Christmas 2013

This year we were able to go to Utah for Christmas.  A week before we were to leave our best friends car broke down and they had plans of going to Blackfoot, Idaho for our friend, Ruth's parents 40th Anniversary.  When we heard that they would not be able to go due to funds since their car was so much to fix, we decided to find a way to get them to go with us. 

 

We looked into getting a canopy for Mitchell's truck and could not find one anywhere that would fit.  We then decided that since our van needed to be fixed anyway, we would take it into the repair shop and get it repaired then take the van. 

 

Heather had to get Rebekah from BYU Idaho so we asked if Lindsay could drive with her and Elizabeth so we would have room in our van for Ruth and Paul.  This was perfect and a lot of fun for Lindsay.

 

We left for Utah at 11:30 PM because our friends had a play that they already had tickets for.  Once they drove up, we loaded in the van and drove away.  Mitchell drove for the first couple of hours, then he was so tired that Paul took over when we started heading into the Blue Mountains.  We hit really bad fog, then a blizzard and then icy roads but we made it safe and it was a TON of fun traveling with them.

 

We dropped Ruth and Paul off at Pocatello, then drove into Salt Lake to my parents house.

 It was so fun to pull up to Taylorsville and to see a ton of snow in the back yard for the kids to play in.  At first Calvin did not want to walk on the snow, then he kind of got the hang of it and had fun playing in Grandma and Grandpa Adamson's back yard.

 

This picture is of their view from their back porch.  GORGEOUS!

 We arrived on Saturday, December 21, Calvin's birthday.  The day before he opened his present which was a dry erase board/chalk board/paper roll.  He had a lot of fun playing with it.  At Grandmas house we sang Happy Birthday and he ate a cupcake.

 

On Sunday we headed to Lehi to listen to Tricia, Camille and Johnathan sing in their ward choir.  Tricia is the choir director and did a great job.  The music was beautiful.

 

That night we invited cousins from both sides of the family over to my parents home.  We asked that only adults come since their home is small.  Uncle Jay, Anna Marie and son, Alicia, Uncle Rob, Aunt Sharyl and Sara, Vanner, Donna, Karl, Nancy, Diantha, Trent Johnson all came along with Uncle Craig and MaryAnn.  On my Mom's side Uncle Ken, Kendra and her husband all came.  It was a wonderful night and so fun to see all of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles that I had not seen in years.

 

Monday Grandma and Grandpa had a Grandkid Christmas party.  They had fun eating pizza, making crafts, playing outside in the snow and just hanging out.  While they were partying it up Tricia, Allyson and I went shopping for last minute Christmas gifts and out to eat at Costa Vida.  We had a great time.

 

Tuesday I became really sick and wanted to sleep all day.  I did not have a fever, but had bad diarrhea.  My father was also sick and had been for awhile so he went to the Doctors office and received 2 bags of fluids in an IV.  As the day went on I started to feel a little better, but I was really weak all day.  That night Tricia's family and Allyson's family along with Uncle Jay came to my parents and we had a Christmas dinner along with the nativity story.  My parents handed out our presents including the story of the Candy Bomber, a Willie Handcart book and record of their genealogical DNA to see where our family was fun.  It was fun to learn that my family is 100% from Europe on both sides.

 

Christmas morning we did the traditional Christmas train starting youngest to oldest.

 The kids opened their stockings and they found candy along with their first real CTR rings. 

 

 Calvin had fun opening his gifts.

 

 

 Our family joke - Mrs. Egg McMuffin Love Ronald McDonald.  Funny Mitchell.  :)

 Hailey received a pair of skates.

 My favorite gift happened to be Calvin's drum set.  He sat down for the first time and banged out a tune, then took a full on bow.  It was really funny.  He then threw the drumsticks in the air.  This boy is a character.

 

The number one thing that I wanted to do while in Utah was go to Temple Square.  I was so excited to be able to go the day after Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 Allyson and My Mom joined us while Mitchell, Adam, Calvin and Dad stayed home to let Calvin nap.

 Inside the tabernacle.

 

 

 

 In Deseret Book they had a display for the candy bomber book.  It was fun to shoot off the parachutes then run and catch them.  Each child was able to take a free candy cane.

 

 I love my Mommy and had so much fun visiting family.  We were not able to visit with friends since they day we would have, I was sick.  We had a blast.

We left Friday morning at 6, then went to Pocatello to pick up our friends and drive home.  We played a game, What If..... and had a blast laughing and talking.  They are awesome and we get along so well with them.  Would not have wanted to drive with anyone else.

Christmas Card 2013

Our friend Michael Wynkoop took the kids pictures this year for our Christmas card after church one day.  I printed up these cards and the lettering was so bad that I did not hand them out.  Oh well, it was fun anyways.

 

 

I made this header for facebook this Christmas.  Love the pictures of each of the kids, they are all getting so grown up.

 

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  Calvin had a blast going door to door begging for candy.  The first door that we went to he knocked, the lady opened the door and he walked right in thinking he was going to play at her house.  We had a great laugh.  He got the hang of it.  He wore his football uniform for a couple of days straight, until we finally hid his uniform.

 

Lindsay was a ladybug, Ashley a cat and Hailey an angel.

 

Calvin Update

My little guy is growing up so fast and I do not want to forget some of his milestones.  He is still only speaking a couple of words, but he is really trying to get through to us, somehow.  He gets frustrated a lot and screams a lot but we are trying to help him work it out with words. 

He says Mama and Dada really well and recently started calling his sisters all Nana.  We have no idea where it came from, but at least we are making progress.  Lindsay is trying to get him to call her Deedee since that is what the other two girls called her.  He has said it a couple of times but then goes right back to calling her nana.

