The Tree

Last year after Christmas we decided to get rid of our old artificial tree. We got the tree when we were first married from Tom's brother and wife. I'm not sure how long they had it before us and if they were even the first owners. It was time.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to a Christmas tree lot and picked out our wonderful tree.

We still had the lights that came with our artificial tree so they were quite old too. One strand was completely out and the other 2 only half of the strand worked. I thought I could some how make it work. I was wrong! I only ended up frustrated which led to me ripping the lights off the tree and throwing them right into the garbage can. I then informed Tom that our tree would not have lights this year!

Our poor Christmas tree sat with only a star on top for a while.

I took a trip to Utah for my grandma's funeral and when I came home Tom had taken our outside icicle lights and put them on the tree! What a sweet heart! I then was able to put the rest of the orniments on for the finishing touch.

After 11 years of marriage here is our first real tree!

Long Over Due

Thanksgiving has come and gone and yet I still haven't posted about it. I figured now would be as good a time as any.

Thanksgiving day was your traditional thanksgiving, great friends and a delicious turkey dinner with all the fixin's. After the feast, as always the girls sat and talked while we digested. The boys went and played a little tennis. And the kids, well they were all over the place! It was a very nice day!

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I don't usually go black Friday shopping but Tom got the chance to go this year!

His mom had called earlier Thanksgiving day to tell us that she found a couple of toys she wanted us to pick up at Toys-R-Us for the kids from her (makes so she doesn't have to worry about the hassle of shipping) The toy she wanted to get for Avery we decided we weren't going to get because she already has something similar.

We had a friend going to Toys-R-Us when they opened at 10:00pm for her kids so I figured since she was already planning on going that I would just have her watch for the toy.

She called to tell me that the line was outside and about 4 stores down. It was a cooler rainy night and she didn't have a coat or umberella so she wasn't going to wait in line. I can't blame her I wouldn't have either.

Tom and I ended up watching a couple movie's. The last movie got over at 1:30am so I suggested to him that he just drive by and see if there was still a line outside. If there was just to keep on driving but if not to go in and see if he could find the toy. There was no line so he went in only to find that the check out line inside weaved in and out of the isles!

He searched to find the toy kind of hoping he didn't find it so he didn't have to stand in the crazy long line. He was unable to find it so he decided to come home. Just as he was leaving he walked down an isle and there it was, THE TOY! He couldn't think of any excuse to tell his mom why he hadn't bought it now that he had found it. He waited in line!

As he waited in line he saw the toy Susan wanted to get Avery put aside by someone who decided they didn't want it. Now that he saw it it was actually different than the one she has so he took it with him to check out.

Two hours after he left he got home and I was just finishing clean up from our Thanksgiving fun. By 4 o'clock we were finally in bed!

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Tom took Friday off so we took the kids to see Tangled! Such a cute movie! Tom and I enjoyed it just as much as the kids did if not more.

This being Avery's 1st time and Cole's 2nd time at the theater they both did very well. They sat through the whole thing! So much fun! I love it now that they are getting older and enjoy doing things like this!

I highly recommend this fun family movie!

Blurry pictures but still cute!

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Saturday we went out and got our first real tree since we have been married! Yes, for 10 years we have had an artificial tree. How sad is that!

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Saturday night and Sunday were spent recuperating from all of our excitement! Nothing like lazing around the house but what a great weekend!

Happy Holidays!

The price is wrong....Bob

Airplane tickets for my wife to go to Utah:

$380.00

1 bowl of cereal for the kids so I can sleep a little longer:

~$0.30 each

The true cost of 1 hour of sleep after your kids have waken up:

$ Markers and Poo

Avery has marker from her head down to her toes

She feels REALLY bad and probably won't ever do it again. (I wish there was a font for sarcasm)

and apparently she likes to color naked.......

Her artistic genius spilled over onto her partner in crime.

He's the one that tipped me off.

Cole knocked on the bedroom door and kept saying:

"Avery...a no-no! Let me in! Poop!"

yes.....that is poo on the floor. and yes she tried to color over it with marker.

This is one way to get your art displayed on the fridge.

.....just more marker

At least she managed to get a little bit on something I don't have to clean up.

Halloween Post

We celebrated Halloween a week early with the Trunk-or-treat so Halloween Day we went over to Mike & Rachel's along with the Mana & Annette. Our wonderful hosts fed us pizza fritz(sp?)! So delicious! This is one of my favorite foods! I can never get enough of it! THANK YOU TRICARICO'S!!

After we stuffed ourselves the girls sat inside and chatted while the boys and kids went out and played. The guys decided to compete in "The Man Challenge" by doing feats of strength. After each game they would rotate letting the next guy pick the next challenge. The back yard only sufficed so long before they ran out of ideas so we all walked to the park where there were many more possibilities! At one point Tom lost a chunk of skin off of his pinky finger, which is still trying to heal. The girls got a good laugh watching their husbands act like young boys! Unfortunately no pictures of the craziness!

Wagon ride to the park!
*Avery *Jennie * Caralyn *Cole

After we walked back to the house the Trick-or-Treater's started coming out. Mike carved a pumpkin and let the kids help by taking out the guts. As it started getting late our kids started becoming monsters! HaHa! :) That was our queue to get our little monsters in bed.

*Caralyn *Cole *Michael *Benjamin
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As always Tom and I ended the night by watching a movie and relaxing. Ahh...

HAPPY belated HALLOWEEN!

I Can See...

...without contacts or glasses!

The month of October was quite the crazy busy month in the Booth household. To end the month out I had Lasik done!

