Decorating the Tree

Lets try this again. Gavin just deleted my post and I was just about finished. We had a great time decorating the tree this year. Each year my boys get a new ornament of their very own, just like I did when I was at home. When I got married, I was able to take all of my ornaments with me and had a good collection to decorate my tree. I think the boys love this tradition as well. Braiden got a Buzz and Woody ornament and Gavin got a snowman with a tree that lights up. He thinks that is the greatest. I had put up the tree and got the lights on and then I let all three boys put the ornaments on. They all did a pretty good job. I really haven't rearranged much at all. We had a fun night spending time together. It is so fun to turn on the tree lights and just sit around and enjoy them at night. Gavin did get a little crazy with the candy canes. The branch wouldn't quite hold that many and so we had to move a few of the candy canes around. What a great helper. I love this tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving

from our home to yours.

My intentions were to take multiple pictures on Thanksgiving. That just didn't happen. We went with JT's parents and family for our main meal. It was delicious and so much fun. I love when my boys get to play with their cousins. It was a little small this year because Jenny and Katie were the only other siblings there. We missed everyone else, but still had a good time. This picture is of Edward, Trumann, Gavin and Braiden. They were having way too much fun:) We started out the day watching the parade on TV. My boys loved the balloons as they flew down the street. They were also very excited to see Santa. We then headed to the Collett's. We also visited my Mom and Dad and my grandparents. It was a busy but wonderful day. I am so grateful for all of my blessings. There are so many, I can't count them all. I hope we can all remember our blessings all year long. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

How sweet:)

The other day while we were at Jim and Carol's house, I heard the piano being played. I walked in to see this. Sweet Whitney was letting Gavin help her play the piano. I thought is was so cute.

I would love for both of my boys to learn how to play the piano. I hope this means he might have some desire when he gets older.

I love that smile:)

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

A few days ago we all got together at Analisha's to let the kids play and make turkeys. They turned out so cute. All you needed was an apple, marshmallows and toothpicks. (A turkey face helped as well.) The kids had so much fun. Here they are with their turkeys. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

I know this is late but....

Happy Birthday to the most fabulous Mom in the whole world. Her birthday is the same day as JT's but we celebrated them both on a Sunday and so I was way late posting pictures. Gavin was sick that day, so Braiden and I took Mom her gift and then I left so JT could come and be at his party. I didn't get very many pics. There are a few more that I want, so we will need to get together and take them soon.

Braiden giving Grandma her presents.

All of us girls took Mom out to dinner for her birthday. That just doesn't happen very often. It was so much fun. I love you Mom. I hope you had a fabulous birthday. You are so amazing. Thanks for all you do:)

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Yeah! I am so excited it is that time of year again. I love Christmas and I love getting Christmas cards. I am going to have mine printed with Shutterfly this year. I have had photo books and calendars printed by them before. They all turned out so nice:) I absolutely loved them. Here are a few of my favorite cards they have in their 2010 collection.

Don't you love the black and white photos?

I love the red and green colors on this one.

.Love love the snowflakes

Simple and sweet

Love the collage of photos

I thought this one had such fun fonts!

Shutterfly has over 800 different Christmas card designs to choose from. Now I just have to decide. That is going to be tough. Hope you enjoy picking out your Christmas cards. By the way, would you like to get 50 cards from Shutterfly for free? Click here to find out how. Happy Holidays!

Falling Leaves

Don't you just love raking up leaves! I do because it means fall is here. I don't because it means more work. Couldn't they just all fall all at once and get it over with?!? Oh well. My boys decided to help me this year. We got them all raked up, just so we could JUMP!! We raked them up again and JUMPED again. Then we decided to just leave them. We had so much fun that we ran out of energy. JT pulled out the lawn mower a few days later and got them all cleaned up. We had a ton more fall, so it was worth the wait. I am so glad my boys had so much fun. I love that we can have fun doing things that are simple, easy, and in our own yard.

Happy Happy Birthday!!

