Turkeys to Christmas trees

Well, I gave in and let Brayden use the paints again... it went much better than last time! We are getting so excited for Thanksgiving next week so we decided to make place mats for everybody to use at dinner. Brayden thought it was awesome that I was actually letting him get his hand all painty to make the turkey. He was truly in heaven!

Now I have to admit that I also gave in and got out all our Christmas stuff already! I just couldn't take it anymore!! We won't be around for some of December so we just decided to get it all out so we could at least enjoy it for a full month! As soon as we get back from Thanksgiving we are planning on getting our tree to put up... last year we waited awhile and were only able to have it up for a short time before we left for Christmas! So yes we are crazy, but I love it and can't wait for all the fun things we have planned for December! If only we got snow here.... :(

Mike and Mandy's Wedding

Guy's younger brother Mike got married over the weekend so we made a quick trip to Oregon. We were so glad that we were able to be there and it was really cool to be in the temple with the whole family! It was a beautiful wedding and we're so happy for them! Brayden had a blast with all of his cousins and had a hard time leaving! It's good we'll be back there for Christmas I think! Check Melissa's blog to see lots of great pics from the wedding!

counting down the days...

Brayden has become obsessed with this statue lately. I keep it on our end table in the family room and have found him by it lots. I love to listen in and see what he's making the people say. Last night he was telling me it was the new baby, and me and Guy. He paused for a little bit and then said, "Wait mom, where's me? We have to go buy a me!" So funny! I love that he has become so aware of babies everywhere lately. We talk every day about this new baby that will soon join our family and he's so excited to be a big brother.

I have 100 more days to go until my due date... Yes, I am counting down days already! Time is flying by, but I'm glad I have the holidays coming up to make it go even faster! I really can't wait! Although I think I will miss all the one on one time I've had with Brayden. It's been so fun to just have him all to myself every day! :)

Here's just a few random pictures...We've been enjoying the great weather here right now and have been going on lots of walks and trips to the park around the corner!

So proud that he climbed up the rock wall by himself

All Brayden wants to do is swing these days!

We made heart cookies one day for our FHE treat and this was Brayden's masterpiece...Time to buy more sprinkles I guess!

Our Thanksgiving Tree

I really wanted to find something that I could do with Brayden this Thanksgiving season to focus on all of the things that we are thankful for. We truly have been SO blessed in our life and I feel like its easy to take it all for granted. I found this great idea online that I thought was perfect. A Thanksgiving tree! We started out by going on a nature walk to find a good "tree" (branch). It took us some time because Brayden was always drawn to the huge ones lying around and was set on bringing home the biggest one ever! But I finally convinced him that this was a good size! We cut out leaves in all different colors and hung them on our tree with little clothes pins. Every day until Thanksgiving we are going to talk about what we are thankful for and write it on a leaf. I love hearing the sweet things that Brayden is thankful for so far. I think we need more leaves for November so he can fit all his ideas! :) On the other side of the leaf we are writing something that we have done for others. It's been fun to not only recognize the blessings we've been given, but to also focus on what we can do to help others. Brayden is such a huge helper so he's enjoyed looking for things to do to help mommy and daddy!
It'll be fun on Thanksgiving to read all of our leaves before dinner (maybe we'll bring them to Arkansas where we'll be for the big feast this year!) I'm hoping that we can make this "thanks" and "giving" tree a tradition with our kids each year to help focus more on the season. We had a lot of fun making it together as a family and that's something I'm thankful for! :)

Sunday Adventure

We came across these giant teddy bears on an after church "adventure"

Brayden thought they were so cool

He kept wanting to give them hugs

And he couldn't forget the baby!

I'm glad that gas prices have gone down so we could continue our sunday drives and adventures! It's been a long time since we felt like we could just "drive around." :)