Missing You

I've come to realize that I have an extremely difficult time being away from my husband! (even when it's only just a couple of days) I can't sleep w/o him, that may sound like an exaggeration but trust me it's not. I've probably had about 4 hrs in the past 2 days!
Kurt went to Utah for his brother Lukes wedding. He left Friday and has been gone for 3 days now. We decided not make the trek together because we had just done a trip to Utah for thanksgiving, and money is scarce in the winter. So we bought him a ticket to rep for us. Guarantee we will NOT be doing this again anytime soon! I would rather suffer my kids to be out of their element then to suffer through w/o him! To make matters worse.....I woke up very excited that he'd be home in a few hrs, to get a call from him telling me his flights been cancelled and he won't be flying out till tomorrow morning. Apparently the weathers not so good and all the other flights have been booked for the day.
AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! It probably sounds incredibly pathetic but 3 1/2 days alone is not my idea of good times. Anyway I will look to the bright side and just look forward to tomorrow morning. I miss you my love, come home to us soon!

Raindrops from heaven

That's how I like to think of my children and those ever so sweet moments. Little raindrops from heaven- and every once in a while a drop will hit you. Like a warm hug, or a "mommy I love you", or a giggle while playing. Those are what make this job so worth while! I just wanted to share a few cute pics that show some of those "raindrops".

Happiest Place On Earth

YAY we made it! I have been telling Kurt for the past week that I'd like to go to Disneyland before Christmas, to see the lights and decorations! Today 12/20 we were able to make it there! I just LOVE Disneyland and will forever love it! It's definitely my fave theme park!And...we're off! It was a nice day, somewhat cloudy, and cool. When we first arrived we saw Mickey and Chip N' Dale.Alaina gets so distracted by the characters she doesn't want to look at the camera! This trip was by far the most we have done in one day with the kids. We usually can only wander onto one or two rides and eat by the time the kids get fussy. We had some lunch and headed over to Honey I shrunk the audience. (That was quite an experience!) For those who don't know this ride is a 3-d experience movie. Emmitt had a pair of 3-d glasses so he could see what was going on, and boy did he get scared! There are a couple parts in the movie where things are flying at your face, Emmitt was jumping back in his seat! He started crying when a cat changed into a lion that was roaring and clawing in his face! Poor Guy!! He was reluctant to put the 3D glasses back on after that! But he left happy and talking about how scary it was! LOL!! (Kurt and I were laughing!) Our carousel rideThe kids had fun in fantasy land riding the carousel, dumbo, and face painting. We also watched the christmas parade with santa and other disney characters. As Santa came by Emmitt yelled, "HI Santa, I want a scooter for christmas!!" (he got the idea from his stinker dad) Face painting! This little man loves to get his face painted! I was hoping they'd have some christmas ideas for his face but they were the same ol drawings.Hat Dress Up We had so much fun, Disneyland is definitely a "magical kingdom"!

CAUTION...gingerbread under construction

Wednesday night- 12/19, we decided we'd make our gingerbread house as a family activity! I have never had the experience of building a gingerbread house. On a trip to costco I was super excited to find a gingerbread house kit and thought it'd be fun! So we have had the kit for a little over two weeks or so and decided it's about time to test it out! The above pic is Alaina and Emmitt ready for the construction! "Kit includes all you see here" The kit was really cool cause it took all the really hard work out of it and left the fun stuff! No baking and cutting pieces and no mixing together frosting! (My kind of gingerbread experience! lol) It just had a bunch of pre cut house pieces and tons of decorating candy, and icing! Emmitt was super pumped to get started and helped form the sides of the house by putting the icing on the pieces. He made a gingerbread kid covered in funky candies and exclaimed, "Look Daddy this is YOU!!!" He was very proud of his creation! We did our best to get Alaina involved but she was more interested in eating her gingerkid then decorating it. Her piece was soon demolished! My fave part was decorating my ginger girl (seen in front of the house) with the red skirt, blonde hair, and green eyes. Mainly it turned out to be Kurt & I doing the work and the kids eating it! LOL!! Kurt assembled the house and I decorated most of it. Kurt had to throw in a side yard and a fence with the rest of the candy. It was really fun and we'll probably do it again next year!

