Memorial Day

Monday was a much needed family day for our little family. Even though we spent all weekend together it seemed to be one of those weekends where kids refused to listen, and they were at each other's throats constantly.  Ron and I were at our witt's end by Sunday night. 

Monday we hit the gym early, came home for lunch and Ron informed me because of the holiday he wanted to stay home to be with us. JACKPOT!!! Normally he still goes into work. 

It was a dreamy day. We went shopping for groceries and hit a few Memorial Day Sales so I could start stock piling clothes for the upcoming school year.

After shopping we went home and played outside. We got a fire going, and made tinfoil dinners for dinner. After dinner we roasted various types of smores (which were so yummy), and afterwards we lit off a few flowers (a type of firework), played with sparklers, and threw pop it's.  

It was exactly what our little family needed. Each kid went inside that night sticky, stinky, tired and full of smiles. It made my mama heart full, and so so happy.

Easter

love Easter. I love spring and I love the spirit that this beautiful holiday brings. This year we had a fun little Easter party with some of our friends in our ward.  We had roughly 30-40 kids there and so it was fun to watch them all go crazy looking for eggs. After wards we all enjoyed breakfast and chit chatting while the kids played and ate candy.

We also had our own little Easter festivities. Ron and I like to get the kids a new church outfit and one thing that can help them concentrate and learn in church more.  This year the older kids got Book of Mormon activity books. Rosie got a Book of Mormon quiet book.

We also had our own little Easter hunt in the back yard. The kids loved getting eggs filled with money the most. They love that Easter tradition. 

I also made a nice meal for Sunday afternoon, which if anyone knows me knows I hate cooking on Sunday. It's a big deal

If I do. We had barbecue ribs, creamy au gratin potatoes, roasted green beans, deviled eggs and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for my grandmothers as I wore my grandma cox's favorite white bead necklace and my grandma Cornwell's table cloth that she made and embroidered.

It made Easter extra special for me.

As always there is a reason for the season. I am grateful for the reminder of the love that my savior Jesus Christ has for me and my family. He sacrificed everything so that I can the ultimate happiness here on earth and in the life after this. He has given me the greatest gift of all.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent a quiet thanksgiving at home with just our little family.  My Russian host family was supposed to come visit but they ended up getting sick and canceling. It was fun with just our family, but kind of anti-climactic at the same time. Ultimately it was amazing to have Ron home and to have our little family all together for a few days.

Our thanksgiving feast!

Our pretty thanksgiving table

Hayden helped me inject the turkey

Ron made me pose for the camera. He said I needed some recognition.

After dinner grace and Hayden made a "special" thanksgiving dinner.

Halloween

This year for Halloween our ward through together a fall "car"nival trunk or treat. It was a lot of fun, each family signed up for a fun game for the kids to play, then we had a chili cook off, followed by a trunk or treat. We are hoping it will be a new tradition because it was so much fun!

After the party we went home and went trick or treating on our block, and ended the night by watching "the nightmare before Christmas" and eating Halloween candy. 

We had a great time!

Grace dressed up as different things for each party we went to. Gotta love dress ups.  Ultimately on Halloween she went as Cinderella.

Little owl

The best part about this Halloween is that the only costume we bought was Rosie's, and that is because we wanted and needed something really warm. Besides look at her, we simply couldn't resist!!!

Mama's Day

Mother's Day this year seemed extra special to me this year. It was different then previous years. Maybe it is cause I have a tiny baby, but overall from the beginning it felt extra special. Normally on Mother's Day I want to sleep in, then Ron and the kids make me breakfast in bed.  This year I took joy in getting up with my kids. I really feel that I was blessed to see the beauty in my role as a mother that day. When Rosie woke up for her 5-6 am feeding I was groggy but I felt privleged thinking that nursing Rosie was only something I could do. Then afterwards I happily walked into the kitchen and fed my other littles a breakfast of toast and eggs. It was a simple and fabulous morning.

That afternoon we had missionaries over to call their families and eat dinner. That didn't stop Ron from spoiling me rotten. The first gift he gave me was an infinity necklace. I love what it represents. 

This isn't what made this Mother's Day the best though. What sent my day through the roof was the poem he wrote for me. It made me cry and laugh. It was filled with exactly the reasons I fell in love with that boy.  What put it even more over the top was how he told me it took him days to write the poem, but not because he couldn't think of the words. He said every time he thought of me and our life together he started to cry. Pinch me. 

I felt so special that day, and felt so blessed to be called mommy. I am so lucky to have my 3 little rascals. My life is so fulfilling and my Heavenly Father has blessed me in unimaginable ways. I am one lucky mama.

 

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween threw us a bit of a curve ball this year, but still ended up being way fun.

We started our festivities off with lunch at IHOP for free scary face kid's pancakes with our friends the Tate's.

The kids absolutely loved their lunch with their friends, and I loved it too cause it was free.

The rest of the day was kind of a bummer. It was freezing cold around 35 degrees with a wind chill and it ended up raining and snowing. So we ended up running errands and taking naps most of the afternoon.

We dressed up for trick or treating. Hayden was a pirate this year and Grace was a pirate fairy from the new tinker belle movie. Both kids loved being dressed up and were so excited for trick or treating. 

