Chistmas Eve Day!

The kids had so much fun ice skating, that we decided to go again. This time we went to the Olympic Oval. We took Tiffani and Danielle with us and the kids had a BLAST!!

I have never seen this before, but they have little walkers for 5 and under. What a marvelous invention!!! Carter was able to skate all by himself and it definitely made him feel like a BIG BOY! It was also much easier for me.

Now Hailey and Josh want to get their own skates.

I think this is going to become a family tradition!!

Angel Tree

Mike's work sponsored an angel tree last Saturday. We thought it would be a great idea for the kids to go and participate. Well, it turned out I had to do a Scentsy party, so this meant Mike had to take the kids ALONE. YIKES!! They went to Macey's, picked 3 names off the tree and then went shopping. I had to laugh when I got a phone call from Mike saying:

Mike: What size shoe does a 7 year old wear?
Me: Well, doesn't the paper tell you what your suppose to buy?
Mike: Ya, but it says a size 6! That can't be right.
Me: Just buy the size it tells you.
Mike: Why did I decide to do this?
Me: What?
Mike: Take 3 kids shopping! I've been shopping for 2 hours!!
Me: Isn't it fun?
Mike: NO!! GOODBYE!
Me: chuckling......

After the shopping was done, they brought their bags to NOAH's and had pizza for lunch and enjoyed ice skating. They even got a visit from SANTA!

After my party I joined them for skating.

WOW! I haven't been skating in a long time.

The kids keep asking to go again, so we

are going to go on Christmas Eve Day. Whoever

wants to come, your invited!

We MADE Carter put on skates.

This is him crying and saying....

I DON'T WANT TO GO!

Well, with some help from dad,

Carter wouldn't stop! He had a

great time.

....and Josh. Also skating for the very

first time. I can't believe I haven't

taken them sooner. We were a little

nervous with Hailey. We didn't want

her to fall and break something! :)

Mike survived the day and the kids enjoyed buying Christmas for someone else.

Now we are all in the holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it is the middle of December and I'm just getting around to posting Thanksgiving pictures. All the hustle and bustle with Christmas has put me behind.

A lot of my pictures were blurry, but here are some anyway.
I'm thinking I need a new camera! (Has anyone gotten the hint yet?)

We went to Idaho Falls this year for Thanksgiving. It was really great to see everybody. It has been a long time since we've had Thanksgiving with Grandma King and the Larsens. (well, some of the Larsens) All the kids loved hanging with Rebecca and they think Aunt Pam is the coolest! Hailey told me that Aunt Pam is a lot of fun, because she is NOT a party pooper! Our favorite game was Luck Of The Draw. If you haven't played this before, you must! I had tears from laughing so hard. Thanks for the great memories.

Of course mom had everything decorated so nice and really.....

there's no place like home!!

Has anyone seen Carter and Lexi? These two played their little guts out! This is one of their favorite things to do. Rolling the balls into the pockets. They played this for HOURS!

You won't believe all the men in the kitchen.

Dad sharpening the knives.

Mike mashing the potatoes.

And Uncle Leon fixing the gravy!

I told you the kids loved Becca!

One of the men's highlights was getting to drive Uncle Carey's cars!

Still playing..... and staying up WAY past their bedtime.

It's a tradition to go bowling the day after Thanksgiving.

We don't really care to be out in the C R A Z Y stores this day!

G. G. with Logan.

Our drive in the car with 3 kids and a dog went smoothly.

Put on the headphones, watch some TV, eat snacks and everybody is content...

even the dog.

Before & After

I took the kids into the eye dr. a couple of weeks ago, and now Josh has to have reading glasses too.

When Joshua's friend saw him with his glasses, he told him that it was sooooo cool. He wished he had glasses, because then he could be a mad scientist.:)

(Before)

(After)

(Before)

(After)

Carter kept saying he wanted glasses too, so

Hailey gave him an old pair and he cleaned them all up.

He took them to school today for "show & tell"

and wanted his picture taken also.

Disney on Ice

We enjoyed an outing with Grandma and Grandpa to see Disney on Ice. This time we actually stayed through the whole thing. I remember when the kids were younger, we left at intermission. Disney celebrated it's 100 years of Disney on Ice, and it was great!

Fun for all!

This was Carters first time,

and he was AMAZED!!

Grandpa thought there should've been more caracters

from the olden days. He remembers when snow white first

came out in the 30's.

HALLOWEEN!

