Heart Stopper

A couple of weeks ago, I walked in to the kitchen to find this...

And my heart stopped for just a moment until I realized that the oven wasn't on.  Thank heavens!  Preston and Vivi had been playing Play-Doh, and decided they wanted to "bake" the cookies they had made.

Needless to say, we had a little chat about only using the oven if they have mommy's permission.

At least Preston put the oven mitts on before trying to get things in and out of the oven. ;)

On This, Most Thankful of Days...

I have so much to be grateful for.

First and foremost, I am thankful for a kind and loving Heavenly Father, without whom I would have nothing.  I can't imagine not knowing of His role and hand in all things in my life.  I am thankful for a Savior, who, through the atonement, made it possible to return to live with our Heavenly Father.

I am thankful for my hubby.

He is a wonderful and amazing man, and I am forever grateful that he is my eternal companion.  We have so much fun together.  I am so grateful that he chose me to spend eternity with.  I am thankful for how hard he works to take care of his family. I am also very grateful for the wonderful father that he is.

I am grateful for these four little yayhoos.

  While being a mom is definitely not easy, it is one of the most amazing things that has ever happened to me.  It is thrilling to bring a tiny little bundle into this world, then be able to watch every day as they grow and learn.  I wouldn't trade the experience of being a mother for anything.

I am grateful for parents.

Trent and I have both been blessed with truly phenomenal parents.  I am so grateful for loving and kind parents and parents-in-law who have always been there for me, at the best of times, and the most difficult of times.  It is so nice to know that I can always turn to them, and they will always be there for me.

I am thankful for good friends.  I have been so blessed to have such wonderful friends, and I can't imagine going through this life without them.  There have been many times in my life where a friend has shown up or called right when I needed them most.  Thank you dear friends... you mean so much to me.

I am so grateful for laughter.  We love to laugh in our home (who doesn't, right?).  Trent and I were recently looking through some of our older photos and having a good laugh.  Here are a few that we got a kick out of.

I know life is not always a basket of roses, but it is so much better when you can find things to laugh about.  With four kiddos running around our house, we find a lot to laugh about in a day.  It truly is the best medicine.

I am very, very grateful for the blessings of the temple in my life.

I love knowing that my time with my family doesn't end here on this earth, and that we can be together forever.

I feel so blessed and privileged to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I don't know where I would be without it.

I am thankful for my home.  Not only for the fact that my family and I have a place to live to keep us warm in the winters and cool in the summers, but also because it is a safe haven for us in many ways.

I am also thankful for:
A good job, modern appliances (can you say 15-20 loads of laundry a week?), indoor plumbing, bubble baths, my sewing machine, a car, clean sheets, egg nog being in season again, pajamas (I would live in them if I could), Colorado (I love it here), good books to read, opportunities for education and growth, and for all of the freedoms I enjoy (and too often take for granted).

I love this time of year, and the many opportunities I have to reflect on all that I have been given.  I have so much to be grateful for.

Still Got It

The other night, the boys were showing us some of the moves that they have been learning in their hip hop class.  I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it ended up turning into a handstand contest.

I totally won.  (I love how Vivi is trying her hardest to keep Colson up.)

For the Love of All Things Fancy

In this house full of boys and testonsterone, I am so grateful that I got my one girl.  If I didn't have her, I would have to go to Fancy Nancy parties at Borders Bookstore all by myself.

Vivi loves all things Fancy Nancy.  We read at least one of the Fancy Nancy books just about every night before bed.  She had been waiting on pins and needles for this Fancy Nancy party all last week.

My darling and oh so fancy mom (who works at Borders) was in charge of the party, so that made it even more fun for Viv.  (Just FYI, there is a Polar Express pajama party at 11:00 this Saturday at Borders.)  Mom read the new Fancy Nancy: Splediferous Christmas to an audience of Fancy Nancy's.  All the little girls were looking very glamorous.

My little Fancy Nancy.

Parade time!  They walked all through Borders, dressed to kill, and singing all the way.  I think I heard Jingle Bells, ABC's, and Twinkle Twinkle, to name a few.

Vivi had a blast, and yes, we came home with some new Fancy Nancy books.

Super Stars

Our boys did great for the first trimester of school.

They both came home with stellar report cards, and they both received awards for being "Leaders of the Herd".

Trenton did super excellent and came home with straight A's, which he has been working very hard to get.  We are so proud of him for all of his hard work.  Way to go boys!

You Know You're Tired When...

You fall asleep on the hard wood floors.

 

I guess his day at the zoo with grandma tuckered him right out!

Just a Few Things...

We had 2 major occurrences happen in the last couple of days.  Strike that, 3 major occurrences.  First off, it was Janet's birthday this last weekend.  And can I just say, I could not have asked for a more wonderful mother-in-law.  I can't even begin to tell you how much she does for our family, and how much we love, adore, and appreciate her.

