Finally...Snow!

Kaden has been begging for it to snow for weeks. He finally got his wish on Monday and was so excited to go outside! And it was the typical play in the snow scenario...they liked to throw snow at other people but cried when snow was thrown at them. Ellie followed me around throwing snowflakes at me. (I say snowflakes because her snowballs weren't big enough to qualify as balls.) Our friend Nick was kind enough to take the kids out and pull them behind a four-wheeler on a sled and needless to say that was a bigger hit than our little snowball fight. Gotta love the snow!
Ellie in her snow outfit...it took us longer to bundle up than we were out there! Does her hat look funny? That's because mom put it on backwards!

Christmas Tag!

Modeling Christmas pj's from last year!

I thought this would be fun to get everyone in the Christmas spirit!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial, no maintenance!
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving every year!
4. When do you take the tree down? Day after Christmas every year!
5. Do you like eggnog? If it's diluted with TONS of milk I'll drink a little bit
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My porcelain doll
7. Hardest person to buy for? Do I dare say? My father-in-law!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Kaden- he gets excited about everything
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! Christmas present from Jess two years ago, the willow tree one
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't have one but Jesse gave his sister baking chocolate once!
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street, any version
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October usually
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, when I was 11 a friend gave me a troll and I gave it to someone else... I didn't want it!
15. Favorite thing to drink at Christmas? Water please
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white
17. Favorite Christmas song? This year it's We Three Kings by Aly and AJ... you should iTunes it
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel to both in-laws
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blizten, Comet and Cupid? Repeats, I guess not! How many are there?
20. Angel on the tree or star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas morning? Pajamas Christmas eve and rest on Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? My son, husband and brother all have bdays in December, hard to think of presents!
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Time with my husband!!
There it is! And I tag, Tami, Rachel, Wendi, Jami, Heidi, Heather, Lacie and Syd.

Diaper-Free and a Christmas Tree!

Let the halleluia chorus begin! We are a diaper-free household! Last week my sister Casey was at my house and asked when we were going to start potty training Ellie. I said "Why not today?" So we started last Saturday and Ellie did amazing. She only had a couple of accidents when she couldn't find me to tell me she had to go. She even stays dry at night! It was so easy so fast! Knock on wood for the next kids!
Ellie modeling her new underwear!
Our Thanksgiving was fun. The plan was to go to Malad around 4 or 5pm on Wednesday but Jess called me at 4:30 explaining his server just crashed and we would be delayed. We finally left at 9pm and had a great Thanksgiving in Malad with the family! I am the die-hard shopper and went up to IF on Friday and went shopping with my sisters and mom. Then I raced home to put up the Christmas tree. Kaden had been waiting all week to do this. The first thing he does when he wakes up is turn on the Christmas tree lights. He woke up this morning and asked if there was candy in his stocking yet... December is so long for kids!
O Christmas tree!
Friday night we went to the Pocatello Lights Parade. Kaden could not wait to see Santa who was of course at the end. Jesse's server was still down so he missed most of the parade unfortunately. Ellie decided she needed to go potty during the parade so we ran across the street to the chinese restaurant and made it in time. Kaden stayed behind with a friend and was able to see Santa who came as soon as we left!
One of the floats at the parade.
Jess with his best friend. Poor guy can't get a break!
Brrr! It was COLD!

Twilight at Midnight

Love the books, love the movie, got the t-shirt. A big group of us went to the premier of Twilight at the midnight showing. I've never been to a movie premier before. Tons of fun. We were laughing at ourselves all night wondering if we would be amongst a bunch of screaming twelve year olds. Yes, we were definitely some of the oldest ones there but we had a blast. I was surprised, there were actually quite a few of the male gender represented as well. (Most of them were accompanying their die-hard fan girlfriends.) Our months of waiting are finally over. My opinion of the movie? ......Read the books!

This is only a small part of the group! There were 25 of us all together. We went out for appetizers and dessert before the movie.

My friend Tami and my sister Casey. Yes, our shirts say "Bite Me"!

Casey was one of the few "Team Jacobs". (Cough...traitor!)

Tag

This is the fourth picture in the fourth folder tag that I'm sure all of you have had already. I can't believe Ellie was ever that little. I'm actually glad I got tagged because I haven't posted in forever. For some reason since we got Chubbs life has been a little crazier... go figure. We are all excited for Christmas. Kaden has discovered houses with Christmas lights on and can't wait to get on the roof with dad to put our own up! (Probably not.) Ellie wants a baby with a diaper and a bottle for Christmas and Kaden wants a Tinkerbell so he can fly. (Hey, a kid can wish.) Only 32 more shopping days til Christmas!

Oh ya, and I tag Rachel, Jami, Tami and Heather!

Meet Chubbs

A year ago yesterday we got Minnie. I never would have thought that a year later we'd be getting a completely different puppy. Kaden has been asking for a puppy since we lost Minnie, and I have to admit there was an empty space with her gone. Jess grew up always having a house dog so he was easy to convince. We went and picked up Chubbs today. He's a Maltepoo (Maltese Poodle cross). I forgot how much puppies are like newborn babies. He always wants to be held, cries when he's alone, has poopy accidents and follows me everywhere. I know tonight will be a sleepless one. But Kaden loves him to death already so what do you do?
Kaden's only stipulation about the puppy is that it had to be TINY! I put my hand in the pic so you can see how small he is. He was the runt of the litter. He weighs less than a pound!
Ellie is not as sure about Chubbs as Kaden. She screams when he chases her and gets jealous when I told him! Poor baby Ellie!

Boo to you!

Halloween keeps getting better and better the older the kids get. Kaden waited so long to wear his Spiderman costume! Jess had to work from midnight til 5am the night before so he took the day off to be with us! He made us orange pancakes and helped us carve the pumpkin. We had a great day with dad at home! Gma and Gpa Horton came trick or treating with us and then we had my brother and his kids over for pizza. Fun times!
When I was little my mom would always have a special treat for us on holidays at breakfast. I decided to carry on the tradition. I got the kids new books to help distract them during the day. It worked--very much recommended!
Ellie liked the frosting!
Jess always makes the kids any shape of pancake they want. Today Kaden got a motorcycle and Ellie got a princess! Yeah dad!
Here they are! Kaden refused to answer or talk to you if you called him Kaden. You had to refer to him as Spiderman and Ellie as Mouse.
Here's Jess's masterpiece for this year. He always does such a good job. Mom is just there for crowd control!