Christmas 2011

Tomorrow is the day that I take the tree down.  I hate that day!  Taking down the tree is no fun.  I can't believe that Christmastime is over already.  It doesn't seem fair how Christmastime lasts like a month before the actual Christmas Day, but then it ends so abruptly afterwards.  Oh well...we had a great Christmas.  Here are some of the highlights (sorry so many pictures.  Preston finally figured out a way for the portrait-style ones to work!  Yay Preston!)

Arden's wintertime gymnastics show:  Check.  (She is doing great!)

Sitting on Santa's lap at Christmas parties...three times.  Check!  The kids got to sit on the big guy's lap at the ward Christmas party, the Haun family Christmas party (see below) and the Zaugg family party too.  This Santa is the one from the Haun party, and the kids were all so excited to see him!  This is the first year that I got smiles out of all three kids.  Here is Corbie and her new best friend:

 And smiley little Arden:

And Dax, who has always either cried or at least looked really concerned while sitting on Santa's knee, finally figured out who is in charge of the presents, and was more than willing to play ball this year.

Some other things that were accomplished before the big day (no pictures). 

• One zillion presents wrapped:  Check. 
• Helping with my very first school Christmas party in Arden's kindergarten class:  Check. 
• Going to see the Christmas lights:  Check.  We drove through the "Lights Before Christmas" in Layton with my Grandma one night, and then we went to Christmas Village in downtown Ogden with my parents.  It.  Was.  Cold!  The kids enjoyed looking through the windows of the little houses there, until they got too cold to enjoy much of anything. 
• Watching the essential Christmas shows (It's a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, The Muppets Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version), The Christmas Devotional, etc.)  Check! We all have our own essential Christmas shows. Daxton's essential Christmas show was the Kung Fu Panda Holiday show.  Corbie's favorite was, of course, Team Umizoomi Christmas special.  Arden liked "Search for Santa Paws" which is about Santa's dog, and "The Happy Elf," which was based on a song by Harry Connick Jr.  (Love me some Harry Connick Jr.  HATE the Happy Elf.  So glad that one is off my DVR.)  And Preston's favorite is the Johnny Bravo Christmas special.  Does anyone else know who Johnny Bravo is?  Just curious.
• Spreading reindeer food on the lawn on Christmas Eve:  Check.
• Making cookies and leaving them out for Santa:  Check.

Finally, the big day arrived.  Here is Cora opening a present from Santa:  A toy puppy!  (She started the season out asking for a real puppy, but I talked her down to this.  Hopefully it will do for a while.



Dax was so excited to get a Kung Fu Panda toy.  This toy is made to be Kung Fu-ed.  When you punch it or throw it, it says things like, "Ow!  Have you been practicing?"  and "Ohhh, my tenders!"  Dax loves it and has been using up a lot of the Kung Fu moves that used to be directed at his sisters on this toy, which was what Santa was hoping for.  Good job, Santa!

One of Arden's favorite gifts was the $5 little fluffy unicorn her dad got her (well, that I bought and put his name on the tag.  But somehow, he is taking all the credit.

Right about here I unwrapped a new camera!  Yay!  You should hopefully notice that the pictures are slightly less crappy from here on out.  Preston got Hungry Hungry Hippos from Cora!  So excited!  (We have already lost one marble, and I fear that it will be the first of many.  How on earth do they not include extra marbles in this thing???)

My parents and sibs came over to open some more presents and we all had Preston's famous french toast for breakfast.  Then we quickly headed over to church.  Arden sang a couple of songs with the primary...or at least I think she did.  She must have been standing behind a tall kid because no one could see her up on the stage.  Oh well.  After church we headed over to my Grandma Wilson's house.  Here is Corbie with one of her favorite Christmas decorations.  These little guys each ring a bell and play Christmas songs. 

 And here is me with my cute Grandma in one of her festive Christmas sweaters:

After Grandma's we headed over to Preston's mom's house, but I guess I was tired of taking pictures because I don't have any!  The kids had fun playing with their cousins and comparing what they got from Santa.  After that it was past bedtime and we had to go home and put the tired little Christmas elves to bed.  It was a very fun, very busy, very wonderful day!  Hope all of your Christmases were wonderful too! 

