More on Christmas Eve:
Christmas Eve was quiet but fun! We wrapped that last of our presents, had pizza for dinner and made Santa's cookies. After the kids were all tucked in Danny and I went to a candlelight service at church (at 11pm) while Tracy stayed home for us. When we got home, we watched a movie and went to bed just in time for Santa to leave gifts for the kids.
I think I love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas Day...
I know it sounds crazy but here's my reasoning:
Christmas Eve still holds all the anticipation of what "might" be, all the fun is still to be had. We cook and wrap and clean and it's all for a yet unrealized grand finale!
I love Christmas Day, too, but there's always somwhat of a let down that evening knowing that you'll wake up the day after Christmas to an ordinary day, with all of your ordinary things to do!
Anyway, in honor of all of the wonderful times we have yet to have this year, I thought I would wish you all a Merry Christmas Eve!
My Grandma will arrive tomorrow and as of this morning, she hasn't changed her mind about coming even though the weather is not entirely cooperative. It's rainy here (for nearly a week now!) and snowy and COLD in Kansas City!
We are cooking and cleaning today. We got the casserole ready for tomorrow morning so all I have to do is throw it in the oven to bake! We are making our Christmas cookies tonight for Santa! I still need to get the Chicken ready and prep the potatoes but otherwise we're just having a regular day. We will hopefully head to church this evening if the kids get a nap in. I really want to take everyone to the 11pm candlelight service but I'm sure as bedtime nears I will come to my senses about that. Maybe Danny and I will go and see if Tracy can hang out with the kids in case they wake up.
Anyway - Merry Christmas! We'll be posting some great video and photos over the break.
Love to you all!
I'll be honest, it's cold here...
For about 20 mins in the middle of the night! Hahaha....
Really, it's chilly but the temps are in the upper 50's this week and we occassionally dip down to 35 or so at night. I do usually turn the heater on while we are sleeping:)
So, Christmas in Chandler is like a fall parade in Kansas City! Last weekend we attended the City tree lighting downtown and watched the "Parade of Lights" in the evening. It was a little cool but we just wore long sleeves and jackets.
Below is a video of Santa at the end of the parade. We have several small videos of the rest of the parade that I will up load and try to post this week. It's really cool!
We had a great time today decorating for Christmas!
The kids were really into it...I even managed to get Danny to put lights outside. That's just because it's not freezing like it usually is when he has to do it.
Well, today I got up (not near as early as I usually do with Melissa!) to go do some shopping. We got several things for the kids and something for Danny as well as some cute decorations.
This afternoon we took the kids to see their first movie at the theater...Madagascar 2!
It went perfectly for the first 45 mins or so, we had food and entertainment. But we ran out of popcorn and Caitlin was MAAAD! So I took her out to walk a bit and we decided to get a box of Raisinets (which are my new favorite treat!). We went back in and got her all settled and then Evan decided it wasn't good enough to have a handful of Raisinets, he needed the WHOLE box (he'd already had one mostly to himself and shared our popcorn)! When Danny told him he couldn't have the whole box he just fell apart and they had to leave.
After a few minutes, Caitie threw her drink on the floor and the guys had still not returned so we just threw in the towel and left (minus a sippy cup and a binkie - I didn't have enough hands to carry all of that plus my drink and Caitlin (who didn't want to be carried!).
It was fun, but we learned a valuable lesson...don't take the kids to the theater in the afternoon when they haven't had a nap!
This evening we watched Polar Express and had hot chocolate and tomorrow we are going to put up the Christmas Tree!
Yeah :)
We had two straight days of odd weather (so we're told) here over the holiday. It started POURING buckets on Wednesday morning and continued raining most of the day Wednesday and Thursday, the highs were in the low to mid 60's during the day and it was downright dreary!
Last night after everyone had left and Caitlin was in bed, it began thundering and soon it was pouring again but this time we had a nice bit of hail to go with it.
I forgot to tell everyone the most exciting news in our little household...
Evan is BINKY-FREE! Yes, you read that correctly. No More BINKIES!
It was such a non-event that it slipped my mind completely.
Next time you talk to him...make a BIG deal :)
Today is the first day we've had without sunshine...it was 'mostly sunny' but got kind of grayish in the evening.
Oh, I know, I'm rubbing it in. What I'm really trying to get to is how hard it is to be in the Holiday spirit when you are 1400 miles away from all of your family and the weather is so oddly perfect all the time!
We are supposed to have some rain later this week. That may get my head on track!
Anyway, since this will be the first Thanksgiving in 31 years that I haven't been with my family and only the 2nd or 3rd time in 37 years that Danny hasn't been with his Mom, we've decided to just throw tradition out the window this year and go with something completely different...a Mexican/Indian themed Thanksgiving Dinner.
