Christmas happenings

The kids all lined up, youngest to oldest, ready to storm the living room where Santa left his goodies

This is my favorite face that Issy makes. She does it because she gets such a great reaction out of everyone she does it to.

Our kids are on a Lego kick right now...it entertains all three of them so we thought we'd get some small pieces for Noah since all we have are the Mega Blocks.

This guitar was actually for Noah, but it was a much bigger hit with Ben. Do we have a future Slash or Eddie Van Halen on our hands? On a side note, after opening presents we spent a wonderful day at Disneyland. We sure do love that place!

Ben was jumping on our bed today, fell and bonked his head on our windowsill. It's nice to have connections in the medical field because instead of going to the ER, we went to the oral surgery office which is directly across the hall from Rob's office. The oral surgeon was wonderful and stitched him up real good....seven stitches. We have the two most wonderful oral surgeons here who would do anything for anyone. Ben was a trooper falling asleep as soon as we got there (he hadn't had a nap and wore himself out crying). It worked out perfectly because we were able to numb it up while he was sleeping! He moaned while he was being sewed up, but it didn't hurt him. It was more just scary to have the big OR light in his face and everyone around him. The enlisted gals were great to watch Noah and Issy in the waiting room so we could both be in the OR with Ben. Afterwards he was thrilled to get a whole roll of Bottle Tops candy and go to the Wild Animal Park with the Stinchfield's.

So, if you've read this far you must really love us. If you really love us you'll be as thrilled as we are to hear that we are going to JAPAN for the next THREE YEARS! The Detailer finally got back to us with the wonderful news that there is room for us over there. We'll probably be heading there in July right after Rob's GPR graduation. Yeah! Stay tuned for more news!

Sweet Memories

I always have a fun time making memories decorating cookies with my kids. This was the first year where both the boys could really participate. I was very proud of myself for letting them decorate any way they wanted too...even if it was uneven or the wrong color. Can you tell which ones they made? Mostly Ben likes to lick the frosting, but Noah was meticulous to get it just right putting every kind of sprinkle on each cookie. We had lots of fun.

i love ny

We spent a wonderful week in Buffalo visiting my family. True to form, we had a snowstorm while we were there which cancelled many things including church. Since it was 86 degrees here today, we could fully appreciate the snow while we were there knowing we'd get to come back home to the green Christmas. We spent lots of time out in the snow. Perhaps one of the most memorable snow moments was when Isabella fell asleep in her sled/tube while Rob was doing donuts with the kids (see picture). We all loved frolicking in the snow, which I must say made for some of the best sledding on my little hill that I can remember. We loved seeing my parents, brothers and extended family and realized how much we miss out on by being so far away. We got to go to the children's museum and Bounce Magic (basically an indoor place where they have bounce houses the kids can go crazy on). We all had a blast going down the slide about 200 times as shown in these pictures. The kids were surprisingly awesome on the flight out by myself and not nearly as charming on the way back with both of us. Thank you Mom and Dad for making it possible for all of us to come and and spend some time with you. Can't wait to come and visit again!

Ready for Buffalo

The kids are rather excited about going to Buffalo tomorrow. I got out their winter clothes from storage to bring with us. Ben especially liked the idea of hats, mittens and scarfs. Here they are bundled up in 70 degree weather.




We love watching funny You Tube videos. We'll just type something in like "Muppet Show" or "He-Man" or "Funny Moms" and see what comes up. Here the boys are watching live sharks eat and protecting each other from getting eaten/scared by them.



Isabella is obsessed with the toilet lately. I put her in some of the boys underwear and she loved it! I know kids can be potty trained at 18 months, but how do you do it? My boys were 2 1/2 and verbal by the time they learned. How do you do it with someone with a limited vocabulary? Any advice is appreciated!!! Here's a cute pic of Issy learning to enjoy egg nog as much as her father does. Rob drinks it with every meal during December!

November 2007 Video

We've done a lot of stuff this past month. My mother has been begging for more grandchildren video so here it is. It's 13 minutes long and I'm not sure if anyone except my mother would want to see it, but you are welcome to browse it. Most of it are just cute things the kids do around the house, Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland, Thanksgiving and other misc stuff. See you on Wednesday, Mom and Dad!

Elf Yourself

Several of my friends have "elfed" themselves and after many unsuccessful attempts we finally figured out how to post it. It only let's us do 4 elves so Rob got left out and the singing is Noah's voice, but it also got elfed too. Enjoy!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1225748027

Big Brother Ben

Ben mostly thinks Isabella is annoying, except when Noah is nice to her. But, today, Ben was nice to Issy all by himself! They like to play with this box of toiletries. Today I walked in and Ben was brushing Issy's hair so gently. Then he was reading a book to her and letting her touch it (something that he normally finds rude and cause for a good shove away). It was so great to see him being loving to her.

Beach Pics Nov 2007

We went down to the beach on base and got these great family shots. A friend in the ward did them...just an amateur trying to get better. I think she did a great job, especially getting fun shots of the kids. There wasn't a group photo that I totally loved, but there were so many individuals that it totally makes up for it. Enjoy!

