More Christmas photos

Don't worry the M&M Toy is his gift to Jesus in our Nativity Story.
Yes! She loves the kitchen. Almost as much as I do.
Dailey is doing the cutest little smile where she scrunches her nose and squints her eyes.

This is where we find him now days. Yep looks like we are going to need to put a time limit on this baby. But Man are Kevin and I glad to have our phones back!

So this is Christmas...

We had such a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve and wrapped up gifts for our cousin Sherri and as a whole Bush Bunch we went to her house to deliver a box full of Christmas treats, food, and gifts. We caroled to her and gave her the gifts. She started to cry. It was a fun experience to be able to give on that special evening. We than all loaded up and headed back to the Grandma and Grandpa Bush's for our traditional Christmas Eve night.

Our appliance we pulled out was the Chocolate Fountain so we dipped till our hearts content. We also had a yummy dinner. Than on to the nativity story where the kids dressed up and we also sang songs. Than we did our gift exchange. We had my DAD, Andy, Garret, and Ryan. It is so fun to exchange. Cole was so excited to open gifts.

We than went home and Cole set out cookies and milk for Santa. He was so excited he did have a little bit of a hard time going to sleep. I was pretty excited too.

Than on Christmas morning we woke up and saw Santa had come! We had a nice relaxing morning here. Where Cole and Dailey ran into the living room and Cole went right for the chair where Santa left just what he wanted. An ipod. He sat right in his new chair and played it. It didn't really phase him that their were other presents.

Dailey went over to her new chair too and to the new red kitchen Santa brought her!! It was so fun to see them play with their new stuff and have such a good time.

We ate muffins and hot chocolate and played games till 11. Than we got ready to go to grandma and grandpa Dearden's house. We went and ate yummy treats and than had delicious soup.

This year Kevin's parents gave gifts through the whole month that were traditions that they did when they were little.

Oh how I love Traditions!!!

Some of the gifts that are their traditions were:

Christmas Pillowcases

Christmas plates and cups

Christmas Books

Christmas Apron and Christmas Cupcake pan

I think I am missing some but I am excited to carry on these same traditions with my kids.

Than the day of Christmas we all did our exchange and than gave gifts to grandma and grandpa and they gave us a pass to Hogle Zoo. Which we are way excited about. Thanks guys it was so thoughtful and nice!

Than it was off to the Bush home again because Uncle Jim was calling. We got their and he had been on the phone already for 15 minutes. He only could talk for a little over an hour. He is so dang great.

Than we did presents for grandma and grandpa and my Mom made all the little girls the prettiest little red squirt. She also made Cole a karate outfit which he of course loves!

Her time has been pretty crazy lately and wow her sewing all that was pretty dang great!

Thank you all Christmas 2010 was such an AMAZING One!

Our non-progressive Dinner...

This year we were unable to do our Bush Family Progressive Dinner due to a few gimps in the family. Melanie is still recovering from being hit by a car and her surgery and than Dad Bush just had a total knee replacement. So we just did the "event" at their home.

We ate yummy food and than had a fun visit from a special someone!

Dailey was not that excited to sit on Santa's lap and Cole did great. Even though when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas he would only whisper. So Santa had a hard time understanding him. Hope he gets what he wanted.

Tangled...

Last Friday our Elf put tickets to the movie Tangled in our stocking and so we were so excited to go and see this show. Cole watched the trailer a million and one times and was so excited to go.

We had Grandpa and Grandma Dearden over for dinner and than they came with us to the show.

I love going to a great kid movie and than I absolutely love seeing how hard Cole laughs at things.

What a fun night!

Our New Elf...

Since I was little I remember the tradition that my Mom had made for us kids. We had little stockings and for every day in December we would get a little item in our stocking.

One day it would be lip gloss or chap stick, another day would be a little treat or gum. It was such a fun tradition and we would run to our stockings to find out what was left for us.

Well I have done this tradition with my own kids. It has been so fun to see them and how excited they get. It really helps since it is a long time to wait till Christmas Day.

Well we have had lots of things in our stocking that we say the "Elf" or "Elfee" has left for us the night before and only if we were good the day before. We have woken only one day to an empty stocking. But this morning to our surprise our Elf decided to stay at our house where we can see him. He usually hides but now he is in plain view and chooses a different spot to hide each day.

For his first debut he was right on top of Cole's stocking. His name is "Elfee" and he will be with us for the whole month!!!

We actually won this at a Christmas party. We had seen it before and thought it would be fun to incorporate it into our tradition of the everyday stockings but I did not want it to take place of my tradition so now we are combining the two. It should be fun.

