Christmas 2008

Wow! Christmas came FAST this year! Tams and I went to Idaho to spend Christmas with my family. The trip there was an adventure! I found out Monday night that the freeway through Snowville was closed. So I kept checking all morning on Tuesday, hoping that it would open up. We left about noon and took the long way, up through Pocatello and across. The roads were good and bad, but even when they were good, the going was pretty slow. It usually takes about four and a half hours to get there. It took us almost eight! Tams wasn't real happy about it. When we got to Burley she said, "How come you keep driving and driving and driving?" Both of us were happy to finally make it to grandma and grandpa's house.

We had a full house. Eric, Meg, Lexie and Josh had come from California and Brett and Britney were there too. It was loud and fun. I love my family!! Tams had so much fun playing with Lexie and Josh. It was just great to hang out with the family. Get up early, stay up late, eat too much, go shopping. Good times! I love being with my family!!

Mom made pajamas for the grandkids that they got to open on Christmas Eve. Princess pajamas for the girls and Cars pjs for Josh. They loved the matching slippers!

Christmas day was really fun. We didn't get up as early as usual, we waited for the kids to wake up. They were so excited to see what Santa brought. Then we opened presents. It was too funny, Josh LOVES Cars and Thomas the Train. He got a Thomas the Train set and was perfectly happy to play with that the entire time. But, before Christmas, he'd picked out some Cars wrapping paper, and they'd wrapped a lot of his gifts in it. Well, the first two gifts he unwrapped were in the Cars paper. When we handed him the next one, it was wrapped in Santa paper. He didn't want anything to do with that present! He pushed it away and said NO! So we handed him a present wrapped in the Cars paper. He opened it right up! Apparently he only wanted his presents wrapped in his wrapping paper. Finally, they ripped a little of the Santa paper off, and when he saw that it was Thomas the Train inside, he decided he'd open it after all. It was too funny.

Brett got Guitar Hero for Christmas. We had so much fun playing it. Dad didn't like it so much. I guess we had it turned up too loud and it was constantly going. He was probably glad to see it go home with Brett. But in the meantime, it was a blast. Tamsen had wanted a Hannah Montana guitar for Christmas. She got a Princess one instead. She liked to "play" guitar hero with her guitar. She'd get her guitar and go stand in front of the tv playing with the boys.

Well, as soon as it had come, Christmas was gone, and it was time to head back home. It was a fun week spending time with everyone. Can't wait til next time...

Gingerbread House

Tams has been bugging me since Halloween to do a gingerbread house. So one day, I saw a kit on sale and decided to get it for her. After all the begging I'd heard about getting a gingerbread house, I thought she'd be really excited to build it. Well... not so much. She was more about eating all the candy! Go figure! So "we" (rather, I) put the house together and put the frosting on. Then it was one candy for the house, one candy for Tamsen, one candy on the house, three candies for Tamsen. It's a miracle there was any candy on the house!!! As soon as it was done, she was ready to eat it! We did have fun putting it together! And almost everyday before Christmas, I heard, "Mom, can we eat the house today?" She was pretty shocked when we got back home after the holidays and she asked and I finally said yes! So she broke a piece off, chewed on it for a minute and said, "Here, you have it."

Thanksgiving in Oregon

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Oregon with Tamsen's aunt Debbie and uncle Lee and her cousins, Daniel and Jake. We flew to Portland with Tamsen's grandma and nana. It was Tamsen's first time on an airplane and she thought it was a great adventure. When we landed in Portland, she thought we were back in Salt Lake and going to drive to Danny's house. We had tons of fun and crammed a lot of fun things into a few short days.

On Tuesday, we got up and went to Cosco. Everyone thinks I'm insane, but since we don't have a Cosco at home, it's always on my list to do when we go somewhere there is one! I love going there! Mmmmm......churros! After lunch, we drove about an hour to a beautiful waterfall. Tamsen fell asleep on the way and wasn't real happy about having to get out and see a waterfall. She was glad when it was time to go and was really happy when we stopped to get nuggets and fries on the way home. We drove past several Christmas tree farms and saw the helicopters picking up the trees and taking them to where they'd be loaded on trucks, I assume. It was really cool! It was a drizzly, foggy day, but the waterfall was pretty and the scenery was gorgeous. I can't believe all the trees and how green everything is.

Wednesday, we got up early and headed to the coast. We spent the day in Newport. Tamsen was really excited to see the ocean and wanted to put her swimsuit on and go the beach. Unfortunately, it was only about 60 degrees, so there wasn't going to be any swimsuits today! We went and saw a lighthouse. Tamsen wanted to climb to the top, so I had to get really brave and climb all those stairs with her. Did I mention that I HATE heights! The stairs would have been ok, but they were the ones where there's only the risers and nothing in between, so you can totally see through them. UGH! My palms are starting to sweat just thinking about it! About halfway up, I hear, "MOM, You're hurting my hand!" So maybe I was holding her hand a little tight. But all I could think about was her slipping and falling through those stairs. I know, I know, like that would really happen... But we made it to the top, and it was really cool to go up and actually see the light in the lighthouse. The view from the top was great too! I was glad I did it, but even more relieved when I was back down on the ground!

