Best Christmas Presents Ever

In order for the boys to let me give them haircuts, I had to explain that it would be a present for Dad. They took that explanation literally. They were the giggliest, wiggliest, best presents under our tree.

Christmas PR

To keep up my holiday PR activities at the nursing home, we went caroling. I invited my sister. She was also in the Christmas spirit and brought along 15 of her children's closest friends.

The audience was obviously riveted by our performance.

Christmas Pirates

There is a story about Christmas Pirates and the Cannibal Santa. The Pirate captain (the one with the peg leg) has to rescue his crew from being eaten on Christmas eve by the giant in the red suit. It is my boys new favorite Christmas story.

So, being the rockstar mom that I am, we made our own pirate gingerbread crew. This one is the Captain and Carson's favorite. It was also the first one he ate.

Cooper stayed with the traditional Christmas shapes. It took much less creative effort on my part to decorate a tree.

We made a huge mess, like all successful mommy bonding moments requires, and had a great time. I haven't decided if this will become a tradition or not. It did take a huge amount of effort.

Danger Zone

Whenever there is a quiet lull, I know something must be wrong. Now that Cooper is potty trained he thinks it is very cool to use mom's potty. This day he went in and didn't come out. Dad noticed it was very quiet and his parent sensors went on high alert. This is what we found. We really had to hold back the laughter because of the potentially dangerous situation this could be. However Cooper was having a grand time spinning around and around and laughing.

And the Shepherds were sore afraid.

Merry Christmas from the Crazies.

Merry Christmas

Look at those faces. This is what Christmas is all about.

Winter in CA

There are many negative things about living in California, liberal politics, pollution, traffic, and gangs. However there is also something wonderful about living here. This is what we do in the winter.

It almost makes it worth living here.

Child Labor

There is a reason that child labor is not allowed in the United States. It is less effective labor.

My sweet boys want to help with everything so they helped with my craft night by sanding blocks. Dad was quality control and pretty much re-sanded everything the boys sanded.

Then they wanted to help paint their room. While I was painting trim they filled in the blanks. Once again, they had a great time, but mom and dad repainted everything they touched. Child labor is less effective. What are those other countries thinking.

Cheaters

I hosted a preschool party the other day and discovered something about my children.

Carson will try and try to "win" the donut from the string. Being completely honest.

Cooper on the other hand has learned to Cheat. How does a three year old learn the Cheat? Within 15 seconds he grabbed the donut and took a bite. Should I be concerned?

I'm pretty sure he cheated at bobbing for apples to, I just don't have any proof.

Birthday

Having a birthday on a holiday is lame. I don't care what anyone says, the birthday is never as important as the Holiday. This year was different for two reasons. First, being really pregnant on my 30th birthday really limits the things my family can do to make the day special. Second, my husband is not about to be out done by my negative attitude. So he provided a birthday breakfast.

The boys made me princess for a day, complete with a tiara and bling. The boys insisted I wear the crown all day, even at the Thanksgiving diner. When I tried to take it off, they both asked, "What are you doing, queens have to wear crowns." So the tiara stayed on all day. Thanks boys for making me feel special.

Happy Thanksgiving

HOW! Happy Thanksgiving from Indian Brave Squanto

Pumpkins

My husband is a great pumpkin carver. I have always stayed with the traditional triangle faces. This year my boys picked out pretty easy face designs. Since Dad helps carve the boys pumpkins I figured it was my year to become an expert carver. So I did the haunted house. Be impressed. It took me the entire time to make one pumpkin while Dad did two pumpkins and the cleanup.

They always look cooler with the lights off.

Halloween/ PR

For Halloween, I brought my preschool class to the nursing home for Trick or Treating. Talk about great PR. I should really start a PR company.

The residents all had balloons and candy, the kids all practiced saying Trick or Treat it was a great time had by all. My boys were a knight and buzz light year.

First Shooting Lesson

This might seem a bit premature, considering Carson is only 4, however, look at the next picture for verification.

Have you ever seen two happier boys.
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Scott started shooting at age 6 so this is no surprise. FYI, Carson is only allowed to practice when dad it their holding and targeting the Bebe gun. I'm not completely irresponsible:)

Update

I added four posts to cover the last 2 months. I needed to do some catching up.

Cousin Craziness

This is my family. Not extended family, just siblings their spouses and children. There were 27 of us there and we were still missing 4. It must mean I am getting old to be one on the Aunts at a family reunion.

These are the crazy cousins. Most of whom range from age 2 - 5 with a few older exceptions.

My kid is the one with the the biggest mouth.

Here he is again, with another big grin.

These are the other two belong to me. They are avid fisherman. At least on vacation. Poor Carson, sat there for 3 hours and didn't catch a single fish. How do you explain luck to a four year old? He was in tears by the time we left.

Very full day

We went to Beaver, Utah for a family reunion recently. I know what you must be thinking, What in the world is there to do in Beaver? I was thinking the same thing. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised. Here are some Family pics by a lake we went fishing at.

What follows is what we did during the course on ONE day.

Scott was a cowboy and barrel raced with the best of them.

Taught the boys how to throw a lasso.

Carson thought it was more fun to be the caught than to actually throw the rope.

Watched a family rodeo, (and no, the rest of my family are not cow folk, so it was very entertaining)

Ate lots of Grandma's beef jerky.

Canoed.

Rode Horses. Yee- haw.

Not pictured things included taking a hay ride, climbing up a rock mountain wall (Cooper climbed it at age 2 1/2, I was amazed). Look for things in a hay stack. Went shooting. Took my niece to fire her first gun, it was a proud aunt moment. Realized that I was the best target shooter of the group. Watch out Wyatt Earp. Did archery. Realized that I was not the best archery shot. Scott worked me. Went back to camp and sat around a campfire. It was a very full day.