the one where we visit Santa

Tonight we headed out for a little bit of shopping. We stumbled into a very short line at the mall to see Santa and decided to jump in line. The boys wanted to see him so bad.

Both boys hopped on his lap, they were so excited to see him and talk to him. I didn't know if Bridger would take to him, but he was so thrilled to sit on his lap. When a mistake at the photo place allowed for a second sitting, the boys were more than thrilled, and Porter gave Santa a minute by minute run-down of what we had done since he had last seen him 15 minutes earlier. These boys could not be more excited about Christmas.

one for each

No photo today.
But in it's place I will give you 4 bits of info on what is new with our little family. One tidbit for each of us.


Bridger fights gukes. He hears them at the front door and when he knocks on the door he scares them away.
Confused?
Example:
"I hear a guke Mom!  I scare him and knock him out! I get da guke, Mom! I got da guke!"
"Bridger, what's a guke?"
"I knock em out Mom, I got da guke 'n I knocked him out!"
"Bridger, where did you hear about a guke? Did you watch a show about a guke? Read a book about a guke?"
"No Mom, da gukes at da door, and I knock him and scare him into the sky!"
It took me many weeks before I remembered that there was a Halloween book about a ghoul that knocked on the door... I'm guessing that it comes from that.

Porter is currently obsessed with yellow straws in all of his drinks.
The other day he asked me for one and I was trying to get him to say please after he asked for a straw... it didn't go so well.
"Mom, I want a yellow straw."
"You want a yellow straw, what...."
"I want a yellow straw in my apple juice, Mom."
"A yellow straw in your apple juice, what?"
"Um, a yellow straw in my apple juice, in my cup."
"How do you ask for it Porter?"
"I want a yellow straw in my apple juice in my cup, Mom"
"You want a yellow straw in your apple juice in your cup... what?"
"Yes."
"If you want a yellow straw in your apple juice in your cup.... what do you say?"
"Yes."
"No, Porter, what do you say if you want something?"
"Oh! Please!"

I am currently obsessed with pistachios. I won a Costco sized bag from Kyle's work Christmas party and I can't get enough of them. I've always like pistachios, but didn't realize how much I love them until now.  Plus it's pretty cute when Bridger calls them pistachews.

Kyle is loving his new job; and he is slowly, but surely, finishing up the projects around the house that he started before the job came along. The sad thing is that before he can finish up one thing, more pop up on the list. He has spent this past week fixing our 4runner, fixing a broken sprinkler line and putting lights up on the house. We're pretty lucky to have him around here, the three of us just wish we could see him more.

Graham Cracker Trains

My boys like trains. So it only made sense to make gingerbread trains instead of houses. And since I didn't want to make any gingerbread, it made sense to make them out of graham crackers.

 (Bridger's finished product)

(Porter's finished product)

This had to be the most successful Christmas activity we have done yet. It kept Porter and Bridger entertained for over an hour.  And the engineer in the house had a lot of fun with the design of Bridger's train. It was great entertainment for all of us.

Temple Lights take 2

While I love our new home and our neighborhood, I really miss St. George... specifically the people that I worked with there.

Sunday night I got a text from this lovely family saying that they were headed up our way and wanted to know if we wanted to join them to see the lights at Temple Square.
I was so excited to see them that going back to Temple Square sounded great!
So we bundled up the boys, and we got more prepared than the night before. We took strollers to strap the boys in, heated up rice packs (packed them in a cooler to keep them warm) so that the boys could hold one in their lap, and took treats.  As it turns out, Sunday is the perfect day to go see the lights. Parking under the conference center is free on Sunday... as opposed to the large fee on Saturday nights... traffic isn't nearly as frustrating, and the crowds were significantly diminished.

It was so great to see John, Shalene and their beautiful little girl Addi. We also got to meet John's sister Jami and her husband Mark who were also great company. Thanks for the invite!

Temple Square

Saturday night, we decided to take a little jaunt up to Salt Lake to see the lights and it was absolutely beautiful.

 

The boys, however, couldn't have cared less about the lights... they wanted to see fountains and water. That was all that they were concerned with.

 It was so crowded and so packed that we didn't dare give our camera to someone to take our picture, and chasing the boys around made it difficult to get the few pictures that we did. It was crowded, parking was terrible (and expensive) and as we left the temple I looked at Kyle and we both agreed that this didn't need to be a yearly occurrence. And we also agreed that we chose a great place to live... far away from the commotion that is Salt Lake.

But it was a good evening.

Good enough that we repeated it the next night.

Patrick

Let me introduce you to the newest member of the family.
Patrick the Elf joined us tonight...

The regular Elf on the shelf kind of creeps me out. Not the kind of elf I would want to find daily in my home. Imagine my excitement when Santa sent our family such a cute one.
Patrick is his name, and the boys are so excited to have him.

Letter's to Santa

Porter wrote his letter all by himself. Other than telling him how words were spelled, he wrote the entire thing.

