Elf on the Shelf

Chad's mom gave our family an Elf on the Shelf. It is probably the cutest Christmas tradition ever and I can't wait to start it. My mom used to have one when she was a little girl, so she was excited when Georganne gave us one.

If you haven't ever heard of an Elf on the Shelf this is how it works. Elf on the Shelf is a little elf doll that reports directly to Santa Claus. Kids can tell the elf their Christmas wishes. They may also want to be on their very best behavior as the Elf on the Shelf has Santa's ear. Some children also like to name their elf. Place the little elf around your home during the weeks before Christmas. During the holidays the elf watches children carefully during the day. At night when the kids are sleeping the elf magically returns to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus on the kids' behavior. In the morning the elf appears in a new place which offers a daily hide-and-seek ritual for kids. Elf on the Shelf comes with a 28-page hardcover illustrated book that explains the story and an 8-inch elf doll.

Isn't that so cute? I'm sure I'll be posting about it again during the holiday season. You can buy an elf at elfontheshelf.com for $29.95.

Buggy Ride

One thing you can always count on my dad for is a dune buggy ride. With all the kids over for the annual Octoberfest (post coming soon), he literally packed the buggy with kids and went for a ride. This is how I always picture my dad. He is and always has been so fun!

Later Vance had his own ride where he even tried driving a little bit. I don't think he's quite as ready to drive as he thinks he is.

Breakfast with the Waldron's

The Waldron's invited us over for a family breakfast. It was delicious! Georganne had set up an omelet, pancake, smoothie and waffle station. They know me well - they even had peanut butter set out for my waffles ;) As always it was great to see family. Vance is always so excited to play with Grandma and Grandpa Waldron. His favorite activity of the day was wheelbarrow rides from Grandpa. The other kids got in and out but Vance just sat there and sat there.

We tried to get a picture of the great-grandkids but it didn't really turn out so cute. Oh well, all you can do is try right?

Vance and Ty are definitely going to be good buddies in the future. They are pretty much the same size already and Ty is 7 months younger! I love this picture with the boys and their dads ;)

For the love of Peeps

For the past several years, my mom buys my brother-in-law, Joe, Peeps for every holiday. She insists how much he loves them and thinks she is doing something thoughtful for him. The funny thing is Joe doesn't even like Peeps. He always says thank you and eats one, but he actually thinks they are gross. It was just this year that we finally told my mom the truth about the Peeps. She still buys him some at the holidays, but now it's just an inside joke.

Hope you enjoyed the Halloween Peeps Joe!

Pepsi Time

If you know my dad at all, you know how much he loves his Pepsi. While we were visiting my parents, Vance was always begging my dad for a sip. My dad must really love Vance because he finally decided to share. This is what I think Vance was thinking:

That sures looks good Papa. I could really use a nice refreshing beverage.
Sure I'll have a sip if you really want me to.
I have an idea: you drink out of the cup, and I'll have the can.
Thanks Papa! I'll be sure to stay up late and be crazy for my mom and dad ;)

Penny Carnival

My sister, Leslie, works at Mirabelli Community Center and every fall they have a penny carnival. She was able to get us free wristbands so we decided to check it out. We had a lot of fun. The gym was lined with games for the kids to play. Of course, all the kids insisted on playing every single game. What a joy! Vance didn't quite understand all of them, but he had a blast following all the other kids around. There was also a cake walk. We weren't lucky enough to win one of the cakes, but Brayden did get a yummy cupcake. They had a jump house in one of the rooms. Normally Vance hates them, but he loved it! While the younger kids ran around playing games and winning candy, I just hung out with my sisters and a few of my cousins. This is us showing the world our sexiest faces! Don't be jealous ;) I don't even want to know how many suckers Vance ate or should I say tried to eat. Somebody would give him a sucker, he would make a mess, and I would throw it away. Then in 5 minutes we would do it all over again. I couldn't figure out where he kept getting all the suckers from until I saw him begging Aunt Amy and Aunt Leslie. Those softies gave in every time. All they told me was "payback sucks!"
I'm not sure what Logan, Brayden, and Carson where doing here. I guess they were trying to figure out who had the most treats! I still don't know why they had to stick their heads all the way in the bag - silly boys.

My dad came a little late and the boys couldn't wait to play with Papa. If my dad was holding one, then he HAD to hold the other. Luckily for him, Colton and Vance were at least being nice to each other.

