New floor

What a December we have had! SO busy! It all started with our downstairs bathroom toilet leaking and ruining the floor. Note to all those in the neighborhood-put a wax seal on your toilet because Sundance homes didn't put them on! We had talked about replacing our flooring anyway, so this was just our push to do it a little earlier than we had planned on. What a huge project!! I had no idea how much work it would be. Never again. I will hire someone if I ever have to do it again. We decided to put tile in our bathroom and fake wood through the rest of our main floor. This meant doing backerboard, grout, ripping up carpet, adding subfloor and lots of use of a miter saw! I am tired just thinking about it. My fingers were totally red and in pain for about a week! We are so happy with the results and are loving our carpet free main area. Picture above is of James doing the backerboard in the bathroom.

The "finished" tile job-we still need to go back and do more grout. I need a break though, so it won't be for a few more weeks.

The wood up close and personal-photo by Preston

kitchen view

All the way through to the family room and into the front room-so glad it's over!

Thanksgiving with the twins

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year with the Tenney side. We had fewer numbers with people going to inlaws, so we were all able to fit at my moms house. It was so nice! It was fun to see all of the family that came but the highlight of the day was getting to meet my cousin Sean's twins, Olivia and Sophie. They were born at the end of September and are the sweetest little baby girls ever. Here is a cute picture of Sean's mom holding her granddaughters.

Sophie Michael

Olivia Sean (I hope I am saying the right name for the right baby)

Uncle Jeff, James, Carl

We ate so much yummy food I was stuffed for the rest of the day! The men assuming their position of hand down their pants and relaxing. haha James doesn't quite know what to do!

Aunt Stephanie with Sophie

Grandma Tenney with her great granddaughters

Aunt Taffy, Grandma, Karen, Sophie, Olivia

Here is all 4 generations together. Doesn't Karen look fantastic?! She is also nursing the twins and going to school! She should win an award. It was bittersweet to not have Sean there to enjoy the girls with us, but I am so grateful that they are here and healthy. Happy late Thanksgiving!

First Snowman

We got dumped with snow last night! The first big snow of the season that has stuck. The day before it was 60 degrees. Crazy Utah weather! Although it has been pretty nice to not have any real snow until the end of November. The boys had so much fun helping daddy make their snowman.
They also had to help shovel the driveway. I told Carter to smile and he posed just like this. Snow pile in hand, head cocked to one side, and big smile on his face. Perfect. Notice Preston isn't helping at all and is just tromping through the snow. Typical.
James had a genius idea to give the boys dustpans to use as snow shovels. Perfect size for them!
James has now shoveled the driveway twice in the past 12 hours. He also shoveled a bunch of the neighbors driveways and the sidewalks. He's obsessed to say the least!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Two happy boys with a job almost done!

Remember Remember the 5th of November

I forgot to post these before Presto's birthday...we celebrated Bonfire Night! For those of you who don't know what bonfire night is, it is an English holiday on the 5th of November. It is the day that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the houses of parliament in London. He didn't succeed, and was thrown into the tower of London. Now they celebrate by creating huge bonfires and putting a little "Guy" doll on the top. They also light fireworks, eat baked potatoes (or jacket potatoes as the British call them), and hot dogs. Above is a picture of our tree out front on that day. I think it had every color possible! I love autumn.
We had some left over sparklers from 4th of July that we lit in honor of Bonfire Night, complete with Preston's fabulous outfit he picked out himself.

