Visitng Santa

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we took the kids to Bass Pro Shops to see Santa (and Jon wanted to look at bows). They actually have a pretty nice Santa set up there and there were only about 5 people in front of us in the line. Derrick was so excited to tell Santa that he wanted a Spin and Fix Thomas and then he threw a fit when it was time to go see him. Luckily I was able to get him to go up, but then he was a little worried after because he only told Santa he wanted a train and he wasn't sure he would know which one to bring him! Emma asked for a Pony play set (after some coercing from mom) and a fairy princess. The kids love going to Bass Pro Shop, they call it the "Big Animal Store". We looked around and had some fun. The kids begged for toys...Derrick really wanted a boat play set and Emma really wanted a pink gun (she said she had a dream that she got one for Christmas) and a pink Hummer Camping play set. I told them to wait until Christmas. (Emma got her Camping set, but Derrick was already set for presents!)

Waiting to see Santa

Derrick still looks a little scared in the picture!

Emma shooting a pink gun!

And on a pink quad!

Derrick on a green quad

Emma with a pink bow (do you see a pattern here?!)

I told Jon this would be his dream Christmas tree...all decorated with antlers! (Ha, not in my house!)

Thanksgiving

I am posting this a little late, but we did have a good Thanksgiving this year. We went up to Young to spend it with Jon's family. The kids were so excited and I was very excited for smoked turkey! Jon has been into frying a turkey the last couple of years, but I knew his dad would smoke one. (Jon fried one also) It was a great weekend where we were able to just relax and have a good visit. It was a little hard for me to not be any where near a store on Black Friday, but I survived! :) I did do a little shopping online and bought myself an iPod touch for Christmas. Jon and I decided to buy for ourselves this year. He wanted a new bow and I wanted an iPod, so it worked out. I absolutely love it! On Thanksgiving Emma wanted to tell everyone what she was thankful for because they made special bags at school that had turkey feathers where they were suppose to write what they were thankful for and put it inside the bag. My favorite was when she said she was thankful for polka dots! She worked very hard on her project and it was cute to hear her tell all the things she loved and was thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids having fun outside...

The boys having fun outside (frying the turkey)...

The kids had their own fancy table that they thought was so special...

Emma loves olives...(I still remember my brother teaching me to do that!)

The beautiful table...

Carving the turkey...

Emma and Derrick cuddling with Grandma watching t.v.

This is what I am most thankful for...

Emma had a little Thanksgiving Feast at school on Wednesday. They sang songs and had treats. She was a Pilgrim and told me all about them!

Family Pictures

It's that time of year again. Last week Melissa Jackson took our family pictures for us. She is amazing as always! I loved our pictures this year. I especially loved the location. It was a grove of trees and it made for some pretty shots. I was stressing as usual about what to have everyone wear, but it all came together at the last second! Here are some of my favorites!

State Fair

A few weeks ago Kelly Clarkson was at the State Fair. So I asked Jeni and Stevi if they wanted to go with me. The concerts are free with fair admission, so it wasn't a bad deal to see someone who I would have paid full price to see anyway! We got to the fair and had to stand in line to get into the concert. There weren't too many people there, but this old couple walked up behind us and we were quite surprised to see them going to the concert! Maybe I'll be that way when I get old, who knows!

The concert itself was really good. I love Kelly Clarkson! It was also very entertaining to watch some 30 year old guy dancing on the floor. He was dancing his little heart out! I should have taken a picture of him!

After the concert we walked around the fair for a bit, got some delicious treats and rode the giant Ferris Wheel. Jeni and I split the biggest funnel cake I have ever seen. It was topped with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce! It was SO good! Stevi opted for a chocolate ice cream cone.

Riding the Ferris Wheel was truly scary! The bucket was swinging a little too much and we were going fast! But it was a good laugh! It was a fun night out with the girls!

Happy Halloween!!

