Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas was fun this year. Brecken is at the absolute best age where everything is just so magical and exciting! It never got old and just made it great for all of us. We were so excited to get the tree up, the decorations all up and the lights on the house. It was great.

It was interesting to watch everyone post their Christmas pictures on social media. I was blown away with the amount of "stuff" many people had. It was crazy and just confirmed to me that stuff does not make you happy no matter the quantity one gets or appears to have. Plus, where are you going to store and pile all of that stuff?! So many people also do not purge afterwards. I've gotten to the point where stuff drives me nuts! Unorganized stuff really drives me nuts especially when it comes to kids toys.

So last year I instituted a new thing for Santa. Santa would give one thing they need, one thing they want, one thing to wear and one thing to read. They get Christmas Eve jammies from mom and dad and then usually a couple of family gifts (movies and/or games) and maybe something else from us. And then of course a couple of random things in their stockings. With these categories it still looks like they came out with more than enough. Also coming up with categories and a game plan allowed us to shop for what we were wanting to give the entire year and find things at the best deals and the best quality we could afford. Thankfully this year Jeff was on a kick and wrapped everything the night before Christmas Eve so it was done!

Gunnar lost both of his upper front teeth. So all he wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth. I sang that to him when he lost the second tooth and he looked at me like I was crazy!

These were from mom and dad. He got the bug sucker upper from this series for his birthday from a family member and loves it! So throughout the year, more of the set would pop up on clearance. I would slowly collect them and as you can see Jeff does not know how to remove price stickers apparently.

Brecken wants to be like us in every way and we all have Camelbaks. Naturally he would not because he was not that big until recently. Jeff was determined to make his "need" his very own Camelbak. I was so excited when I found this one, hardly used, on craigslist for $25! It had been on there for about a month and had not sold so I asked them if they would take $20 and they did. This was a total score for a Mini Mule and I was shocked that it had not been sold prior. It was meant to be in our house. He was SOOOO excited about it. The orange version of Gunnar's blue. Just like Gunnar...

Gunnar received the construction version of this for his birthday years ago and loves it. Recently he has really gotten into following instructions to create these. He loves this and claims it was the best Christmas ever because he got this. This was his want.

What do you get a kid that is the second boy and really does not need anything. I found this truck on Amazon and thought he would love it. He does and it is pretty fun. It comes with a little drill that unscrews about 7 large screws that take the truck apart so he can put it back together. In time, I think he will really get into it. This was his want.

After Gunnar saw that everyone else had slippers, including Brecken, he wanted a pair. He was thrilled that Santa brought some. This was his one thing to wear.

Gunnar desperately needed a new alarm clock. He got our old one and it was doing some really dumb things. He slept with the radio on every night but if you reduced the sound, the station would be fuzzy so it was always pretty loud. Thankfully it was all Christmas music for the month of December. Plus when school gets out, the two boys will be sharing a room and Brecken sleeps to the ocean sound. So I wanted an alarm clock that could also be on the sleep mode and play nature sounds. I was so excited when I found one and Gunnar loves it! It was for sure a need!

This was probably the stupidest thing I have ever bought and totally not typical of me to buy. Brecken and I were at the store sometime in December and he spotted out Caillou from about a mile away on an end cap. We went over after I figured out what he was talking about and he latched on to this guy. He talked to him and studied everything about him. I let him put Caillou in the cart all around the store next to him. He loved him! When it was time to checkout, I snuck him on the belt and told him that Caillou had to stay at the store. Brecken was completely fine with that. Now, both of my boys at 2 years old, would not get into TV at all except for Caillou. I have no idea why. The kid is like 4 years old, talks like a baby and like Heidi points out, the story on the tv screen never goes to the edge. I can tolerate the show and my boys are mesmerized by it but Heidi just doesn't get it. It makes me laugh. I knew Brecken would be so happy and he is. Reminds me of Brent's My Buddy doll when he was a kid. Remember those? Brent LOVED his buddy! Brecken sleeps with this every night and hauls him around often. This was from mom and dad.

Diesel even got stuff in his stocking. One was a much needed bone that he happily chewed while we carried on Christmas morning.

