Happy Halloween!

When you have kids the Halloween festivities seem to stretch over the course of the whole month of October. We went to the pumpkin patch, we carved pumpkins, we had our ward Trunk or Treat, we had a fun Halloween FHE treat on Monday, Landon had a Halloween part at preschool on Wednesday and he has another one today, and tonight we Trick-or-Treat! I love celebrating holidays now that I have kids, it is so fun to watch them get excited about everything and it reminds me to appreciate the small, simple things in life.

This year for costumes I decided to recycle the kids costumes from last year so Landon will be a dragon, Tori will be a ladybug (I can't believe her costume from last year still fits!), and Ella will be a butterfly (she was the only one to get a new costume this year). Originally I was going to try and find other costumes for the kids but Landon and Tori were so excited when I got out their costumes from last year I figured I'd save a little money and reuse them. I think that next year I want to try my hand at making the kids' costumes but we will see if that actually happens.

Getting Crafty

I really like to do crafty creative things. I don't think I am very creative in and of myself but I sure do like to copy other peoples ideas. Here are some "crafty" things I have been doing lately:

1.Lately I have really felt that having Family Home Evening is really important. Now most of you are probably thinking "Well duh" but in the past I have struggled with getting motivated to plan lessons and activities for my family. So I made a goal to have FHE every week and so far it has been working out really well. I found this blog that has a lot of easy, fun ideas for families with young children. I am really glad that I started doing FHE every Monday because Landon and Tori love it. Throughout the week Landon will ask to have Family Home Evening and/or Family Home Evening treat. It makes me so happy to see him excited about spending time together as a family and learning about the gospel. Anyway this Monday I decided to get fancy when making our FHE treat. I decided to make a Halloween graveyard. It turned out really cute and it was super easy, also the kids loved it!

2. A little while ago a girl in my ward started up a playgroup on Wednesday mornings. The kids get together and play while us Mom's work on making Christmas cards or other crafts. Since I plan on making my Christmas cards on the computer I decided to work on making little hair barrettes for Tori. I only got three done this week but I think they turned out really cute!(and they were SO easy to make)

This is not the greatest picture but here is one of the barrettes in Tori's hair

An Aunt Again!!!

I am an aunt again today. My brother, Brent, and his wife, Shayla, welcomed their second son, Seth Maxwell Nelson, to the world early this morning. As you can see he is very adorable (just like his big brother Brighton). I really think I have some of the cutest nephews ever, and it makes me sad that we have to live so far away from them right now. I love being an Aunt and watching my siblings and Jared's siblings families grow! Here's to many more cute nephews and nieces!!!

Carving Pumpkins

One of my all time favorite Halloween traditions is carving Pumpkins. As a child and teenager I remember looking forward to this part of Halloween every year. I just love spending time with family and seeing how everyones pumpkins turn out. My kids are still too little to really help me carve pumpkins but they did contribute this year by telling me what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. They decided that they wanted one "happy" pumpkin and one "scary" pumpkin. These are the results:

Ella with the "scary" pumpkin, you can tell that it is "scary" by its "scary" teeth

This is the "happy" pumpkin, the "happy" pumpkin has a bow because it is also a girl pumpkin (this one was Tori's)

Landon and Tori with their pumpkins (these darn kids will not look at the camera when I want them to)

Maybe one year I will pull off something fancy like this

Playing in the Leaves....

Yesterday as part of our FHE activities Jared raked the leaves while the kids played in them. I, of course, took pictures. I even got a video. The video isn't really exciting, but maybe someone out there might enjoy watching it (if nothing else Landon will get a kick out of it!).

Nursery and the Bumbo

Yesterday was Torilynn's first day in Nursery by herself. She is a few weeks shy of 18 months but she is a little monster in Sunday School and Relief Society so I usually end up sitting with her in Nursery anyways. When I took her in yesterday one of the leaders told me that I could just leave as she thought Tori would do just fine without having me in there with her. I was so excited! I have been waiting for this day for a long time! When I walked into Sunday school without her a lady in my ward asked if Tori got to go to Nursery now and I told her that she did and she said "We figured that was the case by the smile on your face when you walked in here." She then said "When your kids start nursery it is kind of like when your kids graduate from college, you feel free." Now I love Tori, she is usually a great little girl but it sure was nice not to have to control her during church yesterday, and apparently she was just as thrilled to not have to stay with me, the Nursery leaders said that she did great!

