Helper Boy

Yep, he's all boy! My girls NEVER did this. Its driving me crazy all the things he does that the girls never even thought to do. He climbs in to everything, throws anything he gets his hands on, yells just because, and generally destroys anything he can get his hands on. Who on earth knew a one year old could take out the outlet protectors. Tony still struggles with them and he's a grown man. The other day he hid my keys. It took me 3 SOLID days of searching to finally find them. You people that keep telling me I need to have another baby so Blake can get a brother, you are crazy. No way!

Any ideas???

Any idea what this could be? I was thinking it could be all the nasty hair that coagulates in a drain or maybe the hair remnants stuck in your brush. Nope, this mass rats nest belongs to:

TA-DA!!! Holy sponge curlers on crack batman!!! This is what happens when a bad curl job happens to a cute little girl. Usually when I do the girls hair curly, I do it in the a.m. before Church and the result are gorgeous curls. Tae had her winter program and wanted her hair curly which required her to sleep in sponge curlers. Aliya always wants to do what her big sissy does so she slept in curlers too. Well, Taeya's curls turned out as pretty as usual. When I went to do Aliya's hair later, this is what I found. Whoa, Afro.  I died laughing. Eventually I was able to make it really pretty (I promise, I was able to do it). It just took some water misting and a couple pulls. 

Of course being a forgetful Mom I forgot to take pictures of the cute end result. So you'll just have to enjoy our cute little curly Q!

TMI but funny!

So I've been debating whether to post this or not but I've found it so funny that I just have to. A week or two before Christmas, one of Santa's elves 'brought' Tony a pair of cute green sexy boy shorts for me to wear (that's the TMI). Fast forward to yesterday when I grabbed a fleece out of the upstairs laundry basket, ran down the stairs while putting it on, then out the front door. Later that afternoon I heard Tae yell "Dad, Santa forgot his underwear". What? Well, somehow the green Christmassy boy shorts were attached to my fleece and fell off on the stairs. This is a bit of Tony and Tae's conversation:

T: "Look Daddy, these are Santa's underwear"

D:"Where did you find them" 

T: "On the stairs"

D: "Why were the on the stairs"

T: "Maybe he took them off"

D: "Why would he take them off?"

T: "Maybe he had to go to the bathroom"

D: "But why would he take them off?"

T: "Maybe he had an accident"

With that Tae comes in to me to show me Santa's "HUGE" underwear. Okay, I am not huge thank you very much - maybe soft and saggy but not huge. Taeya still is talking about finding Santa's big underwear. I can only imagine the conversations she is going to have tomorrow in Primary. Please, please don't let the Primary president call me!

Merry Christmas!

Usually on Christmas Eve, we  get together with another family that doesn't have extended family nearby. For once, we couldn't find anybody that was family-less (well, we couldn't find anyone that would admit to being family-less AND who wanted to spend the evening with us). We drove around looking at all the fun Christmas lights and decorations. There is something weird about people having fake snowmen in their yards when its 50+ outside. Once we got home the girls were excited to see that Santa's Elves had come while we were away to deliver their new jammies.  We opened their jammies then read Luke 2.  The girls had fun 'acting' it out with a Nativity set. Surprisingly enough there was no fighting over who got to be what. 

Aliya spent the majority of Christmas Eve day in her 'ballerina-tard'. That girl LOVES her leotard. I'm just glad we aren't somewhere where its freezing outside. It was 50+ outside and I was freezing!

Christmas morning Tony and I woke the girls up at 8:00 to start Christmas. I am glad they don't wake up extra early but their typical 7:00 would have been fine on Christmas. Slacker Mom that I am, I didn't take a picture of the kiddos around all the presents. Oh well! Aliya got a new helmet. She's been wearing Tae's helmet that Tony ran over. Poor second kid! She was so much fun this Christmas. Each time she opened a gift, before she'd even see what it was she'd say "This is what I always wanted". She didn't care what she got, she was just excited to get something. Why cant kids keep this enthusiasm?

Here is Blakers on his rocking horse from Gma/Gpa Thompson. He likes it but the girls LOVE it. My girls are obsessed with horses (thanks to Papa Bruce and Gma Nette). I think it might have to lose its batteries pretty soon. I've been hearing galloping since yesterday! Taeya thinks 'its not fair' that she's too big to ride it. Not that its stopped her from trying!

Gma Debbie sent Blake this firetruck. He has so much fun riding it and making noise. I think it might lose its batteries too! I'm noticing a trend here: why is it that the Grandparents are the ones sending my kids the noisy toys? I think they are slowly trying to drive me insane!