He says balloon really funny.  He sticks out his tongue and says lalalalala but with his tongue sticking out. 

Whenever he sees an ice cream cone or drives by McDonalds he slurps his spit a couple of times.  I will have to get it on video.  It is so funny.  He loves ice cream.

Jean, our Early Intervention lady has been on vacation so we have not been able to meet with her for a couple of weeks.

He loves to dance and whenever he tries he sticks one arm in the air and points to the sky while keeping the beat.  It is so dang cute.  He also break dances, or tries to.

Every night before bed he has to kiss Dad first, then he wipes the kisses off and says Dada while wiping the kiss, then Lindsay and he says Nana then wipes the kiss, then Hailey and he says Nana then wipes it then Ashley and he does the same.  When it is my turn to kiss him he kisses me, then wipes it and says Mama.  That is his routine and we love it.  He does not like anything like a fan in his room and will point at it and make us get rid of it.  He also decided he does not like his night light anymore so we had to take that out also.  Funny kid.

He loves going outside.  Whenever he wants to go outside he points out the window and says EEEE.  Not sure if it means swing, weeeee, or what but we understand it means outside and he wants to play.

He loves to watch Dora the Explorer and calls her Doda.  He can't get enough of Doda.

Some other words he says are ball, ruff for dog, ga for cat, no, he will smile for yes or nod his head.  Water or milk are Mmmmmm......

He says um ah for thank you and he says it all of the time, so polite.  :)

He started opening doors and I am just waiting for him to open the front door, hopefully not soon. 

He is such a fun boy and I hope that when Jean comes back we can work on lots more words so his frustrations will cease.  It is so hard when he is trying to tell you something, and you have no idea what he wants.  We say, "show me" a lot and that is how we usually figure things out. 

Girls Getaway

I would always get sad when I would hear about women having girls night outs and I was never invited to them.  I thought it would be fun to start my own so I invited my friends Ruth Elison, Stacy Dowd and Heather Wynkoop to go with me to Seaside for the weekend. 

 

Ruth moved into our ward in November and Ashley realized that she was her Music teacher at West Union.  I went up to her with Ashley and she was so sweet.  I decided to sit with her in Relief Society and I sat with her for weeks, until she was called into the Primary Presidency.  Stacy was Ruth's Visiting Teacher so I knew they were already friends and Stacy is such a sweetheart I knew she would be fun to invite and I also knew that Heather, who did not know Ruth, was going to be a blast as always.  It worked out to be a great group of ladies. 

 

Stacy founds a lovely hotel about 1/4 mile from the beach in Seaside that had a kitchenette area and a balcony.  It was perfect.  It also had breakfast so that saved us some money. 

 

We were ready to go and all of us were so excited.  I was embarrassed because I packed so much for one night.  As I went around, I drove, to pick up each of the ladies it became apparent that we all packed way too much. 

 Once we got to our hotel we decided to walk around to some of the shops and get some pizza to go.   

 

After getting our pizza we went back to our room for the night and did beading, nails, TONS of talking and TONS of laughing and watched a couple of movies  It was such a fun and relaxing night.  We did not go to sleep until 1 or so.  It was so nice to have four ladies there and not a bit of gossip was said.  That is my kind of ladies night!!!!

 

Saturday morning we ate the continental breakfast then went shopping round town.  This hat store was hilarious!  It was so fun trying on hats with such crazy friends.

We then went and walked on the beach.  The weather was absolutely PERFECT!  Could not have asked for a more perfect weekend.  I am not sure that I have ever gone to an Oregon beach without any wind, and that Saturday there was none. 

 

We had fun playing in the water like children.  It was so nice to not have to worry about kids and I could just do what I wanted.  The water was absolutely FREEZING!  I never got used to it, but that didn't stop us.

 

 

  

After playing in the water we drove to Cannon Beach and ate at Mo's.  It has amazing food and I ate their fish and chips.  So good! 

After a fun filled weekend it was sad to drop everyone off at home, but we plan to go again, but next time with our husbands.  It was such a fun weekend.  I have great memories that I will cherish.  Love these women!

Spring Break and Easter 2013

This year Spring Break was very laid back and we didn't do much.  I took the girls dress shopping for their Easter dresses and we did a lot of Spring Cleaning.  On Saturday we were able to also go as a family to Oceanside and the weather could not have been more perfect.  It was amazing!!! 

 

Hailey in her gorgeous new dress.  I usually buy the girls dresses and surprise them with it on Sunday morning.  I went to Fred Meyer and would have bought this dress for her anyways, but I was glad that she was able to choose for herself.

 Buying modest dresses now a days is so hard.  In the dressing rooms my girls have to kneel down and the dresses have to be well below the knee for it to pass my inspection.  Ashley's dress goes all the day to her feet and I love it!  She looks so pretty in it. 

 Lindsay looks so grown up in her choice of dress.  She had the hardest time finding something that went below her knee but she did well.  I love this dress on her.  My little baby is so grown up.

 My beautiful princesses.  Calvin was at home asleep so I did not want to wake him up.

The girls took a picture of me in my new Easter dress.  I loved this beautiful tree next to West Union Elementary School.

 Oceanside was so fun and beautiful.  Calvin had so much fun running around and playing on his own. 

 Mitchell and I just hanging out. 

 I think this pictures shows my weight loss the best.  Down 26 lbs in a year.  Love how I feel now!

 Hailey playing in the sand.

 Calvin loved the sand and loved running in the freezing cold water.

 Beautiful Beach!

 My beautiful Ashley

 Hailey with some of her shell treasures.

 Beautiful Hailey.

 My handsome husband.

 Me.

 I LOVE this picture!!!  I love how much they look alike.  Love my guys!