Twas the Season

The Season for us came and went way to fast

we sure do wish it would stay and last and last!

We celebrated our savior, and rejoiced with much joy

Filled our days with tinsel, goodies and toys!

We decked halls, visited Santa, goodies we baked

we made presents, sang carols, our joy was not faked

We spent the season with many friends and family so dear

But are looking forward to starting again with the new year! 

We have packed it all up now, and are saying goodbye

To a wonderful year, we will try not to cry.

2011 we had a baby, built a company and so much more

but we couldn't have done it with out all our loved ones galore! 

The Christmas season started right on schedule for us, the day after my birthday weekend. I ran around like a crazy lady the first day in attempt to get it all up before I had Kassie's kids the next two days. I ended up tripping on a small step and spranged my ankle...mind you it still hurts. Because of that, the kids ended up helping me out the next couple of days.

 uh Axel, the beibs called and wants his hair back....Axel got a hair cut, it was pretty sad.

 This cute girl turned 6 months at the end of November,  so we took these pictures to document it.

 Axel and Story had to have a turn.

 We have this skeleton key hole in our back entry door, and my favorite part of this years decor is you could see our tree from the hole everytime we came home. I tried to get a good picture, this is all you get.

Neighborhood Christmas Play date

We did another neighborhood progressive playdate. But this one we did at the church, so it really was just a Christmas party. The kids had fun with the photo booth, we made ornaments out of play dough, read a story, had a great lunch, and decorated Christmas trees with frosting. It was a good time!

 These girls are less than a week apart, Dani just woke up from her nap so she was slightly disoriented and confused. But I love Anna's face here, it cracks me up!

 Dani kept taking Anna's binki, what a stinker

 Decorating Christmas trees

 Axel enjoyed eating the decorations before he even got them on his tree, oh well!

Christmas Parties GALORE

We had Kory's Work Christmas party this year at the ROOF in Salt lake city, this was our view! It was so BEAUTIFUL! It was nice to get out without our kids too! Thanks mom and dad for watching them for us!

Anderson Christmas Party

Axel using his killer batting skills.

I thought this one was funny because the whole time Story went Axel said "My turn, Axel's turn!" from that point on. Those two!

This was Axel's Robot Arm

Poor Felix, Santa was just too scary for him

 

Axel has really gotten to love spending time with Kim's kids since they have been spending so much time in our studio, I am glad he is finally becoming more outgoing.

Dani surrounded by her cousins or 2nd cousins or cousins once removed, who knows, but they all thought she was so great.

 

Friend party in Park City-we got together with my girl friends and families this year, it was such a good night, and it was nice to spend time with them and all their cute families. -I stole these Pictures from Jessica Peterson, go here to see more.

 Christmas Eve with the Jorgensen side: We had a yummy lunch and then exchanged gifts, it was the perfect Christmas Eve. I forgot my camera at home, and I was super bummed, because I knew my mom had something really special planned, so my cell phone was what I had, and the pictures are lacking.

My dad reading the boys a story, they sure do love their grandpa!

 My mom made everyone in the family a super hero apron! The ladies got Wonder Women and the Dudes, Super Man, she made over 20 of them this Christmas season! She is Wonder Woman! The kids loved them, and I love wearing mine when I am cooking, because I already know I am wonder woman, but now I have the outfit to PROVE it.

Baby girl got this dolly, and it is her FAVORITE toy.

I couldn't get my family to take a picture with all our aprons on when we got home, but here are our aprons together...

Axel wore his Robot Costume to the Christmas Party, and he got that little Robot figure too. 

Christmas Morning! 

This little boys face when he saw the stockings, was priceless

He loved his stocking stuffer Robots (His favorite of all gifts)

So did baby girl-I think she thought she was being naughty getting into it, that is her thing lately.

She got a hippo

We opened lots and lots of presents

And maybe tasted a few...

And played with them to our hearts content

And wore them...

