What's Your Persuasion on the Big Man?

Well, my youngest was afraid of him and my oldest decided it wasn't really him. Myla was the only one who wanted to visit with Santa this year. Here she is telling him she's three years old. Santa came to visit the ward family Christmas PJ breakfast. The Elders Quorum put it on, so Kevin was up early and had gone to bed super late the night before preparing for it. It was a success!

Cade's Preschool Christmas party

Cade's preschool had a Christmas party and it was quite sweet. The kids performed three Christmas songs wearing reindeer hats and it was so fun to watch Cade get into it. Then they made Christmas trees out of sugar cones and green frosting. That was fun too. Messy, but fun. I just love Cade's teachers. You can tell they love the kids and are so creative in the things they do. They also involve the family a lot. Cade has blossomed here and has made great friends that he talks about constantly. If he had his way we'd have playdates every day!

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

We wish you a Christmas filled with joy, love, and peace! Really, we do. It's not just a generic Christmas saying. We mean it from the bottom of our hearts. :) This really is the most wonderful time of year. It's so easy to be in a good mood. People are friendlier. Family and friends are closer to our heart. Our home is cozier. Love abounds. But mostly, when reflect on what our Savior we feel closer to Him. That is such a blessing. Merry Christmas!

Myla wanted a mullet...

so she decided to cut one herself. It was nice, but it needed a little more work.

The evidence.

And more evidence.

The final product. Kevin and I vetoed the mullet and encouraged her to go with a more sassy 'do...

because she has such a sassy personality.

PS Mom has recovered. Dad is still chuckling. Myla says she looks "bootiful." And she does! In the end, it's just hair. Right?

Not Your Mama's Sewing Girls

The fun sewing group I belong to, The (not-so-secret) Secret Stitch Club, got together for a photoshoot. Our friend Jenna, of Jameson Photos, is quite the talented photographer. We have a great time sewing together and Jenna really captured the spirit of our little group. Check out a few of my faves:

C'mon--it's funny!

Our Zoo Fix

Today Cade's preschool had a field trip to the zoo and Myla, Gavin and I were able to tag along. Cade really, really, really wanted to ride the bus, and Myla and Gavin weren't allowed, so we met him there. My little boy is growing up and getting so independent! He was such a big boy getting on that big bus. I was so proud of him. While there it was fun to get to know some of Cade's classmates and their parents better. It was also fun just roaming around the zoo and having fun. It was probably the most fun we've had at the zoo! Above is a sweet shot I got of the three of them outside the monkey exhibit.

Santa's Sweetheart Apron Giveaway

I'm giving away this little baby over on the Secret Stitch site. Pop on by to enter! Happy Thanksgiving!

The Boys

My sister had her baby, the adorable Rebecca Nicole, last week. So we were lucky enough to have Jared, Connor, and Rachel come over and play with us. I captured this sweet photo of the boys. They are growing up so fast!

For the love of potatoes

This kid loves potatoes. He loves them so much that he licks his plate clean.

Gotta get every last drop.

I love this look. It's like he's saying, "What Mom? I love potatoes. Ooookaaayy."

Zootique

Looking for something to do this Saturday? The AZ weather has finally cooled down a bit and it's a great time to go to the zoo. This Saturday, November 14th, from 9am-3pm at the Phoenix Zoo there will be a Holiday Zootique sponsored by the Phoenix Zoo volunteers. My friends and I have reserved a booth and will be selling all kinds of really cute stuff: aprons (adult and child), baby booties, baby blankets, hair clips, magnet boards, sweet appliqued onesies, and lots more. So come on out! Spend a day at the zoo and get some Christmas shopping done at the same time. Stop by the Secret Stitch booth and say hi!

Hacked

I know, kind of a creepy little graphic, huh? I haven't been online very much over the past week or so. I guess you could say I've been a little gun shy. Last week (was it really only last week??!) my email was hacked into and every single person in my contact list (a ton of people from my church, family, friends, old contacts I hadn't deleted, old employers, current employer...everyone) was sent an email in which I said I was asking for money. I was mortified! And I feel like someone stole something from me. It's like they came into my house and stole my bike or wallet or something. Luckily, the hacker included a little tidbit that said I was in England, and anyone who knows me would know that isn't true. But it's definitely opened my eyes to the realities of the internet. I set my blog to private just until we could get it worked out. I was finally able to gain access to my hotmail account a few days later and found the hacker had deleted all of my contacts, changed all my info, and made it pretty useless. That's fine, because I am done with that account. Deleted. I'm just grateful nobody sent any money to the Western Union account this person was providing once someone made contact with him.

What will I do differently in the future? Well, first off, I won't have the same password for all my accounts anymore. I spent hours going through online accounts and changing passwords. I was so nervous Mr. Hackerman would reek havoc there! Second, I will change the passwords often. I hadn't changed the password to my email in 7 years. Third, I realize now it can happen to anyone. Really, who am I? I'm no one important. I don't have money. So I never even thought I'd be at risk. But we all are. In doing research on this I've found that this happens so often. Identity theft is so real. And apparently it's not that hard to do. When searching for a graphic to put to the blog I found out that there are websites out there that tell you how to hack!

