Ringing in the New Year in St. George

The first thing I did when we got to St. George was follow my kids a few doors down to my Mom’s neighbor’s who has this elaborate train set up in his garage.  He put conductor hats on each of the kids and ran each train set for them to see.  

Then, he gifted them each a little wooden car from The Happiness Factory which I guess is a local company that makes wooden cars to send to 3^rd world countries.  Then, we went back to Mom’s, changed into our swim suits, and were off to the pool while Derek and George hit the gold course.  This was George’s very first official golf game, and Derek said he played well.  That evening the kids wanted to show us the Christmas lights around town again, so we drove around taking in the sights.  

Liv actually thought it was fun to stand in front of Babi and Papou’s project lights.

 

Unfortunately, that evening Derek came down with this awful fever and sore throat.  We are guessing strep and after looking in his throat the next day, I called in an antibiotic for him.  He spent the night fevering.  The next morning, Mom and I had appointments massages at the Red Mountain Resort and Spa, so poor George got left alone with all 3 kids, the dog, and a very sick Derek.  The spa was wonderful, we spent some time in the steam room, and enjoyed sitting in the relaxation room on some comfy chairs overlooking some beautiful red rock scenery.  I wanted to take a picture but there was a sign requesting the absence of all cell phones to maintain a feeling of tranquility.  The massage was great and then afterwards we had lunch there.  I loved the food.  It was buffet style and a ton of healthy type salads and soups.  George was a warrior.  He took all 3 kids and the dog by himself on a long walk in the BLM land.  He said every 10 minutes he had to stop to pull pokies out of the kids shoes and the kids told me he had to carry London over a cattle grate, I think he was a bit frazzled by the end of it.  Nonetheless, the fought them all into the car and met me at Pioneer Park.  The kids and I spent 45 minutes by ourselves climbing all over which I was a little afraid would be a little overwhelming and frightening, but they all stayed close by and it went down without a hitch.  The kids kept asking me to take their picture, so I have a million. 

 Liv thought all the rock reminded her of the pride rock from her lion king stage and thus posed in every picture as a lion.  After an hour or so, the Pendleton’s met up with us and introduced us to The Crack which was this teeny narrow slot canyon you can climb through.  

I was only a little panicky the whole time.  We got to the start of the narrowing and I wasn’t sure I could do it, but Carly assured me it wasn’t as bad as it looked, but it was.  The walls were literally touching me in the front and back it was all I could do to just keep going and breathe and not pass out due to panic.  The kids thought it was cool.  

We ended up spending 2 hours at Pioneer Park!  It really is a cool place.  

That night we hung at the house, gave all the kids baths, had a great salmon dinner which everyone but Camden enjoyed.  After we got the kids in bed, Derek and I played Mexican Train with George and Mom.

The next morning, I got up and went to church alone with the kids.  We drove the golf cart to the church house, which the kids thought was awesome.  They were actually pretty good during sacrament, and luckily we found a seat in the back instead of the front.  They were so excited to go to primary in a different ward.  The primary in that ward is only one hour and my kids and one other family of kids were the only ones in the primary room.  They took pictures of the kids for a bulletin board where they post pictures of all the primary kids that come to visit and said next time they came, they would find their pictures on the board.  They also plan to send a post card of some sorts to the kids.  The kids loved it and can’t wait to come back.

After church, the Thorsteds, who were also in St. George, came over for lunch.  Then they took us out to glitter mountain which is a huge gypsum mine.  All the kids were having a blast chipping away and filling their own little bags full of gypsum crystals when the owner of the mine showed up and kindly asked us to refrain from that…ooops!  

Next, we found the Warner Valley Dinosaur tracks close by.  On the bumpy dirt road drive out there, both boys fell asleep on Ander.  

But they woke up excited to see the dinosaur tracks.  The kids thought it was kind of neat to find real dinosaur footprints in the ground and London just loved all the off leash exploring. 

