Christmas 2009

I have to say that I really enjoyed this Christmas. This is the first Christmas, since we moved away from family, that we didn't travel back to Arizona. We did miss spending time with family but it was so nice to go back to bed after opening gifts. I think our family may have a new tradition.

We spent Christmas Eve with Landon's cousin, Joe Norby, his wife Kristen and their 2 kids. They just live a few blocks away. It's nice to have family away from family. We ate a prime rib dinner and Kristen brought sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and leave out for Santa. The kids also got to open their new jammies. Stupid me, I didn't take pictures of the kids in their jammies that night so you'll have to look at the pictures below to see them.

Christmas morning began at 2am for one child. Karli was up checking her stocking for the goods left by Santa. The rule in our house is you can get up whenever you want and look in your stocking but you can't go in the room where the gifts are until the whole family is up at 7am. I always swore as a kid that whenever my kids got up and wanted to open presents I would just get up and let them. Ha! Doesn't happen. I feel bad now for the times my siblings and I got my parents up at the crack of dawn to open gifts. I didn't realize the amount of prep work that goes into getting ready for Santa to come.

Logan with his new shirt. His favorite gift was his video game, Modern Warfare 2.

Karli with all her loot. Her favorite gift was her new sewing machine. Unfortunately, we already had to take it back. It kept jamming and I couldn't figure it out. Karli wasn't to heart broken because she got to keep the money and is now saving for an Ipod touch.


Madison on her new Skitter car which was also her favorite gift. If you haven't ridden on a Skitter car come try Madison's, but only if you weigh less then 250lbs. It is so fun. Tommy checking out his football cards. His favorite gift was Madden 2010.On the evening of Christmas Joe and Kristen had us over for ham, potatoes and pomegranate salad (Hey Kristen, I still want the recipe for that salad). It was delicious. After playing a few games we headed home to hit the sack. Sadly enough I didn't take any pictures of us enjoying our food with Norby's.

7th Grade Christmas Choir Concert

Karli had a Christmas choir concert in December. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures or video of the concert. Landon went straight from work to the concert and I came just in time to see her perform. I had a Microbiology final exam. When we got home I snapped a picture of her in her choir outfit before she changed. They sang several different Christmas songs. Only thing they bugged me was when they sang what was supposed to be We Wish You a Merry Christmas they changed the words to We Wish You a Happy Holidays. Grrrrrr!!! I guess we don't want to hurt any ones feelings. Whatever!!!

The 7th grade choir, in my opinion, out sung the 8th grade choir. They sounded awesome. Karli is becoming quite the singer. And when did she start looking so grown up?

Tommy's 1st Grade Christmas Program

The whole first grade at Stapleton Elementary did a Christmas program for all the children's parents and family. All the kids had their Sunday best on. For Tommy, he wore better then his Sunday best because I can rarely get him to wear a tie to church.

The kids sang about a dozen Christmas songs. Some of the songs included dancing and hand jives. It was so cute. For those of you that know Tommy then you know there wasn't a dull moment. This kid is a ham.

Tommy with his teacher, Mrs. Nanez.
Tommy with some of his buddies


Tommy being......well......Tommy

If I can figure out how to put video on this blog I will post a song or two for you.

Leader of the Pack

Madison received the Leader of the Pack award. Every month each teacher gets to pick one student in their class to receive this award and Madison was chosen in December. She got to go on stage and have all kinds of nice things said about her. We are so proud of Madison.

Who Kidnapped Santa

I have to say that this was the best ward Christmas party I have ever been to. The whole day I was dreading going to it. Ward parties are always crowded, loud and chaotic. They are usually not very entertaining either. But this one was different. It was so laid back. Each family attending brought a blanket to sit on and for dinner they had 6 foot sub sandwiches.

A sister in our ward wrote a little play about Santa being kidnapped and the ward members tried to figure out who did it. We were all aloud to question the "suspects." They had different ward members dressed up as different characters. Then they would send different families in the ward to different areas of the church building to find Santa and the family would come back with a different character. Each character got to tell where they saw Santa last and plead their case as to how they couldn't have done it. Our family got asked to check the Relief Society room for Santa and we came back with Rudolph.

Ali Lund was an angel

Sandy Vasquez was a Princess

Kay Harper was Rudolph and Connie Greer was Mrs. Claus
Faith Sam was Cindy Lou Who
Rob Reuel was the Grinch and his son Paris was Max (the dog)
Santa was played by a Brother from another ward so I don't know who he was.

Others not pictured: There were 2 elves played by Zach Hadlock and Joseph Tarry

Farewell to an Elder

In December on of our favorite missionaries got transferred out of our ward. Tommy loved Elder Ormstrum because he was always willing to play football with Tommy. We enjoyed having Elder O. over for dinner on several occasions and we're so glad he stopped by to say his goodbyes and take a family picture with Willie Parker.

Steeler Nation - Thank You Hines!

It is good to have a friend who's well connected. Thus is the case with my long time friend Mike Jones. To the kids, they refer to him as Uncle Mike. Mike and I share one significant inseparable connection.....The Steelers. You see, He and I met the first day of school for 6th grade, me wearing a Steeler jacket, and he wearing a smile. Instant friendship.

So the connected part, well it turns out that he has a friend in his ward that owed him a favor. That friend happens to be a manager of celebrity and athlete events. As such, he has a list of well known individuals who owe him favors, one of which, Hines Ward, the NFL's best receiver. You can connect the dots; Hines owes friend of Mike's a favor AND friend owes Mike a favor. Translation = We're going to the MNF Steelers game in Denver!

