Santa, Santa, Ho Ho Ho!

Thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's "Mickey Saves Santa" episode and book (which we watch and read quite often around here), Noah was excited about seeing Santa the other night at our church Christmas party. He was a little sheepish when he actually got to the front of the line though. He wanted to talk to him, but definitely kept his distance!

Santa talked to him for a few minutes and then asked what he wanted for Christmas. Without hesitation, Noah replied, "A purple pig." Huh?? Being that this is the first year he's even kind of understands the concept of Santa (and it's still a little fuzzy for him - he was quite upset when we left the party without the aforementioned purple pig, despite my explanation of how Santa works) - I really want Santa to be able to fulfill Noah's one request. I'm at a bit of a loss, however. I did find something - it's not purple, but hopefully this pig will suffice.

Sam had no requests and was not excited to see Santa.

ZaZa Party

On Thursday night Ben and I went downtown to spend the evening at the Hotel ZaZa for Ben's company Christmas party. The Zaza is a very swanky hotel (one which we saw featured the next night on TV when we were watching this random show called "Houston, Over the Top" as one of the best places in Houston to pick up a rich guy - just so you know). Ben's company had rented out the 12th floor and the holiday party flowed through each of the unbelievable hotel suites on that floor. There was a Texas Tycoon suite, a Rock Star suite, a James Bond suite and a couple of others. The food was awesome (different cuisine in each room) - steak, garlic mashed potatoes, veggie cabobs, stuffed mushrooms, jumbo shrimp, sushi (which, as it turns out, I'm a big fan of!), a brushetta bar, chocolate-dipped strawberries, mini burgers, mini chili dogs, brie with warm raspberries (yum), and of course an open bar (translation for me = bottomless cokes). At first we were skeptical of the set-up since there were so many different rooms to go to, but I ended up really liking it because you could roam around and not feel like you had to mingle more than you wanted to (does that sound anti-social?). Anyway, all in all a fun night. Thanks to Andrea for watching my boys (I watched her daughter the previous night for her husband's work party - gotta love the baby swap!).

P.S. Thanks, Ash, for your help with my new Christmas header! Credits here.

Schmoozer

Tonight Noah looked at me adoringly and said, "Mama, I love you." I got all warm and fuzzy and replied, "Ahhh, I love you too, Beeju!" Noah paused for a brief moment, then: "Can I have some of your chocolate milk in my sippy?"

What a brown-noser.

Party (Potty) Central

This weekend was a little crazy. Fun, but crazy. On Saturday Ben took the boys out of the house for a few hours so I could host a baby shower for a friend. They had a good time playing by (in?) a fountain and eating Jamba Juice. Noah was particularly excited about the bullseye (aka horse) they saw.



The shower was really fun. Good food (I only did cookies and punch and outsourced the rest - now, that's the way to host a party!), good friends, good presents for the mama-to-be. The rest of Saturday we hung out at home and played with the boys. Ben also did some painting. Our kitchen is currently 3 different colors. Two walls are the original tan color; one wall is the grey color of the primer, and one wall is the final green. Noah kindly offered, "Daddy, I will talk to you while you paint," and spend quite awhile doing just that.


Sunday night we hosted a going-away party for some friends of ours. We had tons of people over, which I love. It was so much fun, although we are going to miss our friends Natalee and Lowell. In the middle of the party Noah emerged from his room wearing a turtle that he found at the back of his closet.


So now we're back to another week and so far it can best be summed up as Potty Training Hell. I think potty training is some bizarre form of mommy torture. (CIA officials, take note: forcing terrorists to potty train stubborn toddlers would be much more effective than water boarding). Or maybe it's nature's way of limiting the population. Or maybe it has to do with global warming. I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud here. My child is 3 years and 4 months old and yet he does not seem to be getting this. Please note that I am asking for no suggestions because I have heard them all and done them all and nothing is working. I am especially not looking for, "I don't know what to tell you, my kid just potty trained himself!" That would not be received well in my current fragile state of mind (although I'm happy for you and if you've told me that in the past, there are no hard feelings). Am I a bad mom if I just wash my hands of it and put him back in pull-ups? My only reservation with that plan is that I really don't want to have to home-school him when he turns 5 and can't go to public kindergarten because he still won't tell me before he needs to pee.

