Christmas at our house.

This what Christmas looks like at our house!

(Christine did this, and I thought it was a good idea! I appreciated seeing what her house looked like for Christmas time. I need to take photo of our lights outside, but here is basically what the inside looks like).




The Tree.

This is a decoration my parents gave me in the hospital right after I had Josh (Because we brought him home on Christmas Eve.) It came with the caption, "And then there were three!" Super cute huh? Thanks Dad...I still love to see these snowmen, and think about our growing family! They also hold a special place in Joshua's heart. He got teary eyed over them the other day.

My new attempt at something new and unusual this year. These stars look pretty cool, I think.

And finally some things from the kids on the wall in the kitchen.

(Hopefully those cabinets wont stay that green in the new year!)

December thoughts

I'm so happy to be done Christmas shopping!
Now I've just got to get all the wrapping done!
I so enjoy all the lights on everyone's houses.
I love having all my Christmas decore up, and hearing the songs on the radio.
Good Food!
Excited kids!
And even though it makes it dangerous to drive, and is SO cold....I love that it finally snowed!
I'm excited about all the fun Christmas parties and activities that are planned.
This should be a fun month!
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Joshua is turning 7 on December 22nd. But like Scott, we had birthday parties a month earlier to avoid the Christmas craziness.
Here he is with all of his cakes.


This year he wanted a "StarWars the Clone Wars" theme. So here are the light sabers, made out of cupcakes.

And here is his "Commander Cody" helmet cake. This is what he chose, and wanted. I think it turned out pretty cool.

And these were the light sabe cupcakes that all of his friends got at the "friend party."

This was the first game we played at the "friend party." The kids had to "use the force" and keep thier balloons afloat.

Here they are eating their cupcakes. And it was really cool, because one of the boys wouldn't let anyone else start eating until Joshua had taken the first bite. So they were all cheering him on to eat, causing a lot more excitement than I thought would occure during this part of the party. It was really fun.

We played lots of other smaller games, but this was the coolest, and sortof the main game.

I made little balls out of cruppled up paper, and then position one team of boys behind the couch, and the other behind the folding table. Then they had a certain amount of time to just chuck the balls at each other. Then, once I called time, we counted how many balls were behing each teams boundry, and the team that had the least won. The boys loved it! We were able to play it multiple times, and it really wasn't as crazy as it might seem. It was great...I would totally recomend it for those of you with little boys.

Here is another shot of the "Clones vs. Droids" game.

The last game we played was "Bounty Hunters." Where the boys had to use the toy bin lids to manuever over to the hidden candy and toys (the bounty). They only had 5 lids, and they couldn't touch the "blue goop from the alien planet." This was really fun. The boys really got into it.

This was the best party I've given for Josh. It turned out really great!

Here is Joshua at the family party.

I gave Joshua some mints for this party. He loves them.

He got this awesome Clone Wars helmet from Grandma and Grandpa Jardine! He has wanted this for years! And I must say that it is pretty cool.

It also came with a "blaster." (It shoots nerf bullets.)

Here it is on him.

And her he is doing a really fun thing that Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen started up as a tradition.
The kids get to reach into a money jar, and pull out as much money as they can. They love doing this. And it is mostly full of quarters, so they get a lot. I think Josh pulled out like $4.




Here he is counting the money.

And finally here he is blowing out the candles on his cake.

We just love Joshua. He is such a good boy! He has such a sweet spirit. He's really good at math, and reading. He is loving the new neighborhood, and has made lots of new friends. Happy Birthday Joshua! You are the greatest!

Happy Birthday Scott!

The big 2 !!!

We had Scott's pary a month early...to avoid all the craziness of Christmas. It was a great party! Thank you to everyone for coming and for all your fun gifts. He truely loved every one of them!


Here he is blowing out his candles.


Here is Jared bring out the cake.



Scott likes the show on PlayHouse Disney, "Special Agent O.S.O." and that was the theme for his cake. It turned out cute....along with the "paw" cupcakes.




I've never seen a kid enjoy recieving clothes the way Scott enjoyed this jacket that his Aunt Janice gave him. He wanted it on....now! It was so cute!




This is a really cute book my mom gave him.

This is a remote control car that Kip and Linda gave him. It's pretty neat! He loves it.

And here he is just looking cute, holding a little toy I gave him. He got a lot more from everyone, but these were the best photos.

