What we've been up to...

Finally getting our Christmas tree. Turns out it is hard when it is ALWAYS raining and it gets dark at 4pm. Ended up getting it from a family farm. They came out of their house just to let us pick one on a week night (most here are only open Saturday, Sunday and it's almost always raining those days).

The Tree

And catching the ladybugs that are flying out of our tree.

Decorating the tree...

And finally it feels like Christmas! I have a love hate relationship with trees, love the smell but hate the needles!

And this is a good story. Brady's Christmas gift arrived yesterday. I tried hard to keep it a secret. As soon as he got home Ella ran up to him and said, "Hey Daddy, Mom doesn't want me to tell you this but we got you goggles for Christmas!" She was so excited she couldn't contain herself apparently. Guess I didn't try hard enough. So sure enough since Brady was going skiing this evening after work he asked to receive them early. Oh well! Carter has learned that if he wants to reach something he just has to get a stool. Ella's play-doh ended up in his mouth of course. Not sure what to do with this naughty kid!

And this is Ella practicing to be a hair dresser. She put this in my hair and I had to leave it in until Brady got home to remove it. She did do a wonderful job however, not sure how she even did it!

Christmas time!

Christmas time is here and we are loving it. Ella is quite into it this year, and we have been having fun getting all decorated. The inside is decorated (minus the tree), now we just need the outside and the tree this weekend. The count down for Santa begins! P.S. My sister in law and I went Black Friday shopping this year and I am nearly done with shopping. About 2 more gifts to buy and then we are done! I am excited to be finished, yet have to wait a LONG time to give the kids these presents I know they will love. That's hard for me! Hope you all are having a great holiday season so far!

Simply Uncontrollable

Carter is quite the little sweetheart when he wants to be. He snuggles and kisses and hugs all day long. I am beginning to see the major difference between boys and girls (some of you are laughing at me right now I know). Ella is such a little preteen already and plays mind games with me daily. That is exhausting. What I didn't know is that Carter would be uncontrollable. I like to say all of this comes from Brady and of course Brady likes to say it comes from my side (sorry Darren he blames you!). He is into everything of course, that is the age. He also likes to hit, bite, scratch, pinch...you name it and he does it. If we get mad at him for doing it, he laughs at us! I swear that comes from Brady. I hear he used to make jokes to get out of trouble...seems like there is some relation there if you ask me! In some ways I think it is harder having the boy second. He has someone to beat! Poor Ella was laying on the floor quietly watching a show when Carter took a plastic toy doll house (her strawberry shortcake one) and threw it at her head. Below you will see the result on the poor girls left eye. She is so patient at putting up with him and very rarely lashes out at him. Guess we will see how long that lasts! At this point, I feel I am not in control of my own child. He laughs at me when I get mad at him...that isn't working. I can put him on my lap for a time out, it seems to work, but I feel a bit bad holding him down. He is obviously too little to put him on his own time out, so that is out. I used to swat Ella's hand lightly at this age and that worked with her lovely. With him being a hitter I don't want to teach him to keep doing that so that is out as well. Anyone have any advice for me on this kid? I wish Supernanny would do a show about a kid this age and how to discipline them! Haha. They are always older and can do timeouts, but what about when they aren't old enough for that yet? Come on Supernanny!

My kids received this from a cable lady that left it here on accident. I called and she never came to pick it up. They LOVE this toy. They walk around doing party light (the flashing one) all day!

And no he doesn't ALWAYS have his binki in his mouth, but it has been a lot more since I hurt my back. Guess it has been his coping. We will work on that after I am healed.

My poor victim. =(

Oh how we missed you, Auntie Cass!

My sister came for a visit this weekend! We dropped her off at the airport today and were very sad to see her go. Ella asked if she could just move in with us here. She sure misses her, as do the rest of us! We didn't do much due to the constant rain and Cassidy feeling slightly under the weather, but we had fun just hanging out. Next time we will do more, so come back soon!

The two buds reunited.

We made a few beanies...

Hahaha nice sailor hat Cass!

I love my sister! =)

Bye Auntie Cass, we miss you!

Somebody's "Almost" over the hill

Brady is feeling exceptionally old all of a sudden. He turned 29 on Saturday and Ella helped me bake a cake for him. We had enchiladas for dinner (at his request), red velvet cake (my idea because I know he likes it) and then went to Chuck E Cheese for a bit (bet you can't guess who's idea that was!) I think Brady had a fun day despite him feeling old. =)

Very into Clifford these days.

VERY into throwing things these days.

This was his favorite game. It was a video game driving a boat. He is a boy for sure.

Ella was very proud of her daddy for blowing out his candles. =)

The move and Halloween!

Well we were moving over Halloween weekend so my kids did not get a very exciting Halloween this year. Nana, Grandpa and Kearis came down to help us move. Thank goodness, I don't know what we would have done without them! Friday (moving day) was our trunk or treat and we had to miss it, sadly. Brady's sister, Amy came down with her family on Saturday to visit and we got the kids dressed up to go to dinner in their costumes. Here are a few pictures of the kiddos.

A gourmet chef!

He was pretty sick with a fever, but a good sport nonetheless.

Cousins...my kids were in heaven!

Like Carter's head? He always looks like this. Once one goes away, he replaces it with a new one. Not to mention the fat lip he has now to go along with it...

Not an attractive photo, but shows his fat lip he recently gave himself.

"Sleeping" in the box like Ella used to do when we were moving last time.