Happy Thanksgiving!

Lyric helping Grandma with the mashed potatoes

Mike doing a little pre-Thanksgiving dinner workout
Ryan doing a little pre-Thanksgiving dinner video game playing
Kristy, patiently waiting for the food to finally be ready!Paxton watching football with Daddy
My dad cutting the turkey
Lyric and Grandma watching the food cook oh so slowly!
Lyric and Paxton with their turkey bones
Paxton tried a little lick!

Today we had Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's. We were short seven family members, but it was still fun. Lots of hard work went into the preparation from my mom and dad. Of all days of the whole year, the oven decided to start acting up! It literally would not go above 260 degrees. It made for a very interesting time of trying to get things cooked thoroughly and in a timely manner! Thank goodness the turkey had a head start before the oven started acting up! My mom bought these rolls that she had on the counter rising all day. We put them in the oven and decided to see if the broiler would help speed up the process a little. Well, next thing we knew, the tops of them were black and the bottoms were doughy! We then put in the yams, and after thirty minutes they looked the same as when we put them in! I had Ryan run to my house and grab my little convection oven. We cooked the yams in that.

Everything turned out very good. My mom had her traditional stuffing that is to die for. I have never tasted stuffing that good in my life! It is a meal in and of itself. After dinner, we had a variety of pies. Paxton tried a smidgen of sweet potatoes for the first time. He was not entirely thrilled! He didn't think too much of them. The day turned out pretty relaxing and casual. Now we have yummy leftovers. Thanksgiving is one of the few meals that I will eat leftovers of!

The Magical Kingdom

Lyric's little bed on the floor!

Mike and Paxton watching TV.

By about 7am, he was so exhausted!

On the tram to Disneyland.

Cheese!
Waiting for Peter Pan.
Lyric on the Carousal.
Mike and Lyric on DumboYummy fingers!

Lyric got to meet and take pictures with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Pocahontas. She doesn't look very excited, but she was just a little shy. In reality, I think she was in amazement that she was actually meeting the Princesses!
Lyric only slept for twenty minutes the whole day! It was right before the parade.

She wanted a Minnie hat with her name on it. She got it and LOVED it!
On Small World
Small World
Lyric in the car on the way home. I looked back and saw this! She was wiped out. She liked wearing her hat with her name in the front!

Mike has this whole Thanksgiving week off. We knew that we wanted to do something fun. We decided on Disneyland. We went this past February and had a really fun time. We thought it would be good to go one last time while Lyric is still free! So, we left Monday evening and stayed in a hotel. Lyric got to sleep around ten, and we got to sleep around 11:30.

Paxton woke up at 4:30 to eat. I figured he'd eat, go back to sleep, and I'd still have a good two hours of sleep before we had to get ready. Well, he had other plans. He acted as though it was 4:30 in the afternoon and did not want to go back to sleep. As Mike, trying to lighten the mood, said, Paxton was just too excited about Disneyland! That excuse might have worked if he were just a little older than four months! By 5:00, Lyric was awake, I have the lightest sleepers in the world! I had visions flashing before me of the most whiney, fit throwing, meltdown day! At 6:15, after no success, we figured we might as well get ready and go!

As we were getting off of the tram to enter the park, a man came up to us. He asked us if we already had our tickets. We told him no. Long story short, he was an employee scalping his free tickets for money. We ended up getting in for $40 total! That saved us $100! When we went in February, we got in for free. A lady had two tickets that still had a day left on them. We have had pretty good luck in that area!

The day turned out really fun. The weather was beautiful. It was definitely different with two children, especially one of them being a nursing baby. We ended up staying from 10am-10pm. Lyric loved all of the rides she went on. Mike tried taking her on Splash Mountain, but she was about an inch too short! The new Nemo submarine ride was really cool. I felt a little claustrophobic being closed in under water, but I survived! Disneyland was decorated so beautifully for Christmas. It was amazing to see all of the intricate work and detail. I really look forward to the next time we can go again! We got home at 2:30am. We were so beyond tired! I was dozing off in the car, and about every three minutes I was looking over at Mike to make sure he was still awake! He was a trooper. His body can last longer than mine on no sleep!

