A Romriell Thanksgiving!

We had our Thanksgiving dinner a few days late this year, but that's okay because my folks were able to drive up and spend it with us! My kiddos just LOVE their Grammy and Grampa!

Darren and I were excited to host it at our house so we wouldn't have to travel with our lil ones.If you have ever traveled with kids, you will know why we were so stoked! Not to mention Jaxton started crawling last week so we've got 2 mobile kiddos now! The best part of having Thanksgiving at our house this year is that I got to decorate! I did all the decorating the day before they came!

The Living Room's Main Window!

The Living Room's Side Windows!

On the front door!

Our Christmas/ Peacock themed Kitchen! The purple ornaments have Peacocks on them!

The Peacock Bouqet I put together!!

Jozlyn even got a fancy new bow!!!!

My parents drove up Friday night. Just in time to get the kids all riled up before bedtime. haha. When guests are around the kid's schedules gets all askewed, but I guess it's worth it!

Jaxton was super excited, can't you tell!? p.s. Don't you just LOVE that Skunk Hoodie!?!?!?!?!

Saturday was super relaxing! I made Pumpkin Pancakes for breakfast. My dad just loves pumpkin and these are the BEST! The combination of a full belly and our new super comfy couches put my folks right to sleep! lol. Kaiden didn't care though he just climbed over them and got himself all comfy in between them! lol.

And we had LOTS of snacks ALL day!

Grammy even got jaxton to fall asleep in her arms! This is wild, because Jaxton likes to put himself to sleep! lol

To keep Kaiden busy we made indoor smores too!

Later my dad asked me to make cake bites! lol. He LOVES them, and wanted me to teach him how I did it. "Teach a man to fish..," as they say!

Kaiden kinda helped too, even if he mostly just sat there and ate the sprinkles! lol

And then sunday arrived, also known as our Thanksgiving Day!! My mom and I were busy cooking the sides and my dad and Darren were working on the turkey!

Kaiden must have noticed the lack of attention because he found a crayon and was drawing on the walls that morning! Luckily they washed right off. And when we put him down for a nap he made his usual mess, and refused to go down. lol. Kaiden sure keeps us on the edge of our seats!

Luckily, Grampa stepped in with an early Christmas persent! Elf on the Shelf! It's a little toy elf that comes with a book. This is Santa's special elf sent to watch Kaiden and Jaxton and report to Santa if they are being Naughty or Nice! Kaiden was good the rest of the day!

Earlier that day I had asked what everyone was thankful for and then I typed them up, wrapped them in tin foil and placed them between the rolls before I cooked them. Then at the dinner table we all opened our rolls and read aloud what everyone was thankful for! lol. Here's the notes!

"I'm thankful for my handsome boys and that my parents were able to join my lil family for Thanksgiving!' ~Chelsea

"I'm thankful I finally get to eat Thanksgiving dinner and for my beautiful wife!" ~Darren

"I'm thankful for my family!" ~My Dad

"I'm thankful for my family, food in my belly and a roof over my head!" ~My Mom

"I'm thankful for my Monster Truck" ~Kaiden

"I'm thankful for my mommy and delicious food!" ~Jaxton

The turkey was divine! Even my father said it was the best one he's ever had. It was really moist and flavorful! YUMM!

Darren was really stoked about the dessert! I'm not a fan of fruit pies so Darren and I compromised on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake aCheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! And yes, it is as delicious as it sounded! Darren was in heaven!

Kaiden passed out on the floor! lol. I guess it was the turkey! lol

My parents had to leave later that day, it was sad to see them go, but we are so glad they made the trip!

To Salt Lake for Some Birthdays!

Well my mom called us last thursday to invite us to a Birthday dinner at my Aunt Stacie's Sunday night. My sister Ashlea, My brother Derek and my cousin Eric all have birthdays within 2 weeks! I let Darren know but seriously didn't think he would say "yes" or that we would be leaving the next morning! I was so excited! I'm really glad we went because I felt really bad for missing my brother's first MMA fight! He won, no surprise there! And he loves fighting for his team, FightKing!

Kaiden was beyond ready to go off to Grammy's house! He packed all that he thought he would need, Pooh and Roo! lol

Jaxton was getting ready for Grammy too, by working on his smiles! Not that it's hard for this guy!

