Our Black Friday Deal

'Tis the season!  I love Christmas!!  (Who doesn't, right?)

We put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving, and there is also a little present "under" it already.  Can you see it? 

It's a humongous 50 inch tv.  It was a Black Friday special.  We went and stood in line for 2 hours before Target opened on Thanksgiving night.  We should have brought chairs and a propane-powered space heater, as some did in the line.  (Just kidding, we're not that hard core).  So we froze our fingers and toes while we made friends with the people in front and behind us in line.  One was there for Ipods for her kids, who were waiting in the car with her husband, since they had nowhere else to go because they were from Saint George.  Her husband kept bringing her things like blankets, socks, and hot chocolate.  The other wanted a playstation, and her husband was at Wal-Mart waiting in line for the same thing (doubling their odds).  He got it first, then came and joined her and told us Black Friday horror stories of crazy people screaming and throwing Blueray discs in search of the right one, and of a woman punching another in the face over a Barbie. 

 And that is why we never go to Wal-Mart. 

It was cold, and exciting, and totally worth it.  We have done Black Friday at Target before, and we learned that the worst part is trying to get around the jam-packed store with a shopping cart, and standing in line for an hour waiting to pay.  So we got our TV, which was easy because about half an hour before they opened the store a Target employee came and gave out certificates to the people who wanted the TV, so we were assured one.   I grabbed some markers for the kids and an electric griddle because the one I got last time sucks, then we made a beeline for the checkout, and got the heck out.  There were hundreds, possibly thousands of people pouring into the store.  It was insane.  And kind of fun, too.  And I hope our line-friends got their loot too, because they were nice and made our experience so much more fun. 

And that is the story of my Black Friday, which was actually Gray Thursday. 

Little monkey

This little girl is kind of a monkey.  This is one of her favorite places.  She can't get out by herself, so once she climbs in she's stuck forever, which is fine with her.

 She climbs in my cupboards all the time, and plays with the stuff in them.  The cheese grater is her favorite.

 She loves to sit on the arm of the couch, and even climbs on the back, which is scary because it would be quite a fall onto the tile below.

 She's a little daredevil.  She climbs the side of the stairs several times a day.  So far she hasn't gone past the 3rd step, but it's only a matter of time. 

She can get on the kitchen chairs now, which makes it possible to get on the table.  She loves it.  I hate it. 

I think it's funny that she's so adventurous.  She has fallen off a lot of things, but she doesn't usually make a big deal out of it, and gets over it pretty quick.  I'm thinking she might be the first one of our kids to get stitches or break a bone.  I hope not.  I just won't be surprised, that's all. 

Halloween

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year.

  Jared and I had free reign because 3 of the 4 kids didn't give a rip about carving pumpkins.  I am starting to see a pattern here, and next year we will probably only get one or two pumpkins to make into Jack-o-lanterns. 

Joey was Luigi, Jason was Mario and Tyler was a black cat.  Allie was Dracula at parties and stuff, which was perfect because of her vampire teeth.  On Halloween night her cape was lost, so she was superman.  Or Superwoman, I suppose.

Here we have superman through the years.  First, Joey:

Jason

Tyler

And Allie

Allie's teeth are kind of showing in this Dracula picture.  They got much bigger than this, and now she has one of the middle top teeth growing, so she looks kind of like a Jack-O-Lantern.

We all had fun trick or treating, and got lots of candy.  Allie was My secret weapon to get candy for Jared and I. 

At the Pumpkin Patch

Jason's baptism

Along with his 8th birthday came Jason's opportunity to be baptized.  He was really excited about it.

My parents and Jared's came, and Jared's sister, Amy.  We had a great weekend together. 

The meeting was really nice, with friends and family together.  When Jason came up out of the water, Allie exclaimed "Whoa!!" which made us all laugh.

We are so proud of Jason.  He is such a good, sweet boy, and we love him so much.

A few good pictures

I love this picture! 

 I think she looks like a minion in this one.  Or maybe just a little nerd.

 I thought she might like some chocolate pudding.  She did.  It actually looked much, much worse by the time she was done with it.  I learned that babies and chocolate pudding aren't really a good mix.

Apparently I forgot that I had already learned that lesson 6 years ago.

Jason's Best Birthday Ever

My kids look forward to their 8th birthday because it's the one time they get to have a big party with friends.  Usually we just have a little family party.  I really hate doing kids parties, that's why we do it that way.

There are a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and they all play together.  So inviting just a few of them wasn't really an option.  So with all those kids, and his friends from school, there were going to be 21 kids.  Insane, I know.  I kept telling myself it's his only party, and it's just for an hour and a half.  It became my mantra in the days leading up to the party.



I wasn't insane enough to put a stick in the hands of all those kids, so the boys did their own pinata on Jason's actual birthday, which was Wednesday (we did the party on Friday). 

 And we had cake that day, too.

 At the big party we had colorful cupcakes and icecream.  Allie wandered aound trying to jam candles into everyone's cupcakes.

 We played 3 games: musical "papers" (no chairs, that would have been impossible, since we only own 5), a game where the kids stood on a chair and tried to drop Q-tips into a jar, and a fishing game, which was a huge hit.  It's always the favorite thing at little carnivals, that's why I decided to do it.  I wish I'd taken  more pictures, but I was too busy running the show.

Instead of a pinata, I got the idea from Pinterest to fill balloons with candy and little toys, and let each kid take turns picking one and popping it with a pin.  They loved it!  And there were no blindfolded kids swinging sticks around, which is always a good thing. 
The party was Insane Chaos.  Joey and his friend Albeny were lifesavers, I couldn't have done it without them.  All the kids had a blast, and Jason said it was the best birthday EVER.