Happy Elves!

Have a Holly Jolley Christmas! Tyler keeps wanting me to sing that song over and over. It's a family favorite because my mom's maiden name is Jolley! Jingle Bells has been Justin's favorite since he could say "Jingle Bells".

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1163813429

Too funny...

I had to agree...

Justin missed the bus for the first time today. He just about cried. I told him it was fine and that I'd drive him to school. He told me that he didn't want to go to school anymore today. I told him that it was o.k. and that I'd take him. He said again that he didn't want to go.

I told him that my mom took me to school when I was in kindergarten. He asked me, "Did your mom take you to school on Thursday, November 29th?" I answered that yes, she probably had taken me to school on that day, too. He completely changed his tune and said, "O.k., I'll go". I had to laugh, though, as we turned off of our street, when he said, "Mom, the bus is a lot more fun than this!" You know, I had to agree.

Deck the Halls!

Yeah! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love the Christmas music! We have satellite XM Radio in our car and they have about 7 holiday stations that I flip back and forth from non-stop. There are no other radio stations allowed until January! :) I'm glad the boys like Christmas music because otherwise they would have no choice. Tyler and I tear it up in the kitchen when Justin and Travis are gone all day. When I stop to do something else, he says, "Come here, more dance, Mom!" It makes me happy.

We bought the new Josh Groban holiday cd a few weeks ago and I LOVE IT! We are decorating little by little. I have to unpack from our Thanksgiving trip first before I'll drag out all the Christmas boxes.

Justin learned a little song and dance in school to "Up on the Housetop". It's really cute and he taught it to Ty. They look so cute singing and doing all the actions. I'll have to get it on video for sure.

I do need to get another kids cd, though. I go a little dingy after the 10th time of hearing "Jingle Bells" by The Osmonds up so loud with boys yelling and running around the circle from the kitchen through the family room, into the living room, through the playroom and back into the kitchen. Justin keeps a bar stool by the counter so he can hit "repeat". But I just let them have fun. I really hope they remember doing these things....

Thankful

I am so thankful for:

My macho man! Travis LOVED watching all the Thanksgiving weekend football games! It was great to have a house full of cousins for the big BYU/UTAH game on Saturday!

My boys! I love these two crazy kids! I love their big hugs and kisses! Justin's class put on a cute Thanksgiving mini-concert for all the parents on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They sang a bunch of fun Thanksgiving songs and then had a feast of stone soup. They each were assigned to bring one of the ingredients for the soup. He's the cute one signing "I love you!"



Good health! So Thankful!

Airplanes! I love that we can hop on a plane and be in Utah in two hours! It makes living away from family that much more bearable. This trip, Tyler was old enough to be AMAZED by everything about the flight. He was even a little scared by the engines and rumbling during takeoff and landing. When we landed in Utah, he clapped. Justin is becoming quite the flying pro. He knows exactly what to ask for from the flight attendant and which elevators he wants to ride on.

A yummy Thanksgiving feast! Mmmmm...turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams, rolls and jam, mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw, pumpkin pie, date nut roll, banana cream pie, and pecan pie. Oh, and don't forget the egg nog!

Lots of cousins for my kids to have fun with! They played for 5 days with Amber's 4 kids and Heidi's 2 kids. Justin and the big girls played all sorts of games and built houses and forts all over grandma and grandpa's house. Tyler and Jason had fun hugging and playing trains together.

Game nights! Love em'!

Family Christmas Parties! We celebrated Christmas together on Sunday. Since our family won't be in town for Christmas, my mom decorated the house and planned a special nativity and gift exchange with the whole family on Sunday night. I love it when it is our turn to spend Thanksgiving in Utah because we get to have two christmas' that year! It can't get better than that! I just have to share the coolest building block set I have ever seen! Check out www.wedgits.com Justin got the starter tote from grandma and grandpa and both boys (and mom and dad, too!) can't stop playing with them. You can build ANY way and it is so much easier for Tyler to build with than on his legos or even mega blocks. We'll have to put an add on set or two on our wish list for Santa this year! :)

Good friends! Who will hopefully forgive me for spending the whole week with family non-stop and not calling to get together...we'll plan ahead better next time!

Gasp!

Justin ran off the school bus today as happy as a lark. Without his coat and in the rain! I had to run off to activity day at the church, so the neighbor girl down the street came over to watch the boys. Travis was in California for a few days on business and so he couldn't work from home as he usually does for me. Right as I was going out the door (and I'm late), Justin runs over and stops the door. "Wait, Mom, look what my friend gave me at school today! It's really cool!" It was a Bud Light bottle cap. Gasp!

Thoughts are screaming through my mind. I'm wondering if he even knows what it is. But 12 girls are waiting on me and I didn't have time to investigate. I told him to throw it away. "No! I'm going to put in on top of my dresser!" The best place for his favorite things. Oh, great.