We arrived about 5 pm and got settled in.

My sister Ashlea drove up from Spanish Fork to spend the night and see us.

Darren and I had to go the store for a late night Milk run. It was then I decided Darren and I can not go shopping past 11 pm ever again! We bought way more than we were planning including ALL of the Harry Potter movies on a whim!! I guess we'll just put those babies under the tree, if we can wait that long!

I was asked to make Cake Bites, I doubt I'll have any future visits to SLC that won't include making those sweet treats! Haha! My brother is a HUGE Bubblegum fan. Not specifically the candy, but more of the flavoring. He loves Bubblegum Ice Cream so I figured I'd make him some Birthday Bubblegum Cupcakes. WOW, they turned out FANTASTIC!

I baked for a bit Saturday morning and then we headed to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, but not before meeting up with my brother and his kiddo, Sadie!

Kaiden loves having his cousin around. However I think she quickly got annoyed of him "RAWRing" in her face. lol

In the car to the Aquarium!!!!!!

Poor Jaxton had some shots friday morning before we left town, and he was SOOOOOO sick the entire trip. Poor lil guy!

We all had a great time at the aquarium! I think Kaiden's favorite part was getting to touch lots of the little sea animals, like starfish, stingrays, anemones, etc!

Playing with the stingrays!

Turtle!!

Jaxton was just content being parked nest to the giant fish tank! lol

After playing there for a few hours, we went to the mall to play for a bit. Darren was so sweet and bought me some chocolates from my very favorite sweets shop, See's Candies! One day I will live next door to one of these! While at the mall, my sister called to tell us she and her beau Coby would be meeting up with us! We were pretty excited but I bet you can guess how excited we were when we saw a PINK ROCK on her finger!

So of course we had to celebrate with food and to the Olive Garden we all went! lol. My family has a sick food obsession, Im seriously surprised we are all as small as we are! Saturday was a GREAT day! Sunday was good too though. In fact Elder Tom Perry is in my mom's ward and we got to visit with him and his wife for a bit after church in their home! They are such sweet people! We enjoyed being with my Aunt Stacie and the whole fam! We only stayed at the dinner for about 2 hours and headed back on the road. The plan was to drive straight home, but Jaxton had a blow out about 30 minutes from Grandma Joyce's so we were only going to stay for 15 minutes and ended up spending the night. lol. We love that lady! Kaiden is so much easier to watch at other people's homes now. So glad he grew out of that super crazy and destructive phase. The next morning we went and saw Rod and Darla. They loved seeing the boys and it was fun to chat over some caramel apples!

And so ended our totally spontaneous trip! lol.

Shimmers and Glitters!

Random post, not related to family at all. I try not to do these which is why.................

I love our ward! All of the girls there are like my sisters! Several of them have begged me to start a blog with random crafts and recipes I've collected and so http://shimmersandglitters.blogspot.com/ was created! I love those girls so much and I'm so glad they pushed me to do this! :D Anyways, go check it out and be sure to "Follow" it! It's been lots of fun to do!

If you're curious as to why I choose that name, and I know ya'll are! It was because "sparklesandsprinkles" was taken, haha! Great name right!? Of course it was taken! When Darren and I were dating I came up with the line "I love you to Shimmers and Glitters!" It was like "Bits and Pieces" but a MILLION times better! When he got me a Tiffany's necklace for my wedding present he had the back engraved with the same saying. It's kinda our thang and I LOVE IT! I actually don't think many people know that, but there ya go! =D

Brotherly Love

So Jaxton is 6 1/2 months now and I've been meaning to give him his Half Birthday check in for about 2 weeks now. What can we say? We love the lil stinker! He is a way chill kid.

Kaiden does most of the entertaining for him, in fact Jaxton PREFERS watching and playing with his brother over his parents. HOWEVER, he only likes to be fed bottles by his mom or on his own! And this boy LOVES to eat. Jaxton loves eating, but not so much baby food.

He prefers to feed himself. We usually use a "mesh feeder" and put fresh or frozen fruit in it and let him gnaw away.

