didn't take a picture of it!

 Mitchell quite liked his cake.  He immediately started picking at it with his two fingers.  He would only eat the black icing...for about ten minutes, just slowly picking at it and taking small consistent licks.  Then I gave him a big fingerful of white frosting and pinched some cake into his mouth.

 It started to get a little bit more exciting then...I had to take away the soccer ball for the rest of us to eat and gave Mitchell his extra-large cupcake to devour.

 He enjoyed the whole cake idea and cried many tears when I finally took away the mostly-empty plate.  Thankfully, he was entertained by the whole idea of presents.  Absolutely LOVE this squatting position!!!

Mitchell had many willing hands ready to take over help him open his gifts. 

 As much as he loves his balls and ballpopper, at the end of the day, suckers will always win out!

Fall Fun and Kitchen Excitement

OH, cold afternoons, little friends over, and a pile of leaves!!!!  Poor Mitchell has no idea what coming...look at all those conspiring faces!

For Friday mornings, we do a rotating little art group.  For 90 minutes, we do art projects, have snacks, read books, and some sort of charades that include Mitchell and I traveling to the zoo to see the animals (preschool children) being very active!

Tyler, Emily and Cambri

Mitchell just loves the trash can.  I try to only leave it down when it is empty, but that seems to have the same temptation as when it is full!

This is the most expensive jam I have ever made.  My berries were priced a bit high.  Then before I got to them, most went bad (the trials of berries in November), so I went back to the store for more berries to use with my remainder.  All that work, only to have one jar burst...this hasn't ever happened to me before!  The kids have finally decided that they realllllllly like my homemade jam, so I'm happy to make the effort, but we could have had a really nice steak dinner for the price of these jars of jam!  Although, steak wouldn't have lasted near as long....or shown as much love!

Happy Halloween!!!

The carved pumpkins! 

We tried many a group picture - these are the best we came up with!  Mitchell is a pumpkin, Ben is a revolutionary boy, Emily is the Ice Princess, and Annie is a black cat.  I was my traditional witch.  Andy joined us halfway through as a dad.  :) 

We had such fun sorting candy this year!  The most collected candy was kit kats at 27!  So sadly, I had made a pact with myself the day before for no more chocolate; that pact lasted just over a month, but I'm sure saved me a good 10 pounds!  Anyway, Mitchell fell in love with the idea of suckers.  He had several in each hand and carried them around the room.  Then we cleaned up the candy and took his suckers away.  Then we had to do it again for the video camera - such devastation for that little boy!  It was so super cute...we may or may not have given and taken away suckers from him a few more times of the next week to see the tears turn on and off with impressive speed...

Loving on Mom

As most moms know, it is so rare to have pictures with your kiddos as most of the time, you are the person taking the pictures - unless Grandma is around.  :)  However, we had a relaxed Saturday afternoon when Andy came home.  We sat on the floor in the kitchen and just had a little family conversation, which turned into family hugs.  Love this sweet memories!!! 

Emily was sad and didn't want to face the camera until it was just the two of us!

Halloween came so quickly that we didn't have time to prepare everything.  Mitchell and I attended 5 parties in 20 hours!  It was quite the holiday and candy-fest! 

Carving pumpkins has never been my favorite activity.  We held out for Dad until the last possible moment, then we had two hours left until trick-or-treating!  I sucked it up, got out the tools, and dug into those slimy pumpkin seeds!  Thankfully, Ben is completely able to create his personal masterpiece, and the girls are mostly competent, so it was actually pretty fun!  I think it's more the planning-process I don't enjoy...but the actual cutting was great!

Halloween 4 mile Fun Run

I decided that I wanted to do a race to start getting prepared for the 15K I signed up for in December.  This 4 mile Halloween Fun Run popped up and sounded just perfect!

I convinced a few friends that they reallllllly wanted to do it with me.  We each ended up doing our own pace.  The first person finished and came back to find me and run with me to the end.  Then Susan and I went back to find Marianne and Kim.  Kim swore she wasn't going to run...until the last hundred yards, and they sprinted to the end.  What a complete high. 

Who needs drugs when there is running?!?!?

It was a super cold morning, but we made it and finished with beaming smiles!  Andy and the kids made it just in time to see the last group finish and have some Subway sandwiches for our post-race energy.  Such fun, ladies!  Thanks so much for being supportive and encouraging!!!