LOVEly Christmas Memories 2009...

*** I LOVE the movie "A Christmas Story", it's just one laugh after another. I was even given the "Christmas Story" version of Monopoly for Christmas last year, and we have enjoyed playing it with Jackson this season. One of the most memorable parts of the movie is when Ralphie receives homemade pink bunny pajamas from his Aunt Clara on Christmas Day, and his mother begs him to try them on. Poor Ralphie is already crushed that he didn't receive his Red Rider Bebe Gun (yet), and having to wear the humiliating pajamas only adds insult to his already broken heart. Anyway, my 6'6 brother Caleb, has been joking around for years about finding a pair of one piece pajamas that would fit him. This Christmas, his wish finally came true. Our brother Andrew found pink bunny pajamas (bunny ears and all) not only for Caleb, but for his wife Lauren as well. It was hilarious to watch him open the present and hear him say "Oh, I think this one is for Lauren!" It was even more funny to see them wear the pajamas together! They were such good sports, and I have to say that will definitely be a lasting Christmas memory from this year!


*** James got me a gift certificate to Elase (medical spa specializing in hair removal). Of course any girl would LOVE this gift, but what is so special about it is that I didn't ask James for it, or even throw any hints his way. He thought of it all by himself and was excited to give it to me. He wrapped it up in a very odd package with a false bottom, so at first I thought nothing was really in the package! That was his favorite part!

*** I LOVE how we got Jackson and Paul exactly what they asked for, and so did my parents, but their favorite gifts were from Uncle Andrew - they always are. They have loved playing with their finger board ramp and lazer tag set! Who would have known... Uncle Andrew!

*** We went shopping for Jackson's skateboard shortly after Thanksgiving, and I had to beg James to try out the different boards to see which one would be most suitable. He reluctantly rode on a couple before he ressurrected some nostalgic childhood feelings about the fun of skateboards, and I asked him if he wanted one for Christmas. He immediately said "NO", as if it were a silly question, then 20 minutes later (as if he had been deeply p0ndering), he said "maybe I do want a skateboard for Christmas!". So, my parents bought him one, and I got him a Tony Hawk skater jacket :) I just thought it would be fun for when he went to the skate park with Jackson, but he has worn that jacket everyday since Christmas! He already has a pair of Vans, so he is all set. He may be the only 33 year old dad out there with his son - I LOVE it!

*** I LOVE the bar stools my mom bought for our kitchen. They go perfectly with our kitchen, and I LOVE that I didn't have to shop for them! The boys love eating at the bar now, and it's so much easier to clean up after mealtime!

*** I LOVE that I won the game of Settlers both times we played over Christmas - Lauren doesn't though! (This will be the test to see if anyone in my family will acutally read this ridiculously long post, it's my journal though!) Just teasing Lauren, I love your competitive gaming spirit! I'll never beat you in Ticket to Ride!

*** I LOVE that Caleb insisted that we have Asparagus Souffle, and about 3/4 of it has been sitting in my refrigerator for a almost a week now! Come up and eat it :)

*** I LOVE how excited Luke and Andrea are about being pregnant. Luke bought Andrea the cutest maternity clothes that grow with you through pregnancy, and she is already wearing them because she likes them so much!

*** I LOVE that Jackson and Paul tell me at least once a day that Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas! I'm so thankful that they have been taught that, and I hope they can always remember it!

Christmas Slide Show...

Weekend Getaway...

This past weekend, James and I were able to have a fun break from the kids. My dad gave each of my married brothers, and us, a free hotel room stay, and he and my mom watched the kids for us. We swam with the kids in the nice warm indoor pool before we sent them off though. I think they will be talking about it for months! I found it very humerus that my brothers both seemed disappointed that we weren't keeping the kids with us! Parenthood might be very eye opening for them :)

We had a fun triple date to Johnny Carino's (my favorite Italian Restaurant!) with Caleb and Lauren, Luke and Andrea. Then we did some shopping - fun girl shopping at DSW and Nordstrom Rack. I had James try on the most ridiculous looking coat at the Rack, and we tried to snap a picture before he took it off, but he wouldn't have it! We stayed up late playing Ticket to Ride and eating yummy treats from the gift basket my mom put together for us. It was so fun to just have a break in the midst of all the holiday bussiness and play with some of my most favorite people in the whole world! The kids LOVED spending the weekend at their grandparents house of course. They decorated sugar cookies for us, and we shared In'N'Out with everyone when we went to pick up the kids. Too bad every weekend can't be like that!

