wOnDeRFuL ChRiStMaS

Making/Decorating/Eating Cookies

molly LOVED the flour, can you tell? Oh and the frosting!! We tried to deliver some cookies to our neighbors cause we don't really know any of them yet, and I thought it would be a good way of getting to know some of them, but we were unsuccessful. (The people in our neighborhood kinda keep to themselves) We tried about 5 houses before giving-up and taking them to the closest ward members. One neighbor actually said "No thank you" when we tried to give him the cookies!! Seriously if you don't want them then take the cookies, say thank you, and when you close your door throw them away. Is that really too much to ask for? And for the record they were Delicious cookies.

Christmas EVE

We acted out the nativity for the 1st time and the kids really liked it. Every time we referred to Molly's baby as "Baby Jesus" she would correct us and say "NO, it's baby Maddie." The kids got new Jammies, of course, and watched some Christmas movies before bed. Molly was mad that we wouldn't let her eat Santa's cookies.

SANTA came

It was a successful/early Christmas morning. The kids got pretty spoiled by Santa and Grandparents. We had a really fun day, and a wonderful Christmas as a family.

Hurry Christmas....Hurry Fast

these kids sure have been good this year. I am being reminded just how hard it is for kids to wait until Christmas Day. They are just SOOO excited, with a touch of cabin fever. I'm proud of Molly for not tearing through all the presents a week ago, but I can see it in her eyes when she gets close to the tree, that it is taking all her strength not to just open those presents. Just 4 more days!!!! Merry Christmas

A Magical Week

We just got back from a week in Orlando at Disney World and we had a blast!!! All 26 of us!
We met up with most of the Yeates crew for a week of fun and thankfully all of Ethan & Molly's cousins were there. We went to parks almost everyday and then came back to the hotel to swim all night. The kids both had so much fun and haven't talked about anything else since we've been home. Scott and I had a great time too. I'm just glad I survived 6 days at Disney. I still feel exhausted.

Thanksgiving

It feels weird to be posting about thanksgiving cause as of Nov. 27th we have been all about CHRISTMAS! But I just got around to loading these pics, so for document purposes, here is our family on Turkey Day.

Scott's brother & family came in town and we had so much fun playing with cousins, laughing, and eating way too much! My refrigerator was literally bursting at the seams with food.

The Turkey was fabulous and I think I'm turning into my Dad in the sense that every year I want to out-do the last. So far this was the best turkey I've ever had so I don't know how I'll ever top it next year but I'm sure I'll try :)

I also hit some good sales with Michelle and we went to Kirtland to see all the Nativities, which was so beautiful. It was freezing but thankfully the snow they kept saying we were going to get never came. It was such a great weekend, Thanks for coming guys and we are even more excited to see you and the rest of the family all next week.

Learning to count

My little Molly is growing up way too fast..... but that's just part of who she is. We read a few counting books last week and now she loves to try and count. Sometimes I feel like she wants to be able to do EVERYTHING her brother can do (and Mom and Dad.) She started the "I do it" phase about a month ago and lately she wants to do everything all by herself. From getting dressed to pouring her breakfast cereal to going potty!!!! She tries to do it ALL! I often forget that she is 19mo. She talks so much that lately when we are at the store people will ask me if she's 2 1/2. I say "no but she thinks she is!" It is really so much fun to watch her grow and learn and discover the world around her. I just wish she wasn't in such a hurry.

30 years young

Happy Birthday Scott!!!!

tRiCk-or-TREAT!!

It was another successful Halloween! Honestly how can you go wrong when candy is involved? Ethan was a Robot and Molly was a piggy. I thought their costumes were pretty obvious, but apparently not to our neighborhood. Everyone kept asking if Ethan was a "gear box." Really?!?! What 4 yr old asks his mom if he can be a gear-box for Halloween. And everyone thought Molly was the Easter bunny..... I guess I made her piggy ears a little too big. But come-on people check out that cute curly tail! Oh well I guess that's what you get with homemade costumes.

