Christmas 2009

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. You can check out a few more of our pictures on facebook if you are interested. We had a lot of fun!

Vance's birthday

Vance had a lot of fun celebrating his birthday. Thanks to everyone for wishing him a happy birthday. He was feeling loved.Here's a sign I made for him. I put monkeys on it since he wanted a monkey cake.

Here's the monkey cake I made. I found the idea on the internet. I'm not sure why Vance wanted a monkey cake, but he did. At least he didn't pick something more difficult.
Vance was so funny yesterday. He insisted that I sing happy birthday to him several times throughout the day and he'd pretend to blow out his candles, but when it came time to sing for real he hid his head. We did get him to blow out his candle.

Tanner wanted to help unwrap the gifts too.
This is a Leapfrog Clickstart computer from my parents. So cute and both boys have had lots of fun with it already. We have toys everywhere and Christmas isn't even here yet!

Weekend

Stephen's parents were up for the weekend so Vance was able to open his birthday gifts from them and we all opened our Christmas gifts from them as well. What fun!? Also this weekend one of my friends from Zillah got married and Stephen and I went to her wedding. Doesn't she look beautiful? Oh, I feel so huge and then I see pictures of myself and know that I am huge. I know I am pregnant, but does it have to show so much everywhere besides my stomach? Haha, oh well.
Oh, I also got my haircut.

Vance's b-day video

Here is a slideshow I put together for Vance's fourth birthday which is next Tuesday. We are busy, busy, busy with things going on around here so I figured I would post this now since it is finished and before I forget too. I chose a song that was popular around the time. It's called, "Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy. I also think it fits since Vance refers to himself as Dance.

Tanner at lunchtime

This is what happens when you decide to get up before 5:30 in the morning.

Child/Budget Friendly Christmas Decorations

Welcome to our home's decorations. Since my children are 4 and 2 I stick with child friendly decorations and since we don't have a surplus of money I don't spend a lot on decorations. We may not have the most extravagant looking house during Christmas time it is a lot of fun!

At our front door we have a little sign I made with my Cricut Machine (which is how I do a lot of my decorating). Also, the most fun thing here it the Origami Wreath my husband made. He is very talented, as you can see.
Our tree is looking a little bare currently because most of the decorations that go on it will be made by our children and I throughout the month. The star on top is an origami one done by my husband. We give each child an ornament each year and sometimes we get them as gifts, otherwise everything on our tree is handmade.
I made the Santa and Reindeer in the shadows with my Cricut Machine as well. Our nativity set is the Little People Nativity Set. It is great because my kids can play with it and I don't have to worry about any of the pieces breaking.
Our stockings were made by my mother-in-law. Aren't they awesome?

We also have snowflakes hanging in our window to make it feel wintry.
This is a Christmas Advent I made to do with my boys. You can find out more about it here. Here is another advent that my mother-in-law made for my boys this year. It has a present to unwrap each day until Christmas.
This wall is also looking a bit bare. This is where I will be hanging up art and craft projects throughout the month.

Life

You forget how confusing life can be until you are trying to explain things to your preschooler. The other day I was trying to explain to Vance the purpose of Christmas. I thought it'd be easiest to tell him that Christmastime is for celebrating Jesus' birthday. Vance got very indignant at this point and said, "No, it's my birthday!" Well, as a matter of fact his birthday is three days before Christmas so he has a point.
We've casually talked about how I have a baby growing in my tummy. It's become easier now that I am showing and a lot of times Vance brings it up himself. However, a lot of times he tells me that he has a baby in his belly too and I try to kindly tell him that just Mom has a baby in her belly. Well, this morning he brought up the fact that I have a baby in my belly and told me that he did NOT have a baby in his. This made me happy. Yes, we are getting somewhere. Then he informed me that Baby Jesus was in my belly. Yep, still laughing about that one whenever I think about it.
Cute things I just have to mention since I'm typing: This morning the boys crawled in bed with me and made me sing songs with them. So fun. Also, Tanner loves to have me sit next to him at the piano and play and sing songs from the Children's Songbook. Today Vance joined us and put his arms around me and Tanner as we sang "I Am a Child of God". So sweet, nearly brought tears to this pregnant woman's eyes.
We are super excited because my sister finally had her second little girl this evening. Congratulations to Holly, Sean, and Jillian! They are naming her Chloe. :) I told Tanner he had a new cousin and he nodded and said, "Yep." like he already knew that. When I told Vance he repeated her name and then said, "I love it." Ahh... then he informed me that Chloe was his baby. I told him that she was Holly's baby, but he still insisted that it was his. I'm thinking that her parents will disagree.

