LOTS OF FUN AND FAMILY TIME!

MATCHING CHRISTMAS PJ'S

I hope you all had a great Christmas, we sure did! The kids were a lot of fun this year and were really into Christmas. We stayed here in Idaho Falls for the holidays and got to see a lot of family which is always good. We also got a LOT OF SNOW which is always lots of fun for the kids and Dan who always enjoys a good wet snow fall. On Christmas eve we went to my parents house early and the kids went outside to sled behind Jake's little four-wheeler. Dan and Jake decided it would be a good idea to take the kids off of a "small" jump out front. Apparently they made it over a few times okay, but the kids eventually got thrown off with Tarek getting the brunt of the crash. Now in all of the pictures he has a huge bandage on the side of his face. We had a great meal at my parent's house with lots of family, celebrated Christmas morning at home, and than Christmas afternoon we went back to my parents to have a smaller party with our family. Dan took the kids out back and spent several house building a fort with a huge sledding slide off of it. I don't have any pictures of the fort, but as usual it always amazes me what Dan can figure out to do with Snow!

Dan bought himself some new games for the Wii, which he had already opened and played by Thanksgiving. I got a massage cushion that I absolutely love, and some new PJ's! Kalli got a guitar from her Dad, Mouse Trap from Tarek and a Cupcake maker from Santa (it was all she wanted and after the first round of cupcakes, I don't think it is going to get all that much use!) Tarek got a football uniform from his Dad, along with a real football. a Thomas the Train game from Kalli and a huge set of wood building blocks from me. We also got some new Car DVD players from my parents as ours had broken on our last trip down south, it sure makes driving go by faster when the kids are watching shows! We now get to head down to Pocatello for some more fun and family time with Dan's parents and family. Hopefully the weather will be a little better than it has been!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS TIME!

Wow it has been a long time since I wrote a blog entry. Time sure does fly by when you are busy! So a quick update on our lives the last few weeks. We have been busy helping to get ready for Scott and Traci's wedding (Congratulations Scott and Traci!), trying to get ready for Christmas (think I am finally done), attended Robert and Staci's wedding (Congratulations Rob and Staci), helped at Kalli's Christmas Party, and babysat Brooke's kids a few times. The kids are loving all of the snow that we have been getting, now if it could get warm enough for them to actually play outside in it for longer than a few minutes. Tarek has discovered a new way of looking at the world, and spends most of his time upside down. This is usually the position I find him in. He has also got to start going into primary for singing time and thinks he is actually now a Sunbeam! It is hard to believe that in January he will be.I have not had a lot of ambition this year, and so never got any Christmas cards made or sent, but are loving getting so many cute cards from friends and family. I did manage to take a picture of the kids all dressed up in their Sunday Christmas clothes (also the clothes for Scott and Traci's wedding which work out great for me!) so that is just going to have to work for us this year. Dan decided the other day to show my kids how to slide down the stairs in a sleeping bag, Kalli loved it and would have done it all day, Tarek found it a little bit too scary, though he didn't want to admit it. I remember doing the exact same thing when I was growing up with friends and family and always thought it was fun.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

O' CHRISTMAS TREE; O'CHRISTMAS TREE...

Well, we headed down to Gunnison for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with Dan's family. And of course, I forgot my Camara, so no good pictures this time. It was a really relaxing and laid back weekend and I spent most of the time asleep, trying to avoid the smell of food coming from the kitchen. Anyway, now on to Christmas! I usually get all my Christmas decorations out the day after Halloween and start decorating. This year however, the energy is just not there! I am also someone who really likes having a really Christmas tree, I love the smell of pine and there is just something about Christmas with a real live tree. So this year is going to be slightly different. ( I really don't want to have to get under a tree to water it, and I also have a hard time with vacuuming and sweeping and don't want to have pine needles all over.) So we took the kids to the store and bought our first every fake white Christmas tree. My kids loved that the tree was white! They had a lot of fun getting to decorate it and than they moved on to more of my house. I love the little stickers that go on windows as the kids get to help decorate without having to handle anything that can break. Both Tarek and Kalli really got into the decorating and are now ready for Christmas.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FAMILY NIGHT GINGER BREAD HOUSE!

KALLI AND TAREK HARD AT WORK

For family night this week, the kids have been begging to put together the Ginger Bread house that they had bought from the store when they went shopping with Dan's mom. We only had one house, so we decided that we would each take a side. It is quite amusing to see the differences in personalities by how their side is decorated. Now I just have to deal with the kids wanted to eat the house and candy ALL THE TIME! Oh well, we had a great time working together as a family and getting to spend time together.

TAREK'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

KALLI'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

MY SIDE OF THE HOUSE

DAN'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

We hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING this week!

