Thanksgiving - breaking it down

Wednesday

Ran around like crazy getting last-minute stuff done, adding to my list by dropping half of the batter for Ty's birthday cake on the floor, dishwasher, cabinets, walls, pictures. Sent the kids out to decorate the van for Ty's birthday since we were going to be in the van for a good portion of the day, came out to see them diligently taping (emphasis on the tape) crepe paper to the outside door of the van.  It looked great, but they needed to decorate the INside since it was raining like crazy.  Hopped in the van with some homemade cards and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (a favorite of the hub's) to pick up Ty on our way to the airport.  Finished decorating while we waited for Ty.  Surprised our wonderful birthday guy and sang him a song while we started our trip.  Drove onto the ferry and then to the airport where we very happily and excitedly picked up my parents!!!  Drove back to find that there was a 2-hour wait for the ferry.  Lame.  But it was past nap time for a certain 1-year-old and I knew that if we were to drive around it would be less than pleasant for everyone involved with him strapped in his seat.  So we waited it out and let the kids play.  We got home and went to work in the kitchen - turkey and stuffing for the next day, birthday dinner for my man.  We had a nice birthday dinner, then presents and cake, cooked/baked a few more things, chatted it up and hit the hay.

Thursday

Me and my momma headed out for the Bainbridge Island Turkey Trot...a nice 5K at Battle Point Park.  We ran with my friends, Tristalene and Sandy.  It was super cold, but a great course.  I was really happy with my time (30 minutes) since I'm, you know, with child and haven't run much at all in the past three months.  I was also SO proud of my mom!  The rain held off until we were pulling out of the parking lot, heading home.  We came home and I started the dough for my first-ever homemade rolls.  We did these gratitude rolls I found the idea for on Pinterest.  The guests (Lintons and Kents) rolled in around 2:00.  We watched football, talked, ate yummy appetizers, and then dove into the meal around 4:00.  The turkey was deemed "the best I've ever had in my life" by most (all?) of our guests.  My daddy brined, injected, and rubbed that baby.  It was so, so good.  And I am NOT normally a turkey lover.  Everything was delicious.  Perfect.  I loved the experience and the company.  I went to bed a very happy lady that night.

Friday
No Black Friday shopping for us.  We're mostly done for Christmas and didn't see anything worth standing in line for two hours to get.  Oh, actually, Tyler DID go to Costco at 9:00 a.m. to get us a new point-and-shoot camera.  I was LAZY that morning.  It was kind of sunny out so that afternoon we headed out to get our Christmas tree!  We chose a new tree farm - Huberts - which proved a mistake.  If we'd known what kind of tree we wanted before we left, it would have gone much more smoothly.  But this place was HUGE (like 70 acres) and I felt like we should check out all of the types of trees they had...which meant a lot of getting in and out of the car.  I am picky and a picky woman like me just shouldn't have that many choices in front of her!  My poor little family and parents.  But find a tree we did!  It's beautiful.  Tyler and I went on a very nice date that night that included purchasing two shirts for my pregnant self and ending with some hot chocolate at a local coffee shop, having the best date conversation.  The kids got to play with my parents and make Karmel Korn with my Dad.  


Saturday
Decorated for Christmas (so fun to have Mom and Dad here to see it AND to have their help!)  Hit a few stores with my mom and made a framed jewelry holder with/for my mom.  Ate my dad's delicious fajitas for dinner and apple donuts for dessert.  Had a long, super fun dance party in the dark with glow sticks (a tradition with my mom and her grandkids).  Put the kids to bed and watched 17 Miracles - a really wonderful movie about the Mormon pioneers if you haven't seen it.

Sunday
Max spoke in sacrament meeting!!!  You likely don't know what a big deal this is, so I will dedicate a future post to this momentous event.  We left from church to take my parents to the airport. :(  It was SUCH a good visit, but much too short.  There was much sorrow from my two oldest children when we had to say goodbye.

