give thanks.

"so each one gave thanks 

for love and for living

and they all had a happy thanksgiving."

 { my kids watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade 2011 }

halloweeing & halloween

 

 halloween is the #1 family favorite holiday here at the gregroy residence, we live and breathe it. so even though it has come and gone we still have to adequately document this year's halloween season because was nothing short of perfect.

 

thanks to my little mom, we have found the absolute perfectly perfect place to get pumpkins and it's just down the road from us in draper. don't even get me started on the adorable 85 year old man working the pumpkin patch who was all snuggled up in his coat and happy to help, or the prices that were beyond affordable (5 big pumpkins for $11), or the BOUNTIFUL selection, or the over all quaintness of it. it was perfect, and we will be going back there every year.

she's a dance dance dance dancin' machine.

jude is halloween.

 daddie and his cubbie 

(fyi... cubbie is all trevan calls ez)

 brotha's..... best picture ever.

 denim jacket cuties.

done.

 yaya and papa joined us and as you can tell, my kids are elated. we have the best family, really it's been scientifically proven.

onto the rest of halloween....

 we had the funnest murder mystery party hosted by brooke and dustin, we felt pretty special getting an invite into their elite townhome friend community. really, it was SO fun. visit here for a taste.

 this year marked my first time as a halloween party room mom. i had to bring schmez, and luckily greta was at school at the same time so we all partied together. oh and kindergartner's? adorable.

 lol.

 gaga in the preschool parade.

 ahoy ezzie!

the kindergarten parade.

this is the best picture i could get but i'm super glad he's reverent while parading.

the third annual jackson/gregory halloween adventure was upon us as soon as school was over... it seemed. nannie and grandpa mike joined us for our festivities. the kids trick or treated the streets of white city in all of their pirate glory for an hour and then we came home to salad, pizza, pumpkin bars and LOADS of our childrens loot. 

i like this tradition.

 since jude is mr. halloween we let him decide the fate of the kids costumes this year. he was big into themes this year (ie. harry, ron, and hermione - mario, baby mario, and princes peach - luke, yoda, and leia) but when after weeks of indecision minie and poptart set their mind to pirates and jude seemed to feel like that would be okay with him too and pirates it was. 

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to nannie who whipped up this costumes in her spare time (which is non existent between taking her of her mom, working full time, and making costumes for all my other sisters). she is MAMAzing. 

a wench and her pirates.   

since i was a room mom, jude bossed me into dressing up too.

 damn he's cute.

 daddies who trick or treat.

the pirate crew.

 my birthday, halloween, my anti-depressants getting lost in the mail, jude's birthday, and our relief society super saturday that i was in charge of all in one week... it was WAY more than i could handle.

now i can breathe in the freezing cold air.

six

my jude.

my first born.

our little experiment.

he is 6 today.

and i can honestly say, he just keeps getting better and better.

happy birthday 

my ever so handsome, beautiful boy.

twenty-nine.

i did it!

on october 28th, i made it to 29, the age women claim to be for the rest of their lives.

we celebrated with our family's the night before and stuffed our faces with endless rolls from texas road house... umm, their rolls? manna from above. trevan took my actual birthday off and brought me donuts and flowers to start the day off. i spent the rest of the morning at instacare with greta who as it turned out had strep throat, saddest little girl ever. after we picked up her prescription we met da gregs for lunch at zuppas. we hung around home the rest of the day and then had a quick jaunt to the mall to pick me up my new shmoots that trevan gave me for my birthday. i opted for in-n-out for dinner because nothing ever tastes better. it was a good day.

surely, this year will be my best yet.

i just realized my whole birthday revolved around eating... i may be a stunning 400 lb women by the time i hit 30 if i keep this ( and eating every left over halloween miniature snickers in sight) up. yikes.

help... he wants a nintendo DS

jude is turning 6 next week... i know, i know unbelievable that he is 6, but that's not the reason for this post. the reason is, all first born wants for his birthday is a Nintendo DSi. jude's mind is made up, and that is what he wants. DONE and DONE. i am sick over it. i mean, duh, of course i bought him a special edition pokemon DSi 3 weeks ago when it was on sale at targ but now i am second guessing our my decisions. everyday i see it glaring down on me from the shelf it is hidden on (BTW it is so visible. i love that jude is so innocent still) taunting me. you see, i do not know what to do with that little box. i'm afraid of how that little box will change our lives forever. i am not ready to fight about time limits and video game ratings. most importantly, i don't want my imaginative jude to turn into a video game zombie.

