Smores!!!

Last weekend Jason suggested that we make some smores with the kids. I got our smores maker out of the garage that we had gotten as a Christmas gift from the Corbett's many years ago when we were watching JD when he was a baby. Our kids have never made smores before so we thought it might be a fun activity and surprise.

To say they had a blast would be an understatement. Actually we all had a lot of fun. Jase and I included! Hudson and Tori jumped in from the get go and started roasting their marshmellows but Emily was nervous about what would happen if your marshmellow caught on fire. I explained to her that the BEST marshmellows are the ones that get pretty toasted :) I showed her by putting my marshmellow in the flame and letting it catch on fire and then doing the only thing a mom can think of...peeling the outer layer off and then eating it....yummm!! Then putting it back in the fire to roast the next level. Brings back memories from my childhood, haha.
That was all it took and she joined in on the fun.

Max loved that he got all gooey and sticky! He wasn't allowed to roast his own but he sure loved it whenever anyone else would make one for him.

Tori ended up getting some pink marshmellow in her hair at one point but that didn't slow her down in the slightest.

Hudson thought marshmellows on fire looked cool so he was constantly lighting his on fire just to watch it burn...should we be worried? hmmm
We picked up white and pink marshmellows and in the end the white ones got the most votes. Pink were good but not as good as the plain white ones apparently.
It was a fun time and since then they have been asking if we can make them again.

It was raining tonight so we weren't able to go out for our nightly walk to look at Christmas lights after dinner, so we made smores instead. Nothing like loading the kids up on sugar right before bath and bed. urgh.

Anyway, they seem to be a huge hit in our house. Just wish that American chocolate didn't taste so crappy. I would kill for some decent Canadian chocolate:)

Upgrading :)

I loved my car. It was my first new car I have ever owned. It had all the bells and whistles I could have asked for and more but my family had slowly started to outgrow it :( It did seat seven but the rear seats were stadium seating which meant that they had less leg room than the ones in the middle seats. As my kids got taller they started to whine about who sat in the back. Plus whenever my parents visited we had to take two cars. So....we started looking around for something larger to fit the bill for us and we ended up finding it. We test drove many different cars and I really liked the Ford Expedition but the one I really wanted, The Eddie Bauer model was just too expensive brand new. I couldn't justify going in debt again when my current car was paid off and I learned my lesson the last time about buying a car brand new...depreciation the moment you drive it off the lot :(

We ended up finding an Eddie Bauer at another dealership that was a 2008 with not many miles on it, the price was right and they would give us a great trade in on mine, so we took it.

I am so happy to have all the extra room and I am glad that I didn't settle for the other models that didn't have all the things I wanted. Leather is a MUST when you have kids! I was a little leary about having a black SUV in Arizona for our summers but I did okay with a dark blue one for three years so I figured it will work out okay.

I'll have to admit that I really like being higher up and surrounded by airbags, especially when I'm surrounded by snowbirds who don't have a clue where they are let alone where they are driving or that they are driving at all!! haha ~ urgh

Out with the old...

In with the new :)

A Visit With Santa!!

The kids have been asking for a few weeks about when they could go and see Santa. Jase and I finally decided that gift ideas should be 'locked in' so Santa wasn't running around at the last minute tracking down gifts . So on Saturday morning we got up and got the kids ready and off we went to the mall so that they could sit on Santa's knee and tell him what they wanted.

Max wasn't too sure of who this odd looking Grandpa dude was in the red suit but he was a sport and sat on his knee anyway, haha. Max likes everyone! We were in Costco on Monday and he pointed to this old guy with a whiteish beard and said "Santa". I couldn't help chuckling. At least he got something out of his visit!! Arizona is filled to maximum capacity with snow birds(old folks who come to the warmth for the winter months) and it makes shopping trips and driving anywhere take a little longer than usual.

Anyway, the gift requests were as follows:

Emily ~ Nintendo ds

Hudson ~ red scooter

Tori ~ pink Barbie scooter

Max ~ tricycle

Jase and I laugh over the monetary variations in the gift requests but at the present time they are too young to grasp that concept yet and we will revel in that fact for now. Later when they are older i'm sure they will compare gifts down to the last penny ( i hope not but i know i did, haha) Hudson originally wanted an Indiana Jones whip and we said, no to that idea. I could just imagine my lamps, the dog, his siblings and the tv being mistakenly(ya right when it comes to his sisters, especially Tori) hit by his whip. We told him maybe for his birthday, with us hoping that he will forget by then!! Hey! It's a while until August 30th :)

We had fun and then when we got home Jase put the lights on the house and I put up the lights on the palm trees and bushes and wreaths on the garage and the front door and then garland around the front door as well. We think the house looks pretty good. I'll have to take a pic tonight once it gets darker before our nightly walk.

