Santa Claus is Coming to Grandma's

We got together for dinner at Derrick's mom's house a little before Christmas. After dinner, we had a fun visitor. Santa Claus came to grandma's house.

Santa sat down and had all the kids sit down across from him. He held up a black leather book and asked, "Who can tell me what this is?" Scotty yelled out, "Scriptures!" Great guess (and I was very proud), but it happened to be Santa's "Naughty and Nice" book.

Santa talked to the kids for awhile and asked some questions about how nice the kids had been this year. Scotty sat very quietly. I'm sure he wanted to look as "nice" as possible so that maybe Santa would believe him when he claimed that he had been a nice boy. (Oh, and don't be jealous of Scotty's Transformer rain boots.............they're freakin awesome!)

One by one, each kid got to go sit on Santa's lap and Santa gave them a present. Scotty had told me earlier that he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap but he would stand next to him. I guess when Santa was really there in front of him, he changed his mind.

Santa even had something for Korbin!

After Santa left, the kids decorated some gingerbread cookies that I had made. The boys also had a Nerf gun war. They had each received a little mini Nerf gun in their gift bag. Korbin got a stuffed reindeer in his bag and loved sucking/chewing on whichever part he could get into his mouth. Thanks Santa ( and Nolan, Missy for setting it up and Grandma for, well, you know what part!) The kids LOVED it!

Big Oopsie and Thanksgiving '09

A lot has happened since I last really blogged about anything BUT I accidentally erased all of the pictures off of my camera. Scotty's birthday........Gone. Cute pictures of Korbin as he's growing......Gone. Pictures of Thanksgiving......Gone. Luckily I was able to "borrow" some Thanksgiving pictures from Derrick's sister Brianne's blog.

First, for journaling purposes, I'll write a little about Scotty's birthday. I got an idea from somewhere in blog land to decorate Scotty's door for his birthday. While he was sleeping I put up "Happy Birthday Scotty" posters, twisted streamers, and balloons. He was so excited to see that when he woke up in the morning. Then his Grandma Palmer came and took him to breakfast and shopping for birthday toys. She sure spoiled him with a cool Clone Trooper hat/mask thing and other cool toys. Later that evening, we had a quiet little family party. We went to eat at Barros Pizza (Scotty's favorite), came home and unwrapped presents, and ate Star Wars cake and cupcakes. Scotty got Star Wars figurines, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Iron Man Mega Blocks, a Hot Wheels Race Track, Bat Man shirt, and a few other small random things that I can't remember now.

Scotty had been to his cousin Rigley's birthday party right before Halloween and right after his birthday we drove by the park and someone was having a birthday party with one of those big blow up jumpy things. Scotty started to realize that maybe he had been ripped off a little in the birthday dept. So, he kept telling anyone who would listen that at his next birthday he was going to have a party at the park with a jumpy thing. He talked to his Grandma Palmer about it and she decided to let him pick one out for her to rent for Thanksgiving.

We went to Willcox for an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night. My dad had an elk hunt that was starting Friday and wanted to get up to Alpine to get ready for that. We enjoyed that dinner with my parents and my sister Jodi's family. We drove back home that same night and then went to Thanksgiving with Derrick's family on Thanksgiving day. The Spiderman Jumpy thing was up and ready. The kids jumped all day and had so much fun. The adults enjoyed food and conversation.

Scotty and Adilyn in the jump house

Rigley, Adilyn, Scotty, and Palmer

Adilyn holding Korbin

The kids "eating." Not much eating was done before heading out to jump some more.

Thanksgiving was very enjoyable and even with two Thanksgiving dinners, I didn't gain any weight this time................can't say the same about Christmas though!

