Thanksgiving!!

We started a new tradition this year. It's an "I am Thankful for" jar. We set it on the counter with little pieces of paper and all month long whenever you were thankful for something you wrote it down and put it in the jar. At dinner on Thanksgiving we read all the papers. It was so much fun.

These are two of Kenyon's, Gumballs and a DS. At least he was giving thanks for them!

This was our little gift that we gave to our friends for Thanksgiving. It is attached to a bag of microwave popcorn. "Corny", but it was fun!

I must say that I redeemed myself with the Turkey this year. Last year was a disaster because the Turkey hadn't thawed out all the way, so the whole middle of the turkey wasn't cooked. So this year I made sure to thaw it out good and it turned out amazing!

I finally got to use my gravy boat that I got for Christmas last year. Had to wait a whole year to use it.

I decided to use my China for dinner this year. We have never used all of it, so after 10 years I thought it might be time to start using it. I only have 5 place settings, and we had 3 friends come over, so it was perfect.

The kids table. Sorry no china for them...

Delicious Costco Pumpkin pie! Thanksgiving was amazing. I cooked all day, everyone got a nap, and Turkey sandwiches for days!

This Thanksgiving was great. I am so thankful to be blessed with such an amazing family. I have the best husband who I love to pieces and that works so hard to support us and give us all that we have. I have the best kids and even though I want to pull my hair out sometimes, they are truly gifts that I am so thankful to have. I couldn't ask for a better life.

Happy 4th of July!!!

We had a really fun 4th this year. We waited until today to buy any fireworks for the kids and it was the best idea every! They had to work real hard all week and all morning today to get money to buy them. Definitely doing this next year again!

So we started the day cleaning and getting all our fun food ready for a BBQ we were going to. I made these cute cupcakes for all the kids, there were 11 so it was really smart to make these because they all loved them! I also made a yummy jello poke cake and forgot to take a picture, but it was delicious.

After the BBQ we went home and had dinner and waited for it to get dark so we could do our fireworks. Our neighbor usually does a ton, but not this year (bummer), so we just did the few that we bought and I felt like it was plenty. Kamden was freaked out and hid behind the bench almost the whole time. But it was still fun and really cold, so I'm glad we weren't out there long.


It looks like Kamden is sleeping, but he's not. He was behind the bench and Akoni lit a firework that scared him and he hit his head on the bench and had been crying, so I think he is pouting in this picture. And Kenyon took the picture, so that's why my head is cut off.

These were the fireworks that scared Kamden. We didn't know what they did and Akoni lit 4 of them together and they make a really loud pop and spark, so he lit one at a time after that!

Our supply of fireworks. It was a fun cold night, but we are thankful for the freedoms that we have and to be able to live in such an awesome country.

Mother's Day

I had such the best Mother's Day!! It's funny to me how on the one day that is there to celebrate Mothers all I want to do is NOTHING that has to do with being a Mother!! Well I take that back, I still loved on my kids and husband, but they did all the cooking and cleaning, it was Awesome! I even got to take a nap after church. What a life, it was a great day. The kids made me jewelry which I will cherish forever, cute cards and I got a new phone! None of the buttons were working on mine which was getting really frustrating, so Akoni took me to the store on Saturday and I got to pick out a new phone! I have been putting it off forever, I love my old phone. It's been thru a lot, even the toilet and the thing has held on! Now I have a new gadget to play with and it's kind of fun.

I hope all of you Mother's had an awesome day!!

Here are the kids in their Easter outfits, but I had them wear them for Mother's day. Don't they look nice....

and my real kids....

Easter

Easter this year was super fun. My favorite part is dying the eggs. I usually buy each kid an 18 pack of eggs, but I somehow did not think ahead and they each got only 10 eggs. Well Kamden got 5, but that was enough for him! I backed off this year and just let the kids do it all by themselves and they did a fabulous job!

Kamden with his eggs that he dyed all by himself. I only had to help him get them out of the dye because his little plastic tool kept bending and he couldn't get the egg out.

Adriann getting creative with the colors.

Kenyon all finished. This is the only serious picture I could get out of him.

Easter morning the kids woke up and found their baskets. Adriann was so excited to get Tangled!! We had a blast watching it after church.

Kamden got a frog toy for the bath.

Kenyon got a new Skating game for the PS3. See what I mean about him not being serious for pictures? Oh well.

Overall it was a very fun Easter. The egg hunt went quick in the morning and then lots of candy was eaten all day!! I totally forgot to get a picture of them all dressed up nice for church. With our church at 9am, we were totally rushed because of the egg hunt and baskets. So next sunday I'll get a picture of them all looking nice!

Valentines Day Stuff

So I thought that I would be creative and make cookies for the kids to hand out at school instead of candy. Honestly I didn't want to go to the store and buy anything, but it took me 2 days to make these and ice them. I realized after I made 50 sugar cookies (2 kids=lots of cookies) that I couldn't just ice them normally or the icing would stick to the plastic bags they were going in. So I found an icing that hardens, but I had to let them sit over night so that the icing was totally dry. Then I had to wake up extra early so I could put them all in bags. So not fun and I think next year I will spend the few dollars that it costs and just get candy. That's what the dollar store is for right? Oh, and the kids wanted to make their own valentines. That started out as a great idea, but turned into me quickly writing out all of Kenyon's because he got tired of writing his. Next year, store bought valentines also!