Worst Dressed

This morning my MSN homepage enticed me to view the 2007 Year in Review, otherwise known as the year's worst-dressed list: http://movies.msn.com/movies/2007review/undressed?GT1=7701. Sure, it's fun to look and mock and ask, "What were they thinking?," but on some level it almost makes me mad (ridiculous, I know). I mean, these people have money to burn, personal stylists, top designers literally donating the clothes that us common (and much less rich) folk try to find knock-offs of at Target, and despite all of that, THIS is what they come up with to wear? Get it together, people. Really.

Traveling

Sam helping me pack:

Both boys sleeping on the plane!! Lucky, lucky, lucky...

I can't even express how much better it is to fly with another adult when you're traveling with kids! Even at the times when they both wanted me, it was so incredibly helpful to have Ben there. Seriously, the flight seemed so much shorter this time around! The boys were really good on the way out too, but not being by myself on the way home made a world of difference.

Okay, so do you all remember this post? Evidently losing track of his food is a common occurrence with Sam...

All right. Done with the recaps. Back to present-day blogging.

Rare Family Picture

And, of course, our usual attempt at a cousin picture. One of these days we will get them all smiling at once! And, hopefully, one day soon we'll get to have our other three cousies join in.

Noah at Bedtime

Here's a short video of Noah reading the end of "But Not the Hippopotamus." I love the way he says "armadillo" at the end. Unfortunately, he has since learned the correct pronunciation. I hate that! It's so cute when they pronounce things wrong, but I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to reinforce the wrong (but cuter) way. Although sometimes I do anyway.

Another night I came in to check on Noah before I went to bed and this is how I found him, fast asleep.

All About Sam

Something I recently learned is that my baby is a big fan of lasagne. We ate dinner at our friends Mitch and Libby's house and Sam paid Chef Libby the ultimate compliment for her delicious meal: he literally licked his plate.

He's also a big fan of chocolate milk...

and of his toys...

and of sitting with his daddy...

and of playing horsey with his mama...

and of roughhousing with his grampie...

San Francisco

One day of our trip, Ben and I took the boys into San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day in the city. I really miss living in a city - I love walking to everything and I love all the busy all around you. We went to a park and rode the big slides (and I was slammed into by an old guy rolling fast and furious out of one of the slides!), then walked over to our favorite sandwich shop, The Toaster Oven (they have one open in Lehi now, for all you Utah folk out there), then visited the Martin Luther King Jr. park on our way back to the car.

Slides at Yerba Buena park

Martin Luther King Jr. memorial fountain

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I hadn't been with my family on Thanksgiving in 3 years so it was great to be with them for the holiday this year. Ben flew in the night before and we all stayed in CA for a week after that. For a recap of the day I will link you over to my sister's blog. She summed it up very well!
My sister got lots of turkey day pictures, but here are a few from my camera as well:

My mom's beautiful table

Pre-dinner play time with daddy

Sam, just happy to be there

The fam (minus the Dave & Laurel family - we missed you guys!)

Post-dinner relaxing time with daddy

Sam looooooved the pumpkin pie (he is my son, after all)

Pottery Barn Kids

One of my boys' favorite play places is Pottery Barn Kids. My sister and I took our kiddos there while shopping at the mall during my CA trip. (Yes, it's time for CA-trip-catch-up; so much for my plan to keep my blog up to date while I was there!). I don't always whip my camera out at stores, but the kids were being so cute so I took some pictures.

Cute Abby Claire

Sam taking a breather
Alexis taking a pony for a stroll
Sam and Alex (they played at this table for so long)

Noah climbing in the freezer (don't ask - I have no idea why this was so fun for him!)
My personal favorite photo of the day... check out that expression! What the...?

Boys and Girls

It's very funny to see Noah play with his cousins (all girls). Watching them together really highlights the differences between girls and boys. Noah is VERY "boy" and my sister's girls are each VERY "girl". For example, the other day we all went on a walk on the trail behind my parents' house. It's a favorite activity around here because along the trail there are several horses that the kids like to visit. My nieces have named the horses such things as Pocahontas, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, and Mary. Noah has named all the horses "Bulls-eye."

