MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We want to wish all our family and friends (and anyone else who happens to stumble on to this site) a MERRY CHRISTMAS & BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR!

We've had a wonderful and memorable year. We'll remember 2007 as a year full of adventure, change, and lots of crazy experiences that go along with raising four kids who have a mixture of Melanie's and Dwight's genes. We've had good health as a family in 2007, and for that we feel truly blessed! We're looking forward to spending a relaxing Christmas season with family and friends. We hope you can do the same. We love all of you!!

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Dwight, Melanie, Mylee, Brooks, Annika & Mia

NEW CHILDCARE SOLUTION--OR HOW TO HANDLE MY HORDING ADDICTED SON?

So everyone LOVED Brooks' new hobby (see previous post), but I am just beside myself. I just don't know what to do...well, DIDN'T know what to do! I found this great new concept for day care. I think it might help with Brooks' hording too? What do you think, should I give it a shot???


Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

No "Snow Days" only "Sun Days" and a November to Remember

Okay, it's finally arrived--A NEW POST!

We have had such a fun and exciting November. I feel like I haven't had an extra moment to spare--it's been chalk full of fun, fun, fun! But believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to December when things have actually calmed down. No, that's not a typo. You read it right--December and calm in the same sentence!

Here are a few of our highlights...hope you enjoy!

During the beginning of the month, I noticed Brooks eyeing everything I threw away in the garbage. If it was anything that could be salvaged and put to better use (ie., the pull tab from the milk carton lid, the cardboard from the toilet paper roll, tags taken off of new clothing, etc.) Brooks would sneak into the garbage as soon as I wasn't looking and take the item(s) and run.
I didn't think much of it at first, until he started doing it CONSTANTLY. Besides the fact that it bugged me, I didn't think anything more of it.

Knowing that we would be hosting Thanksgiving at our home this year and with family staying with us, I decided I should organize the home before the cleaners came. I pulled open one of Brooks' drawers that usually is host to cars, action figures, etc. And to my horrified surprise found what was a new breeding ground for his garbage can HORDING!


Yes, these are pumpkins with mold growing on them. To get the real effect, click on the bottom picture!

Moving right along, soccer is now over. Mylee ended the year as the "most inspirational" and Brooks got the "spirit" award (he loves to give five and hugs...perhaps a bit too much) :) Mylee and Brooks, you did SOO great this year. We are very proud of you!



So I mentioned we had Thanksgiving at our home this year. This was the first time I've had to shop for and help prepare the meal. Wow! I always figured it was a lot of work, but now only do I realize just exactly how much work goes into ONE meal! Though I must say, if I could choose only one meal a year, this would be it!

We were able to have Dwight's parents, his sister Traci, her husband Joel and their kids and my sister Annie and her friend Chuck together with us this year. What a great time we had...food, games, rebus puzzles, food, fun--did I mention food? I hope we have many more Thanksgivings in the future filled with family and friends--okay, and food :)

Mylee played a horse in her first grade play "Tom Turkey". She made the cutest horse I've seen, wouldn't you agree?

While Dwight's side of the family was here, we took advantage of the weather and went to the beach and Disneyland. OH MY! Joel and Dwight decided to purchase what I call the "caveman special". It's a HUGE Turkey leg on the bone that they sell at Disneyland. I always think it is so nasty and repulsive when I see people gnawing at these...You can't miss the pictures!--enjoy :)

One of my favorite things we did was go to a Utah State basketball game! Utah State was here in town playing UC Irvine. I miss Utah State games and even though they got their heinies kicked, we had a great time :) In two weeks we're going to a University of Utah game in San Diego...who says we can't have the best of both worlds living here?!


Mylee was able to see her "VERY best friend in all the world" Savanna. Our friends the Holbrooks came down to visit from Utah and Mylee and Savanna were inseparable! We have kept them away for WAY too long! It was like Christmas for Mylee (she even had an advent calendar until Savanna arrived!). We had sleepovers, went to San Diego, the beach, Disneyland and played, played, played!

We also made a trip upto L.A. to see the L.A. Temples lights and make a visit to the American Girl store. This of course BEFORE realizing Mylee's new American doll is officially LOST! Oh, and for those of you that have always wondered if you can wash your ipod in your jeans and have it survive--IT CAN'T! :( ***UPDATE*** So, it has now been 2 days after the devastating washing of the ipod and believe it or not--IT'S ALIVE! That's right, after a little drying out and a good charging it is now working again! So, the answer now is it CAN! You can wash your ipod in your jeans and have it survive (though this is not a practice I recommend).

