Merry Christmas!

We went to Utah for Christmas again this year. We drove down on Monday but didn't manage to leave until 1:30 or so. It took us forever to get on the freeway because of the crazy holiday traffic. We drove down and the weather and roads were mostly good. Scott would say they were great but I'm a little more weary than he is. Our kids are champion travelers. They were so good there and back I can't even tell you. Amazing, really. We got in Salt Lake in time to eat dinner and go to bed. None of my kids wanted to go to bed that night however. It was too exciting and hot. I went to check on the kids and walking into their bedroom and it was like walking into a sauna. Corbin had opened the window and was practically laying out on the roof and Gabby had completely unzipped her jammies trying to cool off. Hilarious!

On Christmas Eve we went to lunch at Hires which we all love so much. I made rolls for dinner that mostly turned out. I messed up while I was mixing the ingredients and they were super dense. I couldn't really roll them out. Luckily I made the first pan of rolls really small and they cooked fine. The second pan I made the rolls bigger and they were cooked on top and they were a doughy mess on the inside. Oh well at least some of them turned out. The kids went sledding with Scott and Papa that afternoon. Nicole and Rustin live next door and they have a great sledding hill right in their back yard.That evening we had chicken noodle soup for dinner. We read and acted out the nativity scene, had a talent show, sang lots of songs, decorated gingerbread cookies, had a Christmas quiz, and watched the Musical Scrooge. At least some people did, by the time it was time to start the movie I was tuckered out.

Christmas morning we woke up and waited for everyone to come over and eat breakfast. Afterwards we opened presents. I thought my kids were patient sports for waiting until about 10:00 a.m. to open presents. Good on them! The kids went sledding again that day. That night Janet made a great Christmas dinner. Some people went night sledding and luckily there were no casualties although there were a few close calls. Corbin got a few battle wounds on his face from his sledding adventures. After all the Christmas dinner dishes were done we played a few rounds of Scategories.

On Thursday we went to Frozen. It was so cute and the animation was incredible. I didn't realize this at the time but one of my old high school friends, who was always an amazing artist, was on of the animators on the movie. I can't wait to watch it again and look for her name on the credits. Look for Nikki Mull's name on the credits. I know her! Cool.

Friday was Corbin's birthday! We went to the planetarium and watched a little musical Christmas laser show. Afterwards we went to Hires again because yes we love it that much. Corbin wanted to go bowling for his birthday so we went to fat cats that night and had pizza and went bowling. We came home and we had cake and opened presents. Thanks Nana for planning such a fun birthday for Corbin.

On Saturday we got up and packed and drove home. For some reason is was extremely exhausting to me. It is a lot of work to pack 4 kids at Christmas. So much stuff! We did have such a great time though and our kids love, love, loved it! and so did we.

Funny kid quotes of the week:
Corbin talking to Gabby about his iPad game: "watch out Gabby or this monster will bite your toes...just kidding he'll bite you everywhere."
Scott was singing "Joy to the World" before bedtime and after he finished Corbin said, "dad, that was a beautiful song."
On Christmas eve Corbin said "I'm going to bed right now so Santa can come, come on Gabby let's go to bed right now." Gabby: "Okay."
Gabby: We were driving to go bowling for Corbin's birthday and Gabby said, "Look at that Chrismas tree!" After a pause "sometimes I get really excited."

Kids are so dang cute and funny!

Gabby as a nativity angel. Hopefully I will get more pictures from the Nativity next week from auntie Carole.

Corbin singing "Jingle Bells" for his talent. He did a good job. Thank you Mr. Duncan (music teacher at school).

I love how they are pulling the same face with their scrunchy noses.

This present is as big as Piper!

Oh the Gabby "Aurora princess" she has been wearing this costume as much as she possibly can. She is so girly. Hilarious!

Corbin turns 6!

Monster slippers from aunt Mandy.

I love how Corbin is all up in Gabby's grill. 

Ryan's Christmas present. 

The last video kills me!!! Ha!

Weekly Update

On Monday we fed the sister missionaries. It's kind of fun to have sister missionaries in our ward. I've never been around sister missionaries much. They shared a thought and we counted that for our FHE lesson and then we loaded up in the car and delivered goodies to the kids' primary teachers. After that we went and looked at Christmas lights. It was fun.

On Wednesday our neighbor Connie came over for dinner. I have been wanting to invite her over forever and I finally got bold enough and asked her. She had brought us some Christmas goodies on Monday and I thanked her and asked her if she would join us for dinner. She came over and we had a great time talking and getting to know her better. She was married to an alcoholic and divorced him after 38 years. Crazy. I figure I need a relationship with her if I'm ever going to get comfortable enough to invite her to church or something. Anyway whatever happens she's a great neighbor and I'm glad we did that.

Not much else happened this week. The girls, especially Gabby had  bad coughs all week so they were home bound. I think they are definitely ready for some excitement in their lives. They were wild at church today and I think that's part of the reason why.

Tonight we took treats to a few neighbors on our cul-de-sac and to Scott's home teaching families. I normally take treats to other friends in the ward but I wasn't up to that this year. We also tried to go look at Christmas lights but it was a bit of a bust.