The girls got a doll house from Gma/Gpa Thompson. Since we've opened it up, I don't think we've seen the girls. I would have loved something like this as a kid. Santa somehow knew they were getting this and brought them the different accessories for it. Its so nice to hear them not fight!

Uncle Ponch sent the girls these necklaces from the Philippines. They call them their hula necklaces!

I thought these two pictures of Blake were pretty cute. He didn't really care too much about Christmas. He'd get excited when the girls got excited but other than that, he was content to tear the paper.

We had a terrific Christmas. It is so nice to get to spend so much quality time together as a family. On Christmas we had no place we needed to be, no schedule to keep. It was heaven to spend all day in our jammies. We miss our extended family and all their festivities but we're so thankful for our little family. We hope you had a terrific Christmas too. 

Santa's Visit

Santa came to Aliya's preschool party. She was so excited to see him. Once she heard the Jingle Bells, she was smiling from ear to ear. This is the age when Christmas is so much fun!

Aliya was excited to get a book AND a candy cane. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas she replied a "Puh-la-la-la Polly Car". I guess on a commercial she heard them sing "Puh-la-la-la Polly" so that is now what she says when she says she wants a Polly Pocket. Santa was confused but played it off pretty well.

Blake on the other hand was NOT thrilled to see Santa Claus. You can see him pleading with Miss Ashley to get him off this scary dudes lap.

He never did like the big guy. Ah well, maybe next year??? Doubt it!

Aliya's Christmas Party

Aliya's preschool had a cute Christmas program. The kids sang a couple songs then the big guy himself came (Santa, not Tony). 

L-R: Emmy, Jaya, Joshua, Aliya, Anavey, Corben, Cole & Dawson

They all wore their Pajamas. I don't know why but it was cute to see the kids in their jams! Aliya insisted on wearing her horsey jammies -- of course! I was lazy and brought Blakers in his jammies too!

The kids did the actions for "Santa Claus is coming to town". It was pretty cute! Here they are sleeping (well, except for Joshua).

At the end of all their singing, the kids took a bow. Aliya took it one step further and made it into her own Miss America pageant. With that smile and wave I think she'd win! Her pictures with Santa are to come!

Winter Program

On Monday Taeya had a musical recital. It was all the first and second graders. They sang a few generic Christmas songs that no one had ever heard then two Hanukah songs. Afterwards we were invited to her classroom for a "Readers Theatre".  Aside from fighting Blake and Aliya the entire 20 minutes it was fun to see how well they are all starting to read. 

L_R: Hailey, Amarilis, Ben, Jessica, Ryan, Alex, Dustyn, Taeya & Mrs. Roach

Here is Tae next to her teacher Mrs. Roach. She is a cute, little (i.e. short) energetic teacher. There is one student that is exactly her height (these are first graders). See if you can pick him out below (all the while singing in your head 'one of these kids is not like the others'.

L-R: Madison, Cameron, Jamen, Jasper, Hailey, Amarilis, Ben, Alex, Dustyn & Tae

Yep, thats Jasper. His parents are HUGE (his Mom is Tony's height and the Dad has got to be knocking on 7 foot). Poor kids is easily at least a head taller than the tallest kid. His sister who is 8 is taller than me. These kids are going to be TALL.

Taeya, Natalie and Madison

Riley, Jayden, Taeya and Luca

Family Photo's!

Each year I envision grand Christmas cards going out the first of December. I can imagine the comment about the kids "Oh, I love Blake's Mohawk", "Look how big the girls are" or "Dang, that's a lot of hair", etc. I even make lists of the people I intend to mail them to. Yet inevitably, I DON'T DO IT. Why you ask? I don't know! I LOVE receiving Christmas cards. I love watching kids grow that I no longer see.  I love the surprise in finding out families have new members added over the past year. I love to read about what people do and enjoy feeling like I was there for a small part of their lives. I have no excuse except that I am lazy I guess. Nope, that's not it because I already have the envelopes addressed.  This year will probably go down like all the others! Maybe I'll save all the addressed Christmas envelopes and send out 'we're moving' cards since that should be happening soon! Excuse or not, these are probably it for our Christmas cards so . . . 

Merry Christmas and we love you!

While my dad was here he tried to get some cute family pics for our Christmas cards (see, I have great intentions. Its just the follow through where I am lacking). This one may have made the cut had Tae not been pulling a face. Why is it that at least one kid is always pulling an ugly face?

Check out Blakes expression. We call that his dumb jock look. He's got it down pat! We were just watching the ducks/swans/geese. Its one of our favorite to do here!

