Church Christmas Party!

Last Saturday was our ward Christmas party! I always like attending church parties because I don't have to cook a whole dinner and it is fun to watch Cadence be a "big girl." She is so social and knows everyone by name! I love that about her!!! This year we dressed Cadence in a Christmas dress (She says she looks like a present - especially with the bows in her hair) and Cooper in the Santa outfit he wore for Halloween (that won him $30). He has grown so much that I can't get all the buttons to close!!! Oh well, he still looked cute! We ate bbq pork, funeral potatoes, salad and dessert! Cadence loved the pork!!! I fixed my yummy peppermint poke cake! It was a hit! Instead of topping it with peppermint patties, I crushed peppermint candy cane and sprinkled it on top! Cadence just ate the frosting and left the cake part for me. Super fabulous!!!




The activities committee prepared a slide show of all the activities for the year and we exchanged names to do a service for a different family in the ward. The primary sang a few songs. I sent Cadence up with older kids. She didn't know the songs, but figured out part of the chorus of two songs by the end. She is so smart!!! We love our Christmas kids (even with frosting on her face). We love Christmas parties!!!

Time with Mimi's Family

Cadence and Cooper have been adopted by a family. "Mimi" and Carl act like an extra set of grandparents, and their kids act like aunts and uncles. Cadence absolutely loves all of them and their house!!! She often asks if she can go to Mimi's to play.

Last Thursday, Jen - who is one of my heroes - invited us to hear her sing at a Christmas program. She did well and I loved going to spend time with my special friends. While we were there, Thomas asked if he could take Cadence for the day on Friday to play with her. She wanted to go and so we agreed for the play date.
The following day, we met Thomas and Sharli at (Old) McDonald's for lunch. Jen works there and Cadence loves the playland, hamburger happy meal and a hot fudge sundae. After eating and playing, she left with Thomas. Cooper and I went home. I actually got a few things accomplished, which included sewing some items for a baby shower/party for my friend KimberLeigh. Later that evening, we drove to Mimi's for the baby party and found a very happy Cadence. She had had a blast! One of the favorite things she had done was play the drums with Rock Star(?)
Even though Cadence is so much younger than many of the kids she plays with, she just acts like one of the big kids. She loves Mimi's house and all the people there. Thank you for being part of her life!!!

Cadence Funnies

Cadence is so funny. These are just a few of the funny things she has said or done lately.

When Cadence wakes up in the morning, she stands at the top of the stairs and calls for me. I walk up to greet her and assist her in getting ready. As we go down the stairs, she tells me her rules for them. I have to stay on my side (the north side), and I have to traverse them how she says (walking, on my bottom, backwards, etc.) She gets upset if I don't do as she says. It's nice being a slave to my beautiful daughter!

Cadence has this really cute pajama outfit. When I put it on her the first time I called her a "Chickeemonkey." She said, "I'm not Chickeemonkey. I'm Chickeemonkey Cadence." Whenever she wears those pajamas, she takes on a new persona.

Cooper started eating baby food. At first, she said he can't eat because "he doesn't have teeth." She got this from me because of the many times I have caught her trying to share something chewy or hard with him. At Thanksgiving, somebody asked if Cooper wanted a plate of food (obviously joking). Cadence said, "No. He eats Mommy's booby!" She understands the facts of life!

After church on Sundays, she loves to run around in the gym. Her shoes on the floor are just musicv to her ears. We were running around when an older man walked into the gym. She turned to me and asked, "Is that the prophet?" I told her that she should ask him that question. So she ran over to the man and asked, "Are you the prophet?" He said no!!!

Since Cooper's been born, she has regressed in potty training. She won't poop in the potty. But if she gets up and runs out of the room suddenly, chances are she is running into the bathroom. She shuts the door, puts a can behind it (so I supposedly can't get in) and goes poop in the bathroom in her diaper! I'm glad she knows what the bathroom is for!

I love my Cadence!!!

Thanksgiving Treat

For Thanksgiving this year, my family went to my sister's house in Ogden. The Canyons condo was too small to fit all of us at the same time and we would have had to eat in shifts. Sandy has a large kitchen an house and fit all of us at one long extended table (minus Chris and Russ who wanted to sit at the island where the food was eing served so they didn't have to get out of their seat to get more food!!

