Old Time Christmas

A new favorite tradition of ours is to go to the Candlelight Christmas at This Is The Place Heritage Park.

There was a live Nativity:

We met with Father Christmas to put in our last requests:

We wrote letters to Father Christmas and then threw them into the fire - the smoke and ashes went directly to the North Pole!

Dear Santa, Merry Christmas! Please bring me a Bakugan. Love, Andrew

We made a few Christmas crafts:

And we saw the elves' workshops:

Thankful.

As I was getting ready this morning, I took some time to think of what I was thankful for this year. This year was bitter sweet. We had a good amount of heartache with two miscarriages (in July & October) - I certainly won't miss 2009 for those reasons. But the sweet part is that I know how loved I am. I have received so much love, friendship & support from my friends & family. Not once have I ever felt alone or abandoned, and I am truly thankful for that.

Two of my favorite memories of 2009:

This summer, we and three other families in our little neighborhood (and by little, I mean FIVE total townhouses) wanted to go in together to buy sod for our small front yards. We weeded and shoveled and got the yard prepared. The deal on the sod didn't go through at the last minute, so one of our neighbors went ahead and purchased sod for his own yard at a home improvement store. But when I woke up the next morning, there was beautiful sod laid down on our yard and the other three neighboring yards! The men who laid the sod worked late into the night to make this happen. When I looked out the window the next morning and saw my cute little yard, I burst into tears and immediately said a thankful prayer. I was going through my first miscarriage at that time and this simple act of service touched my heart so profoundly. I also love each and every one of my neighbors. I'm telling you, it's Zion over here.

Some weeks ago, I was in way over my head with housework, meetings, and "get it dones" and to top it off, I had a nasty cold. I woke up one morning, after only a short night's sleep, and BEGGED that miracles would happen - there was much to do that day. After I took Andrew to school and came home, I got a knock at the door - my friend was there and she said, "Hi, I'm here to take care of you!" I said, "You are my miracle! I begged for a miracle today!" and I swiftly put her to work! I'm sure I would have survived even if she hadn't come that day, but she made my life so much more pleasant and helped me to know that God truly loves me. That day was also lovely because I was able to spend some time with another friend of mine that was visiting from out of town - all of my housework was done and I was able to relax and enjoy her company for a few hours.

We spent Thanksgiving at Randy's parents this year. After dinner, we took a walk up the canyon. Here is Joshy riding piggy-back on Grandma...

And here are my little Indians. Andrew's teacher (aka Mary Poppins) did so much with her class to get ready for Thanksgiving. They made all sorts of turkeys and learned songs and poems. Here is Andrew in his Native American Get-up - I love the Baby Papoose on his back!

Little Brother has to do everythng Big Brother does.

Our Heathen Child

It all started innocent enough. Josh was with me at the fabric store and he started singing... "Book of Mormon Stories..Jesus Christ amen!" I thought he was funny and I laughed. He sang it a few more times until I started to sing with him the correct words. I don't know how why or when, but things just went downhill from there. He started saying, "Jesus Christ amen" at the end of every sentence. Then, he shortened it to just "Jesus" and made sure he squeezed it in somehow to every conversation. And now he's saying His name when he's frustrated or mad about something. Randy and I think it's kind of funny, but I'm starting to get worried - I have no idea what to do about it except to just ignore it (and try not to laugh). Any advice?

Introducing...

Megan Marie Turner
Born November 14, 2009
9 lb. 6 oz., 22 in.

We love you Little Miss Megan!

Zoo Trip

Why are all creatures so much cuter as babies? We went to the zoo to see the new baby elephant, isn't he cute?

Halloween at This Is The Place

This Is The Place Heritage Park's Little Haunts didn't disappoint this year. There was trick-or-treating, a pony ride, train ride, & story telling. Don't the boys look cute in their costumes?

Later that night, our neighbors watched the boys so we could go to the Haunted Village - scary!

Our Halloween week was busy as usual with the ward trunk-or-treat and a school carnival. I don't remember Halloween being so busy when I was little. We dressed up on the DAY of Halloween and went trick-or-treating that night.

