THANKSGIVING!!

This year we decided it wasn't feasible to go home for Thanksgiving. This was a VERY hard decision. Made harder by the facts that my brother Jace just left for his mission, my friend from high school was coming into town (I haven't seen her in FOREVER!), and that it would mean we most likely won't go to Texas for Thanksgiving again! So I was worried that Thanksgiving would suck this year, big time! Luckily I have wonderful friends here. Yesterday was perfect. I loved it and had so much fun this whole week preparing for the big day! Tuesday and Wednesday from 4pm- late we had guests over. The kids ran around the house playing while the moms cooked. And on Thanksgiving we had guests from 10-7! I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a full house. It was wonderful. All together there were 8 adults and 7 children. Too much fun. Thanks for coming Midtovne's, Addison's, and Missionaries!!

watching the Thanksgiving Day parade (They were all watching until I came to take a picture!)



How Logan wanted to spend the morning while mom tried to cook!


Some fell asleep


The kids LOVED the veggie tray...probably cause that's all we would let them eat while we finished the dinner!


The set up




The kids waiting patiently (hahaha) for the food



The kids eating. I'm lucky I got a shot, they were back up and playing pretty quick!



The pies!!! Apple, Cherry Cheesecake, Pecan, and Pumpkin. SOOO Yummy!


And I forgot to get a picture of all the adults.

Big Boy!!

Logan is such a big boy now!
He has a big boy bed! This transition was so easy! With Kaitlyn it took quite a while and she slept on the floor a lot, Em was easier- but still ended up on the floor a lot. Logan STAYS in his bed! Every night I go and check on him and he's sleeping peacefully in his new bed. I LOVE it, HE loves it, Ryan loves it, the girls love it. It's great. He loves that he can get up in the morning and play with toys or have Kaitlyn help him downstairs. Here he is napping in his big boy bed.




He is also big in that he loves to play with the big girls. He was pushing Em around the house in the doll stroller. He was so proud of himself! They are just too cute together!




Kaitlyn got into my chocolate and shared, isn't that sweat. I love that it makes Logan look like he has a mustache!
He may be big, but he's still short! All his pants are too long and he's always walking on the feet of his pj's. Poor boy, but he looks awfully adorable that way!

I just love baby bums. They are too cute.




I had fun with Logan's hair after a bath one night





A project I started for Kaitlyn




I say started because I still haven't gone and bought the elastic for around her waist. I saw a DIY online on how to make these pants. Way easy, and she hates jeans and tights right now. She has 2! drawers with jeans and skirts but only wants to wear fabric (? not sure what you call them) pants. Go figure.

Halloween

This year for Halloween Kaitlyn was Ariel, Emily was Snow White, and Logan was Logan/wolverine. They were so cute dressed up. Just before Halloween a friend of mine that works at sears took the kids pictures! I haven't had profesional pics of the kids since Kaitlyn was like 3months. It did not go well. Luckily this time it went much better. In fact, we may even go back. Here's the cute pics my friend got of the kiddos all dressed up.



On Wednesday they went to library hour in costume, and then Friday they went to the Library Halloween party. It was during the day so I took all 3 kids by myself. It was fun and they did really well. This is Logan up close before the party. I wanted him to have the crazy hair, but it wasn't working out too well!



Then on Saturday Ryan had a meeting in Madison for church so the kids and I went trick or treating with out him. I was pretty nervous to do it by myself, but it went really well! It was pretty cold outside, but I guess not too bad for the end of October! Em refused to be in the pictures on the porch, pretty typical for her.







We didn't go too far, but we did get further than I planed. I was aiming for one of their friends houses. We made it there, trick or treating all the way, but after that they were done. Especially Logan. I put all 3 back in the stroller and walked/ran the rest of the way home! At first all 3 were crying, then 2, and by the time we got home they'd calmed down. Logan still wasn't happy. Even though I had gloves on him, his little hands were frozen. I got them in and coats off and dumped their candy in front of them. Em and Kait LOVED this, Log- not so much! He just wanted momma. It took him awhile to realize there was CANDY. Once he was warm he totally loved the candy! Poor boy. Here they are with their loot





Not a lot of candy, but I actually liked that a lot better! It was gone in 2 days, and I didn't have to deal with it anymore!
November 1st we finally got around to painting our pumpkin! We did have some carved ones, thanks to a friend that invited us over! Here are the girlies painting away.