Gingerbread Fun

Vance has been bugging me since July (if not before) to do gingerbread stuff so I thought that would be a good way to kick off the Christmas Season this year. You can see more specifically what we're doing at my other blog .

The boys had fun decorating our house, but mostly they enjoyed sneaking the candy into their mouths.
They are proud of the finished product as you can see.

Tanner decorated several cookies all by himself, but he mainly wanted to lick the frosting off all of them.

Vance decorated many all by himself too. This one has white gumpdrops so it's hard to see, but it's my favorite. He gave the gingerbread boy two eyes and three buttons and of course some sprinkles!

Oh boy!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We enjoyed it at my parents house. Here's a picture of the boys anxiously awaiting some pie. Stephen was back to work today. Lame, but at least he didn't have to work yesterday!
On Wednesday I finally had my ultrasound (about time too). We found out that we are having our third boy! Yay! We're excited. Of course, we'd be excited either way. I'm just glad I finally have it confirmed. Yes, we thought we would have another little guy. We're going to name him Porter. I assume if you are reading this blog you probably already know my that Porter is my maiden name. Anyway, now we'll have to work up a middle name. Also, noteworthy is that I am measuring way ahead of my regular due date. It'll be up to my doctor to decide whether or not to change it so I'll let you know if it changes when I see him next month. My due date now is March 25. I was measuring at a due date of the 14th. I think my oven just cooks baby's fast...
Anyway, we have much to be thankful for! Now it is time to gear up for Christmas.
Oh, here's our complete Thanksgiving Tree list (mostly put together by Vance) In no particular order (because I don't remember the order)

Trains

Turkeys

Grandparents

Jackets

Mom

Sunbeam Teacher

Legos

Brothers

Dogs

Dinner

Mario Kart

Computers

Toys

Horton the Elephant

Movies

Grandma's House

Alphabet

Puzzles

Music

Balloons

Mom, Dad, Tanner, Vance

Fish

Wall-E

Little Einstein

Outside

Fun

Last night was the closing night of my sister's high school play of "A Christmas Carol". She played The Ghost of Christmas Past (check her out in this costume my mom made). She had some other parts as well. She did a great job and Stephen and I enjoyed watching it. I hope they do a play that Vance would enjoy sometime before she graduates so he can see her in one. Since we were at my parents using their free babysitting services we decided to see New Moon early that day. It was a very good day for everyone. Stephen and I got to go out alone and the boys got to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

Stickers anyone?

Vance's new favorite thing

Vance is very into somersaulting lately so I did a video of him doing it last night to share with you all. Here is also a continuation of the things we have put on our Thankful Tree:

Grandma's House

Mario Kart

Brothers

Legos

Dogs

Fish

Toys

Alphabet

I'm pretty sure the new Pixar movie "Up" is going to make it's appearance some way or another. Actually I think that's why dogs made the list. It is the boy's favorite movie of the week. Tanner refers to the old man as Grandpa.

