the big Three Five

This year Dave's birthday was squished smack dab in the middle of chaos- the day before taking off to Disneyland and worst of all, Air Force Reserves weekend- he had Air Force Reserves on his birthday. Booooooring!

My parents were kind enough to give him his gift a couple days before. He was thrilled- you know, these men and all their man things.



That same evening, Livvy stole center stage from Dave (which was fine by him) by holding this poor Snowman hostage, toting him around all night like her new best friend. She did have an incident where she dropped and put a dent in his bounteous tri-part body- that turned into an emotional deluge of tears but it didn't stop her from finding him once more (despite all grandma's efforts to hide him from her) and dragging that guy all over tarnation (is that a word?). Just one more reason why we don't own a cat.

Dave's actual birthday was on Sunday. So he was off at the Reserves and I was off to church by myself with all 4 kids and then home to pack. But before packing, the girls helped me whip up a yummy lemon cake to eat for dessert. Dave's favorite. I guess I should clarify who actually made the cake- I made the cake, the girls just helped with clean up- licking everything clean (dish soap is totally over-rated). Back to the cake, it doesn't look all that fabulous because it has a glaze on top, rather than a frosting but trust me, it's good.

So here he is, all dressed up in military brown, smiling for the camera. And I'll have you know, that wicked awesome Darth Vader candle on his cake is a repeat use from Taylor's birthday. I'm going green people! I'm going green...



Dave's sister, Amy, gave him a birthday phone call and decided to drop in for a visit. They came over, not knowing I had made lemon cake. Lemon cake. A riot almost started when they found out about the lemon cake. A riot. And to make it even better, I sent them home with the left overs because we were leaving the next morning at 5:30 a.m. (painful, I know). Anyhoo, they came, we sang, we ate. And then we reminisced about Dave's mom because she always made lemon cake. I love it when people just drop in. It makes for a fun time.

Happy Birthday Dave! (I know, I can't believe you're that old, either) Love you!

Chatty Santa

We had our ward Christmas party yesterday. Dave and I really wanted to skip out early but the kids knew Santa was coming so we were stuck. And by stuck, I mean stuck.

Our ward has a large amount of children. It really is great and all until a line for Santa forms. But that really wasn't the problem. The problem was that Santa, bless his heart, was chatty. Way too chatty for my liking. I mean, I've never heard Santa so chatty in all my life. Where was chatty Santa when I was a kid? I remember being booted off his lap while still rattling my list off as fast as I could. He never got a word in edge-wise, just a few "ho ho ho's", if he was lucky.

Funny- the guy in the Santa suit- our next door neighbor. I was waiting for Taylor to realize that Bob was in the suit. Somehow Santa worked his magic (or talked around it, that chatty Santa) and Taylor didn't catch on.

For the first time in years we had no criers. All the kids were eager to rattle their heart's desires off to Santa. Spenny didn't know what was going on- next year will be a treat, I'm sure.

Before Taylor hit the line he came up to me to inform me that this was not Santa, just his helper. That's right- let's give credit where credit is due. Well, maybe in a few years anyway. Once on his lap, Taylor didn't seem too interested in Santa. He sat there looking bored the entire time. Maybe he was tuning out Chatty Santa the same way he tunes out Chatty Mommy.



I'm not sure what Santa talked to these kiddos about. I was just eager to get three kids on his lap at once to move things along.

I smell Christmas

We headed out Monday night to pick out a Christmas tree from my cousin's house. As you can see, Dave takes his tree picking business serious:



And here he is wrestling our final choice:



Once we got the tree home, Dave lit it up:



Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of the tree so far this season. A fuse blew and half the tree is out, waiting for Dave to fix it. We just might be waiting until next Christmas the rate things get done around here. And so, I can't very well take a finished picture of the tree without Christmas lights all aglow. Please stay tuned...

It seems Dave may have gotten a bit carried away while trimming the bottom of the tree. It makes me laugh- when I pass by our tree, I can't help but think "where's the flood"? This is probably just a well thought out plan on Dave's part to get Santa to put more presents under the tree. Brilliant, that husband of mine.

We have a tradition of giving each of our kids a new Christmas ornament every year. I usually try to get ornaments that reflect something about that year. This year I got these cute Mickey and Minnie ears since we are on our way in just a few days to bask in the joy of Disneyland.



I was having a hard time deciding which picture I should post. Should I choose uncooperative or very uncooperative? I chose both for your viewing pleasure.



