::santa::

Just like every year, Santa came to Mantua!  (It's been 2 weeks ago yikes!)  We all still believe (so far)-despite Santa's beard malfunction-and the kids were way excited to tell him what they wanted.  The candy canes, hot chocolate, and doughnuts probably helped a little too.

Port went first...

A Ninendo 3DS, Mario toys, and Pokemon toys.

Then Chloe...

All she could think to tell him was new paints and some new play-doh.

(We asked her later if that's really all she wants.  We're having a hard time with this girl!  She's growing out of toys, but not quite old enough for iPhones and things like that-but don't think she hasn't asked for one!  She said she does want a 3ds too, but didn't ask Santa for one.  We still don't know why.  I think we've got her figured out now though.  I think/hope she'll have a fun Chirstmas morning :] )

Bubba..

He wasn't too scared.  He didn't talk too loud, but he told Santa he wanted a worker guy house (??) .

And Poor little Mae-Mae...

She was too scared to tell Santa anysing!!  But she wants some new b's (binkies) (I know, she'll be 2 in March, but she loves them!), and some new baby dolls (she looooves "beebees". :]

And all of us!!  We got our group shot this year!  

Thank goodness.

In other news...
We're getting way excited for Christmas, as usual.  I'm almost done with the shopping-even the extended family!  Matt and I have to "take inventory" of everything we have for the kids one of these days to make sure everything's even between the 4 of them.  He's off work from this Thursday until the week after (AFTER) new years!!  We're way excited to have him home for a while!  I love it!  Love that he saves all his vacation and floating holidays and sick days like that.  Makes it so fun!  The kids have been writing notes back and forth with our elf on the shelf every night.  He answers questions and draws them pictures.  He helped Chloe decide between an iPod touch and a 3ds for Christmas.  Lucky (for us) he told her the 3ds was a better choice :]...those new iPod touches are SO expensive-especially for a 9-year-old!!  But they'e way cute and she'd love it....ugh!.....not this year.  She's only 9!!  When I was 9, I played with Barbies and markers and coloring books!  Jeez!!!  Aaaannnyyyway...I'm WAY excited for Christmas!  Did I mention that already??  My dad will be here...for Christmas!  He's coming in on Christmas eve and leaving on the 26th, so a quick little visit, but he'll be here for the big day.  It makes me happy.  My brother and his wife are coming up, and I'll be making dinner, which I'm a little nervous about, but It'll be ok. I'm not making turkey, so that takes a little pressure off.  Only 8 more days...
:]

::thanksgiving::

This year we were with my side of the family.  It was really fun because my brother had his kids this year, so all the cousins got to play together all day, AND, my Grampa and my Aunt Karen drove in from Oklahoma and Indiana (respectively).  It was a long drive for them (especially Aunt Karen-she drove to OK, and picked up Grampa, and then on to Utah!!), but we're SO glad they did.  I can't even express how fun it was to have them there.  It was just neat.  I haven't seen my Grampa in a while, and it was so fun to have him there.  He talked to us about Oklahoma, the Air Force, turning 30 (turns out I'm not the only one who had a hard time with it), and it was just so fun to have him there...I might've said that already :]  Aunt Karen jumped in and helped us cook.  We came down early Thursday morning, and by then, she'd already been at it for a day and a half, but she did great!  We're so glad to have her in our family!

Here's Bubb at the kids' table.  Mom put some brown paper on them so they could draw pictures while they waited.  Isn't he cute??

Lucky little Bubb got a birthday present on Thanksgiving!  Grandma & Papa gave him a truck and trailer and some dinosaurs to ride on the trailer :]  Grampa & Aunt Karen gave him the cutest card with a little blow-up sword in it!!  He loved it!  Thanks you guys!

Here's the grown ups' table.  Mom always does such a pretty table.

We decided since we were all together, we oughtta take a big group photo.

Here's my Grampa with all the great-grands.

Liam (7) Tristan (5-almost 6) Mia (2-almost 3) Cooper (4) Porter (6 1/2) Chloe (9)

Grampa (82)

I Love this photo.

Aunt Karen with all the great-nieces and nephews.  Don't you love sweet Mia's face??

So it was a pretty special Thanksgiving for us.  It was really fun to have them here.  We didn't do any black friday shopping, and it was SO nice!!  I felt a little left out, but I didn't miss getting up super early, and I really didn't feel like I missed much.  I only wanted to go for myself to be perfectly honest, and that's not gonna get the Christmas shopping done, so Matt I decided it'd be better if I avoid black friday altogether :]

So we got our tree on Friday, and Grampa, Aunt Karen, and Mom & Kevin came up to have Thanksgiving leftovers and play games.  It was pretty fun.  We couldn't get Grampa to play Pictionary on the Wii, but I hope he still had fun just sitting down there with all of us.  We're so glad he came to hang with us for a while :]

::Bubb turned 4::

Bubb was SO excited to turn 4!!  He kept telling me how many days 'til his birthday.  He said "Mom I'm gonna be foooouuuur....."  And I'd tell him that no he couldn't turn 4.  He got a couple of cards in the mail and they said 4 on them, and he LOVED it!  He wouldn't let anybody else touch them, and was really worried that I would throw them away.  They were HIS cards because he was 4!!  Cute little Bubb.

