Peppers

I was listening to Erin play yesterday when all the sudden I hear, "I don't like peppers.  I just like Dr. Peppers."  I started laughing.  She looks up at me and says, "Oh, Mom! Please don't tell everyone that!"  Then she asked me if I would laugh if she said it again.  For the next 5 minutes she kept saying it so I would laugh for her.  She's so fun!

Her favorite food is chili. She would eat chili from a can every meal if I would let her.  Well,  except breakfast.  Strawberry oatmeal is right up there on her list as well.   Anyway, I made some Darn Good Chili from Bear Creek mixes the other day and she hated it.  Now when she requests chili at lunch she adds the stipulation, "Not the soup kind Mom just the can kind."

Christmas

Christmas was really fun this year.  Our kids slept in!  Weird.  Of course, Sara said that she woke up at 2 am when Erin was trying to sneak out the door.  Erin told her, "I really want to go see what Santa brought me."  Sara talked her into staying in bed with her for a while.....thanks Sara!  We finally woke up at 7:30 (seriously a normal day record!) when Dillon texted us from Florida to say Merry Christmas.  We sat at the top of the steps and sang Christmas songs until Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Debbie came up.  Only then were the kids allowed to go in the livingroom....

Levi ran straight to the soda cans and shook one.  He looked up with disbelief and said, "He drank it all!"  He tried to run into the kitchen to get a new one but we told him it was okay.  His favorite present of the morning was his Crunch and Munch.  He seriously opened it and then went and sat on the couch with Bucky for 10 minutes while eating it before he continued with his other presents.   He got a train and track plus a few other little goodies.  He thought it was great.  I think he probably likes singing Christmas songs and stealing candy canes the most though.

Erin was so excited about Santa this year.  She got a fishing game (yes, instead of a fishing pole).  As she opened it she looked at me and whispered, "Wow!"  I guess that was a hit.  I loved it.  She also loved her other presents.  Bucky's favorite part of the morning was when she opened her slippers and I opened mine and they were the same.  She thought that was awesome!  The only thing she was semi disappointed about was that Santa did not bring her a kite.  He did leave her a note promising that her mom would take her to get one in the spring.  It worked.

Meagan got exciting items like formula, baby puffs, wipes, etc...  She just liked eating the wrapping paper anyways! 

Bucky got an exciting Christmas.  He got shoes.  Dress shoes and regular shoes.  I couldn't handle the glued and duck taped basketball shoes anymore.  He also got his normal hot tamales and other goodies he loves.  Oh and the kids gave him Fablehaven so that his wife could read it. His wife sure loves him!

I got absolutely spoiled this year.  I got a necklace, blowdryer, makeup, slippers, Baldacci's new book, chocolate, and a garage door opener.  I was very excited about the door opener cuz now I won't have to park out in the snow.  Yippee! 

The best part of Christmas was spending it with my family and seeing the joy and excitement of my children.  I love that the best!  Their smiles are worth any stress the holidays bring.

Christmas night we went up to Temple Square to congratulate Sara on getting engaged.  (Welcome to the family Stetson.  Its too late to run now!)  Her ring is gorgeous and she is so happy. 

Following are some of my favorite Christmas pictures!

Santa drank them all!

Levi opening his fave Crunch & Munch!

I'm so excited!

Putting on the slippers.

Look we match!

"The game I always wanted!"

Like father like son? 

Wait...another rattle?

Levi opening his train track.

Awesome slippers.  He loves the pajamas more though!

I'm getting in to this wrapping paper stuff.  Nice hair.

Levi's suckers from his stocking.  Ready to marathon eat?

Sara.  Need I say more!

Meagan's cute Christmas outfit.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had a party with Grandma and Grandpa Debbie, Aunt Sara, Stetson (Sara's boyfriend-now fiance) and his family, and us.  Before the Bates arrived we had a treasure hunt.  The prize at the end was pajamas to wear Christmas night. 

We had dinner, read the story, sang some songs and did the normal Christmas Evey type things.  Sandy Bates brought some Crackers that had wind up penguins in them and we had penguin races.  It was actually quite humorous.  We set out Pepsi and a peanut butter bar for Santa and then the kids went to bed. (Kind of).  The adults sat around and talked for a while and then we did the normal things parents do on Christmas Eve.  I think the evening went well and all my massive amounts of work paid off.  I'm just glad my mom was around to help me keep up with things like the dishes!  Thanks Mom!  

Running Out

We went to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Condor last Friday.  On the drive home Erin suddenly needed to go potty.  I saw a 7-Eleven just then so I told Bucky to go their.  Erin says very excitedly, "Good job Mom!"  After we finished the deed and were on the road again Erin sighs dramatically and says, "I'm just running out of poop."

How's that for potty humor?

Look at the bum!

I was changing Levi's diaper the other day and he rolled away.  I told him to get back here right now.  He laughs, jumps up, and wiggles his bum.  Then he says, "Mama, look at that cute bum!"

