Wow!! Time does fly!

So, I realized this weekend why I feel so big and so pregnant.........Because I am!! Fancy that. I was doing the math and asked Matthew, "Did you know I'm 6 months pregnant?". Holy crow!! Six months! Where did the time go? People always ask me how far along I am and I give them a week approximation based on my last Dr. appointment. I get all confused with the weeks and don't really know what month I'm in. Alas, 6 months!! Only 3 months left. That's just crazy.
The real reason I'm posting is to post a picture of our awesome christmas tree we picked up this weekend. We went to Salt Lake Thursday morning to spend Thanksgiving with my family. What a fun time we enjoy when we get together. There are 11 grandkids now and all but Hanna are under the age of 8. They are very noisy and energetic. Best game ever- Just Dance on the Wii.

We left Saturday afternoon in hopes of hitting up a "cut your own Christmas tree farm" in Farr West. We made it before the sun went down and found this beauty!! Not bad for $35.


(obviously, I'm not the family photographer. Matthew was asleep on the couch. I'll have him take a better lighted one when its fully decorated.)
Its called a Scotch Pine. Matthew joked that its called that because you need to drink a few glasses of scotch to be able to enjoy it! I thought it was a very witty comment and laughed very loudly.
For some reason, they all sport the stylin' top you see here.

It reminds me of Hooville trees. The kids think its awesome! That's all that matters. I like it. Its a lot fuller than the Kelly canyon trees that we normally get. Not to say they are bad, they just need their own drinks of scotch. Just kidding!! I really just think that its the going and getting the tree that is the most important part. We weren't able to make it up to Kelly canyon this year due to snow fall. We don't have snow machines. The kids seemed to like looking for the tree at the tree farm despite the cold. And they loved these silly tops.
I'll put a kelly canyon tree here for comparison.



Like I said, both nice, just different. (And I had to go back to Christmas of '05 to find a whole tree shot! How sad is that!)
I'm somewhat excited this year for Christmas. That's saying a lot seeing as how I'm somewhat of a scrooge. (long story) We even went Christmas shopping while in Salt Lake. Outside of a few essential church clothes, we are done! We tried to tone down the toys as my kids are spoiled. Jamison's birthday is on the 11th, so it makes it somewhat difficult to buy Christmas and birthday for the little guy. Anyhoo.....Hope you all have good luck getting your trees. Remember, the true meaning of Christmas is Christ. That's the whole reason we celebrate. I try to remind my kids of that constantly. Alas, they still love the toys!!
Happy holiday season!!

I'm a little late with Halloween!

So, Halloween was pretty run of the mill. Just did the trunk or treat at the church and they had a soup dinner. McKinley dressed as a Rainbow Princess, Gavin as Rafael (ninja turtle), and Jamison was a monkey. They all had a grand time.
I'm mostly posting to show off our awesome pumpkin carving skills. Matthew's dad plants half his garden in pumpkins and then sells them. Matthew brought a load down here and we sold most of them. We had about 20 left. So, we carved them all. Matthew did most of them on a Sunday afternoon while I slept. But, I'm super proud of my Quasimoto pumpkin!! See for yourself. My husband is pretty awesome at carving pumpkins. He's had a lot of practice over the years. I especially like the slashed out eye one in the middle of the bottom picture. Pretty gruesome.






The day after halloween, Gavin really wanted me to go and buy a Mario brothers Mario costume. After much deliberation, I found these blue overalls and red shirt. Matthew came home, drew mustaches on the boys, put his hats on them, and WALLA, two Marios!! Gavin was content. Cute little boys!
I sure do love my kids!! Can they get any cuter?

Hand me a 5/8" deep socket

I have a confession to make. I am 29 years old and like to play with Legos. Do I need to give them up? I think not. They are so much fun! All three of the kids like to play with them so I get to do a little bonding with my kiddos. It's so interesting to see what they come up with. McKinley likes to make patterns with them and her latest creations are making food (bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cupcakes, etc.). Gavin loves to build flying things right now and to play prisoner (which consists of building a prison cell, saying "Get in there criminal!", letting the prisoner escape, and then capturing him and starting over). Jamison likes Legos too. I'm not exactly sure what he does but if the Legos get dumped out he will come running to sit on my lap and play too.

So during General Conference in October, we were playing Legos and trying to listen to the speakers. This is what we built.


Kind of fun, huh! Can you see the potential for a whole book made from scenes from Lego creations?