Pop Culture

 

We were at Fuddruckers the other day and there was a big picture of Marilyn Monroe like the one above.  Carter looked at it and said, “Mom, is that Lady Gaga?”  I had no idea how he even knows who Lady Gaga is!

Sawyer balls it up on the court

Sawyer started playing basketball recently and absolutely loves it!  At first he didn’t know what to think and was a little shy.  At his first practice he had his hands in his pockets the entire time!  We made sure not to have him wear those shorts again!  Once he got over his shyness and built up some confidence, he really started to enjoy it.  They aren’t playing any games or practicing right now because of Christmas break and he continues to ask me, “Mom, do I have basketball tonight?”  

We have had lots of fun watching Sawyer play on the Spurs.  Next up, Carter starts playing basketball in January. 

Libby Jean is 11 months old!

In less than a month Libby with be one year old. Where has the time gone? I feel like it was yesterday that I was getting ready for her to come and nesting like crazy. I have really enjoyed the baby stages and now that she is getting older and will be a toddler soon I am not sure I am ready to let go of the baby stage! However with each stage Libby gets more cute and more fun! She is getting around all over the house and standing up around the furniture but in no hurry to venture out and walk. She loves food and eats almost as much as the big kids. She is starting to speak and will mimic many things that we say.

I finally got the baby locks on the cupboards but before I did, Libby got into some markers and had fun! Here is the pic of her in the bath getting cleaned off. She looked so happy I had to take a picture!

Disneyland with Grandma Faye

On December 6 Sawyer, Libby and I took Grandma Faye to Disneyland. We went to Goofy's kitchen to start off our day and had a fabulous time. Chris was able to meet us for breakfast and then we headed off to the park. We went on a few rides and had a great time. We hope we can do it again soon! Thanks Grandma!

Sawyer's Preschool Christmas Party

I love Sawyer's preschool teacher this year. She is just wonderful and really goes all out for everything. She had a little Christmas party for the kids this year. Each child brought a book and they played musical chairs with a wrapped book under their chair. When it was time to open the book under your chair, Sawyer was a little disappointed when he opened it and it wasn't the book he brought, and so he broke out in tears. I quickly averted the situation and convinced him he got an awesome book!

The kids had pizza and yummy Christmas goodies

Sawyer absolutely loves his baby sister and loves to show her off. See the video below...

Someday we'll tease him that he was just using Libby to get the ladies!

The most wonderful time of the year...

I absolutely love Christmas time. It can't come soon enough. As soon as Thanksgiving is over I break out the decorations and the Christmas music and just soak up as much of the Christmas season as I can. Some of my favorite things to do at Christmas time are...

-address all my Christmas cards (believe it or not, I actually enjoy this task!)
-making and wrapping hundreds of caramels for friends and teachers.
-staying up late, watching Christmas movies while wrapping gifts, next to a warm fire.
-driving around admiring Christmas lights with my kids.
-counting down on our advent calendar while reading Christmas scriptures.
-having my i pod playing the "holiday" genre on repeat all month long!
-getting the mail each day and opening Christmas cards.
-searching the Sunday ads for sales and shopping
-singing Christmas carols

This Christmas season has gone by so fast, I wish I could just press pause or at least slow motion so I could enjoy it a little bit more before it is gone! Tomorrow is Christmas eve and with the blink of an eye it will all be over and we'll be packing it all up, makes me sad just thinking about it! Here are some highlights of our Christmas season...

Chris and I let the kids put all the ornaments on the tree while we sat back and watched. (I later spaced the ornaments a little more!)

Maddie suggested that Sawyer place the star on top
since usually it is her or Carter that does it.

I just love the way my house feels at Christmastime... So warm and cozy!

We went to Grammy and Grampy's ward Christmas breakfast. Guess who was Santa (Look a little closer and maybe you can figure it out!) He even fooled Sawyer! Later on the way home Sawyer said, "Santa has a voice like Grampy" Libby was completely terrified of him!

