Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas!



-From our family to yours.


I was a little worried that it wasn't going to seem much like Christmas a few weeks ago...


But it cooled off in NV too soon after, and we went and saw some Christmas lights to get us in the spirit.
We went to a Christmas fair in Henderson, and they had some snow shipped in for the kids to play in.

But then Henderson got some real snow of it's own.

...and UT had a white Christmas for sure. Xander went skiing for the 1st time last Monday. He says he wants to go again, so that's a good sign!

Not so sunny California

We just got back from Cali. It was Blair's test week, so luckily the rest of us had something to do. The drive there with just me and the 2 little ones was just okay. I hit rain, snow, fog, then more rain and more snow, and then rain and dark.

Here's the outside of the Redlands temple.

It was my friend Tiff's little sister's wedding. Here's a picture of the bride, Patty, posing for the camera.

This is where we stayed in Palm Springs. We only saw sun on the last day. The rest of the time it was raining.... hard.













Me and Tiff.




Xander and Ivy.







Here's about the best pic of Will and Ally, the two monkeys.

Cruisin' at the outlet mall.

My kids playing pool.










Xander & Danny, my bro, swimming in the rain. Luckily he was out visiting with Tiff's little bro, and so we picked him up and he drove back with us to Vegas.

Notice the top part of the mountains there were covered in snow. We had to come back a different route because I-15 was closed down in a couple of spots due to snow. It had snowed in NV while we were gone, and Blair's school was even closed on Thursday! Talk about weird weather.

This boy has mad skills

Obviously I've been looking through the pictures from this year, so I thought I'd share a funny one of Will too.  In the summer we stopped at Cove Fort on our way up to Salt Lake.  We got the tour, and one of the volunteers gave Will one of those pioneer yo-yos.

Here's the demonstration of how to do it:

Will saw it once, and knew just what to do:

The Disappearing Underwear Caper

Last year at this time,  I couldn't figure out where all of Xander's undies were disappearing to.  He used to have 12 pairs, and he was down to 4.

One day, Xander was in the bathroom for a while, so Blair went to check on him.  He found him stark naked and standing in front of the toilet looking in.  Blair asked him where his underwear went.

Xander explained he had flushed them down the toilet because they were dirty.

Case solved.

Happy Thanksgiving

I went and got the boys' pictures done a few weeks ago.

Look at those two handsome studs.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We know we will, because we get to be with family!

Good & Bad

The good news:

So this is what I was driving this whole last week.  That's right, an '09 Dodge Nitro with about 700 miles on it.  It was a rental, and my insurance payed for it.

The bad news:

The reason I had to drive it was because some little punks broke into my van in broad daylight, and stole my friend's homemade diaper bag (and caused a thousand dollars worth of damage to my car in the process). We had our purses inside at an exercise class with us, so they didn't get anything but diapers- but still...... beyond rude.

That's my door handle that they pried off, and the broken-off screwdriver that they did it with

On a happy note.  Fall is here, and we've been keeping busy with some fun things.  But, best of all- it's perfect weather to be outside right now, and so we hit the park often.  We fed the ducks at Sunset park this week.

Halloween

The Tin Man and the Lion, trick or treating at the mall.

We tried on costumes the day before with the cousins. Here's Xander, Fred, Will, & Daisy.

On Halloween itself, we found the cutest little Dorothy (Kelly Jo) at our ward's trunk or treat, to complete our Wizard of Oz theme.

Boy's fun, and the 4x4 tag

Blair's been busy studying nonstop it seems.  Last week he had a break on Monday though, so he went with some buddies for the day to go on a hike.

They said it was really fun and beautiful, but that the water was FREEZING (and oh yes, they had to swim through it for a section of that hike).  He also had stories of climbing a tree and using rope to climb up or down stuff- I don't know.  It sounds beyond my hiking capabilities or aspirations.

Then on the weekend, Blair and our boys got to go on their 1st father and son's together (& I went on a girl's night out). The little ones loved it, but Blair said the night was quite long with Will's shenanigans.

Last but not least, I got tagged with the 4x4 tag. Here are the rules:

Open your pictures folder and post the 4th picture in your 4th folder, then give a brief description of the picture and pass on the tag.

So here's my awesome picture.  It was the 1st time that I tried to feed Xander peas.  This was like 30 seconds before he projectile-vomited it back out.

