Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa!

Here is the video we wanted at the end of the DVD, but it wouldn't work. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa! We love you:)

{Decorating the Tree}

I am so behind with what I have wanted to post. I am just going to start here and see how much I can get done. We always decorate our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see the boys faces as we unloaded everything for the tree. Of course this is Gavin's first Christmas. Since he is almost one, he is at such a fun age. He was so excited with the lights. He wants to touch each and every one. Braiden of course is at the best age. He can't wait for Christmas. He is excited about everything. I love that. We gave each of the boys their new ornament for the year. Braiden got a train and Gavin got a little boy on a rocking horse. They had so much fun hanging them up. JT was such a great help in getting the tree up. We then had such a fun time decorating of course with Nat King Cole playing in the background. It might not be the most glamorous tree, but it is ours and we love it! (The ornaments only go 2/3rds of the way down because of our dear sweet Gavin!) I will have to post the pictures later. It is not working at the moment:)

G is for...

We started doing letters again. I don't think I posted about D and E, but we were sick during that time and really didn't do much. We had a lot of fun with G. G is for GAMES, GIRAFFE, GOLF, GOLDFISH, and GAVIN! Braiden and I spent a few afternoons playing games. We then made a giraffe whose neck can be short or grow to be very long! He glued the spots and a google eye on him. We enjoy spending time together and soon Gavin will be able to enjoy our projects with us. Next up is the letter H, but that won't happen until after the new year. We are going to enjoy Christmas and do some fun projects for that!

Thanksgiving Break project

BEFORE

I was so excited to get one of our projects off of our to do list! YEAH!! JT (he did most of the work), Braiden and I decided to finish our pantry. It is a closet that I guess they used for coats. There was one shelf and and rod inside. We had been using it as a pantry, but only using the two shelves inside. It made for one tight mess. We have a coat closet in the entryway, and so we chose to make this our pantry. We bought the shelves a long time ago, we just hadn't got to it. JT went and cut the shelves. We then washed down the pantry and painted. It took a little while for the paint to dry. By Saturday I was putting my food in my pantry. I love how it turned out! I am so excited. This feels so good to get something done and to continue redoing our house and turning it into something of our very own. I can't wait to start the next project, although I am sure JT can.

AFTER

It actually feels like we do have some sort of food storage:)

The Stockings were hung...

This last month in our simply sewing class, we made Christmas stockings. I was so excited because I needed to make one for Gavin. Since the material we had to buy would work for two stockings, I decided to make Braiden a new one as well. It was so fun and so easy. I think they turned out adorable. Thanks to Shannon for teaching such a fun class. My boys were sick that night, and so I had to make mine at home. I made the main part of the stocking out of corduroy. How soft and fun they are! I love sewing:)

Jed the Turkey

During the month of November, we were excited to welcome Jed the Turkey to our family. Braiden wanted to name him Jed. Everyday we would take a turkey feather and write something we were thankful for on it. We then would put it behind Jed. We did miss a few days, (about 2 weeks to be exact) but he had quite the tail by the time we were done. It was a great month and a wonderful holiday. It is so wonderful to realize how much we are blessed. Everyday we see our Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. We are so grateful for all that we have. Thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends for all you do for us. We love you and thank you each and everyday:)

Jed the Turkey before

Jed the Turkey after

First Haircut

BEFORE

AFTER

Gavin's hair was driving me crazy! It was cute but was getting so long by his ears. We had a party and cut all of the boys' hair. Doesn't he look so adorable with his new cut! I think he is a keeper.

Happy Birthday!

My mom and JT have the same birthday. Each year we celebrate it together with my family. We had already celebrated JT's birthday with his family at the Halloween party. I love both JT and my mom so much! They both help me with everything. Thanks for all you do! I hope you both had a Happy Happy Birthday!

Jumping in the leaves

The other day, Braiden, Gavin and I decided to go out and rake the leaves which had fallen on our yard. We didn't have hardly any compared to some of our neighbors, but we wanted to rake them up to get rid of them. Braiden of course had to jump in our pile. He was pretty good to not get leaves everywhere. Gavin would have loved to crawl right through the pile, but I knew the leaves would only end up in his mouth. He got to stay inside the stroller. We had a good afternoon and have really enjoyed our fall this year. I actually feel like we have had this wonderful season this year. I don't wish for it to be gone, but it will be soon. It has been a wonderful time of year.

The Final 2 days of Halloween

Ben playing with his new toy

Happy Birthday JT

Gus as a ghost

Gavin and Grandpa

Katie and Trumann

Braiden with his spider ring

Ellie as an adorable butterfly

Wyatt had two spider rings

Trumann as Buzz

The kids and their rings

Pin the nose on the pumpkin

Day 12
Have a costume parade at home.
We had one at Grandma and Grandpa Collett's house instead this year. We had a big birthday and Halloween party. Everyone was there. We were so excited Kristy and Trisha and their families could come. We had so so much fun. We had a yummy dinner, got to find spiders that Grandma had hid, play pin the nose on the pumpkin and dress up in our costumes. (The kids did all of this.) The adults enjoyed all of the yummy food:) We then had a birthday party for Jenny, Madison, Katie, JT and Brad. It was so much fun to spend time with one another. We love our family!