Much Awaited News!!!!!!!!!!!

I can finally announce...I'm going to be an aunt!!!!!!! My youngest brother Luke, and his wife Andrea, are expecting their first baby this July! I have waited for so long for this to happen that I can hardly even believe that it is happening! I'm so excited to have cousins on my side of the family, and I'm so excited to watch Luke and Andrea experience the joys of parenthood. They are going to be amazing parents, and they are going to have one very loved baby! We are SOOOO excited for you two!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

We attended Paul's "Breakfast With Santa" at preschool this past week, and I was so proud of my kids for actually sitting on Santa's lap! It seems silly, but there were only a few preschool kids that would go anywhere near Santa! Breakfast was actually served without Santa, because the majority of preschoolers wouldn't go to the table with him there.

Paul wants a toy laptop computer from Santa this year. After reading many reviews and weighing out the options, I just decided to get a cheap computer without a full screen. At Costco yesterday as we strolled down the toy section, Paul pointed out a Star Wars computer and said that's what he wanted. I took a look and told him that I would pass on his request to Santa. I "sneaked" back over and put one of the computers on the bottom of the cart, sure that it would be hidden since he was riding at the top of the cart, and my main bin was full of groceries. At the checkout counter, I hid the computer under our food, and requested that it remain hidden and put underneath the cart again. The cashier very covertly slipped it under the cart, and Paul seemed oblivious to my secret operation. I again took great care to hide it in the back of the van. During our drive home, Paul asked me if he could play with his new computer when we got home! I was flabbergasted! I convinced him that I hadn't bought a computer and I didn't know what he was talking about! Then when we got home, I left him strapped into the car, and quickly folded up the computer in my jacket to hide it inside. My little stinker got inside, and asked me where I hid his computer! I told him he was crazy, and he said "Sarah, I saw you bring that computer inside!"

Later that night after the kids were in bed, I pulled out the computer to get James's approval. He was so excited about it (the perfect toy for a Star Wars computer geek), that he immediately opened it and set off the Star Wars theme music! I told him he had better run to another room so we didn't have to hear "Sarah, I want my computer. I heard you and J-dog playing with it last night!" Thank goodness, Paul hasn't mentioned it. Even though I was soooo careful, I think I ruined his Santa surprise!

Thanksgiving Vacation...

Regrettably, I failed to recharge my camera battery before heading up to my parent's house for Thanksgiving, and I didn't get any of my own pictures. My parent's took plenty, so I will have to get those and add them in sometime. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast prepared mostly by my mom, served on china in her fancy dining room. The day before, when she started to prepare the food, my mom called and told me not to pack up yet because her oven broke! They headed out right away to buy a new one, and luckily everything worked out and they ended up with a very nice oven that did the job! It was great to have the whole family there to play games and just visit and relax.

I have been meaning to write about what happened while I was gone celebrating my b-day with friends 1 1/2 weeks ago! After being gone for about 10 minutes, James called to inform me that the boys had, again, pulled every last thing out of their closet to form a "dam" to block the door. When he got through the door, he discovered that they had been using an ink roller to basically paint the bedroom! There were ink hand prints on everything, several articles of clothing ruined, and a couple spots on the carpet that are still discolored after attempting to rid them of ink! I had no idea that the ink roller was packed up in a box that hadn't been opened since we moved into this house. We were sooooo frustrated. Of course, we asked them why they would make such a horrible mess, and we got the usual answer of "we don't know"! UGGGGGGG!

Paul didn't learn his lesson. He found a black Sharpie at my parent's house and decided to write all over her newly painted (I'm talking a few weeks old) bathroom walls. Everything I read online about removing ink ended up taking the paint off anyway, so the wall must be repainted. My mom was a much better sport about the mess than we were!