Ode to Preston

I absolutely love this picture. This is TOTALLY Preston. He is my little dancing goofball.
Today is his birthday. 4 years old. Seriously.
He has absolutely no fear of anything or anyone. He loves to run away from me and anyone in charge of him. He thinks it's hilarious. I have learned that the only thing that will get him to come back is to get in my car and start driving away, that usually gets him coming back pretty fast.
He loves to tell jokes. His latest is, "What does a duck eat?"...Quackers! hahaha
He laughs at all of his own jokes. He is his biggest fan, besides me of course.
He has also made up his own little move that is a hip thrust to one side while saying SMOOOOOTH. If you haven't it yet, you need to. It is hilarious. He loves to perform for whomever will watch. Goes back to the no fear thing. He really has the best dance moves and rhythm of any kid I know. I need to get him in hip-hop. He would love it!
He also loves to change words and make up new ones for them. The other day he was saying goodbye to the bus. He yells out-Goodbye Hussy! I laughed as usual.
I think he likes to get in trouble. He wonders how I will react to things. He has cut the string on my blinds, poured jello, pectin, shampoo, and nyquil into my carpet, and other random acts of deviant behavior. If I don't see him do it, he will ALWAYS come and tell me. He is so proud of his work. Little stinker.
His older brother is his biggest hero. He thinks Carter is the coolest. He has recently decided that he likes baby Claire...but only when he feels like it.
He is my big helper. I can trick him into doing almost anything if he thinks he is "helping" me. He is a really good cleaner and is pretty organized.
He is still sucking his thumb. Is it bad that I still find it adorable? I promise I will make him stop before kindergarten, but he will have to think it's his idea or else it won't happen. He's stubborn like that. He also loves to have a single hair wrapped around his thumb while he sucks it. It is the grossest, weirdest, habit ever.
He has a tender little heart. If he knows someone is sad, he will always be right there to give them a hug or share with them. He loves to have me give him "squeezie tights." He will say he wants to give me 100 kisses and hold up his ten fingers. It is the cutest thing ever.
Preston is a night owl, just like me. When James and I go in to check on him at night before we go to bed he is 98% of the time not in his bed. It is kind of a game to see where he will end up. Usually he has his pillow over his head and is laying in the corner on the floor.
He is really into say "ya know" after everything lately. For example-"Mommy, I have school today ya know! " I also love when he says actually. Aaaactuawwwweee, no.
I could go on and on. I am so glad he is in our family. He really is the coolest kid I know. I am one proud mama. Happy 4th Birthday Presto. We love you so much!

Milestones

Claire tried rice cereal for the first time today. I have totally forgotten how LONG it takes to feed a baby rice cereal! What a mess too! She did love it though and ate almost the whole bowl full. She is almost 6 months old. Where has the time gone?
Carter lost his first tooth at my mom's house after trick or treating on the 30th. It had been really loose for about a week and I could not get it out! James is a wuss and can't stand to see loose teeth, so my brother Kevin finished the job. Carter was really brave and let him try to get it out like 5 times! The one next to it is very loose now so he has the billy bob hillybilly look on his bottom teeth. He can't wait for it to come out so he can get another quarter from the tooth fairy. Isn't the tooth fairy generous to give him a whole quarter? He doesn't understand the concept of how much things are worth, so he was so excited about it. I hope he doesn't compare notes with the other kids in the neighborhood. haha I have a kid losing teeth, how did the time fly by so fast?

Snow and Halloween

I knew there was a reason we should take down the trampoline! Look at all this snow we got! The boys were soo excited to get out and play in it. I was surprised how long they stayed out there.
Carter loves throwing snowballs in Preston's face. After awhile Preston finally gets one or two back at Carter. The woes of being the younger sibling...I feel Preston's pain.
In true Utah fashion, the snow melted by the next day, and it was time for Preston's preschool Halloween party. He was so excited to dress up as Black Iron Man. Here he is with his "girlfriend" Saige. She was disappointed that he wasn't a prince since she was dressing up as a princess. She even taught him how to kiss a princess on the hand. These two are hilarious together.
Now for the REAL trick or treating with James. Of course it was raining but they went out when the clouds lifted for a while and luckily stayed dry. Carter was bumblebee the transformer, James as a gangsta, and Preston as Black Iron Man.
Notice the amazing barbed wire tattoo I drew freehand on James' arm. That along with the money necklace and under armour hat...priceless.

Isn't she the cutest little pink kitty cat you have ever seen?

I think the tail is the best part!

After trick or treating, we went over to my mom's house for her yummy chicken soup and time to show the cousins our costumes. I can't believe we are in November already! Bring on the Christmas music!

Winter is right around the corner,,,

It is getting cold outside. I woke up to snow outside this morning! Halloween is coming in a few days, so I knew I needed to go and get some pumpkins to carve for family night. These are a few pics I took a few days ago just randomly. Preston is in LOVE with his skeleton jammies. They glow in the dark too, pretty cool.

