Christmas Day

Christmas was so fun this year. I was so excited for the kids to get their presents I hardly slept the night before. I really think I was only half asleep when I did sleep and I started worrying that we hadn't really told Sydney to come wake us up first when she got up. I hoped she would not go in the living room and just start opening things. It turned out she got up around 7:45-ish and climbed into bed with us. I asked her if Santa brought her anything. She sat up and said "Oh yeah!" She had forgotten it was Christmas day. I was also a little worried she wouldn't like her presents. The "surprise me" thing she told Santa at the mall turned out to cause me a little stress. Every few days she would have a new thing that she hoped Santa would surprise her with. Christmas Eve it was a remote control car which she was not getting. One day I told her maybe Santa would get her a teddy bear, or a book, or a scooter... She interupted me with "I hope he doesn't get me a scooter because I hurt my foot on Elise's scooter once." Well Santa did get her a scooter and luckily she loves it and no longer walks anywhere, but scoots. Tanner and Natalie didn't really get the Santa thing but they had fun with all their toys. We had a good family night lesson the Monday before Christmas to talk about being grateful in preparation for Christmas day. Sydney was pretty good about saying thank you for her gifts and even Natalie threw in a couple "dankoos". Here are a few pictures of our morning.

Santa always leaves candy canes hung on the tree.

Tanner is not at all interested in the cars and trucks Santa has displayed for him on his road matt. He is more concerned with this candy cane and trying to chew through the wrapper.

Sydney is showing me the cinderella pez dispenser from her stocking.

Pat Pat Rocket is the new favorite toy for all the kids. Natalie is in love with it and calls it "kocket."

The kids have really got it made. Since their ages are so close together they all enjoy all of the gifts. It doesn't really matter to them who was given what. With Sydney we have to remind her that not all of the toys belong to her, but they have all shared pretty well.

Here is Tanner sitting in Natalie's igloo tent.

Here is Natalie playing with Tanner's cars.

Sydney is scooting around the house.

We had egg nog with our breakfast. It was Tanner and Natalie's first taste of the stuff. They barely came up for air they loved it so much. Natalie probably had a bit too much because she threw up a little while later. Egg nog throw up smells awful by the way and is nearly impossible to get out of the carpet.

[FIXED] Another good reason to have a stay-at-home mom

Read this article guys. It's really short and I guarantee you'll be more likely to live on less and keep your wife home with the kids.

P.S. I accidentally posted a link to Mexico stopping buying American meat instead of this article. Yeah...dunno what reason that was about. :)

As my pappy used to always say....

Anyone remember watching Maverick? I love how he always quotes his dad wrong (and at the end of the movie you find out a guy that's in the movie throughout is his dad).

Well...after quoting my dad wrong all the time, here is one I always credit him with:

Adages from the Book of Wayne, #14:
If it fails, turn off the car, get out, get back in, and turn it on again. 9 times out of 10 it will work.

More often this adage is applied by rebooting the computer. Go figure.

Geek vs. Nerd

Although the connotation might not seem to different among by those not called by these terms, here is the reason I no longer prefer geek to nerd:

(from Wikipedia)

The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as "a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, gaming, etc."^[1] Formerly, the term referred to a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken, bat, snake or bugs.

Another Sydney Moment

Background: The Bee Movie was playing, I was driving Sydney for our Daddy-Daughter date.

Sydney: Daddy? It's so sad...Barry just wants to be a pollen jock but he has to grow up first.

Josh and Lisa: 6th Birthday (aka anniversary)

As most of you know, I believe once you're married you restart your age together. Essentially, Lisa and I have learned to walk and talk, possibly to write, and are in the middle of kindergarten. :) It makes everyone older feel young again and remember times of old.

Turning six has made me realize a few things:

1. Whoever said wives are always right, are right. Even though she really is 99% of the time, living that way has brought happiness for a myriad of reasons.

2. We have worked hard for what we have and are extremely grateful for what we've worked so hard for and feel blessed to have someone else who works just as hard (if not harder) on our marriage.

3. I love Lisa more than anything. More than sports, more than electronics (especially email...although she might debate that one :) ), and it's just taking time to see what else falls to the wayside. She's put up with a bit, hopefully less as the years go on. Besides, we have seventh row tickets to Wicked this year. My penny pinching can't be affecting all our decisions. :)

4. I liked numbered lists, and Lisa has learned to put up with them.

Love you sweetness!

