Our Christmas

Christmas morning was a great!  Early, but so fun!!!  The kids were thrilled Santa came, even though we had not "tree" to put the presents under.  They woke up around 6a.m. and we made them wait another 1.5hrs.  We needed out sleep :)

Once down stairs the kids took turns opening their gifts....

 

Milli got a chest full dress-ups from Santa.  A new Belle Barbie and the Beauty and the Beast DVD and some other stuff from mom and dad.  She LOVED it all!!! 

Mylo got the coolest Star Wars LEGO set EVER, from Santa.  It took him and Dave 2.5hrs to put together.  He also got some LEGO books from mom and dad and some other random stuff.  He was pretty stoked!  

Leah was THRILLED with her new Babie Camper/House.  HOURS of playing with her new stuff, it was been wonderful! She has been wanting a Barbie House for ever and although this was not a house, she said she liked it better, cause she could take it wherever she wanted to :) She got an pencil art set and some "make up" from mom and dad.  Needless to say, she was pretty happy!  

Otis got several toys with LOTS of little pieces, who thought of that?!?!  He loves dumping them out and picking them back up.  He has been playing with it tons and although he was not "present" when we opened gifts he was pretty happy once he got to play with it all.  (We chose to let him sleep, because Otis - Sleep = BAD Otis) 

I got some Vibrams Five Fingers, more on that on another post :) 

Leah's Christmas GNO and Some Extras

Leah has been doing wonderful in school and as a reward she got to invite a few of her friends for a Christmas Party.  Mylo and Milli also got to invite one friend over, it was a lot of fun!  However, 11 kids in our small apartment is not optimal, but still fun!

They decorated cookies with LOTS of frosting and LOTS of sprinkles...

Otis watched, HOPING for some frosting to decorate his non-frosted cookie :) (is he not SO cute!!!!!)

Leah has made some super cute friends this year and continues to be friends with some from last year.  Im looking forward to having these girls over more often.... roudy but FUN girlies!

HOLY FROSTING!!!!

Then, they watched Santa Claus (1).  It was an entertaining movie, cute too. 

 

This was  fun night... perhaps we will do it again :) 

Getting Into The Christmas Spirit

 All of our stuff is in storage, still, as our original move in day was sometime in late November.  SO, we helped Abuela get her Holiday Pretties up :)

 

The kids had fun placing ornaments on the tree and "helping" with the lights.  

It was a fun time getting the decorations up.  Its been hard to "feel" that Christmas Spirit at our temporary home.  Not having a tree and the Nativity out and having friends/family over.  But this definitely helped get that feeling we all want at this time of year.   

We had seven parties to attend the week just before Christmas and I didn't take ANY pictures.  Still kicking myself because of it.  We had a party at my Mom and that was nice to see friends from the old ward and some family.  Leah had a Christmas Party at our house, I did get some of those pics, I just have to find them. 

We had the years Trevino/Hunter party at Hidden Valley, where just the adults go.  This year Al asked everyone to tell about our families, which was sorta funny since we are all family :)  Diane's two kids are their and their married children.  When it was our turn to "introduce" ourselves Dave announced that we are expecting our fifth!  There was complete silence in the room... it was a BIG JOKE!  Otis is the cherry on top, we need nothing else on our "perfect sunday" :) 

We had the Uboldi Christmas party at my moms.  I need to get the pics from Maria to get those on here. 

Then we had Trevino Christmas Eve.  The cousins all exchange gifts and that is always fun.  Grandpa and Diane also give the kids their presents that night.  Its always fun to be with them as we laugh a lot.  It has become tradition to have Deer Valley Chilli, YUM!  I have never made it, but it is delicious!!!! I made rolls for that night (also super yummy!)

That same night we went to Mike and Mary's Christmas Eve Party.  Mary is my dads sister and she has stayed close to us. They like to spoil our kids and us.  We SO appreciate their generosity and thoughtfulness.  It was fun to munch and chit chat a bit.  We also so Abuelo that night, I can't remember the last time I saw him or even worse the kids. 

THEN, our last party was Christmas morning at Al and Diane's house.  We have brunch EVERY Christmas morning and it is one of my favorite traditions.  Diane got the kids yet another present and the kids love showing what Santa brought them. 

It was a long pre-Christmas week and we were exhausted, but it was SO much fun.  Filled with laughter and love everywhere.  Our gift to ourselves was a nice Christmas nap :)

Helpful Kids

Sarcastic Title.... (for the most part)

Leah wanted to pass off some Faith In God "goals" 

and one of them was to prepare a meal for the family.  

She made one of her faves, Taco Soup, YUMMY!  

Otis helps me get to the vaccuming sooner than I would care, 

by dumping an entire box of cereal!!! its a good thing he is so cute, or else....

Otis also loves to "help" me with the laundry.  My most dreaded task as a mother. 

It seems that he ALWAYS knows that I am going to do a load, because he is always there with dirty laundry in his hand.  He also loves to watch as the washer goes round and round. 

Mylo, our little monkey helper.  We needed a cooker from way in the back

and this little monkey climbed through all of our junk that has been stored in here.  

He did this twice, bless his little helpful heart.

Homemade Oreos!  The girls (mostly Leah) and I made them over the Christmas break

Then we ate them ALL!  They were that good and Leah is a GREAT helper in the kitchen. 

