Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Twas the night before Christmas

Yesterday we had such a fun day. We had our best buds come over(the Molina's), then we took Dad out to our favorite Donair place for lunch, and we even got an amazing suprise gift left on our door step. Some one who must know me pretty well left the most amazing binder and yummy cookies for us. In the binder are 24 stories, songs, and pictures for all of the days in December. I have seen these countdown binders before and always wanted one, so I am so thankful to have one to share with my family next year.Whoever you are, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

 Last night our little family hopefully started a new tradition. We went out to the live nativity pageant in Spruce Grove at our church. It was seriously amazing! The play took only 15-20 minutes and the weather was so nice(as it is outside). They have live animals, and seriously, my boys could not have loved it more. The entire time, Cooper kept saying "puppy eating" in his sweet little voice. He loved the goats and the pony. After I asked Hudson what was his favorite part, and he happily told me that he loved Mary and her baby. Inside the church they had hot chocolate and cookies, and Hudson switched his favorite part to the cookies, when I asked him later that night. It was seriously perfect.




 Today we did not do too much. We went to the dollar store to pick up some last minute things and Hudson had his first experience with shoplifting. He stole a sucker. I made him take it back in to the clerk, and he was not scared and really didn't care. He walked up to her and said "Excuse me, I stole this. I am very sorry." He then just walked away. Ahhhhh. After that me and my little criminal made pigs in a blanket (Hudson told me he only wanted to eat the pig, not the blanket) and waited for Dad to come home.

This evening the boys got a great surprise from our Elf Charlie. He brought the boys a gift(Despicable Me 2). The boys got to open that present and of course their jammies. The movie trick worked great, as the boys were pretty hyper and I needed something to keep them occupied. We then read the boys their favorite book, "The Story of Christmas" sang carols and put them to bed.
My happy boys(minus H)


Cooper LOVES his brother!

Poor Santa, We ate all of our holiday cookies, so we had to leave him some other treats:)

I have reflected many, many times about why this Christmas has been so wonderful. So many things have contributed to it, but I can safely say this has been the most wonderful Christmas of my life. I have felt the spirit so many times, and have appreciated the teaching my boys about the birth of our Savior.  Merry Christmas Everyone.

Now off to wrap presents.....eeeeekkkkkkk!!!!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Tender Mercies

Every once in a while a perfect day comes along. Today was one of those. We had an amazing time at church celebrating our Savior's birth and feeling the spirit. After church we had a family nap, then woke up and went and visited our Piper. We love her and think of her so much, especially today, as today was her third birthday. Hudson and Cooper were so darling, as they were excited going to "Piper's Place". Hudson was convinced that we should dig up her body so we could see her. We had a sweet and reverent visit with our girl. After that we went for a drive down Candy Cane Lane. Hudson and Cooper loved it. Cooper squealed and waved at the lights, and of course the Santa shaking his booty was Hudson's favorite!
I love my family, and I love Christmas time. Today was so special and I know it is because we felt our girl with us. We love you Piper and Thank you for helping us be better. We can't wait to see you again one day!


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Christmas Baking


Me and the boys embarked on some baking adventures today. It was chaos, but they LOVED it.
We did some pretzels and some sugar cookies. The pretzels are my fav. They are so easy and require NO BAKING!!  I am not much of a baker so they are perfect for me.
I tried a new recipe for the sugar cookies, and it used cream cheese. I am pretty picky with my cookies, I like them to be soft and have lots of icing, and the cream cheese totally did the trick. They turned out great.

The cutest baker, so proud with his H cookie.
Pretty Christmas pretzels.
Our ornament cookies.
 This past week Grandma Jan was up here to celebrate Christmas with us. We only saw her for about an hour, but we let the boys open her gifts and they had such a blast. Hudson got a marble run game that we have already played with for hours, and Cooper got a little Mickey Mouse doll he has not let go of. They also got some great books. Grandma Jan picks the best books for the boys, and we have been reading them together every night. Count the Monkey's, the one book, is the favorite book around here. The boys LOVE it.


Hudson's face says it all.

The new favorite book.

Cooper and his Mickey.
On Monday and Tuesday Auntie Jodie, Cassidy and Camille came for a quick visit. I feel like there are not enough words to express how much I love these guys. They truly love my kids and treat them so well. We had so much fun. We got some Christmas shopping done, watched Home Alone together and  we went to an awesome new trampoline gym called Launchpad. The kids had so much fun playing with their big cousins, and the girls were SO patient with my guys. I just LOVE them. We were all so lonely when they left, but hopefully we will see them again soon.


Sunday, December 15, 2013

LOL

I love a good laugh attack. Thanks to Shane this past week, I got a full on LOL laugh attack, complete with tears and shortness of breath. I seriously smile every time I think of this, so I figured I'd do a little post about a few funny things that have happened to us in the past while.

