Decorating the Mini Tree

Dec 4 --

Now that Jon is in the Bishopric, we try to find things to keep us busy while we wait for him to come home from his meetings.

This is the tree that we bought for our first Christmas. I thought it would be fun for the boys to have it in their room. I remember one year, Rachel and I got to have a little, live tree in our room for Christmas and it sure was magical.

The tree was pre-lit and sparse with lots of dead lights so I added a strand of color lights from past years, that we weren't using. And the boys got to put all their own ornaments on it from previous years. They had a fun time.

Max's Construction Birthday Party

Dec 3 --
Ready for picture overload...

We've never done a friend birthday for Max. Zac has had a few, the younger years were mostly family friends, but last year he had a great one. This friend party was also a reward for Max feeding himself dinner for a month or so. Yes, we still have feeding issues with this one.

It had been July since the last party or event that I planned, Rachel's baby shower. I told myself no friend parties for a few years, but I felt bad that Max never got one and he's talked a lot about his birthday since August when it was mine and Zac's birthday.  I again surprisingly, felt motivated enough to plan a fun themed party-Construction. I went all out AND even did a themed cake-very impressive for me at this point in life pregnancy.

Here is the invitation I made. Max loved going around to houses to drop them off.

And the cake. Not as fancy as the pirate ship cake-but still a great one. I got the idea while looking on pinterest.com on this blog.  The inside of the cake didn't turn out as well...there were a few things I did for the first time when I made this cake, like use the wilton bake even strips, the cakes were slanted instead of domed...perhaps b/c the oven racks are not straight? and i baked them per high altitude directions and i added a ton of dye to the batter to get the colors.

The effect is there, but probably not noticeable to those who didn't know.

I think I've said it somewhere here on my blog, but the feel in a theme of a party or what not is all in the details. I had fun looking at pinterest and getting ideas from others who did construction parties.

Caution tape around My christmas tree. Hard hats and tool belts for each kiddo. We ended up having nine 3-4 year old boys. There were four girls invited but ironically none of them showed up. I'm surprised how smooth things went and all the boys were so well behaved.

I got this idea off another blog, have the kids paint a house like construction workers. I got mini rollers for moldings and door jams at the hardware store, washable crayola paint, and called a local appliance shop to get huge boxes. Jon and I cut doors and windows to make a play house. The boys loved painting it and it was so cute to watch too.

I also like this idea, found through pinterest. But they used streamers with balloons at the bottom. I think the caution tape worked out great!

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the boys made little structures with gum drops and tooth picks.

We were concerned about Zac feeling bad that he would be last to try and do everything and let the guests go have a chance first (since he's the oldest and the brother), so he was the foreman. And he did a great job and was such a good helper and had a great attitude with patience the whole time.

Painting

Gotta have balloons!

The finished job-anyone want to hire this team?

After painting we headed downstairs for the demolition site. Jon rigged up a shower rod with a small ball hanging from it for the wrecking ball.

The tower waiting for demo. The boys loved it and were pretty good at taking turns. They also liked to help re-stack the tower to crash it down again.

After demo, we headed to the garage for the piñata. (I LOVE having a bigger house!) Ever since a family friend had one in October Max has been talking about a piñata for his birthday. It was nice to get rid of the rest of the Halloween candy. I also put little toys in it for the goodie bags instead of having the goodie bags preassembled.

The little boy who was last in line was sooo anxious to get a chance to hit the piñata. Luckily we were able to support the piñata and it lasted til that last little boy hit it.

Cake eating

Max was also excited about gummy worms, so I thought it was appropriate to add them to the cake and oreo dirt crumbs.

Presents

Jon is such a good daddy. He took the play house downstairs and let the boys keep it and play in it for another couple weeks before we cut it apart for the recycling.

And I have give major props to my Honey, Jon. There is NO WAY I could have pull this off without him. He helped so much on that day and cleaned and helped put most of the house together for this party, while I made the cake. And he did great hosting the boys and ushering them from one activity to the other while I got the next thing ready, cleaned up the previous activity and took pictures. He did a great job! Thanks so much for the support Honey, I love you!!

Putting up Christmas

Nov 26 --
I'm glad to say this year, we actually got to set up Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. Jon was amazing and pulled everything out and started to set up the tree with the boys before I even got out of bed that morning!

