Blast Off

On Wednesday, after a very lazy morning, most of the Crapo clan went to the Air and Space Museum. I was planning on staying home with my kiddos but at the last minute Cute Girl got permission to go. Handsome Face was soooooo sad that he had to stay home and take a nap. But boy did he need it. He slept all afternoon.

This one is my absolute favorite!

While they were away, my sweet mother-in-law Karen helped clean up the kitchen and even went out for the last minute groceries (my fridge just won't hold enough food for 17 people for a week). I decided to get the dinner going. The Rocket Scientist was supposed to be in charge of homemade bread and coq au vin for dinner but I knew that if I waited until he got home we wouldn't be eating until 10pm! And it's a good thing I started too, because in true Neil Crapo Thanksgiving fashion, he injured himself the moment he came home. In some weird freak accident, a sliver of metal from his belt buckle pierced his nail and became embedded in his nail bed. Ouch. He spent the rest of the night trying to get it out while I made his fancy dinner and peeled the apples for his pie, a tradition that started on our second Thanksgiving. He has seriously been injured EVERY holiday since then, although it's usually happened during the Turkey Bowl. Next year he can plan on making spaghetti and a frozen pie because I'm done!!!

Another Tree

The day before Grandma and Grandpa left we let the kids decorate their own little tree. It has all their own ornaments on it. Seeing as they haven't been alive but six years in total, it didn't take too long. Supposedly they get to keep it upstairs by their rooms but everyday I find ornaments all over the place so I think it might soon make its way to the family room.

The little tree is from my childhood. We had a tiny tree we would keep upstairs in our one giant bedroom. It was fun having a little bit of Christmas to sleep by.

Christmas In St. Louis

We were hoping for snow (at least Cute Girl was) but it wasn't meant to be. We did, however, find a carousel that she enjoyed very much. This is her second ride with her grandmother.Christmas morning was tons of fun. But neither of the kids liked waiting while all fifteen adults opened their presents before they could open another one. I think next year we'll just let the kids open them and be done. We weren't even half-way through before Handsome Face was done. He would scream every time we tried to give him a new present. After the Rocket Scientist opened a gift card box consisting of two blocks of wood screwed together with a screwdriver he would only play with the wood. Silly boy. They both got light sabers in their stockings. Cute Girl already lost hers at G'ma Shoaf's. Handsome Face pushes his along the floor and makes vacuum noises.

I think this picture is funny because we both have our eyes closed.

She loved this dress and immediately put it on over her jammie pants.

I love how I'm too lazy to take the red out of his eyes.

She's wearing her dress and her new REI Camelbak-esque backpack. She wore it ALL DAY. Oh, and Dad's helping her learn Spanish.

Yay for new dresses! From Shabby Apple no less.

The Max shirts. What could be better?

The Pre-Christmas

I forgot about our Christmas at home pictures. We celebrated on the 13th of December so that Cute Girl could ride her new bike. It was fun. Oh, and there aren't any pics of Handsome Face's Lil' People Farm. but he does love it.

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.

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.

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.