About a week before Halloween, I was feeling a little sad. Normally Halloween is one of the biggest holidays of the year at our house, but due to constant sickness between Josh and Brooke throughout the month of October and me being 8 months pregnant, there just wasn’t much Halloween excitement here.
Luckily the last week of October made up for it, and we actually had a really good Halloween this year. We may not have done as much as we normally would do, but I also don’t feel like we really missed out on anything either.
We started off with a Halloween party with my family. Unfortunately Josh was still sick, so he missed this one, but Brooke and I had a blast. The kids came all dressed in their costumes, my Mom cooked her amazing Chili, and we let the kids decorate pumpkins with stickers, markers and pipe cleaner.
* I love that Tinkerbell is bigger then the Pirates!
Next was Brooke’s Halloween Carnival at her school. Have I said before how much I love her preschool, because I do! They had all sorts of cute little games and activities set up for the kids, where they could win either prizes or candy. They had doughnuts and rootbeer for the whole family. Brooke came home with a huge bag of goodies that she carried around for days.
Then, we had trick-or-treating at Josh’s office. I love that he works for a company that is so family oriented.
Finally, Halloween arrived and she had her first actual door-to-door trick-or-treating adventure. Josh only took her to maybe fifteen houses, but she is addicted. The only way we could get her to come home was by promising to take her trick-or-treating to her grandparents!
The fun is now over, but she is constantly carrying her candy around trying to share it with everyone, not really eating any of it herself (I am sure this will change next year). Every now and then she brings me her pumpkin bucket and says “Trick-or-treat” hoping I just might put some candy in there!
When it comes to Valentine’s Day and Our Anniversary, Josh and I have never given each other gifts. When we first got married we agreed that it would be better to spend money doing a fun activity and making memories then buying each other an actual gift.
This Valentines I had to go help cover a shift at KJZZ in the morning. We had already gone out the night before, so when I got home I didn’t expect anything. Although, to my surprise, when I walked in the door, I found this beautiful Diet Coke and Cinnamon Bears bouquet (two of my favorite things), covered in tiny hearts that Brooke had colored. I know this was a simple thing, but it made me just as happy as if I were given a whole bouquet of roses, and I know I will always remember this bouquet. I love Josh and I love his creativity.
Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. First, I just want to say how much I love Josh and what a great 7 years it’s been. I once had a friend tell me, that people change every 5 years, so you have to re-fall in-love with your spouse every 5 years or so. Looking at our marriage, I completely believe it. We have both changed so much, but yet we are more in-love now then ever! I think that’s what makes marriages exciting.
For the past 7 years, I have been meaning to finish our wedding video. Yes, I know it shouldn’t be that hard. I have made several wedding videos and photo montages for other people, but when it comes to mine, I just can’t finish it. I have little bits and pieces done, but I want it to be perfect, and that seems to hold me back. So I finally set a due date for at least the photo montage of us growing up. I have only done up until we start dating. I have a plan for my engagement pictures that I just couldn’t pull off right now, but I at least finished something, right? I am sure I’ll go back and tweak it later because that’s what I do. Anyways, for those of you that have nothing better to do for the next ten minutes, enjoy!
Yes, I am way behind on my blogging. It’s been a crazy two weeks around here, between Christmas, Josh’s birthday, New Years, and then Rain (the company Josh works for) being the amazing company they are, gave all the employees a week and a half off for the Holidays. So we’ve had a lot of family time, activities, we almost have the basement framed (thank you to everyone that has helped). So as you can see, life has been a little crazy!
Although with all of that craziness, I didn’t want to forget Christmas, since our blog is kind of acting as a family journal. When Brooke looks at this 15 years from now, I want her to see just how spoiled and loved she was.
This picture was taken at the Buhler Christmas party. We were lucky enough to have a visit from Santa. Josh took Brooklynn up to see Santa, but as you can see she was not a huge fan. Since Josh and Santa are very good friends, almost like father and son, Josh sat on Santa’s lap, trying to make it easier for Brooke. It did not help. Although in the middle of cries and pleas to get away from Santa she did say “thank you” after he gave her a gift. I thought it was sweet.
