It's our favorite! Maybe cause we like to eat. Whatever the reason it was a fabulous weekend. The kids made pie crust shapes- unfortunately the only ones that aren't in storage are Christmas ones :) Lorenzo lounged on the couch and watched football. Bradly ate an entire bowl of cheeseball. Chris made an amazing pecan pie- only his second time trying (he's pretty proud of himself). Mommy made a turkey tv dinner- outta cupcakes!. And Jamus slept and ate through it all. What a holiday. We got to have some new friends from the ward over, too... who'd have thought little Adna people would meet up clear across the country! Gotta love having fam away from fam. And, thanks to Jana and Joe, the game 'Ticket to Ride' is on the top of our Christmas list.
Can't have Turkey day without capturing a moment with the gravy boat. You know you missed it Montanos.
A Wii showdown. The guys had to throw it in the three-year olds faces when they won.
Lo watching the game.
Brads doing the baking.
Should have stopped cooking here. It's got it all. Mashed potatoes, pudding...
All hopped up on jello.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
T-Day
Posted by Chris and Mel at 9:11 PM 7 comments
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Hello, Cupcake
So, I found this amazing cupcake decorating book called, Hello, Cupcake. It has the bowling pin cupcakes in it, too, for all those wanting to know how to make them. Anyway, it is sooo easy and so fun. Thought we'd share our cupcakes of the week! It's becoming my new hobby. Chris is even helping me by finding reasons to make cupcakes... one of which was that our neighbor was taking his CPA exam. And who couldn't use a 'wise old owl' cupcake after a big test? I mean, honestly.
Posted by Chris and Mel at 9:16 AM 8 comments
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Always take pictures...
... cause then when you look back it'll seem like you had a good time!
So much for the 'just do it' theme. Although it took us three hours to get ready to leave the house, although Bradly wanted a snack the second we jumped off the train at the Smithsonian, although she gave up walking the second she was done with her snack, although the kids were finished sightseeing with the first dinosaur they saw, although Bradly threw up at the Great Wolf Lodge, although Lorenzo spent all but the last half hour afraid to swim, although driving to see our dear old friends 15 miles away took an hour, although the play area let all the kids in except Bradly, although Bradly threw up again, although Lorenzo then threw up all night, although Chris and Jamus also began the vomit routine, thanks to taking pictures... it does appear as though we had a wonderful week as a family!
But seriously, we finally got out the door on Saturday to visit DC and the kids were sooo done. If we could have have just ridden the train to DC and then ridden it right back home they would have loved it. Then Chris had Veteran's Day off, so we thought it'd be fun to drive down to the Great Wolf Lodge- hotel with a waterpark inside- monday night. I really tried to get Lorenzo to go down this one slide, cause I knew he'd love it if he would just try it once. Yep, that started a huge panic and crying fit. Then Chris had Bradly go down a kiddie slide without a life jacket and she sorta went under -before I was there, obviously- so, then she refused to go down anymore, even with a jacket on. Within minutes of being there we had the kids afraid of doing anything :) Great parenting I tell ya. Usually we hafta push our kids quite a bit or they don't do anything- didn't work this time... And, to top that off Brads puked all over the hotel. So, we came home, just as Lorenzo worked up enough courage to go down some slides by himself. Go figure, now it's time to go. We got home and found out our dearest old friends from Charleston were in the area and we set up to meet them the next evening at IKEA. It was my first day going to Russian class, so Chris was going to watch Bradly and Jamus and try and study while they napped. Yah, no nap. At least we got to meet up with the Morrissey's, tho. Lorenzo and Leia were the bestest little buds. Bradly and Jacob were just months old and now look at 'em. Unfortunately Bradly was like an inch too short for the play area, so in go the other three kids. We had to get her an ice cream cone while she sat with all the adults and babies. Then we headed upstairs and just let them play while we chatted. Jacob kissed Bradly a hundred times. You wouldn't have known that it was two and a half years since we last saw them. Get home late and of course, no time to study