Hello December!

 Hello December! Where did November go? Maybe it went by so quick because half of it we spent in New Jersey for the Thanksgiving holiday. November 15th Carson and I headed out to NJ to spend some time with the Penrods (Keith had to work so he came later on the 25th). Our days were filled with lots of Grandma/Grandpa and cousin time! Carson just loves his cousin Tennyson and they had so much fun together. 

The first week we went to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. This was definitely one of my favorite museums. It reminded me of the Discovery Center in Boise but A LOT BIGGER!! We had so much fun exploring this awesome science museum! Afterwards we walked across the street to see the progress on the Philadelphia Temple!

You get to walk inside this huge heart and see what the inside of a heart looks like! So fun!

Weather Woman---My new job! 

Lego Man!

Riding the waves

   

 At the end of that week we celebrate Tennyson's 8th birthday. The next day he was also baptized, I don't have any pictures from the baptism though.

Love this picture, it captures these two perfectly. Out to dinner at Applebees for Tennyson's birthday.

Playing with Tenny's birthday presents.

The next week was Thanksgiving and that means Keith would be there! He arrived Tuesday night before Thanksgiving.

I wanted a family picture on Thanksgiving and this is what Keith gave me.

The spread.

My pumpkin roll isn't pictured but it was delish!

All of us girls hit Black Friday (which is now Black Thursday) that evening and scored some sweet stuff! The next day we all went to Smithville (Catherine had to work...sad) a cute little village with lots of shops and places to eat all decorated for Christmas.

Riding the Train.

Afterwards Carson was sad because he didn't get to see Zombie Santa.

Eating out at Vesuvios afterwards. Yummy Italian food!

 Saturday we all headed to Atlantic City for some boardwalk fun!

Grandma and her grandsons

Chilling with Keith's sisters.... waiting for the light show in the Tropicana.

The beach right off the boardwalk.

AC!

Playing in the indoor sand

Following that weekend on Monday we headed to the Cape May Zoo and Cape May Beach to see the lighthouse. 

Carson took this picture, not bad!

Our favorite free Zoo! This was seriously the  most gorgeous day for December 1st! High 60s!

Eye of the Tiger!

Cape May Beach. There was a huge bunker used in WWII on the beach. It was pretty neat to see it still standing. 

Salty kisses

Cape May Lighthouse.

We had such a fun trip to NJ. We always enjoy family time. Now for the Christmas festivities!!

 

Family Photo Shoot

Last Saturday I somehow convinced Keith to do family pictures, it's his least favorite thing. I have this goal of taking family pictures every Fall so we can look back through the years and see how our family has grown. Athena gladly volunteered to take our pictures since we don't have Shae or Shiree near us anymore to take them.

I got my haircut that morning, taking a risk--I know. I got brave and just did it! I was so happy with how it turned out! After we got ready we headed to Natural Bridge only to find they had closed it that day until May. Bummer. So we headed to Glenrock instead (a small town just outside of Casper). We found a perfect spot along the river that was privately owned but the owners were there working on an RV Park and they gladly let us take pictures! We were thrilled since the sun was setting and needed to take them fast!

Here some of my favorites. Thanks again Athena!

Ignore the "you & me" sign, I forgot to move it but I still love this pic!

Till next year!!

Jump Craze

Today, Athena and I took the kids to Jump Craze. On Mondays and Thursdays for two hours they have Tot Time for kids under five. All three kids were in heaven along with us mommas! We were worn out just after a little bit of jumping with the kids, I must be out of shape. haha. The kids loved running and jumping into the foam pit, playing dodgeball, and jumping to their hearts content on all the trampolines. We'll definitely be hitting this place up a lot this Winter! 

all I have is iphone pics, a couple are blurry :(

Halloween 2014

Halloween was so fun this year! Of course Halloween has been fun every year with Carson. I missed being able to trick or treat with friends and dress up, but now having a child I can!

Halloween morning Athena, the kids and I all braved the IHOP crowds to get a free scary face pancake! The kids loved it---they didn't eat all of it because it was so huge, but it sure was fun for them! Afterwards Carson and I did some cleaning and things around the house then Athena watched Carson so I could go do some shopping! Afterwards, we had a pizza night with Athena and her family (can you tell we just love them?!), then got the kids ready and headed out trick or treating.

We started out at the McMurray Mansion (a very rich family who was first to strike oil here in Casper) --which is huge and the security guards hand out 4-5 handfuls of candy, we stayed out for about 1 1/2 hours then were about to call it quits when we saw another couple (and kids) from our ward and they told us about Stafford St. which hands out full size candy bars, so we decided to give it a try. Keith and Carson only went to about four homes because we were ready to head home, but at every home Carson got a full size candy bar! SCORE!! Who knew Casper is where the candy is at??! Seriously, I never got the candy Carson did as a kid!

Decorating their pancakes!

He's in this phase right now where he loves to stick out his tongue during pictures, I had to bribe him with M&Ms so he wouldn't do it during our family pictures yesterday.

Love this pic!

Carson was a Kangaroo again since the costume still fit him! It'll probably be the last year he'll let us put him in funny animal costumes anyway. ha.

Chopped!!

So today I chopped my hair to my shoulders! I had been growing it out but found so many cute short hairstyles on pinterest! I decided to do it today since we were going to take family pictures in the evening, so I was taking quite the risk (what if it turned out horrible?) but I got brave and just did it! And I'm loving it!!!

                                                    BEFORE

AFTER

Kinda far away---but I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of our family pics! (you can click on it to make it larger)