Thanksgiving

California!  I have to admit I was more than ready to hop in the car again (this was our third trip to California in November…the people at the gas station where we always stop knew us by name..I swear) and get back on the road!  Seeing family so much this month made me really homesick for living close to them.  We really have a lot of fun when we are together…ok, back on topic.  THANKSGIVING!

We had planned to leave on Wednesday and drive home Saturday/Sunday.  Monday night Chris got home from work around 6 and said if we are going to go to Cali we needed to leave tonight since a huge Blizzard was slated to come in Tuesday around the same time we were planning to be on the road.  So we hurried through our FHE activity (decorating Sugar Cookies), Chris headed back to work to get things set up for the lab, and I got to work on finishing laundry, packing and getting the house ready to leave.  Of course our dishwasher decides it would be a great night to flood my whole kitchen so I have to call Chris home from work, clean that mess up and get it repaired.  I don’t care what he says it has nothing to do with how I carelessly (quickly) loaded the dishwasher that night!  So we hurry (well I hurried Chris slept so he could drive all night and the kids watched a video so I could work) and get out the door just after midnight.  The drive down was blissfully uneventful!

We spent our days down there playing with cousins.  Here is Andrew, Ethan and Josh riding the go-karts and scooters in front of my parents house.  Speed+danger=Andrew’s favorite toy!  He loved these go-karts!  Ethan and Ben were kind enough to take him on many, many rides.  I love Josh's Pink helmet :)

My sister Shelley and her two cute girls Anabelle and Ava. 

Ethan and Josh trying to get Andrew out of the road.  Andrew was dying to drive this thing all by himself.  Thankfully he never figured out where the on button was!  I had Ethan distract him every time we had to power them up.  If Andrew learned how to turn them on I know he would have been long gone!

I love this picture of Ben!  I love the storm rolling in behind him with the palm trees. 

 

Shel I love your face in this one!  Haha!

This is where my brother Chris became Andrew’s hero.  My grandparents have an avocado grove in their backyard.  It is amazing.  I love going back there and having all the leaves crunch under my toes.  My brother Chris decided to get the ATV out and take all the kids for rides.  Andrew was standing back there just watching Chris do donuts on the ATV.  His mouth was open and every once in a while Andrew would just start to clap.  Finally uncle Chris asked Andrew if he wanted a ride and he got up there so fast!  Andrew loved it!  He didn’t want to get off!  After his ride was over he wanted to just stay back there and watch Chris ride.  I told him we could go and wait in the front yard for Chris to ride up the street (to get the ATV from the backyard to the front yard he takes it around the whole property and out to the main road, then drives into the driveway..sorry that makes no sense, but I can’t describe it any better than that).

We sat on the front steps and Chris, never one to disappoint, passes the front of the house going FULL speed.  Andrew just starts clapping and clapping for him!  It was adorable!  After that, Chris was Andrew’s idol.

Bonding over a DS

My aunt Joy and Kallie playing a game.  Kallie loves Joy!

After ATVing Chris had to pull all the cars back into the driveway.  Andrew was there to assist him and Chris was kind enough to let him!  He let Andrew drive all the cars in with him  Andrew was so excited…so was Chris…can’t you tell!

After all that hard work we all went out to eat at In-N-Out.  Where else do you go when Chris and Ligaya are in town?  They eat, sleep, breath this stuff!

The happy couple at their “Happiest Place on Earth!”

Next we went to every kids DREAM.  GO-KART RACING!!!!  The boys in their garb!

Ben getting comfy in his racer

Matthew, Ben and Ethan.  These boys were so excited to get to drive their own cars!  They had their own huge race track and they went around and around.  These cars go up to 15 mph, which is really fast for kids who have never driven before.  They were so pumped after each race!  They would run down to the desk for their printout and see how their times were.  It was really cute to see them all pouring over their times!

Did you think I meant it was every LITTLE boys dream?  Oh no.  I meant it was every BIG boy’s dream!  Chris and Christopher couldn’t wait to get on these things!  These big race cars go so dang fast!  Here is Christopher as number 21…my lucky number :)

 

Andrew was very upset that they didn’t feel he was tall enough to drive.  He felt very left out.  Thankfully there was a really nice guy working there and he let us take Andrew into the track and let him sit in one of the cars.  He was in heaven.  Don’t you love that smile?!

My mom was feeling bad for all the girls who were not getting a turn…so so got each of us a race too!  Here’s a group shot, sans photographer Christopher. 

 

Fitting huh?

Now to the main event!  THANKSGIVING DAY!  We had thanksgiving lunch at my mom’s hotel.  The kids were in HEAVEN!  They have full range of the hotel and could run and be crazy.  She even got them a piñata filled with balls to play with!  Every kids dream!  This Thanksgiving was our first without Ahba, so my mom decided to mix things up a bit.  We made Thanksgiving more like a birthday party!  There were TONS of fun games, balloons, balls, candy the whole thing.  The kids had so much fun!  After games we ate an amazing thanksgiving lunch/dinner (well minus the bacon, cheddar cheese apple pie…umm, yuck!)  then my brilliant mom knew the kids would be supper tired so she had the new Santa Paws movie all set up and we threw blankets and pillows on the floor.  It was such a cute movie all the adults joined the kids!

