I have been trying to teach Karter the reason we celebrate Christmas this year. Karter being Karter this has been quite interesting. The first time I explained to him that we are celebrating Jesus' birth on Christmas he got upset and told me

"I don't want to go to heaven to go to his birthday party!"

It was a little hard not to giggle at that but he went on to ask what we should buy him for a present and I explained that we give gifts to Jesus in different ways; by being nice to others and serving people... He wasn't interested in that.

He said "No we had better go buy him something and we will keep it and take it to Him when we go to heaven."

Love the simpleness of a childs mind.

We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and that this next year brings you lots of happiness. There are many in our families who we are not able to be with this holiday...we love and miss you all! I wish we could always be together :( (Darn it! When did I turn into my mom and cry over everything.) Any-who...you know who you are that made me teary eyed. We love you!

This song is one of my favorites. It touches my little heart every time I hear it. I love it's message. Take a listen if you have a minute.

Merry Christmas!!

We recently spent a few days in Utah visiting friends and while we were there we had my friends sister in law take some family pics for us. I love her work so I was so exicted to have her do them.
Check them out on her blog.
Our pics start just after the little babies in overalls.

I must say that I have some stinking cute kids!!

Our ward(church) recently redid the entire stakes boundries and we now have a lot of new people in our ward who we don't know. The bishopric decided that we would do family pictures at the Christmas party and do a ward directory with a pic of the family so everyone could put a face to a name. Well....for some reason we didn't get ours done until we had been at the party for three hours and my children were completly done! I thought the pics turned out pretty funny...

We don't have a secret child my niece was with us and wanted to be in one of the pics.

Karter and Hud somehow managed to make similar faces but not the ones we were hoping for.

Karl decided to be the odd one in this.

A guy in our ward payed Karter $1 to smile.

I'm not sure if Hud is thinking what his actions are showing but it's pretty funny.

My friends and I have been busily crafting lately. We have made some super cute Christmas crafts and I had to share. They were so easy...that is if your aren't trying to make 25 in one night.
We made Christmas countdowns out of wood blocks. Add some scrapbook paper and modgepodge and you have a super cute little decoration. My kids obviously can't count yet so ours is usually a few days behind but I'm sure it will be well loved over the years.

After we spent the morning making our countdown blocks we headed on over to an awesome craft show. It was full of so much eye candy. I love places like that! We came across the cutest advent calendars for the kiddos and decided we needed to make them too. I loved the concept of this and thought I would get it posted early in case anyone out there in blogland decided they need one too.
It's super simple.

Get a muffin tin(I used a 12 count one) measure the holes and cut christmas paper to fit.
Add numbers 1-12 to each square. I would recommend using stickers for this step...we didn't.
Find some sheet magnets. We got ours from the big W in the office aisle. Measure and cut your magnets the same as your paper squares.
I modge podged the paper to the magnet then modge podged the entire front of the paper square with the number.
Add treats to the inside of your muffin tins and place magnet square over the openings.
You can add a bow and hang it or place it on a plate easel.
Uhh....SO cute! My friend found some online that were embelished a lot more than mine but since I'm not that crafty mine is a little on the plain side. But I'm still loving it!
The same friend found an idea to put a piece of paper with an activity for the day in some or all of the cups along with a treat. I have sat down and made a list and so far have 10 ideas. They are all cheap or free and I think it'll really help my little munchkins get into the fun Christmas spirit.

After my previous post about Karter I decided that Hudson Russell needed a little spotlight too.

He LOVES to wear hats...loves it! For Karter's birthday we had a cowboy themed party and everyone got a new hat. Hudson was elated since he had previoulsy had to beg, borrow or steal(the most common occurence) Karter's cowboy hat.

Karl and I saw this onesie in a store front window while we were in New York. I knew I had to have it for Hud. We didn't buy it at that moment though and that led to a little bit of an exersion later on trying to figure out where we had seen it. But we were successful in our search and it was well worth the hour walk it took to find it.

I mean really...the shirt says it all! The boots definatly seal the deal though!!

The Many Faces of Karter

Karter is growing up so fast. It's hard for me to believe that he's really old enough to go to school. I know it's only preschool which amounts to 2 hours three days a week but still preschool is the beginning of it all. Luckily for me Karter misses the dead line for school and will have two years of preschool before he goes to kindergarten.

I love to snap pics of Karter when he sleeps in the car. He ALWAYS looks like this! Its so funny. He is completely out...couldn't care less about one thing or another.

Love this kid!

Karter loves baseball (big suprise). Him and Hud spend most of their days playing pretend baseball where one throws a pretend ball and the other bats it with his "bat". Then they run the bases in the kitchen and slide into home.
Any-who...Karter likes to pretend he's the kneeler-down aka the catcher. He figured out a way to make his own catchers mask. I do believe this is one of the funniest things I have seen!

I'm never quite sure what I am going to turn around and see my kids doing from one minute to the next. At this moment it was Karter slathering lotion all over himself.

