Thanksgiving

The Klein Family

This Thanksgiving was much like most Thanksgivings...We spent the day with Jeremy's family, which has become tradition. But, before we could make our way to their house Jeremy had his Turkey Bowl to play. He plays football every Saturday anyways, but on Thanksgiving they beef it up, adding many more players and make a whole tournament out of it. Jer's team came in 3rd, out of 4 teams. He was just happy they didn't come in last! He was a little bummed when he got home because I never showed up to watch the big game. I suppose there was some miscommunication...I didn't realize I was definitely supposed to go and that he was going to be looking for me. Sorry, Jer! I bet you looked great out there and you know I love you! While he was gone I was actually doing a little baking. I made some yummy pumpkin bread and my "famous" bean dip for appetizers. The dip is not really famous, just well liked by the family :)

All the guys at football

(I stole this from you, Em)

We finally went over to Jeremy's parents' house after I got Parker to take a little nap and started off by eating till we were sick. It wasn't even turkey time yet, but Sharon has a delicious spread of snacks to munch on until dinner. Everything from crackers and cheese to meatballs and lil' smokies. While the guys (and Jess) played the Wii, the girls relaxed, ate, and slept. The kids played nicely together downstairs. It was a very relaxing few hours before the big dinner.

Jake and Emily invited their good friends, Clark and Lisa and their two kids for dinner. It was great having lots of people around to spend the holidays with! A little crowded, but the more the merrier, right? Parker barely ate anything for dinner and I suspect it's because he ate almost every single candy cane off the Christmas tree throughout the afternoon. It was really amazing how obsessed he was with the candy canes. I decided right then that we were NOT having them on our tree this year. Crazy kid!

We did have one mishap towards our turkey dinner. Jer and I offered to get us a smoked turkey, which we had last year and seemed to be a hit. Well, we followed the instructions perfectly on how to reheat it, but as dinner approached we checked on it and it was a bust...the turkey was still cold!!! How can a turkey be in a oven for 4 hours and still be cold??? Well, it seemed the temperature in the instructions HAD to be wrong. So, at 10:00 p.m. the turkey was finally done :( Luckily, Sharon had made a small turkey the night before to use for gravy, so we were able to warm that up and at least have SOME turkey. What a disappointment though! We brought some home and it's great leftovers. We had turkey sandwiches today and it was very good!

Overall, it was a great day. Lots of food, family, and fun! I'm so thankful for everything I have in my life and days like yesterday always make me more aware of all my blessings.

Chips and crackers...yum. Fake smiles? I think so!

Parker had to join in the fun too in his little chair.

The kids playing in Grandma's Christmas decorations. Funny kids!

Parker, with all his food on his plate still. Too many candy canes!

Gathering around the table for dinner.

Trains & Cars!

Tonight has been all about trains and cars in our house. Jeremy and Parker had a great night hanging out together playing with their favorite toys. Both Jer and Parker love trains. Jeremy got one long ago in high school as a Christmas present, so he got it out tonight to play around with and get ready to use around our Christmas village we'll be putting out in a few days. Of course Parker had to get out his Thomas the Train stuff. Watching them both "playing" with their trains was pretty cute.

Jeremy then brought out all his old Hot Wheel cars. Parker got SO excited! He also LOVES cars, so right away he dug into them. Jeremy got into it too and realized all the cars he had and starting doing what he does best...sorting and organizing them. He gets really into his collections (like his Baseball card!) and looks up their worth on the computer and puts them all in some sort of order. Anyways, Jer picked out the ones Parker could play with that weren't too special to him. Parker had a blast playing with them while Jeremy had a blast reminiscing. I'm so glad my son and husband can have so much fun together! It's been a great night watching them bond!

Jer setting up.

Excuse the fact that he has no pants on!

My boys!

He's loving it!

