Merry Christmas 2012!!

Christmas is so exciting with kids. I get more excited than them probably. My shopping is usually done by Fall and after seeing all the Black Friday deals, I realize that I made a good move. A lot of the presents I got during the Summer ended up being some of the big Black Friday toy items and I got a much better deal on them. So, me and the UPS man will continue to have a close relationship as I will be ordering my presents year round and trying to find places to store them!

 

Caid found a Santa hat and wanted to wear it the last day of school before the break. My friend was helping in her class that day and said she never took it off!

 I knew the break would be killer on all of us. The girls were already getting whiny and fighting the first day so I pulled out some new dressups I had gotten them so they would have something new to play with and the TV would stay off. It definitely helped!

We had our annual adult dinner with the Eldredge's the weekend before Christmas, and the Rideout adult dinner the weekend after (which Micah drove up from Vegas and surprised everyone). We had a Ward Christmas party, the full Rideout family party we missed because we had sick kids, and Zach's company party. On Christmas Eve Eve we had the Rideout family party with dinner and skits. We should have won, but Simon bribed everyones vote with Chic-fil-a toys. For the Eldredge Christmas Eve party we had dinner and a pinata, white elephant gifts, and presents from Grandma and Grandpa. My girls both chose the white elephant gifts that we brought because they couldn't bear to see them go.Growing up the Rideout's had a tradition of sitting on their dad's knee and then going around the room and everyone said something nice about the person and then they got a dumb gift. We kept it up with everyone until the past few years when there got to be so many people it would go on for hours. So now each just do it in their own families. Our girls don't quite get the concept. When we asked them what they like about each other, their responses were "I don't like when she won't share. I don't like how she says she's not my best friend. I don't like when mom yells at me. I don't like when she's rude."

 Then we got to open our Christmas Eve pajamas and head to bed! We have a tradition of doing a puzzle Christmas Eve while the kids are in bed. Every year it ends up being Kalee and Zach doing the puzzle and Alex and I watching. This year I bought a easy puzzle so I would actually help. It ended up being done in a half hour so they pulled out another harder one and I was done helping. Alex and I decided to go to Target to find a cord for his iPad and decided that's our new tradition. Everything is marked down like 70% Christmas Eve so we did some shopping and picked up Chinese food.

 The girls loved their Christmas. Lots of pink! Barbies, babies, dolls, dollhouse, strollers, doll crib and carriers, makeup, jewelry. And then of course, lots of delicious Swedish pancakes to follow!

Jordy Quotes

"Mom, can I have a drink of your Dr. Pepsi?"

The kids were in bed and wouldn't stop fighting. They came out complaining about each other so I made them apologize and tried to send them back to bed. Jordyn asked if they could stay up and I told her no because they wouldn't stop fighting. She put her hands on her hips and said, "But we said sorry!"

"Caidence, move your shoes or I'm going to fart on them!"

Jord was putting on her shoes and was asking if she was putting them on the correct foot. My mom said, "That one's your right foot. What's your other foot called?" Jordyn answered, "My other foot."

Caid Quotes

Caidence's primary was talking about missionaries and going on a mission. She raised her hand and said, "I've been on a mission! I went on a mission to find my mom's brush and I found it under the bench!"

We had been having a rough day of Caidence not wanting to mind me. We were going to pick up a babysitter and when she got in the car, she asked the girls what they had been doing that day. Without skipping a beat, Caid said, "Not minding."

Her prayer: Please tell Santa we've been good. Bless me and Jordyn won't be naughty. Bless we won't eat all our candy canes in one day.

She told me her favorite Christmas song is "Feliz Mommydad (Navidad)"

We went out to my nieces dance performance with my parents and on the way home, my dad stopped at Christmas street to see the lights. You drive around this neighborhood and each house has a sign with the words of "Twas the night before Christmas." Caidence recited the entire thing from memory and I could not figure out how she knew it until the end she said "Merry Christmas to the Rideout's and to all a goodnight." I realized we were given a book last year from Zach's parents with their voice reading the book. So after we had seen them all and were driving home, Caid asked my dad why he took us there. He said he took us to see the lights. She responded, "We could have just read the book at home."