What a great holiday!  Pretty lame that these are all of the pictures I have to show for it.  I am so thankful that my parents were able to be with us.  We're foregoing holiday visits with our families this year (and possibly future years?) because we also do reunions with each side and 4 trips a year is just so stinking expensive!  We're far, far away from those people we love.  I've felt kind of bummed all week because last week is over; I was looking forward to it for so long.  Thankfully there is the JOY that is Christmas to keep me busy!  AND I might be making a solo trip to Vegas in January to bridge the time between visits and meet my sister's soon-to-be-born little boy.  Life is good.  Reallly good.

BOY, do we know how to make 'em!

This is old-ish news, but there is a tiny baby BOY inside this baby bump o' mine!!!

We love the little men in our life and are so excited to add another.

Kelly's response was a slight angry/sad face at the ultrasound.  Ty immediately asked if she was excited and she let out a grunt that this momma knew meant, 'Do NOT talk to me about it right now.  I need a few minutes.'  So we gave her some time and about 10 minutes later both Max and Kelly cheered when Ty asked, "Are we excited to be having a baby boy?!"  I had Kelly make the phone calls to grandparents to tell them the gender so that she could be part of the excitement of that.  Really, I think she is just thrilled to have a baby to dote on.  And Tyler has told her several times, "Kelly, trust me, you WANT to be the only girl.  Daddy's who just have one daughter spoil them rotten." :)

Max doesn't mind so much that this babe isn't a girl because he's SURE we're having several more babies.

Everett likes to lift up my shirt and say, "IN?!" And I respond, "Yep, the baby is in there!"  Then he nods, smiles and says, "In."  Hopefully he'll be just as happy about the baby being out next spring. :)

No name yet.  It seems harder this time around.  All in good time; brother still has to cook for another 18 weeks or so.  He doesn't move that often, but he's no wimp.  I can already watch my stomach move from the outside when he gets going.  I can't wait to see what this little guy will add to our bunch!

The Swift Ninjas Rock!

I may have mentioned in a previous post that Tyler and I suckered ourselves into coaching Max's first ever soccer team.

Well, this wasn't just any team - these were the Swift Ninjas!

Maxwell T - Nathan - Connor - Zephan - William - Noah

It got kind of tricky at times since Kelly and Everett had to be along for the ride for all of our practices AND games while we were doing our darnedest to teach our team a thing or two about the sport of soccer.  I may or may not have lost Ev during one of the games only to find him in the middle of a group of big boys who were warming up for their game on the field next to ours.  He was having a blast playing with them, but I'm sure I got some head shakes from parental units on the side.  The team parents and siblings really stepped in and were all so good to help out with our kiddos.

The Swift Ninjas were SO cute to watch and really learned a lot during the season.  It was so cool to see their progress each week in the games.  Our team cheer was cute  (Everett insists on doing it over and over and over again).  Either Tyler or I would yell, "Swift Ninjas!" and the boys would reply, "Hi-Ya!" (like a karate chop) as we all threw our hands in the air.  We really, really loved our little team and both of us got emotional at the end-of-the-season party. We miss those little guys.

They gave us a soccer ball that all of the boys signed in their adorable handwriting as well as a $50 gift certificate to Red Robin.  So nice!  And my hair looks nasty because it curls and kinks in the rain, which we had been standing in right before this party during the last game...in case you were wondering.

Max was so fun to watch.  He's such a little guy and so Ty drilled into his head that, "You may not be the biggest kid on the field, so you have to be the fastest."  Boy, did he deliver.  He'd come from the opposite end of the field to get involved in the play and scored pretty much every game.  He is so enthusiastic about everything in life and soccer was no exception.  But he's just as excited about watching from the sidelines too...he would run like a madman up and down the sidelines, cheering everyone on.  He LOVED his teammates.

