It's beginning to look....

These just make me smile. Luke's list of things he's thankful for.
Macaroni and Cheese
Books
Candy
Bacon
Awesome Brothers
Warm Beds

Okay- there is THE COOLEST event in our little town.
The family that does the Halloween Train, also does a Christmas Train.  It's soooo popular that they now have a registration online, and it's a lottery to see who actually gets to go.  They picked us out last minute and we got to go. It's so so so great because:
You start by taking a seat in their giant garage and watching parts of the Polar Express while you wait
Then you're seated on this mini train that takes you past all sorts of Santa Clause-ee and candy cane-ee type lit up decorations.  Then we got to the "North Pole" Inside the kids (about 10 per load--so no giant lines) get to sit with Santa, get a candy cane and tell him what they want for Christmas.
After they've all had a chance, Santa talks to all the kids about the real reason for Christmas. He shows how even looking at a Candy Cane can help them think of the Shepherds crook, and how it can be  "J" for Jesus.  Then leads us all in singing Silent Night as we get back on the train.
NOW what the train takes us past, is dozens of giant gorgeous pictures of Jesus and his life on earth.
All the while playing Christ centered music on the train.
SO SO SO GREAT.

I loved it so much. :)

So so so fun!  Andrea, Julie and me got to go to the Nutcracker this year.   It was freezing, and Andrea may have stepped into a puddle and soaked her feet through and through, but we had a GREAT time going to lunch and spending time together. I love these ladies!   I've seen it once maybe? but this time was the only time I had certified awesome dancers next to me to tell me all about the play, and the dancing.   It was a wonderful afternoon.

Luke's been going early to school every Tuesday and Thursday for choir practice.  He's so cute.  They're big performance was for a Christmas Around the World show.  He did lovely.

There's a fun house by us that totally DECKS out their place in lights and has a radio station that you can listen to  in your car that they set their lights to.  After delivering Christmas goodies with the boys, we stopped by and watched.  It was perfect timing too because the first couple of songs were Fineas and Ferb Christmas songs.  LOVE THEM! HA!

Rhett getting set to sled down the hill on one of our snow days.

Mini Golf with B.J. and Kara.  It was at Trafalga--all black lights...which is an interesting way to play mini golf...without lights....and non-glow in the dark balls and clubs......just interesting.

Kade's 3rd grade Christmas singing performance was great too.  He LOVES LOVES to make his voice go like Alvin and the Chipmunks, so my favorite song was when the whole grade sang a song like that. He looked like it was the best day EVER.

Luke has a tender heart.  For Christmas he took this coupon that he'd got from reading for an entire month, wrapped it up without prompting, and gave it to me.  I love him.

November's awesome's

Andrea surprised Kade before his birthday and took him to a BYU basketball game. HOW FUN IS THAT? I thought it was awesome and Kade had such a great great time!

Kade's journal about the experience:

My favorite part was I was anticipating it so much, and when Andrea came I was so surprised. Right before that  I said my feet were cold and mom said, maybe you should put your socks….AND shoes on.  And I asked, are we going somewhere, and mom said, MAYBE.  So then Andrea showed up and she said, “guess what we got?” what? “Basketball tickets!—guess when they are?” When, “Right now!”

That night I got to bed at like 10:00

We got there right after Half time, and we parked at the football stadium and walked to the Marriott center.  The game was so cool!  Cause I got sour jacks—watermelon, and BYU won (they played Georgia State) 

Andrea’s a really fun aunt. I felt really awesome—I don’t know why, I just did.

Kade's invited his friend Adam to be his +1 for this years family birthday. They decorated the cake.  Apparently the design on the bottom is a symbol they write for a club they have.

We went to Trafalga, played in the arcade and all the boys played Laser Tag.

