This is the Season, beloved of the year...

She thinks she is Mary. Really.

Our first annual Gingerbread house! Thank goodness for Parker, our engineer, or we never would have gotten it together!

The girls went to the Nutcracker! It was magical, and every time people clapped, Molly would say, "oh no, I don't want it to be over!" She was in ballet heaven.

My four darlings, in their Christmas best.

The whole family before our Ward Christmas party "Back to Bethlehem"

Merry Christmas!

this cute, and he does dishes too?

(try to overlook the snotty nose that is dripping all over the clean dishes)

ballerina girl, you are so lovely...

Molly has been taking ballet for a few months, and absolutely loves it. She can't wait for Monday afternoon to come each week so she can go dance with her darling friends and see her amazing teacher. Thursday night she had her first recital, and she was so excited to show us all of her "moves." We got to see how she warmed up, pointed her toes, and danced like a sugar plum fairy when she followed her teacher's instructions. Then, they performed the darling dances that they have been working so hard on! Molly's favorite is a dance to "Let it Snow" where she gets to pretend to be a popcorn kernel popping when the song says, "it doesn't show signs of stoppin', but I've got some corn for poppin'!" The recital was so great, it put smiles on all of our faces, and Molly's didn't leave all night...

thankful...

everything was perfect...

my sentiments exactly!

I have been on a bit of a soap box lately. I am totally frustrated with the skipping over of Thanksgiving which totally offends me since it is my FAVORITE holiday. I have absolutely forbidden the playing of Christmas music in my presence until the day after Thanksgiving, at the earliest. I am not shopping for Christmas gifts until Black Friday, and I won't allow my kids to bug me about what they want for Christmas yet. I want to celebrate Thanksgiving. The holiday without commercialism or strings attached. The holiday where we get to hang out together, not scurry about BUYING stuff that none of us need. The holiday where the colors of the season are really all the decoration you need! I mean, seriously, who wants to see the Halloween decorations swept away and replaced with Christmas on November 1st, if not sooner? It bugs me. I went to Target looking for something cute and Thanksgiving-ish or even fall-ish for my table, and guess what? Nada, nothing, zilch. Aisles and aisles of tacky Christmas decor, though. No shortage of that. UGH! I left feeling so disgusted.

And then, as I walked through the door to Nordstrom yesterday, I saw a sign that said something to the effect of: "Here at Nordstrom we believe in celebrating one holiday at a time. We won't be decking our halls until November 27. We hope you enjoy this season with your families. From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving." My heart sang for joy (which, let's face it, it often does at Nordstrom). Just another reason to love you, my dear Nordys. We'll see you on Black Friday!

a grateful book review...

This is is my book recommendation of the month. I love it, love it, love it. If you come to my house for Thanksgiving, you can sit at my feet, and I will read it to you...

A very dear friend gave it to me many years ago for my birthday, and each year at this time I read it a million times: to myself, to my kids, to just about anyone who will listen.

It's about a girl who calls a family meeting to tell her parents that they need to be more ambitious and make more money. Her parents tell her that, actually, they are rich. Then, they proceed to do an accounting, on paper, of all of their possessions. They place a monetary value on things like the ability to work outdoors, how much their children are worth to them, and the nights they get to sleep under the stars.

Here's an excerpt...

and now my paper says four million and sixty thousand dollars--and we haven't even started counting actual cash. To tell the truth, the cash part doesn't seem to matter anymore. I suggest it shouldn't even be on a list of our kind of riches.

It just tugs at my heart every time I read it! Top it all off with gorgeous illustrations! Run out and get it soon! (you could use your Border's Rewards coupon!!!)

my birthday...

It was my birthday on Saturday, and since I have an aversion to photos of myself, I will share a story my dear mother shared with me about my birth....

My mom's water broke in the middle of the night while she was asleep (that must run in the family). She woke my dad up, and they took my older brother to the neighbor in the trailer park where we lived. It was 5 AM and he already had a drink in his hand.

I'm so glad that my brother survived the day with the drunk while my mom popped me out.

I never knew I lived in a trailer park. My mom called me trailer trash when she told me this tale. Oh, the sweet tales of our birth....

And then there's the one about where I got my name...

say what?

Max asked me to help him build a "huge oval train track" today, to which I replied, "sure, just let me finish blowdrying my hair." He left the room and then came back a few minutes later and said, "Mom, this is your last warning. I need you to build that train track right now."

Is that what I sound like?

a spooky Halloween.........

We had so much fun this Halloween, I can hardly keep up with it all! I think I need to make a separate post altogether with all of the pumpkin farms we visited! This is hands down my favorite time of the year (you can HAVE Christmas!). Some of these pics are terrible, my camera was on a funky setting, but you get the idea....it was a blast!

not supposed to use your hands on the donut on a string game, little butterfly!

my boys!

carving!

trunk or treat goods...

the little conductor!

madame butterfly

the itsy bitsy spider!

aye matey!

my birthday boy!

We started the day with pumpkin pancakes for my little punkin!

(Dad had to help blow...in our "blowing out the candles" trial runs Ian got too close and singed his hair!

Ian loved all of his new presents (the kids "helped" him unwrap)

another birthday candle on his pumpkin cake (is there a theme here?)

he really enjoyed diving in!

I can't believe my baby is one! I wish all of my whining would make time slow down!

Happy FIRST Birthday to the sweetest little PUNKIN! We love you, Ian!

Happy FIRST birthday......and Happy Halloween!

