Christmas decorations!

I love putting up my Christmas decorations! They have so many memories. Here are a few of my favorites.......

Mike and I were married in December. We did our wedding colors in burgandy and gold. My wonderful, amazingly talented step-mom put together most of the decorations for the reception. As a wedding gift she made us some ornaments that went along with our wedding colors to put on our first Christmas tree. We've added to them over the years and putting up our front room tree not only has wonderful Holiday memories, but we have the priviledge of wedding memories tied into it too. I wish I had the photographic skills that so many of my friends seem to posess. My little picture doesn't do it justice. It really is a beautiful tree.....glittery gold snowflakes, sparkly white lights, elegent balls and bow. I love it!

I adore Christmas villages. I always wanted one growing up. I bought my first house the first year we were married and I've collected one for every year since. Now that I have 10 houses I'm starting to run out of room, but I can't help myself.....I still go out on Black Friday every year and spend an obscene amount of time picking out the next perfect addition.

A few years ago my sister bought us this Advent Calendar. Can you get any cuter? Love it! Every day you pick out an ornament from the little wooden boxes surrounding the base and hang it on the wood tree. The boys love it as well and I have to keep an eagle eye out to make sure non of the ornaments "walk off". And then there's Christmas Tanner style.....

I never thought to hang ornaments on a bassinet....

or our woodburning stove.....and I found this little cozy Christmas scene set up inside of his pop-up pup tent...and I think the big black trantula posed on the Christmas house ready to pounce on the carolers added a classic touch....

My Naughty Boy

Frustration!
Anger!
Irritation!
and occasionally......

A Laugh!

I see Blogs all the time where they have a weekly theme that they post on, such as things they are grateful for, or funny thing their kids said during the week. This morning during a moment of extreme annoyance a thought came to me......I could do a weekly post titled Naughty Things Tanner Did This Week. That little boy tries my patience! I think there's something to be said for the fact that I've discovered my first couple of gray hairs since he joined our family. There is no child-proofing preventative measures that he can't get past. I feel like I shouldn't even have to child-proof my house for a 4-year-old! I'd love to know what goes on in his head. Is it all just boredom? Curiosity? Here's just a sampling from the last 10 days......

1. Got into paint that one of Mike's co-workers left behind. Proceded to paint the trampoline and his and Caeden's new clothes.


2. Spilled Fun Dip on my fabric couch and instead of coming to get me to vaccum it off he tried to lick it up and made a huge blue stain.

3. Stood on the cat food bucket so he could reach the Bleach Pen up in my laundry room cabinet. Proceeded to ruin half of Caeden's school wardrobe.


4. Tried to feed Weston peanuts.

5. Crawled up on top of my dresser and snuck into my jewelry box. Took out my wedding ring and tried to run off with it hidden behind his back. To fully understand the seriousness of this crime I have to explain that this is wedding ring #2. Tanner ran off with my original ring and after it had been missing for 2 years Mike finally bought me a new one for Christmas last year.


6. Used the advantage point of the top bed of their new bunk bed to tie a bunch of toys to the ceiling fan and then turned it on. The ceiling fan now has one blade that hangs lower than the rest.

7. Ate a tube of toothpaste.


8. Kept playing with one of the lamps. Finally the lamp shade got close enough to the bulb that it started to melt.

9. Cut the sleeve off of one of his school shirts.


10. This infraction was a while ago, but we're just barely getting it resolved this week: threw a rock at a neighbors truck and chipped the paint. We finally found the name of an autobody shop that will do a patch job on the one chip and not want to just paint the whole entire panel (a painful $500s).

Today......

11. Started playing with his night-light (I just barely put in their bedroom to replace the destroyed lamp) and came downstairs screaming that he lit his room on fire. I ran up and the night-light as well as the plug socket are both charred black.

12. While I was trying to locate the fuse to shut off power in his bedroom until Mike can get home to fix the wiring he came downstairs to "play" with Weston. My blood pressure just about went through the roof when I walked down to see that he's wrapped the cords from his video games around Westons neck several times.


13. Put a washer on his finger and couldn't get it off......we discovered that butter really does work for that kind of thing.


....it's not even 10am yet.....!


And the occasional laugh....

14. Right now he's fixated with tape. Give him a roll of tape and it entertains him a full 30 min. (a very long time in Tanners world). I keep finding toys taped up all over the house. Hilarious!



I love this little stinker so much......and I need to remind myself of that daily!

