Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving the Jensen's came to see us. We haven't seen them since March so it was well over due! We had a super yummy Thanksgiving meal with them and Ryan and Kara. I did the turkey and apple pie, Kara made AMAZING homemade stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin pie, and Denisse made delicious sweet potatoes. Everything in the dinner was delicious!!! We ate until we had eaten way too much...but isn't that how Thanksgiving is supposed to be? :)

Brielle and Braden LOVED Anderson. They were so good with him and just wanted to hold and love him the whole time. (I stole these pictures from Denisse's blog)

On Friday, we were lucky enough to have an amazing babysitter (thank you Kara and Ryan!!!) which allowed us to go out to dinner and see Wicked!! This is the second time Justin and I have seen it and it was just as good if not better than the first time. It was so nice to enjoy a night out with no kiddos! We were all trying to remember the last time that happened, when we went on a real date. Justin and I couldn't even think of the last time. It was so fun. We ate at Brio (one of our favorite restaurants) and LOVED the food and of course, the company.

Wicked.... SO GOOD!!!!

On Saturday, we all went out to Kirtland to see the nativity exhibit. Denisse was watching Brielle and Jack and Jack says to her, "Close your eyes... One, two, three... Surprise!!" I'm not sure what the surprise was, but she said it was super cute.

All of the kids got along so well! It makes it much more enjoyable when you can just let them play and you aren't worried about who is fighting with who. They had a blast together. Are they cute or what? I love Brielle's sass. :)

Thanks for all of the pictures Denisse! And thank you guys so much for coming out to see us. We are so thankful to still be just a short drive away.

Jack the stinker :)

The other day I asked Jack to put his socks away in his drawer. He picked them up, looked at me, and threw them down the stairs while still looking at me. I took away his Wolf (favorite stuffed animal) that he was holding and told him that he could have him back after he did what I asked. So he went and got the socks and put them away. A few minutes later I was in the bathroom getting ready and Jack came to the door and said... and I quote...

"Mom, don't take my Wolfy away. If you do that again, you will go to time out and get hot sauce. When I tell you not to do something, that means you listen!"

I guess now I know that he really does listen when I am getting mad at him! After he left I could not help but laugh. Those are the exact words that have come out of my mouth a number of times (minus the wolfy part) when he is in trouble. What a little stinker!!

2 months

Our little Anderson is 2 months old today. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. We have adjusted fairly well (at least I think so) to having two kids. The biggest adjustment has been the sleep deprivation. Either Jack slept longer at night or I completely forgot how tired you really get. There have been nights where I am up just crying, and feeding Anderson hoping to get a longer stretch than an hour or two. Last night he was kind enough to give me a 5 hour stretch which was heaven! Hopefully this is the start of more sleep because I have never needed it more. Besides the no sleeping, I feel like it was only 2 or 3 weeks ago that I was in the hospital having him. Anderson is the sweetest little baby and very easy going. He smiles a lot and is now starting to coo, which Justin and I LOVE! There is nothing sweeter than a little baby smiling at you and making the cutest little sounds. So far we think he looks a little bit like Jack but definitely has his own look. They have the same exact mouth and chin but different eyes, nose and ears. And of course, his hair makes him look so different from Jack. (He's starting to rub a bald spot on the back...so sad!!) I am anxious to see how he looks as he gets a little older. He had his 2 month check up today. Here are the stats...

Height: 23.5 inches - 51 percentile

Weight: 11 lbs 6 oz. - 24 percentile

Head: 39.5 cm - 22 percentile

This is Jack and Anderson at 2 months...what do you think?

O Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree a little early this year...I just couldn't wait any longer!! I got all new ornaments this year so I was extra excited. :) I just love having my tree all lit up in our house.

Jack was super excited to help put the ornaments on the tree. He loved it!

For some reason Jack looks extra cute to me in this picture. I think it's his chunky cheeks and his cute little hands trying really hard to get that ornament to stay on the tree. We are staying here for Christmas and I am excited to see Jack on Christmas morning. He can't wait for Santa to bring him presents. As long as we don't get sick, like last year, then it will be so fun to see him be so excited! I can't wait. He's old enough this year that I can threaten him that Santa won't bring him anything if he isn't good or doesn't eat his dinner. He gets pretty worried, and I hope it doesn't wear off before Christmas actually comes. We are running out of threats that actually work for him! Sad, huh?

How can that cute little face be so naughty?

This is where Anderson likes to sit and enjoy the tree. I think he likes to look at the lights.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am ecstatic for the holidays to actually begin!! I love this time of year.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Random Cuteness

I was looking my camera and found some recent pictures that I have been wanting to put on here. They aren't from anything special, but I thought they were cute enough to make the blog. :)

Anderson is going to be 8 weeks on Friday!! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. He is just so cute and sweet and we are loving every second of it... minus night time. That's another story. I came into the family room one day and he was just sitting there hanging out next to Justin. I love how the binkey still takes up half his face!

The other day Jack was hanging out with Anderson on our bed and he asked me if I would take some pictures of them. I actually managed to get one with both of them smiling!!

He loves Anderson so much and is really protective of him. I think it's cute. On Sunday one of my friends was holding him and he went over to her and said, "Can you give my brother back to my mom now?" He gets a little nervous when other people hold Anderson.

