Christmas Pictures

At Thanksgiving my brother was kind enough to take some pictures of the kids for our Christmas cards (not that I gave him much of a choice). Clearly Aaron was the only child that felt like taking pictures. Ian was too busy wanting to play with his cousins and Ava would have rather been napping. Needless to say Andrew was still able to catch a few great shots.

My family and grandparents came down to our house after Thanksgiving. We had fun relaxing around the house and chatting. And of course we had to go to old spaghetti factory. Somehow the boys convinced Andrew that he should sit in the back with them. I found this picture hilarious for two reasons. 1) Andrew is riding in my van...he despises all vans and I am not actually sure why. 2) Andrew is 6'4 not exactly the typical person you would expect to be sitting in the back middle seat of a minivan. Needless to say the boys thought it was awesome!

Aaron was a little tired waiting for his food. Andrew snapped this awesome shot of him.

In another news this weekend my CHI officially died :( Tim has been able to rewire it twice -but this time the heating panels went out. So he did some work on a cheaper flat iron I bought a while back for spare parts, sanded down a few pieces and it works pretty good. Nothing quite like my CHI but it is pretty close. I highly doubt it will last for 8 years. Still such a handy husband I have :)

Ava has also become a pro at using eating utensils. This video was taken November 25th when Ava was 17 months old. We just happened to give her a fork and she picked it up and started using it. Ever since then she prefers to always have a fork in her hand. Although she doesn't always choose to use it.

 We also got to enjoy a second thanksgiving dinner with the family! Ava is clearly just like her daddy and brothers since she too loves corn on the cob.

Hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend we are looking forward to setting up the Christmas decorations!

Thanksgiving

The thanksgiving feast were being prepared and the boys were so excited for their school parties. Aaron was up first and I was so excited how cute this turned out. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest but with goldfish -after making a few with fishes I realized I would need a lot of goldfish. I thankfully had a lightbulb moment and realized popcorn would be perfect! Turns out the kids loved them :) Good thing since I had nearly fifty to make with both the boys classes. 

The next day was Ian's thanksgiving party. The apple turkey's were a hit! Some kids were very creative (Ian's has a lot of feathers and who knows what else) others looked just like our examples. Not to self candy corns do not work well for this activity. We also enjoyed a thanksgiving book, played thanksgiving bingo. and made pilgrim and indian hats. 

With school now officially out for Thanksgiving the boys were very excited to get together with family! We were also really excited that the Well's new house was complete to provide the perfect place for us all to gather. The kids all had so much fun together -it is wonderful to have cousins similar ages. Aaron and Anderson loved that they were in matching shirts.

While we prepared the dinner the kids and adults had fun playing in the gym downstairs. Ava loves sitting in the window watching them -sorry for all the finger prints Steph :/ She also thought it was hilarious when the boys would throw the balls up at the window. Even better if it actually hit right in front of her. 

Finally it was time to eat! Stacey did an amazing job with the decorations. It definitely added a special touch. I was suppose to bring sweet potatoes or yams -but veggies are not my thing. Thankfully my mom was assigned chocolate pies and was more than happy to switch. So the day before I made three chocolate pies, two pumpkin, and three lemon. I may have gotten a little carried away making pies but they were delicious! Sadly I made a mistake on the lemon pies so it melted and looked funny but still tasted good :) I believe there were 33 of us all together. The missionaries in the area also joined in on the fun -which also brought a special holiday spirit :)

Ava loved sitting and visiting with everyone. But anytime we were not quite sure where she was we would find her laying with Grandma Diamond. 

After sitting around and chatting we pulled out the jelly belly game. I am not sure who enjoyed it more the adults or the kids. Basically there are sets of jelly belly's that look identical but one of them is a good flavor and the other is not. Bad flavors consist of barf, skunk, rotten egg, moldy cheese, dirty socks, etc. 

