WE NEED YOURS...

Yes it's that time of year again. We need your address, especailly for all of you mover's like us for christmas cards. Please email me if you would like to recieve a christmas card from the bishop family. My email is bkl_sweets@yahoo.com Thanks!

Holiday Traditions

Happy Thanksgiving! I know it's a few days late but better late than never. We had a great Thanksgiving. My brother, his wife and their 3 boys came and stayed with us and we had such a good time. It's always so much fun to see them and our kids have so much fun together.


We started the day off by getting the food started and then my favorite part, or at least one of them, looked through the ad's to find our places to conquer the next day. Unfortunately the ad's weren't super great this year and due to the trampling incidences around the country I don't think they'll get much better from this point on. But my SIL and I found some places to go and things that we knew our kids would love so we planned ahead. We ate our dinner, had pie, as seen by my Porter man, he loves chocolate pie, and enjoyed the rest of our day together. The next morning Jami and I headed out to stand in a Toys R Us line for over an hour :( but we did get what we wanted. We headed around to some other stores and found everything we had on our lists. I recieved a phone call from Brandon after our 4th store telling me that I had to come home now, the boys were going a little too crazy for him I guess. So we called it quits and finished the rest of our shpping online once we got home.

After we got home and got some lunch we took the kids over to the mall to ride the train and to see Santa. The train people weren't the happiest people to be around, but once we finally got on the train the boys had a blast. Aren't they all so cute.

Logan told santa that he wanted a light saber this year, I think that one will be do-able since his cousin got him that for christmas. Yes it's a good thing that he can't read or else I'd be spoiling all of his fun.

I didn't hear what Porter told santa but when I asked him what he had said he told me that he wanted a "hippopotamus". I think daddy has been singing that song a little too much this year. He's starting to influence our kids wants for Christmas.

We went against all the rules and set up our christmas tree last saturday. It was so much fun to be able to have our own big tree this year and to put all of our favorite ornaments on them. The boys got a kick out of looking at their ornaments from the years past. We have a tradition of giving each of the kids their own ornaments every year. They loved seeing what they had when they were babies and stuff.

Here's all the happy boys with the finished product. Logan turned off the light and we all just sat and stared at it and talked about how magical a tree can be. I don't really know what it is, but with the lights turned on some kind of magic seems to happen, I love it.

I couldn't find ornaments that I liked this year or what I really wanted to represent this year for each boy, so I took them to Kmart and let them pick. We found some good ones. Porter wanted this cute little car which I thought represented us living here in Michigan pretty well.

Logan picked a bicycle since this is the year he got his first big boy bike and can ride it, with training wheels all by himself.

I love this time of year. I know we should always try to carry Christmas in our hearts all the time, but there's something about this time of year that is just magical to me. I love it. It makes me more grateful for the blessings that I have in my life and gives me a greater desire to go out of my comfort zone and to help those around me in need. It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year.

We are thankful

Well I didn't know whether or not if I should post or wait to post (since we're going private tomorrow). I decided to post otherwise I feel like I might overwhelm you all with one ginormous post.
Every year in our little family we have made a garland of gratitude, thanks to the idea from our friends and family fun magazine. Thanksgiving is one of Brandon's and mine favorite holidays. It gives a chance to look back throughout the year and to remember the things in our lives that we are truly grateful for. I also think that it's a great start into the magic of the Christmas season that I absolutely love as well.
It has been fun to see what our kids come up with and how they have changed year to year, from us prompting them with things to be thankful for to coming up with their own thankfuls. So here we are hanging up our Garland of Gratitude to help us remember the good things in our lives this year.

Brandon is thankful for:

A job that he loves

Family

A new baby

Friends

Kim is thankful for:

Phones

Health

My Boys and baby girl

Prophet

Logan is thankful for:

Transformers

Bumble Bee

Dinner

Mom

Porter is thankful for:

Cars

Daddy

Leaves

Papa's, Grandma's, Aunt's, Uncle's, and Cousins

Who needs brooms and dust pans

Porter was eating chips with his lunch and fell off of his chair, knocking all of the chips to the ground. Since it was just the chips and they weren't smashed I just told him to pick them up and put them on his napkin and throw them away. What started out as chip picking up, turned into picking up every little crumb and dirt off of the floor. Logan and Porter spent a good half hour looking under the couch, in the cushions, under the table legs, basically everwhere and picked up all the crumbs for me. Tell you what I just might never have to sweep again.

