Santa Claus

We had our ward party tonight, and it was a lot of fun. There was great food, singing, some showing of talents, and best of all Santa came! The kids were all so excited!

I wondered how my kids would do. The last time Carly took a pic with Santa was a two or 3 years ago, and she wasn't very happy about meeting him at the time. This is Wes' first time meeting the jolly old man, so I figured he'd probably cry and scream.

But surprisingly, both kids did great!

Wes went first. He didn't seem thrilled or anything, but also didn't cry. Success!


Carly went next, and was completely enthralled. She whispered what she wanted and listened to his advice.


Then we had the two of them sit on Santa's lap together. You can tell by this point what they were both most excited about.


Yep, candy cane trumps Santa. Or mom with the camera.

Getting unpacked

Marshall got into the UVU paramedic program, so we moved back down to Provo. He starts in January, but I really didn't want to move in snow, so I begged to move asap. We're renting- who knows how long we'll actually be in Provo, but most likely just a year.

I've had some requests of pics of the new place. So as I get rooms unpacked and clean, I may post some pics on here. We moved 2 weeks ago today, and these pictures were taken on Wednesday. That's some speedy unpacking!

Main floor:

View from the stairway

Looking past the couch into the dining area

Carly trying to be in every picture

Standing by the table looking back at the living room

Vogue

The kitchen (love the pantry!)

Upstairs bathroom:


Downstairs there is a playroom, a guest bedroom, and another bathroom, and our 2 bedrooms are upstairs. So more pictures to come!

First things first

We got the keys to our new place on the 18th, and moved in on the 20th. Those first 2 days were spent prepping the house for our arrival.

What could be so important it would take 2 days of work?

The yard.

We only wanted to rent a place with a yard. It was super important. This place was great- the yard was smallish and manageable, and completely fenced. But the yard itself was an overgrown garden. Peppers, strawberries, pumpkins. And lots and lots of weeds.

I wanted a lawn.

Luckily, the yard is smallish (meaning tiny), so landscaping was reasonable.

We spent the first day (and by we I clearly mean Marshall) ripping out all the old foilage. And raking the 2 inch layer of dead leaves. Then we rented a landscaping rake and put down a bunch of topsoil and fertilizer.


The next day we drove to the sod place. I called a bunch of sod farmers and found that the general consensus is that fall is a great time to lay sod. Even in Utah. So we bought our 200 square feet of sod, and loaded it into the back of the minivan. Yeah, we're cheap like that. We at least put down a tarp first.

The van was sooo low. Like trailer hitch 3 inches off the ground low. We took the drive from Orem to south Provo at like 20 miles an hour with the hazards on. All the other drivers on State Street loved that.

When we got home, Marshall did a great job laying all the sod. Russ stopped by to lend a hand. What a great team!


And in the end, wah lah! A green, grassy yard. And it was amazingly cheap, too. The sod was only 40 bucks.


2 weeks later, we had our first good snow, and this is what Marsh and Carly managed on Sunday after church. The face is m&m's, hence the weird bleeding appearance.


Yay for a yard!!

Birth Control

You thought you wanted (more) kids? Take a while to really make sure. Babies are cute and all, but at some point they reach the age where they can be willfully bad.

And by bad, I mean evil.
And by evil I mean horribly destructive.

Proof:


Yes, yes, this is the work of my 3.5 year old. The 3.5 year old who knows better. Who REALLY knows better. This wasn't just innocent examination. Not just curiosity.

No, no. This is willful destruction.

QUICK willful destruction. I was only out of the room a couple minutes. And I came back to a near empty keyboard and a pile of keys. As I rounded the corner, she was frantic to claw off as many as she could before I came down on her in my wrath.

I considered for a minute just scrapping the computer entirely. I mean, HOW do you come back from something like that??!! I have put a key or two back before. But 37?? I figured the computer had been rendered useless, and was really really sad I had decided last week that we could last until next black Friday before needing another laptop.

The best part (and strongest proof she's willfully bad), is that when I asked her why she did it her response was "I didn't! Wesley did!" Umm, no he didn't. He was locked in his high chair.