Klein Kids' Photoshoot

So, my good friend, Jessica, has been starting up her own photography business.  To start out she wanted to take some pictures to put in her portfolio.  Well, of course I volunteered my children for her to take some pictures of.  We've been trying to get some decent enough weather to come our way and ended up doing it yesterday afternoon.  The kids cooperated better than I thought they would, which was great!  Afterwards, Samantha told me one of her favorite things to do was to take pictures, which was news to me!  Thanks Jess for a great photoshoot!  I love the ones I've seen!  I can't wait to see more! 

If you want to see the couple that are up and edited, go to: www.feelyphotography.blogspot.com

What to blog about???

I know, it's been a long time...Life has come to a major hault ever since Halloween's been over.  I'm happy to have a break, but it's getting kinda boring!  I love to be busy and have things to do during the day, except clean the house and do the laundry, but not much has been coming my way except that.  Jeremy has enjoyed the open Saturdays we've been having so he can get some yard work done.  Today he's mowed the lawn and blown all the millions and trillions of leaves in our yard out into the ravine.  Finally we can walk into our house without bringing all the pine needles from outside inside with us!   

We did have a couple's night last weekend, which we mostly just ate food and hung out.  I like any time Jeremy and I can have some time without the kiddies.  Don't get me wrong, I love them, but ya know...I went to the temple this week.  It was something I haven't done in a really long time.  I went with a friend and we ended up getting a late night snack at Carl Jr's and talking in the car for quite some time.  We're good at that.  Jeremy got a guy's night last night, so I got to have some quiet time to myself after the kids went to bed.  Sometimes it's nice to have those.  And I'm looking forward to my girl's night out when we go see Twilight.  I'm very excited!

Samantha's had her sports class to go to and will be starting swimming in a few days. She's been doing well with her letters and is very creative in her play.  She is doing better with her potty training issues (by the way, thanks for all the ideas!) which makes for a happier mom.  Parker has been SO talkative lately.  His newest word is orange, which he accentuates the "g" at the end so it's pretty cute.  He's really into cars, trucks, and balls.  Now I know what to get him for Christmas!  He's becoming quite a little man. Jeremy is busy with work, like usual.  He does amazingly well at his job and everyone loves him.  I'm not too sure what they'd do without him!  He's also always busy with his Scoutmaster calling and YM's 2nd counselor position as well.  I'm just doing the whole pregnancy thing.  Things have been going well with that.  I'm 18 weeks tomorrow and starting to look it.  Actually, I've been looking it for far too long already, in my opinion.  We'll find out the sex of the baby on December 5th, so expect a post that day.  I'll probably post a picture of my expanding belly at that point.  I've been holding off on the reveal because, frankly, I'm not very proud of how large I am. 

Anyways, I'm so excited for the holidays coming up!  I LOVE Christmas and thoroughly enjoy Thanksgiving, with all it's great food to feast on!   I can't wait for all the fesivities to start and holiday traditions.  It's my favorite!  Well, now that this has turned into a journal entry, I will stop and spare everyone. I hope everyone is doing wonderful!  Until next time...

Party, Party, Party!

This Halloween has been very busy, full of activities and PARTIES! We had three parties to go to this year, not including Sam's Halloween birthday party. We had such a good time celebrating such a fun holiday with our friends and family. On Wednesday we were invited to my brother and sister-in-law's (Jake & Emily's) ward for their party. On Thursday we attended Jer's work party. And on Friday our own ward put on a party that included a chili cook-off along with games and trunk-or-treating. This year Samantha originally wanted to be a witch, so we did that for her birthday party and planned on that for Halloween too. Well, when I was buying Parker's costume, which was a red dragon, she begged me for this butterfly costume. I gave in and bought it. So, the new plan was to be a butterfly. She wore that to the first party, but decided she wanted to tweak it a little by adding a tutu and a tiara. I'm not sure what you would call her costume at that point...by the next day she had decided she wanted to be a witch again. I guess that's what to expect from a four year old! Like I said, Parker was a dragon and Jeremy was Sherlock Holmes. I got a costume from my mom-in-law to wear. I'm not sure what to call it, but it was a kind of medieval dress with a cape. I could've been a vampire I suppose if I added some fangs, but I just stuck to the dress and cape. Thanks Sharon! On Halloween night, after our ward party, Jeremy really wanted to take Samantha out in our neighborhood to do some more trick-or-treating. I stayed home and handed out candy and got Parker to bed. It was a fun night! We had a great few days of fun, but I'm pretty much partied out!!! Well, here's some pictures of our parties. I tried to narrow them down as much as I could. There are a lot. I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Party #1(Jake & Emily's)

