The Coveted Blanket

Yep. That's it.  I was at Jo-Ann the other day and came across this ultra-soft fleecy fabric.  As soon as I felt it I knew it must be mine. So I bought some and made myself a blanket out of it.   As soon as my kids felt how soft and luxurious it was I couldn't keep them off me.

Here we have Emilia kissing the blanket.

Yesterday I found my kids fighting over the edges of the blanket that were cut off when I stitched up the blanket.  Ian was hoarding it and my girls thought it wasn't fair because THEY wanted a piece too. It was less than an inch thick.  That is how amazing this fabric is.  So, being the wonderful, amazing, nice mom I am, I cut about 18 inches off the bottom of my blanket, split it into 4 pieces (because it was a 72 inch wide fabric) and gave them each a mini blanket, or "softie" as they call it.

Jedis for Christmas

There has been a lot of Star Wars talk around here lately.  We have been talking about "Anakin" and "Luke" and "Jedis". 

Adele came up to me the other day and said:

"Mom, I want to be a Jedi for Christmas.   And Ian does too."

Six

 My boy is 6!

 He had an excellent birthday complete with his first friend party (and we made it count!)

The invitation. (Made by yours truly.)

Our lightsabers

The guests (this was the first time I have ever had this many little kids at a birthday party. I think it's the last time too. It was fun but just a BIT crazy.) 

We decorated made lightsabers, played Jedi, Jedi, Darth Vader (duck, duck, goose), hot potato, decorated and ate cupcakes, and of course opened presents.  One of the favorite presents: 

Yep, a jar of pickles.  I told one of the moms of his friends that he loved pickles more than just about anything and that he'd love a jar for his birthday.  It was a very coveted item at our house since everyone here could eat pickles all day.  Look at that smile. That's happiness.

After the friend party was over we made Ian's requested birthday dinner:  Little pizzas. He wanted everyone to be able to make their own pizza.

Then more presents and more cupcakes!  What an awesome birthday!

Saturday Night Luau

We decided to protest welcome the upcoming winter by having a little luau last weekend.  We had a lot of fun with these friends from our ward.  (Some of them have moved so it was fun to see them again.)   It is amazing what a good time you can have when you can relax and drink fancy tropical drinks and eat real Kahlua pig made by a true Polynesian.  It was so nice to chill with the adults and remember the days of yesteryear when we could do fun things like this with our friends whenever we felt like it.

When we were taking these pictures we had a few camera shy people who were afraid these might end up on my blog.  They know me too well.  Too bad these people don't frequently read my blog...they may never even know.  I told them I'd make their faces fuzzy if they wanted me to.  

The whole time we were getting ready for the party the kiddos were complaining that we never do anything fun with THEM and we never have fancy drinks or fun luaus with decorations (thanks C for the decor).  To appease the posterity we made them "fancy drinks" (with WHIP CREAM and UMBRELLAS!!!) on Sunday after church.

Aloha!

Halloween Fun

Carving Pumpkins

Our cool pumpkins  

The kids in their costumes.  Emilia-Mummy, Elise-Cereal Killer, Ian-M&M, Adele-Fairy

The Haul

Kent's  cool Napolean Dynamite Jack-o-Lantern

23 Hour Vacation

The kids had a few days off a couple of weeks ago for their "fall break".  (It is actually for the deer hunt but they can't officially cancel school for the deer hunt.  They have to call it fall break.)  We (I) really wanted to go somewhere for the break.  We were debating whether we should go to Salt Lake and go to the zoo or go to Moab and hike around Arches.  The weather was looking bad in both places so at the last minute we decided to go to the only place that wasn't going to be wet: Las Vegas.

Here are some pictures Elise took of the trip to Las Vegas.  It was cloudy here when we left and quite a bit sunnier in Vegas.

We thought it would be fun to celebrate Adele's birthday by going to the Adventuredome in the Circus Circus Hotel. Lucky for us Elise has her own camera and she remembered to bring it with her. Kent and I left ours in the car and didn't feel like going to get it. We had a really fun time there and didn't have to wait in any lines, so that was a bonus. Elise and Emilia were even brave enough to go on the big roller coaster.  Elise was the bravest kid of the day because she went on the "sling shot" too. (That's the one that is pictured in the upper right corner. It goes straight up and straight down really fast.)

After we were done playing at the Adventuredome we decided to go get some dinner and go back to the hotel. We drove down the strip (at 5 pm on a Friday night--bad idea--it was SO crowded, it took forever). Then we got lost several times trying to find our way through the construction and getting on and off and back on several freeways all in the wrong places. Then we called directory assistance, got driving directions to the wrong hotel (thanks guys) and had to drive some more. After that we were starving and instead of stopping at a buffet like we had planned we stopped at IHOP and ate overpriced disgusting food. Every time I eat at any of their restaurants I always vow I will never go back there because I hate paying 10 bucks for an egg and a pancake. And it wasn't even that good. My kids said my pancakes are better. Of course they are...they are not from a mix... but I digress. So, FINALLY we got to the RIGHT hotel and checked in.

We were tired.

We had all the kids lined up on the bed watching a movie.  How is it possible to have 100 cable channels and nothing suitable for children to watch?  Good thing we have Netflix.

We had planned to spend the night and get up in the morning and see some stuff:  The Hoover Dam, Boulder City and possibly the chocolate factory which I saw advertised in a hotel pamphlet.  We were going to go home Saturday night.  Unfortunately we ended up cutting our trip short. Ian had been coughing a lot during the day and by the time the evening came he started coughing a croupy barking cough and had really loud and difficult breathing.  We slept for about 2 hours when Elise woke us up. She woke us up to tell us that Ian's breathing was keeping her awake.  Then Ian woke up.  Kent took him outside for some cool air.  We gave him a bath in the middle of the night. They went for more walks, visited the pool, walked around some more. 

By about 3:00 I knew this trip was over. 

We had been up all night. Ian was having trouble breating and I said to Kent, "Let's just go home".  He was worried about driving through the middle of nowhere to get home so we hesitated to leave at that point.  Finally after the 10th walk outside we decided to pack it up and leave.  We left about 4:00 am.  Kent was nice enough to do the driving.  I don't know how he managed to stay awake. I stayed awake for the first 2/3 of the trip but by the end I could not keep my eyes open.  The kids were bummed that we didn't get to go to the Hoover Dam. We had to promise that we'd come back another time.  I think our kids have only had croup twice. Once was when Emilia was a baby, and the second time was 10 years later on our Vegas trip. What luck.

When we finally got home we realized that our trip lasted for almost exactly 23 hours.