Thanksgiving dinner was perfect. Everyone brought a food item and, of course, we gorged ourselves. My favorite was the jello-cream cheese-pretzel "salad." I love that people call it a salad because that means I get to eat dessert twice!!!!
Sandy's, Jeff's, and Natalie's families were there as was my mom. It was nice to be with my family for Thanksgiving. The last two, we spent in Louisiana and Texas with Chris' family.

After the feast, the cousins had fun dressing up and making up plays which they performed for the adults. Some of the grown-ups played "Setttlers" which is a must at family gatherings. We ate birthday cake and talked. I love Thanksgiving.

Playing in Park City

Last week, my mom had a timeshare at the The Canyons in Park City. We stayed Tues. and Wed. night as a family and Cadence had a sleepover with the cousins and Grammy on Thursday night while we stayed in Ogden to go shopping. It was lots of fun and very relaxing!Cadence was so excited to go swimming! She talked about all the way down there. She still doesn't like to get her face wet and holds tightly to us, but she loves it!!! Cooper is a fish. He was in heaven - Kicking, splashing, floating on his back, laughing for an hour. Water in his face was joy!!! They are going to love next summer. One time Cadence wanted to go swimming, but I didn't want to get chlorine all over our bodies again. So we filled the two-person jet tub in the condo and swam in there. Nice and warm!!! Unfortunately, Cadence didn't like the jets!!!
While in Park City, Cadence painted ornaments with her cousins, Syd and Cole. She LOVES to paint!!!
We also shopped at the factory outlets, watched Kelsie play basketball at North Summit, were extra silly, put our feet up and relaxed!!! We love mom's timeshares so we get mini-vacations!

Birthdays Galore!!!

There are so many birthdays in the end of November. It is a really fun time for us to celebrate and sing "Happy Birthday" in our obnoxious way. If you've missed our birthday song rendition, you have missed out!

Cadence went to her first friend birthday party. Bridget turned 3.
She was probably one of the youngest kids there and I think she really enjoyed all the activities (and ice cream)! They played with balloons, did limbo, the hokey-pokey, opened presents, danced to music, and got a PEZ dispenser with candy. Cadence thought her PEZ tiger was the bomb!!! She loved the blow-toy thing. (I don't know what you call it.) Cadence picked out a little stuffed animal from Monsters Inc. to give Bridget and I gave her some leg/arm warmers. Thanks for inviting us. Tina, you are an awesome mom!

That evening, I'm sad to announce, was a birthday dinner for me. Chris knows I dislike celebrating my birthday so he usually takes me to dinner and has a few friends join us there. I'm not sure if I should call them a surprise party or not because I usually figure it is going to happen. This year, he took us to the Olive Garden.
Our downstairs tennants, Frank and Miranda, the Gutkes, Fredricksons and Denny and Claudia were there. The dinner was yummy! Thanks for the dinner and not making too big of a deal out of that "special" day! I can't believe I am 32! It sounds so old!

On Thanksgiving day, my family got a birthday cake for my sister, Natalie, and me.
Chris' mom and sister-in-law also have the end-of-November birthdays too! Happy Birthday to all of us!

Demolition progress!

We decided to demolish and enlarge Cadence's closet too. (Thanks to Bersjo's for letting her and Cooper come play so we could get this done!!!) Her closet was about 4 ft wide, 3 ft deep and 5 ft tall. We told her it could be a new playroom and closet. She's exited about the playroom part and keeps talking about it!!! We obviously weren't ready by Friday and delayed the insulation people from coming.

Chris had to update the wiring in the bedroom and add lights and outlets to the inside of both closets. There was no electricity/lights in the closets and they were very dark. Since the hall closet will be more than double its original size and Cadence's will be 10x as big, we needed to be able to see in them. Chris is amazing! He has learned how to do most of the electrical work from a book. He wired the whole basement from what he learned in that book!!! I love my hard working husband. He is my rockstar!!!

I don't know when the insulation people will come. I don't know if we need to sheetrock it before they blow the insulation in or after.