Car shopping

We were supposed to go be heading to Colorado today to visit Doug's sister, Natalie, and her family.  I told Doug that I just didn't feel up to traveling in our small car with two toddlers who wouldn't sleep well there.  I've also been having some pregnancy pain that is making me a little apprehensive about leaving home and traveling.  So, we thought "if we're staying home, let's get a minivan so we can have more room for our next road trip.  Brilliant idea!

We took Ethan and Sydney along reluctantly Friday night to look at a few minivans and ended up being out later than we planned.  I felt defeated when we pulled into Carl's Junior for their first fast food experience.  They were whining wanting to go to a 'restaurant' and we said, "this is a restaurant...we tell them what we want to they bring it to our car."  I sat in the parking lot of a dealership feeding them while Doug spoke with a salesman and Sydney looked up at me and said, "this is fun mom!"

Sydney loved her turkey burger and Ethan loved his bean and cheese burrito.

The next day they are already asking to go to "a restaurant where they bring the food to the car again."

We tracked down a good option from an owner in the classifieds this morning and missed the movie Les Miserables with my family to get it looked over by a mechanic.  We are excited that our car-shopping adventure may have already come to an end in one weekend!

Thanks Laura

Doug's fabulous co-worker babysat Ethan and Sydney so we could go on a date last Friday night.  She gave them several gifts--two of which were a snowman and Christmas tree that grow to be 6 times their size in a few days.  They were so excited to watch them grow and even sat eating breakfast watching them in a bowl of water.  So fun!  

We took photos once they were fully-grown.  Happy faces all around.

Boxing day

We invited the Merrill's over to play games the day after Christmas.  Doug and I took turns entertaining the kids as they love to take game pieces and that doesn't work well for game-playing.

Nikki, Erika, and Dallin are so great with Sydney and Ethan.  They would play songs for them on the keyboard and even had a little jumping time on the bean bag chair.  

First snowmen

I kept promising Ethan and Sydney that we would build a snowman and the snow kept melting before I could muster up the energy to get outside with both of them.  Conveniently, Christmas day was filled with lots of snow and their dad was home and so was Aunt Michelle.  They attempted a large snowman and only could make two smallish ones with the snow not being great packing snow.  They were thrilled however and happy with their miniature snowmen.  

I had to look extra hard when I went outside to see their masterpieces.

Santa Claus been here!

Ethan and Sydney woke up at 7:30 am Christmas morning excited to open their presents.  After changing Syd from soaking through her new PJs, Doug grabbed the camera, woke up Aunt Michelle, and was poised in the hallway to watch them run for their presents.  I was surprised there were no squeals of excitement or tearing of paper.  They stared for a moment and we had to urge them to begin to open presents.  Shocking.

Their stockings were pretty exciting because Santa had found some 'healthier' lollipops at Trader Joes and Ethan was especially fixed on them.  It was adorable.  They were excited about their new socks as I had hinted that they needed some and maybe Santa would bring some.  Their socks are WAY too small. (6-12 month socks)

Aunt Michelle opened the gifts we gave her Christmas morning and Ethan and Sydney were excited to help her look through her stocking as well.

They each got a new movie--Lion King (mom and dad were just as excited) and All Dogs go to Heaven.

Santa had given them baggies of Annies cheddar bunnies and Kashi cheese crackers.  They both ate them for breakfast.

They each opened THREE new pair of pajamas.  They were sorely needed.

Their main gift were three Little People houses with all the accessories that we inherited from Grandpa and Grandma B last year and had been storing at Aunt Michelle's.  They loved it.

Sydney and Ethan loved helping us open all our presents as well.

We took a break for breakfast as Ethan and Sydney kept asking for snacks.  After breakfast, we turned on the Lion King and we were glued to the TV.  This was a break from present opening as we still weren't finished.

We started opening presents again and Ethan and Sydney opened their finger puppets--so cute.

I opened a hat and Sydney had to try it on.

My sweet co-worker, Glenda, gave Ethan and Sydney a present which they opened last Christmas morning.  They each got a cuddly stuffed animal and were thrilled.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve has arrived

I've been buying gifts and making plans in anticipation of this day.  Christmas this year is different than any other Christmas I have ever experienced (or looked forward to).  I am more excited to see Ethan and Sydney open their gifts and get excited for Santa than I have ever been for my presents.  They have been talking about it non-stop.  

In celebration of a "white Christmas" we were DUMPED on with snow in the last few days.  Ethan and Sydney helped their dad and Aunt Michelle shovel after Doug and Michelle returned from a jog.  I got them bundled up in their new snow pants, gloves, hats, and coats and handed them their new red kid shovels.  They loved it.  

Syd just loved to eat the snow, in true Sydney-style.

We went over to the Merrill's house and Doug made his annual Peanut Brittle his dad used to make while I grabbed some last-minute items at the grocery store with Michelle.  We met over there as the snow kept falling and roads became pretty slippery.

We had a great time playing in the snow, singing carols, playing in the Wii tournament (Ethan and Sydney loved the Dance Revolution) and eating yummy food.

The Merrill's drew our name for Christmas this year and gave us Hullabaloo and Candy Land games to play with Ethan and Sydney.  They were so excited.

