It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's official... Christmas has begun.  How do I know?  Well, when you find this sign in the basement of my house...you know, it's official!

I love Christmas.  I love everything about it.  I love that come the day after Thanksgiving, Donny Osmond's Christmas is on full blast and I dance around the house singing off tune at the top of my lungs!  I love that my house is filled with the smell of "Winter Wonderland" and that although my little girl thinks "I'm crazy"  she's happy to join in.

I love the holidays because it means I get to create the most splendid memories of decorating the christmas tree and even though I fear for the life of my favorite ornaments...I don't fear it enough NOT to let this little girl help me out!

I love that it used to be about simple elegant decor and now it's become how many paper snowflakes and paper wreaths are too much?  I love that I want my house to ooze the spirit of Christmas in the most child-like sense of the word.  I want my house to feel magically.  I want Eden to feel that magic that is the Christmas season and I'll do just about anything to make it happen (like waking up at 3am on Black Friday to get a killer deal or the MOST awesome gift for my little girl).

Christmas means so much more to me as a mom.  I remember making myself sick from all the excitement on Christmas Eve that I could hardly stand it and I can't wait for Eden to feel the same way.  Christmas was lost on me for a couple of years there.  I didn't feel the excitement and I didn't really care to wake up at 7am to open my gifts.  I was "eh" about the whole thing, but being a mom and watching my little girl oooh and aaahhh over all the lights and hearing her talk about "santa" and the presents he'll bring...it makes this holiday even sweeter than I can remember.

My house smells like Christmas and with Thanksgiving OFFICIALLY over it's time to DECK THE HALLS and sing in the CHRISTMAS CHEER!  Oh the memories we'll make this year!  Just you watch and see!

I'm a Big Girl Now...almost

With a week off of school I decided it was time to give 'er a go...

I don't know if this is the right approach or not but we are going for it.  We put big girl panties on for most of the day and then throw a diaper on her at night.  She super excited to be a "big girl" and so far so good.

Now, my daycare lady won't take her to the bathroom unless she asks and so that's a bummer but I figured we introduce her to it this week and then take it full scale when I get my Christmas break.  Any suggestions as to the best approach...I'm all ears!

Family Pictures

The ever amazing Mitzi Torgersen Photography took our family pictures back in October and I just got my grubby little fingers on them.  They turned out fabulous!  I love them to death.  Mitzi always does such a good job and Eden loves her.  Here's a peak at all the awesome pictures that now cover my house!

A Time of Thanksgiving

On Monday, Eden and I had ourselves a special little FHE...just the two of us.  We talked about being thankful.  It's a super simple and easy FHE and so I thought I'd share it with you all. 

We talked about how Heavenly Father gives us all these things that make us happy and we should always remember to tell him thank you.  So we busted out the good 'ol cornucopia and filled it with all of the things that make us so happy.

then we took some falls leaves and wrote down other things we are so thankful for...

It was hilarious to hear Eden list the things that make her happy... her "lala" and MY bed made the list...

Then Eden made some cards for some very special people in her life (A.K.A Pa and Papa Rose).  While she was coloring I hung the leaves from her light so we could remember to be thankful for all the things we have...

I think it worked out great and I'm pretty sure she knew what we were trying to do... Happy Thanksgiving!

Happiness Is..

Spending the day all wrapped up in your nice warm home, shut off from the outside world...
It's putting on a fancy apron for no other reason than to be fancy while making dinner (that's how we roll)...

It's grabbing your best bud and showing her exactly where she gets her cheesy grin from...

It's perfecting the art of cracking and an egg with an extra set of ever helpful hands and managing to avoid any shells in the batter
(like I said...we are pros here).
It's filling the house with the sweet smells of baking that should occupy every Sunday afternoon.

It's teaching my little helper girl that there is never a limit on how many times you can check to see if the cookies are done.

It's also attempting to create a cookie inspired by the season upon us... (attempting being the optimal word here)

Happiness is just me, my girl and not a care in the world!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

I woke up this morning snuggling with my baby and I didn't want to get out of bed.  It was cold outside and I could feel it.  I couldn't get myself to peel the covers off and start my day.

When it's cold outside I just want to stay bundled up next to a fire sipping hot chocolate and that's exactly what we did today.  We took a brief trip to the library to return some books and then we braved the weather and headed home, but not before we slipped into the gas station for some chocolate mint hot chocolate..YUM!

Then we came home and started a fire and enjoyed it's warmth while we ate our to-go dinner of pizza (fancy I know) then we ended our day on a high note.

Thanks to Marcia for the great idea.

Nothing beats a day at home with my two favorite people....