Snowman Time Again

It snowed and rained and snowed and rained all week last week.  One morning Bucky got up at 5:30 am and went out and shoveled for 3 hours.  Of course, as soon as Erin and Levi were up they were out there in their snowsuits having a grand old time.  Maegan and I sat inside and drank hot cocoa and thought they were insane.  Bucky would shovel and pull them on their sled at the same time.  They thought it was the most awesome thing ever.  I wish I would have taken a picture!  That evening we still had around a foot of snow so it was time for the annual snowman and picture.  It was a magnificent snowman this year.  Too bad it was melted by rain before morning!

Frosty the Snowman......

Cousin Time

In Bucky's family we had 3 babies in 1 month.  Maegan was the oldest followed 9 days later by Hunter and then 2 weeks after that by Karlina.  Karlina was born in Germany.  They came to visit over Thanksgiving and I got these adorable pictures. 

In the following notice the toys....



Meagan has ball while Karlina eats monkey.



Watch the motion...

Now Maegan eats monkey while Karlina plays with the ball.

5 Generation Picture!

Great-Great Grandma Marie Gray Richins Littleford, Great Grandma RaNae Richins Holmstead, Grandpa Kirk Holmstead, Dad Bucky Holmstead, Erin Jansyn Holmstead, Levi James Holmstead, and Maegan RaNae Holmstead.

McDonalds

I absolutely hate eating at McDonalds.  My children love it.  Well, at least they love the playland.  Every once in a while I'll say, "Fine we can go to McDonald's.  I don't care."  The other day we were out and about and decided to eat out.  Bucky and I were discussing our options and Erin says, "McDonalds!"  Then she paused and said dramatically, "I don't care!"  She's learning how to use reverse psychology cuz we use it on our children so often!  Its become one of those family jokes.  Today we drove passed the McDonald's and Levi yelled, "McDonalds!  Me care!!!"

Christmas Party for the Richins

I forgot to mention that on Saturday we attended the Richins family Christmas party.  It is for Bucky's great grandma Marie Richins Littleford.  She is the sweetest coolest old lady ever.  We take her dinner every Thursday night.  She's alwaysmaking us laugh.  Like the time Bucky was taking the baby from her and she said, "Now don't be getting frisky!"  Embarrassed him to death!  Of course, his aunts and uncles were all sitting there to so now it is a family joke.  Anyway, we have been trying to get a 5 generation picture since Meagan was born and we finally succeeded.  (Will post later!)  The only problem was I got the 5 generations but then the camera died so I didn't get a picture with Meagan sitting on her first Santa Claus.  She loved the \beard! 

They decorated Christmas cookies and both Erin and Levi managed to get covered in frosting.  They had a blast though.  Santa brought them a guitar and a mic (complete with amplifier).  He forgot the batteries.  Oops (Bad mama!)

We did a white elephant and Bucky and I took this ancient typewriter we've been packing around for eons.  They did the tell the story and pass everything to the right or left.  It was hilarious to watch everyone passing this heavy big package around.  It was the first one opened and everyone had a good laugh.  I think it was the hit of the evening. 

Another Christmas party survived!

Questionable Stuff.....

Levi is having one heck of a day today.  So far he has slid down the stairs in a box, tipped over the Christmas tree, snuck tons of treats, broken Christmas decos, beat up his sister, flung mac
& cheese over a clean kitchen, spilled his sippy cup, taken a nap, and then he woke up and did the piece de resistance....he went outside to play with Blake and came back in with his shoes caked with shall we say questionable stuff that comes from chickens and dogs.  He ran all over the house with it.  I have spent the last hour cleaning it up and feel as though I need another shower.  What's next?  Did I mention that its still 3.5 hours until bedtime?

Neighbor Boys

Our new house has 2 little neighbor boys who are 2 years old.  In fact, Blake is only a couple of weeks younger than Levi.  He has already taken to coming over to play.  The only thing is he forgets to tell his mom and he forgets to knock on the door first.  Its all good except I'm getting a little tired of running next door to tell Amanda where he is!  The other day Levi got mad at me and told me, "I'm going to run away to Blake's."  He got his shoes and coat on and did it!  I laughed so hard!

Wolf Tongues

Bucky took Erin and Levi to the dollar theater to watch Alpha and Omega on Saturday.  He asked Erin what wolves do with their tongues and she told him, "They keep them in their mouths most of the time."   Made sense to me!

Grandpa's Truck

Grandpa Gerry hit a couple of cows and totalled his truck.  He found a new one up here in PG so he called us to go look at it.  The guy selling it was named Josh.  We had to call him when we got to the townhomes and Erin wanted to know if we were going to Grandma Michelle's.  We said no and asked why she thought we were and she replied, "Well then why are you calling Josh?"  (Josh is Grandma Michelle's husband for those who don't know.) 

The truck passed our inspection so Grandpa came up to get it and stayed with us for a day.  I had to take Erin to school and asked Levi on the way home if he thought Grandpa might want a Pepsi.  He yells, "No Grandpa drinks Coke!" 

