Christmas is OVER! What!?!

So, Christmas with kids is infinitely more fun...especially when you get to sprinkle reindeer food in the yard and leave cookies out for Santa. AND we still got to sleep in! win-win-win.

The one thing Scarlett asked for was a pink bike, and she couldn't wait to ride it...with her baby. She's already got the peddling thing down. The steering herself into the trashcan part we need to work on.

Aren't they so cute? So proud to belong to those two handsome guys!

August was surprisingly good at unwrapping presents. nom nom nom.

Our happy little bean with his favorite gift (piano).

Scarlett's "first" look at her "new" kitchen.

Michael built this out of an old headboard....and Scarlett figured it out before he was even half way done. Next year we are going to be so sneaky she's not even going to see Christmas coming!

The girls making waffles in their matching jams.

Then, off to grandma and grandpa's house to open more gifts with the family. Don't we all look so excited?

3 generations with the first Christmas babies.

Scarlett doing wheels on the bus, and August threatening a knuckle sandwich if you take his stuff.

So, a Merry knuckle sandwich to all and to all a goodnight!

Gobble Gobble

I am totally an app widow. Michael has found a new game that he has played for hours every night. It's some car thing, and I think it's filling his lack-of-snowmobiling-since-having-kids void. So, naturally we stay up far past bed time...thus, I have time to blog!

We made the crazy drive to Wyoming for Thanksgiving this year! Michael came home from work at 6:30 the night before Turkey Day, we packed up the van (yes, you heard me right...van) with all of our stuff a bunch of kid crap, and drove through the night.

We arrived bright and early before dawn and completely exhausted. Stopping and sleeping was somewhere in our plan of driving all night, but both Littles were asleep. I would rather have woken a sleeping bear than disturb any semblance of peace and quiet. 

Anywho.

Grandma's house has chickens! 

Scarlett fed them pancakes (made with their own eggs...) and every time I make pancakes now... 

S: "For chickens?" 

Me: "No, we don't have chickens."

S: "Go find them?"

M: "No, we don't have chickens. They are at Grandma's."

S: "Go find Grandma's?"

M: "Grandma lives in Wyoming. That's really far away."

S: "I go find it."

Day after Thanksgiving tradition of chopping down Christmas trees! We didn't get one. Just wanted to be part of the party.

Scarlett LOVED the snow! Olivia taught her the fine art of eating it. Side story- for Thanksgiving we had such a large crowd (I believe the count was 48) we reserved the church. Scarlett and her cousin Zoey were playing with the drinking fountain in the foyer. Or that's what we assumed. They were found locked outside for who knows how long, all wet from the fountain, and coatless. I asked Scarlett why she would go outside by herself: "Wanted to touch the snow." 

Saturday was the parade of lights.

Feeding Arrow with Grandma.

And we had to get one picture in before we left of August with Grandma Carol.

It was great to see family and share not only time, but germs too. :) We've been passing around a cold that has now gotten to August. Poor guy sounds like baby Darth. And HOLY MIDNIGHT. I need to get some shut eye before the natives awaken me with cries of boogers and hunger. Yeah, Bye. The End. Whatev.

just a taste

These might be my favorite pictures ever. Scarlett and 99 year old Grandma Carol. They played  for a good long while together. On the same wave length, I guess. No where to go, nobody to meet. Just some animals, a window, and a good time.

P.S. I've solved my blogging dilemma (THANK YOU Rachel!). Just add a contributing author...booyah...more space.

Now you can wait anxiously until I post about our Thanksgiving trip.

is this happening to everyone?

So, blogger won't let me upload any more pictures. It says I've reached my limit, and I've read this on numerous people's blogs. Bummer, 'cause I've got about a bajillion and a half pictures to show you from our Wyoming adventure. If you were here I'd sit you down to watch the hour long slide show version.

I might just start a new blog under my other gmail account. Any other solutions?

This is Halloween!

We go to a pumpkin patch every year...it's tradition! Even here in Vegas! (And even when Michael is sick. He's such an awesome husband!)

Scarlett's Halloweens.  

I can't believe we moved here only 1 year ago and look how much she's changed!

The most exciting part was probably the hay ride. Look at her face! haha.

We only had $4 in cash, pumpkins were $0.50/lb., and I really wanted the $2 apple cider donuts...so I made Scarlett look for the littlest pumpkin she could find. And she delivered. Well, not really. I more or less chased her all over shouting, "What about this one? You're missing all the pumpkins! Fine, I'll pick one!"

