Are you getting excited?

We are! We LOVE Christmas around here. I am just itching to decorate as soon as Thanksgiving is over. Alan used to try to make me hold off but he knows better now. In fact he said tonight that we should go get a tree tomorrow!!!! This is a HUGE breakthrough. My one compromise has been that I wait to put up the tree until 2 weeks before Christmas so it doesn't die. I've never been really happy with this deal and I think maybe my decorating bug is be rubbing off on him. We'll see if he let's us get one tomorrow or not.
Today after church Alan got all the decorations down from the attic and the kids and I spent the afternoon decorating. I have been the "head decorator" since I was probably 8 or so. I can't remember exactly when I took over but take over I did! We all did the tree but the rest of the house was mine. I'm so grateful for a Mom that let me have creative license. I would actually rearrange the furniture and nick knacks around the house on a regular basis, not just Christmas. I look back and wonder how my Mom could let me turn her house upside down when ever I got a decorating itch. What great memories...Thanks Mom!
Anyway, back to today. I actually took a deep breath and let my kids really help. You know how you sometimes "let them help" but your really doing everything? No...is that just me? Well I'm a bit of a control freak and I want everything perfect. I'm determined to give them creative license with the tree (I can rearrange later).


You might get a kick out of these...

Tallula's stocking is above.
Tate's is below...don't judge, we let him choose and he picked naughty.


I really wanted to have leftover turkey this year so today I cooked my first turkey EVER! In Georgia I was to scared to cook one so I would buy the pre-cooked turkey that you just heat up for an hour. So today I did it and it turned out awesome! Ya for me! Now I'm boiling the carcass and planning to make homemade turkey soup tomorrow. What do you know, I may be a little domestic after all!


When we were getting out decorations we found a little craft I had bought last year with big intentions that were never fulfilled...the story of my life. So I let the kids have at it, no interference by me. I'm in rare form today. I didn't help them AT ALL, and when I say help them I mean do it for them so it's perfect.


And last but not at all least. Probably the highlight of a great day is this...


I know your wondering what in the world this is. It's Alan cleaning out the couch. Not just one couch but two couches and he vacuumed them as well. This is seriously a RARE moment in my life. A moment worthy of taking pictures of, blogging it and sealing it in my memory forever. Alan is many things, clean is not one of them. He did this all on his own, I don't know what came over him. He's been so helpful lately, I just really appreciate him. I don't know what I would do without this guy!

There is hope for my sanity...

Twilight...opening night!

At 12:01 on Thursday night the lights went down, hundreds of girls and their middle aged mothers started to scream. We then escaped into our favorite world full of vampires! I loved every minute of it! It wasn't exactly the best movie ever made but I wasn't going into it expecting it to be. I have to say that Robert Pattinson did an awesome job as Edward. He made me feel all mushy inside a few times...sighhh! You could have looked over and caught me with a silly little grin on my face. Second best actor was the guy who played Charlie, I loved him. I never really connected with Charlie in the books but I loved him in the movie. I was really not impressed with the acting ability of all the high school friends (Jessica, Mike, Tyler, ect.). There was some serious awkwardness to the dialogue most of the time, but again I wasn't expecting oscar quality. All in all, it was great entertainment, I'm looking forward to the next 3 movies! Now I have to go read the series again, I miss my vampires!

He Loves her to Death...

Tate has decided that Lula is big enough to play with now. He's been making her sit with him like this. He even thinks it's ok to pick her up and tote her around...not OK with me! She's not always to thrilled by the idea. She absolutely adores him but she's always a bit cautious when he get to close. That's how we all feel! You never know what this little guy has in mind! He's been know to poke you, lick you, smack you or just hug and kiss you. You really just never know. It's funny Lula has already figured this out. I think were in for some fun times with these two.

Not quite a gingerbread house!

When we went to my parents for dinner on Sunday the kids made gingerbread men with my mom. That went pretty good so she decided to make mini gingerbread houses with them at our house. She came down to visit on Wednesday and they attempted to make a little village. This is how it ended up...




They still had fun though and that's all that matters. But...now Alan has it stuck in his head that he needs to make a huge gingerbread house that he can shellac and keep for all time. I'm not really looking forward to it...we'll see what happens.