Our family has 5 birthays from November 3-December 3, so we had one big Birthday Celebration on Saturday. Lauren made this amazing smothered chicken copycat from Outback Steakhouse, we went and had our obligitory "Santa" at the mall picuture, and then played kickball at the park. I would highly suggest playing kickball with your parents - it's very entertaining. My mom explained that the top half of her body wants to run, but the bottom half doesn't get the message. She fell flat on her face laughing during her first run to first base! I hope we play again soon :) I'm looking forward to the upcoming holidays as well - we decorated for Christmas 3 weeks ago!

Happy Birthday to me...

Friday was my birthday, and it turned out to be a great one despite what I woke up to. Paul had used the bathroom in the middle of the night and forgotten to lift up the toilet cover (I'm talking the solid top cover of the toilet!). I began my day in a cleaning frenzy, carefully scrubbing everything in the bathroom! Why is it so hard for boys to keep a bathroom clean????

James and I went out to Tucanos, a very tasty Brazilian Grill, and it was sooo nice of Luke and Andrea to babysit our kids while we went! They are babysitters extraordinaire, and our kids were very entertained by making their own pizza, eating Muddy Buddies, jumping on their mini trampoline, making birthday cards, and watching movies. Speaking of birthday cards, Jackson made me a nice birthday card with a ghost on it and was so excited to hand it to me. He proudly pointed out the fact that the ghost was anatomically correct by exclaiming "Look, the ghost has a wiener!", very matter-of-fact like! James and I were so embarrassed! I guess it's a five year old thing? At least he wasn't in Kindergarten when he drew that!

To my great surprise, James got me exactly what I have been wanting: the meat grinder and pasta attachments for my Bosch. (You have to have the meat grinder to make pasta, I doubt I will actually use if for grinding up my own meat!) We made homemade tomato pasta on Saturday, and it was awesome. James even liked using the machine to make the pasta, despite the fact that he has made fun of my Bosch ever since I bought it! I think he is finally realizing how cool it is, and I can feel some budding enthusiasm from him!

Saturday night, Maryann invited some of our friends to go out to Zuppas for dinner to celebrate, and it was a blast. I was laughing so hard that I cried - but I won't share those funny stories on my blog! I am lucky to have such good friends who share the same interests. I feel so blessed to enjoy good health, a wonderful husband, adorable children, and a very supportive and loving extended family. It seems like life just keeps getting better and I can't be too unhappy about being one year older!

My Little Busy "Buddy"...

If you ever want to know some one's name or where they are, ask Paul. He keeps tabs on everyone - even people he has only heard about. Last week he gave James a sticker and told him to give it to his co-worker Eric ( and James promised, so he had to do it!). He must have been listening to our conversations we have each evening when James gets home from work! Who knew. Paul has never met any of James's co-workers, but he knows them by name. At the bus stop, Paul knows all of the kids' names and will ask me why one missed the bus, or where they all live. I have a couple of friend's named Tammy, and a couple named Amy. He will ask if we are going to Tammy Fontana's house, or Tammy Brooksbys's house etc. He has to carry his backpack to the bus stop just like Jackson, do homework just like Jackson, and recite patterns in the car (non stop) like Jackson! Alanna loves to do everything her brothers do too. I'm soooo looking forward to when she talks more and can ask me a million repetitive questions like both of her brothers too! :)

More than Meets the Eye...

Jackson has been obsessed with Transformers for a while now. He's got a Transformers backpack, wallet, toys, and I was relieved that he didn't want to be one for Halloween (how would I turn him into a Transformer?)! Anyway, this morning, he said "Sarah, if Optimus Prime went to church, we would have to call him Brother Prime. His first name is Optimus, and his last name is Prime." It's so funny to learn of the thought processes our kids have! Jackson amazes us with his intelligence , and he really is "more than meets the eye"!

Celebrating 33 Years!!!!

