Neighbor Gifts

       This year I decided to try etching a mirror with the manger scene. I have wanted to try etching for a while now so I thought this was the perfect opportunity! I bought this stuff called Armour Etch. This stuff is nasty. It warns you that the fumes can burn your insides or something and to not touch it or it will disintegrate your skin. SO I wore tons of rubber gloves and did it in my bathroom with both windows open. (I'm paranoid if you couldn't tell!) I cut the scene out of vinyl and used the negative space as a template. I put it on the mirror (which I got at the dollar store) and then dabbed it with the etching stuff. Then you rinse it off and pull off the vinyl and Voila... and etched scene! I made about 30 of them. They didn't all turn out well but hey, it's my first time using the stuff so I was still happy with the results.

The Gift that Almost Ruined Christmas

Santa is bringing the boys each a Wiggle Car. But Santa needed help putting 4 of them together (I guess his Elves are too busy getting other toys ready). So Ty and I were putting them together in the family room after all the kids were put to bed. Ty was out throwing the boxes away and I was in the middle of putting them in the basement. Well, I wasn't fast enough and Nick came out to get a drink of water. This kid is very quiet when he comes out and I was shocked to see him standing in the kitchen. .I didn't know what to do, it was obvious that he saw the bike. But he sweetly asked for a drink of water. I said yes and to hurry. So he got his cup and some water and then ran off to bed again. Phew... I thought. He didn't mention the bike at all! We got a way with it! Well, the next day at breakfast, Nick wakes up and groggily comes up to me and asks,"Where's the bike?" Shocked I looked at Ty and I say to Nick,"What bike? There's no bike!" And he goes,"Bike!" and then acts out his arms like he's wiggling the wiggle bike. I start to laugh and I go,"We don't have a bike like that! Wouldn't it be nice if Santa brought one though?" And he angrily goes, "No! Green One!" and he points over to the tree, the spot that the GREEN wiggle bike was. I say, "Oh...it must have been a dream you had..." And he looks at me confused and then goes on his way. I hope he doesn't put 2 and 2 together!

The Cody Train

After our 10 day vacation, I had a ton of laundry to do. I put baskets out in a row and sort the clothes. Cody loves to dump the clothes out and sit in the basket and pretend he's in a train.

He's a sweetie!

Las Vegas

After our fun Cali vacation, we went backl to Las Vegas for the Annual Luker Thanksgiving. We ate at the Luxor buffet for our Thanksgiving meal. Mmmmmmmmm.....prime rib!

My b-i-l Rick had his bday. We celebrated with an awesome big raspberry filled chocolate cake.

My neice, Jess, Ty, and I saw "Love". It was awesome. It was kind of psychedelic too. It had all Beatles music and different acts and dances. Like during the song "Help" there were these incredible trampoline guys that jumped around. There was a lot of the Beatles music they wrote during their "high" stage. At one point dduring it they had this huge white fabric come over the whole audience. It was just on your head and you could reach out and touch it. It was awesome. I felt like I was trippin'!
 Ty and I also saw the comic, Carrot Top. He's hilarious!

Disneyland

The boys LOVED Indiana Jones. They were both scared before it and during it but after, they loved it!

Disney was BUSY!!!! The first few hours it was great...hardly any lines, not packed. But by the time lunch came around it was PACKED! I think we rode a total of 6 rides per day. We stood in line for Space Mountain for 2 HOURS! Disney even had their workers directing all the foot traffic. It was still fun though.

Jungle Cruise

Cody by the river. We waited while Ty and the rest of the boys rode Splash Mtn. Cody was so cute, he waved to the boats as they passed by.

It was chilly but atleast it wasn't raining!

An hour wait for the Toy Story ride.

We rode a cute bug ride at California Adventure.

Cody gave Mr. Incredible a high five!

After 2 days at Disney....

(he has a sucker in his mouth!)

Sea World

It was a cold and very rainy day. We bought ourselves cheezy Shamu ponchos. I didn't care how ridiculous we all looked, they kept us dry!

Shawn was picked to be the special boy in the Shamu show. They us aside early and told us what he was going to do. We got reserved seating, which was awesome.

This is the trainer talking to Shawn.

He took Shawn down and gave him a necklace. Then Shawn did some signals to Shamu!

One of the signals was to make the whale splash so Shawn got soaked!

Shawn turned around and waved while Shamu waved his tail. I started crying at this point!

It was just so neat to have him do this!

Telling him to go.

Shawn on the big screen!

At the end, all the whales came out and soaked Shawn! I'm glad he was a good sport about it!

Cody with his 3D glasses on. He cried about 5 mins into the film.

Our fav. was the stingray. We spent a long time feeling them.

Waiting for the Blue Horizons show to start. Front Row! What do you think happened?

We got SOAKED!!!

Nick got tangled in the net.

Cody loved the play area. He just ran in circles!

The second day was much drier and warmer!

San Diego

We decided to take a California trip the week of Thanksgiving.
We first went to San Diego. It was very wet and very cold. I wanted the boys to see the ocean so we went there first. It was raining so hard it looked like we had jumped in the ocean! All of our clothes were soaked! I was a sad that they couldn't play in the sand.

We saw the doomed "Splendor" Cruise line. Some of our friends in the ward were on that ship a couple weeks before that all went down. So this picture is for them!

There is this huge tall bridge you go over to get to the beach. I saw a sign on it that had a suicide hotline number on it. I thought that was kinda funny but also kinda sad!

Shawn and Kyle getting their first ocean experience! A cold ocean experience! They still had fun though playing in the waves.

All my boys. Poor Nick... his pants got so wet at the bottom that they would not stay up! They kept falling down. He would have a hard time trying to hold them up.

I had a blast! I was jumping in the water with the boys and laughing and splashing. I hope they have that memory for all their lives!                                             

I like...

McDonalds Parfaits.

They are the perfect snack. Healthy, fruity, and yogurty.

Yummy!

And they come all cute too! 

They're in this cute little cup and cute little pack of granola and a cute spoon all on the LID!

How cute is that?!

Way cute!

Lets Get Personnel

What's in my purse?

We all wonder what is in someone's purse, right?? Well here's what's in mine:
-coupon for Ben Franklin that expires tomorrow (I need to go there!)
-wallet
-tons of coupons for a free treat at DQ
-baggie full of candy, suckers, and such for shopping trips
-wipes
-camera
-an old Sams Club shopping list
-2 diapers (clean ones!)
-sack full of coins from one of the boys
-fruit leather
-calculator
-pen
-scrunchy
-floss
-tissues
-numerous toys from McDs
-tons of candy wrappers from said shopping trips
-2 packs of Orbit gum, bubble gum flavor
-phone
-sucker sticks and half sucked on suckers (EW)
-and a dangling thing of hand sanitizer!

Yay. That was fun!

Nicks short Lived Preschool

After his 1st day. He was so excited to show people his bus hat.

I got Nick into preschool this year. I was so excited. Twice a week he would be gone for 3 hours all during Cody's nap time which meant I had 3 hours of quiet. But every time I took him, he would freak out. Like scream, kicking, crying for me, etc. I had to drag him to school. I felt so bad. My friend from the ward stayed with him and calmed him down which she says only took about 5 mins. But I just couldn't go through the heartache of him crying for me so I pulled him out. Maybe next year he will be ready.

Before his first day.