Jeff and I never buy anything for ourselves. We buy things throughout the year and don't need a holiday to give us permission to go crazy on buying things that we can smartly shop for and buy when we actually need them.

We had a great Christmas morning. We don't encourage or push our kids to wake up early. We just let it happen and it did around 8:30am when Gunnar woke up. It was pretty funny. He obviously scoped everything out and then woke us up. Then went and got Brecken who was so disoriented. He went onto the family room couch and turned on the tv to watch a cartoon. He had no idea what awaited him in the front room. When he did, he was excited!

Later that afternoon we headed to my Great Aunt Nancy's for the annual Christmas Day party. It is always fun spending time with my dad's side of the family and we love seeing everyone. Christmas this year was exciting and great and I felt totally relaxed and on top of it which was kind of crazy.

I am so blessed with what I have and surrounded by my fantastic husband and boys. Blessed to be able to have a third little guy in March. Have fantastic siblings and parents and great friends to spend time with. We are greatly provided for and very blessed overall.

Christmas Eve Blah!

Christmas week started out rough for us. Gunnar started throwing up the day before Christmas Eve. Thank goodness that kid can take care of himself. He can make it to the bathroom every single time, doesn't really need a bucket and just very independent when it comes to being sick. I just have to reassure him that everything is okay, to wash his hands lots to keep away germs and help him with little things to keep him hydrated. Unfortunately, Christmas Eve early morning, I came down with the same thing. It was awful and things like that never seem to end. I had a one day stomach bug when I was pregnant with Brecken as well and it was not fun then. This baby moved TONS for the 10 hour bug that I had. I think it was partly because my insides were just messed up and awful but I also liked to think that he was telling me that I would be okay and that he was completely okay. It was reassuring to feel him so much.

Unfortunately, Gunnar and I missed out on some of our traditional Christmas Eve fun. We always go to a movie and look forward to it every year. We were bummed but better off staying home and resting while Jeff and Brecken went. I was determined to make it to the dinner later that night. Not to eat, but to give Cami our present to her. We had the Tracy's this year and I went in total overdrive for Cami. I was stoked! Unfortunately I did not get a single picture that day because I was just excited to be there. It was that bad. I sat in a recliner and didn't move at all. I could hear everyone talk about how awesome the bacon was etc and I didn't eat any of it. Instead I packed my own bananas, applesauce and 7up. Yippee! Because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't get a picture of Cami's loot. I initially bought her the movie Wee Sing Sillyville. We had this as a kid and I think everyone needs this movie. It is the best. Mindy has already requested it from me for her kids. My boys love it and apparently Cami does too. BUT then I found out she was getting a baby doll from Santa and I went crazy. I was at a craft bazaar with Paparazzi and the lady next to me made little doll clothes etc. She had little diapers with booties so I bought 2 sets and then little jammies. And then my mind went crazy. I made her scaled down burp cloths, a small baby doll blanket, wipes case and wipes and the coolest baby doll diaper bag ever! I was SO proud of myself and it was so easy to do. I really need to get a picture of everything. It sat on our counter for a while and every time I would walk by, I would look at it. Jeff teased me every time. I was that proud and excited about it. And the best part is that it was all made from scraps and just required my time. For Ren and Heidi we bought them huge cans of hot cocoa from the cannery and a big container of those dehydrated marshmallows. They loved it and I knew that they loved that kind! I loved the presents we gave this year.

They got us a season's pass to the Discovery Center!! I am SO excited. The boys and I will have fun this summer going and checking out the special exhibits they have. I hope to make it to a few of the preschool days this year as well. They also have the Bodies Revealed exhibit going right now. I want to go so bad but really didn't want to pay the price to get in. Now we can get discounted tickets into it because we are season pass holders! Double score!!

Even though I felt cruddy Christmas Eve this year, I was so thankful that I was still able to spend time with my family. I love my family so much and we always have a great time no matter what we are doing.

