Braegger Caroling

This is another one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  On the Sunday before Christmas, the Braeggers all meet for caroling.  Everyone brings goodies and we make up plates to take to the elderly in the neighborhood.  We all pile on a trailer and sing our little hearts out.  We are not the best singers, but we have fun anyway!

It was SO cold this year!  Logan didn't seem to mind though.

Jensen was having fun, too.  They all love to run the plates up to the doors!

Ally and Kylah love to be together!  Cousins are the best!

Holden was cold so he rode in the pick-up with Josh (I think it was really Josh that was cold) and this is what happened.  Bundle a kid up enough and you can cook him to sleep!  We thought he would wake up when we got back to Grandma's to eat chili, but....

...he didn't even move after we got back!  So funny!  He just sat there and sawed logs amid all the hustle and bustle of the evening. It was a fun night as usual.

Hartley Party

We had our annual Hartley Christmas Party and it was just like every year.  And that's a good thing!

We had our dinner of Ham and Funeral Pototoes, played Christmas Bingo for dollar gifts and then had a visit from Santa.  Short and sweet!

This is what Holden looked like when I asked him if he wanted to go see Santa. He was obviously not really into meeting him.

 

I didn't think Ally would actually sit on his lap (she said she wasn't going to), but she wanted one of his treat bags.  She wants some decorations for her room from Santa this year.

 

Jensen and Logan both want skis from Santa this year.  After they sat on his lap they helped with the songs. But Holden was far, far away from the man in red!

Decorators

I'm not sure what the deal was, but I wasn't that excited to decorate the tree this year.  We kind of drug our feet a little, but we finally got it done about a week after we brought it home.  I think my Christmas enthusiasm peaked early with all the Christmas shopping I did in October.

Anyway, isn't this a cute picture of my kiddles?  It almost looks like a different camera took it...oh wait, a new camera did take it!  Yes, I bought myself a new camera for Christmas and gave it to my self a little early. :) Wasn't that nice of me?

I just have to throw this picture in because this is a typical Bubsy look.  We get this look ALL DAY LONG!  It usually means naughtiness is about to commence.  Either that or extreme attitude!

He just kept getting higher and higher, the little stinker.

Logan had fun throwing all the "helicopters" off the top of the ladder and watching them dirty up my floor.

We're finally decorating the tree!  Wahoo!

Logan decided to photo-bomb my nice shot of Jensen.

We love our tall Christmas trees!

Christmas Tree Hunters

The day after Thanksgiving is always our Christmas Tree Hunt. This year we had the Kotters with us and it was an adventure as always!

It was COLD this year.  It also turned into a really bad storm.  We watched all morning as it snowed and the wind blew.  The storm broke in the early afternoon so we headed right out.

Holden insisted on getting out of the truck with us, but then turned around and cried while I tried to carry him through the two foot deep snow-fun.

We had a hard time finding good trees in this area so we decided to head back to the cabin.  While Josh was dropping people off, his Dad's pickup decided to break.  He was able to get us all back to the cabin, but then it died completely, leaving us stranded at the cabin. Yay. We ended up having to tow it back home after someone drove up with a different pickup.

Logan and his friend Taden stayed up in the canyon with Shelby and the weather got bad again.  They said trees were falling over as they were walking through the forest!  We spent the rest of the day watching the snow fly horizontally by the windows.

This is the next morning.  We headed down North Canyon road on the four wheelers as far as we could go.  We still didn't find the best trees, but our patience was running thin by this point.

Holden immediately started screaming this time.  I left Josh in charge of getting him ready, and it took me half the time to realize he didn't even put snow pants on the poor kid!  No wonder he was screaming!

The other kids had fun, though!

We loaded the trees on the four wheeler sled and then had Logan ride on top so they didn't fall off.  I took a picture but my camera, being the awesome thing that it is, didn't save it.  I also took a really cute picture of all the kids that disappeared, too.  Someone really needs a new camera!

It took Holden a while, but he finally got warmed up!

Funny (?) story about our ride home.  Logan and I were sitting in the back seat of the pickup and we saw something out of the corner of our eyes.  We both turned around and noticed that the Christmas trees we were hauling had blown out of the pickup!  It took us forever to find a place to turn back around and get back up to the spot.  Sure enough, two 15 feet Christmas trees were laying across the opposite lane of traffic on the two lane road!  We were so lucky no one got hurt, but it was kinda funny too.  We always have strange things happen on our Christmas tree hunts.  The trees ended up being okay, just a little road rashed!

We had tons of fun at the cabin this year, playing games, watching movies, napping and just being with family and friends.  Gotta love the Christmas tree hunt!

Where Have We Been?

So, our computer decided to quit working last month.  The mouse wouldn't do anything and seeing as how our computer was 6 years old, Josh figured it was just dead.  I said "let's just try the mouse and see if it is the problem". Josh said "no way. It's not the mouse. The computer is toast.  I hope you got everything important off of it." (I hadn't.)

