Decorating the Tree

We picked out a tree for family home evening, but by the time we got home and got it set up, it was getting pretty late, so we told the kids we would put on the decorations and finish it up tomorrow.

The next morning I came out and found Corbin directing Makelle to hand him ornaments while he hung them up. I had to explain that we were actually going to wait until that evening when Daddy got home to decorate it.


I love how they got the stool specifically so they could reach up high and not just have to put them in a cluster on the bottom were they could reach, so instead we ended up with a cluster at the top, because they really liked climbing up the stool.









Poor Mr. Sethers was just too tired to stay up and help decorate his first tree and we lost him about 5 minutes into it. I had great visions of him playing with the little bell ornaments as they jingle while he looks on with a grand vision of awe and wonder at the simple joys of the Christmas season, but no... turns out he couldn't have cared less :)


It is already beginning to feel a lot more like Christmas, especially when you first walk into the house and smell that wonderful pine scent again and again. I love it!

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving morning we woke up and drove down to the Hoogle Zoo and met Dave and Tiffany and their boys and Tyler and Tori and their kids. The zoo keepers served all the animals a Thanksgiving dinner (which we discovered basically meant their normal meals, in a pumpkin shell). It was cute though getting to watch them eat and the zoo has always been a favorite outing for our family, so it was fun.





Then we went to the Grandma Lloyd's house for dinner. Lots of yummy food and a kid table, makes for a great meal.



After we ate we all gathered around for the Lloyd family's traditional BINGO game. This year we decided to transition into the next generation and just got prizes for the kids. We sort of over did it though because someone got blackout before we even ran out of prizes so no one had a chance to steal, which Corbin was a little disappointed about. But it probably worked out for the better with little kids involved and Corbin found some money in his mystery prize, so he was happy.

Bean's Birthday

Corbin turned 5. Wow. His two best friends also happen to have birthdays the same week as his. So we all got together and took them to the Kangaroo Zoo during the week to celebrate. One kid is named Corbin and the other is Ethan (Bean's middle name)... they almost have too much in common, I guess they were meant to end up as friends :)


They had lots of fun running around together and I felt a little less guilty for not letting him invite friends to his party, like we have been promising him he could do starting on his 5th birthday. But we are still in the small condo and the weather is too cold to take them outside and I just didn't have the energy to host a gaggle of small children indoors in a tight space. Instead we ended up having a family dinner at Grandma Lloyd's house on Sunday with the Lloyd and Miller cousins. We let him choose whatever he wanted for dinner, which meant we once again had breakfast for dinner.


Bacon, fruit, hash browns and pancakes. Then we opened far too many presents... he got A LOT of cool stuff.






And finally, cake and ice cream.




He probably changed his mind about a dozen times in the weeks leading up to his birthday, but in the end decided on a Toad cake from Mario. We own nothing Mario related, but he LOVES to play the video game at his friends' house, and for some reason especially likes the Toad character. He came out a little pink, because it turns out all natural beet extract coloring doesn't make a vibrant red. But he didn't seem to mind. He also selected the flavor of the cake, and settled on banana. So we really made frosted, whole wheat banana bread and the kids thought it was so cool that I let them eat "cake" for breakfast the next morning... little do they know :)

Angry Halloween!

For Halloween this year our family dressed up as characters from the Angry Birds video game. At first it was looking like I might have to let go of my control issues and give up the whole family theme idea because Makelle was dead set on being Princess Pink (her favorite character from Daddy’s make-believe bedtime stories) and Corbin was dead set on not being anything related to a princess—certainly not Prince Charming, but we couldn’t even talk him into a knight or dragon or anything. So I was already to give in and let them each pick their own costume when one Saturday afternoon as I was getting ready to head to the fabric store to buy lots of pink they were playing “angry birds on dad’s phone” and one of them commented that they wished they could be an angry bird and the other one chimed in that yea that would be cool and mom and dad can be the pigs and we can “get them!” So I jumped on that one and ran off to buy the supplies before they could change their minds, thereby securing one more year of family themed costumes. They actually ended up loving their costumes and running around the house like little summon wrestlers the rest of the month, bouncing off of each other.


Like always, Halloween seemed to last all week as we attended scary story time at the library went to a neighborhood kid party, attended the ward party, went to a family dinner in costume and then of course went trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Living in condos without many kids around we decided to let them go around with their cousins, who also happened to own a golf cart, which made for a pretty fun and efficient night gathering treats. We now have about enough candy to last until next Halloween, minus all the chocolate pieces that I may or may not have already eaten :)

Pumpkins

For Family Home Evening we carved pumpkins. For the 4th year running we again had to force Corbin to touch the gunk inside under threat of skipping the carving, but this year Makelle jumped right in on her own and actually helped pull out all the seeds.