Baby Update

Everytime I turn around someone is asking me if I know the gender of our baby or when we're going to find out. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and so I thought I'd give an update for those interested. I took the boys with me to my appointment and Vance thought I had an airplane in my tummy when we listened to the baby's heartbeat. That'd be quite an accomplishment.
Anyway, this entire pregnancy I've been consistently measuring about a week ahead of what I actually am. I had an ultrasound at 13 weeks and based on those measurements I'd be due March 16 instead of March 25. The doctor told me that we'd wait for my second ultrasound to see what it said and decide if he was going to change my due date or not. I'm measured around 22 weeks as of yesterday so he wants me to go back and see him in two weeks, at which time he should order an ultrasound for me. So to answer the questions I don't know the gender of this baby yet and I don't know when we will find out except that it'll be in more than two weeks.
In the meantime I will put up a poll for you to guess if we're having our third boy or our first girl. Stephen and I have our suspicions, but I'm not going to share them with you. HA!

Rose's Birthday

Today is my little sister, Rose's 17th birthday. We went up last night to celebrate. Vance loves the cake and candles, but he really hates the "Happy Birthday" song. As you can clearly see, I didn't think our singing was that bad.

Countdowns

This was our countdown to Halloween. I made it all with my Cricut Machine. Sorry, it's not a better picture, but I think you get the idea. We had all 31 days represented and each day we'd put a new "Halloweenish" thing up. The boys enjoyed looking at it, in fact Tanner was pretty sad when I took it down.

Last year we did a Turkey Countdown for Thanksgiving. It was fun, but I decided to go with something a little different. We are still writing down things we are grateful for, but we're using this cute Thanks Tree. She also has a Giving Tree where you write down things service you've done. However, we're just sticking with the first tree as we will be doing something with service later on in the month. It took some coaxing to get Vance to think of something he was grateful for the first day, but after that he has been the one to bring up that we need to put a leaf up and had something in mind to write down. Anyway, here are the first few days... Hopefully we can get Tanner to tell us a thing or two as well.

1. Balloons (I think we can thank my mom for this one since she brought the boys black balloons on Halloween)

2. Grandparents- I couldn't put just grandpa's or grandma's, it had to be both.

3. Family- Technically he made sure I wrote down Mom, Dad, Vance, and Tanner

4. Sunbeam Teacher- I thought that was pretty sweet. I am thankful he has a good Sunbeam teacher too.

5. Horton the Elephant- Very important. Not only did he make me write it down on a leaf he made me draw a picture of an elephant on another piece of paper. Folks, I can't draw. I'm not even one of those people who says they can't draw, but are decent at it. Stick people are a stretch for me.

My kids are enjoying countdowns so much. What are we going to countdown to after Christmas is over?

Because it makes me happy...

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

This may be the last year I can get away with avoiding Trick-or-Treating. However, if I think I can get away with it next year I will sure try. :)

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I wish I would write down all the funny things my kids say because they come up with some entertaining stuff sometimes and I usually don't even remember by the end of the day. I thought I'd write down some things before I forget.

Vance's speech is improving all the time (yay!) Yesterday he went in to use the bathroom and had a little shadow (named Tanner). Vance said, "No, Tanner! You don't need to go potty, you wear a diaper!"

Today I had my shirt pulled up a little because my clothing was irritating my pregnant belly. Tanner came over and laughed at my belly button and then he proceeded to pull my shirt back down and said, "Put that away." Sorry, my stomach is so disgusting to you Tanner.

Oh, the things your kids say. Too much to try and remember for one post. I will note that there were a few days where Vance decided I was Cinderella and would call me that instead of Mom. I am their slave and she was a slave to her stepsisters so why not? Also, every time Tanner gets up from a nap or up for the morning he announces, "I'm awake!" Of course, I'm suppose to be equally as excited even if it is 5 am and he shouldn't be awake.

Primary Program

Vance participated in his first primary program ever this morning. He wasn't overly reverent, but he blended right in as far as that goes. He got up and did his part, however he wouldn't get close enough to the microphone to hear anything he said. Oh well. He's got pleny of more primary programs to go through before he is done. I took a picture of him all ready for church this morning and then Tanner actually wanted his picture taken too so here's pictures of both of them. They both look much cuter in their buttoned up shirts and ties, but I know how much Vance plays with his tie and I didn't want him doing that in front of the entire ward so I opted for the polos shirts this morning. Don't my kids look so grown up?

