Let the fun begin!

We're in St. Louis! Yay for being on Christmas vacation. We were supposed to be here last night but Las Vegas was snowed in and everything was grounded so we had to go back home. We risked flying stand-by this morning even though the flight was over-booked by five. We got to the airport at four in the morning (thanks Jennifer!) to be the first ones in line and luckily we made it! Hallelujah!
We had our Christmas last Saturday since we can't take all our presents with us. Cute Girl got a new bike and she is thrilled. She's been getting better at riding it. I'll post pictures as soon as I have high-speed again.
Merry Christmas! I'm off to relax.

On the first day of Christmas...

Tomorrow is our Christmas. Aren't you so jealous? We've just spent the last hour and a half removing packaging, inserting batteries, wrapping, and assembling a stupid bike whose frame was bent. Now you're not so jealous.

Christmas Festivities

Over the course of four days, we made lots of Christmas goodies and delivered them to a few neighbors with Church Christmas DVDs. The kids had fun.

Do you like the frowny-faced snowman? That was Cute Girl's idea. We let her eat it.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

We were going to get a real tree again this year but we were in Utah the weekend after Thanksgiving. By the time we could have purchased and set up a real tree, we would only have had a week and a half to enjoy it before we would have had to take it down and get on an airplane. So we decorated this teeny-tiny thing instead. The kids didn't care.

Handsome Face was particularly pleased with himself everytime he put on an ornament. He loved it more than anyone.

Happy Feet

Just my funny little boy being silly to make you smile today.

Thanksgiving, a week late

First of all I have the most beautiful children in the world.

While in Utah we had some family photos taken here.On our way home from the photo shoot in Nunn's Park, Handsome Face checked out. We drove all the night before and didn't get in until 4:30 in the morning. Then he woke up at 7am. Way too early. Luckily he came into bed with me and slept for awhile longer.Our next stop, lunch at Cafe Rio with Grandma and Grandpa Crapo and assorted aunts/uncles. My kids were hungry. While waiting in line Handsome Face kept trying to escape to other tables so he could steal other people's chips. So we ordered him his own chips, a quesedilla, and gave him some of our enchiladas and burritos. He only ate the chips.

After lunch we went back to Katie and Ryan's apartment where we were staying. They were very kind to let four people overrun their tiny apartment. Handsome Face and I crashed for most of the afternoon. I think Cute Girl fell asleep with her Dad on the couch. I got up when the Rocket Scientist told me that we were going to see the new James Bond movie. My mother-in-law graciously stayed behind to watch the kids.

Dinner that night was at Red Robin. I tried to keep the french fires away from our end of the table but Handsome Face saw them anyway. All he would eat was fries. Notice a pattern developing here? Oh, and I didn't sit in my own chair to eat dinner at a restaurant the entire trip. I was almost always standing, as the chip/fry eating boy always managed to usurp my chair.
Wednesday we went to the temple which was lovely. Then it was back to the apartments for dinner and Thanksgiving prep. Dinner on Thursday was delicious. Although my children didn't think so. At this point, all Handsome Face would eat was pie. Preferably pumpkin pie. And rolls if he really couldn't get to the pie.

Friday morning my sisters-in-law and I went to Jo-Anns to buy some fabric. It didn't even occur to us that the place would be mobbed because of Black Friday. The wait for cutting fabric was close to 200 people I think. Luckily, a woman was deserting as we arrived and she gave us her number. We got great deals on all the fabric we needed though, and I stayed to wait out the line while everyone else moved on to the next stop. All told I think I was at that one store for close to three hours. When we got home everyone needed naps after that harrowing morning. Cute Girl soundly refused however. But later I found this:

Evidently her cartoons weren't fascinating enough.

We left Saturday morning. It took almost 18 hours to get home because we had a blow out in the middle of the desert and AAA was none too helpful. They sent us on a wild goose chase to find 24-hour tire shops that didn't exist.

More funny things from Cute Girl

My friend Rachael posted about making small children eat yesterday, which made me laugh when I read it, but then I had this occur at dinnertime. We had salmon, rice, and green beans. I like to have salmon about once a week to get some of those great fatty acids into my kids. They don't think they're so great. When Cute Girl found out what was for dinner she said she wanted spaghetti instead. Then she started whining and crying, "I want ALL of my dinner to be soooo yummy!" By the end of the night, with the addition of an orange (they had to be circles (aka slices) NOT wedges), Daddy coming home, and Daddy sharing his lemon, she decided that her dinner WAS so yummy. Handsome Face ate his salmon because he REALLY wanted his orange and Daddy was putting it on top of pieces of salmon. He wasn't tricked, and he tried really hard not to let that salmon in, but his desire for oranges won out in the end.

