Christmas Trees!

Here are the pictures of my Christmas trees! If you know me, you know that my favorite color is purple. I've always wanted a purple tree, so this year we decorated one purple. The other one is a smaller tree and we decorated it with red and gold!

Anna is 3!

Anna turned 3 on Thanksgiving day. We were in Orlando with Jon's family, so she got lots of gifts and lots of attention! She loved her presents especially her Elmo toy from Uncle Brent and her princess dress/shoes from Uncle Kirk and Aunt Tanya.

Joey's Birthday in October

Joey turned 1 on October 22 and I am finally blogging it more than a month later!

Halloween!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year! Tyler dressed up like a vampire, Lindsay and Anna were Tinkerbell. I dressed Joey up as Piglet. Jon told me that I shouldn't have put him in a pink, pig outfit, but Piglet is a boy right?

Jon dressed up like a viking. I got a great deal on costumes this year, so I got two for me! For our ward Trunk or Treat, I went as a witch. Jon and I had an adult Halloween party at our house and for that, I dressed up as a pirate's wench. My parents were in town for Halloween, so my mom dressed up like a witch too.

On Halloween night, we went to the Fall Festival at the kids' school. Overall, it was busy and fun week and the kids got WAY too much candy. I have been very tempted to eat it all, but so far I have resisted. I haven't had any sugar since Jan. 5, 2009. I am trying my hardest to make it one year without any sugar. I just gotta make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Carving pumpkins!

Tyler is a poet!

Tyler got 1st place in his school's Creative Writing Festival for his 2 word poem called "My Brother." His poem now goes onto the Regional Creative Writing Festival. We will know the results of that probably in December. Here's his poem:

My Brother

Very cute

Crawls fast

Poopy pants

Very funny

Cries lots

He stinks

Eleven months

Drinks milk

Likes me

Eats Cheerios

Stands up

Loves playing

Awesome Baby

Spelling Bee Update

Lindsay went to the Regional Spelling Bee in Tallahassee on Oct. 23rd. She put a lot of work and effort into preparing for it. She studied and practiced everyday! At the spelling bee, she did excellent. She didn't mispell any words, but she got out due to stage fright. It was really intimidating for these first graders! She spelled the first 4 words correctly and then on her 5th time up to the microphone, she totally froze. I think she was a little disappointed because she knew how to spell the word, but she just got scared. Anyway, we are so proud of her and she learned so much from this experience. I think she is glad to be done with all the studying too!

Gettin' Crafty..

We have our ward Super Saturday coming up next weekend. Another lady in the ward and I are in charge of it (well, she's pretty much in charge and I am her main helper...considering I don't have a crafty bone in my body). Anyway, we got together and did a bunch of crafts together to get ready for the big day. Here are a few of the crafts we're doing.

Ribbon Bulletin Boards

Dates to Remember Binder (you can pencil in everybody's birthday/anniversary for every month, plus insert cards)

Scrapbook Barn Stars (you can put pictures of your family on it as well). We are also making little barn star ornaments.

Terra Cotta Treat Jars (I am going to give them to Tyler and Lindsay's teachers for presents)

Family Picture frame (picture is held on by magnets, so you can easily interchange the picture)

We also made Mantle Blocks (not pictured). They spell out different words like Faith, Family, Believe, Home, Love, etc. We stained them a cherry wood color and made the lettering gold. They look really awesome.

Last Weekend

We went on a Florida excursion last weekend. We started out in Jacksonville. While Jon was taking a recertification class, the kids and I went to the science museum, Toys R Us, and Chuck E. Cheese. We don't have a Toys R Us or a Chuck E. Cheese in our town, so the kids were SO excited to go there.

We then headed to Daytona Beach. We have never been there, so we thought we'd check it out. My cousin and his family live there, so we made an unexpected visit to their house. I am seriously against unexpected drop-ins, but that is what we did to them. I felt so bad. We GPSed their address and just pulled up in front of their house (well, we drove by it like 4 times before we actually stopped). They were REALLY good sports about it and it was so nice to see them. They have 4 adorable kids that I had NEVER met. They took us to see the Daytona 500 Speedway. It was spectacular. I couldn't believe how huge it was. We are hoping that we will get to see more of them in the future. I told them that they needed to just show up at my house without calling first!

After Daytona Beach, we went on to Orlando. We spent a day at Wet N Wild waterpark and had way too much fun. Then we drove home, stopping and seeing Jon's brother and his family in Gainsville on the way home.

It was a jam-packed weekend and we were all exhausted when we got home, but it was definitely worth it!

At the Science Museum in Jacksonville

At the Daytona 500 Speedway

All the cousins

My cousin, Steve, and me

At Wet N Wild in Orlando

School Pictures

Lindsay and Tyler's school pictures. Tyler is in second grade and Lindsay is in first grade.