Category: Family Fun

We went over to Jake & Leann’s (Leann=my cousin) for a little pizza and Wii action the other night. We enjoyed spending time with them.

Charlotte & 2nd Cousin Jessica had an especially good time together! Jessica is about to turn eight. Her dad, who was recently baptized, will perform her baptism and they will also go to the temple to be sealed together as an eternal family. How amazing is that!

Jake & Leann are a little TOO good at the Wii games; we assume they must practice all day, every day.  P.S. I am absolutely awful at Mario Kart, but I killed them all in the Frisbee toss game. Go figure.

                                                  

Pace volunteered to teach us the proper form for golf. Check out that rear end!!!

I love Charlotte’s huge blue eyes in the above photo. We look nothing alike!

I’m a little late in posting this… but Rachel & Nathan came for Rachel’s friend’s wedding a couple weeks ago. It was great to have an excuse to see them! We had a great time hanging out. And they babysat for us, too! THEY should live closer.

They also got Charlotte a late birthday present: A Pillow Pet. Those things are quite large, btw. They swapped the ladybug one out for a unicorn one since Charlotte liked the latter better. They also got Chase a dolphin one. Thanks, I guess (haha)!

Darin & Nada also stopped by, with their little ones Luke and Natalie. They are SO brave; they’ve driven across the entire country with their kids twice (or 3 times??). I don’t know HOW they do it!

It was fun to have Brad & Tiffany & co. over as well as GG & Grandaddy, so we could all hang out, eat, and play some good ol’ “Euchre”!

                                     

Can anyone please tell me how to get used to my house looking like this all the time (see photo below)? I know that being a mom means lots of messes, but I am a bit of a perfectionist in some things, and just can’t seem to let the house look like this for long… Advice from anyone, especially other perfectionists??

But at the same time, Chase & Charlotte are adorable and keep us laughing. We love these two!!

                                             

It was warmer there. No snow.

What a beautiful plot of land my parents have. And they have lots of trees! We had the privilege of learning how to harvest the olives, out in the rain. You put a net under an olive tree, comb the branches with little hand rakes, olives fall down into the net, carefully empty net into a bucket. So cool! Then Pace, Chase, & Casey took the goods to the olive press to be made into oil. You could say that this year we earned our Terribilini EVOO. And learned something new!

Sumptuous feast below whipped up by my mother, with a little bit of assistance by the rest of us (including the men, who could have been slumped on the couch, watching football! Winners, in my book!!). A neighbor came and joined in on the feast as well. I’ve always been impressed by my parents noticing someone (or a few) who might be lonely on Thanksgiving and inviting them to join us for dinner.

Pretty ladies! (My sister Rachel and our Grandma T.)

Lots of sitting around, eating, and hanging out – gotta love it!

(Perhaps my Mom, Jess & I got up at 3:30 a.m. Black Friday and joined in the madness at Target and a few other places. Perhaps we scored some sweet deals and decided that it was just a little too crazy.)

Annnnnd the Jelly Belly Factory tour! Some of us went and saw how the machines work. It’s the same as I remember from back in 1st grade when we went there on a field trip. Of course, Chase was in heaven! It was almost as much fun for him as playing with his California friends, Michael & Ben (which he was able to do twice).

I had to include these two “amazing” Jelly Belly photos for posterity…

We enjoy looking into the sunlight.

A few of us also tried to go to Mrs. Grossman’s sticker factory, but it was closed, so we went through Petaluma and stumbled upon a See’s Discount store! Sweet– Literally!! My mom got the jackpot (her favorite, limited-time only, dark chocolate truffles). Then we stopped and got some donkey food for Pepper at the stinky large animal store. Chase liked that. And we got to have our teeth cleaned at Grandpa’s office. No cavities!

Mom showed me how to make her divine cinnamon rolls, and Rachel taught me how to curl my hair. I will have to do it again sometime soon, when I want to spend an hour doing my hair….

Thanks so much, fam and especially my parents!

I feel so glad that I finally cleaned up our “office room” closet. My friend Sarah, who is super organized, keeps everything in these nice, uniform bins. Her organization inspired me a little and I bought 3 bins at Wal-Mart. 🙂 I know, getting a little crazy, huh!!

I did some organizing during Charlotte’s nap. She usually only naps for one hour, and I used to feel so unproductive during that hour because I’d have to nap at the same time (due to my getting up with her during the night). Nowadays, she sometimes sleeps through the WHOLE night (I know, pretty awesome for a child who’s about to turn two. Ha!)… Or if she does wake up she only wakes once or twice. So I don’t have to take a nap very often, which is a relief because it’s a time when I can do things on my own. I’m SOOOO glad she sometimes sleeps through the night! Anyway…

It was time to get some things under control. The box below may not look organized, but oh, it is. I now have just this one box for all the kid craft items, so when they want to do anything artsy, we get out this box, and we make a big, creative mess of it all. (Thanks to my mom, it includes a fun assortment of Mrs. Grossman’s stickers that my kids love to use!)

A second box holds all our our paper, coloring books, and workbooks. It’s nice to have all of that in one place—it’s all so much easier to find!

Charlotte loves coloring, especially if I color with her. She constantly requests that I write a letter “A” on her paper. Maybe she wants to feel like a stellar student?? I’m glad she likes to color because then Chase will also color. He’s never been into coloring AT ALL. But when that’s what’s going on, he can’t help but join in the fun, if only for a minute or two. But he does enjoy doing a few pages in his workbooks, so there’s something for everyone in here.

I like seeing all the creations kids come up with on their own. Nothing super spectacular– Just cute! I especially love the little caterpillar family that Chase made (below).

                                 

I just realized that I didn’t take any pictures last week, as far as I know. I just didn’t even think of it. So this week, I will work on catching a few photos! In the mean time, here are a couple of random photos from a couple weeks ago.

Sometimes we have to force these two kids to eat some dinner! And this is what it tends to look like. By the time I’ve accomplished the task of making dinner while also refereeing Chase & Charlotte’s play, I’m pooped. Luckily, Pace eats really quickly, so he then takes over the task of getting them to eat something while I chuckle at the sight of it all.

What does a person do? Maybe I should have them skip their afternoon snack so they’ll be practically starving by dinner time. THEN maybe they’d appreciate it!!!

One might think, “Well, obviously they’re just not hungry, so don’t make them eat.” But we usually start on the bedtime routine afterwards, and if they haven’t eaten much, they both cry and put on this big show about how hungry they are. And if they don’t eat anything by the time they go to bed, they wake up all night crying and asking for food (=punishment for the parents). Hm.

So that’s why we avoid all that drama and just force them to eat some dinner at dinner time! I know, perfect parenting skills at work around here…