Christmas......2011

What a fun holiday season we had this year.  Ashton and Addy were so fun.  They knew more what was going on and they were so excited about everything we did.  They loved going for rides and looking at Christmas lights.  Addy especially liked this and called out every color of lights that we drove by.  We finally made it up to Temple Square this year to see the lights.  It was the first time Ashton and Addy had ever been.  The weather was great, it wasn't too cold and the lights were beautiful.  They also loved the Festival of Lights.  We let them ride on our laps as we went through and they loved it.

Christmas Eve was spent hanging out with my family in the afternoon and then going to the Hales' for our traditional prime rib dinner, hayride through the Festival of Lights, and the pajama parade to end the night.  It was such a fun night.  We went home and put out all the presents and then went to bed!

 Ashton loved this microphone and sang in it all night!

Getting ready for the pajama parade...

Opening presents from our cousins

Christmas morning was a riot.  They were so cute and so excited about every present they got.  Ashton is all about cars, trucks, trains, and tractors.  He got some of each.  He was especially excited about his firetruck.  He was with us when we bought it and we just figured he would forget about it, but he talked about Santa Clause bringing him that firetruck for the whole month of December.  Addy is so girly.  She loves anything that is pink, a Princess, or Minnie Mouse.  She was so happy every time she opened a present for her she would say "that's for Addy!"  Me and Jesse also enjoyed our presents as well, but I definitely think the kids were the highlight of Christmas this year.

Brave Babies

So for the last year or so it seems like one of my kids has had an ear infection about every other month. Ashton has had seven infections and Addy has had five. Finally, after feeling like I was always going to the doctor and since we have had three infections since school started, we decided it was time for the little children to have tubes put in their ears. So the minor surgery was scheduled for Nov. 11 and I knew that it wasn't going to a difficult surgery or recovery because needing seems to be genetic in Jesse's family so we had lots encouragment that they would be fine. So we headed out Friday morning to the surgical center. We had to check in at 7:20. So once we were all checked in and were settled in our little room, we had to change their clothes and then it was time to wait for our turn. So we ended up having quite a bit of time to wait so we read lots of books and watched a little Disney Channel until it was our turn. Addy got to go first and they come and take her to go back to the operating room and she actually handled it pretty well. About thirty minutes later it was Ashton's turn to go. He of course cried and was not happy about leaving with some nurse which broke my heart, poor little guy. A few minutes later they came carrying Addy back to us and she was screaming! She was so mad because they had an oxygen sensor taped around her foot and she was not going to have it. Finally, the nurse just took it off and said she seemed to be breathing just fine:) Not too long after that Ashton was brought back to us and he wouldn't let anyone carry him so they wheeled him in on his bed. So as they turn the corner, there he is in the middle of his bed, red-faced and just screaming until he saw his parents and then he chilled out a little. So we hung out in the room for a little bit while the anethesia wore off. They drank some juice and Addy ate oreos, Ashton never would eat anything. Then it was time for us to go. Addy was pretty much back to normal by the time we left and told all the nurses bye bye on her way out. Ashton was still a little crusty. Anyway, they were so big and brave for their first surgery, even if it was just a little one.

Just hanging out until it was our turn to go back.

Addy seriously was just relaxed and enjoy Handy Manny!

This is after they were both done.  Addy is already feeling better and eating Oreos.  Ashton is still coming around.

Seriously ready to go home!

Happy Halloween!!!!

This year for Halloween Ashton and Addy were pirates.  I thought they looked adorable.  They got all dressed up for our ward tunk-or-treat and Halloween party.  On Halloween we went to see the grandparents and some friends and then we went home and dinner and carved our great big pumpkin.  It was a fun night and every time some kids rand the doorbell they got so excited to give candy to another trick-or-treater!

Pumpkin Patch

We spent one lovely Saturday afternoon a couple weeks ago going to the pumpkin patch.   My kids were pretty excited for the tractor ride out to the pumpkins and they had a great time walking through trying to decide which pumpkin they wanted.  We tried to get Ashton to pick one but they were always too heavy or too dirty for him.  It was quite funny when he'd say, nope heavy.  Anyway, we finally found two punmpkins that they liked.  They also loved the baby pumpkins (gourds), so they got to pick our a couple of those to take home as well. 

Pictures

So the Hales' family had family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. We had this great lady take them and can I just say the my children and mostly Ashton bawled through pretty much the whole thing. I was so frustrated because I wanted some cute new pictures to hang in my house and me kids acted terrible. Some of the ones with them all teary-eyed ended up looking kind of cute but they sure were naughty.