UTAH!

We spent the last two weeks in Utah. We were able to pack quite a few events into the two weeks. Lynn's 57th Birthday, Grandpa Nielsen's 80th surprise party, and Meridee's 39th birthday. We also were there for Thanksgiving, Kristen coming home from her mission, record low temperatures, and three feet of fresh snow. We were able to catch up with friends and the Lilos loved playing with cousins. We made a trip out to Cabelas, experienced the children's museum out at the gateway, and enjoy the holidays. I love being back in the warm weather, but I always hate leaving family. So, if you are still reading this I apologize for the overwhelming number of pictures. Let's all be honest...we would rather look at pictures then read...right?

The Snow!!!


Making the Welcome home sign for Kristen.
My kids hated putting their hands in the paint. Miss Leah just wanted to color.






Waiting for Kristen at the Airport.



Grandpa Nielsen's 80th Birthday Party.





The Children's Museum at the Gateway.












Making Thanksgiving Turkey's.





Cabella's






Bowling with Aunt Mer.








Lynn's Birthday get together.
All the boys and their facial hair.




Mer's Birthday Get together.




Dinner and gingerbread houses at the Buchi's.






Playing with cousins and Aunts and Uncles.

Ninja Turtles.

Some of you might now that my husband was a huge Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtle fan as a kid. (Nerd Alert!!) He collected all the action figures and everything else that went with them. He kept all the memorabilia from his childhood in the attic with the christmas stuff. The other morning he was getting the christmas stuff down and pulled out the Ninja Turtles to share with Landon and Leah. The lilos loved the new toys. The bug of course wanted all the large ninja turtles and kept calling them dinosaurs. Landon was only interested in the toys that had wheels, go figure.

Toddler beds...what a NIGHTMARE!!

The switch has been made. Landon and Leah have been getting up on the side of their cribs and riding them like horses or motorcycles, depending on who you ask, so we decided to save them the injury of falling out and convert their cribs to toddler beds. Well, it didn't save injury. Both of them have fallen over the smaller bar climbing and jumping in their beds...several times-what can you do? Night time has been good so far, but nap time has been interesting. They sit and play, giggling at each other, filling each others beds up with all the blankets in their room, running from bed to bed, and hiding in their closet. Luckily Landon is loud and vocal so I pretty much hear a play-by-play what is going on. I have to come up with something new everyday to keep them in their beds. They are smart little farts and figure out how to out smart mom. The best is when I go in there and they say "I wake up now" and want to be done with nap time. The joy of transitions:)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This year our little family went with the theme of "Little Red Riding Hood". Originally we were going to have Landon go as the big bad wolf and Jer as the woodsman, but Landon hates to dress up. Everything that we would try to put on him he would say "don't want it" even when Jer would put stuff on he would say "daddy don't want it" "take it off daddy". So, we had Landon go as the woodsman because he just had to wear a flannel shirt and carry an axe. Jer was the big bad wolf, Leah was little red, and I was grandma. We had a fun time at our first trunk-or-treat on Saturday night. The lilos still didn't grasp the concept of trick-or-treating. They got a sucker at the 4th car and stopped and wanted dad to open it. From there it was like herding cats to get them to move from car to car. Landon didn't understand why the people didn't put all the candy from their bowl into his trick-or-treat pumpkin. It was fun to see them in action. On Sunday night we just hung out at home and watched movies. We had quite a few trick-or-treaters come by and Landon quickly took over the responsibility of putting a piece of candy in each kid's bag. He got super excited every time the door bell rang and ran to the door. He said, "trick-or-treat" and then gave them each some candy. He then said, "there you go" and "see you kids." Next year he might just be content answering the door and handing out candy. It was adorable to watch.