Joshy was the cutest little monkey. Every time he wore his costume, he'd walk around talking like Curious George. He wore his costume for three days, even slept in it!

Our Pumpkins

This was our first year EVER that we've had an outside to light up our carved pumpkins. We're old pros at it now. I gut the pumpkins while Andrew picks out all the seeds. Dad carves the cool designs and Joshy throws the tantrums (thus the splotchy face which he possesses
most of his wakeful hours).

Batman, ghost & dinosaur

Autumn Sunday

On Sundays, we eat dinner right after church (what is it about church that makes you ravenous?), after, we have a little quiet time, and then we take the boys for a walk to get their energy out (the alternative is a very messy house). We were lucky to enjoy the peak Fall colors one Sunday...

The boys and Randy raked a big pile of leaves to be buried in...


Then we took a walk up the trail close to us...

Gardner Village

Every Fall, we make a trip down to Gardner Village - they decorate the village so cute with witches and pumpkins everywhere. The kids do a Witch Scavenger Hunt and then we get a treat. For the last three years, we've gone with some good friends of ours - it's a little tradition we have - it was especially fun to see them this year since they've moved a few cities away.

Josh, Kassy, Andrew, Timothy

Black Island Farm

My mom came to town for my cousin's wedding - she brought my beautiful niece Rylie with her (she was the flower girl). We took the kids to Black Island Farm in Syracuse - we had some good old-fashioned fun - there was a hay ride to a real-honest-to-goodness pumpkin patch (where we each got to pick our own pumpkin!), a corn maze, train rides corn shootin', a few gigantic slides, a magic show, pig race, and good food. It was a blast!

Andrew, Josh, Grandma, & Rylie on the hay ride

pumpkins as far as the eye could see

the perfect pumpkin

some see-saw fun

I'm sure whosever behind this is wouldn't appreciate me posting it on my blog, but I wanted to show all three kids scaling this huge wall of hay. I couldn't believe how tough Joshy was! He must've climbed that thing twenty times.

adventurous Andrew going head first

Joshy preferred going backwards

Rylie descending sideways

No Time For Flash Cards

I found this preschool website (http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/) that I absolutely adore. It has fun craft & book ideas along with ways to teach young children.

Here are the brothers working on a craft together. I didn't take a picture of the final product and I've since thrown it away - duh! Andrew and Josh both love to make crafts, something I'm looking forward to doing more of - now that the weather is cooler.

Friends

This was taken after we'd just walked home from school (well, I walked while the boys were pushed in the jogger). It was a fun day full of apple picking and playing barefoot in the green grass.

Andrew, Xidis, Isaiah & Joshy being goofs.

All Growed Up

Andrew started Kindergarten this week!

Here is the handsomest, most adorable Kindergartener I've ever seen.

On the first day of school, Josh asked for Andrew the entire three hours. He was so excited when it was finally time to pick brother up.

At parent night, I asked Andrew's teacher where she got her Monarch caterpillars - I was thinking she'd tell me the website to purchase them from - no, she said she searches in fields of Milk Weed to find them! She is the perfect fit for my obsessed-with-all-creeping-things boy.

His teacher also plays the piano and sings to them everyday. She is pretty much Mary Poppins. When Andrew gets home from school, I ask him what things he did and he usually responds, "I don't know" or "I can't remember." But throughout the day, he'll give me little tidbits of information. He is excited to go back to school tomorrow - so I'm taking that as a sign that he's loving it. I get to volunteer in his class every other week, and I'm so excited I can't even stand it!

Moose Canyon

We were able to drive up to Silver Lake near the Brighton ski resort a few times this Fall. The drive is beautiful, especially when the leaves change. There is a boardwalk that circles the lake, a great place for little munchkins to expend some energy on a Sunday afternoon - and the views are breathtaking. On one of our trips, we were able to see not one, but THREE moose! Andrew now calls Big Cottonwood "Moose Canyon."

Boy Moose

Girl Moose

Conked Out

It doesn't happen often, but I'm grateful when it does.