This Is It

thanksgiving 2008

day one:  (thursday)

• the kids watched the macy's parade (because millisa called and reminded us, otherwise i would have forgotten) max's favorite was the buzz lightyear, madison's was horton and mackenzie's was bolt.

• i was in the kitchen attempting to make homemade rolls. jude's rolls. i had all of the ingredients, let the yeast sit for 20 minutes, mixed it all up, added lots of extra flour because it was still sticky, let it rise for an hour, rolled them into balls, let them double in size and cooked them. and they came out... like biscuits. (or very thick flour flavored rolls.) good thing i bought croissants as a backup.

• darric went shooting with his dad, dave and dave's brother.

• around 12:30, we went over to grandma dee's. it was dry on our side of town, but raining on her side. and cold. the kids did not mind. they still had to keep with tradition and play on the swingset for as long as we would let them. they all ended up wet and dirty. but they had fun. max just ran around from the mud puddle to the end of the porch where the rain was dripping down hard. (we had to remove half of his clothes before he could come in the house.)

 
 

• we ate around 1:30 or so. we can never seem to eat on time. which is fine for the girls, it's the men that have a hard time. grandma wanted to switch things up a little this year... after the prayer was started, we went around the entire kitchen and everyone said something(s) they were grateful for. it was really nice to hear what everyone had to say, even if it did make some of us get a little emotional.

• we all enjoyed the food and the company. this year steve brought some yummy bacon, (i could have eaten it for dessert) and his yummy stuffing and cranberries. jodie brought some scalloped potatoes that were really good. and then we had the usual. for dessert there was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake, my mom made some berry dessert with a pretzel crust and jodie made the apple dumplings.  

• after all of the eating, we sat and visited and then broke out the ads for black friday. quincy must not have been full because we caught her sneaking into the chocolate cake that was sitting up on the dryer. it was pretty cute. she would go grab some and sit back down. and then go and get some more.

  
  
(clockwise: my beautiful aunt sandy, madison writing what she was thankful for in jen's book, quincy being sneaky and darric, mason and max)

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day two:  (friday)

• this morning we made the spinach dip, fruit salad and poured veggies into the tray and mixed up some ranch dressing.

• darric went to the gym while we got ready and he returned with a black tea for me. :)

• dinner today was supposed to be at 1:00, but we had to make sure to get there before bill and dani. so we left the house at 11:00. and unfortunately, forgot the board games we were going to bring.

• while dinner was being finished, the kids put together their turkey apples. grandpa carter was working and joined us later, so bennett, (jesse's friend) pulled the huge turkey out of the oven and dana carved him up.

  
  

• the food was perfect, as usual. and jan almost lost her life when she walked in with no pecan pie and told me she did not make it this year. (it's a good thing she had it out in the car.) and i am glad that one of us knows how to make perfect rolls. (make that two, jesse takes after her mom)

• it was so nice to have all of the family there this year and the kids table just keeps filling up. it doesn't get any better than that. :)

 
(darian, max, billy, emma (bennett's little girl), tommy, kenzie and madison - jayce must have been getting his food still) 

• the kids were super excited when grandma announced to them that she had made play-doh. that kept them all busy for at least an hour while the adults visited.

for the following...

i give much thanks!!
(not in any order)

a hot man, a helpful mackenzie, a talkative madison, a kung fu panda impersonating max, the best parents, fun sisters, in-laws that i really like, all of my extended family, a beautiful home, my nissan armada, friends, ideco nv and those that run it, blogging, good health, how i met your mother (tv show), texting, raw almonds, good school teachers, target, target brand slim fast drinks, gym memberships, sonic cups, sonic ice, diet coke, cameras, photos, online banking, rainy days, cafe rio salads, yearly disney vacations, bath & body works scented oils, drive-thrus, starbucks black tea - sweetened, the galleria mall, maybelline mascara, good fitting jeans, gap sale racks, vampire books, a new thursday night show called grey's, the white pizza, cookies, family gatherings, long white tank tops, chick flicks, town square, holiday decorations, old navy, christmas bonuses, good memories, cell phones, magazines....

last night i made the mistake of letting max go to sleep at 5:30 pm. he woke up for about an hour to eat dinner and fell back asleep around 7:30 pm. at about 10:00 pm he decided to make up for that lost time. i turned on the cartoons and then we moved from my bed, to the couch (which is when i decided to make this list), to his bed and back to my bed. where he asked me to tickle his back, again, and then he rolled over to tell me "that's better." and after 12:30 am, we both fell asleep.

happy thanksgiving!!

