Lets get to Christmas as quick as we can

Okay people, I really want to get caught up on here, so, this is going to be fast. Besides, October through November were pretty quiet anyways.

We made carpet angels one day.

We went out for half priced sushi for Matt's birthday, and it was absolutely delicious, especially the FRIED cheesecake and bananas. Anyone in Ogden interested, let me know and I will send you the info. Totally worth it.

We did more for Halloween stuff this year than any year previously. Maybe it was because I totally rocked it this year and made Beckett the best costume EVER, and I had to show it off.

I think he likes it

One of the many festivities was a fair with Cousin Ally. Beckett had to have some pizza before he could get over the scary masks, but then he had a great time.

Belle on the other hand, was miserable the whole time.

And just because I am super prideful about this, one more picture of the awesome Thomas

Another thing we went to was the YM/YW Halloween carnival, which Matt helped with since he is now in young mens. It was a lot of fun. We also went to the Treehouse Museum for their Fairy Tale party. This time we went with our friend Krista and Aspen. This might have been our favorite thing we did that month.

They got goodie bags. How nice is that?! - Sorry Livia, I didn't get a picture with Aspen

Then, of course, there were the school parties. I did Anabelle's hair so pretty for hers. She let me use my 3 barrel crimperish iron. It was a little nerve wracking, but we made it through and she looked so beautiful.

Beckett's Halloween parade was fun and brought back lots of memories of when I was in Elementary. All the kids were super excited. I felt really cool when a lot of the older kids at Beckett's school commented on his costume. I don't know if I will ever be able to top it. Okay, I'll stop bragging now.

Halloween night we spent at my brother's, in Kaysville, which is becoming a tradition. Honestly, it is mostly because I don't want to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood. Plus my brother's neighborhood gives out good stuff, like full size pixie sticks, which should not be given to toddlers I might add.

Guess what this is a picture of...

Nope. Those are bats. Beckett watched a Wild Krats episode where they talked about bats. He then made a bat of his own. He clipped a little sheet of paper with a bag clip and then began flapping it. His invention did sound like a bat flying and kind of looked like one flapping its wings. Anabelle had to join in as well, only she used multiple sheets in a sandwich bag. It didn't sound quite the same as Beckett's.

Beckett had a puke day during November. It was awesome, especially when he puked all over in the car, right after we had all went out to eat dinner. Not cool. I did feel really sorry for him while he was sick. He kept saying, "I don't want to throw up any more." in a sad and frightened voice. Poor kid. At least it was for only 24 hours.

Thanksgiving was spent with Matt's brother, Nate. We had a great time and ate lots of super good food. We played lots of games, shopped Target on Black Friday, and saw the Black Canyon near Nate's house. Matt had been to the canyon before, but the rest of us hadn't. It was really cool. It is a canyon made of black rock that is almost straight down, and super deep. I would never go hiking around the edge of that place. It was uniquely beautiful, but I think it would be much more pretty in the summer or spring. If you are ever in Montrose, you should take a detour and see the Black Canyon.

Well, those two months are down now. Just December and Christmas to go.

A Birthday and the cabin

June was a busy month too. We went to my parent's cabin with just my parent's. We had so much fun. We got in the hot tub, except for Beckett. Last time he got in, he lost his balance and he went underwater and hasn't gotten in for at least a year. But he was happy to go watch Green Eggs and Ham and play with the trains that are kept at the cabin, while we relaxed in the hot tub. Belle loved it. She loved the bubbles that kept coming up. Plus I think she thought it was very fun to take a bath with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa all at the same time.

We went to the cabin the second weekend in June, which was when we were still getting lots of rain and it snowed up at the cabin while we were there. We were all content to stay inside where it was nice and warm and play games and do puzzles (one of my dad's and my favorite things to do). But Beckett really wanted to go outside and go fishing. I had been talking up fishing with him for a few days before we went up and he was really excited to go. Finally it stopped blowing freezing air and bundled Beckett up as best we could. Here he is all ready to go catch a fish.