Santa Came To Town

We were invited to the annual Miller Christmas Party this year with all of Jeff's extended family. It was held at Jeff's Uncle Steve's house in Fruitland and it was SO much fun. Ahead of time they organized a cousin exchange so we bought for two other cousins that were assigned to our boys. And then Santa came with gifts for all of the kids. Gunnar was in complete awe. I've never seen him so mesmerized and out of it sitting on Santa's lap. This particular Santa was so funny! He said the best things ever making the adults bust up laughing. He didn't really do the typical what do you want type questions. He would make observations about the child. Like one little girl was wearing tights with flowers on them so he would ask her if they were painted on her legs making her completely laugh. Stuff like that and it was funny. He went to fist pump Gunnar about something, but he was so into sitting on Santa's lap that he hardly noticed what was going on and stiffed Santa. It was hilarious.

Now Brecken took a little prodding to get up there at first. But the nice parents that we are pretty much picked him up and threw him on Santa's lap and walked away. The awesome Santa that he was immediately gave Brecken a candy cane and he was sold. Then he got another one and he was so in to Santa. He would have sat there all day. At the very end Santa asked him to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone and he did. It was so cute and he really does say it in this cute little voice. Then he got a present and was thrilled.

All of the kids had to wait until the very end to open their presents. I was so surprised that Brecken understood and was so happy to wait. He's a good little waiter and opener when the time comes.

We had so much fun with family...aunts, uncles, cousins (many that I did not know well), their kids, Jeff's grandma and all of the spouses. We had super yummy food and desserts and great conversation. It was great and I will now look forward to it ever year.

A Scooby Doo and Bam Bam Too

Halloween felt like a marathon. Probably one of the most longest days of my life. It just kept going and going. Heidi and I had this great idea for the longest time to dress Cami up as Pebbles and Brecken as Bam Bam. Brecken looks and acts just like him. It was fitting. The problem is that Heidi is no crafter. We all know that. So that responsibility rested on me. Cami's outfit was pretty quick to make. No big deal. Brecken's was a little more involved and I waited until the night before to even start the thing. I had to make the skirt, hat, sash, bone and club which took me about 3 hours until 1am. I felt it the next morning badly. Gunnar also did not have school on Halloween or the two days after so that just adds to the craziness in the house.

The day before I contacted a local publication for advertising with Paparazzi. The lady wanted to me Halloween morning at 11:15am. I already technically missed the deadline for their holiday gift guide edition but they were letting me in. I needed to be in that edition so I made it work. We met at McDonald's so the boys could play and we could actually talk about everything. The interesting part was that I did a Paparazzi Open House for her last November so it felt like a full circle moment for us and made the meeting really relaxed and fun.

After McDonald's we had an hour to prepare for the Canyon County Courthouse trick or treating and I had to make 3 Paparazzi gift bags for a fundraiser Jeff's work was putting on this weekend. I should not have put that off too but I did. We got it done, dressed, and headed over to Jeff's work with Probation and the courthouse. For the last few years, it has been fun to trick or treat with Jeff while he works and his coworkers love seeing the kids all dressed up. It's very fun. We got to trick or treat all 3 floors of the courthouse where many departments decorated in Halloween fun. Total hilarious side note, one of our really good friends April went over there with her girls. Her husband also works with Jeff so she was excited. She talked to another friend beforehand who said it took about an hour to go through. It took April about 10-15 minutes to go through. Later that night as we all met up to trick or treat the neighborhood, April learned that she missed two of the floors. She seriously missed most of the fun! It was pretty funny and now she knows for next year.

After that, Brecken needed a nap SO bad if he was to make it the rest of the night. We stopped at Sonic for the $.50 corndogs and hit it just right for half off drinks and grabbed a couple of slushes and headed home. Brecken went right down after we ate. I wanted to head to our local salon and say hi at their halloween party and vote for the best dressed stylist. The winning stylist won a Kindle Fire and then one lucky person that voted would win one too. Why not. She I woke Brecken up, got them dressed, to the salon and then back home in time to meet up with everyone to trick or treat the neighborhood.

