Thanksgiving weekend

So now that the weather has cooled, we FINALLY took Kara out to learn to ride a 2 wheeler. She was very excited and picked it up very quickly. Jason was outside with the kids Thanksgiving morning, so I could make the few things I was bringing to Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great meal at Jason's brothers house, and we were so glad to spend some time with their family! (Thanks, Melissa!!!)

Thanksgiving evening the three older kids drove up and stayed with Grandpa Judd in Tuba City. Then Friday morning they went and picked out a Christmas tree. Tyler got pricked by a jumping cactus. While Jason and grandpa took out the needles, he looked up and said between tears, "You know what, Grandpa? It sure is tough being a cowboy." They laughed out loud at that (not sure where he got that in his head). This is the tree they picked. Yes, it doesn't look very big. But when Jason got home he read the little pamphlet they got with the tags which stated "remember that trees look smaller in the forest than they do in your home." As a result, this is the biggest tree we have ever had!

Here is Ashley playing with the kids nativity set (Fisher Price). She LOVES Christmas already and she hasn't even figured out the present part of it yet!

Here is the end result of the tree! Since I was no help, it took Jason a few hours to get it up. We had to switch corners, since it was too tall for the first one we put it in. You may notice there are a lot more ornaments on the bottom--the kids did most the decorating and dad could barely reach the top! But it is done and it is beautiful!

Here are our stockings hanging in a row. Ashley is looking up at hers. Yes, we do have one for baby this year since she will come before Christmas. The hardest part to believe is that we have SEVEN stockings...when did we have that many kids???

Now we are ready for baby and for Christmas. I finished up shopping and wrapping (except a few online orders) while the kids were gone with dad. Now I just need to pack my hospital bag....I'm not due for 2 1/2 weeks--I have time, right?

Gingerbread houses

Jason's family tradition is to decorate gingerbread houses together. So we made them FROM SCRATCH (dough Monday, baked and cut Wednesday, and decorated Saturday). Andrea designed all o fit. I just put the frosting on and helped "glue" it all together. For our first time, I thought it turned out just great!

Almost done with the roof:

Finishing up the back, front and sides:
(Yes, I am 8 months pregnant and still smiling for the picture!)

Getting ready to glue gun it together (MUCH faster than using frosting):

Our end result!!!!

This was a week long, but really fun, project for Andrea and me to do together. We had a great time with the girls in Jason's family too and I learned A LOT from all of them! Thanks to the Judd's for a very memorable day!!

Andrea is 8!!!

Here are my kids with Andrea's Oreo Fudge Brownie cake!

Andrea wanted scriptures SO MUCH. She just finished the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago (she wanted to be done before her birthday) and as of right now she is just about done with the Pearl of Great Price as well. (She loves to read.)

She went to her best friend's birthday party on her birthday, which she was pretty excited about it, since she got sparkling fingers and toes from it--including a flower on her big toe. It was a great day for her!

Our October

Kara lost her two front teeth within days of each other. Now she is singing the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..." nearly every day. Andrea was singing that same song last year! I can't believe how quickly they are growing up!

Since dad was out of town for Halloween, we painted pumpkins instead of carving, and the kids had a blast with that. Kara said that hers was "created"--it was cute to watch her try all different colors and things to get her own special pumpkin.

Once we convinced Ashley that Halloween is fun (she was very afraid of pumpkins a month ago), she decided to be Cinderella. Halloween is a HUGE event here in Arizona--it's like a big neighborhood block party! There was a haunted house, a movie playing on the garage, and everyone sits out front in lawn chairs to hand out candy. My kids loved it!

So Ashley turned two last month, and of course, we gave her a baby doll. She still loves it nearly a month later, and I love that she has "Ashley's baby" who she named Baby Dora. (No surprises there.) Maybe it will make mommy having a baby ok???

This is Ashley with her cake. I wish I had a good messy cake picture, but she wanted every bite to make it into her mouth. She is my best eater, but aren't kids at two supposed to still be messy with their birthday cakes?? (Kara was still messy at 6!)

Tyler's first day of preschool

Tyler was so excited to finally start preschool! This is Miss Tracy, his teacher. This was his first day. He wore his T-shirt from Niagara Falls because he wanted to show everyone.

This bottom picture is outside of the house where he has preschool. My little boy is growing up!

Fun with the kids

Just some fun moments we have had with each of our kids the past few weeks:
Andrea:
We enjoyed watching the BYU game on Saturday, probably more so because they won. But Andrea watched with us and learned a lot about football! There were a few moments that got intense so we told her she had to be quiet and not ask questions, but other than that, it was an enjoyable time. I guess we are breeding future BYU graduates early!
Kara:
I forgot to take first day of school pictures of my girls! I know, I am terrible! But Jason picked them up from school. When Kara came out, Jason picked her up and gave her a big hug. She said, "Put me down now, dad!" She looked mortified and checked all around her to make sure now one saw. "Don't ever do that again, dad." She was so embarrassed! She is only in 1st grade--don't we get a little more time than that?!?!
Tyler:
So we were driving to Jason's sister's house Sunday night to see her son open his mission call (he is going to Brazil). She lives about an hour away. Here is the conversation as we leave our house.
Tyler: "Do you have the map to get to her house?"
Jason: "It's all in my head."
Tyler: "What if you lose it?"
Mom: "Then we are all in trouble."
Dad didn't look very happy with mom's response, but we did get a laugh out of it. I love the things that kids say, especially when they don't even know they say it!
Ashley:
Finally, with Ashley, the other night at dinner, the other kids had finished and eaten everything on their plates. Ashley looked at them and then watched them clear their plates. She then tried to hand Jason a piece of her food. He didn't take it, so she put it on his plate. We watched her after that, and she put the remaining three pieces left on her plate onto Jason's plate. When she had successfully cleaned off her plate, she looked at us with a big smile and said, "All done!" Then went and put her plate in the sink too. I'm not sure we will let her get away with that again, but it sure struck us as funny. She is growing up so fast, and really just wants to be like her siblings.

Jason's Stitches

So last night Jason gets ready to go mountain biking after the kids get in bed, but he gashes open the side of his leg. It was really deep (I will spare you the gross details of that). It is obvious that it needs stitches, since it is 1 1/2 inch wide and 1/2 inch deep. So he decides to stitch them up himself!!!! And he did. He was so proud he took a picture and I told him I would post a picture on the blog! My favorite thing that he said was "It is harder putting stitches in skin than in the mouth. Or maybe it was just because I was doing it on myself." I think it was because he didn't have anything to numb it with!