Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours, I hope this Christmas is your best ever!

Temple Lights

I'm alive! And cannot believe it's almost Christmas and I haven't done a single post in December! I've been having trouble uploading my pictures lately. I work on it for a bit, get frustrated, then give up. I'm hoping it will rectify itself soon--I miss blogging!

Well, let's start off with an activity we did a few weeks ago. Our ward's families met up at the Los Angeles temple for a nice evening of mingling and looking at the beautiful lights. Here is our cute (if I do say so myself) family. We were the only ones there not in jeans. Let's just say it wasn't my idea to dress up. I know, it was good to show the kids we dress up to go to the temple. But it was COLD! I am such a wimp.

They do such a wonderful job of lighting the temple grounds. Everything looked beautiful!

This huge tree on the temple grounds was covered with some sort of mesh net of lights. It looked amazing!

The Primary kids sang a few Christmas songs. They were so cute. This only about 1/4 of our Primary, that's why it looks so small. Afterwards we had doughnuts and hot chocolate, then walked around and looked at the lights. It was a fun evening!

Thanksgiving: The 3 F's

Thanksgiving weekend brings some fun times. We were lucky enough to spend some time on the three essential F's:

1. FAMILY

My sister Angela's family came for the day, and the cousins had so much fun together. They put on a Thanksgiving play (Ben was the turkey), played soccer in the backyard, and watched the movie "Up". We love cousins!! We are grateful they came to visit us for the day.

2. FOOD

We made way too much food (can you say 10 lbs. of mashed potatoes?!) which was absolutely delicious. We had leftovers for days. I love Thanksgiving food! Mmmm, stuffing and mashed potatoes smothered with homemade gravy. Delish!

3. FOOTBALL

Erik played in our ward's Turkey Bowl and was only sore for a couple of days. He did great. We also watched the local high school team play in the regional playoffs. It was exciting to watch. It was also exciting trying to keep Ben from tumbling head-first down the bleachers. I'm sure all the folks around us appreciated him walking back and forth behind them 47 times, patting their backs with his little hand each time. Don't worry, he granted them one of his signature grins so they couldn't get too upset.

...oh, and shopping. I won't post pics of the carnage, but I will tell you my sister and I spent 5 hours at the outlets on Black Friday. Let's just say we had success.

Soccer

This past Saturday concluded another soccer season. Soccer is big around here, and on any Saturday in the fall you can be guaranteed to run into various friends, neighbors, and acquaintances if you are at the soccer fields. You may have seen me pushing a red stroller and lugging various bags, a soccer banner, and sometimes a cooler. It was quite the juggling act.

This was Olivia's third year, and she did great. Every time she was on the field she gave 110%. She enjoyed playing all the positions. It was her lucky year! She made several goals this season, including a "hat trick" (3 goals) in the last game. The kids always love the tunnel at the end of the game. This was Caleb's first year, and he had a great time with the other silly boys on his team. Daddy was his coach, which made it even more fun.

Caleb did a great job focusing on the ball and not letting it get past him. Mr. Intensity:

Ben and I did lots of cheering for our favorite soccer stars. Hooray for a fun season! And hooray for some newly free Saturdays!

Way Back When-sday

She's always had great taste!

Happy Halloween

OK, so it's a week late, but we had a little, er, mishap on Halloween day. Let's just say,

adorable toddler trick-or-treating for the first time

+

dead camera battery

=

tragic :(

But, good mother that I am, I dressed the kids up a week later to recreate and photographically document. "It's for the blog!!"

And now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present....

Coming at you from a time long, long ago and a galaxy far, far away....

Princess Leia:
Obi-Wan Kenobi:and of course, Master Yoda:

Let's take a closer peek at this one, shall we? Once again, his size extra-large noggin doesn't quite accommodate the head gear. But, he's darn cute if I do say so myself.

The gang got all excited to have "matching" costumes this year. We borrowed Yoda's, bought Obi-Wan's (he was originally going to be Luke Skywalker but that costume was nowhere to be found), and my friend helped me make the Princess Leia costume. It was so much fun, and the kids loved it! I must admit, I thought they were adorable.

The big kids last a little longer with their trick-or-treating each year. They got quite the loot! When the handle on Caleb's pumpkin basket broke because it was so heavy, we took that as a sign it was time to go home.

We sorted it all into categories. Yes, I'm weird that way.

The hair's cute, right? I did it myself.

One last pic just because I couldn't leave it out. I love my cute Star Wars characters.

Way Back When-sday: Halloween Edition

It being Halloween and all, I figured it would be fun to peek at a photo from Halloweens past. This was three years ago, when Liv was 4 years old. She was in the midst of her Princess Stage--everything had to be pink and princess. She loved dressing up as Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for you princess amateurs).

Two-year-old Caleb, on the other hand, wasn't as excited about costume. I'd bought him this adorable cow costume that was warm and snuggly and just so cute. Problem was, he would NOT let me put it on him. He threw a complete fit any time I tried to pull it over his head.

So, when trick-or-treating time came, we improvised. We dressed him in a white button-down shirt, socks, and sunglasses. Boom! Tom Cruise from Risky Business.

Disclaimer: not that I've seen the movie since it's rated R and I don't watch those. But, who hasn't seen the clip of Tom Cruise in that getup?