We had our little family party for him on his birthday.  He wanted to go to Chick-fil-A (a little change of pace-usually it's McDonald's) because of their little playground with the big car in it.  So we did.  They all got some nuggets and played.  We might have snuck in a trip to Costco while we were down there too (sorry Bubb).

When we got home, we had cupcakes and let him open his presents.

The big kids made him some cards.  Aren't' they so sweet??

:]

Mae-Mae just sat in her seat and ate her cupcake :]

First was a fun Chuggington movie...

Then (ohh he's excited!!) the big present...

A big truck with a trailer!!!!!

Anyone who knows Bubb knows he's big time into trucks and trailers (and also tractors and 4 wheelers and pretty much anything boyish).  If he has any type of vehicle (well, not a car), he will hook a trailer up to it.  I don't' know why, that's just how it should be in Bubb's world.

Then, a couple of days later (Sunday), we had Matt's side of the family over for a little party for him.  They're always so good to come and celebrate with our kids for their birthdays.  They brought him the funnest stuff!  He was in heaven!!  He even slept with some of his new toys :]

He wanted a deer cake (again).  The store had such cute Chuck-the-Truck (which he also loves) cakes and tractor ones (both of which he didn't know about), and I so wanted to get him one of those, but I didn't dare.  I know this boy...He knows what he wants!  I didn't want to make him mad on his birthday (and he would've been if I hadn't gotten him the cake he said he wanted).  He wanted a deer cake, so that's what he got.

We sang to him, he blew out the candles, and we ate some deer cake.

I just love this boy so much.  He is definitely a challenge.  He's a little crazy, and can make my days long and difficult.  He's my stubborn, bossy, loud, determined, spirited child, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am so proud of him.  He knows what he wants and he's not afraid to tell you.  He will always know how he feels about something and will never waiver.  He makes life fun and interesting.  He is soft and sweet and likes to cuddle.  He calls me Mama Bird :]  He likes to sleep with his Mumma (blue and brown blankie).  He gets a little jealous of Ava, but he loves her lots.  He wants to be just like Port, and gets very sad when Port doesn't want to play with him.  He thinks the sun rises and sets in his dad.  He thinks every truck should have a trailer on it.  He misses his Papa Snowman like nobody's business.  His Uncle J is one of his very favorite people.  He wants to go deer huntin' so bad he can't even stand it, and doesn't understand the concept of being too little (or being too little for anything for that matter :] )  He likes to say things for shock value (and sometimes it works!!).  He loves school!  He can write his own name, and it's perfectly legible.  He colors beautifully!  His teacher writes notes on his papers about how nicely he colors.  He likes to draw.  He ALWAYS wants to play cars.  He wakes up super early in the morning.  He's busy all day long and hates to go to bed.  He likes country music-especially songs that have the word "truck" in it.

He's our little Bubb, and we love him (and his brother and sisters) more than anything in the whole world.  I'm so thankful for him-even on our worst day!  I'm so thankful for everything he teaches me about being a mom.  I'm so thankful to be his mom.

::the first snow::

We had our first snow on November 9th!!  Seems so early for snow, and we were SO excited to have it!  It was a friday, and Matt was home, so he and Bubb built a snowman.  It was so sweet, and Bubb loved it!!

Look at him helping Da-da roll up some snow...

:]

There it is, all finished.  We didn't have anything for a mouth.  So he's a silent snowman.

Then, when Port got home, he got way excited about it and decided he needed some arms and a mouth.  He found some rocks and used the sandbox rakes for the arms.  What a smart little Tater.

We're hoping this early snow will mean lots of snow for Christmas 

(( hopefully...cross your fingers :] ))

::veterans day::

The first grade classes at Port's school put on a special program for Veterans Day.  It's was so cute!  They sang some great patriotic songs, and did some pretty awesome actions.  

I got to go help in his classroom before they went on stage.  He has a pretty rowdy class :]  The kids are sweet though.  They were excited that I was there.  Especially the girls ;]  There are a few of them in his class that are sort of taken with my boy.  I can't blame them...so am I :]

Anyway...So they sang and did some actions.  One of my favorite parts of the evening was when Portie was doing the actions to a song, he had to throw his arms straight out in front on him...When he did it, he sort of knocked the girls (that was standing in front of him) headband off.  Once he realized he did it, he started laughing.  It was pretty funny.

