Thanksgiving and the Start of December

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  I got a surprise call from my little sister the day before she was supposed to drive down saying that she was an hour away...luckily I'd already cleaned the house. :)  yay!

Once upon a time I decided to try to make cheesy-potato-broccoli soup...and when I asked for three medium potatoes, Beth brought me goldi-peel and the three tubers.  In the end, the soup turned out AMAZING...and Albert has been begging me to make it again and again ever since. :)

I also made a cherry pie...and even did the awesome lattice work.  I'm so proud!

I also made my mom's special occasion rolls (called icebox rolls)...but they take forever so...not sure when I'll do THAT again....

while beth and I were waiting on the rolls, we had a "girls' night" and watched Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings and painted our nails. :)

John LOVES mac and Cheese

While we do not have photographic evidence of it, we had thanksgiving lunch at Albert's Aunt Sonia's house (which we helped a lot in the making...and I cut my finger slicing potatoes for mashing)...a few hours later we went to my Grandma Evans's house for Thanksgiving dinner. :)  both meals were AMAZING!!!

So...Albert and I decided that our splurge for this season was going to be a new Christmas tree...a fake one. So we searched all of the Black Friday sales and went to several stores to see what their trees looked like...at 8 we traveled to Wal-Mart because we'd seen some other items that we were in need of (new pillows, new towels, etc)...unfortunately, they ran out of pillows before we could get to them, and apparently the shipment of towels never came in.  So, we decided to go get our tree at Kohls (we had a $50 gift card someone left at the library and still had not picked up after about a month.) Anyways, so we decided ot make it a date and go to the movies...and we did.  it was nice. :)  Afterwards we still had about an hour until Kohls opened up...so we sat in the car and played games on my iPad...then got in line.  When we got in and were the first ones to the trees...and we noticed this brown box on top of the other boxes that were supposed to be on sale (so said the ad).  It had more tips and more lights than the others...and we were worried it'd cost a bunch more than we'd planned for...but we asked one of the workers and she said that if it was in the pile it was going to be the same price.  SCORE!  we only ended up paying about $30 out of our pocket for the tree

our happy receipt.

last year's tree (we used it to put gingerbread men on)

                                               

the tree we bought

all lit up...I convinced Albert that it was my family's tradition to decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving...then mom had to ruin it by admitting we do it the Monday after...ah well. :)  

Johnathan liked the ornaments

despite these pictures, he quickly learned to not pull the ornaments off the tree...and that they were not edible (caught him in a corner trying to eat one of the fake apples haha)

our little sneak-thief soon realized that the gingerbread men on the other tree were edible and we would often catch him swiping one off the tree and then escaping to eat it. :)

Beth playing guitar.

Mexican Beth...she'd been having a discussion with her then boyfriend on whether or not he'd like her better if she were Mexican.

It was a GREAT Thanksgiving!  We're looking forward to giving more thanks with our wonderful families as much as we can in the future (just realized next year might be our last year here in Utah to enjoy TWO Thanksgiving celebrations AH!)


Activities at the start of December:
We went and watched Arthur Christmas at the Zion's Bank Employee's kids' Christmas celebration.  When I say "we" I mean me, Albert's 13 year-old sister Kimmi, 5 year-old Sammi, 3 year-old Melissa, and Johnathan.  Kimmi was a HUGE help...and honestly, Johnathan was the worst of the kids.  After the movie, Santa came out.  Johnathan was just as pleasant as last year. :)

John and the girls with Santa

Sammi and Melissa

once upon a time I caught John sitting on the couch just reading his kitten book...this is right after that when he caught me trying to take a picture of him

  

he LOVES to wrap himself up in his blankets. :)

So this year, I convinced Albert that I should make Gingerbread men... (still working on the gingerbread house/train) I even got him to decorate his own gingerbread man (but just one haha)

Albert's gingerbread man...he happily exclaimed "it's me!" when asked if he were going to give his gingerbread man some pants he replied that he was just wearing a REALLY long shirt.

Albert took a bite out of it before I could frost it...

my version of my little family

other decorated ones.

gangsta' gingerbread man...and his sugar mama.

construction man and his wife.

the others

then I realized I had WAY too much frosting...so I went a little crazy...well craziER haha.

Albert didn't like that the frosting hardened, but he still ate a TON of them :)

And thus began our Christmas Celebrations. :)

Halloween and other October fun

Yes, this is several months late...sorry
     Albert seems to have decided that everything that happens in this year of Johnathan's life is a "first" (understandable since he can interact so much better now than he could last year) so we had his "first Halloween".  In honor of this, I actually was able to convince Albert to dress up!  YAY!
     We almost made it to the neighborhood Halloween party, but then we discovered that Johnathan had a fever and we decided to stay home just in case he was sick.  Turns out he was just getting a molar in...but still, he wouldn't have been very pleasant anyways.
     We DID, however, make it to Albert's Aunt Sonia's house for Halloween, pictures of costumes, and trick-or-treating in her neighborhood.  Johnathan had fun.  As soon as he discovered that the basket I was carrying had CANDY in it, he began reaching in and holding the goodies (we had him and Sammi in the wagon. while Melissa rode on the stroller).  Unfortunately, he decided to start trying to EAT the candy with the rappers still on them (and even managed to soak through a few wrappers), so I got to carry the basket while I was pulling the kiddies around.  ah well.  After trick-or-treating, Mark and Sonia had pizza for everyone.  It was YUMMY!!!!