It was a wonderful day! Somehow Andrew's camera managed to catch the exact moment we were all looking and smiling. I'd say that's a holiday miracle ;)

Not much November

Our month of November was pretty chill! Tim had his knee operated on the beginning of November. It has been bothering him for quite some time. The doctors believe it is all caused from when he was involved in car wreck as a teenager. He broke his femur bone in this accident and it seems to have been placed just a few degrees off. So they put him out, cleaned up the scar tissue in his knee, and the next few weeks he spent lounging around the house.

You can see daddy relaxing while icing his knee. Ava and Aaron were having fun showing him how good they are at jumping. Ava was a little cautious which is great! I have never had a cautious child before. After a couple jumped she became a little more adventurous. 

Ian has been loving school and playing with friends.  He wishes he could stay there all day and night. Which has given me plenty of time to hang out with these two! Ava is hilarious -she has such a fun and loving personality but can also be a spunky little tease. He favorite toy which has to be noted because it is hilarious...she goes straight for the feminine hygiene products!

We have had fun pulling out the train set. I think Aaron forgot how much he loved the train set. Ava loved playing as well but eventually she would destroy as much of the track as possible. 

Ava also finally has a ponytail! It is really a mullet that I pull up high to look like a ponytail. She looks absolutely darling with her hair all done! I love it :)

Don't let her sweet ponytail fool you. She can also be quite the little mess maker. On this particular day she kept climbing into the dogs kennel after dumping every dresser and bathroom drawer in sight. Given I had spent the morning clean it took a lot of self control to not just lock her inside for a little while :)

She also loves helping Tim and I during our workouts. Apparently everyone should be able to do yoga and read.

Besides reading books all day she loves to color. She is so particular about it too. She carefully choses a color then begins to scribble away on the paper.

One thing is for sure, she is a princess. Both her and Aspen loving running around like the true princesses they are. 

So enough about Ava. The boys are also doing wonderful. It is very common for Aaron to get notes like these from school. He is such a sweet boy and absolutely loves going and seeing all of his friends.

Ian has also become quite the story teller. The hard part is knowing what is truth..rrrrr. This is a story he wrote at school all about Gunner going hunting. He has been begging Tim to take him hunting. We don't go hunting and that you always eat what you kill...just like gunner eats elk and deer. Ian's response was "lets go kill a cow, they are easy to find and I love steak." Not going to happen buddy :/

One things everyone loves is a good dance party! We usually have dance parties every week. The kids love it. You might also notice Ava rolling around on the floor...she is trying to break dance just like her brothers.

My parents rented a place in Park City so we decided to head up and take the kids swimming. Ava loves food but she also loves to feed herself. She would rather not eat if you try to feed her. The condo's my parents were at were beautiful and stubborn Ava had to feed herself. So we decided the best place for her to eat was on the wood floor since I forgot her feeding chair. She looks like a little puppy eating her food ;)

That weekend we headed up to Logan. My friend was kind enough to give us front row tickets at the Utah State Aggie game. Wouldn't you know Hunter happened to catch the ball from a bad field kick. Even the broadcasters were commenting on the great catch made in the stands. Way to go Hunter! 

Aunt Amy and Charlotte came to visit! Ava and Charlotte mostly looked at each other funny and went about doing their own thing.

But the boys were so excited to see their cousin Charlotte again.  Ian even tried to fake sick in order to get out of school so he would not miss seeing baby Charlotte. And Ian hates to miss school. The kids had a lot of fun visiting and playing together. It was very difficult to get an actual picture of them all together -everyone smile :)

Halloween

After Aaron's birthday this month has been full of one halloween party after another!  To start off the activities was the Kids Village Humanitarian Haunt. This is one of the kids favorite events of the year! The kids had so much fun getting all dressed up and playing games after games! Aaron was dressed as Cole from Ninjago (and begged me to give him bushy eyebrows) Ian was flash, and Ava was a flower fairy.

