It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Early in November I decided I wanted to make an advent calendar for Zach and Wes to enjoy each Christmas.  Zach is finally into Christmas this year and I thought it would be fun for him to count down to Christmas.  One of my favorite craft blogs homemade by jill, was doing an advent sew along so I joined in on the fun. I chose to do one like this one found on inchmark. It was simpler and much more my level.  I am by no means a talented crafter, but it is a lot of fun to see the end result.  I made it just in the nick of time and had that calendar up and ready on December 1st. Here is a little bit of my project along the way!

 Every morning Zach loves to pull the next one out and put it on the tree. He is constantly saying, "It's almost Christmas time mommy!" Although, it took me a while to make I'm glad I did, and hope it gets years of use!

What was I thinking?

 This is what started it all... Chicken and Sweet Potato Soup

I just had to post this while I was still laughing about it.  I had this brilliant idea to make some homemade soups for my boy(s) -(Wes will probably be the only one who eats it, but we always try with Zach).  They both have little colds and homemade chicken soup just sounded good. So off the the store we went with shopping list in hand.  The recipe called for a whole chicken-that you are to use to make a homemade stock.  I have never done that before, but I'd always wanted to; and I've heard it is really easy.  So I got the chicken and everything else and started cooking. It was 4:00 and I thought for sure, I'll be done by 5:30 or 6:00 at the very latest in order to have it for dinner.  I opened up the chicken to throw it in the pot and realized that I had to remove all the skin, fat, innards, gizzards and whatever else you call them and chop off the neck! Well, having never done that before I was a little slow and grossed out.  About 45 minutes later the chicken was ready.  I throw it in the pot along with the other ingredients and let it simmer for one hour.  Now it is almost 6  and my boys were obviously hungry, so I made something else for them to eat while it was simmering.  I continued to follow all the directions and managed to get my boys in bed while the soup waited for my return. I still had to puree some of it, (which I didn't realize until I got to that point). And that was the fun part. Transferring the hot soup and vegetables to the processor made a complete mess. I looked down at the floor and there was a pool of chicken stock all over. Needless to say, I was so tired and a complete mess. Finally at 8:30 I was able to sit down and have a bowl of soup. I started laughing to myself and thought what if this is awful. Thankfully it was really good! Not 4 hours good, but good. I know Wes will love it!  One good thing became of all this my kitchen floor got a good cleaning!

*I think I used every dish, pot, pan, knife, spoon, bowl, blender, processor or utensil I have in my small kitchen. I cleaned my floor and counters, but was way too tired and hungry to clean the dishes. I should have taken a picture of my swollen feet.
Go here in case you want to make this yourself! Ha, ha!

"Zach's funny!"

I keep telling myself that I need to start writing down some of the cute and funny things that Zach says, well it has been way too long and I'm starting now.  Zach's favorite thing to do is laugh.  Whenever someone else is laughing (for whatever reason) Zach says, "Mommy's funny"(or whoever is laughing) So these posts will be titled- "Zach's funny!"

Lately, Zach has been into differentiating between genders. For clarification-with clothes on! One day we were driving in the car (where we have our best conversations) and I heard Zach in the back, "Daddy's a man, Papa's a man, Uncle Jake's a man. That's three mans all in a row" (did I mention he loves to count) .  I say, "what is mommy?" "A woman" "Yes, very good. "  And what are you?" "I'm a little man!"  "What is Wes?" " A little baby man!" So stinking cute!

I love my "little man"! I love this picture because he reminds me so much of "my" man!

Deja Vu part II

I love looking at older pictures of Zach and comparing them to Wes. I often have deja vu because Wes is wearing the same clothes during the same months that Zach wore them.  Although their personalities are quite different they are definitely bros. Zach did have way more hair.

Playing Catch Up...

 Halloween 2010:
  I had all these big plans on making cute costumes for the boys, but of course that didn't happen. They both got hand me down ones. Zach was Luke's Batman from last year and Wes was a little lion that Zach wore on his first Halloween too! I did whip up an impromptu mask for Zach right before our Trunk-or-Treat that he wore for a few photos.

