Joey is 4!

Our little Joey is 4! I can't believe he is getting so old!



He had a pretty exciting year! He got potty trained, He got to go camping with just daddy for his first time!



He's met a lot of new people and has made many new friends!



He got to start school! Just like daddy! :)




Happy Birthday Joey! We love you!


Our little Joey is 4! I can't believe he is getting so old!

Our Christmas!

We had a really great Christmas Week! On Monday, for FHE, we made Gingerbread Houses...well sort of :) We are amateurs when it came to this so our houses didn't turn out all that great. Mine and Joey's actually collapsed the minute we got the roof done :(



So me and Joey went over and helped with Mike and Emma's. Emma was having a blast! She kept on saying, Don't eat the Candy! She did a really good job. Joey on the other hand just wanted to eat the candy..who cares about the house :)




And the finished product!



Joey insisted that we had bears to watch over the house! :)



And wouldn't you know, once I finished taking pictures, the house collapsed!



Hopefully we will have better luck next year! I think we made the gingerbread too think!

For Christmas Eve, we went over to our friends the Hill's house. We made homemade pizzas for lunch and then watched a Christmas Movie while the guys took a nap. :) Then we made sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but Alisha took some pictures..hopefully I can get some from her.

That night, we went home and read the Christmas Story and let the kids put the nativity together and then we opened our pj's. And again, I forgot to take pictures! Man I was bad this year!

Christmas Day was so much fun! I was so excited for this year because Joey and Emma are getting older and get more excited and such! So they had a blast opening presents! I couldn't believe how excited Emma was when she opened her kitchen. I have never seen her more happy!



She also received a Little People's Farm, a princess papasan chair, a baby, and a couple of My little Pony's.

Joey finally got his Geo Trax train. He has wanted one of these forever!

Here he is showing it off!



He also got a Chevy and Ford truck, a spelling magnet game, a people's bus, and a Thomas Movie.



I tried to get a picture of Emma with her other toys, but as you can see she just wanted to play with the kitchen! :)



After, opening presents, I made homemade Cinnamon Rolls and then we took a nap. After our yummy ham dinner that night, we went over to Keri and Brian's and played games and had dessert.

Kenzie got a DS for Christmas...I couldn't believe how enthralled my kids were with it!



We had a great Christmas! I hope all of you did as well!

Ornaments!

Have I ever told you my love for Ornaments! I can't get enough of them! I have always wanted to have an extra room in my home called the Christmas room that would display all my ornaments on a huge tree and the room would show all my snowman collectibles!

When me and Mike were dating he found out about my obsession and for Christmas that year he bought me some really cute Strawberry Shortcake Collectible ornaments in this really cute tin. (He also knew my liking for the ORIGINAL Strawberry Shortcake. I thought that was so sweet! Little did I know that he had it all planned out, that it would be a tradition, that every Christmas he would buy me a special ornament to add to my collection. It has been fun to see what ornament I get each year! And so far, I have LOVED them all!


My very first ornaments given to me by Mike!




My ornament our first year of being married! I was pregnant with Joey so he bought me a cute stork holding a baby boy! It was actually quite sad...somehow it broke while in my stocking and to this day we still have not fixed it! Hopefully someday :)



My ornament for our 2nd year! This ornament I just love! It is gorgeous! It is a Christmas Tree in a globe that has snowflakes all over it! You hook the ornament up to the lights on the tree and the tree inside the globe changes to different colors! I love it!



My 3rd year ornament! This one is really cool too! It is a 3-D puzzle of the Salt Lake Temple!



And this year! I opened it early this year so it could be on our tree for longer! I was really excited when I opened this one! My cousin Angee gets these really cute family ornaments each year and Mike saw me looking at them and saw how much I loved them and Viola!



Joey is on the left, Myra in the middle and Emma on the right! And I love snowman so it was perfect!

I also have enjoyed having an ornament for each child on our tree!

Joey's: It is a pair of mittens (which I thought was very fitting since he was born in December) with a precious moments baby on it!



Emma's: It is a cute bear holding 3 blocks that have ABC on them!



Myra's: We have an Angel for her! Short's Funeral Chapel gave us this when she passed away and I cried! It was so perfect for her ornament!



I am also excited now that my kids are getting older, they can make me ornaments! :) Joey made this ornament in Sunbeams!



Our Relief Society gave each Woman one of these ornaments for Christmas this year!



I got a lot of ornaments this year! :) When we went to Boise around Thanksgiving time, Kareena gave me this ornament because she knew my love for Frogs!



And here are my 2 favorite snowman ornaments!




Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Santa?

I am not so sure my kids are liking the whole Santa thing! :)



We have kind of struggled to know if we should have Santa part of our Christmas or if we should just teach them that Santa is a part of Christmas but mommy and daddy fill the the stockings and give the presents.

