Christmas Morning

Right after Santa went to bed, I mean back up the chimney.
Reese's Santa stuff.
Boston's Santa stuff.
Boston and his new CARS.
Reese and her new Mittens Lalaloopsy.
After we opened all the presents we found one under the tree we had "forgotten." Inside the box was a picture of the playroom (a clue). Reese ran down the stairs to see what could be down there and this is what they found.Boston's Loot.
Reese's loot. What spoiled rotten kids.
Reese and her other favorite Pillow Featherbed.
Boston playing with his new Little Wheelies set. He loved putting anything and everything down the slides.
Us - pretty glamorous at 7 A.M.

Mom got a new purse, Dad a new shirt and some movie tickets/Texas Roadhouse gift certificate to share. Santa didn't leave much for mom and dad since he dropped a few things off for them in Novemeber like a new TV for dad and a new rug for mom. Mom got did get some cute slippers (which I wear everywhere) and Dad got a new bronco shirt from our family in Colorado. Also thanks for the Mickey Mouse from Ava, and the playhouse from Annagrace.

Christmas Eve

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house for the 2nd year in a row. This is the day we spend with Todd's family. We've found it much easier doing it this way with the kids - so they can just go right to bed and do Christmas morning at their own house. We enjoyed a lot of treats and simple pizza dinner. Above: New Christmas jammies and slippers.
These are out of order. We let the kids open up one present this night - which contained all of the games we were going to play. Hot Potato was a big hit - especially with Boston! We also played Hello Kitty dominos and Scene it Comedy movies.

After all the games we read Luke 2 and the kids put on the pieces to the Nativity. We were happy to spend the evening with Grandma, Papa, Thomas and Tim.

Tis the Season...

The other night we hosted a little Christmas party at our house with a few of our best friends. No, not all of our best friends (for those that might be reading this and later leave me a comment saying "but I wasn't there"). We just chatted and chewed. Lots of yummy food! The kids ran around like wild barbarians but it fun.
I took a few pics of the kids the other morning. It had to be quick since it was freezing cold and because of course they're 3 and 1. We had to play a few games of Peek-a-Boo to keep them cute and not complaining.
Little Miss Boss tried to get her little brother to pose and apparently he didn't like that.

Finally, a cute pic! Happy Holidays! We didn't send out a card so this is as good as it gets (I don't think we've sent out a card in our 5 years of marriage). Maybe next year....

Dancing Queen

Reese had her first dancer performance today. It wasn't an actual recital just a Christmas program to show what they've been learning so far. She did so great. She has a lot of stage presence - which is no surprise given her personality. She did really good at trying to follow her teachers - we look forward to many more performances in her future. I was so proud of her! Todd missed the performance but watched the recording with her when he got home from work. We're grateful for the 3 grandmas and 1 grandpa that showed up to support her too!
All ready to go - showing us her twirls. Look at that footwork!
Quite the little poser!

Turkey Day

We were in Downey this year for Thanksgiving. Todd's brother Tyler who lives in Georgia was here with his family visiting. Reese and Boston loved having their cousins Annagrace and Emmalee there to play with. They are really close in age so it's especially fun for them. Reese had been counting down for weeks until it was time for her to be with Annagrace. They loved to play together.
Cheers! Ready to get our turkey on!
This year Todd got together with a few friends before the feast to play a little Foosball. It was rather entertaining seeing some of these older gentlemen try and relive their glory days of high school football. They were a bit out of shape.


Todd's team was victorious!
The team!

Halloween

So these pictures are not in order what-so-ever! Halloween was full of grandma visits. We started off fairly early and made our way down to Brigham City to see Todd's Grandma and had a nice visit and enjoyed some delish grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. It had been a while since Grandma Roxcy had seen Reese and Boston. I was kind of worried they would be really shy, especially Boston. Quite the opposite - Boston was very social. I guess he figured since her name was Grandma she must be ok. After we left Brigham we headed north and stopped in Preston to see my mom and Grandma Nan. While we were there we got the kids in their costumes. Reese even went trick-or-treating next door to a friends house. We left just in time to make it to Downey for their Trunk-or-Treat.
2 cute wiches - Reese and Addie.
I just think this picture is too cute with their two little witch hats! Check out Boston's loot!

Getting some goodies from Uncle Thomas and Grandpa. The kids weren't too thrilled with Grandpa's mask.
After trunk-or-treating we enjoyed some Little Ceaser's Pizza (Reese's request).
We found another friend while we were getting goodies. Reese's good friend Brody.

All ready to go - at Grandma Nans.
The cutest witch and puppy. By the way I made Reese's costume this year. I was quite proud of myself, considering last year I couldn't even read a pattern and had to have my mom make it.
Boston getting some goodies!

Carving Pumpkins

So we carved pumpkins a week or so before Halloween. We've had a pumpkin carving kit that hasn't been opened in like 3 years and decided we better finally use it. We're usually slackers when it comes to carving pumpkins. Reese picked out the headless horseman picture (just because it had a horse) and Boston picked the ghost. He was obsessed with Ghosts this Halloween. He would point them out every where we went and would say "Ghost... Ahhh! OoooOOooo!"
So the kids really didn't want to do much beyond picking out the picture they wanted carved in the pumpkin. Reese was totally grossed out the innards and wouldn't even touch it and they obviously couldn't use the knives to do the actual carving. However, they were happy once all the work was done -- who wouldn't be.

PJ Party

A couple of months ago we hosted a PJ party with a few of our friends. We ate breakfast, watched a movie and wore our PJ's (obviously). The kids had a lot of fun. Above: Boston and Madden.
The two little guys.
The chef. Poor Todd was the only husband that was able to make it. We had french toast, bacon, eggs and OJ it was delicious!
Watching Cars.
Yum!
All the kids: Addie, Reese, Braylee, Boston, Lucy and Madden! Such Cuties!!

Max

The day we brought him home.
So I'm a bit behind on a few things. With Christmas and various birthdays coming up I wanted to make sure and get caught up before I had 6 months worth of pictures to blog. So shortly after we got our house we decided to get a cat. Reese has been wanting a kitty for quite some time. So one day we were at the pet store looking at the animals (which we do quite often since it has a built in petting zoo) we noticed they had a litter of orange kitties. We opened up the gate to look at the kitties and he was the first one to approach us. Very friendly and full of confidence. There were a couple others that were really cute but were very timid and I figured timidness wouldn't go over well in a house with 2 wild maniacs. So we boxed him up and took him home.

He is crazy to say the least. He got in trouble a bit when we first got him because he kept trying to climb up my new curtains. He's pretty good now... he's always been 100% box trained which has been wonderful. He tolerates the kids pretty well. He really likes Reese because she is really good with him. Boston on the other hand is a little rough and overly affectionate, and he always picks him up by grabbing handfuls of skin or fur (we're working on that one). We named him Max from one of Reese's favorite shows Max and Ruby. Reese keeps saying we need to get another so we have a Ruby too, but I think one is good for now. He loves to play! His favorite toys include a monkey puppet (which is about the same size as him - so it's really funny to see him running through the house carrying it in his teeth), and he loves to go in the bathroom and swipe one of my pony tail holders. He can play with those thing for hours!