Now That's a Big Bear

The other day we were shopping at Costco (our favorite place to shop) and we were going down the Christmas toy isle and they had their huge teddy bears for sale.
Every time we see these bears the kids all have to give them hugs and lay on them.  It always makes me wonder what people actually do with one of these bears in their home...jungle gym bear?  They are super cute and soft and it is fun to watch the kids go crazy for them when we are in the store.

Oh Christmas Tree

Yum, Leatherby's!

Today we went to Leatherby's with Kevin and Betsy (with Gavin and Jenni) and also my dad.  Kevin's little family was down from Logan for Thanksgiving and they wanted to go to Leatherby's before they went back home AND it is Betsy's birthday today and she really likes to get ice cream at Leatherby's.  While we were there Santa and his wife were also having some yummy ice cream and before he left he walked around the restaurant and talked to all the kids.  It was really sweet of him.  I didn't think to take a picture until he was already leaving our table, but lucky for me Betsy got a couple pictures for me.
Before we got ice cream we went and walked around Walmart to see what they had with their Black Friday deals.  We picked up the kids some jammies and slipper socks, so that was fun.
After ice cream we went to Sam's Club for milk and a few other items before going back home to watch Finding Dory.  We rented that and a couple other movies while we were at Walmart.  Now it's time to put the kids to bed...such a good time of day!

Thanksgiving Fun

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents.  Technically it was a Steenblik year, but Lloyd and Margie went to Disneyland with Suzanne's family so we ate with my family.
It was pretty low key with just Kevin's family and us with my parents.  The food was good and we all had a good time.
After we ate we had a good time riding the four wheeler in the snow.  The kids love going fast and it is always lots of fun.  It is hard to believe that it is already Thanksgiving and soon will be Christmas.  Time keeps going by way too quick!!!

Family Movie Night

We decided to see if Allie was old enough to sit through a movie and we took the family to see the Trolls movie.  They didn't have a poster for Trolls so we took pictures with the Muana movie posters.
Allie did really good for most of the movie.  She sat their nicely and laughed and got excited on parts.  It was actually quite adorable.  The other kids did good too.  Megan and Allie got restless by the end, but they all liked the show.  It was a cute show and we all had a great time together as a whole family at the movies!
I am excited that I can now go with the family to the movies and not just stay home with Allie.  What an exciting time for our family.  It's the small things that makes life wonderful!

Happy Halloween

Allie was a ballerina.  I was planning on having her be a cow (because I have that costume from when Tyler and Josh were little) but when we put it on her she wasn't happy.  She wanted to be a ballerina again like she was at grandma Kim's Halloween party.  So I pretty much just wanted her to be warm enough so her costume is a little silly.  Awe well.
She really liked trick-or-treating at first.  After about an hour someone jumped out from their door and said "boo" and it really scared her.  She cried a lot and wasn't stopping so Tony texted me and had me come and get her.  I just quickly turned out the light and shut my door and got in the car to get Allie.  It didn't take very long and I don't think I missed many, if any, trick-or-treaters.  Allie was much happier to be home.
Megan was a cute witch.  She had a cute broom to go with her costume but she didn't want to have to carry it all around the neighborhood.  Megan loved trick-or-treating and getting candy from everyone.  She did really good the whole time and didn't complain.
Josh was a very cute Harry Potter.  I couldn't get enough of his cute smile with those silly glasses on.  He loved taking out his wand and casting spells.  He did really good trick-or-treating too.  He had a good time being Harry.
Tyler was a karate kid.  We were given this outfit and it was a little tight on him, but it worked.  He liked it and it didn't cost me a thing.  He of course did really good trick-or-treating as well.  They all got lots of good treats and had a great time.
Another year of Halloween has come and gone.  We have way too much candy, but I'm sure we will live.  Halloween is always fun, but now we get to enjoy the thankful season of Thanksgiving!

Grandma Kim's Halloween Party

My mom decided to have a Halloween party this year for all the kids and grandkids.
We were all pretty excited to hang out with family and do fun Halloween activities at grandma's house.
Tyler was a karate kid.  Josh was Harry Potter.  Megan was a witch, complete with her own witch cackle, and Allie was a ballerina.  I even got Allie's hair to go back into a little bun, it was adorable.

Tony had to work late because he had an employee walk out and quit earlier in the week so that made Tony have to work the late shift that the other guy had.  So he met us there after work.

We were all assigned to bring a treat and an activity for the kids to do.  My parents got pizza and root beer (complete with dry ice) for the party.  After we all ate, the kids played a dancing game on the Wii.  It was pretty fun and Allie and Megan loved dancing around to the music with the kids.
For my activity I bought treats to make spiders.  We took an Oreo and put in licorice pieces for the legs of the spider.  We then took a mini Reeses and made it the spiders head and then put on chocolate pieces for the spiders eyes.  I thought it was super fun and it gave them a treat and an activity in one.  I'm so clever.
After that Julie had cookies for the kids to decorate.  They all liked that too.  We all had a good time eating, playing, and spending time with our family.  Good times were had by everyone!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Since we didn't go to the farm this year we decided to just pick up a pumpkin from the store.  We thought it would make a fun family home evening to carve the pumpkin and have the kids pull out the "guts."
Tyler and Josh really liked pulling out all the seeds and slim.  Megan liked it for a minute but then quickly got over it.  Allie didn't want anything to do with the pumpkin and was happy to just hangout.

Tyler was the most interested and stayed until the very end scooping out the goop.  I carved a face into the pumpkin and then we put it on the porch.  It was fun making a jack-o-lantern and letting the kids help.  Such a fun thing to do this time of year.

Playing in the Leaves

We are all suckers for a playing in the leaves.  The kids saw that Max had a lot of leaves fall from his tree and they all wanted to go play in them.
So they all got some rakes and headed across the street to start collecting leaves.
The kids did a good job raking up the leaves for the most part.  I did get in and help them so that they could have a really big pile to jump into.

Allie did not like going into the leaves.  She wouldn't jump into them so Tony just put her on top of the pile and she did not like it at all.  The other three loved it.  They loved running and jumping in the middle of the pile.
Josh really loved sitting in the pile and throwing the leaves all around him.
It is so nice to see that somethings are always the same in childhood.  Playing in the leaves is always good "clean" fun for everyone.

California Trip - Someone Lost 2 Teeth

Josh had two teeth that were very loose during our trip.  I tried to pull them a couple times before but they were hanging on tight.
While we were in California I pulled the bottom tooth and then while we were in St. George I got the top one.  That top one was hanging so funny in his mouth I was glad to finally get it out.  Josh didn't cry for either one and was happy to have them both out.  He was excited to have the tooth fairy come when we get home.