Breakfast With Santa

Our Ward's Christmas party this year was a breakfast with Santa. Rian got to take Isaac and Ian by himself as I was just put on bed rest this week after going to the hospital with preterm contractions. (Luckily, I was not dialated or showing any other signs that I was starting labor.) I was supposed to be in charge of the kids craft table, so it was a good thing that I had everything ready so it could be easily handed off to someone else. Rian jokes that I was just trying to get out of having to do all of the work.

The boys were so excited to see Santa so they could tell him what they want for Christmas. Isaac wants a Mary Jane figure to complete his Spiderman collection and Ian wants a Luke Skywalker figure. It's a good thing that Santa is already prepared for these requests since I can't go shopping anymore.

Turkey Day!

This was the first Thanksgiving we've spent on our own without any other family. Even when we lived in Iowa we always spent it with Rian's cousin's family. Rian thought it would be too lonely by ourselves and I didn't want too make a bunch of food for our little family and end up with a bunch of leftovers. So we invited another family in our ward/neighborhood to join us who was also going to be spending Thanksgiving by themselves. I am proud to say that I successfully cooked my very first turkey and everything turned out really well. As you can see from the pictures, even Isaac and Ian loved all of the food.

Birthday Boys

Isaac's birthday is on the 10th of November and Ian's in on the 13th. With their birthday's being this close together, Ian of course was not willing to wait a few days to celebrate his. To cut down on the amount of cake we would be eating this week, I made one and cut it in half to decorate for each of them. After Isaac and I finished decorating his cake, I was about to put Ian's away to save for a couple of days. Instead, Ian got up to the counter, stuck a knife in the frosting and started frosting his cake, too. So we just decided to go ahead and celbrate for both of them on both of their birthdays. Rian's parents came over for both of their birthdays and we had had some of the neighbor friends over another day to help us eat some cake and ice cream, too. Basically we did a lot of celebrating for our 2 "big boys".

Trick-or-Treat

This was the easiest Halloween yet because the kids actually wanted to wear a costume that we already had. This year Isaac was pretty set on being Anakin from Star Wars and, as you can see from the pictures, Ian changed his mind. For our neighbor's Halloween party, Ian wanted to carry on the Star Wars theme and dressed as Darth Vader and then on Halloween night he decided to wear the black spider-man costume. We had a pretty fun and laid back Halloween. We took the kids to the ward trunk-or-treat for an hour, went to a friends house for dinner to get the kids some real food before the candy/sugar high, and then Rian took the boys to trick-or-treat around the neigborhood while I handed out candy at home. (I preferred to be inside where it was warm.) Isaac actually got really excited about handing out candy this year, too. After Rian was done taking the boys around the neighborhood, Isaac sat by our door waiting for more trick-or-treaters to come while Ian sat with his collection of candy picking out which one to eat next. Believe it or not they really did go to bed pretty fast despite how much sugar they had consumed. I think all the Halloween activities just finally wore them out.

Here lies Spanky

Spanky was our pet spider. It all started over a year ago while we were still living at Rian's parent's house. I was cleaning the boys room one day and found a furry spider in the corner. I, of course, went and got Rian to 'take care' of it, but he had a different idea. Rian said this was a good spider (a jumping spider) and that they caught lots of other bugs. So, instead of getting rid of it, Rian caught the spider in a cup, put it in Mason jar which he poked wholes in the top of and showed it to Isaac and Ian. They decided that it would be a fun pet. So they got some leaves, twigs and grass to put inside the jar and decided to name him Spanky. Not only did Rian and the boys catch flies (I helped once) and other bugs, (they had to be alive, too) but their favorite part was to sit and watch for Spanky to jump on and catch the bugs. Amazingly, we were able to keep Spanky alive for over a year (I'm not even sure how long spiders usually live). He finally died this last weekend so Rian, Isaac and Ian buried him in our front yard and put flowers on the grave. Don't worry, because the next day Rian found another jumping spider and put it in the Mason jar. Isaac named this one Charlotte. We'll just have to see if this one lives as long as Spanky.

Now some of you might be grossed out by having a spider for a pet, but here are a few reasons why I would highly recommend one:

-they are CHEAP, they don't take up much space, you don't have to clean up after it, they don't smell up your house, you don't have to worry about it when you go out of town because they can go for days/weeks without eating and they are easy to replace. My favorite reason is that I didn't have to do anything!

Kindergarten

Isaac started Kindergarten this year and really likes it. Both of our neighbors have girls in his class and there are a couple of friends from church, too. In the last month and a half we've already been able to see a big improvement in Isaac's writing and counting. He was so excited when he learned how to write his last and now wants to write his full name on everything. I've at least talked him into not putting his middle name on all of his homework. There is even a bus just for the kindergaten kids. The excitement of the bus only lasted for the first 2 weeks because Isaac decided that it was too bouncy and scary. So now I drive Isaac to school every morning and he's willing to ride the bus home in the afternoon. My little boy is growing up!

Joining the Blogging World

So I've been looking at a lot of blogs that our friends and family have started and I finally decided to join in. A couple of months ago I would have sworn that I would never follow the blogger crowd, but here I am. I don't keep a journal and I am way behind in my scrapbooking (especially the journaling part) even though I have lots of ideas and plans for my scrapbooks. Hopefully this blogging venture will help me document some of my thoughts and everyday events on a more regular basis. Of course, I am planning on having Rian help me keep it up to date.