A few funny kid things. Corbin may have his first crush. I can't be sure but he did ask to give two candy cane grams to the same girl. Dropping Corbin off to school is one of my favorite things (not because I want to get rid of him) but because when he waves good bye and skips off to his class, it is so adorable. It melts my heart. I love Kindergartners.

Today Gabby and Piper's nursery teacher brought them treats and Gabby said, "they gived me mosquitoes" me: "you mean skittles" Gabby: "oh ya, I'm funny."

Piper continues to be a funny, loud monster. She likes to scream everything with excitement with her arms outstretched while she jumps. "go see Christmas lights!" for example while doing the before mentioned actions. When I asked Piper if she wanted to go read a book she said, "no thanks mom." When I was trying to teach Gabby and Piper the days of the week I said "Tuesday, Piper say Tuesday" Piper: "um, no." It was funny.
Piper: "Mom...Nana, Papa's house? Ready to go."
We went bowling a couple weeks ago and Piper was obsessed with talking about it.Piper: "Guess what? Go bowling, right now."

Ryan continues to be the cutest most laid back baby in all the land. He slept through the night once this week. He's getting close, he slept 7 hours straight last night. I'm thinking after Christmas break when life returns more to normal, he will probably start sleeping through the night every night. We will see.

Everyone have a Merry Christmas this week!

I made cupcakes for Corbin's birthday at school this week. His birthday is during Christmas break but he still got to have a treat to share last week. These are robots...right? or aliens. Either way you know Kindergartners were impressed and that's all that matters.

Cute little buddies.

Winter time gets boring. Especially when you are home bound. Apparently taking a bath in a swim suit helps fill the day.

I love when these girls play together.

This picture of Piper is great, only she would be ferocious with an ax above her head whilst sporting her fairy costume.

Gabby loves to play with stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. She also likes to dress up, a lot.

Handsome bubba.

Add caption

Hottie!

It snowed several inches Friday night.

We Survived!

It's been a crazy week but it's over and we all survived. Amazing! Scott headed down to Vegas last Saturday and made it back yesterday. It was definitely a long week and I missed Scott a lot but I could definitely feel answers to prayers in my behalf this week. Things with the kids went really well. I mean I counted down my time to bedtime that's for sure, (but I pretty much do that all the time anyway). If anything I was more patient with my kids and we had an busy but enjoyable week. I sure enjoyed my nightly phone calls and texts from Scott throughout the day. Scott had a two day test prep with 3 days of testing. His test sounded pretty crazy hard and intense but he feels good about it and we will know in a month if he passed.

On Monday the Boise Beals got together and went bowling at the BSU bowling alley. I didn't want to go down there by myself with my four kids and try to find a parking spot downtown and walk in the freezing dark cold with them to the bowling alley. Luckily my sister in law Anna was willing to help me out and she came and picked us up. We crowded in her van and drove down. I'm so glad we did because I didn't know where it was and there wasn't a lot of parking either. Plus she brought a double stroller for Ryan and Piper. Yay! We ate pizza and tried to bowl. It was a little crazy and ridiculous. We have a lot of small children between all of us and we needed more lanes. Almost all of the little kids were on one lane and they had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for their turn, which for a 2 to 7 year old is FOREVER! The three families with little kids only lasted half a game and we headed home.

Tuesday night was Corbin's school Christmas concert. I dropped off my girls at a friend's house and took Ryan with me to watch Corbin's concert. It was at the high school auditorium and driving there was crazy. It took forever even though it's only a few miles away because everyone and their dog was driving to take their kid to the concert. The auditorium was filled to the brim. All the seats were full and people were lining the walls up and down the aisles. It was a madhouse. I was SO grateful I didn't have my 3 and 2 year old children there as well. I found a seat on the aisle and enjoyed half the show. After Corbin was done I grabbed him and we left. It was too crowded and I didn't want to worry about getting out of the parking lot with a hundred other parents with a hungry baby. Corbin was so cute in his concert! I was sad Scott missed it. Kindergartners are the cutest! The best part was I could tell Corbin had to go to the bathroom the whole time. Poor kid was dancing a little and occasionally crossing his legs. Oops, should have had him use the potty first. The best was when they sang their second song that was a soul Christmas song and they were dancing back and forth. Love! It was the best.

On Wednesday was the ward party. I made cupcakes and baked a bag of potatoes for the ward party. We got to the party and I sat the kids down and we ate and stayed for most of the program and left. They were pretty good but it's hard to wrangle all of them. Really the ward Christmas party is not entirely entertaining for the kids. They have to sit and be quiet at dinner and sit and be quiet during the program. By the time we left Ryan was hungry and it was time for us to bail.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were pretty low key. Scott drove all the way back from Vegas in one day yesterday. He made it home just in time to be my date to the ugly sweater party. Love him! We went to our party and had a great time. We ate lots of food and played some games. It was fun. For the white elephant exchange I gave a box that said "Cookin' with Cannons" with all of my melted cooking utensils. So funny and sad that I actually use all of them and had to steal my own gift back. I also had some wonderful recipes to share like green jello with mayo, onions, and seafood salad. Along with spam and limas because "cold or hot, spam hits the spot." It was pretty funny if I do say so myself.

