Ice Skating

A couple of days ago, our play group went ice skating. The ice skating rink has these cute little walkers that the kids can push around on the ice to help them stay up. All of the kids loved it, except for Zoe. She hated every minute of it. We tried to go out and skate a few times, but we never even made it around the rink. We would only get to the next door and then she would want to get out.

As we were walking back to our shoes to go home, some random lady asked her if she had fun.  Zoe replied "No, it wasn't fun, but my skates look cute." That's my Zoe.

Oh well, you win some and lose some. Maybe ice skating just isn't her thing.

Snow Day

On what was supposed to be the last day of school before Christmas vacation, we woke up to about 12 inches of new snow.  We already had quite a bit on the ground and it was still snowing.  Robby got up to get ready for school and Kirk went out to shovel the driveway so we could take Robby to school.  Luckily, while he was shoveling, he heard the neighbors say that school was closed.

Robby was so excited.  He immediately put his snow clothes on and went outside to play, along with all the neighborhood kids.  It was funny to me how excited they all were that it was a snow day.  That day, the whole school was going to a movie and then having Christmas parties, so it wasn't like it was going to be a hard day.

When Zoe woke up, she wanted to go out too.  She wasn't sure she liked getting all bundled up, and had a hard time figuring out how to walk in the snow, but once she figured it out she had a blast.

I don't think I have seen that big of a snow storm since I was a kid.  We ended up with about 2 feet on the ground once all was said and done.  I am glad we don't get snow like that very often, but it was really fun to play in the snow as family that morning.

Christmas

Life has been crazy the last couple of months. Kirk had most of the month of December off, we went to Disneyland, I made a ton of Christmas presents, we all got sick (multiple times), and we spent a lot of time with family. I have so many pictures that need blogged, so I am just going to start with Christmas and work backwards, with some random posts thrown in the middle.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of Christmas. I was having way too much fun just being there and watching the kids.

A couple of days before Christmas, my parents and Emily came to our house, to exchange gifts. My kids were spoiled and loved all their presents. It was Zoe's first present exchanging experience in a while, so it all seemed new to her. She loved it though, and even more, she loved giving her presents to everyone. She was so excited to see everyone open them.

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. Kirk's brother Gavin and his family were visiting from Arizona, so they came and spent the day with us. The kids don't get to see their cousins very often and they had a lot of fun playing together. Kirk's parents also came. That evening, we opened family presents.  Again, the kids were very spoiled.

On Christmas morning, we came downstairs to open presents a little after seven. We had a great morning. The kids were spoiled again. Zoe was really upset when all the presents were opened and she didn't get to open any more after her nap. Robby's favorite present from Christmas was Super Mario Galaxy 2.  Zoe's favorite was the Buzz, Woody and Jessie action figures from Kirk's parents.

I love Christmas time.  I love all the hustle and bustle and spending time with family. I love that my husband takes time off and my little family gets to just be together. I am also glad that it is over now and we can get back to normal life.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a great year in 2011.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

In order to understand Halloween at our house, you have to understand my children's personalities. Robby hates Halloween. The first time this year that we walked into a store selling Halloween stuff, he sighed and said "Oh man, is it really Halloween again, already." He has hated dressing up since he was tiny.  He told me he didn't want to dress up this year at all. However, once I told him he couldn't go trick-or-treating if he didn't dress up, he changed his mind. So for the last couple months we have been on the look-out for non-dressing up Halloween costumes.

Zoe, on the other hand, thinks Halloween is the greatest thing ever. She would dress up every day. She loves the costumes, the decorations, and everything else that comes with Halloween.

I decided to make Zoe a pumpkin costume. She was thrilled and has been telling everyone for months that she was going to be a "pumpkin dress" for Halloween.  Robby finally decided that he would be a pumpkin too.  He would just put a face on an orange t-shirt and wear it with jeans. We actually had a good time with it. We bought white t-shirts and died them orange (they didn't come out as bright as I wanted them, too much polyester), and made faces out of felt. Robby did his all on his own. He designed it and sewed it on. I decided I would go with the theme as well and made a pumpkin shirt for me. I couldn't just leave it there though, I had to buy everything orange that I could to go with my costume, leaving me looking something like a pumpkin clown.

Halloween started for us on  Tuesday, when Zoe had a Halloween party at dance. She had a blast.

Robby's school Halloween party was on Thursday. I am the room mom so I got to help.  It was a lot of fun. He had a good time.

On Friday, we went to our ward Halloween party. They had a chili cook-off and a carnival for the kids.  Emily went with us (in her awesome Super-Hero costume we made the week before) so that was really fun. Zoe got her face painted, which she thought was very cool. Robby was not interested.

On Saturday, we went trick-or-treating. We weren't sure we were going to get to go because of a huge rain and hail storm that night, but by 6:00 it had cleared up enough to go. We ended up trick-or-treating for about an hour and a half. Zoe outlasted Robby and I think she would have gone all night if it wasn't bed time. She loved knocking on people's doors and being social, even more than the candy. Robby had a good time too though.

Then on Sunday, we went to Kirk's parents house to celebrate his dad's birthday. The kid's wore their costumes so that grandma and grandpa could see them.

All in all, it was a very busy, but fun Halloween.  Four days of costume wearing was more than enough for all of us, except Zoe. Robby did say that he thinks he will dress up a little bit more next year.  He felt a little left out I think. So we are already trying to think of costumes for him for next year. Our requirements are it needs to be more of a costume than this year, but no face paint, no hair coloring, no masks, and nothing too crazy.  If you have any ideas, let me know.

Here are some pictures from the week.

Family Pictures

I have wanted to get family pictures for a long time, but kept putting it off.  Finally, we just did it. My friend, Kristin, took the pictures. She did a great job. I love them. Here are some of my favorites. (Remember you can click on them to make them bigger navigate through them).

Now I just have to decide which ones to print and get them printed and hung before they are out of date.