Christmas

We had a good Christmas this year. Our Christmas Eve traditions include going to my mom and dad's house and eating a ton a good food and then exchanging gifts. Easton is crying in this picture because he did not want to be held down for the picture. After my parent's house, we go to Porter's parent's house and do more gift exchanges.




This is our house after Santa came. I think the kids got quite a bit of stuff even though Santa was broke this year. Yeah that is our tree with the two different colors of white lights. It bugged Porter but I wasn't about to do the tree all over again. I guess two sets were LED and the other two weren't. Oh well, it looked alright for a while but the cat kept jumping in the tree and knocking off ornaments and smashing branches so by Christmas eve the tree was pretty roughed up. As you can tell there aren't many ornaments left on the bottom half of the tree.

The kids Christmas morning. They got up their usual time between 7 and 7:30. The girls were just waiting in their room for us to get Easton and tell them it was o.k. to come out.

Easton wasn't really sure what was going on. He was just wandering around and would occasionally rip a little of his present. The girls were excited and were just ripping through presents. Easton got this little Buzz Lightyear car from the girls for Christmas and he loves it when the girls push him around the house . He also got a tool bench that plays music and does fun sounds, balls, a bedtime gloworm that sings lullaby's, and some clothes and football slippers.

Rylie got a Liv doll and Barbies and a bunch of earrings and clothes. She told me that this was the best Christmas ever, even though they didn't get as much as they usually do. She is turning out to be a grateful little girl.

Brynlie got Barbie stuff, puppy swim school set, pet shop and clothes. They both received playdoh, art stuff and a bead kits to make necklaces and bracelets. Porter also got them both pink camo play guns and Easton a play shotgun.

Porter got me some earrings, necklaces, perfumes, lotions, slippers and socks. Porter got shirts, hat, pajama pants and a new wallet. So, I think we had a pretty good Christmas. My parents came up on Christmas day to see what the girls got. Later Porter's parents came to see us. It is always fun to have family around to spend the holidays with.

Kids

On one of our photo sessions we went to we had to bring our kids, so after it was over we went ahead and got some pretty cute pictures of our little runts.
I have been having fun with photoshop and just learned how to enhance the eyes and make it look like there is lip gloss. I did it all myself without the aid of an action. For those who don't know what a photoshop action is, it is a thing you run in photoshop that does all the work for you to achieve a certain look. I had to figure it out step by step because our computer won't allow us to download actions. Rylie calls these her scary eyes. I'm just learning, so maybe I did make the outside of the iris a little too dark, but I can only get better at it.

Rylie finally decided to get her ears pierced. She is the one that I thought would never do it because she can't handle pain. She asked us one day at the mall after we looked at earrings and Grandma Judy was sweet enough to pay for it. It is so expensive to get ears pierced I couldn't believe it. Her ears aren't pierced in this picture, but this was the day she got it done.( I think)

Another thing that happened to Rylie recently was having a boy at school tell her Santa wasn't real. He told her to sleep by her parents bedroom door to prove it. I was so mad when she told me this. I can't believe that boys parents never told him to keep this information to himself and to not ruin other children's Christmas. I asked Rylie what she believed and she said she thought Santa was real. I told her that as long as she believed that was all that mattered and to not listen to what other kids tell her. I hope she really still does believe because I think 7 is way to young to stop believing. I think the eye enhancement on Brynlie worked out really good. Now I just need to post the pictures of our latest photo session. We took some of a family, a couple, and a single guy

Easton is getting big and is so much fun. He is running around and climbing on everything. He loves to be in the bathrooms. As soon as a bathroom door opens he is running for it. He loves to unroll toilet paper and likes to climb on top of the toilet and stand. He also loves to get into our shower and grab whatever he can off the bench in there (razors, shampoo, soap). Right now as I am typing this he is in my kitchen cabinet pulling out every single mixing bowl I have and hitting the cat with them. Yes, we now have an inside cat. I really don't know what I was thinking. We got some cats from my sister Mindi, for outside after our last cat got ran over. But this one was so cute and fluffy and we knew that with all the bur bushes all over the hillside it wouldn't stay cute and fluffy for long so we brought it in. It really is the most evil cat I have ever seen. It attacks our Christmas tree every few minutes, our children's faces daily, and pretty much anything else that can annoy me. I actually hate it but I can't really put it back out because the kids love it so much.

One last story to tell about my crazy little Brynlie. Notice the face she is making in the picture below. Well one day the kids asked me about the handicap parking spaces and the people that had handicap license plates. I was trying to tell them the different reasons a person would need a handicap license plate. You know like wheelchairs, heart conditions, etc. Another day we were at the mall and she made this face and started walking funny and said "Look mom, I'm a handicap". I have no idea how she got this from the conversation we had. I'm sure people will think I'm a horrible mother and must teach her awful things but I really don't know why she thinks this is a handicap. This is probably a story I should have kept locked in the closet but the face was so funny. The picture isn't quite the face she made that day but close. Later that day she told me she wanted to be a handicap for Halloween next year. I really have to wonder about that girl sometimes.