Our stake put on a live Nativity which Grampy was very involved in. The kids enjoyed seeing the live animals, and learning about the time period that Jesus was born. Maddie got to sing with Grammy and it was a wonderful way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Thanksgiving in Palm Desert

So after a whirlwind trip to Hawaii and a birthday celebration for Maddie, we packed up all of our things and headed out to Palm Desert for a family vacation for an entire week. We were so excited to just have a week to ourselves to relax and hang out with the kids. We spent ALL day Sunday getting ready for our trip. I am amazed at how much stuff and time it takes to get our family away for a week. When we arrived at our hotel the kids were asleep so we carried them in and went to bed. In the morning, they woke up so excited to be in a new place and all together as a family! Since it was our vacation we did a lot of splurging. We went to McDonald's for Breakfast that first morning.

Then we headed over to Costco to get some groceries. The kids all had so much fun having Daddy race through the parking lot with them all in a shopping cart. Just look at this bunch of adorable kids!

We got some yummy smoothies. (another splurge! I never buy the kids each their own)

After we got back we went swimming. The pools are heated and it was pretty chilly outside. (Its usually high 70's but it was low 60's during the day).

The next day we went to the Living Desert Zoo. We'd never been there before. We go to Palm Desert a lot but it is usually in the Summer, and who wants to go to the Zoo in 100 degree weather? We took advantage of the cool weather and it was an amazing place! I wasn't expecting much and I was pleasantly surprised. I went crazy with the camera and took a ton of pictures. There was so many cute ones I posted a lot.

Chris had so much fun carrying Libby in the snugli the entire time.

They had a large model train city and it was adorable.
Sawyer and Carter could have spent hours there!

I loved how the zoo was so picturesque. Most of the areas that had animals looked very natural and beautiful.

The kids liked learning about the Cheetah.

They even had a petting zoo

The Giraffe was my favorite!

I thought it was so cool that they had a camel you could ride on! The kids had a blast!

They had lots of areas for kids to play

Carter and Sawyer with the beloved cougar

With the name the Living Desert, you gotta have a ton of cactus. It was fun to see all the different varieties. Carter and Sawyer liked posing in front of this Saguaro Cactus.

The next day we headed over to our favorite restaurant at JW Marriott, Mikado. The kids love the fact that the chefs cook right in front of you and they get to see lots of fire! The boat ride to the restaurant is the best! The boat driver was so nice, he let each of the kids have a turn driving the boat.

Maddie had a little incident the night before Thanksgiving. She was running in the villa and tripped and fell on the corner of the coffee table. She chipped a large portion of one of her permanent teeth and had a pretty nasty cut on her chin. I took her to urgent care and luckily I was able to contact a dentist I had recently trained on Dentrix. She was very nice and met us at her office on Thanksgiving day to fix Maddie's tooth. Luckily it didn't need a root canal and Maddie was very relieved that her tooth was as good as new when we left!


So this was my very first time making a Turkey and boy was it interesting. I had to thaw it gradually over the few days before Thanksgiving. When it was time to prepare it I couldn't believe how gross it was! It was like a huge slimy alien. I've prepared a lot of raw meat before but never anything this big so it was a new experience. I strictly followed my mom's instructions and boiled the neck and gizzards, Nasty!

The end product was beautiful I might add. I was so worried it might not be done because my little turkey timers never popped out, but it was absolutely perfect!

Chris got to carve his first turkey

It was wonderful to have Chris' family and my parents join us. The kids got to eat outside and the view was just beautiful. I couldn't get over how lovely it is in Palm Desert in the winter.

We used paper plates since we were not at home but I did try to make things look nice. My mom made the cute center pieces.

Here is the delicious spread....

Libby enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and made a mess!

Here is the 39 and over table (as Kelli put it!)

And the 39 and under table!

I love Libby's mess under her high chair. Notice her name tag placed next to it! Thanks Hannah for cleaning it up!

After cleaning up we played some games and had some delicious pie. Then everyone went home and we "Tangled" which was adorable!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I'd love to do it again. It was fun being away from home and surprisingly not stressful at all. I thought it would be so much work but with everyone's help it was easy!

The next day we took our Christmas card pictures. Here are some of the outtakes, as you can see we had a hard time getting Sawyer to cooperate.