X-BOX OR WII

This weekend I had Dan and his Dad rearrange some of my furniture in order to make things a little more comfortable and convenient. Well in the process, Dan's old X-box ended up in my front room. We have not hardly played the X-box since Tarek was born as we got a Nintendo Wii a few years ago, and that is what was hooked to the TV. Tarek thinks the X-box in now the greatest thing ever, only he has not figured out how to work the controllers and thinks you still have to use movement like you do with the Wii. It is really quite funny to watch him play and work up a sweat!

LOCKS OF LOVE; LOTS OF FOOD!

Kalli has been asking to get her hair cut for several weeks, and I kept on putting her off. Finally, I got around to calling and making an appointment for both of us to go in and get our hair cut. She was so excited and had decided that she wanted to cut her hair short in order to donate her hair to Locks of Love.

She was really brave and the hair cut turned out so cute! I think that it makes her look a lot older than she did. It will also be easier for her to take care of in the morning, as I am not usually up and about as she gets ready for school.

My in-laws also came up to visit for the day on Friday. My father-in-law was busy hunting for a moose with Dan's brother and his wife (which they had great success at). So my mother-in-law took my kids after Kalli got home from school, shopping for our Christmas present. She has always felt like they should give gifts that are useful and needed. So since food storage is really being pushed lately, she decided they would help us get some food storage, but not the basics. She wanted to get things that my kids would actually eat and that we could use the next year. She was very brave and took both Kalli and Tarek shopping without us. I than understand that they basically got to go on a huge shopping spree through the store and pick out foods that they would actually eat. They ended up filling two shopping carts FULL, three after they were bagged. When asked how she managed that she said Kalli pushed a cart and she pushed and pulled the other two with Tarek riding. (CRAZY! I dread having to go shopping alone with just Tarek!) To my amazement, they actually came home with some good food! Granted there were a few luxury items included (A ginger bread house kit), but most of the food was fairly healthy and food that they both actually like. All of this was really great, until I got home and was informed that I was now responsible to find somewhere to put all of the food! I can now say that the shelves in our storage room are now officially FULL! Tarek was really proud of the Cheetos's that Grandma let him buy, as mom never lets him get them cause they are so MESSY! We than met up with the rest of Dan's family and went out to dinner for my birthday. Thanks to all those that called or wrote to wish me well, I had a really good day and received some very special gifts from my kids. Kalli made me a box that she covered in words that reminded her of me, and Tarek gave me an envelope full of paper he had colored and than cut into strips. I love the homemade gifts and the thought that I know they put into them. What a great family I have!

TWO POINTS, STOMACH BUG AND ONE SILLY LITTLE BOY!

I haven't had much this week to blog about. Not much has happened in our little house. Kalli had a basketball game on Saturday, and she scored her first basket! She was so excited she was bouncing all over the floor. Since it was her first basket we took the kids out for ice cream cones.
There has been a stomach bug going around our house, and a three year old with an upset stomach is really not very fun! I had thought Tarek was over the bug and he had been fine for about two days, my mom and Brooke called to see if we wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch and let the boys play on the toys. Just after we got our order and were sitting down, I told Tarek to come over and eat his food, he walked over to the table and proceeded to lose everything he had eaten earlier that day. It was such a mess and of course the place was full of people and other kids. As we were getting into the car Tarek said to me "Good thing I didn't throw up on my food huh mom!" What a thought full little boy. Hopefully we have gotten over it now and can get back to normal lives.
I have been told that you should write down the funny or silly things that your kids do when they are little in order to remember them when they get older. I have never been good at doing that, but maybe now would be a good time to start. Today was Sunday and we had just gotten to church and Tarek was complaining about being hungry. In order to get him to be quite at least until the sacrament, I gave him a piece of gum. Well, he settled down and was fine until the sacrament began to be passed. Dan told Tarek to come and give me the gum to throw away. He was not to happy with that and let Dan know that he was not done with it. So Dan explained to him that he would need to put it into his cheek on one side of his mouth while chewing the bread on the other. I look over just as Tarek is taking the sacrament and he has his bright yellow piece of gum stuck to the outside of his cheek! The family behind us, of course, found this to be rather entertaining. He was just excited that at the end he still had his gum! What a cute kid!

SOCCER, BASKETBALL AND TRAINS!

Two weeks ago Kalli finished playing fall soccer. We were glad when it ended as the games were starting to get REALLY COLD!She loves playing soccer and has really improved over the last year. She got to be on a team with Kaydra (Brooke's daughter) and Madison (my cousin Justin's daughter) and than Madison's mom Lisa was the coach. Lisa did such a good job with the kids and they always seemed to be having fun with the sport. Kalli than was asked to join a basketball team for second and third graders with another girl from the neighborhood. She was really excited and has wanted to try out basketball for awhile. She got quite a surprise when she got to practice and was a good three inches shorter than the next tallest kid on her team, and also that the league is co-ed. Today they played a team with a few boys on it and one of the boys was HUGE! Kalli did not even come up to his shoulders! She was a little overwhelmed the first game, but has started to figure out a few things and is catching on quickly. She is always willing to listen to her coach and is trying hard.

