November News

As you know, November is birthday central around our house. We started off the month with Cody turning 4 years old. He wanted to go to Jump On It for his party. And then we topped it off with lunch at Canya Junia (otherwise known as Carls Jr.) He is such a fun kid to have in our family. He is always keeping us laughing. He is also one of the sweetest little kids I know. He is so loving and helpful. Every night he comes out of his room and says, "Mom, can I tell you something?" I say yes and he goes on to say something like, "You are a very nice Mom and I love it when you play with me. That's all, I love you." Sometimes he adds in something extra if we did something fun together that day. But he always comes out to tell me he loves me. How can you get mad at a kid for getting out of bed when he comes to tell you that every time. What a sweetie!

Next came Shelby's birthday on the 19th. For her party she wanted to invite Elsa and Mindi over for a dress up party. We painted nails, did makeup, made crafts, and ate pumpkin pie. It was a lot of fun. Darcy was sleeping during the party. When she woke up she decided she would like to paint her nails too. Of course she chose the hot pink color and decided to paint them on our living room carpet. (I was photographing a wedding and James was downstairs working on our fireplace at the time). Now we have pretty pink carpet! Yeah...

We are in the middle of a home improvement project. The US government is giving a tax rebate on new high efficiency wood burning stoves. We have wanted one for our basement and decided to take advantage of the rebate while we can. So we've been building our fireplace downstairs. We had to use steel studs and concrete board for the walls. James loves trying new things, so this was a fun challenge for him. Here's a picture of James and his brother Ben cutting the steel studs.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend we finished up the walls and laid the slate tile. Joe and Ben came to help. It was great to have them there. We got all the tiles laid and will grout this coming weekend. Here is what the fireplace looked like just after we finished laying the tiles. I am so excited with the way it turned out. It looks better now that I have cleaned it up, but I'll wait to post the final picture after we have grouted this weekend.

Dallin's birthday was on November 27th. He decided what he would like most for his birthday was to go rock climbing as a family. So here are some pictures from our rock climbing party at The Quarry.

The weather has been very cold lately. The kids loved the first good snow storm we had. They made a mini snow man that was very cute.

November was a fun an busy month, like it always is. I had a wedding and some family pictures to take. The cold weather is always a challenge when it comes to photography, but the pictures turned out great, even if my fingers were numb afterwards. My hip has been bothering me a lot the last few months. I am going to go see a specialist about it and hopefully find something that can help it feel better.

The other day Cody said something cute. My hip was hurting a lot at the time and he really wanted me to go downstairs with him so he could watch a different movie than the one we were watching upstairs. I told him I wasn't going to go downstairs because my hip hurt too bad. He kept begging me to go downstairs. After saying no several times I said, "Cody, how am I supposed to put a movie on for you downstairs if I am not going to go downstairs?" He thought for a second and then said, "If you were Elastagirl, you could stay up here and just reach downstairs and put the movie on for me!" What a cute and creative little kid. If only I had Elastagirl's powers!!!

Halloween Glow

It was a very rainy Halloween, so we decided to have fun inside rather than going trick or treating. As we were painting our pumpkins, we discovered that we had some black light reactive glow in the dark paint. I have no idea when we bought it or why we had it, but we sure made good use of it last night. We all painted our faces and then had a rockin' halloween dance party.

Of course the fun wouldn't be complete without some time lapsed photography in the dark to show off our glowing faces. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the night. Here is James with his scary face. It didn't look as scary in the light, but when it glowed it was a little freeky!

This one is Shelby...I mean Hanna Montana.

Here is our little Darcy Care Bear. I was so proud of her to stay so still for this shot. That's a big accomplishment for a 2 year old!

I think this one is my favorite shot of the night. Cody stayed so still and held such a great pose while we waved the glow sticks over his head. Awesome!

This one is me...

And here is Dallin

This is another favorite shot of the night. I loved the paint job Stacy did on Pierce. This shot reminds me of Avatar.

Here we all are...trying to all hold exactly still at the same time. Kind of hard...

Here is a shot with the flash on to show the rest of our costumes. It was a super fun Halloween party. I think we may need to do this again next year!