We don't want to get all sappy thinking about the way Mom and Grandma make it while we're eating my sad version. We'll be pitiful enough without that :(
Danny's boss, Bill, and his girlfriend Lori are joining the 5 of us for dinner Thursday so we'll have enough to call it a party...
Here is the potential menu:
Indian Fry Bread to go with everything!
Appetizers
homemade salsa and guac
homemade corn and flour tortilla chips
roasted pumpkin seeds (sweet and spicy)
Main meal
turkey and ham
camote (like sweet potatoes but with honey and butter)
spicy mexican corn
sweet corn cake (that wonderful stuff they put on your plate at Mexican restaurants!)
roasted garlic broccoli
candied bacon
Dessert
capirotada (mexican bread pudding)
candied pumpkin
cactus ice cream
We'll take pictures of everything and let you know how it turns out!
Today, we bit the bullet and took the kids hiking. I'd really been avoiding it because I thought it was going to be a disaster but Danny found our nice carrier backpack (actually meant for hiking) that we've basically NEVER used and we decided to venture out to Usery Mountain.
We left around 8:30 this morning and were on the trail by 9:20 (you know everything takes twice as long when you have kids :)
Tracy and a friend of hers decided to take the hike, too, so we have lots of great photos of all 4 of us!
We took the trail just halfway up, to Wind Cave. Evan hiked all by himself only needing a hand a couple of times. He actually stopped several times to "help" Mom and Aunt Tracy.
Everyone we passed mentioned what a big boy he was and how good he was doing.
We climbed 1.5 miles up, to 2,800 ft elevation (only an 800 foot gain)... it's very pretty up there.
At the trailhead...
On top of the world!
Climbing, climbing, climbing...
At Wind Cave...
Danny and Caitie coming down
Caitlin seemed to really enjoy the hike. Our typically noisy girl didn't make a peep all the way up and fell asleep on the way down!
We toyed with trying for the summit but it's a good thing we decided to let well enough alone because Evan was VERY tired and fell apart on the way back down. He's a TROOPER! We came across the park ranger and when he heard Evan climbed all the way to the cave he gave him a Jr. Park Ranger badge!
We did actually find the Halloween pictures...
Couldn't manage to get Evan with his eyes open but they are still cute!
Tracy was an escapee from the asylum...she looks a little scary here! She and Evan are actually standing right in front of our house here. They had just hopped over to the neighbor's for some candy and were coming back to start some serious candy hunting!
And, just a few minutes later Caitlin was already tired of the whole thing! It was 80 and she was in a thick kitty costume...hot, hot, hot!
I wrapped up little chocolates with my business card and gave them out at each of the houses we visited. People didn't really know what to make of that!
And that's about all you will know about Halloween because I can't find the pictures we took for some reason :(
Hopefully it's just a momentary loss...they were so adorable!
He LIVES to freak people out, scare them, do gross things JUST to see their reaction. I'm sure he's really bummed that he can't be there when you read about the scorpions and black widows so...please leave him a comment!
It would make him very happy :)
First off so that everyone knows, this is Danny. I realize that it says that it is posted by Kristin but that is because I just haven't taken the time to open my own account. So I have actually written several posts like Vulture City, Office pets and so on. I'll make a point to identify myself so not to confuse anyone.
Anyway, I thought you guys would like to meet Scorpio. He's a very friendly little guy just so long as you don't look at him, touch him or blow on him.
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Cute little guy, isn't he.
Here are some of the cool pets that we find at my office. I happened to have found all four of these. Since I started working here three months ago the pets that we have found are tied: four black widows to four scorpions. Believe it or not these make for a fun day. Pretending to throw them at people and such. We come up with our own little games.
The top picture shows all four (Precious, Cuddles, Snuggly and Fluffy)
This picture just shows Cuddles and Fluffy. Cuddles is on the left. If the picture makes them seem big it's because they are.
Didn't have a camera when we had our scorpions and now it's getting to cool for them to be out. But I'll get some soon.
No humans were hurt in the taking of these pictures.
We spent most of Saturday in one of the best preserved ghost towns in the state. Not only do they have several buildings but they also have several items in the buildings. Such as furniture, stoves, pots and pans, tools, machinery and so on. It is a mining town that was discovered by a man named Henry Wickenburg in 1863. It has been unoccupied since WWII. You have to sign a release before walking around as they let you go anywhere you want and touch anything you want and most of the buildings could collapse the rest of the way any second of any day.
Not only did we go into this building (Assay Office and Shotgun shack built in 1884) but we even went upstairs. They say that there is around $600,000 worth of gold in the walls as they built it with rock from the mine.
This is where the guys with shotguns hung out.
Make my feet hurt just looking at them. But then again they are a hundred years old.
This was the machine shop. I'm standing on a gigantic diesel engine that was built in Germany, sent here and assembled where it sits in 1904.
Time for a quick stop on the potty. Sitting on 100+ year old poo.
Apartment house for the miners and yes we walked through this one to.
Evan found a car he likes.