The great debate

Not Oreo vs. Chips Ahoy, not water skiing vs. snow skiing, or even PC vs. MAC, the great debate today is Internet Explorer versus Firefox. I love having the consistency of Microsoft products, but after defending Internet Explorer for so long, this article has finished the debate for me. I've been using Firefox for about three years now. Despite having to use IE on occasion for products/tools that have issues with Firefox, I'm a convert.

Kevin Carter, this is not a place to tout Safari, but feel open to (cleanly / without expletives) bash Internet Explorer. For so long I thought the security holes were because so much of the market uses IE and hence hackers would inevitably get the most coverage working on IE, but this is just too far. Maybe Firefox and Safari are just untested comparatively.

Sydneroosky

Dinner at the Mayan: $20

Madagascar 2 at the MegaPlex: $12

Quality time on a Daddy-daughter date: Priceless.

The Santa wait

So last night we decided to brave the mall and visit Santa. We originally planned to go to Jordan Landing, but thought it might be especially crowded since it would have been Santa's first day there, and there was all sorts of hullabaloo going on to celebrate his arrival. So we headed to South Town since we heard that Santa was pretty good. Santa was out to dinner when we arrived so we did the same at the food court. Then we got in line and the twins immediately got restless. So I made a few laps around the mall and came back to find that Sydney and Josh had moved a total of two feet. I took Tanner up to Bath & Body Works to check out their sales. He did everything possible to make holding him difficult and drooled all over me. I think he's getting a new tooth. The line must have started picking up a bit while we were gone because Josh and the girls had moved a good 10 feet when we got back. Overall, the wait was about 1 1/2 hours. I was pretty proud of us all for not having any serious meltdowns or orneriness through the whole excursion. Sydney doesn't have anything in particular she wants for Christmas, so she just told Santa, "Surprise me." Last year we went to Fashion Place where they gave us a pager like at a restaurant so we could shop while waiting to see Santa. When we were paged the wait was about 5-10 minutes. I think that's the way to go! Here are some pictures showing how much the kids liked their visit.

Sydney is thrilled. Natalie couldn't care less. Tanner is trying to crawl behind Santa.

Sydney is still thrilled. Natalie still doesn't care. Tanner is trying to run away.

Life Beyond Self

It always seems at Mother's day, the mothers in my life (my Mom, Lisa) seem to notice a big change. Somehow breakfast is made, a foot massage is offered, among other seemed luxuries. Maybe it's just me, but in this time of giving, why don't we attempt to treat each other as they would expect on their special day? How does this apply to Christmas?

In a off way, what brought this up was watching No Reservations last night with Lisa. It was so sad how a child who's lost their mother missed so many things. I wondered how the kids would miss me, or just my corrections when they did something wrong. So today was day 1 of compensation. Not that I haven't corrected her when she pushed Natalie, but Sydney and I spent some quality time out in the snow. All the kids love playing a few special games we do, and I think it was a good day. I think Lisa's back to the top of the list, so I better get going.

P.S. If you see Sydney around, call her Fluffly Lopart. Tanner is Tiny No-Pants. Natalie is Nano.

The joys of fall

As previously mentioned, I love fall. There's only one thing I don't love about it - the leaves. I probably wouldn't mind them so much if they came from our own trees, but we currently do not have any trees in our yard. I plan to plant some this spring because we could use a little shade and some more curb appeal. Last Saturday, Josh went out with the leaf blower and got rid of all the leaves in our yard. On Tuesday we got a whole lot of wind. I stood at the window and watched our whole yard fill up with leaves again completely helpless to do anything about it. I almost wanted to get the leaf blower out and start blowing back at the wind, defending my lawn. The leaves came in small armies, running down the street and resting on our grass. They almost appeared to be dancing as if they were excited to arrive at our house.

The artists

We just got a new old desk for Sydney to use for her artwork. Its new to her but old to me. It was my desk when I was a kid. We were going to store the old small art table downstairs for later but Natalie just became interested in it. So every once in a while Sydney and Natalie will color at their desk and table. It's very cute. Natale just loves small chairs that she can sit in by herself. Tanner is not so interested in coloring or anything that really involves sitting still. He would much rather climb the kitchen table, tear apart the christmas tree, or unload the kitchen garbage all over the place. That is Tanner's idea of fun.

Another Sydney Moment

I was telling Sydney about the cool new dishes (for lack of anything interesting to talk about) we got at Ikea while she was watching Bolt with Grandma and Grandpa Ruben, when she asked: do they light up?