We then braved the snow and went to my parent's house for dinner.  We had a fondue night and it turned out to be a huge success.  We ate a little late due to the snow, but the kids didn't complain and the adults were able to eat first and enjoy ourselves while the kids played downstairs.

We opened new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa B and they all got dressed in their PJs together.

We made it home in one piece in the snow and quickly read a Santa story before hopping in bed.  My bummer of the night was not acting out the Nativity as I'd planned to do with all the cousins at my parent's house.  Lesson learned to fit that in next year.

It was fun having Doug's sister, Michelle, here with us this year and Ethan and Sydney got lots of love attention from her--which they loved.

We had to snap a photo when all the gifts had arrived and were nicely displayed (might I add) from Santa Claus.  We were in bed by midnight, and so excited for Christmas morning.

Fondue anyone?

When we lived in Hawaii last year, a family invited us over for their annual fondue party on Christmas Eve.  Seeing as we had no family around to spend the evening with and we weren't doing presents until we flew back to Utah, we opted to join them.  It was a blast!  Good food, good company, and fun memories.  Doug vowed that it would become a Christmas tradition for us.

We found one fondue pot at a local thrift store a few months ago for about $10 or so and started collecting.  We ended up acquiring 5 fondue pots in about 24-hours prior this week from local classifieds for $5 each (and one was even free!).  We invited some friends to our house, did some shopping, did some searching for recipes, and threw a fondue party!

Doug's family makes a yummy Pizza Fondue.

Found a cheese fondue recipe on Pinterest.

We prepared lots of yummy things to dip: mini sausages, lots of bread, sausage, veggies (cauliflower, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, bell pepper, celery, and broccoli), and cheese for the savory table.

The dessert table was equally yummy with great dipping items: graham crackers, angel food cake, marshmallows, pumpkin bread, cookies, cinnamon bears, blackberries, apples, pineapple, clementines, and pretzels)

We had two sweet fondues as well, caramel (courtesy of Pinterest) was a big hit, although it took much longer to make than I anticipated.

The vegan chocolate fondue didn't turn out right.  It was delish, but texture was odd and it was oily looking.  This could have something to do with Doug using baker's chocolate (unsweetened) instead of the chocolate chips the recipe called for...just sayin'.

Ethan and Sydney had a great time with their friends during the party.  They had Brynlee and Quentin over and were in heaven.  Ethan did shed MANY tears over my friends Chenae and Mat not bringing their kids, and we vowed to have a play date.  It was heart-breaking tears.

Next time, we might make Cheesy roasted jalapeno fondue, and I need to make my vegan nacho cheese fondue.  I didn't have ripe avocados and decided to not make it.  Here's the recipe (thanks to my fabulous friend, Shanna, who went to a restaurant with me and came up with this recipe after eating it):

Mock-cheese nacho cheese sauce
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1 c Almond milk
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
heaping 1/4 tsp chili powder
heaping 1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp Salt
pinch cayenne pepper

Put in a saucepan and bring to a boil until it thickens a tiny bit. I throw in a few pinches probably close to 1/4 tsp anthem gum (I use 1/4 cup or so of corn starch) to thicken it a bit.

Then add:
1 avocado (diced)
1/4 cup salsa (I use medium)
1/2 can or so black beans

Keller-Cousin Day

Libraries + my children = TERRIFYING

Everyone tells me that libraries are so awesome with story time and an endless supply of books...but I have so much anxiety walking in the door!  I still go, but they are VERY fast trips with a 'talk' before we walk inside.  My sister Sarah called me Monday and wanted us to join her at the library.  I thought, "well, there will be another adult to help me, so it might be okay".  

I left my diaper bag in my car and drove with my sister--oops.  Ethan had a poopy diaper after we'd been there for 5 minutes.  Thank goodness Sarah had a spare (her daughter is potty-trained) and then I had a wave of pregnancy exhaustion.  I laid on a large bean bag and relaxed while Ethan and Sydney played on some computers. I didn't realize that they were card catalog ones, so the librarian asked them to get off after they were banging on the keys.  The other two computers were made for kids, but were occupied by their cousins. 

After trying to get them to color and then with them wanting to run all over the library, my sister looked at me and said, "I understand."  Libraries are not fun for me.

After naps, we joined the Kellers again at a new store, Scheels, for kids club where they decorated cookies with Mrs. Claus after she read them a story. It was supposed to be for ages 4+ but very few kids showed up so they allowed us to join in the fun!  Sydney REALLY struggled to sit for story time. I finally had to grab her and have her stand by the parents so the other kids could see.

Cousins: Caleb, Levi, Ellie, and Grace

They loved their cookies!  Ethan ate 3/4 of it and Syd ate 1/2.  It must have been a good cookie, because Syd isn't a big fan of sweets.  I just do some deep breathing while they eat it.  :-)

Then for a ride on the INDOOR ferris wheel--free, thanks to the kids club.

It was so high, and I was nervous as it rocked a little when you moved.  We stopped at the top while they let others off the ride and I was doing a little deep breathing and telling Doug not to move.  I did my best to snap some photos of the 4 of us packed into one seat.  It was bedtime and Christmas--we stayed out a little late and had a fantastic time.

Scheels has scenes designed for photo opportunities.  The kids had a great time posing with the 'stuffed' animals.