Update, Gymnasitcs & Vegas

I have to take a little break from all the catch up posts and do some current events, or I'll get way too behind! I am 37 weeks today. Black is supposed to be slimming. . .I guess there are somethings that just can't be hidden!

Harrison officially lost his first tooth this week. (Not counting the one he had pulled a few months ago.) He was very excited!

I'm a little sad because that seems like such a grown up thing to have happen. Plus, once the big teeth come in, they don't look like little kids anymore. It's the beginning of the funny looking stage until they get all their big teeth in, braces on and then off. I told him he looks like a jack-o-lantern. He liked that and tells everyone.

Harrison and Nate went to Skate City for a fundraiser for school. It was Harrison's first time skating. Despite the serious look of concentration here, he said he had a great time. Nate said whenever Harrison saw one of his friends, he'd try to go really fast. Funny.


Elizabeth has been really sick for a few days. That's always sad, but she's better today. She is very good at playing the part of the patient, needing to be held constantly and carried every where for the first day and a half. At least I was able to get a lot of my book read!

Nate FINALLY sold his Altima this weekend. It has been sitting in front of our house for about 17 months. I have threatened several times to give it away. Not having a 13 year-old, faded, peeling, magenta car parked in front of our house has caused our white trash level to go way down and our property value to go way up. Nate is a sentimental guy and says he feels like he lost a child. I said I feel like I finally took a dump that was a long time coming (I'm afraid my white trash level just rose again with that comment.)

Harrison gave his second talk in Primary today. I forgot about it and didn't end up writing it until last night. We practiced a few times last night and a few times this morning and he was able to memorize the whole thing (granted it followed a pattern and was very basic). I could tell he was nervous and shy about it, but he did the whole thing! I was so proud of him and know he felt good about himself. His theme was, "I Know Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me."

Alright, back to the vacation posts. The day after Christmas, we rented out a gymnastics place. They all had fun playing around and the former gymnasts got to relive their glory days. Elizabeth liked being rolled around in the donut. It was a hair raising experience.

There are some videos of Nate and Harrison's tricks at the end of this post. I can't figure out how to move them up here.

Straight from the gym we left for Vegas. Jayson and Victoria came with us. Here we are at the lion exhibit at the MGM Grand. There is a glass tunnel that you can walk through and the lion was asleep right overhead. At one point the lion woke up and Harrison shimmied down off of Jayson's shoulders as fast as he could. It was pretty funny.



We went to M&M world, which was kind of fun. I really could have lived without the super lame 3-D movie.





The gem of Vegas is the Bellagio fountain, in my opinion. Here we are waiting for it to start. Unfortunately, walking over a mile to get to it while being 8 months pregnant and having a plantars wart on my foot didn't make for a very enjoyable experience. Neither did the people handing out "advertisements." If you've been to Vegas at night, you know what I'm talking about. Harrison kept looking down and asking "what are those magnets all over the ground?" I felt like the worst parent on earth. Seriously, who takes their kids to the strip on a Saturday night? I guess the kind of people who leave a junkie old car parked in front of their house for a year and a half.





Not only were my kids improperly dressed for the cold, and exposed to lots of pictures of improperly dressed women, but they were also kept up WAY too late! Can you tell I had a bit of a B.A. about this night? The only redeeming factor was that we stayed in the nicest hotel of our entire trip. I took a long bath to relieve my aching feet and body and then had the best night's sleep in one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in. You're welcome for the free endorsement, Staybridge Suites.


So here are the video clips from the gym (Keep in mind, this was all the same day. With a 6 hour drive in between. Just trying to put all of my complaining into perspective.) Nate was happy that he "still had it." I always love to see him do his thing.



Harrison wants to be just like his dad.


Only 3 more posts to go and I'm done with this trip!

Christmas All The Way

There was some confusion at our house about when it was going to really be Christmas. Harrison got it pretty quickly, he knew it was on the 25th. Elizabeth finally grasped that it was just Christmastime not "Christmas All The Way," as she dubbed it. So I give you, Christmas All The Way.

Despite my overload of pictures of Christmastime, I don't have very many pictures of the big day. I guess I was busy enjoying it all, which is probably better. I am a little bitter that my significant other didn't think to grab the camera and document that the little red hen of Christmas really was there that morning to enjoy all of her hard work. I guess that's part of being the little red hen, who really was somewhat of a martyr, and should have just demanded what she wanted (which I usually do and should have done that morning regarding the pictures!)