After the lighthouse, we had lunch at this great restaurant right on the beach. The clam chowder was SOOO good! After lunch we headed north to one of the beaches so the kids could get out and play. They had tons of fun digging in the sand and building sand castles. Afterwards, we went to downtown Newport to go to some shops and to see the sea lions. The last stop was the candy store and then we headed home with three tired kids, two tired moms, and a tired nana! It was a really fun day.

Thursday was the big day! Deb and I got up early and started cooking dinner. We had a lot of fun and who doesn't love Thanksgiving dinner! We all ate and ate and ate, then spent the afternoon snoozing and watching movies. Friday, Tamsen and I had to fly home. Tams thought flying was lots more fun this time because she could see the stuff on the ground. It was such a fun trip. We can't wait to go back!

Weekend in the City

Tamsen and I had tickets to go see Disney on Ice. I decided we should make a weekend of it, so we ended up staying overnight. Tamsen loved the show and thought it was great fun staying overnight in a hotel. The next day, we got up and went swimming at the hotel and then spent most of the day at the zoo.

I thought Tams would love the zoo. Love seeing the animals. When we got there, the first thing we did was ride a little train that goes through the zoo. Tamsen spotted a playground as we were riding through. I told her we'd go play after we'd seen the animals.

She really liked the monkeys and apes. When we were halfway around the zoo, she started asking when she could go play on the playground. Is it time to go to the playground? When can I go play on the playground? Let's go to the playground! So we finally made it back around to the playground. She could have cared less about the animals. But she sure did love that playground!

After the zoo, we ate a restaurant where they have divers. Tams thought it was great and did a lot more watching the people dive instead of eating. But she really liked it and talked non-stop about it for days. It was a really fun weekend.

The Halloween of a Thousand Costumes

About a month before Halloween, when I realized that the movie Sleeping Beauty was going to be coming out around Halloween, I asked Tams if she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween, and have grandma make her a Sleeping Beauty costume. She thought that sounded ok. A couple weeks later, she saw a Tinkerbell costume at the store and decided that she was going to be Tinkerbell. Then she saw some green face paint and decided she wanted to be a witch. Then Hannah Montana, a pumpkin, Minnie Mouse, back to Tinkerbell, and finally settled on the witch. A couple weeks before Halloween, told her she needed to decide for sure what she wanted to dress up as. She was still adamant that she was going to be a green witch. So, I bought the face paint and a witch hat -- we already had an old witch costume that was mine when I was a kid, so we were set.

The weekend before Halloween, we were going to go to a Halloween party. When it was time to get dressed, she said she didn't want to be a witch, she wanted to be a princess. I asked if she wanted to be a green witch and she said that it wasn't Halloween, so she didn't want to be a green witch, she wanted to be a princess. So she dressed up as Ariel for the party.

When Halloween came around, I was feeling a little lazy about having to get up at the crack of dawn to paint her green for school. So I asked her if she wanted to be a witch that wasn't green and turn green to go trick-or-treating. She said she wanted to be a princess. So, she went to school dressed as Jasmine.

After school, we came home and were getting ready to go trick-or-treating. When I told her that it was time to paint her green and dress up as a witch, guess what she said... "I want to be Sleeping Beaty for Halloween." She finally settled on Belle.

Cleaning up the Yard

When we were cleaning up the yard, getting ready for winter, Tamsen was such a great little helper. I asked her if she wanted to hop in the garbage and jump around on the weeds and plants. She looked at me like I was crazy. So I asked if she wanted to jump in and pretend to be Oscar the Grouch. That did it, once she was in, she had a great time jumping around and didn't want to get out. Then she said "Mom, take a picture of me in the garbage!" Who can argue with that! She had some great poses and the pictures just cracked me up.

The Mini Cook

Tams loves to help cook. She always wants to help make anything or asks when can we make something. She'd been begging for rice krispie treats, so we decided to make them. She loved stirring the butter and marshmallows and dumping in the rice krispies. She thought it was great fun to push the rice krispies in the pan. She was so proud of herself that made them "all by herself". She'd offer them to anyone who came to our house for the next few days.

Back to Preschool

Tamsen was so excited for preschool to start in September. I wasn't sure how she would take moving to a different class and having new teachers. She'd been in the same class with the same teachers since she started going there a year and a half ago. On back-to-school night, we went to meet her new teachers and see her new classrooms. She was excited to be a Pre-Kinder Kid. After her first day, she came home and couldn't quit talking about her new teachers and the new classrooms. She's so excited to be one of the "big kids" and that the only ones bigger than her are the "mentary" kids (elementary kids). She really loves the days that she gets to go to her preschool classes. I'm amazed all the time at the things she is learning.