It was definitely great free entertainment! Thanks Leslie for the wristbands - you're the best ;)

Lunch with the Girls

This weekend I went to Vegas to celebrate my birthday (lots of posts to follow). The first morning we were there we went shopping - of course. After hours of shopping, we took a lunch break at Cafe Rio. It was so nice to sit and visit. Briton and Aspen were there too, but they were the photographers.

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

You know you're in Texas...

If you can't find a Del Taco anywhere. This wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't love it so much. Unfortunately if I wanted the best chicken taco ever, I would have to drive all the way to New Mexico!

Vance these days

I haven't been very good about posting Vance updates, so here is everything I can think of that Vance is up to these days.

• He is AVERAGE. He is in the 50th percentile for weight and height. The doctor says he is a healthy, active boy!
• He is ACTIVE!!! Vance loves pretty much anything outside. If I need to get something done, I know I can go outside and will find some way to entertain himself. His favorite is riding his bike, but he also loves to play all sports (baseball, tennis, soccer, football) or jump on the trampoline. When all else falls, he just runs around.
• He thinks he is one of the BIG KIDS. He thinks he can do everything they can. He thinks he can play the Wii, sit up to the table for dinner, and play the piano just to name a few.
• He loves to FOLD HIS ARMS to pray and shout "amen" when we are done. We are trying to get him to whisper, but no luck yet.
• He is LOUD. Vance has always been on the loud side. He has a lot to say and he wants to make sure you hear every little bit of it.
• He is SOCIAL. Sometimes he is so social it is actually a little embarrassing. Any time we go to the store he says "hello" to anyone in the same area as us. He continues say (or yell) hello until they acknowledge him. He then smiles, points to something, and babbles on and on like the person should be able to understand every word. Then when we leave he yells "bye" to anyone he sees. Sometimes it's cute, but other times it's a little much even for his mom who loves him.
• He loves TREATS. I don't know where the little guy puts all of the food he consumes because the boy can eat! Breakfast is normally the meal where he can really grub. He's been known to eat a toaster streudel, oatmeal, a banana, and 2 pancakes in 1 sitting!
• He still wants his BLANKET. He loves to suck his thumb with his blanket. I have started limiting the blanket to the car and the bedroom, but sometimes I am a sucker. It's the only "baby" thing he still does and I am a little reluctant to make him stop.
• He loves the COMPUTER. I have found a couple Internet sites with toddler-friendly games and he can't get enough of them and I like them because they are educational!
• He is a SMARTY. He talks really well I think for his age. He can definitely communicate with us. He can point to all of his body parts on his head as well as feet, belly, bum, and hands. He loves puzzles and is learning shapes and colors.
• He has started COLORING. In fact we have to hide all writing utensils now because we found pen scribbles on the toilet. All of his art projects sent home from school and colored all over the paper.
• He is HELPFUL. He can now help with little things like getting his own diapers, throwing trash away, and actually cleaning up. I've realized he is much more capable than I give him credit for!
• He is INDEPENDENT. He doesn't want help with anything he thinks he can do. Sometimes I would love to help him eat, but he won't have anything to do with it. He wants to give himself a bath, put on his own shoes, climb on the chair himself... I think you get the idea.

That's all I got for now!

Is this fall?

Living in Las Vegas, I never experienced a true fall. This is my first one and I love it! The temperature is either slightly cool or just a little warm and the colors are BEAUTIFUL!!! It's crazy to see a green tree become bright red or orange. The picture above is of a couple of trees on our street. Aren't they gorgeous?

Happy fall everyone!

My Guilty Pleasure

I love to cuddle Vance and his life is just way too busy to let me cuddle him when he's awake. So since he was a newborn I would occassionally go get him out of his crib on my way to bed and cuddle him for a few minutes in my bed. Now that I'm going to cosmetology school full-time I don't feel like I see my baby enough. Just about every night I come up to bed, I get him out of his bed and cuddle him for a few minutes. At first Chad thought I was retarded. Now he just smiles at me when I do it because he knows there is no use in trying to talk me out of it. Vance never wakes up so he has no knowledge of my nightly ritual. I always joke with Chad that we are going to have to get a bigger bed when we have more kids. I don't think too many more kids can fit in our bed for the nighttime cuddles!

I don't know at what age I will stop getting him out of bed, but I don't think it will be any time soon! These pictures are of the other night when I accidentally fell asleep before putting Vance in his own bed. Normally that doesn't happen because as much as I love to cuddle I hate sleeping with Vance in our bed.