Speaking of naming things, I have to share this story about another niece (my brother's daughter) because I can't stop laughing about it. My brother (whose name is Dave) was listening to his 4-year-old daughter Emma play wtih her toy dinosaurs the other day. She had created a little dinosaur family. She held one up and said, "This is the mommy dinosaur. Her name is Laurel [my sister-in-law's name, naturally]." Then she held up another one and said, "This is the daddy dinosaur. His name is Steve."

Out in Cali

I'm writing from California right now. On my last trip out I didn't blog the whole time and then wrote about 27 catch-up posts afterward. Yeah, I'm not doing that again. So I think I'll just post and add pictures later. Anyway, we've had a great time so far. I came out with the boys last week - or the week before that maybe? Who knows. It's so nice to have a portable job. Sure, I get no vacation days but I can do my job from anywhere, which is a real perk. Ben's joining us here on Wednesday and then we'll all stay one more week after that.

My first order of business this trip was attending my friend Mary's wedding. Mary is a good friend of mine from high school. I went with my best gal Katie and we saw a couple of other high school friends there. It was fun to catch up and see people I haven't seen in a long time! The wedding was beautiful - as was the bride - and the reception was elegant and fun all at the same time.

Update: Here are some pictures from Mary's wedding:

The happy couple entering the reception

Me and the bride

Ani, Brooke and Dana

Me and Katie

Ani, Brooke, Mary, me and Kates

My favorite part of the wedding was the candle part of the ceremony where the mom of the bride and the mom of the groom each lit a candle and then the bride and groom used them to light one candle together. I didn't do that at my wedding and I'd really like to. Maybe on our 20th wedding anniversary (or our 10th since that's much closer!) Ben and I can have another ceremony so we can do the candle thing. And maybe it can be on a beach in Hawaii. And I can wear another wedding dress, because that's just fun. Are you reading this, honey??

More Birthday Wishes

Phew! I think this is the last (but definitely not least!) catch-up blog post for today.

Yesterday was Ben's birthday - the big three-two. I like to remind him that he is well in his thirties now while his young wife is still in her twenties. He likes to remind me that we both have to check the same box on forms so I guess I shouldn't get too snotty about it. :)

Here is the birthday boy on his big day yesterday (he's doing some church work - it was a very exciting birthday).

We did part of the celebrating Saturday night. We went on a date to see Dan in Real Life (very good movie) and then got some ice cream. The actual birthday was pretty low-key but we did have a yummy birthday dinner (although the dessert was gross - Ben requested rice krispie treats instead of cake, but apparantly I used stale Rice Krispies - yuck! I'll be making another batch later with fresh cereal...). We had stimulating dinner conversation, during which we tried to tell Noah how old Ben was. It didn't really sink in though, as you can see from this video:




After dinner Ben opened presents with a little help from Noah (Noah basically took over):



After presents the boys (minus Sam, who was in bed already) played a fun game of try-to-swipe-daddy's-glasses, which lasted for quite awhile (I started recording it well into the fun):

And that concluded the birthday celebration.
Happy Birthday, Hubby!! I love you!!

P.S. Is it just me or does it take everyone forever to put videos in a post?

Belated Birthday Wishes

Last Thursday was my big brother Dave's birthday. My poor brother - I am very rarely on time with his birthday (I put his card in the mail today). The problem is that it's on November 1st so not only is it the day after a holiday, but it's also the first day of a new month and my calendar has not been turned yet. Oh well, he knows I love him anyway! Seriously, he's the best big brother in the world and one of the smartest, kindest, funniest people I have ever known. And he does a really great impersonation of Grover from Sesame Street.

I honestly don't think I have a single picture of me and Dave (ridiculous - I will be fixing that at my first opportunity - which may not be for awhile since, sadly, he lives far away from me). So here's one of Dave (on the left) with our brother Tom and Dave's kids Ethan and Emma (baby Adam is not pictured).

Happy Birthday, Big Brother! I love you!!