E had been sick earlier in the week, and thankfully he was feeling better by Halloween, but the poor guy totally lost his voice. He squeaked out a mouse-like trick-or-treat for about 3 houses and then just held out the bag the rest of the night. It work just fine cause we have way too much candy! Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween too!

more fall

We have been trying to enjoy as much fall as we can the last few weeks. It has been chilly here and we have had so much rain but on sunny days we have picnics outside, go on walks, ride bikes, or just go to the park. Pretty much all the things we do in the summer, just with jackets and the sense of urgency feeling...... like any day could be the last "nice day" until spring. So we are trying to make the most of these gorgeous fall days before the dreaded winter comes.

We were also blessed with a visit from the Springer's this weekend. It was so fun to have them stay with us and the kids are already missing them. Hopefully the next time we get together it will be even more fun :)

Out my back window

Seriously! This is the gorgeous view I get to look at everyday from my kitchen window. It makes me happy. I LOVE watching the seasons change, but FALL is always especially beautiful to me.

We teach em' young

Why else do people have kids if not to put them to work.

Ethan is supposed to have a dish night once a week and it has actually been like a month since I've had him do it. So tonight I decided would be a good night to re-start and since He can't do ANYTHING without his little shadow/buddy, Molly helped. It was so funny, but they actually made a great team and did a really good job. Maybe we should have a dish night every night?

It's FALL!!!!

Fall in Ohio is always one of my favorite times. Although this year, here in Cleveland, it is a little colder than I'm used to, which I feel has somewhat limited our fall adventures. But despite the cold it is so amazingly gorgeous here! The trees in the last few days have been unbelievable and WE (me included) have been getting really excited for Halloween.

HaPpY FaLL!!!!

REUNITED

Conference weekend I was lucky enough to see two of my really good friends. Trisha came out for a visit from the rocky mountains and Melanie drove down from Buffalo. (Julia you would've made my life complete) Anyways we had a fabulous weekend. We went to beautiful Kirtland to see the sites and then just hung out the rest of the time like old times, laughing and reminiscing til 2 am. It was soooo fun and I've been wishing ever since that I could get together with all my favorite girls more often. Thanks again for coming ladies..... it was much needed :)

Soccer

Ethan started soccer a few weeks ago and it has been so fun to go to his games. He is on a team with all of his friends and he just goofs around and has so much fun.

At his first game he pretty much ran around tackling/pushing kids over, even when the ball was at the other end of the field. When I asked him about it he said "cause I've gotta get the other team." So we had a talk about how in soccer you just kick the ball with your feet. Well for the last few weeks everyday Ethan has wanted to "practice" in the back yard. So we have been playing a lot of soccer, and it was so great to see the difference.

Today in his game he actually went after the ball and not the other players. He was pretty good in the first half and scored 3 goals. The second half he was too tired so for part of the time he just sat on the ground. But I was so proud of my little soccer stud. It is seriously so funny to watch these kids run around and have fun.

Here are some videos from his game today. The first one is of him scoring a goal.

Half-time

This one is of him yelling at the other player for holding the ball. He was telling him that he can't touch it with his hands..... only feet!!

Apple Picking

We went apple picking with the kids last weekend. It was a gorgeous day and we came home with LOTS & LOTS of yummy apples.Ethan did the picking & Molly did the eating.

They make a great team.

I Love FALL!!!

chi town

Last weekend we went on a fun little family get-a-way to CHICAGO. Why Chicago? Well cause that's were we got a hotel, and it's only a 6 hour drive. We stayed with some friends that live just outside of the city on Sat and they were so nice to let us crash. On Sunday we headed into the city. Our hotel was right on the lake, which made it very convenient since we pretty much walked everywhere (to save on ridiculous parking charges.)

We found a really fun children's museum that we got into for free!! So we went there a few times cause the kids loved it.

We walked around Millennium park. The kids favorite part was the giant silver "jelly bean"

We took a boat tour of the city which was really cool and then we went up the John Hancock bldg.