Corbin has now decided he is big enough to make his own jack-o-lantern and set out to create an elaborate design. Unfortunately, he sort of had a hard time understanding that you have to just draw shapes that are independent of each other and can be cut out, so he experienced a bit of frustration as time after time we kept saying, “nope sorry, that one won’t work.” He finally came up with a good design that worked well though and I was able to cut it out for him.



Dad helped Makelle create her red angry bird… she was so fun, working hard to trace her design just like Dad and Corbin were doing. I am pretty sure she thought she was doing all the work while we acted as her helpers, and she was probably right :)



After they finished their designs we made caramel apples while leaving Daddy to finish all the hard work of actually carving out the elaborate angry bird.



He did a great job and has far more patience than I :)

Soccer

Corbin has been playing his second season of soccer this fall. He actually has been doing a lot worse than last time, but having a blast doing it! We signed him up on the same team as his best little buddy that lives next door and I have been the assistant coach, so I think he has been distracted from the actual game. At one point we looked up to see him playing ring-around-the-rosies with the other Corbin and had to roll our eyes a little. He did tell us at one point that he doesn’t like getting the ball as much this time because there is another kid on his team that is faster than him and he says that he always takes the ball from him after he gets it even though they are on the same team. He doesn’t seem to realize that he did the same thing to the other kids on his team last season. Oh well, it is all part of learning the game I suppose. As long he tells us he is having fun, we will try to control our frustrations at watching him run around crazy on the field rather than playing soccer and just let him enjoy it!



At his last game he got to meet Leo the Lion from Real Salt Lake and thought it was sooo fun trying to get the ball past him and score a goal during their practice session. I am pretty sure it was the highlight of the season for him.


Afterwards they handed out ticket vouchers to attend a Real game in Sandy and we took Corbin down on the South Davis Rec night and they let him march out onto the field with all the other little league soccer kids. He loved it! They made us drop off our 4-year-old in a little entrance tunnel area and leave him there alone for about 45 minutes while we waited up in the bleachers for the game to start. Needless to say that idea made me a little nervous so I found another parent of one of the little kids and we told them to be friends and stick together and asked some middle school girls to make sure they stayed by them. We were a little surprised to see just how well our plan worked when we saw them march out holding hands and laughing together as they ran around the field, surround on all sides by the entire yellow girls’ team, herding them along. He did great and had fun, it is just getting hard to accept how big he is getting and learn to let go a little.

Primary

Corbin's class at church consists of 4 little boys that are by far the most active kids in the entire primary. This year their teacher has been Sister Brown, who somehow has done an excellent job at calming them down and teaching them the gospel. He is learning a lot, especially about how to be reverent while sitting next to your best buddies. They are a fun little gang and we are so grateful to Sister Brown for her patience!


Corbin Miller, Tyler Ormsby, Jan Brown, Koda Hildreth and Mikey Arbuckle.

Earlier this year I got called to teach the Sunbeam class, so I get to sit next to Corbin's class in the primary room and watch him (or occasionally glare at him :) during singing and sharing time, which has been fun. I have a cute little group of kids that seem far to young to teach anything too, yet they just amaze you every week with their understanding and sweet spirits.



Rosie Clark, Emily Jackson, Madi Pierson, Corbin Hancock and Camden Lawrence.

October Festivities

To get in the holiday spirit (and to occupy their busy little minds) we painted Halloween masks for Family Home Evening this week. It was pretty cute. They LOVE to paint, but I seem to struggle with letting them sometimes… I just get too lazy to deal with the all the work of getting things ready and cleaning up after toddler painting projects. But they are getting better and Makelle actually kept most of her paint on her mask rather than on herself this time, so we may get to do more painting in the future… we’ll see how ambitious I get :)




Grandma Lloyd make the kids a Halloween count down calendar. Everyday, first thing in the morning we wake up to the kids yelling, “Mommy, look at what prize we got today!!” and waving some cute little trinket or treat in our faces. Let’s just say they definitely are enjoying the thrill of having something to look forward to each day. And surprisingly enough Makelle hasn’t even cheated and started taking things down prematurely either, so it also seems to be teaching patience at the same time! They do occasionally walk by and stop to inspect what is coming up and point out the things they are most excited about and what days they think will be the best. They really are at a fun age right now.

Conference

Over conference weekend this year, we were all a little under the weather but still managed to get up and make a nice pancake breakfast. The weather is starting to turn cool and to get in the autumn mood we decided to go with pumpkin pancakes, a definite favorite at our house.

After wards we all cuddled up on the couch and spent the weekend listening to the words of the prophet and apostles. It was great relaxing weekend, which is just what we needed to get over this sickness.