Toodle-oo 2008

We said goodbye to 2008
New Year's Day sure was great

We drove down south to meet the Lowes
And took a ferry over to Coronado

The kids rode their scooters from point to point
And we all grabbed some grub at a cute pizza joint

We played on the beach in the freezing cold
Playing with our good friends never got old

We all drove back up and met at our house
Celebrated at 11 so we could get the kids out

Little did we know that we would have so much fun
We laughed, talked and partied until about 1

Our celebration consisted of lots of party filler

Sparklers, poppers, and Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'

We were all exhausted but I'm sure we'll be fine
Cause it's another year over and a new 2009!!!

Happy, Happy New Year!

Saturday Snowman

What a fun day we had last Saturday...
I took Dallin and Claire to Build-a-Bear to redeem a gift card they received for Christmas. Dallin made Super Penguin (penguin dressed up as Batman), Claire made Tinkerbunny (bunny dressed up as Tinkerbell) and each of their new friends not only got a cool outfit, but a pair of pajamas as well. Oh, what fun we had.
Afterwords, we went to Toys-R-Us to spend some of the kid's Christmas money (it was like a whole other Christmas). As we were opening their new loot at home, we heard a knock at the door... it was our fun neighbor Keely who invited us to come play in their snow. What? you ask. Not only did our fun friends drive up to Idyllwild to get a truck load of snow, they drove right back down, dumped it in their driveway and invited us to come over and make a snowman. Dallin and Claire were beside themselves and were thrilled to pull out their snow gloves and hats. Dallin kept running back and forth from our house to theirs with snowman attire (carrot for the nose, lightsabers for arms, M&M's for buttons). Not a common occurrence to get to play in the snow in our Southern California neighborhood.
Truly a super Saturday!

Mister Mistletoe

I am being chased by a cute boy who wants to kiss me, only this time (as opposed to elementary school) I want to kiss him! My loving Dallin has discovered mistletoe and he will never be the same.The other day I was out in the front yard talking to a neighbor when I hear next to me "Oh, Moooom". I look over to see a pair of sparkling eyes with the mistletoe overhead. He runs to give me a sweet Dallin smooch and I don't think I'll ever be the same.

Mucho Merry

We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas (nope, it wasn't white but it was really wet)! The kids were spoiled rotten by Santa, us, grandparents, etc. We woke up to find Santa came, stuffed our stockings to the max and ate our cookies.

Dallin got everything he asked Santa for: red and black boxing gloves and a treehouse for his galactic heroes.

He even got a safe to put all of the things he doesn't want Claire to touch inside (secret code and all). Other highlight gifts for him were the beautiful blue guitar (he is so excited to learn to play... he desperately wants Uncle Scott for his teacher and said he will even move to Washington so that he can teach him), more galactic heroes, a new lightsaber, a Batcave from Papa and Nana, etc.

Claire got a bubblegum machine and a "darling" dollhouse (as she calls it) from Santa.

The hit, however came when the kids opened up their stockings and each found a harmonica. We definitely haven't heard the last of these beauties.

Claire was thrilled with all of her new dollhouse accessories, Pinkalicious/Purplicious books, princess shoes, broom set (more of a gift for me), Cinderella dress, etc. She has been in little girl heaven ever since and we haven't found gum in any unusual places, so life is good for all of us.

Spencer didn't sleep very well at all on Christmas, so apparently he was pretty stoked with all of his loot as well. He received a crib mobile and crib aquarium, new pjs, books, toys, and other little things that keep tiny bugs occupied.

Pete and I exchanged a few fun gifts and had more fun watching our kids excitement and enjoyment more than anything. It was fun to be together as a little family although we dearly missed all of our loved ones. Merry Christmas to all!

Exciting Eve

Here is our Christmas Eve top 10:
1- delivered cinnamon apples and caroled to some of our friends
2- picked up our traditional take-out (everyone chooses their favorite food from a restaurant, we call it in, pick it up and bring it home). This year we had Olive Garden, Applebees, Pick-up-Stix and Chick-fil-A represented.

3-watched Home Alone while we ate
4- read the Christmas story (Claire was Mary, Peter was Joseph, and Claire's baby was the baby Jesus). I read the story, Dallin was being difficult and Spencer was asleep.5- Santa knocked on our door! He had his beautiful suit on, a big red bag in his hand and he walked right in our house. He called our children by name and asked them quite a few questions. He let them know that he would be back later that night, after they were asleep and told them how grateful he was for such good kids. He left them with an M&M-filled candy cane and wide-open mouths. What a highlight for my kids. (FYI - Santa is a wonderful man and was being expected by us adults... just in case you thought some crazy man walked into our home unannounced knowing our kids names :)).
6- Rudolph dropped off a red bag on our doorstep with a present for each of us in it. Each year he brings us pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year seemed to be the year of the stripes.7- the kids sprinkled their reindeer food (sparkly-oats) to lure the reindeer back to our home to bring the presents they were hoping for.8- we put cookies out for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.9- we had our traditional family slumber party in our room.
10- My favorite part of Christmas Eve this year was watching Dallin and Claire... sheer excitement.

Brother Buddies

I love my boys...

Tacky Threads

Each year around this time, I hear about something called an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party". It sounded hilarious and was something that needed to be done. My friend Krissy and I decided to give it a try. It was a night full of cheesy sweaters, eggnog, prom-style photos, a hilarious white elephant gift exchange and a few good friends. Some of the highlights for me were:

Jake Muir's feather sweater (sweater contest winner)
Weston Nielson's cropped, hot pink, sequined snowman number
Kristian Peterson and his beloved elf boxers/hat won in the gift exchange
Mandy Newbold with the white elephant steal of the night
Krissy's faux red and green clip-in hair braids
Peter's ugly "buddy" elf I sewed on his sweater
Watching everyone take "Olan Mills" type photos
Laughing at each sweater as it first walked into the room

It was a fun night and a successful experiment... I'll have more pictures to post later. I am excited to do this again next year and maybe I'll be able to find that hideous mustard-colored pooping reindeer sweater for the second go-around. More to come...

Dallin Day

Happy Birthday to our sweet Dallin!!! Here are some of my favorite things about this new 6-year-old...
-he is happy
-he is an incredible reader
-he says such sweet and thoughtful prayers
-he has an awesome imagination (can play in his room for hours)
-he is polite ("may I please be excused?")
-he has such a loving, tender heart
-he loves school
-he loves to perform
-he loves his siblings
-he loves his friends
-he loves just about everything (except food and chores)
-he is a momma's boy
-he loves and admires his dad
-he loves boy things, but doesn't like to get dirty
-his laugh is contagious
-he enjoys his birthday even if it is the day after Christmas

How grateful we all are for such a wonderful, talented, kind and fun boy in our lives. Happy 6th birthday Dallin!!!

Side note - For Dallin's birthday, we went and saw Bolt in 3-D with two of his little buddies, Ethan and Gavin. After that funny movie, we went to Gamestop to get Dallin a DS game, but the line to get into the store was out the door and around the corner... a serious disadvantage of this birthday. The boys had a great time running to Circut City to find a game (he did). We then went to the Pizza Factory to play games, eat pizza and have some birthday cake. It was a fun-filled day for a little/big 6 year-old and he is looking forward to his 1/2 birthday party in June with all of his buddies... a serious advantage of this particular birthday! Happy birthday Dallin!