51 and getting ready for Christmas

On December 6th my beautiful mother turned 51!  We went to Corino’s for dinner and then went back to her new house for some amazing red velvet cake.  All of us kids decided to buy her Christmas lights for her house and Tommy, Brad and I hung them up.  Man did we pick a crappy day to do it, it was snowing and sooo cold!!, but oh well….they looked pretty dang good!

 

 

 

 

Yummy cake

 

 

Mike and Ash

 

Sean being a dragon

 

Kami and Carson

 

The birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles…

 

 

with help from the boys

 

Carson sneaking a piece of the frosting

 

Brad and Kami

 

A few weeks ago I took the boys to the mall to see Santa before the the lines got to crazy.  They had fun telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Sean wants Skylanders and Carson wants cars. 

 

 

We started a new tradition this year for Christmas.  A few of my friends told me about “Elf on the Shelf”  We decided to try it, and my boys love it!! It comes with a elf and the book “The Elf on the Shelf”.  Basically the books explains how Santa sent the elf on a special assignment to watch if we are being good or bad.  We get to name the elf, Sean picked Jordan.  Each night while we are sleeping Jordan flies to the North Pole (with Christmas magic) to report back to Santa, and tells him if we have been bad or good.  Jordan comes back home before we wake up, and he returns to a new spot each morning.  There is only ONE rule that we have to follow, so that he will come back tomorrow. We can not touch him, or he could loose his Christmas magic.  Jordan can’t speak, but he will listen to our wishes.  The books explains all of this and the boys love to read it every night.  Every morning they rush out of bed to look for Jordan.  Tommy and I made up a rule that Jordan won’t move to a new spot if the boys have been naughty. They have been pretty dang good, so far Jordan has moved every night.  Here are a few of the places Jordan has turned up…..

Hanging on the fridge

 

In Sean’s stocking

 

Keepin a close watch on the boys

 

Sitting on the wreath

 

Hanging out with all my Cherished Teddies

 

It has been so fun to start some of our own traditions plus keeping old ones Tommy and I use to do as kids.

 

The ornaments keep getting closer and closer to the top because Carson loves to play with them.

 

 

 

 

 

Tommy did a great job decorating the yard

Sean’s cute decorations he made at school

 

 

I love this!! I love how he did his name

So much to be thankful for!!

 

 

 

 

Kami and Carsy

 

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving, it was a nice relaxing day.  For the first time ever we had thanksgiving at our house, since my mom and dad are homeless ;)  My parents did all the cooking, boy was it delicious!  This year was the smallest Thanksgiving we have ever had, it was only my parents, Ashlee, Brad and Kami and the 4 of us.  We sure missed Matt, Chelsee and Mike, hopefully one year we can ALL enjoy thanksgiving together under one roof!  After dishes were done we all went to a movie and saw The Muppets, it was pretty cute.  Hopefully a movie can be our new tradition on Thanksgiving.  After the movie, we went and saw Tommy’s parents, then off to grandma Tschaggeny’s for pie.  I kept going back and forth on going black Friday shopping….and finally decided not to go, there was nothing I really needed and I usually end up buying crap I don’t really want just because it is on “sale”.  Friday Tommy only worked a half day and we went to the Utes last football game of the year. My parents had some extra tickets so we all went and watched the Utes loose what should have been and easy game to win, oh well…. It was still fun!!

 

 

I have SOO much to be Thankful for.  Some days it’s easy to get caught up in of all the “bad” and “hard” things going on in our lives, but Thanksgiving makes us stop and think of ALL there is to be grateful for….. I have a loving, healthy family, the perfect husband for me, who is there when I need to vent, knows when I need a laugh and loves me for me. I have the two cutest boys anyone could ask for, the best parents who are always there for me (just have to walk down stairs), amazing siblings who would do anything for us, and some wonderful friends.  I have a warm house to come home to,  comfy bed to sleep in, and food on the table.  The list, goes on and on….    I hope this holiday season we all remember how truly blessed we are, hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloween

 

The Saturday before Halloween we went to the pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins for carving.  We grew some in our garden and got about 17 or 18, but they were pretty small. 

 

 

 

 

 

The goats enjoying the pumpkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready to carve pumpkins

 

The boys hard at work

 

Our masterpieces

 

Halloween day turned out to be BEAUTIFUL!!  Mom made our traditional homemade chicken noodle soup and clam chowder.  YUMMY!! Grandma Tschaggeny came over to enjoy the fun too.

Superman

 

My little dragon

 

Bleeker and Juno

 

 

 

 

Sandy and Danny

GO GREASE LIGHTNING!!

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we met up with our awesome friends Melissa, Greg, Kambree and Braelee at Airborne, they kids had lots of fun, they sure slept good that night!!

 

 

 

 

 

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