jude has the best imagination i have ever seen. he loves to play make believe and he plays with his toys, different toys, all his toy, everyday. jude always has some world set up that he is playing in, he even invites greta and ez into his world. even when he is watching the tv or a movie, or playing on kidzui he is still playing side by side. he loves to color and draw, build forts, and he will make up games to play all day long. jude brings his toys or as trevan so gently puts it "crap" where ever we go. he always has a supply of "crap" on hand... really, you should see our car. we are always adding things to his collections. for instance, if we don't have a certain "guy" jude draws them, cuts them out, and then adds them to the collection and then into the rotation of things to be played with. we have to be real careful in these parts as to what we can throw away because everything has a place in jude's world.

jude is incredible
but
jude is also obsessive.

once jude is into something, jude is INTO something. the determination that kid has drives me insane, literally. i have gotten better about standing my ground, but he still knows how to get his way with me and trev. when jude gets into something, it takes over his life. he eats, sleeps, and breathes whatever the obsession is. do you see my dilemma... obsessive/strong willed kid & a hand held video game system? it sounds treacherous.


 i know from personal experience that video games are addicting and fun. freak, don't get me started on my years of mastering sonic, beating every super mario level, hours wasted beating aladdin on the sega, dominating mario kart as my alter ego wario, killing it on the original tony hawk, and of course my high school days of playing SIMS with my siblings.

so you see, i am not a video game hater, i love a little video gaming. it's just a lot different now, and i am not sure how i feel about my 6 year old becoming a gamer.


what am i to do?
i am asking you.


is 6 too young for a nintendo DS?
am i doing him a disservice by letting him have one?
am i doing a disservice by NOT letting him have one?
how do set boundaries, without fights?
 how do i tell him he can't get the only thing he wants for his birthday?
will i lose my jude forever?
am i worrying too much?
but all his friend/cousins already have them...
am i fighting the inevitable?
who? what? when? where? how?

i am confused and scared.

please, i am BEGGING you, what am i to do?
i have until next friday at 12am....

please!


for the record... trevan is already 100% anti-video games but he's a boring dad. what does he know?

fall soccer with jude.

have i told you that i love that jude likes playing sports?

 this year jude played t-ball in the spring and soccer in the fall and each were enjoyed thoroughly.

my 3 kids.

a boy after my own heart... a keeper!

baby.

best part about living near family? support systems at games. jude had a whole crowd cheering him on at every game.

one time we even got support of down south (ie. st. george)

ezzie & sully 

(8 months apart)

 go green dragons!!!!

 

i love my soccer jude.

p.s. next year, i will coach and you better watch out.

 

2-day-get-away

this year has been a doozy for us financially... i'm not quite sure how having our 3rd child threw us into a downward spiral but it did. literally, we are strapped for cash. i am working again sigh 3-4 days a week and trevan is doing everything in his power to make things better for us at his job. it's been pretty rough round these parts. things could be SO much worse and we are not poor, we are just struggling a bit. blah blah blah, you don't want to hear it, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT but it's our life in 2011 and i want to remember it. all of that complaining being said, 2011 has been a perfect year for our little family. we are officially a family now it seems, we go to school, we go to games, we have schedules, we have bedtimes, and we enjoy it all. the best part is, besides some added money arguments between me and trevan, the kids don't know our struggles, they are happy and most importantly healthy. the love that we all have for each other, for our family/from our family, and our beliefs have made this year possible. FAITH. i don't ever want to be in this tough money spot again, but if i had to do it all over, i would because the family aspect of 2011 has been perfection.

being in a "tight" spot is hard. we are use to doing certain things, like vacations yearly. they are never huge vacations but they are getaways and they are NEEDED. as the year is coming to an end i realized that what we needed was a a getaway. thankfully, a really bad experience on our anniversary back in august at our hotel in park city turned itself into a good experience when they comped us another weekend of our choice back at the hotel. i choose the first weekend in october and it was delightful. we brought our kids this time, and i fell in love with them, utah, fall, and my life all over again.

oh and how do you vacation on a budget? well, let me tell you how we did it.... free hotel room, dinner at burger king, breakfast from home in the hotel room, lunch at taco maker, and a splurge dinner at bandits. the kids swam 4 times in 36 hours, there was no outlet shopping (ouch), and we couponed the alpine slide. boo yeah, kennan's on a budget! lol.

the babies.

the jude on the alpine slide.

the scenery.

 

greta's turn!

waiting for mommie and sis.

there we are!

happy family.

we followed up our lovely weekend by having sunday dinner back at my mom's. we drove through our future home town (midway, ut.. call me) and then over into cascade springs, up the alpine loop, drove down my favorite place (american fork canyon) and then back through my old familiar roads of highland, ut.  i love going home.

favorite people.. EVER.

daddie, schmez, and the baby bjorn on a sunday walk.

 

this is the house that built me.

and now you know.