Later...he told me he was digging in the playground with his friend while the others were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I can just picture it. Justin doesn't like to play fight. I wonder where he gets that. Anyway, whala, they are digging and find a treasure. So innocent and I'm jumping to conclusions. I explained to him that the cap is garbage and that it came from a beer bottle that isn't allowed on the school grounds. He learned that it would be a good idea to just point it out to a teacher next time instead of picking it up and bringing it home.

One more story from last week...Justin came home from school and told me that there was a big kid who said something silly on the bus. I thought he was going to say that some big kid said something mean to him. He told me that the big kid told him that he thought Justin was a cool name. His little friend immediately asked the big kid if his name was cool, too. The big kid said, "pretty cool." Justin said, "Thanks, Mom, for naming me Justin so that big kid could say it's a cool name!"

Sunny Days

The last week or so has been absolutely perfect. The sun is shining and we can wear a jacket if we want to...in November! We are LOVING it! We have been going on as many bike rides and walks as humanly possible. Yesterday we said "goodbye" to the house and played outside ALL day! We went to the library to pick out some new books and then ran around the trails behind the building and watched the ducks and geese. There is a great tunnel that runs under the busy street and the boys echoed their way back and forth beneath the big trucks.

When we got home, the boys ran up and down our sidewalk for the longest time to check the mailbox and to balance on the curb next to the grass. They just couldn't eat lunch inside...so we had a picnic on a blanket under the swing set. Justin loved his swinging picnic and Tyler held his sandwich dancing and singing to "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam." Then they played and played and played in the backyard. By the time it was Tyler's naptime, he was doing sand angels in the sandbox. He was completely covered with sand. After their bath, there was a layer of sand on the bottom of the tub. While Tyler napped, Justin went back outside to explore. It felt like a spring day. We loved every minute of it!

Today, Travis took the day off and we went to IKEA. I love that place! Lunch was great and I always see a million things that I think I need (o.k., want.) It was fun to do a little Christmas shopping. We got home just in the knick of time to meet Justin at the bus stop. Travis is running errands and I need to go make dinner and wake up Tyler from his nap. It has been a good day!

7th Anniversary Week

Here are some highlights from our fun week:

A week ago Thursday, Travis came home from work for a long lunch while I went to get my hair cut. I love him! Then he kept working from home for the afternoon and watched the kids while I went to the church for Activity Day. I love him more! I am one of the Activity Day leaders for the 8-11 year-old girls in our primary organization at church. We usually have 12-14 girls at the activities every other Thursday afternoon. For this activity we decorated pumpkins. I brought out all sorts of craft supplies for the girls to use. They had a fun time with their creations. On Friday, we had dinner from Chiles to celebrate our anniversary (afterall, it is an anniversary weekend!). Then put the kids to bed and enjoyed a movie night.

Saturday Justin and I went to a primary program practice at the church all afternoon. I teach the Valiant 9 class with the other Activity Day leader. We have 11 kids in our class. Justin did a great job with his line for the Sunday sacrament meeting program: "My family can follow Jesus Christ in faith." Saturday night was our ward's Halloween Party.



The kids had a great time at the "Trunk or Treat" in the pouring rain. After dinner, the Young Men and Young Women put on carnival games and a Spook Alley. Justin really wanted to go through the spook alley with Travis. I wasn't sure he'd make it through. He didn't. He came out after the first little section and he was almost in tears. I felt bad that he was so scared, but now he reminds me when he sees Halloween ghosts, etc., that they are just pretend. Tyler was scared of all the kids in different costumes. Maybe we'd better just stick with decorating pumpkins this Halloween. :)

Our 7th anniversary was on Sunday. We were married on October 21, 2000 in American Fork, Utah, at the Mt. Timpanogas LDS Temple. We watched our wedding video and it was fun to feel all those emotions again. What a good day! The last 7 years with Travis have been wonderful! He is an amazing father and husband. I am so blessed to have him in my life. We are so happy to be together and look forward to many more years of memories.

I added music playlists to our blog. You can listen to them anytime. The boys like to dance to the Kids Mix, but I didn't realize they would get so exicted about it. They both beg to listen to "their" music on the computer and then run at full speed around the circle of the kitchen, down the hall, through the living room and play room and back through the kitchen. They run even faster for the songs they love the most. On several days, Justin has done this for 1 1/2 hours or longer. So, it turns out that it makes great workout music, too!

Well, the other day, Justin had been running and dancing to the music when Tyler woke up from his nap. He joined in, too, and they started chasing each other around our circle. After a while, they stopped for a rest next to me in the kitchen while I was cleaning up after dinner. Tyler's favorite song started and he did this little hop and skip to start off running fast. Well, his foot caught my foot and he tripped and fell right on his face. He got up screaming and blood was dripping from his mouth. He bit his lower lip pretty badly. He started yelling for a bandaid. Justin raced upstairs and brought all our first-aid supplies downstairs.

