Our month so far

Every year my kids favorite thing to do in the month of December is our Advent Calendar. For the first year I mainly put candy in the boxes and a couple of things to do that month. But they loved the activities so much that now that is what we do. Every day has a different "activity" that is related to the season. Here are some of the first things we did.

Ornaments:

the kids get to paint an ornament every year, they love this and always look for theirs the next year.

Temple Lights

Christmas Countdown

years past we have had one chain, which didn't seem to go over very well. So this year each kid got their own. They love pulling one off every night.

Letters to Santa

( the day after this I found the cutest templates for a Santa letter, I'll have to wait till next year.)

We have had so many great times so far and have so many more to look forward to. I think the reason I love Christmas so much is all the stuff leading up to it. There is so much family time, fun activities, talk of our savior. happiness, sweet music, yummy food and oh so much more.

Thanksgiving

It was my families on year this year, so we headed up to Tonto Basin to get together with the whole fam. ( well almost the whole fam. It was great weather and the kids had a blast playing in the tree, playing catch and most of all shooting guns. We don't come from a family that shoots but my grandma's husband's family is into it so they showed us the ropes. Steve did great but the rest of us struck out. We still had fun anyway.

This is basically how it is every time Stephen has food, the kids like birds huddled around him with their mouths open.

My gorgeous Grandma

Jackson going back for multiple helpings of pie.

Climbing in the Awesome Mulberry tree

My most precious blessings.

Kicking it in the back of the car

What a natural!

I have so many things to be Thankful for, I am truly blessed.

My Heavenly Father who loves me

My Savior Jesus Christ

My Husband

My children

The restored Gospel

The Scriptures

My family

My friends

My home

My job

My car

and about a million more.

This Thanksgiving was one of many reminders of my blessings, and I am so Thankful for that.

Lobster Fest 2010

About 6 yrs. ago my brother and sister in law started a Thanksgiving Eve Lobster Fest tradition. Oh yeah it is as good as it sounds. Unfortunately some of my sil's don't feel the same way about Lobster as the rest of us do, so they have to make do on the sides. This year I would have to say I actually ate more sides than lobster, they were really good!

This is Jackson's favorite meal of the whole year. He is a true seafood lover, with the most expensive taste.

What who is that back for 3 rds of the bomb diggity salad. Yup thats me and my Thanksgiving belly!

Thanks again D & S Cummard for a superior dinner see you back in 2012!

Turkey Turkey

My MIL made these last year for all the kids, so this year we decided to do them for the boys classes. They had a blast putting them together and were sooo excited to give them to their friends at school.

Veterans Day

The Cummards are famous for their Traditions! One that is super fun for the Kids, is the annual Veteran's Day parade which the MW LeBaron Family is always in. We have been doing it since J was a baby and I think they seem to enjoy it more every year. Hudson learned how to ride a bike without training wheels the week before and was soooo excited to ride his bike in the parade. There was a little fiasco with the bike before but as soon as the parade started he hopped on a bike and rode it the whole way. While he did great riding he did always end up one float ahead ( just to excited to slow down). As soon as J got there he was off riding with the cousins of course. and Pres was in heaven riding her scooter for the hour and half before it started. Then riding almost the whole way through the 1/4 mile parade route! That extra 5 min. onto the other 2 hours was just too much.

This is the first pic we took with Hudson when he didn't have his bike- he was not happy

Patriotic Gals

He's Happy Now- guess who got a bike to ride?

J followed big P throughout the whole parade

Pres rode right next to the spectators the whole time. I think she thought they were all there for her! She loved it.

Hudson

Hud never took off that hat in 2 hours and when he finally did this is what was under there.