Christmas Morning

Just a few pictures of our wonderful, laid back Christmas. We got up (a little too early), opened our presents, ate some cinnamon rolls, played with our new toys, built a snowman, ate chili, and had a great time . . . all without ever changing out of our pajamas. It was the best Christmas ever!

Before
Notice the ornaments have all been moved to the top two feet of the tree. :-)

After(huge sigh of happiness)

Las Vegas

"What happened to Frank M&M?"

Presents from Grandma

I did not take very many pictures of this little trip. Getting there was an absolute pain. Two inches of snow and the Las Vegas airport just isn't equipped to handle it. So all the flights were cancelled, making stand-by travel next to impossible. Oh well.

Once we got there, we just holed up in our three bedroom suite and did nothing. It was so nice. We watched lots of movies. And we played a lot of Hand and Foot. Then of course there is our yearly "poor man's game" which definitely wasn't for poor men this year. Thank you Mom and Ron for all the wonderful things that we won!

We made two short trips to the strip. One to go to M&M world (overrated, but fun) and another to go to the breakfast buffet at The Paris. Mmmmm - berries and creme fraiche. I wish I could go every single day.

We really had a blast and I have no pictures that show it. Hopefully Amy's pictures turned out better than mine did . . .

Oh Christmas Tree

We're headed to Las Vegas tomorrow. Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Loved the guesses . . .

but no one gets the 150 points. I'd give everyone 50 for the great guesses though. You guys crack me up! It's actually a picture of Baby Einstein:
Not perfect, but I love how he got the crooked smile just right. You should see him draw the Baby Einstein caterpillar. I haven't been able to grab one from him before he scribbles all over it.

Charlie's Artwork

Charlie drew this for us the other day.
It's a picture of one of his favorite things.
I'll give you 150 points if you can guess what it is . . .

Taking after Mom

Charlie has started reading himself to sleep. Wall-E is his book of choice lately.
I totally used to fall asleep looking at books. This continued through college when I would fall asleep in my text books.

Then here's a just for fun picture of Peter, who is happy and smiling as usual.

snow and runny noses

It's snowing today and all Charlie wants to do is go out and build a snowman. But we all have nasty little colds, so even if there was enough snow to go out and play, I don't think we would. Instead we'll have to content ourselves with sitting around in our warm pjs, drinking hot chocolate, eating popcorn and looking at the beautiful whiteness falling from the sky. I'd better enjoy it now because in a month, I'm going to be sick of it again . . .

Vacation Highlights

*Meeting Goofy

*A cloudy day . . . an uncrowded park

*Watching Charlie about die of excitement when he saw Lightning McQueen leading the parade

*The Playhouse Disney show. Okay, so Mike and I thought it was boring and didn't make sense, but Charlie LOVED it.

*Churros

*Sending the kids home with my parents after the parade and getting a little adult ride time. (And giggling at other parents with their tired, cranky kids.)

*Soaring over California

*Tuck and Roll's Bumper Cars

*Toy Story Mania!

*Dancing with Goofy and Prince Philip at Goofy's Kitchen

*Actually finding the things we lost at the Lost and Found

*The fireworks. Disney sure knows how to put on a good fireworks display.

We really had a great time. Charlie spent the entire first day staring with his mouth wide open. I think he thought he was dreaming or something. The Pixar parade pulled him out of it though, and he ended up having a great time. Peter was a good sport. I know he was confused, but as long as we kept him fed, he was happy.

As for Mike and I, we had decided not to worry about "getting our money's worth" and to just enjoy the ambiance. Because really, that's what sets Disneyland apart from other theme parks anyway.

Disneyland Pictures

Gingerbread Creations

Charlie LOVED doing this! We may have to get a few more to do before Christmas . . . or at least get some frosting and graham crackers.

Thanksgiving

We've been super busy, but I wanted to post some holiday pictures anyway. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy all those leftovers!

Finger Painting

Just excited!

I just had to share! Last year, Mike and I got bumped off a flight and got some Delta flight vouchers. Realizing that they had to be used by the end of this year, we decided to plan a trip. And where better to go but to the Happiest Place on Earth. Yep. I just booked us on a flight to Orange County, California where we will hang out by the pool (we're using my mom's Trendwest points for the hotel), visit Mickey Mouse, and spend four days not worrying about anything. The kids are probably a little young to enjoy most of the park, but we've just decided not to stress about seeing everything and just enjoy what we can. I can't wait!

Uh Oh

Peter has learned how to climb the steps and Charlie figured out how to open the child lock on the refrigerator.

Yeah, I'm in trouble.

More on Halloween

Here are some more pictures from our Halloween Festivities. Our celebration started with carving pumpkins on Thursday night. (By the way, I actually finished our costumes on Wednesday! Yep, I was early this year!)
Then Friday morning, we had our traditional Halloween breakfast of orange pancakes and orange milk. Charlie loves it when I color things with food coloring. I made some oatmeal pancakes- a recipe I got from our Moscow ward a few years ago. I don't know who the credit goes to, but we make it all the time. I LOVE them! Mike got home from work and we made tacos and headed to the ward Trunk or Treat. Charlie was more interested in playing on the playground than in getting candy, although when I tried to give ours out, he threw a fit. He wanted it all to himself. He was having so much fun! I could not get him to slow down for a picture. Our costumes were a little underdone. We didn't have time to go all out with make-up and trunk decorations, which is sad because we had such big plans. And I ran out of fabric and ended up having to just make sleeves for Mike and I. But I am pretty proud of the kids' shirts. It is the first piece of clothing I've ever made without a pattern. Go me! (Nevermind that Peter's was too small and I had to cut it up the back to get it on him. I was able to safety pin it together and under the overalls, no one ever knew.)


When we got home we dug into the candy and dipped our cake-pops. They looked good, but weren't as tasty as I wanted them to be. It's probably because I used canned frosting to mix with the cake. I don't like the stuff. If I try them again, I'm making my own "full of butter" frosting.

Halloween 2008

The Candy Land Kids

I know everyone is curious about our costumes so I thought I'd post a picture. We went simple this year . . . nothing scary or bulky . . . in the hopes that Charlie would actually wear it. I'll post more details about our fun day later.

Feeling left out . . .

It seems like everyone has pumpkin patch pictures on their blog. I had to go find a pumpkin patch so that I could fit in. ;) Happy Fall Everyone!

Huge sigh of relief

The primary program is over! Yay! I know it's not that big of a deal and it always goes great because the kids are just so cute, but it still felt like this big thing hanging over my head. Now it's done and I can focus on Halloween. I've got our costumes almost done. I've decided not to do a party, but I will be having tacos and treats. I've got a plan for decorating our trunk for the ward trunk-or-treat. We'll be carving pumpkins for family home evening tonight. It's going to be a good week. I can't wait.

Now because I know you all love pictures, here are a couple more. Peter is crawling and Charlie is getting into everything. My boys are just so busy! I thought it was normal, but I've had a few people tell me that mine are busier than most. Maybe they inherited my mom's ADD.