We've moved!

Oh yes, that was another thing that kept us busy through the month of November! The first week of November, our landlord called us to let us know that he had sold his house & wanted to move into the house we were living in. So, Matt & I quickly went to work trying to find another house to rent...fortunately, we didn't have to look to long or hard...we found a house in the same subdivision, same ward, same schools & that even had the same floor plan, for rent...we were excited!! So, as soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving trip we went crazy packing boxes for the big day! I don't have many pictures because the camera got packed up too...but, here's one of Park's playing on the couch cushions as I was packing up boxes one day...apparently that was loads of fun!

Here's the front room of our "new house" after I had spent the morning unpacking boxes...I mostly had to take the picture just to feel validated that I had gotten a lot done... :)

I'll try to get some pictures posted of the house & the rooms after we get the pictures hung up (hopefully tomorrow!). Until then, here is what we did on Saturday....we (mostly Matt) set up the Christmas lights outside while the kids & I worked on the Christmas tree & decorations inside. Here's some pictures of what the house looks like at night!!

Didn't Matt do a great job?....I'll let him tell the story of how he talked me into climbing up on the roof with him to get more lights hung!....

Thanksgiving Fun with the Christensen's!!

Even though it's always crazy trying to see both families, since they live only 20 minutes apart, when we visit Utah...we always have a ton of fun too!!

After we finished at the "Christmas Tree Farm" we headed down to the Christensen's Thankgiving celebration (yep, it was on Friday...it just seemed to work better that way)! Marta was busy setting the tables when we arrived...here's the final product!

While we were helping in the kitchen, Parker & cousin Maddie decided to hang out together on Grandma's bench! Aren't they adorable?!!?

Aunt Nan was playing with the little ones...I thought this was an adorable picture of her with Alivia (although Alivia's expression is kinda funny!)!!

Part of getting together with the Christensen's means that Uncle Kyle gives bronco rides...here's one of Abbie & Connor taking a ride...

On Friday night, we all bundled up good & loaded up for a hayride to Salem Pond, where they have their annual pond lighting cermony. We sang Christmas songs while we Grandpa drove us down. We showed up right in time for them to switch all the Christmas lights on...it was so pretty & loads of fun!! (please excuse Kyle's cheesy grin...LOL!)

Saturday with the Christensen's brought everybody together for the BYU v. Utah football game!! We've had a blast watching the game with them the last couple years & the game has always been a nail-biter!! I couldn't resist getting a picture of Annie & Millie with Aunt Christy (who was 38 wks. pregnant)...apparently Annie & Millie were going to have babies too!! ;)

Then we have a Christmas party, which includes gift exchanging & a visit from Santa himself!! Since Connor was the youngest at the party...he got to open his present from cousin Maddie first! He got a Little People toy that he has had so much fun driving around!!

There was a lot of hesitation before Santa showed up...last year Millie & Annie got scared to death when Santa stormed in the house and took them off guard. This year we did a little prepping before hand, so ALL the kids would know he was coming & be excited for his visit! I was still worried if Annie would sit on his lap at all, but she was the first one of the kids to get to sit on his lap...she climbed right up & told him that she has been really good this year & that she wants a pink radio & a barbie car for Christmas!

Parker has been SO thrilled to see "Christmas stuff" (ANYTHING to do with Christmas) and was even more excited to sit on Santa's lap! Parker smiled the whole time & rattled off a few things that he wanted for Christmas. Chelle, notice his cape...he kept it on the rest of the evening!! He loves it!!

Thanks to both families for such a fantastic Thanksgiving...we love you all & are looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Thanksgiving Fun with the Hunter's!

So...I've had blogger's block...so much has happened in the last month, since I've blogged that I haven't known where to start to catch up on everything. Having said that...this will be totally random, but I'll try & share some of the fun things we did at Thankgiving, while we were in Utah! First things first, we made a countdown for the kids to keep track of when we got to leave to "Grandma & Grandpa's house"!!! Abbie & Annie were so cute thinking of all the fun things to color on our countdown poster!

