Wednesday, January 13, 2016

First Week of December

December 1st: We decorated for Christmas inside (except for our tree) and Rog (and Peyton) hung our lights outside (while Corbyn was at school or he would have helped too). 


While we were decorating I recreated this picture I saw on Pinterest with great success.


The kids also got to open their Christmas pajamas.


December 2nd: We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Cailey's birthday and then we drove through the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights. We love this tradition and are so sad we won't be able to do it next year. (Hopefully we'll be able to find something similar in Portland!)


Peyton was complaining that her stomach hurt while we were at dinner and before we went to bed, Rog discovered that she had thrown up in her bed without waking up. (Major yuck! And it was just the beginning...)

December 3rd: Pictures with Santa at CheapShots Photography. Rog took the kids because I was on our bathroom floor practically dying with the stomach flu. (My mom also had it that day.)

I had only paid for a group shot, but since they got it so fast, they took individuals for free. No crying on Santa's lap this year!


December 4th: We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was a good thing we had a low-key activity planned for the day because Rog was taking his turn with the stomach flu and while I was functioning, I wasn't anywhere near 100%. (This particular stomach bug didn't seem to be too bad for the kids, but it was absolutely terrible for adults! We were just grateful we got it over with before Disneyland!)

December 5th: We went to our ward Christmas party. The Primary sang a few songs, Santa visited (although we didn't take our kids to see him since they had just done that), the kids put together foam ornaments, and we ate (really good) cookies.


We also did laundry and got packed for Disneyland!!!

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Family Pictures 2015

One Saturday afternoon in November we had my parents take some family pictures of us. We just went over by the Spanish Oaks Golf Course. Since we were going to Disneyland in December my top choice for our Christmas card was a picture with Christmas Mickey, but I wanted to have a backup just in case we didn't get a good one there. We did end up with a good Disneyland one (I had to pay for one the Disneyland photographer took.), but I'm still glad we have these. I framed a few of them, so Logan could finally be an official part of our family.

This is the best one we got of all five of us. The lighting isn't the best, but we're all looking at the camera and smiling!


Rog and PJ


Rog and Logan



Rog and his boys


Me and my girl


Me and my kiddos



Me and my Rog


Silly Corbyn


Pouty Peyton (no we did not stage this)


Smiley Logan


Best friends



We also took some of my parents for them to possibly use for their Christmas card.


Grandma, Grandpa, and the kids (This one actually made their Christmas card!)


I sure love this family of mine!

Monday, January 11, 2016

Thanksgiving

It was our year to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado with the Phillips. We didn't leave until after Corbyn's school on Tuesday because they were having a cute Thanksgiving etiquette meal that I didn't want him to miss. (Rog was pretty mad about this, but it actually worked out really well - so well that we did the same thing coming home.) We stopped for dinner at a McDonald's and let the kids get some wiggles out. And then Rog was a rockstar and drove the rest of the way while the kids and I slept. 


We stayed with the Hobbs and did our best to spend time with them too. (Splitting time between families is hard.)


^The Hobbs have an awesome, old school Nintendo 64. Corbyn and Blake spent most mornings in their pajamas playing Smash Brothers together. And Logan spent most mornings pulling on the cords. 

Wednesday we hung out with the Phillips during the day. Corbyn had fun playing video games with his Phillips cousins too. This picture cracks me up - which one is Corbyn?


If you guessed left, you are correct. (Sam is in the middle and Aiden is on the right.)

 Wednesday night we went out to eat with the Hobbs and then Diana and I went to see Mockingjay, Part 2. Rog texted me this cute picture of story time with all the cousins (except Logan who was already asleep).

 

Thursday morning I ran the Turkey Trot Rock 5K with Diana and Irving. We weren't expecting it to be as cold as it was (It was absolutely freezing!), but we survived. 


As soon as we got back from the run, I started cooking the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner at Diana's house. Cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen made it a bit tricky and they weren't perfect, but they were good enough.


^While I was making the rolls, this was going on at Mike and Dixie's house. Cousin Mason holding Logan. I just love Logan's face - pure terror!

The Phillips are known for their pies and they did not disappoint!


After Thanksgiving dinner Jason watched the 4 older kids while Diana, Rog, and I did some Black Friday shopping at Walmart. Logan got to come with.


On Friday we went to Crave for lunch - Roger's Uncle Rey and Cousin Kathy came with making 25 of us!


We got ornaments at St. Nick's and I did some more Black Friday shopping at the Castle Rock Outlets. Then we played RockBand in Rex's theatre and had a little party to celebrate his birthday.



