Christmas fun!

Jane and Stephen were invited to decorate gingerbread houses with some friends. Stephen's house wasn't as photo worthy!

Our ward Christmas party was huge! Not only were there a lot of people, but the decorations were amazing.

The Christmas Season

Eating bananas for a before-church snack!

Our advent calendar. They trade off each day hanging an ornament on the little tree. I keep reminding Jane we have a long way to go!

After reading the nutcracker story, and after Jane saw the Tabernacle choir production where a ballerina dances, Jane wanted to be a ballerina for the day.

Pantates!

Stephen had a short hiatus from his morning routine but is back to waking every morning between 5:15 and 5:30 am, and running into our room saying loudly, "pantates!" which means pancakes. I have about 3 repeats of this word before he starts to pull a fit, and wake Kelly and Jane if I don't jump out of bed and take him to the kitchen. I've tried taking him back to bed and telling him it's still night time, but he just protests louder. He really does eat well all day, so he couldn't be as starving as he seems.

If I made a big batch the day before we have leftovers, but some mornings I have to whip up a fresh batch. Too bad he won't settle for bisquik...

Jane usually joins us as well!

Bubbles

Stephen screams when I get a little drop of water in his eyes while I rinse his hair, and then he does this to himself, no problem!

Thanksgiving!

The Monday before Thanksgiving Stephen had the stomach flu. He recovered just in time for Thanksgiving day. After asking about 8 families or couples to join us for Thanksgiving dinner, we finally found someone who would be staying in town! It was our 1st counselor in the bishopric with Kelly, his wife and 17 year old daughter. They are the Ngo (No) family. We had a delicious dinner with the traditional foods, with Sister Ngo bringing a couple side dishes and an apple pie. We then took the kids on a walk, while Kelly and the others played a variety of games the rest of the afternoon and evening. Jane, sadly, started to feel a little sick, and sure enough, she now had the stomach flu and was asleep by 6pm!

The turkey turned out beautifully, and Kelly did a great job adorning it for presentation!

I'm sorry there are not too many pictures. Just caught up in the moment I guess.

 The next day I had the stomach flu and was wiped out the rest of the weekend. There wasn't any black Friday shopping (we hadn't planned to any way) or leftover eating, but instead Jane and I slept and watched Christmas movies with Stephen, while Kelly tackled the huge job of organizing our home office. I am happy to say that after almost 1 week of not feeling completely back to normal, we all are better, and Kelly didn't catch it!

Stephen's ingenuity

At first glance you might not see it... then, all of a sudden you will realize there is a little boy up on the counter-top! Stephen has really been experimenting lately with how high up he can get. He uses this little bathroom stool to give himself a boost, then climbs up the drawers the rest of the way. Other "steps" I have to keep hidden are Kelly's lunchbox and the chairs from their little table.

I let him stay and have a few crackers before taking him down and removing and hiding the stool.

As I went back to preparing dinner (he was already in his PJ's for the night!) I heard something coming down the hall. A chair was coming towards me!

I looked closer and saw the "motor" to this chair.

Stephen, "She took my little chair, she took daddies cooler, then she took my stool! I'll just have to use something else!"

He kept coming in a frantic panic to get to his destination before I discovered his intentions. Sorry Stephen, that's as far as you're going to get!

He settled for unloading the kitchen drawers. I had to play hop-scotch to avoid stepping on anything while I tried to finish preparing dinner!

Oh no, he found a built in stool! Luckily he's forgotten about it since then.

Autumn Leaves!

Autumn has arrived and the leaves are beginning to fall. Our yard is covered in them, and we still have a tree-full of leaves left! They are beautiful and fun to play in, but they are a mess. I always wished we had a huge tree in my yard when I was little, so I keep reminding myself of that when the leaves keep coming down.

Our New Steinway Piano!

