First Round with Santa

Waiting in line to see Santa, at our ward Christmas party.


Auntie and Cooper waiting to see Santa. We love NaeNae. She is always around to help and hold my little ones. Thanks!!!

First we put Topher on Santas lap (AKA Grandpa) and then added Cooper. We were able to get Topher to either look at the camera or smile. Getting both were hard. This is the best we could do. At least Santa is looking. HAHAHA!!!
Cooper was a little distracted and wasn't looking at the camera. Topher decided to help him out.

The Final product .... Good thing Santa (Topher's grandpa) will be coming over to do a private session. More santa photos to come. YAY!!! Hopefully we will have Topher's haircut. Didn't realize until these photos his hair is crazy.

Thanksgiving

We were able to host Thanksgiving this year, which was great. I love when my house is full of the smell of turkey. Plus .... the leftovers stay at the house they were cooked at .... Right?

It was my first turkey (without my mom here) and I think it turned out great. Maybe not as good as Martha's turkey. HAHAHA!!!! I watched alot of her show before Thanksgiving. She does some really cute things. Decided to wait to do some of the fancy decor, appitizers, and food until my kids are older (maybe until I have a daughter) and they will appreciate it. Alot of work can go into the details and although I love my husband, I don't think he really cares. :) The food tastes the same whether his name is infront of his plate or not.

We did make cute little hats for the boys, which got torn up by Topher while Renae and I were out shopping for Black Friday. I guess Chris and Toph fell asleep at different times. Thank you Babe for watching the boys while we went out. It was a great day and night with family I love very much. Hope you all had a great holiday as well. : )

My Hubby carving the turkey .... this is after I corrected how he wanted to display the food. He didn't want to help anymore but I said, "You have to carve the turkey. It is the dad's job." Right? He forgave me for snapping at him and did a great job. Love you babe. : )

Yummmmmmmmm ..... Looks so good.

Notice Renae holding Coopers hands down. He really wanted to pull it off and chew on it. Everything goes in his mouth these days.

All the things Topher is grateful for are written on there feathers. I ended up writing the same things on both of there hats. SO if you look close you will see that Cooper is thankful for baby and not Topher .... It should say brother Topher. HAHAHA

The Picture right before this one Topher is giving Cooper a kiss, guess Cooper wasn't done kissing his brother. Now it just looks like he wants to eat him.

GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!!! Topher has become just a character with alot of energy.

Halloween in Montana

We went to Montana for Halloween this year. Topher's first Halloween with his cousins. He had so much fun. We went to a pumpkin patch (more like a parking lot with pumpkins on pallets, nothing like in Washington. : ) We carved pumkins and had apple cider with red hots (sound wierd but it is really good), went to a carnival and trunk or treat, and then were also able to go out trick or treating on halloween night. Topher loved running from house to house with his cousins. Chris loved it to. He said it was great to go with other kids because Topher would just following them and he didn't have to run him up and down each drive way. HAHAHAH!!! Topher was adorable. He would say thank you to each person that gave him candy and a couple times he didn't understand that once they put candy in his bag that was it. He ended up putting his hand in the candy bowl and helping himself to a few more pieces. Will teach people that you don't put a huge bowl of candy in a toddlers reach. : ) We also got some really cute photos of us with all of Topher's candy but I realized they weren't on our camera. Will have to post later.

Lota of random pictures of our fun times below. ENJOY !!!!!

Topher in his costume halloween night.

Chris and our nephew Damian carving pumpkins. We carved one pumpkin that said Topher on one side and Cooper on the other. Super creative .... I KNOW!!!

Cooper and Daddy, Cooper is wearing Topher's halloween mask.

Topher, cousin Christopher, and cousin Kyler eating popcorn and watching a movie.

Me and the hubby.

Topher by Grandmas car during the trunk or treat.

Cooper, our little turtle, and his Grandpa Croft.

Chris, Topher, cousin Kyler, and uncle dan (or as Topher says Kylers daddy)

Uncle dan and Kyler at the trunk our treat. It was so fun to have them home for Halloween. Me and my mom. I think this is the only time I have ever seen my mom dress up. I think we need to come home more often for halloween. We bring the fun to her life. HAHAHA!!!

Me, my brother Chris, and Cooper. He didn't dress-up. Lame. : )

My mom and Cooper.

Chris and Topher fishing for prizes/candy at the carnival. Topher also bowled and went through a haunted maze. FUN!!!!

The Fam. Not sure how a pimp and flapper ended up with 2 ninja turtles. HAHAHA!!! We had so much fun. I love HALLOWEEN.