Spencer didn't get Mickey ears like the others because it's his first Christmas- he got this cute little number. I don't know why I buy a new baby an expensive glass ornament- well, I guess I do- it's hard to find personalized ornaments anywhere but Lenox.



In the past, Dave would have taken one look at this ornament and made a derogatory comment in regards to this not being exactly manly. Apparently he is learning a thing or two because he now feigns interest and makes comments like "oh good, that's nice". It's only taken him eight years of marriage. Baby steps... I admit this may be a little pansy-ish but hey, the boy is a baby. And babies like duckies, and lambs, and teddy bears. I guess we really don't know what babies like considering they don't talk. Hm- that's a blog post for another day.

Chop Choppy

A few days before Thanksgiving I took the girls in to get their hair cut. They looked like little ragamuffins and needed some serious attention.

This was a big day for Livvy because this was her first haircut ever. She was a bit skeptical when I first put her in the chair. I think the only thing that kept her from bursting into tears is that our hair lady, Niki, is our next door neighbor. Liv spends half her waking hours at Niki's house rummaging through her kid's toys, confiscating her Vaseline, and coloring on her walls. And so, if Niki wants to set her up on a weird chair and put a cape on her- she's good.

See, she's totally nervous...



Still a little skeptical but hanging in there...



And the finished product:



I don't think she really knew what was going on. I'm hoping she never got a good enough look at the scissors to realize exactly what "getting a hair cut" means. You can only imagine Livvy running a muck with a pair of scissors.

She did great and I love her hair! She has gotten so many compliments. Her hair on the top of her head is still a lot shorter than the back so I have to pull the top up. One day this child will grow out of this mullet. In the meantime, I think we have the situation under control. Yay Livvy!

Next in line- Sara got her hair done a couple days later. She was very excited to get her hair cut "just like Livvy's".

Sara is a seasoned professional in the hair cut dept seeing as how this is her third haircut.



And the final product:



She really liked her hair at first. However, today she was telling me [insert feisty whiny tone here], "Moooom, my hair is like a boys." Hm. I guess this haircut won't last long because she likes pony tails. She likes to take the bull by the horns when it comes to her hair. She puts barrettes, elastics, and head bands in by herself. It looks ... interesting, to say the least. But hey, she's exerting her independence and it's just fine with me. You pick your battles and this isn't one I'm willing to fight- unless it's picture day or something. Then I have to put the smack down.
Here she is with a headband in.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we trekked to Denver with all of Dave's family for a long holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving Day we got family pictures taken. We went to this really pretty area with a pond and hundreds of geese. It looked amazing until we realized that those hundreds of geese had been producing thousands of poops for us to walk across in the grass.

But still, it was rather picturesque and provided for some nice pictures.

Livs and her daddy checking out the geese.



I just think this picture is so cute of these girls- Liv, Katie, Emma, Marissa, Hali



Awwww.... cute cousins.



Taylor was running around chasing the geese everywhere. He accidentally fell down and got goose poop on his sleeve. Just in case you didn't know, goose poop is green. And as I know now, it doesn't come out very well in the wash. So convenient that we were all wearing white. Anyhoo, T freaked out and wasn't cooperative for pictures after that. Kids don't really buy into the "pretend it's not there and smile" thing.



Did I mention it was a little cold out?



This was the final shot we got of the entire family. It's a darn miracle we got a picture this good with all the little ones. Or maybe I should just say- with my family. I have the majority of the 6 and under crowd. How would it be to have children that just sit and pose? Hmmm... maybe one day I will know.



As always, Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic. And we laughed until we cried at this picture during Thanksgiving dinner:



So maybe I was the only one crying but for some odd reason, it made for a good laugh. That's what family is all about. Laughing. For no good reason. And then laughing some more. We really were just seeing how close-up we could get a picture with the camera. Is that so wrong?

Spencer had a great Thanksgiving. Not only did he get to eat his first jar-ful of veggies (sweet potatoes, how appropriate), he was probably held every single waking (and sleeping) moment. The girls loved every minute of this guy, especially Katie. Thanks Katie- you're the best!



We spent our vacation eating, watching movies, eating, playing games, eating and of course, shopping at Costco (where we were eating) . I had no intention of getting any of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday but somehow I managed to take Walmart, Costco, and Target by storm and got most of it done! Get out of town! No really, I guess I did have to get out of town to get things done. It helps to have a bunch of cousins around to play with and babysit my kids. Love that! Thanks to Mike and Amy for driving the majority of our treasures home!

Can you just see how much fun is going on here? FuN! fUn! FuN!



