Happy Birthday Clayton!!
Clayton turns 8!
Post Thanksgiving Fun
Our family had a great Thanksgiving this year. I roasted the Turkey, made essential sides, and also had sister-in-laws who brought their so delicious dishes to devour up as well!! We had a great time with Nate's two sisters and their families, exactly what you should do on Thanksgiving.
After all the yum yummy food, our family went on a two night get away to the famous Wisconsin Dells! We stayed at the Kalahari Resort mainly for their indoor water park that I was really impressed with!! We had originally booked a "hut" room that was a 2 queen bed room, but as I checked in at the front desk they informed me that our family was selected to receive a complimentary room upgrade to their Royal King Suite! All I could say was SWEET!!
The king suite was two rooms that connected in the middle. One with a king bed and jacuzzi tub/bathroom, and the other one was two queen beds with a fireplace and their own bathroom as well! We even had to use a special card to get into the hall way for our room. Again SWEET!!
Going after Thanksgiving there weren't very many people at the resort which was so nice. We would go multiple times down the same slide without any wanting time. Justin absolutely loved the tubing rides! His repeated phrase was "I go again, again!!"
The wave pool, and lazy river were a lot of fun, but my boys had the most fun on the fast tub rides and the surf shop.
Hayden was unbelievable surfing!! He was a natural. You would think that he was almost going to wipe out, but then he would make a remarkable recovery and continued surfing!! At one point he was even surfing BACKWARDS!!!! and showing a little bum as you can see from his picture ;)
Nate did a great job at surfing as well. They had a lifeguard at the bottom showing you different maneuvers to make. One move was to grab your board, roll on your back and come back on top of your board after the roll. I tried this and it was a no go, but Nate make it look easy.
Clay had the most fun on the slides and would go on anyone of them!!
It was definitely a trip our family wants to make a tradition out of!!
Thankful Tree
We have so many things our family is grateful for that we started to write them down and place them on our Thankful Tree during the month of November. Our tree started out pretty sad looking until we added our thankful tags and watched it grow!!
Every morning I would ask the boys what they were thankful for, then I would make our tags. Here are some of their responses..... Thankful for Grandparents: Grandpa Ron, Grandma Mindy, Grandpa & Grandma Cottrell
The weather, U.S.A, our House, School, Trees, Family, Animals, Cars, Phones to call family and friends, The Church, Mom and Dad, The whole World, Being Healthy, Lights, Scriptures, Work...Dad's job, Books, Good things to drink, Food, Warm Clothes, Friends, Toys, Treats, and Temples
We had fun making our thankful tree. For Thanksgiving we were able to have Nate's two sisters and their families over for the Big Turkey dinner. I roasted a turkey and made the potatoes and gravy and everyone else brought yummy sides like stuffing, green salad, rolls, corn, sparkling apple and grape juice, ice cream dessert, pie and other trimmings to feast on. It was a great time with everyone. We ate, flipped through Black Friday ads, ate some more and just chilled, exactly what you are supposed to do on a Thanksgiving Day!! Fall Leaves
Have you jumped into a pile of leaves lately?? It's the "it" thing to do right now!!!
Warning: It will cause extreme case of laughter!!
ABC'S
Justin LOVES letters!! He is constantly naming off letters everywhere. I mean he is noticing stop signs and store names and even the letters spelling out the word seat belt while he sits in a grocery cart! He doesn't quite have the concept of whispering down yet so while we are at church trying to be quiet, you can hear Justin saying, "H..Y...M...N...S look mom letters, see H...Y...M...N...S" as he studies our church's hymn book. ;) I am always surprised he says M and N right beacuse those are tricky for kids.
FALL Season!
Fall is the best season, especially in Illinois with so many trees changing colors and the many different pumpkins patches and fun farms to go to! We recently visited Krueger Farm stand that is really close to our house, and then to Stade's Farm and enjoyed buying pumpkins and eating their famous Apple Cider Donuts!!
Oh, and swam in their corn pool!!!