Fall Adventures

Fall is one of my favorite seasons! We've had a good couple of months so I thought I'd better post some pictures from our adventures. Darcy turned 2 on August 21st. She's such a cutie. She has been telling everyone that she is three for the past year. So we decided to try to get her to show two fingers and say two. She has a little tricky thing she does with her two fingers where she twists them together. So as we were trying to teach her to hold up only two fingers I told her to do her tricky fingers. That worked pretty good, but now whenever anyone asks her how old she is she just says "Tricky" and holds up her two fingers twisted together. It's pretty cute.
James' work group did a team building activity where we went boating up at Jordanelle. It started Thursday and got over Friday afternoon. We could have camped the night, but we decided it would be easier to just drive home and sleep in our own beds. It was a really fun two days. We went tubing together....

And we both tried knee boarding...

I thought we both did pretty well considering we don't do this sort of thing very often. We had so much fun out on the boat that we decided we'd like to buy a boat someday. So now our wish list includes a boat.

James' family also planned a family camping trip up in the Uintas. We had quite a difficult time trying to find the campsite. The directions we had were very vague and it was dark by the time we got near the campground. So we drove back and forth quite a few times before we found the correct turnoff. But eventually we found it. We stayed in a cabin and camped out for a couple of days. One of our favorite activities was fishing.

We bought a couple of fishing poles so hopefully we can go fishing more often together. Shelby and Cody worked together to reel in this fish. It was the only catch of the day.

We also went on a little hike and really had a fun time. We saw several beaver dams, which was really interesting. Darcy was my little hiking buddy.

Another favorite activity was shooting the BB gun. Jared bought a couple of BB guns and we all took turns shooting them. It was a lot of fun. We did a fun family activity where we made mailboxes for each family, then we all wrote as many thank you notes to each other as we could. However many note you wrote counted as grattitude bucks that we could use in the auction at the end of the week. Jared auctioned a BB gun and Dallin was able to use his grattitude bucks to win the gun. So now Dallin has his own BB gun. It was a fun reunion and we really enjoyed being with the Andersons.

September is Soccer Month. Both Dallin and Shelby are playing soccer this year. Darcy was walking towards me across the soccer field and I just loved this little shot of her. She's such a little camera ham. Whenever she sees the camera she puts on a cute little grin for me.

James and I are coaching Dallin's team. It's a lot of fun. James is really good with the boys, and he is teaching them good skills. Dallin's team has done really well on all his games.

Dallin is a really good player, so it's extra fun to watch him. I love this picture of him kicking a goal. He was about 30 feet away from the goal, running at top speed when he kicked this one in. It went right through the goalies hands to score a goal. It was awesome. Just look at that form!

I get a little carried away sometimes when I am taking pictures. But here is another one I liked.

And this one was pretty awesome too. You can see the other player trying to trip Dallin as he ran by with the ball, but Dallin just jumped over him and continued on with the ball.

Shelby is having fun playing soccer again this year. She is in the division with 1st and 2nd graders, so she is one of the younger ones. In fact, almost her whole team is young 1st graders. So most of the teams she has played so far have been older and more experienced.

But Shelby is one of the best players on her team. She is agressive and gets in and plays her best every game. They hardly ever sub her out so she playing hard for a long time.

She scored a goal at the last game. This picture is of her as she kicked it into the goal. She was being heavily defended the entire way, but she dribbled all the way from midfield and was able to score a goal. I was so proud of her.

She was really excited to get a goal too. Last year she was scoring several goals every game so this year has been a little harder since the competition is so much better. But she's a trouper.

Between the two kids, we have soccer games or practices every day of the week, except for Friday and Sunday. So this has been a busy month. But there are only 3 games left in the fall season so it will be over before we know it.

New Family Pictures...yea

I love family pictures. I spend the entire year looking at them on my wall and enjoying them. So I always feel excitement and pressure when it's time to do a new one. That time came last weekend. We went up Provo Canyon, just past Aspen Grove and took them in the field at the trailhead for Timp.

Stacy and Pierce came to take the pictures. It's hard work taking pictures of young kids, so I really appreciated both of them helping us! And I love the way they turned out. The night we took them, I stayed up until 1:30am editing the pictures. I just couldn't stop. Once I finally did go to bed, I couldn't stop thinking about the pictures. I've decided that when you cross photography with my own family the resulting obsession is quite out of control.

