Happy 4th Birthday Bryce!

On December 9th, we celebrated Bryce's 4th Birthday!! That morning we woke up and Bryce opened his presents. He got a tricycle which he LOVES! He also got a toy Elmo phone. Later he got a soccer ball from Grandma & Grandpa Chappell and from Grandma & Grandpa Bell he got a big Mickey Mouse pillow, a magic screen palm learner that teaches abcs and also a Mickey hat and mittens. Aunt Cammie gave him a Mickey Mouse CD. Can you tell which character Bryce LOVES?? :) I don't have pictures of all the gifts - just the ones he got on his actual birthday.


For Bryce's cake this year, I decided to do cupcakes because he just loves them. I think he must get them at school sometimes (probably for other kids' birthdays), but whenever he sees one he gets so excited and yells "CU-cay!!". I didn't have any of my cake making stuff here, but I went and bought a cheapy frosting thing and they didn't turn out too bad. Bryce had fun blowing out candles and tasting the cake. I think he had a really fun day!

Our Christmas Tree... Stand-in

A week into December, we were being told that we would be able to move into our new house within a week or two. We were really hoping that we would get to move in and have time to put our tree up and have a couple of weeks before Christmas. My gut feeling told me that we should not count on it and should prepare to celebrate Christmas in Josh's parents house. Josh's parents had recently decided to move to St. George and had found a house there that they liked and was available right away. So they were in the process of a very quick move and so did not have a tree. It just didn't feel the SAME without a tree and because of our situation and that gut feeling, we decided to go and buy a little *gasp* FAKE tree to use *just in case*. Meanwhile, our poor REAL tree that we had cut down sat in a bucket of water waiting at the new house.


So on that first Monday of December we had a little family night and decorated our little tree. It was one of those fiber optic ones, and it actually turned out pretty cute for a fake tree. The kids had fun decorating it and we ended up finding a little place for it out of the way of the packing and moving.

Santa Clause!

The first weekend in December I took the boys to see Santa Clause at the mall. Josh had to work, so he couldn't make it. We tried to get there early in hopes that it wouldn't be too busy, and I was excited to see that the line wasn't TOO huge. Only about 4 or 5 groups ahead of us. We waited in line and just as we got to the front, and were next to see Santa.... Parker decided he needed to use the restroom and it couldn't wait. So we got out of line, took all of 5 minutes to take him to the restroom, hurried back... to a BIG line. :) So we waited again and eventually made it to see Ol' Saint Nick. The boys were a little nervous to ask Santa for what they wanted for Christmas, but they had fun and were excited to get to see him.

A November in Limbo

Parker with a turkey that he made in preschool for Thanksgiving.

So originally we were supposed to be in our house by Halloween. We figured it would take longer, and sure enough they weren't ready. All through November they kept giving us "2 weeks" over and over. So our two to three weeks at Josh's parents continued all through November. We adjusted to taking the kids to school an extra 20 minutes further. Luckily, Josh's parents were able to help us by taking Isaac as all three kids are in different schools.

For Thanksgiving it was our year to spend it with Josh's family, but they ended up having the Chappell Family Reunion on Thanksgiving down in Lyman! So we did that instead and headed down south for Thanksgiving. It was a nice reunion, and I think Josh enjoyed seeing all his relatives that came.

We stayed with my parents, and the next day Josh and I went to Richfield on Black Friday just for fun. We had most of our Christmas shopping done, but were able to find a few little things that we needed and it was fun to get out and spend some time together while my mom watched the kids.

That Saturday we went out to the mountain to get our Christmas trees. Josh and I were excited because we we have a really tall ceiling in our living room at the new house and we wanted to get a nice tall tree. At this point we again thought we would be in within two weeks. Anyway, we got a nice tree, and headed back home. I totally forgot my camera, so had no pictures of the weekend or tree hunting at all! :(

So our November was spent in Elk Ridge living out of boxes, basically waiting for our house to be finished!

We're Baaaack.... and Halloween

No, we're not in our house yet. *rolling eyes* BUT, I did finally find my camera cord!! Yay! So now I finally have been able to upload all the pictures that have been trapped in my camera and update our blog. :) I'll be starting waaaaay back on Halloween. :)

Halloween weekend was the weekend we moved out of the house we were renting. At the time, we thought our house would be finished within a few weeks, so we decided to go stay at Josh's parents house meanwhile. So on Halloween we were busy working, cleaning and moving things out of the house. I feel kinda bad, because our kids didn't quite get the whole affect of Halloween this year. No decorations, no Halloween Party... But we made sure to take time to take them trick-or-treating for a bit despite our busyness. They did all get to participate in their school Halloween parties though, so that was good. This year Isaac was Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, Parker was a Vampire, and Bryce was Mickey Mouse. :)

Someday...

... I'll be able to update my blog with more pictures! My cord that connects my camera to the computer was accidentally packed away (oops!). So I have no way of getting pictures on here. I have Halloween pictures to share that are trapped inside my camera until we move. Oh well! We moved out of the house we were renting on Halloween weekend, so we've been staying with Josh's parents until our house is finished. It's getting close! They did the stucco last week and just put the stucco color on this week. The drywall is also done (except for some of the ceilings I think). Cabinets, countertop, carpet & tile are all picked out waiting to come in. :) We're hopeful to be in by Thanksgiving or at least by the end of the month!

Pumpkin Party!

Since the kids didn't get to carve their pumpkins with everyone else, a couple of days later when they had Fall Break(Oct. 15th), we had a Pumpkin Party! That morning I helped Isaac and Parker carve their pumpkins. They both turned out really cute! When I took their picture (above) they wanted to have a light inside their pumpkins. :)

After lunch, we decorated some pumpkin cupcakes. I intended for them to be a little more complex, but we ended up just keeping them really simple. They turned out pretty cute. When I first brought the undecorated cupcakes in, Bryce saw them and yelled "Cu-cay!" He knew just what they were, and was so excited. He must have had them at preschool before. He had fun decorating them and then peeling the paper off. He had a couple of tastes, but mostly just crumbled it up. Isaac and Parker had a fun time decorating their cupcakes too!

Isaac decorating:

Parker decorating:

Bryce decorating:

For dinner I got the kids the Pumpkin kids' meals from Artic Circle. We don't do kids' meals very often, so it was a fun treat for them. I even bought Bryce one although he wasn't too interested in the food. He liked the bbq sauce from the nuggets though! :)





After dinner I helped Bryce carve his pumpkin. I scraped the inside really good and then let him clean out the guts. It was so cute! He got out every little bit. I carved his pumpkin into a Mickey Mouse (he loves Mickey)! After that, Josh and I carved our pumpkinds. :) Last of all we roasted all of our pumpkin seeds. Yum! It was a fun day. I'm glad we got to do something Halloweeny. I was kinda bummed that we weren't able to do our annual Halloween party this year since we were moving, so this was at least something.

Bryce cleaning out his pumpkin:

Bryce with his Mickey pumpkin:

Josh's pumpkin & my pumpkin: