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Christmas Eve?

While listening to Christmas music, Jett asked me about Christmas Eve. When is it, what is it, etc. After explaining it all he thought about it for a bit and then asked,
"What about Christmas Adam?"

I love that kid!

Santa!

We went to our ward Christmas party last night and had a great dinner and program and then the kids got to see SANTA!! I love this age - it's so magical for them! They kept planning on what they wanted to tell Santa and they were so excited about the gift they got - a bag full of peanuts, an orange, a candy cane and some other candies.

Not the greatest Santa pics, but that's okay. There was another lady taking pics of each kid which is why Santa and the boys are looking in different directions - oops. And Dallas slept through Santa's visit so maybe another time for him!
Gotta love it when Santa Claus comes to town!=)

Sickos

So we got a bug here. Not sure where it came from or when it started (Dallas and Jayson could have had it?? but it was only a day and not so bad??) but poor Jett and Tucker were hit hard with a nasty stomach bug. I don't think it's the flu because there have been no fevers, but the boys have had a lot of throwing up and diarrhea. ~Yuck~ . It really got started on Saturday and finally! today - Tuesday - they haven't had any episodes. (yet). Last night there was a lot of clean-up in the wee hours and blessings from daddy and now I'm so hoping that was the last of it! I'm tired of puke and poo! Thankfully I've been able to keep the boys from getting too dehydrated and they have more of an appetite, but we're taking it easy and resting. I'm also glad that me, Jay, and Dallas aren't showing signs of picking up this nasty bug. Hopefully we'll keep it that way.

So here's to getting my two boys healthy and back to normal! And hopefully being done with the sickies!*Some silly pics!*

Thankful....

This Thanksgiving was as others have been with family all around, games, a fabulous feast. But over the last week I have been pondering on what I'm truly thankful for and I've been noticing a lot of the little things that make life so pleasant. I am sooo blessed!!! I have a wonderful little family and an incredible extended family and we all are able to get along and spend time together. We're all healthy and faithful. I have an adoring husband who works hard and does such a great job providing for and protecting and presiding over our family. My kids are seriously awesome and I'm so lucky to be their mom and stay home with them and teach them and play with them and learn from them. We have a comfortable, warm home and plenty of food. We live in a free country and have people fighting for us to keep us free. We have great friends and many great people to look up to and learn from. It's sunny outside right now and I so love it when the sun shines and the colors are so bright outside. I'm so blessed and Oh! how thankful I am for these blessings!!! It really is great to have this Thanksgiving holiday to reflect on what we're thankful for.

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Rowley/Trettin clan. It was great, as always, to spend time with the people I love. And oh my what a feast!!! I love Thanksgiving food and it was all so good! I didn't want to stop eating, but after I ate, I went to help the kiddos eat, and my plate was taken away, which was probably a very good thing. I thought about getting another plate and filling it up again, but everyone was done and cleaning up! (I'm such a pig!) We have amazing cooks in the fam and we had such a bounty of deliciousness!!! Thank you to all who provided and prepared that yummy food!!!
Later on in the evening we had a family-wide Wii bowling tournament. There were 2 groups of 4, and 2 groups of 3. Then the winners from those groups competed for the all time bowling championship. I won! Haha! =) Grandma Fran provided a See's candy bar for the winner and I do love chocolate! There was napping and reading, games and chatting and movies and all over great time spent with family!

Happy Thanksgiving!



....And now on to Christmas!!! Woohoo!

Handsome!

The boys got their pictures taken yesterday. They turned out great! Tucker had a hard time staying still and smiling at times. We did our sitting with my sister-in-law Clarissa and her 3 cute kids too so it was busy, but in all I think it was a success!!

This pic was done near the end of the shoot and Tucker was squirmy and silly and Dallas kept wiggling too, but we got a good enough shot!
I love these BOYS!!!My handsome Jettster

My Tucker-Tuck-man
My peekaboo Dallas baby!
(with a little tooth!)

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween and made out with LOTS of candy! We went trick-or-treating at a shopping center around to all the stores with the cousins, went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes with everyone and had a great time at our ward's trunk-or-treat in the evening! I love to watch my kids have so much fun. They loved dressing up in their costumes. Tucker was so funny because he would just stand around looking at all the costumes trying to figure them out. I had to push him along sometimes because he would get so distracted. Jett was so great at saying "Trick-or-treat!" real loud followed by a big "Thank you!" He's such a good kid. Dallas was great all day and it was nice to have Halloween on a Saturday so Jayson could enjoy the holiday with us! We all enjoyed a happy Halloween!

Policeman
(by accident he kind of looked like Paul Blart - Mall Cop! hahaha)
Bob the BuilderCute little Scarecrow and Daddy =)Cousins!
Brenna (Bo Peep), Jett, Tucker, Dallas, Madison (Builder Paige), Natalie (baby), Jackson (sheep), Ashley (nurse), Landon (sheep)3 buds ready to Trick-or-Treat!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Pumpkin Patch!