The letter says "Dear Santa" and includes a picture of Thomas the train, Hiro the train and Spencer the train. And all trains are labeled with their name underneath. followed by Porter's name at the bottom. I was pretty impressed.

Bridger had some help with his. His letter also has trains on it. (Kyle drew the one that actually looks like a train), but for Christmas he would like Hiro too.

We mailed off our letters and hope that they will reach Santa in time...

Did I mention that I love our stove?

And so do the boys... especially after a bath. 
They like to warm up next to it.

Once the fire is going, Kyle turns on the big industrial fan that you see sitting next to Porter and it will warm up the whole house.

Ornaments

I've been trying to come up with new traditions for the holiday season. One of the new ones is an advent calendar. It's not completely up... haven't had the time, but we've been doing all the advent events that I've collected.
I read about a tradition of getting a new ornament each year for each child, and when they grow up they can take the ornaments with them. And I liked it.
So off we went to Hobby Lobby (can I just say how much I love Hobby Lobby?) for the boys to pick out their own ornaments.

 My favorite was the pirate Santa. On second thought, I should have taken this little guy home. Maybe I should grab one each year too.

 The boys had a rough time deciding, but I'm pretty sure that they were happy with their choices.

 Bridger wanted the truck.

 Porter wanted the Santa Policeman.

It was a good activity and a tradition that I think will be very fun to continue.

(Photo-a-day ran into a snag... apparently it isn't possible (or at the very least, easy) to get photos off my phone and onto the internet.
So I took the photos, but no post for the 4th and the 5th.)

Honeylocust

I have to say that I have a love-hate relationship with these trees. We have two BEAUTIFUL honeylocusts in our yard. They are the envy of the neighborhood. Ever since we moved in, people will stop as they are walking by just to tell us they have always loved the trees. Our neighbors across the road planted 3 honeylocust trees just because they loved our so much. Plus they make excellent climbing trees.
However, they are enormous and they drop so many leaves in the fall that it gave me blisters raking up all the leaves. In this picture you can see one small pile of leaves. It was the fourth time I raked the leaves from these trees... and the last time. We filled an entire trailer with leaves that we raked from these trees.

It's a good thing they're beautiful and that I love the full grown trees in my yard... otherwise they'd be outta here. I can't wait to see what they look like in the spring.

Christmas Kick-off

Yummy food: Steak fajitas, Hummingbird cake (it's wonderful, you've gotta try it)

Good movies: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch stole Christmas, and the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch

Activities: Decorating the tree.

It was a good night for everyone.

A photo a day, Holiday style.

I've been neglecting the blog. I just realized I had one post total in November. The entire reason that I like to keep up on this blog is because I use it as a little bit of a journal... and one post last month isn't that great.
So, photo a day is back... through the holidays at least. I don't know how long it will continue, but at least through the month of December.
So first up, the tree. We wanted to cut down our tree like we have for so many years, but apparently it's not so easy to do it up here in Utah County, and we would have had to drive to Price to chop our own tree. Being a little short on time this holiday season, we decided that it would be better to go buy a tree from a lot.
I'm against fake trees. I don't like them. I like to have my home smell of pine, and there's something about a real tree, with all of it's imperfections and beauty. Plus the smell of pine, did I mention that I love the smell of pine?
So we headed to a lot. A tree lot where there were signs out front advertising that 7-8 foot trees were $20.
Perfect.
We headed in and looked around and found a beautiful 7 foot tree. The saleslady came over and asked what she could do for us and I said, "We like this one... $20, right?" "Oh, no that one is $50, let me show you the $20 trees" She led us over to a stack of trees that looked exactly like the tree from Charlie Brown... just 6 feet taller.
No, thank you. I'm not a fan of false advertising. Your sign should say "7-8 foot trees $20 and up".
So we left and headed to Frederico's tree lot (across the street from Target). They had tons of beautiful trees, and each one was labeled properly with it's price. After letting the boys run wild through the lot, we settled on a beautiful little noble fir and brought her home.

She has waited patiently to be decorated which will happen tomorrow night, along with the house for our annual Christmas kick-off... I need a better name for it. It seems like such a tradition needs a better name... any better suggestions other than "kick-off"?

Doctor Porter and Mr. Popeye

This year Porter decided what he wanted to be for Halloween all on his own. Porter wanted to be a doctor, and yesterday he was adamant that we refer to him as "Doctor Porter".

 He really wanted a headlamp. He uses it to "fix" people. And the stethoscope (which he calls a telescope) is used to fix peoples hearts... truly one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

 And Bridger became Mr. Popeye. I don't know where he got it, but I tried to call him Popeye all day yesterday and I got in trouble.

"No! I'm not Popeye!" 

"Well then, who are you? Are you Bridger?"

"No, I'm Mr. Popeye!"

 Mr. Popeye turned out pretty cute too, complete with a can of spinach to collect his treats!

