Our Christmas

We started off our Christmas celebrations by first attending Jacob's first preschool performance. His class did a Christmas program during the Thornton Winterfest and sang five holiday songs- Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was pretty cute!

We also walked around and found the Christmas tree of ornaments all the preschoolers made and enjoyed the other things they had going on there.

Christmas Sunday I failed again in getting cute pictures of the boys together, this was the best I got. Blake was being silly and even putting on the stockings while I was trying to take their pictures. Oh well. 

Jacob wearing his Santa hat getting excited for Christmas.

Christmas Eve we went downtown hoping to see some Christmas decorations but didn't really find anything to look at, so we took the boys to the park since it wasn't too bad outside. They had a lot of fun having their dad to play with them, and it was good to just spend time together that day. 

 That evening we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner, read our traditional Christmas stories and scriptures, played our rice pudding game (I won) and let the boys open one present.

The boys loved their new superhero pajamas, and then we watched a movie before bedtime. 

 

Jacob was very excited about the idea of Santa this year- it's fun watching his excitement grow every year. A few days before Christmas though he was very upset and worried that Santa wouldn't bring him anything though. When he sat on Santa's lap he only told him that he wanted cars for Christmas, and Jacob was worried that it wouldn't be enough haha. But he was very excited Christmas morning and after opening his gifts he kept saying "This is the best Christmas ever!" I think Santa brought him everything he wanted after all :)

The boys got spoiled with plenty of toys this year and they spent most of the day playing and watching their new movies- their favorite is Despicable Me 2. Jacob's favorite toys were his Monsters University set, and Spiderman action figure, and his Sheriff car, though he said he loves all of them. Blake got tons of new trains that will keep him happy for a long time. Luke got a smoker cookbook, and a new restaurant style fry slicer among other things, and my big gift was a new camera. Can you tell these pictures now are much clearer than my previous iphone pictures?! I'm glad to have a real camera, and a good one at that, now I just have to learn how to properly use it! We all got some great gifts, we feel very blessed.

We had another great Christmas dinner and enjoyed the evening spending more time together. I love having Christmas with our little family and the traditions that we get to participate in every year. I love the excitement that Christmas brings to our kids and I know next year that will increase even more as they are getting older. I'm grateful that we were able to have a nice holiday together but sad that the season went by way too quickly this year!

Halloween and Fall pictures

Fall is my favorite time to get pictures of the boys! So here's a few as we went to the pumpkin patch, the Trunk or Treat and Halloween, and a few extra fall pictures while we raked the leaves.

My favorite picture of the boys, on our way to the pumpkin patch. This year we finally checked out the one right across the street, the boys had a lot of fun.

The kid stuff did cost tickets so we let Jacob pick one thing and he chose the pony ride. Once he got up though he got a little nervous so I walked with him. But once it was over he realized it really wasn't that bad, ha.

The boys were in love with this corn seed box, and then finally they each got to pick a pumpkin.

Jacob helped me carve his, and this is how they turned out this year! Basic, but cute.

 Jacob went back and forth on trying to decide on a costume this year, but a week before Halloween he decided he definitely wanted to be Woody. And I don't like the Woody costumes at the store, so I figured it'd be easy to make since we already had the hat and sheriff badges, but it was a little more difficult than I thought. I made the vest, which wasn't too hard, just turned out MUCH smaller than I imagined, ha. And then finding a yellow shirt was impossible. He had a yellow and blue plaid shirt which would've looked better, but he said it didn't look like Woody's, so finally I found a yellow button up at a thrift store... in the ladies section. And then after another 2 days of drawing red lines through it (which you can't even see on the pictures!) he was very happy with it.  We completed the look with a little toy gun and holster and he was very excited to be Woody. So, that's all that matters.

I realized I had extra fabric to make chaps for a Jessie outfit and when we got ready for the Trunk or Treat, I came downstairs in my outfit and Jacob's eyes went wide like Christmas morning! He said "Oh mom, I'm so proud of you! You look like Jessie! I love your costume!" Haha, he couldn't get enough. So though I felt a bit silly, it was worth it to do costumes together with him for the church party. Blake on the other hand refused to put on Jacob's old Buzz Lightyear costume. It would've made for cute pictures, but he absolutely hated it- he's like his dad when it comes to Halloween costumes, ha. So he sat with Luke to pass out candy- no costume, no candy!

By the time Halloween came, the boys had completely changed their minds again! Jacob decided he wanted to be the Toy Story alien (luckily we already had the costume given to us by a neighbor) and Blake decided he would dress up if he could be Woody just like Jacob. So I quickly slipped it on 5 minutes before going out the door, and I actually think he rocked the costume a little better! He was adorable, and when we went trick or treating both of the boys got as many compliments as they did candy ;)

It was Blake's first time trick or treating and the 3 of us had so much fun! (Luke stayed back to pass out candy). They were really cute saying trick-or-treat and thank you, and walking on their own. It was super windy though so after Blake did half the block with us, we dropped him back off while Jacob and I went for a little more. They were pleased with their turnout. I personally wish we could've gone longer!

The wind on Halloween made the next day a perfect day to rake (and take some fall pictures). We get so many leaves in our backyard!

Jacob's Zoolander face, ha

We love the fall!