Saturday

Saturday we were still really tired from all the stuff we had done the day before, so we finished up some of the moving, but mostly were lazy all morning. Around 3 I needed to get out of the house so we ran over to wal-mart to get a few random things we needed. When we got home we found out that my nephew Marshall had a fever so we weren't going to be able to take Noah over to Dan and Krystal's so we could go on a date night. Dan, being stubborn as he is about our babysitting trades, essentially told us that he'd come over and watch Noah at our place. Which meant that we had about an hour to finish up moving and decorating, and get everything clean. Overall it was a good thing, cuz I don't think that I would have had the motivation to get it done otherwise. So Dan got here and Z and I took off on our date.

First of all, I was just excited to not have to drive or be in my car to go somewhere! Although I'm so used to driving that anyone else's driving (ahem, Zander) kind of scares me, but it was still nice to not have to drive. The original plan was to go to a movie and then hit up a quick dinner afterwards, but we had grabbed a late lunch around 3, and had popcorn in the movie, so we weren't hungry when we were done. The movie itself was surprisingly good. We went to New Moon. After how AWFUL the first movie was, I really wasn't expecting much out of this one, just hoping that it would be better since it had a different director. I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. It stuck to the central storyline very well, the acting was better (due to the abscense of Robert Pattison), and there was some really cool animation with the wolves and vamps fighting in various scenes. Overall, a good movie, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. It gets a 4 on my scale.


As we were getting out of the theater (ok, while we were in the movie) Luca and Liv called to see if we wanted to play games. They met up with us at our place around 9:30 with the stipulation that any games needed to be mindless. So we found some mindless games, had some good mindless fun, then all went to our various beds and crashed. Overall, a great day.

Black Friday

Zander proposed to be on Black Friday of 2005, and he did it via decorating a Christmas tree. So it is now our tradition to put up the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. We have to rearrange the furniture slightly to get the tree in, but we went a little overboard this year and literally rearranged our ENTIRE main floor. The front room is now the back room, and once the tree is down it'll switch around a little bit again. That and we might be buying some new couches in the next few weeks, which will force us to change things a bit again. But so far we're really liking it. I keep trying to go to the wrong room to get on my computer, and Z keeps getting confused as to why the tv isn't where it belongs. But things feel a lot roomier with it this way. By the time we got the tree up and the actual furniture moved around where we wanted it, we were pretty wasted. So the project got to like 80% completion that day.

The only shopping we did on Friday was a trip to Lowe's with our neighbors to get some more ply-wood to finish up the attic, and of course we ended up getting a few other little things. Lowe's is one of the most dangerous stores for us to go to.

Thanksgiving

I'm sure you don't want to hear about how much we ate etc. because you probably did the same thing we did as far as food. I did however make a really pretty apple pie!

Anyway, here are some of the less traditional exciting events of our Thanksgiving this year.

1 - Noah decided to figure out how to climb on a chair all by himself. He was immensely proud of this accomplishment.

2 - Mindo played a game!!! I've known Min for like 6 years now, and any time people around her are playing a game she gives it a flat out no. She will sit and talk while the game is in play, but never actually play. She played Phase 10 with us though. Miserable game. We all got so tired of the stupid thing that we didn't actually finish it, but hey! Mindo played a game!!!

Olives

Conversation with Z last night that I found highly amusing

E - You weren't supposed to eat all of the olives
Z - I didn't. I put them in a container in the fridge.... I think I put them in the fridge....I put them in a container.

Music

Today I created my holiday station on Pandora. It includes Trans-Siberian Orchestra, David Lanz, King Singers, and Mannheim Steamroller. Something about Christmas music makes even Thanksgiving seem better.

Queso

Painfully addicting

Cupcakes

Thursday, after a painfully rough morning, I decided the kids and I needed to do something fun to take up the afternoon. After debating between making cupcakes or cookies, I settled on cupcakes. I got the batter ready while the kids were still sleeping, and Noah woke up just as I was putting them in the oven. I turned on the oven light so he could see what was going on in there, and he sat there with his face glued to the oven for the next 20 minutes literally watching them bake.


Isabella woke up with perfect timing right as the cupcakes were coming out of the oven. We played for a few minutes while the cupcakes cooled, then the fun began. I put a sheet down to help with cleaning up cuz I knew this was going to be a mess, then showed the kidlets how to put sprinkles on their frosted cupcakes. Isabella caught on really fast, Noah didn't care too much and mostly just wanted to watch. Isabella also caught on that it was a treat, and quickly began to eat the frosting off of her cupcake. I underestimated the amount of mess she could make, and the speed she could do it in, so I ended up stripping her for the sake of her sweater, and pants.



All in all in really turned out well. It entertained the kids for a good 15-20 minutes, and hey, caupcakes is never a bad thing.

Update

I know that I have posted anything in a long time, but that's for a good reason. There's been very little worth posting about. Z is in his final weeks of this semester, which means he's busy doing projects and having to stay late at work to keep his hours up. It also means that instead of having fun filled and exciting evenings we usually sit and watch a movie while he does homework on the laptop. So here are a few pictures highlighting a few "fun" events, all of which, of course, are centered around Noah.

If the amount of mess is equal to the amount a food is enjoyed, then I'd say Noah liked this meal.

We've discovered that boxes are pretty darn cool!

Especially when they can fit two at the same time!!!

Especially when two can fit in at the same time!!!

If you're wondering who the little curly haired girl is, that's Isabella. She lives next to us and I watch her 3 days a week for a couple of hours. She's 3 months older than Noah, so they make great little play buddies.

Zander just informed me that lots has been happening. Here's his list, which is evidently better than mine.

- We went to Tucano's for a surprise birthday party for our good friend Luca
- We went to Olive Garden with our good friends Craig and Steph (like 3 weeks ago)
- We went to a Halloween party at Bob and Rochelle's (see how friendly we've been?)
- We got a new street light outside our house! (which really is VERY exciting)
- I went to lunch with Rochelle yesterday
- Zander mounted a ladder to pull down a wasps nest (about a month ago)
- We watched Seven Samurai. 1950's black and white subtitled 3 1/2 hour long Samurai movie.
- Amistad - really good emotional and moving movie. Freaking awesome! (we watch lots of movies)
- Noah split his lip open at Wal-Mart. It had nothing to do with the fact that we were at Wal-Mart, that's just where it happened. Z still has nightmares about it evidently.
- Noah hugged the fridge when he wanted some milk the other morning. (this list is getting pretty thin)
- One of Zander's classes is essentially done for the semester due to Thanksgiving break. (WOOHOO)
- We talked to Amanda at Wal-Mart, three times or so. Pretty much any time we're there and she's there, which is pretty often.

He-Man