Close up of the Homemade Oreos, YUM! 

Three of these and a cold glass of milk, heaven for your belly.

House Update

The house is coming a long.  Slow (for me), but sure! 

The footings and foundation walls are UP!  SOOOO FUN to see it and walking around IN the "house" is awesome!  The next couple of weeks should be VERY exciting as the framing goes up.  Dave has been doing some time lapses (with help from our super cute neighbor boy), I am sure we will have a cool video of it going up super fast, one day :)

We are still on schedule to move in mid-end of February.  THAT IS SOOOOOO SOON!!!!!!!!!!!

Footings getting some cement :)

Foundation Forms going up....

Foundation WALLS!!!!!!!! 

The "square" seen at the far end of the picture is the (for now) 

storage room under the garage.  its HUGE! 

Right where the tractor thing is is where the downstairs family room will be. 

In this picture you can see part of the future view, my mom's window 

and part of the kids bedroom on the far side of the "house" :) 

"inside" the house!!!!!!!!!  I just walked down there TODAY and it feels like home.  

I realize that sounds crazy, but it does.  I wear my excitement on my sleeve, Dave does not.  

But MY excitment is enough for the both of us :)

In the above picture I am standing in the corner of "Mylo's Room".  Its pretty crazy to stand inside and feel a little bit of what the house will eventually look like and where things will be placed.  THIS IS  A DREAM COMING TRUE!!!!!!

HAWAII

Dave had to go to Hawaii for work, I know, so hard for him!  He went last year and he promised that if he had to go this year he would take me.  I was able to go with him with his extensive amounts of skymiles AND the two angels that watched our kids while we were there! 

The trip was SUPER relaxing and mellow.  We didn't really do any tourist-y things.  I mostly hung out by the beach while Dave "worked".  I use that word loosely, as it was very mellow work, but thats just the way Hawaii is, mellow and chill and you just have to go with the flow.  I ran a few times, it was GORGEOUS.  I took a few naps a day (on the beach), read People Magazine, ate yummy food and rode our bikes everywhere!

On the plane, ready to take off.  Little did we know that that night the winds would bring such disaster to Bountiful.  When we found out what had happened I wanted to come home, but Abuela told us to just enjoy ourselves and that the kids would be ok.  And they were :)

We made it to paradise!  The beach is literally a few steps from the house we stayed in.  I literally had to hold back tears at the beauty of this place!  What a beautiful world we live in!!!!! 

This is the view from the yard.  The steps are just below my feet here.  

I would sit out here in the morning and watch the surfers do their thing.  

The relaxing sounds of the waves and the cool morning breeze were beyond awesome! 

TED BAKERY!!!! 

We had breakfast here EVERY morning. 

We would ride our bikes the 1.5miles and enjoy every bite.

In this picture I am eating an Almond Danish, SO YUMMY.

Lilikoi.  W.O.W. This is my favorite ALL TIME FRUIT 

and this drink is TO DIE FOR (if you are me).  

I dedicated a post a while ago, to passion fruit.  It is THAT good.  

I drank several of these a day while in Hawaii.  Cold and refreshing!  

Beached Whale... a sight to behold!  :) 

One day I went on a search for a fruit stand.  The lady at this particular fruit stand was AWESOME!  I paid $12 for EVERYTHING in this picture.  If I was to buy 12 Lilikoi at the store here in Utah, it would have been easily $30!  Needless to say I was VERY pleased with my big ol' bag of fresh fruit.  It was quickly consumed and the next day I went back for more :) 

Our mode of transportation.  There is a bike path everywhere.  

It was really fun to just hop on a bike and go.  It felt freeing and I felt like a kid :) 

One day we went to see the Temple in Lai'e.  

Dave remembered that his mission President lived close by.  

Turns out they live directly in front of the temple.  

We got to visit with them for a little while and that was a nice time.  They are SUPER sweet! 

Shrimp Farms are easy found on the island and I thoroughly enjoyed a nice plate of these beauties :) 

Two of my favorite things: Dave and Lilikoi 

The best part of the trip was hanging out with Dave.  Having an entire week with just him was awesome!  He came home a few days after I did and was only here for 24hrs before he left AGAIN.  I feel it was a blessing to have had family and friends that could help us do this! 

IKEA Trip (again...)

Its not secret that I LOVE IKEA!  Abuela and I both needed to grab some stuff so we ventured down on a Monday.  Abuela watches the kids on Mondays so I can volunteer at the kids school.  This particular day Neve was playing with Milli down stairs and she was able to tag a long with us. 

It was fun to hang out and shop and the kids were SO good, we might just do it again :)

This little man MELTS MY HEART!!!!!!!!! Look at what a cutie pie he is!!!!!!!! I can't get over it. I kiss those cheeks all.day.long and don't ever get tired of it, he does, however :'(

Cookies to Make the House Warm

This was a while back.  It was a WAY cold day and Mari and I decided to make cookies and warm up our house.  It was, as always, fun!

Below is a bunch of pics :)

Cookie cutting....

Cookie Decorating.... 

and more... 

Cookie Decorating Goof Ball.... 

(although, I do think my bear is quite cute.  She even has a "pearl" necklace!)

Rockwell was sharing grains of rice with Otis :) 

I haven't made sugar cookies since that day.  They are SO much work!!! But it sure was fun. :)