The Life of a Gingerbread House

We received a gingerbread house kit from a dear friend this year.  A couple of days before Christmas we decided to give it a try.  Here were are...all ready to go!

(Yes, Cora is already sneaking a finger full of frosting.  And yes, Arden is in her pajamas.  But that is because it was "Polar Express" day at school.  Arden came home with a little golden ticket her teacher had given her, and was COMPLETELY convinced that she was going to be going on the really real Polar Express.  Like to the North Pole.  To see Santa.  I tried to manage her expectations a little and tell her that they were probably just going to pretend to go on the Polar Express, but she didn't believe me.  She was going to the North Pole.  She was actually really worried that when she was on the really real Polar Express, there wouldn't be a bathroom on the train.  :-)  She was a little let down that it turned out to be the pretend Polar Express, after all, but she was excited that she got to have some chocolate milk and an Oreo with red filling.  Just as good as a trip to the North Pole, right?  But back to our gingerbread...)

Here is the little house once we finally got it sticking together!  It took us a couple of tries to get this thing to stand up.  The only gingerbread houses I have made in the last 10 or so years have been made of graham crackers, which aren't very heavy.  Luckily, the frosting that came with this kit was just like superglue after a few minutes.  Cora still looks a little worried that the house might fall over.  Probably because if you look at it from her angle it was leaning pretty far.  But it stayed up!

 Dax was pretty uninterested in the gluing of the house, but once the candy came out he quickly found his way over to where we were and wanted to help.  The problem is that we took so long getting the house to stand up, that by the time the candy was getting put on the frosting was pretty much the consistency of cement.  Our house didn't look nearly as nice as the one on the box, but we had fun making it.  This is the picture where I said, "Smile for the camera and then you can eat the house."  Arden did great, but the other two couldn't keep their eyes off the prize...

 After a few more tries and a little bit of threatening, I finally got them to all look at the camera...maybe not smile at the camera, but at least they are looking...and licking their little chops in anticipation.

 Okay, kids...go for it:

 Here is Daxton eating the pine tree out front of the house.

I sooo meant to take a picture of the sad, broken down house completely stripped of all of its candy sitting in pieces on the counter that night, but I forgot.  You can picture it though.  This gingerbread house had a very short life.  But a very yummy one. 

Merry Christmas

There is SO much to post about Christmas this year, but when I think about how much stuff there is to post about I don't want to post at all!  So for now, I'll just do one picture.  

This is a picture of one of my favorite moments of Christmas.  This is Christmas Eve, after everything has been done.  We had spread the reindeer food on the lawn and set out cookies for Santa.  The kids were in their new Christmas jammies, and were all nestled and snug in their beds.  The presents were wrapped and put under the tree, and everything was perfect.  I love this moment when everything is quiet and still and just waiting for the crazy happiness that will come in the morning.  I took this picture right before the stockings were filled:

Now that it is all over I wish I could go back to this moment and do it all again! 

Here Comes Santa Claus

I was going to post some pictures of the kids with Santa Claus this year, but I still can't get the dang things to work right!  All of my portrait-style pictures ones keep coming up landscape!   AARRGGHH.  (Help?  Please?  Someone?)  So this is the only picture that comes out the right way. It is a cute one of Santa reading "The Night Before Christmas" to Dax and Corbie.  This Santa came to our family Christmas party last weekend, and sang songs with the kids (he even sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with them, which isn't quite a Christmas song...but hey, there is a star in it) and then read them this story before doing the usual come-sit-on-my-lap stuff.  Isn't he cute?  The kids LOVED it.

I'll see if Preston can help me out with the pictures and try again another day.  Now I am in a bad mood so I gotta get something off my chest.

The kids and I were out running a bunch of pre-Christmas errands today, (despite the cold that I have caught...oh how I sometimes wish for mommy sick days) and we were listening to a lot of Christmas music.  I really love Christmas music.  Well, almost all Christmas music.  There are a few Christmas songs that by this time in the season make me want to rip my ears off.  For example:

-Baby, It's Cold Outside: any version.  The lyrics of this song have always struck me as a little creepy.  I mean really, the girl wants to go home.  Get out of the way and let her out the door!  I just feel bad for her, especially when she says things like, "Hey, what's in this drink?"  Does she suspect this guy of slipping her roofies?  Run, sweetie, RUN!

