Great memories-DC Temple and Cute Kids!

Mark had Veteran's Day off work so we took a trip up to Maryland. We went to the DC Temple and to visit North Potomac where Mark lived as a teenager with his parents as mission presidents. This is one of those days I don't want to ever forget. The DC temple is beautiful! I have seen pictures of it before but I was still blown away by how amazing it is. We couldn't do a session (our cute kids were with us) but still wanted to just go to the temple so we packed up the car and off we went. We laid a blanket out and had a little picnic on the grass and let Mason run around for a little while and let Dallan stretch from being in his car seat. Then we just walked around the temple grounds and through the visitor's center.

We then drove over to North Potomac. Mark showed me his old high school, the 5 mile path he used to run each day, his old bishop's house, and then the house he lived in. It was so fun to see all these places and hear Mark's stories about them. The boys were great the entire time and fell asleep in the car so we just drove around with Mark pointing out his memories. It was a great day with just the four of us making these new memories.

Mason loves books and has decided that Dallan will too. We spend a big part of every day reading Mason's books over and over. The other day I told Mason I couldn't read anymore because I had to make dinner. He starting throwing a small fit and went and fake cried in the other room. This only lasted about a minute then he was quiet. I walked in to see what he was doing and this is what I found.

He has gotten so good with Dallan. Other than having to keep reminding him to not drive his little cars on Dallan's head and to not practice jumping while he is standing too close to Dallan, they do really good together. Mason gets so concerned every time Dallan cries and is constantly playing with and entertaining Dallan. Dallan adores Mason. Everything Mason does is funny and Dallan just watches Mason all day. Last night I was holding Dallan while I was running around chasing Mason to tickle him and both boys were laughing so hard Mark and I both started laughing too. When I finally caught Mason instead of being tickled he wanted to give Dallan a hug and a kiss on the head then start running from us again. We repeated this about a dozen times before I had to stop. Another one of those moments I don't want to forget.

Dallan has discovered that at the end of all those rolls and thigh, there are feet attached. He plays with his feet all day long. He is the happiest baby! I love these boys (all three of them) so much!

American History Museum & Old Town Alexandria

Most of these pictures are turned sideways but since our Internet isn't working very good right now I'm just going to leave them because I honestly don't think I will be lucky enough to get them to upload again. On Sat the 6th we made a trip into DC to the American History Museum. I love this museum. I've been there twice in the last three months and I could easily go back again. There is so much to see. Mark wanted to see the coin collection they have there so we went to see that. We also walked through the First Ladies' gowns and the electricity exhibits. There is a "spark lab" there where kids can "invent" all sorts of things. Mason had a great time playing around in there.

When we were walking back to our car we saw all these tee-pees in the middle of the national mall strip. We decided to walk over to see what they were doing. They had about 6 set up and were setting up even more. The guy (totally decked out in Indian gear) told us they were having prayer there that night for all the veterans. It was pretty neat to see the Indian stuff and their tee-pees. Then we headed back home to let the kids nap and do some things around the house.

This weekend we drove over to Old Town Alexandria. It is a really neat place. The street has cobblestone sidewalks and is lined with little shops and restaurants. There is so much history there. Someday I want to go back without any kids and really be able to check it all out. This is a picture in front of the Carlyle house. It is one of the mansions from back in the 1750s. It was neat to see the old architecture and artifacts in the house.

We then hiked up the hill to the George Washington Masonic Memorial. I have to admit, it wasn't as great as I though it would be but that is probably because we didn't take the tour to the upper part. We just went to the main floor with the huge statue of George Washington in it. The room was gorgeous with marble, huge pillars, stained glass windows, and a cute little boy running around yelling and laughing at his echo :)

It was a fun day but after tears, sweat, and throw-up we were ready to be done for the day. (Mason took too big a bite at lunch and gagged and threw up). Maybe someday we'll make it back to really check things out better.

Halloween Fun

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. We started off by having a few friends and their kids come over for Family Home Evening and we all carved pumpkins and ate treats. Since we had 8 kids there and the oldest kid is 3 yrs in was pretty entertaining. At first the kids were really excited but then they got tired so we put in a movie and the adults finished the pumpkins. Mason really didn't know what to think of the pumpkin seeds. Mark kept trying to get him to reach in and grab some seeds but as soon as Mason would touch them he would pull his hand back and say eewww.

Our ward did a trunk or treat Sat night since Halloween was on a Sunday. Mason was a monkey and Dallan was a tiger. Mason caught on so fast. I stayed at the car with Dallan and handed out candy while Mark walked around with Mason. He would hold up his bucket and say tick-a-treat and as soon as the candy was in his bucket he was running to the next car. He loved it and I'm so glad the ward did this so Mason could have some Halloween memories.

After we got home from the trunk or treat Mason had to check out his loot. The candy necklace from Grandma is a huge hit. Mark isn't eating sugar and Dallan can't eat it yet so that leaves just Mason and me to eat all the candy ;). It was a fun Halloween this year and although we misses the festivities back home it was nice to spend the holiday with our little family.

Christmas!

I am so excited for Christmas! I know that we just had Halloween but Christmas is always a huge deal for me. I have always loved Christmas and even as an adult I still have a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve. I am so excited for Christmas this year with Mason. He is going to be so fun! Plus, Mark and I have bought our plane tickets to go home for Christmas, so that alone is enough of a reason to start my count down.

So now to get ready for Christmas. I thought about hand making each of my Holiday cards but am totally deciding against it- too much time, work, and money. Not to mention my almost-two-year-old who would have too much fun with scissors, tape, etc. I also wanted the card to have a family pic in it so that created another problem. So I am going the easy and smart way. I'm getting my holiday cards from SHUTTERFLY. And you should too. Here's the top 5 reasons why you should use Shutterfly this year:

5. Tons of selection. Hundreds of choices instead of a dozen or two choices.

4. CUTE. I have ordered birth announcements from both Costco and Walmart before and both times I thought the card was kinda lame. I haven't even looked at all the cards Shutterfly has and I already have too many in my "love it" list to choose from.

3. If you are extremely busy you can even have Shutterfly address and mail the cards for you (this does cost extra).

2. Their site is easy to use. Even just getting on their site for the first time it is easy to navigate where you want.

1. FREE!!! That's right fellow bloggers F-R-E-E. Shutterfly is doing a deal where if you blog about Shutterfly and their products you get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. Here's the link so you can too. http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Shutterfly does more than just Christmas cards here's some of their other links for some of their other products.
*Holiday Cards www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
*Thanksgiving Cards www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thanksgiving-cards
*Birthday invitations www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-invitations
*Birth Announcements www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

So seriously, I know this was basically a sales pitch, but they're free christmas cards (and they really are cute) so I figured it is way worth it.