December 9th

Today was an activity for McKay and I. We made on a much needed date to the temple. What a perfect way to remember what really matters...

December 6th-8th

We were definitely hit with the cold bug at our house...hard! Chayce sat in my lap for 2 1/2 days straight! Besides a quick run to get our favorite donuts in Salt Lake we've been couped up at home. So Thursday night I decided we needed to add a little Christmas activity that involved sitting in our car. We drove up to Murray to this fun house light show. It's all synchronized to music and the boys were very intrigued. Thanks for coming along Chels!

December 5th...

Under the weather. Chayce has not felt good today...at all. Fever and all poor little thing. I had grand plans to go up to Temple Square followed by hot chocolate and donuts which just didn't happen. Between McKay starting a winter basketball league, the freezing temperatures and my sick little one we are home instead. We did read a few Christmas stories today to keep us up on our 25 days of Christmas. Sometimes the best made plans fall through...guess it's life.

I do still have some exciting news from my family. Jack is engaged! He flew to London yesterday to surprise his long-time friend, turned girlfriend, now turned fiance! How fun to add a Neiger in 2012! It will be an exciting time to help them get ready! Congrats you two!

December 4th

We had a great night at the Ercanbracks for our fourth day of December. We had our monthly dinner together, put together our gingerbread houses and listened to the First Presidency Christmas devotional. Can't get better than that for a Sunday evening!

These two brothers were getting all kinds of harrassment for dressing as cowboys...I like the cowboy side coming out of him but when he asks me to be a cowgirl I politely decline. It's just not in my blood :)
Peyt really enjoyed the decorating process. Chayce was far happier playing with cousins.

He asked the whole time to eat the frosting. What the heck it's Christmas time.

Our finished product! Thanks for the fun Christmas project Pam and Wayne.

I love the Christmas devotional. As always it was a great meeting to listen to and helped remind me where my focus should be. President Monson talked about a book called The Mansion that I'm interested to read now...

Wendi brought a cute Bingo game to play for the kids as we were listening. I think the adults were more into it!

Here's the three pregnant Ercanbracks! Ange should be having her little sweetheart sometime this week so this will definitely be our last pregnant picture all together. I'm not really a giant next to them usually...I think my shoes were a bit taller than theirs. Can't wait to meet the first little three amigo!

Loving this month!

December 3rd

The boys participated in the big Christmas event today. My Mom took them to the annual family BYU Christmas party. I think the boys had fun amidst the long lines my Mom said they had to stand in for everything they did. They had to end the trip without a visit from Santa because of the line...good thing he's visiting the Shoell family party this weekend! My Mom took all the pictures from today so nothing for me to add...

We also spent some time with the McArthurs and had a yummy dinner at The Pie...great pizza and even better company is always a good way to spend the evening. Gotta love Saturday night!

December 2nd

Festival of Trees time! We had a fun day with my Mom and Sister walking around all the creative, beautiful trees. I love that this event supports Primary Children's Hospital who do so much to help the amazing little ones who, by no fault of their own, have to be there. We're lucky to have such a great place so close if we need it.

The playhouse is always my favorite thing to see...what a dream to have this in your backyard right! So dang cute.

I loved this quilt and may have to solicit Pam's help to make me one someday.

My favorite tree of the day...Up is one of my favorite movies. Too bad my picture was taken quickly and a little blurry.

The lego tree!

Cutest cowboy tree. Peyt is definitely my little cowboy and it would be so fun to design a tree like this for him next year for his room.

This was a favorite of Peyt's and mine. Tangled is another favorite show of mine. Good thing my boys will watch it with me and now baby girl can watch all the princess movies with me!

Cute Mom...thanks for establishing and keeping up this tradition. I love it!

Me and the little men

Love you sista!

It was another successful outing to the Festival. We ended at Pei Wei for yummy lunch and hanging out for a bit. Love my family so much and sharing in these fun traditions.

December 1st

We are celebrating Christmas every day leading up to the 25th so I wanted to document it. The kids started their advent calendars today and got this new book to read...

It's darling! I love it. We went to my Moms and helped her make cookies for a ward activity she was in charge of. The boys watched a few Christmas shows before Aunt Chels came to babysit so Mom could go out with the young women leaders. We went to Chili's for dinner as a Christmas present to each other. It was such a fun night spent with great ladies...love you all!

Me, Kallee, Cheryl, Emily, Denise, Michelle and Aimee

We've been in young women together working on two years and I couldn't ask for better people to serve with. Thanks for helping to make my life so much easier everyone! You are wonderful!

Alot to be Thankful for...

We've had a great Thanksgiving week. Christmas decorating, holiday shopping, yummy food and time spent with family are all my favorite things.