Love those Apple Cider, sugar coated, so delicious, oh so yummmy donuts!!!
We already carved two big pumpkins at home so we bought small ones to take home and paint.
Justin took his painting seriously and made everything into a piece of art...including his face!!
Halloween Fun
Happy Halloween!! We had great Halloween Fun this year! The boys had lots of fun dressing up and going to a Halloween Carnival, Trunk-or-Treat at our church, and Trick-or-treating with a big group of friends on Halloween night!
Justin was a PIRATE!! He was so cute, he wanted to keep his pirate hat and skull patch on and would say "Mom, look mom, ARRRRRR"
Hayden is Super Mario!! I had fun making his costume from dollar store material. His hat is a fleece cap that was folded up and sewn to have a brim on the front and white and red felt sewn on to make the"M." His gloves were clown gloves minus the extra clown material that we cut off. Pants were made out of two baby fleece blankets!! Red shirt was found on clearance at Target.
Clayton become Harry Potter!! Minus the glasses, Clay didn't want to were glasses with his costume but had fun making the lightning scar on his forehead! I found his black vest, Gryffindor red and gold colored tie, and the cloak at thrift stores all together totalling less that $5!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!
Crafting Wednesday
Wednesday has become a super fun craft day!! A group of crafty friends and I started getting together once a week on Wednesday to do a craft together. We take turns hosting and have a big potluck. We all bring our kids and they have a ball playing with all their friends. While they play, we craft, nibble on food, and have a great time together.
Here are some of the projects that we have done......so far ;)
I have had a great time making these and even better time getting to know 6 other ladies. The host house gets turned upside down and your craft gets interrupted with one or more child's needs but we all have fun with it and the kiddos have a big play day together and everyone loves it! What's the next crafts on our list girls??
Here are some of the projects that we have done......so far ;)
Book Page Pumpkins
Beaded Spiders
Braided Ribbon/Chain necklacehttp://www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/jewelry-necklace
Halloween Jars
Wooden Turkeys
Fall Blocks
I have had a great time making these and even better time getting to know 6 other ladies. The host house gets turned upside down and your craft gets interrupted with one or more child's needs but we all have fun with it and the kiddos have a big play day together and everyone loves it! What's the next crafts on our list girls??
Halloween Treat!
I wanted to share a fun Visiting Teaching Treat that I gave out recently that was super easy and yummy too! I put together these bags that has a cute message and oh... so... yummy caramel popcorn.
Here is the recipe:
Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 quarts popped popcorn
(I used regular popcorn kernels and a 5 quart pot and popped the popcorn over the stove, mainly because I don't own a popcorn machine. You can follow the instructions of the kernels pkg on how to pop them using the stove.)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
- Place in large baking dish (I used a big roasting pan which made stirring really easy) and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Tip: Once my popcorn was popped I put it in the oven while it preheating. It is easier for the caramel to get mixed evenly over the popcorn while it is still warm!
Copy & Print out this message in a fun Halloween style font and attach to bags filled with the popcorn goodness!
SINCE THIS IS THE TIME FOR GOBLINS AND BATS,
HALLOWEEN SPIRITS AND GHOSTS AND CATS.
WEIRD HAPPENINGS AND WITCHES BREW,
THESE ARE THE THINGS I WISH FOR YOU...
MAY THE ONLY GHOST THAT COMES YOUR WAY,
BE THE HOLY GHOST TO GUIDE YOUR WAY.
MAY THE ONLY SPIRITS YOU CHANCE TO MEET,
BE THE SPIRITS OF LOVE AND KINDNESS SWEET.
THESE ARE MY HALLOWEEN WISHES FOR YOU,
MAY GOD BLESS YOU IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
IT'S NO TRICK, I JUST WANT TO SAY,
{ IT'S A TREAT TO KNOW YOU IN EVERY WAY!}
Throw in some cuties like these helping out in the kitchen and you have yourself one great morning!! Even if my floors ended up being soaking wet! *grin* Enjoy!
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