Happy New Year

We celebrated the New Year a couple hours early this year just for the kids. We look forward to 2009 and can't wait to see what happens next!

Christmas Celebrations

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year. It was so nice to stay at our house and have the party come to us! We had Thor's mom and step-dad, and two of his sisters, Lee Ann (with 3 kids, Baylee, Christian, & Adam) & Amanda (with her boyfriend Quintin). We woke up on Christmas morning around 7 to the sound of all the appliances shutting off. The power went out! Our neighborhood lost power for about an hour that morning. We tried to open stokings with flashlights and candles, but it didn't work that well. We managed to delay the kids until the sun came up a little while later. I'm not sure what we would have done for dinner that day if the power hadn't come back on! We had a yummy prime rib roast, with potatoes, green beans, and rolls. Not to mention a load of desserts, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake, and cookies galore!

Yummy Gingerbread Houses

Christmas Eve Pjs
Gabe loved playing with his new crane and Car Legos

Lorili went nuts when she tore into her 7 Disney Princess Barbie Collection

We lots of family come and visit. Our house was perfect for the celebration. Lots of room for everyone to spread out!

Of course there was plenty of Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour (Thanks Jared!)

Our nephew Collin was able to swing by for a visit on his way back to Connecticut

Baylee and Lee Ann

Christian was quite the builder with his new set of legos

Amanda brought her boyfriend Quintin, he is a nice guy and joined right in with all the action

Family Pictures {minus Thor}

We did not do family pictures this year, so the kids and I surprised Thor for Christmas with some pictures of the kids and me. My friend Dianne came over and took pictures here at our house. It was a lot of fun and I LOVE the pictures. For the surprise to work, I had to refrain from posting them. Now that Christmas is past, I am ready to share them with you!

Goodbye Catten!

When we moved into this house, we acquired a stray cat. The owners had feed the poor thing for the last 13 years and asked us to do the same. We happily agreed, and the kids have loved poor old "Catten" (a combination of "Cat" and "Kitten"). He is a very mild cat, and never attacked the kids when they were not being very nice to him. But lately, he hasn't seemed to be doing too well. He got into a fight with a skunk a while back and now we are having unusually cold and snowy weather. Because of this, we decided he needed to be taken to the animal shelter where he could be properly taken care of. We boxed Catten up and turned him over to the animal shelter. We aren't sure how or when to break it to the kids (do you remember the video of Lorili when her fish, that lived only a few hours, died?). I'm not ready to go through that again. So we will wait until they notice and break it to them gently.

Are we still in Iowa?

So, I was under the impression that we wouldn't get snow here in Albany, or at least not the kind that sticks around. Well, it's a freak winter here this year. With early and sticky snow! It started Saturday night and keeps hitting us. It really hasn't been much snow, but with near freezing temperatures and no snow plows, the snow turns into sheets of ice. School was cancelled Monday, Tuesday and now today! Christmas break started early this year! It has been fun, other than I've not been able to get all my Christmas preparations done. Christmas packages went out late, and Christmas cards are a few days behind them:( Oh well, the kids have been loving the snow, so we will enjoy enjoy it while it lasts!

Dance! Dance!

Lorili has been taking a hip-hop dance class from the Rec Center. Last night they danced at an Assisted Living Home. It was pretty cute. I posted a video to give you a good laugh!

Happy Thanksgiving

(hint-if you click on the colage, it will enlarge)
Our camera has an attitude. It only works when it wants to. So we didn't bother taking it to Thanksgiving. We were dependant on others. Thanks Mom and Dad for sending these to me!

We drove to Logandale, Nevada (just outside of Vegas) for the festivities. My sister was so wonderful to open her house to her three sisters and parents. It is always so fun to get together. The cousins pick right up where they left off.

We had a fun 18hr drive. We split the trip in half and stayed over in Reno. The first day of driving was a bit dicey. I planned the route and did not even think about winter weather, high mountain passes, or traveling at night. After all, I am from Arizona, it was just raining in Oregon, and we were headed south! Needless to say, we made it safely over the mountains, slowly but surly!

Holiday activities included a HUGE feast with awesome food! Part of the group made it to the Hoover Dam to see the construction of a new bridge that goes right over the dam...amazing! We didn't want to fight the traffic, so we headed to town to grab some In-N-Out Burgers-THE BEST! Next we headed to the Vegas Strip with a stop at MM World and Coke World. We tasted 18 varieties of Coke products from around the world, waited too long in a line for a 3-D MM movie, and filled a bag of MMs with Lorili's own color combination. By the end the kids were wiped out and we were all tired. So we sent the Dads home with the kids and the Moms stayed for the Broadway show Mama Mia. We had a blast! A great story and the music was so much fun, and who better to see it with than your Mom and sisters? We will have to do this again!

To top off the whole trip, we made a trip to the Temple. This was the best part of the whole trip! The older cousins babysat (Thanks Halie & Jack!) and we were able to go and then enjoy some yummy BBQ afterwards.

