Is it Christmas??

Last night we had our first snow.... this was BiG EXciTeMEnT at our house. My boys have been waiting for it to snow since we moved here in June. When Carter found out that we would be moving away from Arizona he was so sad to leave... until we told him that it snows in Wisconsin. I think he half expected there to be snow when we got here... in June! Since then he has been waiting and waiting and waiting for this day. Well this morning you would have thought it was Christmas at our house. Carter woke up Gage and they were jumping all over the place. They got their snow boots on and were ready to go out in the snow in their PJ's! Carter was a bit bummed when he realized he had to get ready for school, but he HuRRieD so he would have time to go out and play for a little bit before we left for school. I got nailed with quite a few snowballs before the day had barely begun!

After dropping Carter off I decided to go for a walk with Gage to enjoy the beauty and crispness of the fresh fallen snow... before I loath it. It was harder than I thought pushing the stroller uphill through the snow, even though it was only a few inches (and no it wasn't uphill both ways and we didn't have bare feet) It was beautiful and it was much more enjoyable then walking on the treadmill. We picked up a friend of Gage's on the way home to come and play and I overheard the boys chatting about the snow and heard Gage tell Garrett that "it MUST be Christmas!!"

Gage was not about to have his picture taken this early in the morning!!

On our walk we stopped at the park and made snow angels! Gage thought that was pretty amazing. (Confession: I did not make a snow angel... are you kidding, lay down in the wet snow... I'm an AZ weenie, however, I did subject my poor submissive two year old. At least he liked it!)

I love how the cold air makes my camera fog up.

So fun!! I'm sure we will ALL be hating it before April gets here, but we might as well enjoy it for the time being!

What BiG bOyS we have!!

Just a little update on my two little rugrats! Gage has officially made the transition to big boy undies!! He is doing so good. He's been ready for a while now but I wasn't about to try to make this transition until we got back from our month in Arizona. He was begging to wear his Cars undies one day so we put them on and of course he peed in them, we tried another pair and he peed in those too... well after we went to the store and bought a new bag of M&M's (aka Pee Treats) we were good to go. I guess all it takes is a little sugar to motivate that kid. Fortunately for me he's been pooping in the toilet for months and months now so we already had that under our belt. And really now that he's potty trained I have to ask myself WHY? It really is more convenient for all involved when they just go in their diaper... they all end up potty trained sooner or later. I think his bladder is the size of a peanut! We went to run errands the other day and we had 4 stores to go to, all of which I just had to get a couple things (except Target, I can't go there without wandering). Anyway, we had to go find the bathroom in 3 of the 4 stores! Sigh! Oh well, at least we will save on diapers and won't have 2 kids in diapers at the same time.

Check out my big boy undies!!

Carter is still loving Kindergarten. He is super excited about reading. There are a couple other kids in his class that are also reading so they get to go meet with the reading specialist once a week to read together. He LoVeS it! They have been reading some non-fiction books which he really likes. His teacher has also been sending home chapter books (aka I can read books with several different stories in them) and the first thing he wants to do when he gets home is to read his chapter to me. So Fun!! I had my first parent teacher conference this week. It was nice to meet with his teacher and find out what really goes on during the day, the portrayal of school from a 5 year old is a bit scarry at times. She said he's super smart, LoVeS to learn, he's social, funny, and LOUD... hmm I wonder where he gets that from?!? Sorry Carter, but you've got Mangum blood! Her only complaint was that he finishes his work really quickly and then he goofs off and distracts the other kids... is it just me or is this a no brainer??... Give him more work to do!

He has also learned to tie his shoes which he thinks is ultra cool because he will help Mrs. Schmid by tying the other kids shoes for her when she is busy.

I love my boys!! Just two more months and we'll be adding another one to the equation!! The other day Carter was reading to me and out of the corner of his eye he could see the little guy bumping around inside my tummy, he started giggling so hard and thought it was so funny that he could see him moving. Here is a picture of the little guy... Okay really it's just me but he's in there, can't wait to see what he looks like!

Why do we take pictures of ourselves in such a bloated state, I mean really... I always end up looking back and realizing how horribly awful I looked!

Fun Projects

Here are some fun projects I've done in the last little while. I'm not usually a very creative person but I can copy someone elses great ideas. The first one is a nursing cover aka "hooter hider." Some friends and I got together to sew these one morning... it was a lot of fun and I guess now I can nurse in style... not that I'm nursing right now... when the baby comes. (The thought of nursing my almost 3 year old is seriously disturbing to me so I wanted to clear up any confusion that may have occured!!)

Okay so maybe it looks more like an apron, but hey maybe once I'm done nursing I can add some apron strings and get some more use out of it. Mostly I love the fabric, Amy Butler is amazing.

This is an apron that my sister-in-law, Nic, helped me make. She is amazing and whips up all sorts of fun stuff. While I was in AZ I went to her house one afternoon and we made this. I LoVe it!! Thanks again Nic!

I stole this idea from my friend Autie. She did the same thing with the word "Give." Carter informed me that we didn't have any Thanksgiving decorations, so I made this a couple of days ago. It was a fun little project to do in the evening while Jared was on-call.

Picking What? ... No, Not Our Noses, ApPLes!