Throwing money at the holiday spirit

After a great thanksgiving and several moments spent pondering the wonderful blessings in my life and the lives of my family, I was thrilled to get into the Christmas season. I sing Christmas songs throughout the year (just ask Lisa), and it's fun when I'm actually in the same season as everyone else. Many people have commented lately that they are so excited that thanksgiving comes before Christmas so they're in the right mood. This being said, I've been quite amazed how differently we act. I was so humbled while listening to the radio the other day while going to help someone with a computer problem. They said they'd never had more money and goods donated than this year and we're just starting the Christmas season. In a time of a financial crisis, what a statement.

On the other hand, I wish "budget" wasn't just a rental car company. Be conservative in what you spend, so that others may enjoy just a portion of what you have. The biggest failure as carnal beings is looking at what others have that we don't. Why can't we spend more time looking at what we have and others don't?

What are we celebrating at Christmas? Christ's birth. True, it's not the right time in the calendar, but if the event is what we're celebrating, it obviously doesn't matter when we celebrate it, as we should be constantly celebrating it. If we celebrate the birth and life of the King of kings and Lord of lords, we celebrate who He is, what He did, and what His example should lead us to be.

Especially in a time of financial crisis, to have the true spirit of Christmas, we must have the two traits most connected to the season: sacrifice and service. No one sacrificed more and gave more than Christ. How can we repay Him more than by following his example? The exact opposite of sacrifice and service is selfishness. Find ourselves giving of our time, our talents, and donate to those in need. May I suggest, just as we fast every month and donate that money to those in need, maybe we could give up one or two gifts this year and donate that to those in need. I am always saddened to think of those without the gospel, without food, shelter, fuel, employment, and what I can do to help. But the greatest happiness I've had in my life is in sacrificing things of myself to bless the lives of others.

The Moores

Beaches

Okay, I'm finally blogging about our beach excursions from our recent vacation. I only had about 600 pictures from the beaches to sort through so it's no wonder it has taken me so long. We visited three different beaches on this trip. Our first was on Balboa Island. I assumed the beach is called Balboa beach, but I'm not sure. We weren't planning to play at the beach this day. We just saw it while we were wandering around the island and decided to rest there for a bit. So this is twins' the very first time at the beach and I didn't take very many pictures of them. It was a really steep beach and had fairly large waves.

We didn't stay long because Sydney got a little too brave and a big wave soaked her. A great big wave came and we could all see what was going to happen. I started screaming "Run Sydney!!", but she didn't. So she and I spent the next little while in the restroom trying to ring out her wet clothes.

Tanner and Natalie love their Grandma. Natalie is giving her lots of slobbery kisses.

A few days later we checked out Laguna Beach which turned out to be our favorite. This time we were more prepared with things like swimsuits and towels. My Dad and Adam went diving this day so they were not with us for this one.

Tanner is wondering if I'm coming or what.

It was a little difficult to tell with Tanner if he was having a good time or not. He looked pretty concerned and worried most of the time. We knew he enjoyed it though because when you tried to walk him back up to the towels his legs would suddenly stop working.

It was a little easier to tell that Natalie loved it because her legs started working really well. She is still not walking on her own, but she put forth a pretty good effort on the beach.

The kids didn't have many sand toys so my mom and I pulled together whatever cash we could find (neither of us brought wallets) and went to the beach toy store. Sydney came up with all sorts of jobs for herself with these toys.

Then we decided it was too sunny and we didn't have enough cash for an umbrella, so we made Josh go back to the store with his handy credit card and get one for us. It was so nice to have. You just can't find many beach umbrellas for sale in Utah.

Natalie is waving good-bye to Laguna Beach.

The next day we visited Huntington Beach. This beach was slightly inferior to Laguna Beach for two reasons. 1) It just doesn't have quite the beauty of Laguna beach. And, 2) It cost $10 (cash only) to park and I'd already spent all our cash at the previously mentioned beach toy store, so my Dad had to come back to the entrance to give us some cash.

This beach had a lot of surfers which were fun to watch. That's what were are doing here. Tanner was a little more cautious this day and insisted that both Grandpa and I hold his hands.

Here, Tanner is almost smiling. He and I are on the same page - the ocean is awesome and fun and something to be feared.

Sydney and Daddy went our searching for seashells. We didn't see any signs that said "Don't take the seashells" at this beach.

And here is proof that Adam was with us on this vacation. He spent most of his day laying on the beach working on his tan.

Disneyland

I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed their first trip to Disneyland. We got 3-day park hoppers for Josh, Sydney, and I during our vacation to Newport Beach. We decided to go to Disneyland the first day we got there because the weather was supposed to be the coolest that day. My parents and my brother Adam joined us on this trip and offered to take the twins for Sydney's first day to Disneyland, so we could do all the "big kid" rides that the twins wouldn't be able to do.

