Thanksgiving Fun!

We had a wonderful time surrounded by family this Thanksgiving. Dennis & Zoetta, Nate & Andrea (and kids), and J'nett & Chris (and baby Jacob) all joined us for the feast! The guys played Ward Turkey Bowl (yes, that's football) and the girls hung out at home with the kids. We enjoyed a large turkey and all the fixings.

The Paxman's came on Sunday and were able to stay all week. The Miller's came on Wednesday night. We had fun playing games, watching the kids swim in the bathtub (the pool was just a bit too cold), and eating at a few restaurants. We also did lots of shopping for Christmas. The "girls" got pedicures at a local nail salon and on Friday night we went to Mesa for the temple lighting ceremony.

On Saturday, Bob was asked to be in the new Bishopric as the 2nd counselor. Not sure what the Lord was thinking calling the husband of the ward organist to the bishopric, but we've had many ward members offer to watch the kids while we are on the stand.

Dad was able find a flight so he could stay a couple days longer to set Bob apart as a High Priest. We were grateful that he could be there for that.

We had a great time, pulled hamstrings and all, but we were sad to see it end! The good thing is that Christmas is just around the corner and we'll all be together again soon with even more family to party with!

Our fun activity for the day

We discovered this fun website. You might like it too! If you search DANYA PAXMAN, you will see the 520+ snowflakes that we made yesterday (ummm.... it was for a contest....we do not normally spend 2 hours making digital snowflakes). It's fun though! Enjoy!

A yucky night to remember

Well, you'll be glad that I don't have any pictures of this experience. At 1:30am Cason was crying in his bed, so I went to see what was up. I walked in and could smell something bad. I thought it was a very yucky diaper, but when I flipped on the light I realized that he was sitting in his own vomit. (yes, isn't that just lovely - yuck)! I stripped him down and went to take him to my bath and as I walked out of his room I could hear Channing crying in the bathroom. He was throwing up too! So then Bob had to get up because this was too much for just one person to handle. They each threw up repeatedly for about 30 minutes and then Channing was fine. Cason continued on and off throughout the night.

So if you ever see our lights on at 1:30 am, you can imagine all the fun we're having at our house! Bob will probably be mopping up a mess in the bathroom and I'll be giving baths and running laundry. Way fun huh?

On a good note...this seems to be the fastest flu in the world. Both kids are totally better today (although the parents are VERY TIRED)! We're waiting for it to hit us and Cameron. Excuse me while I go detox my house now! LOL!

Lantern Walk at School

Well, we had an interesting night on Friday. Channing's school does a Lantern Walk every November where they celebrate the Festival of St. Martin. It honors the light we have within each of us, as well as how to keep it alight through times of darkness and cold. (Hmmmm...this sounds familiar in a Light of Christ sort of way)!

So Channing and Cameron each made a paper lantern and we went to the school on Friday night and had some yummy snacks. Then the teacher told a short story about a little girl who's parents died and all she had left was a golden lantern. (Hence the "lantern walk"). The little girl visited the sun because her light was growing dim, but the sun said, "look at your lantern, it is already growing brighter because the light is within yourself." A nice message for little kids I think.

We then proceeded to follow a path of about 300 luminaries through the garden and around the pond all while singing a "lantern walk song" and holding our lanterns (yes, they had real tealights with FIRE - can you imagine a public school doing this - heck no)! The kids were totally mesmerized. We lost Channing for the whole walk (Cameron's light went out and we had to go get it relit - I think he blew it out - he loves to blow out candles)! Channing went to the car at the end of the walk and we had no clue where he was for like 5 minutes. Silly Boy! Eventually we figured it out and he was already walking back to find us with another mom that we know.

So that was an interesting experience. Here's a picture of the boys back at home with their lanterns.

Halloween 2007 starts with a shocker!

Cameron came upstairs on Halloween morning with a new surprise for us! He decided that he would try his hand at being a barber! Apparently he's not too talented in this area yet. I guess he tried to cut his hair while the babysitter was here, but we didn't see the damage until the morning. Oh well....it will grow back (but 4 year old pictures will have to wait a month or so)!






We carved pumpkins (frantically on Halloween Day - we were running out of time)! The kids tried to help scrape out all the seeds. Cason just kept throwing the spoon in the pumpkin. (he really wasn't much help)! LOL!

Well, Trick or treating was lots of fun with the boys. Channing was Harry Potter (wearing Quidditch robes), Cameron was Diego (Dora's cousin), and Cason was a tiger. They were all pretty darn cute going from door to door.