Okay, so here is my rant. I know Trunk or Treats are the thing, its safe, yada yada, yada...but I am not a fan. It's 30 minutes of speed trick or treating. Pretty much after 10 minutes the same kids go through over and over again and it drives me nuts. I guess I remember the good old days where I had to walk from house to house. Yes, it seems like that was the only thing to do (no trunk or treats) so almost every house was participating but now its hit and miss or maybe it is where we live now. We live in an older established neighborhood which I LOVE! I can see where back in its day there were kids every where but all the kids have now grown so its different now. However those many houses that do have their lights on love it when we knock. They get so excited! There was an older lady giving out cookies and fig newtons, literally out of the packaging. So sweet. Brecken thought it was great because he had an instant snack on the go. We had 5 kids total (and a baby-so six) and people thought we were a neighborhood group of sorts. Nope, just a bunch of friends and family. We had fun and the weather was in the 70's! Awesome!

Heidi and I lucked out on a shopping trip and found this Scooby Doo costume at a local kids consignment place. He was so happy. He didn't have any ideas what he wanted to be this year. He told me this is what he always wanted to be. I was worried about sizing. It looked like it worked from the neck to the crotch area but I could tell it was made for a very short child or they chopped the legs off. Thank goodness it fit overall and he work brown pants underneath which worked for warmth too.

Brecken was hilarious. He was SO excited the entire month. He LOVES pumpkins the most by far. At the courthouse, he was way into the decorations and not so much into the candy. He was the same way and every persons house. It got to the point that he was also into knowing if the owner had a dog and would look into their house for one. He is a nut. Cami kept saying "Beckie dress." Yep Cami, he has a skirt on and I used one of yours as a pattern. He is also wearing girls leggings. haha. I didn't want anything baggy. It was just there for warmth. I used a dog bone cookie cutter we have as the pattern for the bones. The club I drew freehand. I used a Paparazzi cardboard box as stability on the inside, wrapped it with the pink foam that comes in the boxes so I didn't have to stuff it a ton and then added extra stuffing to round it out. I also stitched a wood grain on it which was fun. Jeff said that is not what a club really looks like. Whatever...

Gunnar told me later in the day that everyone says Brecken is so cute and they know what he is. Nobody knows that I am Scooby Doo. They think I am a dog and that makes me sad. I told him that not everyone knows Brecken is bam bam. They think he is a caveman. Gunnar had no idea what that was and I had a good laugh and told him that he'll be fine.

 They saw each other for the first time. It was funny and they were excited! At one house, the lady said that Cami was such a cute pumpkin. What!? If anything, she could have been a watermelon. As we were walking down the step, she commented on the bone in her hair. I really don't know if she made the connection at all. We had a good laugh with that one.

I love how Cami is standing there by herself. She started out quite grumpy. Gunnar with his buds-Paige (Belle), Jayden (Batman) and Gunnar (Scooby Doo). We had such a fun group with us this year. The older kids had a blast!

Afterwards, we headed to my mom's like we always do so the kiddos can show off their costumes. With two trick or treaters, we came out with quite the haul this year.

Total rant (and Heidi and Jeff agree): It bugs when people come up with catchy little things to get rid of their kids Halloween candy. We have a local dentist that will buy back your kids candy at a certain rate. I think they donate it to troops overseas or something but still. Then I read the idea on Facebook last night of Switch Witch. Let the kids pick out their 8 or 10 pieces of candy. Then set out the buckets of candy. The next morning a present/small toy will be in its place. Okay, irritating. If you only wanted your kids to have a few pieces of candy, maybe you should have trick or treated that many houses and then stopped. Then let the kids help pass out candy or something at that point. I refuse to go out and buy a toy or something additional for something that I allowed them to do. Dumb in my opinion. What am I going to do with some of the candy, I am going to save some for their stockings at Christmas time. Then I don't have to buy anymore. Now I read that somewhere and I thought that was smart...save yourself some money...

My Two Little Goblins

Thursday I had Cami and it was library story time. One of their favorite times of the week. I am so glad that Heidi dressed Cami up in Halloween because it was all about the holiday this week. It was fun and they had fun. They even got to go trick or treating to the children's area main desks for a book. They were so excited!

McCall Bound

Jeff's brother and family just moved up to McCall, Idaho for work. So it only seemed logical that we would head up there for Memorial Day weekend and every one from this point on. It is only a 2.5 hour drive. Gunnar was excited to see his cousins again. Unfortunately the weekend was a little rainy but that did not stop us from having fun.