Poor Aliya is just a head!
Immediately after this picture I ended up on my hiney in duck poop! Yummy!
This one might have have been coming to your home had I actually gotten them developed!
Cute little Aliya! She looks like such an angel!

Our little monkeys. They had had it by the end of pictures but they perked right up when they got to play on the tree!

He is the biggest monkey of them all!

Our gorgeous Taeya!

Like father, like son . . .

Well, we know he didnt pick up THIS habit from me - wrong color of can!

Turkey Day!!!

For Thanksgiving we got together with Amy & Sean Peterson (and their kiddos). The food was heavenly. We decided to eat lunch early in the day so we could get together later in the evening for another round of fun. We ate lunch at Amy's and it was heaven.  And boy, can she can cook! Before they moved down here to go to Grad school, they owned an upscale bakery in Utah. That girl has got her stuff together. She is Miss home decorator/tree decorator/everything works together. 

Our kids are relatively close in age and played well together. Tae was in her element when she found out they could color until lunch was ready. Give that girl a marker and she is so happy (not that her face looks happy)!

Aliya and Zimi always have fun together. I always am amazed at how well they get along. They both have that second child syndrome but get along great! BTW my girls, and Tony, love sleeping w/ their hair in french braids so it can be wavy the next day. It reminds me too much of my old dancing days with the Stars but what do you do?

These two little guys played awesome together. I thought for sure Blake would barrel him over or take a chunk out of his arm but they did great together. The boys had fun playing under the table while we ate. Blake is like a little puppy who will clean up any food that is dropped. 

We got together later at our place and all the kids wore their jammies. I don't know what it is but kids in their jammies are the cutest things. Amy's kids have no booty so their jams were saggin in the back. Mine have plenty of booty so they were stretched thin in back. Ah, the things you notice when your kids are in fitted clothes! Thanks so much Peterson's for a terrific Thanksgiving!

Dancing Queen - part 2

Its that time of year again -- Dance Recital time! I have to say I was a little disappointed. Yes, I bemoaned their horrible outfits last spring but they were better than the T-shirts they got this time. The instructor was leaving the rec center to start her own studio so gave each girl one of these shirts to wear. Yeah it was free advertising but not nearly as cute as a bunch of little girls in ballerina-tards (as Aliya calls them)!

Here is Aliya-loo with one of her best buddies, Zimi. For two head-strong little girls these two play very well together.

A whole slew of little girls in pink, pink, pink! Aliya did terrific. She was one of the only ones who somewhat knew what was happening (Tony has said we'll never use this place again - I figure she's three so its as good as anything else)

Aliya got a certificate of completion. Last spring they got a 'gold medal' so she was disappointed this time to just get a piece of paper. 

My parents were able to come for her recital which was a lot of fun (plus it was nice to have someone to watch Blake while I took pictures and Tony took video)

Oh Blakers! Poor kid is constantly being put in dress up clothes. Ah well, he looks cute though!

Grandma & Grandpa T

My parents came to town the weekend before Thanksgiving and we had a blast. They were able to plan their trip so they could be here for Aliya's dance recital and Tae's last soccer game (pics to come on both). I love when they come because there is zero entertaining involved. They enjoy just playing with the kids.  This is their third trip down to see us and I have yet to take them out of my 5 mile radius. Maybe one of these times we'll take them somewhere . . . doubt it but its still a worthy goal!

My Dad gives infamous neck kisses. They send chills strait to your toes. Once he did that to Blake, Blake was his best buddy. He'd get so excited whenever he saw my Dad.

Taeya's homework from school has been to play various math games with cards. My parents are card players so they had fun playing with her, all the while improving her math skills!

Aliya isn't one to be left out so she came up with her own game for everyone to play. Her directions lasted a little long and no one understood what was happening but she had a ton of fun being the boss -- shocker I know!

My Dad got the girls an "I-spy" type Christmas book that the girls loved. Only grandparents have the patience for those things!

Just like any out of town guests, we took my parents to feed the ducks. This HUGE goose followed my dad everywhere. He was eating right out of his hand. Heaven forbid that goose get too friendly with my Dad -- he's been known to kick a swan or too (a swan was attacking he and Tony last time we were in Sun Valley. Tony was being nice trying to push the swan away. Dumb thing went after my Dad and got a swift kick to the gizzard!)

Aliya discovered that she had a lot of power over the birds and ducks. She'd scream and yell towards them. Poor things!

We enjoyed getting to walk Tae to school each a.m. Thanks for your visits Mom and Dad. We had a ton of fun and cant wait for you to come back. I say you change your tickets for Aunt Becky's and come see us again -- the weather is a heck of a lot nicer!