Making Candy

Here are some pictures from our Withers candy making tradition. When I was a little girl my Grandma Withers would make Christmas candy all month long. We keep this tradition going but instead of doing this all month long we do it all in one day. It's a ton of work but well worth the memories. 

Here the kids are breaking up some candy canes to use as sprinkles 

The rest of these are of the kids dipping marshmallows in chocolate

Meeting Santa

At our ward's Christmas party this year the kids got to see Santa. Madelyn was great and didn't even cry when she sat on Santa's lap. Ethan was a little scared of Santa but when he asked him what he wanted for Christmas he told him a big truck. Something new to me and Jared. He came up with this all on his own. 

Gingerbread house

The day after Thanksgiving we got together again with Jared's family. Jared's mom had a gingerbread house for each family to decorate. Ethan had a great time putting candy on our house and once it was done wanted to do nothing but eat the candy.  Our house is the one on the far right. 

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Vidoni's. Before dinner we went to Monkey Island which is a place full of inflatable slides. The kids had tons of fun and I think the adults did too. Kids and parents played tag all throughout the building and have fun running up down the slides. Ethan loved playing with his dad and cousins and even went down the tallest slides all by himself. Don't mind the blurry pictures. Me and my camera couldn't keep up with everyone. 

These first few pictures are of Ethan and Jared going down the slides.

 

 Here is Uncle Jimmy going down. I'm pretty sure he's running from Jared during this shot.

 Margy, Race and Rachael all playing tag too.

Macie sliding down. 

 They also had an area for the younger kids. Ethan, Fisher and Lucy loved playing on this slide. 

 Fisher, Ethan and Lucy...such good friends.

After a few hours of playing here we went to Jared's brother's house for a beautiful and delicious meal. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving full of happiness and memories. I'd have to say it was one of my favorite Thanksgivings.

Halloween

This year for Halloween I made both kids costumes. Ethan was Woody and Madelyn was a witch. The kids went trick-or-treating at Grandma Burch's with their cousins Adysen and Paycee.  

Next we went to Jared's work and went trick-or-treating to all of his co-workers. This is always fun for the kids because they get tons of candy and Jared's work has a decorating competition between each department. So the place is always looking great.

After that we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat.

To end our fun Halloween weekend we went to Ray and Amy's for their annual Halloween party. We have yummy food and fun Halloween games. Sadly I didn't take any pictures but Amy always does a great job and the kids always have fun. 

Turning 3!!!

Say what?! Three? Yes my little man is now three and it is so hard to believe. I'm sure I'll be saying that with each birthday that my kids have but it true. It's exactly how I feel with each year that passes. This year we decided to do a family party instead of a big family and friends party. I was super excited for his birthday and went with a cars theme. We decorated the front room for his birthday day with streamers and balloons. 

He opened one of his presents from us which was a cars t-shirt and a new movie

Then in the late afternoon we took him to see Despicable Me which he loved.

After the movie we went home and opened his last present, a scooter. He loves scooters and has been asking for one of these for a long time. So he was very excited to get this present.

After presents we had cake and ice cream. I made the cake and was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I made my own fondant to create the checkered flag around the cake and colored some coconut for the grass on top. When Ethan first saw his cake he said "wow" which totally made it worth all of my hard work. 

Happy birthday little man. We sure love you!

Carving pumpkins

This year we actually got our pumpkins carved before Halloween so that we could enjoy them for more then a day. For the most part Ethan enjoyed carving pumpkins except when it came to sticking  his hands in and pulling out the "guts" (just look at his face in the 2nd picture).

Helping dad carve the faces

Our pumpkins even had hair!

What a cute kid and awesome pumpkins!

Madelyn's namesake

I love my grandma very much and feel very bless to have her here with me. This is who Madelyn is named after and I hope that she is able to grow-up loving her as much as I do. Ethan love his Great-Grandma Burch and often talks about going to visit her. What a blessing it is to grow up with your grandparents.