Oh Christmas Tree...

On Wednesday night, the guys brought in the Christmas tree. We'd had wonderful Currier and Ives dreams of driving up to Idaho and cutting down our own Christmas tree while creating warm, fuzzy memories. We then started thinking about hauling our trio to the boonies in Idaho, trudging through the cold, and trying our hand at lumber jacking... Steve wasn't as warm and fuzzy about the idea. His idea was to put up our artificial tree (that won't die before Christmas) and light a pine-scented candle. We decided to wait until the baby is older to have that adventure. So they brought it in from the garage and put it up. We actually decorated it last night. The end result was quite charming, fun, and festive.

As we embarked on this annual family Christmas kick-off, I grabbed the camera to capture the sweet moments of my children decorating the tree. Umm..nope, didn't get much of that. They did have a great time. They just didn't have many Kodak moments between Bailey getting tired and cranky, Rachel being sooo excited that she lost all impulse control, Matt losing patience with afore-mentioned excited three year-old, and Steve coming down with flu-like symptoms and shivering with cold chills while telling the kids not to touch anything as he put together the train at the bottom of the tree. Ahhh...creating Foster Family memories.





Matthew was good to pause for one sole actual tree-decorating picture. It was fun getting all the ornaments out. We start with the "ornament parade" during which we line up all the ornaments that each child has acquired since birth. Our family tradition is to let each child choose their own ornament every year. They generally choose one that reflects their interests that particular year. This year Bailey's is a gift from her sweet aunt and it's a "Cherished Teddies Baby's First Christmas." Rachel picked Dora the Explorer after long and careful deliberation. We'll have to keep you posted as to Matthew's. He hasn't quite found just the right one yet.

Rachel was such a bundle of excitement and energy that she had kind of a tough time containing it. As a result, she was being too rough with her baby sister. After several warnings, I resorted to telling her that I was going to take a picture of her being naughty and send it to Santa. (I know, this is what causes people to need therapy as adults.) She ran and hid behind Bailey's chair so I couldn't document anything for Santa Claus.

Bailey wanted to chew on everything in sight. She adopted this snowman.

After Rachel decided "to make better choices," she turned up the Christmas music and danced, and danced, and danced.

Overall, the decorating was really fun and the house looks cute. We only had a few fights, a few melt-downs, and one time out. To cap off the night, Matthew and Rachel sat down and shared a bowl of ravioli as a little bedtime snack.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving! No, not just because we get to eat incredible food until we're sick -- although that part is definitely awesome. It's good to just slow down for a day and think about how much we have been blessed with and all that we have to be grateful for. (I know, bad prepositional use...)

The night before my wedding - when I couldn't sleep a wink, I wrote in my journal. It's kind of gaggy to read it now, but I remember writing that I must have done something amazing in the pre-existence to deserve such blessings in this life. You know, after 11 years, a ton of trials, a ton of blessings, I still adore him. I'd choose him all over again. Thank you, Honey, for the best ride of my life.

This morning as I lied in bed smashed between my two girls who somehow made it into bed with me, I was thinking about how much I love my son. (Matt added that last part.) It's true, though. As I attempted to dislodge those little limbs from my side, I couldn't help but think how grateful I am for my three miracle babies. I love them so fiercely and wouldn't trade those little stinkers for anything! They regularly push me to the very brink of sanity, but there isn't anyone else in existence who I would rather be with, laugh with, and love.

I love this crazy little family so much and I'm so grateful to know that there is a promise of forever. I love having a belief in a God who loves us as powerfully and intimately as only a parent can. I'm so thankful for the Plan of Happiness and for my Savior who gave His life for us.

I'm so grateful to live in a country where I can openly have these beliefs and worship how I choose. I'm thankful, so thankful, for the families who sacrifice so much to ensure these freedoms. Enough cannot be said to families like the Allemans who are separated by thousands of miles for such a selfless reason. Thank you!! Thank you to those men and women who desperately long for their spouses -- long to simply touch their faces and breathe the same air. Thank you to the children who miss their dads and moms so much and will only get to share their holiday greetings over the phone. I am so grateful for this country and for the pure goodness of people.

That's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I am thankful for family and friends who make life so much better. I'm grateful for a warm home to live in and for comforts that we often take for granted. I am so thankful for this time of year... and I'm thankful for the obscene amounts of delicious food that will be on the table this afternoon. :) Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Not a Grinch!

