Not a creative title this time... Just "November"

To start off the month of November, here's some pictures of our kids as little buddies.

Most of the time they are really cute together and play with each other. But a lot of the times they are little stinks. Caden learned how to fight back, so now he hits Makayla when she takes toys away from him and  Makayla learned how to tattle. She runs to me crying "Caden said, "no" to me and hit me."

The worst is in the car. Since Caden is still in a rear facing car seat, they have to sit right next to each other and they fight constantly. I get so frustrated when I hear, "mom, Caden put his foot on my car seat" over, and over, and over, and over. Uggh!

When they are not tattling or yelling, they are really cute... See?

It was snowing in early November and Makayla ran to the kitchen to get a stool so that she could watch the snow fall.

These two sometimes like to help me make the bed. They are good helpers with the pillows.

Makayla likes to get buried in them.

I had to take a picture of this because Makayla asked me for an apple and just took random little bites all over.

Who doesn't love piggy back rides with daddy?

One night we read books together in our bed. The kids had so much fun.

This was the funniest thing... Caden was pretending to take pictures of Tyler. He would stand by the fireplace and wait for Tyler to say "cheese!"

Then he would come over to show Daddy the "picture" he took. It is so cute to see the things the kids pick up.

But then he kept getting mad that Tyler's shorts were up, so he would come over to fix them before he would take the next picture.

We don't know for sure, but we might have a photographer on our hands (or a perfectionist)

Caden loves books. He is always going to his room to get a book and bring it back to us.

Cute sayings of the kids:
-Since Tracy has been pregnant (which I need to do a separate post about because she had baby Camden on November 5th!) Makayla thinks that she has a baby in her belly too. She'll say things like, "There's a baby in my belly. He's crying. He's kicking"
-One day it was raining and Makayla kept singing, "Rain, rain go away... get another time."
Makayla keeps asking us where things come from (clothes, toys, food,). She'll say things to us like, "Where did you get that from?" Since we've been talking about Christmas a lot lately, Makayla has started to say things like, "Where did you get that from? For Christmas?"
-Makayla is getting to be a good negotiator. When we tell her she needs to take a nap she tells us, "I need 5 more minutes." When I pick her up from Brooke's she says, "I need 5 more minutes on the way home." One day we told her she could play for 10 more minutes, and she said, "no, I want 5 more minutes." Not going to argue with the logic of a todd.
-We were in the check out line at the store and Caden kept yelling "don't," so then Makayla would tattle by saying, "mom, Caden said, 'Don't'" (except she yells "don't"... so basically everyone in the store was staring at us because both my kids were yelling "don't" at the top of their lungs. )
-Makayla woke up from her nap the other day and told me that "The heater was bugging me"
-Normally I am her best friend, but one day I did something that made her mad and she said to me, "you're not my best friend today!"


Caden tries so hard to talk and we are starting to understand some of the things he is saying.
-If you ask him where Daddy is he either says, "tow" (out of town) or "wor" (work).
-He learned to say "Brooke" and yells her name every time we show up to her house.
-He can say "Addy" and "Con-uh" (Conner) (His friends at day care)
-He motions with his arm and says something resembling "come on"
-He learned to say "apple", "up dere" (up there),  "elp" (help), and "ni-ni" (night, night)
-My absolute favorite saying of Caden's is "yesh" (yes). He really understands things. We asked him one day if he wanted to get in his jammies, and he said, "yesh," so then we asked him if he wanted to go to bed, and he shook his head no.
-My other favorite is when he says, "anks" (thanks).
-The other day he ran around the house saying, "Mom-ma, are you?"
-If you show him a picture of a cat and ask him what it is, he responds with "meow". If you ask him about elephant he makes a spitting noise.
-Speaking of kitties, Caden loves to pretend to be a kitty. He loves to crawl around the house saying, "meow"
-If you ask him if he likes one thing or another he will always say the last thing. Like, if we ask him if he likes daddy or mommy better, he will say mommy. Then we'll switch, and he will say daddy.

These Little Turkeys are Thankful For...

We did thankful turkeys again this year and we had so much fun doing it! This was Caden's first year doing one because he was sick last year. We traced out their feet for the body of the turkey and their hands for the feathers. We have the kids write on the feathers things they are thankful for.

Makayla said she was thankful for: 

1. Mommy and Daddy

2. Caden

3. Addy (her friend at daycare)

4. Blankie

5. Princesses

Caden is thankful for: 

1. Mommy and Daddy

2. Sister

3. Brooke 

4. Blankie

5. Books

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house and had my family over. I had my camera sitting out, but I only took one picture the whole night, this one of Hannah reading Caden books.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. I love getting together with our families, going shopping for Black Friday, decorating our house for Christmas, and spending the entire weekend with my cute little family... I mean, really, who wouldn't love these two?

A Needed Day Off

My cute little Caden had a pretty bad fever the last few days, so we kept him home from daycare today. He was probably fine to go today, but I was looking for an excuse to stay home for a day. I still took Makayla to daycare which meant I got to spend an entire day with my bestest little bud!

We had fun playing with all of Sister's toys (as you can see the babies in the warming drawer)
We snuggled all day and read books (Caden is still the best snuggler... especially when he's sick)
We tried to schedule a lunch date with Daddy or Emily, but they both blew us off (obviously their loss!)
We watched parts of Sesame Street and Dinosaur Train. Caden screamed with excitement for all 10 minutes of his t.v. attention span.

Yup, pretty much it was the funnest day! I wish the kids would get sick more often (That's really not true... maybe I should just pretend to be sick)

I love Technology!