Makes Me Chuckle

We all know that moms and dads have different roles in their children's lives. That is no exception with Mike and I. There are certain things that I introduce and do with Lyric, and vice versa with Mike.

Well, Mike loves getting Lyric to watch new things, especially things he can enjoy with her. One of their favorite things to watch together is The Princess Bride. For some reason this makes me laugh! It just doesn't seem like the typical movie a 2, almost 3, year old would be into! In my whole 24 years of life, I had not seen any of this movie until Lyric started getting into it. She will ask for it several times a week. I have not yet sat down and watched it all the way through, but putting the bits together that I have seen, I am sure I have seen it all. Samuri Jack and Avatar are two others they enjoy together. Those are both weird cartoons that Mike has all of the seasons on DVD. Good bonding time for them :)

I Took the Recommendation

So, tonight Mike and I took Jamie's recommendation to see this movie. She definitely wasn't hyping it up, it was SOOO good! Typically, by the end of a movie, I am impatiently waiting for it to end! I loved every second of this movie. It touched on every emotion possible. Mike even really liked it! Going into it, he had no idea what the movie was about, so he was not able to make false preconceived notions about it! So, like Jamie said, if you have not seen this yet, do it now!

Enjoying The Weather

The weather around here has been so beautifully ideal! I absolutely love it! We went outside for a little bit today. Lyric loves to swing and is in the process of learning to "pump" her legs. She does it, just not hard enough to have it work! I put Paxton in the baby swing for the first time. He enjoyed so much, he almost fell asleep in it! I know this perfect weather is not going to last long! Fog and rain will be here before we know it. At least it is not snow, as beautiful as it is to look at, I do not like living in it! Mike was sad our first Christmas living here because we did not have a real "White Christmas." I, personally, am perfectly ok with this! Our fog could be considered a form of a white Christmas!

My Grandma

On Saturday, Jamie and I, along with Paxton, took a speedy trip to visit my grandma. It turned out to be such a fun day. It is interesting to see, each time I visit, her older age becoming more apparent. She is still good old grandma, and I love her to death. She was hilarious hamming it up for the camera! Normally, she is quite hard to get a picture of!
We had a fun day of visiting and, of course, eating! I am so glad we took this opportunity to visit her. All of our kids, except for Paxton, stayed home so that we could enjoy the time uninterrupted and not have grandma feel overstimulated! I hope to be able to visit her again soon :)

Tubby Time

Last week, I decided to put Paxton in the tubby with Lyric for the first time. I have this seat that I used with Lyric that I really like for this stage. He absolutely loved it! He was mesmerized with the whole thing. Lyric was so excited to have him in there with her. She wants to take a tubby with him every night. The next time she was in with him, she acted like he was a Christmas tree and stacked and surrounded him with all of her toys. Of course he didn't mind or really even notice!

The Big 5-5!!!!

Today is my dad's 55th Birthday! We celebrated this evening at my parent's house. We had Mexican food and them cake and ice cream! My mom got him some "essentials" from Costco, and us kids pitched in on a really cool workout wall hanging for his "gym." It is so awesome, Jamie put a lot of effort into designing it.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!! I love you :)

Flashback Friday

This is from my wedding in June of 2003. Here I am with all of my bridesmaids. How life has changed since that day! It is so weird, I almost feel like my wedding day never happened! Not because it wasn't special, I just feel like I have been at the point of life I am at forever! It is hard to picture it without Lyric and Paxton added to the mix!

I remember I picked out my bridesmaid dresses when Jamie came to visit Utah in March. She did a daring drive by herself with Jordyn, who was not quite one! We got all five of the dresses at the time. Little did she know at the time, she was pregnant, and the dress would not be fitting her in three months! Somehow, when the time came, she went back to David's Bridal and found a different dress, and her friend, Tiffany, helped her sew some sleeves on!