- Wonderful Christmastime: Paul McCartney.  I love the Beatles and was lucky enough to see Paul McCartney live when he came to town last year.  Love him.  Brilliant.  But sorry, Sir Paul, this song is horrible.  Just. Aw. Ful.  And oh-so-catchy.  Now it is stuck in my head.  Again.  Crap.

- Christmas Shoes.  'Nuff said.  (ihateitihateitihateit)

- The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Arden loves this song and won't let me change it if she hears it in the car.  Seriously?  This song is like 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, except for Christmas.

- Anything by Michael Bolton or Neil Diamond (sorry Dad).

- Mistletoe by Justin Bieber.  Sorry, I just don't get it.  Sure, the kid can carry a tune, but his pants remind me of Dick van Dyke's pants in Mary Poppins when he is dancing with the penguins.  You know, when he pulls them half way down and then has to waddle around like a penguin.  And, sorry to all those tweens out there, but when he says dumb stuff like "I'm-a-be under the mistletoe with you, shawty," I want to die.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  :-)  Merry Christmas!  I promise to do a happier post next, especially if I can figure out this dang picture stuff.


Zaugg Christmas Pageant

Yesterday we had our First Annual Zaugg Christmas Pageant.  We had a beautiful Mary (Arden).  We had a baby Jesus (played by one of Arden's dolls who happens to be a girl, but we wrapped her up in her pretend swaddling clothes enough to hide the pink bow in her hair).  We had a Joseph (Preston).  We had a shepherd with his sheep (Dax and a few stuffed animals).  We even had a heavenly angel (little Corbie, with her tin foil halo and pink wings).  I got to be the narrator, and also played various other parts, including the donkey, the innkeeper and the three wise men.

It may have been one of the shortest Christmas plays ever, but it was fun and it hopefully gave the kids another chance to remember the real Christmas story. 

The play started out okay with Corbie the angel telling our Mary that she was "Going have a baby!  His name wiw be Jesus!"  Mary and Joseph then headed off to Bethlehem, but I am pretty sure the real Mary didn't giggle like that while riding the donkey.  After they got themselves settled in the stable, we turned our attention to where the shepherds were abiding in the fields.  The Shepherd himself was pretty much running around and around the room and not keeping a very good watch over his sheep by night, but he did stop running when Cora yelled at him "Hark.  HARK, DAX!" Then I whispered to her what to say...it started out pretty good.  Corbie was so cute sitting on my shoulder and saying her lines.  We got through, "Be not 'fraid for be-hode I bing you good tid-ines of gate joy" but after that she got a little tired and so we just summarized the rest as "Baby Jesus is borned!"   The little angel helpfully pointed to the couch where Arden, um I mean Mary, was, and yelled "Over dere!"  Dax did such a good job of coming to see the baby and kneeling down by him oh-so-reverently where he lay in his toy basket, er...manger. 

The angel had lost interest after her turn in the spotlight was over, so we quickly moved on to the wise men (me) bringing the gifts.  We received some actual frankincense and murr as a gift a few years ago, so it was fun for the kids to see what those things are.  The play was pretty much over so we got ourselves some treats and burned some of our frankincense so the kids could see how good it smells.

Arden has already "called" that she gets to be the angel next year.

Sure do love those Christmas Cookies

The other day for FHE we made lots of Christmas cookies!  We made them to deliver to the kids' nursery and primary teachers as sort of a "thank you" for putting up with the kids all year and teaching them so much!  (And boyhowdy, those nursery teachers have earned themselves some cookies!) 

The kids were all so excited to help.  Unfortunately, as the number of helpers increases, the process of making cookies actually seems to slow down instead of speed up.  For example, at one point we had to add 3 1/2 cups of sugar to the cookie dough mixture.  In order to keep everyone happy, Arden got to put in one cup, then Dax got to put in one cup, and then Cora got to put in one cup.  I got to put in the last 1/2 cup.  This is how everything went.  (Actually, that was one of the easier ingredients since there were 3 cups...the real drama was when there were only 2 teaspoons of baking powder.)  However slow the process, they were happy to be my little helpers.  Here is Dax, helping me finish rolling out some dough:

They all liked to take turns choosing what cookie cutter to use.  Daxton's favorite were the Christmas trees, and Arden liked the stars.  Cora liked the "jingle bells."  (I am seriously struggling to get the new blogger interface to put my pictures the right way.  Any suggestions???)

