Gotta love him

So the other night we were listening to Christmas songs when "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus" came on. Talan perks up and goes "That is disgusting." Then he said "When he is done kissing do you think he will go back to making presents?" Ahhh I love this kid.

Thanksgiving Take 1

We had some good friends over for our first Thanksgiving dinner of the year! The Prietos and Olsens came over and we had an amazing feast! Our plan was to get a couple of rotiseree chickens from the store, but they were sold out. So we had fried chicken fingers and gravy instead! Metta and Jen can seriously cook some mean dishes!

So in love already

Here are 2 ultrasounds pictures we had done back in October. The one is very obvious that he is a boy! Yeah! The other one just gives me the warm fuzzies all over. Every time I walk by this picture, I smile. I think he looks so cute and cuddly and he already resembles Talan. How crazy!

Halloween Party

little late...but here we are right before our ward's Halloween Party. We had a great time! Our ward sure knows how to throw one fantastic party and get down and boogie! We went as the Wizard of Oz. We entered our chili in the contest, which sadly did not win. But I think it is still the best! There were lots of games for the kids, dancing, and we ended the night with trunk or treating.

Delicious...just ask the expert.

My mom gave us an amazing recipe and my kids LOVE it! I love this time of the year because pumpkin recipes are sooo good. Anyway while Kaylee and Talan were at school one day, Taylor and I got a craving for these pumpkin muffins. Try them out, I bet you can't eat just one! By the way, super healthy!

1 pkg spice cake mix
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 tbsp water
chocolate chips (optional, but not for us!)

Bake at 350 for 15-17 min.

We went to Mr. B's Pumpkin Patch for Talan's preschool class a few weeks ago. Kaylee was out of school that day, so we all got to go! It sure was a fun and very southern place! The kids enjoyed a hayride, a maze, a bubble forest, petting zoo, and picking out their own pumpkins! It was so fun to see Talan's friends from schools and meet their moms. He has one buddy named Lucas that he just thinks the world of. Lucas is almost a year younger than him and according to his teachers totally adores Talan. She said they are inseperable. Talan has also been doing a tumbling class after school once a week with his buddy. I love going in there and watching him work on the balance beam and do somersaults. He sure loves school!

Kaylee went to a different pumpkin patch with her school the following week. We could probably start our own pumpkin patch with all of the pumpkins we have around here! She is really enjoying school too. I think it is so neat to watch how much she is learning. Just the other night we were sitting at the table finishing up dinner and she was writing on a piece of paper. When I looked at what she was doing she had written these words all by herself...dog, cat, my, me, horse, and elephant! Elephant is a hard word for a 5 year old! She can read so many words now and is so excited to come home and pick up books and work in her workbooks. I am so grateful for the school she goes to and how wonderful her teacher is.

Our Disney Adventure

I'll apologize first for all of the pictures! We took about 300 pictures and it was hard to narrow them all down. I really wanted to capture some of the joy that we saw in the kids faces as well as the "I am so done for the day" faces.
Anyway we spent 6 days in Orlando, plus another 2 days of driving! We had a total blast though and I loved seeing Disney World through my kids eyes. I have been a few times, but this was really special. We had a 12 hour drive each way and I had made up packets for the kids to open each 100 mile mark. That really helped pass the time! We stayed in a great house that was just 10 minutes from all of the parks. It had 4 bedrooms with a pool and stocked with everything a vactationer could possibly think of. They even had coloring books for our kids, ponchos, Rock Band, air hockey, towels, a computer with internet and a printer, I mean everything. If you ever go to disney, we highly recommend it! We did the Magic Kingdom for our first and last day, Epcot, Sea World, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.

These are some of the things we enjoyed:
- Talan and Kaylee braving Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. Kaylee was done with any scary rides after that but Talan was ready to take on the next challenges. He did another freefall ride at Sea World and the Tower of Terror, which is something I won't even do. Of course after the last ride he said, "That was NOT my favorite!!" This kid will be the next motocross superstar.
- Kaylee got to meet Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White. She was in total awe of their dresses. We were lucky we got in there first because the line was at least an hour long when we got done.
-Talan got to meet Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Jesse. Boy was he in heaven when Jesse stepped away from the parade and came right up to him to rub his head. I loved seeing how happy these characters made my kids.
-Taylor really enjoyed "It's a Small World." She was dancing and just glowing watching all of the dolls dance and sing. She got sick while we were down there and only wanted to be held by me. That made for a very tired and very sore momma!
-I felt our little boy kick for the first time on "It's a Small World." That is one of the best feelings!
- We enjoyed HOT weather and the crowds were decent, nothing the fastpass couldn't handle.
- We really enjoyed the Haunted Mansion and the kids thought it was so cool that a ghost got to come home with us!
-We also loved all of the really cool shows they do down there. It was like paying to go to several broadway shows. The ones that sprayed water or produced smells like warm apple pie were especially fun!
-The parades were awesome! The floats and costumes are really fancy and at night they do fireworks over Cinderella's castle.
-We went on a real safari and got to see live lions, elephants, crocodiles, cheetahs, antelope, warthogs, hippos, rhinos, and lots more. It was pouring rain during the actual safari and a lightning storm was rolling in, so we really felt like we were out in the wild! It was pretty neat!
- I really enjoyed Shamu at Sea World and the dolphin show. Those animals are amazing! The kids got to feed sharks, stingrays, and seals. It was so cool!

There was a lot more really cool stuff! We did tons of rides and ate at one of our favorite places...The Rainforest Cafe. This place holds a special place for Phillip and I! But like a lot of long vacations, we sure felt like we needed a vacation just to recover! It was definately worth it though!