First, last Sunday Shane went to church solo to go teach his lesson. I stayed home with my two sicko's. Shane shaved his own head, and generally gets me to check it over to make sure he didn't miss any spots. I must have had vision problems, as I totally missed seeing Shane's hair before he left to church.
When Shane walked in after church he looked at me and all he said was "you failed me". He then turned around and I saw this.


Clearly, I was speechless and my speech was replaced by howling laughter. Shane asked me to take this above picture and when he saw it he too joined me in the longest laugh attack of our marriage.  At church some of our friends saw it and asked him about it. Poor Shane, just laughed it off, but he didn't realize how hilarious it looked. SO FUNNY!!!!

While Shane was in Phoenix a few weeks ago I founds these pictures of the boys from the summer. Again, made me laugh quite a bit so I thought I'd share.





These pictures just remind me how fun and crazy it is to have boys!!

I was talking to my Dad on the phone the other day, and he reminded me of when Hudson was about 1 1/2 and I had put up my Christmas tree. He wondered how I could have the tree up and have Hudson not touch it. I told him that I was super strict about it, and Hudson knew he was not allowed to touch it. That lasted until Hudson was mad at me-haha. Hudson would be really great until he got told no, or didn't get what he wanted, then he would walk up to the tree and hit it. Even back then he knew how to push my buttons:) Me and my Dad had a good laugh remembering that!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Stuck Inside

For the past 4 weeks the Northern Alberta weather has been crazy. It has snowed soooooo much. Along with sick kids, this has caused us to stay inside A LOT!!

Cooper is really into stickers right now. He will literally peal stickers off his sticker book, and carefully place them on paper for hours. The one condition of him doing this is that I must be near by. Since he has been so sick, and I have been wanting to keep him distracted, I figured I would do a little project myself while he did his sticker pictures.

On pinterest I saw a tutorial for doing a Christmas ball wreath. It said it only took 20 minutes and was super easy, so I thought I would give it a try.

Well Pinterest totally lied. 20 minutes??? Yeah right!

Here is my wreath. I am glad it is done now and I can enjoy it instead of burning my fingers on hot glue!





Thursday, December 12, 2013

The 12 days of...

Sickness!!!
For the last 12 days of Christmas my two little true loves have given me (and Shane)...
  • whining
  • crying
  • grouchiness
  • runny noses
  • sadness
  • sore mouths
  • fevers
  • bossiness
  • insomnia
  • defiance
  • no appetite 
  • and many trips to the doctor!! 
Almost two weeks ago Hudson  woke up in the middle of the night with a really high fever. After 4 days of fever, his mouth and lips became covered in open sores. He could not eat anything, and his mouth was so painful that he would scream throughout the night until the point of losing his voice. Today is day 12 and I am sooooooo tired, but Hudson is finally starting to feel better and the sores in his mouth are healing.
Cooper on the other hand came down with the fever Sunday, and only yesterday did the sores start, so we are sure to have a few more days of an extremely sore mouth!! It really is the saddest thing. Cooper is so hungry but can't eat anything. He pretty much only tolerates milkshakes.
We have missed a birthday party, and our ward Christmas party and are overall just feeling super cabin feverish!! It has been THE WORST!!
So instead of Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts, and enjoying our favorite season, we have been snuggling on the couch watching Dora, petting backs, giving doses of medicine,  and trying to control two very overtired, hungry, grouchy little guys:)

Since leaving the house is at a minimum around here, I did not get my Christmas Cards printed:(. I love getting cards from my friends each year and I am sad that I have not gotten mine out yet.  I did manage to make a card back in November I figured I would share it on our blog. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!


Here are some cards I made for Cooper and Hudson's church teachers-here is hoping we get them printed and handed out.





Thursday, December 5, 2013

Santa!

This year we decided to try out the Sherwood Park Mall Santa for our annual meeting with Santa.They have a great set up. Instead of paying, you make either a monetary donation or bring a gift for charity. They do not pay a photographer, so you bring your own camera, which is great because you can snap as many pics as you want. Another great bonus is no lines. It was not very busy, so the big guy spent quite a bot of time talking with my boys. It was really darling. Cooper was hyperventilating he was so excited! He kept chanting Santa, Santa! The hugest smile was glued on his face the entire time. Huds on the the other hand fell asleep on the way to the mall and was extremely sore and tired. He did okay though. Hudson managed to tell Santa that he would like "the biggest helicopter" and that "Cooper loves cars." It was minus 23 and we had to boost our car to get there, but it was so worth it (at least for me:)

I love this laughing one.
Santa's wandering eyes kind of botched this one-heehee

Cooper seriously had this smile GLUED on:)