After they were baked, we had to wait for them to cool off before we could frost them.  Unfortunately, not all of the cookies survived long enough to get their frosting:

Fortunately, a few did survive to the frosting stage, and Daxton and Arden LOVED to put sprinkles on.  Cora too, of course.  She dumped and ENTIRE new bottle of sprinkles on her first cookie.  Should have taken a picture of that cookie.  Here is one of Dax's creations, about to be eaten by the artist himself:

Arden likes to put a little bit of each kind of sprinkles on her cookies.  





After all of the testing, there were still enough cookies to drive around to the nursery and primary teachers, and the kids added a little Thank You/Christmas card to each plate.  Corbie was SO dang excited in the car as we drove around.  As soon as I started to slow down, she started screeching, "I wanna come wif you to da dohwuh!  I wanna hode da pwate!  I wanna hode da PWAAATE!"  Luckily, Daxton didn't mind that Cora got to hold all the plates.  He was happy to stand next to her and yell "Merry Christmas!" along with Cora when the door was opened by one of their nursery leaders.  At one house, he stuck his head inside and said "I looove your Christmas tree!"  Silly kid.  Arden was a little shy to give the cookies to her primary teachers, but she was brave and did it, and even threw in a "Thanks for being my primary teacher!" along with her Merry Christmases.  

I am so thankful that there are so many amazing people willing to teach and love my kids, and I appreciate them much more than a plate of cookies can say!  They are so awesome and so patient, and I can't wait to see what the kids will learn next year.  (watch out Sunbeams, here comes Dax!)

Future Paleontologist (or Future Kung Fu Panda)

Dax, my dinosaur freak, got an A-Z dinosaur book a while back. It has a dinosaur for every letter of the alphabet. He loves that book, and it has had to be taped together with green tape to keep it from falling completely apart. He used to like me to read it to him at bedtime, but lately he insists on "reading" it himself. I was surprised that he can actually name most of the dinosaurs all by himself. He told me he wanted me to take a picture of him reading it, so I did. If you are in the mood to watch a 3-year old say large words...for example: "D is for Dip-wod-ocus (Diplodocus)" Enjoy!  (Actually the video of him reading the whole book was taking forever to upload, so I shortened it a little, so now it is just I - Z or so, but you get the idea).

This kid's mind is truly a mystery to me.  Today we were at my Grandma's house, and she was talking about a show she had watched about grizzly bears.  Dax jumped in and said something like, "Once if there will be bears in my house mommy will hide but if I am all grown up into Kung Fu Panda, then I will use my super hero Kung Fu Panda super moves to kick it and then mommy don't have to hide any more."  What?

Christmas Confusion

We are busy getting ready for Christmas around here. I still have some shopping left to do, but I am getting closer. We are doing our best to try and make sure the kids understand that Christmas isn't all about presents. Tonight for FHE we were trying to get the kids to watch part of the Christmas devotional from Sunday. If you saw it, you know they had a video depicting the birth of Jesus. They were showing the part where Mary and Joseph are travelling to Bethlehem. Dax was sitting on my lap, and I said something like, "Look, Dax! There is baby Jesus' mother riding on the donkey." Dax said, "Where is baby Jesus?" I said, "He is in her tummy." He turned around and looked at me with concern on his face and sweetly asked, "Did she eat baby Jesus???"

We have also been going through our toys and deciding which ones to donate to a toy drive. Arden was at school, so Dax and Cora were helping me decide which toys to choose. They were both so generous, and Dax even tried to give his favorite stuffed T-rex. I explained that we should just give the toys that were still in good shape that we didn't play with very much anymore. Cora sweetly offered up an armful of Arden's toys, saying that "I don't pway with these any-mo!" So nice of her! :-)

What traditions do you have at your house so that your kids don't get too caught up in the presents!presents!Santa!presents! aspect of Christmas?

Ooooooh, Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  We have an artificial tree, and for the last few years, we have just kept the lights on each section of the tree when storing it. When we put the sections of the tree together and plugged in the lights, they magically worked! We could skip right to the fun part of putting up the ornaments. 

Not this time. 

