Meet Joy

She made her first appearance tonight. Joy is our elf that reports to Santa every night if my kids are being good or naughty. I wonder where she will be found in the morning???

Post- Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving, I did a little Black Friday shopping, as usual. Then I got up into the attic to get down our Christmas decorations. I usually send Brandon up there, but he wasn't home. We both hated going up there because our ladder faced the wrong way, it is dark up there, & there were just beams with a couple pieces of wood to set all our stuff on. Brandon's foot even went through the garage ceiling once because he lost his footing. My dad saw what a pain our attic is, and being his usual self, decided to do something about it!

Here's what our garage looked like during the process!

I'm so glad my dad is so handy! He and Brandon put a floor in so we can use all of our attic & not step through the sheet rock!

And see that light at the top of the picture? My dad wired two lights with a light switch, so we don't have to be up there in the dark! Yay!

And of course Porter had to be in on the action!

Thanks Dad & Brandon! What a nice unplanned surprise!

Meanwhile, during the week, Brody decided to start climbing out of his crib. Am I surprised? No. In fact, Brody stayed in his crib the longest out of all my kids. By 18 mo., Porter & Hudson were both climbing out, so we just switched them to a toddler bed. I have enjoyed the time that Brody didn't attempt to climb out & knew that it would happen sooner or later. This is how I found him one nap time! Hilarious!

And this is what his crib looked like!I had all of their toys in Brody's room because I didn't want toys in Porter & Hudson's room. There's built-in shelves in his room & it was perfect for all the toys... until now. There is no door on the shelves, so the toys have gotta go! I am going to be busy organizing & shuffling to put all the toys in Brody's closet with a lock on it. I've gotta do it fast, because he is not sleeping at all for nap times right now. *sigh*

After Grandma & Grandpa left, we got our tree decorated!

And lights on our house.

And speaking of Grandma & Grandpa leaving, guess who left with them?

Porter!

We decided to let Porter go with Grandma & Grandpa to Utah since we will be going there for Christmas. Still, that's a long time! Here he is on the long drive. Content playing his leapster.

Porter gets to go to school with Grandma! My mom teaches 1st grade, but she said I'm teaching Porter the same stuff that she's teaching her 1st graders, so it has worked out perfectly!

School lunch. Mmmmm...

It was hard to let him go, but it makes me feel better that he's having such a good time! I think it's so cool that he is able to be taught by his Grandma! I love it!

And, without homeschooling, it has freed up so much of my time! I have declared December as my project month! 

Our Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving was so fun this year! My parents came to visit! I haven't had a Thanksgiving with my parents for about 10 years! It was long over-due! We had a jam-packed week.

We watched the Polar Express in our pj's and drank hot chocolate.

We went to Lime Berry for our Family Night treat.

We made cute turkey's & pilgrim hats.

My mom & I went to this:

Grandma & Grandpa took the boys & I (including Brody!) to this:

We went to Red Robin with some friends.

Brandon played football in the Turkey Bowl & came home covered in mud.

The pretty Thanksgiving table.

Porter & Hudson made these adorable turkey place cards again.

The kids table. Their table cloth was paper & that kept them busy while we were putting the finishing touches on dinner.

Jen, Morgan, & Jordyn joined us. We were sad Mike had to work:(

Dinner was sooooo yummy, then we helped the digestion by playing games!

After we weren't feeling too stuffed from dinner, we stuffed ourselves again with pies! 2 apple, a pecan, & a toffee cheesecake layered pumpkin pie. All homemade by my mom & I!

That's not all we did during our Thanksgiving break, so be on the look-out for one more post! Like I said, we were super busy!

Getting our craft on!

A group of my friends decided we needed to have a craft night every month. This was our first one. It was so. much. fun! To me, there's nothing better than getting together with friends & crafting! This month we made a recipe/picture holder.

Here's the finished product! I already have a recipe holder, so I'm going to use mine for a scripture/ article of faith of the week/ month. I can't wait for next month's craft night!

BiRthDaY

Birthday SUIT, that is. This kid WILL NOT keep clothes on! Ugh!

{true love}

Why do boys love trains so much? I don't know, but I don't think there is a boy out there that doesn't! My boys LOVE their Geo Tracks!

Trains = hours of fun!

tHanKFuL

I saw this cute idea for a thanksgiving wreath in Family Fun a couple weeks ago. Tonight we had a FHE lesson on being thankful, then I introduced the wreath. We all wrote what we were thankful for on the leaves & pinned them to the wreath & we will be adding to it until Thanksgiving. What I really like about this wreath is it can be used year after year. I think I just started a new family tradition:)

And here are a few of the many things I am thankful for... 

My boys were having fun making art, when Porter said "Look mom, I'm Rudolf!" We were listening to Christmas music, which I'm sure was his inspiration! We have been listening to Christmas music as much as we can because I love it! So I am thankful for Christmas music!

Last week we had some super nice, dry weather. On Sunday we had our family pictures taken. We were all in sweaters & my boys had beanies on, but guess what? It was 70 degrees!!! Luckily we didn't get hot and it was just perfect for getting pictures taken! As nice as the weather was, I knew it wouldn't last, so I decided to get tons of yard work done & winterize the yard. I stuffed our yard debris bin to overflowing in one day!

So that brings me to another thing I am thankful for...my yard! Specifically my  backyard! I am thankful that we were able to re-do our yard and turn it from weeds to beautiful grass. I'm thankful that our house is on two lots, so we have a big yard. I'm thankful that our yard is fenced so that when my kids are driving me crazy I can shoo them outside to play and I can stay inside and not worry about them! Our hard work has definitely been worth it!

Right now my life revolves around teaching my children. Sometimes I feel like that's all I'm doing is teaching preschool & home school! But I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to do so. I LOVE it! It has it's challenges, but I know I will look back on these times & actually miss them. So even though it is hectic & I feel like I don't have time to do other things that I want to do, I am making memories that I will cherish years later when my kids are grown & gone from my home.

I am thankful that my kids make me laugh every day! I love their sense of humor... especially my Porter! He definitely got his Dad's sense of humor!

And I just wanted to add this picture because this little guy is so stinkin cute! He wants to do everything his big brothers are doing. I can't believe he's almost two! Time goes by waaaaaaay too fast! Slow down, please!

A chilly day...

... to go to the zoo! But that's what we did! We saw there wasn't rain in the forecast & Porter's soccer games are over, so we decided to have some family fun!

And elephant ears & hot chocolate were just what the doctor ordered on this chilly day at the zoo!