The day we got there, we went to a lake close to their house and hiked a little. It was fun to get out and breathe in the mountain air.

My niece Rubi is one tough nut to crack. It takes a miracle to get her to smile. I am so used to my babies that smile so easily but man this little girl loves to study out the situation first. I loved being able to hang out with her.

 Jeff took 5 kids on a bike ride nearby. They had a blast and it was a great workout for all of them because they had to ride up or walk up in some of their cases this massive hill to get back to the house. Stephanie and I enjoyed some quiet time with the babies.

 Dylan, Adam, Gunnar, Reese, and Bridger

 We walked a really fun loop down from their house. It was easy for the kids, with great weather and a lot of fun.

 We have a picture just like this with Gunnar in the backpack. I should dig that up to compare.

 Our family can not go to McCall without stopping at the candy shop and getting their ginormously yummy carmel apples. We bought two and headed to the sandy lake beach. The kids earned taffy for some race Jeff made up while riding bikes. They headed to the farthest rocks to eat it.

 Brecken LOVES to stick his hands in hit pockets and walk around. He looks like such a cool dude when he does it. It cracks me up because he is completely serious when he does it too. He is one cool blue eyed, blonde haired, totally tan kid.

 The town started closing off roads so we walked over to the action on the main street. We arrived just in time to take part in the Memorial Day celebration. They did a gun salute and a fly over with two jets. It was pretty awesome. The kids were all given spent shells at the end. They found that to be pretty neat.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. It was fun to spend time with family. We've never done that before since all of our siblings and parents live in town. It was nice to get a way and we plan on doing it many more times.

Easter 2012

I love Easter and I think it has gotten better since I've had kids. I think every holiday has. Easter was even better this year now that Brecken was old enough to really participate. We decorated Easter eggs with our good friends the Sartell's. This was the first year that their daughter Paige decorated eggs and she is 4 years old! We had so much fun. I saw this idea somewhere of putting the egg in a wire whisk and then sticking it into the dye. It was awesome and worked SO well. It was perfect for Brecken!

Saturday before Easter we had a BBQ and Easter egg hunt with my family and the Sartell's. The Sartell's have all family out of town so they have pretty much become family. My family really likes them too and everyone adores Paige. Anyway, so they were there too and we had a blast. The best thing about our egg hunts right now are that there is little competition if you are a bigger kid and we put out TONS of eggs. I get a laugh every year at kids running aimlessly and as fast as they can looking for eggs. There is something so funny about it.

This little guy kept picking up an eye and then eating the stuff inside. If he did that, he would get no where and have a huge belly ache. We had to speed things along a little and after he got the hang of it, we couldn't stop him.

Gunnar was a nut. Because there were so many eggs and him and Paige were so fast, they got a lot. So when his basket became full, he moved onto the little kid wheelbarrow. He took forever to open the eggs. He takes forever to do anything like this, but he had tons of fun and that is all that mattered. Easter egg hunts were high on his list of things to do this year.

It was my turn to teach my primary class and it was on the Resurrection and how it relates to the Book of Mormon. I felt so blessed to be able to teach that lesson and to be reminded of what Easter is really about. I am so thankful for my Savior and his atoning sacrifice for all of us.

Happy Grumpy Valentine's Day

Gunnar was a stink this Valentine's Day. He was so excited for weeks prior because he was able to pick out his Valentine's. He picked out a magnifying glass one and called them spy glasses. It all went down hill when I was gone the night before to a Paparazzi open house and Jeff was in charge of getting Gunnar to sign his name on 30 measly invites. Jeff informed me that night, he got half way done. I thought that he would be so excited to take them that he would happily sign them the next morning. Wishful thinking...the little stinker fought me the entire time. At 7am I was able to get him to finish and pose for a picture...yeah right!

I then wanted him to hold one up so we could see how cute they were...yeah right! Thankfully he went off to school, enjoyed it and returned home with a bag full of loot.