As I was trying to stop the bleeding, Justin got out a Curious George bandaid and put medicine on it. I was trying to explain to him that he couldn't put a bandaid in his mouth, but Tyler kept screaming like I was nuts to not let him have a bandaid if he was bleeding. So, I put a bandaid on his chin and the crying immediately stopped. Thank goodness for magic bandaids! I thought Ty might need stitches. Luckily, Travis was on a conference call for work upstairs. He was a good sport about being interrupted. After a call to the doctor, we decided he would probably be fine. So far, his lip looks like it really hurts, but I think it is healing up nicely. Luckily, neither of the boys have had a broken bone or stitches. (Knock on wood...I'm hoping to avoid the emergency room thing...forever!)

Two cute things:

Yesterday, I gave Tyler a drink of milk. He took one sip and said, "Mmmm...needs salt!" Where does he get this?

Today I was talking on the phone in the other room. When I walked into the bathroom, Justin and Tyler were covered from head to toe with bubbles. Justin had made a mountain of soap bubbles in the sink and Tyler was helping him to spread them EVERYWHERE! I laughed and grabbed the camera.



Then plopped them both into the bathtub for a play bath. It felt like one of those church commercials when the kids get covered with flour and the mom takes a picture and then joins in with all the fun. Well, my boys didn't get into trouble. I guess you could say they were rewarded with their favorite thing...more bubbles.

Tonight we are going to Justin's school for a family sing-a-long concert with Tom Hunter. Justin is counting down the minutes until we go....

Patch

We took a trip to the Lake View Farms pumpkin patch last weekend. After visiting the petting farm, the boys had a fabulous time riding on a little train out to the patch. The hay bale maze was a hit!




There were practically a million pumpkins to choose from...we plucked our favorites!







We took our pumpkins on their very first (and last) boat ride back to the barn. During the ride, a dragon popped out of the water at one point and then a shark poked its head out and sprayed a mist of water. Tyler was terrified. Justin LOVED this part and stayed on the dock after we were finished with our ride to watch it all happen again. We had to hurry off to Justin's friend Ian's birthday party, so we ran out of time for a pony ride, caterpillar train ride and corn maze. We'll save those for another visit.




Here are our happy pumpkins!

Big

Tyler is growing up so fast! He is just about 2 1/2 and he has decided he is really a "Big Boy". Two weeks ago we took down his crib and moved him into his big bed. He LOVES this bed! The truck bedding helps, but he is really happy to cozy in with his blankets and pillow. He likes to snuggle in for a while here and there throughout the day. Today he wanted to dress up like a train engineer all day. At Fred Meyer, the lady at the check-out line asked him if he was a train engineer. He opened his eyes so wide and gave her a big "she knows I'm an engineer" smile. :) He went down for his nap with his hat on. He ended up cuddling with it.



Ty has deemed himself too big for his booster seat at the kitchen table and too big for his bibs and too big for his diapers. He tried to ban the car seat, but I held my ground. We are into potty training, but he really just wants to hop on and off and flush the toilet 20 times. He is talking up a storm (I love this!) and he loves to sing the ABC's.

Tyler has to be just like his big brother. He wears his Lightening McQueen backpack to see Justin on/off the school bus. He likes to run errands with me during the day and cries when we drive home. Ty loves to "Help, too!" when I'm making dinner. He's getting really good at setting the table, too, by color-coordinating the dishes. He says, "Let go of me" and "Mom do it" one hundred times a day. I don't know whether to help him or not. :)

I am happy to see him excited about trying new things. I love that he says, "Thanks Mom" and "Big Hug". This afternoon when I was tucking him in bed for his nap, he said, "I'm thinkin' 'bout song." He started singing "Jingle Bells". I didn't know he knew this song. Later I found out that Travis sings it to him all the time to put him to bed. It was a cute little surprise to hear him singing away! I love this boy!

Weekend Top 7

General Conference Weekend was really nice. We enjoyed:

1. Jackson Elementary School's Fall Festival Friday night. Justin was so excited that I was volunteering to help with one of the carnival games. He would come up to me every so often and give me a big hug and kiss. I'm enjoying it now while he still thinks I'm cool! :)

2. Inspiring counsel from church leaders. I was touched to hear the explaination that our neighborhoods don't experience more tragedy than other neighborhoods. As close-knit member communities, we are just more aware of what is going on in our neighbors lives because we are giving service to help each other during hard times.

3. Couch-pillow pyramids. The boys were trying to entertain themselves during conference (and no one got hurt!).

4. Elders Quorum potluck at the park between sessions. I actually got to visit with other adults this time since I didn't have to follow Tyler like a hawk to make sure he didn't fall off the "Big Kid" playground. There are definitely some benefits to growing up.

5. Priesthood session moms and kids get-together at the Bowden's home.

6. Newly discovered favorite treat: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter on vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm...just like pumpkin pie!

7. Justin learned how to do a word search and decifer a secret code in the Primary Conference Packet. He is really having fun now that he is learning to read.