Anyway, I'm super excited about the long skinny one at the top of this post. I am in the process of getting it make into a 12x48 inch canvas gallery wrap. I'm going to hang it above the windows in my living room.

Here are the rest of my favorites. I'm having a hard time deciding which one to enlarge and hang above my mantle. So let me know which one you think would be best there!

Number 1

Number 2Number 3Number 4Number 5I think only the first 3 are real contenders for the mantle spot, but I like 4 and 5 too, so I thought I'd post them anyway.

What I go through for Potty Training

Darcy will be turning two later on this month. Several weeks ago she started showing all the signs that she was ready to be potty trained. I, on the other hand, was not ready! It was right before our big family vacation to California and I just didn't want to worry about it right then. But I didn't want to miss the window of opportunity either. So before and during the trip I just tried to encourage her to go on the toilet whenever possible but that's about all.

Last week I decided I should just jump in and see if she could do it. So she's been wearing underwear for the past several days. The first few days were hit and miss, mostly because I would get distracted and not pay close enough attention to her. It's hard to give undivided attention all day long to one child when you have four kids! But despite my shortcomings she steadily progressed.

The method I use for potty training tells you to have your child wear underwear and then watch them closely. When they start to pee you say, "Pee pee's coming" and you pick them up and run with them to the toilet. Hopefully you will make it there in time for them to do some in the potty. Eventually they learn to say "Pee pee's coming" on their own before it happens and then you've got it made.

Well, yesterday Darcy started telling me her pee's were coming early enough that we were able to get to the toilet in time most of the day. So I was very happy!

This morning I was walking back to my room when I heard Darcy say that pees were coming. I wanted to keep the momentum going from yesterday. So I turned around and ran back to the living room where she was to help her get to the toilet in time. I grabbed her under the arms and started running with her through the kitchen towards the bathroom. Just as I was about to turn the corner to go to the bathroom my feet slid out from under me and WHAM, I landed on the ground...Hard! (Unbeknownst to me, Cody had spilled the watermelon on the floor right there and was in the process of cleaning it up. But the tile was still all wet and very slippery!) Somehow I managed to keep Darcy from getting hurt. I must have shifted her into my right arm as I fell because my left forearm hit the floor first, then my knee hit the wall and dented the drywall, then Darcy's head hit my right jaw. It was crazy because I didn't even see it coming and then it all happened so fast.

My whole body hurt and I felt like I'd just been hit by a car. I asked Darcy if she was okay and she said yes. So I got up and helped her get to the toilet. I'm happy to report that we made it in time, even with the unexpected crash en route!

It's late in the afternoon now and I have a huge lump on my forearm where I hit the tile. It's going to be a big nasty bruise! My neck is sore and my jaw still hurts too. But Darcy has been dry all day long so the sacrifice was worth it!

Family Vacation to California

We had a great time on our family vacation this past month. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip for us. James needed to go to San Jose, California for his work and we decided it would be fun for the whole family to go with him this time. His work paid for our gas there and back and for the hotel for the week. So that was really nice! We stayed for a few extra days so we could go to Disneyland and see some more of California while we were there.

We left on Monday and drove all day to San Jose. The kids did a great job so the drive wasn't too bad. We had a meltdown around dinner time and again for the last few minutes of the drive but overall it wasn't too terrible.

We stayed at a Marriott Residence Inn in their Penthouse Suite so we had very comfortable living arrangements. We had a bedroom/bathroom upstairs overlooking the downstairs which had another bedroom/living room/kitchen/bathroom. They had complimentary breakfast and dinner at the hotel too. The kids loved the swimming pool the most! We spent most of our time there.

We went swimming in the pool every day. Most days we went in the morning, again after lunch and sometimes after dinner too. The kids loved it!

Tuesday we drove into San Francisco to see the sights there. We stopped by Lombard Street, which is famous for being so twisty. Here is a picture of James and the kids with Lombard Street in the background. You can see how steep and curvy it is.

Wednesday afternoon the kids and I headed out to Half Moon Bay. We wanted to go to a beach nearby and this one seemed the prettiest from the pictures I saw of it. It was beautiful and I'm so glad we chose to go there. We had the beach mostly to ourselves and had fun playing in the water and burying ourselves in the sand. I loved this picture of Darcy cheesing it for the camera.
No vacation would be complete without a muscle shot of the guys!

