Christmas

We started the holiday cheer by heading to Grandma and Grandpa Orgill's house on Christmas Eve to open gifts from them.


Stockton and Dallan are good buds! They happen to look very related, too.


Stockton got a Cars "map" to drive his cars on! He and Brock both loved it, as did Grandpa Orgill.


I gave my mom some frame necklaces with pictures of her parents and grandparents. They were very special!


Then we made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Haider's house, where we opened Christmas jammies. I'm so glad we got Stockton's reaction opening his Cars pjs, slippers, and blankie. He was super excited because he had just seen his cousin Brock get the EXACT same pjs and slippers at G-ma Orgill's house and he was super jealous!

Cutie little cousins in their Christmas pjs in front of the Christmas tree. Look at those darling faces! They have so much fun together.

Then off to bed, reading "The Night Before Christmas" book that G-ma Orgill had just given us.

The next morning was a Sunday. So we went to Sacrament meeting before opening presents. Stockton and Anellina looked so cute in their Christmas Sunday clothes.

Yahoo! Santa came!!!

Stockton went straight to his "shaking cars," just what he ordered from Santa!

This was a gift from Anellina. She got very creative with the wrapping paper. Opening gifts was pretty chaotic. We've decided that next year we are just drawing names. There were WAY too many presents! We were all spoiled rotten!

Stockton loved his new Buzz and Woody blankie from Aunt Holly.

It was such a fun Christmas! We loved how much Stockton was into it this year. And I'm glad I survived, because I was so sick pregnant and super tired. But, the Lord blessed me to make it through. I love Christmas!

Happy Birthday Carsten!

Baby Carsten turned 1, so while the Jones were in town for Christmas, we celebrated!

The theme was "balls!"

The kids had a ball playing with balls.

They had a ball with the piñata.

Piñata from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

This is a video of when the candy came out of the piñata. Notice where Stockton tries to stash his candy!

Carsten had a ball eating his cake! He's such a cutie and such a good boy! Happy Birthday Carsten!

Runover by a Reindeer from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

This video is unrelated to Carsten's Birthday party, even though it took place the same night. It just shows how Stockton and Anellina act when they get together. HOLY ENERGY!

Hey Santa

Stockton was such a lucky boy and got to see Santa at the mall. Stockton was so excited to see him, as you can tell by the enormous grin on his face. His Aunt Holly was working there as Santa's helper, so we even got to cut to the front of the line! Thanks Holly! Stockton told Santa that he wants "Chick, Cars, Mack, and Mr. The King.... and Mater" for Christmas. Mater was one that was added to the list. Uh... slight panic. It's a good thing Stockton got his order into Santa on time!

Santa's Helper from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

Thanks Holly for letting us see Santa!

Labor of Love

Stockton was getting too big for his crib. After looking for new "big boy" beds, we couldn't find anything we liked or that would match Stockton's other bedroom furniture. Brady had a great idea. He decided that he would sand down his bed from when he was a little boy and restain it for Stockton.


He put in a lot of hours sanding. Thank you, NBA lockout, for allowing my husband the time to do this!


Then he stained it a color we love.


Stockton was so excited for his new bed! It's the perfect bed, complete with drawers beneath it.


Then we ordered a new bedspread for him. I let Stockton choose it, he choose "worker trucks!" He was so excited when they came in the mail! (Note: he's laying on our bed in the picture, not his new bed.)


And here's the finished project! Thank you Daddy for working so hard on my big boy bed! And here's the double bonus, there are actually two beds and they can be used seperate or as bunk beds and Brady finished them both at the same time! So it's ready for future use!

Next we need to get his room all decorated in "worker trucks." We have some curtains and some wall decals that match his bedspread, but we have yet to put them up.

Thanksgiving

We had a very pleasant Thanksgiving with the Haider Family.


My mother-in-law had made these darling turkeys and we had to write things that we are thankful for on the feathers. This is Stockton's turkey.


He was excited to eat it.


Brady's thankful turkey.


Brady's favorite part: the turkey leg!


Our little family.


Then we headed outside for some football/throwing leaves.

Thanksgiving 2011 from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

I'm so thankful for these boys!

Later we headed out to Grantsville. All the Dennis Orgill family was down at the Church Street church havin' a party. So we dropped in. Stockton had a blast in the balloon room. They had a couple of huge fans blowing in different directions and it made the balloons go crazy.

Minute to Win it - Thanksgiving 2011 from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

All the "big kids" were playing some fun "Minute to Win it" Games. Such a fun time!

First Snow

We got our first snow fall the beggining part of November. It wasn't much of a storm though. As you can see, we couldn't get very much snow to build a snowman. The poor little man was melted by the next day. But, Stockton was still proud of his first snowman of the season!

Halloween Festivities

We did several fun things to celebrate Halloween.

We made a trip to Gardener's Village to see the witches. We were suppose to go with our playgroup, but we didn't get the memo that they had changed it to another day because this day was going to be so cold. But, Stockton and I braved the freezing temps and enjoyed the witches!


Stockton LOVED this hula hoop witch.

Then the Friday before Halloween we went to Daddy's office to go Trick-or-Treating. All the employees set out candy at their cubicles and some decorated very creatively.

I wish this picture wasn't blurry! It was perfect, Stockton roared at everyone. This is Brady's good work friend, Ryan and he had the perfect reaction! Stockton was so excited to be a dinosaur. And he came up with the idea by himself. He was watching a show one day and they were talking Halloween. He asked me what it was, and I explained it to him. I said, "What do you want to be for Halloween." He replied, "A blue dinosaur." And he never changed his mind.

Some people even make spook alleys. Stockton was very brave and went through all of them!

This was a pumpkin alley. This is where Stockton got his idea for a Mater pumpkin.

Flying Monkeys from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

One row of cubicles decorated like the Wizard of Oz, complete with flying monkeys! I love how Brady doesn't realize I'm taking a video and not a still shot.

We also went to storytime at the library on Halloween.

A couple of girls from our ward (Kylee and McKinley) were at storytime, too. They are all such good friends!

Of course at night Brady and Stockton went trick-or-treating. Stockton quickly caught on to the idea and didn't want to stop. They hit up almost every house in the ward, those little stinkers.

Punkins!

We had a lot of fun with pumpkins this year.

Grandma and Grandpa Haider grew these monsters in their garden. They sat on their front porch for a long time, but the night before Halloween, they were STOLEN! Who, how, and why would anyone steal a couple of 200 lb. pumpkins? Crazy, I tell ya!


We carved pumpkins at the Haiders'.


Stockton helped as much as he could. He didn't quite know what to think about the squishy insides.


The whole family joined in on the fun.


Brady decided to do a Detroit Lions logo on his pumpkin.


Stockton requested a Mater pumpkin, so I did one for him.


He loved it!


He also took a liking to Daddy's Lion pumpkin.


It did turn out pretty cool!


Stockton liked roaring at the Lion pumpkin, it was so funny!