DAY 13
Go Trick-or-Treating!
The boys were so excited to go trick-or-treating. The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and warm. It did cool down a little, but was so nice. I was so so grateful. Braiden dressed up as NEMO this year and Gavin was his side kick SQUIRT. They both had so much fun. I was glad I was able to get such cute pictures of both of them this year. It was Gavin's first Halloween. He was such a good sport. We had fun going to Gma's and Gpa's and visiting friends. When the kids get a little older, we will go around the neighborhood.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Maddox as Buzz

Alecia is ready for kittens

Cortlynn as Snow White

Kyson as a frog

Gavin Climbing

Gavin doesn't like to sit still. We had to get this on camera. Braiden also wants to be the center of attention. I felt bad, but the reason I cut him off was because the battery was almost dead. I have so much more to post, but we have been sick. I will do it tonight before going to bed.

OUCH!

They other day was quite the day. Braiden was downstairs and climbing. He slipped, fell and bonked his head on the corner of the computer desk. Needless to say, he got a small hole in his head that of course was bleeding a lot. Luckily, he didn't need stitches. That same night, Braiden was playing with my old camera. He was letting it hang by the string. Gavin saw me get the vacuum out and came crawling over as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he met up with the camera. He got the little cut under his eye. Not to bad, but we went two for two that day. I know I am living with two little boys. I am just grateful that both were OK and there was nothing too serious.

Days of Halloween (7-11)

We had so much fun doing our 13 days of Halloween.

DAY 7
Make Halloween Marshmallow Popcorn.
We had so much fun popping the kernels and then adding candy corns to make it extra special!

DAY 8
Make a Halloween Mask.
Braiden and I chose to make a Frankenstein mask. Doens't he look so scary:!
Gavin sure thinks so.

DAY 9
Make Halloween suckers.
We had never done this before. They turned out OK, but I need a little bit of practice. You just eat them anyway, right?!

DAY 10
Read Halloween Flannel Board Stories
We really enjoyed reading 5 Little Pumpkins and 10 Little Scarecrows. Counting is so much fun!

DAY 11
Make Halloween Sugar Cookies and Decorate them
We made pumpkin cookies, frosted them orange and then made faces with candy corns and M&M's. They were yummy!

Days 12 and 13 were so busy, I will post more about them later:)

9 months old

I cannot believe how fast time flies. I know I say that a lot. A few weeks ago, Gavin had his 9 month old checkup. It is crazy to think he is that old. He is growing like a weed. The funny thing is he is smaller than his brother was at this age, but he still looks so big:) I am so glad for healthy, chunky babies. We had a little concern at this checkup, but everything turned out just fine. I am so grateful for my sweet little Gavin!

The 13 days of Halloween (Days 1-6)

I decided this year we were going to enjoy Halloween and try and do a few fun activities. We invented our 13 days of Halloween. Each day Braiden finds the pumpkin puzzle piece and puts it on his door. We then read on the back of the puzzle piece to find what we are to do for the day. Each day is something exciting and new.

DAY 1
Make a decoration for your room! We got foam papers and google eyes to make our project. We love hanging things from the lights and watching them twirl. We made a bat, pumpkin, candy corn, and ghost with google eyes. That is the boys favorite part. We then hung it up in the boys room from the light. They love swinging it and watching the eyes move!


DAY 2
Read Halloween Stories


We had a lot of fun finding all of our Halloween books and reading them. We have read them over and over and over again. It is great that the boys love to listen to stories!

DAY 3
Make caramel apples.
We melted the caramel and just drizzled it over our apples and then put sprinkles on top as well. Yum, Yum Yum!

DAY 4
Watch a Halloween movie!
We really didn't have one and so we watched SLEEPING BEAUTY! Maleficent is pretty scary:)

DAY 5
Carve a pumpkin

Braiden wasn't so sure about sticking his hands inside the pumpkin, but he finally did it and loved it. JT and Braiden did all the dirty work while Gavin and I watched. We decided to carve a scary face. JT did a great job on making our pumpkin scary. We then decided to pose and make a scary face with our pumpkin. Gav wasn't so scary. I am sure he tried hard though! We had so much fun being together as a family:)





DAY 6
Go to the Corn Maze!
We decided to take the boys to HEE-HAWS. They have a ton of fun things for kids to do in the courtyard that we didn't even take them in the corn maze. We had so much fun just going around to the different places they had set up. We went through our own little hay maze, Braiden got to ride a pony, pushed a button and shot corn, rode on the tractor train, rode the swings, saw the big pig, jumped on the hay tramp, lassoed a bull, rode go-carts, saw chickens and goats, and had so much fun!





I love this picture of Gavin!

We are having so much fun and can hardly wait to finish our 13 days of Halloween!