Nate's brother Jayson and his wife, Victoria spent the night on Christmas Eve. I was glad, because I am a more-the-merrier-especially-on-holidays kind of girl. Otherwise, we would have been alone. The night before I told them all that I wasn't going to make the kids wait any longer than 8 AM to open their presents. I was laying there awake long before the kids (pregnancy insomnia + Christmas excitement = I can't believe these kids are actually still asleep). They finally woke up around 7:30, watched one show (Harrison said, "We better stay in here so Santa will come." I guess he thought we were last on the route or something.) Then at 8, everyone else got up and we commenced.

This is the Santa Stuff. The hit of the stockings were the fun (Hello Kitty and Bakugan) spinning toothbrushes and toothpaste. They got sleeping bags (The practical side of me kicked in and I remember getting sleeping bags one year and being SO excited. They weren't as excited, but we needed good sleeping bags and got a great deal.) Harrison got the "Bakugan Gauntlet Power Strike (basically a $25 calculator that he was dying to have), and a Baukugan 3 pack. Elizabeth got her Sleeping Beauty Barbie and a Dr. set (that she loved as much as I thought she would).

I won't bore you with listing0 off the rest of the loot.

A few years ago Harrison was obsessed with Spiderman and had a Spiderman Christmas. This year he is obsessed with Bakugan and had a Bakugan Christmas. He was pleased as punch. He did get some non-Bakugan things.

Elizabeth got this Snow White dress up from my mom, she likes it. I will say, Snow White is an under appreciated princess. Me theory is that it's because she doesn't wear any pink or have long hair. I pointed out to Elizabeth that out of all the princesses, she looks the most like Snow White. I just remembered, I played the part of Snow White in a play in 8th Grade. Maybe if I show her the video of that, she'll be even more excited about her dress up.

For Christmas breakfast I tried two new recipes. Cottage Cheese Pancakes (sounds a little weird, I know. Had potential, but I think I either didn't do it right or need to tweak it a bit). With Orange Sauce (very yummy - definitely a keeper). Thanks, Megan. Please note who is NOT pictured!

For Christmas dinner, we went to Becky's. She was on a mission to make a fancy roast. Not a pot roast with gravy, but "carved meat" with au jus and horse radish (I'm still developing a taste for horse radish.) We were a little nervous that it was underdone, but it tasted delicious. Funny story about the au jus. She asked me to make it. I got the drippings (sadly, there weren't that many), and was trying to remove the fat. It wasn't going well, so I had the idea to freeze it and then I could pick the fat off the top. The freezer was full, so I stuck it outside (love using outside as a freezer/fridge in the winter). A few minutes later I went to retrieve my limited amount of drippings, and was a little perplexed to find an empty bowl. I didn't know the dog was outside on a potty break. Kaki had her Christmas feast in the form of roast beef drippings (what could be more yummy for a dog?) And our au jus was beef bullion.

Auntie Victoria did the little girls' hair in pony tails (one of Elizabeth's first ever!) and I thought they looked darling. The I remembered why I've never attempted this myself, because she wanted hers removed within minutes.

Wendy found these green sweaters at Banana Republic on clearance for something like $1.47. So she got one for all the guys. The girls happened to have on black. So we did a little couples picture.

And here's the whole gang. Well, as much of the gang as was there for Christmas. Technically it's about half the gang.

Merry Christmas All The Way!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve was a jam packed day. Elizabeth and I started the day by giving ourselves Christmas Pedicures while the boys went sledding.

Then I had to get some pictures of her because I rarely blow dry her hair and when I do I think it looks so darn cute! Here she is holding the Baby Jesus from one of Nate's mom's nativities.

This picture is out of order and blogger is being very uncooperative right now. I can't move it. ARG.


Growing up, we always went to a movie on Christmas Eve, so we carried on that tradition. The kids wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakle (or Squeak World, as Harrison calls it). Despite Elizabeth needing to go to the bathroom 3 times, we enjoyed ourselves.




I let the kids open one of their presents from my mom when we got home, because I knew they would come in handy while making cookies for Santa. We all loved the aprons!




Santa was really craving peanut butter and chocolate this year.

