Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Rest of this Week

 Monday we went to visit Papa who lives in Heaven. That's what the kids call my dad! I can't believe it's been four years! So much has happened in those four years. We miss him like crazy!

 We had a movie night to watch Cars 2 that Gage got from Santa. Movie night would not be complete with out bowls of ice cream! YUM!

 We also went swimming at the Clackamas Aquatic Center! We brought Madi along with us and we all had a fun time!

 All three kids went into the wave pool on the tube!

 Gage was an animal going down the slide. He would even go down head first!

And he liked to sit on the little fountain! He was so fun to watch that day.

Tonight, my mom and sister and I are going out for girls night. And on Friday we leave for Spokane! I'm sure I'll have more to update after that trip, but until then, I am all caught up! YAY!

Gage's Christmas Morning

Gage's Santa stuff (cars, trains, and roller skates)

Playing with his new shake n' go Cars 2 track.

 One of his favorite gifts all day was his Lightning and Mater Spin toothbrush he got in his stocking! 

 He wasn't too sure about his new Cars undies! Potty training starts in January!

 Maisey picked out a book for him and was so excited to watch him open it. And it made it even better that he LOVED the book and they've been reading it a ton together since Sunday!

 He loved his roller skates too. Two days before Christmas he told me he wanted blue roller skates. I think he was just as happy with his Lightning McQueen ones!

And he got a fun remote control car that he loves to drive around the house and crash into things!

Maisey's Christmas Morning

 Maisey's Santa Stuff (lots of Barbies and princess things, roller skates, a globe, and sight word flash cards!)

 Her first time on skates! Only one splits all day!

 Workin on a puzzle with Daddy

 Rapunzel Dress to go with the. . .

 Rapunzel Barbie, to go with the . . .

The Rapunzel wig!

Maisey made a cute angel gift at preschool. She was so excited for me to open it!

Quote of the morning, "Mommy, I feel like I'm in a magical winter wonderland!" 

I'm glad her Christmas was magical!

Christmas Eve

The morning of Christmas Eve was the most mellow morning we've had all month of December. It was WONDERFUL! Maisey had a sleepover at Grammy's, and Daddy let me sleep in. Once we got up and going, Gage and Daddy wrapped some last minute presents (Shaun's gifts to me! haha!) while I prepared some things for our Christmas Eve dinner later that night. Shaun got Santa things out of our shed and brought them into our room. We laid them all out on our bed so they would be ready for that night then we shut our door so the kids wouldn't go in. We all took afternoon naps, then we got ready for dinner and a program at Grammy's. We sang songs, some read stories, and we played a few games, then we headed home, took bathes, the kids laid out their stockings and wrote Santa a letter and left him some treats. They were in bed and asleep by 8:30, and I was asleep on the couch by 9. Shaun woke me up, Santa came, then we went to bed. It was a pretty relaxing and enjoyable day.

 While Daddy was wrapping presents, he wrapped Gage up!

Gage had NO idea that Santa had just walked by!
(Before we left on our trip, I organized all of their Santa stuff into their own big black garbage bags and took them out to the shed! It was a BRILLIANT idea and one I will be doing again next year.)

 
 Christmas Eve at my mom's!

 Gage and Maisey singing Jingle Bells! It was way cute!

 Playing a snowball game!


 Stockings!


Maisey wrote the letter to Santa this year. And she chose what to leave out. She left egg nog and one cookie for Santa, one cookie for Mrs. Claus, one for the elves (to share?), and she left fruit for the reindeer.

Post Trip Christmas Activities

Once we got back from our trip, we were in full-fledge Christmas mode! After unpacking and laundry, we made Christmas cookies, played with cousin Brock, looked at Christmas lights, shopped for Christmas dinner, played games, went to Malibu Raceway, went to a movie, and sat on Uncle Blair's (Santa) lap!


















Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Trip to Utah and Colorado

Day 1: Lots of Driving! Drove to Aunt Judy's house in Burley, ID and only made two stops! The kids were AWESOME! Gage loved having his own movie to hold and watch. We thought he would watch Cars on repeat the whole trip, but actually his movie of choice was Strawberry Shortcake! Maisey was also entertained by movies, Barbie ones, but she mostly colored in the car.

  (One of our stops on Day 1 was at McDonald's in Boise to meet Shaun's grandparents and Shaun's cousin's daughter. We let the kids run around and play for about an hour!)

Day 2: We drove from Burley, ID to Provo, UT, checked into our hotel, then went to visit BYU campus! We drove past the football stadium, showed the kids the bell tower, where mommy used to live and then headed to the Wilk to eat lunch and ice cream. We went to the bookstore where Gage threw a MAJOR fit and I carried him all the way out to the car while he was kicking and screaming. He fell asleep within minutes. Maisey and Daddy finished in the bookstore and came out with a few fun things. After BYU, we headed up to Cabella's and let the kids look around at all of the animals and fish. Gage thought it was pretty neat. Maisey could have cared less. Shaun was chasing Gage through the store so Maisey and I stopped at the movie kiosk to see what the movie was. It was a deer hunting movie. Maisey said to me, "Mommy, that deer just fell over. Is he getting back up?" I just laughed to my self and we kept walking. We hit up Cafe Rio for dinner then rode the Trax into Salt Lake to look at the lights on Temple Square. The kids LOVED riding the train, but they were pretty naughty at Temple Square. It was a packed day and we all totally crashed that night at the hotel.

