grandpa and his girl

more december

my dad loves reading bedtime stories. and he loves playing with squirty, and of course, she loves all the extra attention. another lap to sit on, someone else to play ball with, someone else to beg food from, you get the idea.

this was before church on the 23rd. i love christmas tree background pictures! marissa played with my mom's suede coat all during sacrament meeting, making designs on her sleeve. mason loves to count fingers with grandpa. i think my kids are fairly well behaved at church, but it is ALWAYS nice to have two extra sets of hands to help maintain reverence. especially since travis sang with the choir and was on the stand the whole meeting. i thought it was a great choir program, enjoyed the song selection and different groups that sang. i know i am biased, but i think the a cappella quartet that sang silent night at the end, well, they pretty much stole the show. ;)

mom and dad lookin' snazzy!

Getting Caught up on Christmas, the first of many december themed posts

in an attempt to not forget all the fun things we did in december, here are some shots of the gingerbread houses. grandma and grandpa and marissa did one, and mason and i did one together. in true kid fashion, i let mason stick candy anywhere on the house and he had a blast. he especially liked the letter M i wrote above the front door in frosting. and fyi, the gingerbread house kit is THE way to go. so easy and convenient!!

No muggles here

a quick quiz for fellow harry potter aficionados. i got my dad this great trivia book for christmas called "the ultimate challenge, trivia quiz" and this is one of the quizzes inside. enjoy.

1. What's the name for someone who has magical parents but no powers of his own?

2. muggle-born hermoine granger is considered by some to be the "smartest witch of her age." what do her parents do for a living?

3. what's the given name of harry potter's archenemy?

4. there are 8 other weasleys in ron's immediate family. what are their names?

5. in the first book, hagrid acquired a dragon egg and reared the baby dragon. what was the animal's name?

6. bully draco malfoy has 2 sidekicks- name them.

7. in "the prisoner of azkaban" the hogwarts students learn to defeat boggarts (shape-shifting creatures that take on the appearance of a person's greatest fear). what did the boggart reveal that harry potter was most afraid of?

8. what death eater so tortured the parents of neville longbottom that they were forever confined to a mental institution. (bonus: what was the hospital?)

9. name the 4 houses of hogwarts and their current heads of house.

10. in "the goblet of fire," hermoine granger started a social welfare organization called S.P.E.W. what does the acronym stand for?

11. in "the half blood prince", harry and professor dumbledore ventured into a haunted cave where harry was attacked by the inferi (enchanted corpses). how did dumbledore save harry?










ANSWERS:
1. a squib
2. they are dentists
3. tom marvolo riddle
4. parents arthur and molly, kids bill, charlie, percy, fred, george, and ginny
5. norberta
6. vincent crabbe and gregory goyle
7. dementors
8. bellatrix lestrange was the torturer, the hospital is st.mungo's hospital for magical maladies and injuries
9. gryffindor:mcgonagall; hufflepuff: sprout; ravenclaw:flitwick; slytherin: snape
10. the society for the promotion of elfish welfare
11. he uses a fire spell to repell the inferi, and they retreat into the lake.

gingerbread jammie fun

the "elves" brought these jammies! marissa was over the moon about her first nightgown. she wants to wear it every night. mason put his jammies on and told me "happy christmas mommy". (he gets the "happy" instead of "merry" from the first harry potter movie)

christmas blessing

there was a wonderful christmas blessing this week, as my cousin dave and his wife mindy's adoption paperwork was FINALLY approved!!! through no fault of their own, this process took forever due to the understaffed LDS social services office in town and the fact that their paperwork "fell through a crack" for about a month. and if it seems like a long time to me, i can only imagine how long its felt for dave and mindy. anyway, we're so happy for them, they've waited a long time for this. now the job is to spread the word and let people know they are officially available. gone are the days where the adoption agency has more babies than families to place them with. now the idea is basically, you do all the leg work with getting the word out and once you've found a baby to adopt, we'll process everything for you. so i'm doing my part, helping to spread the word. if you know of anyone who is wanting to place a baby for adoption, please have them check out dave and mindy's profile online. you're in our prayers dave and mindy!!
click here to check out their blog, click here to visit their profile with providentliving.org.

snapshots of the party

enjoy the photos of the book club christmas party. it was a blast! really, a ton of fun, glad everything went well. excellent food, fun unwrapping our "secret santa" books and watching the guys open their white elephant gifts. the dirty diaper was little much, thanks andrea for kicking it up a notch. merry christmas!

waving back attcha curt!

jason sharing his white elephant gift, a half eaten mcdonald's meal. yum-o

jen and dallin

mary ann and robyn digging into some scrumptious mexican cuisine

the food

jen and kris

sara and baby bridgette

brittany, mary ann and kelly

who are these guys? love the self taken photos

had to put this one in of duane, sally and staci because of staci's face :)

dylan and lisa

andrea, staci, robyn and kelly

harry and lloyd, aka lance and douglas

band of trouble, big bobby r, curt and mikey mike

teejack, steve-o and the big DL

checking my list, checking it twice

i know i join the masses in talking about their "to-do" lists this time of year. and i probably join them in screaming "AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

this afternoon we leave for las vegas. we're staying at the lovely tropicana (hey, cheap rates!) and i am excited to check out a new shopping area. my friend sonja, who lives in vegas, told me about this new outdoor, open-air, shopping place called town square. check it out at las vegas town square. anyway, it has restaurants, shops, a kids park with a "live" oak tree for climbing, etc. having visited the website, in my mind i picture something very grove-esque ala the wicked road trip in september. anyway, seeing as how i have gap jeans to return, i'm excited there is a gap there.

