Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

By coincidence only did Austin and Brady end up with the same pajamas. This was perfect though because they have been joined at the hip their entire trip here. They were so happy that they had the same jammies. Macie is so cute, she has really developed some personality. She refuses to ever wear pants so I am impressed that they actually got her to wear jammie pants.

This year was funny because it turns out that ALL of the women bought their own pajamas instead of their husbands. It turned out to be a big joke by the end of the evening. Maybe next year we can get the guys to buy them like they are supposed to.

Katie is currently the youngest in the family so she was the first to open her Christmas Eve pajamas. She was more interested in chewing on the box but it was really fun watching her enjoy.

Andrew just loves Katie, and I just love how this picture turned out.

Katie's hair is getting really long now, so I have been trying to use some clips but I am not too successful cause her hair is so slick that they just fall out in a couple minutes. She also likes to pull them out. I will keep trying so hopefully she will like them in the future. Wishful thinking I know.

Katie Milestones

Katie just started doing this for us, I love it! Too cute

Halloween 2010

More Halloween 2010

Carving Pumpkins and Halloween 2010!

The kids had a blast scraping out the pumpkins this year. They were giggling and squealing about how slimey they were. Matt decided this should be our Family Home Evening activity and it was a lot of fun. The boys each did their own pumpkin and designed their own as well. Greg had way to much fun trying to slime the kids with the pumpkin guts. He kept trying to dare the kids to eat the insides of it raw. Gross!

We did collect a bunch of the seeds and toasted them in the oven with salt. Yum Yum

On Saturday our neighborhood had a Trunk or Treat Halloween carnival. Our yard was nominated to host the event. So we set up doughnuts, hot chocolate and hot cider in our yard. We also had 3 firepits going in front of our house to keep warm by. The neighbors on both sides of us also had games for the kids, blow out the candle with a squirt gun, eat the doughnut off the string with no hands, then the rest of the neighborhood lined up their cars down the street to trick or treaters. It was great weather on Saturday, the mildest Halloween celebration I can remember in a long time. We had a great turn out and gave away over 250 doughnuts!

This year Matt was a ghoul, Andrew was Dracula, Austin was a caterpillar, and Katie was a unicorn. We had a lot of fun getting everyone ready in their costumes.

Fashionista in the making!

Katie's already posing like a fashion model. I love this dress and leggings. Little girls are just way too fun to dress up.

It's My Birthday today!

Austin's 4th Birthday

My little "Boo boo" just turned 4 years old. Where has the time gone. He was so excited for his birthday.

For his birthday he got a new scooter and a whole bunch of tools from Aunt Lori. The day after his birthday he disassembled the entire scooter with his tools.

It was great having my Grandpa Aiman there to celebrate Austin's birthday with us. He is 87 years old and just as sharp as ever.

Aunt Lori, with her kids Spencer and Tyler

Austin had a pirate themed birthday party complete with dressups for all the kids and a pirate scene birthday cake I made. I forgot to get a picture of it.

Back to School

So the kids were so excited to get back to school this year. We have moved into our new house in Rexburg and we are loving it! We will love it even more though in a few more weeks when we get the basement finished and I don't have sheetrock dust on everything. He He, I don't mind because it will be wonderful to have it done. We are currently painting walls, then we will hang doors, do trim, and then the carpet will come. YAY! The school district had a back to school party for all of the kids ages 0-18, it was really great they had a whole bunch of vendors there who put together free games and activities for the kids to play. They had a free book for each child, a raffle for prizes for each age group (and they gave away really nice stuff), free dinner for the whole family, trolley rides, popcorn, a climbing wall, etc. The kids really had a good time.

Matthew started 5th grade which is in the middle school. He is starting to play the violin and really enjoys it so far. Andrew started 3rd grade at his new school and also really likes it there. They have both made lots of good friends. Austin started preschool this year and he absolutley loves it. He gets really mad at us on the days that he doesn't have preschool, he insists that we take him anyway. I guess that's a sign of a good preschool teacher. He is learning to write his name and how to write and identify letters. He is really doing well with it.

Austin has also made a new friend next door. Her name is Megan. She is just a little younger than Austin but they are joined at the hip. He drives her around in his little power wheels sports car and they love watching Gummy Bear movies together. Lately their favorite game is playing Doggy. Austin is the doggy and follows Megan around on his hands and knees with his tongue hanging out and barking. Megan instructs him to sit, stay, rollover, come, etc. it is really cute to watch them. Just today we took some cookies over to their family and as we were leaving Megan called out to Austin "Bye Austin! I love you!" Austin replied "Bye and I love you too!" I just had to laugh, it was so sweet.

Katie is doing really well now too. She recently had a Dr. visit with her cardiologist and they are very happy with how she is growing and developing. Her murmer is very small now (she will probably always have one though) and the valve has very little backflow now. They tell us they couldn't be happier with her progression. We have now graduated to checkups at every six months instead of 3. She is really growing too, she started to roll over and now she is all over the place. She rolls to get places to pick things up so we have to be more careful now about what is laying around. I just love her little chubby cheeks, they just call out for kisses.

Family Pictures

The boys just love their sister so much, and I am sure she will love them too. They are very proud of their baby sister. They boys have been praying for Katie since I was pregnant and they still do. If you forget to mention Katie in a prayer, Austin gets mad and makes you start over. It is very cute.