J-dog's birthday was this past week, and I can't believe I am married to a 33 year old! Time just flies when you are having so much fun :) His parent's were in town, so last Saturday we had a combined birthday celebration for James and his dad. We started off by going to Buca di Beppo, a really fun Italian restaurant. We sat at a huge round table with the Pope's head in the middle (encased in glass), as the centerpiece. The bathrooms are especially entertaining as they are adorned with old magazine clippings like this one about what to do when "Someone Has Soiled the Air!" (I should have turned my flash off, but you get the idea!) I had fun taking pictures of all of the frames in the girl's bathroom so I could share them with James.


The restaurant is also filled with Italian artwork like this statue of the little boy relieving himself. This picture of our boys is a bit embarrassing, but all I asked them to do was to stand by the statue for a picture. They did the imitation all on their own!

After lunch, we went to James's sister's house for
cake and presents. James got his favorite - ice cream cake! He has been quite traumatized from a childhood incident when his mom refused to buy him a "Head" brand school bag, and instead bought him a cheaper version which had a "Flash" emblem across it. James said he was made fun of incessantly for carrying the "Flash" bag, and consequently, he says our kids are going to have whatever backpack, shoes clothes, etc. that they deem as being the cool thing to have! Anyway, I suggested to his parent's that they get him a Head bag for work, since his current Lockheed Martin bag has seen better days. They continued the joke and wrote "Flash" across the new bag. James got a kick out of it!

Melissa gave James back his much loved sock monkey that his Aunt Maurine made for him when he was a baby. He had made a Marionette puppet out of it, and Melissa found it in a box and presented it to James along with a new sock monkey. Our kids have become very attached to cuddling and playing with the sock monkeys now. It's a good thing there are two of them! It's so fun to live close to both sides of the family now and get to spend special days like this with them!

Week of Halloween Festivities...

What a BUSY week! We had a ward playgroup party on Wednesday morning where we played some really fun games and passed out candy. Then Paul had his preschool party where they made "Witches Stew" out of: ghost belly buttons (marshmallows), dried up chicken legs (stick pretzels) ,rat eyeballs (whoppers), Dragon Hearts (Nips), gummy worms, wrinkly beetles (raisins), and you get the idea! Goblin juice (Capri Sun) was also served, and one preschooler was adamantly opposed to having the stuff anywhere near him. His mom said he actually loves Capri Sun, but the term "Goblin Juice" must have really grossed him out! Jackson had a costume parade at school on Friday, and then different centers with Halloween games. Then, he attended Preston's costume Birthday party that afternoon. At each of these activities, my kids consumed more candy than they normally do in an entire week! My mom had also stopped by with a huge canister of Nerds for each of the boys as her Halloween treat to them! Paul was literally on his bouncy ball bouncing off the walls!
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Leslie joined us for Trick-or-Treating since they were in town this year. Jackson was a knight, and Paul was a cute little monkey. Paul said to me "Sarah, everyone LOVES my monkey costume! I am such a cute monkey!" Our neighborhood goes all out with a few haunted houses, spooky decorations, and one house even set up an outdoor movie screen with popcorn and treats. The boys were so excited to get home and eat their candy, that they were done after a couple of streets! They really enjoyed passing out candy for Trick-or-Treaters though. Paul would hold the bowl out and say "Please help yourself". Every time the doorbell rang, all three of the kids would run down the hallway screaming towards the front door.
It seemed like Alanna totally got Halloween this year. She snatched this Tootsie Pop from our house before we even began, and she continued to try to snatch candy from her bucket while we were Trick-or-Treating. Of course, she dressed as Tinkerbell with warm layers on. I have to say we really lucked out with the weather this year - it was unseasonably warm and perfect for being outside!

Amazing Jack'o'lanterns!!!!

My family gets really into pumpkin carving each Halloween. Since my brothers are all amazing artists, and I didn't get an ounce of that talent in the gene pool, we are lucky to have them around to entertain us with their skills! I'm hoping that my kids get some inspiration from their uncles to be creative and love art.













Of course, we had to have a Barack Obama pumpkin for Paul - created and carved by Caleb. Luke carved the spooky melting looking face. Andrew drew the haunted forest design and Amory carved it.