Last Saturday our family and Shane and Clarissa's family and Karen took the kids to the Lakeview Farms pumpkin patch. It was pouring rain all morning so we waited till the afternoon and then the clouds parted and the sun shined so we took off to get some pumpkins! The boys loved to see the animals. Tucker was sure that the little horse was his and that he should ride it! Because of the rain, we beat a big crowd so there weren't any lines to wait in so the boys got their faces painted. They haven't really done this before and afterwards, Tucker didn't like it and Jett wasn't too thrilled...Oh, well.Jett got a skeletonTucker got a ghostWe took the boat over to the patch and proceeded to tromp through sticky mud to find a great pumpkin.

It's always so fun to see the kids pick up every pumpkin and wander around to find the "right" one. A lot of the pumpkins were yucky, but we finally found some good ones. The boys like to get pumpkins that they can carry themselves which turn out to be little ones (nice because it's cheaper!) so they found their perfect pumpkins and proudly toted them onto the train.

"Man, I'm strong!"
Got some pumpkins!
Me and Dallas watching the fun.Waiting for the trainAll aboard!They loved the train ride and once we were done, all they wanted was to get their pumpkins cleaned off. We ran home to change their muddy pants and shoes and then headed up to Grandma's house and cleaned the pumpkins and they showed them off and played with them for a while!
Ah, I do love a good pumpkin adventure!
Now on to decorating them!

He knows who to ask

The boys were eating breakfast and Tucker was admiring Jett's crayons that were on the counter.

Tucker: "I'm going to ask Santa and Jesus for some White-neen McQueen crowns!"

-Kinda early for Christmas lists.
-At least he knows the two biggest figures that represent Christmastime.
-Confident if he asks both Santa and Jesus then he's definitely getting some crayons of his own.
-Smart kid.
=)

What do you want to be?

So we were in the truck yesterday running around and I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. Jett said, "a pumpkin!" and Tucker said (prompted by Jett), "a horse"! Then I asked what else, just in case. Tucker said, a horse or a dragon! (again prompted by Jett - such a helpful brother). And Jett thought he would like to be a piece of paper, a piece of wood, a needle, a thundercloud!

(?)

Okay, interesting ideas.

I'm still trying to decide what they'll be...

Soaking up the Summer!

So it's been a month! Maybe I'm not going to be so good at this blogging bit after all...

Well I thought I'd record a little of the fun we've had this week. It's been so sunny and nice outside, I feel like we have to squeeze all the fun out of this last bit of summer weather! So earlier this week Jayson got home early and decided we needed to get out so he packed us up and we went to the beach on Sauvie's Island! It was just our family and it was so fun! Dallas hung out on the blanket and the boys and Jay and I played in the water. There was a sandcastle and we played catch with a football and had such a great time! After the sun started to go down, we packed it up and went home to change and then went to Sonic (yum!) and went to a park to eat and then play. By the time we were playing it was dark and we had the park to ourselves. I love spontaneous nights that turn out so fun!! The kids loved it and we all had so much fun!

The next evening Jayson got home early again and our family and Shane and Clarissa's family went out on their boat for some skiing, wakeboarding, sky-skiing and swimming. Tons of fun and I actually got up and stayed up on my little ski! Clarissa did great on the wakeboard and the guys did some great jumps on the sky ski. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries during the trip, so I only have a few photos. Afterwards, we hit Burgerville for dinner and it was another super fun family night!

And last night was another adventure. My parents invited us to go on a bike ride downtown. We got the tandems and the tagalong and trailer for the kids and had a great bike ride! The trailer and the tagalong wouldn't hook on the frame of my dad's tandem so Jayson pulled them both. We had about a 15 ft. train! We got lots of looks from people but it was fun and thankfully Jayson is strong - he did a great job pulling our family along the way! We had subway for dinner and enjoyed the waterfront and the beautiful weather. =)

I'm bloggin'

So I've been what you may call a "blog stalker" long enough and thought it was time to join the blogging community with my own blog! I never feel like I have much to say, but I do want to remember the fun stuff we do and the little bits o' life that would be missed if I didn't record them (I forget everything!) so this is where I will hopefully be able to keep up with it all!

***
To start off, I've been wanting to record some of the funny things my kids have said...

-- Jett, while reading said, "without a douBt". He said the B and it sounded pretty great.
-- If Jett refers to something being skinny or thin he often says "like Nana!"
--Tucker often says "Yipoooo! Yeah-poooo!!" when playing - I think it sounds funny.
--Tucker was ignoring me and I picked up a book and tossed it toward him to get his attention and accidentally hit him with it ( I know - great mom moment) and Jett says, "Mom, you threw a book at your very own son!" Yeah. I later apologized for "throwing" the book and we talked about how it's not okay to throw books (which they obviously already knew).
--And there's more because I remember laughing at the kids, but I don't know why, so here starts my blog where I now have a place to write down the funny moments before I forget. And if I happen to remember, I'll be sure to share because these boys are silly and kids really do say the darndest things!