Here is Hudson spying on Santa, and deciding if he wanted to meet him-haha



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Tis the Season

We love Christmas.
We have been busy as usual getting everything ready for our favorite time of year. Shane got our house lights up early this year (thank goodness) as we have had an unbelievable amount of snow this year already.
Shane and his 2 brothers went to Phoenix on a brothers golf trip late in November, so he was able to get the lights up before he left which kept this mama happy:)

Some of the Snow I shoveled while Shane was in 25oC weather:) And for all the vacuum line lovers out there, check out my sweet shovel lines!!
Our pretty lights, thanks to Shane hanging them in the rain:)
I think Mother Nature took this sign too seriously!!
 Hudson, Cooper and I have done a couple Christmas crafts and the boys (especially Cooper) have loved playing with all of the little Nativity sets we have around. Cooper is adorable hugging the baby Jesus pieces and trying to pronounce his name:)
Some cute Salt Dough Ornaments
 Hudson has been SO SO sick the past couple weeks, and we have missed church a couple times, so I decided I would have him sit down and have a little lesson about the birth of our Savior! He loved it, and watched this video over and over(even kissing the screen of the computer and petting the screen when the baby appeared).
We have spent a lot of time decorating inside our house this year as well. We let the boys dress up their playroom and Hudson requested we put colorful lights on their tree. I was able to make a tree skirt for their tree and finish up a super Saturday stocking hanger for that room, as Hudson has also requested that is where Santa brings his presents.
Daddy getting the colored lights just right for Hudson:)

Helping out
Here is a pic of my tree skirt-I totally bought a dollar store tree skirt, then added ruffles around it-so easy!!! Love how it turned out.

Our "bright" Christmas room for the kids, with our handmade stockings from Grandma Jan.

Each year we try to find an ornament for our little angel Piper. I found this one at the hospital and thought it was so pretty.
Our new Piper Angel ornament:)
The boys and I have also started to do a bit of Christmas baking. We made some yummy oreo cookies and are in the process of making carmel and chocolate covered pretzel rods.
So much more work with my kitchen "helpers"

As a bribe to Hudson(for taking his medicine) we decorated our Gingerbread houses. Cooper mostly just ate candy and annoyed his brother, but Hudson was a master artisan. It was so much fun.
using up all of our Halloween candy-heehee

hard at work:)

Hudson is so proud, Cooper is so hungry-haha. I can't believe how big my Hudsy looks here.
our masterpiece
 Another suuuuper fun tradition that we love is our elf on the shelf. Charlie came back December 1st, and Hudson has had a blast laughing each morning seeing where Charlie comes back. On the first morning Hudson said"Mom, I saw Charlie turn his head to watch me walk into the bathroom." So funny.
Charlie is baaaack!!!
Charlie was super nice this year and brought the boys some gifts.(Most annoying toys on the Earth)
My kids LOVE these singing/dancing stuffed animals-haha
Cooper playing with the toys Charlie brought the boys.
I have so many other fun things that I want us to do this season, but like I mentioned our household has been MAJORLY plagued with sickness, so that has limited us with a few things. We missed the Nativity Pageant in Sherwood Park, because poor Hudson had a major fever. The fever was so high and lasted 4 days before finally breaking yesterday. Then after dealing with the whiniest and most annoying sick boy for 4 days, it got WORSE. Hudson's entire mouth has filled with canker sores. All of his gums are swollen, and shredded open. The poor guy has about 7 cankers on his tongue alone. He is pretty much unbearable. It has not been fun.

Cooper on the other hand has just been hilarious the last few weeks. Right now Cooper is obsessed with cleaning. He will steal lysol wipes and just scrub the floor. If I clean anything, he is right beside me asking for a cloth or wanting to spray the cleaner.
He even cleans the bathroom;)
  He is talking so much more and has learned to assert himself.  Some of the ways Cooper has started to assert himself are by hitting and scratching and pinching, and if Hudson bothers him, he will tell him to stop!  In a way it is hard to not laugh as Hudson has had it coming for the last 2 and a half years-haha.

busted stealing Mom's pop
 The latest craze around here for both of the boys is to gather all of the pillows and blankets and make a pile and jump into them. They do it every day and laugh and cackle at each other as they do it. The boys also LOVE Monster's University. They have scream/rawr contest all of the time, and love it when they "scare" me or Shane.



Shane and I were talking the other day about how our bedtime rituals with the boys is our favorite time of the day. We love snuggling in our bed all together, singing and praying and tickling. It is such a great way to end the day with our little dudes.
Lastly, I figured I would add a belly pic. This is 15.5 weeks. Hudson is still convinced this is a baby girl:)
I am pretty sure the baby weighs about a third of a pound, so I am not sure why I have already gained 13!!!!