He throws a fit when his food is all gone. Kaiden was the same although he ate much less. Jaxton has been great, he puts himself to sleep! Half the time he falls asleep in your arms while you feed him and the other half of the time you just lay him down when he's sleepy and he does the rest. What a breeze! When we are out and he is tired he won't let anyone hold him, he just wants to be put in his carseat and fall asleep on his own!!! How sweet is that!?

He takes several naps ranging from 45 minutes to 3 hours and goes to bed at 7 pm. He wakes about 1-2 times a night. This is strange because Kaiden always slept through the night. At least he is never awake for more than 2 minutes either time. I'm thinking he will be beaking teeth soon because he loves to gnaw on EVERYTHING, but mostly our fingers! He can't crawl yet but he does something similar on his back. He will bridge up and scoot, so I guess you can say he's mobile! Jaxton loves rolling over, you can hardly keep the boy on his back. Diaper changes have become quite the circus act as he bridges and scoots out of his diaper and then tries to roll around. Haha.

He, like his brother LOVES the Jumperoo, He throws fits to get into it! What a great investment! We have a few nicknames for the boy, "Little Boy Blue," "Baby Jax," "Jaxxy Poo," "Goo Goo," "Goo Goo Bear," but mostly he goes by "Baby," or "Baby Brother!" He rarely gets called Jaxton, which is a shame because it is an awesome name! lol. We just love having him in our family and can't imagine life without him!

Now to Kaiden.... what can we say about our lil Sour Patch Kid!? I always joke that we MUST have a crazy toddler because our friends with toddlers have said so. He is a mess maker and finds even the nastiest of things to play in. We HAVE to put him to bed in zip up jammies with safety pins because he will unzip them, take his diaper off and play in his own poop ANY chance he gets. Although he has a wild side he also has a very sweet side. His smile and laughter really get ya. I actually let him get away with alot because of his sweet smile.He goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes at 7:30 without fail. He takes 1, 2-3 hour nap still which is great! I usually use that time to get some caft projects done. And most days Jaxton takes a nap during the same time, which is a little piece of heaven!

He has 2 best friends, Carter and Autumn! I'm so lucky to be in a ward with girls that are so cute and so much fun and have little kids that are my kids age! We get together often for play groups and to hang out! Kaiden is an extremley social kid, which makes me happy! He has no fear going up to other kids, saying "hi" and playing with them! He can sometimes be a bully and be possessive over his toys but I think that's normal toddler stuff. One day I took Kaiden to McDonald's to play and I saw Kaiden push a kid so hard the kid, who was a foot taller than Kaiden, fell right on his back. He got a time out for it, but I gotta admit it was impressive. Kaiden has been play Boxing with Darren, so I assume that's where he got it from. Haha. Kaiden LOVES putting gloves on to Box! Kaiden's favorite movie at the moment is Monsters Inc., so it's not uncommon for Kaiden to go up to random kids and RAWR in their faces, quite loudly. lol. This cracks me up! He also has an evil laugh, which is hilarious! It's something lik e"Muahahahaha!" lol. He has grown up so much. He plays with toys longer and will sit down and watch a 20 minute show! His favorite cartoon at the moment is The Backyardigans!

If I had to guess Kaiden's "favorite" thing it would be anything with wheels that moves or that moves him. He gets so excited when an airplane flies over our house or when he sees a train! lol. His favorite toy is the 4-Wheeler right now because he thinks it's a Monster Truck. He's even tried to drive over the baby like Monster Trucks drive over beater cars. Of course Jaxton was jsut laughing! haha! Kaiden gets a kick out of getting his brother to crack up!

Kaiden's favorite food is Mac N Cheese! And anything I bake! His other daily staple is chocolate milk! He probably asks for it 5 times a day! lol. Kaiden is a lil daredevil and LOVES to count to 3 and jump off our couch. It has been great to see him breaking the language barrier! He puts sentences together and has A LOT less melt downs now that he can just explain what he wants/ what he's upset about. Kaiden-roo LOVES helping out! If I'm baking or sewing or cleaning he HAS to be right up in my project helping me as I go. Last night I was letting him press on my foot pedal as I was sewing our Christmas stockings. He had a blast. lol

I have a few videos I need to upload so check back soon!

TTFN!