We had a fun Halloween this year and the kids were so excited that they got to wear their costumes 3 days in a row! Thursday night was our ward Trunk or Treat, Friday was Emma's school party and of course Saturday was Halloween. This year Emma was a bat and Derrick was a green skeleton. If you know Derrick you know this is perfect for him, since he is obsessed with the color green. I was trying to talk him into being Frankenstein, but then he saw the green skeleton costume at the store and it was all over! I think Emma's costume this year has been my favorite of hers so far. It was really cute and fun! Thursday was fun and it gave us a good run through with the costumes. Jon got Derrick ready...makeup and all. He had a mask with his costume which he wore on Halloween, but not for Trunk or Treat.

Scary Skeleton

Emma's tough bat face! :)

Emma's school party went well. Surprisingly, Derrick did really good just playing cars at the table I was at for 2 hours. I was in charge of face painting, which was really just using makeup sticks that were very hard to work with. Thank goodness kindergartners are easy to please!

Emma with some of her class

Emma with some of her friends

Derrick in his corner!

Saturday night we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the first time since we have lived here. Earlier in the day Derrick twisted his ankle a little and was limping all day so he was a bit of a crippled skeleton in the stroller. He is fine, and it was almost easier to have him in the stroller so we could go faster! The kids were tired after 3 streets, so we had them home, showered and in bed by 8pm. Not bad after they were eating candy all day and night! It was a fun night, but I'm glad I do not have to dress any more kids up for another year!

Spokane

Last Friday we were able to take a vacation to Spokane, Washington to see my brother and sister and their families. We were so excited to go and get out of the hot AZ weather, but we were not prepared for the freezing Spokane weather! The highs were in the 30's and 40's with lows in the teens. Plus a wind chill factor, so it felt much colder! Thank goodness my nephew had a coat that was too small for him that fit Derrick. His little hoodie wasn't quite enough.
We were able to get 2 stand-by tickets and save some money. Derrick and I were the "lucky" ones (ha ha) who got to fly stand-by while Emma and Jon took a non-stop flight at a reasonable hour. Derrick and I left for the airport at 5:15 Friday morning. My sister was kind enough to take us that early. (Thanks Jen) We made it to Salt Lake with no problems, but then the problems began. Our next chance of getting out of Salt Lake and to Spokane was at 7:45 pm. I quickly became a mess and was crying in the airport, not sure of what to do all day with a 3 year old who was tired and all of our luggage. Andrea to the rescue!! Jon's sister and her husband live in Orem and thank goodness she was not working that day and came and picked us up from the airport. It was an added bonus to get to spend the day with her. We went out to lunch, took Derrick for a ride on the train at the Provo Mall and then went back to her house and took a nap. Thank you Andrea and Blake! We love you guys! Back at the airport it was not looking good for us to get on the 7:45 flight which meant waiting until 9:30pm. But, luckily at the very last second we got on and they even helped us ask a guy to move seats so Derrick and I could sit together. All I felt was relief as the plane finally took off.
We stayed at my brother's house and the kids thought it was so fun to all sleep together in one giant bed. There were arms and legs flopped over each other, but it didn't seem to bother them! On Saturday the kids and I spent the day with my sister and her family while Jon went to the ASU football game with Jami. I thought he was crazy to go the an outside stadium and sit on metal bleachers. He froze! We went to a small train museum where Derrick could have spent all day watching the model train set. Then we went to a really cool park in Coeur d'Alene right on the lake. The kids played for a while and then looked for leaves. Emma was so excited to see fall leaves and apple trees. She has learned about Fall in school and doesn't quite understand why we don't have those things here!
Sunday we had family dinner at my sister's house. It was fun just to sit and visit with everyone!
Monday we went to a restaurant that was built in an actual old train car. Derrick was of course very excited! After breakfast we went to a farm that had pumpkin patches and apple orchards. Emma was so excited! She really wanted to pick and apple and pumpkin for her teacher, but luckily I was able to talk her out of it. I can just imagine squished pumpkin in her luggage, yuck! That was our last night there. I went to dinner with just my sister and then we just hung out for a little bit that night. Derrick and I had to catch the 6:15 am flight home so I tried to go to bed early. Getting home was much easier. We made our connecting flight and arrived in Phoenix about 15 minutes before Jon and Emma, so it all worked out.
We had a really fun trip and we are so glad we went. We did freeze a little, but thawed out quickly back at home where the temperature is suppose to be 101 tomorrow! One downfall is Emma came home with croup. I felt bad that she exposed all the other kids before we knew she had it. She is getting better, but I am not feeling so well. Gotta love flying on an airplane during flu season! But I am thankful it is not the flu that we have and that Emma has been off of school this week for Fall Break. I think we should be better by Monday. We are sorry we are missing Jon's stepsister's wedding this weekend. Jon is representing our family. We love you Sara!
Thanks Denmarks and Clarks for a really fun weekend! (So Jami, let's hear the rude comment on this one!)