We purchased our first Steinway piano! Kelly flew up to Utah, on recommendation by some of our pianist friends, to see this Steinway B (7ft) piano. We purchased it, had the lid refinished in Utah, and had it shipped down here. It was to arrive Wednesday between 4-6pm, but we had a slight dilemma; we still had our Mason and Hamlin grand piano in the spot this would need to go! Our living room is not big enough for two pianos (at least without major furniture rearranging) and so we had 3 days to sell it! Kelly had told some of his students that it was for sale, but no one had come to see it yet. He was able to set up an appointment and have some students see it Monday, and we had a second family interested as well. Finally, late Wednesday morning, the first family said they wanted it. Kelly arranged with the movers to take the Mason out, bring the Steinway in, and then take the Mason to the new owners. Phew! I was worried we would have 2 grand pianos on top of each other for awhile! Here is the empty corner:

It's here! Jane and Stephen couldn't keep their hands off it, even while the movers were still unwrapping it!

I haven't been on the piano for an extended period of time for months. After I put the kids to bed and while Kelly was still out, I played it for about 1 1/2 hours! I LOVE it!

Halloween #1 and #2

Saturday night our ward had a Chili cook-off, followed by a trunk or treat. For those of you who don't know what trunk-or-treat is, I will explain. People decorate the trunks of their car and line up in the parking lot where the children come around for candy. It was fun, but Jane wasn't satisfied (even though she had a HUGE bucket of candy!). Wednesday came and she knew it was the actual Halloween day, so we just had to go out for some traditional trick-or-treating! 

For Halloween #1 Jane was the beautiful Cinderella, and Stephen was the cutest cowboy I had seen!

Stick 'em up!

She was so excited to wear lipstick and blush!

I didn't enter the chili contest this year, but I did take some delicious fudgy halloween brownies. There was plenty of chili and some were very unique to say the least! One was a cream of shrimp, yellow bell pepper and pineapple chili, another was more like cream of potato soup. I thought chili at least needed red or white beans in it! I guess I was wrong. It was so noisy that in the end, I was unable to hear who took 1st 2nd and 3rd.

They had hot dogs  and shredded cheese to make chili dogs, but I think most of the kids were like mine and didn't like the chili, so they all ended up with just a hot dog and a whole table of goodies to choose from!

Halloween #2 started out with a Halloween dinner, and then we went around our neighborhood to about 3 homes and found out no one else was home! So we took a short drive to a real Halloween neighborhood we knew of, where the residents treat this holiday like Christmas! They all have lights and blow-up decorations outside, and TONS of candy.

At the last minute Jane changed her mind about being Cinderella again, so she was "Apple Annie" (I guess)!

Halloween fun!

I invited some friends and their kids over for a pumpkin painting party today, at our house. I asked everyone to bring their own pumpkin and a treat, and then I supplied the paint and other supplies. The kids (and Moms!) had a fun time on such a beautiful day!

Jane saw this little hat at the store and tried it on. She kept it on the entire time and as we were checking out, she asked to buy it. I told her she could if she used her own money to buy it. She was thrilled! I don't know why she fell in love with it, but it is pretty cute on her. She has hardly taken it off for two days!

Jane's finished pumpkin (kind of spooky!). Stephen did one too, but I didn't get a picture.

I took Jane and Stephen to the pumpkin patch the other day. They had fun in some bouncy houses they had set up there, and seeing some ponies at the pony rides. We ended up going to the grocery store for their pumpkins though, because they were SO expensive here! You pay for the experience I guess!

Jane and Stephen were excited to take the Halloween costume box down from the attic. Jane had so much fun trying on different costumes. Here she is a mixture of last years Snow White (the wig), and a fairy.

Stephen looked hilarious in this wig! Jane said he looked like Mozart, but I think he looks like Beethoven. Who would have guessed it's my Marilyn Monroe style wig from a few years ago!

Sleeping

Jane has her entire bed to stretch out in, and she chooses to bunch up in a little ball at the bottom!