Christmas Fun

 We had our ward Christmas party. Dallin was so excited to tell Santa he wanted a Mack truck and new Lightning McQueen for Christmas. And then it was our turn and he got scared, so Mom got to sit on Santa's lap instead. I hope I didn't crush his leg too badly. :) I think Dallin might get what he wanted even though he was too shy to tell Santa.

 Got to love dessert! I was nervous he was going to get that green frosting al over the while fabric table clothes, but we made it through without a problem.

 A friend of mine invited me to a Cookie Party. We played all sorts of cookie games and at the end we decorated cookies. The kids had a blast, and I think the moms did too. It was great to get to visit. Jill was awesome to plan this!

Dallin ate three cookies, but he sure had fun. Dallin loves playing at Jill's house.

Thanksgiving Part II

Some of these pictures are repeat activities, but Aly (The awesome photographer) got more/better pictures. (Except the first one. I don't know why I forgot to post it last time) 

Dallin and Adam did great at the grocery store. I'm sure getting to drive a car and get a free cookie had nothing to do with that. :)

More Bounce U. Russ spent more his time reading. I don't blame him too much. It was chaos with a ton of toddlers and their parents.

I spent half the time "playing" with Dallin. It was really all about helping him. It was way harder than it looks. And there was no graceful way for me to get over that wall. I just had to jump and throw myself over. Not a pretty sight.

Some cute Thanksgiving pictures. It was a fun day.

Now for the fun part. We went to Lazy 5 Ranch on Saturday. We went on a wagon ride. It stopped periodically and we got to feed all sort of animals, from ostriches and water buffalo to llamas and giraffes.  It was so fun, but a bit chilly. Dallin was a little unsure about feeling the animals at first, but once he realized they wouldn't bit him, he warmed up.

Some of the larger animals (cattle/buffalo/etc.) you dropped it into their mouths.

Most of the rest you held out your hand to let them eat out of it.

So Dallin was really excited about the giraffes. They ate right out of the buckets.

The largest one I am feeding was a pig. He wanted more and more and would push anything out of his way.

He sees that Russ has more and decided he wanted it.

These pictures don't do it justice. That giraffe tried over and over to knock Dallin and me down. Dallin kept getting flicked by his ear and he kept rubbing his neck on my head. I'm sure we both stunk like giraffe when it was all done. I couldn't help but laugh. It was definitely a unique experience.

It was a fun trip. I would do it again for sure. Hopefully next time it wouldn't be so cold.

Thanksgiving Part I and Recycling

Most of you know we went to North Carolina for Thanksgiving to visit my cousin and her family. It's about an 11 hour drive. The drive there wasn't too bad other than Dallin asking "are we almost there?" a million times. And the West Virgina Turnpike. I knew we were going through toll roads, I just didn't know it would be so many. We left early Wednesday morning and got there by 5.

 It was rainy most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop us from going to the park.  Aly thought it was so cold, but I think the North Carolina weather is making her soft. It was a little chilly when the wind blew, but not like what we had left in Michigan.

 

Adam and Dallin got along most of the time. The longer we were there, the better they got along.

 Aly and I made these shirts for Thanksgiving. I have been wanting to since I saw them last year. The boys loved them.

As you can tell, they Dallin wouldn't cooperate with the while picture taking thing. Nothing new. We had dinner at the Shulz' neighbors house. It was so nice of them to invite us. Dinner was awesome and Dallin loved their boys.

 On Friday we went to Bounce U, a place will tons of blowup equipment (I'm not sure what you would call it.) Dallin really liked it. Adam was a lot braver than Dallin. Dallin went down the slide once alone and did OK and then Wanted me to go with him. After that he cried and refused to go on anything alone. I spent the rest of the time climbing after him. Harder than it sounds.

 Dallin wanted to boxing gloves so bad. Too bad they weighed like 15 lbs a piece. I could barely use them.

 

 Dallin and Adam playing play dough.  Aly has some pictures from Lazy 5 Ranch. I'll post them when I get them. It was the most fun. It was a neat place and Dallin loved it.

So now on the the "Recycle" part. For awhile I have been saving old jeans.I always wanted to use them to make things, but have never had time. I even made Russ pack them up and bring them to Michigan. I finally pulled them out and used them.

I made some hand warmer/ bean bags, a rice heat/cold pack, and some number mats. They where all really easy to make and Dallin loves playing with the bean bags (which were original only hand warmers) and number mats. I have learned I need to really practice my applique technique before I even attempt anything on clothing. The bad part is I only use like 1 1/2 pairs of jeans. I have like 12 more to use. Any ideas?

Christmas Tree

 

We bought a tree and got it up. Dallin was so excited to decorate it. He even insisted on colored lights. Can you tell what part of the tree he decorated? The years of forgoing Christmas decorations is now over. He's been asking for a hat since they have had them out (so like September?) and so when he saw it at Hobby Lobby we said OK. $3 can buy a lot of happiness. 

Thanksgiving pictures will be coming. I downloaded the ones I have and I still have some to get from Aly. She's got the ones from the best outing we had.

Little Learners: Dinomite

So I mentioned that I signed Dallin up for classes at the local chidrens museum. This was the 5 week series about dinosaurs. Here are a few of the pictures. It's great because the museum provides a digita camera to borrow every time you go and after the series is over they give you a disc with all the pictures. Genius! This is only a few pictures. I took about 40 of them.

Playing in the tar pit. Kind of like that gak stuff. By the way, I didn't go in and fix the red eye in any of the pictures.

Dinosaur sock puppet.

Making a stegosaurus hand print.

More dinosaur art.

Digging for dinosaurs like an archeologist.

Painting dinosaur feet. We later cut these out and taped them to the top of our shoes and pretended to stomp like a dinosaur.

Play dough time.

Dad came to class with us one time.

Painting dinosaur eggs. We learned that dinosaur eggs were more round than oval.

Playing in the moon sand.

Making sun catchers shaped like a dinosaur.

Late Birthday Gift

I have been signing Dallin up for classes at the local chidrens museum. (I'll post some pictures from the dinosaur series soon) After class he always wants to walk through the store. I never let him buy anything, but his Great Grandma Braegger sent him a little birthday money so this time I let him pick out one thing. Dallin loves stuffed animals, so it was no surprise he picked out this large stuffed snake. Aren't the two of them cute?

Scripture Study

Dallin has fallen asleep during scripture study the last couple of nights. Last night, he fell asleep while he was "reading". It's not a great video, and Russ did an awful job by getting me in the video. (I know, I look bad. Please over look that. I was not happy about it. I almost didn't post it.) But it's pretty funny. Way more funny when it actually happened.