Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree!

Well my kids couldn't handle it.  Not one day after Thanksgiving and they want the Christmas decorations up ASAP!  They especially wanted the Christmas Tree up.  I don't know why I wasn't motivated to put it up, I usually can't wait to put up my Christmas decorations.  But the kids were so excited so I had to and I was so glad I did.  Just seeing it up with the lights on just makes me happy and feels me with Christmas cheer.  I just love the Christmas season!

Melissa's Birthday

I'm excited to post about one of my very best friends, Melissa.  Melissa moved to California 6 months after we did 5 years ago and we became instant friends.  We hit it off right away and she has been like a sister to me ever since.  Out of all my best friends she is the most like me, we have very similar interests, views and tastes.  We often buy the same articles of clothing without knowing the other has boughten it and find ourselves wearing the same thing and having to call each other to make sure we aren't showing up as twins. I admire her and look up to her.  She is an amazing mother, she's one of those moms that plans the cutest things for her children and is always showing them how special they are and how much she loves them.  She is Primary President and a preschool teacher, so she has a lot on her plate, but she always seems so calm and handles everything so well.  I feel so blessed to have her in my life and am so grateful for her friendship.  Melissa's birthday is around Thanksgiving and I feel she often gets the shaft when it comes to her birthday because everyone is out of town and we rarely get to celebrate with her.  Last year was her 30th birthday and she was in Arizona with her family and extremely sick and her husband was stuck writing a school paper.  Not the best way to celebrate such an important birthday.  We made it up too her on our girls trip to St. George last year but this year we wanted to make sure we celebrated it with her.  So those of us who were still in town took her to South Coast Winery down in Temecula for a delicious breakfast.

 It was so pretty out there and we got to eat out on the patio and the weather was so nice and it was so nice just enjoying a breakfast with friends.  Here is a picture of Vanessa and Melissa.

 Melissa and Kyra

 Melissa and I (yep I'm not looking the best on this particular morning)

 Cheryl and Melissa

 Carly and Melissa

 Kyra, Melissa and me.

 The whole crew.

Melissa was wanting to take Tatum back out there to do her baptism photo shoot and wanted to see how the vineyard would look as a back drop.  So her and I decided to pose together, hand holding and all :-)

Not the best lighting that time of day.  Anyways, Happy Birthday Melissa!!!  Thanks for being such an amazing friend!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, what can be better than thinking of all the many things you are grateful for and being with all the people you love.  We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving spent with amazing friends and family that we are extremely grateful for.

 I may have mentioned this in previous Thanksgiving posts in years back, but it was a tradition in my family that we would have a Thanksgiving breakfast with my parents close friends and our neighbors, the Collins.  The Collins moved away when I was in high school but my family kept the tradition going.  We would have our Thanksgiving breakfast and then we just made sure Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled a little bit later than normal at my grandma's so we could enjoy the bounties of every meal.  We still do this when its our year to visit my family for Thanksgiving.  But the years we stay home for Thanksgiving I wanted to continue the tradition with our own friends.  So, every other year when we spend Thanksgiving in California we have our close friends over for a Thanksgiving breakfast.  This year our close friend the Thompsons and the Nelsons were able to come over to enjoy some yummy breakfast pull apart rolls, breakfast casserole, ebleskivers and my moms amazing "Thanksgiving" breakfast drink.  The kids loved having their friends over and as you can tell from the adorable picture above, Mckynlee loved hanging out with her two best girlfriends, just hanging out in her bed looking at books together.  The best part is we encourage everyone to stay in pjs and be comfy so its just time to relax and enjoy each other's company.  The men went and played a game of football with some other men in the ward and then came back to join us.

 Just relaxing, watching some football I'm sure.

 The boys playing outside.

 Then after our friends left and some quick clean up we headed to Clint's parents for Thanksgiving dinner.  Crew loved hanging out with Grandpa.

 My nephews swimming in the pool.  My boys were extremely jealous, I didn't think to bring my kids swimsuits and my boys were pretty upset with me.  They couldn't believe I could forget to bring them and were disappointed that they couldn't swim with their cousins.

 Miss Kynlee Koo!

 Dax and Brock ended up being pacified with the ipad of course.

 Clint with his brother Jeremy and his dad and Crew.

 The most handsome little man ever!

 Our little cast girl.

Clint's mom and his Aunt and Uncle, Lynnae and Chris.  Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and we had so much fun having Jeremy and Jenny their with their family.  Their coming was kind of a last minute thing and it was a great surprise.  It was so fun to spend Thanksgiving together with all that family (I mean our friends too because they are like our family out here).

Fun at Mulligans

 With Clint's brother and sister-in-law in town with their kids we had to find fun things to keep the kids occupied.  On Wednesday we decided to take the kids to Mulligans for some mini golf and other activities.  The kids had a blast.  My kids are really enjoying having their cousins in town.

Discovery Science Center

So my neighbor across the street is a program director at The Discovery Science center in Santa Ana and has been telling me about this Star Wars exhibit they were going to do in November.  I knew my boys would be in absolute heaven if we attended.  Well, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Jeremy and Jenny brought their boys and came to visit Cali from Texas for Thanksgiving.  My nephews are into Star Wars too so I thought it would be so fun to go to the Science Center and check out the exhibit while they were in town.  My neighbor Roxy got us free tickets to get inside the museum so all we had to pay for was the Star Wars exhibit.

The boys loved it, it had real artificats from all the movies, with costumes and props.  Even Mckynlee loved it.

Brock was definitely in heaven.

Cooper, Dax, Caden and Coday waiting to ride the machine in the background (don't ask me what it is, I am not Star Wars savy).

My cute nephew Cody.

Cooper trying it out.

Daxton

Caden

Sorry there are lots of shots with the props.

Crew was good to just chill.

They even had interactive compture stuff they could do.

A picture of all the kids before we left the exhibit.

 

After the exhibit it was time to check out the rest of the museum.  Rock wall first.

The kids got to participate in eco-friendly shopping.

They learned about recycling.

Daxton tried out being a hockey goalie.

Brock absoultely loves science, that is his favorite subject in school. So this was his type of museum.  Here he is trying not to touch metal to metal.

Building with blocks, the computer showed them different things they could build with step by step instructions.

This was probably the boy's favorite thing.  You get in this tube and it spins air and I think its suppose to feel how a tornado would feel.

Brock was fascinated with this room and the globe.

The earthquake simulator.

The whole crew before we left the museum.  The kids had so much fun with their cousins.

Mckynlee playing on these balls outside, silly girl.