Naughty or Nice?

SANTA!!!!!! We finally got around to taking the kids to see santa claus! Man you should've seen my daughter! She was not having it! Poor girl was terrified of santa, plus she was not having a good day to begin with. Emmitt was super excited! He told santa what he wanted for christmas and everything. Kurt tried just holding Alaina and sitting on the ground next to Santa and she was still crying. So we were only able to get a pic of emmitt with santa this year, hopefully next year she'll get over her fear.

2 by 2

I can't believe how quickly my kids have grown and changed. Emmitt is going to be turning 3 come March, and I keep wondering what happened to my little baby boy. Alaina is now 16 mos and so dang smart! I swear everyday she says something new, she talks alot! She's started telling us when she has poop or pee! She wants to be a big girl. This pic is from this morning, when Emmitt goes to the bathroom she starts saying she wants to also. We have put her on the potty a couple times and believe it or not she has actually gone once! Potty training her should be a breeze! LOL!! Emmitts become quite the helper and is pulling out of the tantrum craziness! Thank goodness! He still has his moments but he's pushing past the terrible twos! He loves playing his vsmile video games with Kurt and I am amazed at how he can match things up. He is very protective of his sister! He likes to tell people (very sternly) that it's "His lai lai" and he told my neighbors girl the other day "you don't touch her that's my sister!" LOL!! They play together so well! Of course there's the occasional "beatdown" from emmitt to alaina, I can tell you this much....she's one tough cookie! I'd say that we are at a good stage in our lives and we'll just flow with it for now. As for having more.....who knows what the future will bring, for now I just want to enjoy my 2! (and enjoy being a smaller size....lol!)

Are you ready for christmas?

I'm sorry to say that I have been slacking on our little family blog. It's been awhile since my last post, so I figured I would post something quickly and when I get more exciting things then I will post again. We have finished decorating our home with christmas things. Kurt got all our outside lights up, which was actually kind of a long process because we couldn't get very many boxes at a time. It seems our lights that we chose were pretty popular! LOL!! But they are up and they look beautiful (white and blue twinkle icicle lights). And our tree is fully decorated now all I have to do is keep it well guarded till it comes down. Alaina has got to it a couple times but thankfully no ornaments have perished! I recently discovered that we have no stocking holders so I purchased some the other day that I love so that completed our christmas decor! Now if I could just get the shopping done and we'd be all set!

Christmas Tree Farm

Yesterday 11/29 we went to get a tree! We were debating for a while whether we would go for a fake or real one this year since it is sorta hard with the little ones. Last year we didn't get a tree at all because we were in our small apartment with two tiny ones. We decided we would g for the real one, they smell so good! And they actually cost less than a fake one!
There is a tree farm not far from where we live that had a big pumpkin patch for halloween and they do trees now. It was fun to go with the kids and get them to help too! The place was huge and they had a petting zoo and pony rides and everything. We got an 8 1/2 footer and it's beautiful! Just thought I would share some of the photos, they came out really cute!Alaina was fascinated by these ducks. She stood there frozen just watching them for a few minutes.

Utah Thanksgiving

This year for thanksgiving we drove up to Utah to spend it with the Shillig side of the family. Our drive was about 9 1/2 hrs and surprisingly the kids were pretty good during the road trip. They slept most of the way, and watched movies off of Kurts labtop. (That thing is a lifesaver!) Without it I think we would've been in trouble. We stayed in Provo at the Marriot, we've stayed there before on a previous trip and loved it so we booked it again. We got there at about 9 pm on the 21st, Nate had planned an Xbox night so we pretty much threw our stuff in the room and took off for Nate and Ashleys. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up on things. Ash and I ran out and got pizza for everyone, and then the girls played a little Nazi Yahtzee with Lark. Alaina was so tired that I just left with her back to the hotel and Kurt stayed to finish up his game.

