Ski Checks

Steve's had a light work week post Thanksgiving and he's been helping me do some Christmas preparations and we also decided to do a ski check. Man these kids grow so fast we had to move Ellie up to the next size of adjustable boots and everyone's skis are a little short, but we think it will be good to start there for the season and then maybe we'll upgrade mid season (the nice thing of having several sets with these kids is we only have to buy one new set for Ellie then everyone else just bumps up to the next one and then when Marcus out grows them I'll try selling them).

Andrew was so sad we didn't actually go skiing after trying on all the gear.

Marcus had to be bribed with chocolate to try his gear on or move in it. He is so stubborn. He would be crying and screaming and then I would say come get the chocolate kiss and he would immediately stop and easily glide on his skis over to me -- little stinker.

Turkey Turkey Turkey

Andrew has been saving two movie tickets he won from the eye doctor to go see Wreck it Ralph 2 (I think it's official title is Ralph Breaks the Internet -- but that's not what it's called around here). So Monday night I sent Steve out on a few errands and to get tickets to the movie Wednesday morning. All the kids thought it was great. The timing worked out well for us and we enjoyed the time together. The kids liked the movie, but to be honest it was not the same fun kid movie as the first one.

We grabbed some burgers for lunch on our way home then Steve had to go to work for a couple of hours. He managed to pull it at the same time as his parents arrived. We were blessed this year to have Carole, Russ, & Lexi join us for Thanksgiving. We visited for a bit and relaxed. After dinner I took all the girls shopping, Lexi needed some more winter clothes. Carole was nice to buy each of the girls a couple of things and a toy for the boys. Andrew got this new game Rubiks Race and it was played a lot this weekend along with lots of other games along with a new cooperative game I got for the kids where everyone works together to complete the goal for the game (so no winner--man am I tired of hearing, "I win"). Seriously we played a ton of games this weekend and one of the funniest points was when we were playing Apples to Apples and the word was Filthy and Ellie put in House Guests which made us all crack up since we had house guests.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal. I didn't take a picture :( but it was yummy and we all enjoyed sitting down together. And then we enjoyed turkey leftovers the rest of the week as turkey pot pie, turkey noodle soup and some yummy turkey sandwiches.

Then Friday morning we decided to go to the aquarium. I knew the mall would be crazy because of Black Friday shopping and I thought the aquarium might have a sale so we could get a membership again and it all worked out great. Even Carole and Russ mentioned how much fun they had at the aquarium.

 
The girls got these cool necklaces at the gift shop -- I never even stop at the gift shop, but we ran into my Mom, sister, sister in-law and their kids going in as we were exiting and everything was on sale too so I let them each pick one thing and the necklaces were really cool they came with a clam in a can of water that they opened up to find a pearl and then with these little charms to place the pearl in, Lila got a dolphin and Ellie got a turtle.

Since we ran into my family at the aquarium we planned to have a little get together Saturday morning so the kids could play and it went well, we had fun playing games, snacking on more food, everyone played a couple of rounds telephone charades, and of course there was baby loving.

Saturday night Steve got a little light headed and dizzy. I think he was tired from staying up late and watching movies with his Mom and Lexi -- they got to sleep in a little more than Steve so I think his body was telling him he needed sleep. Marcus however didn't know to leave Daddy alone and convinced him to read his favorite Elephant & Piggy books to him (Should I Share My Ice Cream is his absolute favorite I think he has it memorized).

Steve's parents headed back to Stephanie's early this morning so they could help her with her kids for a couple of more days before they flew back on Tuesday. Our kids were all sad when they woke up and started getting ready for school and noticed Grandpa & Grandma weren't here, but we are sure glad it worked out for them to come visit us. We are grateful for them and the opportunities that we have to spend time with them.

FORTY

There it is, "I'm 40".  The beginning of November was a little crazy, on top of Steve & Andrew's birthdays Young Women in Excellence was scheduled for Nov 11 and I had been busy getting ready for it -- hosting a board meeting, making invitation, decorations, writing a talk, making dessert. The event went really well and quite honestly exceeded my expectations with participation, decorations, and the love that was there. I also found out my 1st counselor found a cancerous tumor and was undergoing surgery and tests for that. My 2nd counselor had a stressful wedding. And well I was emotionally exhausted and was grateful we had canceled mutual following YW in Excellence. Oh and did I mention that Ellie got sick, she hardly ever gets sick and the Friday before she started running a high fever and said her throat hurt really bad so I ran her to instant care for a strep test -- I didn't want to wait the weekend wondering if we could have been on an antibiotic. Strep test came back negative so she had to miss my niece Izzy's baptism that Saturday and YW in Excellence and a couple of days of school because my kids tend to get eye infections after a virus and require 24 hours on eye drops -- weird. Anyway, I was glad she was feeling better by mid week because my parents had agreed to come take the kids for the weekend so I could spend some time alone with Steve for my birthday.

My parents came and got the kids Friday after Lila's activity days. I was at the spa -- I had booked my self a couple of hours worth of treatments and even bought myself one of those scented warm neck wraps. Seriously, I never really do this much for my birthday, but I felt like 40 deserved a little self pampering. Saturday Steve and I went to the temple and he knew I wanted to buy a new temple dress so he took me shopping and I found a new temple dress. We went out to lunch and it was nice to just have time to do what we wanted without hurrying back to the kids (although I still missed them).