Last week Carter and Jared both had a random Thursday off from school and work so we headed to a local family fruit farm to do some apple picking. It was so stinkin fun! We picked apples, played tag in the orchard, ate apples, threw dried up corn kernals at each other, laughed, rolled in the grass and mostly just enjoyed a day together as a family. The boys absolutely LoVEd picking the apples, we started out with just a bag but quickly realized there was much more fun to be had so we ended up coming home with a whole bushel (about 42 lbs! Needless to say I have been making lots of applesauce.) Gage was mostly interested in picking an apple then proceeding to eat it... I know he ate at least 3, maybe more. Carter's favorite part was of course climbing the ladder. I loved being able to spend the day with my 3 favorite boys!!

At the same family farm there was also a pumpkin patch, seeing that it was the day before Halloween and we still hadn't carved pumpkins we decided to pick a couple... they were slim pickings, unless you like pumpkins of the rotten variety. We managed to find a couple and the price was unbeatable, $1 a pumpkin!

On the way home we decided to take full advantage of the nice weather and stop at the park and jump in the leaves. The boys had a ball, I am sure they have never seen so many leaves in their life! We obviously weren't the first people with this idea as there was already a huge pile of leaves waiting for us when we got there... perfectly planned!

At home we carved a couple of pumpkins. Carter designed his own and carved it with the help of his dad. Gage on the other hand was content to sit back and watch. And we all love the roasted pumpkin seeds!

It was a perfect day!

And then some RAndOMnesS...

The rest of our time in Arizona was spent enjoying time with family! My boys have really missed being close to their cousins, Grandma and Grandpa, aunts and uncles and my cousins (their adopted aunts). Some random fun pictures to fill in the blanks...

Reading stories with Grandpa... well at least that's how it started, Gage didn't last very long.

One of my boys favorite things to do is to make cookies with my cousins, they absolutely love it. (This is Gage with my cousin Heidi.) I think the thing they love the most about it is eating the cookie dough (that's my favorite part too!) Well this time I think they might have over done it! At about 3 am that night I awoke to the sound of Carter gagging and then vomiting all over his sleeping bag... I finally get back into bed after getting everything cleaned up (by the way there's nothing worse than cleaning up vomit when you're pregnant) when Gage gets up and starts to climb into bed with me and then proceeds to throw up all over my bed!!! We have instituted a NO Cookie Dough rule at our house!!!!

Swimming outside in October... only in AZ!!

Okay so the water was a bit chilly... Carter jumped in off the diving board and then decided that maybe it was a little bit too cold! I think the water was like 68 degrees... Gage didn't seem to mind!

4 of the 5 two year old cousins playing at Grandma's house... Mom I thought you said you weren't going to have them all over when they were two?!?


Carter was absolutely hysterical driving the Jeep... he was completely wreckless! He had us laughing the whole time... wish I would have had my video camera!!

Crafting with Grandma... the boys had a blast making these night shirts!

I think Carter and Gage slept in them for at least 4 nights straight before I was able to convince them we needed to wash them before they wore them again!

Gage isn't even 3 yet and he had his first cavities! I have failed as a mother!!!!! He is definitely my little sugar fiend... we will definitely be putting an end to that! This is a picture of him trying desperately to smile while still numb. He was so funny when the numbness started to wear off... he starting scraping his mouth and was crying that "it won't come off!!"

A Little Taste of Fall

We went to a little pumpkin patch close to Prescott with my mom and dad. I was a little disappointed with the pumpkin patch as the pumkins were all wilty and rotten and they didn't even grow them there, they were brought in from somewhere else and placed on a little plot of land in an attempt to replicate a pumpkin patch. The boys still had a great time and it was fun to spend the time with my mom and dad. It wasn't even hard to convince the boys that we weren't going to bring a pumpkin home with us... they too were not thrilled about the idea of a rotten pumpkin. (And we weren't thrilled about the idea of paying $5-9 for a dud) They enjoyed the hay ride and the animals, loved being with Grandma and Grandpa and probably despised my attempts to take some pictures. Nonetheless... our pumpkin patch experience!

Happy Autumn!

Zoo Pals

The Zoo has always been a favorite place for my kiddos (probably because I take them there all the time... I LoVe the Zoo). While in AZ we meandered over to the Phoenix Zoo with my sister, Tiffany, and cousin, Kirsten. We also met up with some friends there. Always a lot of fun!! It was so fun to see Lisa and Rylee and to be reaqauinted with Little Tyse who was born right before we moved out here. Gage was especially excited to see his friend Rylee and get to play with her on a couple of occasions. Wish we weren't so far away!

Checkin' out the zebra behinds... they also had two baby zebras that were so cute, but you can't see them because my children have unusually large heads.

Carter and Gage with my cousin Kirsten

Gage and Rylee, best buds! He was sooo ExCIteD to see her.

Rylee, Lisa, Tyse, Carter, Nicole and Gage

We also went to the Prescott Zoo with Grandma and some cousins. It's a little podunk zoo but an hours worth of fun nonetheless (plus you don't have to contend with other people). My boys particularly like the spider and reptile exhibits and this time the bear was a favorite. The zoo keepers went in and hid the bears dinner and then we got to watch him search for it, the kids got a real kick out of it. Things were great except for the explosive diarrhea Gage experienced in which I had all of one wipe with which to clean it up... what is it with this kid and having diarrhea when we're out and about?!?

Grandma with 5 of her little monkeys!

Carter with his cousin Camille

I thought this tree was a lot of fun and would make for a great photo op... well after multiple attemps and still none with all of us smiling I decided to post the most comical one!