So my family has accused me of being a Grinch. Steve had Matt covinced that they needed to put up the Christmas tree in October, because, "So what if we haven't had Halloween yet." For the record, I finally broke down and told them that they had my blessing to put the tree up. That was at least a week ago. Guess what...no tree yet. In the spirit of my holiday festiveness, I have changed our blog background. Scroll down to the bottom and check out the tree. :) You can even leave gifts for our very un-grinchy family. Happy Holidays!

Halloween

Our kids love Halloween. Okay, what kids don't? Not only do my kids look forward to dressing up and later gorging themselves with treats, but Grandma, their great-aunt, and their aunt came to visit. These wonderful women have come on Halloween for a couple of years now. They like to come see the kids and their costumes. The kids adore playing games, eating jack-o-lantern pizzas, and just soaking up the attention of people who love, love, love them!
Grandma and our aunt played a wild and crazy game of Halloween Bingo with the kids.
Rachel let me put her hair in curlers. Her hair is naturally curly, but we tried the spongy curlers to see if we could make it super curly.

We all went to Matt's school for the costume parade. Unfortunately Matthew zipped by too fast for me to get a good shot of him. My nephew went as Darth Vader (notice him in the bottom right corner). His costume was amazing. The entire time we were at the school, he had scads of little boys standing around him just staring at his costume - with their little eyes popping out and jaws on the blacktop. My sister is uber-creative and makes the most incredible costumes for her kids. Yah, we know where all the talented genes went...

I'm disappointed that I didn't get good pictures of the kids on Halloween. Perhaps we'll have a reinactment - minus all the gut and tooth rotting candy. They looked really cute, though. Matthew went as Albert Einstein. It's tough to see here, but his hair was all sprayed white. I let him grow it out for the occasion. (We even did family pictures last month. I so debated, but let him keep it long. Man, the boy has TONS of hair. So unfair!) Rachel and Bailey were princesses. Although, for several weeks leading up to Halloween, Rachel changed her mind quite a few times. Luckily, she came full circle and ended up with what we started.

The kids loved trick or treating and the weather was beautiful so we all went. We have a really super family in our neighborhood who builds a bonfire and serves hot cocoa and donuts. Yum. We had a blast. We really didn't stay out too long, but when we got home the kids were exhausted. Steve lied down on the floor and Rachel quickly snugged up to him and fell asleep.

Matt and I giggled about Rach and Dad, then I went upstairs to put Bailey to bed. When I came back down a few minutes later, I found him sacked out on the loveseat. The successful end to Halloween -- happy, tired children.

Pumpkin Walk

Every year we have a fun tradition to go to the Pumpkin Walk. Using pumpkins, people set up scenes based on a theme; this year's theme being "Heroes." We love to go in the evening because it's all lighted up and looks really cool. This year, though, we went in the afternoon to avoid the crowd and the cold.

One of the kids' favorites was Noah's Ark. (Tee hee, look at the cute elephant rumps in the doorway.)

This was one celebrating doctors and nurses. Rachel was enamored with the "pumpkin babies."

Brent, "The Waver," is an icon in Logan. He even carried the Olympic torch when it came through Logan during the winter Olympics.

This "Andy Griffith" one was cute. I wish you could see the faces better. They were painted on and it looked awesome. It totally made me think of my dear childhood friend who has every single episode memorized.

There were a bunch of wooden stand-ups for the coveted photo op. Actually, Matthew was a very good sport to pose for me. We took quite a few pictures, but the sun was shining in their little faces. That, and I stink at taking pictures. A lot of them didn't so much turn out.

Rachel - our "Wild Thing!!"

Catching up

I've got some catching up to do. Our computer has been out of order for a bit as the resident three year old tripped over the power cord and broke it. After finding the desired replacement cord at Best Buy for $149, we decided to call Gateway and ask about getting a new one. Great news for our pocketbook - the helper guy at Gateway was wonderful and arranged things so that we could get a new one for FREE. Yah, Gateway! So we had to wait about a week and a half for a new one. We weren't able to do a lot on the computer during that time, but, hey - free.
Fall has been kind of crazy this year. The weather stayed warm longer than I expected. Well, then it snowed. Then it got warmer again. Now it's rainy and cool. Anyhow, While the weather was still unseasonably warm, we took advantage of the warmth and spent as much time outside as we could. One evening we went to the park with some friends. Here are some pics.

Rachel and her best friend cheesing for the camera. (Do you like the little hiney hanging down in back of them? That was a stranger hiney.)

Baileys first ride down the slide with our cute friend. She really liked it.

Rachel hadn't napped that day and was tired. She was swinging in this big comfy swing and fell asleep. Truly, fell asleep right on the swing in the middle of the park.