We go every year. Hopefully next year I'll remember that we live in the desert and long sleeves are a big mistake.

Meeting my once a month quota

Seriously, I've had to do this blog post is numerous sessions. August can smell blogger. And when it's open, it's crying time. Plus, whenever I have a free hand or two I can usually be found by myself (if you don't have kids, you may or may not realize the gravity of being the only person in a room), eating, shopping (not the fun kind like perusing Target, dare I say, alone), or cleaning. I'm sorry blogdom, you've been ousted by poopy diapers, dirty dishes and mounds of laundry, which somehow quadrupled when we had August.

Here's what you've missed in the last month. AKA what I have failed to blog in the last month.

These are always the top pick for trying on shoes. What can I say? The girl has good taste.

Scarlett with one of her boyfriends. These two together are trouble!

August had his baby blessing!

Scarlett draws our family.

And instead of napping, Scarlett figures out that August's shoes fit her Care Bear. She has also moved on with her Elmo obsession to Care Bears.

August rides his motorcycle.

Salt and Pepper take a bath.

 August asks for a real motorcycle. Pweeeeaaaaase??

We got ready for bed 8 million times...or that's what it feels like.

August learned to rock tummy time. He's an expert at rolling to the right from back to tummy, but can't figure out how to not be on his tummy.

Our night owl finally gives up after reading every single book on the bookshelf.

 Getting some good laughs from Baby. Scarlett can always get the best laughs!

We tied for best group costume at the ward party.

Besties trying to ease into morning by watching some cartoons. Waking up is hard.

We visited Flagstaff, AZ for Baby Lucas's blessing. Scarlett loved having so many kids to play with.

 Gettin' our sass on!

And picnicking in the backyard...per little one's request.

The End.

Happy Meal

Scarlett: Wanna see Aw-yust!
Me: You want to see August? He's right here (I was nursing him).
Scarlett: See Aw-yust!
Me: Well, if you want to see his face you're going to have to wait. He's eating lunch.
Scarlett: Ugh. Yucky boobie lunch!

See An-mows?

We packed up our Jetta on Friday to enjoy a weekend in California with the Barnette's (they got an awesome deal on some zoo tickets). We got outside of Primm, NV when our car started to die. We pulled off on the exit to Searchlight...and had to turn around. We barley made it the 70 miles back home since our car would lose power going over any sort of long hill and would completely die if we got under 20mph. Needless to say, I almost peed my pants when our car died on the freeway going past the Vegas strip. Luckily, the car started back up after all the times it quit...and luckily, and most importantly, we did make it home!

Saturday morning we gave the trip another shot in the Corolla. We made it to the zoo by noon. Scarlett got out of the car and wouldn't stop asking to "see an-mows" (see animals). We rode the zoo tour bus and every time we'd see an an-mow..."touch it? touch it?"

Capybaras are my FAVORITE!

Cheetah!

Michael: You know why gambling was outlawed in the jungle?
Me: No, why?
Michael: Because there were too many cheetahs!
*lame joke laughs*
Bethany: Did you read that off a popsicle stick?
Michael: No, I think it was a laffy taffy actually.

Scarlett loved the elephants...mostly because they were big enough to see.

Most of the time Scarlett had more fun swinging on all the railings rather than looking at the animals.

Trying to get a picture in front of the pandas. Key word: trying. Scarlett was about done at this point in the day. Or should I say we were done at this point in the day...

Giraffes. Really cool...until one drinks the other one's pee and then dribbles it out of it's mouth.

We rode the aerial tram thingy. "Fying!" (flying)

Sterling going in for a kiss. And Scarlett happily accepting.

Last stop: petting zoo.

 Can you tell that Scarlett loved this goat?

 She followed it around for a good 10 minutes.

Her hand never left it's back....

 ....Until she found this guy.

We covered almost the entire zoo in 6 hours. Waking up at 6 in the morning, driving 5 hours, and zoo-ing for 6 hours makes for a very tired Scarlett.

It was a quick trip, I sweated off a good gallon, and Scarlett may or may not have had just as much fun at Petsmart, but it was nice to have a change of scenery and do something other than sit in our air conditioned house watching movies.

Oh, yeah...we have two kids huh? August was an awesome little guy...as long as we packed him around everywhere. And when I say we, I mean me. Yes, I was there too. We have photo evidence (one measly picture), but because of it I started Jillian Michael's 30 day shred yesterday.