Well no game would be complete without some creative signage that was designed to capture the attention of ESPN's camera crew. Every Steeler fan knows that John Elway was Big Ben's idol growing up (inspiration for the #7 jersey), therefore the theme of the signage would be: Every Seven Prevails in Denver!

After plans were made, Mike ended up with an extra ticket. Mike graciously offered it up to me to take one of the boys. It was a dilemma but ultimately Tommy had never been to a Steeler game, whereas Logan had. You see, Logan and I went to a 49er v. Steeler MNF game at "The Stick" back in 2003. This time it was to be Tommy's turn.

That little boy was in Football Heaven.....He said "daddy, I've never seen so many Steeler fans in one place"

Here you can see a Dad and Son kicking it in the "Steeler Family Section". That's Brett Keisel's dad behind me. Way cool people.

After the game we took a photo OP with Brett Keisel's mom. He had 2 sacks that night, way to go Brett!

Hungry for some post-game calories, we hit a McDonalds drive through. Tommy was in and out of sleep as he was trying to chew down his burger. Had to take a pic!

While Willie Parker has always been his favorite, Tommy had a once of a lifetime experience with WP's replacement Rashard Mendenhall. After Rashard completed his post-game interview, he ran off the field. There to greet him as he approached the players tunnel????? Tommy with hand stretched out for a brisk high five. Like Mean Joe Green and the young boy in the infamous Coca Cola commercial, they shared a special post-game moment.

Our 2009 Halloween

I say this every year and I will say it again......I am not a fan of Halloween. I am not creative. I can't think of cute, creative ideas for my kids to dress up as. Unlike my sister Hollie who always has cute costumes for her kids, I resort to Party City's cheap, crappy, way overpriced costumes. Halloween stresses me out. It's too much prep work. And the candy.....who needs all that candy. I'm gonna be honest here, I throw half of it away. So there.

The Doctor. This is as creative as I get. Logan made a last minute decision to go trick or treating in our neighborhood with some friends from school. I grabbed my lab coat from Microbiology and VOILA.....a doctor. Notice the extra touch I threw in there....the rubber gloves and blood pressure cuff.

Another last minute trick or treater. Karli was a Fairy Princess, compliments of my friend Ashley. Ashley loaned Karli the wings and the tiara and she even came over and did Karli's hair and makeup. Karli loved it. Thanks Ashley!!!

The She Devil. This costume might be a little fitting considering the fiasco that took place on Halloween. Ashley told Karli she had an extra devil costume that Karli could borrow. Madison was having none of it. Madison said it would be embarrassing to walk around in the same costume as her sister. After a lot of drama Ashley convinced Karli to be a fairy princess. Sheesh!!! I guess Karli's own words came back to bite her in the butt. She is always harping on Madison about not wanting to match her sister.

Willie Parker. Yes, Tommy does have a nicer Steeler jersey than this, but he insisted on being Willie Parker. No amount of coaxing would change his mind. Landon and I wanted him to be Troy Palomalu. I was even gonna get him an afro wig that would hang out the back. That's creative, right?

Logan with his cronies-Ashley and the girls-
Our lovely carved pumpkins-

Family Pictures

So. Cal. October 2009

In October we were fortunate enough to take advantage of cheap flights through Southwest. We took the kids to Southern California.

On the agenda: Disneyland, Sea World, Visit the Warners, Eat, Eat, and Eat.

We flew into LAX and then took a shuttle to get our rental car. While at National we ran into this guy:
Dave Chappelle was seemingly agitated as he walked in and out of the rental car place trying to find a car that would suit his needs. At one point frustrated and at the counter he was standing next to Landon and turned to ask "How are you folks doing?" Landon responded "We're doing well Dave." At that he went about his buisness. Just moments before Landon and I had exchanged texts he trying to convince me that the patron was indeed Dave Chappelle. I couldn't buy in to the fact that a celebrity of his level would be renting a car in LA. I guess I was wrong honey!

Grandma and Grandpa Skinner were able to meet us at Disneyland. It was so much fun spending time with them. Grandpa had to get back for work so they weren't able to go to Sea World with us.

Can you tell how pale Logan is? He just got off the roller coaster, California Screamin'. That ride didn't sit so well with him. We got him a little Sprite and the boy was back in business.

Madison was our little daredevil. She wasn't afraid to go on any of the rides. Her and Grandpa Skinner are getting ready to go on the big swing.

Goofy did something goofy with each of the kids as I was taking the pictures. Grandma Skinner decided to dance with Goofy. Hurry up Grandma your holding up the line.

Goofy tried to hide Tommy's face.

He put Karli's hat on crooked.Oh Snap!!!

We ended up leaving Disneyland early because it got so crowded. As soon as California Adventure closed, Disneyland became a zoo and I was afraid of loosing a child. We headed over to California Pizza Kitchen for some dinner. All the kids, except Logan, fell asleep at the table.

SEA WORLD PICTURES

It was our kids' first time at Sea World. They seemed to enjoy it. Landon on the other hand, not so much. Landon was a trooper though. I had been wanting to take the kids to Sea World for a long time and Landon finally agreed. My friend Sarah and her two kids, Kate and Trevor, met us at Sea World. Aside from over priced crappy food, it was a lot of fun.

Tommy at the entrance to Sea World

Do you see Karli down there? We sat in the splash zone at the Shamu show. Karli is down there trying to keep dry. The funny thing is none of us got wet. The Shamu show is a lot cheesier then I remember it as a kid. Do the Sham Slam!?!

Our family waiting for the seal show to start.

While on our trip, we also saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3-D.