When we put the sections of the tree together and plugged in the lights....there were about three strands not working. I told the kids they would have to wait for a little while for Preston to fix the lights before we could start putting the ornaments up. Preston unwound the first string and started testing the lights to see which one wasn't plugged in right. After testing nearly every single light on the string, Preston found the broken light and fixed it. He moved on to the next string. This one had quite a few lights that seemed to be causing problems, and he replaced quite a few while I put the little kids down for a nap, promising them that we would wait for them before we started putting up the ornaments. When I came back downstairs, Preston informed me that he was tired of testing lights and wanted to just buy some new strands since they only cost like $3 each. 

Okay. Preston and Arden were off to the store and returned with some brand new strands to replace the two that were still broken plus an extra one. He quickly put them on the tree and plugged in the lights....now a different strand wasn't working.

Preston started talking to himself in an unknown language (rickinfrickinfrackinstupidlights). My dad used to speak this same language on Christmas tree day!! Preston tried to unwind this strand, but it seemed to be wrapped around branches that weren't right next to each other and he was having a reallly hard time unwinding it. His unknown-language-talking got louder.

Next thing I knew, Preston had SCISSORS. I sweetly asked him if it was a good idea to cut wires with scissors while they are plugged in. He said he needed them to be plugged in so he could tell which strand he was trying to cut off the tree. He also told me that they cut all the lights down from Temple Square every year instead of unwinding them. I helpfully pointed out that they are probably not plugged in while they are cutting. He mumbled something about rubber coating and made his first cut. Nothing exciting seemed to happen, so I shrugged my shoulders and let him continue. The little kids were waking up by now and wanted a snack. I was peeling them an orange when I glanced over at Preston just in time to see him cut a wire that apparently was from the wrong strand, because a beautiful shower of sparks came from the cut wire and landed on the ground. 

Luckily, Preston was fine...or at least he wasn't physically hurt. But now he had ANOTHER strand that obviously needed to be unwound from the tree and replaced. He was not a happy camper. I had to go out to the garage to take out the garbage sack, and while I was in the garage, I heard Preston give an "AARRRRGHHH!" so loud that I heard it clearly. It was so funny, I couldn't help laughing all the way back into the house. He got all the strands off the tree and delegated putting the new lights up to me. I got them on, and we plugged in the lights....now a different strand wasn't working!  

I just took that strand off the tree and called it good.

So, about four hours after we first plugged in the lights, we got to put up the ornaments! Yay!

Ahhhhh...these memories that will last a lifetime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was so great! We got to have Thanksgiving dinner twice this year...once at Preston's mom's house last Sunday, and again at my mom's house on the day itself. Lots of turkey was eaten, and I can't tell you how much pie I had. (I love pie, have I mentioned? I just polished off another piece right before doing this post. Oh well...I will be good starting January 1st!) I even got to watch quite a bit of football while Grandma and Grandpa and various aunts and uncles helped keep the kids entertained. The kids aren't football fans yet, but someday I hope they will be. Although, Dax does appreciate a good tackle and will watch longer than the girls. Which is about 30 seconds. Anyway.... 

Since we didn't have to do dinner at our house, Thanksgiving is a holiday that takes minimal effort on my part, which I LOVE. But sometimes it seems like it gets skipped over because it is such a low-key holiday. 

That is, UNLESS you are in kindergarten. 

They do Thanksgiving for the whole month of November! Arden loved it. I gotta admit, I was pretty suprised that Arden got to do a lot of the same Thanksgiving crafts in her kindergarten class that I remember doing in school when I was little. I thought for sure that in this politically correct world that there was no way that Arden would be bringing home some of this stuff! All month, Arden has been known as "Dancing Cloud," which is her supercool Native American name. She made bowls with clay, made necklaces with little beads (and macaroni), and check out her sa-weet grocery bag vest and feather headband:

Awesome. I remember making this same vest. Love kindergarten! I can't wait to see what they do for Christmas.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa -

First of all, love you!  Love.  I invoke your name at least a couple of times a day now that Christmas is approaching.  I gotta admit, "Remember, Santa won't bring you any presents if you are naughty!" is working a lot better than "Because I said so!"  However....

