Caroline's Carols

Caroline kept grabbing my hand and pulling me in by the Christmas tree so she could sing carols to me. One of those times I grabbed my camera. I LOVE that when she doesn't know the words...she just makes 'em up. She is seriously making me feel the Christmas spirit today.

Btw, sorry about the noise in the background. My boys have friends over and they're singing some of their own songs...and they're NOT carols. They're being silly, but having fun. Boys will be boys and little girls...well, at our house will sing Christmas carols however they want!

You'll have to turn off my music at the bottom of the blog.

Caroline's carols

Caroline's carols part 2

Surfing and Hip Hop Elves

We were laughing our heads off as my kids and I made these videos. SO FUNNY and such a fun memory. We made them for Chris because he's out of town and we're all missing him. We decided to provide him with some entertainment between his client meetings. 

WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris has always been so great at secretly setting up romantic weekends, surprising me with flowers, special love notes and jewelry. He's really thoughtful and sweet and he's  taught our boys that is important to make your mom feel cherished and one day, their wives will reap the rewards for what their daddy has taught them.

It was much easier to getaway while we were in Utah with family near to help out with the kids, so when my mom came to stay with us for two weeks  in November I seized the opportunity to kidnap my husband for a night. This is the bed and breakfast we stayed at. It is called the Cardiff Lodge  and it's  in Cardiff by the Sea,  which is a beautiful little beach town on the coast north of San Diego.  It had a beautiful rooftop garden and best of all, it had fireplaces everywhere. I believe a fireplace is a must have for a romantic getaway with your hubby.  We had a wonderful relaxing night! 

This is a gorgeous view near our B&B.

I made reservations at this restaurant that is right on the beach. BEAUTIFUL view and they had the best clam chowder we've had since we lived in Cambridge! 

They printed up a special, personalized menu for Chris' birthday. I thought is was such a nice touch.

We had a wonderful night away and I'm so glad my mom was here to stay with the kids. 

I LOVE YOU BABE AND I'M THE LUCKIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD!

More November...

Basketball has started! My boys LOVE it and I LOVE it. I've missed seeing my boys in action. They have basketball in their blood so I think there will be many, many years of this. I'm glad I enjoy basketball!

Chris is the assistant coach on Haye's team.  

**CHRISTMAS BABY CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY IN NOVEMBER.** We really wanted Hayes to have his own special day...well several days! We usually celebrate his b-day on Christmas evening, but this year we surprised him and celebrated over Thanksgiving. We spent several days at Disneyland then came home and continued to party. He got Wii games and a great big, new Bakugan. He got to be in charge of what rides we rode at D-land and he got some cool pins to add to his Disney pin collection.



Hayes' pin lanyard. He has become quite the collector.




Hayes' Chargers, football, ice cream cake.

My mom was here the week before Thanksgiving and we had a big Thanksgiving dinner with her, so we got to have a dinner with family and Mickey and friends too. 

We got to see Santa at D-land. Here's Scotty giving his Christmas list to Santa.

Caroline marched up to Santa and said "I want princesses...lots of princess". He laughed "HO HO HO" we'll see what we can do little princess!

We hung out with Santa while the big boys were on California Screamin'.

We ate our Thanksgiving feast at the Disneyland Hotel in the grand ballroom. The food was amazing and it was fun to eat with many of the Disney Characters.

This is the only pic ( and not a great one) I was able to get with my kids and some of the characters. My boys aren't really into getting their pics taken with the characters and Caroline fell asleep halfway through dinner...so this was it.

We had a great time though and loved being together as a family. We really have so much to be thankful for. 

October & November '10

We had so much fun when Ricky, Kayli, James and McCall came to visit.  We went to the Mormon Battalion musuem and ate dinner at the Coyote Cafe in Old Town. We spent a day at the San Diego Temple (James and McCall did baptisms and Kayli, Rick and I did an endowment session and sealings) then Chris joined after (he had to work) for a lovely lunch at El Torrito.  My kids love these guys and girls so much and we were all sad when they went home! 

