Christmas Day!!

We have waited, we've been counting down since Halloween, and finally the day arrived......at 5:00 a.m. Landon has been sick for the past few days and so needless to say, he did not sleep well on Christmas Eve. He woke up at 4:25 and Mike and I put him in bed with us. He fell back asleep at 5:00 just as we heard little feet coming downstairs, pausing at the living room and then bursting into our room to tell us that Santa had come. (Yea, like we didn't already know that!) Here are the kids sporting their new Christmas jammies. This was Christmas for Landon. He got a Buzz Lightyear and it was over. He wanted nothing to do with opening his other 500 presents. Mike keeps reminding me that we could have done Christmas for him for $5.
Yeah! I've been waiting for this book. Thanks Mom!!!
Abbie loves sticker books....especially this one from her cousin Joseph!
Mike got this really nice Patagonia shirt from his parents. It was a great day! We desperately wish that we could have been with our families and friends. We miss you all, and hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Decorating

So some friends of our gave us a Gingerbred Christmas tree kit, and of course the kids were really excited to decorate it, so we spent a long, painful 45 minutes putting this tree together the other night.

As you can see, Landon was a big help. He was helping to make sure there was no more candy left to decorate with.

I guess he got a little tired of eating, and decided to put his feet up for a rest.
The finished product. It looks exactly like the picture that was on the box!.....except way worse.

Wishing For Spring

Ok, so I know that it's only December 8th, but I'm done with Winter. The temperature gauge on my car this morning read -1 degree Farenheit and that was at 10:30, not like 6a.m. As I was bringing groceries in the house from the car all of my nose hairs froze and the kids desperately wanted to go sledding today, but we had to tell them no because it's just too cold. We literally can't be outside for more that 5-10 minutes before it's unbearable. The "locals" say this is unusual weather for this time of year. (I guess this stuff usually happens in February). I don't care if it's unusual or not...I'M DONE! Oh wait.....we have 3 more winters here in the North Pole. Someone help me.

I Hate Snow!

The kids sure love it though!

Tagged by Laura

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Nannying for a family in Ogden
2. Attending Weber State University.
3. Driving the Blueberry Pop-Tart
4. Hanging out with my family a lot.
5. Getting snow cones at the Rainbow Snow.

5 Things on my to-do list today:
1. Dishes
2. Christmas shopping
3. Wrapping presents
4. Help Abbie make her bed
5. Clean the basement

5 Snacks I enjoy:
1. Graham Crackers
2. String Cheese
3. Baked Lays
4. Popcorn
5. any fruit

5 Things I would do if I were a Billionaire:
1. Buy a vacation home somewhere
2. New car.
3. Pay off school loans
4. Give to charities
5. Travel

3 of my bad habits:
1. Clench my teeth at night.
2. I have eczema on my arms and I like to pick at it. ( I know...gross)
3. I snore

5 places I have lived:
1. Mcallen, Texas
2. Lakeland, Florida
3. Provo, Utah
4. Centerville, Utah
5. Columbus ,Ohio

5 Jobs I’ve had:
1. Leaps and Bounds (Indoor playland)
2. Telemarketing
3. Training Table
4. Nanny
5. Day Care

5 Things people probably don’t know about me:
1. I make my bed everynight right before I get into it. (i hate messy covers)
2. I cannot even talk about broken bones....I start to get dizzy and light headed.
3. I am afraid of heights.
4. I can play the violin
5. I blackout/passout if I stand up too fast.

I now Tag: Breeze, Melissa, Mindy,Harmony, Nicole. Love you guys!

Why is it that whenever Mike and I get an idea in our heads of doing something that we think our kids will enjoy, we don't remember all the other times that the thought and the outcome don't really match up? We did it yet again. We had the great idea of putting up the Christmas tree which, ok we were gonna do anyway, but thought that this year our kids would really like helping and think it was a really fun activity. Well, the only thing that Landon thought was fun was throwing Abbie's underwear and all of his dinosaurs on the tree while Mike and I were putting up the lights and Abbie thought it was more fun to watch shows, than to help, therefore we have the posed picture of her. She was threated with death to hang ornaments on the tree so that we could get some "cute pictures.' All of the ornaments ended up within the same two feet of each other and there are still decorations the boxes (that are still out mind you) that need to be put up. Will this all be worth it by December 26th? Merry freakin Christmas!

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This is what our weekend looked like. We had a great time on Thanksgiving day with some friends from the ward. I just wasn't the same as being with family though. Anyway, we ended up coming home without any leftovers. I personally was ok with that, but as you can imagine...Mike was NOT! He went straight to the grocery store on Friday and bought the fixins for an entire Thanksgiving meal and cooked all day. We sat down to nice dinner that night at about 8:30. We have been eating it all weekend. As you can see, we also spent the weekend putting lights up on our house. I am so glad to have a house to put lights on this year! It was actually Mike's idea, and he was the one who wanted to get the extra stuff for the windows. I know, I know...shocker right? They turned out really pretty, and the kids were so excited.

Check out my Slide Show!

The Joys of Having Dad Back

Is there anything better than Saturday morning doughnuts and chocolate milk? Yes, having Mike on a rotation where we actually get to see him. As you can see. I'm not the only one who is glad!
We do love those doughnuts at our house though!
Landon just eats the chocolate off the top and then gets another one out of the box.

Permanant Headache!