Photo Shoot

Porter and I have been wanting to get into photography for a while. I have been working hard on learning photoshop and he has been working on learning our camera. We finally came to a point where we thought we would give it a try as not only a hobby but as a side job. This was our first photo shoot for someone other than our kids. This was the cutest little boy. He was a lot of fun to take pictures of. There were so many cute pics it was hard to pick the ones I wanted to edit. I edited a lot more than I am showing here but it was hard to pick favorites. We are really excited about doing this and already have more appointments lined up.

Easton's First Birthday!

Look at this handsome boy! I can not believe he is one. He is so funny. He loves chickens and follows them around. He even got attacked by a rooster and still goes after them without fear. He loves our new kitties, and grabs at them any chance he can get. He loves to be outside and will say Bye-bye anytime he wants to go out. It's too bad it is getting so cold because he gets so sad when I won't let him outside. He is walking and has been for about a month. It seems like after I wrote my post about him at 11 months saying he wouldn't walk, he decided to prove me wrong and started standing and walking from couch to couch. A week later he started walking all over the place. He is really good at it now, but still wants to be held by me all the time. He weighs 22 lbs. and is 29 1/2 inches tall. So he is just a little guy, 38th percentile for weight and 39th percentile for height. At least he has grown some. We were so worried he hadn't grown at all. He is still not an easy baby but I wouldn't trade him for anything. He loves to give me hugs and kisses and sometimes gives kisses to others. He is a momma's boy all the way.

We had a fun birthday party for him. We had family come and we had snacks and cake and ice cream. He got a lot of really cute gifts. He had all of the old hand me down toys from the girls, so it was nice for him to get some toys of his own.

I was going to make him a cake but at the last minute decided to buy one instead. He does not like sweets very much so I was worried he wouldn't dig into his cake.

I love this face that he made after the first taste of cake. I had to scrape all of the icing off and try to feed him a few bites of cake.

He really liked to smear the cake around and would occasionally take a little bite. The kids came over and ate most of his cake for him.

He was a mess at the end but was excited to get in the bath and play with his new basketball hoop bath toy. He had a good day and was pretty tired by the end of it.

Halloween

Cute kids sitting by the pumpkins they carved. The girls picked out the designs and Rylie traced her spider onto the pumpkin and helped carve it until the little child safe pumpkin carver broke, then I had to finish it. Brynlie helped a little with her pumpkin. Easton sat on Porter's lap while Porter carved his giant pumpkin. We never did get a good shot of Easton in his costume. He was supposed to be a hunter. He was dressed all in camo and had an orange fleece on, but he wouldn't keep his hat on, he was also sick so I couldn't paint his face in camo like I had planned. No one could tell he was dressed up but we figured since it was his first halloween he wouldn't really care.
The cute kitty.

The beautiful witch.

Easton having a good time trick or treating. Even though he didn't go from door to door to get candy, he still had fun riding around in the stroller watching his sisters.

Jared and the girls before we went around the block at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The kids and Grandpa trick or treating. They got more candy going door to door than when we went back home and went to our wards trunk or treat.

More crafts

I finally got my Happy Halloween blocks done on Halloween. Just in time to put them away. These were super easy and really cheap. I was going to wait and get vinyl letters for the blocks but then they would have never have gotten done. So I cut the letters out of black paper and mod podged them on and I think they look just like vinyl. No one has been able to tell a difference yet.

Here are my fall letters. This picture has really bad lighting so they don't look as good as they do in person. The leaf isn't done yet. I was going to try to make it look like it had veins in it and add more sparkle in a different color for dimension. That might have to wait until next year. I also wanted to do something for thanksgiving but I haven't had any ideas yet, so I guess I'll start on my Christmas ideas next.

Halloween crafts

I have been wanting to get new holiday decorations for quite some time but what I like is way too expensive. I came across a blog one day of a girl who does her own stuff and found out that she was the mom of one of Rylie's friends at school. I thought if she can do it then why can't I! So obviously these cute ideas were not mine, but she didn't mind me copying her so I gave it a shot and this is how they turned out. My fun trick or treat letters were actually really easy. The hard part was finding the right font, then cutting and sanding of the letters. The painting, mod podging and decorating was easy and fast. I found out today that there is a place here in Preston that sells letters already cut out and it comes with coordinating paper you just have to glue on and you're done. I don't know exactly what they have or what they look like but that could have saved me sooooo much time in the cutting and sanding department. I also spent a lot of time finding just the right paper. But I guess I have the pride in knowing that I did this all my self. Yes, all by myself. I never once had Porter help me cut or sand or help in using any of his power tools. Well actually I had to have his help changing the saw blade and a tutorial on how to use his air compressor and the nail gun. Other than that and a few questions along the way, I know I get to take credit for everything else. We had to borrow his brother Jordan's band saw, so I hope Jordan doesn't mind that I used it instead of Porter.

Here is a more close up look at the letters. Can you tell I'm proud and excited about these? I never thought I had a creative bone in me. Even though these weren't my original idea, since I have made these I have had a ton of my own ideas and when I make them I will post the pictures.