They even had a photographer there to take pictures of the kids! Which was my favorite part :)

Next up was the ward halloween chili cook-off to be followed by the Michaelis pumpkin carving party! The boys loved being able to carve their own unique pumpkin. Tim took the boys out earlier that week on a daddy son date to see their first big kid movie -guardians of the galaxy. He even took them shopping after to pick out some fun halloween costumes. 

The next night we had the Michaelis Family over for dinner and to carve pumpkins. I accidentally cut out Ava's elsa pumpkin from the bottom picture. The kids had so much fun picking their own design and then cutting them out. I was impressed that they boys were able to do it on their own.

Next up was Ian's Halloween parade at school to be followed by his class party. Aaron and I loved seeing all the kids dressed up for Halloween. There were a lot of Elsa and Anna's. Plus quite a few guardian of the galaxy characters. The picture below is Ian, Gage, and Gunner. All such great friends. 

Next up was the class party! The kids had so much fun making the spider hats as you can see from the picture above as well. We also made swamp stew -and the kids were able to take some home is skeleton hands. And had a prize walk -which did not work. Not to self first graders are not the best at walking in a circle. It moved very slowly but was quite hilarious. 

That evening was beautiful! The weather was perfect and the kids loved running from door to door. Ava joined in at the beginning to visit a few friends homes.

Starlord, Drax, flower fairy

Before the kids headed out trick-or-treating we made our usually monster/mummy pizzas.  I left Tim in charge of cooking them and somehow he managed to completely burn them. There were as black as could be :( The kids made quite the haul of candy. Ava loved discovering that there was actually something tasting inside the wrapper and enjoyed her very first sucker. And Ryder had to join in on the Halloween fun as well. 

 The next morning we jumped in the car and headed to the last day of Cornbelly's. 

We loaded our pumpkins in the car and bought them down to the pumpkin smash. The kids could have stayed in this area smashing pumpkins all day long! The videos were in slow motion on my phone which is way cooler -but still fun to watch in normal speed.

On of our favorite parts about Cornbelly's on November 1st is all the extra activities. Like the pumpkin pie eating contest. It was no surprise that Tim took first place in the adults (he took first place last year as well). He ate his entire slice of pie in about 3 seconds. Ian was so excited to be able to compete in the children division. He took second place! He was up against teenagers....no surprise where that talent comes from. It has been such a fun and festive October...but next up is Thanksgiving, my favorite!

PreK & First grade

Aaron is in his second year of preschool and to say he is absolutely loving it would be an understatement! He begs to go to school everyday.

As you can see from the blurry picture below (picture of a picture) it is no surprise that everyone loves Aaron! His sweet smile is contagious. 

He has taken off in terms of academics. He knows all of his letter sounds, can write most of his letters, loves cooking, science, is an amazing singer, and just has an all around love for life!

He loves A's. And is very talented at spelling...mom, dad, dog, cat, ian, aaron, ava.

Not only is he learning a lot in school he has been loving being a sunbeam and has amazing teachers. He may have been a little confused with this lesson ;)

Ian also loves being a first grader! He loves going to school all day and being able to eat school lunch. Although after a week of school lunch he decided he doesn't really like school lunch...except chicken patty sandwiches and pizza. He prefers me to make him a turkey sandwich with mayo and mustard at home. He loves his first grade teacher and might have a little crush on her -who wouldn't when she has "sticks of destiny." That have door holder, line leader, etc. I also get to be the room mom with another good friend in our neighborhood. It is so much fun getting to plan and put together their classroom parties and seeing how excited the kids get.

While these two are in school Ava fun hanging out and playing at home. She loves watching for Ian to get off the bus. And is quite talented on her toes.

And is even more excited when daddy is home!

Since Aaron only has school three days a week we are usually busy playing the other four days. We have loved playing with the Andrus family on Tuesdays. The kids favorite is the dinosaur museum but sometimes we change it up and head to the zoo especially since it has been oddly warm this October!

Or go for a drive to meet Uncle Andrew for lunch at In-N-Out :) Hopefully this nice weather last for Halloween!