I had no idea how many details of your life I am supposed to be familiar with.  I really could use a study guide or something if you have one.  In years past, I got by on the basics pretty well. (You know, Santa is that guy beard with the white who lives at the North Pole and brings presents on Christmas Eve, but only if you are good.)  All the information I needed could be found in "The Night Before Christmas" or "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town."  But this year, Arden is five years old, and she wants a little more info.  And, if I don't know the answer to a question, she looks at me like I must be some kind of idiot.  So, if you could please answer the following questions for me, I would really appreciate it:

• What is Mrs. Santa Claus' first name?
• Do you have any kids?  If so, how many?  How old are they?  Any grandkids?
• What do the reindeer eat?
• Do you have any pets?
• Do you help the elves make the toys, or do you just oversee their work?
• How exactly do you know if the kids are being naughty or nice?  (I tried to tell her that the elves sneak around and watch the kids and then report back to you, but that only led to about a hundred more questions about why she has never seen an elf in our house and what she should do if she finds one in her bed)

There are lots, more, but I can't remember them right now...just send the study guide and hopefully it will answer them all.

By the way, Arden is being very nice!  Cora is pretty good too (for the most part).  Dax is having a little bit harder time lately.  Just for an example:  He didn't take a nap today, which always causes his "naughty vs. nice" judgement to be a little off for the rest of the day.  Right around the time he should have been waking up from his refreshing nap, he was running circles around the ottoman in the family room.  Lots of circles.  Then he ran past me and into the playroom, where I didn't hear any sounds for a couple of minutes.  Uh-oh.  Sure enough, Dax had had a little accident.  I quickly rushed him off to the bathroom so he could finish what he had started.   I ran upstairs to get a change of pants, and on my way I noticed that Cora was up from her nap.  I went into her room to get her and noticed she needed her diaper changed, so I started working on that.

As I was finishing up with Cora's diaper, Arden ran up the stairs and said to me, "Mom, you better come down and look at the bathroom.  Uhhhhhhh-oooooooh. 

The bathroom....was flooded.  Dax had apparently emptied the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet and then flushed it as many times as he possibly could.  I grabbed the towels off the rack and started mopping it up, but there was a LOT of water.  I grabbed my sweet little boy and took him up to his room and told him he better stay in there, grabbed about six more towels out of the closet and ran back downstairs.  I fixed up the toilet and then Arden helped me wipe up the huge mess.  I ran back upstairs and started putting the towels in the washer.  Right about this time, I heard a huge "BANG!" coming from Daxton's room.  What the Wha???

After I got the washer on, I went to investigate.  He had taken his laundry hamper and thrown it against the wall, and it was now broken in several places.  As I sat down to see if I could fix it, I told Daxton that when I was done I was going to call you on the phone and let you know what he had been up to (as if you didn't already know).  Arden.  Was.  Horrified.  She begged me not to call you, Santa, little tears forming in her eyes at the thought of her brother on the dreaded Naughty List.   She ran out of the room while I finished fiddling with the hamper, but I soon gave up trying to fix it.  I went to see where Arden had gone, and I found her in her closet, trying to hide every phone in the house so that I would not be able to call you.  I laughed so hard, it almost made me forget how angry I was at Daxton.  But not quite. 

I brought Arden and Dax downstairs and found Cora coloring on her new shirt with a permanent marker that I had asked Arden to put away earlier....but that is another story.  And FYI, Dax was a VERY good boy for the rest of the day.

So, dear Santa, Dax is running at about 51% naughty, 49% nice right now, but hopefully with enough reminders about your imminent visit, those percentages will change significantly in favor of the "nice" before you give your list that final check. 

See you soon!  Love,

Chrystie

P.S. I will be looking forward to the answers to my above questions.  As soon as possible.  Please.
P.P.S. I have been a very good girl this year!  Are your elves good at making boots?

Arden's Crazy Wall

Arden loves to draw and color. A while ago she asked me if she could hang up some pictures on her wall. I said sure. Now her wall looks like this:The first time I saw it, it kind of freaked me out a little. Doesn't it look like those walls that the crazy people always have on TV? You know, someone appears totally normal all during the show, until the police get into their house and find their walls all covered with paper like this (usually all pictures or articles about the person/thing they are obsessed with), and then everyone who just found it looks at each other sideways as if to say, "Wow. Obviously only a crazy person would have put all this stuff up on a wall like this." But, since the pictures are of a variety of subjects (unicorns, bunnies, flowers, rainbows), I guess I won't worry.