We had things to do after the Rocket Scientist got home so the kids ended up in bed late. Not a big deal I thought. We watched a tv show to unwind and when it was finished an hour later we heard a clink from upstairs signaling Cute Girl's entrance into the bathroom. She was not asleep. The Rocket Scientist checked on her and came back to report that she had gotten cold. Her pajamas came off earlier at bedtime because she hates it when the legs ride up but she decided to put them back on since she was cold. She then went into the bathroom to get some hair clips so that she could clip the bottoms of her pajamas to the tops of her socks. Where does she come up with these things?!

I went back and checked on her later. She had given up on the hair clips because they wouldn't stay. But as we were sitting together in the hall she said, "Maybe if I had some clips to clip the hair clips..." Then in an effort to stall bedtime she started whining about how she didn't know what she should do while she was sleeping. I told her she should sleep while she was sleeping. She smiled at me like I was ridiculous and said, "But those are just the same thing!"

Breakfast Buddies

Too busy to post about our vacation today (but my kids have been angels!) but here's a cutie for you to enjoy. Don't you just want to eat him up?!

Just Life

Right now I'm dancing around the kitchen, slicing apples for my sweet boy. He's swaying back and forth in his high chair. We're listening to Ella Fitzgerald's Jingle Bells. My mostly-sweet girl is on the landing, crying her eyes out and being ridiculous.
We've been busy all morning. First getting ready for the day and playing in the toy room, then going to the park to jump in leaves with our little friends. The living room is almost free of post-vacation debris. Only two major piles of laundry are left. Hopefully everyone will take a good nap so we can catch up on some much-needed sleep.
Hope you're all having a pleasant day. Thanksgiving updates to come

We're in Utah!!!

Yay for being out of the car! Yesterday was crazy. At 8am I hosted a baby shower for a woman in my neighborhood mommies group. Crazy, I know, but the woman who was supposed to host it couldn't anymore and my house was the only one big enough. But now my house is really clean, since I've been scrubbing it for a week. Originally it was all going to be fine, because we were supposed to leave for Thanksgiving today, but then the Rocket Scientist weaseled his way out of work so we could leave on Monday. It made for a very busy day.
But we're here! And now we get to have fun.

As if one wasn't enough

Engineers are taking over my house.

DIY Staircase

I have all the step stools put up so my kids can't get into anything (like the scissors/glue/paper/stickers on top of the dryer). When I came downstairs from cleaning I found this in the laundry room. When I asked Cute Girl what she had been doing she said she needed to build her own step stool. She's only three. Genius shouldn't kick in that early.

(Her dad was impressed with the little interlocking flip-flop "units." There's an engineer in the making.)

What a funny kid

Vocab

This little cutie had two new words today: baby and Jesus. How sweet are those?

And isn't he just so absolutely handsome?! (Despite the fact that the lighting is awful.)

Faces

The top three are from a mouthful of pomegranate

Handsome Face

This is the face I usually get when I pull out the camera.

We were trying to get him to fold his arms so I could take a picture but that translated into putting his fingers in his mouth.

I don't know why he was in there but it was cute.

Love'ns

Sometimes they really can be just adorable.

Almost as good as Mary Poppins

She washed my dishes while I looked for treasures on Craig's List. She's actually pretty good. And it entertained her for almost an hour. Who knew child entertainment could be so cheap?

My life has become crazy busy. Strange, as I stay at home with my children and have no car. But about a month ago a mother's group was organized in the neighborhood. It's been so fun. We have playdates at one of the neighborhood playgrounds almost daily. And every other Wednesday we have a picnic. The kids and I have loved it. The kids have friends and Cute Girl is really coming out of her shell. They're also getting tons of exercise. Speaking of, I am too. Half the moms go running/walking in the morning and even though we don't plan it, we run into each other most of the time and then we end up spending the whole morning together. But it eats up all my free time. Hence I don't ever blog anymore. Maybe I'll get better. We'll see.

But here are some pictures from the past few weeks.The Rocket Scientist's Apple Pie

How he puts shoes onStealing Dad's Cheerios because his aren't good enough

Halloween Recap

I have much to update on - things have just been crazy around here. There's just no time for anything. But here's a quick something on Halloween. We met up in the park with other neighborhood kids for some trick-or-treating. The little girl next to Handsome Face is Cute Girl's age. She has cerebral palsy and is the sweetest little thing. We love seeing her at playgroup. She's working on her speech and always comes up to me with a huge "HI MOMMY!"

My ghosty window.
The Rocket Scientist's Peeping Tom.

And here are the cowboy and hummingbird. They were a bit dissheveled by the end of the night. Cute Girl got to pass out candy while we were putting on pajamas. She loved it. And no one wanted to go to bed for fear of missing out on all the action. It took an hour for them all to settle down.