October 30th Tom took me in and got to watch the whole procedure from a monitor screen that was hooked up to a camera that was aimed right at my eye. He got to see every little detail. He said it was pretty crazy!

Being on the receiving end was quite crazy too! There was a second there where I lost all vision. Tom tells me that was the point where they were cutting the flap on my eyeball! After it was cut vision was restored and I could see. I had to stare at a red light and though I couldn't see objects I just saw a whole lot of stuff coming at my eye!

I did all this with out drugs to calm my nerves because apparently you have to ask for them if you want them and I didn't know that until it was too late. They did numb my eyeballs though. All in all it wasn't too bad just really intense. The unknown is always intense! The whole thing only took only a few minutes. Yeah crazy, only minutes!

The best part about the whole thing is I get to sleep in these for two weeks! Awesome!! If only I could where them out in public!

I know what you are thinking
"Wow, she looks great! Where can I get me a pair of those!?"
"Why, Thank you! I got them at The Lasik Vision Institute."

I did however have to go in public right after the surgery with these beauty's on. Tom and I both had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at Five Guys Burgers and Fries and let me tell you how awesome I felt! I could not have been more embarrassed! Tom was leading me around like a blind lady because I was also trying to keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

By this time we were both starving so we ordered some food and then waited for our food so it was no quick in and out hide my face situation! It was a sit there forever and feel everyone's eye's on me situation! I'm probably making this out worse than it was but to me it was that bad! The food was really good though!

I went in the next day for one of the follow up appointments. It was wonderful being able to see everything and so soon after!

At my appointment the doctor checked my prescription and in that short amount of time I was at 20/15! WONDERFUL!

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I want to thank Mike and Rachel for taking time out of their Saturday to watch Cole and Avery!

Thank You!

Another Year Older!

On October 27th Avery turned 2!

She is getting too big too fast!

Unfortunately she started her terrible two's at about 18 months and when I say terrible I mean TERRIBLE! This girl can throw the BIGGEST tantrums! Full blown on the floor kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs! You never know what is going to set her off. She can be the cutest most sweetest girl and out of no where turn into miss stink! We have our hands full!

But just as quick as she can throw a tantrum she can put a smile on your face! She has her papa wrapped around her little finger. Tom has taught her to say "pretty please" and when she says it he is under her spell. She say's "hello" to any one that passes her way. She gives the best hugs and fish kisses! She is the most beautiful girl!

Her measurements and percentiles:
Height: 34.25 in. 68%
Weight: 28 lbs. 7.5 oz. 72%
Head circumference: 19 in. 93%

She is our big girl!

We let her open one present before her papa
had to go to work that morning.
She was so excited!



When Cole turned 2 Tom built him the play set.
Avery's 2nd birthday she got the sand for the sand box! *Hehe*
They both LOVE it!
I'm not quite sure how much I LOVE it! :)

I'm not the most fun creative mom ever so her cake was pretty basic and boring

Avery got spoiled again this year by all those who love her! Thanks again to our WONDERFUL family's!

Happy 2nd Birthday Avery!
love, Papa
Mama & Cole

Too Much To Do In Such Little Time

Saturday, October 23rd, was a very fun, full day.

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To begin we had a good 2 hour drive ahead of us so we started our day by leaving bright and early, 8:00 is bright and early for us, grabbed some McDonald's and headed to the Renaissance Fair!

Cole had eaten a couple bites of his pancake, half of a hash brown and guzzled down his O.J. About an hour & 15-30 mins. later he starts complaining that his tummy hurt. We just figured he was hungry because that's what he say's when he is starving. We kept telling him that we were sorry and that we would get him something to eat when we got there.

About 10 min. before we got to the fair we hear that dreaded sound! The sound you don't want to hear when you are 2 hours from home, no change of close and nothing to clean up with. We looked back just in time to see the little amount of breakfast and tons of orange juice coming back up!

We turned the car around, found a Dollar General, cleaned Cole up, bought him a new $10 outfit, cut off the sleeves and pant legs since it was a warm day, bought some shoe laces to help hold up the HUGE 3T pants, bought some cheap towles and cleaned up his car seat and the car. About an hour later we made it to the fair!

Eww...Yuck!

Once we got there we met up with some friends. We only had about 2-3 hours so to make better time we ended up splitting and going on our own. The kids rode pony's and as a family we rode an elephant.

After the elephants we went and watched the joust which was about the only free attraction there. Besides those few things and people watching, which is a must do at fun, crazy places like this, that is about all we had time for. We had our ward Trunk-or-Treat to get back to and I was NOT about to miss it for the third year in a row.

We made it home in time to get Cole and Avery's costumes on with a little time to spare.

Our adorable little fairy and pirate...ARGG!

At the Trunk-or-Treat Avery got her face painted and then smeared it every where. Cole had his fortune told by a pirate gypsy. They both did the cupcake walk and won a cup cake where Cole only wanted to eat the frosting off the top and Avery, surprisingly didn't want to eat hers at all. We ate hot dogs along with chips and a drink. Then all of the kids paraded around in their costumes. After the parade the Trunk-or-Treating began.

Cole and Avery somehow made it very last in line and were lapped several times by the bigger kids. All they wanted to do is eat their candy as they got it so it took us FOREVER to get to the next trunk. They never did make it to all of the cars before everyone started leaving. Oh well! We really didn't need all of that extra candy any way!

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After the sun went down and the kids were in bed Tom and I watched movies and relaxed the rest of the night. Aww...Perfect!