So we ordered a new computer and printer and it came in the mail.  Our friend who is our "computer helper" said it would be a week until he could come help us set it up.  Just for kicks, I decided to try the new mouse on our old computer.  Yup, you guessed it. It worked just fine.  

But now we have a new computer, which we needed, and I was able to get all the stuff off that I needed to.

So I guess the moral of the story is "always check your mouse first". (Or "husbands need to listen to their wives", if you want to get technical.) ;)

10 Things

Okay.  I admit it.  I'm a little bit addicted to reading other people's blogs. Well, when reading the before mentioned blogs, I come across some good ideas for blog posts.  Of course in the month of November everyone is doing their "I'm so thankful" posts.  Like, every day.  That's a little much for me (and probably boring for the few of you who read this blog) so I decided to do one of the other cute things that I've seen...drum roll please...a list of "Ten Things I Love Right Now".  After all, aren't we thankful for the things we love?  See, nice tie in.  So here goes nothing.

1.  I love that my house is nice and toasty inside.  This cold weather is getting to me and it's only November-yikes!

2.  I love that I'm already a third of the way done with my Christmas shopping.  I want to be done by Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the Christmas Season.

3.  I love that Holden loves to run his fingers through my hair whenever I hold him.  He also has the cutest way of saying "Yub you, Mom."  (Yes, my heart melts every time.)

4.  I love that Ally has gotten the "composing" bug.  When she is composing piano music I know she is truly happy.

5.  I love that Jensen was so excited to sing in his Veterans Day Program today.  I hope I can always keep a picture in my heart of him belting out "God Bless the USA".

6.  I love that Logan is such a little entrepreneur.  He's always looking for a way to make a buck and right now it's raking leaves for the neighborhood.

7.  I love that there is good, uplifting music in the world.  Seriously, it's truly a blessing and can bring such a sweet spirit into my life.

8.  I love that my hubby and I are happy together.  Nuff said.

9.  I love that I live so close to family.  Some people think we're a little nuts to live so close to our parents, but I am thankful everyday that my kids have such awesome relationships with their grandparents.

And last, but not least...

10.  I love that I know my Heavenly Father loves me.  Seriously, how can anyone get through life without that knowledge?  

I am so blessed.

Halloween!

I am the first to admit that Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  A common phrase I use with my kids is "I'm not fun".  I don't like to dress up and the thought of more candy around the house makes me feel fat.  I also find it kind of morbid.  However, I did branch out and went to "Thriller" with some friends.  It was really fun, a little gory, but fun!

This is the crew this year.  We had mummy dogs for dinner and then got our costumes on and headed to the city Trunk-or-Treat.

Ally was an old lady.  We found the dress, hat, shoes and purse at the DI.  She used the big ugly purse to put her candy in!  The wig is from my parents costume supply.  We tried to spray paint it white, but we ended up with a dingy grey, which looked good anyway.  The wig was pretty stinky and we kept telling her she smelled like an old person.  The hat is from when I was a teenager. I wore that thing all the time and thought I was so cool!

Logan decided to use his assets this year.  Since he is already missing teeth like an old person he wanted to dress up as an old man.  Neither Ally nor Logan knew the other one wanted to be old people.  It was kinda funny when they both told me.  I got Logan a flannel shirt at the DI and he stuffed it full of my good dish rags to give himself a tummy.  He borrowed a hat from my Dad and the walker they have and he was good to go!

Jensen wanted to be Indiana Jones.  He already had his hat that would work so I tried to find some pants and a jacket for him to wear and I wasn't having very good luck.  Then I tried KSL (online classifieds) and found a whole outfit with a whip for $15.00! Score!

And of course we have our little stinker.  This is seriously the cutest costume ever and very appropriate.  People kept asking him if he was a little stinker and he kept going from saying "yes" to being offended and saying "no".  He was so cute when he would say "Thank You" to everyone.  I wish I could freeze these moments to play back later. (I got a new camcorder, filled up the memory on it and can't figure out how to get the video off so I can start again-dumb me)

At the Trunk-or-Treat.  Josh even made it home (barely) in time for the festivities.  It's fun seeing all the people from town we know.

Holden made me take a picture of his candy.  This was his first item and he was pretty excited about it.  It didn't take him long to find out what Halloween was all about.

After the Trunk-or-Treat we always let our kids go to a few houses in town.  We all hopped on the golf cart (with Taden and Payleigh, Logan's friend and little sister) and cruised around.  The weather was wonderful!  We didn't even have to cover up our costumes with coats like ususal.

The loot.  Jensen's face says it all!

Holden loved Halloween!  While he was eating his Twinkie he was wiggling his rear in a little happy dance-so cute!  

I know I said I'm a Halloween grump, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  But I'm still glad to have it over!

*Guess what I got in the mail today?  My Christmas cards!  It's so unlike me but I'm totally excited for Christmas and I feel like addressing them already!  Someone take my temperature because I know I'm sick!*