Pumpkin Time

We decorated pumpkins today. I didn't want the boys to get their clothes all dirty, but as it turned out there was no danger of that happening. Tanner wouldn't have anything to do with the pumpkins once I cut the tops off them and he looked inside. Vance was brave enough to put his hand in, but only just. He made a face everytime and then wanted to wash his hand in between.
He was very proud of the seeds he pulled out of the pumpkin (about three of them).

We carved one and drew on the other two. Vance wanted me to draw a face on his and he told me just what to do. Two triangles for eyes, an triangle for the nose, and then he made a face for the mouth that looked something like this pumpkin's.

Tanner definitely enjoyed drawing on his pumpkin.

Our pumpkins this year came from my parents garden. Woo-hoo for free pumpkins. :)

Interrogation

We were going about our business this morning and someone rang the doorbell. Not a usual occurance at 9:30 in the morning. I answered it to find two cops at my doorstep. They began by telling me that a neighbor had received some threats and was I home around such and such a time late yesterday afternoon and had I witnessed anything. I was and I didn't. I figured that would be that, but things took a weirder twist than that. They asked me if I was so and so. I told them I wasn't. They asked me if I knew so and so, I don't. Then they ask me for some form of identification (things were turning a little weird). I showed them my drivers license. It continued with them asking me questions like how long had I lived there and was it just me and my son that lived here (Vance was in the kitchen playing with play doh so they'd only seen Tanner). Then they asked me for another form of id. Well, I don't have another picture id except my old BYU-Idaho student card so I showed that to them and then they got the last four digits of my social. At this point I'm wondering if I should invite them in to look at all my scrapbooks and journals and what not.

Finally they explain to me that I match the description of this gal who has a warrant out for her arrest. Sorry, guys. I've never had so much as a traffic violation let alone something more serious with the law. They asked me several more times if I knew this gal. Okay, you got me, I'm a bad neighbor. I've lived here for over 8 months and I can't tell you the names of anyone that lives near me. The last thing they asked about is if anyone on the other side of the duplex might match a similar description. I wanted to laugh a loud about that since they are African-American.

Anyway, I had a nice chuckle to myself after they left. It's not everyday you are interrogated by the police because you match the description of a criminal.

Adventures at Grandma's

I took the boys up to my parents house today. They were getting their garden and yard ready for winter so the boys "helped".Tanner really wanted to play in this water!

Vance wanted to use the shovel, but he needed a little assistance from Grandpa.
We saw lots of worms. Vance liked looking at them, but really didn't want to touch them. Grandma convinced him to hold one for a brief moment with her glove on. When Tanner saw a worm he immediately bent down and touched it, but he didn't want anything to do with holding one either.

Vance helped dig up and collect potatoes and put them in a box.

Cold and Warm Days

We've had some nice days and some rainy days this week.

Here are some things we've done on our nice days: Vance flew his airplane.
The boys raced. Vance happened to jump up and throw his airplane as I was taking this picture.

Here are some things we did on the rainy days:

Puzzles
Lots and lots of play-doh. Tanner was pretending that his blob of play-doh was a baby.

Some pictures

Here are some pictures I've taken recently.We are trying to play outside as much as we can before it gets too cold, because the boys have a wimpy mom who won't go out to play when it is real cold. The boys pulled up the chairs and wanted to watch me run around while they watched. Uh, no thanks... ask your Dad. He used to do track and he isn't pregnant.

The boys decided to race, but it wasn't just any race. They were pretending to play Mario Kart.

Tanner stole his Dad's seat and book to enjoy a snack yesterday afternoon.

As promised, here's a picture of Tanner and his I Spy Quilt from Grandma Jeppson. How cute is it!