Our Christmas Tree

We headed off to the cabin on Thanksgiving so we could find our tree the next day. Our friends the Kotters came with us. We didn't know if they would want to come again after our adventure last year! (We almost took a trip down the side of the mountain in the truck!) But the weather was beautiful and everyone had a wonderful time!

Such a sweet little boy! Holden had fun on his second Christmas Tree hunt. He liked being outside and going on four wheeler rides. The scratch by his eye is from our fire place at home.

Cool JT
Katelyn, Ally and Logan were excited to find Christmas Trees!

The kids love to be pulled on the sled behind the four wheeler, unless it tips over in the snow. Then they inform Josh that he is a crazy driver!
Sneaking up the ladder! He is quite the little climber!

Holden enjoyed his view from the top!

The boys wouldn't stay away from the ladder (including Holden!). It's a good thing we had it for Josh to put the star on. He stood on the top with a foot on the ledge, a hand on the wall and a hand putting the star on-scary!

Yay! The finished product. It's only a few inches from touching our ceiling. That makes it almost 19 feet tall! The kids had fun making ornaments for the tree this year. We put pretty gold garland in empty glass bulbs. They look so beautiful with the gold bows. We can hardly wait for Christmas!

Halloween!

We had so much fun this year. We didn't find time to carve our pumpkins until Halloween afternoon and I am so glad we waited. The weather was beautiful! It was so nice not to freeze to death or, even worse, carve them in the house. I decided to pay homage to my boy's John Deere obsession and carve my pumpkin with the John Deere logo.

Our kids costumes were quite an interesting conglomeration this year. Ally wanted to be a snowman, I mean snow-woman. It was kind of a challenge to figure out, but with the help of Aunt Suzy and a lot of poly-fil, we transformed her into a passable snow-woman. My favorite part was the carrot nose. Logan was a scary skeleton this year. The mask freaked out Holden a little. It was Jensen's turn to use Ally's Christmas Tree costume and it was definately a hit as usual. Holden got to use the elephant costume-so cute!

We attended Willard City's Annual Trunk-or-Treat. A great way to get lots of candy in a short amount of time. They even provided dinner (chili, hot dogs and scones). Then we drove the kids around town so they could go to a few houses. After that, Josh was dying for a drink (Caramel Coke) from Yogurt Factory so we took the kids there and pumped them full of even more sugar! Gotta love Halloween!

Holden's First Birthday!

Holden turned one on October 17, 2009. The McBrides, Aunt Suzy and both sets of Grandparents we able to come for a family party at our house and he had a fun day. He really didn't know what was going on, but was interested in the presents and loved the cake! He got lots of fun new toys and had his own little Oscar the Grouch cupcake cake. The green frosting made for a bright mess! We love our little Holden "Bubby" (silly nickname, but it stuck!) and are so glad to have him in our family!

Ally is 10!

Wow! I can not even believe my baby girl is ten years old now! Nothing like a kid hitting double digits to make you feel old! She is such a good girl, though. And such a joy to have in our family.
We started out the birthday with a family birthday party on Sept. 27th. The McBrides, Aunt Suzy and Dustin, and both sets of grandparents came over. She got a fish named Glubby from her brothers, some more fun stuff and two 15 dollar gift cards to Wal-mart. She used those toward her new mountain bike. On her birthday (28th) she had school, piano and ballet. But we saved her present from us for her to open (a beanbag chair) and then took her to Idle Isle for dinner.
Then on the 30th she had her "friend" party. Eight little girls for a sleepover! Wow, I never knew little girls could be so wild! She had an American Girl theme and had them bring their favorite doll or stuffed animal. We ate pizza, decorated bags (one for the girl, one for the doll) and watched lots of American Girl movies. She had a great birthday!

Holden's First Haircut

Holden's hair finally reached the point of shagginess that required a haircut. My other two boys were so good for their first haircuts, but I had the sneaking suspicion that Holden wasn't going to be quite so easy. I was right! Talk about screaming! He did not like it at all. In fact, it took him a half hour after to quit sobbing. Poor kid. The things we do to our kids! It made for some cute pictures, though. You can see he was a little curious at first, but soon realized he didn't like it. I ended up having to hold his head still for the barber. Not an easy task with a thrashing toddler! I was so frazzled I even forgot to grab some of his hair! He sure looks like a handsome little guy now!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken in August and it was quite the adventure. Jensen (my usual good smiler) decided to pull weird faces in all the group pictures. And Holden did not like family pictures at all. We gave up trying to get any of him smiling. But of course he smiled and giggled all the way home. Little Stinker! Despite all the craziness, I loved catching this moment in time!

Holden's First Steps

Holden has been taking steps all over for the last couple of days and he is so proud of himself. We are so happy, but so sad, too. Every milestone of his will be a last for our family, but that's okay. We're excited to see what the future holds for us. And we're so happy to have him in our lives!