on the first day of her tenth year

she woke up on her own before darric left for work
(very unusual especially since she's on track break)
she was excited that it was her birthday
she opened her present
her eyes grew big and a smile stretched across her face
she got what she was hoping for... a cell phone
she made and received a few birthday phone calls
and figured out how to text. me. one of her first texts... sup
she got to run to the super walmart with me and the other two
(we had a couple more groceries to buy)
she got to go to the mall and meet up with her cousins,
aunts and grandma becky.
in the first store, her aunt jennifer let her pick out 2 webkinz
(a snowman and panda bear)
she was too happy.
she got to have red robin for lunch
and got sung to by some of the workers there
she got a birthday sundae (and so did the rest of the kids at the table)
all because it was her birthday.
and it got even better when grandma handed her
her birthday cash!!
she had a choir practice at school
and then made a visit to the gym
where the employees in the daycare wished her a
happy birthday!!
she talked to one of her bff's from school
and shared her exciting birthday news
as she signed up her new webkinz online.
she had a sloppy joe for dinner
and one and a half servings of
green bean casserole.
then her and madi had some of the super rich
chocolate creme pie that she picked out at the grocery store.
after i ran to old navy with her aunt jodie,
she got to open her last gift of the day... a new sweater.

happy 10th birthday!!

  
(picture taken at red robin with my camera phone)

 

10 on tuesday

1. tomorrow is my first born's TENTH birthday. we don't have a party planned, but we do have a birthday present all ready for when she wakes up.  

2. darric's newest nickname for max -- grand mixter maxter

3. i'm so excited for our two days of thanksgiving coming up. i love hanging out with family and eating. i believe i am in charge of rolls (on my side) and fruit salad & a veggie tray (on darric's side). *let me know if i'm wrong.

4. i'm uploading 251 photos from our disneyland trip to costco as i type this post. did you know their 4x6's are 13 cents right now?

5. i made some super fun purchases at the craft boutique this year. a snowman on a sleigh, an apron, family blocks, a hair bow holder and a birthday gift. pictures will have to come later.  

6. some of my favorite parts of the craft boutique.... seeing people i don't get to see everyday (there's a lot of people i missed seeing though), seeing people i haven't seen in a long time (like the hafen's we used to dance with), eating caramels and yummy fudge (with nuts), shoppingand just hanging out.

7. i get to go shopping for a new outfit for darric's work christmas party. this is fun, but also stressful, that's why jodie is needed.

8. i have lost 25 pounds since november of last year. which could make #7 a bit less stressful.

9. i am so happy the "real housewives of the oc" are back. they are my favorites.

10. i need to get started on our christmas cards. i wonder if i could talk my super talented sister into taking some pictures for us. ;)   ;)

we decided to come home

we were up early again today. the kids were excited to open the hotel window and see the fog. we're always in a hurry to get up and get home. at least darric is... he refuses to stop at mcdonalds or starbucks for me. there's this stupid shell station that he has to stop at every time. and the stupid shell station doesn't even have fountain drinks anymore. i finally got my drink in victorville. and i finished off the kettle corn shortly after that. (kenzie helped me)

i think we got home a little after noon. we got el pollo loco for lunch, since we had no food in the house. and a little bit later i went to jen's house for the craft boutique. millisa came and shopped with me for awhile. and i came home around eight.

friday, we (me and all three kids) spent most of the day at the boutique. jacob came home with us to spend the night, he doesn't enjoy the boutique so much. mackenzie was a big help with bagging goodies.

saturday, we finally made it to the boutique again. i wasn't feeling all that great. the girls saw theirold assistant principal and madi saw her kindergarten teacher. what a small world. we stayed until it was over at 4:00 (mainly because there was someone parked behind me) and we watched all of the crafters come and gather their stuff up.

sunday, i was feeling worse than the day before, so i hung out on the couch. mackenzie went to her birthday lunch with grandma and grandpa carter. she chose the buffet at sunset station. grandma carter made her some super cute pj pants and matching clothes for her webkinz. later that night, the daytons brought over a carrot cake (billy picked it out) and a gift for mackenzie. she was so excited when she opened the gift bag to find the HSM wii sing it and the disney sing it (with various disney artists). she plugged the microphones right in and her and madi went to town.

monday, the girls started the day off singing on the wii and that's what they did most of the day. there's nothing like listening to two girls screaming into a microphone for hours and hours. they did pretty good though and unlocked a few songs followed by some hi-5's. we took a short break to get drinks from sonic and came back home for lunch. and i worked on loads and loads of laundry and loads and loads of blog updating. and i am now finished!!

Day Four 11.19.08

the last day.

we had 8:50 breakfast reservations at the PCH grill in our hotel this morning. the kids were excited to see some more characters. and i think the adults enjoyed the buffet.

   
   

after breakfast we walked down downtown disney to take a vote on where we would be eating tonight. our choices were.... ESPN zone (darric and madi), rainforest (dani), ralph brennan (bill), house of blues (mackenzie - she wanted to redeem herself for throwing a fit there 2 years ago and hiding under the table) and naples (i was going for something new).

we got to the park gates a little bit after they opened so we didn't even have to wait. and after strolling down main street, it was already time to go in the park.