Arden's other new favorite thing is to steal my iPod and dance around with headphones on. Here are some pictures that are a little bit blurry because of the dancing.

She sings with the headphones on too. It was hilarious. But sometimes she gets a little excited about the dancing and drops my iPod. Okay, a lot of times. Now it has a couple of little black lines across the top of the screen. I wonder where Preston's iPod is? :-)

First Snow!

We got our first real big snow last weekend. The kids were so excited to go out and play in it, it (almost) made me excited about the snow too. I took my slowly dying camera outside, and here were some of my favorite pictures:

My little angel making a snow angel! She was really good at waving her arms around, but not so good at the feet. Her angels are just wearing pants.

My three little snow buddies, rolling around in the white stuff:

Daxton, trying to see if tackling still works in the snow. It does.

Daxton's favorite thing was trying to throw snowballs at me. Unfortunately for him, I was much faster at making snowballs and was winning our little snowball war pretty convincingly. Before long, though, this cute little guy talked me into making snowballs for HIM so that he could throw them back at ME.

Another snow angel making snow angels. Arden is pretty good at these! I tried to take a picture of one of her better ones, but it just looked like a blank white screen. You will have to just trust me on this.

Cora picked out this snow hat herself. I don't know why she wanted a lamb on her head, but I decided that if she is willing to wear a snow hat, I will just have to deal with it:

Dax actually has two monster hats to choose from, but he of course, likes the green one best. Such a cute little monster!

We tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery. We wanted to go sledding down the front yard, but the power was out and so we couldn't get the sleds out of the garage because our automatic garage doors wouldn't open (and I didn't want to go all the way through the house, trekking snow all the way, to go get them). So we threw snowballs, looked at snowflakes, made an army of snow angels, and slid down our backyard slide (which is much faster when you are wearing snow pants) and just ran around until we were wet and cold.

Then we came inside, and took off our coats, hats, gloves, snow pants, boots, etc. I forgot what a mess all this wintertime stuff can make! I am doomed to a messy entryway for the next 5 months. *sigh* I consoled myself in a big mug of my first hot chocolate of the season. Hot chocolate is awesome because I like it HOT and the kids are too afraid of hot things to beg me to share with them.

Hopefully this snow will melt and we can get back to some of that cool, sunny fall weather that I was enjoying so much. Christmas has already taken over the stores early, so hopefully the Christmas-y weather can wait its turn!

Halloween 2011!

Well, Halloween 2011 is in the books, and it was a GREAT one. The weather was perfect, the kids all had a great time, and now we are ROLLING in the candy.

First of all, here are the all-important costumes. Arden was Rapunzel from Tangled, of course. She actually did get a wig with her costume, but it was so messy and tangled (no pun intended) that I told her she should just use her real hair, which was only a teeny bit shorter than the wig anyway. Luckily, she agreed pretty easily, so here is my pretty blond princess: Cora pulled double duty costumes this year. Here is her nice, warm, Trick-or-Treat costume. In case you can't tell, she is a cupcake with a cherry on top. I just want to eat her!

Can anyone guess what Dax wanted to be? Anyone? Shockingly, he wanted to be a T-Rex. Here he is! He didn't like to have his hood on, but you get the idea:

I took about 10 pictures of all three kids, hoping that one would turn out with all three of them looking at the camera and smiling. No such luck. Here is two out of three, which is the best I could do. I am not sure what Corbie is doing...smiling really hard? Oh well.

Preston kind of slacked out in the costume department this year. Here he is, wearing his "I'm Evil" shirt, which he said WAS his costume. And Cora is wearing her "other" costume, which is Tinkerbell. She really wanted to be Tinkerbell using Arden's costume from a couple years ago, so she wore this costume to the Zaugg family party and to Preston's work party.  She makes an adorable Tinkerbell, but that costume isn't warm enough for trick-or-treats, and it is hard to put a jacket on over those wings:

This year, I was Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas:

Here is a picture Arden took of me and the little kids. I LoVe HaLlOwEeN!

After we got back from Preston's work party, where we ate pizza and donuts and got a head start on the candy, Dax and Cora took a nap (sort of).  After that we were off trunk-or-treating over at the church parking lot. Preston feels STRONGLY that old fashioned, real life, door-to-door trick-or-treating is an essential part of the Halloween experience, so even though we had TONS of candy from trunk-or-treats, Preston took the kids around trick-or-treating too.