Anyway, so we are back. Cautious, but back.

Days 23-25: Field trips and birthdays

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, Cade went on his first field trip. I was excited that I was able to attend. We walked to the park as a group.

We observed nature.
The kids drew pictures of the ducks they saw on the lake.Then they were set free to play on the playground.

Unstoppable

Friday was my birthday, and it's also my Mom Webb's birthday! The kids and I went over to take her some cake and sing her happy birthday.

The birthday girls.

Kevin really surprised me this year. I just have to brag about him for a minute. Look at this! Can you tell what it is? It's a bouquet made out of tracings of the kids hands. In the middle of each flower is written a special thing the kids will do for me. The poem is so sweet. The flowers are stuck into Junior Mint dirt (one of my favorite candies). Oh, and the spatulas are just what I needed. My other ones rotted. Yes, they rotted. :)

I don't know if you can read the poem he wrote. Here it is:

Mommy dear we love you so

And think you are so sweet.

You are so nice and kind to us

And everyone you meet.

We wanted to say thank you

For everything you do.

And want to give you a helping hand

So this is what we'll do.

Just pull a flower from the vase

And tell us what it reads.

our little hands will jump to the task

To help you when you need.

So sweet. My birthday was a fun day! Later that night we went over to Nicki's house and rocked out to some Rock Band. I love Rock Band! On the way home Kevin gave me his other gifts which are a new iron and a new ironing board cover. I am so excited! I know, it's weird I'm getting excited about an iron. But a good iron makes such a difference in sewing and my old iron was pretty bad. It had a crack down it. And my ironing board cover is all stained and has a huge hole in it. So I was pretty happy! A big thanks to my friends and family who made it so special for me.

Days 18-22

Pathetic, I know. I only have one picture to show you. But it's cute, right? This is Spooky Shepherds pie that I made for dinner swap. I got the idea from Gourmet Mom, but I used Maren's shepherds pie recipe. I piped the mashed potato ghosts using a disposable frosting bag and cutting a big tip. Then I used peppercorns as the eyes. Just warn your kids about not chewing up the peppercorn. It just may ruin the whole dinner for them. Not that I know from experience or anything...

Day 14-17 - Life Goes On!

This week has been fun! We got a little off track with my plan. But that's life...right?? I've learned to be flexible. :)

Some fun Halloween-y things we've done:
* Read Halloween books
* Attempted to create a Jack-o-lantern pizza out of Hungry Howie pizzas. Later I learned that Papa Murphy's is selling Jack-o-lantern pizzas right now for $6.99! Papa Murphy's is always good.
* Played outside A LOT. Yay for cooler weather!
* Made a pumpkin cheesecake that turned out pretty good. It was my first cheesecake, so I was a little nervous. I found the recipe here, but made a few changes using the readers' comments. So if you are in the mood for some pumpkin cheesecake try this recipe. It was pretty easy.

Today we have a family dinner at my grandma's house. We are having soup in pumpkin-shaped bread bowls (pictures to come later...these breadbowls are adorable!) and will play some good ol' Halloween bingo.

Day 13 - Candy Corn Mania

Everything is so much better when candy corn is involved. Agree? (I hear a resounding "YES" from all of you!) Today was a fun-filled candy-corn-filled day. We went to the library this morning to check out some Halloween books. (Yes, we were supposed to go yesterday, but we didn't even get out of our jammies yesterday.) I looked for the book Julius's Candy Corn but they didn't have it. We did get some other fun Halloween books though. We stopped by Walmart to grab some candy corn and headed home for our activity. I printed off some candy corn worksheets here and we got started.
First, we counted candy corn as we put it the bowl. Then we talked about the colors of candy corn and which colors were in the top, middle, and bottom.

Then we colored our sheets and practiced the letter "C".

And, of course, ate candy corn as we worked.

Myla decided to put all the candy corn on the candy corn she colored. She was quite proud.

And Cade wanted to make a funny face for the camera. Funny kid!

Check out these other yummy candy corn treats:

Candy Corn Cookies We made these last year and they are adorable! I am thinking about making some today.

Candy Corn Cookie Bark

Candy Corn White Chocolate Popcorn

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats

Days 8-12 - Family, Fireworks, Pumpkin Carving and New Mexico

This weekend we went to New Mexico to visit Uncle Jay and his girlfriend Anna, and meet up there with Grandma Pat and Aunt Wendy. We had a great time. We carved pumpkins, saw fireworks at the Hot Air Balloon Festival, visited, laughed, ate good food and had so much fun!

Carving pumpkins:

Myla said her favorite part of the trip was carving a 'pider pumpkin with Uncle Jay.

Watching fireworks:

Gavin wasn't very happy about the loud bangs.

The drive home:

Oreo-face Gav

Some Halloween theme activities we did on the trip: color Halloween pictures, carve pumpkins, eat lots and lots and LOTS of Halloween Oreos.