 

our first stop... jungle cruise. since we hadn't done it yet. max shot at the animals with his buzz gun and mackenzie laughed at the corny jokes. (the piranhas had been taken out) from there we worked our way around... pirates (max liked it this time) then haunted mansion and onto splash mountain/winnie the pooh. whoever didn't go on splash mountain, took the two little ones on winnie the pooh. on my turn, we got to see some characters too.

   
  

then the rest of the group got off as we saw tigger...

    

by this time, we were all ready for some lunch, so we stopped by the mexican restaurant over by thunder mt. then we headed to toon town and on the way we noticed people were lining up for small world. it's been closed for awhile now and we thought it would be closed the whole time we were here. (we were wrong) in toon town we rode gadget's go coaster at least 4 times and then we went into mickey's house to say hi. we walked right in.

 
(max had his hands up the whole time, but wrapped my arm around his body tightly)
   

on our way out of toon town, we jumped in line for small world. it was about a 15 minute wait. but it was worth it. they had new boats and everything looked so vivid and bright inside. they also added some scents as you go through certain parts (this might just be for the holidays though).

 

max fell asleep right as we came out of the ride and we let him sleep for a few minutes...

 

then we woke him up to ride the matterhorn and buzz again. then over to california adventure for the grizzly river run, tower of terror and toy story. 

  

while we waited for the big kids to go on the tower of terror, max saw mr. incredible walking by. he was done with his shift so we started running after him. he turned around and saw max and waited for him. max was so excited. the day before he was scared to go up to him, but today he decided it was ok to see him. and then it was dinner time. naples won. it was good. we ran into the disney store for some souvenirs while the daytons grabbed us another bag of kettle corn. max got a buzz lightyear transforming toy, mackenzie got a bracelet with mickey heads on it and madison was too slow so she had to wait until we got to the candy store.   

 

and of course, we didn't stop there. we got haagen-dazs again. what a way to end our vacation.

    

Day Three 11.18.08

today was our early morning entrance at 9:00. we stopped at the corner coffee shop at downtown disney for a quick breakfast (cereal, a muffin and madeleines for max) on our way there, a bee landed on max and wanted to hang out for awhile, til i knocked him off with max's hat and darric stepped on him. 

when we got in the park, we headed straight for the nemo ride. this was my family's first time. dani and i sat off, but the rest of them went and only had about a 10 minute wait in line. then all the girls and billy rode on space mountain while the boys did the buzz ride a couple times.

darric couldn't let me hold the high score. he beat me with 385,000 and then 459,000. we all went on it again together. i give up, there's no way i can beat him now.... he knows too much. on our way out we walked through the store and max got a buzz lightyear gun (the exact same one we've bought on a previous disney trip). mackenzie got a california screamin' pin and we headed over to california adventure.

half the crew went on california screamin' while kenzie and i hung out with the little ones.

 
 
 

we did the grizzly river run again in 2 trips so we could all ride. billy still wasn't tall enough. but i think he was stretched about half an inch in the attempt to reach the 42" marker.

   

after we all got wet, we went over to tower of terror. me, kenzie, tommy and max hung out while everyone else took billy for the first time. monster's inc was next and then lunch. (which was a little later than usual). on the pier again. soup bowls and mexican for darric.

   
   

then over to toy story. the ride must have just opened back up because there was only a five minute wait this time.  mackenzie got to ride with a lady we didn't know, she wasn't too happy about this. she said the lady was very boring.

     
    

we got our first churros since we got here, rode a few more rides then got some frozen lemonades. darric purchased max a buzz lightyear balloon, (i tried to warn him about it) we watched a bit of the HSM3 show and headed back over to disneyland.

  

we rode pirates (max sat on my lap and wasn't as scared this time - he even sang some of the yo ho's. madison fell asleep before the ride ended) and the haunted mansion and then it was that time. 4:30. we left the park and headed to downtown disney for dinner at ralph brennan's jazz kitchen.

 

 we sat outside and it was a beautiful evening. darric told mackenzie she could have a steak since her birthday was coming up. she ordered the same thing as bill, Grilled Tournedos of Beef  and she ate every bit of what was on her plate. darric had the New York Strip Tchoupitoulas with the yummiest potatoes ever. i just had a stuffed potato and a side of beer battered onion rings. we were all very happy with this dinner.

 

we finished the night off with more haagen-dazs. just for the adults - the kids got ice-cream with their dinner.  as soon as we got our ice-cream, the little ones all decided to melt down at the same time. so we came right back to our rooms. on the way through the grand californian, madison was walking up the ramp and got her arm stuck in the rail. with the help of three adults (all with ice-cream in one hand) they managed to get it out. the girls fell asleep quickly, but max (who did not have a nap) lasted about 2 hours longer. 

