Our Thanksgiving was filled with family, way too much food and lots of football. My parents have made it a tradition for about 4 years now to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving, and it works out perfectly for us since we're so close! My sister Brooke and her husband Chris also came. It was great! I also have to say how nice it is to eat at someone elses house and not have to worry about food allergens for Scott. My mom is so sweet, she makes everything so that he can eat it because she doesn't want him to feel left out. (which means no milk or butter in any stuffing, gravy, turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.)
My mom is such a calm cook- she doesn't even stress out on Thanksgiving! She even has the patience to let the kids help with all the tasks. When Scott saw the turkey he said, "Oh, I didn't know that they took the feathers off. How do they take the feathers off?" It was funny. He helped season the turkey (and the counter too) but he didn't want to stuff it or touch it with his hands. The food was awesome! I don't think I'll ever be able to do it like my mom!

Every year my dad usually has to burn the weeds in the pasture. The kids were so excited to take part this year. Hailey followed Grandpa around in the field adding her little sticks to the pile. Really she just followed him around all weekend- she never looses sight of him!

Scott was having a blast. He's been getting way into guns lately for some reason, so he was running around with big sticks making shooting noises. I love my rough tough boy- he's so cute!

Grandma playing in the leaves with the kids

Scott was having fun jumping off the pavers into the leaf piles

This was the highlight of Scott's weekend I think. Like I said, he loves guns. I'm one of those moms that doesn't let their kids have even play guns in hopes to keep them far away...but it's inevitable people! They will go to some kids house who does have pretend guns and fall in love anyway. So Kevin took the opportunity to talk about how real guns work and how dangerous they are- and then let him have some fun! You couldn't wipe the grin off his face he was so excited! I stayed home with Hailey and when I asked Scott how it was he said, "The gun was quite big. A little too big for my armpit" He loved it!

It's been a while since I got a picture of Scott and Hailey with Grandma and Grandpa. Right now they have 3 grandkids with Scott, Hailey and Mia and by April they will have 5. Breanne is just 2 months behind me! So exciting!

Hailey had her 2 year checkup today since her birthday is in 2 weeks!

She's 26 pounds (47th percentile) and 33.25 inches (39th percentile)She screamed the entire time the nurse measured and weighed her, but not for her shot. She took a really deep breath like she was going to scream, the nurse said, "all done" and that was it. I almost had to look down and make sure they actually stuck it in. Even the nurse was amazed! (...and rewarded her with a sucker of course)

I guess by age 2 they should be saying at least 50 words. Hailey has definitely come a long way with her language development, but still not there quite yet. I think it's because she has her own personal narrator (aka Scott). Other than that- this is one healthy happy girl!

Are my kids trying to tell me its too cold in our house?

Kevin let me sleep in a bit this morning and when I walked out and saw Hailey eating breakfast with her winter hat on I thought it was pretty darn cute! Kevin said Hailey put her arms around herself and said, "cold" so he got them each a blanket to wrap around themselves. Then Hailey pointed to her head and said she wanted a hat too. I keep our house at 70 at night to keep Scott's asthma down (especially since he's in the basement) and then 68 during the day. Is that so bad? My kids think so!

We were hoping for a few more dry weeks, but the snow made its appearance this week. The kids were so excited-as soon as they saw it starting to fall they were jumping into their warm clothes to get outside.Hailey is now officially in love with the snow and is constantly pointing up at her snowsuit to put it on. I guess she can be the one to encourage the rest of us to get out of the house regardless of the weather because I'm not the best sport about the snow!

My last post was about the kids helping out with laundry. I guess i forgot to mention which item is Hailey's favorite to get into. Any guesses?

This week marks week 26 in my pregnancy. With the other two kiddies I didn't really get uncomfortable until the very last month, and even though I could feel the little kicks they were just that- little kicks. This time around-not so little kicks! I told Kevin either this baby is going to be a 9 pounder or its going to come early because I don't remember the other two being this strong this early. Then I was sitting next to a friend in church today and she said both her boys were that way- bruising her ribs and everything. I guess I forgot that with Scott the only things I felt on my ribs were his little fists because he was breach. Don't get me wrong though, its not very fun having a head nuzzled up in your ribs either! So there's another clue to what the sex might be, but really that doesn't necessarily mean a boy either. It could be a soccer player girl in there- who knows!

