Santa Claus is coming to town!

Ok--so here they are--our beautiful kids with their favorite Jolly Man. I have to quote Shaylah here and say 'This will not be the last time we torture our kids to take their cute picture!"
So, vote for your favorite Santa pic. Parents, please don't stack the votes in favor of your child. Instead, send our blog link to family and friends and have them vote for your little Christmas Angel.

Braxton Loveridge


Hayden Nelson


Kaitlyn Hiatt


Talamage Pulley

Halle Banks

Jenna and Lilly Yates



and these two are just for you're viewing pleasure of baby Rusty and baby Tara and Natalie

Scared of Santa

Ashley had this website on her blog and I had a funny idea. Check out this website, and then if you want to, email me a pic (or more than 1) of your kids with Santa (screaming or smiling) and I'll post our very own little Christmas contest and we can vote on our favorite picture. So, send me your pics in the next 4 or 5 days and this weekend I'll put it all together. What do you think???
Email: taracornell@yahoo.com

http://family.go.com/merry-christmas-contest/scary-santa-1/

Here's one of Halle 2 years ago when we were in Orlando. I love how she is just looking at him with awe.

Parade of Lights

Last weekend was the Denver Parade of Lights and it was a GREAT way to kick off the holiday season! We had such a good time, even though it was really cold. We met Sara and Brian and kids downtown and grabbed dinner at Bruggers Bagels. Yum Yum. We set up our seats before we had dinner, so we stayed inside where it was toasty warm until just before the parade started. We had lots of layers and lots of blankets for the kids and all in all it wasn't too cold. The parade was so much fun! All the marching bands had lights attached to their uniforms, there were amazing floats, and even the big huge balloons like you see at the Macy's day parade. (ok maybe not quite that huge, but same idea)
Josh was totally intrigued while the displays were going by, but as soon as there was a break he would fuss around. Then the next float would come by and he'd be totally mesmerized again. It was pretty funny. Halle and Braxton had a blast ohhing and ahhhing at all the fun things, and they were espically excited about Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer. Before the parade Santa was walking around the streets, and Kambree was pretty scared of him, so the rest of the parade she was glued to Sara--always on the lookout for scary Santa. What a fun night!

We also decorated our tree (fake this year) and Halle could not wait to put the star on top. But when the time came to actually do it, she was a little scared of being up so high. But, after much coaxing, she did put the star on top.

Sorry for the mess

So, I am trying to figure out how to do cute little scrapbooky blogs, so please excuse the mess as I try and figure it all out. And thanks to Tami for teaching me the wonderful world of Html. As soon as I figure it all out I'll post pics of the Denver parade of lights. It was awesome!

All Done

Josh saying his first words and signs.

WATER!

So, some exciting times at church today. Our ward got split. We have been growing like crazy, but we still thought it would be a while until the split. But out of the blue today they announced we were splitting that day. Now instead of the Lafayette ward we are the Coal Creek ward. One of the reasons we split was because the primary had 170 kids. But, the way they split they probably only took 10-20 primary kids, but then it took almost all the YM/YW. I think we are left with about 3 YM. I guess Rusty's calling is going to be pretty low key from now on....
I was hoping that maybe this meant I would get released from nursery (We have 3) but I think we only lost a couple of nursery kids so I think I'm stuck.

One more funny story from our house. I have to back track just a little. About a month ago Rusty was saying that maybe he would like to finish our basement by himself. I kind of chuckled at this, because although I don't doubt his abilities, we both have a pretty short attention span when it comes to home improvement projects. Case in point--my friend Joanna has built this really cute bookshelf that hangs on a wall (kind of like a magazine rack) and I wanted to do one for our toy room. After much begging Rusty finally helped me out and we got it about 1/2 way done. Then about a week later we did a bit more, and then finally another week later we were finishing up. (the project should have only taken 2-3 hours tops) Well, Rusty was drilling the anchor hole into the wall when I hear "Oh Crap, Oh Crap!" I ran into the toy room only to see water gushing from the wall. Rusty had drilled right into the water line. By the time we got the water turned off the toy room was soaked and water was leaking into the basement. Luckily we got it all under control without any major damage. But, I don't think Rusty will be finishing the basement anytime soon.....

Check out my Slide Show!

opening belle

finally getting to the good stuff

belle box

Halle being thrilled with a box

I've been Tagged!!!

Rules: Write 7 facts about yourself...silly, serious, random - you decide. List who tagged you and then who you will tag at the bottom. Leave a comment on their blogs and let them know you tagged them.
Ok, Lindsay tagged me, so here is my best effort.

