Little Boys, Little Boys

(To the tune from the Annie song "Little Girls" but instead I'm singing "little boys")
I don't remember how Evie was at 2 and a half but this boy of mine sure keeps me hoppin' these days. He is constanly into things he shouldn't be into. He is forever testing Derek and I to see how far he can go before he is in big trouble. Some of his favorite things to do right now are:

• Finding any kind of pen, marker, pencil, (whatever he can get his sneeky little hands on), and drawing something lovely on a door, floor, Evie's bed, the toilet seat, it doesn't matter he will commence to draw.
• Putting his arsenal of cars, planes, trucks, etc. inside the pot that our huge tree is in, in the living room. That tree is "HUGE" it is not moveable so it stays and he continues to make a mess.
• Pushing, shoving, smacking, yelling, pulling hair all directed towards his sister. One of these days she is going to put him in his place but for right now she is patient with him and hasn't punched him in the face or anything.
• Potty talk...isn't he a little early for this? I hate it. I wish he would just go to the potty.
• Generally making a huge mess wherever he happens to be. I don't know how to keep the house clean...it gets clean when he's napping.

Just a few of the things I get to deal with on a daily basis. I have to say that all the "I love you Moms", "I want you Moms", "Will you cuddle with me Moms" pretty much make up for this list though. Excuse me while I go fish out the pillow he just threw in the tub...

A Birthday Girl

As most of you know Evie had a birthday and turned 5! I went a little crazy this year for her birthday and planned some cute decorations and goodies to make her party extremely girly. It was actually really fun for me to plan and make decorations, cupcakes, cake, party favors etc.

On her birthday we let her open presents from us and we also took her to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. They did their cheesy little birthday "yee haw" for her which she loved. She also saw her preschool teacher there which she was pretty excited about. Derek and I stopped at the new "Culvers" which is our favorite frozen custard place in the world! Never thought there would be one so close to us. This could be bad for my body! :)

Evie wanted a friend party this year so I let her invite a few friends for an afernoon party. She decided that she wanted a princess party, but not a Disney one. She also helped pick out what cake she wanted. I made little princess hats that turned out cute which they got to decorate themselves. So, Saturday she had her friend party and then had the whole family over to celebrate that evening. There were so many people there, I think she felt really special. I'm so glad my kids have so much family to love them!!

Opening her birthstone necklace from Grandma Larson.

Evie with her new tu tu and kitty

I'm pretty sure Evies favorite part of her birthday was seeing her cousin Carys

Cute Princesses!!

Inside of the cake...have to show my handiwork. :)

And a picture to creep everyone out!

The end

I got crafty

I'm not normally a very crafty person, but I saw this cute Valentine's Day wreath on Pinterest that looked pretty easy to make. It turned out pretty darn nice. Thought I'd share the results. It cost me about $6 for the supplies and some time in front of the TV to cut out the pieces. If you'd like to make one, let me know and I'll help you. It was easy peasy.

Christmas Eve At The Bum Bums

Today I'm trying to update my blog but at the same time I'm feeling lazy about posting that past couple weeks. Yesterday Derek and I were hit with the stomach flu. We spent the whole day in bed/running to the bathroom. It was miserable! We're feeling a bit better today but not quite ourselves. Evie is the only one that hasn't got the crud yet...knock on wood. Will is sick today but doesn't seem to be as sick as Derek and I have been. Evie took care of us yesterday, she is getting to be such a big girl. She seems to act older then her 4 years a lot of the time.

We really had a nice Christmas this year. It was strange to have NO snow though. Derek kept saying that it didn't feel like Christmas. I do like snow at Christmas but I would be happy to have NO snow the rest of the winter. I'm loving the sunshine! I actually sat on the deck and ate lunch with the kids today...weird. I think the vitamin D is good for a bunch of sickos though.

I keep getting off the subject. We had our annual family Christmas eve party in Morgan at the Brumbaughs. For some reason all the pictures I took were kind of weird, people making strange faces and my not so good camera skills. I apologize in advance for embarrasing my family members. There was lots of good food, games, a gift exchange, and Debra's awesome slide show she put together. So much fun!

The Buche de Noel that I made for the party. If you don't know what that is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BBche_de_No%C3%ABl 

Christmas Preparations

I loved Christmas when I was a kid. Things have changed a bit since I've gotten old...I mean older. Christmas has become a stressful time for me the last 5 years or so. Not really sure why. I've tried to be better about it this year. I tried to start my Christmas preparations early this year and I think it's helped make things less stressful. Now I'm kind of enjoying the time I have to bake Christmas goodies. Last week I made two batches of fudge and 3 batches of toffee, (which actually turned out good this year, I've tried making it other years and it's never worked, Hurrah!). Yesterday I made a big batch of choc chip and M&M cookies for our ward party. Tonight I am making these http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/11/14/cranberry-bliss-bars/
for Evie's preschool teacher and neighbors. To me baking goodies is just a joyful part of the holidays for me. I'm getting excited for the upcoming Christmas celebrations and being able to spend time with family.

But most of all I'm happy to be celebrating this:

An evening with Santa

I found out about a company that is taking Santa pictures at Thanksgiving Point right now. I saw some sample pictures online and thought...HOW ADORABLE! How do they get those little kids to smile and hug Santa? Found out they have Mom or Dad dress up as Santa! What a genius idea! Last night we took the kids to get their pictures taken. Of course my little shy boy wasn't to happy about the whole experience. Even though Daddy was Santa Claus. They still managed to get a few cute shots of the kids. The photographers were wonderful and so good with the kids. I highly recommend these guys FotoFly.

Thanksgiving and post Thanksgiving

It's been a nice couple weeks, thinking of all the things I am thankful for. I am soooo blessed! This year I offered to host Thanksgiving. I even attempted to make the turkey. I thought it would be a nice break for my Mom and maybe a little less work she would have to do. I think this is the first time ever we have had Thanksgiving somewhere other then my parents. I thought it turned out to be a nice dinner and get together for the family. I hope everyone enjoyed it although I know some people had reservations about having it somewhere different. I think I counted a total of 26! Keeping with tradition, we had tons'o homemade pies.
My Mom made a blueberry cream cheese, avocado cream (weird), pumpkin, rhubarb, and sugar free pie for my dad. Julie made apple, chocolate cream, and pecan. I made buttermilk (my favorite), mixed berry and cherry.

Our black friday consisted of staying home and doing a little Christmas decorating. Sarah, and Deb came and helped me put up some of my stuff and Nick and Derek played X-Box games. I am still working on getting all my decore the way I want it. It usually takes me a couple days. Maybe I will post pictures when it's all finished. The kids were enjoying watching this little device today (I don't know what it's called) that Derek brought back from Germany. They always want to be my little helpers, whether I want help or not :).