Ricky getting his Mormon Battalion on. This museum is a must see if you visit San Diego. AMAZING! 

This is Scott's field trip to an apple orchard. Wasps EVERYWHERE, but still a lot of fun!

Here's my darling little apple picker!

I love spending time with my kids and their classes! Scotty really loves his kindergarten class.

This is Ty's class at the play Willy Wonka at Balboa Park.  The kids are entertaining themselves while we wait to go into the theatre. ***NOTICE*** Tyler is the ONLY boy. TO BE CONCERNED...OR...NOT TO BE CONCERNED??? I'll keep you posted! 

Looking at the picture makes me concerned! He's adorable!  As his mom, I can totally think he's the cutest second grade boy! ;)

Concerned!

Sweet and adorable!

This pic isn't so fun! The reason I added it is because this scenario was such a big part of our October/Novemeber. My kids went through quite a sick spell from strep to croup. After steroids and antibiotics everyone finally regained their health and I regained my sanity! :)

Chris has his own birthday post, but I'd already added this to our monthly post,  so  he gets double birthday recognition! We had a lovely dinner at Buca di Beppo with our friends Damon and Rachel Afualo. We celebrated Damon's birthday too! After dinner we went to see the new Harry Potter movie "The Deathly Hallows". What a fabulous movie for a fabulous night!

GRANDMA DUCK WAS HERE! We had so much fun! She loved Old Town and the Mormon Battalion museum.  One of my favorite memories of her visit was when my mom and I went to the beach, sat on a bench,  chit-chatted and enjoyed being together and watching the waves.  I miss her and I try not to take for granted that she is still with us. After her leukemia,  I know that there's a reason she's still here and I know in my heart that it is a miracle!

Ty's Ultimatum to Caroline



This paper with the following ultimatum to Caroline was intercepted by mom before Tyler and Scotty could post it on their bedroom door: "DO NOT COME IN. DO NOT come in because you can bereck [break] something and you can do something wrong. This peper [paper] was written by Tyler, the President, and Scott, the Vice President, of this room."

There was an INCIDENT that lead up to the writing of this paper. Their bedroom had been ransacked by their adorable three year old little sister and needless to say, my second and third sons were F.U.R.I.O.U.S! 

Caroline knows EXACTLY how to push their  little buttons and she succeeded in detonating the biggest button of all...pretty much equivalent to that of an A-BOMB. She busted up some of their Lego creations and emptied out their Bakugan cases. UNFORGIVABLE! Hence we have the letter from the PRESIDENT and the VICE PRESIDENT! 



Halloween 2010



 Last month when I asked Caroline what she wanted to be for Halloween she didn't hesitate on bit and said "A WITCH!" Then she thought about it for a minute and said "A WITCH PRINCESS". I found the frilliest, prettiest witch/princess tutu and hat that I could find.



C is explaining to her witch friend that she's a princess too....a witch princess.

They were singing "Once Upon a Dream" and dancing. So funny!

There's my knight in shining armor at his very first kindergarten Halloween party. He's getting ready for the parade.

He was so excited about his knight costume and he couldn't wait for the parade.



Scott's class.

The class party was so much fun! He made all sorts of creepy things. Here he's making a spider





Hayes, Ty, Scott

 

Phillip Rivers (Hayes), Darth Vader (Ty), Knight and the head of the dragon he just slayed (Scott and his trick or treating bag).

The witch princesses.



We just enjoyed our yummy chili from the chili contest and now we are ready to TRUNK or TREAT! It was so much fun this year!



Scott and Caroline

My favorite part of our costumes were our hats. I bought Caroline's and I thought it was so cute I made me one. 



Halloween was so much fun this year. We had pretty low expectations since it fell on Sunday, but we had a lot of fun. Thanks to the Quins for having a low-key Halloween dinner (in accordance with keeping the Sabbath day holy ;)  at their home on Sunday...between that and the trunk or treat at the church we had a really great weekend!

I hope everyone had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!