Busy Day

I've been pretty lazy the last few days. It's just been nice to be home and not have anything pressing to do. Made a trip to the library, got the laundry done, read a book, watched a couple of movies, spent time with the kids...nice and relaxing (when the kids weren't fighting. So, today was the day to get things done.

The day started out with a laugh and a photo op. Abbie beat her big brothers into submission and convinced them to play babies with her. Guess she got tired of playing cars and blocks with them. I'm glad the boys are good sports.


Once we were done laughing, we got ready to hit the road. Our first stop was to the health department to get Abbie the second half of her N1H1 vaccine. I love how my kids cry for 2 seconds then they see the nurse hands them a sucker and they're happy again. Our next stop was the mall to see Santa, but he wasn't going to be there till 3. I'm not a fan of the mall so I wasn't looking forward to going back again. Oh well. So we headed to Walmart to fight the crowds. Woohoo!

Aaron applied for a welding job a couple weeks ago. He did the weld test and turned his application in. They said they'd call him (yeah, like the check's in the mail). We've stopped by a few times to see what's going on, but the head guy hasn't been there. Well, he was there today when we stopped by. The kids and I were waiting in the car, and we saw Aaron go by on a golf cart with some guy. Figured that must be a good sign, so I popped a movie in for the kids (I LOVE the DVD player in the car. It helped that we got treats for the kids at Walmart too!


Abbie's such a goofball when I tell her to smile. I love her little scrunch-nose smile.



Here's Aaron grinning cuz he got the job. YEAH!! He has to call the boss next week to work out a schedule and he'll start the first of the year. We're not sure if he'll be full-time or part-time, but it's a start!

After that good news, we headed to Sam's Club (another extremely crowded store). I was excited to get home and have lunch. I'm not a big fan of crowded stores, especially when I'm trying to keep track of three kids and a husband.

One of my favorite parts of the day is naptime. Abbie didn't want to lay down, so I laid in my bed with her. Yep, I fell asleep with her. She was so cuddly and warm. Aahh... Andrew was asleep when Abbie and I woke up, so we had to wait for him before we could go see Santa.

Abbie wasn't sure what to make of Santa when we got to the mall, so Austin went first to show her it was okay.

Abbie still wasn't convinced, so Andrew went next. He was excited to tell Santa that he wants a remote control car. He told me a couple weeks ago that Santa wasn't real; it's your parents that leave presents under the tree. I told him if he didn't believe in Santa, then Santa wasn't going to bring him any presents. He changed his tune pretty fast!

Aaron ended up carrying Abbie up to Santa because she still didn't know what to think of him. She wouldn't say a word to him, but happily took the candy cane he offered her. I asked Ashley if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap and she rolled her eyes at me.

We spent a little time in the mall after visiting Santa. We hit Famous Footwear for shoes for the girls. The boys weren't behaving, so I asked Aaron to take them down to the play center at the end of the mall. Nothing like jumping around on fake cupcakes and spilled soda to get their energy out.

By the time we left the mall, it was after 7. Aaron and the kids voted to go to Wendy's for dinner. I don't make a habit of eating there since I worked there for a good 4 or 5 years since I moved to Logan 15 years ago. Don't get me wrong, the foods good, but the smell brings back memories (I never could get that grease smell out of my uniforms!). It was just over $30 for the six of us, and the kids wonder why we don't go out to eat very often!

After we got home and put the kids to bed, Aaron and I finally wrapped all the Christmas presents. I think we did pretty well considering we're usually wrapping them Christmas Eve night so we can get them under the tree.

Tomorrow night my siblings and their families are coming over for dinner. It will be a busy day of cooking, cleaning, and running to the store for ingredients I thought I had. What fun! I'm excited Christmas is almost here!

Christmas concert

Tonight was the Ellis Elementary Christmas Concert. Ellis is a smaller school and not able to accomodate the concert, so it was held at Logan High School. I'm glad we managed to get there early because it was standing room only once it started.