The trick or treating ended up being a bit of a let down. We ended up going to only 4-5 houses cause it was so cold and windy. Hayden was pretty bummed about it, but didn't argue about going in cause he was frozen. It ended up  working out though. The houses we went to loaded the kid's up because no one wanted to be out in the cold trick or treating. So they still have quite the load of candy.

After trick or treating we went home and the missionaries came over to spend the evening with us. They aren't allowed out after 6 on Halloween. We ended up turning our fireplace on, ordering pizza, playing a serious round of settlers of catan while the kids enjoyed a Halloween movie. We all had such a great time despite the snow and the freezing cold.

Christmas

I realized when gathering my christmas photos or lack their of that I didn't document it to well. I will just have to say that Christmas was so fun and so exhausting! Ron and I were going on about an hour and a half of sleep when the kids woke up. We stayed up all night finishing up or assembling presents. It was so worth it by the end.

We started the morning off by opening up stockings. One of Ron's family traditions that we decided to carry on was keeping a small box of cereal in teh stockings to munch on while we opening presents. This keeps everyone from getting what I like to call "Hangry" aka hungry+angry. 

The kids got a few little dollar toys and of course treats in their stockings. Ron got just some of his favorite treats. He was in heaven. I got a perfume and again more treats!

This year Hayden got a car mat for christmas with real 3d buildings to go with it and a board game! This is also one of the gifts that Ron and I stayed up to finish! It turned out so cool though, and both kids LOVE it.  He also got a big semi truck from Grandma and Grandpa, and couple of movies.

Grace got a purse, and a winnie the pooh doll from us, a doll and stroller from Grandma and grandpa along with a couple of movies as well.

The big gift we got the kids was a gift to share. We bought them a little kitchen set with a TON of food to go with it. They love it and play with it constantly.

 Ron got me a really cool sushi maker kit. It came with chop sticks, dipping bowls a cook book and the works. It was so cool and so unlike him to think of something like that. I was the one who introduced him to the wonderful world of the sushi. We both love it so much, but gosh it is expensive! Not anymore! We have already done it once and it was delicious!

Here is the Christmas Aftermath. It was crazy messy but it was so fun to watch the kids play and enjoy the things "Santa" brought them. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, playing with toys, and watching movies. We also had the missionaries over for dinner which ended up being really fun and out of the ordinary. We hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well. We definitely enjoyed spending every minute with one another celebrating our savior's birth.

Christmas Eve

Growing up Christmas eve was a bigger holiday than Christmas was! I always loved it that way, and we have tried to keep it that way with a few minor changes.  So far Ron and I have spent every Christmas except one with just our little family at home. I love it this way. There isn't any packing up gifts in the car and driving, it is just us relaxing and enjoying what we love most which happens to be each other.

Last year we started a new tradition that we did again this year which was eating out at a nice restaurant instead of slaving away in the kitchen. I love this tradition so much!!! This year we chose Red Lobster. We had to head out around 430 to ensure we wouldn't have to wait a long time and to make sure we could fit all other festivities in before the kid's 8 pm bedtime. Poor Hayden was really sick, and didn't enjoy eating out as much as we would have liked (We later found out he had hand foot and mouth disease.. whoops! probably shouldn't have gone anywhere). He was a really champ and just enjoyed drinking my virgin bahama mama.

Once we got home we built our traditional Christmas eve fort. We all LOVED it, koshka included! Doing the fort gets more and more fun every year. Once the fort was made we played for a bit, but eventually got down to serious business when we gathered around to listen to dad read story of Christ's birth.

Once we were done reading and playing it was time for Hot cocoa and donuts. Lets be really honest though. Hayden (he was sick remember, wouldn't eat anything) was begging for this the moment we got home. He would throw a fit every time we did something else instead of eating donuts and hot chocolate. Clearly this is his favorite Christmas eve tradition.

By this time the kids were tired (aka Ron and I were worn out and ready for them to go to bed). So we headed over to the tree to do our final Christmas Eve Tradition... CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!!! This is definitely my favorite tradition. I love jammies a little too much.

The fort

Grace tickling and wrestling daddy in the fort

Mommy and Hayden hanging out in the fort (My eyes get freakishly big when its dark and a flash goes off)

Daddy reading Luke 2

Hayden Listening

Koshka Listening

Hayden is never amused with getting his picture taken. I love his disgruntled face. I also love grace in this photo. She is hugging  "Titttee." more like mauling. Whatever you call it you see nothing but love right for that cat right there.

Gathering around the tree for presents!

Had to get one with my feline friend. She is my little shadow and has to be were I am.

This photo doesn't even do Hayden's excitement Justice. He was so excited to open a gift!!! He was in LOVE with his jammies.

Grace on the other hand thought it was cool, but even Hayden was more excited about her jammies than she was.

Daddy with his Christmas Jammies package

Mommy with hers. I was seriously so excited for these. I picked them out myself!

Here are the  kids Christmas Jammies! Aren't they so cute!!!!! I just love them in their new jammies. Hayden looks like a little man!

Grace refused to stand so you can't see the little reindeer feet. Oh well!

Needless to say Christmas eve was yet again a hit. It was so fun! What is not pictured is Ron and I playing santa till 530 in the morning. Yeah 7 am came awfully quick. Note to self double check all present assembly a few weeks prior to Christmas Eve. You might not realize what kind of night you are in for if you don't.  It was all worth it to see Their faces when they realized "Santa" came.