 We had a birthday dinner for mom at Sherril and Roger's house, which is invariably a treat because Sherril always makes super yummy food.

The kids always have to help with blowing out the candles.  Thank goodness grandma is such a good sport to let them.  I mean, those are her birthday wishes after all. ;)  We are so grateful to live near family so that we can spend these special days with them.

Second, you'll never guess who my family and I got to meet last night... The Pioneer Woman!  We went to her cookbook signing at the Tattered Cover.  We got there right on the dot at 7:30 (which was when the book signing began), thinking we would only be there an hour, tops.  I guess a lot more people had shown up than they had anticipated.  I was talking to one of the ladies that works there and she said that for 90% of the book signings that they do (and they do a lot), usually only 30-40 people will show up.  They estimated that there were 400-500 people there last night.  Whoa!  Way to go Pioneer Woman!  So we ended up waiting in line for 4.5 HOURS!  With children in tow.  Like I said, we hadn't expected to be there that long, or I would have gone by myself, but after already waiting so much time, we figured we might as well stick it out for the long haul.

Trent was an incredibly good sport.

He must love me an awful lot to endure a 4.5 hour wait. ;)

Can you tell the boys were starting to get tired?  The kids were remarkably well behaved.  Luckily the book signing was right next to the kids section of the bookstore, and my kids literally read all night long, book after book.  They actually enjoyed themselves quite a bit.  If you've never been to the Tattered Cover, it is an amazing book store.  There are never ending walls and walls of books, so my kids were quite content to sit and read the night away.  I don't think we even had any melt downs.

It also helped that we met this fabulous lady here.  Liz was so kind to help us entertain our kids, and she was even willing to share her snacks.  She also had countless pictures of tractors on her camera that Preston looked at with her for quite some time.  Hopefully we didn't wear her out too much.  Thanks Liz for all of your help!

We finally made it up to see and chat with PW.  What a beautiful and incredibly nice woman.

And here it is, my signed cookbook.  It says: "To Kiffon: Thanks for bringing your cute family!  Ree/PW".  I can't wait to start trying the recipes from it!  I got quite a bit of time to peruse it while waiting in line, and my mouth was just a watering.

So was it worth it?  Definitely!  It was pretty exciting to meet Ree/PW.  As you can see, Preston totally crashed.

Not even two minutes into our drive home, this is how things were in the car.  Complete silence... except for the occasional snore here and there.  Thank you my darling family for being such good sports!

Third, and possibly best of all, these two do actually love one another.  I was starting to wonder for a few days there.  They have been at each other like cats and dogs, but after church on Sunday, I found them snuggling on the couch together.

I just love these two.  I especially love when they are getting along.  Two weeks of fall break was starting to put a damper in their relationship. ;)

Life is good.

Happy Halloween!

We had one partying Halloween this year.  I think I'm partied out.  Seriously.  Candied out too.

The boys had a little party at the end of their Hip Hop class on Friday.

Look at those moves.

After Hip Hop, we went to our ward's Halloween party, and guess what?!  I won first prize for the white chili category in the chili cook off.  Considering I had just thrown a ton of things into a pot  hoping it would taste okay, I was a little shocked!  We had a super fun time though, and the kids came home with gobs of candy.

On the actual day of Halloween, we went to mine and Trent's parents ward for their Halloween party.  Now do you see why I'm partied out?
 

This is what the kids wore to that party, and yes, Preston did make it out the door in the sequined cheerleader number this time.  He was done with the monkey (until today after church that is... he wore it all afternoon!)  Trenton decided to go as a headless butler this time.  He was pretty thrilled with how it turned out.  And that is one witchy look on that little girls face.  Ever since learning the "Mean Old Witch" song at school, she's been dying to be a witch.  Cutest little witch I've ever seen.  Colson just barely squoze into his Darth Vader costume from last year.  He definitely won't be fitting into it next year.

Here is the ginormous pile of candy that the kids got, between the four of them, at the two Halloween parties.  It took up a pretty good amount of counter space.  In an attempt to get rid of all of the candy, I bought it from my kids and used it to pass out to the trick-or-treaters that came to our door Halloween night.  Well, it took care of this pile of candy, but the kids came home from trick-or-treating with an even bigger pile.  It might have to make it's way to the trash sometime in the next week.  I don't know if I can handle one more sugar induced melt down from any more of my kids.

Preston decided on another costume change for trick-or-treating.  He wanted to be the lion this time.  I would say he got good use out of several of the costumes in our costume box.  Aside from all of the emotional melt downs due to lots of stimulation and SUGAR, it was a pretty fun Halloween.

And now Fall Break is over, and after two weeks of fun, fun, fun, the kids get to go back to school on Monday.  While it has been so much fun having them home, I am ready for a schedule again.  This momma is a little funned out. ;)