This year has just been so busy and being pregnant and tired and all of that I told Akoni that we were not doing Valentines Day. I just didn't feel like we needed all the extra stress of the day to show each other how much we love each other. I will add that Akoni has been doing A LOT of dishes lately, so I know that he loves me! He knows exactly how to get to my heart. We also thought that it would be more fun to give the kids each $5 and one box of candy. They get enough junk at school and they have both been saving their money to buy things, so we gave them the money and took them to the mall.

Kenyon has been saving for a new Lego PS3 game and Adriann bought some Real Earings since she could finally change her earrings on Valentines Day! They were both sooooo excited!! Way better than just getting a bunch of candy!

Well Akoni did go against what I said and I got some beautiful roses! And I did get him some Tennis Balls, he and some friends have started playing so I figured they would definitely get used. Then we had a good dinner as a family and I made this yummy trifle. We had some friends over to share it with us and that was a perfect ending to our Valentines Day!!

Adriann's 8th Birthday

Adriann's 8th Birthday was last week and I came down with the flu the night before! It was awful! I literally layed in my bed the entire day. Akoni was awesome and took control and made it such a great day for her. She got to open up a few gifts in the morning and then spent the rest of the day with Dad and Kenyon. They went to the gym, lunch and the mall. She got to go and get her ears pierced FINALLY! She has been counting down the days till she turned 8 so she could get it done. Apparently she didn't even flinch. I was so sad that I couldn't go, but how fun it was for her to do it with her dad. He probably handled it better than I would have. She picked out some flower earings that has different colored diamonds all over. She is so funny too because she is constantly wanting to wash them so that they don't get infected! That is why we waited till she was 8, she is actually concered and is taking care of her ears! She is also wanting to wear pony tails now so that everyone can see her ears, she's so funny!

Since she was gone the whole day our friend Monica made her birthday cake! What a lifesaver and good friend. I did come out of the bedroom to help sing and watch her blow out her candles. Afterwards she told me she had the best day ever, so I'm glad that I didn't ruin anything for her by being so sick.

Her big gift was a new bike that she desperately needed! She is on it everyday. Even if she is just riding it around in circles in the garage, she loves it! It has pegs on the back and I made the mistake of putting Kamden on them, so now all he wants to do is stand on them, with me right next to him of course!

Happy New Years!!

Our New Years was full of eating and sleeping. We had our friends the Barnes come over and we were all so determined to stay up till midnight. One kid went to bed at 8, the next at 9, then 10, Akoni at 11, and Sam and the two girls at 11:15ish! Monica and I actually stayed up to watch the ball drop on TV, but then fell asleep and we both woke up at 12:45 so she packed up her family and they went home. Luckily they live up the street so it wasn't far. But it was a fun night and I know the kids had a blast.

These pictures are taken before all the fun, but they were already having fun!

Santa Came!! The calm before the storm......

Santa made a mess at our house this year!! See his ashy boot prints from the fireplace?

The kids wanted Pillow Pets and how lucky that Santa knew! They also got their new pajamas and book that he leaves for them every year.

The stockings are all ready!

More Christmas Eve

After we had Christmas Eve Dinner we opened our gifts from Grandparents and cousins.

Adriann wanted an American Girl doll and was so excited to get Lanie!! Great pick from Grandma and Grandpa Ekman! Auntie Rachel got her a gift card for the American Girl store so she could pick out an outfit for her.

Kenyon got a Star Wars Laptop and both boys have so much fun on it!

Kamden got a Cars garage. He loves cars!

Cousin Paige knew exactly what to get Adriann. She loves to draw.

This is one of Kamden's favorite toys this year. It's a car with buttons on the top that make it move and he follows it all around the house.

Can't go wrong with a Nerf gun!

I think this is the only picture of me the entire Christmas! This book is awesome!

Grandma and Grandpa Ekman gave us Toy Story 3 and we had a Marathon and watched all 3 movies (a few time) since Akoni had never seen them.

Christmas Eve was a blast. We had so much fun and got some really fun presents. Akoni got a really great ladder, so when he takes our lights down, he doesn't have to climb on the fence and jump off the roof onto the trampoline to get down! And I got a gift card to Home Depot so I can finally make the shelf to go above my bench in the hall!! Thanks Rachel, I can't wait to get working on it! Thanks everyone, we love you all!

Christmas Eve

So on Christmas Eve we open all of our gifts from Friends, and extended Family. That way Christmas Day is all about just our Family and Santa. We have found it's a great way to break up all the gifts and it's a lot of fun.

Here are the kids opening some gifts from their friends. I could not get Kamden to smile here. He wasn't too sure about all this opening of gifts and was kind of confused and cranky.

Adriann got a make up set and loves it!!

Kenyon with Silly Bands. I don't know what it is about these things, but he is Obsessed with them!! He never takes them off and knows exactly how many he has on each wrist!

Kamden with his "cool car"! Another obsession!

Kenyon being crazy with his silly bands.