We woke up Sunday morning ready to roll out of town but found out that I-80 was closed. Darn Wyoming! Always causing a weather raucous. Finally around 12:30 p.m. the roads opened and we headed out. Our drive home looked a little something like this:



Eeeeeee gads! Driving 10 mph over a mountain pass in a huge line of traffic is a long process. We made it home safely around 10:00 p.m. that night. Yay! I was quite happy with our decision to buy new tires for our van right before we left on this little vacation.

This was a fun trip. We love love love visiting Jeff and Lori in Denver. It's always so much fun. Thanks everyone!

The Birthday Hook Up

Sunday was the official end to Taylor's week-long birthday extravaganza. Whew. What a week.

Wednesday was his actual birthday so we took him out to dinner at the Mayan. And I guess when it's your birthday, you don't have to cooperate for pictures...



I wrapped three presents for him. One was a Razor scooter and the other two were clothes. I wasn't going to wrap the clothes but then I figured "what the heck".

We gave him the first gift to open:



That is the face a parent likes to see when a child opens a birthday gift. The Razor was a success. And sorry Dave, I couldn't crop your face out of that picture.

As for the clothes:



Not so much. See my sister? She is laughing because he is so mad about getting clothes for his birthday. Note to self- Never give a 6-year-old boy clothes as a gift. Not exciting. "Clothes are boring" he told me. Not to Sara. Not to me. Boys...

Dave told me that I should have given the clothes to him first and the scooter last. Information that would have been good to know before I gave him the gifts.

He still had gifts to open from my parents and those were a hit! It appears he recovered quickly.



Sunday we had a November birthday party for my side of the family. Taylor was born on my brother Micah's birthday. Good times. I still remember sitting in the delivery room all by myself and making that first phone call to my brother to tell him that Taylor was born on his big day.

Back to the party, we celebrated with fruit and chocolate pizzas and homemade icecream. It was SO GOOD.



I have been looking forward to this party because Russ and Nat let me in on a little secret- they got Taylor the display case of McDonalds Star Wars toys!! We just knew this gift was going to be a hit. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

Check out this face:



Happy Kid = Happy parents!!



Look how cute Taylor is! (And Russ & Dave too)



The girls- our assessment was that we all looked awful and didn't want pictures of ourselves but Kristina is going on a mission and seems to be a little family-picture-crazy lately. Kristina is also super photogenic. I missed out on that strand of DNA.



Happy Birthday Micah and Taylor! Thanks for giving us a reason to partay!

Baby Shower

Saturday was Aunt Nat's Baby Shower. It was a fun event.

I would have to call it my most successful baby shower yet- only because Natalie's mom offered to make all the food. Can you imagine? It was difficult for me to relinquish any control but I turned the food over to her and the result was amazing. We feasted on chicken noodle soup (the one with the big fat homemade noodles), homemade bread, a gigantor salad, and yummy peach cobbler. All I had to do was decorate and put some games together. Suh-weet!

Since I didn't have the responsibility of making the food, I directed all my energy toward decorating. My motto is, "With Hobby Lobby, all things are possible." I do have to mention though, remember last year when I had that debacle at Hobby Lobby with the paper-licking cashier? As luck would (not) have it, she was my cashier again. Apparently she has learned a thing or two over the year about paper handling. She didn't count a single sheet of paper- she just asked me how many I had. I wonder how long it took her to figure that out. I was totally relieved but then when she called me "hon", I had to reconsider just exactly how much progress she was making with me. Listen woman, I'm old enough to be your mother (not really)- don't be calling me "hon".

Anyhoo, I had fun putting decorations together. I went with a hot pink and green theme. It's kind of nice decorating for events around Christmas time. The possibilities are endless at the craft stores! Who knew that pink is now the new red? Yikes.

I hung hot pink (almost purple, what can ya do?) balls from the ceiling, made a banner in photo shop, decorated my little pine trees with pink & green ornaments, purchased helium balloons (they just make me happy), made a diaper cake (which was to-die-for cute) and made some funky hanging thing to dangle from my chandelier. There were other things here and there but I won't bore you with the details. Needless to say, it was fun! fun! fun!

Here is Nat holding the diaper cake. She is so cute and finally starting to look pregnant (although she was hiding behind things all day so I don't have any pictures of her belly). She was telling us that she told her doctor, "I can't imagine getting any bigger". Hello- still two months to go! I think her dr just started laughing. Being pregnant is bliss, especially the first time around.

Natalie's shower was fun! She is amazing and I am so grateful that she is part of our family. Russ picked a good'un. Haha! Love you Nat!