So it's been a REALLY long time since I've blogged. Sorry Grandma. I am finally up and running again with a computer that will let me upload my pics :). Gotta love having your own personal IT guy for your neighbor.
I am going to do a little bit of back tracking to fill in the gaps for the last two months. We have had so much going on. It seems like the weeks are just flying by and all of the sudden it's time for the holidays.

I love this pic!! It totally catches the essence of Hudson. He has everyone fooled. He's so cute and lovable. He will snuggle with you and love on you but....this kid has a naughty streak in him. He is our problem child. He beats up his brother, says things like "stupid" when he knows he's going to find himself in timeout for it and makes you laugh when you are trying so hard not to.
One night Karter came out and asked me for a snack I told him no because we had just eaten. He said ok and went back in the bedroom with Hudson. Pretty soon here comes Hudson asking for a snack I told him no and he said "ok" and walked back to the room. As he's walking back Karl and I hear him say to Karter "Karter Mommies Dupid(stupid)" Karl and I were holding back the laughter. I said "Hudson!" He said "Oh! Sorry."
There's been a few times I have gone looking for him when he needs a timeout and I have called out his name and I can hear him saying "Hide! Hide!" It is so funny! He hasn't learned that he shouldn't think every thought out loud.

While we were in North Dakota Sam's dog had puppies. They were the darn stinking cutest things...all fat and rolly polly. Hudson was/is scared to death of the little guys. Mom told Sam that he could keep one and Hudson takes off screaming and yelling if it comes within 10 feet of him. None of us really know why. We have a dog and the little munchkins torture him so it's a little confusing.
Karter thought they were great. He loved that he could carry them around and that they would lick him.

Hudson and Karter were so excited when Shaylee was born. We went and saw her at the hospital and Hudson feel in love. He wouldn't let anyone else have a turn holding her once he got his chubby little hands on her. So cute!!
Karter Jay was also loving having a new baby to snuggle with. He however would share her if he was asked.

If you've been anxiously awaiting my next post...sorry. I do a lot more blog reading then I do blog writing lately. If all my blog friends didn't have so much to write about I may actually post something once in while.

We've been busy bees around here. My dad came for 10 days and did lots of projects around the house for us. Everything looks fabulous(as usual) and once I get it all painted I will post some pics. I can't wait to show off my kitchen! It looks wonderful!!

Speaking of pics. My home computer decided to get a nasty virus and my laptop will not recognize my SD card and I am too lazy to find the cords to hook the camera up to it. Hence the real reason for the lack of posts. It's kinda boring to just read words. It's like a kids book with no pictures...

Karl and I head out on his dream vacation this week. I'm super nervous and wish I was taking my kids along :( Karl is so excited though. He checks the weather every day to see if it will be raining the THREE days we are at the ballpark. So far we have a chance of rain on one day. Luckily for us it's the day we are sitting in the fancy covered suite. Oo-la-la.
I am going to make a stop at the bookstore to get a few new reads to take along. Karl thought I was nuts when I said I was going to take books to the games. But I'm a smart girl and know that we will be getting there as early as the gates open and looking at an empty field for hours is not my idea of wicked fun. I'm sure Karl will be quite entertaining though. I should probably pack some bibs for him as I am sure he will have a slightly noticeable drooling problem while we are there.

Remember my little weight loss goal...well it took a summer vacation. I lost 24 lbs...then found seven of it had snuck back on. Darn! But now life will be slowing down as we all get ready to hibernate here in good ole Idaho and eating spinach and brocolli won't be quite so inconvenient.

Karter and Hud are crazy little devils! They are 100% boys. Most of my days are spent saying "stop that, don't hit him, get off of him, give that back, go to timeout, where's your shoes, use your manners, who stinks (this question usuallly includes Sunny...and Karl come to think of it). Boy oh boy do I love them!

So I'll try to be better about taking care of my own blog. I have lots to say and lots of pics to share so you may be hit by a million things at once. Just a warning.

PS
If you haven't done so already please go to bethematch.org and get your bone marrow donation kit sent to you. They still haven't found a match for Trever. At the bone marrow drive we had for him we found out that there are 53,000 different tissue types so it really is worth it for you to add yourself to the list. A match isn't based off your blood type. So....get 'er done!!

This post is for my friends nephew. He is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Please take a moment to help him out. It's a super easy test!


Go to bethematch.org to order your kits. Or you can call the red cross and they can let you know what to do.
Help Us Save Trever!

I can't make the bethematch link work. Just google be the match it comes right up.