I remember when I was little Halloween was a holiday that only lasted for one day. We now celebrate Halloween by doing the school carnival (which we were there from 3-9! I helped with the musical chair booth and then for 2 hours made balloon animals! If you ever need a balloon sword, I am an expert at that now), class parties (times that by 3), work parties, and a family party. How many times do I have to dress my kids up?

Grandma Stringham has a Halloween party every year so the kids can see what their cousins dress up like and we eat until were stuffed.

The kids love to have root beer over dried ice. They are mesmorized by the smoke!!

Are my kids really big enough to go trick-or-treating with their friends? Hailey thought so, but I tagged along with them..... for 3 HOURS! Yes, let me repeat that.....3 HOURS!!

Josh and his buddies went with another mom. It just seemed very wierd not to have all 3 of my kids with me. They are growing up waaaaay to fast!

Carter actually went with me for 2 out of the 3 hours! I couldn't believe he went that long. He did have to stop and take a drink.

http://www.slide.com/r/GGQtb8wy6D8jkEVs4XxdRlxxmCWHtjN-?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

YES.....AGAIN!

Well, you may not believe it, but here's how it happened. Last Wednesday Hailey was outside on her heelys racing with a friend and KABOOM!! She went down HARD!! It was the night I was getting everything ready to carve pumpkins and she ended up at IHC.

Hailey was a witch for Halloween and Mike told her to tell people that she fell off her broom!! :)
(Leave it to Mike)

I took her today to get the cast on and when the Dr. took off her temporary cast from IHC, he looked at me and said this might cause some tears, it's moved. Hailey did not like the sound of that and was a little freaked out! The Dr. had to reset it and YES it caused some BIG tears! Since it had moved he casted it clear past her elbow. It's going to be a LONG 4 weeks. How many times can a girl break something? This is Hailey's 3rd broken bone. When she was 5 1/2 she fell off the tramp and broke her elbow and actually had to have surgery and pins placed. But, just 5 short months ago she fell off her motor scooter and broke her right wrist. This time she broke both her bones on her left wrist.

But I have to say she is a trooper!! We love ya Hailey Bug, but I think you need to drink more milk! :)

Moving to the basement!

Carter has been asking and asking if I could PLEASE move his bedroom downstairs. REALLY??? But your just 3 years old? You really want to go downstairs? I couldn't believe it! Everytime I would pick him up from pre-school, he would ask what I did while he was at school. "Why didn't you move my bedroom yet?" So, then I told him I had to wait for Nana to come help me. I thought maybe that would buy me some time. But then he would get his pretend phone and call nana and then go in the front yard and wait for her to come. I asked him what I would do with all the toys that were in the playroom if I made that room into his bedroom? "You can just throw them away mom!" OK!! :) Carter is one determined little boy! He really wanted his room to be downstairs with Hailey and Joshus. We started taking out all the toys and moved them to the "unfinished" family room, to be sorted out later, and got busy painting.

Of course, he HAD to help.

Good thing Nana was there!

She was having more patience with him than I was.

Carters new room!!

Thank goodness for my Moms brilliant ideas!!
We decided to change his room from blue & red
to brown & red. This is a picture of his curtains and shutters
when they were blue. I wanted to keep his curtains,
because GG made them, and I also didn't want to spend
more $. So, mom dyed the curtains in the
washing machine!!! (We didn't tell Mike until after it
was already done.) I didn't want to tell him I was trying
to save $ by doing this, and then have to tell him
we had to buy a new washing machine because it didn't work! :))




TA-DA!! It actually worked! and my washing
machine came clean too! Thank goodness!

I painted the shutters red and then brown. Then

I distressed the edges so you could see the red through it.

Probably hard to see in the picture, but it turned out good!

I love walking downstairs and not seeing a JUNKY playroom!!

Thanks mom for all your help!!

Fish Soap?

I went to a boutique on Friday and look what caught Carters eye.......

A bar of soap with a fish in it, that smells like pineapples!

You just never know what kids are going to like. He wanted to take a bath when we got home, but I told him it was to late and he could take a bath in the morning. That was ok as long as he could SLEEP with his fish soap. The next morning bright and early at 7:30 he wanted to take a bath. He stayed in the tub for almost an hour and came out like a prune. :) He wanted to stay in until his fish came out of the soap.

Sunday as we were walking out of church, he asked again if he could take a bath when he got home. I got a chuckle and a laugh from a lady as we were walking out.

So, again on Monday, another bath! He thought maybe his fish would come out this time, but not yet.
If you ever have trouble getting your kids to bathe, buy a bar of fish soap!! :)

Cars also keep Carter very busy in the tub!