Claire loves to be in her bumbo when I am making dinner or doing dishes.

We had so much fun carving pumpkins. The boys got a little more picky this year with their requests, so James had to get on the computer to get some templates to carve from. This picture makes me laugh because Carter is holding Claire's face so she will look at the camera. My older sister Melanie would do the same thing to me, except I was about 6 or 7.
Cutest picture ever!!

I had to get a picture of her adorable little socks/ballet slippers. Girly accessories are the best!

Remember this face Claire is making...

Hard at work

After the pumpkins were carved, we decided we needed to get the trampoline down. We had 60 mph winds last night that made part of it come unhinged and I figured that was our tip to get it down before more snow and weather ruin it.

These were used as walking sticks, guns, and almost hit Preston in the head a few times.

With the tramp down, it was dark enough to light up the pumpkins. Carter is sitting next to his bat pumpkin, Preston is by his skull pumpkin, and remember the face that Claire was making?

We decided to recreate it in pumpkin form! :) Happy Halloween! Next post will be our fun costumes!

Feeling Domestic

This is just a small sample of all the jars I have canned these past few weeks. First I did some salsa with my sisters. This was a first for me, but was pretty easy and the salsa is delicious!! I shared it at bunco night with my girlfriends and they all loved it too, so we planned a night for me to teach them how to make it. It was so much fun canning with friends, and we got 82 pint jars canned in one night! Pretty awesome. I haven't canned peaches in about 5 years and was missing them as my topper for pancakes and waffles, so my mom and I decided to can some together. She also had a neighbor give her a recipe for apple pie filling which we had both received as a Christmas gift before and loved. We canned ALL DAY (about 9 hours) and got so much done. It was so fun to spend some alone time with my mom just talking about life and laughing. We also turned on the Beatles and danced and sang around the kitchen. I loved it! All in all I now have 34 pint jars of salsa, 19 quarts of peaches, and 16 quarts of apple pie filling. I feel so accomplished and loved lining the jars on my food storage shelf. I go down and stare at them sometimes! ha ha
A post wouldn't be complete without a few cute pictures of my kids! Claire loves her daddy so much. It melts my heart.
Carter loves to play with his little sister. He still loves to kiss her all the time and talk in a baby voice to her. It is hilarious to hear him talk just like I do to her. You don't think they pay attention to you, until they copy word for word everything you say! Yikes!

The blue eyes are here to stay folks. I love them!

4 months

Claire is getting so big! She has started to get such a fun, sweet little personality. She just had her 4 month checkup on Friday so I figured it was time to post some pics and her stats.

She weighs 12 lbs 8 oz-10th percentile...our tiny girl.

She is 24 inches long-25th percentile

43.5 for head circumference-95th percentile...she is definitely an English! haha

She has her hand in her mouth almost always and is a Mommy's girl big time. She can't roll over yet, but seems to somehow scoot herself around in a circle to get whatever she is reaching for on her little play mat.

She has started laughing too, which is fun. I try to tickle her and she laughs in this low man voice like she doesn't want to laugh, but can't help it.

Her hair is about 5 different colors and is starting to fall out on the sides. I hate baby hair. It is so wispy and long in weird places. She still has quite a bit on the top that I can pull into a clip or ponytail, which always makes her look so old! I can't believe 4 months have already gone by. I don't want her to get any bigger!!

In other news...these 2 are really enjoying school. Carter is doing so good in kindergarten. He will only tell me things about school when he feels like it, which is never right after school. I have learned to not even ask him about school when he gets home. It tires him out! Usually at dinnertime he will tell me about his day and how he didn't get any "strikes" or what letter they learned about. It is so weird that he has this whole other world at school that I am not apart of. He is also learning to read, doing homework, learning to write in lowercase letters, and is doing so well. He loves learning and being challenged.
Preston also loves preschool and has made several friends that he comes home and tells me about. His favorite part of the day is his teacher reading stories to them. Carter has to read for 20 minutes each day for his homework, so Preston loves to come in and read books with us.
I am starting a whole new phase of life with this school thing, it is fun!