And finally here are the candy corns that I made. These actually took a lot of time. I made twelve of these in three different sizes so I could give some away as gifts. I had to cut out the wood, then the bead board, then glue and nail the bead board to the wood, then sand everything. The painting took forever because it took a lot of coats of paint and I could only do one color at a time. Then I decorated them. They turned out pretty good, but I don't like them as much as the letters. Something seems a little off about them but I can't tell what. Maybe I shouldn't have used the raffia( that was going a little old school). I am still proud of them. I can't wait to get going on my new ideas. I guess that means there will be more to come!

Easton at 11 months

I have been having fun with photoshop (as you can see). I took Easton outside between rainstorms and took some pictures so I could play around with photoshop. We've had it for quite a while so I decided it was about time I used it. There was no better reason than to document Easton at 11 months.

Easton is quite a mover. He still would rather be carried around by me than anything, but when he is down he is all over the place. He crawls super fast and stands up to everything and walks along the furniture, but he probably won't start walking by himself for quite a while. We can't get him to stand up on his own. We tricked him a couple of times by putting something in his hands so he wouldn't hold on. He stood for a few seconds then realized what he was doing and slowly lowered himself down. He is such a funny, cute boy. He makes these faces and squints his eyes when he doesn't like something. If he wants our attention and wants us to clap he will ball up his fists and show us his muscles. Then when we clap, he claps and smiles. The girls call him the destroyer because he can't go near anything without finding a way to destroy it. My nickname for him is Easty Beasty, because he is naughty and does things cause he knows I'll get mad at him and then he laughs. He is starting to play with his toys a lot more on his own. He likes to throw balls and drive around cars and make car noises. We love his silly personality and the way he is such a boy.

Pumpkin Contest

Porter and a bunch of guys from work decided to do a giant pumpkin contest this year. Everyone put in a little money so there would be some incentive to actually grow a pumpkin. Porter probably won't think this is very funny but the girls and I joked about Porter and his pumpkin. He would usually go out to the garden once or twice a day to see how his pumpkin was doing and water and baby it . He planted it about a month later than the other guys so he had a lot of catching up to do. One day Rylie couldn't find her dad so she asked me 'Is dad out with his pumpkin again?' From then on we would make fun of Porter and his pumpkin. He was a good sport about it and just took the teasing. Anyway, the guys all got together for a pumpkin weigh in to see who the winner was. I couldn't believe the size of the pumpkins and how seriously some of them were taking it. Porter's friend Ryan got first place with a weigh in of 240 or 260, I can't remember. Porter came in at 4th with his pumpkin weighing 74 pounds. Even though I thought the pumpkin contest was silly (yes, Porter you know I thought it was), he could be doing worse things. So I think I'll support him in this and help him get a winner for next year.

"Mom, why are we hoarders?"

Rylie asked me this question one night as I was putting her to bed. She asked me if I was going to bed or staying up and I told her I was staying up to clean the house. She has a hard time sleeping unless she knows someone is awake watching the house. ( She has a lot of fear about someone breaking in our house, even though we live in the middle of nowhere.) She then asked me how long I was going to stay up and I told her quite a while because the house was messy. That was when she asked "Mom, why are we hoarders?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We sometimes watch that show on TLC about compulsive hoarders and I guess she thinks our house can get pretty messy. So maybe I have a pile of unopened junk mail and a pile of pictures the kids have drawn that I don't know what to do with. Maybe I also have dishes in the sink and unfolded piles of laundry and remnants of mealtimes all over the counter tops, and blankets and toys all over the family room, but I definitely didn't think I was a hoarder. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a very clingy baby and can rarely get anything done unless I am holding him. I know that I should just put him down and let him cry or try to preoccupy him, but I have tried all that before and he still comes over to me and hangs on my leg and cries. So, I just give into him and sit and play with him. I've tried loading the dishwasher with one hand while holding him and he just tries to grab everything. I guess I have let things go a little bit but now I'm worried about what my kids think. I clean my house at least once a day but it gets messy pretty quick. I try and I guess that is all that matters. I won't live with a dirty house but for now I have to live with a cluttered one. I took a picture of what my house looks like on a day to day basis and will let everyone else make their own opinion. Maybe she is right and I am just in denial or maybe every mom's house looks like this sometimes ( please, someone tell me I'm not the only one so I don't feel too bad).

Golfing

Porter has been doing a lot of golfing lately and the girls always want to do whatever he is doing. When Porter went to the driving range one day he of course had to take the whole family with him. Rylie and Brynlie used whatever clubs Porter wasn't using and tried their best at hitting the ball. I think the club was as tall as Brynlie but they actually didn't do too bad. They did get bored not far into the bucket of balls. So they found other ways to entertain themselves.

They started out with just throwing the golf balls around, then they started posing for pictures. Yeah, they kind of look like rugrats. Brynlie insists on dressing herself and I think Rylie did Brynlie's hair that day. They are still beautiful though.

Then they put the ball buckets on their heads and club covers on their feet like socks.

Then they got really silly and put the club covers on their hands and had a boxing match. After that they thought it would be more fun to get the clubs and have a sword fight. They did all this while Porter was trying to practice. Now they think they want to go with Porter on a real golf course. I can only imagine what that would turn out like. Good thing the driving range was empty that day.