A Visit From Santa

We went to Michael's school Christmas party where we ate dinner, ran into old friends, and got to sit on Santa's lap (well, not me and Nate). Michael wasn't so sure about sitting on Santa's lap. (Can you blame him? It is a little scary!) Madison was all smiles as usual!

Merry Christmas to me!!!

You are looking at my brand new, wonderful Christmas present. (Although it has already been used twice since Saturday.) Nate and I couldn't wait to ride together so we are saving some of my new gear and that will be my "Christmas present". I love it! I can't wait to race with Nate next summer!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words... And I Have Two!!

BEFORE




AFTER



I cut off over 20 inches of hair!!! It will soon be on its way to Locks of Love. (This is the second time that I have donated, but the first time wasn't as much, 13 inches.)

Not that I look like her else wise, but I think this is a total Victoria Beckham haircut. What do you think?

Trick or Treat

Michael LOVED trick or treating. (Honestly, what kid wouldn't?) It didn't take him long at all to realize that all he had to do was knock on a door and he would get some candy. In fact, he liked it so much, that when we were Trick-or-Treating at Nate's work he decided to dig in and ate a Hershey's Kiss. This was bad for two reasons... One, he is allergic to milk, so couldn't have the chocolate. Two, he didn't take off the foil wrapper, and he ate it. It took him all of about 30 seconds before he threw it up. I was nervous the night was going to go down hill from there and that he would be too sick to trick or treat, but he recovered quickly.


Notice the gun? It's mine that goes with my pirate costume. Michael wouldn't put it down. But hey, what Pooh Bear doesn't wield a gun??? He loved checking out people's Halloween decorations, and especially all the Jack-O-Lanterns that people had set up. It was a fun night and Nate loved answering the door in his costume to scare all the kids!!!

Halloween Party

Nate and I hosted our first party in our new house, and we had lots of fun doing it!

Nate's costume was amazing. As you can see, he was the headless butler! Michael and Madison were the best friend pair, Pooh and Piglet. My pirate costume was popular, as two of my nieces were pirates too! Nate's brother won the Best Costume award. (He is the escaped convict that you can see lurking in the background.)


One of Nate's friend showed up late, Butt his costume was great! It had hair in all the wrong places and was disgusting. That is what made it so good!


We had a fun night and missed everyone who wasn't there! Happy Halloween!

Michael and Pooh

Michael loved his costume and liked wearing it a lot. The only problem is that it is made to keep kids warm when they are outdoors trick-or-treating. Indoors it is like a sauna and our already skinny son sweats off the pounds while wearing it around. But he does make a perfect and a dang cute Pooh. I figured for him to be Pooh Bear was only apropriate, since he said "Pooh Bear" way before he even said "mama".

Can you find Madison in this picture?

As I was packing up to leave my cousin's house, my other cousin's little girl started helping me pack up Madison. She added some stuffed animals and the entire contents of a tool box before we noticed. Thanks Brin. It was so cute that I had to take a picture and have a good laugh. Madison just sat there and took it the whole time she was getting buried alive! It was pretty funny! If you look closely at the picture it looks like she is screaming for help!

Michael's Loves

We went to my cousins house to play last week and had quite a time. Michael came home with two new loves as a result. The first was a battery powered Jeep. Michael loved driving that thing around, and most importantly that he could do it himself. There were lots of tears when it came time to taking turns.

Michael "off roading".

The second love and MOST important, THE drill. While playing inside he found a toy drill that makes noise and moves when you hold the handle. Power tool and noise, need I say more? The toy spent the rest of the day by his side. He loved it (that is a huge understatement). The kids were jumping on the trampoline and Michael wanted to go on. I told him that he would have to leave his drill off the tramp or someone would get hurt. This led to a fiasco. While on the tramp Michael would cry because he wanted the drill. While on the ground with the drill he would cry because he wanted to be on the tramp. I finally gave in and let him be on the tramp with the drill (sorry Kim and Sarah).
Michael crying because he wants the drill.


Michael and his drill.


Watch out for the drill!

Needless to say, the drill came home with us thanks to the kindness of my cousin. And although he has mellowed out about it a little bit and he isn't crying anymore because he has to put it down to eat, it is still the first thing he asks for after his nap and when he wakes up in the morning. Michael always has so much fun at the Conants, and with such fun stuff and friends to play with, how could he not?

Michael and his two loves... the drill and the Jeep.

Michael's Shadow

Madison has joined the ranks that Michael has paved the way for. . . She is officially a thumb sucker (and good at it too). She turns her nose up at the binky and pops in her thumb. Well, what can you do?!

Our House

This is for you Natalie (and Nicollette). You asked me to send pictures of our house a while back, well, here they are. We just planted five trees in our yard so it won't be so bare anymore.