Growing up, I remember we never had a bad Christmas. There was always tons of presents under the tree and a we got a lot of stuff from Santa. But, I also remember members of the family and many friends who didn't have as much money as we did and so they didn't receive as much. I was always afraid to tell my friends all I got and I remember a couple of instances when we had to hide some of our presents when company came over.

Since my kids are getting older now and are starting to realize that there is this Santa person and are starting to understand stockings and opening presents, it has made me reflect upon what we want to do regarding Santa. I do remember Santa being a fun part of Christmas but I do also remember when I found out he wasn't real and what a horrible Christmas that was and how future Christmas' just weren't the same. I also started to think of my kids and their feelings. Right now, while Mike is going to school, we are not that financially stable! What if one Christmas we didn't have any money for gifts or for just one gift. What would our kids think? Would they think they have been bad this year? Would they think that Santa did not love them as much as their friends? It almost brought tears to my eyes to think of my kids disappointment. I also remember last year when we were living at Mike's parent's house and they were struggling and were not going to have Santa come and visit that year. Mike's mom wrote a letter from the internet to Dan and Cory stating how sorry he was but that he was not going to be able to make it to their house this year. I completely understood where his Mom was coming from and I thought that letter was a good idea at the time...but recently I thought about that and how devastated his brothers must have been. Did they think they were bad or that Santa didn't like them that year. I was on a forum on momdot the other day and this very question came up and most of the moms said that their kids believed in Santa but one mom said that Santa wasn't coming this year because he was broke. That just made me sad and that is what got my mind rolling on this topic.

Also, why does Santa get all the credit? Here I am working my butt off trying to sell bows and sell items on craigslist so that my kids will have a Christmas! Why should Santa get the credit for my hard work?

Sorry if I have offended anyone..it is not my intention..I am just trying to figure out what to do! I don't want my kids to spoil the fun for other kids but as of right now, I am feeling Santa is not right for us! Maybe later but not as of right now!

Any thoughts?

12 days of Christmas Giveaways!

The Lil Peanut Patch is having a 12 days of Christmas Giveaway! Unfortunately today is the last day to enter! But you still can! You just have to go through each 12 giveaways and follow the instructions! Don't worry...it isn't hard :). There are a lot of great prizes that are being given away..I would go check it out! The winners will be announced tomorrow the 13th!

Good Luck!

Thanksgiving and A Christmas Tree

This Thanksgiving, we had the opportunity to have it at Keri's house. We had tons of food and a lot of fun!

Here are the kids getting ready to eat!



After eating, we put on a movie for the kids so that we could play games :)

Here is Joey and Emma with Bryce! They just love him and he is so good to them! It is very cute how Emma follows him around everywhere!



We played Bonanza and Bohnaparte and had a lot of fun! This picture makes me laugh because it looks like we all posed for the picture (smiling and everything) but Bryce just took the picture!



The kids got tired of the movie after a little while and decided to have races down the stairs :)



And then they went back to the movie!



We were there until about midnight! It was a lot of fun though and we were glad that we were able to share it with family!


So, now that the kids are getting older I have been wanting to start traditions. We have always done the open pajamas on Christmas Eve thing but I have been wanting to start others. This year I decided that on December 1st each year we will get a new Christmas movie to watch and we will go get our Christmas tree and decorate it.

Joey got the first movie this year...he got Thomas and Friends Ultimate Christmas. Boy was he excited! Next year we will get one for Emma!

December 1st also fell on a Monday so picking out a Christmas Tree was a great FHE! The kids had a blast putting on the ornaments!





Here are the kids showing off the finished tree! (You will have to excuse Emma's hair...we have been kind of sick lately and neither her nor I were wanting to put "pretties" in her hair)



And, as you can see, we have some work to do! :)



I also did some decorating myself!

I put up the stockings!



Decorated our door! Since then I have also put up lights on the window but I wasn't in the mood to take another picture :)



Here is our patio door!



And the finished Christmas Tree! And, Yes, the kids were in bed when I fixed it :)



I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Have fun putting up your Christmas Decorations!

Christmas/Holiday Bows Are Up

I just wanted to tell everyone that I have just listed all my Christmas and Holiday bows on etsy! There are quite a few so go check them out in the Holiday section! There are some for everyone :)
A few of my favorites are:

Tom the Turkey



Christmas Tree Clip



Snowflake Boutique Bows



Christmas Ribbon Clips



Snowflake Ponytails



There are a ton more to choose from so go check it out here!

Also, I didn't know if you noticed but on my sidebar you will see a button for the shop a thon for tip junkie. There are a ton of stores listed, including mine :), and seriously you can do all your Christmas shopping there! They have a bit of everything! So go check them out as well! :)