(This is ironic after the last post! I just told Kaitlyn we don't take pictures with out clothes on, and here's one with just her panties! Guess no more pantie pictures!)

She doesn't know better

A friend brought over a celebrity magazine. She knows I am always WAY behind on the celebrity gossip and like to read up on it occasionally. So I had this magazine laying out. On Friday the kids and I were hanging out in the living room, and Kaitlyn picked up the magazine and started flipping through it. She brought it over and showed me a underwear model. "Mommy, do you see her swim suit? It's so pretty. You need to buy me one!" Many things flipped through my mind, (EXCUSE me!! Since when do you tell me what I NEED to buy you?? was one of them!) Instead I told her that we don't wear clothes like that (since she was assuming it was a swim suite, I didn't correct her, we'll leave that for another day!) because it makes Jesus sad. He doesn't want us to show off our body's like that. So then of coarse the well why is she wearing it? I explained that it was an ad meant to sell the clothes and that she didn't know better, but we do and we talked more about what is appropriate and what's not. I was pretty impressed with how much she understood and was happy with how the conversation went. I am always surprised by how much she notices around her. Well anyway a little while after our conversation she went back to the magazine and started flipping through it again. She pointed to all (there were a lot! It was a gossip mag!) the girls that weren't dressed and said, she doesn't know better, she doesn't know better, turn the page, she doesn't know better... through out the whole magazine. She makes me smile. I just am glad it's winter and it's cold here, or I'd probably be explaining to A LOT of women why my daughter told them they don't know better! I am glad to see the lesson stuck, and at least for now she doesn't want to parade around town in a "tinny tiny yellow poka dotted bikini" -love you mom! (that song is a funny family joke)

Like Father Like Son - Post from Ryan

So I love my boy and we have tons of fun together. We wrestle, growl at each other, grunt like real men, laugh, hug, and play. Although he looks like a Wilson, he's tough like a Dalton. :o) Unfortunately, Logan is following in his dad's footsteps in other ways. Around Halloween Grandma Dalton sent the grandkids a Halloween package that had slinkies in them. Naturaly, Dad was more interested in the slinkies then the kids. So one day I was showing the kids how it worked on the stairs. As I was letting the slinkie go, I leaned over too far and proceed to fall all the way down the stairs. I ended my slide at the bottom of the stairs in a clumped up heap of pain and had scratched my shoulder. Christi heard a bunch of thuds, came to the stairs, tried very hard not to laugh, and when she asked me if she could help me, I responded by telling her not to touch me. My pride was hurt too much.

Well yesterday, our Logan decides to follow in Dad's footsteps. He was at the top of the stairs and fell down them. Poor kid. Our friend who was at the house said that she saw his little foot flying through the air at the bottom of the stairs when he came to a stop. Poor little guy got a huge goose bump on his forhead above his left eye. The kid is tough though and unlike his dad is not prideful. He immediately allowed Mommy to scoop him up in her arms and enjoyed the cuddling until he felt all better. Don't worry he is okay. No concussion. The kid's head is so big that it is a natural cushion for him.

