We love food!

We decided to do Thanksgiving on our own. Was I nervous? Heck no! I don't mean to brag, but I can make a large meal when the occassion calls for it. In fact, at the beginning of my marriage, I had a hard time making small meals. It's a miracle Ben and I lost weight when we were first married and didn't blow up instead. Over the years I have learned how to make a meal just right for our family size. But every now and then, I have to admit, I get excited to make a large meal.



I bought the kids their own little table and they love it. Xander loves it because he can finally be a big kid. Here are some of his big kid words, "Cah (car), bah (ball), mo (more)and gah (go)." I've learned that with Xander, everything tastes better with a bowl and spoon.





We saw 2 movies this week, a first for our family! We saw "Enchanted" at Pixar on opening day. Every now and then they have screenings in their theatre. Our whole family enjoyed the movie. In fact, CJ declared at the end of the movie, "We HAVE to get this movie!" Growing up my family and I went to the movies on Thanksgiving after we stuffed ourselves. I thought since we wouldn't be with family maybe we should pick that tradition up. We didn't quite make it on Thanksgiving. Between the turkey cooking and Xander's nap we didn't have time. So we went today and saw "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." Another very cute movie that the girls enjoyed. This will probably be the last time for the whole family. Xander did not want to stay in one place and kept Ben and I on our toes. I think this will be a fun tradition when all of our kids can enjoy it and maybe the parents too.



CJ loves to pretend she is a teacher. (A noble profession I must say.) She loves to pretend having Mia as her student. She does a great job and even finds time to squeeze in an assembly for Mia.



Mia has a Jesus/Santa/Anything Christmas confusion. We want to teach the kids why we celebrate Christmas. So we have been talking about the reason we celebrate Christmas is because it's Jesus' birthday. Mia goes around pointing to Santa and will call him "Jesus" and visa versa. At the store today she pointed to a Christmas tree and called it "Santa." She is really excited for Christmas.

We've been keeping ourselves busy this holiday weekend with Super Mario Galaxy. The whole family loves it, even me. Ben even let me be the first to play it. Probably because when I was a kid, I loved the original Nintendo. I was pretty darn good too. Or. . .this is Ben's way of getting more video games. He's probably thinking, "Get the wife to like video games and I'll have no problem in the future getting games anytime I want."

I love taking pictures! Here are some more. Feel free to skip over this section, but let me warn you, you will be missing pictures of the cutest kids in the world! I would hate to let that happen to you.

November Pictures

Candy, candy, and more candy!

Candy, candy, candy! I think we have more candy than food here. Our candy supply began to grow at our ward's Halloween party where they did trunk or treating. On Halloween day, they had trick or treating down one of our business streets where the kids increased their candy supply yet one more time. They also gave out pumpkins and had fun games and prizes for them. Then if that wasn't enough Ben and I took the kids out at night. Oh yes, we are either the coolest parents in the world or the craziest.

Xander was the cutest. He totally got the idea of trick or treating. He would take his bucket up to the door and put his hand out in a "gimme" motion. If the people didn't let him choose and put the candy in his bucket, he would stay there with his hand stretched out until he got to choose for himself. So he may not have gone to as many houses but I think he still ended up with the same as the girls.

Then our Halloween was extended one more day. At Pixar, they have a costume parade and trick or treating the day after Halloween. It was fun for the kids to dress up again and of course get more candy. Betsy,Russ, and their kids were able to come too! We actually got to go through places we normally wouldn't be able to and watched The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in Pixar's theatre. It is a very fun atmosphere at Pixar.

Tons of candy everywhere really drives me crazy. Not that I am a health freak. I do enjoy candy every now and then. When CJ was little at Halloween time, I used to let her choose 5 candies a day to eat. I thought I was being pretty generous. Needless to say, the candy lasted FOR-EV-ER. Over the years, I have learned to just let the kids pig out and the candy is gone within a week. This year I have my doubts that the candy will be gone within a week, so I have taken some precautionary measures. I have very sneakily taken candy out of the kids bowls periodically. So far, I have 2 1/2 gallon size bags tucked away for who knows when. I guess until Ben reads this and finds my stash.

CJ is enjoying her afterschool enrichment cooking class. She comes home and immediately wants to make what they did in her class. Mia is learning her letters and will point them out wherever we go.

Xander is looking more like a toddler to me than a baby. He loves to kick soccer balls, makes "vroom" noises while scooting a toy car across the carpet, and is talking all the time. He also wrote his own novel called,"Waterfall Romance" in his spare time. We are hoping that it gets on New York Times Best Seller list. Check Barnes and Noble for a copy. We don't know if it will be found in the children's novels or romance novels.

We are still waiting to hear from Pixar about Ben continuing on there. He has applied to a few companies in the Bay area. We hope to be able to stay in the area, we really like it here.


Ben pointed out to me that the camera we bought is my toy. I have loved taking pictures and learning how to use the camera. I have taken over 1,000 pictures already. Yes, I am camera happy. Mia is getting sick of me taking pictures of her everyday. She is my favorite subject. Xander and CJ never stay in one place long enough.