Andrew also designed and carved the skull like pumpkin. My dad carved his traditional pumpkin with a jig saw. It's a bit of a self portrait with the big bushy eyebrows!


James did the "Dark Night" pumpkin, and neglected to take the guts out - pretty typical! Another reason why our kids need some artistic influence! He got made fun of and laughed at quite a bit for that. Andrea carved the witch on a broom that looks really cool all lit up because there are stars all over the "sky".

We had a pie eating contest where the contestants were blind folded and could not use their hands. Caleb was so sure he was going to win, but Andrew turned out to be the biggest pig! I love how he is showing off his thumb for the picture too. He's got one of those rare hammer thumbs (which Megan Fox has as well- check it out Andrew). Our brother Paul once met a cashier who had hammer thumbs as well, and he got her number for Andrew. He was sure it was a match made in heaven!


Amory wins for the messiest pie eating contestant! She had to wash her face time and again to get all of that sticky off! What a great sport!












We had a donut on a string contest which was ruined by a when a certain party pooper (whose name starts with a J and end with a dog!) decided to shake the PVC pipe like crazy which made all of the donuts break and fall! I guess the important part is that everyone got to eat a donut!

Odds and Ends...

I was hoping to go to Thanksgiving Point this weekend, but our carpet cleaning and soccer took up the whole day instead. Ugh! Paul had his preschool field trip to the same pumpkin patch that we have hit twice a year since we have lived here. The kids love it though. That morning, I went to my cardio class while James stayed home with the kids, and he told me he would get them ready. That was very nice, but I should have known to set out their clothes, especially since I took so many pictures of them at the pumpkin patch! Jackson was in mismatched clothes, Paul was wearing jeans he has outgrown, and the same shirt he had worn the previous day (peanut butter smears and all), and Alanna was dressed in a sweat suit sized 6-9 months!

The boys loved running up and down the rows of pumpkins, and Alanna tried to keep up with them the best she could. Little Miss Independent would not let me help her up when she fell, and she definitely wasn't in the mood to stop and
pose for any pictures!

































Alanna vs. the Love Sac



















My parents just returned from a trip to San Francisco, where the saw Wicked (so jealous!), and they brought us some Belly Flops from the Jelly Belly Factory. We went there frequently growing up, and we always loved the tour at the factory and tasting all the different bean flavors. Now they make "Bean Boozled" Jelly Beans, which flavors include: Baby Wipes, Skunk Spray, Boogers, Canned Dog Food, Pencil Shavings, Moldy Cheese, and Barf! They are disguised to look like the good flavors, so you don't really know what you are about to eat!

My Itty Bitty...

We recently read a book about a little girl mouse, named Itty Bitty, who wants to do EVERYTHING her big brother does, and even sneaks out of her house to follow him to school one day. I think Itty Bitty is a fitting name for our little Alanna, since she has many of the same characteristics of the little mouse we read about! Today was her 15 month check up, and she weighed in at 19.4 lbs (5%), and is 30.12" (38%). The nurse had to take her height measurement twice since Alanna was so wiggly, so I am hoping it wasn't accurate! It would be nice if she were a little taller than average :) The Dr. isn't at all worried about her weight, she observed that Alanna is a very active toddler as she was climbing up everything in sight during her exam. We just tend to have very chunky babies until they hit 1 year old, and then get get really skinny. I had to laugh when the Dr. asked me if Alanna is a laid back baby, or the feisty kind. I would definitely put her into the "feisty" category! With two older brothers, she just has to be as a means of survival. We don't ever have to wonder how Alanna is feeling - she'll let us know with her squeals of laughter, or her shrieks of annoyance! It's so much fun to watch her interact with her brothers and Pyper. She wants to be so big and is growing up too fast!

I have to add that the picture of her on the red trailer is a perfect example of her feisty attitude! She got up on there by herself when we were at the pumpkin patch, and she decided she was queen of that trailer. Other kids were trying to get on, and she was pushing them off with her hands, and telling them off with her mouth! I finally had to pry her loose, and she had a major melt down! What a stubborn little girl! We love her so much!