Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

 

Reflections 2014: The World Would Be A Better Place If...

 

...parents didn't brag about their kids so much?

 

Probably. But winning 3 years out of 3 years?! That's a pretty big deal, Miss Kate! Well done, Sissy!

Halloween

Our Star Wars costumes…

This was planned for a year now. The baby was supposed to be Yoda, but well, baby didn’t come as soon as anticipated. Nevertheless, we showed up at our Ward Halloween Party and conquered. We took home an award for our second year in a row, which is all Kate dreamt of. Cole got to go through the spook alley several times, which is all he dreamt of. And I even managed to steal the Best Soup Award, which is all I dreamt of (jk).

Halloween went great too. Dave had the day off and was able to come with Cole and me to Sissy’s school parade. I later went and helped out at her party, and then in the evening was trick-or-treating. It was our most successful year ever! We served up fresh movie-theater popcorn and had 253 trick-or-treaters; a new record! Others in our neighborhood mixed things up too. There was a soup sampler, hot dogs, homemade doughnuts, cotton candy, hot apple cider, and a haunted house all at different houses throughout our ward. It was a pretty great night!

Fall Break

That long drive! That long drive I’ve done a hundred times before and swore I’d never do it again after leaving Dental School…we did that drive! Utah to California and back to Utah all within a few days. And we survived!

Grandma Sherrie wrapped up presents for the kids, which was a throwback to my childhood, and a fun time-passer for the kids. We left Wednesday evening, rolled into Vegas late that evening, slept at the Luxor, and then made the final stretch Thursday morning. Whew! We drove straight to Universal Studios that day. This was our first time back since Dave graduated so I think it’s been 8 whole years! Cole loves watching YouTube videos of the Jurassic Park ride, and Jaws, so it was time to get him there to see it in person.

Monsters

The new Harry Potter Land under construction:

Nearly every ride there these days requires 3D glasses, which if you know me, is like my LEAST favorite thing. So I was kind of bummed about that. But we did see more filming on the Back Lot Tour than ever before so that was pretty cool. Anyway, after a long day, we left the park and headed to Pasadena for dinner. We got to drive right through the center of L.A., which is always the biggest treat for me! I just love that skyline! We got to Houston’s for dinner; found that it was a 2 hour wait, so instead, hit the relocated El Cholo with no wait time. With a quick drive-by past the old love nest, we headed to Anaheim to check in at the Ayres Hotel Orange.

The whole troop at dinner

The next day was Friday. We had tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland, which didn’t start till 4pm. We drove out to Huntington Beach during the day to play there. The kids had a blast! They collected seashells, built a mermaid sand sculpture (with a little help from the mom), and giggled about Cole’s shorts filling up with air as they played in the water! Meanwhile, Sherrie, Lyle, and Mike walked the pier and watched the fishermen, as well as the dolphins playing below. It was a great way to spend the morning!

And finally…4pm rolled around! Kate dressed as Glinda, but forgot her crown in the car (the crown I hand-crafted myself and spent probably a whole hour constructing…boo), and Cole was SpiderMan. Dave and I failed yet again at dressing up!

Uncle Steve and his family were at Disneyland too. We parted ways with my fam for a few hours to get some riding in with Steve’s fam.

Us with Steve’s fam riding the Jungle Cruise

It was a fun night and I think my parents enjoyed Trick or Treating more than anyone else there! We stayed till closing at midnight, which made for two very sleepy children:

Our last day there was supposed to be at Legoland. After many hours previously spent in the car, however, we cast a revote and ended up at California Adventure instead. It was a good call. We did all the riding we could want, FINALLY won the race on Radiator Racers, drank some delicious Ghirardelli hot chocolate, and bought souvies for the kids. We ate dinner at Corner Bakery at a mall a couple miles away from Disneyland and called it a day.

With a quick breakfast at the hotel the next morning, we were back on the road and headed for home. A short trip, but very efficient and fun! Not too sure I’ll make that drive again for another 8 years, but it was kinda fun doing it again…and by kinda, I mean, not really;) I think I’d rather fly!!

Cutest Dadgum School Pics Ever!

I mean, there's just no arguing...

Kate 2nd grade

 

Cole PreK (year 2)

 

And while we're posting pics of our little people:

Baby (no name yet) (29 weeks)

 

We had to get a second ultrasound of this guy and this time saw multiple images of his face. Made his Momma cry! It made it so much more real that there's someone actually in there doing all that kicking!!!

 

 

Love these littlest people! So proud of them!





Happy Birthday Cole!

It’s hard to imagine that it’s already been 4 whole years! And even harder to imagine a world without our Bear! Happy birthday, Coley!

We shoot for an every other year friend birthday party, so this year we just celebrated with family. My side of the fam has 4 birthdays in October, so we celebrated those at my mom’s Halloween party. For Dave’s family, he was able to have his Lego Movie-themed party.

The parents were a little lazy and opted out of making a fancy homemade cake this year. Instead we dolled up a Costco cake with Lego candies and figures and called it good. I think Cole was quite happy with it!

 

 

His real birthday was Friday morning. Dad and Sissy had to head to work and school so we opened presents early that morning. Cole and Kate had about 10 minutes to try out Cole’s new Batman walkie talkies which was a fun way to kick off the day.

Next, I gave him a list of places and activities we could conquer for his special day. You know what he opted to do? Visit the free pumpkin patch! Sweet. So here we are at Jaker’s Jack-O-Lanterns! Having never been before, it was a fun adventure. We started in the corn pit, and played for probably 45 minutes; though he could have spent all day there I’m sure.

Here, he climbs the mountain of hay. It was much taller than it looks in the pic. I never thought in a million years he’d be able to reach the top on his own. But he did it in probably 2 minutes!

Victory!!!

We enjoyed seeing the animals (the cutest was a kangaroo), walking through the haunted cave, sliding, riding the wagon, and doing the mazes!

But Cole’s VERY favorite part? Picking out a pumpkin of his very own!!

We stopped by Daddy’s work in Springville since it was just up the road from the patch. Dad let him pick a prize and we spent a few minutes drawing on the chalkboard in the waiting room.

Later that night, Brother chose Benihana for his birthday dinner. Since Cole doesn’t ACTUALLY like food, he chose it based upon what restaurant Kate likes best, and also due to the fact that they serve Ramune’ drinks, which have the glass marble inside.  Oh, and he seems to enjoy the cooking show too so it was probably the best choice he could make.

We spent a little time at City Creek afterwards, where Cole got be spotlighted at the Disney Store there. There was short birthday celebration for him where he got to dance and get a birthday badge.

And last, but not least, the cake (AGAIN). Cole is a firm believer in having cake and candles on your ACTUAL birthday. So we topped off the night with making one more wish where he had his cake and ate it too!

Basement Finish

Long past due, but the “finished” basement is FINALLY just that: FINISHED! Obviously, this was our first time finishing and we learned a thing or two:

1. Expect your promise of an “8 weeks or less finish” job to be at least twice that long.
2. When (multiple) subcontractors are coming to you for payment after you’ve already paid the contractor…be afraid.
3. Never hire a contractor named Doug. It sounds like a nice enough name, but it’s not. I looked it up. Seriously. It means “dwells by the dark stream.” That’s so very accurate for the Doug we had to work with.
4. Never hire Basement Pro. Never.

You do those things, and surely, you’ll have a better experience than we did. The workmanship was just fine and dandy; but EVERYTHING ELSE was an absolute mess! We are just so HAPPY and RELIEVED that we actually got our basement as promised. Ugh!

But on a brighter note, we have since enjoyed every minute of playing with friends and family in our extra space.  What a WONDERFUL thing to have!