A MOM'S vote

Before I was even married or pregnant I thought it would be great to have a boy as my oldest child. The thought of The Older brother sounded great. When we got pregnant with Topher we were hoping for a boy, but you can never really predict until they tell you or until they are born. So, when we found out we were have a boy we were ecstatic. I think I was a little relieved, having a girl kind of scared me. There is a lot of STUFF that comes with a girl. I think Chris liked the idea of having a little boy ... because what man doesn't want a boy first to continue his name. At first I thought ... have a boy first then a girl so the boy will keep the dad occupied while I hang out with my little girl.

After Toph was born and we were discussing future children we talked about how it would be fun to have 2 boys in a row. Mostly so that Toph would have a buddy growing up. Chris was the only boy in his family and think he wishes he had a brother. Well, he had me convinced that it would be the best for Toph to have a brother (not that I have control over the sex of my babies) and then our third would hopefully be a girl.

Come to find out Chris wanted to have a boy(s) so that the boy to girl ratio would be higher. I think he felt out numbered growing up and wanted to make up for that. :)

He didn't really disclose his plan fully until we found out our second (due June 26th) will be a boy. It was then that he let out a semi evil chuckle and said, "sweet, now the boys will out number the girls.") Little does he know that a mom's vote more than out weighs a toddlers, an infants, and a big kids vote. If not, Chris will be taking two boys out a lot without mom. HAHAHA!!! Just kidding . We are excited to have another little boy in the making. Two boys running around will definitely keep things fun and interesting.

So it's been a very long time since either of us have posted anything. Hopefully there is someone out there that is still reading this blog. We've been busy with many things, but operating two businesses has been time consuming. The Christmas season was a filled with a lot of work. I had many homes that needed Christmas lights installed, we needed to remodel our office, and continue preparing our employees for tax season. However with all the work, Christmas was great, and we are moving forward.

Tax season is in full swing and Topher, Allison and I are all pitching in to make it the best possible experience even though at times it is trying. Although we don't have a costume for Topher to wave at our customers, he sure likes to hold the signs.



Wish us luck!

Water Park

We went to Willis Tucker water park yesterday for playgroup. Our group was kind of split up due the enormous amount of people there, but it was fun. We did run into the Valentines, thank goodnesss. It is always more fun when you are around good friends. I had never been so I was a little under prepared. No chairs or toys, but I did remember the snacks. Toph really liked being out in the sun and wondering around but didn't care for the water much, unless I was holding him and we were barely getting wet. The water was kind of cold and he isn't used to the water hitting him in the face. I think he will have more fun next time.


This was Toph's first attempt at walking out in the water. He was doing great until a big kid hit him in the face with the big water gun. He didn't care for that much.
This is Toph's second try. Every few minutes all the water is shut off for a couple minutes and then turned back on. Well .... Toph thought it was safe and started walking out when suddenly the water was turned back on. He started screaming. I just had to get a picture before rescuing him. Actually I wasn't in a bathing suite so a friend ran in and got him. Thank You Tanya.

Cute Hair .... I love it.

This is Toph and his friend Lucy. Lucy wasn't to into the water either. They just sat on the lawn and ate snacks while they went through Lucy's mom's purse.
FUN IN THE SUN BABY STYLE ... HAHA

THE END......

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. I hope all of you did also. We went to Marysville to Grandpa Nelson's house for a BBQ and to watch fireworks. There is a park right behind Chris's dad's house that we played at until the fireworks began. There were about 8 families around us lighting off TONS!!! of fireworks. It was great.

Toph had a great time. There was a family right across the street sitting on lawn chairs enjoying the fireworks from there drive way. When big ones would go off they would all scream. Toph would wave his arms in the air and scream with them. I think he would have had more fun with them then us.

Toph will climb on anyone/anything that is on the floor. He is also fascinated by faces and mouths. Chris thinks he is going to be a dentist when he grows up. He is always sticking his fingers in our mouths. I think that would be great. Dental work can be expensive, would love to have a son that would do the work for free. HAHA!!

Toph loves to be on his Dad's shoulders. He often will look down into Chris's face as though he is checking to make sure his Dad is still there. So cute - it makes us laugh every time.

I love my hubby ..... So cute!

Toph had so much energy last night. He used to be so good at letting us take his photo. Now He doesn't stay still long enough, he doesn't even flinch when we call his name, and getting him to look at the camera and smile at the same is very rare. But, when we get a shot he is pretty stink'n cute. HAHA!!!

He loves walking up slides. He doesn't get very far before sliding back down. I probably shouldn't this this is funny, might be a hard habit to brake in the future. Still working on going down them the right way.