Biggest Loser Blog Style

I know that many people will have "lose weight" on their resolution list for the New Year. Why not do it with competition and motivation??? There is a Biggest Loser Challenge starting soon. Anyone (well, any woman) can join as long as you have a scale to weigh on and Internet access to post your weight every Monday.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION CHALLENGE!
Starting January 4th going for 8 weeks with weekly weigh ins
1st and 2nd place only get the $$ from the pot
$20 to join for the pot or you can play for free (not for the pot)
Weigh ins MUST be every Monday, if you miss more than 1 weigh in, you're out!
No diet pills or surgeries...haha...but for real, keep it honest weight loss
To join, just send my friend Kristal an e mail and she'll add you to the list...

you'll have access to the blog so that you can post your info and weight each week
then post your starting weight on Jan. 4th!
chickybumlooka@yahoo.com

Halloween '09

We just ate Turkey and pie but I'm still stuck back at Halloween as far as blogging goes.
We started off the Halloween festivities a couple of days early. Fry's had a big sale and a Halloween event. We went and Scotty got to: decorate a cookie, trick or treat to workers in the store and he participated in a cupcake walk.

On Halloween we went to our ward's "Trunk or Treat." There was food, games and lots of candy. Scotty dressed as Anakin Skywalker. He didn't wear his mask at the church party (I thought masks weren't allowed but I think I was wrong.)

Derrick taught Scotty to "use his Jedi powers." He would wave his hand in front of his face and say, "You WILL give me candy." He said this at one of the "trunks" and the people looked at him funny so he told Derrick, "I don't want to say that anymore."

Here he is with mask (kinda freaky looking!)

After the church party, we went home and headed into the neighborhood to do some trick or treating. Korbin enjoyed the nice fresh air in his Giraffe costume and Scotty had fun getting even more candy.

BOO!!!

Korbin must have been scared one too many times this Halloween night!

October in Willcox with the Hansen Family

Last month my brother Ted came to visit from Germany so the family got together at my parent's house in Willcox. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. But here are a few from some of the activities.

Grandpa had fun taking the kids on rides in the trailer for his ATV.

The kids LOVED the ride!

Jannik, Garret, and Eric had fun talking to Korbin and trying to get him to smile at them.

Mom & Dad, Ted, Andra, & Jannik, and Scotty, Korbin & I went to the Corn Maze at Apple Annie's Produce and Pumpkins.

Scotty and Jannik liked all of the pumpkins.

There were more activities and a lot of food that we enjoyed. I had fun going to Apple Annie's orchard/bakery/gift shop with Mom, Jodi and Laurie. We purchased so many yummy things to eat. Fudge, pies, apple butter, pumpkin butter, cherry butter............delicious!!! Some of us played in a ping pong tournament which I won! The men played horseshoes. We sat and visited. We ate. We ate some more. Laurie and I watched The Proposal (thanks Laurie!) We had some Extreme games of Yahtzee and Phase 10. It was so good to spend time with my family. The two things that would have made it better was if Suzi and her family had been able to come and if Derrick had been able to be there. Hopefully we'll be able to all be there next time!

Bragging Time

Yep, that's right. It's time to brag about my extremely talented sister Suzi. While she was visiting in Willcox in September she took some pictures of my sweet baby Korbin and big boy Scotty. She had to work with some irritating conditions. She didn't have her normal equipment and set up. The weather was terrible and it was constantly overcast so the natural lighting wasn't the greatest. Plus she only had so much time there to visit and had other things planned so she worked around that too. And despite all of these things, she did an amazing job!!

Did I mention that she is extremely talented??? She also made the cute little hat with ears that Korbin is wearing in some of the pictures. There are so many good pictures but here is a little taste.

Korbin's Blessing Day

Korbin was blessed in church the first Sunday in September. Derrick gave a beautiful blessing. We were so pleased to be able to have so many of our family members there. Derrick is NOT a fan of having his picture taken. Especially in large groups of people so I didn't get a picture of everyone together after the blessing. But, thank you to all who were able to attend!

We are so blessed to have Korbin in our family. He is such a good, calm baby (unless he's hungry, tired, or has poo in his diaper.) He is becoming so aware of everything around him and has been handing out a lot of smiles lately. I love the moments when I can just talk to him and listen to him make noises back. I also love just being able to hold and snuggle our little guy!

I'm definitely not a photographer but I had to get some pictures of him on his blessing day.

So serious.

We had everyone over to our house after the blessing for some eating and visiting. I finally talked Derrick into a family picture after our house had cleared out a little bit.