If you can see in this picture you can tell Porter was in a hurry to get dressed this morning. Yes that is 2 different colors of underwear band lines that you see. He put his clean underwear over his underwear from yesterday. Yep that's my boy!

Grandparents, birthdays and snow Oh My!

This last week we had Brandon's parents come out and visit us. We didn't have any big plans, just let the kiddo's hang out with their Papa and Grandma. It snowed the beginning of their visit and rained almost the rest of the time and then snowed today when they left. Papa and Grandma took the boys to the park many times and on lots and lots of walks, Logan and Porter had a ball.

We had a preschool field trip while Papa and Grandma were here and we went to the Morley Candy Factory. It was a lot of fun, mostly because we got free chocolate afterwards, yum!

As we were leaving for the airport today it started to snow pretty good and Logan and Porter were in heaven. Their favorite thing to do is throw snow balls, as evident by the picture. When Porter came outside he came running with his mouth wide open to catch a snow flake.

After we droppped Papa and Grandma off at the airport Logan said, "I'm sure going to miss papa and grandma being here." So thanks Wally and Denise for coming and spending time with us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN

Man where does the time go?? It seems just like yesterday that we had him. What a little sweet heart and blessing he has been in our life. He turned 5 on friday and had a "great" day. Thursday night I went and bought a happy birthday sign at the grocery store. I brought it home to hang up and noticed that it said, H-Y-P-P-Y * B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y. So I got Brandon to go to the grocery store and trade it. He looked at the rest of them and they were all spelled wrong and of course made in China. So we had to get a different sign that wasn't as cool or so I thought. Porter woke up first and saw the sign and presents and ran and woke up Logan. Logan's first response was "Wow mom, I like the shiney sign". So it worked out.

We took him out to breakfast to the "Original Pancake House" that he loves. He then had to go to preschool and was able to take a treat to his friends there and thought that was pretty cool. When he got home from school he opened up his presents and thought he was in heaven. He really is an easy kid to please and just ate up everything that was happening.

He finally got his black hole to complete his planet heroes set and it just made his day.

We went to Red Robin for dinner and they came and sang to him. He got so excited and speechless and didn't know what to do. It was so funny to see him get shy with that much attention. We came home and had cake and ice cream. He wanted a captain america cake and the only captain america things were these tiny little action guys. But as you can tell it didn't matter he thought it was so cool anyways.

Brandon and I are so proud of Logan and are so happy that he is in our family. He is the best big brother to Porter and a great friend. He tries his best to do what is right and is always quick to compliment someone or say he's sorry. We love you Logan, Happy Birthday.

Today was Logan's first primary program, (last year he threw up during the announcements in sacrament and missed the program.) He memorized his part as did all of the kids and sang his best. He was so cute. He kept yelling-whispering "Hi Dad". Then he would wave, give winks and thumbs-ups and when singing he would give us a sallute. Besides that he sat pretty still (bribary does work), and had so much fun.

Fine I'm going to do it

After talking it over and over with Brandon we decided to make our blog private. I really am not a fan of the private blog, as I'm a lurker on some blogs. (That kind of sounds like a dirty thing, but it's not.) So leave me a comment if you want an invite and I'll send you one. We'll be going private in 2 WEEKS, NOVEMBER 25th. Hope to hear from you.

Just to let you know

If you click on my Frugal is Fab icon on the side you can get a $2.00 off any Goody Ouchless hair accessory. You can also print if off as many times as you want, you can only use one at a time. They expire Dec 31, 2008 so you could get stocked up on hair things.

There is also a free 8x10 code at Walgreens. You just order online and go pick it up. I'm picking mine up today. It expires tomorrow though.

Just thought I'd share the good deals, as I'm always looking for them.

My opinion...