The other day it was JT's birthday. He shares a birthday with my Mom. On that day we took her balloons and wished her a happy day. We didn't celebrate until Sunday with the fam. I don't have those pics uploaded yet, so I will post that next. For JT's b-day, we went out to dinner and then to look at his new car. Yes, a fixer-upper. He got a Fire-bird for a really good deal. He is so excited about it. I am really excited for him. I think he will do a great job and make it look fabulous.

Here we are posing in front of the new "date" car.

As you can see, Gavin is not very excited to be inside the car. I think he wanted to be with me instead. Braiden had fallen asleep, but we woke him up before we left so he could see it. We even took it for a few spins around the parking lot.

On Halloween Sunday, we had a party at the Collett's. It was to celebrate JT, Katie and Brad's birthdays and also to let the kids have a Halloween party. We had homemade pizza and cake and ice cream. It was great to be able to visit with everyone (we missed Trisha and fam).

Sweet Kaitlyn

Ellie as a bumblebee

Stewart as a skunk

Baby Dillon

We had a great time celebrating! Happy Happy Birthday JT! We love you so much. (I don't know why I am writing this, because he never ever looks at the blog, Oh well!)

Halloween 2010

This year October seemed to fly by. We had a lot of fun. We had our 13 days of Halloween again this year. It didn't work out as well as last year because we all got that 12 hour flu bug.

Braiden painted this pumpkin in preschool! He loves school so much and has fun bringing home new things to share.


On the first day of our Halloween countdown, it says to make a craft and decorate your room with it. This year we made Mickey Mouse pumpkins. This is the boys painting them.

This is Braiden in his school Halloween parade. They let the preschool kids walk with the rest of the school. He thought he was so cool. They weren't supposed to wear masks, but he calls himself the BLACK IRON MAN.

This is the only picture of Gavin at our little party we had at Ashley's house. He is eating his craft (a sucker spider).


Eating our fun lunch! We had witches brew, mummy hot dogs, and decorated yummy cupcakes!

Braiden as what he calls the Black Iron Man

Gavin as an engineer

The boys together (this is the only picture I got of them together, Gavin wouldn't cooperate).

We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating. We went on Main Street with Jenny and three of her girls. This is a few of the group in front of the Cat in the Hat scarecrow. We missed most of the crowd and it only sprinkled for just a few minutes. It turned out great:)

We finished the night visiting 4 out of 5 grandparents. (We visited Gma and Gpa Collett on Sunday during the PARTY!) That will be in the next post. I love this picture of Gavin. We had a great Halloween this year. Now we get to eat all the treats:) YUM!

Homemade Applesauce

My mother-in-law always has the most fabulous applesauce. When I found out she makes her own, I had to learn how. The past few years I have been bottling applesauce. Last year, I thought I was so amazing that I could work on three batches at once. I ended up burning a few apples in two of those batches. They had to be thrown out. This year I decided to take my time to make sure it turned out great. It took a little longer, but it is finished!! It also tastes delicious:)

This is the most fabulous machine. It makes all different kinds of sauces, but it is my applesauce machine. We were so so excited to add this to our canning supplies this year. It is amazing!

I used one bushel of apples this year. Gpa Allan always has the most tasty apples.

You cut them up (seeds, core, stem, and all) and let them steam until they are soft.

Put it through the amazing sauce machine, add a little (or a lot) of cinnamon and sugar and bottle. The hot water bath to seal. Delish! One more item off of my check list. Happy Fall Y'all!

The Pumpkin Patch

The Peterson clan headed to the Red Barn a few weeks ago. We had an amazing time! All of the kids loved going to the pumpkin patch. Each got to choose a pumpkin to bring home. The hayride was so much fun! Gavin thought he could lift any pumpkin and carry it. Braiden loved the little hay maze. Thanks everyone for inviting us. We loved spending time together:)

I love this picture of Cortlynn on the hay wagon

Gavin as a ghost

Braiden showing us his pumpkin

Daddy and Gavin

Cortlynn, Braiden and Maddox

Dad, Mom, Alecia and Hayden

The Collett Family:)