Four Months

Today is Paxton's 4 month birthday! Last night Mike said, "He is almost a year!" No way, not even close, well maybe 1/3 of the way there, but let's not age him that ridiculously much! Here are some monthly tidbits about the "little" guy.

-He is still, consistently, sleeping 8-11 hour stretches at night. I really just need to appreciate this and stop wondering if every night is the last night he'll sleep this great!

-As you can tell from some of the pictures, he loves eating his burp cloths.

-He has his second cold in his four months of life. The last one lasted a week and this one looks like it will last longer! The past five nights he has been coughing so hard, it seriously makes me wonder if he is choking to death! It even wakes Mike up, which is saying a lot!

-He is tipping the scales at about 22 pounds.

-He really gets excited and tries to grab stuff Mike and I have in our hands

-He can hold the longest conversation with anyone or just himself!

I can't think of anymore little things off the top of my head right now. Each day just gets more entertaining with him. He is a pretty happy baby, most of the time.

I Looked In Lyric's Room and What Did I Find.....

Every night, before I go to bed, I check on Lyric and Paxton about four hundred times. I like to make sure they are situated comfortably, and I have this obsession to make sure they are still breathing. Well, last night, I walked into Lyric's room and saw the poor girl sleeping on the floor. Somehow, she must have rolled off and just continued sleeping! The night before, when I went in, she was almost on the floor, but last night she was completely! I am glad I checked, she would have had a cold night!

Flashback Friday

February 2006 (California)
June 2006 (Arizona)
October 2007 (California)

I love to see comparison pictures. These are all three from the visits Tiffani and I have had in the past two years. You always have to have the classic tubby shots! I know we will have many more as the years go by!

Shout Out For Rachael Ray

So, this afternoon I was watching Rachael Ray, her hour show, not the 30 Minute Meal one. I don't watch her on a regular basis, just whenever I happen come across it when it is on. A lot of times she has some intriguing meals that I want to give a try. I have done it once before and it turned out pretty good.
Well, today I was planning on going to Olive Garden for dinner because I got a coupon in the Sunday paper for it. My plans changed when I saw what she was cooking. It looked so yummy and I knew I wanted to try to make it for dinner.
http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/buffalo-baked-chicken-blue-cheese-celery-carrot-slaw/
Here is the link to the recipe. I bought the ingredients and off I started cooking. I felt like Rachael Ray, except I must say that they make things look ten times easier to do on TV! I was actually quite impressed with the outcome. I would suggest this to anyone who likes buffalo chicken!

You Learn Something New Everyday!

So, I have had my digital camera for two years. I would never brag about, or even recommend it to anyone, but it does the job! To say that there is a long delay between the time you press the button until it takes the picture is an understatement! But, I discovered something yesterday. I never knew that it helped a little if I partially held down the button until I was actually ready to take the picture! What kind of a slow learner am I?!?! I told Jamie this yesterday, and she could not believe it! So, I would say, that I have probably cut my waiting time in half! I guess my camera isn't SO bad!

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, I found out I was pregnant with Paxton. How in the world has time flown by this fast!?!? It makes me feel a little sad. I can't believe that he is almost four months. Now, I wouldn't have it any other way, I love that he is becoming a little person.
Last year, at this time, I was counting down my days of feeling "normal." I knew, for the next year, that emotionally, mentally, and physically, I would be a little whacked out! Pregnancy and the first three months with a newborn can just be dang hard! Of course, it is so incredibly worth it.
Please tell me why in the world I look at pregnant women and think, "Oh, how cute!" Not one time did I feel remotely cute! Saturday nights I would spend AN HOUR trying desperately to find something humane to wear to church! Towards the end, I actually thought my feet were going to split open if I walked for more than three minutes! And, if it weren't for DownEast Basic's lace camisoles, my ginormous belly would have hung out of 99% of my shirts! I know it is my mind playing some major tricks on me! Don't freak out, I am, by no means, insinuating that I want another baby right now! It is just interesting what your mind can do!


How in the world does this........
nine months later turn into this........
and then this..........
to eventually this!!!!!!

I love my little man :)