Then, we went back to Babi and Papou’s where everyone was excited to find Uncle Nathan and Aunt Benair.  We had a great prime rib dinner, and then had a little New Years Dance party DJed by Derek.  Once everyone was tired out, we put on a Netflix kids countdown everyone pulled poppers and we put the kids to bed at 9pm on New Years Eve.  Then, we played Mexican Train with Nay and Benz and they introduced us to Sushi Go which was totally fun, and we played that until the clocks turned to the New Year.  Then, it was off to bed.  I woke up all congested and with pink eye and my L eye glued shut.  We had a breakfast, then packed up while the kids played hide and go seek with Uncle Nathan and Benazir.  Then, we were on the road again.  Here’s to 2018!

An Interlude

About now I’m sure Mom and George are regretting ever suggesting it, but they offered to take the kids back with them to St. George for a couple days over their Christmas break while Derek and I stayed back home to work.  They loaded all the kids and the dog into the car and seemed to make it down there without a hitch.  

Babi and Papou recently bought a golf cart, and the kids got a kick out of riding around in that.  I guess they loaded all 3 kids and the dog into the golf cart and rode over to the dog park to play which everyone loved. 

Somehow they convinced the kids they could only use their iPads in the morning, and the kids listened!  Here’s a cute pic of Carter and Papou in the am doing their allotted screen time. 

Mom took the kids to climb around the Veteran park, train park, and another park for a picnic lunch.  

They took the kids to see the award winning Christmas light displays around town too. 

Back at home, I worked all day at the family practice office on Wednesday.  I haven’t worked a full day there in forever.  Two of the PAs wife’s were having babies that week and had the week off, so I was filling in.  During my lunch break on Wednesday, I got to meet Debbie and Becky for a roommate lunch.  

It was nice to visit and reminisce on old times.  That night Derek and I went to dinner at the Outback and then went to see a 3D showing of the new star wars movie, which I quite enjoyed actually.  I hadn’t been to the theatre by the mall (or any theatre) in forever, but that theatre has replaced every single seat with a recliner seat.  It was a quite a comfortable way to watch a movie.

Thursday AM, I went on a very icy hike with Annie up Rock Canyon.  

We eventually threw in the towel.  Hiking down the icy was even scarier than hiking up, so we ended up hiking down the snow covered creek bed instead.  Then, I went home and took a bath and a nap in peace.  That afternoon, I worked at the family practice office again.  Then, Derek and I went to dinner again at the California Pizza Kitchen, and then to a BYU basketball game.  Oh the way to the game, I was telling Derek how nice it was to go to the movie the other night, so he suggested we take advantage of our kid free night and go to another one after the BYU game.  Annie and Tyler joined us and we saw the Greatest Showman which was an interesting musical about PT Barnum, the circus guy. 

The next morning, Derek and I quite painlessly drove to meet up with our kids in St. George.  I usually don’t have any trouble being away from our kids when we are on vacation, but I found it actually very unsettling to be home with all the kids and the dog gone.  I would come home to a quiet empty house and it honestly felt so lonely.  It made me reflect back to the days before Derek and I had kids.  We both worked every day and then came home and I honestly don’t recall how we filled all our nights.  I don’t remember being bored or particularly busy or even feeling like life was lacking.  However, those couple days coming home from a day at work to an empty kidless home felt all wrong and definitely lacking.  I didn’t know what to do or how to fill the silence, but we managed ok.  Nonetheless, it’s always good to have a little reminder like that about how much I love those crazy kids of ours and am grateful for the opportunity to be their mother.  The second we pulled into Babi and Papou’s driveway we had 3 excited kids run out to the car so excited to see us.  They jumped onto our laps before we even had a chance to get out of the car and showered us with hugs and kisses and told us how much they missed us.  So, I guess the feelings are mutual.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Christmas Eve was a Sunday this year and as such they decided to hold just sacrament meeting and then dismiss.  I let Liv pick out a new dress for Christmas and she picked this really neat long silver pleated dress.  She had a very specific idea of how she wanted her hair done and there was some yelling at me and tears until I finally created something to her liking, a bun high on her head with a silver bow positioned underneath.  

