Firsts

We've had a lot of firsts lately. The big news is we spent the first night in our new home recently! After selling our first home we finally found a new place to live. We are still trying to get things organized and put away, but we are making progress. It has been fun to put together a brand new place and the boys have LOVED exploring.

Our first time at church had some new moments as well. While in sacrament meeting Matthew leaned over to me and told me he was nervous about the new church. I asked him why and he said he was expecting orange lights to be along the sides of the chapel. (?) I told him there was nothing to worry about and that he was going to have fun in his new Primary class. I could tell I wasn't convincing him, so I tried to think of something else to say. I happened to glance up at the pulpit and knew I had my answer. "Matthew," I whispered, "there may not be any orange lights, but there are pink seats on the stand." He looked up and with a huge grin on his face said, "Pink is my favorite color." I knew we would be okay.

A little later on we sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." Ryan had the hymn book open and was singing along in his own little way. All of a sudden he perked up and said, "Hey, that's the Charlie Brown song!" That's the first time Charlie Brown has been mentioned at church. I knew Ryan was going to like it here too. But I think we may need to work a little more on the meanings behind the songs.

We are excited for all new things that will come our way, especially our first Christmas! Here is a picture of the boys with the Christmas tree and our first fireplace. (Ornaments soon to come!) I think it is adorable, but of course I'm extremely biased.

We also want to send out a special thank you to everyone who helped us move. We have been very blessed by your service. Thank you.

Christmas Lights and Santa

For Family Home Evening, we went to the "Fantasy at the Bay" Christmas display in Willard. We were able to drive around in our warm car and see the fun Christmas displays. The lights were nice and the kids loved it - especially the ones that looked like dinosaurs. After the lights we got in line to see Santa...and waited for two minutes...awesome! Santa was very kind and unlike last year our kids were excited to see him.

Santa asked Matthew if he listened to his parents, if he went to bed on time and if he was good. Matthew said yes (mostly true). Matthew told Santa that he wanted Lego Star Wars and Lego Space Police.
Santa asked Ryan if he was good...he said yes. Ryan asked for some cars games and some toys.
Zach, wasn't quite sure what to think of Santa.In the end, Zach wasn't a fan of Santa. Look at that sad face.
After visiting with Santa, candy canes were eaten, the Christmas spirit was felt, and an amazing battle on the Lego Star Wars video game was played! Isn't Christmas Fun!

SNOW!

Now that it is snowing again I figured I would post about our adventures from the snowstorm last Saturday. After lunch I took the kids outside to play - something they had been begging to do since they saw the snow. Zach didn't get to go out because he was recovering from strep throat, but he had fun watchin through the windows. The snow wasn't wet enough to make a snowman, but we had fun running around, throwing flaky snowballs, and making snow angels. I think the boys would have stayed out there all day if their little noses hadn't started turning red. And the best part about coming in? Hot chocolate of course!

Matthew making a snow angel

Ryan with his snow ball - an actual ball covered with snow

Matthew eating the snow

We "tried" to shovel, but of course it turned into some sort of battle.

Ryan trying to get mom with some snow.

There's No Buddy Like a Brother

We found Ryan in Matthew's bed the other night when we checked on them.

So sweet!

Halloween

So this is a little late, but it's still fun - right? We had a great day. First we colored and carved our pumpkins. Ryan has been waiting for the day we could bring his "punkin" in the house. He would have slept with it in his bed if we would have let him. He liked coloring it, but wasn't sure what he thought about cutting it up with a knife. Matthew, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get his hands in the pumpkin guts. He thought it was pretty cool, but decided it was too much work after four or five handfuls.

Here are the pumpkins
Ryan's bat, Zachary's Mickey Mouse, and Matthew's Tie Fighter

Later on in the day Grandma Tams made a special dinner with pumpkin breadbowls, soup, and doughnut eyeballs for dessert. It was around the end of dinner when some of the other trick-or-treaters started coming around and the boys could hardly contain themselves. They were practically out the door before we could put their costumes on.

We didn't get any pictures while we were out trick-or-treating (Amy forgot to bring the camera), but the kids had a blast and got LOADS of candy. Everyone around here is so sweet and insists that they hand out handfuls at a time. Ryan's pumpkin actually got too heavy for him midway and had to give it to Amy to carry between houses. But he was more than happy to take care of his loot when we got home.

May the Force be with you!