Nate's sisters and I determined that we wanted the focus of Christmas Eve to be spiritual activities and not cooking and/or "hanging out." So, we decided to keep it super simple and get Panda Express take out. (My family always goes out to eat on Christmas Eve, for the same reason. We do our nice, big meal on Christmas Day.) We loved that there was no prep and no clean up! Harrison polished off almost an entire container of Orange Chicken himself! Fa Ra Ra RaRa!

(Insert Nativity Picture from above!) Next we did the Nativity, complete with Mary & Joseph (Elise & Sterling)

A shepherd and 2 sheep (Bella, Hope and a stuffed animal)

2 pretty angelic angels (Elizabeth and Carissa)



And Three Wisemen (Harrison, Caleb, and JonLuke)

Then we watched a short video of the nativity.
Nate's sister Wendy's father-in-law made her the neatest set of chimes, and all of this music to go along with it that we always do on Christmas Eve. I LOVE this tradition. Although, this year with many more kids than adults (and many of them little kids), the chimes didn't sound quite as lovely as usual. We eventually decided to just sing Christmas hymns. We still missed all the other voices (it's sad when I am the ONLY soprano trying to carry the melody alone), but we felt the spirit none the less. It wouldn't be a Watabe Christmas without Angles We Have Heard On High sung in parts.

Last we sang happy birthday to our brother-in-law Pete (I feel bad, some years we give his b-day more attention than we did this year, but I'm sure he's used to that, having his b-day on Christmas Eve.)

Then everyone went home, we put the kids to bed, did the last minute Christmas prep. (which I found, takes much more than a minute, even if all the presents are already wrapped!) and went to bed! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Random Utah Activities

The first night of our trip we drove to Vail. Nate had some hotel nights that were expiring, so we thought we'd get a little of the drive behind us. Plus our kids LOVE hotels, so that was fun. It made the rest of the drive the next day pretty easy, and we were able to make it in time to see Uncle Andrew (who was supposed to leave for Virginia that day). Andrew lives in a beautiful townhouse that is bigger than our house. And he shares it with one other guy! His friend's parents own it and so they don't want a bunch of college boys living in it, but they trust Andrew. They each have a floor to themselves plus the middle floor to share. The thing about Andrew is, he is the most laid back guy and doesn't really care where he lives. He spent the summer sleeping outside on a balcony in Uganda. Anyway, the kids adore Andrew. He is non-stop fun for them.

Nate's parents were going to Hawaii for Christmas, so they hadn't put up a tree. Of course, we needed a tree, so we put one up. The kids had fun decorating it and I let them be much more involved, because I already had my tree the way I wanted it at our house!

It was fun to see some of Nate's ornaments from growing up. Did every primary child get a red plastic apple ornament with their name on it in 1984? Or was it just the 5 year olds? Or out of all the kids in the whole church, was it just our two primary teachers that both had this gift idea?

The Sunday before Christmas we enjoyed going to Church with Nate's sister, Becky's family. Their last two kids are the same age and gender as ours, so they had fun going to primary and nursery together. We also got to hear Becky give a heart warming talk. That night we all went to see the lights on Temple Square. They were beautiful, but it was SO cold!!!

Here's the whole gang.

Harrison said, "I want to live here all the time." I said, "Don't you think you'd be really cold?" He said, "Well, Jesus lives here, he could warm me up." Good point.

Remind me that the red coat buttoned all the way up is not a great look for me when I'm 8 months pregnant.

Elizabeth wanted me to take a picture of her and the picture she colored at Nursery.

Cabella's is a huge outdoorsman store very close to Nate's parents house. We drive right by it several times whenever we're there and we'd heard it was a cool place to take kids. With Nate on business and his parents in Hawaii, we were looking for things to do, so we decided to check it out. They have a huge taxidermy display which my kids really enjoyed. They could not stop talking about all the "dead animals that were real." Harrison truly talked about it NON-STOP from there to IKEA (which took at least 20 minutes.) He barely took a breath. Later he got started up again and continued going ON and ON. (I really don't know who my children get their incessant rambling from.)

They wanted a picture with the bear. I insisted on one more with the moose, because it is a dream of mine to see a moose in the wild. I really like their huge antlers. If I saw one in the wild without the huge antlers, I would not consider my dream fulfilled. Considering how many opportunities I create for myself to be "in the wild", I highly doubt seeing a moose with or without antlers will ever come to fruition. But one can always dream.

4 posts down, 6 to go.