for either of us. The next day is pouring down rain and I hafta load all the kids up and go to gymnastics. Somehow we survive the trip out and I am in a crazy hurry to do some homework and get ready for preschool. Run to get Chris, run to school, run home. We were having a Wii/'Office' party with our neighbors a couple hours later and Bradly throws up again. Cancel that. Then Lorenzo gets sick. We were so proud of him for making it to the toilet. Got all the children in bed and a while later I hear rustling in the bathroom. Lorenzo was trying to get a wipe to clean up his own vomit. I held back tears. He was so dissapointed with himself that he didn't make it to the bathroom and got throw-up all over his bed. Heart breaking. Get that cleaned up and sleep on the couch with him- then hold up a bowl every half hour. Luckily our neighbors are mormon. We got Lorenzo a blessing and he finally got some sleep. The real kicker is that Chris got sick, too. It was the first time I've seen him sick- like throw-up sick. Didn't think it could happen. So, ten loads of laundry later and a thousand blankets and pillow sheets later, Jamus decides to be sick as well. We make it through the day and then Brads starts up again that night. Lorenzo makes it through the night, but starts again Saturday morning. By the end of the day everyone has seemed to recover. Bradly came out of the bathroom with much excitement, "Dad, I don't have the diaries anymore!" A perfect end to a perfect week.
Posted by Chris and Mel at 10:38 AM 4 comments
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Birthday Boy
You had a birthday, shout hooray! Can you believe that Lorenzo is 5! We can't... but, there it is- five years old. What a sweet little joy to have around. He is definitely growing up and starting to take on the 'big brother role'. Taking care of Bradly and Jamus are top priorities for him lately- Bradly can't seem to do anything without him. I love it. I love having a mokey jumping around the house. I love tripping over the millions of balls that cover our floor. I love having my boy.
Lorenzo has been planning his bowling birthday party since he went to his little friend Kaela's party. Like a year ago! So, of course, we had to make some bowling pin cupcakes to go with the day. All pins and one ball for his pre-k class, and then all bowling balls and one pin for the actual bowling party...
Posted by Chris and Mel at 10:40 PM 9 comments
Addendum
In lieu of the "Voting" post:
If you know Chris at all, you know he's a Democrat, and you are able to smile and laugh at how cute this was for him... If you don't know him well enough to know that, then we hope that you will still be our friends :)
Posted by Chris and Mel at 10:37 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voting Day
There's always a few moments in your kids' lives that you remember more than others. Often they are when a parent is really proud of something or is really excited for a milestone reached. Chris has never been as proud to be a dad as when Lorenzo wanted to sit and watch football- age 1-, or when he could hit a baseball- age 2-, or when he asked, "Dad, can we listen to the rock 'n' roll?"- age 4-, until today...
Yes, Lorenzo has voted for Barack Obama. As part of the Weekly Reader from his Pre-K class he got to pick who he would vote for. Granted, we all know that maybe he just chose the color blue over the color red, or found the little girl cuter in the bottom picture. Nonetheless, our son has voted. And, Chris, is quite proud! This one's for you, too, Grandpa... Good Luck! You know Lorenzo's behind ya.
Posted by Chris and Mel at 9:25 PM 1 comments
Halloween Day
The tale of The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf, who somewhere along the way bump into "Red Robin Hood" (as Bradly refers to it)... yah, you're right, that story is a little out of whack- but, then again, so's our family! I'm saying three cheers for old classics gone awry.
Our apartment complex had a little halloween party with pizza and such. Of course, we went for the free dinner. Hit the party and then hit the streets- cause apparently the two preschool parties and two church parties didn't provide enough candy for the three little pigs, we still needed to go knocking on doors in search of more. Well, would you believe that our kids (and fam really) won both the gift cards that were to be given out for the cutest costume and the most original costume. They couldn't get enough of the outfits and all agreed that we deserved the whole loot. Wahoo! I'm telling ya, ALWAYS show up for a free meal.
Posted by Chris and Mel at 9:03 PM 1 comments