Thanksgiving

Louis worked the morning of Thanksgiving day this year so we decided to stay home as a family.  

It was my first year of making the whole Thanksgiving meal!  Well I did have a little help.

Mary scrubbed all of the potatoes for me, it was so sweet that she wanted to help out!  She did a great job.  I had fun setting our table and getting it ready for dinner that night.  I put paper over our table and drew place setting for everyone.  

This is what they looked like:

For dinner I made turkey breast (I didn't want to make a whole turkey when really only Louis and I would be eating it), 

stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce.  For dessert I decided to make snicker doodle cookies and these little pretzel bites.  It's two square pretzels with a rolo in the middle.

It ended up being really nice staying home as a family this year.  

We enjoyed our meal with our sweet kids and talking about what gratitude is and what we are thankful for.  

Avery's Six Year Old Interview

6 Year Old Avery

This Avery girl just keeps getting better and better!  We love her and all that she is so much!  

For Avery's sixth birthday she wanted an Elsa party, she had been planning it pretty much the whole year leading up to her birthday.  Her birthday really snuck up on me this year and before I knew it her birthday was a week and a half away!  I figured I had better start preparing stuff and sending out invitations for a party the weekend before her birthday.  

She was able to invite 6 friends for her party, she picked 3 friends and 3 cousins.  All but one person was able to come and she was so excited!  We played lots of fun games!  We decorated Elsa crowns, pinned the nose on Olaf, played Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, freeze dancing, freeze tag, and took some pictures with some photo props.  

Everyone had fun, especially our birthday girl.

On her actual birthday Avery went to school then we got to head to Roy to see the dentist, who also happens to be my brother.  Avery had fallen down in gym a few weeks before and hit her two front teeth.  A couple days before her party I noticed they were getting discolored which was concerning!  Not the best way to spend your birthday, but I tried to spin it for her and make it positive.  I told her how exciting it was going to be to get to see her Uncle Matt on her birthday, how cute she will look if she has to get her teeth pulled and how fun it will be to stick her tongue in the space her front teeth were.  It worked!  She was excited and did so wonderfully at the dentist!  She was so cooperative for everything.  Even when it was determined that her teeth did need to be pulled she was so brave while trying to get her numbed!  Unluckily, she never did go totally numb and wasn't able to get her teeth pulled.  From what I understand, when the teeth are infected it makes it harder to get numb around the area.  It didn't help that the nose piece for the happy gas was too big and wasn't really doing anything.  So we left the dentist with all her teeth still in that day.  

The next week we were able to get in with a pediatric dentist up here in Logan.  They had a nose piece that fit for the happy gas and I think that made all of the difference!  Between the gas and a shot they were able to get her completely numb!  She was also distracted by Frozen being played on the ceiling.  She actually started singing along to Let it Go while her teeth were being pulled!  It was hilarious!  

She came out looking adorable and loves that she can now stick her tongue through her teeth and she can whistle.  

Avery is a wonderful girl.  She makes friends easily and is a good friend.  She loves to have fun, loves to play games, dance, and sing.  She always wants to do what is right.  She is a great helper and a great big sister.  She has the best personality and we love having her in our home.

Halloween 2016

This is Halloween, This is Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween weekend this year!

Our Halloween fun started with a party I put together for the Brandley cousins.  All of the cousins over the age of 2 (plus Ethan, because he lives with us) are invited over for food, games, crafts, and fun!  Sadly Louis had to work the night of the party, but luckily I had asked Tifannee and Kami if they wanted to come help out with the party and they had accepted.  I spent almost the first hour alone taking care of 7 kids under the age of 8.  It was just the eating part of the night though, so there wasn't any running around with the games and me going crazy trying to control the chaos.
As a surprise Kami and Tifannee dressed up as Anna and Elsa!  The kids were so excited when they showed up!  Mary couldn't contain herself and ran out the door to them!

After dinner was over and the excitement from Kami and Tifannee coming had worn off we sat back down at the table.  I had all of the kids bring a plain white shirt and we decorated them for Halloween.  The kids had fun and they got to take home something that will help them remember the fun night!  When the shirts were done it was time for the most exciting part of the night!  Elsa (Tifannee) showed us her magic!  There is a fun video of it on Facebook if you want to check it out.  The kids were entranced with it!  After all of the magic we played glow in the dark ghost bowling!  I don't have any pictures, but I got Styrofoam cups and drew ghost faces on them.  I put a few glow sticks around them and we also had black lights, but they weren't any good because they were just from the dollar store!  The kids took turns rolling a plastic bowling ball to knock over the ghosts.  Then it was time for dessert!  I made Frankenstein cups, clear cups with Frankenstein faces drawn on them, vanilla pudding dyed green, and crushed Oreo's on top!  As we were eating, their parents showed up and we played until everyone filtered out the door.

The next night was the Pugmire's ward Fall Festival, Alisha was a part of planning it and it was wonderful!  The kids had lots of fun doing crafts, playing games, and again running around with cousins!  This year we did a family theme that the girls chose last year.  Avery was Elsa, Mary was Anna, Ethan was Olaf, Wyatt was a snowflake, Louis was Kristoff, and I was Sven.  Avery and Mary decided this theme last year and the idea actually stuck the whole year!

