Samantha turns 9!

Samantha turned 9 this month and because of all the crazy stuff going on, it was extended an extra week. We had cake and ice cream and she got some books and the black boots she's been wanting. She invited a few friends to see a movie and go to lunch for her birthday, but I totally forgot to take a picture of them! It was the easiest birthday ever! They saw the movie then Samantha wanted to go to the food court at the mall so everyone could pick their own meal.
I added a picture of Aaron on his crutches. He doesn't look thrilled, but it 's the only picture I've taken of him post surgery. There is also a picture of Carter playing on Aaron's scooter. If you were wondering what it looked like. The kids have loved playing on the scooter and the crutches. Aaron hasn't loved the fact that he can't drive and has to depend on people. It will end soon.

The Christmas Break that wasn't

We had quite a crazy Christmas break this year. I'll just give a little rundown on the events.
Monday: Ryan had fever and cough
Tuesday: Ryan's still sick so we can't go anywhere
Wed: Samantha is now sick so still no going anywhere. That night Aaron came home from a soccer game and said he thinks her tore his achilles tendon.
Thurs: Samantha still sick. Aaron confirms his fear and is set to have surgery the following monday
Fri: Christmas Eve This day wasn't too bad. Aaron had to work and Samantha was not totally back to feeling well, but we had a great time at the Stevenson's for dinner
Sat: Christmas! This was a fun day for us yay!!
Sun: Samantha and Aaron stayed home from church (she still wasn't feeling all that great)
Mon: Aaron had surgery that went really well. He was crazy coming out of anesthesia. Too bad I didn't have a camera to record the crazy comments and singing :)
Tues: Aaron is on the couch the whole day. Erica is out getting Aaron his scooter (so he can get around easier) and trying to fix his crutches. After the 7th store, she has success.
Wed: Erica has fever and cough
Thurs: Erica is worse. Aaron tries to get around as much as he can to help out while Erica is on the couch. The kids run amuck!! We have to cancel Samantha's birthday party with her friends because Erica's too sick.
Fri: Erica goes to doctor and finds out it's the flu (influenza) ugg!! Aaron and Erica spend new years on their respective couches. Thankfully Ryan and Samantha are taken the the Stevenson festivities and they have a blast!
Sat: Erica and Aaron still on the couch :)
Sun: All family (all but erica) go to gma stevenson's and celebrate Samantha's bday.

That was the entire Christmas vacation for our family. Our home is a total disaster and I think the kids watched more TV, movies and played more Wii than they have in their lives.
I wanted to thank everyone for helping us out. The meals that were brought, the driveway shoveled, the grocery shopping that was done and the kids that were watched. We would not have survived without you!!!
Here's hoping that the 2011 Christmas will be better :) (bring on the flu shot!)

Carter's B-day and Temple square

Carter turned 3 last week and requested to go bowling for his birthday. We had a lot of fun and it was fun watching Carter because no matter how many pins he got down, he would get so excited about it. After we went and got chicken nuggets at Chic-fil-A. Carter wanted chicken nuggets for his birthday and I can only handle Chic-fil-A nuggets so it was a great dinner! Then he opened presents and had cake. He got a pillow pet. He's been asking for one for sooo long so he was super excited about it.
Then next night we went to Temple square with the Larson crew. We ate at Gateway then saw the lights. We chose a weeknight because we don't love crowds and it was perfect. We took Trax to the temple and the kids thought that was really fun. We are really enjoying the holidays this year with our families. We plan to keep some of the traditions we made while living away from family, but are excited about adding some some new (and old) traditions with our extended families!

new books

Well, my original plan was to read one book a month, but we moved and life got in the way. So I just do the best I can. I actually have been reading lately and I did read two books over the summer, but both of them were not to my liking so I didn't finish them. They were the Zoo Keepers Wife and The time Travelers Wife. Apparently I don't like books that are about someones wife-go figure. So after reading those two flops, I decided to read a book I know wouldn't disappoint--Anne of Green Gables. Such a great book. And because I've seen the movie a million times, it was fun to compare and see what they changed from the book. I also read The Help. I really liked this book and luckily went into it knowing nothing about it. I do love doing that with books and movies. It makes them so much more fun to see or read. So I recommend that book to anyone. Finally, I just finished Mockingjay. I have loved the Hunger Games series, but I still love the first book the best. It was hard because I read the books right as they came out so it was difficult to remember little details from the previous books. I'm sure that would have made the book that much better. I do recommend that series to everyone also, but since I was on a waiting list of over 1000 at the library, I'm sure most have read it also. Well, I hope to get back in the habit of reading more, but who knows what's just around the corner!

Halloween

I hope all of you out there had a fun halloween. Even though it was raining, my kids braved the elements and came out with far more candy than they needed. We also only had four groups come to our door so we had a ton of leftover candy at the house. This is not good because little chocolate bars are so easy to just pop in your mouth all throughout the day!


This is Carter's popsicle costume. We had so many other options for him, but he insisted on being a blue popsicle. So this was quickly made about an hour before trick or treating. Because it was raining, the costume didn't last all that long, but Carter was ready to come home anyway!


Ryan was a vampire. We would have sprayed his hair black, but the rain kept us from wanting to do that this year. Thus you have a blond vampire. Edward's hair wasn't black and he still looked good, right??


Samantha chose to be Spiderella this year again. We've moved so nobody saw it last year (unless you saw it on my blog). I was happy to not have to come up with a costume for her and she was happy to wear it.

Disneyland

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago and had a great and exhausting time! We stopped in Las Vegas and stayed with friends from Tennessee then went on to Disneyland. We spent four days there so we were able to do all the things we wanted without rushing through things. We loved it and can't wait to go back again someday.

It actually worked!

We recently inherited a kitty from the neighbors when they moved and I told the kids they could have it as long as it stayed outside. Well, just last week it followed the kids to school then just disappeared. After five or six days the kids were really worried so Ryan, Samantha and their cousin Ella made signs to hang around the neighborhood. I took them around thinking (in my so smart adult mind) "this is never going to work". Then a few days later I got a call from some random jr high girl saying she knows who took our cat and she would bring it to us. She never did bring it to us, so I did my research and found out who this mystery person was who "stole" our kitty. Then I drove to the house and told them I was there to pick up my cat. I have to admit that this house and the people there were...how should I put it... a little shady, but I just wanted to get the cat back for the kids. They gave me the cat and I surprised the kids when they got home from school. So the moral of the story is..... sometimes we are proven wrong by our children's faith in what can happen.