So there you have it. Our November in a nutshell. Welcome December!

p.s.
Did I mention, I did ALL my Christmas shopping, wrapping and sent off to Utah in 3DAYS!

December has got to be calmer, doesn't it?...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

SO, I was just wondering if any of you can tell what my latest change is?


This is my friend Kjersten on the right (I'm on the left in case you didn't recognize me). She recently had hers done and it looked just like what I've been wanting to do, but have debating if it was right for me...

I finally got the guts to just do it and here is the finished product. SO, what do you think??? Is this the right color for me?

What? NO! Of course not! I just stuffed "them" with about 5 pairs of socks so our pictures wouldn't look so lopsided. All I did was color my hair--I can't believe you didn't even notice that!

Ha,Ha! So here's the story...
Kjersten really did JUST color her hair, but because of the angle that the picture was taken, it looked like she had done more than just her hair. On her blog, the comments left were not so much about her new hair color (she was blond), but about how much BIGGER she looked (BTW, I really do love your new hair color).

I just couldn't resist, I had to do it! You know I love ya KJ :)
So for real, here are a few before and after pics. Let me know what you think...

Halloween Spooktacular

So I was a bit nervous about trick-or-treating this year. Being in a new neighborhood, we weren't sure how much people around here get into it...uh, yeah--we officially live in Halloween CRAZY TOWN!!!
They spare no expense and go all out! From FULL sized candy bars (how can we compete with that?) to haunted houses (it was seriously SOO scary. From dead corpses to a man being electrocuted. Where do people come up with these things)!

There was even a guy that conjured up a fishing line thing-a-ma-jigger that had the candy bowl attached to it and a bat that flapped as he lifted it up and down from his balcony above.

And best of all...we didn't have to wear snow suits under our costumes! :)

The kids went to a few Halloween parties and a local pumpkin patch. Besides picking their own pumpkins, they also had a hay ride, corn maze, petting zoo and they even got to pick some veggies.



One of the funnest things was going to Disneyland for Mickey's trick-or-treat.
This was great! I think Dwight and I were the only ones not dressed up! EVERYONE there had on a costume and there was fun Halloween music and dancing everywhere. The kids rode some rides, but we spent most of our time gathering more candy than we will EVER be able to eat at all the "treat stations".
We seriously came home and filled TWO big popcorn bowls full of candy. I shouldn't admit this, but we actually used it as the candy that we handed out at the door on Halloween. It was really good stuff, though not full sized candy bars--wah,wah,wah,wahhh. Still, we didn't even get rid of HALF the candy and now we're stuck with 3 HUGE, UNTOUCHED candy bags from Costco and now 4 bowls of candy!

I've been working with a personal trainer here and I think all the progress I've been making (he KICKS my butt) is going down the drain --I've got to get rid of all this candy! ANY SUGGESTIONS???
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Southern California Fires

Okay, I just wanted to thank all of you for your concerns. We have had a lot of our family and friends from Utah calling and emailing to see how we are. Luckily, we are pretty much out of the fires way--besides ash in the air.
Yesterday I went out to our courtyard area on the side of our house. Because it's enclosed, it's usually a great place for the twins to roam and play--NOT TODAY! Everything was covered in ash from all the surrounding fires.

Kids weren't allowed out of the school until a parent picked them up and believe it or not, soccer practices were even cancelled (that's huge here)!
It's kinda weird. Our sky here is still blue, but there is a circle of smoke around us. We have fires on all side of us and even a few miles down the road looks like the middle of an ash storm! If you look at the pics of our area from my previous post and compare it to this one, you can see how awful the air is right now.