Isabella hits the "terrific" twos

Issy turned 18 months on December 1st. It's a good thing because she's been BEGGING to go to nursery at church for quite a while now. Well, looking at this sweet picture you'd probably wonder how anything so peaceful could cause frustration. True, she is an angel and is happy most of the time. She's friendly to everyone she meets. However, when she wants something and doesn't get it, she turns into a beast unlike no other. Complete meltdown. Now, my boys have had their fair share of tantrums, but you can always tell they are just being toddlers. Isabella howls like I've just ripped out every single nail and I'm now preparing to gouge out her eyes. When I'm home this is no big deal. When I'm at the grocery store and she decides that she doesn't like sitting in the cart any longer....it is downright embarrassing. Normally I have tunnel vision when I'm out with my kids. Someone could drop a bomb and I wouldn't notice because I'm so focused on what I'm doing and not losing one of them. But, when Isabella starts screaming everyone notices us and it's hard not to see that everyone is staring at me like, "why don't you help your poor child." Is this just a girl thing? I do my best to ignore it hoping it is just a phase.... a very short lived one. She is really a total doll most of the time.

Address for Christmas cards

Hey everyone! I'm trying to get all my mailing addresses' in order so I can send out Christmas cards to you all. If you think that I don't have yours, please email it to me (or post it in the comments). Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Misc stuff this week

It POURED yesterday. It has probably rained 2 or 3 times in the last 6 months so this was a BIG deal. Our back patio flooded and the boys took advantage of it frolicking in the puddle. Here are some rather poor quality images I captured of their fun.







Rob had a nitrous sedation seminar in San Diego for two days this week. I guess each day they gave each other the "laughing gas" so they could know how to administer it and what it felt like to be under it's influence. Rob had never experienced it before and it sounded like he was a riot...laughing like crazy. Here's a picture of him getting the gas (but no one captured him just rolling over laughing) and here's a picture of one of the other residents busting a gut over it (notice Tom Stinchfield from dental school in the background). The last picture are all the guys in Rob's GPR program here at Pendleton.




The boys helped us take down Ben's crib (finally...he's been out of it for months) in order to rearrange the living room furniture so we could make room for our Christmas tree. Big helpers!

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a lovely Thanksgiving up in Newport Beach (about an hour away). Rob's sister Amy and her boyfriend Scott live there and hosted us. Jane and Joseph (Rob's sister, brother in law) as well as some work friends of Scott's also attended. It was so fun to see baby Madeline again. We had a 27 lb turkey, a huge ham and 5 pies...plus all the fixin's. There was soooo much food. We slept over and spent 16 hours at Disney the next day. Amy and Scott were oh so kind to drop everything and take the kids at 7pm on Friday for us. Rob and I had a date night from 7-12am at Disney. It was awesome to be able to ride the big rides and just spend time together (even though I was exhausted from having spent the day with the kids at Disney). We ended up staying over again at Scott's (just 20 minutes from the park) and going back on Saturday morning. Here are some pictures of our weekend. We hope you all had a great 4 day weekend. What did you all do?

Finished quilting projects

I got into quilting right before I left Cleveland and found a nice group of quilters here. I'm taking a class at the community college on Monday nights which has been very enlightening. Of course, I'm the youngest person in the class by 25 years, but it's still fun. Here are the most recent projects I've finished. The first one is a super soft blanket for Noah. It's made out of felt and has the most to-die-for soft red fabric on the back. He's been watching me make this and insisting on being wrapped up in it during the various stages of development. I'm thrilled that he's so excited about it. The black/creme/red quilt I made for my parents 40th wedding anniversay (Dec 2nd). It's more of a lap quilt, but is pretty big. It's called a Paul Newman quilt with the idea that there are some star fabrics while the rest are supporting actors. The black and cream strips with the little boy on it is the star fabric. There is a woman in our ward who does the actual quilting part...I'm not that good yet! I'm really enjoying my new hobby.

no blogging

I know that I haven't posted in awhile. Too many other priorities...will post more soon! I have a lot going on so I have a lot to blog about.

Disneyland has won our business

We are so excited about the Disneyland annual passes we purchased yesterday. We've been fighting it for the last 5 months. We kept saying it was too expensive, we wouldn't really use them, it's too far away (just over 1 hour), it would get old, etc. However, yesterday we took the pludge and decided to just do it. For those of you not familiar with Disneyland's annual passes, there are several levels you can get. There is a pass that just gets you in weekdays (no holidays or weekends or busy periods). That would never work for us because Rob doesn't get any time off. We ended up getting the big kahuna...The Premium Pass. We can get in 365 days a year. I think we just might go on Christmas.

So, we left our house around 11am and didn't get home until 11:30pm! We had sooooo much fun. This is going to be a great family thing to do down here. The kids were happy and sparkeled the whole time. They did all fall asleep around 8:30, but I really insisted we stay until the fireworks started at 9:30. Then after the fireworks those Disney folks actually made it snow in California! It was really bubbles, but the way the lighting was it appeared as if it was snowing in the streets of Disney. Pure magic. Amy and Scott (Rob's sister and ahem...what do we call you, fiancee?) have passes too and they joined us. It was so fun to be with them and boy does it make parenting easier when it's 4 adults to 3 children. We are going again with them on Friday and we are sooo looking forward to it.

If any of you are visiting So Cal and want to hit Disney, just give us a ring. If you have season passes and want to go, even better. We'd love to go with y'all!

Whining advice

Okay all you moms that read my blog...I need some advice. How do you deal with whining? It drives me nuts and Ben is the biggest whiner ever. I know that he does it because he must be getting a reaction out of me, but how do I stop it (or at least lessen it significantly?) He is just loud and passionate by nature, but it's driving me nutty. Any advice, PLEASE???

Knott's Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm is free to the military until Thanksgiving so we decided to take them up on their generosity and visit the amusement park. We had a blast! It's about 1 1/2 hours away and way cooler than Legoland. I wish we would have bought our season passes here instead of there. There were awesome thrill rides for the kiddos...even Isabella could go on everything (albeit barely). She loved the excitement. We had such a fun day...thanks Knott's Berry Farm!