Town Parade

So for the four years we've now lived here, we finally made it to the town's Christmas parade for the first time! After going, I now know why. Not because parades aren't fun or something the kids will enjoy. But because I can't see a thing (I'm on the shortish side remember!) and I get very nervous and irritated in large crowds. But our friends were going and I wanted to take the kids to do something fun so I put my nerves and irritations to the side and jumped at the chance to go.

It was cold! And I do mean COLD! No matter how warm I dressed the kids, they still complained. We got there a little early - dragged our camping chairs and blankets to catch a good spot to sit and watch. But we were soooo mistaken! The line along the street was a good 5 feet deep. Which translates into me not seeing a thing! Picture taking of the parade was a bit sketchy for this reason alone. Aubrey and her friend stood on the chairs along a business wall and Jocelyn and her friend sat on adult shoulders from our group so thankfully they could see. I on the other hand had other interesting things to do such as hold a cranky and cold 23 month old while being 6, almost 7, months pregnant and trying to dodge cigarette smoke. He cried and whined the entire hour we were there. The parade was scheduled to be 2 hours long but we cut out of there early!! (Which was good as we didn't hit any traffic.) As we were driving back to the house to have pizza with friends, we saw snow flurries coming down. It started to stick when we were leaving to go home but nothing more than a light cover. Despite the parade mishap, we still had a wonderful night out with great friends! :)

 {Kids before parade started}

 {Me with my little crankster hanging out :)}

 {I liked the business we were standing next to - very cute decorations on the windows & toys inside!}

 {The crowd we were up against}

 {Jocelyn and her friend watching the parade}

 {Aubrey & Andrew looking at the neat hanging toys through the window}

 {The camera with flash off + a moving object especially at night = not a good turn out. But I still liked the colored squiggles}

 {Here is the blurry blob once it stopped moving - The Girl Scouts float}

 {Some Navy personnel standing near us}

 {A restaurant dressed pretty for the holidays}

 {Lights in the trees}

{A tree lit up with Christmas lights and decorations in one of the downtown parks}

December Treat

It's hard to believe it but we finally made it to our halfway mark! Woohoo! Three months down and three more to go. Last night was John's birthday and we celebrated with some leftover pumpkin pie - so tonight, we ran to Sonic for our monthly celebration!



Aubrey enjoyed a peanut butter cup blizzard...

 Jocelyn had a root beer float (I'd say she enjoyed it too but unfortunately she didn't - she liked some of her brother's treat instead! Go figure!) :)

And Andrew had a hot fudge sundae.

And if you're just dying to know, their pregnant mommy indulged half of a chocolate shake. :) The other half is in the freezer to be consumed for another day. I'm sure it'll come in handy!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving, we started to decorate around our house for Christmas. I just love this time of year. The traditions, music, smells, the spirit of giving, and most importantly - celebrating Christ's birth. Here's a sneak peak of what we've been up to...

{Our front door - we found this wreath at Costco and it smells SOOOO good!}

{Snowflakes hung in the bathroom}

{Instead of dragging out our 7 foot prelit this year from storage, we put up this Charlie Brown Christmas tree on our hall table and the kids had fun putting the decorations on.}

{Lights strung across our entertainment center}

{Mint candies that somehow made it into the grocery cart. They're for cookies, I swear! :)}

{More ornaments hung from lights - here in the kitchen. My mom flew into town for Thanksgiving and was able to help me decorate. So thankful too because being pregnant and short isn't a good combo on a ladder when trying to reach high places! :)}

{This candle seriously smells good enough to eat!}

{Ornaments in the living room}

{Our first Christmas card this year - from our good friends living in Germany.}

We have a few more things to do around the house but I like how it's looking so far! Thankfully snow didn't show up in these pictures I posted. I'm hoping with all hope that we don't have a repeat of last years blizzard - bombarding us with over 3 feet of snow! But we'll be prepared just in case! Because cabin fever is no fun. Time to go get those boots so the kids aren't stuck inside for days or weeks on end! :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season so far!

Fall Fun

Here are some pictures from our time outdoors today:

{22 weeks pregnant}

{November 2010}

{11 years & 4 years}

{22 months}

November Treat

Another month down on our family goal = another treat night!

With it feeling like fall is already turning winter in our neck of the woods, we weren't sold on having ice cream again! Doughnuts and hot chocolate sounded like a better idea! :)

I Shouldn't Have Gone To The Barber Shop!

The kids usually need their haircut about every other month or so and today was the day to go back for a visit with the scissors. Only THIS time...they used clippers on Andrew around the ears and neck and my baby went from looking like this....

to THIS!!!!!

It appears my baby boy is a lot bigger now by only getting his hair trimmed! I KNEW I shouldn't have taken him! hahaha I'm only kidding. It's bound to happen but it still makes a little part of my heart sad to see him (and his sisters) getting so big. He sure is handsome like his father though! :)

Halloween 2010

Friday night was our ward's Trunk or Treat night at the church. Hot dogs, baked beans, pie - and our favorite...to be with friends and have a good time. They had a lot of games set up for the kids and adults. Pie eating contest, lucky duck pond, bean bag toss and a cake walk. Aubrey won a big jar of candy corn because she was the closest to guessing how many were inside the jar and she also won another award...(see below).

{The kids and I eating dinner}

{Aubrey (a singer), Jocelyn (Minnie Mouse) and Andrew (a cowboy) - both Jocelyn & Andrew won an Old McDonald award for both being dressed as Livestock.}

{Andrew & Jocelyn with their friend Ryan}

{Jocelyn with one of her bestest friends (Leah) from church & preschool.}

{Aubrey and her cupcake award for winning the cake walk.}

{My cute little cowboy!}

{Andrew at the farm!}

 {A mural my friend at church painted for the Halloween Harvest. She's so talented and it turned out awesome!}

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We also spent an evening out with our friends and walked around their neighborhood...

It doesn't show it here in this photo, but Andrew is completely scared of his friend's Scream costume - hence him sitting as close to his sisters as possible!

{Jocelyn and her friend, Superman! :)}

Me and my boy...he's so independent too. Didn't want anything to do with the stroller until the end and refused to let me help him hold his pumpkin when it was starting to feel heavy. Haha! I have a feeling he caught on pretty fast that there was yummy treats inside and he was "protecting" them. :)

Besides his hat falling off in the wind, he was quite the happy camper. Just held tight to his pumpkin as it swung and hit his leg at each step.

We came across this one particular house in a cul-de-sac that scared the kids to pieces. Jocelyn and Andrew and their friend refused to go up to the scary witches and Aubrey and her friend attempted to get Halloween candy from them but they turned around and ran back instead. Some people take Halloween just a little too far!

This photo was taken right after Aubrey stopped to help Andrew get his vest back on. While she squatted down to help him, he swung his trick or treat pumpkin at her pretty hard as if saying "Beat it lady...I'm on an important mission here!" He cracks me up!

On our way back to the house, Jocelyn informed me that she was done and said, "Mom, I don't need anymore candy - here's my basket." It was funny to hear her say that but it's true...our kids aren't big sugary treat eaters!

We all had a fun night as friends though and that's what counts! Now time to pack up those costumes, chuck (I mean hide) the candy and have a fun 364 days until the next Halloween rolls around. I sure do love the Fall time, but Halloween is definitely one of my least favorite holidays. But it's all worth it to see how much fun they have! :)

Oh, and one more picture. This is Jocelyn dressed up on Friday at her Preschool standing next to her teacher:

Happy Halloween!