So today they announced in sacrament that the primary was going to sing a special musical number. I wasn't surprised that Scott didn't tell me about it- in fact I had to bribe him with candy (yes even after all he's eaten for Halloween!) just to get him to go up there. He walked up there behind all the bigger kids and then, to our amazement actually scooted through so that he was in the front row. He looked adorable, even if he didn't sing. Well Hailey was so excited about the primary children singing that it took all we had to hold her still. Finally we gave in and off she marched right up to the stage and squeezed right into the front with her little chin propped up on the railing. I'm sure she was standing on her tippie toes, and boy was she proud to be up there with the others. She loves to sing. It was adorable!

Scott has been wanting to help with EVERYTHING around the house these days. I can't do dishes, clean the house, take out the trash, make dinner or do laundry without him wanting to pitch in. And what's even better is that Hailey does everything Scott does, so she wants to help too. I use to be so particular about how things were folded or how the dishwasher was loaded, but I've become a lot more relaxed and have really enjoyed the extra hands.

I set up the ironing board to be their folding stationScott's favorite thing to do with laundry is match up socks and fold towels. Yes, I've taught him the right way to fold the towels, but if he likes to roll them up-fine by me :) The funny thing about this is that now I am finding rolled up towels everywhere. The ones I'm using or are hanging up on my oven handle- he rolls them up and puts them away.

Here's Hailey on spaghetti night. She has been so independent and stubborn too. She's now decided she's too big for high chairs or booster chairs. She wants to sit on a regular chair like everyone else. I keep putting her booster seat back onto her chair and the other day she opened up the sliding door and set it out there to hide it from me. Little stinker!Scott has these Diego legos that he can build into different cars and he came into my room the other morning with his latest. I asked him what it was called and he said it was "a wind challenger". He's so creative- I just love it! (you can't see that great in the picture but there's a propeller on the side) Another thing he loves to do when I ask him to pick up his toys is to turn a chair over onto the ground to use to scoop up toys. He calls it his "3 thousand" Who knows, maybe he'll be an inventor!

Despite some hard and exguasting days this week, I went to bed every night feeling so blessed to have these kids in my life and to be their mom! I totally think the special moments Kevin and I have with our kids outweigh the bad ones, and it seems like I had an overpouring of those really special moments this week. One of those was the other night when both Scott and Hailey were cuddled up on the couch with me. Scott got to feel the baby kick for the first time, and then both Scott and Hailey's cute little faces were smothered against my belly while they were saying, "Hello Baby! Are you in there!"

I just love them to pieces and feel like they've always been a part of me, even before I met them face to face the day they were born. I love being a mom!

Introducing Hailey the ladybug

and Scott the handyman

This picture was taken in Colorado, but I love the cheese face Hailey is making

Grandma and Grandpa decided to surprise the kids and since they were in Orem this weekend, they came up to take the kids trick-or-treating. The kids were excited, but Scott whispered into my ear, "I knew they Grandpa was going to surprise me"
This was our third year taking the kids down old main street during the day for fun (warm) trick-or-treating to all of the stores.

Funny story about Scott: A month ago I was trying to decide what the kids should dress up as and I came up with the idea for Scott to be a cowboy and Hailey a cowgirl. Even after telling Scott he could wear a hat and have a pretend gun he said to me "I can't be a cowboy! The kids will laugh at me and that would make me sad." So apparently my days of choosing what Scott gets to wear for Halloween are over and he's only 3-almost 4!

Tuesday night we let the kids stay up a little late to carve pumpkins and build a haunted candy house that Hailey won at a Halloween party

Last year Hailey wouldn't go near the gooey insides

They both dug in this year!

Here's all our pumpkins: mine, Hailey's, Scott's and dads

Scott concentrating on the roof

The finished house!

On Wednesday Hailey was running down the hall and she smacked her head on the door casing. She only cried for a minute or two and put her head on my shoulder. When I sat her on the chair to see where she hit it I realized it was going to need stitches. So long story short she ended up getting 8 stitches on top and about 5 underneath. She gets them taken out on Tuesday. For those that know Hailey, this shouldn't have been her first visit to the E.R. and I'm sure it won't be the last either. She loves adventure!

On Thursday we drove down to Orem for my sister Brooke's senior soccer game! It was her last soccer game after playing since she was 3 years old! I'm so proud of her for sticking with it for 4 years- wow! On a sidenote: The weather was more like a football game and the kids spent most of it cuddled up in lots of blankets!

Candice, Rick and Mia and my parents all came down to watch the big game