3 lessons I’ve learned from life are:

1.     Never Tickle a Sleeping Baby

2.     Books are awesome.

3.     I’ve learned that whenever I’m nice to my brother—he’s SOMETIMES nice back

Things that make me happy:

No homework days, days off of school, Christmas break, mom, dad, my whole family, trafalga, basketball games, walking home from school…when it’s not too hot, snow.

Jess is RAD!
Seriously, he's so rad.  I bought tickets awhile back to a Off Broadway Play that made fun of Twilight. SOOOOO, he totally watched all 4 with me so we'd get the jokes right?  So when the 5th and final movie came out, guess who totally took me to it? JESS DID!  I love that man!  (we walked in and laughed at the fact that we were the only ones there.  When it started there were a few others who joined us. :)
Also, I'm not ashamed to say, that I totally LOVED this last one. It was so great. And it had been at least 4 years since I'd read the book so I was so surprised by so much of it.  It was great.  Good times.

Dad decided to make dinner with the boys one Sunday. This was their menu. :)  His goal was to have them be so excited about the uniqueness of the food, that they wouldn't care that there were vegetables! And it was soooo close to working (I tell you, these boys sure do hate their veges)  But it was fun!

Rhett's first experience at the Dentist. Seriously, dentist office's are rad now!  T.V.'s in the ceiling? So great!  He was nervous, but did awesome.

Our First Utah SNOW!!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!  TURNS OUT WE LOVE THE SNOW!

I've been so worried that having been away from the snow for so long was going to ruin me and that I'd hate the snow.  But NO!  We love love love it!  What made me laugh was when it snowed a little earlier this month and I realized that we needed to buy everyone snow gear since we haven't been in Utah since Kade was 2.  So when the full storm hit, we were prepared with coats, bibs, gloves, boots...the works.  Turns out playing in the snow is WONDERFUL as long as I stay warm and dry.

 Rhett was sooo excited to go out and play in the snow.  I got him all bundled up and set him out.  I watched him from the warmth of the house for a few minutes...just picking up snow and eating it, kicking snow...and then I couldn't take it anymore. I had to throw on a coat and go out and play in the first snow with him. AND YAY!!!  It was wonderful!

You know how there are tons of parenting moments you wish you could take back?  Times when you're just lame and don't pay attention to your kids the way you should, or don't take the time to play with them or do all sorts of dumb things instead and then at the end of the day during your prayers you just feel like a horrible parent? Well this wasn't one of those times and it felt soooo good.  For realsies.

At any rate, Rhett loved the snow, we filled up spray bottles with water and food coloring and gave him a green shirt with buttons and blue jeans.  We didn't have the traditional long carrot for the nose...so we chose Broccoli, which is why Rhett, with his straight forward imagination....named him "Broccoli Face."

Kade left for school that morning and insisted that it wasn't cold enough to need his coat (no snow at this point). So instead of fight that fight again, I said okay.  By the time school let out there was 3 inches and the sky wasn't letting up.  So, I picked the boys up, they came home and immediately dressed in their snow gear and headed down with some friends to the baseball park down the street. (it's got some great hills)

Luke came home before me and Rhett got down there crying and saying Kade had kicked him and he didn't want to go back....rad....sometimes (often) they're not so nice to each other and may or may not exchange wrestling each other down to the ground......Then when I walked down the street with Rhett and LOVED the scene of probably 20 neighborhood kids all playing in the snow and sledding together.  Then one of the boys came up to me and said, 'You're two boys were fighting and one hit the other and then he kicked him and then he went home crying....." to which Kade continued the story and said that since Luke hit him, he'd pushed Luke's sled down the hill....ahhhhhhh!  whats worse then having to walk down a sledding hill to get your sled...that was rough.  At any rate, they made up later--and now the Winns have an awesome reputation for solving their problems with violence. :)  nice.

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PICTURE. This is Kade's good friend Adam getting run over by the other sleds as they tried to form a train down the hill....HA!! I love his smile---so amazing!