When at my mom’s hotel even cleanup is fun!  They got the laundry carts out and Christopher gave all the kids a ride running around and doing turns and stuff.

After a few hours of playing at the hotel we went back to my parents house for another round of yummy food!  Christopher introduced my dad to people of walmart.com.  My dad and the boys laughed forever over this site!  Nothing like bonding over silly looking people!

Speaking of silly people…..  No wonder all the kids love him!

Even a little father-daughter bonding over lovely walmart shoppers :)

All in all Thanksgiving was wonderful and amazing.  The kids were out cold for the whole drive home…not even getting out of the car once to use the bathroom!  We all came home tired, a little heavier, and filled with love for amazing family and friends!

We pulled into the driveway around 5am.  We got the kids in bed and settled and of course I couldn’t sleep…so what to do on the Saturday morning after thanksgiving?  SHOP!  Yep, I found a list of open stores and shopped my little heart out till 9.  I thought the kids would be up by then….nope.  They didn’t wake up till we woke them up close to NOON!  Mom, you did amazing at tiring them out!  We got them up and dressed and headed up to the cabin to play with the “on” side.  We had another thanksgiving up there and a wonderful night of watching the BYU vs. UTAH game (sad, sad) and then getting up early and heading home to make it to church on time.  Sunday we spent the day decorating for Christmas, watching ELF and eating yummy treats.  I love the holidays!

Disney on Ice

 

The day after Ben’s birthday we took the kids to Mickey and Minnie on Ice.  My cousin had posted a contest on her blog to win tickets..so of course I had to enter and I won!  I was so excited and thought the kids would love it

Andrew’s face when he saw that Mickey was on the ice.  He was pretty impressed by Mickey’s performance.  All the others he didn’t care so much for.

I missed her smile by a milla-second! 

 

All in all is was a ton of fun!  It was great to have a family day (well for a few hours) and actually have Chris come to something with us! 

Ben turns 7!

Way back in November, Ben had his 7th birthday! He was so excited to turn 7. He had definite ideas about what he wanted. He wanted me to bring donuts into his classroom after lunch, go to Chuck E Cheese with 2 friends and that was it. I love it when they get older :)

I brought the donuts to Ben’s class with milk and balloons for him. He got right up and started directing the class. He asked for volunteers to pass out napkins, another to pass out milk, etc. He had it all under control. The teacher and I were his assistants! He called them up by table, made them wash their hands…it was adorable. So Andrew and I hung out with his class for a while then headed home.

After school we loaded up his two friends and headed over to Chuck E Cheese to meet up with the family. Here is my cute little niece Sierra…oh, and her daddy Alex :)

The whole group

My other cutie niece Ava (Sierra’s sister)

Ben opening gifts and with his brownies

Papa and Grandma were just going to take Ben on a little date after the chuck E Cheese party, but we all decided to tag along. We all went to see Megamind…it was fantastic!

Then Grandma and Papa were going to take Ben on a little date out to dinner at In-N-Out…but again we tagged along :)

Ava getting creative with her stickers

Andrew jumps on the sticker bandwagon.

Ben had a great birthday and finally got his own little date when he got to go to Grandma and Papa’s house for a sleepover…this time we didn’t tag along…we were tempted, but tired kids won out :) Happy Birthday Ben!

To all my local friends

Hi Guys!

We just got home from BYU where they have a "wishing" tree where you can pick a kids name and buy them a gift for Christmas. It gives their name, age, favorite color, and wish gift. We were shocked at how many kids were left on the tree. If you live close by and want to do a nice thing for a little kid in our community, go to the JSFB (Joseph Smith Family Building) between Kimball tower and the Talmage building west side of the quad with the Naked Indian Statue. The gifts have to be in by December 3rd so hurry!

For our Family Home Evening tonight (yes...this week for us it is on Thursday) we met Chris on campus and ate at the Cougar eat. The kids were so excited to be there and get to use the water thing. Anyways, while we were eating Chris explained to the kids why we were there (to pick a kid to buy a gift for) and we were so happy with how excited the kids got. They each spent a good amount of time reading the different wants and needs of these kids and finally picked "their" kid out. For us it was a great way to get into the real spirit of Christmas...that of giving to others. I don't want to sound preachy or anything...I just thought I would pass it along and hopefully all these kids will get something for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Just to make you smile

 

There is really so much to blog about, but let’s be honest – it’s not going to happen this morning. :)  While downloading the 500 pictures (see I told you we’ve been busy) off my camera I came across these gems that made me laugh out loud! 

While in California, my sister was putting these rollers in her daughters hair.  Kallie thought this was a great idea and asked her to do her hair as well.  I was not super excited about this since Kallie already has really curly hair, but we did it anyways. 

Here is Kal all in rollers…..