I thought the whole sacrament program was wonderful and really brought the Spirit of our Savior into our Christmas holiday.   I sang with the choir and Derek and his parents manned the kids on the bench.  Liv sang one number with a special children’s choir and then all the primary kids sang another number as well.  They all did wonderful learning new music and the children’s choir sang in parts which I thought was impressive. 

After church, the Thorsted’s invited us over for Tyler’s famous waffles and because we all seemed to be color coded to match, I made Tyler take a family photo for us which turned out pretty nice.

 

Then, later that afternoon all of Derek’ family met at Steve and Diane’s for a late lunch/early dinner and present exchange.  The most beloved gift to the kids seems to be the game Guess Who which they played endlessly over the next few days.  Then, we went back to our house, all donned our Christmas pajamas from Poppi and Lynn, watched the Bible video of Jesus’s birth, sang Silent Night, and then opened our gifts to each other.  

We really hardly got the kids anything this year since we have an expensive Disneyland trip planned in a few weeks.  We gave Liv a jump rope which she uses until she complains that her legs ache and a jewelry box which she actually seemed pretty excited to fill with all her jewelry.  We got the boys storm trooper suit cases.   To present the Disneyland trip as a present, we got all the kids suit cases out and inside gave each a Disney shirt (Buzz Lightyear for Camden, Woody for Carter, and Elena of Avalor for Olivia), a character signature/photo book, and a paper chain count down of days until Disney.  I was expecting a bigger reaction. They seem excited to go, but weren’t jumping around the room or anything.

Then, the kids set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Liv wrote him a nice note.  

And they all amazingly went to bed pretty easily.  We were of course awaked at 5 am but some excited kids.  Santa had come.  Derek tried to get mad at them for waking up so early, but I made him see that we can’t expect them to not be excited on Christmas morning.  So, we both crawled out of bed and tried to be enthusiastic about all their Santa surprises (A hatchimal for Carter, a Rainbow puppy surprise for Olivia, and a big police lego set for Camden).  As soon as all the gifts were opened, they all wanted to put together Camden’s huge lego police station a 6am.  Derek claimed that his eyes didn’t work at 6 am, so it was mostly up to me. 

This set had like 10 bags of legos and 7 different instruction booklets, but it ended up being a gift for all of them.  They all sat around the kitchen table for hours each building a different section. 

They only took short breaks to go out and help Derek shovel snow and make a snowman.  

We really hadn’t had much snow at all this year, and then we woke up Christmas morning to a good few inches.  It is always magical when it snows on Christmas.  Despite the snow, I did sneak out for a Christmas morning run with Annie which was nice.  Soon after I got back, Babi and Papou arrived.  It wasn't long until Papou was covered by stuffed animals and grandkids. 

Babi and Papou brought the kids a few more gifts (some clothes for all the kids and a violin for Olivia--the boys already received their soccer/hockey net a month ago and have loved playing with it already).  Uncle Richard, for no good reason, had just sent my Mom an adult sized violin—Mom decided to gift it to Olivia the girl who is dying to play the violin.  We are going to try to trade it in for a violin her size.

That night for dinner the kids had been begging to have both crab and clams, and we kept telling them we’d buy some for Christmas.  They couldn’t wait.  I cannot believe how quickly those kids can devour clams.  Steve and Diane happened to stroll in to see what the kids got for Christmas just as we were about to eat, so they joined us.  

It’s a fun little tradition we have.  I love crab at Christmas because it takes so long to eat that it forces everyone to stay around the table longer.  The next day, all the kids really wanted to do was just stay home and play with all the new exciting toys, so we did and then George made us a

delicious leg of lamb dinner with Greek style potatoes.

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We Had a Busy December

This month has kept us hopping and quite frankly, I'm a bit exhausted.  Nonetheless, we have had a great time.