Arden asked me why Dad is always the one who takes them trick-or-treating.  The truth is, Preston has been looking forward to these golden Trick-or-Treating years for a long time.  During those Halloweens before Arden finally came into our lives, Preston would dream about the Halloweens to come when he would finally get to be a dad and take the kids around trick-or-treating.  He loves doing it, and I don't mind staying at home and watching not-too-scary movies in the temporary peace and quiet.  This year was perfect for trick-or-treating.  Clear skies, a crescent moon, and nice warm weather.  The kids didn't have to wear their coats over their costumes or anything!  It was awesome.

While the trick-or-treaters were out gathering candy, I took a picture of our 2011 Zaugg family pumpkins:

Preston's is the big smiley one, and mine is the white ghost one. Daxton, predictably, wanted a dinosaur (specifically, T-Rex) face on his pumpkin, but I wasn't quite sure how to do that, but I did my best. Cora wanted a spooky little pumpkin, and Arden drew the smiley face for her pumpkin herself.  

Cora had a hard time understanding why we couldn't go trick-or-treating again tonight.

Can't wait for next year!

Pre-Halloween Checklist

We have been working hard to make sure we check off all of the items on our pre-Halloween checklist. I think we have just about got everything checked off and we are ready for the big day tomorrow! Here are some of the things on our list. 
- Host the Zaugg Halloween Party and wrap up Grandma and Grandpa like mummies: Check.

- Go to the preschool Halloween parade and watch Dax sing Halloween songs with his preschool friends: Check. Dax has been singing the "Halloween, Halloween!" song he learned at preschool non-stop for a few weeks now, and did great. I might have to post the video later. Here is Dax (he is the dinosaur second from the left) and all his preschool friends and his awesome teacher:- Watch Ichabod Crane and Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas and all those other essential Halloween shows: Check. Cora has been watching the Halloween episodes of Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies every chance she gets. (I am kind of looking forward to deleting those from my DVR later this week), and Dax loves Ichabod Crane. I was worried that that show would be too scary for the kids, but they love it. I don't have a photo of us watching TV, so here is one of Arden wearing one of the 23 masks she made at kindergarten this month. Sppooooooky!

- Go to the pumpkin walk and see the Jack o'Lanterns: Check. Here is Cora, standing by the E.T. pumpkin, which was her favorite.

More pumpkin walk pictures:

- Play in the leaves: Check. The trees in our yard are finally starting to grow up a little, which is nice. However, bigger trees drop more leaves, which isn't always so nice. Unless you are Cora, who had a great time sitting in my leaf pile and throwing leaves up in the air. How cute is she? She will probably get a lot more chances to play in the leaves over the next few weeks.

- Go to a corn maze and ride on a cow train: Check. Cow trains are essential. Arden wanted to ride by herself this year, but Dax refused to ride without his good buddy Cora. Later in the evening we rode the train again, and even though we were the only ones on the train, Dax and Cora still shoved themselves inside one little train car. Awwwww.

- Try to get through the corn maze before it gets too dark, and before the kids get too bored: Check. Cora and Preston are trying to decide which way to go:

And, finally...

- Carve our own pumpkins: Check. The kids were really excited to help with the pumpkins this year, so Preston said they could help scoop out the seeds. The kids all grabbed a big spoon and could hardly wait until Preston cut a lid out of the firsts pumpkin. They were so excited when he was finally finished and Preston put the pumpkin on the floor and let them at it. They fought over who got to scoop out the next spoonful of seeds and they were really making some pretty good progress...for about three minutes. After three minutes, they got bored and wandered away to the playroom. It was kind of a bummer for me, since scraping out pumpkin guts is my least favorite part of the whole pumpkin carving experience. I had been looking forward to having little helpers to delegate it to. Oh well, maybe next year. After Grandma and Grandpa showed up, Cora decided to help Grandpa scoop some seeds, and she actually scooped out a good portion of the guts from her little pumpkin:

(Notice my dad's shirt...he ran the Provo Halloween Half Marathon yesterday. Goooo dad!)

I will hopefully post pictures of our finished Jack O'Lanterns and the kids in their costumes soon! Happy Halloween Everyone!!