A half hour later, and after some yelling and kid-thrown-in-rooming (hey, I'm not perfect), I was feeling much better.

I did have to sacrifice two keys for the cause though. Which two would you have chosen? I choose the [ and ] keys. I mean, really, how often do you use those? It's not like I sit here doing algebra on my laptop. My emoticon options got a bit slimmer, but at least I can type sentences.

Welcome back, computer! Goodbye desire to ever reproduce ever again!

The best week of Carly's life

Earlier this month, Carly had quite the week. First, on November 9th, she got to go to Yo Gabba Gabba Live. The tickets were purchased months ago and mom and dad waited in anticipation. The day finally came, and Carly didn't fully grasp why we were so giddy with excitement.

We got to the stadium and she took a while to warm up. She didn't quite understand what we meant when we told her that she was actually going to see the Gabbas in person.

But then the show started, and whoa! did she suddenly understand! It was a room full of dancing, singing parents and toddlers. And Carly was in love. At one point, after the intermission, the Gabbas came out onto the floor seating area, and Toodee gave Carly a high five. She continued on to the stage, and Carly was scrambling over the chairs trying to follow heryelling "I'm coming Toodee!!"

We all loved the party in my tummy number.

Daddy was really excited about Reel Big Fish.

And mommy was impressed to see Biz Markie in person for Biz's Beat of the Day.

Awesome concert!

And just when the week couldn't get any better, Daddy scored some cheap tickets to Disney on Ice. This time, Carly knew how to be appropriately excited from the beginning. Lights! Ice skating! Princesses! The perfect daddy-daughter date.

I'd say it was her best week ever.

Repeat offenders

Once again my wallet started getting a little thin. I had no idea that the hallway vent was going to be a daily problem.


This time it was 100% Wes. I caught him in the act, and chased him down the hall. He dove for the vent, card in hand, as I chased. He was sooo sad when I tackled him and took the goods away. When I got the vent open, I have to say I was impressed. He is getting quicker and sneakier!

And Carly's artistic abilities are really blossoming lately. She loves drawing people, and sometimes monsters. Mostly her drawings have been limited to paper, but the other day she surprised me when I visited the bathroom.


She came in and proudly explained to me that it was a giant, holding a flower, standing on grass next to a tree. And there is a sun and some clouds in the sky. She used 3 colors, and even 'framed' it herself! We left it up this last week to enjoy because we have to scour the walls next week before moving anyway. I can't wait to see what the next draw will be in our new home.

Happy Halloween!

We live in Utah, and it's no secret Utah has its own little culture. So Halloween was Saturday here. Unfortunately, Saturday it was raining, and I didn't dare bring my expensive camera out in the downpour to get pictures of trick-or-treating in the act. Luckily we took the kids to trick-or-treat at BYU on Friday, so we have some pictures of our monkeys in costume.

BYU hosts a trick-or-treat activity at the Marriott Center where the kids can meet the collegiate athletes. The kids got to meet the men's volleyball team, the swim team, golf team, women's gymnasts and a few others I can't remember. It was a lot of fun.

Carly was helping Wes by holding his pumpkin bucket for him. Then she got the genius idea to take his unguarded candy. So a piece of candy would be put into each pumpkin, and she'd quickly take his out and put it into hers. What a greedy monster!

The best part was Marshall chasing Wes down the corridors. It was a giant banana chasing a shrieking little monkey, and we got quite a few laughs from the other parents.

After the trick-or-treating, we enjoyed the BYU basketball team's first game of the season.

My 3 favorite people.

Saturday, we went to Star's house for a very scary dinner. We were treated with ghoulish dishes prepared by Star and Russ, including fingers, mummy toes, pumpkin wraps, bones (rolls), swamp water, and a very scary (and delish) risotto.

Then we took our brood into the rain to trick-or-treat Star's neighborhood. Unfortunately, the storm put a damper on the Halloween spirit, and many houses did not have candy or no one answered. Too bad.

We still had a lovely Halloween weekend.