My Day

Thank goodness tonight is the last night that Jon is away on business in Baltimore. It seems to have gone by so slow this trip. I can not wait to pick him up at the airport tomorrow! But here I am bored and thought I would write about my day. It was interesting. This afternoon I sliced 3 of my fingers while doing a haircut. My shears broke (too weird to explain how). At first the cuts didn't seem bad, but then as I started blow drying and putting pressure on them they really started bleeding. So, I now have 3 band aids on my left hand and feel a little impaired. I was suppose to make flowers clips with Jeni tonight and had to cancel because I can't use my left hand very well. And I'm not too happy about having to use my old shears until I can get a new pair.
I thought I would plan something fun for Emma tonight since she has really been missing her dad. Yesterday she circled on her school paper the sad face instead of the happy face. When I asked her why she said because she was crying for her daddy at school. Then last night she cried and cried when I was putting her to bed because I didn't sing like daddy or fly her like daddy. Mom is just not as good as dad to our little daddy's girl. So today I bought the new Barbie movie and planned to get pizza and eat popcorn and have a "party". Emma was very excited! We were getting in the car to go pick up the pizza and Emma slipped somehow as she was climbing into her seat and smashed her nose on the inside door handle. It was instant blood gush. She was bawling I was trying to pull her out of the car over Derrick who was freaking out in his seat because he just saw blood all over his sister and then Emma looked at her blood covered hand and lost it even more. I unstrapped Derrick while holding Emma and trying not to let the blood get everywhere. We ran into the bathroom to get her cleaned up and as she was laying in my arms she looked up at me and cried, "Did I die?" I couldn't help but smile a little, but I assured her she did not die and she would be fine. Derrick was so sweet, he came in the bathroom and offered Emma his favorite camo blanket to make her feel better. (See he can be sweet sometimes!) We got the bleeding stopped and got her all cleaned up. I told her she may have a swollen nose or a black eye in the morning. I hope that is not the case, but only time will tell. Then she was worried that no one at school would like her with a "white puffy nose". I asked her if she would still like her friends if they had white puffy noses and she said yes, but then she started crying again and said, "But no one has ever had that before". Oh, the drama of a 5 year old! But the pizza. popcorn and Barbie movie worked wonders and all was well again. She also got to talk to her Aunt Annie on the phone and that made her happy!
Tomorrow is a new day and we will see what it holds. At least Jon is coming home. He is greatly missed, especially by his girls! Well, I am now going to bed, so that I can wake up to a new day!

Nap Time

A few weeks ago Derrick had a little cold and thought he could not take naps anymore. So, he would stay up and play in his room as long as he possible could until he finally would fall asleep...sometimes as late as 4pm. One day I went in and he had fallen asleep in his rocking chair with his stuffed animals surrounding him and one leg just hanging off the chair. Another day I went in and he had placed all of his stuffed animals on top of the humidifier. I'm glad the "no nap" stage did not last longer than a few days. I love having those couple of hours of quiet everyday. He's a funny kid and I am enjoying spending time with him while Emma is in school. He told me today, "You're my favorite boy!" because that's what I always tell him!