Darcy was a little afraid of the waves rolling in. I thought she might like them more if she knew they were coming and called to them. James snapped this picture of us calling to the waves to "come here". She still ran away once the waves got to us. But eventually she overcame her fear and loved the water.

Thursday night the kids just wanted to swim in the pool with Dad. He missed out on most of the pool time since we did it while he was at work. So we wanted to have some swim time with Dad there too.

Friday was James last day at work so we had to check out of that hotel at 1pm. So we packed up our stuff Friday morning and met James at about 2 pm when he got done with work. We drove to Santa Cruz where we spent the afternoon/evening. It was a cool place. They have a huge boardwalk with shops and a huge amusement park right on the beach. We didn't go on any rides since we were heading to Disneyland in a few days. But we played on the beach and saw the sea lions on the pier. For dinner we went to a pizza/pasta bar that was delicious. It was a nice restaurant but very kid friendly. They brought out a ball of pizza dough for each of the kids to play with. (Great idea by the way! It kept the kids entertained all night!) Then when we were almost finished with our meal all the staff did a show where they had a guy doing really amazing pizza throwing and everyone was dancing around the restaurant. It was really fun. I should have taken some pictures of it but I didn't think of it at the time.

After dinner we drove for a few hours down to San Luis Obispo where we stayed the night. In the morning we went swimming in the pool for a few hours. When it was time to check out of our hotel we headed to Pismo Beach for the afternoon. We were not alone in that idea. It was so crowded at that beach! But we still had a great time. We got a boogie board so the kids could try their hand at body surfing. They also really liked digging holes in the sand and running in the waves.

After having all the fun we could handle at the beach we headed down to Anaheim where we stayed that night. We were in a hotel just a couple of blocks away from Disneyland. It was very nice and had a great pool. So we swam a little that night and then again the next day.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and went to my cousin house. Jen and Bob live about 20 minutes from Disneyland. We spent the afternoon visiting with them. Our kids had so much fun playing with their kids. We spent the night with their family and then headed to Disneyland in the morning.

Disneyland was awesome! We went on quite a few rides in the morning together. By about lunch time Cody and Darcy were hot and tired. So we called Jen and she came and picked them up and took them home for naps. Jen was a lifesaver! It was so nice to have her take the little ones so we could have fun with the older kids. Dallin and Shelby really loved going on the rides. I thought they might be too scared to do the big rides, but they weren't! We went on almost all of the big rides and quite a few other ones too.

I called Jen a few times throughout the afternoon to check on the kids. They both slept for about 4 hours! So they were very tired. When Cody woke up Jen asked him if he wanted to go back to Disneyland. He said, "No, it's hot there. I want to stay here and play with Jack." So Jen kept them until after dinner and rush hour and then brought them back to Disneyland. We met her at Downtown Disney which is outside the park. There is a Lego store there which lured us in. They have some amazing things built out of Legos. The kids loved the life sized Darth Vader that was built out of Legos. After the Lego Store we rode the Monorail back into Disneyland.
By this time it was getting dark and I realized we hadn't even taken a picture of our whole family together yet. So we had someone take it for us in front of the Castle. It was so dark the picture didn't turn out very well, but oh well. The shows they did at night were really cool. We watched Fantasmic, which is a show they do on the water and island. It was really cool. Then we saw the firework show as well. There were so many people there that night that it was very crowded and hard to get around. But we still enjoyed the shows and headed to the hotel after that. It was a great day but we were sure glad to get back to our hotel and rest!

The next day we swam in the pool again and then went to Jen's house to return her stroller and pick up the things we left at her house the day before. Then we drove to Las Vegas and stayed the night there. The next morning we headed home and arrived around 2 pm.

It was a great trip. The only negative was that we had a round of stomach flu hit most of us at one time or another. But luckily it usually hit during the night and ended around lunch time so it wasn't too terrible. I think we drove about 2,200 miles on our trip. I was worried Darcy would go crazy on the way home after so much driving but she did pretty well.

Below is a slideshow with some additional pictures from our trip.