Everyone loves Amy

Amy's kids absolutely love her, and Vance loves everything they love. So naturally this is what Amy's lap normally looks like:

Luckily she's a good sport and doesn't mind Vance crawling all over her!

When was the last time...

you double dutched? It has probably been close to 10 years for me. The other day the kids busted out the jump ropes and I had to try. Holy crap double dutch is hard!!! It took me like 5 or 6 tries to even make it in, let alone actually start jumping. I eventually figured it out and now I'm basically a pro ;)

I think all of you who are reading this should try it and let me know if you felt as stupid as I did!

State Fair of Texas

WARNING - I feel like this is a super-long post, but we had a lot of fun and I didn't want to leave anything out!
Last weekend Chad and I met up with his sister and her husband, Carleen and Jon, at the State Fair of Texas. We had a blast! You know that everything is bigger and better in Texas. The Texas State Fair is no exception. It is the largest state fair in the United States by overall attendance (between 3-4 million visitors over 3 weeks). Above is the mascot of the fair, Big Tex, who is 52 feet tall! Texans are obsessed with things being big. The Texas Star is a 212.5-foot-tall Ferris wheel making it the largest Ferris wheel in the Western Hemisphere. The structure has 44 gondolas that hold 264 riders.
Now the food! The food is what EVERYONE talks about when they talk about the fair. Everything is fried. There is an annual competition for the best tasting and most creative fried food every year. This is just a list of the fried foods I can remember: corny dogs, fried PB&J, fried cookie dough, fried cheesecake, fried oreos, fried Snickers, fried butter, fried peaches and creme, fried coke, fried latte, fried peanut butter macaroon, and fried banana split. Can you say heart attack?! We checked out all the food, but we only ate the famous Fletcher's corny dogs. They really are famous here and they deserve it. It was the best corn dog I have ever had!

Vance was a big fan of the turkey leg. This thing was huge (of course) and he insisted on eating it by himself (of course). I think he literally ate half of this huge thing. He later fell into a food coma which I was ever so grateful for.

There were so many things to see at the fair. Building after building was filled with various vendors selling random items, cooking demonstrations, food samples, and arts and crafts. Some of it was actually really cool. One of the coolest exhibits was the pumpkin carving. This guy was carving the hugest pumpkins and they all looked amazing.

Another exhibit I thought was really cool was a butter sculpture. Everything in the picture below was made out of butter. The entire thing took 1200 pounds of butter!We also learned a lot of cows. They had another exhibit with at least a hundred cows. We learned about some of the different breeds and all kinds of useless cow trivia. We watched them hook up some cows to the milking machine. I couldn't believe how much milk came out. Did you know a cows udders can hold from 25-70 pounds of milk?!

Of course there were plenty of Texas Longhorns on display. I love the coat of this one.

There was a lot of John Deere tractors and paraphernalia around. We just happened to bring Vance's John Deere blanket and stopped to take a quick picture.We were really glad we had the blanket when Vance took a nap. My little guy was exhausted after a long day at the fair. He didn't take a very long nap, but it was much needed!

There were quite a few shows to pick from. We didn't see them all, but we managed to catch a few. We watched the pig races, a diving show, BMX stunt show, and a dog show. The dog show was actually pretty amazing. Vance was pretty intrigued watching from Aunt Carleen's lap.

I know this picture is pretty blurry but there is actually a dog catching the orange Frisbee in the middle of the picture. That dog jumped incredibly high!

Vance wanted to be by Aunt Carleen and Uncle Jon all day. He constantly was riding on their shoulders, holding their hand, eating their food, or just walking by them. They look him to a little circus show and were more than happy to have a little fan club all day. We loved having them there too!

They had a really cool free petting zoo. It had zebras, goats, baby giraffes, ostriches, pigs, cows, camels, horses, and more. Of course Vance insisted on getting up close and personal with each animal. I'm not even a germaphobe, but we used a lot of anti-bacterial soap when we were done.

Every night there is a parade complete with a marching band, horses, floats, and more. I thought Vance wouldn't be too interested, but he was. You can see in the picture below we couldn't even get him to look away from the floats long enough to snap a picture. The floats were pretty cool.

The evening ended with a Little Big Town concert. They played a few of their more popular songs, but a lot of it was off their new record. We still had fun though!
It was a great day and we had so much fun. It was a lot of walking and it definitely wasn't the cheapest thing ever, but I would go again in a heartbeat!