Then my actual birthday was on Sunday and it was filled with meetings: ward council, choir (we preformed that day so I couldn't miss it), BYC, then regular church, and a quick birthday visit to one of the Laurels in my class. Steve bought groceries on Saturday to prepare Sunday's dinner which was nice and he even made a cake. Someone announced in Young Womens that it was my birthday that day so after church proved to be an onslaught of friends bringing me cupcakes, cookies and even a 40 crown that the girls said I can wear all year ;)  It was a great day and I'm so grateful for friends well wishes in texts, hugs, treats.

Everything is Awesome - Andrew is 5

I kept teasing him that we were going to have to skip November 6th and every time he got really sad -- I thought eventually he would know I was teasing, but I guess the day meant so much to him that just the thought of not having his birthday upset him. He got up at 6:30 this morning - I was already up - thank you daylight savings (NOT!). He looked around and found his birthday banner which you can't really tell but it's a Lego Happy Birthday and stood under it and said take a picture Mom then put his hand up to show he's 5.

He loves to help me cook so for his birthday we made banana pancakes and he mixed, flipped and served.

He had is first official friend birthday party today and was so excited.

 

We had a fun afternoon of designing (that's the word Andrew used and I liked it) Lego glasses, making Lego cars and racing them down the track Steve made us, enjoying Lego treats, a Lego book,  and freeze dance to The Lego Movie soundtrack.

He played all afternoon with a transformer toy he received - it was a real deal complicated one and it took him and I about 30 minutes to figure it out. We ate pizza and had some Lego movies from the library to enjoy. Then when Steve got home we did family presents and cake. We also told him he will be starting violin lessons tomorrow which he is excited about.

You make us laugh and want to pull our hair out at the same time. You're smart and really getting close to reading this year. You told me today your favorite color is green. And I love playing games with you even when you beg me every minute for hours on end. Happy birthday buddy!

Same Digits

Steve and I are officially the same age for a few weeks -- even though Steve says I'm still 25. Ellie has been cooking dinner on Thursdays and planned ahead to make french dip sandwiches on his birthday and I made this delicious pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (Steve and I both agree that we haven't eaten any Halloween candy because we'd rather have a piece of the delicious cake).

Steve had to go down to Draper for work as he was carpooling and training the new hire. While there they had several leftover Halloween cupcakes so he brought some home and of course that is what the kids picked to eat. Marcus's face covered in frosting cracked me up -- he got a bath afterwords. ;)

Steve was a trooper as I had to bail on him for a bit to take Ellie and another girl to a Young Women's volleyball game (I was going to just drop Ellie off, but one of the other girls asked for a ride so . . .we all went). Then I had planned a little party for after the kids  went to bed and filled balloons and put them all over the bed for a game -- unfortunately we were both pretty tired so we didn't do all of them, but I did manage to give Steve a good foot rub and scalp massage. Happy Birthday Honey! Love you to pieces!

I Put a Spell on You

The girls didn't have school on Monday. Andrew still had preschool because his teacher was doing a make-up day. So the girls did some cleaning with me in the morning and then I took them to the orthodontist who thinks they may be ready for braces at their next 6 month appointment. 😬 After lunch I let the three older paint pumpkins while Marcus napped and then I felt guilty because I know he would have loved it too. . .but he is really a stinker some times so some times I just take the easy way out and do things during his nap time.

Andrew and Lila both got to wear their costumes at school for a party. Ellie did not because she's now in Jr High, but she did get to go to a Halloween party the night before in costume and she managed to dress pretty festive for school too.

even has candy corn earrings on

The girls have been looking forward to dressing up as Hermoine Granger and Ginny Weasley since they went to the Harry Potter experience with Mimi and Panca last year. The girls even taught Andrew the Harry Potter theme song melody on the piano so we hear it all the time now. ;) So it was just a matter of finding the boys a costume and well as posted earlier, I indulged Marcus in his PJ Mask obsession. We crimped Ellie's hair and used some red/orange chalk in Lila's hair, but you can't really tell. Steve was a trooper and was the PJ Mask villain Romeo. Marcus did not like me wearing the sorting hat.

It took all of us working together to get Marcus dressed, he was being a really pill. He didn't take a nap that day -- I put him down, but he didn't sleep. He was completely unreasonable so we had just decided that Steve would take the older three and I would stay home and pass out candy with Marcus, but then he realized they were seriously going to go without him so he cried to put on his costume. 

At the first house we got candy, he was so excited and as we were walking away another group of kids came up to the door so Marcus turned around and put his bucket up with theirs to get another piece of candy -- trickster. Then he really got into. Being the youngest he would lag behind and as he would realize the others were getting close to a door he would say as his character does in the show, "super cat speed" and run to catch-up. Then at one of the houses they were passing out lollipops they had turned into ghosts by tying a tissue around it and he stood there tearing the tissue into shreds to make sure there was something inside. Silly silly boy.

We took a different route this year and basically just went around our little block - we didn't go into the neighborhood much. As we were winding down with the boys the girls asked if they could go to a few more houses so we gave them 45 minutes to roam around together. They had a good time (I meant to give them the tracfone so they could call or text, but I forgot to grab it on my way out). They're growing up and being responsible which gives us lots more opportunities. We watched Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman with the boys and then brushed teeth and sent Andrew to bed. Seriously, 7:40ish and he didn't even budge with all the doorbell ringing still going on. Marcus must have been on a sugar high because he was being hilarious. And that my friends is the end of Halloween -- Expecto Patronum