Johnathan :)

Me and Johnathan

Two Pirates and a Tiger

I made those swords...yep!

Moments from the life of the mother of a 15 month old

My morning routine usually goes as follows:
Super early in the morning-give Albert a kiss goodbye as he goes to work, then fall back asleep.
A few hours later- wake up and start getting ready. And do whatever until John wakes up.
7:30/8/8:30- johnathan wakes up, I go down and get a sippy cup of milk/water/juice for him, then return and change his diaper.
After that- bring him to my bedroom where we play on Albert's and my bed for a while. (I try to get him to drink...but that doesn't always happen.) Most mornings we make a tent under my comforter and hide from the cold...until the tickle monster comes out and then I delight at the sound of my little boy's squeals and giggles.
About half an hour later we go to the kitchen and eat a full breakfast...usually it's fruit and Cheerios.
And then the rest of the day starts.
 I take Johnathan out for a walk down at the park with one of my co-workers, try to do something that will still be done at the end of the day (I try to make it something like sewing (my craft room is FINALLY organized thanks to my mom) though usually this part gets skipped for cooking or baking...which depending on if I've been experimenting or not SOMETIMES makes it to the next day haha).
My favorite mornings are those where Johnathan decides to just cuddle...and babble on about something that usually includes "lululu ooooo" sounds (we have decided to translate them as "love you" because he usually starts saying that after we've said that we love him) and holding something remotely like a phone up to his ear and saying "oh?"

More favorite moments include the following conversation.
me: hey, John-boy!
John: wa?
me: I love you!
John: Yeah?
me: yeah.
John *satisfied voice* yeah.

It's hard to believe that he's already 15 months old...I feel like he's growing up way too fast.  He's walking and sometimes running places now (if you call trying to catch up with your upper body leaning too far forward running haha).  He LOVES his shoes and goldfish and tub time (despite the fact that he usually gets water on his face when he's trying to squirm away from mom and bits of ham and going on walks.  He loves watching me mow the lawn (which is nice because it keeps him entertained while I'm doing it), but he loves the vacuum so much more.  if ever we accidentally leave it where he can get to it, he automatically goes over and starts to play with it. :P ...He doesn't like going DOWN the stairs (he loves going up them) and nap time...he's developing a dislike for nap time recently.
Johnathan LOVES dogs...doesn't matter how big or small. If they're near him, he get ALL excited.  he calls them "pu-pu" (I think cuz I usually call them "puppies").  While Albert and I enjoy both cats and dogs, we've basically decided that, when we get a pet, we will be getting a dog. :)  
At this month's Check-up, the dr said that Johnathan's tibias were slightly turned in...so he walks a little pigeon toed...no orthopedic shoes yet.  The Dr. thinks he's going to grow out of it. :) for now it makes him walk similar to a drunken sailor... 
Also, John's head only grew 1/4th of an inch this past month...but the dr still doesn't seem too worried about his small head size...especially since his head is fairly round.  the Dr. says that usually kids whose front skull sutures seal early get a triangular shaped head...now we know what happened to Phineas!

but yeah. everything's fine with that apparently.

Albert is back in school and taking 14 credits (6 of which are taken up by a research lab that he went to all summer and thus doesn't have to be there as long during this semester...unfortunately this means he's going to present his project in Washington DC sometime in April), but he's also taking a Kaplan MCAT prep course.

picture of my boys at Albert's birthday party.

:)

chillaxing in his stroller in the airport on our way to VA.

 Albert opening his birthday presents in VA

 building the dock

 two exhausted girls :)

 playing with Ollie and Grandpa

this picture cracks me up.  he loves pretzels. 

apples and pretzels-the perfect combination

my dad and Johnathan

 back in UT...Albert bought me some flowers...

 ...and some cheese pizza with EXTRA cheese...and one half with Roma Tomatoes on it...the side w/o the roma tomatoes went first haha.

 CLEAN CRAFT ROOM!!!

the other half of the clean craft room

Albert has decided to get into golf...so he got golf clubs for his birthday. :)

once upon a time Brit and I got lazy and cooked our men burgers in my waffle iron...and they turned out pretty good! :)

the boys watching the byu vs UofU football game. :)

I gave him pb on his try for lunch...it was a lazy day haha

Albert loves pumpkin pie...especially with whipped cream. :)

This next series of pictures come from a birthday party for Albert's cousin, Kathy.  Albert was unable to attend because he had to do a project for his research lab, but i made sure he got full coverage. :)

trying to eat his rice out of his bowl haha

he stole my grapes

sad-looking grapes.

I suppose we should train him better in the ways of eating with a plate or bowl haha.

he stole my roll and then got it stuck on his thumb. :P

playing with Albert's Aunt Sonia's dog

he likes rocks

with the kids

 she didn't know I was taking this VERY flattering picture of her

 I was too messy to sit at the big table

 the girls next door.

 aftermath

 more aftermath.

jumping on Sonia's trampoline.