 Carving our family pumpkin-

 Chris is a very talented pumpkin carver and takes it very seriously. Zach was right there to lend a "helping" hand.  This year we let Zach pick out the face for the pumpkin and of course he chose....

                   SPECIAL AGENT OSO!!! The trick or treaters got a kick out of it!

What have you been up to?

 People often ask me, "So what have you been up to?" Well, a lot actually. So I thought I'd post some of our goings on for that last month or so.

First, we went to a place called "Pretend City" in Irvine.  This was a little piece of heaven for Zach. He could not get enough of all the tractors, cars, boats, doors, and things to do there. It really is like a little city, just kid-sized! We will definitely be going back!

 Zach in his dream car-a beamer!

 Future Firefighter!

 Working at Ralph's- everyone's "First Job!"

 He felt like a "real Handy Manny"

 He was a little sad he couldn't use this toilet- remember I told you he loves to use public restrooms-yuck!

 Discovered stamps at the Post Office-so cute!

 Normally, I only venture out to big outings with Chris or my sister, but I was feeling brave one random day and took Zach and Wes to the Aquarium of the Pacific all by myself. I had never been and thought they would enjoy it. And they both surprised me. Zach loved looking at all the fishes and seals.  He couldn't believe there were so many "Nemos".

Wes just sat there the whole time-such an angel that boy!

 

Family fun at the pumpkin patch!

 WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (Mom is thinking please don't eat it!)

 Me and my little buddy!

 I was so sad our camera battery died-it said it was full and then all of a sudden it didn't work-UGH!. This was my opportunity to get a fun family photo.  Just one reason why I so desperately want a new camera -hint, hint!

Irvine Park goes all out for the holidays and Halloween is no different. The train is a must and Zach loved it even more than last year!

 Wes can never take his eyes off his brother. So cute!

 Luke and Zach- best buds for life!

 Not tall enough-so he improvised!

 This is so disgusting. I was trying to get a picture of Zach next to the horse since he didn't want to ride it, and as I was about the take the picture he turned around and started licking the pole. The pole that the horse slobbers all over. SICK! Just another reason why I need a new camera-I can never get a decent shot of the boys before they turn their heads or run away! This is priceless though.

"Attitude of Gratitude"

We were so blessed this weekend to watch General Conference on TV. Surprisingly, I was able to watch all four sessions while being home alone with a two and a half year old and a nine month old. Now my friends, that is a miracle! I think that I was meant to hear those inspired talks. And nothing struck me more than the words of our beloved prophet when he spoke about cultivating an "attitude of gratitude". He reminded me that while there is so much going wrong in the world today, there also so much that is right and good! Some of those "right" things for me are: my wonderful husband, my beautiful, happy, healthy children, my health, the gospel, a home, a great support system-aka "family", wonderful friends... seriously my list goes on but I'll spare you the rest; you get the picture. The more I thought about my blessings the more joy and happiness filled my heart. It really is not worth it to dwell on the negative things or circumstances you can't control. I'm so glad I was able to listen to our prophets inspired counsel. Give it a try. What are you grateful for?

El Capitan State Beach Camping

This month has been pretty busy. Just when I thought summer was over, I forgot we had a camping reservation at El Capitan State Beach. But boy am I glad we went. Now this was my kind of camping. It was right near the beach which gave us all something to do during the day and yet the camp site felt like we were in the mountains- the best of both worlds. And my brother and Ava and brother-in-law Andrew came down last minute. We had a blast with everyone. And we finally got our first family photo. How sad is that? Wes is almost 9 months and we just took a picture with all four of us together. It isn't even a good picture, but it counts.

All the boys in their spear fishing gear. Zach was fascinated.

Uncle Jake's hammock got a beating . You couldn't keep them off it.My little Wes is getting sooo big and trying so hard to crawl. He's got the army version down.
If you have never been camping at El Capitan or never heard of it, it is just north of Santa Barbara and absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it. We will be going again!