And THIS is Kallie the next morning!  She was so excited…I was terrified.  We were running late to an event you can’t be late too, just realized Chris had packed his scout pants inside of church slacks, and now i had to figure out how to do hair like this….that I COULDN’T even pull a brush through!  Just check out all those curls!

 

If you really must know I finally threw in the towel and got her hair wet so it was just her natural curls.  She was really mad at me :(

Let’s talk about a boy….

Not just ANY boy, but THIS boy….

Andrew is the “funny” in our family.  He is wild, crazy, insane, faster than sound, and just plain funny.  He is in the fun “I’m two and a half and I rule the world” stage.  Any of you have that stage with your kids?  My other two when through something like that, but this is a whole new ballgame with Andrew!  Let me just tell you three quick stories about my little man.

Tonight as Chris and I were standing in the kitchen talking after dinner, Andrew runs in stark naked and yells, “MY BUTT!”  We find this odd since he had clothes on two minutes ago, but assume he is telling us his bum hurts because he has strep (yep, can you believe babies can get strep on/in their bum?!?!?  CRAZY!).  Chris looks at his bum and tells him he is ok.  Andrew giggles and yells “POTTY!” and runs off.  Chris starts to finish the story he was interrupted in and I just quietly watch Andrew to make sure he goes upstairs to use the potty.  Not so.  He runs into the family room (I can only see his little head) and is standing much to still for my comfort.  Since I can’t leave the cookies I’m making on the stove I have Chris investigate and sure enough he is going potty right there on my carpet.  When Chris figures this out he yells to stop and Andrew gets so excited and starts to giggle and laugh!  Chris is so flustered he picks him up and put him on time out…to which Andrew giggles and runs upstairs.  Chris is trying to catch him to put him back on time out but he keeps getting tangled up in the stairs and his feet!  I’m trying my hardest not to break out laughing because that will just encourage Andrew to be naughty!  Chris finally catches a belly laughing Andrew and puts him on the stair for time out.  I strike a deal that he keeps stirring the cookies and I will clean the carpet.  I finally finish cleaning the carpet and Andrew so sweetly looks up at me and says “done?”  It was adorable :)

Second story was not so adorable.  Andrew has this new obsession with my purse and wallet.  He LOVES my wallet.  I always hang it in the front closet on a high hook, but Andrew has figured out all he needs to do is get a kitchen stool and he can reach anything!  A few weeks ago I came downstairs to find my wallet and all it contents all over the downstairs.  I quickly picked up what I could find, and put it all back away telling Andrew that my wallet was mine not his.  I don’t think anything of it until last week when I tried to return something at the store and they needed my id.  I couldn’t find it anywhere!  I laid my whole wallet on the counter and it was no where in sight.  I’ve been looking for it all week and have not been able to find it in any of Andrew’s usual places.  Chris even looks through my wallet.  We have been going back and forth on traveling to California and it was really bothering me I didn’t have my drivers license.  So today I decided it was time to just call it quits and get a new one (I just had it renewed this March).  I collect all the papers you need to prove you are a human being, pack snacks for the long wait at the DMV, get kids off to school and head down to my doom.  First line goes quickly…partly because Andrew and I were so enthralled watching the poor gal in front of us trying to get her two little kids to not run outside, jump on the counter, hit the guy behind us, ruin the person in front of her picture because they kept jumping into the chair…you get the horrible picture.  I take my picture, get my number, and sit down to wait to pay.  As I’m sitting down I figure i will get all my receipts ready for my next errand…returning Halloween stuff at Wal-Mart.  As I am looking through my wallet I realize there is a pocket I’ve never seen before.  I put my hand in it and magically I pull out my drivers license!  No joke, as I’m pulling it out Andrew yells, “SURPRISE!”  I’m sure it had nothing to do with my discovery and everything to do with the fact he just found a second set of car keys in my purse….but the timing was amazing.  I grab all my stuff, Andrew, my purse, my wallet, my receipts, and my newly found ID and go back to the counter to try to explain to the nice man that I no longer need a new ID and if I still had to pay the $18.00 since he took my picture all ready.  I swear he must have thought I was a crazy lady!

The last Andrew story for tonight…..The other morning I was enjoying some quiet time while Kallie and Andrew played in Kallie’s room.  I had just gotten Ben off to school and looking at my emails online when I hear Kallie yelling, “Mom, I’m locked in my room and I need to go potty NOW!!!!”.  (Our kids locks are on the outside of their doors and Andrew loves to turn the lock and then lock both of them in whatever room)  So I run down the hall and unlock the door for her.  As I look inside her room Andrew is laying on her bed with three pillows behind him, surrounded by baby dolls, and has our jar of chucky peanut butter in one hand and a peanut butter covered spoon in the other hand.  As I walk in he smiles with his mouth full of peanut butter and says, “Hi Mom!”.  Priceless. 

Another thing I love about Andrew?  He is so polite!  Example:

Me:  Andrew can you please pick up your toys?

Andrew:  No thank you mom.

Me:  Andrew it is time to come inside.

Andrew:  No thank you mom.

Me:  Andrew it’s time for bed!

Andrew: No thank you mom!