I know...right?

I am not a sew-er but i may be now! My friend Rian and i have slaved over the machine and tracked through smashed up fishy crackers for days! Its been fun...and i cant wait to start a new project.
I really like the randomness of my stockings and am thrilled!

In the midst...

of making some freakin cute Christmas stockings! More to come on that shortly...
stay tuned. you won't want to miss out.

Not much going on at our house...just getting siked for Thanksgiving. I'll be making my grandma's famous "yam soufle" that contains about 3 sticks of butter. Totally worth the calories. I will just need to work my booty off in spin this week.

Reg man and O are keeping me busy. Reg is walking all over town and bonking his head at every turn. O is reciting his alphabet song 24/7 and proud as can be about learning new letters in pre-school.

Christmas shopping is coming to a close for me. Im too impatient to wait till the last minute..or December for that reason. I hate crowds...so therefore, i get it done early. The Christmas tree is about to go up and i need some ideas for cute home-made ornaments. Suggestions welcome!

But seriously, some dang cute stockings coming your way!

lighting ceremony

As you may recall, my husband is very much into Christmas. The season, the parties, the festivities...and THE LIGHTS. This year was our

1st annual LIGHTING CEREMONY...

Neighbors gathered, drank hot choco, ate marshmallows till there mouths were sticky and helped us start the Christmas season with a bang

the countdown begins from 10,9,8...wait for it, wait for it.

and...Ohhhhhh, Ahhhhhhh.

Tyson worked so hard and this picture doesn't even do it justice.

Merry Christmas Season to all!

ps- we do LOVE and give ALL our thanks for thanksgiving...but we do like to start xmas early around here.

tradition continued

Another tradition my mom always has done with us kids is something i want to pass on with my family. We always used to read a Christmas story on Christmas Eve. I loved doing this.
This year, i am going to pick up this little treasure and read it to my family.
I feel warm and fuzzy inside.

already

Im already getting ideas for Christmas...

Seeing that Tyson is well into putting up his lights.

This one for sure will be a new tradition for us...

Hang up random socks for a countdown for Christmas and put a little surprise in them each day for kiddos to take out.

cute eh?

More tradition ideas to come.

A few things on my mind lately.

Have you ever been to a craft store and felt WAY overwhelmed? Holy smokes people...i used to go, pick up some cute 10 cent paper, a few stickers and be on way with confidence. Now-a-days there is just way too much to think about. AND paper is up to $1.99. What? I entered the land of stamps, stencils and de-cals today and left totally confused on what to do. But you know, i personally like the simple look. For me, who called myself a scrapbooker back in the day...until our basement flooded and ruined years of hard work...i now look forward to throwing my pictures in a photo album and feel good about using my sisters talent (she makes cute invites...but don't hit her up, she's totally busy).

Anywho....

another thing i realized while on my run today was that results come you least expect them. Let me explain. I started running when i was in 8th grade. I loved conditioning in basketball practice, i loved hershey track meets, i used to run home from high school. I ran my first marathon the year after i graduated high school and pretty much every year since then. Since i want to keep running when im 60, or walk for that matter, i figured i better save my knees now and do something a little less body grueling. I started doing sprints, running the stadium stairs, spin class and weight lifting. I finally feel like i am challenging myself and really like it. If any of ya out there feel like running gets too tedious, try mixing it up. Shocking your body is a great way to get results and get your heart really pumpin. And who knows, maybe i will run a marathon here and there, but for now, i like the 3 quick miles so i can get home and kiss my babies all day.

Another thing...

Getting up early is becomming more and more easy but staying up past 8:00 pm is getting harder and harder. Is the dark getting to anyone else?

I normally don't do this...ramble on about random things so feel free to skip this whole thing but..hey, sometimes i like to share whats on my mind. and BRITTA, here is a hair picture just for you. Its a little longer now and more mullety but i like it.

The end.

last half of october

We FORCED Owen (aka- captain hook. minus the hook...O is very particular) to go trick or treating this year. Grandma Luann and Grandpa Bart came to ease the pain. Lets just say, we made it to about 5 houses, then he wanted to get home and GIVE candy to trick or treaters. He hates stress and apparently trick or treating was too much for the little man.
To celebrate halloween festivities we carved pumkins and made witches brew at grandma leslee's and grandpa Daves house.

A little concern was had when Owen thought he had to drink witches blood (cherry 7-up) and eat eyeballs (ice cubes with blueberries in them). He warmed up to the idea and enjoyed it.

For preschool Owen went with his class to the pumpkin patch...along with ALL other preschools in utah county that day. I went to help out and got yelled at by some lady who thought Reggie should have been wearing socks. (it was 70 degrees that day). She didn't hide rolling eyes at me and accusing me of being a neglectful mother. I didn't buy it. I think im a good mom. :)

Owen has many neighborhood buddies and we LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They are so dang cute. The other day, they all wanted to dress up pre-halloween and practice trick or treating...so they did. Here is Owen and little Alec (together these boys are trouble i tell ya!) dressed up as super heroes.

And here is the rest of the gang...some of them at least... jumpin on our community trampoline. Let me tell you, there is always someone jumping and always games to be played. Such a fun neighborhood to grow up in!