Nuttin' For Christmas

I'm holding myself personally responsible for making sure every holiday goody plate that enters my home gets eaten. 

And...I don't feel so great right now. 
To Courtney's ginger cookies - and let me preface this by saying Kyle loved them; translation: they were awesome! - Kyla exclaimed "This tastes like dirt!" as she threw it on the kitchen floor. 

So, I'm not getting much help eating all this deliciousness from the Niblet. 

But my little Chunky Monkey?  Yes he can eat white chocolate covered pretzels and caramel popcorn with the best of them.

Where does he put it?

We have yet to even talk to Santa.  There are too many tears when we even get close.

 We've heard "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas" a hundred times.

These two are having a grand time together.

and Glitter has made its presence known!

 Merry Christmas!

Must Dimple

We are trying something this November.  

Enter Thankful wall.  

It's only the 3rd.  Give it time.  

Kyla and I had a talk over breakfast on November 1.  It went something like this:

Me: Kyla, this month we are going to think of all the things we are thankful for.
Kyla: More cereal please, mommy.
Me:  What are you thankful for?
Kyla:  I don't know.
Me:  Being thankful is remembering the things that make us happy.
Kyla: Oh.
Me:  So, what makes you happy?
Kyla:

Or she could say, "...big beautiful dresses that mom has to fix and mend and fix and mend 

because I do things like this in them"

Wait, thankful, ok. Forgive me.

Here's one from me:

Too much cheek.  Must dimple.

Kyla got another one yesterday:

"Snow flakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...

...these are a few of my favorite things!"

Any Guesses?

First we dressed up for story time at the library.

A Mermaid, Ladybug, Snow White, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and Jasmine.

 A shot of "Dee-awna the Mermaid"

 

She donned the Ariel wig for the ward party

And Dad passed out candy for the Trunk or Treat, for a few minutes.

The Water Monster and I took over

.

He guarded the candy well

And Mermaid helped for a minute

But mostly "trunk" or treated like this

not the best night for the Mermaid, but Water Monster had fun

Then fell asleep, I'm holding up his head with my face.

(By the way, Kyle and I were dressed up, you just can't see the squirrels in my pants.  Any guesses?)

The Mermaid posed again with the bats this time.

And Finally, let the real trick or treating  begin.

Wolf, Grandma, Laryssa (yes, I went as ME this time.) Water Monster, Little Red, and Mermaid

Great shot huh?

Cute little friends

 Chillin' with the spoils

These happy little ones made quite a haul for a total of 7 years among them.

The funny moment of the night: Tylee and Kyla handing out candy to college kids.  What the...????

Mashed and Booted

I tried mashing up some avocado for Seth, but he wasn't having it.

He did, however, enjoy mashing it himself. 

If you follow me on Facebook, you've read about Kyla and the bags she fills with anything and everything.

Here she is with one of them.

Kyle says she looks like a hobo.

And Dora got booted.

(come on that's funny.)

These two have a blast together!

"Dee-awna" the Mermaid

So, my blog died. 

I am making no promises of a return to full health.

For now, I just want to check in and say

I'm thinking about you blog.

And...

This is a teaser for one little costume I whipped up for little Mariana the Mermaid.

See you again later this week.

Blue Eyes and Birthday Candles

A little girl turned 3 this month.

Daddy met us at the park for lunch that day with a new bike from Grandma.

She took to it right away.

Her friends helped her celebrate.

 

She had a butterfly "cake".

(No really, its a butterfly, she's three, she loved it.)

She sported great party hair.

(May have taken more time on it than the cake.)

Received some fantastic gifts.

Had some great laughs.

And made some great memories.

I love the girl with those sweet dimply cheeks.

Happy Birthday to my little Princess!

Finger Prints

Seth 

 

I love the way

you fall asleep on your hands.

Lost and Found

I have a couple quirky little phobias.  Most of them started as childhood dreams.

For instance, because of one dream, I have an irrational fear that my arms will be bound above my head in the produce section of a grocery store and people will come by and tickle me at will.  The apples and onions just stand by and let it happen.

In another dream fell off the back of a cruise ship into the middle of the ocean.  I was reaching for my Pound Puppies (remember those?) but couldn't reach them.  I just kept sinking and sinking.

A couple Christmases ago we had to cross Seattle's I-90 bridge after a huge snow storm.  I spent the drive to the bridge planning how I would get us, especially Kyla, out of the car after if it slid off the icy bridge and into the frigid water.

I have a huge fear of drowning, not so much myself anymore, but my kids.  So during our family reunion having not been able to find Kyla, I went straight down and spent what seemed like ages scanning the lake horrified I would find her there.  What a relief when I heard my name and three precious words "We found her!"

She had wandered out of our cabin area, through a swing park, past a huge ball field and up into a tree house.  She was just playing with kids from another group camping there.  My social little girl is always surrounding herself with friends.  We'd called for her, but apparently two-year-olds don't respond when called.  Thank you to her Grandma for finding her!

Out with the Old

2.5 weeks of vacation.

I won't torture you with all the fantastic details.

 yet.

I will tell you that if you are ever on the fence about buying a new car...

Drive from Rangely Colorado to Seattle Washington with an almost three year old and a 5 month old...

Don't forget your air conditioning.

If you do this, you may end up sweating your brains out in Boise.

And continually checking to make sure the baby is breathing.

All of this may convince you that its time to trade in the box.

At least it worked on me.

I literally kissed our '05 Scion XB goodbye.

Despite the small car payment that makes me cringe to think about

I have to say its wonderful.

Thank you Sean Roland at Larry H. Miller Honda of Boise.  

He had a sold sign in the window to hold it for us as we drove up.

We ended up with a 2001 Durango 

5.9L V8 

We can pass other cars now and make it up mountains.

54500 miles

on a 2001 - crazy amazing

Third seat

which folds down for grocery trips to Vernal or Grand Junction.

Heated leather seats

Kyle kindly turns mine on every time I turn around to check on the kids.

why-I-outta!

And most importantly it has a functioning AC!

It makes me want to sing

I love the mountains, 

I love the rolling hills, 

I love the fountains, 

I love the daffodills, 

I love the fireside, 

When all the lights are low, 

Boom-dee-odda, 

Boom-dee-odda, 

Boom-dee-odda,

Boom-dee-odda

More Summer Storms

We've had several storms the past two weeks.  At night the lightning has been incredible - every few seconds for an hour or more and touching down all around us.  It was kind of wonderful all of us snuggled up together watching late into the night.

During the day its even crazier.  Kyla, Seth and I (among plenty of other moms and kids) hid out under the playground equipment at the park for what we hoped would be a few minutes until the storm passed.  Soon it felt like a fire hose was pelting us from the side and all the paths out of the park were covered in muddy rivers. We decided to make a run for it.  Seth was amazing - water dripping off his little face and he just smiled his little heart out.  Kyla was wrapped in his soaking wet blanket and freezing and did I mention it had been so sunny moments earlier that I left my car windows all the way down.  Our neighbor lent us his shop vac to help get all the water out.

A few days later our friends came over to play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk.  Another storm appeared out of nowhere. 

 Kyla for the first time willingly wore her raincoat.  I think it was purely due to the fact she was the only one who had one.

 And as fast as it came, it was gone again.

 It left puddles.  (Do you see our pretty "yard")  

The kiddos had a blast sprinting up the driveway to collect rocks.

 Then they rushed back down to splash them into the puddles.

 A thrilling afternoon.

 We love you summer storms!