All things Christmas-y

I'm so behind on posts...so I'm trying to get them all done before more pictures get taken for Christmas. We're headed off to Arizona tomorrow so a week so it will be another long while before I post again.

Tyson keeps telling me that, "This is the best Christmas ever!" He told me that way back on December 5th. Not quite sure what we did at that point to make it so fun besides put up the Christmas tree. But I'm glad he's a happy and grateful boy! I've been trying to do some fun little Christmas things this year with him. We've got the countdown chain going, made snowflakes, decorated ornaments, played Christmas Bingo (a million times...that game is right up his organized ally) and of course went to see Santa. He's been asking for a blue truck. We've told him to tell Santa and at both our ward party and Scott's work party, he got presents (cool)! He was so excited about them but on the way home from the 2nd time we'd seen Santa, Tyson quietly said quietly and sadly to himself in the backseat, "oh, no blue truck." I think he thought that was it for Santa. So needless to say Christmas morning will be fun with him when he finally opens that blue truck!

He was just talking Santa's ear off...quite a difference from last years "No Ho-Ho!" episode.This last picture is just a random one but funny. I needed to cut Tyson's hair and he hates having it done, so I tried to bribe him with candy. This is how I found him eating them...he poured all the Nerds onto his belly and then proceeded to eat them off of it. His own personal plate!

Snow

Buddled up from head to toe, Tyson went off to explore the wild front...yard. He climbed "mountains," followed bunny tracks (they're all over the lawn), made lots of footprints of his own, threw snowballs, and made a snow angel. He did not want to come inside. But with a promise of hot chocolate with marshmellows, he brought his runny nose in. Turns out he doesn't like hot chocolate.

Thanksgiving!

As mentioned in the previous post, out Thanksgiving travel plans to Utah were thwarted due to the weather across Wyoming and if any of you have made the drive across that state, you know to avoid that as much as possible. We just didn't feel good about our car with 2 little kids trying to make the trek. Fortunately for us our friends, the Millers, took us in for the Thanksgiving holiday. And we sure had a great time! Splitting up the food made everything so easy and relaxing. Thank you Millers for a great time! Tyson sure enjoyed the chocolate pie!Melanie and I had great plans to map out our route for Black Friday but somehow the ads disappeared...and where did we find them? In the hands of our mocking husbands who were suddenly interested in the good deals. Notice the football on in the background as well...

We went out at midnight to Walmart (craziness) and again at 4 to Target and others. And I would say it was successful! Both in what we bought and in transforming Melanie into a black Friday shopper! I've noticed being tall really comes in handy during all the shopping chaos. I can spot the shortest lines, the products we were looking for, and my shopping partner. Its a fun time of year!

And I just threw these pictures of the kiddos in here because I think they were from the same weekend. Ty doesn't mind bundling up as much now that he's older and Camille spent the holidays working on some tummy time (3 months old)

The Big Game=A House Divided

Thanksgiving weekend always provides for an interesting time at our house with the big Utah-BYU game. When I was pregnant with Tyson, I thought I was having a girl and so I made the deal with Scott that he could have the boys as BYU fans and I could have the girls as Ute fans. He has somehow convinced Tyson to like BYU despite my efforts to persuade him otherwise. But I won't let Camille slip through my fingers quite so easily! So here's our family on game day. At least we're equal in numbers so far!Because our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving was cancelled due to weather, we had our neighbors over to watch the game. We are a divided neighborhood as well. Our Ute neighbors, the Cravens, had their parents in town so we were doubled in number! I made them a sign to make sure they felt welcome (and to tease our other BYU neighbors who were brave enough to join our rowdy crowd!)
So here's our Ute crowd... And our two cute little Utes, Rachel and Camille! Our girls were born 7 weeks apart and we're raising them right and teaching them young!One of these kids is not like the others... Eden is 4 and she and Tyson get along really well. She teaches him all about princesses:)

I guess you can tell by their faces who won the game... Just kidding...Not about the game, the Utes did win (17-16)!! But Tyson was crying about something else and I hurried and snapped a picture for this very purpose. The second one, I told him to make a sad face face and it turned out perfect. Our poor kids are just little pawns in our rivalry!

We had to extend our red wearing into the next day for Sunday apparel. My mom found these adorable little socks (you can't really tell, but there are reindeer at the top with polka dot antlers). Then she made the jumper to match! She looked so cute and Christmasy! If you can't already tell, I love being a Ute!

Family life

Here's a family photo after church last Sunday. I need to take more of them!She's in her bumbo seat and still a little unsteady. She has the craziest hairline. It's long towards the back half of her head but still short up front. I can totally make a little pony tail with the back top part. The back would be long too but its rubbing off so it makes for an interesting hair-do!
Love this face, as if saying, "enough already!" But look at her overalls all covered in drool. I definitely have another drooler on my hands which I thought I might escape since she isn't as big as Tyson. I was wrong, she blows bubbles and drools all day long!