Big smiles!

Giving little brother some love...

I don't know what we ever did without these two! It seems like they take up all of our time now and I can't figure out what we ever did all day before we had kids. Sleep maybe?

Last Minute Trip

We found a cheap ticket to Seattle and I jumped on the chance to go see my family at the last minute with the boys. It was so fun...except for the fact that Justin didn't get to come and I had to fly by myself with the kiddos. It was nice to just be there for fun, and not have anything specific that we had to be to. We spent some time out at Scott and Kelli's. Here is my mom and dad trying out some left over Halloween costumes. My family is a bunch of nerds!!

Anderson is just starting to smile and react to people. Tanner was making him smile forever with his big eyes! Tanner thought it was pretty funny.

Having fun at Scott and Kelli's in the racquetball court.

Tanner loves to take care of Anderson. :)

CUTIE!!

Jack and Mom watching "Up!" at Scott and Kelli's.

Jack and Grandma Gorrell.

It's always fun to see all of our grandparents while we are home. I am surprised that Jack can keep most of them straight, we have so many!

We celebrated Stephanie's birthday at a fun new restaurant while we were there. It was fun to see her again so soon. Happy Birthday Steph!

I am loving this little cutie! He did really good on the airplane...he slept the whole time!

I had so much fun with Scott and Kelli! I didn't get to see them very much when I was home for the wedding so it was really fun to be able to hang out and be silly. This night at Angie's we watched You-Tube videos FOREVER and ate way too many doughnuts! We were laughing so hard. Everything from the world's fattest kid to people trying to eat a spoonful of cinnamon. It looked really fun! You should try and eat a spoonful sometime and see what happens. :)

I always enjoy staying at Angie's house and staying up until 3am every night! When you only have a few days together there is no time for sleeping! :)

It was fun to get to see everyone since we won't be going home for any of the holidays. This year we are staying in Cleveland and having our own Christmas. I am so excited to start our own traditions and watch Jack come down Christmas morning to our own tree. Every year I put up my Christmas tree and then leave and we never get to enjoy it. This year we have plenty of time to enjoy it...especially since I put it up today! Hee hee...gotta love it!

Halloween with the Berglind's

We were so lucky to have Stephanie and Hayden come and visit us! We did miss Matt though...he wasn't able to come. :(

The first day after they came, it was 70 degrees, so we took advantage and headed to the park. These little boys were in heaven. That first picture of Jack makes me laugh...he gets himself up there and just yells at me and waits until I come to help him down. It isn't that far of a drop, but apparently he doesn't want to let go. He looks a little worried in this picture.

Trying to climb up the poll. :)

Hayden pushed this car around almost the whole time. It doesn't take much to entertain these two!

That night we went out to dinner at CPK in Legacy Village shopping center. It was super yummy. The weather was nice enough that we were able to walk around for a few minutes after and go see the pumpkins. Jack kept saying, "Hooray! A pumpkin patch!" I'm not sure 10 pumpkins count as a pumpkin patch but they were still excited to see them.

The next day Justin braved watching all three boys for us while Stephanie and I went and got a pedicure. Thanks again for that Steph....it was so nice!! My toes still look perfect. I love it! It was nice to have some time without the kiddos to just sit, relax, and chat. Times without kids are few and far between these days!

Halloween was probably the highlight of the weekend. Jack and Hayden were so cute!! Hayden's giraffe costume was making me laugh. It kept covering his face and he couldn't see where he was going. He sure was cute though.

We took them out Trick-or-Treating around our neighborhood. It was so fun to see them get into it. Jack has been talking about going Trick-or-Treating for a month and was super excited when the time actually came. A lot of people in our neighborhood really get into all of the decorations. It was fun to see all of the different ideas people came up with.

When we got home, we dumped all of their candy out on the floor and let them go at it. After we dumped it Jack said, "Oh my gosh! Look at all this candy!!" He was a little excited.

Hayden has the cheesiest smile...I love it! So cute!

The rest of the time they were here, we just took it easy and enjoyed each other's company. Stephanie was a huge help with Jack and Anderson and even did my dishes for me multiple times. It was nice to have her come and just relax the whole time instead of trying to fit in a million things to do. It really was perfect. Now we just need to get Matt out here next! We did try to go and see an exhibit at the Kirtland visitor's center. It was a collection of paintings depicting stories from the Book of Mormon. When we got there, they said this was the first day that they started closing earlier for the winter. Since they had let us in though, we asked if we could run up and see the paintings. They told us that they had packed them all up that very morning and they were being shipped to Nauvoo. Talk about being a day late and a dollar short! We were so sad! So we just went out to dinner instead.

Jack and Hayden got along for the most part. Hayden learned the word "mine" which probably came from Jack and they had a few struggles with who was going to play with what car at what time. Other than that, they had a lot of fun together. It is fun to see them play get to know each other. I am glad they are so close in age, it makes it fun for Stephanie and I.

Thanks for taking the time to come and see us Steph!! I always love getting together and laughing about old times and old friends. I can always count on a good laugh!! Thank you for all of your help with Jack and Anderson. It was so great!!

And the best part is, we get to see them again on our surprise, last minute trip to Washington. We leave in the morning!! Hooray! It always makes the goodbyes so much easier. :)