While the girls & I were coloring the countdown, Parker did his own coloring....he was pretty proud of his artwork!!

While waiting for everybody to show up for dinner at Grandma Judy's house, Parker took the liberty to jump all over Uncle Nate....it's Parker's favorite thing ever! Nate is Parker's buddy & they are pretty much inseperable whenever we see them!!

I tried to snap pictures of as many of my family as I could...but I got side-tracked 'cause this is one of the few.... here's my sister, Elaina (on the left) holding her 2 month old baby boy, Brock. Brooke (my sister-in-law) is on the right, holding her son, Shaun, who is 9 months old! Aren't the beautiful?!!?

Of course, I had to snap a picture of Shaun & Connor....they are only 4 days apart in age...it's fun to see them together....here they are watching Grandpa put up Christmas lights outside the front window!

On the Friday after Thankgiving, my family always goes to the "Christmas Tree Farm" (I'm sure it has an official name, but that's what we've always called it) to cut down their Christmas tree. This is a tradition that my family has done as long as I can remember, and I love taking my kids along so they can enjoy it too! Here's Grandpa Bill, Uncle Nate, & Parker waiting for the tree choppers on 4 wheelers to come & get us!

Here's Annie patiently waiting as they tie the tree down to the trailer to drive it back to Grandma's van....

Abbie & Sharyn think they own the 4 wheeler....

Abbie, Sharyn & Annie all holding on as they haul the tree back to the van....

I wanted a cute picture with Parker, by all the trees!....

Finally, here's everybody working together to get the tree tied down to the van to take back home....Annie posing in front...LOL!

Grandpa & Grandma headed back to their house to decorate the tree....and we headed down to Grandpa & Grandma Christensen's for their celebrations!....

Four Trick-or-Treaters!

Halloween is so much fun...for me & for the kids (and I think Matt likes it too...since he still dresses up)!! We went to a trunk-or-treat party at the neighborhood right next to ours the Saturday before Halloween, where the kids were able to dress up & then of course, trick-or-treating on Halloween Day! The kids had a blast trick-or-treating last week & I think they all liked dressing up for the fun day! Here's what our cute trick-or-treaters looked like....

Abbie was a witch...she had SO much fun putting her outfit together & picking out the right hat!

Annie was Tinkerbell...we put some cute sparkly make-up on her & she looked so adorable!!

Parks was a handsome cowboy!! He loved wearing his cowboy hat & guns all day long!

And Connor-man was a cute little puppy dog!!

And, one final pictures of all 4 of our trick-or-treaters!!

Plenty of Projects!

So...I've been MIA the last few weeks because I've been trying to work on a few things at home....here are a some things that got a bit more attention than blogging! ;)

First...I bought a sewing machine last spring & decided to try a make a few pillowcases for my kids. So, off to Wal*mart we went & they each picked out some Halloween fabric. These are what we came up with...Abbie's is on the left, Parker's is in the middle (my personal favorite out of all of them, and then Annie's...she decided she wanted some bats from Parker's on her's along w/the pumpkins & black cats!)!! It was pretty fun & I'm getting more confident in my sewing abilities...even though I'm a TOTAL beginner, right now!!

Second...my sister-in-law, Christy, is having a baby shower next week & I helped to make half of the invitations...this is what I came up with! I searched all over for the "perfect" scrapbook paper to use & finally came across this adorable pattern! I hope she likes how they turned out! If you can't guess...they'll be having a baby girl (Gabbie) sometime around the beginning of December!

Finally...I'm part of 3 different card groups. I LOVE the creative outlet & it's something that I feel I do pretty well at. So, for tonight's swap w/my ward, (which is being held here at our house, so besides working on these, I've also been cleaning, making some yummy cheesecake for dessert & all the other "mommy stuff") I made these ones. It's the same idea as ones I made last year for another group...just a bit different.

Anyway...lots of fun stuff, but it's only beginning w/Christmas around the corner...I won't tell you all the "projects" that need me attention now...let's just say I have plenty to keep me busy!! :)

Do You Think They Are Related?