Halloween 2011

A few days before Halloween, I signed up to be a vendor at a Trunk or Treat So People Can Eat event. A big local coupon blogger in our area and a community college teamed up to collect canned food for the food bank as admission and provide lots of vendors handing out candy and information along with food vendors, emergency vehicles/personnel there and kids inflatables. While I manned my trunk, Jeff took the kids around. It was SO much fun and the weather wasn't too bad. A little cold but doable.
Gunnar wanted to be a mechanic. I found these super cute overalls at Savers with the half price colored tag on it in his size. He loves them and uses them a lot when he goes over to Grandpa's to help him work on things. Sadly they are getting too small and hard to find. Brecken was a frog. Same costume Gunnar wore at this age. They look quite different in the same costume.

Amazingly, I had several people call me for Paparazzi open houses from this event. It was free to be in and worth it. I had a great time and so did the boys. I will definitely be there next year.

We always head to the court house on Halloween to trick or treat. We go from department to department for candy. The areas are all decorated and we have a lot of fun. Plus Jeff knows several people over there so they love to see what the boys look like.I can't wait until one day Heidi doesn't have to work a lot or Cami is old enough to walk on her own with Brecken and I can take her with us. She would love it.

Jeff always dresses up every year and the last couple of years have been pretty extreme. The ladies hardly recognize him. This year he must have looked too normal because the reaction wasn't as big.
That night, we headed out with our friend's the Sartell's sans Jared. April and Paige joined us and we had a lot of fun. We went further than we thought we ever would. We went to so many houses and the kids kept going and going. Paige and Gunnar are super buddies. They are about a year and a half apart but adore each other. They are always talking about how each other is their best friend. If one day 20 years down the road, they decided to reconnect and get married. We would be thrilled. We love these guys. It's always awesome when you can find those friends that you connect with. It's doubly awesome that they literally live 3 minutes around the corner, we go to church together, our kids are close in age, Jeff and Jared work together and also serve the Young Men's in church together and we just plain love doing stuff with them all of the time. We are blessed to have them in our lives. Oh yes, and Gunnar's costume is different. He wanted to be a safari person...or bug collector or...whatever he wanted to be. Gone are the days that I get to pick out that perfect costume for him.

Oh Boy...

Where have I been. I feel like I am reuniting with a long lost friend. I looked at the date on my last post and couldn't believe it had been that long since I last posted. It makes me sad but then at the same time I know how busy I have been.

This is the all time busiest time of year for me with my Etsy advent calendars and Paparazzi Jewelry business. It is nuts. I always get a huge influx of calendar orders right before December 1st and then a few that trickle in after because people just flat out forgot or didn't think of them early. So at this very moment, I have 4 that I need to complete. It is a lot of fun to do and I love other's reactions to them. However, I received two wedding album orders at the beginning of the craziness. It really messed with my groove. It made things all off to start. Hopefully I get caught up with very few coming in this next week and things will mellow out.

However I don't anticipate life slowing down because of Paparazzi. It is also the busiest time of year right now. Things are insane. People are after Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers. This business has been so fun and so easy. Easy because I don't have to convince anyone to like it and buy it. It literally sells itself. This last week I had two open houses with me intentionally not scheduling anything on Saturday because of a family tradition at the Caldwell night parade. But next week, I have 6 open houses!! Two of them being on the same day. Craziness...and then next week I have 4 with two being on the same day. Then the week before Christmas it just dies. Nobody wants to venture into the full week before Christmas so far.

I have had tons of fun doing this and the compensation/commission plan is pretty great too. One of my favorite things is that I have 3 fantastic ladies signed up under me with a potential in the works! They are so fun to work with and I love bouncing ideas off of each other. One of my consultants had been one for 12 days when she had her first person sign up under her. That is insane! She was a little surprised herself. We have had a lot of fun and can't wait to see what the new year brings for us. Want to check out more of what I am talking about? Visit my Facebook page. Like it while you are there because I love to do giveaways!

My kids keep me busy too. Gunnar is in full day kindergarten but twice a week I watch Cami too. Since she is only 3.5 months younger than Brecken, they keep busy. One walks and and the other crawls. They can get into about anything but love to play together so they keep each other company. It's quite nice.

