Family Christmas Party

 Here's another fun thing about living close by...Family Christmas Party!  We had some serious food, and a white elephant gift exchange and some super special visitors.  Our awesome friends, the Smith's, came all dressed up and brought gifts for all the kids.  It was so fun to watch the kids' faces while they sat and talked with Santa.  We had lots of magic this Christmas. 

Even we had to sit on Santa's lap.  Did I feel like an idiot?  Well, yes, I did. 

Santa brought Jack a tool set.  And he decided to fix the kitchen chairs.:)

Annie's Christmas Program

 Annie had her preschool Christmas program this week.  I felt a little bad for the parents whose kids just sat on the stage and cried.  Annie loved it...and she sang the songs so good!  I was so proud of her.

Annie with her teacher, Miss Teresa.

Birthdays!

 
Emily is the funnest kid.  Her favorite color is pink and she loves chocolate (well she's my kid, so yeah).  I can't believe how often people tell me how sweet she is.  She has big brown eyes that keep her from getting in trouble pretty much all the time.  Love this kid.  

Jack is a total mama's boy, and I'm not ashamed to admit, I love every minute of it.  He is so chatty, especially since we moved to Idaho.  He says so many words and sentences.  Sometimes he wakes up early in the morning before his sisters and he just lays in bed and talks with me and giggles.  He's growing so fast...no doubt he'll catch up with Emily soon!

 Until February, we have a 4 year old, a 3 year old, 2 year old.  Jealous much?!  We had everybody over for dinner and cupcakes.  LOVE having the family close by to celebrate with us.

I "Mustache" You a Question

Halloween

 This Halloween it was...cold.  Seriously.  I'm use to being able to trick-or-treat in flip-flops.  Not this year.  Annie had requested to be Ariel...the mermaid, not the princess (her words, not mine).  In my quest to make Halloween costumes for my kids, I googled and googled and googled and decided I had to talk her out of being a mermaid.  I mean, I'm good...but I'm not that good.:)  Thankfully, she was impressed with my abilities to make a pretty awesome cat tail (which, of course you can't see in the pictures...but it was pretty awesome).  Emily was just excited to be a candy corn princess (again, her words...not mine).  And Jack learned to say pumpkin and was happy enough with that.:)

We got to take the kiddos to the pumpkin patch.  It was their first time and they loved it!  There was a hay bale maze and big piles of pumpkins and a real scarecrow (real, as in, Jack walked by him and he waved and Jack screamed).  And the best part was that they got to pick out their own little pumpkins and then we went home and carved them.

Family Pictures

First Day of School

My cute Annie face is off to pre-school!  It's a little devastating (ALOT devastating).  I can't believe how fast this kid has grown.  She is the funnest girl.  She's going to school at the First Baptist Church and her teacher is Miss Teresa.  The whole week before school started we had to work on her teacher's name because she kept calling her Aunt Teresa.  

Annie has been so excited to start school.  Her favorite thing on her first day was getting to play outside.  Right now her favorite things are the color green, chicken and Emily.  When she grows up she wants to be a teacher (I really have no idea where that came from).  She's such a beautiful girl and she's so confident and kind - seriously, I adore this kid.

Jack may or may not have been in meltdown mode with his sister gone...

Twin Falls County Fair

Where I come from, the county fair is…well, its not THAT big of a deal.  I mean, you get a day out of school for it.  And there’s a parade.  But that’s pretty exciting as it gets.  Here in Twin Falls, the county fair is a BIG DEAL.  Everybody goes to the fair.  It’s what the Idahoans do, I guess.

The kids loved it.  All three kids LOVED the petting zoo.  It was ridiculously cute to watch how excited they got about the animals.  Even the animals in the 4-H buildings were fun for them.  Clearly my kids just need animals.

 

 The girls loved the rides.  Jack was too short to go on much without a grown-up, so I took one for the team and squished myself into a little train car so he could ride on it.  Yes, that’s right…took one for the team.  I thought I’d need a crow bar to get myself out of that thing!  He loved it though.  Annie even went on the frog ride all by herself!  I was so proud of her for being so brave!  She looked mostly horrified for the whole ride, but she didn’t scream or cry and said she had fun when it was over. 

 

They had a fun house that Annie SWORE she would hold Annie’s hand through the whole thing.  She didn’t, of course.  But here’s my plug for whatever carnival company does the rides for the Twin Falls County Fair…they were AWESOME with Emily.  They had asked her name as she was going in and they called her by name through the whole thing.  They stood behind her while she climbed the ladders, and helped her get down the slide.  She loved getting to go without mom & dad!

There’s also fair food.  Which is sort of a necessity.

 

And what Idaho fair is complete without potatoes...