Friendsgiving

One thing that I love to do but have a hard time doing in an apartment is 

having people over.

I absolutely love parties. 

But how do you do this in an apartment with no backyard?

Well, luckily I live across the street from my church and had a crazy idea.

What about a friends-giving?

Here is what I did,

I told my friends lets get together and eat. 

Everybody brought something and we ate… and ate… and had a ton of leftovers!

I kept decorating simple and thanks to all my wonderful friends it was able to happen. 

Here are a few snap shots.

I had everyone write down what they were grateful for and clip it onto a string.

thank you pinterest for simple decorating tips 

all the fancy decor was brought by my friend Christin (she is pro at decorating)

Lots of people came. For privacy reasons I won't blast all their pictures on the blog. 

But I promise people came! We had a great feast and a great time. 

I think this will become a new tradition. 

Thank you friends!

To all my friends...

Believe it or not …

I used to be on time.

I used to invite people over all the time.

I used to make it to every event I said I would go to.

I used to be excellent at keeping a clean house.

I used to be good at keeping in touch.

I used to be good at giving gifts.

I used to be good at birthday cards, Christmas cards, and thank you notes.

I used to be fast at getting out the door.

What happened? 

I became a Mom of two babies.

After having Thayne I noticed my punctuality going down hill, also friend hang out time.

I also noticed I didn't make it to every event I wanted to go to.

I had a hard time cleaning, writing, thinking, remembering, and getting ready.

Apparently I thought I would make it even more interesting by adding another child. 

Now I am even worse at all those things mentioned above. I thought there could be nothing worse than a baby teething for 2 years straight but there is! Two teething babies! 

For my friends that somehow have managed to stick with me even through my new flakiness. 

Thank you! I'm sorry I didn't send you a present or a card… ever. 

For my friends who don't know me any other way then how I am now. 

WOW you are amazing! 

After becoming a mom I finally can empathize with all the mothers I was friends with before I became one myself. 

A friend shared a blog post with me about "the blur" the blogger describes "the blur" as the time when the kids are little, you don't know how you survive or function on zero sleep, energy, or sanity. 

Somehow moms make it out. 

I don't know how long my "blur" will last, but I do know there is a time and season for everything.

And right now my season is to be flaky, forgetful, and slow. 

If you can manage sticking it out and being my friend through this time I promise there will be a time

when I will be good at everything I once was. Be patient with moms. It's not easy hearing crying babies all day, and night, and day, and night, and day, and night. Mess after mess. 

Diaper after diaper. Feeding after feeding. 

Sometimes I just have to break down and cry to myself. 

Here is the house in its real current state...

(This is a pot in the bathroom I still don't know how this got here) 

I love my little darlings and I love my friends. 

However these guys are my world and I have focused so much time on them that I don't have much time for much else. In fact both babies are screaming right now. 

Be patient with mothers this holiday season. Help them out. Ya no one wants to hear screaming kids at the grocery store but we all still have to eat. 

Be slow to judge, someday you will find yourself yelling, crying, and forgetting too. 

These are reasons my poor little blog is getting about one entry a month. I made a goal to be better next year. I have so much I want to write and say but it is not my season to write every week. 

Thanks for your patience and love towards me during this time.

Easter

Easter morning was pretty crazy as you can imagine with a brand new 

baby at home. But Adam... I mean the Easter bunny still was very diligent in making 

sure Thayne got an Easter basket and eggs.

He did not know what to think when he found an egg trail. (The Easter bunny thought maybe we should wait till next year to hide the eggs)

He found his basket and was very excited to find toys 

once he figured out what was in the eggs he couldn't wait to collect them all!

After church we were able to visit with our cousins Stacey, Kiah, and Ramon! Stacey grew up in 

Logan and know all the secrets. She told us about this super cool tradition that people

do every year on Easter. Everyone goes to "Old Main" which is a hill by the USU campus,

they decorate their eggs and then roll them down the hill.

We were a little busy so we didn't decorate any eggs but...

we found this egg down the hill still intact. 

