Just a Quick Update...

I haven't given up on blogging completely, but I'll tell you what, December has kicked my hiney (sp?). If I never go to Walmart again, it will be too soon. I love all of the fun that the holidays bring, especially Christmas, but I must admit, as soon as the evening of the 25th rolls around, I'm ready to be done with all things merry. Much to Jeremy's dismay, I had him taking down all of the lights on the house along with the Christmas tree early Saturday morning. I like to start Christmas early, (the day after Thanksgiving normally, but I was especially anxious this year and was pressured by my kids to start a week earlier), but I also like to end it when it's over.

We managed to fit in everything we had planned, minus a vist to the temple lights (but I got to go with the young women). We started out December with a trip to Idaho to welcome Jeremy's parents home from their mission in Hawaii (I think I would've asked for an extension if I were them rather than coming home to freezing Boise in December). It was great to see everyone on the Wright side of the family and meet 2 new babies, Melody and Grayson.

The next weekend we had my favorite cousin, Kristen and her family, come stay with us to go to our Hamblin Christmas party. Their visit was MUCH too short. We loved having them, and our kids had a ball with their 4 cute little ones.

Jeremy made a hunting trip to New Mexico with Travis and Lance and his boys. They stayed with Jay and I'm surprised Jeremy ever came home. If I were half the woman Kimberly is and could handle life on the range, he'd move us in a heartbeat.

The next couple of weeks were pure chaos, without one day on the calendar that wasn't full to the brim with errands, deliveries, and festivites. Exhausting, but so fun. We had a great FHE at Lori and Nelson's house the Monday before Chrismtas and were able to put together a package for Justin, whose serving in Denver, Colorado. Then we visited a nursing home and the kids put on the nativity and we sang Christmas carols. We hadn't rehearsed at all, and Jeremy was making up his own words to most of the carols. We'll do better next year. We even got to have a snowball fight at Dusty and Sally's house. He went and got "snow" from an ice-skating rink and brought it to their front yard. So fun. We visited the train park in Scottsdale, which, even though it is always a long wait in the cold if you go the week of Christmas, it's worth it. Crew was in heaven. He's in the "train-obsessed" stage that all of our boys have gone through.

We had our traditional chinese dinner at Shangri-la on Christmas Eve (even though Lori and Nelson's family ditched us and went to Rocky Pointe-they started this tradition) with Julie and Roger's family, Troy and Leigh and my parents. Then we went to see Christmas lights and got home early so the elf could come drop off the kids' jammies and then off to bed. Christmas morning was great. The kids slept till almost 8--a Christmas miracle! We had my parents, Dust and Sal and Leisel and Christian over for a delicious brunch. The rest of the day was spent at home napping, playing, and eating. We didn't get out of our PJs till about 5pm. Riggs wanted to try out his new bike, so we went on a ride then. Within 24 hours, the training wheels were off, and he now says he's ready for Kindergarten!

Riggs and Jackson were very proud when they finished their giant puzzle.

Such good food. I didn't want to stop eating all day, so I never did.

Crew calls anyting with Lightning McQueen a "mmmmm, mmmmm". He didn't want to get off Riggs' new bike for quite awhile.

Waiting patiently for the train ride.

First great grand child, Graham. He's such a doll.

The cutest little nativity kids ever.

All the cousins singing for Santa to come at the Hamblin party.

I've been bundling the boys up when I go jogging lately. You can see how thrilled Riggs is about the whole process.

I guess this wasn't just "a quick update" after all. Oh well.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween 09

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I don't know if it's because it's finally cool enough to be outside or if it's because it's the start of the holiday season or what exactly, but I love it. Actually what I think it is is that my kids love it. They love every detail of it. They love the decorations (not that I do much), but as soon as anyone starts to get any holiday stuff in front of their doors, my kids are on me about doing ours. They love picking out costumes. They love making treats for neighbors. They love picking out their pumpkins and decorating them. They mostly love the get-together and trick-or-treating on Halloween night with all of their cousins. In fact, we were going to go to a Halloween party going on at the park by our house for an hour or so before the family party this year, and our kids were actually begging us to skip that party so they could get to the cousins sooner.

Riggs had been to this pumkin patch before with his pre-school and was so excited to show us all around. He especially loved the maze and since it was so dark when we were there, he told us he peed in the maze since no one could see him. (lovely)

Riggs pre-school put on a little performance of Halloween songs for the parents. I love his teachers and he has such good friends in his class.

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of my 3 boys. What I love about it is that you can see EXCITEMENT written all of their faces. Let the candy start rolling in!

Basketball

Jackson finished up basketball and is onto baseball for now. He was one of the youngest ones on the team, but didn't seem to mind. I never got any decent pictures of him, and I was feeling very guilty about this, but then I remembered what I went through each game just trying to keep Crew off the court, and I don't feel so guilty any more. Sorry Jacks!

He improved so much this season, and to say Jeremy was a proud papa would be the understatement of the year. He's pretty much beaming when he watches any of his boys play sports. I think he'll have plenty of that over the next 15 years or so... :)

Newport Beach

A few weeks ago, we rented a house with 4 other families (all guys who did the MBA program with Jeremy). I think there were 12 kids, all under age 6. The beach was so nice, even though I hardly got in the water. I like it to be at least 90 degrees outside when I swim. It was in the low 80's most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop the kids from playing in the water for hours on end. They got pretty fried, but never complained.

The last night we were there, Riggs was begging to ride the Ferris Wheel. So we did--and I got sick. The things you do for your kids...

The kids had this volleyball that they threw out into the ocean over and over to watch the waves bring it back up. This is what they did for like 90% of the time we were there.

There was a little park right on the beach that we went to one day. Crew especially enjoyed this.

This is one of my favorite pictures of these 2. Jackson is so sweet to Crew.

Can you tell that putting their arms around each other was not their idea?

POPSICLES!

We walked out to the end of the pier one night and got shakes at Ruby's Everyone loved it--that is--everyone except for Crew. Look at that face!

What the?

Rosy Cheeks

I told them to put their heads down by Crew for the picture. Love it.

We rented this "bike" one morning and rode around for an hour. We even took it on the little Ferry over to Balboa Island. Jeremy and I were both too tall for it.