1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE an afternoon nap more than most anything in the world.
2. I bite the inside corner of my lip when I'm bored or nervous.
3. The best moment of being a mom is watching your kids sleep. (for multiple reasons--relief that you survived another day among them.)
4. Halle knows the names of all the characters on Gillmore Girls. Not sure what this says about me.....
5. I just got a job teaching health seminars for my city (Erie). YEAAAAAA. I love health and I love teaching, so it will be perfect.
6. I think the best feeling in the world is that moment right after you give birth. You have your body back and bonus, a sweet little baby.
7.I am a sunshine junkie. That's why Colorado is a great place for me to be--360 days of sunshine!

I tag Kami and Chelsi

The Big bday party

So this is a fun month full of parties at our house! Halle's party was on Sat and boy was it fun. We decided to do a "drop-off" party so Rusty and I were the only adults surrounded by ten 3 and 4 year old. Luckily my neighbor Janice stayed to lend a helping hand. The kids had a blast playing "Ariel, Ariel, Sea Witch" (my modified version of "duck duck goose") making a paper plate fish craft, having a little mermaid dance party, and last but not least, having CAKE!!! I got the cake at Costco, which translates into HUGE. So, we are probably going to be eating cake for weeks. Halle told us her favorite present was a polly pocket style Ariel doll from her friend Gavin.
Josh still isn't feeling great. We have taken him to the dr. and he said to just wait it out. He just randomly throws up about every three days, and gets hives on his hands and feet every couple of days. We are thinking it might be a milk allergy so a few days ago we put him back on Soy formula and tomorrow we are going to cut out all dariy from his diet and see if that will help. If that doesn't do the trick, we're back at square one. So, we'll keep you posted.

Halle Bday pics--click on "view all images" if you want to see the pics without all the sparkles

Family Picture Poll

eating cake

Pics of the Party--to view large click "view all images"

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JOSH!!!

Well, Joshua's first birthday was pretty nuts. To give you some background, the poor kid has had something funky going on in his digestive system that is giving him multiple, very gross diapers every day. This has been going on for almost two weeks. Well, on Fri, the day before Josh's bday, Halle threw up all night long. Poor little thing. I'm guessing whatever bug Josh had/has he passed along to sister. Once morning hit she quit throwing up, but we moved Josh's party to Sunday just to be safe.
On Sunday Brian and Sara came up from Highland's Ranch to help us celebrate the big day. The kids had a blast all playing together. It came time for presents, and we could not make Josh be interested in opening them. He kept squirming and trying to get away. Halle could not understand what his problem was. She was perfectly willing to open the presents! But he got some fun things--a train from Grandma, a Little People firehouse set from Mom and Dad, and a cute little tow truck and soccer ball from Brian, Sara, Braxton, and Bree.
After presents we moved on to cake. He was soooo funny. Instead of scooping out little bites he just picked up the whole piece of cake and started taking huge bites (see video below). Well, he was getting tired, so after a few bites of cake he would rub his eyes, getting frosting in his eyes and hair. But he kept chugging along, and ate more and more cake. After cake it was time for bed so Rusty whisked the birthday boy away. About 20 min later he started to scream so Rusty went to check on him. He had thrown up cake all over the place! Poor baby. So we had to change his sheets, wash his bumper pads and throw him in the bath. Rusty said he just sat in the tub, staring at his distorted reflection in the faucet. He slept fine the rest of the night, but woke up this morning with hives all over his feet and hands. Needless to say, we will be making a trip to the Dr. today to try and figure out what is wrong with this poor boy.
This is why Mom's should not have any great expectations when it comes to events involving your kids. You are bound to be let down. No, all in all we had a fun time, and are so so glad sweet little Josh is a part of our family!

Josh’s Baby Book

Halloween

We, of course, had a great time trick-or treating. The festivities actually started Saturday night with the Annual Vista Ridge Halloween party. This year they added a trunk-or-treat. The kids had a BLAST. Halle's favorite part was the face painting. Check out the pic in the slide show.
Then revelry continued on Wed morning at Halle's preschool party. They had ghost bowling (the ball was a small pumpkin), a beanbag toss, and crafts galore. The kids also got lots of yummy snacks.
Last, but certainly not least came trick-or-treating. Halle went with her good buddy Jake the firefighter and he left her in the dust most of the time. (It's hard to walk in heeled glass slippers!) But they had a blast and were amazed at all the candy they got.
Josh was much more tolerant of the chicken costume than Halle was. Halle and I had to have practice sessions for weeks before Halloween, and she still cried when I put it on her. Josh could have cared less--he didn't seem to mind it at all (until he tried to crawl fast and the big feet and tummy got in his way!)
We got back early from trick-or-treating b/c I had to go teach my interval training class, but since it was FREEZING outside, that was ok with Josh. The kids then dumped all the candy on the floor and chowed down!