Erin wanted to know why Grandpa had to get a new truck and so we told her that he was in an accident like Daddy.  She gets that look in her eyes and say, "Oh!  So he was wearing his seatbelt and is okay but he needs a new car just like we do, right?"

Long Time No Post

Well it has been quite some time since my last post of the funnies.  We just barely got Internet here at our new abode.  We finally got through all the horrendous experience of buying this house.  We only had to live at the hotel for 5 days!  About day 2 Erin told me that she just wanted to go home but that we didn't have a home to go to.  It about broke my heart.  It was quite the experience living without enough clothes and no entertainment for the youngsters.  We all survived. 

We got the key on Wednesday night and started carting everything in even though we both had the flu.  A bunch of neighbors showed up to help and we were so grateful!  The next day was Thanksgiving and we didn't get much done.   We were to busy playing at Grandma RaNae's and enjoying the holiday. 

The weeks following that have been filled with settling in and cleaning.  The whole house was disguisting!  I seriously scrubbed the kitched floor for 4 hours and went through 2 scrubbing brushes.  The grout is light gray and looked black.  Yummy.  For the most part we are now in.  We still have to do the garage and similar things but at least our kids feel at home now.   We even got our pantry set up!

 I love this house and I think it was probably worth the aggravation we went through.  Bucky and I decided that we just were going to pretend November didn't exist this year.  Oh and we also decided that we are not moving again for a very very very long time.  Like decades.  (Stop laughing ya'll!)

No More Teasing

The other day Erin comes up to Bucky crying because the neighbor kids were teasing her.  He talked to her about how it made her feel and then asked her how she thought Levi feels when she teases him.  She decided that she wasn't going to tease Levi anymore.  A couple of hours later she was teasing Levi and Bucky called her on it and she told him that she was just teasing him for a minute.  A little while later she was teasing him again and when Bucky called her on it she says, "Dad I was just kidding when I told you I wasn't going to tease Levi anymore."

I'm Mad!

Lately Levi has an attitude.  When we get after him he stomps away and then looks at us and furrows his eyebrows and yells "I MAD!" and keeps on stomping.  He also likes to tell us, "No you stop!"  When we get after him. 

Addendum to the Car

BTW I just find it ironic that the vehicle in question has pretty much sat for the most part unused in our driveway for 2 years.  In fact, we have borrowed it to family to drive more than we have actually driven it ourselves.  The crazy part is that this happens when we are actually going to need it.  Bucky is going to have to start driving to work daily when we move this weekend.  I am not being stuck without a vehicle all day.  Plus I have to take my kids places like preschool and doctor appointments not to mention the all important Pepsi runs! 

Another lovely thing about the timing.  We just got it registered in September.  I spent 2 hours cleaning it on Saturday.  We filled it up on gas and checked and filled the fluids.  We did all these last things because we were supposed to borrow it to Bucky's brother today for like 3 weeks.  Good timing! 

The Demise of Our Car

Bucky got sideswiped by a 17 year old girl who got distracted by her dog last night.  Our poor little Suzuki, fully paid off with under 50,000 miles on it is no more.   Hopefully the insurance will pay us more than we are thinking currently.  The most important thing is that Bucky is okay and has no injuries.  He's not even complaining about whiplash even though being hit by a Dodge Ram truck spun our little tin can around! 

Halloween

Halloween was an adventure this year like always.  We started out with Erin as Snow White and used black hairspray that got everywhere.  After that she decided she wanted to be a bee because she could be the Queen Bee since being queen was better than being a princess.  Good times.  Levi was a dragon/dinosaur and went around flexing and roaring at everyone.  Meagan took turns.  First she was a soccer player (thanks Jason) and then she was a cow and then she was a pumpkin.

We did a lot of fun things.  It started on Thursday with Erin's preschool party.  Then Friday we went to the Lehi Carnival at the Legacy Center.  It was crazy with people!  Erin lost her bee wings but that just made her costume easier.  We made a lot more in gifts certificates than we made to go in so I guess that made it all worth it.  Saturday morning we did the Macey's grocery store trick-or-treat.  Some guy told Erin "Hi Bee."  She glared at him and said, "I'm not a bee, I'm Erin!"  After that we did the whole family rounds.  Then I sent Bucky out with the kids in the pouring rain to trick-or-treat while Meagan and I stayed home nice and dry.  I gave Meag her first sucker and she wasn't about to let that thing go once she tasted it. 

Our little Snow White.  Her hair really did look more black than this.

Soccer player - for Mexico?

"I'm the queen bee."

"Oh wait you are a scary dragon!"

"Hmmm....what to do?"

I win!

Meagan and Great Grandma Littleford

Meagan enjoying her sucker.

Our little "Pumpkin Muffin" as Erin has called her since she was born.

Personally I think Erin should have stayed Snow White because of the whole princess and dragon and knight in shining armour thing.  Of course, then Bucky would have had to dress up like the knight and I would have enjoyed that too much!