Annual Visit to Santa

The kids couldn't wait to go see Santa this year. I thought for sure Blake would cry, but he knew exactly who that man in the red suit was: he's the guy who was going to bring him presents and he wasn't about to cry about that. Blake loves it when I show him our Santa decoration at home, so I seriously think he made the connection.

Natalie told him that she wants a fairy dress and shoes and Blake told him that he wants a train set of course.

Note to self for next year, Tuesday afternoons=no lines for Santa=AMAZING!

Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas Festivities

We spent Thanksgiving and a few days after at Rob's parent's house in Park City. It was a very food-filled, relaxing day. We ended it with some "Just Dance" on the Wii in our pj's. Could it get any better? Then my sis.-in-law Kerri and I woke up super early the next morning for some Black Friday shopping at the Fashion Place Mall, where my sister Melissa met us, followed by the Park City Outlets. There was almost no one out since the stores had opened at 10 the previous night for Black Friday and the sales were amazing!

Friday felt like it was the day that never ended. I started it early with the shopping and then came home and we did a half day of skiing at the Canyons. It was FREEZING and windy, but we had a blast nonetheless. And then we ladies cried our eyes out while watching Sarah's Key. It's a must see. We had all read the book, and it was a tear-jerker, so we knew what to expect. It's about a Jewish girl named Sarah who lived in France and got taken with her parents by French soldiers to a stadium where they were treated horribly just because they were Jewish (this event was called the Valdeev, and I had no idea it even happened before reading this). I don't want to give too much away, but the story behind it is really sad, yet so eye-opening and I saw again how cruel the human race can be to their own kind. It's kind of depressing, so we watched an uplifting movie afterward.

Then Saturday we packed up and said our good-byes and went our separate ways.

The beautiful Thanksgiving table made possible by my sister-in-law Kerri.

The cute red head cousins.

Sledding with uncle Scott. He's so sweet with the kids.

Blake and cousin Brian sledding with Grandpa

Rob and his brother Chris showin' us the moves on the Wii

The ladies' turn to show 'em what we got. I'm horrible at "Just Dance" but it was so much fun.

Annual Bell Family picture in our Mitt Romney t-shirts.

AT MY FAMILY'S HOUSE

Ok this is just adorable. Blake fell asleep on Grandpa Hales one evening. He LOVES his grandpas.

Blake and Grandma Hales

Natalie fell in love with their rabbits. She and my sisters Alice and Emmeline played with them almost nonstop. Ha ha, I just noticed that you can see Blake crying at the door inside.

My dad and I put up beadboard paneling with a ledge in my brother's kitchen and then I decorated it. I love how it turned out.

I got to hang out with my gorgeous sister Melissa. Love that girl. The adults went to Texas Roadhouse one night and Melissa gave me the usual much-loved pedicure and we baked together. I wish we could be next door neighbors. We missed our sister Catherine in Texas!

Blake loves his auntie Emmie.

Then we got home Saturday and made some cute graham cracker houses the next morning.

The proud kids with their creations. They turned out so cute! I love this tradition.

Lately we...

...went to the Museum of Natural History here. The kids of course loved it. Blake insisted on wearing his tiger suit and we couldn't resist. He's too cute.

The kids made a "boat" out of a big box we had laying around. I love their big imaginations.

Natalie had her preschool Thanksgiving party. It was lots of fun.

We put up Christmas at our house! Yay! These are the crafts that I contributed this year to our already way too large bunch of decorations.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!

At the ward Halloween party

Rob did the Chinese man and I did the cat.

Random Cuteness

Natalie got some new boots and Blake decided he liked them too.

We went on the train ride at the zoo. Blake is obsessed with trains right now. He was in heaven to say the least.

We had a primary activity at the temple where the kids got to tour the grounds and learn about different architectural and other elements of the temple. Natalie was looking mighty cute.

We had this little plastic pair of glasses that Blake really liked to put on--until he broke them.

Love these kiddos!

Natalie's first shot at roller skating

Natalie got to go to a roller skating class a few weeks ago with her preschool group. She was a little hesitant at first, but she got the hang of it by the end, and didn't want to stop.

She spent a lot of time like this in the beginning, and then she slowly got brave enough to get up.

Preschool Halloween Party

I hosted our preschool Halloween party today, and it was so much fun! Next to Christmas, Halloween is my favorite. I was so excited when I got assigned this party.

For the games, we first did a little "Halloween Find" where the kids had to find various Halloween items like skeletons, spiders, and candy in a big cake pan filled with corn and rice. Then we did pumpkin bowling followed by decorating pumpkins and then a cake walk.

For food we had "Mummy Roll-ups"--ham and cream cheese and raspberry chipotle tortilla rolls, "Goblin's blood and worms" for a drink--a cherry carbonated drink with gummy worm icecubes, "graveyard grub"--a skeleton veggie tray, "Jack-o-Lantern Smiles"--apples for lips with marshmallows in between for teeth, "Monster Munch"-fun foods like Chex, pretzels, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, candy corn, and peanuts mixed with melted white chocolate, and then mini cheese bites with bat toothpicks.

Natalie was Rapunzel (equipped with a frying pan and Pascal the Chameleon), and Blake was a cute little tiger.

Our cute little preschool group all dressed up!

My sweet kiddos.

Blake and his little friend Avery.

Natalie's decorated bat pumpkin.

Our food table. Eeek! Look at that goblin's blood!

Decorating pumpkins. Thanks moms for your help!

Frankenstein cupcakes for the cake walk.

Spider cupcakes 'cause I got tired of making Frankenstein ones.

"Graveyard Grub"

I hope the kids had a blast, 'cause I had fun planning and hosting it!

My first-ish sewing project

So I haven't sewed in a really, really long time....like since my high school sewing class (that makes me feel old). I've always said that I hated sewing and would never own a machine. Well, Pinterest changed that. There are so many cute (little girls') clothes out there and tons of tutorials that make making them easier. I really hate following a pattern, although at some point I will have to bite the bullet and do that too.

I found a really great machine for a great price on Costco online. It had five star reviews, and so far I am loving it. It was so easy to set up-even for me-a beginner.

I chose to make a ruffle skirt for Natalie as my first project. It took way too much time to make, but hopefully I will get faster as I practice more and more. I can't say that I love sewing yet, but maybe with time I will, who knows. Or maybe with time I will have pulled out so many hairs that I want to sell my machine back--let's hope for the former.

Here's to hoping it doesn't fall apart when I wash it the first time :)

McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took a trip with Natalie's preschool class to the pumpkin patch. It wasn't Rob's Friday off, so it was me alone with two kids. It was a bit chilly, but nothing a jacket couldn't cure. It looked like rain, but Natalie had prayed the night before that the rain wouldn't get us at the pumpkin patch, so it held off until we were on our way home.

Natalie always loves the slide through the dirt hill and the corn box. And my favorite part is always the fudge...chocolate mint this time. Blake is at that age where he is everywhere all at once it seems, so I was pretty much chasing him around the whole time. He's so cute, I can't complain, and he did it with a smile on his face, so I couldn't get mad at that.

So much fun! I love this time of year!

She told me she wanted a "skinny little one" and she still couldn't carry it

The bunny village

Natalie's favorite-the slide. She went down backwards!

Notice she only has one shoe...she got an owie and made me take it off, so everyone kept asking if I knew that she only had one shoe. It was better than listening to crying.

Her little friend Jovie found a grasshopper and they were both very intrigued and took turns holding it. They finally decided to let it go in the weeds here. Poor thing. :)

The corn dig.

My cute boy. I'm still finding corn from yesterday all over my house.