We are half way up for Christmas. The tree has been up for days but not decorated. The first night we ran out of time and Gunnar really needed to be in bed for school the next day. The next day we attempted it but Gunnar was wild and naughty so we called quits on it and sent him to bed early. The poor tree has been sitting there ever since. I don't know if it is me or what, but the older I get the more I really don't want to put up so many random decorations. Last year I really paired it down and stuck with the things that I love. Simple and easy. Right now I am on the hunt for a dog Christmas stocking holder in bronze. I am to the point that I will probably just get a random normal one to go with our others. We are done shopping. It's finished. Right down to the dog's Christmas. Now I just need to finish one more sibling gift and wrap, wrap, wrap. I'm happy about that.

We've experienced no snow yet. It has been lingering in the 40's which is rather warm here this time of year with really windy days but no snow. I am completely 100% fine with it until after all of these open houses. Then it can snow all it wants. So far next week looks clear. Yeah!

Wow! That is a lot of rambling and now I am done. :)

Christmas Giving Has Begun

This season is crazy...well aren't they all. But this one seems especially busy with me starting my Paparazzi business and my advent calendars on Etsy usually start to go nutso this month and they have. Not including the random order of wedding albums, etc that come in. Anyway, I am trying so hard to stay ahead of the game, the best I can this year.

We have Jesse/Becky/Wesley and Brent/Noelle/Iris this year on both sides of our families. I already know what they are getting which is half the battle. The other half of the battle is that they require some DIY on my part but I am so excited for both. Mindy and I are working on one of them Saturday and I can not wait. Too bad I can't post what it is or the after pictures because it is fun. The other can wait for closer to Christmas when things hopefully slow down a tad.

But what I am the most excited about is what I am doing for my kids. Kids now these days get almost way too much stuff. What I have learned in the last couple of years is that I bought things that really did not have a lasting purpose and what I thought would be fun Gunnar could really care less. Money wasted. A came across and idea last year of how to make gift giving more purposeful and reigned in really.

There are 4 gifts. One gift you need, one you want, one you read and one you wear. Yep, that is what we are doing and I am pretty much mostly done. My kids won't miss piles of presents which they have never had but this will help us plan with more of a focus. My kids can't read, so I will list a rundown of what we have so far. We still do jammies Christmas Eve and will have a few things in stockings too. I also do a family gift that is from Jeff and I. The rest are from Santa.

Brecken is a toddler. I hate buying things for this age really. They don't get and really this kid needs nothing fancy. He has everything he needs toy wise.

Need: camping pillow- now this one is funny. We went camping a couple of times this summer and it was miserable for me. Brecken wanted to be close to me and shared a bag to stay warm, Gunnar stole my camping pillow so I was uncomfortable and cold most of the time. Since then we found a North Face sleeping bag at a yard sale this summer which is our spare for Brecken until he gets a kid one. Then I found these camping pillows at Costco with my mom a couple of months ago-PERFECT! Both boys get one and yes, it falls in the need category. No more taking my pillow from me.

Want: still haven't figured this one out. He doesn't really "want" anything right now.

Read: books from Gunnar's book fair at school

Wear: big huge box of diapers-he wears them right?! and they do have a purpose. And one cute little shirt I found at Target on extreme clearance

Stocking: I did find those acrylic cups with lids and fat straws on sale that I plan on putting in the stockings with candy maybe inside of those. Perfect for thick smoothies we eat often.

Bought his jammies last year after the holidays on clearance.

Gunnar is a fun little child to buy for. He is actually really easy going about gifts and we never went overboard before so he doesn't whine about not getting enough.

Need: yep, he got a camping pillow too. He'll actually be excited. We do plan on buying him is own backpacking pack for his birthday next year so he is really getting into this stuff.

Want: He loves the Blok Squad things from megablocks. I plan on getting it cheap or free from my swagbucks. That's awesome and he will love it. He talks about them all of the time.

Read: books from the school book fair, I seriously had to limit myself. I love buying books!

Wear: I found him some cute clothes at Target on clearance too but I think he may need a couple more. That kid grew and used clothes are so hard to find in good condition at this age.

