Happy Holidays!

Cutest Santa pic ever. Right?

Thanksgiving

As I said earlier, this was the first time I hosted Thanksgiving.  We used our clubhouse for the day.  The kids had a great time.  The day was spent watching movies in the movie theater, swimming and playing pool.  

My sister and I spent two whole days preparing the food.  My brother said it was the best Thanksgiving food he had ever had.  So, I guess it was a success.  

The movie theater and the pies...

We made pumpkin, strawberry/rhubarb, banana cream, lemon cream cupcakes, chocolate mousse and apple.  All from scratch.  Yum-O.  We ended the night with a talent show.  The kids really got into it.

  

Addi's new favorite band is the Aquabats. She walks around with her iPod blaring it all day.

I'm pretty sure Von is going to hate this video when he is older. Especially because he is running around so happy in his leotard.

La Jolla Cove

My sister and her kids came out for the week of Thanksgiving.  It was a full house to say the least, my brother also tagged along.  We had a great week.  The kids had so much fun and it was the first time I had ever hosted Thanksgiving.  Luckily I had my sister to help, especially with the turkey.  I have a little aversion to raw poultry, so you can imagine how I felt about digging inside of a big turkey for all of the stuff that wasn't supposed to be there.  

We went down to the beach one of the days there were here.  It wasn't an especially hot day, in the 60s, so I did not plan for the kids to hop right into the ocean.

They had so much fun.  I swear, kids don't feel the cold.  They were so carefree, up to their waist in I'm sure freezing water.

BFFs.

 The clothes finally came off.  They were only dragging them down.

 Happy as a clam :)

Addi.  My kids have crazy a crazy amount of hair.  So when they get sand in it, it's there for weeks.  We are still digging it out.

And then Von became completely white trash and joined all of the other fully clothed children on the playground.  He's leaning out a little wouldn't you say?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Addi's class had a Thanksgiving "feast."  Von and I were able to join her.  She makes a pretty cute pilgrim.

Von was not too happy about the singing that the kids did.  He had his ears covered the whole time.  And of course Boo Boo had to come with us.

Utah

The day after Halloween, the kids and I flew out to Utah to hang out with Katie, Brad and the cousins as well as to celebrate Ian's grandpa's 90th birthday.  The first day we were there, we went to "Smash Bash," which was dedicated to destroying all of the left over pumpkins in anyway possible.  The first thing we did was drop the pumpkin from this lift.  We though it was pretty cool...until we saw the crane that raised people up 150 feet to throw pumpkins off of.

Surprisingly, with the exception of Beckham, the kids were not scared at all.  It probably was not the safest thing we could have been doing with our children, but it was pretty fun.

Next, the kids got to shoot pumpkins with paintball guns.

  

They were pretty excited about it.

McKinley and Von.  They are almost four years apart in age, but just about the same size.  I think Von actually weighs more than her.  

Addi and the poor kangaroo at the petting zoo they had there. 

It snowed off and on when we were there.  On Saturday, there was enough for the kids to play in.  Katie's kids were at their dad's and so Addi and Von made fast friends with the neighborhood kids.  We didn't see Addi for at least an hour.  She had so much fun with the kids and the snow.  Von, on the other hand, came in after about 10 minutes, saying, "I don't like it!  I so cold."  He is so cute, regardless.  

Ian and the rest of his family flew in Friday night.  The kids were so happy to see him.  

Before our flight on Sunday, we were all killing time at the mall.  Just as we were about to leave for the airport, we passed Claire's and Ian's sister Chelcie, asked Addi if she wanted to get her ears pierced.  Addi, without hesitation said yes.  So next thing I know Addi is in the chair, picking out her first pair of earrings and I am signing waivers.  After a few minutes of waiting, the fear began to set in.  She was pretty terrified before they even brought the guns out.

 This video makes us look like abusive parents.  It is so sad.

Aren't they pretty?  She was really traumatized.  Luckily, we have had no problems with them, and they haven't caused her any pain since.  I am glad that milestone is over with.  Little does she know, on Thursday of this week, she is having her first wart removed.  Not looking forward to that.  Can you imagine how she is going to be screaming then?  The worst part about it is it is on her chin.  Poor thing.  I feel so bad for her :(

Trick or Treat!

On Halloween, we joined Jaime and Dan in Del Mar to trick or treat.  The neighborhood we went to was all decked out.  It was great.  This is Jaime's little Chewbacca, AKA Lainey.

 Me in my predictable cheer outfit and Ian as Marty McFly.

Every house we went to, Von would get so scared.  "Can we go home now?" was his most common comment of the night :)

Our little Mario.

Princess Leia meets Spartan Cheerleader.  Crazy that it been 12 years since we first met!
Addi and Luke giving their best "Angry Birds" faces.

Disneyland

Because we hadn't been to enough theme parks this month, the kids and I made a trip up to Disneyland with Ian's sisters and parents since his sister Shandra was in town from Hawaii.

The kids all did so well, we lasted all day.

When Addi was a baby, Aunt Chelcie was always her favorite.  She would not to to anyone, myself included, if Chelcie was in the room.

Bubba enjoying "It's A Small World."

All five Clawson cousins.  Addison, Betsy, Joaquin, Tristan & Von.

They were more interested in the car than taking pictures.

The past few months, Von has been obsessed with anything "Cars."  Everywhere we go, he has at least one Lightning McQueen with him.  To us they are all the same, but to him, each one is different and has it's own nickname.  He was in Heaven seeing the life-size Mater and Lightning.

Addi posing with Mater.

He was so happy.  There was no turning around for me to get a decent picture of him with the Car.

Meeting Minnie

The kids.

Addi was too scared to see "Bug's Life," so I took her out and tried to take Von with us, but as we were leaving, he said, "No!  It's showtime!" and insisted on staying.  He came out crying.  Poor thing!

Tom's Farm

 We also made a trip up to Tom's farms last weekend.  We love any excuse to dress up.

Addi the cowgirl and Von, the farmer/train conductor.  Tristan is only two months younger than Von, it was fun to see them interact now that both of them can talk.

 We had never been up to Tom's Farms.  It's in Corona.  They had lots of fun stuff for the kids.

 Waiting for her turn.

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.  It reminded me of back home.

 So fun.

 Bubba and Daddy watching Addi.

 Addi is such a good cousin.  She always keeps the kids entertained.

 Train ride.

 Addi is growing up so fast.  I can't believe she will be six in a couple of months.

 After the train ride, we went to pick out pumpkins.

 Addi of course had to tell Tristan what to do.

 We have yet to carve ours.  Maybe tonight.  She is so excited.

 Tristan.

Our little farmer.