Turkey Day

First of all, welcome winter! Here's Nolan playing on our 4 ft. snow hill. We're thinking of making some kind of fort.

This year, Justin's father's side of the family rented a cabin in Park City for Thanksgiving weekend. We met up with them at The Canyons to enjoy a fabulous "Turkey Day" buffet. Justin and I were thinking it felt odd to be going out to eat, but as soon as we laid eyes on the food we both decided that we could get used to it! There was too much... I didn't even have a chance to try everything. Nolan and Ezra loved the miniature kids buffet, especially all the fruit and chocolate sauce. The kids surprised us by behaving pretty well so it was a wonderful meal. Thanks to Grandma P. who made it possible! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the cabin visiting and letting our boys play with their 3 and 5 yr. old uncles (Justin's little brothers).
On Friday morning we drove up again, and I headed straight for the outlets and found some sweet deals. It was the first time I've been shopping on Black Friday. I think one of these times I might like to go early in the morning or start at midnight. After lunch, Justin took Nolan tubing at Gorgoza Park. It was pretty fun, but also very crowded. We were thinking that it would be fabulous to go this weekend instead. So if any of you are interested in some family fun, head up there. They have a conveyer belt that drags you and your tube up the hill. Justin and Nolan had to stick to the shorter hills, but Nolan had a ball! I even wore Justin's coat (so that it had the pass on) and took Nolan down for the last run. We couldn't all go at the same time because kids have to be 3 years old, but we did drag Ezra around and he just laughed and laughed.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at home and putting up Christmas decorations. Nolan was so happy to see the toy nativity scene that he kept saying, "Thank you, Mom" over and over again. Ezra can't get enough of the lights on the tree. It's going to be a fabulous season!

Lots of gears this weekend

On Saturday Justin watched the boys while I went to the temple to do baptisms with the youth. I think that in those 4 hours he realized how bored the kids really are with their toys. He got it in his head that he wanted to take Nolan to the store and pick out a toy that they could enjoy together. Justin has been irritated that I buy the boys little treats or toys as surprises every now and then. He says, "No wonder they love you more!" So we all headed out (despite a coming snow storm) in search of Daddy/Nolan bonding time. First we had a delicious dinner at Pizza Hut where Nolan begged for salad and ate the whole thing. At Wal-Mart, I shopped for food while the boys scowered the toys for the perfect thing. Apparantly Christmas is too long to wait!

It turns out that Justin decided to buy this gears/chutes set without Nolan knowing. Well, when we were getting ready for church the next morning, Nolan saw it in the closet. He couldn't believe it. He said, "Wait, we brought the gears home?" Needless to say, it was a long time to wait through church, Daddy's meeting and home teaching appointment. It sure was fun, though! Daddy loved it the most.

Ezra snacked, cuddled with blankie, and threw parts on the ground throughout most of the building process, but he was very enthralled once it was put together. It was an entire afternoon filled with gears! Definitely some great bonding time for Dad!

Excellent Evening

I'm the secretary in Young Womens (the best calling!) and we just held our Evening of Excellence. It turned out so great! It was a fancy Oscar night complete with a red carpet for each of the young women to walk down with her Dad while Moms and leaders took pictures (the paparazzi). The awards portion was so fun because our MC had a tux and had a great sense of humor just like a real awards show host. The girls each came up to receive an award that their parents had written ahead of time, and we gave them a little heart trophy. Then most of the girls gave a little "acceptance speech" about what they had worked on this year in personal progress. Our speaker talked about things of real worth and her husband even wrote a song and sang it for us. It couldn't have been a better night. Well, I guess it would have been better if our powerpoint presentation would have worked. I had slaved making sure we had a picture of each of the girls and then another leader made the slideshow. We were going to display a picture with their name on it as they stood up to receive their award. I guess that's our fault for trying to be tech savvy. I think all of us leaders had even more fun than the girls in our formal dresses. It's pretty rare!

Happy Birthday to my Honey

For Justin's birthday, Grandma K (his mom) came down and watched the boys so that we could have a full 24 hours away from the screaming, jabbering, whining little boys and stress of everyday life. We went on a short hike, ate at P.F. Chang, saw a wonderful choir concert on temple square, did a sealing session, had a fancy breakfast at the hotel, and went to Ballet West's Carmina Burana. The best part was having a normal conversation with my good husband - not about the kids and free of interruption.

Grandma K acknowledged that I have a tough job staying at home with these boys (which obviously makes me feel good to hear her say that). She is a fabulous babysitter but they seemed to have given her some challenges. They managed to break a decorative plate (no big deal, really) and here is where she found Ezra two separate times.

The toilet really calls to him lately. She managed to not only take care of them, but she also showed them a great time, baked Justin a cake, and cleaned the scummy corner where the high chair goes. I couldn't be more grateful!

Fun Night

It was fun trick-or-treating for at least a good hour. Nolan never got tired or cold and finally I told him we needed to head home so that we had time to go see Uncle Daren and Noel's "haunted house." They made up a large canopy tent as a mini haunted house. They really do an amazing job and it was good to have a short visit with their family. Nolan and Ez were so brave and we even went through a second time to study all of the details. We're sad to be done with Nolan's "scary bones face" - even though it had a naughty effect on his personality (he's trouble enough already). But mostly I'm sad that October is over. It's definitely my favorite month. Here are the highlights. I uploaded a little smaller than usual so if any of you didn't realize, you can click and they'll get bigger.