Christmas and Back home again....

I put the pictures out of order so start from the bottom and work your way up...or just read out of order :)
Lastly, early Sunday morning we headed out. It was bitter-sweet. I didn't want to leave my family, I had so much fun with them for the past two months, I'm so glad I decided to stay that long! My kids had a blast. I'm glad that my hubby let me stay away that long. We spent another 24 hours in the car. The kids did awesome, they must be used to it by now!! No major meltdowns....
It was exciting to come home to a new house. A little weird at times to be in a totally different area of town. The kids (luckily) have adjusted really well. They both went to bed the first night with no major trouble! Now I just have A LOT of un-packing and arranging to do. It's not my most favorite thing but it has to get done!!

My parents gave us all gift cards and free baby-sitting on Saturday night. They were either brave or insane for taking that many kids on, I'm sure they had fun! It was so much fun to get together with all of my siblings and their other halves to enjoy some good food! I'm so glad I have these memories! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Since we had everyone together we thought it would be a good time to get some family pictures. They turned out pretty good for as many wiggly kids that we had.

Here is all of the grand kids in their matching pj's that my mom made! They were so cute running around (although the hats didn't stay on long.) My mom is a trooper for putting all of them together!

More pictures from Christmas day.

We had a great Christmas this year. Santa brought lots of fun little surprises....he must have known we had to fit everything home in our car. It was so much fun to be at my parents and to have our whole family together for the short period of time it was. It was a full house but it was a fun house!

Gingerbread houses

We made gingerbread houses the other night. My mom and I made real gingerbread and cut out all the pieces to assemble the house. I am definitely making this a tradition of my own...it's so fun and pretty simple! My kids had more fun eating the candy. Carly just kept throwing handfuls of candy onto the house. Sam kept licking pieces of candy and then sticking them onto the house. He had to test them to make sure they were okay I guess.

Chad got creative and decided to decorate his son. Sam was so funny and didn't quite know what to do. He left it on his nose for while.

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square last night to looks at the lights. I left Sam with my sister and My mom, Carly and I went downtown. Carly was excited to see all the lights but was more excited about all the ponds and fountains they had there.

Mixed Feelings....

Good-Bye "Blue House" (as Carly calls it, I don't even have a picture of the front of our house)

*

Hello New rental house (which we haven't even seen yet)

I'm pretty excited but sad at the same time. It will be hard to go home to Texas but not really go home to the house we are used to. I feel guilty that my kids won't get to say good-bye to their bedrooms (I know, they won't really care!) I'm worried at how they'll adjust to going home, but not really to a routine or house that they are familiar with. Plus, I'm not really fond of change....don't get me wrong, I am SO SO SO excited to be moving on with our plan...on to the next step which will hopefully get us closer to our final goal (our final goal for a place to settle)

So....here is our game plan

*rent this house for 18 months- 2 years and hopefully saved up enough money for a down payment for a house on Land (I'm only talking like 5 acres here)
In the meantime, this house will be great, it might get a little cramped, were downsizing a little over 1000 square feet (I think) but it's on 1/2 acre. It'll be fun, not to mention it's close to family which is a plus!

Videos for daddy!

Santa

I took the kiddos to see Santa the other night. Carly was so excited all day, she told me she was going to ask Santa for "toys and a Santa bag." Well, we got in line, it came to her turn and she backed out. She did not want to go near the guy. Sam didn't really know what was going on so I sat him on his lap for a picture before he even knew what happened. It was pretty funny!

This is as close as we could get her to Santa and still get a smile on her face!

Holiday happenings....

Decorating Grandma's Christmas tree! They got kind of crazy with the ornaments so we quit early, but they had fun!

The other night we went to the Dicken's Festival. It was pretty fun, I had never been before. The kids enjoyed it for the most part. There were a tons of things to see and eat.

Having fun with the race car track. The cat was enjoying it too!

Sound asleep....don't let this sweet face fool you :)

Sambo Rambo Man

Serious??

Sam turned 18 months old on November 12. Where has the time gone?? Lately whenever he sees Carly go to the bathroom he wants to have a turn sitting on the toilet. I don't object. How nice would that be if he potty trained himself?? He hasn't done anything in the toilet yet (I take that back....he farted once) He just gets up, sits for a while, and then wants to get down.
Ever since we have been in Utah is seems like his vocabulary has just exploded. He is now saying :
Thank you
Please
Sam
Mommy
night-night
Love you
This is a big step up from just a month ago!

He is turning into such a big tease. He loves to tease his big sister and recently has found the fun in teasing his Aunt Sharise by not giving her hugs and kisses and laughing about it.

He is such a fun little guy and adds so much laughter into our family! We sure love him!

Happy Birthday!

My hubby turns 26 today! I couldn't have asked for a better husband and friend!

Love YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all have a good one!

since we've been gone.....

We haven't been up to much since we've been in Utah. After a round of sickness and all of us fighting either a cold or allergies, we've just been chillin' at the house most of the time. Last Saturday we ventured out with my family and took the kids to a movie. I have NEVER taken either of my children to a movie. I take that back, the last time we took our child to a movie Carly was (probably) 7 months old.
We went and saw The Christmas Carol. We probably should have gone to a more kid friendly movie but oh well. Carly lasted about 5 minutes and Sam didn't make it past the previews. Luckily we had some foot space so they could walk back and forth. I enjoyed the movie though, I was able to watch most of it. Let's just say I won't be taking my children to a movie again for a while (unless it's something I know Carly will like)



Here's Mr. Sambo before church. He's so handsome, although he didn't want his picture taken that morning.

