January Randomness

January was a great month! Here are some pictures:

These kids are the best of friends!

Walking home from the park.  These cuties sure love each other!

Ian cruisin' with Elisa in her cute set of wheels!

After Elisa's dance class, I took the kids (sans Ian, he was with Erik) to Cafe Rio because I had a coupon for a free burrito.  Big mistake, standing in line and not ordering over the phone! We stood in line for an hour.  The kids enjoyed watching the workers make tortillas, despite the worker complaining how much she hated making them.  I don't blame her, but it certainly wasn't all fun and games standing in line for an hour with two antsy kids either.  Darn these dance classes on Friday nights! It sure puts a kink in the start of my weekend!  And poor Elisa is just so tired!

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A few "treasures" that the kids came home with:

Such a smart boy!

Gabe's sweet teacher enjoyed his Train Man Comics and wrote such a nice note for him!

Perfect health, perfect attendance! We are blessed to be so healthy!  The kids also got a coupon for a free personal pizza at Peter Piper Pizza.

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Elisa was getting too long for her little toddler bed.  She would often bump her head on the top edge and had only an inch or so to spare from her feet to the bottom of the bed.  So I spent a good chunk of time online looking at the best girl's furniture for the best price.  Most things I found were on Amazon.  I got her entire bedroom set (including bedding, pillows, and the lamp) for under $1,000! Some people pay that much for the nightstand alone.  Her bedroom is all finished; I just have to hang a couple of things on the walls.  I put together the nightstand, dresser, and vanity myself.  Erik put together the canopy bed.  I don't have a picture (yet) but her room looks so pretty! I even bought some sparkly knobs, they definitely make her room pop! 

I sold her toddler bed for $50 and her hutch & dresser for $25.  I tried to give them away since they were given to us, but I offered and nobody wanted them so I sold them on Craig's List.  I was a little sad having to sell her cute little bed, but its no use to us if it's too small. I'm glad some other little girl can enjoy it anyway!

Her sweet little bed

Loading it up and saying goodbye!

Her dresser/hutch.  I loved the hutch and tried to buy her another new dresser with a hutch, but it was soo SO soooo expensive!  This one just wasn't cutting it for us.  Her mass amount of big girl clothes was just too much for these three little drawers to hold.  

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Ian is my little buddy during the day, since the older two are off at school for the day.  He's such a good, sweet boy!  I love hanging out with this little guy.  

This sweet boy.  He sometimes doesn't take his naps when I put him down for nap time.  And then he goes and falls asleep on random items, in weird positions. 

A random bucket o' boo-boo.

This kid is a mac & cheese fiend!  This and hot dogs.  Such a healthy diet I know.  But at least I buy the turkey/no nitrates hot dogs!

He found this car in the mall and refused to get off of it.  Someone put money in for their kid and it didn't work for them.  After they got off, Ian immediately crawled in, pushed a bunch of buttons, and it started to go! Free ride!

 

Same day at the mall (he got his pictures taken, I'll post on that next). Ian messed around on my phone and took about 200 pictures.  I found this one, and trashed the rest.

An adorable grouchy-groucho in my van.

Ian broke a couple of things at this DI we were at.  In spite of that, he was grouchier at me than I was at him! Naughty little stink.

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Elisa went to a classmates birthday party for a classmate at a jumping place.  She had tons of fun! I finally got to meet Kassidy, her BFF, and even Kassidy's mom, who I exchanged numbers with and she invited Elisa to go with Kassidy to Castles and Coasters.

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Having fun face swapping on my MSQRD app!  Swapping faces always cracks me up--it never gets old!

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At the very end of January (this is actually going to cut into early February, but oh well) my mom came to visit! The kids sure had fun and so did I! We all did:

Elisa and Ian loved being wheeled around in my mom's suitcase by her.  They begged for more, but enough is enough!

Me and my fat face, and my sweet Ian.

I finally got to try The Taco Guild!! It was amazing.  Delicious. Fresh. Unique.  I want to go back.  Now every time I see a five dollar bill, I want to turn it into a taco from Taco Guild.  Take my $5, Taco Guild, just gimme a taco!!

We also ate at Famous Daves.  Erik never wants to go there, so it was a good choice.  The food is good, not great, but the bread pudding dessert is AMAZING!!

Trip to Utah

 We started 2017 of great with a visit to Utah.  More specifically, a visit to family members in Utah.

 First stop: Grandma and Grandpa in St. George! We didn't stay too long, but just long enough to eat pizza at the mall and for the kids to empty the toy closet in the basement and scatter the toys around the house. 

Grandpa with Gabe and Elisa

Erik loves it when I take pictures of him eating.

Then we made our way up to see my sister, Lisa in West Jordan! We hit some snow on the way which slowed us down a little bit, but it wasn't too long of a delay:

A portrait of Elisa I drew in pencil on the long ride up.  My drawing skills have seriously declined over the years.  

Snow!  Oh how I'm glad to live in Phoenix where it doesn't snow!

We stopped in Provo on the way.  We didn't bother with visiting BYU campus with all the snow and three kids, but we did stop to eat lunch at J-Dawgs!

Our old (basement) house we lived in for our first three years of marriage.  It is still there!

Mmmm yummy delicious hot dogs!

Then we finally made to to Lisa and Eric's house! The kids were excited to see their cousins, and even more excited to play in the snow!

Despite complaints of the cold, the kids (minus Ian) played in the snow for hours! Especially Gabe.  He wore my snow boots and wondered around the back & front yard for hours by himself.  

I was mostly excited to see my new nephew, Calvin! This was the first time I got to hold him! He barely three months old, if that.  So adorable! He is a calm, sweet baby with a really, really round head! The kids enjoyed holding him too:

Love love love!

Calvin makes my baby look not so much like a baby!

Elisa loves babies!

All smiles!

This goofball always finds the remotes, wherever he may be.  If there is a remote around, he will find it.  And push all of the buttons.

Elisa and Aaliyah enjoying a meal together

Tootsie (Cindy) came over for a little bit.  We laughed at stupid/embarrassing things we had done and argued who had done the most stupid/embarrassing thing.  Lisa wins, by far.

Aaliyah and her new dress that I made her (on a whim, the night before we left).  I love it on her! 

Elisa and her 2nd cousins, Isabelle and Brody.  Elisa was a grumpus for seemingly no reason at all.

This adorable kid stuffed into his car seat.  It was so, so cold, otherwise I would have taken off his coat.

We stopped at McDonalds with all of the kids.  Elisa and Aaliyah enjoying their ice cream!

It was then time to leave for St. George and ultimately home.  But not before stopping at Tootsies (I took a picture but it has disappeared) and Grandpa Ron's!  I had a good time going through old boxes of junk in the garage and finding treasures and reliving old memories! The kids had a great time playing with the toys, and especially playing with Grandpa! 

Just hangin' with Grandpa!

I love taking trips to Utah to see family! It is just as fun as any Disney Trip, to me.  And it never seems long enough.  I'm looking forward to going back this summer and staying for a little longer!