We had decided that instead of doing a sibling gift exchange for Christmas we would do a service project. We made simple cuddle quilts, but with all the fun things we had planned during the daytime hours, we didn't have enough time to get them done. Some of us got together Friday night to work on them. 



^I am seriously envious of Dixie's enormous cutting table!

Saturday morning we all braved the cold to get a family picture. It was so cold, but I think this picture made it all worth it!


After pictures we had Grandma's cookie party while the dads went shooting.



All the Pack 'n Plays were being used by older kids (although I'm not sure any of them actually napped), so Logan took his afternoon nap on a blanket on the floor.


Grandma and Grandpa watched Logan while the rest of us went to see The Good Dinosaur.


^Corbyn and Sam got to be really good buddies this trip!

After the movie we had dinner with the Hobbs and Diana and I finished a puzzle we had been working on.



^Nothing worse than finishing a puzzle and realizing you're missing a piece! We looked everywhere, but never found it.

Sunday morning we went to church with the Hobbs and then said goodbye to everyone and hit the road. It was a fun (and very busy) few days!

Sunday, January 3, 2016

November

Time to catch up... To do that, we've got to go all the way back to November! 

The first week in November Rog was in Colorado interviewing for the Centura fellowship. It was his last fly-out interview and by this point we were all ready for the whole process to be done! One night I came in from putting Logan to bed and found Peyton like this. It was a tender mercy because Peyton can be especially difficult at bedtime.


While he was gone my mom and I went to the Pinner's Conference together. We had signed up before we knew he had a fellowship interview, but luckily I was able to work it out, so we could still go. A couple of my friends helped out by watching Corbyn and Peyton for part of the day (Corbyn was at school for most of it) and then my dad watched them after he was done with his shift at the SF Family History Center. Logan got to come with since he has never had a bottle in his life.


We took a lot of fun classes. I was particularly excited about going to one taught by Kate and Sara from Our Best Bites. I also really enjoyed taking a Wood Connection class where we made a Christmas Pickup Truck.


I never am able to get Christmas crafts done, so it was nice to have an hour to devote to crafting and nothing else. I did have to assemble it at home, but I got it all painted there which was a large majority of the project. 


After Rog's fly-out interviews were done and his job secured, he suddenly had a lot of free time. I put him to work with a few jobs around the house. He put in another coat rack above the one he put in earlier in the year for our coats. 


He also hung Peyton's 3 year collage.


And Corbyn's 5 year collage.


We got together with a few of our best friends from BYU at Pizza Pie Cafe one night.


Peyton bundled up in her new coat and played outside (while Corbyn was at school) for the first snow of the season. It was mostly all melted by the time Corbyn got home, but we've had plenty of snow since then for him to enjoy!


I've taken over posting for Just In Time Quilts' Instagram account and in November I did a series of posts over a week or so about how to make a cuddle quilt (with no sewing required). All you have to do is pick the fabric, send it in, and Dixie will do the rest! I had her machine quilt a sample one for me while Rog was in Colorado for his interview and then I finished it up. I always bind my quilts by hand, but I knew I didn't have time for that, so I used it as an opportunity to learn to bind with a machine. I still prefer the hand-bound look, but for a simple quilt like this it's much more practical to do it by machine.


Rog and I finished our 2nd puzzle of the year, Thomas Kinkade's Peter Pan puzzle.


Peyton helped me finish painting a few things for our master bedroom.


I still have one small thing to finish to make this wall just how I want it, but it's getting pretty close to being done!


Peyton, Grandma Lori, and I went on a mommy-daughter-grandma date with the Howards to Zupas and then to see the Nutcracker put on by Peyton's dance studio. (While we were gone the guys had pizza and watched Star Wars.)


Corbyn and Peyton had tickets to the last home game of the season against Fresno State. It was pretty chilly, so they didn't last the whole game - Grandma was running errands close by, so she came and picked them up. While Rog was taking them out to meet her, I saw Cosmo down right in front of us taking pictures with fans. I ran down there with Logan and had Cailey take pictures of us. I was bummed Rog, Corbyn, and Peyton weren't there, but so glad I had kept Logan with me!


We tried moving Peyton up to the top bunk to see if that would help her stay in her bed a little better at night since she still comes in our room most nights at some point. (It didn't help, so we moved her back to the bottom bunk.)


I gave blood in this funny portable blood donation van. It was in Spanish Fork for the day, so they scheduled me to donate there.


Our HOA takes care of snow removal, but Corbyn and Rhys were needing something to do, so Rog put them to work shoveling one day. I think they thought it was pretty fun.


We made a Thankful tree and had fun filling it up all month.


And in a nutshell that was our November. (I'll post about Thanksgiving in a separate post.)