The twilight before Christmas

I stole this from Niesha's blog. I thought everyone should be able to enjoy this. Merry Christmas!

http://www.take180.com/s/The_Twilight_Before_Christmas/ep5l7

I cannot figure out how to upload it so just click on the link.

Candy Cane Ball

Brian and I were able to go to the Candy Cane Ball (a fundraiser for literacy). Sadly we did not get pictures with Jenn but here are some with Brian's brother and his wife and then his sister and her husband. We were able to enjoy a great meal and a night out.

Seeing Santa

The kids love riding the train in the mall but I love the Santa better in the other mall sooo....we have to go to both each year. Here are a couple photos of the fun. Braxton is very concerned Santa is going to forget his Spike the Dino. He has been waiting so long and still at night Santa forgets to leave it. Santa's Elves come and visit a couple of times a week to make sure the kids have been good and leave a little treat in the magic box. The other morning when Braxton woke up he looked in and sadly looked at me and said, "He forgot Spike again. All he left was this little candy cane. Can we please go tell him again." We made our last trip to the mall so Braxton could tell Santa what he wanted.

Happy Birthday Peyton

Peyton celebrated his 2nd birthday this week. He did not have a hard time figuring out that all the presents were for him and none were for Braxton. I usually have things all prepared and told myself that I would never minimize his birthday because of the holidays. The day before his birthday I was frantically looking for a cake pan to make a cake for him but could not find the one I wanted. I resorted to using a old one. I showed Peyton the cake pans and asked him if he wanted a choo choo or elmo. He loves both but was hoping he asked for Elmo because it was less complicated. He of course picked the choo choo. At 9:00 pm and very tired I decided to do Elmo instead. The next morning when Peyton woke up I showed him his cake. He was very excited and yelled "ELMO!" Then looked at it and asked "Where's the Choo Choo". Ooops. Luckily he was very excited about his toys. He enjoyed not sharing his Diego Rescue pack, Block Train set, counting numbers bear, block puzzles, books, some sort of Rainbow scribble egg thing (it's way messier than they say it is).

Winter Fun

The kids are so excited there is snow. Braxton loves to go outside when it's snowing to try and catch snowflakes in his mouth. He told me the snowflakes were "very delicious and tasty". Each time we are out there the kids ask me to make snowballs so they can throw them at me. I love how excited they get when I agree and let them hit me wherever they can. I forgot how carefree it was to be a child and the snow brings back so many memories to me of my childhood. I was lucky enough to live on acres and acres of land with nobody living behind us for miles and miles. My home had a huge hill (I thought...now I realize it is not so big) but perfect enough to go sledding with my brothers and sisters. My dad would hook a sled up to the four wheeler and pull us. As we got older the game turned into jumping on the sled and trying to push the other off while still holding on. This game has gotten much more complicated as we have gotten older. The sled has now turned into a very slick piece of roofing material used to repel water with next to nothing to hold onto. My brothers will stop at nothing to get me off.

Catching Up

I have been a bit of a slacker and have not posted anything in months. Here is a quick update.

We did the Halloween thing. It was great and the kids loved it. If you can't tell-Braxton is a dragon and Peyton is a monkey.

Kerrie, Jennifer, Mom and I went to Grand Junction to see our adopted sister and her new baby. We love it and wished we were closer to Mirabella. I already miss her and her baby.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Noorlanders at my parents house. Even though we had a house full we were still missing so many people.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights. For those of you who know Mark that is his little boy on the end.

The following week we had our Christmas party with the Noorlanders. We visited old friends and neighbors, decorated gingerbread houses, played games, exchanged presents and had a surprise visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Brian and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in Park City. Thanks to our Mom's who took turns watching our kids we were able leave for 2 nights. We went skiing on Friday and Saturday. I have a really funny post later...I'm still not quite sure if I should share it with the public yet. I'm not good at skiing....not even a little. I should have worn a less noticalbe jacket because people really knew me up there. I think I was the only one on the slope with a pink jacket. Everyone else had black, white, or red. I really stood out. We did have a lot of fun though and really enjoyed the break.

I really cannot believe it has been 5 years. It seems like we are really just starting to get to know each other. We have now made it one year for every month we dated each other. We met July 13th, were engaged October 5th and married December 16th. Thank you to Britt...you are responsible for all this. I know you have heard that before but really. This is all your fault! We have had a lot of fun and have been very blessed to have our boys and each other. He is my best friend and I love him so much.

My boys

I have never done matching outfits before but Grandma Iva bought the boys some cute Sunday clothes. I have to say that I love it. I think they look so grown up which I am not thrilled about but they are so cute too!

Big Baby

I was so tired one morning and was trying to buy some more time for myself by telling Braxton to go get Peyton out of bed. Usually this means Braxton will go in and play in Peyton's room for a while, maybe get in the crib with him, read a couple books and whatever else he can get distracted with in 15 minutes. About 2 minutes later Peyton and Braxton came running in my room. Braxton looked at me and asked, "Did I get Peyton out Mom?" Peyton had a big grin on his face and I knew it was time to convert to a toddler bed. Just to make sure, I put Peyton back in bed to see if he could climb out. Sure enough he did and actually would have taken a hard fall had I not been in there. It has been a rough couple of mornings waking up at 6:00. These pictures are from his first night in his bed. Bedtime is not so bad, it is nap time and morning time. He just doesn't sleep as much.

Heber Creeper

Both of my boys love trains. We took a trip to the Heber Valley Railroad. They had a lot of fun.

Halloween Fun

As my kids are getting older I think the holidays are getting to be more fun. When it was still warm outside the kids painted pumpkins and then decorated them by picking out different faces for them. It was a lot of fun. After I get done taking pictures I look at my kids and have to ask myself how they got so big. It seems like Peyton went from baby to little boy over night.