Halloween Decor

I am so excited that we have a house, one reason being that now we have space and I can decorate for the holidays!!!

WASHINGTON!!!

I drove (yes, drove) to Washington to stay with my sisters kids while she went to pack up their home in New Jersey. They have lived far away most of their lives, so I have rarely gotten to see them and it was such a treat to get to spend a week with them. Washington was BEAUTIFUL, but definately very rainy. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the landscape (maybe next time I visit)! Now we just need to get my sister Natalie and her family to move back to Utah and then we will all be in the Western US.


Britney and Madison were inseperable the whole time. Brit was a huge help and loved to hold Madison all the time!


Noah was pretty fond of her too! (When I was leaving to come home he asked me to leave Madison there!)


Noah's typical day was spent playing on the computer. Webkinz is a huge favorite of his!


Britney spent most of her time cheering!


Madison loved all the attention that she got!




Michael loved running around getting into as much trouble as he possibly could.

I will miss them a lot and I am already looking forward to when I get to see them again!

Fun With Stickers

Michael loves playing in the craft room (but most often likes to decorate anything but paper)!

Cutest Kids

Michael always makes me smile! He is always happy (even with his huge blood blister on his lip). I love him so much.

Cutest Kids

Isn't Madison so beautiful!? I love this picture of my sweet little angel.

A week in review

This week was a pretty hard/crazy/busy week. Michael spent all day Monday being sick and throwing up. It didn't make for such a fun holiday and we had to cancel plans with friends. Whatever he had I then caught, so we were both down for the week.

Some big news this week was that Michael turned TWO!!! He had his second birthday on Thursday. I can't believe I am old enough to have a two year-old son! So I wanted to have big plans for Michael's big day, but it was kind of a flop. With sickness exhausting us, and the fact that I hadn't been able to get to the store all week, by the time Nate got home from work Thursday night we bagged our plans and headed out for Wendy's (am I a horrible mother or what?) Michael didn't even get a cake or a candle. (He needs Aunt Natalie here to take care of his birthdays for him!) But, as you can tell from the pictures he was happy nonetheless (the Wendy's kids meal toy was a big hit!)




After Wendy's we went home and let Michael open up his present, which wasn't even wrapped (yes, we already discussed how lame a mother I am). He was so excited. He loves this toy, having played with it previously at both my cousin's and my sister's houses.



Bedtime was a bit of a struggle because he wanted to play with his new toys. In honesty, regardless of how pathetic a birthday it seemed, he had a good day and was happy and it was kind of nice to skip the stress of big plans.

Friday Michael and Madison both went in to the doctor and got shots. Michael his two year shots and Madison her two month shots. This made for another crazy day. Neither one ended up very happy, and Madison ended up spiking a fever and not feeling so great for a day or two.

Saturday we spent doing a lot of yardwork. Our biggest challenge with our new house has been trying to get our yard in order and repair the damage done by the previous owners. Michael as usual was a big help (you know, putting rocks where we don't want them, planting weeds we had just dug up, that sort of help, but in all honesty it is a lot of fun to have him out there working with us, and he loves it.) He also loved playing in, sitting on, and sliding down the big mound of dirt we have in our back yard.





Sunday was busy (they usually are). We went to my cousin's baby blessing where Madison got to see my cousin Madison who we got her name from.


Aren't they such a cute pair?! I think they even look a little bit a like.

Last night Brandon and Whitney came over to celebrate Michael's birthday. They got Michael some toy trucks, which were a big hit, and which he broke in right away (even though it was super cold outside). Check out that runny nose (thank you sickness). See the big yawn, yeah, he was tired but couldn't go to bed before trying out the trucks!




It has been a long week and hopefully this one will be a little calmer, we will see. Although it is off to a good start considering it is 9:30am and both kids are back asleep (good considering they are sleeping, bad because that shows how early they woke up since they are both already napping!) But they are definately both cuties!!!

Madison's Baby Blessing

Yesterday Nate blessed Madison and it was wonderful! It is amazing to me to think that I am a mother of two! I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but was so busy that I didn't get any until almost everyone had left. (And none of Madison before we took her out of her dress.) I did however get some pictures of the bocce playing that took place. We had a lot of fun. We love hanging out with the Croyles!!!

Alex and I beat Bob and Andrew. Woo Hoo!



Madison watched, all snuggled up, and cheered on her mommy, while Austin cruised around on Michael's bike.





These are pictures of "Nate San" preparing for our butt-kicking we dished out to his brother and his brothers wife 15-1. We are a force to be reckoned with!


It was a great day! We appreciated the support of those who could make it, and missed those who couldn't! We will be getting Madison's pictures taken in her blessing dress sometime in the next week or so, so be on the look out for some more pictures headed your way!