Parker's dragon costume. He wouldn't wear the head piece/hood for it. In fact he never did and I never got a picture of him with it on. He freaked out every time I tried. Sad!

I think this is the only picture I was able to get with them together in their costumes.

This party was great for the kids, with lots of activities like pumpkin painting, cookie decorating, and caramel apple making. Very fun!

Sam had NEVER had her face painted because she's always too scared to. Of course, when Taylee did it, she changed her mind.

Dancing the Monster Mash with Grandma Klein!

Party #2 (Jer's work party)

Here's Sam's witch costume. She had to add the tiara this time, instead of a witch hat. She called herself the "witch princess". There's just something about that crown this year!

Here's Sam and I before we left.

Here's Jeremy award winning Sherlock Holmes costume. He got first prize for his costume at work! He was really happy about it! He worked hard on this costume :)

This cake, along with a "Best Halloween Costume" ribbon was Jeremy's prize for his costume. It was soooo chocolaty! There were 4 layers with chocolate between each one. It was so rich you could barely eat it. So good!

Here's Parker trick-or-treating at all the offices. He was all about the candy. He got so excited to grab it and put it in his bucket. If we weren't watching he'd go back and get big handfuls of it.

They had arts and crafts for the kids.

Samantha got some cool glasses while we were there, which she gladly wore. Here she is with a new little friend she met.

Party #3 (Our ward)

Coin toss...

More games...

Jeremy with a worn out Parker. By this party, he was so sick of his costume! I ended up taking it off within the first half hour.

Parker perked up when the trunk-or-treating started. He even got to his candy a little early, finding a sucker to eat while grabbing more!

Sam during trunk-or-treat.

Samantha's Friday Night stash!

Leaves Are Falling All Around

One of the most famous pastimes of Fall would be to jump in a big pile of leaves. I remember doing this when I was really little when we lived in a house with a backyard full of leafy maple trees. Fortunately, we have quite a few leafy trees in our backyard too. Last night Samantha really wanted to jump in a pile of leaves, so Jer made that possible. He went out and raked some up and the kids had a great time throwing them in the air and sitting in them. What fun!

After we played outside for a while we headed in and carved our pumpkins that have been waiting on our front porch. Samantha wanted a princess one and Jeremy made a bat one for us. Parker just enjoyed writing on his with a pen and stabbing it with a little carving tool. Whatever makes him happy! Samantha got bored with it, so I carved our bat pumpkin and Jeremy worked on her Cinderella one. The kids ended up watching a Halloween movie while we slaved over these dang pumpkins. It remember it used to be fun, but now it's kinda a hassle. Oh well. The tradition must go on!

Getting Dirty

Our kids LOVE to play in the dirt! I don't know what it is about it, but it's been their favorite thing to do all summer and now into the fall. Luckily, we have plenty of dirt in our backyard to last a lifetime. I really hate it, but it keeps them happy and at least they aren't glued to the TV or being bums inside. SO, I let them...The other day was absolutely gorgeous outside. Perfect day to play in the dirt! One of their activities while digging through the dirt is to collects rocks, find bugs, and make mud pies (that's the worst!). Anyways, here's some latest pics of their fun outside in the dirty dirt.

They do take time outs from the dirt to play on our toys.

They play well together, sometimes!

Parker loves to find dandelions and blow on them, even when they aren't the fluffy kind.

Sam, collecting some rocks in her shovel.

Here's Parker's rock collection that he has made on this stump. He comes here every time and adds to it.