2011 Christmas Countdown

This year for our Christmas Countdown, we have decided to jump on the bandwagon and try the Book Advent. But, we are adding a little activity for each night as well. Starting tomorrow, we will open a gift (a Christmas Season Book) and then make a homemade ornament for our tree that goes along with the theme of the story we just read. December is always such a busy month with parties, travel, etc. so I chose simple ornaments for those days.

The books we chose are:

1. The Elf on the Shelf
2. The Snow Angel
3. The Littlest Christmas Tree
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
5. The Night Before Christmas
6. Legend of the Christmas Stocking
7. Franklin's Christmas Gift
8. Dear Santa: The Letters of James B. Dobbins
9. The Gingerbread Man
10. Merry Christmas Mom & Dad
11. Fancy Nancy - Splendiferous Christmas
12. Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
13. The Twelve Days of Christmas
14. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
15. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
16. A Christmas Dress for Ellen
17. The Littlest Angel
18. The Christmas Sweater
19. Frosty the Snowman
20. The Polar Express
21. A Star So Bright
22. The Donkey's Dream
23. Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect
24. The Forgotten Carols - A Christmas Miracle for Isaac & Eliza
25. The Bible

The kids are super excited to start this season. I have put them in order of which books we will read each day, but the kids will be surprised. We also will hopefully make sure to take pictures of each day as well to share.

Duke - 1 Month

Ever since we have moved here, I have been so impressed with our new Ward at church. Everyone is super friendly, and we have been extremely blessed since we had Duke. Between, the Relief Society, the women I work with in Young Women's, our neighbors, wives of Brandon's co-workers (at church and on the farm), family, and new friends, I didn't have to cook a meal for 4 weeks!! I LOVED it!!!

Then, the Young Women hosted a surprise baby shower for me during Mutual one night. How thoughtful!! And every Sunday I have someone give me a gift. We haven't lived here very long at all, so I don't feel like I know everyone that well, but yet, they are so giving!

Duke is now a month old! Where did the time go? He has been such a great baby, sleeping, eating, hardly ever cries. He's just perfect in every way. I never knew babies could be so good. He loves bath time, and gives huge smiles when you change his diaper. We weighed him last night and he is 10 lbs, and he's starting to get rolls on his legs. I love chubby babies, so I'm super excited about the rolls!
Another act of service from someone in the ward - I had a lady ask if she could take some pictures of Duke. She said she wants to get better at taking pictures so she needs to practice. I said - SURE!!! I think she did great!! The people here are so nice!!

8 Kids under 10

We have some neighbors that we go to church with that moved in 1 week before we did. The husband is a traveling salesman and only comes home on the weekends. I can totally remember how it is to only have your husband home Saturday night and Sunday, so when we found out he was going to be home for the whole week of Thanksgiving, we knew we needed to give them some time alone!

They have 5 little kids: a pair of six year old twins, 1 five year old, a 3 year old and an almost 2 year old. Add that to our 10 year old, 4 year old and 5 week old and we had quite the houseful of little kids!
It was really fun though, we played lots of games, read stories, watched an episode of Clifford, and even made some snowmen and reindeer donuts, YUMM! The parents took the opportunity to travel to Twin Falls and attend a Temple Session, and do some shopping on their way home. It's so great to be able to do something nice for others. They were so appreciative that we would offer and actually didn't believe us when we told them that we wanted to take their kids so they could go on a date! We thought it was funny.

Year 7

As of yesterday, it's been 7 years since we got married. I've LOVED

EVERY..SINGLE..MINUTE!!

The First Snowfall

The first snowfall of the year finally made it last night! The kids were so excited to wake up to snow on the ground. They immediately got their snowsuits on and headed outside. Hoss kept saying that he was gonna ride the 4-wheeler and make tracks. But, since Brandon was at work, he used his bike instead.

Lilli is so great to pull Hoss around.

And Hoss is great too for TRYING to return the favor and pull his big sister around. Not too sure how far he got, but the next time I looked out the window, she was pushing with her hands as he was trying to pull.

And by Noon, the snow was gone.

Duke's 2 Week Pictures

Brandon's cousin's wife is a photographer and she did an amazing job taking Duke's two week pictures. THANKS APRIL!!

He's One Protective Brother

Hoss has been VERY protective of his little brother. He wants to show the baby to everyone who comes to visit, but always insists that they "can't take him" home with them. He even told that to Grandma!

If I can't find him, I always go to my room first. He's normally, looking in Duke's crib, watching him sleep, tickling him, or trying to change his diaper.
These pictures were taken about 6 hours apart. I hope this love continues for a LONG time to come.

Trick or Treat

This year was much different for us on Halloween. First, a new baby, second, Brandon is still in harvest, and third, our experience.

Since the weather was really windy, I was planning on staying home for the night with Duke. But as the time got closer and closer to the Trunk or Treat and Brandon was still not home, I figured I better get myself ready just in case I needed to take the kids down to the church. Brandon had such a busy day with break-downs, he was running late, but showed up just as we were finishing getting ready. However, since Duke and I were ready too, we just went with them anyway.

I was expecting this trunk or treat to be like Vale's, and it was not. In Vale, the WHOLE TOWN shows up and you can hardly walk through the parking lot. There are cars lined up on both sides of the church and it's busy. Here, there wasn't too many cars and it seemed really dead. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that the two wards had the event an hour apart, but it still seemed sad for a trunk or treat. So, after Brandon took the kids around to the cars, we headed to Vale to see both sets of Grandparents, and Great-Grandma.

Hoss had a hard time this year with his costume. Since he was a Tractor last year, he REALLY wanted to be a Semi with a Corn Trailer. With Brandon still in harvest, there as no extra time to make the costume. I had purchased this Army outfit 2 or 3 years ago for like 80% off at Jo-Anns, and figured one day he would fit into it. It was a good thing too, because we were able to pull it out at the last minute for his costume.

Even with the changes, it was a still a great night. Especially for me being able to spend some time with my Grandma. So, for 2011, we had, A Holstein Cow, an Army Guy, and I'm not really sure if Lilli was a Witch or what. She just fell in love with the black and purple combo that she had to have the outfit and wig! HA!