Tommy's Birthday Trip- Day 1: Ogden

We hated to drive all the way to Heber, UT just for a train ride so we tried to make a fun little Christmas getaway out of it so Tommy had the birthday of his dreams!  On day 1 we went to the Treehouse Museum for kids.  It was really cute & we really enjoyed Ogden's downtown area.

 They really loved teaching each other school.

 This music room makes me want to do something crazy & bright in our toy room, but I'm still undecided!

 Tucker was the cutest court jester!

 I love these flat magnet shapes.  I need to remember to buy that for a present one of these times!

 Ogden has a really cool Christmas Village where they had lights everywhere, 200 cottages lit up in different themes, and Christmas music concerts going on all night.  There was free Santa too, but the line was WAY too long!

 Whitney loved this pink cottage best.

 This bakery one was cute because those figurines in there were moving around.  Tommy's favorite cottage was of course one that had a train going in & out of tunnels.

Tommy's "Jake" Pirate Birthday Party!

Tommy turned 5!  He was pretty spoiled this year.  He got a big party & a trip to Utah to ride a "real" train.  Here he is holding his treat we took to preschool.  It's a rice crispy treat we made look like a cupcake.

 Here is his birthday table.

 A close up of his cake.  I thought this would be so simple, but it was not!!  

He loved it though & that is what matters!!

 Pictures of our decorations:

 "fish & chips" ...toddler version!

 Where the pirate wars took place in our basement, Captain Hook's ship is the black one & the big one, Bucky (Jake's ship), is the big brown one.

 When the kids arrived they painted a parrot like Skully (Jake's pirate).  It was super messy & crazy.  Don't think I'll do that again!

 Here is all of the crazy pirate kids.  Captain Hook appeared & told the kids he stole their treasure & if they wanted it back then they'd have to get through his traps.

 First captain hook threw a cannon ball into their ship & they had to pop it.

 Next, they had to walk the plank.  Tommy played with the plank way more before & after the party than he did at the party.

 Then they had a million balls they tried to throw in Captain Hook's ship to make his ship sink.  This is when all chaos broke out.  I hate chaos, but Tommy was having a ball being super crazy!

 Their last clue was to find the sea tunnel, climb through it, & find their treasure at the end.

 They had a list of things to find so it was all equal & fair.  Thank goodness it was a nice warm day in December!!

 Pirate Whitney's treasure she found

 After the games, we had cake & ice cream.

 Tommy got lots of "Jake & the Neverland Pirate" toys.  I was glad their was no doubles!

He had a blast & is already plotting his next birthday party!

Heidi's Baby Shower

One of my dearest friends from college was finally able to adopt a baby after trying for 7 1/2 years.  I was so excited for her that I had to throw a little shower with a few of our hygiene colleagues. 

Here is Heidi Lou & her sweet new baby.

 I, of course, made us play some silly baby shower games! :) 

Here is heather with a balloon in her belly & squeezing that little blue ball & trying to drop it on the jar as fast as she can.

 We were timed who could make the cutest, creepiest, & fattest play dough baby. 

We also played "price is right" with baby shower gifts.  She got lots of super cute stuff, but I forgot to get a picture!  It was quite the long baby shower because we were all having so much fun catching up with each other after 8 1/2 years!  I loved it & want to make it a goal to get together with good friends more often!  Me,Laura, Heidi, Celeste, Heather

Thanksgiving

We had a FHE about being thankful & every day of November we tried to think of what we were most grateful for on that day & add it to our tree.  As you can see we did it when Vic was gone sometimes!  I really liked it though because it helped us be grateful for the small things that happen every day.

 I gathered some friends at Michael's craft room and led a bunch of crazy kids in some fun & easy crafts I found on pinterest. The kids were quite proud of their turkeys.

 On Thanksgiving we went to Mom's house for breakfast & I made some fun turkey pancakes.

 Then we went out to Dad's house for our Thanksgiving feast.  It was wonderful.  Lana is quite the cook!  We didn't get to stay long as Vic had to work.  The wonderful life of retail!!!

 We thought it was funny that Chewy's new coat matched Whitney's coat so they got a picture together! :)

 Thanksgiving #2!  On Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Mom, Amber, & Aunt Pam.  Here is our festive family.

Tommy's favorite memory is making a fruit Turkey so we had a light lunch of fruit, cheese, & crackers.

 Kids table: Whitney, Tommy, Chloe, Sam, Will

 Teenager table: Trevor, Colter, Tucker, Abby

 The name tags I made.  The kids loved them!

 We were so busy cooking that we didn't get time to go to the park for our Turkey hunt so we had it in the basement.

 Cute candy turkeys I made for it!

 I also made this giant stuffed turkey for them to have popcorn while they watched "Free Birds" a cute movie about Turkeys trying to change the Thanksgiving menu.  I made Tommy's turkey shirt too.

 While the kids watched movies, we ate pie!

 And then made sure to squeeze in a card game before everyone had to go.  It was a fun, busy day!