I've had a lot of mixed feelings about this election. For one I was never really excited about either candidate. But as I looked at the issues more and more I became a McCain advocate, I could understand his issues for the most part. I was very disappointed when he lost, I knew it was a long shot for him, but I held out hope. I am not a Barack fan, never have and probably never will be. I talked with people yesterday who started crying saying "isn't it wonderful to see a black man make it?" Frankly I don't care what color he or she is, this wasn't an election about color, or it shouldn't have been about that. Anyways before I rant too much I will just say I read a Bob Lonsberry article and I agree with a lot of what he said. I didn't vote for Obama, but I will give him a chance. Here's some of what I liked in that article, you can read the rest online at <http://www.boblonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=2501&go=4
"Election Day is our greatest day. It is the defining American day. We fight wars as a means to
an end, and the sovereignty of the people and the liberties necessary to protect that sovereignty are the end. We transfer more power than humankind has ever held on the peaceful basis of counted ballots. We do it with grace and faith. The grace to act as citizens and the faith that our system will work and the right will be done.
Barack Obama was not my choice, but he is my president. That is true of all Americans. For the last eight years, there has been an ongoing campaign of destruction meant to handicap and hobble the last president. I refuse to be part of an effort to do the same to the next president. Those who didn't vote for Barack Obama must set a higher standard of civility and citizenship than those who didn't vote for George W. Bush. In defeat, there must still be nobility.
That doesn't mean silent servility. It doesn't mean differences and principles are ignored.
But it does mean the new president gets a new chance. It means we all must pray for him and work with him to make our country stronger and safer and better.
Pretty speeches notwithstanding, there remains a great divide, much of it created by the recent election. To the extent it needs to be bridged, it will be bridged by an effort by the president-elect to reach out to those who don't trust him, and by an effort by the people to reach out to a president who might not trust them.
The last eight years have taught us what happens when you set out to destroy a presidency for political gain. You help your candidate, but you hurt your country. That pattern must not be followed with this new president. America must treat Barack Obama better than he treated George W. Bush.
He has preached a "shift to the center," he has claimed to be "post partisan." Through the campaign, those were just words.
In the administration, they will need to be more.
Or all the hope and the change and the hooplah will be meaningless hype.
But today is a new day, and a fresh start. And the president-elect gets the benefit of the doubt. "
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2008

Our new Fab, FREE, Find... we love HOME DEPOT

So like with most things we may be the last to know. Well actually my father in law told Brandon about this but with most things if you think it will be passed on to me or my kids, you don't tell Brandon. I might not find out about for weeks, months or even years.
Last month on General Conference weekend we ran over to Michaels to get some things for the kids to work on during conference. Home Depot is right next door to it and they had fire trucks, and ambulance's around it and a ton of kids. So we walked over there to see what the commotion was all about. It turns out that October is fire safety month, so the local fire department was there and Home Depot was doing this awesome wooden fire truck. I walked up and asked how much to particpate in all this fun and was shocked when they said, FREE. So of course we got ourselves a little fire truck, FREE food, and a FREE little peek into the fire truck and ambulance. The boys were in heaven. I later found out that Home Depot does these kid activities the first saturday of every month. So yesterday Brandon had to work and I didn't want to clean, (I'm such a procastinator), we went to Home Depot and made a leaf press, don't really know what it is, but they boys had fun and it gave us something to do and it was FREE. This time the boys also got a FREE apron that if they wear everytime they get a FREE hot dog and a FREE completion pin to stick on their apron. It was so much fun and my boys both could actually do the hammering and the twisting of the wing nuts on and such.


Yesterdays fun project, with their cute little FREE Home Depot Aprons. Once they were done they started fighting in the store. Porter went and bit Logan's jacket and Logan dragged him around the store for a minute. I just looked around and asked the people around me where their mother was, as I got them cornered and lectured about how we behave in public. Oiy, do you think we're ready for another one??

These are the boys trying to show off their cute fire trucks that they made. As you can tell with our pictures lately, it takes a lot of effort to get them to smile at the same time and to look at the camera at the same time. Some day they might get it.