Sam's Christmas program

Again, remember Rex's program? Watching these things makes me realize how very different my boys are! Rex likes to be goofy and barely sings the songs when performing. Sam had this sweet look on his face the whole time and happily sang all the words! It was adorable to see and he looked so cute! Of course I left the charged video camera battery in the wall at home... stupid preggo brain. But Mark was able to get much of it on his phone. Now to figure out how to transfer that onto the computer....
Good job Sam! We love you!

Look at that sweet smile!

Singing along!

Santa's knee

We had our ward Christmas brunch the first weekend in December. It was a lot of fun! We have a LOT of kids in our ward. Like 150 or so in Primary alone, not counting nursery. So because of that it is really hard to see Santa at the Christmas party but I knew it may be our only opportunity with the baby coming soon so we were determined to see him. It helped that it wasn't late at night as well. Our only downfall... having a last name that starts with W. They broke it up so half of the alphabet went at a time and of course the first half went first. We ended up standing in line for about an hour!! Luckily my kids were well behaved and happy. Their mom however was over it. :) They are so cute at this age.

Thanksgiving

We drove over for just one day to my moms in Twin Falls for Thanksgiving. My brother and his wife and two kids (one of who we hadn't met yet) were staying the week so we had to drive over and see them! It was a perfect holiday! My mom made the meal (with a little help) and we all caught up. The kids played wonderfully without any fights and Ben and I only got in one tiny spat... that is success I say!!

SNOW!

We have had more snow this year already than we sometimes get all year! We even had a snow day in November for the first time in years. It has been fun, the boys have had a blast playing in it. They usually both will stay out for about an hour and then Sam comes in because he is cold and Rex will literally stay out there ALL day if I let him. I have to make him come inside and get warm. Goofy kid!
Of course in true Boise weather style it has been raining all this week so our snow is now gone. Hopefully we will get more before Christmas!

The first snow fall, trying to make the most of it.





The "big one" that canceled school!! You should of seen our neighborhood, it was a kid party!

Sam's school pictures

We got these awhile ago and now I am playing catch up of course. I think they are so adorable. I love how he is posing. I just went back and looked at Rex's photos from that year to compare. Check them out here. Sam just seems so much littler than Rex was. Maybe because he is still my baby.
He is loving Preschool and loves Miss Cindy. His friend Afton is in his class, as well as another Samuel and boys named Eli and Preston who he talks about frequently.

All I want for Christmas is...

Rex has a reason to be singing that song this year!! That brings his total lost teeth to 5 already and he isn't even 6 years old yet!

Perfect day

Rex has had the last couple of days off of school and we got lucky today because Mark decided to take the day off to spend some time with us. The boys gave us the best gift of all by sleeping in until 9:00! It was amazing. Then after we got ready Rex and I went on a "date". He had won a free kids meal at Olive Garden so we decided to head there but not before stopping at Toys R' Us to make a Christmas/birthday list. He took his Star Wars notebook and a marker and wrote down the #'s of the Lego sets he wants and had me write the other toys he wanted. We got a pretty good list. We then headed over to Olive Garden where we looked at the Big Toy Book we had gotten from Toys R' Us and ate our yummy lunch. We also discussed Kindergarten, some of mommy's school memories and his friends. We had a blast together. There was no whining, no fighting and best of all no one else to share our time with. I realized how fun my almost 6 year old is and what a blast it is to hang out with him. He is so bright and so well behaved when he is given the time and respect he deserves. I can't wait to take Sam on a date and have the same fun with him. This is going to have to be a regular thing.
After we got home the boys went to a friends house, Mark went to lunch with a friend and I had some quiet time. Then all three of my boys went on a fun errand while I cleaned the house. They brought Cafe Rio home, we ate and watched "How to Train Your Dragon", while they wore their Dragon jammies and had chocolate shakes.
It truly was the perfect day.

Family Pictures

My good friend Kim does our pictures every year. It's kind of an awesome trade because I cut her hair and she does our pictures. So we get pictures done by an awesome photographer and she gets her hair done by an awesome hairdresser ;) with no money exchanged. Like the humility there?
She did amazing as usual. Here are a few of my favorites.

One holiday down, two to go

I know Halloween is tomorrow but I have to say I am over it! It has been two days of Halloween fun and I am all "funned" out! I love the idea of Halloween but for me the execution of Halloween is far less fun when you have little kids, sugar highs, school parties, church parties, pumpkin carving, cookie decorating and costume making. My kids had a great time and they looked fabulous in their costumes though so I guess it was all worth it.
Mark gets 100% credit for Rex's amazing costume. Rex wanted not just to be Batman, but Lego Batman. Like this:

Mark worked hard, stayed up late and made him an amazing Lego Batman costume. My camera battery was dead yesterday during all our fun at the Kindergarten parade, City of Boise work trick or treat and the Scentsy trick or treat. I have to say though, it was very entertaining watching Rex maneuver around these situations. He couldn't really bend over, nor could he put candy from one hand into his bucket. At school as the kids were parading through the classroom, he even got stuck between a desk and the wall!! It was hilarious but he felt awesome because he had a neverending chorus of "cool costume" and "wow, that's a great costume", to which he replied, "I am a Lego Batman minifigure." It was a success so good job Mark!
Sam was a clone trooper yesterday and a pirate today. He was adorable and cute in either and was more than thrilled when Rex's teacher Mrs. Bott let him march in the Kindergarten parade. He had a grin plastered on his face the whole 30 minutes!
Bottom line: My kids had a blast which makes me happy, but if you are looking for me tomorrow I will be locked in a room with the lights off escaping Halloween!




Today this was the girl Rex was smitten with. Right before this picture I heard him say, "Let's just sit down over here for a little bit" instead of running around with his friends. I think I am in trouble.

Halloween Party

Some friends of ours in the ward put on an adults only Halloween party and it was so much fun! We even got to watch a magic show with a real live dove! I am pretty sure that dove hates his life but it was interesting to watch.
I have always wanted to be a pregnant nun and so since I am pregnant this year I knew that is what we had to be! It was pretty fun! I have to say we have some amazingly creative friends. Here are some of the fun costumes we saw.