So we rolled it down the hill. That is about all the attention span Thayne had so 

its probably good that we didn't decorate a bunch of eggs. 

These are the seagulls flying in to eat all the eggs. 

Thayne loved picking up all the broken eggs. 

He would not let go of these two pieces. He checked the ground over and over again to make sure he 

had the best pieces around.

Adam got Joslyn and I hanging out watching the boys run around.

Thayne smelling his egg. He kept saying MHHHHMMMM! We tried to tell him eggs don't actually

smell good they just smell. But he just kept going on MHHHHHMMMMing. 

What traditions did you find this year? 

Our Christmas Traditions

First of all Merry Christmas!

For those of you I said I would send an ecard I started one... but it didn't turn out so hot.

Blogging is much better :) I figured it was pretty easy to see what we are up to via old posts.

 

This Christmas we were blessed to have both sides of the family together!

The only person we were missing was Garett but we got to skype him on Christmas day.

 

I thought I would share what a typical Christmas looks like in our neck of the woods.

 

It isn't Christmas without some gingerbread houses. Mum has actually bought a mold to make it that much easier.

I can remember her having a pattern that she made up and she had to cut up every little piece.

When its time for Christmas at my home I will also be buying a mold!

 

So glad that Mum and Dad Hassell could join in, we all had a lot of fun!

 

Adam building his axe yard. I forgot to get finish product pictures... got to busy with my own gingerbread house.

Christmas Eve...

Instead of reading Luke 2 (think about toddler attention span)

we acted it out with puppets my mum made when we were kids.

Thayne more interested in the camera than the puppet show.

She had an inn-keeper, Joseph, Mary, Mary with baby...

angel...

sheperds with sheep...

...oh ya and of course being pregnant i got nominated to be Mary...

...wise men...

 

everyone gets to participate! During our little program we sing songs. Someday (when Garett and Lauren

start having children) I hope to act out the nativity with the little cuties!

 

Usually after this we get to open one gift but this year we opted out. (I think we were afraid Thayne would open all the gifts!)

 

 

 

Christmas morn!

After eating a yummy breakfast, and skyping Elder Griffith we opened our stockings

and got everyone together to open gifts.

 

Thayne was the center of attention. He wanted to help everyone else open their gifts and this is the only one

of his that he actually opened!

Mama Hassell made us all aprons! The boys have matching ones! Now I will get lots of help right?

Thayne's favorite gift was tinsel. He didn't even care about anything else. He is such a easy going guy!

 

The best part about Christmas is a tradition my mum started.

She keeps a box wrapped in gift wrap empty with a hole on the top. The hole is just

big enough to slide pieces of paper through. The gift is marked To Jesus. Every year she encourages us

to think of something we can give to the Savior.

This year she made it like a new years resolution gift. She had us all write down gifts to the Savior

then next year she is going to give it back to us for us to do a self evaluation.

She had us put our "gifts" in seperate envelopes (don't worry she wont ever know what we put!)

 

I hope you had a great Christmas! We sure did!

Halloween!

Halloween may not be my favorite holiday 

BUT it was super fun to dress up Thayne!

I have to admit the actual Halloween night wasn't that exciting. Adam had class till 8.

The most exciting was the weekend before.

We took Thayne to a trunk or treat and checked out the spooktacular (which was SO crowded!)

Thayne couldn't get over Adam's fake teeth

The best part was seeing Heather. 

Both Heathers! Except we didn't get a picture with Kerr!

I think after hanging out with us Heather will never want to have children.

Another family shot! Can you spot the baby bump? 

I was a pregnant witch, Adam a black mulleted red neck. Thayne a tiger. (Thank you costco for making it easy.)

We did carve a pumpkin and it was pretty cute it was an owl perched in a tree. Before I could get a picture Thayne ripped the owl off the perch and then proceeded to break the branch.

Leaving the pumpkin looking like we just left a big hole. 

I'm sure glad Halloween is over I'm excited to focus on my favorite holidays!