I must say I am in love with three boys in my house. They all mean so much to me for different reasons and I can't imagine life without them. I consider it a huge blessing to be able to stay home with these two to help raise them and do my best to teach them how to be good people. I hope this time I have with them will guide them for the rest of their lives.

My parents went to California this week so we had our annual dinner on Sunday...and it was delicious as always. I love spending time at my parents house. It's so comfortable there and I share a special bond with my siblings and love my parents so much. Chelsea ended up flying this weekend so I'm glad it worked out to celebrate earlier. She really is one of my best friends and I am forever grateful for the amazing aunt she is to my boys...not very many aunts take their nephews on monthly excursions to Chuck E Cheese, Build a Bear, the dollar store or anywhere else their little hearts desire. Not to mention she always has a treat in hand anytime she comes over. We love you to pieces aunt Chels!

And my crazy brother. You'd think I could get a normal picture :) He's so much fun though and I wouldn't want him any other way. He's got a cute girlfriend living in London and I know he's counting down the days until she's home for Christmas. We are excited to share this next year with him and what the future holds :) Thanks for loving my boys and being a great friend Jack!

Gotta love my Mom's homemade stuffing and candied yams! My parents have been so wonderful to me my whole life. They are both great examples for different reasons. This year they gave us a great gift and shared some of Grandma's inheritance with us. It came at a good time and I appreciate all they do to make sure we are taken care of and happy.

Thanksgiving Day was spent at Grandma Shoell's house. It was a smaller crowd this year but it was a nice meal and fun time spent with family we don't see very often. I really enjoy spending time with one of McKay's cousin's wife Caroline so it was fun to sit and chat with her.

Peyton and Wyatt getting ready to eat...

No joke this skinny little boy ate three full helpings of Thanksgiving dinner. He is our meat and potatoes boy and I think he loved every bite. Oh how I love this little man...

And last but certainly should be listed first is my gratitude to my husband. As I said in the previous post I have a rough time through pregnancy and McKay has learned to be patient and understanding while I help this little baby get here. 2011 has been a good year, but definitely filled with a few hard things. I appreciate McKay's perseverance to succeed and be the best at whatever he's involved in. I love you McKay and appreciate the influence you are in my life.

Today I have alot to be thankful for.

Baby Girl

Sadly I don't embrace my pregnancy as well as I should :) I am forever grateful to have a healthy, strong body to carry these beautiful children, but I must say the nine months are a little hard for me. At 31 weeks I finally got around to taking a pregnancy profile shot. Hopefully I'll get one more in a little farther along before she gets here.

I'm now beginning my 32nd week and looking forward to the month of December. It's one of my favorite months. I feel like things are just about ready for baby sister to join us in a few short weeks. She is going to be such a fun addition to our family. Her brothers can't wait to meet her and neither can Mom and Dad. We aren't super close on picking a name but it will happen...

Looking forward to meeting you sweet baby girl!

Halloween 2011

We had a fun, successful Halloween this year! Chayce got into it and enjoyed his time trick or treating with Peyt and Daddy. These two boys make holidays so much fun! I'm not really a Halloween person but with them around it makes it great!

Peyt is iffy on when he'll decide to take a good picture...never know if I'll get the cute, genuine smile or the cheesy, fake smile. Either way I think he's a pretty cool Jack Sparrow.

And we love our cute Mickey! We bought a little Mickey doll for him at Disneyland last year and he's been attached ever since! So it was a fitting year for this costume...and Lucy was Minnie so it worked perfect!

We had fun at Grammy and Papa's a few days before Halloween to carve pumpkins and have dinner together. Lucy was freaked out by Papa's Halloween costume and didn't want anything to do with pictures...poor thing! With five people taking pictures of kids at once this is the best you get...but they all looked so cute!

McKay had just come home with Dan from a weekend hunting trip to Logan...where he got his four point for the year! They had been up most of the night before but he managed to carve a pumpkin for the boys.

On Halloween we made our annual trip to Prosper to trick or treat. We tried to snap a few pics of Lucy and Chayce. Between Luc being sad and Chayce not wanting to smile it didn't go amazing...

But as the kids walked hand in hand to daddy's work things got a little better.

My kids ended up with a good little stash before they even really went trick or treating! We've been eating it for the past two weeks and I'm about done with it!

Our next stop was Grandma Ruthie. She loves her great grandkids and always has something fun for them when we come over. We love you!

Last but not least was trick or treating to Grandma Neiger (Grandpa was at work).

Finally got a few decent smiles for the day...

And here are our cute trick or treaters at my door waiting for candy! We have the BEST neighborhood for trick or treating. I went through 15 regular sized bags of candy if that says anything about how many kids live here! We love it!

I've been basing the count down for baby girl to get here on holidays that come and go. Only one more week to Thanksgiving and a short month after that Christmas will be here! I think she'll be here sooner than I think :) Which makes me very happy! We are getting excited to meet her...