October Download

Where the devil has this month gone?  It just flew by!  I can't believe we are already into November.  Well, buckle down cuz here's the October low down.  It might take you a visit or two to get through this and that's just fine with me!

Pumpkins with the Roses
We went to the cabin to carve some pumpkins with Les' family.

Eden was so excited to carve pumpkins with her cousins.  She is always wanting to be with her cousins.  Brittan and Bronson are her favorite, she wants to be where ever they are and this day was no exception.  Brittan set up shop right next to Eden and we got to work.  

It took us a minute to decide what to carve but all the boys grabbed the power tools and we were off!  Let the carving begin!

Eden wasn't so sure about this whole pumpkin carving thing once the top came off.  She thought putting her hand inside to clean it out was..."YUCKY!"

She had a lot of fun watching "her boys" go to town.  

After about 5 minutes Eden was done and so off she went to play with Aunt Jody and left the pumpkin carving to Daddy. She came back for some pictures and LOVED what daddy had done.  She kept telling him "Good job Daddy.  That's beautiful!"

Then we headed home and displayed out masterpiece on the front porch.  After 3 or 4 times of re-lighting the candle (promptly followed by Eden blowing it out)  we had success.   Nicely done Les, nicely done.

Breakfast with the Witches at Gardner Village:

My mom came down just before Halloween and took the girls to have breakfast with the Witches at Gardner Village.  It was so much fun.  You go and sit in this room and they serve you breakfast, while you are eating witches walk around and chat and sign autographs, then put on a little show. 

Eden was IN LOVE!  She was stoked about all the silly witches. She used her cuteness and excellent waving skills (thank you 24th of July parade) to get the witches to our table. 

There was one witch that Eden decided was her favorite.  Her name was Tuloolua.  Eden followed her all around the room.  It was infatuation at first sight!

During the show they had kids come up on stage to help them sing songs and dance.  Eden kept waving her hand and saying "Pick me, I right here!"  Finally I just told her to go up on stage when they asked for all the October birthdays (Sept. 24th is close enough).  Well, that was a bad move on my part because following her arrival on stage she REFUSED to get off the stage.  I kept going to get her and she would SCREAM.  Finally, the witch Taloolua just picked her up and said "I found a baby, and she don't want her mama no more...so I'll keep her!" and she proceeded to sing and dance while my child was clinging to her....who knew my child wants to be a movie star.  

If you look you can see her giving me the death glare.  That's the "don't you dare try and get me cuz I am NOT letting go of this lady! Stay where you are!!"  Have I told you lately that sometimes she's such a joy?

After the breakfast we went outside and walked around and took some more pictures with the witches.  Eden and Ever had so much fun.  Eden told me that it was her favorite day.  I think this is a new Halloween tradition in our family.

Halloween Carnival:

This year Eden and I headed to Ogden to celebrate Halloween with my family.  Instead of the Annual Hutchison Halloween Hoopla we went to all the different carnivals.  So we packed 8 different looks (literally 8) and went to party it up!

First we went to Weber County Fair Grounds and walked around their pumpkin festival.  The kids got dressed up in their costumes to kick off our Halloween festivities

The kids didn't grasp the concept that Halloween is one day.  They thought it was a month long thing and we probably didn't help clear that up either.  We did something every weekend that month and it was a blast.  The pumpkins were an excellent start to it all.

 The pumpkins were cute and we were the ONLY ones there so the kids got to roam around.  We stayed there all of 10 minutes and then headed to Marcia's Ward for their Halloween Carnival. By that time my camera died and I don't have any pictures.  After Marcia's we went to my mom's ward for their Halloween Carnival.  We ate soup and played lots of games.  We had so much fun and Eden told me Halloween was her favorite (a lot of things are her favorite these days)

Treat-or-Treat:

For Halloween night we went to Chad and Julie's to go trick or treating with Bronson.  Bronson dressed up as Batman and told Eden that he needed a princess. So Eden told him she would be his princess Belle.  They both could not wait to get that candy...

It was a little cold out but that didn't phase them.  They were after that candy and a little cold weather was NOT going to stop these two.  Bronson was scared by some of the decorations and refused to go to the door but Eden would say "I not scared!  I want candy!"  It was hilarious and if Eden went to the door Bronson usually followed.

We went up Julie's cul-de-sac and then around the cul-de-sac across the street and we were DONE.  We had more than enough candy and Eden was happy as can be.  After we were done we went to Julies for some dinner.  Eden put on her warm jammies and got to pick 1 candy to eat after dinner.  Eden told me she had SOO much fun.

I absolutely LOVE this stage.  She is enjoying everything so much more than I remember.  I love to watch her get excited about holidays and visits to Pa's house.  She makes my life so sweet and I can't wait to soak it all in.  I love you, my little stinker butt!