Because even when Daddy has to go out of town, we can still talk to him like he is here with us!

A Spooktacular Halloween!

Halloween day and night was so much fun this year! Makayla seemed to understand it more this year and Caden was just so happy to wear his costume. We spent weeks before Halloween practicing trick-or treating. We would walk around our house and have the kids practice knocking, saying "trick-or-treat, then saying "thanks". They were so excited for the actual day and couldn't wait to go get some candy. 

That morning we got the kids all ready to go to Brooke's house for their daycare Halloween party. 

I think Princess Belle and Scooby Doo are the cutest ever! Caden was hilarious this year because he walked around the house going, "Meow"! We decided he was Scooby-doo with an identity crisis! :)

 Caden was so proud of his costume. We asked him if he wanted the hood off and he got so mad when we tried to take it off.

At Brooke's house they got to have a party complete with musical chairs, candy, and cupcakes. When we got home the kids were so excited to go out trick or treating, but I had to hold them off until Daddy got home from work. When he got home, we loaded up the kids and we were off. 

 We stopped at the first house and the kids were so excited to get candy in their pumpkins.

 Grandma and Grandpa stopped by with some treats for the kids and then they stayed and went around the bock with us to watch the kids.

We thought the kids would only make it around the little block, but they were having so much fun that we ended up going around the big block too. They had so much candy by the end of the night that they couldn't even hold their buckets. Makayla kept telling me her bucket was "too heavy".

When we got back Grandma Kathy was there with some more treats for the kids! The rest of the night Makayla helped us hand out candy.

Halloween was the funnest this year because both kids understood it and had so much fun. Even now, days after Halloween, Makayla is still going around the house with her green pumpkin and organizing all her candy.

October's FFD's

FFD's used to stand for Friday Family Date, but we decided the name needed a change since we rarely went out on Friday nights. So now FFD stands for Family Fun Day, and boy do we ever live up to the name! October was full of fantastic FFD's. 

We spent a day at Tracy Aviary. I was a little hesitant about going here because I didn't know if it would be very fun, but it proved me wrong. We had so much fun!

Kayla looks like she needs to go potty in this picture. 

 And I don't know what Tyler is doing in this picture... Doesn't it seem like you can never get a decent picture with everyone looking and smiling at the same time?

 See?

We saw a lot of birds at the aviary... obviously

 Then enjoyed some snacks

 The kids played in the garden area

We took a lot of silly pictures...

 We stopped for some lunch

 Kayla had a huge glob of jelly on her face that was worthy of a picture!

While we were eating lunch,  the peacock tried to eat all the kids' food. If it wasn't for mom, that darn peacock would have attacked us.

 Then we got some bird food and fed all the birds and almost got attacked by them. We had to keep telling the birds to "shoo".

After the aviary, we went to the park that was right by it and the kids got to play on the swings and slide. 

I definitely think we'll be going back next year!

We also went to the Zoo. October is the perfect time to go because it isn't as crowded and the weather is perfect. We got to see the monkeys

 And I think the kids' favorite part was the elephants.

 This year was Caden's second time at the zoo, but it was so much better this year because he was so into all the animals. He couldn't take his eyes off of the animals. See? Case in point.

At almost 3 years old, Makayla is the size of a juvenile gorilla.

Caden is about the size of an infant gorilla, and I am the size of an adult. Ironic?

 We went into this place where the monkey's were making some creepy noises. Caden seemed to know what they were saying because he started yelling back at them.

 We played in all the fountains

 And went to see the seals and polar bears.

 We did see real animals at the zoo, but the kids were more entertained by the statues.

 And our trip to the zoo wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel.

One of the things I love about living back in Salt Lake is that there are so many fun things to do. I love going to the zoo every year!

For another FFD we headed to "This is the Place" for Little Haunts. Kayla and Caden were so excited to dress up in their costumes and go trick-or-treating. I just love my adorable Belle and my handsome Scooby! We went to this last year and Makayla had a blast. I was so excited for Caden to go this year because I knew he would have just as much fun as Makayla did last year.

 One of the kids's favorite parts is story time. They listened intently about the ghost that had a hard time scaring all his friends.

 The kids got even more candy at the cannon ball where candy went flying everywhere.

 We went on a train ride

 Then stopped for some lunch.

 Then went to the petting zoo. Caden loves animals and gets so excited from a distance, but when we get up close, he gets all scared.

Little Haunts did not disappoint again this year, and I think Caden loved his first "real" experience at it. 

Our last FFD of the month consisted of carving pumpkins! We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Evans' house for dinner and carving pumpkins! 

Kayla and Caden each got to pick out their pumpkin and mommy and daddy helped them carve it. 

 Caden was surprisingly really into the whole thing. He loved helping daddy get all the "guts" out.

 Makayla was pretty distracted and only lasted a few minutes carving her pumpkin, so Daddy had to finish it for her. 

 Uncle Roger was in town! He joined us on the fun festivities.

 Grandpa Collard and Gayle worked on their pumpkin, but by the end, it needed major reconstructive surgery.

 Grandpa Craig helped Carson with his dinosaur pumpkin

 And the Jones family worked hard on Colton's pumpkin.

Grandma Terry got stuck in the house finishing dinner, so I didn't get any pictures of her.

All the families, and especially the kids, were so proud of their pumpkins.

I think it's safe to say that we had the funnest FFD's this month getting ready for Halloweeen! I just can't say it enough how much I love my little family and all the fun things we do together!