So, today I sat down to the computer to blog & upload some pictures from Halloween. This is one of the pictures that was on our camera, that Matt had taken of Connor on Monday night. Connor was busy crawling around on the kitchen floor around us while we worked at carving our pumpkins. Obviously, we couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of him 'cause we think Connor is one of the cutest babies around!

While I was waiting around for some of the pictures to upload, I decided to visit Chelle's (Matt's sister) blog...and came across this cute picture of Graham,our nephew...who is just 4 months older than Connor.

Take special note of the similarities between Connor & Graham...especially the shirts, khaki pants & bald heads! Too cute, huh?!!? We love you Grammers & Connor-man!!

Pumpkin Carving Time

We have a family tradition of carving pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween!! We have a pretty good system down now...Matt gets grossed out by the pumpkin guts, so I help the kids clean them all out, then Matt goes to work carving the faces! Abbie & Annie were especially funny this year because they kept saying "slimey pumpkin smithereens" while they were working on cleaning their's out. If you've ever read "Too Many Pumpkins" (one of our favorite Halloween stories), then you'll know where that comes from. Anyway, without much more to say, here's some pictures of our evening!

Parker had a lot of fun watching as the girls were diggin' out the guts! I think the girls washed their hands 100 times too....

Here's Matt at work...carving out Parker's pumpkin!

The finished Jack-O-Lanterns!! Abbie's is on the left, then Park's, then Annie's....they all told Matt how they wanted them carved & Matt went to town! We're pretty proud of how they turned out!!

Picking the Perfect Pumpkins!

For FHE on Monday night...we decided to take our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! They have several in the area, but last year we found the perfect one, called Linder Farms (http://www.linderfarms.com/)! They have it all...the pumpkin patch (16 acres), hay rides, a corn maze, a "cow train" ride, astro jumps & straw maze for the little kids, and of course, yummy food to enjoy! Here's some pictures of our fun-filled FHE!

Stop #1: THE STRAW MAZE

Here's Abbie, Annie, Parker, and Matt w/Connor right after we arrived. The kids could hardly wait to start running through the straw maze!

Can ya tell Annie's excited?...I think she liked the maze. Actually, from what she says, all of it was "freakin' fun!"



Abbie stoppin' to pose for the camera...I don't think this maze was too hard for her, since she made it through in about 15 seconds...LOL! She did keep asking to go into the big corn maze, though...I guess she wanted something a little more challenging!! :)

Isn't Parks handsome? He was a little unsure about the whole maze bit, but once I went through with him, he got the hang of it & had fun running between the bales of straw!!!

Stop #2: THE ASTRO JUMPS & SLIDE

Parks LOVED going down the slide!!

Annie had fun too...she went down just every possible way!! She also made Matt & I nervous w/that sucker in her mouth... :)

Here's Abbie taking her turn & having loads of fun too!

Stop #3: THE COW TRAIN

Here are the 3 (Abbie at the back, Parker & Annie closer to the front) ready to go on the cow barrel ride!

Stop #4: THE HAYRIDE

If ya can't already tell from the smile on their faces (especially Annie & Abbie), they were pretty flippin' excited to go. In fact, Parker was probably the most thrilled with it. After one of the stops (to drop people off in the fields to search for pumpkins) he turned to me and said, "I so excited, Mom!"...it was TOO cute!

Stop #5: THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Parker could hardly wait to start playing in the dirt!! The pumpkin didn't impress him nearly as much!

Annie was the one hunting for the best pumpkin! She has a really good eye for a good pumpkin...she loved looking for them! Not that they were hard to find (believe me, there was a plethora of pumpkins!) ...but she searched for just the perfect one!

Abbie enjoyed the hunt too...she wanted to find the biggest pumpkin to take home!

Here's the kids w/the pumpkins they picked out to take home!!

Stop #6: GETTIN' SOME GRUB!

Of course, we had to finish off the fabulous evening with a little bit of yummy food...nachos, fries, hotdogs & some soda! :)