(okay, small tangent, i hate jean shopping. yes, stores are making more long or tall jeans. to them, tall is 34 inch inseam. i am what they like to call EXTRA tall, 36 inch inseam which is online only most places. lovely. because its so easy to pick a pair that you think will flatter you based on a pair being modeled by a MODEL. the irony anyone?)

so i have all the info of where this town square is located, (its on the stip, south of mandalay bay, same side of the street) and its hours of operation. i've checked out their restaurants and want to eat at the claimjumper if the waiting list isn't too heinous. it should be a fun evening. we have 2 queen beds, girls in one, boys in the other. ;)

tomorrow morning, my parents fly in from san antonio. i have mapquested directions to the nearest ihop from the airport. i have gone online to the premium outlets site and checked that they do, in fact, open at 9am. hooray! its bad enough with the hour lag because of the time change so i'm super happy that we don't have wait till 10 to start shopping.

then we will zoom home where i transform into uber-nazi pre-party hostess; making my enchiladas, making sure the kids don't get into the place-settings, feeding my parents and kids something for dinner, and getting myself looking somewhat presentable.

then when the door bell rings at 6:30, i transition into sophisticated, gracious hostess. welcoming book club christmas party goers into my home where there is soft christmas music playing the background, candle flames dancing prettily throughout the living room and kitchen, and the smell of delicious enchiladas wafting through the air.

lets hope i can check everything off my list. a girl can dream can't she?

FHE

last monday, (not yesterday, a week ago yesterday. yes, a bit of lag time, i know) we spent family home evening away from home. we went down to the beautiful st.george temple and enjoyed the lights, the nativity and the wonderful christmas spirit. we met up with the shaws and westons. our kids loved racing around, up and down the slick stairs, under the chain that separated the nativity from the sidewalk and inside the visitors'center. good thing it was cold and we didn't stay too terribly long. we headed to dairy queen for a treat afterwards. it was a fun night.

paige was a trooper, love the hat she is sporting. mason loved her stroller which he promptly climbed into once she had been taken out. staci is wearing the warmest fleece ever.

mason and marissa love hanging out with maddie. notice marissa's hat. specifically notice the size of hole her face is seeing through. now notice the much larger opening for her face in the picture of the 4 of us up top. travis put her hat on backwards. poor girl looked like she was wearing a hat ten times too small for her. sarah was the first to notice and then we changed it to the right way. marissa never even complained.

sarah loves having her picture taken. she feels so pretty and skinny right now. i love you sarah. :)

an elf'in good time!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1222876433

a few tidbits from the week

-our scanner is not compatible with our mac. :( i guess its "too old." stupid technology.
and the new scanner we like is not available anywhere in town, online only. oh goody, i get to pay shipping and wait five more days.

-i think mason works for the city of santa clara. he is constantly plugging the christmas tree lights in and turning on the cd player with christmas music. from first thing in the morning until he goes to bed. what a funny little guy.

-marissa's preschool teacher talked to me today about marissa being a dawdler at school. i informed her, first of all, its not just at school. its everything, all day long from brushing teeth, putting her coat and backpack away, picking out a story, etc. anyway, its a little problem at school seeing as how all the rest of the kids have colored their elf picture and marissa has just finished coloring in one shoe. great. so we talked about impressing ideas like time and how if you don't finish your work, your play time is cut shorter. hard concepts for a 3 year to wrap her brain around, but i figure if tackle the home front and debbie tackles the school front, maybe we can get her to understand not everything is "la-de-da take our own sweet time" time.

- i am really liking the meal swap with sarah and staci. who wants to slave every night over a hot stove?

-i am almost done christmas shopping, HORRAY!!!!

-my goal is to finish my christmas cards this week. (we'll see)

-i am excited for the new movie, national treasure 2, i hope it as good as the first one

pre dickens festival

a few shots of the kiddos all dolled up before THE santa visit. :) i have no less than a bazillion photos to scan for various projects, but believe me, somewhere in the stack is this year's santa photo. i'm just so happy dave and mindy popped over last week and taught me how to use iphoto and my new mac in general or else this blog would be way boring. no photos. so a big shout out to my own mac support tech team that live in coral canyon! thanks. ;)