Ok, so here is the progression of Landon taking his coat off after coming inside. He is Mr. Independant these days, and that is putting it lightly. We usually don't start off too bad. He begins to take the coat off, thinking that it won't be too difficult...
He is now starting to realize, "hey, this is harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm REALLY stubborn so no, I will not give my mother the satisfaction of helping me, even though she is asking every 5 seconds "can mama help?"
This is where the crying begins. He is now at a crossroads. He has taken the coat off by himself before, so he knows that it can be done, but this time it is definitely not working! He still will not let me help!
Frustration takes over and the fits of hysterics begin. Still will NOT let mom help!
There is no calming him down now. All I can do is offer hugs and support from the sideline. This can go on for minutes, but the child will not let me or anyone else help. If we did just step in and help or do it for him, he literally would not settle down for like 30 minutes. Oh, well at least I still have on sane child...oh wait....

This is what Abbie picked out to wear to school today. It's a lost cause at my house!!

Happy Halloween to everyone! I know it's a bit late, but oh well. We had a great time carving pumpkins with Mike home for Family night on Monday. Yes, I know...Mike and the mustache (sp?) It's scary. Luckily, he shaved it that night. Abbie was so hilarious with the pumpkins. She had been excited all day to carve them, but for those of you who know Abbie you won't be surprised to hear that once we got them opened up she was gagging because of the smell and plugging her nose while she scooped out the guts with a spoon. She would not dare touch the seeds or anything! It was pretty funny.
I know, kind of lame, but I forgot to buy the cool stencil ones at the store that day, and I was not going back. Abbir drew hers all by herself. Can you guess which one it is? ha ha.
( Ok, Nicole I am totally not surprised that Maddie and Abbie had the exact same costume are you? )Here are our cuties on Halloween night just before trick-or-treating. We had a ball going out with our neighbors. The kids got a lot of candy and some of the houses even had treats for the adults. Pretty cool. The kids looked great...unfortunately........
This .......and

This is what they looked like when we actually went outside. Yes, we had to do the old coat over the costume thing. We do live in Minnesota afterall!

A Day of Fun at the Apple Orchard

Tha Honeycrisp apples are my favorite, but I guess that didn't matter because they were Landon's favorite too and he would not give it back to me. I did get at least one bite though. Yummy!!

Abbie is a true Hale. She has no fear when it comes to jumping or sliding off of things. There was an giant pile of hay at the pumpkin farm and the kids had a great time climbing and jumping. Landon tried, but could not quite jump as far out as Abbie could.

Okay, so funny story. I put this picture on so that everyone could see how dilligently Mike was looking for the perfect pumpkin. I showed him a few that I thought were really good, but evidently they were not good enough for him. He wanted one with a good stem. Well, he couldn't find one and finally just ended up getting one that was pre-picked up at the front where you purchase everything. It really was a beatiful pumpkin with a great stem. When we got home and opened the trunk, however the pumpkin had been rolling around so much that the stem had broken off. He was so mad. I laughed and laughed and I am still laughting even now as I write this. That's what he gets for being so picky. Ha Ha!

Fall Fun

We have this problem called squirrels here in Minnesota. There must be a family of them that live in our yard, because as you can see in the background, they think we put that pumpkin out for them to snack on. I guess it's a pretty common thing that the squirrels eat the pumpkins. People have told me that you have to carve your pumpkins the night before, and only put them out on Halloween. Darn Rodents!
Abbie and our neighbor Alex having fun in the leaves!
We had the best day on Sturday jumping in the leaves and enjoying what I can only assume will be one of the last semi-warm days this year. Mike was off all day and he went out to mow the lawn, but before he could do that, he an Abbie had to rake up all of the leaves on our lawn. We have a huge Red Oak in the front yard, and the leaves literally covered the grass. The pile that they made was taller than Abbie. I love Fall!!!

We had a great time doing Halloween cookies with our friends the other day. The kids are getting really good at spreading the frosting and decorating, Even Landon can frost his own cookie and yes, he got a haircut.

OH -- IO

Once a Buckey, always a Buckey!! Even though Mike and I live in Minnesota now, we are still faithful to our Buckeyes. They came into town last Saturday, and we were there to cheer them on to victory over the Gophers. It was our first date in four months! We had a great time and even found another little group of Buckeye fans to sit with. We did think the Minnesota M that the band made was pretty cool though, I mean nothing compared to the Best Damn Band in the Land, but still cool. Seeing the Buckeyes made me really homesick for Columbus. We really miss everyone and especially our friends that are still there, getting to go to every game. Enjoy it while you can kids...there ain't nothin like it!!

Here is our big girl on her first day of Preschool. She goes five days per week and we are both loving it! She has done great and doesn't get scared or anything. She has already made some friends and loves going everyday!
For those of you that know my kids, you know that they don't eat anything. Every mealtime is a battle, so Mike and I were out to dinner with them one night and got so tired of it, that they pretty much had icecream for dinner. At least we got to eat in peace!

Mike and Abbie at the Wolf Preserve in Ely Minnesota
Abbie fishing for the very first time. It was cold and windy, but we still had a great time on the boat!


Landon the Sea Captain!

Our big 2 year old! Landon got spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Hale who were lucky enough to be here visiting!

We Celebrated Landon's Birthday a few days ago. We went to the Zoo, went out to eat and Landon got lots of presents. We had a great day and can't believe our little boy is two already!