Santa Visit

So last night we went to an outdoor shopping center to see Santa. They had so many fun things for the kids to do while waiting till he arrived. The kids got to make a bookmark, decorate yummy gingerbread men, listen and dance to music and enjoy free hot cocoa from Starbucks. They had a great time UNTIL Santa came.


We watched him come in on the Coca-Cola truck that was completely decked out in lights . The kids were amazed at the 3 trucks they had decorated. Then when the time had come to get our pictures taken with Santa, Isaac refused to look at the camera and Sarah just stared at him. Needless to say, we don't have a decent picture of the kids with Santa this year!

Let the Christmas countdown begin!

One of his many turkeys they made at preschool.
So today was Isaac's last day of preschool till the New Year and I am excited to have him home in the mornings for a few days. I love morning school to get us up and out of the house and to make me get out of my pj's and the day started. This next week I have a goal to be at the gym everyday at 9am. I have a few more pounds to attempt to lose before Janel's wedding on New Years Eve!
I have the kids Christmas shopping done and several family members but it is really hard buying everything in WA to pack it in our carry-on's to get it to UT for Christmas. See I just need to move back and that would make life so much easier!



We have had several good snowstorms the past couple of months and I took Isaac sledding one day. He was so excited to get all in his snow gear and after 6 or 7 times down the hill he was done. Oh well I made him push me down the hill a couple of times to drag it out a little bit longer. He had a fun time though.
Poor Sarah has had a rough go with ear infections lately. We are on our second dose of antibiotics right now and so we will see if she gets better. I knew her ear infections were back when she started waking up in the night again. I am loving that she is sleeping through the night when she feels good! It is amazing how much better mommy feels too when she gets a whole night's sleep.
Last weekend we went to a luminaria at the arboretum and had a nice time. It was a mile walk outside and then the kids were able to go inside and decorate their own bag at the end.

We had enjoyed 2 Christmas parties for the hospitals that Gary works at and I have enjoyed getting dressed up. It is fun to put on nice clothes every now and then.
I am really looking forward to Santa's arrival this year. Isaac is so excited and he has a countdown calendar in his room that he changes every morning. This is such a fun age and the miracle of Christmas.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year at home. We invited some friends, Brian, Dusty and Hadley, over and it was the most relaxing and peaceful dinner I have had in a long time. The company was great too! I am very thankful for my wonderful husband and my sweet children. They are so much fun and I am so lucky to be their mom!

We have put up some of the Christmas decorations and I am not sure how many more I should get out. Sarah has very inquisitive little fingers and likes to play with everything. I made a little video of Santa for Isaac and he absolutely LOVES watching it. He is so excited for Santa this year. He comes and checks under the tree every morning to see if Santa has left him presents. It is going to be a long month for him.

I am really tired of the snow already so this is probably going to be a long winter for me. I can't wait for Christmas this year - I am really looking forward to going home for a week!
I have been working with Isaac and teaching him how to write his letters and asking him to draw me some pictures. Here is his picture of Santa!

Catch up

Seems like I stay on top of the blog for awhile and then have a hiatus from it till I have too many things to post. We had a wonderful Halloween and the kids had trick-or-treating 3 days in a row. They had so much fun and ended up with too much candy (which mom enjoyed the good stuff too) and I have hid the rest of it in the cupboard which I truely should just throw away. Isaac was the most adorable gorilla I have ever seen and Sarah was a cute bumblebee! She really didn't like her costume the first time I put it on her so it only lasted for a couple minutes, but after doing it several times she got the hang of it. She really enjoyed the school carnival we went to and she loved going to the houses in the neighborhood. She wouldn't say anything to the people until they put the candy in her bucket and she would say something to the effect of Thank you. I got a fun book for my birthday on decorating cupcakes so this is my first attempt at replicating one of the designs. It was surprisingly easy and Isaac loved helping out. Sarah enjoyed the frosting too!

Fall Time

Fall has always been my favorite time of year and this year we have enjoyed being together. Yakima has some amazing fruit and we love going to the orchards. There is one orchard just up the hill from us and they have such a cute hay maze just for little kids. We also get to go on a fun hay ride and Isaac's favorite thing to do is make your own fresh pressed apple juice. He thinks it is so neat to pick, wash and then chop and crush your own apples. I have to admit that the juice tastes amazing. There is something about freshly made juice!




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We also carved pumpkins this week. The kids had a blast and Isaac was so proud of himself. Of course he quoted the Charlie Brown movie, "Oh you didn't tell me you were going to kill it!" He is so funny and thought that was hilarious. Gary was wonderful and scraped all the guts out of the pumpkins. Sarah loved the feeling of the insides and enjoyed eating the seeds right out of the pumpkin. Isaac drew his face on his pumpkin first and then we cut the pumpkin together. Sarah just threw a tantrum every time I took the carving knife out of her hands. She wanted to do it all by herself. I think they turned out pretty well!



The kids have really been into music lately and have been dancing around the living room every time Gary turns the music on. Earlier this week Isaac wanted to be in a band so Sarah was on the guitar, I was playing the drums on some buckets and Isaac had the maracas. The kids had so much fun and I enjoyed the entertainment. Sarah couldn't figure out how to hold the guitar and play at the same time so she just had it upside down most of the time.



Bath time is loads of fun in our giant tub and since this picture hides everything I figured it was safe for the blog.

Disneyland Fall 2010

I know we go to Disneyland too much, but where else can you go with two little children? We really enjoy it and it is so fun to watch the magic in the kids' eyes. We always go and walk through the gardens by the Disney resorts and Isaac loves to look into the Neverland Pool. One day I would love to stay at a resort just to capture the full Disney experience.

Isaac is really starting to understand if things are scary and he is finally tall enough to ride some of the bigger rides (with some added shoe help). He was just barely below the 40" marker so we put cardboard in his shoes to give him that extra little help. So glad we did because we were able to take him on Splash Mountain and Soarin over California for the first time. He absolutely loved Soarin and enjoyed Splash Mountain. His very first time we were in the front of the boat and so I just held on to him from the 2nd seat. Sarah did much better this time and didn't cry when we took her on every ride.

It was fun to meet up with our friends Jordan and Anne from SLC. They have 2 kids about the same age and so Isaac enjoyed playing with Harrison, big H. The boys are both into Star Wars so they really enjoyed the Jedi show. We tried to get them to be chosen as a Jedi, but I think they are still a little too young.

I love going to Disneyland in October because of all the Halloween decorations. They decorate it so cute and they have a wonderful area by Big Thunder Railroad where there is a petting zoo and amazing pumpkin carvings and Woody makes frequent appearances.
We were also able to get some tickets for the new show, World of Color, in California Adventure. It was really amazing and even though we didn't have the best seats we were still able to see almost everything. It is a water show, similar to the one in Vegas, but they have colored lights in the water and do scenes on the water from Disney shows.


Isaac was so funny the one day and decided to take some polished rocks and put them in his pocket before we paid for them. We didn't know he did this until we got back to the hotel and found him playing with them under the covers. We asked him about it and we told him we had to take them back. The next morning I got him dressed and the first thing he tells me is that his shorts don't have pockets in them. He is too smart! When we took them back and made him tell the lady he was sorry she gave him a button instead. Well I don't think he learned that lesson!

Of course we hit the beach on the last day and had a wonderful time.The weather was so hot for us so it was nice to relax in the sand and put our feet into the water. Isaac has absolutely no fear of the water and would run into all the waves and down the shore and after the seagulls and you get the picture.