Twilight, sleeping and Christmas Trees

A little update of what has been going on in our life:

Had a wonderful girls night out to go and see the movie Twilight. It was fun to eat dinner and chat and to be excited like teenagers for a movie :o) Nate was wonderful and didn't complain. The boys were in fed and in bed by the time I got home, it was great.

The movie was ok, the book was much better (as usual). It was still entertaining. And I have found that my criteria for a good movie has changed. If it doesn't have any sex, swearing, and can keep me awake it is classified as a good movie!

Our group!

Lately Matthew has been fighting us on nap time. So on Sunday I didn't make him take one (we have 1pm church and it is hard to get him down at 11am). He seriously fell asleep mid sentence. He was telling me that he wasn't tired :o)

This year we are headed to AZ for Thanksgiving, so we decided to get a head start on our Christmas decorations. So for Family Home Evening we set up the tree. The boys already broke 4 ornaments and I lost count how many times Matthew has rearranged the ornaments!

Life in the Desert

So we went to my parent's house in Arizona last weekend and my dad kindly offered to watch the boys while Nate and I ran a few errands. We came back to find the boys in the pool in November (my parent's pool isn't heated). It was a nice 60 degrees in the pool. Matthew of course thought it was great and Brayden was trying to enjoy it but it was a little cold, not that I blame him.

Shortly after I took these pictures my dad convinced Matthew to jump all the way in the pool. As soon as he came up he looked at us and said, "I'm all wet" and then his teeth started to chatter. My dad then tried to convince him that he needed to stay in and then he would be warm. Matthew looked at him like he was crazy and we to get a towel :o)

Haircut

I cut the boy's hair last night. I almost cried cutting Brayden's. He has the cutest curl in the back of his hair and I love it. I have only cut his hair a couple of times but Nate has been asking me to cut it for a while now as it was getting really long. I kept ignoring his requests until a little boy across the street from us asked me if Brayden was a boy or a girl, that is really when I decided it was time. I am not a good hairstylist so the option is short if it is going to be anywhere close to being even. (it also doesn't help that Brayden cries like he is being abused and shakes his head the whole time, so please don't look too closely as it isn't even!)

I forgot to take a before picture of Brayden, this is the best I could find of his cute hair :o)

Halloween 2008

It was very scary this year!

We started off our celebrations by going to carnival at Thanksgiving Point (I know a little out of the way but we were in Utah for a football game!)


Matthew was a little scared to get on the horse but once he got on he told me that he was a real cowboy!

Matthew got to spend time with his 2 favorite Aunts! And I don't know why we bother trying to get a family picture any more. I guess I really need to learn photoshop :o)

Much to his father's dismay Matthew had a great time making himself a Halloween bracelet..it was very manly.

With the help of our neighbors we carved pumpkins (ok the boys got distracted and had fun sawing off the stem of the pumpkin, little boys and knifes what can I say?) Matthew and I also made Halloween spiders to hang in our spiderweb by the front door.

We got to go trick-or-treating twice! Once at our ward trunk-or-treat and then around our neighborhood. The boys did great and loved every minute of it. Brayden walked up and down our street just saying "tank-too!" (thank you). By the way can you tell what Brayden is? I had a few people ask me and I thought his costume was quite obvious!

Checking out their loot! After we were done Matthew told me, "I love Halloween, lets do it again" In fact on Sat night he came to me with his Thomas costume telling me it was time to go trick-or-treating, he wasn't real happy when I explained that Halloween was all over. Actually today he has been throwing up. Too much Halloween candy + Daylight savings time = bad news for little kids.

PS. I really will post some more pictures from Aruba soon. I keep forgetting to go and get our underwater camera developed, digital has made me lazy!

Happy Halloween!

Good Read

I just finished this book and it was wonderful and I am ready for Christmas! It is about the Jensen family who get 12 letters from Santa, who helps the family remember the true meaning of Christmas. My favorite gift/lesson he teaches is the gift of family. Here is a quote from the book,

"What would this world be without family? Where would you be without family? And what truly is a family?

A family is more than just a group of people living in the same household. It is more than people who share a common ancestor or relative. It is much more than a string of people on a pedigree chart. These are people who have been tied at the heart throughout generations of time and space...

The Savior referred to each and every one of us as his brother or sister, knowing that we share the same parentage-- a perfect Father in Heaven. What better ties could you have than that? You are literally the offspring of God! Despite what you face here on earth, how could you deny your potential when you come from such a royal lineage and such a perfect parentage?"

I think my favorite thing about Christmastime is being with family. Last year I got a little stressed trying to have the "perfect" Christmas, with cookies, candies, decorations, treats for the neighbors and all of the little things and to be honest it didn't make Christmas that fun. My husband lovingly helped me remember that isn't what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about celebrating the Savior's birth and the blessings he has bestowed upon us. What I loved about this book is that it helped me remember that our focus should be on the true miracle of this time of year and the real gifts of Christmas.

This is a great, fast read! I laughed, cried(often :), and had warm fuzzies. It is a great book to start off the Christmas season! Enjoy!

Love-ruba

A picture is worth a thousand words...



We had a great time!

More pictures to come :o)