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My family had our traditional “Progressive Dinner”, although this year because of a football game, it was just dinner. All my family came to our house for dinner, which was a lot of fun. My dad and Scott hung out in the family room watching the game, while rest of us played UNO in the kitchen. We setup the playpen for the twins. Brooke was very interested in her two cousins sleeping in the kitchen. I can’t wait for another year or so, when they can finally really play together.
Christmas with Josh’s family was spread out over two nights. Due to schedule conflicts we did our gift exchange Sunday before Christmas and then those who were available got together again on Christmas Eve. This picture is of Josh and all his siblings and their stockings. Josh’s mom made these when the kids were just young and have been an important part of their Christmases ever since. As a final gift, she gave all her children their stockings to keep. This was very shocking and exciting for everyone. Now I need to learn how to make them, so that Brooke and I can have matching stockings with Josh.
This picture is of our family and our Christmas pajamas. This is a tradition Josh and I have done since the first year we were married.
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We attempted to read Brooke the story of the birth of Christ. Unfortunately she was a little wound up and I don’t think she understood any of it, maybe next year!
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Christmas morning, it took us about a half hour to drag Brooke out of bed (she is not a morning person.) When we finally got her up, she just looked around amazed.
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Brooklynn’s favorite gift was her kitchen. It has brought hours of entertainment for her and hours of peace and quiet for us.
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One of her other favorite gifts was a harmonica. She is amazingly pretty good at playing it.
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After opening presents at our house, we joined my family at my parents house for a Christmas brunch. This is a picture of cute little Madi after grandma put a bow on her head.
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Here is Josh with our totally awesome movie mugs. I am so excited about this gift, because now I can get a drink at the movies for only a $1, I can afford that.
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Here is Josh attempting to hold Madi. It’s amazing he ever survived Brooke being a baby.
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Here is Brooke in her new outfit for Christmas. This was the best picture I could get!
I am so grateful for Josh and the person he is. I know I don’t tell him enough how much I appreciate everything he does for me. So here are just a few of the many reasons I love him. He has made it possible for me to stay home with our child. He puts up with all my weird little habits. He watched “Mamma Mia” without complaining! He has learned how to make the perfect Diet Coke. He lets me fall asleep every night to the sound of the TV, even though it drives him nuts (I can’t fall asleep when it’s too quiet). He is an amazing cook. He is a great father. He helps with the house work. He lets me drive the nice car. He loves my family. He let me get a cat even though he has never liked them. He reads tech books for fun. He plays in the rain with Brooke. He has taught himself how to play the guitar. When we first got married I would work 16 hour shifts on Sundays, he would wake up early to drive me to work, then he would come back later that evening with a nice dinner for me, then drive me home. Everyday of my pregnancy with Brooke, he would massage my back and my feet (EVERYDAY). He is a hard worker. He can always make me laugh. He never yells, even when he is really mad at me. He knows how to do all those manly things like; change the oil, frame a room, clean a drain, and many, many more.
I love you Josh. You are the best friend and husband a girl could ask for! I hope you have a wonderful birthday!
Today I am missing Disneyland. A year ago we were there and it was such a great trip. Brooklynn took her very first steps on that trip and it was so special to be able to go as parents for the first time and see the excitement in her eyes.
For any of you that have never been at Christmas, I highly suggest it. Josh and I have been a few times for Christmas now (that’s how much we like it). It’s something that we know we can’t do every year, but we hope to continue every few years. It’s such a fun vacation anytime, but when you add the excitement of Christmas, it’s ten times better. Everything from all the Christmas decorations, caroling around every corner, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” drinking hot chocolate on main street, and then snow at the end of the day!
The Christmas season has officially arrived at the Buhler house. We kicked off the season at Temple Square to celebrate my Dad’s 60th Birthday (Wow).
Here is a collage of pictures. We took several pictures trying to get one of Brooke looking at the camera. This is the best we could come up with (I am not sure why we really try sometimes.)