I just wanted to point out that we now have slightly better attire for snow then we had in GA :)

Halloween 2012

This year's costumes:

Max-Lion

Rhett-'Pider-Man'

Luke and Kade--Mummys

They got to wear their costumes to school for the parade.

Mom and Max before we ventured off to go Trick-Or-Treating
This year had record setting high temperatures which I LOVED. We walked around without jackets it was so nice. Woo Woo!

I never have those pumpkins around for trick-or-treat candy--they don't stack well and i don't like that.  But Rhett was having a hard time finding the opening of his pillow case. Soooo..we used safety pins to secure make-shift ribbon handles for Rhett's pillow case which I thought was genius!  Seriously--it was awesome!

Jess took Max home after about 20 minutes because he was ready for bed.  He was going to take Rhett too, but Rhett was having so much fun and wanted to keep going so I said I'd keep him with me.  Well, joke was on me, because 2 houses after Jess left he said he was tired. So I carried him the rest of the night.
We ran into the boys good friends on the way so they got to trick-or-treat with them and it was wonderful!

Afterwards with their loot!

Oh the 'Fall'-ness of it All

At the Park one saturday. It was an awesome day. Me and the boys went to Wal-mart, picked up everyone's favorite lunch-able, and went to this cute park that my friends call 'scooter park' because there's a little path all around it for the kids to ride their bikes and scooters.  Plus the most ridiculously huge sheep I've ever seen...laughable they're so huge.

We just took a quick pic after church one Sunday because it was such a beautiful day.

While Jess, Dad, and B.J. were at the mens session of conference, mom and I had a kids night. We made Frankenstein luminaries and Spooky cupcakes.  

When we drove up to Wyoming this last time we about had to stop the car just so we could stare at the beauty that was the canyon.  WOWZA. I wish pictures could do God's creations justice.  We've been given such an incredibly amazing place to live!

Hot Cocoa to warm everyone up while watching Aladdin.

 Baseball in the backyard.

Here are some clips from our last visit and backyard baseball.

Luke Getting Tackled (during baseball)

Kade hitting the baseball while hool-a-hooping :)

Aunt Andrea and Rhett. I love this picture :)

Grandma Winn playing with Rhett, teaching him his letters.

Since we were doing pumpkins so early this year, we decided to paint them instead of carve, which I LOVED cause the boys could actually do it, instead of pick a design and stand back.  (oh, and for some reason B.J. and Kara got cut off at the end...hence the fancy dubbing.)

Rhett painting and re-painting his pumpking. He LOVED it and did probably a million coats.

Dad's a U fan (mostly to vex the neighbors) and Kade has taken it upon himself to represent the Y in the household. :)

Love this!  A#1: B.J.'s eating his paint.  And B#2: this is the most AMAZING picture bomb I've ever seen done by Jess. Love it! HA HA.

So, this Nightmare Express was awesome! There is a family down the street from us that owns a whole bunch of property and has built a train track on it. They set up tunnels all over that are filled with spooky things ('pooky fings' if you ask rhett) and little kids actors and actresses.  It takes a good 5 minutes to go through it all and it's just so awesome. Plus, it's totally free.  A friend of mine invited us and we all went down for some pre-halloween awesomeness.  The boys did great--Rhett got nervous and didn't so much 'like' it, but was brave.

FALL-ING!!!

The boys have been looking forward to this for months.  The tree out back drops a fair amount of leaves.  So, we rake them up...and jump into them from the tree house.  

Max during the raking...

Luke...

Kade...

We got out the outside kid's table so Rhett could jump into the leaves as well...I loved this particular 'dive' of Kade's! HA!

Jess bought 3 ninja costumes at the after Halloween Sales. It was awesome to see the boys in all different colored costumes being crazies in the back yard...i didn't however get a picture of all of them...but here's Lukes--he was rad!

Luke had 2 sets of Vampire Teeth. He was brushing them...ha! It made me laugh.