 I have to admit that this Halloween was fun. I really enjoyed making costumes and taking them trick-or-treating.  But with boys this cute, who wouldn't have fun?

the latest

for dancing, for running, for singing at the top of my lungs, for a mood boost... I just can't help myself.

Thanks Maria for the song suggestion. It's on repeat in my head and on my computer.

Pumpkin Patch

These two boys have been obsessed with pumpkins for the past month. They have loved watching for them in every store that we enter and as we drive they get so excited to see pumpkins on porches and they especially love seeing the big pumpkin patch that we drive past every time we head to the store. We decided it was about time to get our own pumpkins, so we headed out for a family night to Jaker's pumpkin patch.
I have to tell you that it was fabulous. They had a petting zoo... I think that was the highlight for the boys. They had sheep and miniature horses, a giant pig, a llama and a kangaroo.  Yes, you read that right, a kangaroo! The boys were completely head over heels with the animals and feeding them.

 

The boys were so excited about the hay-bale maze. Porter saw the older kids jumping the hay bales and he decided to join in.

 

 They had the gigantic corn pit. This is where the boys would grab handfuls of corn and run to feed the sheep. Porter eventually just laid down in it and made "corn-angels"

 It was getting pretty dark by the time that we figured we should probably find some pumpkins. We pulled the boys away from the giant corn pit and they started looking through the fields for their pumpkins.

 They were both successful, and carried their pumpkins back to the nice gentleman to purchase. Bridger, who is obsessed with "babies" of any kind, found a tiny baby pumpkin that he wanted so bad. He now likes to take with him everywhere.

 It was a successful evening.
 

 And if you're in the area, I highly recommend Jaker's... did I mention that everything (sans pumpkins) was free?

the house

It seems kind of silly posting this now because so many things have already changed about the house, but I feel weird trying to post newer things without ever posting pictures of our home... so without further adieu here it is... right after we moved in. (sorry about the poor quality of some of the photos... they are pretty much straight out of the camera)

 Our front door has now been sanded down and repainted... no worries, it's still red, but this is a fuschia/red, and we painted it a brick red... looked better with the bricks.

 The front entry/front room. Don't know what the weird balcony is for, or really what we're going to do with it. We think we might blast through the wall behind it (it's the master closet behind the balcony) and make a huge walk in, or maybe wall off the portion that has the railing and turn it into a reading nook... so many possibilities. Also, the paint on the lower half of the wall is no longer lavender, it's a beautiful gray. And the stairs are no longer the gross carpet, they have been replaced with oak stairs... so pretty.

 Another view of the weird balcony... still thinking of what to do here...

 Surprise! Our master bedroom wall. When we walked through (both initial and final) there was an enormous headboard that covered up the lower color. We thought the whole wall was the dark purple. Then when we moved in, we found out that wasn't true. This wall will be painted soon. I have the grayish-blue paint all ready to go... I think the lady who owned the house before liked purple.

 Our master bathroom. Large soaking tub...mmmm. Love it. The walls are kind of silvery... and they can stay like that for now.

 One of our master closets. I love the built-ins. All the closets (except for one in the office) have built-ins... the amount of storage in this house is incredible.

 Boys bathroom. Also purple. Also to be painted.

 Boys bedroom. It is painted. It's a darker gray-blue. It was the one request that Porter had of our new house. He wanted a blue bedroom and it was one of the first things that got painted in the house.

 The view from the boys bedroom is incredible. Both of the mountains, and of our backyard.

Upstairs hallway/linen closet... it's huge, and they left us a ton of paint.

Apparently New Orchid was their favorite... we have 3 paint cans of it... so if any of you love the lavendar look, let me know. I've got a gift for you.

The view from the balcony. You can see the purple walls a little better in this shot, and I love my plantation shutters on the front window.

View from the stairs to the kitchen.

 I thought the kitchen was a little small, but as it turns out, it has a really good flow for cooking. I've got some good ideas for this room in the future.

 Heading downstairs from the kitchen/dining room.... oh, and although I didn't show a picture of the dining room, I promise you, it used to be purple. These stairs have the carpet ripped off them now and I'm just waiting for Kyle to finish the oak treads for these stairs.

 The wood stove... part of what sold us on this house. I love the wood burning stove. It cuts down on gas bills like you can't believe and I love the idea of roasting marshmallows in my own basement!

Two windows that look out onto our back patio.

 3rd bathroom and our guest room/craft. I don't know why, but I didn't take pictures of the cool ceiling texture they did in the guest room. I'll take them some other time. After all, we're going to be here a while!

 View from the stove. Three walls of this room are brick.

 So much storage. This basement room is either going to be a playroom or storage room or a 5th bedroom if we need it. It also contains the only window that is below grade in the house. That door there is under the stairs and has a huge closet with built ins.

Same with these closets. built-ins galore.

 And the view from our side yard. I love how close we are to the moutains.
We have so many projects in the works, but I love our house. I love the yard, I love having a home of our own. We couldn't have asked for a nicer ward or neighbors.
We love it here.