Folgers in a glass jar.
Kitchen where the miners ate.
Tomorrow we are heading to one of the most well preserved ghost towns in this area: Vulture, AZ.
It is a ghost town in the real sense of the word, not commercialized, only the owners/caretakers live there and things were just left lying around...pretty cool!
It started as a gold-mining town in the 1880's
We'll take LOTS of pictures and post them Sunday sometime.
Well, we've been going to two bible studies for the past month and really love it. There are kids Evan's age at both and Caitlin gets a day with her 'friends' too.
The first bible study is for Mom's only, two wonderfully nice women take care of the kids while we get an hour and a half to chat and discuss our study for the week. The next session is MONEY...
The second bible study is just for the kids. It's at one of the Pastor's homes (his wife coordinates and leads it). We sing and tell them bible stories and they get to play and have a snack!
I am in the midst of the new member class at Christ's Greenfield Lutheran in Gilbert. We really like this church and I was happy to find such an easy fit without so much work! It helps of course that we just moved from one LCMS church to another but we really 'fit' here! I'm getting involved in several of the groups and events coming up over the next few months and Evan started Sunday School. They start taking them at 3 and I was sure he'd be 5 before he'd go. Despite the tears at first, he seemed to enjoy it though. We'll cross our fingers for this week!
Evan is having fun with preschool at home! We have been doing some projects that I hope to have posted over at Adventures In Preschooling later this week. He's learned a LOT about pumpkins and apples this month.
We are planning to go camping over Halloween weekend! Probably in cabins up in Williams - just west of Flagstaff. Yes, it will be downright COLD! We'll keep you updated on that crazy plan.
We are also planning our trip back to KC for the week after Thanksgiving and we'll be there for about 3 weeks.
Yeah!!!
It's pretty amazing to be here this time of year...we don't have the lovely changing leaves and sometimes enjoyable rainy gloomy weather (Melissa and I like it anyway). We aren't wearing sweaters or jackets, or even long sleeved shirts (heck, I still don't have any jeans in my wardrobe) but it is FALL! And, best of all...we are heading for about 6-7 months of beautiful weather!
The weather has undergone a dramatic shift from HOT, like 100+ every day just two weeks ago, to cool. And I realize that most of you will think 'cool' must mean I'm crazy because 'cool' here is like upper 80's-lower 90's. Just come visit us and you'll see what I mean. It's NOT at all hot. It feels warm and happy late in the day and at night it's been in the 60's. We open the windows most of the day and turn the air on only late in the afternoon while the kids are napping and I'm getting dinner ready.
It's also getting dark here by 6:30...that's the weird absence of DST! Which, I realized, will be coming your way soon and we'll only be 1 HOUR difference. That will have a big impact on my ability to communicate with you over the phone! For some reason the two hour difference always meant someone was eating or sleeping when I was free to talk!
So, because the weather was cooler over the weekend (the highs were only 82 and 86 and we're in for the nice cool weather again this weekend!) we decided to do our pumpkin picking early.
There's a great HUGE farm nearby (Schnepf Farms) in Queen Creek and we spent Saturday evening there. I've posted some photos below...
Our big girl!
Amazing sunset...
Cute kids all around!
Our train ride! This photo makes it look like we're moving at the speed of light!
Evan's FIRST roller coaster ride...and he LOVED it!
I'm hoping to put ALL the photos from the night at the farm on the slideshow at the top of the blog! Assuming the computer will cooperate with me!
I just couldn't help myself one night a couple of weeks ago...
We went to a local ice cream shop (where they actually make their own ice cream from local milk!) Udderly Delights and had ice cream for dinner!
Of course, we then had to have dinner for a snack but it was fun regardless.
See -- everybody looks happy!
Our computer was broken you know...All the while we were just saving up all these great pictures.
Okay, take a deep breath and dive in!
Two weeks of our life in 5 minutes or less :)
Geocaching at the Riparian Preserve
Fountain Hills - Evan's birthday was spent here riding bikes, having a picnic and playing in the spraygrounds!
The pizza place...Buono's
Birthday presents from Grandma, Papa, Nicki and Tyler! He LOVES the books and the puzzle!
Proof that we ride our bikes even when it's 100 degrees! This was a 3.5 mile one-way trip from our house to the coolest park on the planet! Tumbleweed
Boys being...well, boys!
Another trip to the Riparian Preserve (read the sign Evan is standing by)
Feeding Getting bit by ducks...
Notice Evan's attire...this is very typical! He's either a "fixer guy" or a "fireman guy", depends on the day.
A gift from Aunt Connie. I actually think Evan wears them more than Caitlin!
So, remember that sweet, quiet little thing that used to be our daughter? She's still sweet but replace quiet with VERY loud, goofy and a definite attitude sense of who she is and what she wants and you've got the new and improved version of our little Caitie-bug!
Uh...where's the audio???
And...we're done!