Tarek has discovered a train set that use to belong to Kalli. He has played with it before but always on tracks that Dan has set up. Now he has figured out how to make the tracks himself. The last few days, all he has wanted to do was to build new tracks for the trains. It is funny to watch how concentrated he gets while hooking pieces together. Any time Dan tries to give input Tarek lets him know that is not the way he wants it. He spent at least two hours today making a track that covers most of the floor in our TV room. I guess at least he is keeping himself busy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

So while Dan is out Trick-or-treating with the kids (hurray for helping husbands!) I thought I should update our blog with some cute new pictures as I have a TON of them. The kids have had a full week this week with all the activities and parties for Halloween. First though, I had meant to post a picture of this earlier with the other pumpkin pictures and forgot, but Kalli found this gourd out in the field while helping Lorie, and it looked just like a face! Anyway, the kids painted pumpkins a few days ago, Tarek had gotten a pumpkin from his nursery class (thanks Lorie) and was very determined that he was going to paint it. So I finally got up the ambition to get the paints out and cover the table. They had so much fun, it made me feel bad for dreading it so much. Than today, we finally got around to actually carving some. At least that was the plan, however, Tarek, the boy who loves to catch grasshoppers and hold snakes would not put his little hands into the pumpkins to help clean them out! I was shocked! I did finally convince him to help which lasted about two minutes than he was done. Kalli on the other had, cleaned hers out, and created the design on the pumpkin, and started to cut it out when we realized that the skin on her pumpkin was so thick the knife she was using couldn't cut clear though, so after all she had done, I ended up having to cut her design out as well with a sharper kitchen knife. At least they were proud of the end product.As soon as Dan got home from work Tarek informed him that he had cut his pumpkin all by himself! To which he than stated "except mom helped me."

As for Trick-or-Treating, Tarek decided that he wanted to be tiger this year and he looks so cute and grown up. He refused to wear the hat tonight, but at least I got a picture of it on him.Kalli wanted to be a witch and was so excited when we found a pink and black which so that she could be a nice, pretty witch. They both looked so cute and were so excited to go out tonight, and like I said before, lucky for me Dan was willing to tag along. Well, I better get the door as there are trick-or-treaters knocking!

PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS EVERYWHERE!

A picture of one of the pumpkin fields.Kalli picking pumpkins

Tarek in the field choosing a pumpkin

Every year at the start of October we try to take a family trip down to David and Lorie's Farm, just as the pumpkins are getting picked and yet the weather is usually very nice. Kalli had a few days off from school so we took the opportunity to head on down. The kids alway love going down and absolutly love being on the farm. The last two years Lorie has carved the kids names into pumpkins while they are still small and the flesh is usually able to heal leaving the kids names imprinted in the pumpkins. She than takes the kids out to the field and they get to find the pumpkin with their names on them. Tarek's didn't work quite as well this year and is starting to rot, but we hope it will make it a few weeks before being totally rotten.

Kalli with her named pumpkin

Tarek with his named pumpkin

There is always something to do on the farm and no one is every board, the eggs need gathered from the chickens,

the golf course is always ready to play on, there are always extra four wheelers, and the cows always love to have rotten pumpkins feed to them. (Tarek especially loves this job, and loves to help Dan throw the pumpkins in with the cows and make them explode!)

Dan and Tarek even managed to get in some lawn mowing. They figured out that the grass was just long enough to mow letters into it. I don't know how pleased Lorie was to find the letters in her grass. I am so glad for the modern conviencies we have now, I can't imagine trying to mow an entire yard with one of these.

And of course Grandma always needs help picking pumpkins for her market.

We borrowed my Dad's truck for the weekend in order to bring back a few pumpkins and we always have fun decorating the front of our house with them. This year was fun in that many of Dan's brothers and sisters were there as well with their families so the kids got to spend a lot of time with their cousins. It is such a nice place to go and visit, and the kids always want to stay longer. Kalli has mastered the four wheelers and loves taking them for rides and running errands for Grandma Lorie all over the farm. While we were there Lorie had some kindergarten classes scheduled to come out for a tour of the pumpkin patch.

Kalli with her pumpkin to take on the bus

The kids get to come out into the field and pick a pumpkin to take home with them while she tells them all about pumpkins. Kalli and Tarek thought this was great and got to ride on the school bus with Lorie and the kids.

Tarek with his pumpkin (he chose a white one)

Tarek was so proud of himself and really made a lot of friends when he caught a HUGE grasshopper out in the field and took it on the bus to show everyone.

Showing off his prize catch of the trip, his grasshopper

We always have such a great time there, and yet it is always so nice to be back home in your own bed. I do have to say that after a few days work down there, I am glad to not live a farm life! Those early morings and long days sure would be hard to do every day. We are sure greatful for David and Lorie and all they do for our family and our kids, and really do appreciate them letting us interrupt their lives for a few days every October.