And tried everything on

We took a family picture by our tree, this was the best one, and it is a pretty sad one at that, but we'll take it. We hurried and got ready for church and maybe were there for 15 minutes, but at least we tried right?

We had christmas tree waffles for breakfast/lunch and found out Axel love Raspberries so much, he ate all of his, mine and the rest of the box.

After we headed over to the Anderson Grandparents for giving of gifts, and to play with cousins and Kory's siblings. It was a great way to end our evening, I wish I would have taken pictures!

Gifts from the heart: a home made Christmas 

This year we opted to make all our gifts, I figured my kids have so many toys already, and we really don't have very much money right now, and I had a ton of fabric, so I wanted to give it a try. And if I do say so myself it was my most favorite Christmas of all times.

So in no order of importance...

Peg People-Super Heros! From left to right
Super man, Tigris, Batman, Liono, Pirate, Spiderman, Panthro or "The prophet" as Axel calls him, and Optimus Prime-Axel is so into little figurines, I thought he would love them, and he does! Batman seems to be his favorite right now. He goes "nananananana batman!" We got together with my friends (old neighbors) Sheri and Anni to make them for our kids, it was such a fun afternoon. The kids played and we crafted, the boys kept wanting to come take our people though. I had so much fun I kept making them, and still have a bunch I want to make!

 I made and designed this pea coat for baby girl. I took an old pattern from the coat I made Axel at this age, and revamped it and altered it, it is a bit big for her in the shoulders, but already it is starting to fit her better. But it turned out super cute. The purple buttons are from her Great Grandmother's button supply :)

 Soc-to-pi-Ash and I got together and made our babies these cuties, They no longer have the eyes, Dani ate them off within minutes, I guess I need to sew them on!

We also made the boys these dinosaur tails! Axel LOVES IT!

 I made her this ear warmer,

 Dani was givin a girl version of this doll when she was born from my friend Shere, and Axel loved it, so I thought he would love a pirate one...Thanks Sheri for lending me your pattern!

 Since he is so into dress up, I made him a super hero costume for it

 and a cowboy costume! I had a lot of fun designing these patterns and costumes.

 Axel LOVES church, he also LOVE dad's Pink and checkered tie and is always asking me for his pink tie. So i made him a couple ties to match dad.

 Since the boys were matching for church, I decided to make baby girl and I matching Maxi Dresses. She pulls it off much better than I.

 I made Kory this card table to play games on our bed, and it works wonderfully! It is made of hounds tooth felt and a styrofoam board. The felt holds the cards nicely

I also made Kory a piano warmer for his piano to keep it even tempt and in tune, and a scarf for me to match girls coat. (no pictures sorry ) I made my mom and mother in law recipe card holders, and my dad a heating pad, and my father inlaw hand warmers. (the guys are SO hard to make gifts for! ) OH and I made boots for baby girl, I can't believe I don't have a picture of them, but I don't! I will post one though later.

I made ornaments for all our neighbors and family, home made sugar free fudge, nut clusters, and roasted cinnamon almonds (Think the ones you taste in the mall, but these were GOOD for you)

I was quite the busy bee working on these gifts all December, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Kory was
crazy busy recording this song (but it is still not completed, but here is the first go at it)  and my sister in laws Kim's kids all December, (still working on getting that finished up)  so I had plenty of time to get my stuff done after the kids went to bed.

Believe it or not there is more to this post but I am going to save that for later.

Turkey PARTY!

That is what we call Thanksgiving at our house.  Well that's how I explained to Axel that it wasn't just an ordinary day, but a special day, he totally went with it and screamed with excitement.