We, of course, had some famous deep dish Chicago style pizza from Giordano's. E is giving some cheese to honor all the cheese pizza he just ate. I think I'm still stuffed from it.

Rode the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

Went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is a really fun zoo and it's FREE so that makes it even more great.The kids were soooo good on the drive. We had a few meltdowns while in Chicago, but for the most part it was a fabulous trip. We all had so much fun and E has asked everyday since when we are going back!

Thanks Chicago for such a great vacation.

Bears, Beets, Batttlestar galactica

We saw this "office mobile" dirving around the streets of chicago. It had talking and moving parts and it brought a smile to my face to know that my favorite show is back!!!!

Blast from the past...

Today while we were playing outside (in between rain storms) the UPS man brought us a really BIG package from my mom that we weren't expecting! The kids and I opened it up to discover that it was full of BABIES!!!!!! Oh Molly just couldn't contain her excitement! She just kept saying "baby" over and over.....it was so cute! For those of you that don't know she is absolutely obsessed with babies...preferably real ones but if none of those are around then a plastic one does just fine. These were not just any babies though. These were all my old babies from when I was little that my mom had saved for me. She thought they would get some good use at my house rather than in her storage. They were a little dirty and a few looked kind-of creepy but we got them all washed up and ready for LOTS of slobber kisses.The box was also full of doll clothes, half of which my mom sewed herself when I was little, also blankets and a cloth bassinet that was made by my mom too! It brought back so many memories. This is a picture of me with one of the dolls that is now Molly's. I got her on Christmas and my mom always talks about how that was her most favorite Christmas. (if you notice in the picture me and the cabbage patch are matching.... so cute!)
My favorite thing I found in the package were the matching aprons that my mom made for the two of us. There is a really cute picture of me making cookies in this apron when I was little but I couldn't find it. But I got really excited when I saw this cause I LOVED this apron. I always felt so special when I got to wear it and help in the kitchen.

Ethan had fun helping us pull everything out of the box and was happy when he found something he could claim as his own. We named him fuzzy blue and he thinks his crazy hair is pretty funny. He was a little confused and asked me why HE was wearing "girl pajamas"? Good question? He said "Boys don't wear pink pajamas!" Maybe I can dye them. But we all had a fun afternoon playing with all the new babies.

THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM!!!!!

Air Show

Saturday we went to the Air Show in downtown Cleveland. Now I know that might sound a little sketchy to those of you that know Cleveland, I admit I didn't quite know what to expect either???? I was however pleasantly surprised! We watched the Air show from the perfect spot. On a big grass field at the Great Lakes Science Center, right in between the Brown's football stadium and the Rock n' Roll Hall of fame, and right on the Lake.

From this point of view Cleveland looks like a Beautifully clean city..... who woulda thunk? (Just so you know we are going to bring any visitors we may get here first.)

Anyways it was a perfect day!!!! We had great weather, the kids had a blast running around on the grass and watching all the planes, and it felt like we had front row seats to the show without having to pay for them (minus what we paid to park)
The kids loved seeing all the cool airplanes, jets, helicopters, sky divers, etc. Ethan was really into it and loved every min. of it. He was especially happy that it wasn't "too loud" like the trucks at the Monster truck rally....... ......that is until the "BLUE ANGLES" showed up to preform at the end of the show.

At first he just covered his ears. Then after a little while I looked around and couldn't find him ANYWHERE. I almost got to the point of freaking out when I spotted something under a chair.

And this is how he remained until it was over. At least when it was time to leave we didn't have to fight about it! He was more than willing. For everyone else that actually watched the "Blue Angles", they were really cool. Maybe next year he will like it more?

HoRrAy for SCHOOL

Ethan started pre-school this week and we were both SOOO excited about it!!!! It is wonderful. He LOVES it, his teacher is AWESOME, and he is friends with ALL the kids in the class. He is already learning so much and it's just the first week.Molly was even excited on the first day.

I Love this picture above, she looks like she is reading to E.

She must thinks she is ready to go to school TOO!!!

These are some of Ethan's friends at school. It is going to be a great year!

When did he get so big?