Kid's Tree Decorating

For our fhe activity Monday, we decorated the kid's tree downstairs. Every year, Tay and Bren have made fun ornaments at home and at school for our tree. I have saved all of their ornaments they have made especially for their tree. I love it because it has so much character and meaning. Here's some pictures of the event.

The kids taking a break from decorating to look at the snowman snowglobe. Shane tangled in the lights, and Taylor tangled in the popcorn string.

Parker couldn't wait for the lights to be put on to put the first ball on.

"It falled off!!" Says Parker

A little help from mom

"I see a bare spot right here!"

Tay all tangled up!

Teamwork!

The finished product. Aren't these kids cute?

Tada!!! The best tree ever!

Shane's New School

I finally made it down to Shane's school to take a picture of him in front of it to his embarrassment! It's brand new as of this year. We were on our way out of town when I took these so I didn't get pictures of his classroom. It is really nice! He's really enjoying it here. He has a great class and great teachers to work with.

Our Rental/Christmas Decorating

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted, I have been caught up in reading the Twilight series. I know I'm behind the times, but I wanted to go see the movie when it came out and decided it was time to read it first. Great reading!! We have been so busy here, but loving it in Wyoming. This last Friday we were able to meet at the Logan temple with my whole family and some other relatives. Mom has done a lot of family history work and we have been slowly doing the endowments for them. We were finally able to do the sealings for them. A couple of the highlights: We sealed my grandma to her parents, and my dad was sealed to his parents. A very neat experience. Thank you mom for all your hard work on family history.
This week for FHE, we talked about the symbols of the tree and the decorations. The kids made some popcorn strings for their tree which we will put up this weekend downstairs. The big tree upstairs is MINE!!! Actually, many of you would be surprised, Shane is the decorator in our home. He has a good eye on how things should look. I love it because I hate untangling the lights and putting together the fake tree. I do enjoy the finishing touches.

Parker waiting to eat the popcorn for the popcorn strings. This was a fun activity because my two older kids are able to use a needle and thread (with only a few pokes and blood! Yeah, we won't be eating the popcorn on the strings!) Making a popcorn string
Cheese!

Brennen trying out the finished product on the big tree.

Taylor loves her activity day leaders. They do some of the funnest things and are so organized! I love it because they are teaching her life skills that she will definately use. She used a real sewing machine to make the snowman hat. Way to go Tay!

THE RENTAL

It's a cute little house. There's four bedrooms, and an extra room that we call the toy room. The neighborhood is a lot of fun. We really like all of our neighbors. We love our new ward.

The backyard

Kitchen and dining -not very much cupboard space, but we managed to cram everything!

Our Tree (with popcorn decor)

Believe it or not, this is a norm every day. We have deer in our neighbor's backyard. I didn't have the camara when the big four point came through, but this is a two point that came last week when it snowed. The town of Afton is at the base of the mountains. The deer are becoming a nuisance to many people here. They eat their gardens and trees and are not real scared of people. My kids love watching them eat!!! My neighbors don't share our enthusiasm for the deer in their yard.

A couple of rooms in our rental

The Family Room. We spend a lot of time here! You can't see it in the picture, but there is a whole counter on the right with a sink. A bar! The kids think that they should be able to eat down here, but they still spill way too much for my comfort!

We are enjoying it here and are still hoping and praying for our home to sell so that we can buy one of our own here to live in, but for now, this is great!

I just had a LOT OF HELP updating my playlist for the blog hence all the High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and Chipmunk songs. Enjoy!!!

HALLOWEEN/PUMPKIN PATCH CREATIONS/TRUNK OR TREATING (First of seven new posts-I had major catching up to do!!!

Happy Halloween!!! Here are our little spooks, or should I say cutes? We went to a trunk or treat at a ball field called the box H. The kids loaded up on candy and then we went to Rob and Rachael's for pizza hut pizza and Shane's Homemade rootbeer. We played a few games and the kids watched the movie Cars at Parker's request! It was a really fun night. Parker the lion. Roar!!! He wouldn't let me get near him with makeup for a cute nose. I guess that's a good thing! Parker caught on really fast that when you say trick or treat that people give you candy. When we got in the car after we were done, he saw the bowl of left over candy in my lap. He started saying trick or treat mommy! Over and Over. He was so cute, I couldn't resist! He got a piece of candy in his bag every time!!!
Taylor as Shar Pei from High School Musical
Brennen as Darth Vader
Our Halloween goodies that we ding dong ditched with. O.K., so we only ding dong ditched Rachael and the boys. Tay and Bren still think that they don't know who it was!!! It's impossible to pull in and out without being seen. (What they don't know won't hurt them!) Thanks to Rachael for keeping the boys away from the windows so the deed could be done! Thanks also to Rachael and Robin for the mummy idea!!!

Brennen's Pumpkin Patch "Frankenstein" pumpkin (with a little help of course!!) I don't know if you can see it on the picture, but there are some black play screws on the sides of the pumpkin.At Taylor's school, they didn't dress up for Halloween day, but instead, it was CRAZY HAIR DAY! Here she is with her crazy hair and her pumpkin patch "witch" pumpkin. (Thanks to Shane for some color techniques.)

More posts to come! We love it here. I will be taking pictures of where we live, and Shane's school that he teaches at. We definitely miss our family and friends in St. Anthony and hope to see some of you at Thanksgiving. If not, Christmas. Love you all and keep praying for our house to sell.

Pumpkins!!

For Family Home Evening, we invited Rob and Racheal Heuseveldt and the boys to come and paint pumpkins. We were trying to give the guys a night off of having to carve pumpkins. They still ended up having to carve pumpkins later on! The paint we used fell off the next morning. That's what we get for using washable paints!!! It was still fun for the kids to decorate them. Even Parker painted his pumpkin. Hyrum and Tommy Heuseveldt
I don't see any resemblance Tay!

THE NEXT WEEK: We found out that the kids have a pumpkin patch at their school. If the kids would bring a decorated pumpkin, they would get a prize! Each kid was issued a free pumpkin certificate to the grocery store, so of course, we had to go and get another pumpkin-it's free!! We brainstormed and came up with some cool ideas for their pumpkins. Brennen did Frankenstein, and Tay did a witch. They will be in the next post.

Taylor's First Pie-Grandma Jolley would be proud!

For activity days this week, Taylor got to make her very own cherry pie. She brought it home and we baked it for our FHE treat. Super job Tay! It was yummy!! I think she will be our pie maker from now on!!! Yahoo!