Well, when they got out the lake, Matt said to Beckett, "We're going to go catch a monster fish." For those of us seasoned fisher people, we know that that means we're going to catch a huge fish. I don't think that is what came to Beckett's mind though. Let me finish the story and you will see why. My dad got Beckett all set up with his pole, red and white bobber, worm on the hook, the works. Beckett was having a great time holding his pole. Not long after he was handed his pole, Matt cast his fly pole out into the water and caught a fish almost instantly. Matt reeled it in and as my dad was scooping up the flopping fish into the net, Beckett through down his pole and said, "No fish!" and turned and ran for the cabin without slowing down or stopping until he came in the door. When he got inside, he said to me and my mom, "Monster fish." We had no idea what he was talking about until Matt told us what he said. We all had a good laugh.

I am going to toot my own horn here for a little bit. I caught a nice fish of my own. It was a tiger trout and weighed about 5lbs. Not bad. Normally my parent's have a catch and release policy with their ponds, but the fish was bleeding when we got it out, so we had to keep it. It tasted so good.

We also had a few birthdays in the month of June. One of the children's friends had her second birthday party the first weekend of the month. The kids had so much fun with her presents. Here they all are in the wadding pool that she got. We had to tell them to pretend to have water in there because they kept asking to have water put in the pool.

I show you this simple because it totally influenced Beckett's birthday presents. He loved that pool so much that I got him one of his own. He loved it. He has had so much fun with it. Unfortunately I am a lame mom and haven't gotten any pictures of him playing in the pool. But it was easily his favorite present.

He loved all the rest of his presents that he got too. He got some yard games from my parents, a Crockett set and a horseshoes game.

They loved playing with them. My parent's also gave Beckett a computer game that he can hook up to the TV. The mouse makes him frustrated sometimes, but other than that, he loves to play it.

Here he is opening some more presents. He had to wait a long time to open his presents. He has been so excited to open presents that for the last three months he has been trying to help everyone else open their presents, even without their permission.

Here is his cake. I made it. In case you can't tell what it is, it is a train. The engine is supposed to be Thomas. I made the shapes of the engine and cars, but my sister decorated it. She did such a good job. I am not that creative or good at doing it. She is amazing though and has creativity come out of her ear, so I was more than happy to turn the decorating job over to her.

It was a great party. He had such a great time. He loved his Thomas cake. Beckett had been asking for a Thomas Birthday party for like 5 months. We had a Thomas balloon and he wore his Thomas shirt. It was awesome.

One other thing that happened during June was that we came to a firm decision on moving to Omaha. I guess I should say I came to a firm decision on moving to Omaha. I have been excited about doing it, but I have gone back and forth about it, until one day I just made the decision that we were going to do it. Since then I have just felt good about it. I guess Heavenly Father just wanted me to make a decision and then go forward with it. If it isn't right, he will let me know. So far, we haven't gotten any kind of a no, so we are moving to Omaha. Scared or not, it is happening as soon as Matt gets a job and we sell our home. Stay tuned for the update on July.

"Up to?" What do you mean "Up to?"

Since I am way behind on updating on here, I am going to do a month at a time. Starting with May. May was similar to April, filled with silly moments. One day in church, during the sacrament, Beckett was asking to get his belly scratched (his favorite quiet church activity). He pulled up his shirt and looked at his belly button and then declared, not too quietly, "Eww, gross. That's gross!" for all the ward to hear. I had a hard time holding in the laugh that was dying to come out. Not one of my most spiritual sacrement experiences.