On Halloween Megan, Phillip, and Ian came up to have some fun!  We started out by trick or treating down main street.  Several of the stores participate and have a treat for the kids and often coupons for the adults.  Ethan picked up real quick on the whole trick or treating thing.  He was so cute!  He would run up to the employees and say "Peeeeassse!" then he would spend several moments contemplating which candy he wanted.  We took a break while Avery was at school, but picked up again after she was done and went trick or treating at the mall.  We have been going to the mall on Halloween every year since Avery was born!  We also ended up running into Avery's friend LynnDee, they've been friends with they were babies.  Avery left us and ran off with LynnDee and her mom the rest of the time.  That night we had a picnic in the living room with pizza and watched The Wizard of Oz.  The girls had fun handing out candy to trick or treaters.  This is the first year we've had more than 5 kids come by!

It was a fun weekend. I don't love Halloween, but I do love seeing my kids so happy and excited about everything that comes with holidays.

Fun Fall Pictures

We went out looking for leaves earlier this week to take some fun pictures!  

Wyatt's Blessing

Last week Louis blessed our Wyatt Jack.  We were able to do a double blessing with Louis' brother Josh and their baby Calvin.  Calvin is a month older than Wyatt.  They live in Missouri, but were in town for a wedding so we took advantage of that and did the double blessing.  It ended up going really well and it was nice having so much family around to celebrate with us.

A few things that stood out to me in Wyatt's blessing:

He was instructed to find the right person to take to the temple for this is the purpose in

 coming to this earth, to create an eternal family.

He will have a drive for knowledge and education like Grandpa Jack, 

and others will look to him for answers and he will be able to give them.

Wyatt was blessed to have sympathy towards others and be kind to others.

I am grateful for the Gospel and the wonderful joy it bring into my life.  I am grateful for the priesthood holders in my life to bless those around them.  I am grateful for my eternal family!

I don't have the pictures from the day of the blessing, but here are the few I do have.

This is Calvin and Wyatt the night before the blessing

Mary LOVES Wyatt

Mary's Birthday Pictures and Interview

Here are some of the pictures I took of Mary for her birthday.  I did some before she had her haircut as well as after!  Her interview was a fun one this year!  I took a video while I asked her the questions and I'm glad we'll have that to look back at!

I know this isn't the best picture, 

she just wanted to sit on the stump!

I asked her to smile a four year old smile, 

this is what I got!

Again not a terrific picture, 

but she wanted to stand on this stump!

Click to enlarge

4 Year Old Mary

Mary had her fourth birthday this last week and she loved it!  For her party she requested we play at the park and then eat at the grape restaurant (Olive Garden).  So that is exactly what we did!  The Saturday before Mary's birthday we went to Whittier Park and met up with some family to play.  Mary ran and climbed around and had so much fun!

We then headed to the grape restaurant where she ate none of her dinner, but we paid $8 for it anyway. After the restaurant we met up at our house for cake and ice cream.  Mary wanted a blueberry cake with pink frosting this year.

After her party on Saturday Mary was convinced that she was now four years old.  Even though she knew her birthday was on Thursday the 22nd.  Then when she woke up on her birthday I and told her happy birthday and that she was four, she denied it!  I am not four!  That is until she saw her presents downstairs, then she got excited and said it was her birthday!

Later in the afternoon she got to go on her birthday date with Louis!  She wanted to go to Disneyland for her birthday date, but sadly we couldn't make that happen!  Instead they went to eat at Chick-Fil-A where she got to play at their play place. After Chick-Fil-A they tried going to the Jump Zone, but it didn't open for another couple of hours.  Mary was very devastated and cried for a good 10 minutes over that while they headed to Macey's to get ice cream instead.  Overall she had a fun date and came home happy!

That night Nana and Papa, Great Grandma Nola, Tifannee, and Kamila came over and had dinner and a doughnut cake with us.  After dinner she got taken to see the play The Little Mermaid with her aunts.  She liked seeing Ariel, but from what I heard didn't sit patiently during the play and kept making loud funny comments during it!  Over the last few days she keeps asking when she can go to a play with Kami again.  Kami said she has to wait awhile before she'll take Mary again!  

That was the end of Mary's birthday celebrations, she had a fun week!

We love our Mary, she is sweet and funny and loves to cuddle.

We are glad everyday that she is a part of our family.

Kindergarten

Avery has successfully made it through her first week of Kindergarten!  She is looooving it so far!  I was able to go with Avery to her first day of school which was nice to be able to see what a typical day will be like for her and get a bit more information on how things work.  One thing they failed to mention though is that on Fridays they get out half an hour early, so I was 30 minutes late picking her up today!!  Luckily I wasn't the only mom who was late or I would have felt even worse than I already did.
Avery gets out of class every day with so much to tell me about her day and each day she says "I had so much fun!"  I'm really looking forward to this year and seeing how much she is going to enjoy everything and how much she is going to learn.
I love this girl of mine!