Because I am a crazy woman, you can say it, I know you are all thinking it anyway. I decided the week of Thanksgiving that I wanted to do something fun and Thanksgiving-ish, and I wanted it to involve my son and crafts and yummy food. In the past I have tried to host small gatherings of loved ones and their off spring, and as fun as they are, it always requires some serious resting after wards, my house is a mess, and well the kids don't care for it really. (see Axel's Birthday this year, perfect example)

Axel loves walks, and it was really nice weather that week. So instead of the above I decided a "Progressive Play Group" would be so much better! So that night I sent out a mass text to my neighbors who have kids Axel's age, with this outlandish idea that each house come up with some sort of Thanksgiving activity for the kids and then we would just go from house to house spending about 20-30 minutes at each house. BRILLIANT right?! That way everyone does their part and the kids get their wiggles out walking in between each activity. I may be crazy but I am a genius too.

Pretty soon I had quite the list of moms and we had 9 tots (not to mention the 6 babies who came along for fun) on our guest list and 5 families, 6 if you count I was sporting two extra with me. (Oh! did I forget to mention?! YES this was also the day that I was babysitting Kassie's kids :) )

At the first house we made some costumes...

Can I just tell you, seeing the kids run down the street together in their get ups was pretty much the cutest thing ever. We were quite the site!

Then we went and learned about the first thanksgiving...

She had these cute felt puppets that helped the kids visualize.

Then on to the next house where we made Turkey hands....

Axel really liked this activity.

Then back to our house for a few games, (we combined forces, one less house to walk to) and yummy dessert.

I made these deliciously cute turkeys,  and we had water to drink with "Mayflower" straws. The Styrofoam cups are ug, originally we were going to do hot cocoa, but after all that walking we were all parched, so water seemed to be the better choice. Apparently when I was planning my treat I wanted chocolate, infact, the clerk the night before while ringing me up cracked a joke "Someone's got the midnight munchies he he" ....wasn't funny in high school, and still isn't. Just Sayin. If I would have asked him the time, I am sure he would have said something about 4:20 too. anyway...

In honor of said conversation I took this picture,  gotta love Axel's face and Story's chocolate beard. And the 70' s colorization of the photo was a must.

It was great fun and only took us an hour and half! I am still amazed with how quickly it all came together and with such ease and it was actually fun, and Axel loved it.WE LIVE IN THE FUNNEST NEIGHBORHOOD EVER


THANKSGIVING DAY
The actual day was spent with my family at my parent's house. My mom went all out and everyone catered to Kory's diet, making everything with almond milk and agave. He pretty much got to eat everything, which is really rare for him, it was really yummy too!

 This kids table

I attempted my first sugar free pumpkin pie this year, it turned out, but still wasn't as good as my Mother inlaws. But I am glad I made it because we were going to try to make it to the Andersons for dessert, but we missed it! It was over so quickly! Kory would have never forgiven me for having him miss out on pumpkin pie on thanksgiving.

Some photos of Thanksgiving Day

The kids enjoyed the coloring place mats while they waited to eat

 

Maddy sat here for like I don't know 20 minutes by herself waiting for the dinner. She is so strange sometimes. 

 

 The guys

 Axel didn't want to sit at the kids table, he wanted to drink "Doda" From the giant red cups like all the adults.

 This was baby girls first thanksgiving. She seemed pretty happy, here she just woke up so she is tired.

 I never get pictures of me so here is one that night when we got home.

All in all it was a GOOD THANKSGIVING! 

It is time for a post.

I have a big Thanksgiving post but I wanted to share these fun videos of my kiddos from this week, because they're really funny. Well we think so at least!

Axel has gotten really good at hitting the ball with a bat. (Or in this case a wooden spoon) Can we say future racquetball champ!? This isn't a fluke either, Kelli will back me up, she was here the other night and he was hitting a ball with his bat too.

Now watch it a 2nd time and watch how spastic our big dog is to Kory. Yes she is like this all the time! Drives me crazy! 

Baby girl is such a weirdo these days! Who knows what she is doing here, but we think it is cute! She has been doing this a TON lately. We are just like WHAT?!

 

I think she is either dancing or trying to say hi.Who knows really, but it is freaking funny!