TOFW

** I found some more pics on Coreina's Facebook, and just added them***

In October I got to go to Time Out For Women!!! It was wonderful. Coreina invited me to go with her family. It was up in Minneapolis Minnesota. I had SUCH a great time! Coreina and I left Friday morning and took our time getting up to Rachel's house. We stopped at a couple of places and went shopping. (Shopping!!! Without kids!!!!) Then we picked up Rachel and headed to Rochester, where the rest of the family lives. We got some lunch (DELICIOUS!!!) and while we were inside the little snow storm got worse! By the time we were done with lunch EVERYTHING was COVERED in snow. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but my heater/defroster was broken, and my tires were basically donuts. Not good for driving in a snow storm! The girls and I were SOO scared! Luckily we only had a little way left to get to Angela's house! And we BARELY made it there! It was SOOO scary. I had originally planned on driving all the way to Minneapolis, so I could come home early. I needed to be to church on Sunday for my calling, and it was Ryan's first Sunday as 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, so he NEEDED me to be there too. So when I called Ryan to tell him I wouldn't be able to drive all the way, he was pretty worried! It ended up working out ok. Someone filled in for me and Ryan was able to get help from the branch. Poor guy though, he had a ROUGH weekend. Logan puked nonstop and Emily got sick too.
We made it up to Minneapolis safe and sound, thanks to Angela's nice safe car! The conference was wonderful and I really learned a lot. (TOFW is put on by famous people from our church, songwriters, motivational speakers, that sort of thing) I mostly learned that I need to start taking care of myself. I am loved and important too. Afterward we went to a piano bar. It has a stage with 2 pianos facing each other and they take turns playing. It's called the shout house, and if your ever in Minneapolis you should check it out! The pianists take requests and they play and everyone sings along. It was really fun. We stayed up WAY late! I think we finally crawled into bed around 3-3:30. The Midtovne's party hard! My mommy schedule usually has me in bed by 10.
Pics from the Shout House




We went to another day of TOFW. Again, wonderful and very inspirational, sooo needed! Here's the group at lunch. I'm not there because Ryan texted me to tell me he bought a car. Yea, you read that right! Crazy boy. Ended up being ok, but I was NOT happy when I got that text! He really did his research though, and it's a nice car, and we did need a reliable car for him, so it all worked out. Here's the super fun group I got to spend the weekend with:



Coreina, Brianna, Joy, Rachel, and Angela

After the conference ended, we went to the MALL OF AMERICA!!!! I decided that if Ryan could BUY A CAR, I can buy an outfit! It was much needed, and SO SO FUN!!! I even tried some shrimp, and I got to have a water massage!! It was wonderful!!! I wish there was one close by, I would ALWAYS be over there! And we finished off the night with a few games of Marco Polo and soaking in the hot tub.

We stayed at a GORGEOUS hotel. Here's us in the loby







(I stole these off of Rachel's facebook- Thanks Rach!)

Unfortunately Joy is afraid of heights, we were on the 6(?)th floor and we had to walk down the open hallway that looked all the way down!!! It was GORGEOUS, but NOT good for Joy! Sunday we came home. It was a MUCH needed girls (kid free!!) weekend. I came back so refreshed and ready to be a mom again! That was the first time EVER that I had left the kids. Wonderful. And I'm a better mom now because of it. I feel so recharged. And because of the conference, Coreina and I decided to go walking in the mornings! And this week we jogged! So nice to be doing something for me. The exercise is so good for my body and the chat time with a great friend makes it worth getting up at 5:30!! -Yeah, I NEVER EVER thought I'd do that, I'm NOT a morning person!

A new hobby

The morning usually goes like this:
One of the children wakes up (usually Kaitlyn, occasionally one of the other two) and comes down to wake up mom and dad. We LOVE this (rolling my eyes). It's usually just before Ryan's getting up or just after he showers, so he gets them breakfast. The kids eat breakfast and say goodbye to Daddy as he leaves for work. And I sleep as late as possible. (THANKS to my WONDERFUL husband!) I usually pull myself out of bed once Logan has finished eating, and we start our day. However one of the mornings just after we got home from Texas, Logan wasn't in his highchair, so he didn't cry and wake me up to get him down. So the children entertained themselves. This is usually when SOMETHING happens. My children don't just play with their toys, they have to get into something. I woke up to the sound of water running. I thought I had better check it out. I go into the bathroom and Logan is standing on the step stool with his hand under the running water. A little further in is my girls discarded clothes. They are standing in the shower, naked, with the bath water running. They were trying to figure out how to turn the shower on. I thought it was really cute, so I turned it on for them. Logan quickly lost interest in the sink and ran over. I striped him down and let him climb in with his sisters.
This was the first time for all 3 of them to take a shower with out an adult in there to help. They thought it was SOOOO cool!

I couldn't help but take some pictures!







Too cute. Unfortunately they wanted to repeat this EVERY morning! I let them, until Kaitlyn tried to wash Logan (I have no idea how she got hold of the soap!) and ended up washing his EYES!!! Mom was not pleased with that, and they lost their showering privileges. Back to supervised baths, how boring!

And I somehow left out this picture from the last post. Jace, we miss you!!