Abbie was better behaved than I thought she would be. She entertained the older people around us and made friends with a tweenage girl sitting on the floor a couple rows behind us (Abbie liked her cell phone).

She made people laugh by trying to put her coat on.


Ashley's friend, Amanda, came with us, and Abbie was content on her lap for a little while.

She also managed to get herself stuck in the chair. I had to take her shoes off her to get her out.

Here are the third graders (yes, the blonde by Austin is in his class...can you say future linebacker?!).

"Christmas bells are ringing"...glad nobody got hit in the head...

The kindergardeners were cute.

I'm impressed he was singing. He likes to sing at home, but not in church or at concerts generally.

We happened to sit across from my friends Becky and Quinn in the incredibly crowded auditorium. What cute newlyweds!!

Becky's daughter, Cheyenne, has the same kindergarten teacher as Andrew, but she's in the morning class.

We had fun at the concert and I think the boys had fun singing. Glad we only have to do it once a year though!

Halloween

Halloween is fun! I love getting the kids all dressed up (mostly because they love it!). Every year, Sara takes the kids to her work Halloween party. Her boss loves Halloween and throws a huge party. This year Sara just took the boys. I took some pictures of them while they were waiting for her to show up.

Here's Andrew sitting on the couch, bored. He was so cute, I just had to take a bunch of pictures!

He love his Spiderman blankie (and his thumb)!

Austin was ghostrider, but his mask was too big and kinda scary. The only time he wore it was to Sara's work Halloween party.

The boys got to dress up for school on Friday. Of course they can't wear masks, so Aaron painted Austin's face.

Abbie thought he was scary. Austin would hiss at her and she would run away crying. If he kept his mouth shut, then she was okay to look at him.

I took these pictures before the daycare halloween party. I had a few of the shots turned into cards, and sent them to my family back east.

Halloween finally arrived. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat, so we headed over there and took some more pictures, of course.

We had lots of fun this Halloween, but I'm glad it's over!!

Abbie's Birthday

The hard drive on my laptop got fried somehow a few months ago. I lost everything on it, including all my pictures from the last year and a half (I'm still mourning the loss). I have all the pictures on my desktop backed up, but never got around to backing up my laptop pictures. I only had it about a year and a half when it crashed. My wonderful brother-in-law, Sean, got my laptop up and running, so now it's time to start blogging again.

Thursday was Abbie's 2nd birthday, and we had her party on Saturday. She loves Dora. Sometimes she walks around saying/singing, "Du-du-du-du-du-Dora." Silly girl.

Getting ready for cake and ice cream.

Yay! Here's the cake. Abbie blew out the candles in the middle of the birthday song, so I had to light them again so my sister could get a good action shot.

The kids were very excited for cake and ice cream. It's so much fun sugar jacking other people's kids!

I think Abbie enjoyed her cake the most...or she just made the biggest mess!

Once the cake mess was cleaned up, it was time to open presents. I think Aaron and I went a little overboard on Dora...Dora movie, Dora hat and gloves, Dora pajamas, Dora book, Dora toothbrush, Dora washcloth. Oh well. She loved them (especiall the hat!).

Happy Birthday, Abbie! It's hard to believe it's already been two years since you were ripped from my womb (with your Aunt Martha watching the whole operation...she thought it was awesome to watch my c-section, but I made her promise not to give me any grisly details!).

Willow Park

Here are some more pictures from Andrew's birthday party at the park.

Sean pushing Simon and Liam on the swings.

Austin giving Abbie a push on the swings.

Yep, Abbie like the swings.

Even the big boys like the swings!

Abbie had fun following Austin around.

Liam coming down the slide.

Andrew falling out of the slide (love those action shots!)

Abbie coming down the slide.

Landon enjoying his juice box.

Off to the zoo to see the animals.

Monkey see, monkey do...

Yep, she's a climber.

Checking out the ducks.

Abbie tripped while she was running and skinned her knees. Here's Andrew examining her owie.


We had lots of fun at the park. I'm glad Andrew wanted to have his party there. I love that my kids have their cousins in town so that they can be such good friends.