Traditional photo of Jon helping the boys put an ornament high on the tree

Truth be told...unless your/my house has lots of angular pitches, I think outside Christmas lights are a waste. We didn't put any on the house we lived in last year and the decor felt incomplete. On our house in provo, I was never a fan of the lights either. The only way I like outside Christmas lights, is if the house looks reminiscent of a gingerbread house with the lights on :)  This year we decide to keep it simple and not completely boring. This was 2 strands.  Not my favorite. But at least its something.

They were a bright white light and a blue. We could choose either color for the night or have them switch back and forth. The best part was the remote! Yay! No going out in the cold to plug and unplug the lights.

Thanksgiving

Nov 24 --
When we started to think about Thanksgiving, I told Jon that I WAS NOT going to host this year. It was too much work and my body doesn't cooperate with that.  As you can see, it didn't work out that way....it was tricky with Jon's work needing to be close by and good internet access.  Luckily, it didn't feel like too much work. I ordered rolls from a local bakery, Emily made the pies, Jon and Jason made the apple pie, I did the jello the night before, the corn was frozen, and it just seemed to go very smoothly.

Jason, Kari and Halle came down and Emily came up. It was good to have them. I didn't even take pics of people. This is what happens when I'm too distracted with the event.

The lighting was bad, but this was my dining room set up.  Surprisingly, I felt very strongly about having the table look nice. I found a cute printable kit on pinterest and I really wanted to do it. I found some vibrant fabric to make a runner and some clearances pumpkin decorations.

Zac liked getting to write the names on the place settings

We didn't do much Black Friday Shopping, but Kari and I met up with Rachel and stopped at Cherry Lane Boutique for a while and then we went to lunch at The Pizza Factory.

First Snow-Almost

Nov 19 --
It snowed a couple inches while we were in Phoenix, but this is the first one the boys got to play in and there hasn't been more than a half to one inch since then.

They had a fun time making snow angels. Zac really really wanted to make a snowman, but the snow was too dry.

Allergies

Nov 16 --
While we were in Phoenix, Zac grabbed a cookie with a macadamia nut in it and had a bite of the nut. He'd never had one before. When he came to us and let us know, he didn't feel good and wanted to throw up...but didn't. I gave him a Benedryl and he started playing and seemed like he would be fine. But an hour or so later, he threw up a little so Jon went and laid down with him, and Zac fell asleep. Another hour or 2 later, Jon noticed that Zac had hives all over the mid section of his body. I gave him another Benedryl and put him in the bath. It didn't seem to be clearing up after 30 mins or so. I decided we'd better take him to urgent care since I didn't know what the night would hold, and since we were driving back to Utah the next morning. After being in the waiting room they started to clear up and by the time the dr saw us the hives were about gone.

We knew Zac seemed to be allergic to some nuts, like cashews. He'll throw up after eating them, even if he doesn't know they are in the food. And Max very occasionally would get small light hives on his face where bits of peanut butter got on his skin after eating a pb and j. But for the most part, the boys eat peanut butter and candy bars with no problem at all. Its been a bit awkward to tell their teachers they are allergic to nuts...but peanuts seem to be ok. Before Phoenix I'd looked into getting the boys tested so at least I would know. But it hits the deductible and would be a pricey service. Max had already met his deductible with his tubes surgery so I had an appt for him already. But after taking Zac in and talking to the Dr she was very persistent that we needed to get Zac tested too.

In response to our questions about why they seem perfectly fine with peanut butter the Dr said, its like Roulette....they could be find for years, but you never know when one time they may go into anaphylactic allergic reaction.

Waiting for the scratch test to finish. I had them put their hands in their pockets so they wouldn't scratch, and watch looney toons until they were done.

The results

Both boys are allergic to tree nuts and peanuts, dust mites, cats and some pollens. Max is allergic to dogs and Zac is allergic to sunflower and sesame..include the oils.  When buying food I've noticed that any generic brands always seem to say may contain traces of tree nuts. :( Its also been tricky at lunch time. The boys LOVED peanut butter and jelly and it was pretty much a sure bet to get Zac to eat lunch while distracted with friends at school.  Also, when it comes to tortilla chips it seems like all brands except Mission, say made with corn/and or sunflower oil.