The Sunshine State

Okay, so we didn't actually go to Florida. We went to Arizona, which one could easily call The Sunshine State as well. Or the Hot As Sin state. Which is why we decided to visit in February.

First on the itinerary were the Casa Grande Ruins. I think that anyone who has ever attended an elementary school in Casa Grande or any outlying cities must have been to see these. It's actually a National Monument. Somehow I must have missed that field trip. I must say that I had never seen them before. Hadn't ever really had a desire to, either. I just thought they were a bunch of old mud buildings- which they are. But I felt a slight shame at growing up in Casa Grande and never actually seeing THE Casa Grande. They were actually a lot bigger than I thought. And impressive. Who knew that there's something worth seeing in good ol' CG?

You know that my child hasn't ever seen much of Arizona when he asks me, "Mommy, what's a cactus?"

I sometimes feel that Melanie gets the shaft when it comes to pictures. After all, she's the third. We don't sit around a look at all the faces she makes and take 15 pictures a minute. Plus she looks so much like Erik we could probably just use half of the pictures we took of him and, when she grows up, just use those as her baby pictures. But I'm trying to be somewhat fair.

And yes, those are earrings.

We took some pictures while we were at my dad's. I had to get a picture of the two baby cousins! Paul is such a cute dad, and I'm sure he'd gag if he heard me call him, "cute" anything. Little Adrian is huge! Here he is sizing Melanie up and considering how long it would take to devour her.

I really don't think my brothers and I look all that much alike.

And I think we look even less like my dad. But I also don't see the total resemblance between my mom and I that everyone else sees, so who am I to decide?

Here's dad karate-chopping the umbrella in self-defense.

Next to Kent is my grandma- I LOVE that woman! As I was uploading these pictures, I was bummed to realize I didn't get a picture of her with Melanie, or any of my other kids for that matter. Next to her is my aunt Debbie, then my dad's girlfriend, Gina. And then my dad. Then it's me, my little brother, Michael, and my big brother, Paul. Jacob, the boy in the front, is my cousin.

I NEEDED to see my best friend, Kim, while we were there. So we decided to meet at the Children's Museum. I loved it, and so did the boys. Much better than our museum here.

No, Erik. You probably don't want to jump.

Speed demon.

It's times like these that make me think my kids might actually turn out okay and be friends. Maybe.

Ahh, my friend Kim. I miss her!

Did I mention that Taylor has a drinking problem? Yes, those are all beverages in his cart.

Back at my Nana's house, Kimberly, my little sister, was pulling the boys around the backyard in the wagon. She kept giving them whiplash, so they decided that it was safer to just lay down.

The month before we went out there I would call my Nana and (jokingly, of course) tell her that she couldn't keel over until we got there and took a picture of our 4 generations of ladies. So here we are!

I almost wish that we lived by them. It was so nice to see family. I admit that I sometimes resent the fact that my kids won't have what I had growing up- weekends with cousins and aunts and uncles. But I guess these trips will just have to do for now. Especially since I don't think we'd be capable of surviving a summer there.

Hot Roddin'

Kent had Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, so we decided to hit up Home Depot. Thank goodness for their carts. They're the only thing that made the trip a success. Naturally, before we return it, we have to try and make the kids sick by spinning them around and around.Yes, Melanie was in the cart, too. The poor dear.

We decided to stop at the park on the way home. The weather wasn't too bad!

When we took family pictures in November, Melanie was only 2 weeks old. All she did was sleep, so we couldn't get any cute pictures of her awake. So we thought we'd try and get some. Personally, I think she's a keeper.

Merry Christmas!

Yes, Christmas was about two weeks ago. And yes, I'm finally posting about it.

This was the first Christmas that we spent totally by ourselves- we didn't travel anywhere and no one came to visit us. And it was actually quite nice. Don't get me wrong. We love being with family and the big Christmas dinner and all that stuff. But at the same time it's nice to start our own family traditions for Christmas. We pretty much spent the day just hanging out in our jammies while the kids played with their loot.

Here's what our tree looked like before the kids got a hold of the presents underneath:

We actually didn't get all that many pics of the kids. We were just so laid-back about everything that we kinda forgot.

This is one of the probably two pictures we got of Melanie on her first Christmas. And just for the record, Taylor picked out her Christmas jammies. I don't usually go for lime green.

Notice the quilts they're sitting on? Erik has his "blankie" that he LOVES. Well, it's looking a little homely. So I thought I'd make him a new one naively hoping that the old one could be replaced. Then I thought I'd make Taylor one, too. Then I couldn't make the boys one and not make Melanie one. So they all got one.

And no, the blankie wasn't replaced. Now he wants both of the blankets in his bed when he goes to sleep. Great. But at least Taylor actually claims the one I made him as his blanket. And sleeps with it every night.

And Melanie spits up and poops on hers.

After they got done unwrapping everything we realized that we hadn't gotten a picture of all three of them in front of the tree. Hence the trash.

I feel like we should have gotten more pictures of Melanie since it was her first Christmas. But here's the second picture of the whopping two we took.

The boys got a gazillion (yes, that's an exact number) hot wheels for Christmas. Not surprisingly, they still fight over them.

This year I decided to try and do something to get us more focused on the Savior. So a week before Christmas we all sat down and decided what we were going to give to Jesus for Christmas, seeing as it's His birthday and all. So we all drew a picture of what our gift would be, put it in a box, and wrapped it up to put under the tree. Taylor gave Him "good choices" and Erik gave Him a bunch of crayon scribbles. We kept reminding each other throughout the week of what we were trying to give to the Savior. On Christmas morning we opened it up and talked about the gift that we gave to Christ and how we can always improve. I loved it, and I think it's a worthy tradition to keep.

Snow Bunnies

Last week, since Kent had the week off, we decided to finally go up to Mt. Rainier and go sledding. Aside from not trying on my snow bibs before leaving and realizing, upon arrival, that the last time I had worn them I hadn't just had a baby, we had a lot of fun! Of course, fun is always a relative term when you have 3 kids ages 4 and under that are forced to endure a 2.5 hour drive- and that's only one way. But they were actually pretty good on the drive. Here they are at the start- all content and excited and making daddy drag them up the hill. That's Melanie in the back in her car seat- we figured she'd be warmest in there and neither of us would have to hold her the whole time, seeing as she slept 90% of the time.

Weeee!!

Erik wanted nothing to do with walking in the snow. He pretty much sat in the sled the whole time. After we pushed him down, he'd lay back in the sled and wait for someone to come and pull him back up the hill. I wish I could be that lazy...

I can't believe how big Taylor is getting! In this picture I had just unzipped my jacket. I bent over behind Taylor so that you can't see the unzipped snow pants that I'm wearing. They fit like spandex, and I'm pretty sure snow pants aren't supposed to be that snug.

I'm a sissy when it comes to sledding. So while we were in line waiting for our turn on the big hill I kept asking Taylor if he was SURE he wanted to go down. And he kept saying, "Yeah, mommy! It's gonna be fun!" Not really.

And here are Taylor and I going down said big hill. What's that? You can't see us? Oh, well that's because Taylor's mom is so lame that she was horrified they were gonna fly into the side bank going what must have been close to 90 mph and tip over. So she drug her feet in a pathetic attempt at steering and sprayed powder everywhere. Needless to say Taylor didn't want to go down that hill again.

Problem solved.

Wait. I think we have a third child somewhere around here... Ahh, here she is. The cute baby snow bunny.

After a lunch of good ol' PB&J's, the kids were about done. We went down a few more times and then they were definitely done. This is what Erik looked like at the end. But really, we all had TONS of fun, despite his look of hysteria.