Another time, the kids wanted to watch a movie upstairs. I was all for it, since they play up there for about an hour or so and I can get a lot done. As I was starting to go down the stairs, I noticed a black permanent marker sitting out from a previous day of repacking boxes and labeling them. A little voice inside said, "You better take that with you. They will get into it." I mocked the voice and said back, "Naw, they don't even know what it is or how to use it," and went on my merry way, down the stairs. Later, Belle came down and it was time for her nap, so I put her down and felt kind of sleepy myself. Matt had called and told me that he was going to be home soon, so I decided to lay down and catch some Z's. Matt came home and went to check on Beckett watching his movie, then came down and asked me if I had been upstairs since I put on the movie for the kids. I said no and then he said, "Well, you better not go up until after your nap." I asked him if they had made a mess and he didn't really answer me. I decided to take his advice and take my nap first.

After I woke up, I went upstairs. As I am sure you have all guessed, someone (my bets are on Anabelle) had drawn all over the island thing in the middle of the room. It was quite the mural. I wanted to take a picture of it, to post on here, but I took too long to do it because I didn't want you all to see how messy that room is, and then Matt surprised me by painting over it one night while I was at Relief Society. I really appreciated him doing that (and thanks for Kevin for helping him), but a little part of me is sad I didn't get that picture before it was painted over. Oh well, I'm sure Belle will do something similar again. She has already drawn on the walls with crayon in a few places, so I am sure I will get a picture of her art skills another time.

Belle actually let me do her hair in two pigtails in May, and she kept it in for more than an hour, but not much longer. She looked pretty stinkin cute, too. Unfortunately that was it. She does let me put in barrets now, but she fights pony/pigtails when ever I try to put them in. At least she has cute curls in the back, so she doesn't look like a boy without cute things in her hair.

Another day, Beckett and I were playing with his ball and I felt silly and stuck the ball in his pants. He thought it was hilarious! He laughed and laughed. Of course I had to take pictures.

Something fun that we did was go to the "Day out with Thomas" event at the Heber Creeper. This was our second time and we had so much fun. My brother and his girlfriend took us. Beckett loved playing with the train sets they had setup to temp parents to buy them for their children.

We rode the train for about 25min. Beckett freaked out once we were on the train. He started crying and saying something about the stroller being left behind. After we started moving, he started to calm down. This picture was soon after we got on the train.

Here he is after we were going for a while. (This was one of the photos that didn't get restored completely, but at least their faces made it and they are cute)

We also saw Sir Topham Hat, but that picture didn't get restored, unfortunately. The kids got tattoos on their arms and Belle got one on her face. They loved them and were so proud of them. (bytheway, Mary Kay's eye makeup remover gets that off like a dream) They had miniture golf and the kids loved it. I think Matt and I will have to take them again sometime. Another first for the children was eating cotton candy. I had avoided that sweet as long as I could, but caved this time. They loved it except Beckett hated getting sticky. Then we played with the bubbles and each kid got a free toy. That is what Beckett is preoccupied with in the pictures. It was one of those cameras that have pictures inside when you look through the eye hole, and then they change when you click the button. He loved it. Belle didn't quite get how they worked but was happy as can be pretending to take pictures. I love my kids.

Come back later this week to hear about June and Beckett's birthday.

Beckett's 3rd Birthday!!

Long time coming, but here it is. We started out Beckett's birthday with some real fun. My sister had recently purchased a slip-n-slide and was looking for an excuse to bust it out, so she invited us and my brother's kids over to break it in. The cousins had a great time together. The older ones were kind enough to take Beckett and Belle on the slip-n-slide for me. Here are some pictures and video of said good time:

Thank you to Ally and Brooke for generously giving of their splash time to help my kids get acquainted with the slip-n-slide.






















After the splashing good time, and some much needed naps. We went home to have pizza and cake. Here is what the cake looked like prior to the festivities:




























Isn't it beautiful! I did not make this, as I am sure you could all tell. When Beckett first laid his eyes on it, he of course wanted to drive Thomas on the train tracks in the frosting. But I had to stop him because we hadn't blown out the candles yet. (I am so glad I thought to take pictures before he saw it) It was a major temptation to resist, but as soon as we lite up those candles, he was fine waiting. He did pretty good with his first try at blowing out the candles and blew one of them out right away. I thought to myself, "Wow, this kid is good. The other two will be easy." I was so wrong.