And I can't have a post without this cute boy. He comes up with the funniest things and I just have to remember to write them down! Some of his classic sayings are:

When he toots, he'll say, "Oh excuse my bum."

I've been giving him some Flinstone vitamins and I call them his medicine. He loves them and could eat a ton so I have to ration them out. In order to try and get some he'll come up to me, fake a cough, and then say, "I sick. I need yedicine to feel me better."

The other day, I told him that "I loved him this much," with my arms stretched out wide. He then did the same thing back to me. Then I stretched my arms as wide as I could go while saying, "No, I love you this much!" To which he then replies, "Whoa, that's a lot of much!"

I sure love these kids!

While I was sleeping...

My worst nightmare came true. You know the saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"? Let me tell you, I will NOT be shamed twice. I slept in only a little bit last Saturday and Scott thought he was so clever as to hurry and dress our kids. I swore I hid that shirt way back in the closet behind everything else. I could hardly hold her. ;) But I can promise though, this weekend for the big game, she and her mama will only be in RED!! (Might I add, I did not take this picture)

November stuff

More updates. She's been very sweet and quick to smile. She is a great sleeper at night, usually making it all the way through til about 5 or 6. However, she's a terrible napper. I will get her to sleep, lay her down and she is back awake 20 minutes later. All throughout the day. So not much gets done around here these days. She does sleep good in her carseat, so if I need to run errands, she'll sleep a long time for me. She will often smile with her tongue sticking out, something she gets from Scott.

Here is Tyson being a big helper and measuring her. Speaking of which, I never put up her two month stats (now that she is almost 3 months). But she weighed 12 lbs. 15 oz. and was 24 3/4 inches long. Which is 95% and 99% percentile. That is about 3/4 of an inch shorter than Tyson was and 4 pounds lighter than him!! Crazy...he really was a fat baby! Tyson has been so good lately! He has just become so polite and funny and will say the funniest things. The other morning he woke up and came running into our room just talking away. He then goes into the bathroom where Scott is getting ready for work and combing his hair. Tyson then proceeds to chant. "Go Daddy, Go Daddy!" and then tells him he is handsome. He also likes to tattle on Scott. I was out shopping when Scott and Tyson call me on the phone telling me what they've been doing. Tyson tells me that him and Dad were playing trains and he asked dad to play with him but he didn't hear him because he was watching football. Sounds about right:)

Here's some short videos of Camille jabbering away and then laughing which she started this past week. So fun!

Yee-haw!

Costumes were fun this year and for the most part pretty easy and inexpensive(always a plus). I only had to make the vests for each of them and stitched ribbon on her skirt and I was done! It was quite fun and I thought they turned out cute, I only wish the picture of Tyson was lighter. I would like to be able to claim I made those cute boots too, but Scott's aunt Caroline knitted those for Tyson when he was born. They fit perfectly!
We had a great ward trunk-or-treat where Tyson executed the "Trick-or-Treat" phrase perfectly. Of course, when candy is at the other end of it, who wouldn't say it right??

Halloween Festivities

We took our annual trip to Vala's pumpkin patch last week and of course had Tyson stand to be measured. It was fun to look up our other two trips to see how he's grown. We saw a petting zoo, pig races, did a tractor ride, and other fun things. It always makes for a fun outing. We didn't even bring a stroller for Tyson...a big step... and he did really good to stay with us. Feeding a camel. You can see Tyson and I are not to into the whole thing. I did feed him also and the goo left on my hand was disgusting.You can tell on my face that I was really happy to be at that certain venue. Scott caught my face perfectly. Tyson loved these stupid dancing/singing animals and I'm thinking, "we paid money to come sit and watch this??" I finally bribed Tyson to leave!Needs no explanation...She was great!Searching for the perfect pumpkin...or climbing on them...one of the two.Yearly family photo op. Now we have 2 kids in it!We carved a pumpkin a few days ago and this kid always makes for an entertaining time. We drew out a pumpkin and let him decide what shapes the eyes and nose should be and then drew them on the paper. He then proceeded to be the task-master. When we would finish cutting out a piece he would say, "one triangle eye....check!" "A circle nose..check!" And then he would scribble them out on his paper. The mouth took the longest but he was diligent and would not cross it off until it was completely cut out, to which he replied, "One mouth, Check!" It had to be the funniest thing! So here he is holding up his checklist. He'll make a good boss someday. So here's our supervisor proudly displaying "his" work.And our littlest pumpkin too.

We have a great playgroup here and one day we went to a small pumpkin patch on a cute little farm. Which way to the pumpkins? They had huge tire swings, lots of chickens to feed, pony rides and fun play areas. What more could a little boy want??My 2 year old boy looking so big on that horse. I mean, really big. We took a hayride out to the field and...found a good one! Dibs!We also had a Halloween party for the kiddo's in our playgroup and did fun games and decorated cookies. We went a little crazy with the sprinkles. Tyson is a cowboy this year and Camille will be a cowgirl. Should be fun!

Our ward Halloween party/trunk or treat is coming up with more costume pics to follow! Can't wait.