I thought the next picture was worth posting too.  The look on his face is priceless.  Man he did not like those baby food peas.

Memories.  Well, I tag Kathryn, Marina, Lacey, Jackie.

Zions

Blair goes to a Jewish school, which means to us, that he gets a bunch of extra holidays off in September and October!  It's been nice to do some fun family things.  We went to Zion National Park last week with some friends from Blair's school.  We had such a fun time camping, hiking, swimming, & biking.

Monster Bites

The doctor's appointment was going so well.  My sons were perfectly behaved, and having such a fun time taking turns getting measured.  It was his 4-year appointment, so Xander even got his hearing tested and blood pressure taken.  Will was right at his side saying, "My turn, my turn."  Xander got a vision test, and Will was standing right to his side, covering one eye, and saying random letters and shapes, just like he thought Xander was.  I thought it was a pity that I hadn't brought my camera to document such a great time.

Until it was time for immunizations.

In the past, it hasn't been too bad... well, nothing that candy couldn't fix a few seconds later at least.  This time I decided to have Will go first (he needed 2) and Xander go next (he needed 5).  William's shots weren't too bad (it's never fun- but I had a purse full of candy, and he quickly forgot).  Then, Xander was up.  I had already told him about the importance of shots, and how they help us to not get sick later.  He had shots a year ago, but I wasn't sure if he could remember.  I sat him on the table, and was trying to decide if I should just catch him unexpected, or prepare him mentally for it.  I decided I'd prepare him, so that he didn't feel betrayed by me, so I said, "Xander this is really going to hurt, but just for a second and then it will be over."

  

Remember those words, and never use them on your own kid- because it caused him to start panicking and screaming immediately.  The nurse instructed me to hold his top half down, while he held down the lower half, all the while Xander was crying and screaming his head off and trying to get away.  I immediately wanted to laugh from the scene that he was making, and cry at the same time because he sounded like he was being tortured!  I mainly just had to stay calm myself, and talk him through it.  Will started crying, from being so scared from Xander's reaction.  

Finally it was over and I placed Xander in a chair, where he curled up in a ball.  I apologized to the nurse again and again that I'd told Xander it was going to hurt, but I didn't want to make eye contact, because I had tears in my eyes.  The nurse left and I thought it might be good to talk with Xander.  "So did it feel like a pinch, or a bee sting?" I asked.

Still whimpering, and with a sad little voice, he said, "It felt like monster bites."

The Happiest Place on Earth

Last week at this time, we were at the happiest place on earth- 

D i s n e y l a n d!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Will was all tuckered out after a couple days without naps.  We stopped for a break and he fell asleep at The Golden Horseshoe on a pile of napkins for a pillow. 

                                     Teacups

My mom and Xander on Xander's favorite ride Buzz Lightyear. His other favorites this year were the Matterhorn, Toy Story, and Star Tours.

My best friend Tiff (who lives in CA, and has a season pass to Disneyland) met us with her hubby and girls on our last night.

We went on Indiana Jones together, and the ride malfunctioned halfway through.  It just stopped, shutdown, and all the light went out right before the best part.

We had to wait for staff to bring a step ladder, then we all got down and had to walk out in a line.  Oh well- I guess we got a back tour of the ride that most people don't get.  Good thing I'd already been on it earlier that day with Blair.

Indiana Jones himself.

Talk about fun.  It's Halloween-time too, so Disneyland was all decked out with their cute decorations.

SeaWorld

We actually went here for our 1st stop on our CA visit, a couple of days before Disneyland.

Getting ready for some 3-D entertainment.

Check out these piranhas.  It's weird but they don't even look like their fins or tails are moving, like normal fish.  They just look like they're frozen still... just waiting for someone to put their arm in and see if they're real, I guess :)

Feeding the stingrays.

My mom and Xander on a ride.

They had a whole new kid's section this year with rides and lots of fun things for the kids to do.

La Jolla

In between Seaworld and Disneyland, we stopped in La Jolla.  Here we all are.

We saw all the seals on the beach.

The kids and my dad ran around on the nice green grass, and the rest of us just sat and enjoyed the ocean breezes.  It was sure nice to have my parents along for the trip. There's nothing like an extra pair of helping hands. 

Another fun vacation.