Sorry it was sideways and that it got jiggly there at the end. I couldn't keep myself from laughing. It was so funny. Eventually Matt and I were able to stop laughing and help him blow out that last one.

Then came the cutting of the cake. Beckett was pretty anxious to get Thomas moving on those delicious tracks, so it was a little difficult to cut it up. Eventually, Matt just cut to the side of the tracks so that Beckett could still play with Thomas. If any of you have watched the Thomas movies, you know that Thomas and the other engines at some point get stuck in the mud or fall down a hole or some sort of mishap like that. I guess Beckett saw his cake as the perfect place to re-enacting those accidents:




Poor Thomas had no idea what was coming.

















After the cake eating (or frosting eating in Belle's case), the kids were promptly put in the tub.




























Mr. Ledger, we have found your replacement for The Joker.


Once the kids were all shiny and clean, we opened presents. Beckett loved it. He has so often been told, "No, you can't open those. They aren't your presents." in the last 6 months that he reveled in the joy of selfishly ripping the wrapping paper. Baby Belle was the one this time to get the reprimand.




















He got some much needed summer shirts and pajamas, some new sandals with Diego on them, and his first baseball and bat.
















Here is the trying on of said sandals and pajama shirt.



Beckett slept peacefully that night in his new Lightning McQueen PJs and so did I. I don't have to worry about buying him any more presents for another 6 months. I think I really like having his birthday half way to Christmas.

Woo Wooo!!

No, I am not cat-calling a hottie walking past. That is the sound my son makes anytime he sees anything that as to do with trains, not just trains themselves. He loves trains. We have a picture of a train on the underpass at our exit from the freeway. One time we weren't stopped by the light and so we kept on driving and he got so mad at me. He didn't get a good look at his beloved train. If I watch one of my movies and it happens to have a train in it (such as While You Were Sleeping), he will want to watch it over and over again. I say again, he loves trains.

It all began with Thomas the train. I put it on when we moved into our house so I could unpack boxes without him under foot. It didn't take long for him to get into it. He already loved anything with wheels. So the obsession began. My Aunt Karen, bought him his first train in April which only made the obsession worse. In May, my sister-in-law, Kim, and her son Brayden, took us to go see Thomas at the Heber Creeper. He didn't want to ride the train, he wanted to go see Thomas and watch his wheels go around. After we did ride the train, we went inside a tent at the station that they had set up with several trains sets. Beckett had died and gone to heaven. It was tough to get him to share the multiple trains he had gathered. (I just have to say that that was one of the smartest marketing schemes I have ever seen. When you are finally able to drag your child out of that tent, kicking and screaming, you then have to pass the tent where you can purchase those exact train sets. Evil people!) It was a lot of fun (thanks Kim and Brayden), even if it was rough getting out of there without buying the whole gift shop.

The obsession is still strong, 6 months later. When I go to visit my parent's, I typically get Beckett out first and let him run around while I get the baby out of the car before we go inside. I noticed that he kept saying "train, train" while I was getting Belle out. I didn't think much of it. He says train a lot. I just thought he wanted his train to play with or something like that. Well, one time I noticed where he was saying it. My parent's have big 50 gallon water barrels outside by their garbage cans. Those barrels are on two 2x4's. It looked like a train track. I couldn't believe it. That was why he kept saying train. Smart as a whip!

More evidence of his obsession, the other day, Matt left his belt out on the couch. Beckett than picked it up and placed it on the floor between his Winnie the Pooh push train and his dump truck. The belt was now a train track. This kid has a one track mind I tell you.

He also got new sippy cups with Thomas on them this last week. I have never seen him drink more than since he got those cups.

I just have to say I love my son! He brings so much happiness into my life, even if it means that I have to buy a Thomas balloon at the grocery store because he has eyes like a hawk and can spot Thomas anywhere, no matter how small Thomas is. These are the things that make him Beckett. I kind of, secretly wish I had something that I loved that much.