Josh traditionally rides the Matterhorn first every time he has gone to Disneyland. I was a little worried that this ride would be a rough one for Sydney to start out on and Sydney insisted that she was brave enough.

Here's her face after the ride was over. Disneyland was not feeling like the happiest place on earth at this point.

So her first ride was not her favorite. But she loved almost all the rides we went on with the exception of Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain. She was really insistent that she wanted to do Space Mountain even though I told her it was going to be scarier than Splash Mountain. There was a point in the ride I worried she might die of fright. I've never heard her scream so loud. All the kids loved the rides in Fantasyland though.

My parent's rode Alice in Wonderland with us on our last day. They took Natalie so they looked like they had a reason to be on this ride.

It was a great time to go to Disneyland. Very short lines for almost everything. I think the longest we ever waited was 20 minutes for a ride. We met a lot of characters on this trip, including all the princesses. It did help that we went to lunch at Ariel's grotto on our day with Sydney. We got Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White right away. This lunch was the highlight of her day. I wish we could have really captured her reaction. She was practically bouncing right out of her seat when the princesses starting coming in.

I won't include all the pictures of the characters since there are a lot of them. I think meeting the characters was Sydney's favorite part of Disneyland though. She was always reading with her autograph book and pen. Here are some of our favorites.

This one is at the beginning of Tanner and Natalie's first day. They aren't quite sure what to think of the giant Mickey next to them.

Natalie was pretty brave on everything. She's so small that I don't know how much she could really see but on every ride you could hear her going "Ooooh, ooooooh!"

Once the kids were sick of standing in lines and sitting in the stroller my parents and I took them to Tom Sawyer's island. Josh and Adam went off to enjoy some of the thrill rides. I think this was the highlight of the day for the twins, especially Tanner.

Tanner loved having so much freedom to explore everything.

Sydney and Natalie really loved this big pile of pirates' gold.

Our trip overlapped with Rich (Josh's brother) and Wende's family vacation to Disneyland. I still think it's so funny that we both planned trips there at the same time. We ran into them quite a lot in the parks.

Here we are waiting for the parade to start. As you can see my dad is especially excited for the parade.

Natalie danced to all the music throughout the parade. I've never really gotten into the parades before but my kids sure loved them!

Josh's favorite ride of the trip may have been at the half-way point coming home. We stayed over in St. George Saturday night and my cousin Jeremy let Adam and Josh test drive his new Lamborghini. Nothing like driving a car that costs more than your house!

Photo tag

This is very simple what you do is go to your 4th folder on your computer and pick the 4th picture in it and then explain the picture. Then you tag 4 other people by listing their names. 1. Rachel 2. Mom 3. Kim (I'll give you something to blog about Kim :)) and 4. Wende

So this is a picture of Sydney and one of our cats, Charlie. Sydney has loved Charlie since the beginning of time. In fact, she has loved him since before the beginning of her time. We were considering getting a second cat when I was pregnant with Sydney. When I held Charlie Sydney immediately started kicking like crazy. So we knew he needed to be a part of the family. He has been the best cat you could have. He doesn't mind the kids sitting on him or pulling his whiskers. He will often nuzzle up to one of the kids and just purr. Sydney still loves to cradle him like a baby.

Halloween parties

So here are my little Dr. Seuss angels. For those who aren't sure who they are supposed to be, Sydney is the Cat in the Hat and Tanner and Natalie are Thing One and Thing Two. Brush up on your Dr. Seuss if you're still not sure who these people are. It's a classic and I can nearly quote the whole thing for you if you'd like. I was so excited with how their costumes turned out, and even more excited by all the parties we would be attending where we could show them off.
First off is the Moore cousins playdate party hosted by Jenny.

All the cousins in their costumes.

Jenny should be a professional party planner with all the cute ideas she has. Here is a cute throw-the-spider-on-the-web game she made.

Indiana Drew is eating is about to eat his spider oreo cookie.

The next evening we attended the 18th ward Halloween party. Our own ward doesn't do a Halloween party for some reason. So we like to join in on this one. They have lots of fun things for the kids to do and it's always fun to see the people I knew growing up.

Grandma and Natalie are fishing for some Halloween treats.

Rich, Rachel and Noah went back a few decades.

Sydney spent most of her time hanging out with this glamorous girl, my cousin Mary.

Sydney is bowling with a pumpkin. I thought that was a rather brave activity. Luckily nobody threw any of them too hard.

Tanner kept us plenty busy by constantly trying to escape from the party.

And last but not least, Sydney had her preschool Halloween party today. We just love her teacher and all the cute kids she has become such good friends with.