My other favorite part of the evening was when they asked the veterans in attendance to come to the front and tell about their service.  There were a few in uniform and a few not.  They said their name, and a brief statement about their service and stood in a line.  Once we had all who wanted to come forward, the teacher in charge announced the veterans again and the auditorium erupted in applause and everyone stood in gratitude.  It made me teary eyed.  I couldn't hold back.  I tried, but I couldn't.  I felt like such a dork, but I couldn't help it.  We owe them so much.  I'm glad to see that most of us as citizens realize that too.

I just love Port's school!!  In the weeks leading up to the program he had been asking me if we had any family in the military.  I told him yes, both of my grandpas (Grampa R. was in the Air Force, and Grampa D. was in the Army) and I think his Papa Snowman.  He was so excited, and asked if they could come to his program!!  I told him I was sorry, but no because they are all too far away to come.  He understood, but wished they could.  He still thought it was so neat that we had family who served in the military.  His program was so fun and so sweet!  I love to go and watch the kids in anything they do!  I'm so glad we got to go see him.  Great job, Port!!  Love you, you silly little potato!!

::vote::

Bubb, Mae-Mae, and I voted today.  Hopefully it'll do some good.

:]

Now, the Mr. and I are glued to the TV watching to see who wins. 

 He's nervous. 

 I'm not.  

We'll see how it all turns out.

::halloweeny::

We had a lot of halloween this year!!

Here they all are...

The boys' costumes should be no surprise.  They just used the same ones from last year (since they wanted to still be Mario and Luigi). We decided right after Halloween last year that Ava would be a little ghost. We even pinned her costume on Pinterest a year ago!  I was so excited to make it for her-I had to wait a whole year!!  Chloe wanted to be a witch-she picked that not long after we picked Ave's costume.  We pinned some witchy eye make-up, and just went from there.  I made her a little witchy tutu.  She looked pretty cute.  It was the first year since she was a baby that she hasn't been some kind of princess/Barbie/fairy.  

So our lots of Halloween started off with a party/carnival at Bubb's preschool.  

Here's his class all dressed up.  His teacher, Miss Katey, dressed up like a clown.  There were 2 Luigis!!

She made a witch's brew...

And they played lots of fun carnival games...

It was the cutest little party.  She did a great job.  She does it all by herself.  She asked a few of us moms to help her out with the games, but she did all the preparation and stuff herself!  She's kind of awesome.  She's such a doll too!  I told Coop he's so lucky to have Miss Katey for his teacher.

That same night (the 30th) we had trunk-or-treat with our ward.  We had a pretty good turn out!

I wanted to decorate our trunk with spiderwebs and Bubb's spider he made at his preschool party (isn't is awesome??) but the store was all out of spiderwebs, so I just hung the spider up without a web.  One kid screamed when she saw it (really?).  

Then (whoops this is out of order)...On the 26th, we went to the school carnival.  It was at Chloe's school.  We go every year.  The kids love it.  I didn't take many pictures this year!

I did take one of them getting ready to go for it in the silly string room!  This was a new thing this year. Chloe and Port LOVED it!  Bubb...not so much.  Matt had to help him push down the nozzle.  Plus the smell in there was SUPER strong!

Ok, back on track.  On Halloween day, I (and Bubb and Ave) went down to Port's school to watch his Halloween parade.  The kids just walk around to Halloween music in their costumes.  Is it worth waiting 30 minutes with 2 rowdy, tired little kids to see your 6 year old walk past you for 3 seconds?  I don't know, but Port was happy I came :]

Which brings us to Halloween night...

Here's our ghost...

She was so cute!  She even would say "boo."  She didn't love her costume when she first tried it on, but she got used to it.  Her boots, she loved!  She still does.  She goes and gets them out of her room and brings them to me to put on her.  She LOVES shoes!

Mario!

He wouldn't let me draw a mustache on him.  Not sure why.  He thought people would think he was weird.

A Witch!!

A cute witch.  She was so excited to wear her costume.  She got to wear it to school, trunk-or-treat, and on Halloween night.  She even had some sparkly tulle on it!

Luigi...

Poor Luigi.  He's not happy in this picture.  He wanted some candy.  He just wanted to go get some candy.  He didn't understand why we had to take pictures when all that candy was out there just waiting for him.  He was a cute Luigi anyway.

::I'm still in my 20s::

Today, I'm in my 20s.  I just thought I'd get that down while I still can.

I'm not gonna lie.  I'm not too happy about it.  I'm kinda sad about turning 30.  I don't feel like I should be 30 yet.  

30...

THIRTY!! 

30.

Thirrrrrrty.

Sounds weird.

I don't like it.  Maybe one day I'll be ok with being in my 30s, but I'm sure it won't be tomorrow.

Also, it snowed in our little mountains today.  

See...

This has nothing to do with me still being in my 20s, I just thought I'd mention it.  Bubba saw it this morning when we were waiting for Port's bus.  He said we could "just drive the Denali up there and just go sledding."