Christmas Morning!

 

 

Christmas morning was torture for my kids this year!  Jason had to work Christmas Eve, and didn't get off duty until 8am on Christmas morning.  We got home late from Riverside the night before, so I hoped they would sleep in. Yeah, right! But they were given strict instructions to NOT wake anybody and STAY in their rooms if they did wake up before Dad got home.  I put some of their new gifts in their rooms, ones they had received from Grandparents & cousins the night before. They were allowed to play with those while waiting for Dad. I even put up a baby gate in the middle of the hallway so I'd hear them if they tried to sneak.  They all did really well! But I don't think they could have waited another minute! Good thing Dad got home when he did!

We had a wonderful Christmas day. It was relaxing and enjoyable. We didn't have to rush off to anyone's house. We had Jason's Grandma, Lola Zeitler, with us from Christmas Eve until the following Sunday. It was nice to spend time with her and have the kids get to bond with her for those few days also.  Over the next couple days we had Christmas celebrations with my Mom and with Jason's family. It was an extended Christmas in a way. I enjoyed spreading it out over the course of a few days, and feeling the spirit of Christmas a bit longer.

Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Eve with the Price Family!

Knott's Berry Farm

Our day of alternate learning experiences (a.k.a. ditching school!)

You HAVE to click on this group of pictures to enlarge it and appreciate the impact of Allison's facial expressions. Her first ride walking in the gates of Knotts! Thanks to big brother "B" for helping her through it!

Some of our other fun rides and activities.

The boys rode this ride about 4 times. It suited them all perfectly... not too tall, not too fast, not too scary!

On the Job...

 

That's Jason... just another day at the office... putting out a fire in someone's house.

Really? How cool is that? I love that he enjoys his job, especially since he has to spend a lot of time there. Thanks to our friend, Sebastian, who has a police scanner and follows the action with his camera.

 

Naughty or Nice?

 

If Santa really knew this little munchkin, she would definitely be on his "naughty" list! Good thing she is so dang adorable!

My Mischief Maker

 

When it's too quiet in the house, I know I need to go looking for Allison. On this particular day, I was washing the dinner dishes and I said to Jason, "I haven't heard Alli in a while. I wonder what she's up to?" I finished up my chore and decided I should find her. I went up the stairs to find her sitting on her bedroom floor, finger painting with a bottle of white-out that she hand dumped upside down. It was a nice, new, full bottle she found in her brother's bedroom. I grabbed her and threw her in the bath, and yelled for Jason to come work on cleaning up the floor. It wasn't until I got her in the bathroom that I realized that the white-out was completely DRY! It took Jason an hour to scrub it off her wood floor. I didn't get a picture of the floor because I spent the next 45 minutes scrubbing Alli's arms and legs in the bathtub. Even then, I only got it off her hands. We had to wait til the next day to work on her legs some more. It did not dissolve in water as I had hoped. I tried lots of soaps, cleaners, removers and nothing worked to get it off! We had to SCRUB! Poor baby. A month later it is still on her toe nails. This 'girl' sure keeps me on my toes!

Band!

 

Darren was very excited to start band this year in middle school. He is in 6th grade at Mesa Verde Middle School and chose band as his elective. He chose to play trumpet since that's what Jason played at that age, and still had his trumpet in our garage! (yay) Darren has really taken to it and is enjoying it very much. He had his first big performance at the school for a Winter Concert. He played in the beginning band and I was impressed at how much these kids have learned since September. Way to go, Darren! We are so proud of you! Keep up the good work!

Another bonus to the evening was that they took our admission fees at the door, and surprisingly handed us raffle tickets in exchange. At the end of the night, they did a drawing to see who would get half the pot. We won! The boys were so excited and are still debating on how to spend their winnings.... $276.50. Can you believe it? Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with Jason's family since he had to work on the actual holiday.
It's always fun to go to Nana & Papa's house! The kids have a blast. We got some good pictures with Grandma Lola too.

The Big 40!!

 

My big brother turns 40 this week. That makes me feel old, as I'm only 4 years younger. Sheesh!
We celebrated by gathering my entire family at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
Everyone was there (minus my Aunt) and we had a great dinner and a fun time. The cousins always have a blast when they get to see each other. The grown ups get in a few good laughs too. As I've thought of my brother's birthday, and what to get him, I kept thinking about little things from our years growing up together. Little things would bring back fun memories like...
baseball cards - the many hours we spent on his bedroom floor sorting out his teams & players
CD's - the different music influences he had on me like KISS, Oingo Boingo, etc.
lemon heads - our many trips to the local liquor store for candy, junk food
Dairy Queen - our house was one block away from D.Q. - we spent many summer nights there
sugar cubes - sneaking & eating them from the back of my Dad's shop counter by the coffee maker
army men - Mike blasting their heads off in the backyard with fire crackers

These are just a few - I thought of many more and shared some with him. I hope he has a very Happy Birthday and knows how much he is loved! Happy Birthday big brother!!