Happy 30th!!

I am officially out of my 20's. I may still feel 21, but I am now the big 3-0. For my birthday, Zach started the gift giving a week early. He did a 7 day countdown of things I enjoy...food and clothes! He even had a thought to go with each one.

Day 1: Cafe Rio gift card for $20 because its my last week in my 20's.
Day 2: Old Navy gift card because I'm not as "old" as I think I am.
Day 3: Subway gift card because he wouldn't "sub" me for anyone.
Day 4: Noodles & Co. gift card because these may be "cheesy" but they're meaningful!
Day 5: Sonic gift card because I'm "out of this world."
Day 6: Boyfriend fit sweats because he's my only boyfriend.
Day 7: More sweats...because if I tried to buy you real clothes you'd probably return them.

For my birthday lunch, we went out to Italian Village.

Then I found this later that day. Alex had filled my freezer with treats so I could gain "30" pounds.

And we finished out the night with Red Robin and Mile High Mud Pie. Apparently the way to my heart is food!

Fall 2012

Here's quite a few of our family pictures we got done this Fall. These girls are just too cute for words! At the photo shoot was a different story. They didn't want to hold still and Jordyn refused to smile. I finally whispered in her ear "I'll take you to McDonald's after" and she would give a big huge cheese and then go back to pouting.

Jazz 100 Club

It pays to have friends in high places. We were invited to go to the Jazz game with my friend Angie. We then found out that they were in the 100 Club section and came with dinner before. The price of each ticket said $620 and she had four given to her from her boss. The dinner was prime rib, shrimp, crab legs, meatballs, cheeses, desserts and then we had access to the snack lounge with popcorn, drinks, ice cream, nachos, more desserts. Between all the food and sitting on the leather chairs so close to floor instead of the uncomfortable hard green chairs, I may never be able to enjoy a Jazz game the same way again!

Black Friday

Late Thanksgiving night I headed out with my cute sister in laws, Mandy and Natalie, for some Black Friday deals. I was already done shopping, but I'm always up for a party so I went just for the fun of it. We started out at Walmart and I did get a couple good deals, but Natalie and Mandy filled two carts full! We make a good team. Natalie stops to look at everything so luckily we have cell phones so we can call and find her. Mandy and I are more on a mission and race thru the stores. A few of the things we wanted were gone, but once we were in the checkout line we found them in the returns basket. After that we headed over to Target. It was empty! Everyone had come right when it opened so by the time we got there, we had no crowds to deal with. There wasn't anything there we were really looking for, but we still ended up finding some pretty good finds! Then we had to make a stop at McDonalds for some peppermint hot chocolate and cheeseburgers. They taste even better in the middle of the night! Our last stop was the mall. It was pretty crazy, but mostly of teenagers who wanted an excuse to hang out in the middle of the night.

The next day we headed to Scheels for our first time. I took the girls on a ferris wheel for my first and last time. Every time they would move I'd panic that we were going to fall out. Caidence asked why I was holding her arm so tight. I wasn't super impressed with the store.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

You can see from these pictures that I was lacking ambition this year. The following set of pictures contain last years baking first and this years second. Rolls from scratch vs Texas Roadhouse rolls. A fancy turkey shaped veggie platter vs plain old veggies. Gluten free cookies from scratch vs store bought gluten free cookies. And it all tasted great!!

As we were getting ready to eat on the Eldredge side, Uncle Alex pulled out a $50 from Kalee's purse and told Strider it was all his if he could eat an entire plate of turkey...guts. No one is quite sure what was in that pile. He started working on it...

...and we all watched in disgust.

Almost done, and feeling it.

But he proudly finished it all.

And then Alex stuck this in front of him and offered him $100 more to eat it. He declined. And didn't eat any Thanksgiving dinner.

We set out the crafts for the little girls and then set out all of our stuff. But due to technical difficulties, we weren't very successful.

And Jordyn moved on from crafts to treats.

We got our craft figured out (sort of) a few days later and now have a cute Christmas display.

And I somehow didn't get any pictures at the Rideout dinner! Maybe because no one was eating turkey guts.