The next morning we got up early to go play the traditional "turkey bowl" football game. They played at a park nearby and Kurt had a blast! I just huddled in the truck with the kids, it was just way too cold for me! They fell asleep, so I had a chance to catch up on my email while Kurt played football. The temp in Utah stayed around 30-40 and I forgot my jacket for the trip so I was not a happy camper about the weather! LOL! I cannot stand being cold, I would much rather be hot! Definite California Girl!
After the turkey bowl we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the thanksgiving festivities. Jake and Caroline did such a great job at putting everything together. We all gathered in the condominium clubhouse for the meal, variety show, and games. Everyone brought something to pitch in for the meal and it turned out great! We held a variety show afterwards and we all participated with an act. Some of us were somewhat reluctant to participate but once we finished I think we all were glad that we did it! It was awesome! While we were waiting for games to start we took advantage of some dance time! I love dancing with the family, so much fun!! Then we played Mafia, which is always fun with all those people! Our last round that we played Jake fooled us all and won as Mafia! (You trickster!)
All in all our trip was exciting! The nights with the kids not so much....oh my!! My children are just not good outside of their own environment. The last night was a nightmare, poor Alaina would not settle down and give in to sleep. We were up from 3-5:30 waiting for her to sleep. But spending time with everyone was awesome, especially those we don't get to see often enough! Thank you so much to all of you who helped put this on! It was very enjoyable. Kurt will be traveling back out to UT soon to attend Luke and Kayleens sealing! **p.s. Unfortunately our camera took a dive while we were out there and we didn't get as many pics as I would've liked so these are all I have. If anyone has anymore pics please email them to me, thanks!**

Shillig Family Variety Show

This first video is from the Shillig Family Variety Show that we had on Thanksgiving evening. Jake and Caroline chose songs that reminded them of each family member for their act. They chose "fergalicious" as my song, and since other members of the family had danced to their songs I couldn't refuse when asked to come up.

Parents Silver Anniversary

Eric and I- say cheese!
Husbands and Wives- ooh it's like prom! lol!
My brothers and I! Clan of cousins- lets' see if we all fit!
Alaina and her cousin Riley.
Well this last weekend was very exciting for me! I picked up my brother Eric and his wife from the airport friday night. They flew in from S. Carolina and it was very exciting to see them! I hardly ever get to see my brother due to his military life so it was fun to catch up! His wife Alex is just adorable and very funny. She is very much like him. They stayed at our house that night and the next morning we left for my parents place in Bakersfield. It was their 25th anniversary party! 25 years, an amazing accomplishment when you consider how many people simply give up! Anyway all the family on my side came down for the shindig. Including an aunt and uncle that I haven't seen since 99, my sophomore year. It was so nice to see everyone and be together. Erics Wife- Alex and I
Saturday night my family played scene it squabble together. It was hilarious! I can't remember the last time my family played a game all together. We were laughing histerically, bagging on eachother and what not. If Erics home your bound to laugh! LOL! Girls beat the guys! *Ahem* (just had to throw that in there) Sunday we had a "thanksgiving" feast, since Kurt and I wouldn't be there the day of. Thanks to my Mom she threw a beautiful meal together and oh man was it yummy! I can't say enough how nice it was for all of us to be in the same place! I definitely miss my brothers and my parents! This is a pic of all the babies that have newly come into the family! From left to right- Blake, Emmitt, Alaina, Ava, Courtney, Riley, and Gavin. It was so cute to have them all together taking a picture.
We leave for Utah tomorrow to do a Shillig thanksgiving! We are very excited to see everyone! Love my Pops!

Love being an aunt!

I just got some new pics of my nieces and had to share! These are my brother Travis's girls! I can't believe how big they are getting, and oh so cute! Just look at Ava! She looks alot like her Mommy! This pic of Courtney is just way too cute! I want to squeeze her cheeks!