I LOVE the holidays!!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day at our house this year. Jason's parents and his youngest brother Tyler came and had dinner with us. Everyone ate too much food but Thanksgiving only comes once a year so its worth it!!

Before they arrived we figured we'd take some photos of the kids dressed up in their holiday clothes...and also before they spilled food and who knows what else on themselves!!

We decided to do some in color and others in black and white for a different look. We were pretty happy with how they came out.

Emmy, Tori and Deb

Hudson, Jase and Max

Emily, Jase and Tori

Emily, Tori and Hudson just hangin' out.

Hudson, Emmy, Deb, Max and Tori. Man its really hard to take photos with four kids. Trying to get everyone to look at the same time. It almost makes them more realistic when you get the goofy looks and frustrated faces and wandering eyes. It seems the kids hate photos as much as I do :)

The monkeys!

Hudson trying not to laugh.

Tori being cheesy.

Tori and Emm. I really love this photo which shows that they can be loving to each other when they want to!!!

Bike Riding 101

The kids have been asking...or shall we say begging for a chance to take their bikes out again after we bought them ummm....yeah about a year ago. Okay so we suck as parents sometimes but time just got away from us and I wasn't able to take them out myself and watch Max so we just kept putting it off and putting it off.

Well...we decided that we would take them out on Sunday to a local park and let them ride and crash a lot. The park was packed so we went to a parking lot a short ways away and let them have at it. They did amazingly well :) Emily caught on before Hudson which surprised both Jase and I since he is usually more athletic than Emm but I guess her dance is paying off. She was off riding around on her own a while before he got the hang of it and i'm sure it was ticking him off that she was doing it and he wasn't. Tori meanwhile was speeding past both of them on her bike with training wheels on, jumping off curbs and being her usual wild child self. All in all it was a great afternoon and it finished with everyone feeling pretty happy with themselves about their bike riding skills.

Yes yes yes, we know...Emily is almost 9 and is now just learning how to ride a bike. Our street just isn't set up for riding bikes like mine or Jason's were when we were kids and there is no way I will let them ride over to their friends like I used to do when I was younger. The world unfortunately just isn't the same as it was back then...man i'm dating myself aren't I? haha

One nice thing about living in Arizona is that its almost December and we are out in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops! Gotta love it :)

Hudson and Max...Max wanted to wear Tori's old helmet. Yep those are princesses on that helmet, it made Jase cringe a little when he put it on!! haha

Emily and Tori riding off into the sunset...well i guess it isn't into the sunset, maybe away from it??

Tori and Deb and her "hot mamma bike"


Jase giving Hudson some pointers.

Finally!!! They got it :)

Seaworld :)

On our final day in San Diego we went to Seaworld. We saw all of the shows and the kids thought the animals were pretty cool. Emily was dying to go on the Atlantis ride (the log ride, water fall ride) so we took the kids on it and it was extremely tough to get them to want to do anything else after going on it a few times. Once again there weren't any line ups at all and we were able to go on back to back rides. We even convinced Jason to go on it. He refuses to go on rollercoasters but he sucked it up and went on this one. On the back part of the ride, after you come down the big waterfall, you go up inside the ride and it becomes a regular rollercoaster. As we came out of the elevator part at the top I heard Jason mutter behind me when he saw the roller coaster, "Oh sh*t". hahaha. I couldn't help not laughing. It couldn't have been that bad, he went on it one more time after that! We were all pretty wet when we left that ride and were lucky that it wasn't too cold and we were able to dry off fairly quickly. My dad got pretty wet on one of the rides right at the end of the day and was shivering through the Shamu show. I'm sure on the ride home he had the heater on and the seat heaters on as well :)

Legoland!!

On our first full day in San Diego we took the kids to Legoland. None of us had been there before but many of our friends said that it was a fun place for kids our age. The kids ended up having a blast. I was amazed by the Lego figures/structures etc. Nothing I ever made out of Lego ever turned out that good, haha. It was a nice cool 80 degrees and there weren't any line ups which was very nice!