Roommate Reunion

 

Ahhh... memories!
I had such a fun evening with my old girlfriends from our "single" days! We haven't all been together in over 10 years! Way too long! Some of these girls were my roommates and the others, well, should have been! We had such fun times together in the Singles Ward. We experienced many great activities together and have created lasting memories and friendships! It was fun to reminisce about the past, and share our current life experiences with each other. I've really enjoyed reconnecting with these amazing women, and vow to not let it go another 10 years before we can all be together again!

THEN ** 1994 **

NOW ** 2008 **

First Haircut

 

Allison finally got her first hair cut. It's taken me quite some time, because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with her scraggly hair! Bangs? No Bangs? Layers? Long? Aahhh! It's bad enough being clueless about my own hair, now I have to worry about hers too! I guess I wasn't feeling very brave that day (and neither was she... tears the whole time) because she just got a basic trim. It looks much better having some structure to it now. But I'm still debating on a daily basis as to whether or not I should cut her some bangs! Oh... what to do!
Thanks to my friend Mandy for giving Allison her quick trim! You're a doll!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears... Oh My!

Or, Vampires, and Mummies, and Skeletons... Oh My!!
That would be the more appropriate phrase, describing my little troop of Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween Night! Of course Dorothy was there too, to keep them all heading down the right path.

We had quite a busy, fun-packed night. Daddy had to work, so we planned to visit him and then meet some friends at a restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, the process of getting 4 kids into their costumes took me longer than expected. We abandoned the face makeup and the sit-down dinner. We opted for In-n-Out as take-out and ate at the Fire Station with Daddy so he could check out the kids' costumes. Afterward, we joined up with a group of friends for Trick-or-Treating! The big kids ran ahead with the single goal of getting as much candy as possible! A couple of the younger ones stayed with Allison and I.
Allison took to Trick-or-Treating like a real pro. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. I loved hearing her say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" at all the houses. So cute! She was an adorable Dorothy. I made her dress by altering a pattern for a dress. She had a little black Scottie dog in her basket as Toto. I tried to get the boys to go as TinMan, Scarecrow & Cowardly Lion, but they were having none of that! Too bad. That would have been cute!

My poor Ryan was so excited to be a mummy, at first. It started out great and looked fabulous. But as the night wore on, the costume just kept falling off him piece by piece. I guess the gazillion safety pins I put in it weren't enough to hold it all in place while running around. He stayed by me so I could keep wrapping him up over and over while walking. Ugh! I sure learned some do's and don'ts of the mummy costume. Trial and error for sure!

Blake ran along with all the big kids as a Skeleton. He so badly wanted his face painted but settled for white spray paint in his hair. He insisted that was best as "skulls are white, Mom!" He was very happy. (white paint was sprayed after picture. oops!)

Darren has always wanted to be a scary Halloween character. I finally gave in this year. We slicked back his hair and painted it black. He had some great looking teeth to bond onto his own, but they wouldn't stick well. Bummer. I made his vest and bow tie (don't look too closely, I'm no seamstress). I didn't have a pattern. I just bought a piece of fabric and held it up to him, started cutting and sewing. Surprisingly it turned out ok. He was happy, so that's all that matters.


After the candy collecting was over, we went back to our base home, The Hanshaws. Rachelle had made hot chocolate, wassail, and the yummiest home-made Apple Fritters!! They were quite a treat! The kids got to check out their loot, make trades, and play for a while while the grown-ups visited.
Overall the night was a huge success! The kids all had a blast and got more than their necessary share of cavity causing candy. I love the Fall and I love Halloween. Isn't it great?

Pumpkin Carving

I'm not sure who ever thought of this idea of carving faces in pumpkins, but I love the tradition. My kids enjoy it too. Even Daddy gets involved each year. The boys each chose their own design for their pumpkins this year and did them on their own (except Blake who required a little assistance). I think traditions are a great family-bonding experience and this is one for us! Here is what the boys created this year:

 

Cousins Visit

Jason's youngest sister, Emily, came to stay a few days with us. She has two adorable children- Daylen is 3 and Gwen is 9 months. Allison had so much fun having a playmate to run around with all day long. Daylen is a bundle of energy and successfully wore Allison out! She also loved playing mother to her little cousin Gwen. She often tried to swipe Gwen's pacifier too. It looks exactly like the one Alli USED to have. I took away her pacifier (a.k.a. Su-su) a week before their visit. She refused to take naps that whole week. Bless that little nephew of mine, because after keeping her busy those days, she couldn't help but fall asleep when put in her bed. She has now gone back to napping ever since! I owe you one, little buddy! Anyway, we were all so excited to have them come hang out with us! We're pretty boring around here, but hope they had fun. We tried to find a few things to entertain them.

 

Of course, there's always the trip to Uncle Jason's Fire Station. This was Daylen's first time. He was timid at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea of playing on a fire truck. Uncle Jason let him climb all over the truck, and even gave him a short ride! How many little boys get to do that? Wow!

Daylen is a HUGE fan of trains so I thought a trip to Travel Town would be a hit. My boys always loved it when they were that age. Even Allison enjoyed her first time there. I'm guessing a lot of that had to do with the fact that her cousin was running around with her! They got to climb on real locomotives, see the train museum, go to the gift shop, ride the mini train around the park, and have a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day (in the shade) and the kids had a great time!


Thanks for coming to play with us Daylen and Gwen! Please come again soon! We miss you!