FRAUD

Well it happened to us. Our identity was stolen this weekend. We think it happened when we payed for our hotel online. We had thousands of dollars stolen from our account. Whoever has our account numbers was trying desperately to get to Egypt.


They tried to purchase tickets to Egypt four times. Four times it processed through our account and the bank would flag it and reverse the charges. Unfortunately they succeeded in purchasing two cell phones and buying a bunch of other stuff. Luckily the bank will refund all our money. It's just a long annoying process to get this all cleaned up. We had to close all of our accounts down and start new ones. The bank suggests that everyone have two separate checking accounts. One that is you primary account and one you transfer money into anytime you make an online or over the phone purchase. I know that may seem like a pain but after 3 long days of dealing with this fraud it's worth it to me. The bank said that right now is fraud season. So look out my friends...I never thought it would happen to me either!

Spokane and a new nephew...

When I woke up on Sunday morning I had the strongest urge to go to Spokane and be there when my new nephew was born. My sister in law Amanda was scheduled to have a c-section Monday morning and we weren't going to get to see baby Bryce until the middle of December. So I rolled over, woke Alan up and said "let's go to Spokane today". My adventure loving husband whole heartedly jumped on board! If you don't know this about us, we are very spontaneous. Alan already had Monday off at work so we just made a reservation at a hotel and packed a few things, jumped in the car with our four kids and took off. Seriously, it's that easy. You should try it some time! We had a great time just taking off and leaving home behind for a few days. According to our kids, we are now the "coolest parents ever"...try to beat that.
So I got my baby fix and got to hold my sweet little nephew, Bryce Roberts Rigtrup. He weighed in at 8 lbs and he is a doll. This makes 13 grandbabies for my mother in law and it bumps Tallula out of last place. But we still hold the record for most grandbabies given to her. We'll see if Amanda can beat us but I think we may have this record in the bag!




This is Bryce's big sister, Charlie. And oh my goodness, she is a cutie!

They aren't sissies after all!

We went out to Orting so the kids could trick or treat with their cousins Madison and Brooke. The kids were such troopers. They went strong for about an hour and a half. Taylor and Tate were pretty tired by the end but Tanner was still running up to every house. That's my kind of kid! We had a great time hanging out with Scott and Bethany while the kids begged for candy. Bethany made some awesome taco soup and corn bread for dinner, it was delicious. When we got home we put the kids to bed and have been stealing candy from their bags ever since. I love halloween!

Trunk or Treat Gem Heights Style

So I don't think I've ever mentioned the massiveness of our ward. Well...it's MASSIVE! For example, we have two primaries. Not only are there two, they are both very full! I heard on Sunday that one of the two nurseries now has 20 kids in it, that's just ONE class. So that might give you an idea of the huge trunk or treat we had last night. In all the other wards we've been in, the cars line up on one side of the building. In this ward the cars line up on three sides of the building. So two rows of cars on three sides of the building = BIG TRUNK OR TREAT. Half way through Tate was tired and just wanted to stop, but we pressed on. By the time they had gone to every trunk they were all tired. There was still more candy to be had but my kids weren't haven it. Man, when I was a kid, I would have just kept on going! I was a die hard, candy loven kinda kid. I would trick or treat for hours. I guess we'll see how long they last on Halloween before I declare them sissies.

Memory Lane

Since I'm on this sad "my kids are growing up to fast" kick, I found something to prove it. I was cleaning up a bit today (I emphasize "a bit") and found this picture of Taylor and Tanner with Alan. It was always one of my favorites and It makes me long for time gone by. This picture was taken in our very first house right here in Puyallup. Memories this brings back...
Our house in Puyallup...this color! Dorothy a.k.a. Taylor dressed up as Dorothy for two staight months...
....TEMPER TANTRUMS....TANNERS RED ROOM x 6 COATS OF PAINT! Lazy days sitting out in camping chairs with my neighbors, watching the kids play. Natalie! Renee and Abbie! The Emmetts who became lifelong friends...South Hill Ward...GIRLS NIGHT OUT! Growing up...not the kids...me!


P.S. Tanner and Lu could be twins (Nena called it from day 1, I believe you now)
P.P.S. Alan's HOT!