Stocking:acrylic cup and darts for his nerf guns

His jammies are also already bought. I'm not picky and lucked out when I was at our local kid consignment store and found 2 pairs of jammies his size with tags still on them.

I'm still not sure on the family gift. Games or movie-Cars 2 maybe. Gunnar has been talking nonstop about it since we rented it last week.

Why am I telling you this? Not really sure but it may be that I wanted to record for myself that we can have a great Christmas without spending a lot. Jeff and I have just been talking a lot lately about buying gifts with a purpose and not just spending money or buying something to just buy or give. It makes no sense and just creates clutter in those homes you give to. We also talked about how planning with a purpose gives us direction for future birthdays. For example, we learned that getting Gunnar a backpack would be handy but then quickly realized that his birthday is in April, earlier than we typically would have been thinking about camping gear. Now that we have identified the want, we can work towards getting it before the camping season hits as a gift rather than just a last minute purchase in the summer. Does that even make sense. I tend to think of things that I would like for my birthday (November) when it is my birthday but those items are not on sale/inexpensive or in some cases are hard to find in November if it is a summer thing. Anyway, just something on my mind and decided to right it down as Christmas is fast approaching. I just feel like I have a handle on Christmas this year and feel so good about that.

Happy Birthday America and Brecken Boy PART 1

We had a great 4th of July this year. I have decided that 4th of July is one of my very favorite holidays. It was made even better when I had a child to celebrate it with. This year we took in everything that was offered and then topped it off with a birthday party in the evening for Brecken. We'll see what happens in your to come but it is sort of a challenge to have a birthday close to a holiday. I didn't really want to have a 4th BBQ and then another that weekend days later. Kind of redundant. But then I don't really want to have a party every 4th so people don't feel trapped into coming because of his party. Anyway, it was on the 4th and I took full advantage of it.

We started the day off with our ward breakfast at 8am. It was nice to be able to have a yummy breakfast made for you on such a busy day.


Afterwards we headed to the parade and secured our usual spot. This year Heidi and fam joined in. It was fun and the excitement from the kiddos is really contagious. This year the parade was so darn short. It was going along nicely and then all of a sudden, BAM!, it was over. You kind of had to look around and look for people moving further up the route to make sure it was really over. Anyway, we lathered up with sunscreen and some of us had sunscreen mohawks.

We were minus 3 kids this year as they celebrated with their other families. We sure did miss them.

I had to include the picture of Brecken and Jeff even though he is not looking because look at that dimple! It was hidden in his chubby cheeks this entire time.

This is actually a really good picture of Ren and probably kind of like a rare artifact. I just realized I don't get pictures of him that much. Poor guy had double ear infections for about a week and could not hear at all.

Brecken is a waving machine and it really didn't help that everyone waved. The floats were constantly waving and the spectators were waving. Everyone waves. He loved it! Once he got a flag, he was a more patriotic waving machine. He loved every minute of it. Another great thing is that the babies were not scared of the loud firetrucks or anything. They sat there completely oblivious to it all.

Some group every year hands out Otter Pops. Oh boy were the babies in for a treat and in total love with the pops when they were done. They loved them! They were in heaven.


Afterwards we headed to the park where they had a petting zoo of the cutest baby animals like a zebra, camel, pigs, ponies, etc. We also brought a picnic lunch and towards the end a brawl insued:

Brecken: Hey look Cami. I have a flag.

Brecken: Do you want to play with it.

Brecken: Come on take my flag!

Brecken: Come on Cami, take the darn flag!

Cami: I do not want your darn flag! Take that!

Brecken: Do not touch me. I am not going to take that from you.

Cami: You better leave me alone or I am going to poke your eyes out (as you can see Heidi is working hard at seperating their hands. They were going after each other)

Brecken became the victor after Heidi and Ren left shortly after this incident. It was really funny. They were just going to town and Heidi had to work hard at keeping them both away from each other. It had us laughing pretty hard. In real life, I hope they become best of friends.

Afterwards we headed home for a little bit of recoup and naps and then went to my mom's house for the BBQ and birthday party. That will come in part 2 as I realized this is getting forever long and I am getting tired typing and uploading photos this late at night. So stay tuned for the birthday boy...