I uploaded pictures to last weeks blog post so be sure check them out if you're interested.

Ryan intentionally smiled at me this week! He also slept last night from 10:30 to 5:30 straight. That is his best sleeping stretch yet. He is so cute!

Corbin's concert. I couldn't get a good picture and the video didn't work out either. Darn. Just trust me, it was cute!

I found another Christmas tree! I'm so excited about it. My kids don't like my Christmas tree because it has white lights and they don't like white lights. Boring! I found this tree with colored Christmas lights for $15. Score! I am super excited to have another Christmas tree to put all of our handmade ornaments on it. 

Love when my kids play well together.

We're so glad when daddy comes home.

Ugly sweater party. My friend Jessaca is drawing a picture on her head, talking on the phone, and holding my baby. Talk about multitasking. 

Our friend Todd won the "butt ugly" award. You can't tell but there is a rhino bum on that ribbon.

Update

This is brought to you from my phone. Scott is out of town for the week (more on that in a minute) and he took his computer with him. Unless I can figure out how to post pictures from my phone there won't be any pictures this week. I will just have that many more pictures next week. Same old activities this week. Story time, preschool craft time, nap time, feeding time, wake time. 

We had a fun relief society on Tuesday. We had a yummy progressive dinner. We just ate and chatted for several hours. It was great. It snowed quite a bit Friday night (just in time for Scott's traveling). It was a super dry snow though. After tithing settlement I got bundled with the kids and played in the snow with them. We couldn't build anything or have a snowball fight because it wasn't the right kind of snow. Scott left for Salt Lake after that.

Scott is going to be gone for 7 days or so. He is taking a big test in Vegas that will take all week. It's so he can get his top certification in property management. He is missing everything this week. Family party, ward party, Corbin's Christmas concert, ward party, work party, and ugly sweated party. Consequently I will be missing a few things as well. I've made arrangements for some and missing others. I'm not looking forward to going to the ward party with my kids by myself. Oh well. I did take them to church today by myself and we survived. Prayer works because I had all four kids by myself in sacrament meeting and they were all super good! Wish us good luck this week we are all going to need it!

Poor cold Piper. I promise she was bundled up.

Chess club. So cute and funny. Pretty sure Corbin has no clue how to play chess. I don't think he pays attention but he has fun so who cares.

Love!

I love sleeping kid pictures.

Thanksgiving Break

We've had a great Thanksgiving break. On Tuesday we dropped our kids off at Hart and Jory's and went to a matinee of Catching Fire. We really enjoyed the movie and the little date. That night I met with my sister in law Anna to hang out. We weren't sure what we wanted to do. Neither of us felt like shopping and there weren't any movies we wanted to see. After a bit of driving around we went to Chili's and got their molten lava chocolate cake. So good! That was fun to get out with her. On Wednesday we got packed up and left for Thanksgiving at Granny's house. This year it was just my family and my brother Keaton. It was pretty low key but we really enjoyed it. Our kids managed to stay pretty happily entertained while we were there. On Wednesday night we had our annual pie pig out/Planes, Trains, and Automobiles night. I had a terrible headache and just endured the night. Luckily around 9:00 pm my headache went away and I was able to enjoy my Thanksgiving break much more.

My mom had Thanksgiving dinner all ready by 10:30 am no joke and managed to wait until 11:30 to eat. It almost killed her. Ha. She is crazy. I guarantee we are the only people in America who eat Thanksgiving "dinner" that early. My mom likes to get it done so she can relax and enjoy the rest of the day. But who am I kidding my mom doesn't relax, seriously. In the afternoon she had ants in her pants to go on some hiking adventure. She had it in her head that it was just this little 10 minute drive and a 10 minute hike. I came with them and Ryan and I stayed behind in the van while everyone else loaded up in the truck for the drive and hike. Well my mom's memory didn't serve her too well because it took them over an hour to get back to me. I was pretty much planning on as much. Luckily I had a cute baby to play with and a book to read while I waited.

We watched lots of movies and had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner and more pie. It was relaxing and nice. On Friday we got up and slowly got ready to leave. We left after lunch. That night I went to my friends soup and pie night. Her family has that tradition the day after Thanksgiving. They also invite friends to it. They had tons of delicious soups and they had a ridiculous amount of pie. It was awesome! They had so many flavors. It was so yummy. I even dreamed about the pie that night. Scott didn't want to go so I took Ryan and we had a grand time.

On Saturday Scott took the kids on a fun Saturday adventure and left Ryan and I to have a few quiet hours at home. They went to Burger King, Petco, and Best Buy. Ryan and I crocheted and watched some movies.

Gabby kept wanting to hold baby Ryan.

Keaton

Corbin was loving climbing the rocks apparently.

Gabby and Corbin decorated my mom's tree.

Soup and pie night. For real!!!!

Gabby and Piper look so little.

Cutest