So the first season of soccer was a success!  Max is now trying to decide between soccer and flag football for next fall.  If he chooses soccer, Ty may coach again; we're not doing the double-coach thing next time.  Now we have him signed up for basketball, which should be pretty fun/funny to watch.  Naturally, Max is ecstatic. :)

Family Pictures

So we had family pictures taken...oh, in August (pre-baby bump)...and just yesterday I had them printed and put on our walls AND decided today I'd put them on the ol' blog.  Our friend, Eric, offered to do these free-of-charge because he's super nice and he wanted to play with his new camera.  Free pictures?  Cheap-O Fosters are there!  We went to this little waterfront park a few minutes away and it was an awesome place for pictures.  And Tyler, I'm sure, would like the world to know that HE is the one that picked out the place.  He says all the time, "That sure was a great place to take pictures...I wonder who had that idea?" :)  He loves when his good ideas rock.  And thank you to Eric and my talented sister Bethany for the edits!

 

Halloween 2011

Ward carnival, preschool/school parties, making treats for Kindergarten, pumpkin carving, jack-o-lantern pancakes, Trunk or Treat and neighborhood Trick or Treating, hot chocolate to warm up after hitting the neighborhood...it was a great year for this holiday-that-I-haven't-loved-for-years-but-now-that-I'm-a-mom-I-think-it-rocks!

Some things I want to remember:

• Ev didn't want to put his costume on and was all annoyed at Trunk or Treat after I put him in it, but then I handed him his bucket, we hit the first trunk, and brother was hooked!  He could hardly see above eye level because of the crazy horse head and so any time he came to an adult's legs he would hold his bucket up for some candy, even when we were just stopping to chat. :)  And he was a champ at saying "fank-oo" (thank you) after every piece of candy.  I was so in love with his cuteness.  And he is so independent right now.  No hand-holding or helping from door-to-door when we were trick or treating...get out of my way and let me get to the candy, people. 
• Maxwell wasn't saying thank you to anyone when we started at Trunk or Treat, he was being super silent.  I talked to him about needing to say thank you because these people are giving him free candy.  He said, "Mom, ninjas don't talk...they are really quiet and sneaky."  Okay, bud, but ninjas still have to be polite on Halloween.  He was compliant the rest of the evening. Brother was in character!
• Max and I spent almost an hour wrapping a bunch of chocolate bars to look like mummies and gluing on googly eyes...and he forgot to give them out. :)  We gave them out to trick-or-treaters instead.
• Ty got our trunk all set up at Trunk or Treat and then realized we left the candy at home. Ha.
• Kelly LOVED her costume and walked very princess-like in it.  It was worth every minute I spent making it.  I had never done anything like it before, but gained confidence when I found an online tutorial.  Half of the time I was praying that when I turned it right-side out it wouldn't look too wonky.  But the end product was awesome; I'd let her wear it to a wedding or something.
• At the end of the night the kids were (for some reason) doing an exercise class in the family room when suddenly Kelly was WAILING.  I went in to find the front of her dress totally ripped (luckily on the seam).  I asked what had happened and when she could (between sobs) she said, "Max and Reyes wanted me to do a somersault and I didn't want to do a somersault because I didn't want to rip my dress, but they made me do a somersault!!!  I really loved this dress!"  I had to laugh a little at the devastation of it all.  I still need to fix it.
• I loved that Ev wanted to pose backward for every picture because he saw that I had Kelly turn around for one of her pictures. :)
• We need to buy a stinking camera!  The iPhone camera just isn't cutting it.

 We did actually carve some pumpkins, but those pictures are on Ty's phone...

 I meant to do a scary face, but we all agreed he turned out looking grumpy

 This is Everett D's "nice smile" for the camera :)

 No masks at school and a ninja without his mask is just a guy in black shirt and pants...so we brought back the costume he wore when he was 2 (it was big then...a4T) and added the little cloth that made him look like a bona fide quarterback

 Behold!  Max the Ninja

 Princess Kelly

 Everett the boy who didn't want to put on his costume but wanted to pose for pictures

 Neighbors and friends - Ian, Adam, Emma, Reyes, Kelly, Max, Camila Everett

Cross-eyed :)