It was a long trip home, but I am so glad we went! I would totally do it again! Bennie (that's our new cars nickname) made the drive so much more enjoyable. Plenty of room and lots of comfort! Not to mention satelite radio, so we had a signal even when driving across the barren Nevada desert, and OnStar navigation and directions at our fingertips, to keeps us on track!

eating out

My kids LOVE to eat out, and I'm pretty sure they get that from me! I would much rather eat out than cook a meal. Today, in the car, Gabe was asking me if we could eat dinner at a "res-tur-naunt." I politely told him that we weren't, and then while we drove around he would ask if we could eat at whatever place he could see. So first he asked about "Jacks-in-da-boxes" and then he asked me "do you want to eat at the twinkle twinkle little star place." Huh? At first I thought he was being silly, because he likes to make jokes, but then I saw what he saw....

nicknames

Occasionally my kids call me by something other than my name, and typically, it is something they have heard their Dad call me (I'll spare you the specifics). Lately, the kids have made one up all their own and we have no idea where it came from. H-4-2, yeah, that's right, the letter "H" the number "4" and the number "2." And when they use it, they use Robot talk. It's hilarious when they say it, and they always end up in giggles when I use Robot talk to respond to them. I even found a note from Lorili the other day addressed to "H-4-2."

Maybe they've just seen a little too much of Star Wars, The Clone Wars?

Potty Trained!

Yup, that's right! Gabe is now potty trained. I was very apprehensive to start this process simply because diapers are so much easier, but Thor finally convinced me that it was time to do it. So I did. It was a long, laundry filled week, but we made it! Gabe is doing great and has transformed into such a big boy! I miss my baby, but I am excited to see him learn and grow!

Sleeping Angels

I love to check on my sleeping kids before bed each night.
You never know what you are going to find!

Happy Halloween

What a great Halloween! I love that it fell on Friday! We had fun all week!

Thor has been called to serve in Cub Scouts and they had a Pack Meeting on Tuesday, so we got creative and made some creepy cupcakes. Ghosts, bats, eyeballs, worms, and spiderwebs!

Lorili was Mariposa, she's a butterfly Barbie. I ended up making her costume and had a lot of fun doing it. She pranced around like a butterfly all day!

Gabe was a fireman. He loved to tote around his fire extinguisher and put out the fires.

I don't dress up for Halloween anymore, so instead I sported my Twilight shirt, pretty scary, I know! I was certain Thor would tell me to burn it, but instead he found it funny, or maybe he was laughing at me, instead of with me....oh well!

Check out the kids and their loot!

To end the day we watched a Blue's Clues Halloween show.

Mouse in the House

Yeah, that's right! We had a mouse in the house. While Thor and I were busy setting up some really inhumane mouse traps, Lorili made a trap of her own.

Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins!

We've had a week of Pumpkins! We went to the Pumpkin Patch as a family, then Lorili went with her Kindergarten class, and then we went with a playgroup. We have had a lot of fun riding on the hay rides, wondering the pumpkin patches, racing rubber duckys, making our way through hay mazes and eating yummy, fresh, homemade donuts!

The Search for the Greatest Pumpkin

The Perfect Snack
Playing in the Hay



Cruisin' in the TractorLost in the Hay Maze
What to do with all those pumpkins!?!

The finished product

Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures

Lazy Sundays usually bring out the best in my kids....actually, it's more like it brings out the messes *notice the slew of foamie stickers strewn all across the floor.* Well, this wasn't the first time this has happened and I have picked up my fair share of foamies. In fact, if I had a dollar for every foamie sticker I've picked up, I think we could actually make a dent in our student loans! Anyways, I gave the kids an ultamatum. I told them to clean them up, or I would clean them up with the vacuum! They must not have believed me, because they weren't getting the job done. So I went and got my vacuum with the hose attachment and started sucking up those foamies. I didn't get many sucked up before they started really cleaning up.



As can be seen by these pictures, they felt a great loss for those few foamies I managed to suck up. I'm thinking these foamies need to disappear...maybe I could donate them to you? Anyone in need of some foamies?



Our camera is slowing crashing on us. The LCD doesn't work and it only focuses when it wants to. So if you can't really tell, Lorili and Gabe are both sobbing with red eyes and tears and snot all over their faces. Why was this funny to me?

Future Firefighters

The kids and I had a great time this weekend at the Albany Fire Station Treasure Hunt. Each of the four stations had activities and goodies for the kids. It was promoted through the school, but I think Gabe had the BEST day of his life! Talk about dreams coming true!

Geared Up!

"Put me in coach"

The hose run- What a team!

We watched this baby take off, have you ever been this close to a helicopter when taking off or landing? It was quite a rush! It about knocked the kids over and the cars infront of us started shaking. A bit scarry, but man it was cool!
Puttin' out the Fire!
Such skill-such precision

We even got to take a ride in a firetruck! It was just around the block, but loads of fun. No sirens, but they did honk the horn. Lorili rode in the front in "the bosses" chair. While Gabe and I rode backwards in the back seats.

"I going backwards!"

I missed the photo ops at the Jaws of Life demonstration and the airbag deployment demonstration because it was raining. They had an old car and took the doors off and then chopped off the top of the car. The utlimate power tool! Then they set off an airbag to show how powerful those things are. The warned us to cover our ears, yikes! It happened so fast and the noise was so loud! Airbags are deployed with an actuall explosive device! Such amazing power and force.

All in all we had a great time. I think I loved it as much as the kids. It was so fun to see and do things I had never done before and get a better understanding of some of the things fire Fighters have to do. So our family sends a big "Thank You" to all the fire fighters out there and to the fire fighters in our family, Auntie Yvonne and Uncle Joey, for their dedication to their job!