Day Two 11.17.08

we started the day off with breakfast at storyteller's cafe (inside the grand californian hotel). i had mickey shaped waffles like most of the kids. they were yummy. max gave a hi-5 to chip but didn't want anything to do with the bears.

   
 

we got onto main street at 9:30 and played around in the candy store until they let us in the park at 10:00.

 

the first ride for the day... buzz lightyear. i ended up getting the high score for the day with 240,700 on our second ride. that didn't make darric too happy.

  

darric and max got new hats after this ride because their heads were getting a little toasted. the longest line for the day was peter pan which wasn't nearly as long as it normally is. other than that, we pretty much walked right on to everything. we did the matterhorn and the rides in fantasyland. then autopia.

 
 

and took turns on space mountain. we had lunch at the tomorrowland terrace. sandwiches.

  
(the cool dudes who aren't yet tall enough for space mountain)

   

we went and did splash mountain and learned of their new rule where someone 5' or taller had to sit in the front spot (i guess little ones were hitting their noses on the front of the log) i volunteered. and stayed nice and cool the rest of the day. before we left the park, we took one more ride on buzz while bill, kenzie, madi and billy went on star tours and then they all rode on the astro orbitors. probably one of the most uncomfortable rides.

    

darric kept watch of the time and at 4:30 it was time to go get dinner. rainforest cafe tonight. and we got a great table, back in a corner all by ourselves with the trees hanging down around us. max and madi had mini hot dogs and kenzie had mac & cheese.

we had haagen-dazs for dessert. all of us. our total was $49.44 and that was because they didn't have mine on there. so i got it for free.

 
after ice-cream, bill decided to hand out suckers. which resulted in a dance off, while the drummer guy banged on his drums in downtown disney.

 

we didn't stop there.... we headed over to marceline's confectionary for some chocolate and then the kettle corn stand for another bag (we still had about 1/3 left from the previous night).

we ended the night with a shower for kenzie, bubble bath for madi and max and a chocolate caramel pretzel and diet coke for me. darric had partof his english toffee slab. i don't understand how you can eat just part of something like that.

   
   

Day One 11.16.08

around 7:30 am we were ready and out the door. we stopped at the convenience store for gas and a couple treats. darric was right, gas was down 02 cents. we were doing so good on time, we didn't make one stop on the way there. and when we were about 15 minutes away... we realized our freeway was closed because of the fires. so we had to take an alternate route. 30 minutes later we were driving down disneyland drive right to our hotel. the paradise pier. this was the first time we had come this way and neither darric nor i knew there was a street that went under downtown disney. 

while checking in, i asked the lady if there were any rooms with views left. and she hooked us up. when darric came in with max, one of the workers gave max 2 of the little chevron cars and a coloring book. we took our luggage up to the room (#828) on the eighth floor. and then we met up with the daytons in their hotel and headed straight to california adventure. (the daytons came up yesterday and said it was really smokey out, but today it was perfect. a little on the warm side, but still perfect.

first thing on our list, lunch. we had soup bowls down by the pier, yummy. then we went and waited about 15 - 20 minutes to ride the new toy story ride. we all loved it. i pointed max's gun and he pulled the string. we did pretty good. but now that we all know how it works, the competition is on.

dani and i took the little ones on the carousel where billy was crowned prince (max was a little jealous) and darric, bill and mackenzie took madi for her first time on california screamin', she loved it. then we went and rode the grizzly river run. billy wasn't tall enough this time, so i sat off with the little ones. then we went to the bug's land and let the little ones have their turn on some rides.

  
  
the girls had to stop for their first purchases: hats.

we left the park around 5pm and went straight to tortilla joes for dinner. darric picked tonight and before dinner was over, we were deciding where to eat tomorrow night. max was out for the night, right after the food arrived.

we stopped for some treats, kettle corn and fountain drinks on our way back to our rooms. then we pigged out while we watched the disneyland channel. 

because max had to sleep in between two people, our sleeping arrangements went like this... mackenzie in the pull out sofa. me, madi and max on one side of our queen bed and darric all by himself on the other queen bed. i didn't get much sleep that night. i had to get up with max to use the restroom and then rub kenzie's legs when she woke up crying because they hurt.

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funny conversation of the day...
darric:  you have to be happy, because you're at disneyland
max:  this isn't disneyland
darric:  yes it is
max:  no it's not. there's no buzz

misc. photos from 11.16.08

grizzly river run
 

max was too small for soaring over california ... going to get on the chew chew ride 
 
 

tuck n roll's drive 'em buggies
 
 

max on the ladybug boogie ... me and kenzie on mulholland madness
 

on flik's flyers
  

the view from our room at night