I came around the corner to finish decorating Scotts cake, and this is what I found. He was snitching frosting off the top! But I figured, "heck, it's his cake." And I grabbed the camera. What a cute boy! And I was able to cover up the carnage easily, and we served him that entire side. So it really wasn't a big deal. Just super cute.

My Joshua!

I just took some fun shots of Josh the other day. He is getting so big! He is such a great kid. He is so sweet. I love that he is growing up to be such a good person. He is a good example to his younger siblings. He is doing so well in school, and is making lots of friends in our new neighborhood. I'm so grateful that I get to be his mom!

"This is Halloween..."

I guess you're going to see this pictures in the reverse of how they took place, but you get the idea.

We ended Halloween night by trick-or-treating at Grandma's, and a little bit to some of the old neighbors. That was fun. Grandma gave full size candy bars, and I think the kids just kept taking some. And it was fun to run into people from the old ward and visit a little bit.


Joshua starting to eat his candy as the Trunk-or-Treat was ending.

All the kids.

All my family that came to the Trunk-or-Treat. We are only missing Brent! It was really fun to all be together for Halloween. Everyone looked great!

Eric and Jake, handing out candy.

Jared, handing out candy. (He stayed at our trunk, and I went around with the kids. Cheryl helped too! (Thanks Cheryl!)

The Trunk-or-Treat was a lot of fun. It made it to were the kids could get a lot of candy fast. And it was cool that my Mom & Dad, Cheryl & Eric, and Melissa & Jake (and kids) all came.

Before the trick or treating got started, Eli and Scott got in the trunk and stared eating the candy we had there to pass out. They were so cute, I just let them enjoy!

This is the creepy thing that my Mom and Dad had in their trunk. It was this head that would move and make noises when you reached in for the candy. The kids were pretty nervous about it. Funny stuff.

This is how the house looked, all decorated for Halloween.

Here is another picture of the monster bush.

Breanne told me she wanted to be a vampire for Halloween a couple of weeks prior to Halloween. But she only ended up dressing up that way for her Preschool Halloween party. For some reason she decided she didn't want to be it anymore for Halloween night. Oh well. She did look awesome for her preschool party!

Josh and Scott were both fire fighters this year.

Our Ward also held a Halloween Carnival for the primary. The Young Men/Women put it on, and they did an awesome job! It was a really cool carnival. They had great ideas. They had the kids go to different rooms around the church where they did different activities, and recieved candy. It was a lot of fun! The kids loved it!

Here they are going "fishing."

Breanne was a dragon!

Here they are "bobbing for pumpkins." (The pumpkins had numbers on them, and you got a certain prize depending on your number.)

Face Painting.

This was a cool idea. They had the kids go into a room that had newpaper all over the ground. The kids had to find the candy on the floor. But the hard thing was that they kept flashing the light on and off. So you basically couldn't see. It was a lot of fun!

And here is Eli doing a "cake walk."

Everyone got a cupcake. And they thought it was pretty cool to hear their number called as the winning number!

Well, this Halloween was a really fun one! It seems like it is always stressful getting everyone ready, but once they are, it is a lot of fun! Happy 2009 Halloween!

Barbie Dresses!

I'm sorry, but I just have to do a little boasting! I ACTUALLY MADE THESE BARBIE DRESSES! And I'm super proud of myself. I haven't really sewed much before, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but I think they turned out really great! I'm going to be giving them to Breanne for Christmas, along with some of my old Barbies from when I was a little girl. My parents recently got the "box of old toys" down from thier attic, and I was able to get some of my Barbies, but most of them were either naked, or the clothes were in pretty bad shape, so I figured I would make some clothes for them. Plus, it is always fun to have a few extra dresses, and Breanne doesn't really have that many yet. I went to buy some, but they were SO expensive, and really immodest. So I'm grateful that I was able to make some dresses that look pretty good, and should be easy for little hands to get on and off. They certainly aren't "perfect", but they are sufficient to be used for a little girls toy dolls. The one I'm the most proud of is the black one. It is hard to tell from the picture, but it was probably the hardest to make, and I think it turned out really awesome! I made the wedding dress first, and you can't really see the details in the viel and stuff, but it's neat too. Anyway, it has been a lot of fun to be sewing lately! It is also fun to be "designing" the dresses. So it really is a "win-win"....Breanne gets fun dresses to play with, and I get to have a ton of fun making them! Maybe I will be able to find time to make more, and I would like to try to make something for Breanne to wear too. We'll see....

(p.s. The Barbies pictured are not my old Barbies, they are some of Breanne's Barbies that I used as the "models" to make and show the clothes.)