We sold our Acadia.  I have been quite nostalgic about the whole thing.  It was the car we bought to bring our twins home from the hospital and has comfortable taken our family all around town and on a bunch of fun family vacations, but everyone else over here is pretty excited about the new (to us) Ford Expedition that Aunt Stephie found us at her dealership.  Here are the kids on the morning we said goodbye to the Acadia.

One night we had Dad read from the scriptures the birth of Christ and the kids acted it out props included.  They all fought about being Mary (boys and girl both that was the coveted role).

Liv sang in who school Christmas concert.  They sang some cute songs. 

Part of the concert was also the Elementary Ballroom Dance performance.  I was so impressed, who knew they had ballroom dance teams in Elementary school.  I sure didn't.  Our are actually pretty good and recently won gold and silver at a dance competition against other elementary ballroom teams.  The boys totally picked up some moves from the concert and I caught them waltzing together around the kitchen one day shortly after.

Derek and I co-hosted the Thorsted's annual waffle and white elephant party.  This was my ugly sweater?  Photo cred: Camden.

The boys have caught the reading bug and have been up late reading every night after I put them to bed with flashlights.  I find piles of books in their beds every morning.  And one morning when I left early for work I heard them whispering through their bedroom door and this was what I found.

One day when I had found the time to draw myself a bath, my quiet was interrupted by this presentation of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (the twins version).

Carter telling London about all the cool features of the new lego set Grandma Nadine sent him for Christmas.

The boys came home with these cute Christmas ornaments as gifts from their primary teachers.

The boys were so excited to have a Polar Express Party at their school and wear pajamas to school!  Here's Camden on the way home.

This year for Christmas I made trays and trays of cinnamon rolls (5 to be exact).  It was one day of pretty much baking cinnamon rolls all day.  I brought a tray to my surgical office, one to my family practice offie, sent one to Derek's office and then we delivered cinnamon rolls all around the neighborhood. 

Last Sunday, I spent the majority of the afternoon feverish in bed.  When I first went to lie down I discovered that I was going to have to compete for my bed space.

Last Monday for FHE, we talked about how Jesus Christ gave us the best Christmas gift of all and what kinds of gift we could give back to our Savior this Christmas season.  Carter said he loved Jesus and would try to be like him. 

Liv said she would give her him heart by caring for others. 

Camden said he would share his toys and drew a picture of sharing his beloved stuffed Penguiy. 

I have been working my hardest at trying to be more forgiving and Derek said he was going to be kind.  Put all the paper in a little box that looks like a present on our piano as a reminder.

The boys have been wearing snow boots every days despite there not being any snow. 

Lindsay and Becky came over one afternoon to help me build a lego table for my kids.  Never could have done it without them.  It was supposed to be a surprise and a Christmas present, but Camden discovered me and when I thought I had him in my confidences it wasn't but 5 minutes later he told Carter and another day later they spilled the beans to Olivia.  So, the not so surprise table was much easier to put together in the garage. 

The first day of Christmas Break Liv came to me with the new Math flashcards she had gotten from Poppi and Lynn for Christmas and this paper she had created (which looks almost identical to one they use at school).  She wanted to be quizzed.  The ones she answers fast go on the green section, the ones that are slow but correct on the yellow, and if she get them wrong you put them on the red section.  I sent this cute picture to her teacher, Mrs. Ficklin, she was so proud.

Liv had a great afternoon one day this Christmas break.  We invited Chelsea Okey, who sadly moved away from us at the end of the summer over for a playdate.  She and Kenadie and Liv ran back and forth between our house and Kenadie's for hours on end.  It was like the best summer day in December.

Despite what I think,  the boys proved here that I am still able to carry them both at the same time.

And one day I walked by and found the boys watching tv just like this.  Camden using Carter for his comfort and pillow and Carter not protesting at all.  I've said it before, but I will say it again...TWINS ARE THE BEST!