Ice cream at the Cougar Eat

Gage growling at all of the animals at Cabella's

Ryan, Gage, and Hannah on the Trax

The Nativity at Temple Square

The kids loved having all of their aunts and uncles there to chase them around.

Gage was really naughty during the Christus presentation, so just Maisey and I got a pic.

Loved all the lights.

The fam!

Day 3: Friday morning we headed to this fun place called Lowe's Extreme Sports in Provo. It's a big trampoline/foam pit place! The kids (and the adults) had a blast! We ate at In n' Out for lunch, YUM!!!! We went back to the hotel where Gage and Papa took naps and the rest of us played games. In the late afternoon, we headed to Olive Garden for an early dinner then Shaun and I went to the Timpanogus Temple for Hannah's endowment session. Janel took the kids back to the hotel for swimming, movie watching, and bed time. After the temple, we stopped at Krispy Kremes for a late night treat! 

Shaun jumping over Maisey into the foam pit

Gage flying into the pit!

Maisey's turn! The kids would get some serious air!

They had so much fun with Aunt Janel!

Gage tackled Daddy into the pit!

Yes, that is me, 20 weeks pregnant, swinging on a Trapeze bar into a pit! Shaun wasn't thrilled!

Day 4: Hannah and Ryan's BIG day! The sealing was wonderful! However, right before they came out of the temple, Gage decided to throw the biggest fit of his life (he is known for pretty bad ones but after a while can snap out of it. NOT this one!) and again I took him to the car kicking and screaming and we missed all of the pictures. Luckily, Shaun's aunt took pictures on our camera and when I downloaded them all to the computer I could relive the moment! :)  Gage once again fell asleep in the car and we headed to the luncheon. I helped Janel get it all set up while Shaun sat in the car with Gage sleeping. When it was time to start the luncheon, Gage was still sleeping. I went out and switched Shaun so he could enjoy lunch with his family. After a while, Gage woke up and we were able to join the rest of the fam for lunch. We took a few pics after lunch then headed back to the hotel. Maisey fell asleep on the way back and Shaun carried her up to our room and she slept on OUR bed until it was time to wake her up for the reception. When I woke her up, she had wet OUR bed and she was still wearing her dress for the wedding (which was the only dress we brought!) So by the time we got things cleaned up, asked the front desk to change the bedding, and stopped at the store for a new dress, we were late for the reception and missed the pictures (again!). Good thing we got a few at the luncheon! The kids didn't last long at the reception so I took them back to the hotel (and stopped for dinner at In n' Out, again!) and Shaun stayed for the rest of the reception. Later that night, Papa watched the kids and put them to bed while we played games in the hotel lobby with Shaun's fam! It was way fun!

The new happy couple!

I loved this pic!


The whole Grimmett Clan!

Our fam!

Maisey was begging all morning for a pic with the bride! She finally got her moment at lunch!

Day 5: We woke up bright and early, headed to Krispy Kreme, again! This time with the kids. They loved watching the doughnuts being made and sampling one! Then we headed to Colorado to visit my sister, Christina and her family! Maisey was so excited to see her cousins that's all she would talk about! Once we got there, we just hung out all afternoon and played games that night! It was a nice relaxing change of pace from the rest of our trip.




Day 6: We just hung around Christina's house all morning and in the afternoon after naps, we took the kids bowling. Our kids have never really been bowling before, and they loved it, except for the whole taking turn with five kids thing! We ordered pizza for dinner, put the kids to bed and played more games! It was a nice way to end the trip!




She is such a poser right now!

Day 7: We said our good byes to all the cousins and made our way back to Aunt Judy's house in Idaho! Maisey had been excited to get back to Judy's house all week, because Judy promised her she could play with a big Barbie castle on our way back through. It made the goodbyes with Shayla a little easier! We stopped for lunch at Cafe Rio! Shaun wanted to get one more meal in there before we headed home! The kids were good on the drive and picked up right where they left off at Judy's!

Shayla and Maisey

Derick and Gage in their matching jammies!

Day 8: We checked the roads that morning and it showed icy conditions, so we were really focused on just getting home! When we made it to each of the usually hazardous spots, the roads were perfect! We really lucked out with weather on our whole trip! We made it safely home late Wednesday evening! The kids were so funny when they went inside the house. They kept going around to just normal things like the pillows on the couch, and their seats at the table and telling me how much they missed each of these things. It was cute!

Well, we survived our trip with some major fits, lots of fun, lots of games, lots of GOOD food, and several pounds heavier!