Isn't he sooooooooo stinkin' cute? I can't get enough of this guy! He is such a joy (cheesy, but true!) We are so happy he decided to come to our family last Halloween. This holiday is now even more FUN! We love you Baby Ian!

This cracks me up...."just kidding, it doesn't, just kidding it does!"

S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!!!

I was a sneaky little devil this past weekend, and I flew home to surprise my mom for her 60th birthday! It was super fun to get away with just my littlest, and the look on my mom's face when we showed up at her office with a bunch of balloons was just PRICELESS! We had a great time in Utah enjoying the crisp fall weather and beautiful colors!

Ian and I got to see my whole family and some dear friends. Jon held down the fort at home, and I don't even think they knew we were gone! He had them doing chores and earning their keep. After seeing how capable he is, I will feel good about leaving more often! Thanks, Jonny, I am already planning my next trip...

run like the wind...

I just got back from volunteering at the school Jog-a-thon at Olivia's school. Olivia did great! She logged ELEVEN laps! Way to jog, Olivia! (notice her pacer running along side her and cheering her on....she has the BEST dad!).

eleven months....

oh no! How can it be? My baby is eleven months old! He is crawling all over the place, so my house has become quite like a lock down facility. Gates are up all over the place, which has become quite a frustration for Max and Molly who can't open them yet! The other day I ran upstairs to put some clothes away, and soon after I heard a little voice behind me, and there was Ian, all the way up the stairs. I had definitely forgotten how busy this stage is, because they want to be down crawling all the time, and let's face it, there are not many places you can just let a baby crawl! Ian's latest tricks are signing "more" (and he's the first of my kids to do it exactly right!), giving "fives," giving kisses, waving bye-bye, and clapping every time he hears "yay," "good job" or anyone else clapping. He's a big hit at Olivia's soccer games, because he's the only one cheering for both sides! This little guy puts many smiles in our day!

The countdown is on......just 24 more days until the big ONE.

Olivia's party

Olivia's birthday party was Friday night. I took five of her friends to have dinner, bowl, and play games at a really fun spot in town. It was a big hit! Here they are waiting for their dinner!

In the bowling LOUNGE! They have huge screens playing videos from now and THEN. Her friends loved all the "vintage" videos and thought it was hilarious when I said that those were super popular when I was their age, like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." They all stared at me in amazement, like I was a real, live dinosaur, and then started laughing hysterically!

Here is the birthday cake. Spare me your compliments. Save them for Baskin Robbins.

Olivia is still saying, "Mom, that was the funnest party EVER," so I will call it a SUCCESS!

party on Molly, party on Max...

Max and Molly had their first "friend" party on Saturday. We held it at the park. We tried to combine the train and princess theme and just called it a "Royal Train Party." It was a big hit. Ten three and four year olds playing, eating, building, and having a ball! So cute! Max and Molly loved that everyone came for them. They had perma-grins all day!

Making candy trains!

Max's cake

Molly's cake

Molly making a wish!

Eating lunch!

Max's wish...

and, a big deep sigh of relief from Mom that it is over... (now on to Olivia's party!)

Happy number FOUR, Maxwell!

Happy birthday to my little man! Max was super happy to finally be four, since he's been telling everyone for months, "I'm going to be 4 on my next birthday!" When he woke up on his big day I said, "Happy birthday, Max! You are FOUR now!" and he looked down at himself and said, "but MOM, I'm not bigger!" So cute. So like Max. Here he is blowing out his breakfast candle!

He got a remote control Percy with more tracks to add on to his train. He was in heaven! He loves Percy, "because he's GREEN!"

Such fun at the zoo!

He loved roaming around the BUS at dinner!

Making a wish!

Happy Birthday to my big boy! I can't believe my little four pound baby is now four years old! Max is an awesome boy! One of a kind! He is really easy to love. He is super sensitive. He gets scared easy. He likes to be at home. He doesn't like leaving his mom and dad. He loves TRAINS. He loves cars, too, especially his gold one named "Rocket Fire." He likes to ride his training wheel bike, and doesn't even care that it has purple flowers on it. That goes back to the sensitive thing, I guess. He loves to cuddle. He loves his DADDY. Max is a really good brother. He is always giving Ian a toy, and comforting Molly if she gets hurt. Max appears to be a little accident prone/clumsy. He takes after his mom in this, I'm afraid. He has his share of owies, but Mom never tires of comforting him. This little guy makes us so happy. He makes us all want to be kinder. We love you little man!

Happy FOURTH birthday, Molly!

Happy number FOUR to my little princess! Molly was so excited for her birthday. Here she is enjoying her candle on her Swedish Pancake. I love this cute look on her face. She is the queen of fun facial expressions!

And, here she is in her birthday outfit. Her shirt is Ms. Trouble. She loves the book, and she IS the main character!

We went to the zoo with friends, and the kids had SO MUCH fun!

looking for bears...

Here are my girlies at the Grilled Cheese Grill. So fun!

Molly is just a dear! She is super affectionate. When she wants loves, she says, "Mom, I want to curl up in your arms!" Of course, how can I say no to that? She loves to play with Barbies (and much to my chagrin, she likes to play them with ME), Polly Pockets, and, of course, DRESS-UP! She is a girly-girly-GIRL. It's pretty fun. She got a bride Barbie and groom Ken for her birthday, and a full ballet outfit, because she is starting a little ballet class next week, and can't wait! She is such a fun part of our family. She keeps us laughing with the funny things that come out of her mouth. And, her screams...well, let's just say, all of her good aspects make up for a lot! Happy birthday to our little girl! We love you, Molly!