My sis Annie lives in San Diego and was evacuated from her house. She's staying with us for now...I guess there's one good thing that came from this :)

Girls Weekend

Some of my friends from Utah (Tiffany, Kristin, Teresa & Lisa) decided to fly down for a "girls' weekend." We didn't really have much planned, we just figured we'd hang out and do a little exploring...
They flew in Friday morning so we figured we'd take advantage of the day and go to Newport Beach. We got to the beach and it was windy and cold--not exactly what they came down for! We wanted to go surfing, but decided due to the inclement weather to go shopping at the cute boutiques near the beach and get lunch at a quaint sandwich shop LSD (inside joke--don't you hate those! Long story, if you want to know, I'll tell ya).
After luch, we decided it would be fun to drive to Hollywood and see the stars on the sidewalk. As we were walking down the street, we noticed a line for the Jimmy Kimmel show. We decided to wait and hope to get in. We were still in our swimming suits so we ran across the street to Gap and American Eagle. In 20 minutes we were looking pretty good! But we ended up getting turned away.
This is where the fun began! We were asked if we wanted to be on a segment of the Jimmy Kimmel show. Originally we said no, but then we found out we might "possibly" be able to meet someone from the band MATCHBOX TWENTY! We were SO in!
Somehow, I was the one that got interviewed on the segment "guess the toppings." Long story short--when they were filming, they showed me a pic of Brittney Spears' backside to get my reaction, and I said to the guy interviewing me, "That's totally porn dude." Everyone laughed, but I got edited out from the show! But that's okay, because I was standing right next to not one but THE ENTIRE MATCHBOX TWENTY BAND!

I actually chatted a little with them and Rob Thomas asked if we were coming to their concert. When I told him we were turned away earlier when we had tried to get tickets, he turned to his "people" and told them to get us in the concert!
This is Rob "getting us in." We got to walk through the back way and even got yelled at by a security guard after they left because she thought we snuck in! She seemed put out when she found out HOW we got in (she continued to keep an eye on us the rest of the night). In the second song, Rob Thomas looked over at us and gave us the "okay" sign.
HELLOOO-heartbreaker!

Saturday, we drove to Pacific Coast (San Diego near the Mexico boarder) and went SKYDIVING! This was Tiff's idea, but we followed her along like lost little puppies! Can you say AWESOME!! Well, that's all we could say--"That was so AWESOME!" was repeated at least 400 times that day! It was so amazing and something I will be doing again!!!

(FYI: there have only been 18 tandem jump deaths WORLDWIDE in the last 28 YEARS! Chances of dying in a car crash are probably thousands of x's greater--so next time you get into your car, think twice; it may be safer if you skydive to your destination. :)

Okay, so after that we drove to Pacific Beach and went SURFING! The waves were pretty big and lot's of them, but I think we all managed to get up atleast a few times. I think I even saw Kristin attempt to get up on her BOOGIE BOARD -ha, sucker! Told you to get a SURFBOARD! Luckily, she was able to trade for one when she realized the limitations of the boogie board :)

We must have worked up quite an apetite, because we all managed to eat $50.00 worth of food at Joe's Crab Shack (each). We literally had people in the restaurant staring at us. Lisa even said to one of the people staring "We haven't eaten in days OKAY!" It had actually only been a few hours :)

Our last day, we drove to Beverly Hills and Brentwood to look at all the stars' homes - can you even call them homes? - MONSTROSITIES! We got "caught" by Johnny Depp's guard (we just wanted a picture). He called us BOLD and DEMENTED (okay fine, he called ME demented-WHAT?). I think he was just lonely and wanted friends :)On our way to the airport, we got a flat tire. I called for a tow truck, but Tiff insisted that we could fix it on our own (I told the guy I'd call him back in 5 minutes). BUT, believe it or not we had the tire changed in 10 MINUTES! Is there anything we CAN'T do???

Good times, good times!
Until next time...

LIFE IN CALIFORNIA

We are finally settled here in California and lovin'it! We have been exploring California and getting to know the area. We have been to 5 beaches (we live 6 miles from the ocean) and we've even been to San Diego for the weekend. We especially like going to the beach for family night and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

We live about 20 minutes from Disneyland, but we haven't been yet. We're planning on going next week. More on that later...

The kids are loving our neighborhood! We live one block from a water park, skate park, pool, tennis courts, rock climbing wall, park, Mylee's elementary and Brooks' preschool. All are part of the community we live in. We pretty much walk everywhere we go!

We have tons of great shopping, spas, restaurants, a farmers market and a maggie moos (we visit it at least once a day!) in our local mercantile. We also have great neighbors. There are at least 5 families in our ward that live on the same block as us and TONS of kids.

We are really enjoying the life here, but missing all of you :(
Hope this gets you excited to come visit :)