Decorating for Christmas and our Gingerbread house

We decorated our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and it was so fun this year! Coleman has never been as in to it has he was this year. We put on our traditional Roger Whitaker and started decorating the tree. Cole loved putting on all the decorations. He was so helpful and it was so fun to see the excitement in his eyes.

We have been doing a few fun things for Christmas. We have decorated our gingerbread house which our great Elf, Elfee has left in our everyday Christmas stockings.

Here are a few other Christmas things we will be doing sometime this month:

~Riding Trax and Going downtown to see the lights at Temple Square

~Making Christmas Treats and delivering them to friends

~Our Christmas Party with The Dearden's Family

~Our non progressive dinner (due to a few gimps in the family on crutches) this year with The Bush family.

~Watching Christmas movies

~Going and Singing or visiting people at a Care Center

Should be fun!

Coleman is Four...

My little man Cole turned Four! He is growing up so fast. He is such a great kid. We love him so much. He makes us so happy. Four little things I love about our ColeMAN.

1. I love his energy for life.

He is so animated when he tells stories that it cracks me up.

2. I love how much he loves his Dad.

He wants to play "tackle" the moment Dad gets home from work.

3. He tries so hard to do what's right.

4. He is a protective kid. He watches out for his little sister. Even though sometimes she needs the protection from him.

Cole we waited a long time for you but you were worth the wait. We sure love you.

Halloween Hoopla and the Bush Family Halloween Party

Our last minute costumes for Kevin and I. He was batman and I was sort of a pirate.
Donut eating contest for the kids.
And of Course for the adults.



Every year these guys have the best costumes.
These boys were pretty darn good at their pumpkin carving.
Cole loved sitting there helping with it all.
oops. No finished pumpkin photos.

There could not have been a more exciting football player. Cole loved being a cougar football player. He kept saying "take a picture take a picture"in a deep voice than yelling "go cougs".

Dearden Family Halloween Party

We had our first Dearden Halloween Party at our house. We ate Dinner in a Pumpkin. We played Halloween Bingo and some other fun games. Boy do I love this time of year. It is so fun to get together, and play games, and yes I love the costumes!!! We made homemade Rootbeer and boy did the kids love the dry ice!

Cole's First Primary Program...

We decided to go and get Cole some new church clothes. He has been wearing polo shirts and kakis which are great but I thought it would be fun for his program to be all dressed up.

We found this cute little suit at Sears of all places. I did not know they had children's clothes. There dressy selection was great. So while trying on we had to convince Cole to put on the tie it was just a clip on. He didn't like the idea. But when we told him about Dad wearing a tie too, he came around.

Well he looked handsome as can be. He sat up on the stand so great for the first little while and than you could see if looking at his shirt sleeves and he started getting upset. He held up his arms and was showing us how there is the whole in the sleeves of the sunday shirt. He was so sad they had wholes. He thought there was something wrong with his shirt. So we tried to show him Kevin's wholes in his sleeves. He started to cry so we motioned for him to come down by us.

We than showed him how Dad and both Grandpa's had the same thing with there Sunday shirts. He than felt better knowing that his shirt was like theirs. The poor kid thought he had a wardrobe malfunction. We gave him a little treat and than he headed back up on the stand. He said his part perfectly and without help. Than he sang the songs he knew. He is such a great kid!! All of the kids did so great. What a great program it was.

Those pictures were after church. So yes the shirt was tucked in most of the time. Don't they look tired?

Way to Go Kevin!!!

Last Summer Kevin got all his study materials for the CPA Exams in the mail. When I saw all the stuff I thought man alive, glad it's him and not me.

I could not believe all that was going to go into being a Certified Public Accountant.

Well he has done great! He has studied so hard. He finished school and now these tests, all the while working a full time job, being a husband, and Dad!

He is so good at juggling it ALL. Way to Go Kevin! He now just has the two State tests and he will be an official CPA.

We love you so much and are so proud of you!

Trying New Recipes....

Last night I made Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup. I found it on a blog and we really enjoyed it.

I thought I better post it than I will remember to make it again.

Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup Pepper Jack cheese

Birthday Carnival...

Ethan the Birthday Boy!






My Sister in Law is such a great party planner. She had a Birthday Carnival for her little boy who turned 1. It was such a fun little carnival. She had games for all the kids where they earned tickets.

They turned the tickets in for little prizes. Cole really loved the little bounce house they had. I loved the pin wheel decorations. Such a cute 1st Birthday Party. Way to go Lorrie.