It's 9:03pm...the little darlings are asleep, Karl's at the Chukars game for mutual and I'm in bed watching 19 Kids and Counting(totally my favorite show) while I surf the web.
That's pretty much how our lives have gone lately. We have busy days and are ready to hit the hay at an early hour.
Shane and Hailey have had a few tough weeks since Shaylee was born. Shane broke his leg the night before Hailey and the baby were supposed to come home. I don't feel bad for him...it was his own stupidity but I have felt bad for Hailey. He didn't just break it...he did a really good job. He dislocated his ankle and broke his tibia and fibula all the way through. He had to have surgery which resulted in a plate and six or eight screws being put in.
Hailey started getting sick last week...maybe Friday or Saturday. After three trips to the ER they have finally admitted her today. They haven't figured out what's wrong with her. All of her tests come back fine but she is one sick girl. She has a temp of 103 and was not even able to walk this morning. Last I heard the doctors are thinking she may have an infection inside her uterus since all her tests are turning out normal.
That means we are all taking our turns caring for her tiny little baby. I can't imagine being a brand new momma and not being able to care for your baby or even be with her most of the time. Hopefully they will figure things out and get her back on her feet.
And if that hasn't kept us busy enough I thought it would be a good idea to get a part-time job. Not sure what I was thinking...oh wait I know...winter in Idaho....two toddlers...pure insanity. Any-who...I am working two days a week at the clinic in the little town I grew up in...not the little town I live in now. This is my first week and I had to work three days in a row because of training. It's been super wierd. I miss my kiddos. I knew this week would be a bugger though. My normal schedule will be Mondays and Wednesdays...I think it'll be ok...I hope.
I give A LOT of allergy shots. Holy smokes! I had no idea that so many people got those. We had a dog bite and a mole removal today. Lots of fun stuff!
I have a million things I am trying to get done around the house before my dad gets here to do the million things I have planned for him. I can't wait to see him and Patty Lou...and I can't wait to go to the Indian Relays!!! Are you coming Morgie and Jessica??

Shaylee Marie Mitchell
July 30th 3:34am 7lbs 3oz 20.5 inches

Shane and Haileys little girl finally arrived. Hailey had a LONG labor and ended up having a c-section. It got a little intense at the end Hailey ended up having to be put to sleep and no one was allowed in the OR.
Everything turned out good though and mom and baby are healthy. Sore but healthy.
Shaylee looks like Shaner. She's a cutie...with tons of brown curly hair. Oh so fun!! Almost makes me want a girl...almost.
Congrats Shane and Hailey!

I love this picture! This was at my grandma's in ND. Hudson is FiLtHy!!!! Oh I love having little boys around!

I love this picture! This was at my grandma's in ND. Hudson is FiLtHy!!!! Oh I love having little boys around!

These are some pics around my grandparents farm in North Dakota. I love it there. It is so peaceful and quiet. I didn't get pictures taken of everything I had planned to but here's a few for you all to enjoy.



My Grandma is an amazing gardner. I love her flower beds and her fish pond. Her vegetable garden is amazing. It's like a small field. I think she said she had planted something like 40 pepper plants. Someday I want to be out there to help harvest and can.

There are a gazillion mosquitos in ND. That's a real number, I know because there really was that many mosquitos. We were spraying each other left and right with bug spray and had bug coils burning all the time. I counted 27 bug bites on Karter's legs. He had atleast twice that amount on his entire body.
One good thing came from all the bugs though...there was an abundance of frogs! They were everywhere. My boys had so much fun catching them. If they were grouchy or bored you could just suggest they go catch a frog and they were up and ready to go.



My cousin Jeffrey was great with the kids. He was always up for some frog catching. Karter and Hudson loved him!!


I was told that Karter was caught with a frog in his mouth. Umm....GROSS!!! Glad I missed that one.

Grandma has a fish pond that my kids couldn't leave alone. They loved it! They were always asking if they could go out and feed the fish.



Have you ever tried to take a pic of six kids under four?! Ya it's not an easy thing. These are all of the great grandkids minus one, my brother Seths daughter.

Hudson was so cute holding Bristol. He did great for a few minutes and then he was ready to get rid of her.

This is an "almost" family pic. We were missing quite a few this night but it was the best we got on this trip. Darn!

This is what Hud did while everyone else played woofle ball.





Finally he got a turn to bat.

The first full day we were in ND was the fourth of July. We went to a parade in a cute little town named Fort Ransom. It is seriously cute! I didn't take any pics so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Karter and my cousins little girl Alexis were fast friends. They got along so well and kept each other occupied. It was great! We told them if they waved at the floats they would throw them candy. Their arms were moving!

They hit the jackpot! It was like Halloween.

We had a barbecue that evening at my Uncle Scotts and Aunt Jackie's. Jackie is a fabulous cook and I consumed way too much food...way too much!! The cousins and a few uncles all played woofle(is that how you spell that) ball. It was too funny.

It was so fun to be able to see all the new kiddos that have joined the family. My grandparents have seven great-grandkids with one on the way. This is "Baby Addi". She is a little darling!!

After the games ended they pulled out the fireworks. Hudson and I called it a night and left since Big Bubba is super scared of fireworks. Just before we left for ND my dad lit some fireworks off with Karter, Maddy and Hudson. I was sitting in the living room and heard one go off then I heard Hudson let out a blood curdling scream and then I saw a flash of red running down the hall. It was so funny!! He was scared to death. He didn't stop until he was in the very back of the house. His little short legs sure can move. (The pic is my sis in law Marissa and my niece Precies.)