In other news we got Ella a Bumbo seat the other day. I resisted the urge to get one when Landon and Tori were babies, but Ella's head seems to be getting a little flat in the back so I figured the Bumbo might help. This baby seat is awesome, I highly recommend it to any of you moms with little babies (if you don't already have one).

4 months old

A little over a week ago Ella turned 4 months old. I can't believe she has been with us for 4 months already. In someways it feels as though she has been with us forever, in other ways it feels like she was born just yesterday, but mostly it has gone by really fast. Ella recently learned how to roll over and it makes me excited for all the new things that she will be learning in the near future. It also makes me a little sad to think that she is growing so fast. When I look at Tori she seems so big and independent and I know that in one short year Ella will be the same way. So I am really trying to enjoy Ella's baby stage because I know that it doesn't last long.

So Lucky!

This past month has not been the best one for me. I just kinda felt like I was going through the motions of life and not really enjoying anything. I am so grateful for General Conference because it really helped me refocus and realize that I have the keys to true joy in my life. So yesterday Jared had to wake up early to go to an Eagle Project for a boy in my ward and so I was left with the kids. I was a bit disappointed when Landon woke me up early as I had gone to bed late the night before. Tori woke up shortly after and we decided to watch the movie The Incredibles. As we settled down on the couch to watch the movie I looked over at Tori and Landon and I was overcome with love for my children and family and it just hit me that I have been so blessed in my life. That seems like such an obvious thing but I guess sometimes I need a little reminder.
Sorry there isn't much more to this post, we have been sick this past week and we mostly have been lying around trying to recover. I felt the need to post though because Landon has discovered how to find his way to our website, and I have heard that High School musical song about a million times since I posted it.

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Happy Birthday BDN!!

Today is my younger brother Ben's 18th birthday. I figured turning 18 is a big deal and it deserves a special post.

Ben is 7 1/2 years younger then me. When he was young and I still lived at home I remember that he was a typical annoying little brother, and I am sure I was just as annoying to him. Then between my junior and senior years of high school I found out that my family would be moving across the country to Memphis, TN. As much as I loved my family I wanted to finish High School with my friends and so I stayed behind and lived with my wonderful Aunt and Uncle. I remember when Ben and I actually became friends. It was that first Christmas break after they moved, when I went to go visit them. Ben was so excited to see me and all he wanted to do was hang out with me. During that trip I realized how cool my little brother Ben had become and he has been one of my best friends since then.

Though Ben is my younger brother he is a great example to me. He always tries to choose the right no matter what. He is constantly studying his scriptures and he has a very strong testimony of the Gospel. He has been preparing to serve a mission his whole life and he is so excited to be able to go next year. He is so funny and I love talking to him. My kids could not have asked for a better Uncle. I know he loves my kids as much as I do. I love Ben so much and I am so thankful that he is my brother and friend, Happy Birthday Ben!

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch...

Jared was put on assignment to go check out a local corn maze to see if it was something the youth in our ward would enjoy doing for a joint activity. While we decided that it probably wouldn't be a lot of fun for a bunch of teenagers it was perfect for little kids! Landon and Tori loved looking at all the pumpkins and wandering around the patch. Landon and I also had a blast trying to hunt down Jared and the girls in the corn maze (Jared thought he was being tricky running from us but we ended up finding our way through the maze before him). Though all of this was super fun, nothing compared to the excitement that exuded from Landon as he got to pay the man working at the pumpkin patch coins for his and Tori's pumpkins ( the pumpkins were cheap too, the ones we got were 2 for $1.00!). I am not kidding this was the highlight of Landon's afternoon, oh to be young and easily pleased by such simple things. Here are some pictures from our fun afternoon. I apologize in advance for so many pictures but I got a lot of good shots!

Ella was not very impressed with the Pumpkin patch. So young and yet so hard to please.
Making our way through the maze. This picture is just before the kids picked out their pumpkins Landon kept holding up his pumpkin and telling it to say cheese As an added bonus the kids got free "baby pumpkins"