More Parks!

W discovered a park in our neighborhood we didn't even know was there!  hehe!  We checked it out but it wasn't our favorite.

Little chefs

These two have really grown to love helping us cook.  Charlie especially loves to be involved in the kitchen.

Organzing

(Repeat for those on instagram)

Adella is such a little organizer.  She likes to put all of one kind of thing together.  She also likes to bring her toys to you and let you hold them all.   She woke up before Charlie one day and decided to bring me all the balls and all the powerade bottles, you know in case I got thirsty!  I tried to put a few balls on the couch, but she insisted they all be on my lap.

And then she took them all down and lined them up in a row.  She actually lined the balls up over and over in different configurations.   It's so fun to watch her little personality develop!  She is  very particular about the way certain things need to be. 

Little Crazies

Nap time is wonderful, after naptime not so much.  Naptime generally ends with lots of screaming and tears and continues for quite awhile afterwards.  But one magic day I was alerted to their waking up with plenty of giggles.  I let them just giggle for quite awhile because it was so darn cute.  Finally I went in to see what was going on and they were both jumping in their beds.   And as I got closer, I noticed Charlie was all out of sorts with his shirt!

Yep, he has both arms out of the sleeves, one arm is up through the neck hole and the whole thing is backwards.  I don't know how he managed that!

Oh Christmas Tree

I debated a lot on if we should put the tree up and how to decorate it if at all.    Some said no, some said they would be good and you just show them not to touch anything and it would be fine.   Um, I doubted that!  Even if I just used plastic ones, Charlie thinks anything round is a ball (even nasty egg shells out of the garbage) so he would have to play with it and throw them!    Finally I came up with a solution.   I made tulle pom poms!   They are perfect.  I don't care if they get messed up, and Charlie and Adella can put them on themselves.  I knew if I used other ornaments if they took them off they would never get them back on and that would frustrate both of them.  I wanted the tree to be something fun and magical, and not to have to constantly say NO when they touched it (I have to do enough of that already!).  So it's not the prettiest tree ever, but it's simple and still magical in their eyes. I still need to get out the tree skirt and see how that goes and put the topper on. But for now, here it is!  And I bet you can't guess who put all the white ones on.

Thanksgiving

I wasn't very good at documenting Thanksgiving.  I wasn't feeling great and was completely exhausted by the time we actually started eating!   We were in charge of the Turkey's this year.  We brined two of them and did one in the oven and the other on a rotisserie on the grill.  Oh my gosh, the one on the grill was the best turkey ever!  I wish I would have got a picture of that, but it was amazing!

Charlie and Adella discovered how fun a trampoline can be.  Charlie especially loved it and was getting pretty good at bouncing.  It's so fun to watch kids learn how to jump!

And Adella learned how awesome chocolate pie can be!

And we all appreciated the gorgeous AZ weather that allowed us to enjoy being outside as well!

Making Waffles

Helping mom make waffles for lunch.  Yes, we had waffles for lunch.  Sometimes a mom just runs out of tricks!

Just for fun

My friend Laurel and I have been trading off babysitting one day a week so we each have a couple of hours to do the things we need/want to!  She took some cute pics of the kids playing outside one day. 

These kids!

I often find myself saying, quit being so cute to this girl!

And this guy loves yogurt

Guess who's home!

We welcomed home our favorite missionaries right before Thanksgiving!  It was a long 3 1/2 years!  Grandma and Grandpa Button left with only 2 grandkids and came home to 9, with 3 more on the way!

There were lots of picture takers and I was off to the side and didn't realize until just now that I am missing poor Bristol in this picture!  And of course we are missing Rowan and Sadie but will be so excited to have everyone together in a few weeks!

A couple insta pics

Here are a few insta pics for my friends not on instagram.  

We love story time at the library and often go with our friend Nora.  This day Nora and Adella were dressed EXACTLY alike!   This is even more hilarious because we have a friend at church who once said that Nora is going to be pretty upset when she realizes she isn't a triplet!  And no, we did not plan the outfits and we did not stage them on the bench.  This is totally them!

We also recently bought a van!   That whole 3rd kid thing will do that to you!  I was actually very excited and had wanted a van for a long time - hello automatic doors???   The dealership was very nice and had a play area for kids.  Our kids loved playing with the legos even though they were a little too small for them to build with. 

Veggie Tales House Party

I got another party from HouseParty.com .  This time it was a Veggie Tales party.  They sent a DVD, Christmas CD, random toys and plates, cups and napkins.   The kids honestly weren't too interested in the movie.  Well my kids were, but it's there house!  Everyone else wanted to play with all the cool toys that weren't theirs! We did watch the DVD later and it was pretty cute.  They also sent some great coupons for the other party goers to use.   

This was our best attempt at a group picture.  Um, yeah.   It really is the best one!

The most exciting thing they sent, at least in Adella's eyes, was a roll of 100 stickers!  Oh she was in heaven!  They pulled off nice and easy and provided for great entertainment!

Blankets

Adella has grown quite fond of blankets lately, mostly she likes to drag them all out all over the place.  Sometimes she likes them all laid neatly out on the floor so she can sit on them.  In her crib she has to have her blanket laid out neatly to sleep on.  She freaks out if there is a corner up!

But sometimes she is cute and cuddly with them too.  I couldn't get over how cute it was when she snuggled up to the bear!

Charlie of course needed some snuggling too!