I'm thankful for...

A selfless husband.

Poor Eric, I had finally given the go-ahead to buy a big flat screen tv for our basement. He was so excited about it and it sat in our empty living room in the box for a week. Then, I started to think about Christmas. The thought of buying any more toys and finding a spot in our already too full family room made me want to pull my hair out! So I had this idea to re-arrange our house. We had a tv room in the basement and no furniture in the living room. I thought it was kind of silly not to be using all the room in our house the best way we can. We spent the better part of yesterday moving the furniture from the family room to the living room and the furniture in the basement to the family room and then moving all the toys into the basement. I thought that our family room would have a spot for the new tv, but it didn't. Sadly, Eric took his big tv back to Costco yesterday.

Megan loves the new toy room though, and so do I. I'm hoping that this will help keep the toys somewhat in one place instead of all over the house like before. We had some toys in her room, some in the empty living room and most in the family room, so by the end of the day, they were ALL over the place. I also feel like I have a little more room to breathe. Our family room was the everything room and it feels nice not having everything crammed in there. I even ordered Megan and Dane's Christmas presents from Fisher-Price yesterday, knowing that they now will have a spot to go.

Thank you Eric for sacrificing your tv room so I can have a little more sanity at home!!!!

Halloween

Since Megan is VERY into princesses, she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween. I bought her a Cinderella costume at Wal-Mart about a month before Halloween and she wore it out within a week. It wasn't very well made and was falling apart a day after she started wearing it. About a week before Halloween, I was at the mall and happened to see that the Disney Store was having a sale on their princess costumes, so I bought another one for her. I know, I'm a sucker! But this one was SO much better, I'm sure it will last a lot longer and now we have two for when friends come over. Needless to say, I will not buy another princess costume at Wal-Mart.

Eric's work lets the kids come trick-or-treat from office to office every Halloween, so I took the kids to do that. My friend let me borrow her prince costume for Eric to wear, so he was Megan's Handsome Prince. I made myself a Fairy Godmother cape and Dane was a pumpkin. I bought him a 6-9 month costume, but it was already too small for him by the time Halloween came. He could get mostly in it, but I couldn't zip it up. He's a chunk, that little guy. He fell asleep before we got to Eric's work, so he stayed asleep in his car seat while Megan went from office to office, collecting quite a stash of candy!

Megan with our friend Sara. Megan always go to see her after we see Eric and the fish tank at Eric's office. She loved Sara's costume too: "She's being a cat!"

On Halloween, we went to Eric's brother, Lance's house. I thought it might be fun for Megan to trick-or-treat with some of her cousins. Eric's younger brother, Adam, and his family came over too. We took the kids before it got too dark and cold. They had a great time and it was so cute to hear their tiny little voices say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". Megan didn't really get Halloween last year, but she definitely did this year. She commented on every costume that went by and was particularly found of Angela's. She was an angel and Megan talked about it all this last week. Megan sat on the couch after we got back, eating as much candy as she could before I noticed, took a few pictures, and then had to put the candy away for the night (She didn't eat any dinner that night - not totally surprising since she's not a great eater, especially at other people's house). Of course we stayed too late, but we had a great time at Lance's and think that this will be become a yearly tradition for us!

On a side note: Megan is the WORST picture-taker. Even though I take tons of pictures of her, she still won't look at the camera, or on the rare occasion that she does, she won't smile. Posed pictures really aren't her thing. I guess she's more of a candid girl. So, that's why the pic's of her are a little goofy.

Fall Festivities

Despite Megan and Dane having colds for the better part of October, we managed to get out and enjoy the warm fall weather before it turned cold. My friend, Joslyn, and I were crazy enough to take her kids and my kids out for a quick photoshoot. Considering how late in the day it was and how our original location had to be changed, I think the kids did pretty well. Megan was a stinker almost the whole time and not very cooperative, but I did manage to get a few good ones of her thanks to Joslyn.

I have heard about Pumpkinland from several of my friends and so this year we finally made it. It's a cute little nursery in Orem that is all decked out for Halloween, complete with a corn maze, pumpkin house, animals, and of course pumpkins. Megan loved riding in the wagon and became quite upset when we insisted that the wagon was to hold our pumpkins and not her. She picked out her own pumpkin and one for Dane. I'm pretty sure they were the smallest ones there, but she was very proud of them.

I also managed to hit Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo with my friend Rachel and her two kids. Feeding the goats is always a hit with the kids. I think they could spend hours just doing that. Add to that, pony rides, cookie decorating, a "hay" ride, games, and planting your own pumpkin seeds and it's even more fun. We are definitely making this a yearly tradition. It was almost 80 degrees that day too. You can't get much better than that!

October 23 was my in-laws 45th wedding anniversary. Since Eric's parents are getting older and while we hope they make it to their 50th, we decided to have a party for their 45th just in case. My sister-in-laws and I had been working for about 6 weeks getting it ready. One thing I was in charge of was pictures and was able to get some really fun pictures of my in-laws throughout the years while I was at their house at the beginning of October. It was also the perfect excuse to get a new printer with a scanner so I could scan them all in and get enlargements made. Some of Eric's siblings had never seen their parent's wedding pictures before. We were able to use my sister-in-law's mother's decorations she uses for weddings, so the church looked beautiful. We had great food, fun games, and of course family pictures. I am anxious to see how those turned out! It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

The day after Eric's parents left, my Aunt Katheryn came for a visit. She lives in Texas and I hadn't seen her in over 5 years. She hadn't met the kids yet and wanted to come see them before they got too much older. She's always sending me the cutest clothes for Dane and Megan and came with a whole suitcase full of clothes for the kids. She even brought Megan some real cowgirl boots. Megan loves them and had to wear them to church on Sunday. She was my mom's best friend and it was great to chat with her about my mom and catch up. Hopefully it won't be another 5 years until we see her again!