Polar Express

What a busy and jolly month we have had so far! I love how each December the amount of posts I do triples. Maybe it's safe to say that it's the most wonderful time of the year. Last weekend we had our annual Polar Express party at Mimi and Papa's house. It started with a marshmallow snowball fight and ended with a tired group of cousins trying to last through the night. There was lots of fun, food and hot chocolate in between.

patiently waiting for their "snowball"

getting ready for the fight...

GAME ON!

He might have taken a bite out of every mallow that was propelled his direction... I was quite proud.

Then all the littles gathered round for Papa to read them a story...

...and barely made it through the first few pages.

Oh what fun was had!

O Christmas Tree

Last weekend Tan, Guns and I made our way to the tree lot to pick out the most glorious, splenderific tree that we could find. It has been decades since I have had a real tree in our house. As you can imagine I was a little enthusiastic for the entire adventure (and maybe a little iphone camera crazy).

Gunnar went around and smelled every single tree. I think it was his way of deciding on the best one. It clearly worked. I just might use that tactic next year.

Once the tree was beautified, Gunnar kept bringing Tan to smell it with him. These will be framed.

Hannanananannananah

For the past five weeks we were pleasantly graced by the presence of my favorite little sister! I think it's safe to say - and I'm sure more accurate than I would like to admit - that Gunnar had the time of his life with her here to play with him everyday all day. Although I know the most likely reason for her stay was for the little man himself, I like to believe that she came to hang out with me too. It can get lonesome not living down the street from your family. I sure enjoyed the daily chats and help she gave me during this time. It means more than I could put into words. Hannah, if you read this, you are more than welcome to come back as soon as you want to! Here are a few things Gunnar loves about Hannah:

movies and popcorn,

new adventures,

new rides,

afternoon walks,

new games,

dance parties,

someone to play with on car rides,

Hannah's fashion sense,

matching,

 and lots and lots of kisses!!

Thank you so much for all of your help Hannah! It means more than you know.... WLYTTMTYCES

stuffed

Yet again, we got to host the feast for Thanksgiving this year! We ate lots, and still have plenty of left overs. Grampy made a couple batches of his famous fudge and Grammy made her famous wassail. The smells that filled our house made all the memories of childhood holidays come rushing back and that alone made the weekend extraordinary.

...and that's how his plate looked the rest of the night. He wouldn't touch it.

The husbands played Rook long into the wee hours of the evening, the boys primarily stayed in the playroom and the girls chatted and cooked... and then we all crashed.

Gunnar and Wade just loved spending time with Grampy. They came up with all sorts of fun games to play with him. Some of which included Gunnar falling into the pool and those swim lessons sure paid off! By the end of the weekend, they found that falling from great heights was indeed the way to go.

No Work and All Play

Tan took a half day at work so the four of us (Hannah too!) decided to head to the zoo. Gunnar took his nap extra late that day so it was 3:30ish when we finally left the house to visit the animals but we had to run a few errands first. At around 4:00 we were finally on the road for sure this time. I thought it might be a good idea to check out what time the zoo closes... 4:30. At least I was smart enough to call. Tanner was bummed, Gunnar was bummed and I was tired. I quickly tried to come up with a good idea that would be worth Tanner taking time off of work. Enter: Bass Pro Shop. This place is like a grown man's Disneyland and the second those words escaped my lips Tanner's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

The holidays are by far the best time to visit this joint. They have a huge aquarium filled with elephant sized fishies, popcorn, crafts, games, rides and pictures with Santa all for FREE! As in... no money! The boys were in heaven and Hannah and I had fun too. Gunnar particularly ejoyed his time with Santa and we thoroughly enjoyed the picture we got of him.

Guess who's staying with us for a whole month!

This girl!

Halloweenie

I must say that Halloween was a blast this year! I love that G is big enough for us to use him as our decoy to take candy from our neighbors. He has not eaten one piece of his trick-or-treat candy... but Tanner might have a stash in his nightstand. We started off the weekend at my parent's trunk-or-treat with cousin Wade. I love theirs because the entire stake puts it on which makes for a gazillion cars and even more kids roaming row after row in a parking lot. When else is that ever a good idea? It took all of one car before Gunnar realized that all he had to to was to walk up to someone, bat his pretty little eyelashes and in return he got his choice of sugar! He was an instant fan.

SO EXCITED!!!

We walked around handcuffed to make it just a bit easier for me to keep up.

We also spent the eve of Halloween at our own ward's trunk-or-treat but I was slacking and did not snap one photo. Halloween night we once again put Gunnar's costume on and by now he knew that the longer he kept it on, the more candy he would get. His eyes lit up when I handed him his candy bag. We ate chili with Tanner's parents and hung out with all of the cousins to see their costumes then headed home. Tanner took the boy to a few houses while I stayed home with Hannah and our friends brought over donuts and cider. We blasted Halloween music from our outside speakers and told kids to take all the candy their hands could carry. It was all that I hoped for and Gunnar slept in the rest of the week.