Caeden

Yesterday was Caeden's 7th birthday. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. I feel like this last year he's really matured. He's such a big handsome boy. It seems like it's only been a blink of an eye since we brought our firstborn son home from the hospital. He was such a colic baby. Those first few months were so hard. Then he grew out of it and has evolved into the most mild mannered, mellow and sweet kid. He has such an amazing imagination. It's so funny to watch him out on the trampoline having imaginary battles. It's like he sees a whole world right in front of him that the rest of us have no access too....the simple backyard with trees and a swingset no longer exists. Instead he's a Pokemon trainer and he's locked in a fierce battle against Team Rocket.......or he's a Power Ranger morphing into an animal and fighting some huge and ferocious alien creature.......or he's the Transformer Optimus Prime and he's able to fold himself into a diesel truck and race away to save the day. Mike always says "Caeden's back in The Zone." because none of us can reach him there. We can call his name or shout at him, but it's almost impossible to get his attention once he's in The Zone. He LOVES LOVES LOVES anything to do with superheroes. You name it, he's into it: Spiderman, Bakugan, Transformers, Batman, Pokemon, Medabots, Thundercats, Star Wars.......I know more than I ever thought I would about all these boyish idols. He's very social and is always looking for friends everywhere we go. He likes everyone and will play with them regardless of age or gender. His best friend at school right now is a girl (I love that!). Despite that he also likes his quiet time. He enjoys reading and being read too more than almost any other activity. He loves building with legos, doing puzzles, and playing board or card games with anyone who's willing. He's the one child I have to pull away from the TV or he'll become so engrossed he'll watch it all day. He takes the role of Big Brother very seriously. He's always teaching Tanner his letters and how to count and he's so helpful to feed Baby Weston or make him laugh and keep him happy while I'm busy.

When he was an infant and so colic my dad used to stop by the house on his way home from work. More often than not both mamma and baby would be sitting on the couch crying. His Papa would pick him up bounce him and walk around with him. He would settle right down....no one else could get him to do that. I think they formed a special bond right from the start. Caeden idolizes his Papa more than any other person. He thinks the sun rises and sets with his grandpa. It is so special to watch them together. Every once in a while his Papa will take him to go get a Happy Meal, or let him spend the night at his house......he gets so excited, he'll talk about it for days and days. Luckily we only live about 10 min away so his grandpa is a huge fixture in Caeden's life.

One of the things that can be a little challenging about him is he is a TEASE! He constantly teases his little brothers and the only complaints I've ever had from his teachers at school is that he teases, teases, teases! Despite his tendancy to "bug" Caeden really is a good kid. He's always eager to please. I rarely have to fight with him to get him to do his chores or homework. He's just starting to understand some of the Gospel and develop his own testimony. It's so special to watch. He talks about being a missionary and doing what he's supposed to so he can "make Jesus happy". He loves reading the Childrens Book of Mormon Stories and watching The Living Scriptures. I think all the battles, heroes, and soldiers in the scriptures intrigue him. Caeden has a gentle heart and his feelings can get hurt quiet easily. He gets so upset if he has an arugment with one of his friends. If someone in our house is sad Caeden will be the first of the boys to pick up on it and he'll do everything he can to try and make it better. Part of me is so proud of the big boy he's becoming, but I also feel that little mommy ache for the little boy from his past. He's growing up too fast. Happy Birthday Caeden Bug!

Halloween Fun!

Warning: LOTS of pictures!

Halloween this year was crazy, busy, and fun fun fun! We had so much going on this year! Mike's family had their annual Halloween chili party. I didn't realize it until I downloaded our pics this morning, but we didn't get very good pictures of mine, Mike's, or Westons costumes. I went as a beehive, Mike went as a patch of lawn....we sprayed his hair bright green and put bugs in it and had ants crawling up his face, and Weston was a turtle.

Caeden was a scary Darth Vadar and Tanner was the cutest little cowboy.

I love this little lady bug, I would take her home and make her mine in a heartbeat! More family members in costume........

A week later we had our ward Halloween Party. We were babysitting my two nieces so I was going a little crazy keeping track of 5 kids. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but I had to drag my camera out for this.....

Caeden decided to celebrate his birthday a little early this year and have a Halloween Birthday Bash for his party. It was loads of fun. We had so many kids turn up. It was a mad-house! I was so busy I wouldn't have many pictures, but I had a wonderful friend who agreed to come out and be our photographer for the event. We played Pin the Bones on the Skeleton, Blood Running, and decorated pumpkins.

There were lot of creepy snacks.

Swamp cupcakes.....

Pretzel spiders.....

Slimey eyeballs, Goblin fangs and Monster Much popcorn......

Worms and witches fingers.......

The highlight of the evening was the Haunted House we put together in our garage and the empty addition above it that Mike is building onto the house. Once we added fog, creepy lights, Halloween music and people in scary costumes we had ourselves quite a good Spook Alley. It was such a hit we rounded up some volunteers to work it and kept it going on Halloween night for all the Trick-or-Treaters. It was so much fun we might just make it a yearly tradition! The cemetery where Mike and Uncle Jeff waited to scare anyone who dared to enter......

Grandma Jarvis as the Mad Scientist....

The Haunted Forest where Grandpa Robinson hid in the fog in his scary wolf mask (he was a little too scary, he made a little girl cry).......

A Black Light Room where Aunt Cherie wore all black and blended in with the black walls.

Draculas Castle where Dinah played the famous count......

We had so much help with everything. This last week really helped me to feel blessed. We are surrounded by the greatest group of family and friends!