We also were able to get our Christmas tree put up. Brooklynn is in love with the tree. We decorated the bottom half with homemade, wooden ornaments that she can play with (they have already been rearranged several times). We put all the good ornaments on the top half of the tree, where hopefully they will be safe. Brooke has already figured out how to turn the lights on and off, and has spent the whole day doing so (can’t wait to see what this electric bill will be). Zoey is also very excited about the tree. Every year, she spends the month of December sleeping under it (probably dreaming of being an outdoors cat). If you look at the second picture, you can see her tucked away beneath the tree.
Monday night we continued with the Christmas festivities. We went to City Hall and watched Santa arrive on a Fire Engine. We stood outside with a crowd of people singing Christmas carols as they turned on the city Christmas lights. Then watched as Santa came around the corner riding on a fire engine. After his arrival, we enjoyed some yummy scones and hot chocolate. We then went on a hay ride (singing more carols.) Brooke loved the hay ride. She smiled the whole time, and pretended to lead the music while everyone was singing (she learned how to do that from watching Little Einsteins). Brooklynn also had the opportunity to decorate a sugar cookie. She got a little carried away with the sprinkles, but it sure tasted good!
I love the Christmas season, and I hope you are all enjoying it as well!
We had a great Halloween this year. It is one of our favorite holidays, and we look forward to it all year long. Halloween lasted about a week for us. The week was filled with fun party’s, a Trunk or Treat, pumpkin decorating, visiting the Witches at Gardner Village, a Halloween puppet show (which we only stayed at for 2 minutes before Brooke got scared) Trick or Treating to the relatives, and eating candy and pumpkin cookies like crazy.
Here is the best family picture we could get. Brooke is in her Pirate Princess costume. I went as Elly May from the Beverly Hillbillies (I know not that creative, but I had to do something.) Last but not least, Josh went as Captain Crunch. He thought of this idea about a week before Halloween, but we put it off until the night before. We started making his costume at 10:30pm, finished around 1:30am and then he was off to work as Captain Crunch by 8am.
Here is Blaine and Jenny and their cute little Tigers. I think Jenny is holding Madison and Blaine has Silas. Normally it is really easy to tell them apart, but the tiger costumes are throwing me off.
Here is Brooke with her loot of candy, excluding the whole bag of Kit Kats she took from Grandma and Grandpa Buhlers House. The funny thing is, she does not like candy. She has not eaten one piece. She carries the basket from room to room, sorting them, playing with them, dumping them out, putting them back. I am sure next year will be different and I should just enjoy my sugar free baby while it lasts.
Instead of a picture for this week, I thought I would put a link to a video of Josh’s famous singing pumpkins. This video is from 2 years ago. Josh made a flash animation that projected onto real pumpkins, making them appear as if the pumpkins were really singing. The neighborhood kids loved them, and we had a lot of fun with them too.
This year the singing pumpkins are on vacation and will not be making an appearance for Halloween, but I won’t be surprised to see them in upcoming years.
Check out the link, it’s a lot of fun. I am very proud of Josh and his creative abilities and knowledge on how to do so many fun things! Singing pumpkins!
This picture is actually from 2003. Josh and I use to love carving Jack-O-Lanterns. Ever since we first got married, we would either grow, or buy the perfect pumpkins. Then we would rent a scary halloweeny movie like “Psycho.” We would lay down a large tarp in our family room, and watch our movie, and just carve away.
We have not done this since Brooke was born, and probably won’t do it for a few more years until she is a little older. Although, this is a tradition that when our children are old enough to handle, we definitely plan on continuing!
bout a week before Halloween, I was feeling a little sad. Normally Halloween is one of the biggest holidays of the year at our house, but due to constant sickness between Josh and Brooke throughout the month of October and me being 8 months pregnant, there just wasn’t much Halloween excitement here.
This picture is of our family and our Christmas pajamas. This is a tradition Josh and I have done since the first year we were married.
Brooklynn’s favorite gift was her kitchen. It has brought hours of entertainment for her and hours of peace and quiet for us.
One of her other favorite gifts was a harmonica. She is amazingly pretty good at playing it.
Here is Josh with our totally awesome movie mugs. I am so excited about this gift, because now I can get a drink at the movies for only a $1, I can afford that.
Here is Brooke in her new outfit for Christmas. This was the best picture I could get!
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