My mom and sisters. We went to Time Out for Women here in St. George. It was pretty great! It was nice just to have time away with my family and with no kids!!

Utah and tonsillitis cellulitis and abscess and Brother's wedding

Carly loves Chantelle's "princess" dress.

Me and my Sisters and Brother.

The kiddos with their Aunt Sharise and her friend at the Temple

My mom and sister (des) made the girls' skirts.


The newlyweds!

So, we made it to Utah. We left last Tuesday morning and made it by Wednesday evening. My throat decided to start hurting Monday evening and by Tuesday morning it was horrible. I figured it would go away but all Tuesday in the car I was in major pain and couldn't eat anything. Tuesday night I barely slept (strange hotel room and sore throat=no sleep) By Wednesday morning my throat, ear and head ached. I was in so much pain I didn't know if I could make it. But I had no choice but to get in the car and drive. Luckily Chad doesn't mind driving and he drove most of the way to Utah! By Wednesday night I thought I was going to die. I dropped my kids, hubby and luggage off at my mom's and drove into St. George to visit with a Doctor. He figured it was Tonsillitis cellulitis and abscess (I thought "can you speak English?) Anyway....my lovely sister (who is a nurse at that office) gave me two shots of antibiotic (in the rear) and I was prescribed some pills to start the next day. Well, things didn't get better, they got a little worse. By Friday (My Brothers Wedding) I was so done with it....I had some pain meds that I took so I could make it through the wedding at least. That afternoon, before the reception, I was able to visit and Ear, nose, and Throat doctor that I used to work with. He then proceeded to agree with the first doctor on what it was and then proceeded to put me through the most horrible pain I've ever felt in my entire life! He numbed my throat (not enough) then took a needle to see if there was any pus in my tonsils......low and behold...there was.....so he then proceeded to lance my tonsil with a knife....A KNIFE.....and eventually drained out 10cc's of pus! I thought I was going to die. Luckily I had my sister at my said and I'm pretty sure I almost took her hand off!! The crappy part of it all was that I wasn't able to go to My Brother's reception which I am totally bummed about! Today I woke up (after a restful night of sleep) and I felt like my old self again (almost!) I hope I never have to go through that again.

On the other hand My brother and New sister's wedding was beautiful. They looked so great and I am so happy for them!!

Halloween fun!

We spent Halloween night at our friends house. We had some yummy chili and cornbread. The kids had fun trick-or-treating. Carly kept barging in people's homes taking whatever candy she could. It was a lot of fun!

Our Dinosaur and Fairy

( I'm bummed this picture is blurry!)

Sam hated his costume the first couple times I put it on him but he loved wearing it on Halloween!

The middle picture she was jumping off a bean bag to try to fly.

Carly was pretty disappointed that she couldn't fly, even with Fairy dust (a.k.a.glitter).

Tooting my own horn....

WOOT. WOOT.
This has been (by far) the most tedious project done so far. I saw the pattern on etsy and fell in love with it. I debated for about a week whether or not I wanted to tackle it but I finally decided to give it a whirl. After lots of cutting, lots of sewing, lots of pins poking my fingers, 129 squares and a lot of unpicking...I finally finished it yesterday! She loves wearing it because it twirls really big. After a test run of wearing it this morning I have to re-sew a couple places that came loose. I don't think I will be making another one of these for a long time!

First Haircut

Before

After
We finally bought some clipper so Chad could cut Sam's hair. It was a bitter sweet moment. I hate to lose all his baby hair but he looks like a big boy now!

How cute is this??

I was browsing through all the crafty websites that are on my favorites list and I cam across this little beauty!

A LOT of Pictures....

Chad had fun at the dollar store and bought the kids some funny balloons. As you can tell they were a big hit and Sam loved wearing them!

Sam loves to wear Carly's crown. Maybe it's time for some boy dress up clothes!?

Below: Carly's fish craft for last week. Obviously we worked on the letter F. She had to wear her big bird costume from last year.

Below- I made a little Halloween skirt (from the leftovers from my table runner) It turned out okay for my first skirt ever!!

Below: Our friends subdivision had a Halloween festival over the weekend. It was cute, they had a little petting zoo, which of course our kids loved!

Below: Today we went to The Oil Ranch. I've never been and it was a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed it (up until nap time kicked in) Carly loved all the animals. It was a perfect day too, the weather was so great and it really felt like fall.

Carly wanting to climb into the pen with the donkey.

They gave out free pumpkins to all the kids. They has fun picking out their pumpkins!

They had hayrides going and they would take you out in their pasture, they gave the kids some pellets so they could feed the cows. It was hilarious to have these huge cow noses come right up to your face. The kids (mostly Carly) thought it was the greatest thing ever. I thought she was going to climb right on top of the cow! At one point Sam stuck his hand on one of the noses and I almost puked wiping off all the cow snot off his hand! Pretty disgusting!