Grandmas Visit

Grandma called and asked if she could come for a visit and bring some of the kids cousins with her. OF COURSE!!! Dutch and Maylee were super excited for their weekend with Grandma, Jackson, Ashley and Amber. It was going to be a quick trip, less than 24 hours so we had to pack it all in super tight. We started Friday night off with slumber party with Grandma in the living room. Fawn and five of her grandkids all slept in my living room. Dutch and Jackson on the air mattress with Grandma, Ashley and Maylee on the other air mattress and Amber on the couch. Seriously Fawn is such an amazing Grandma! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the slumber party, I'm still mad at myself for that.

Saturday morning we started the day at IHop's for breakfast. The kids all enjoyed ordering pancakes and eggs and sitting by their cousins. It was quite a nosiy experience, I'm sure people around was weren't pleased but who cares, the kids had fun and that's all that matters. After breakfast we headed straight over to the Lion feeding. First we stopped at the candy store, because the kids just didn't get enough sugar at breakfast and then we got to watch the lions eat a snack. Third time watching the lions eat and I still enjoy it. Although that will be the last time, the MGM is removing the lion exhibit from their casino. Sad! From there we headed to the "water zoo". We had to call it the "water zoo" because Jackson was afraid to go to the Shark Reef. But once we were there all the kids loved it and had a great time seeing all the fish and watching the sharks. After the Shark Reef, we had six very exhausted children, so we headed back to the house to eat a late lunch and let the kids play. The kids filled up on pizza, cookies and donuts, Maylee ate way too much. They loved jumping on the trampoline together, and Amber was quite the photographer taking pictures of everyone. We had a great time with Grandma, Jackson, Ashley and Amber and we can't wait for them to come back and visit us again. Thanks Fawn for a fun day!!!

I went to Joann's on Black Friday. The first time I've ever braved the crowds. It was crazy busy and I was there for 3 hours. But it was completely worth it. I saved a ton of money and got a bunch of patterns for 99 cents. Then the other day I was at Hobby Lobby and saw this adorable fabric on sale for $4 a yard. I knew it would make my girls the cutest dresses. And boy was I right.

I had to put all the pictures on here just so you can get a feel for how silly Maylee always is. She just can't help but be silly. I also made me a new skirt. I got the lace while I was in California. And unfortunately I was a little bit short on lace when I started making the skirt and I couldn't just run back and get some more so I had to improvise a bit. Which is why the kids and I are all facing the wall. David wanted to take a picture of the back of the skirt so I could see how it looked. And I didn't want to do it alone so I had the kids turn around with me. I was so in love with how the first two dresses turned out that I headed back to Hobby Lobby and bought the only other fabric that they had on sale for $4 in black & pink zebra print. Adorable!!!

The day after Christmas we headed over to my parents house. It was pretty low key, we exchanged our gifts with each other and then Christmas was over. For the rest of the week the kids and I stayed at Seth & Tara's house while David headed back up to Nevada to finish his sugery rotation. We had a blast staying at Seth & Tara's. First off their new house is gorgeous, huge and just plain perfect. It really made me not want to come home to my dirty carpet little rental. I so can't wait to own again one day. The kids had a blast being able to play with there cousins all day long and never having to leave each other. Wednesday I finally decided that Maylee had to go to the doctor and we couldn't put it off any longer. I didn't want to take her to the ER because our insurance won't cover it out of state and I figured taking her to our old pediatrician's office would be cheaper than a hospital bill. I took her in they did a urine test and she was definitely positive for a UTI. After 24 hours on antibiotics she was finally feeling much better. We really didn't do a whole lot, we never left Seth & Tara's house other than taking Maylee to the doctor but it was so great having a relaxing week of just hanging out while the kids were perfectly entertained with cousins. Kade, Jace, Dutch, Maxx Talli learned a new trick while there, she can now climb onto the trampoline when ever she likes. At first it made me nervous, and now I just think it is wonderful. She can climb on herself and will spend all day playing on our trampoline without me having to go back and fourth to help her. Neela...

Christmas Morning, just waking up and ready to go see what Santa brought.

Christmas Eve we put the kids down for bed so Santa could come. And then poor little Maylee kept coming out and having to go potty, and she would sit on the toilet and cry and scream. She definitely was at the starting stages of a UTI. It took us about a hour to finally get her to fall asleep so we could start getting all the presents under the tree. Well who happens to walk out in the midst of all it, Maylee. I think I had a mild panick attack as she saw David and I setting everything up. Luckily I think she was in too much pain to register what was going on. We finally got some AZO in her and after that took effect she started feeling much better.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 7am. I'm enjoying these days of the kids sleeping in on Christmas morning, I don't look forward to the 4am Christmas mornings. They were very excited for all of their presents and to see what Santa had brought.

Maylee got a dollhouse, which was a huge hit but not with just Maylee, with all the kids.

Dutch checking out all his cool stocking stuffers...

Opening his presents... All Maylee's presents... And Talli's... Enjoying their new toys... David and I got some gifts too, however there is only one picture of me with my gifts. I guess we just enjoy taking pictures of our kids more. David got a shirt, cologne and a groupon to the dentist, Nice Right?!?! And I got a Garmin, SWEET!!! It's safe to say that I'm in love with my Garmin.

And here is a picture of everyone after talking to Craig.

The Month of December in a Nutshell

I figure I have way to much catching up to do, that I'm going to just throw it all together and at least have most of what went on written down.

First off Santa sent one of his scout Elf's to stay with our family for the month of December to watch the kids and make sure they were being good. His name is Harold and he could be found sitting in a new spot every morning. The kids, most especially Dutch, loved having Harold stay with our family and tried very hard to be good so that he could report back to Santa and get some presents.

Then we had our Ward Christmas party and Santa Claus came. The kids were excited to sit on his lap, well all but Talli.

Waiting in line....

Sitting on his lap.... After much debate we decided to go to Arizona for Christmas. And it was a great Christmas. This was the Lazenby's side for Christmas. Christmas Eve we had the traditional Santa Party. It was a little different this year having the Santa Party on Christmas Eve day. We didn't change into our pajamas and take a ton of pictures, which was kind of sad for me. We still got a couple on Christmas Day but not all the shots that I enjoy getting every year. The kids loved having Santa come and enjoyed sitting on his lap and telling him what they wanted. And they most especially loved their gifts that they got from Santa at the party.

Listening to and watching Santa! (Ignore my horrible face)

Dutch got to be Santa's special helper! Opening their bags from Santa. All the kids that were at the party with Santa... To be continued....

Talli has learned a lot from her big sister and one of the things she has recently learned is changing her clothes several times a day. My girls are experts and putting their clothes on and oh how they love to change them. Talli and Maylee share a dresser and Talli's clothes are in the top two drawers and Maylee's are in the bottom too, so Maylee can get dressed by herself. Well now that Talli enjoys dressing herself she is mostly found wearing Maylee's clothes because that is all that she has access too. Her favorite thing to wear is Maylee's swimsuits but the other day she was very insistent that she wear Maylee's dress. It was way to big but she still managed to look adorable. And just because Dutch & Maylee are cute too...

Talli has definitely been the "baby" a lot longer than Dutch or Maylee had the privilege of being the baby. Unfortuately you realize after you have a kid grow up and then have another one, just how fast they grow up. Now I understand why the baby of the family is always the baby of the family. They never have anyone new come and kick them out of that spot, and as a mother you just can't let your baby grow up if you never have another baby. Talli is our baby. She'll be two next month and I can't even begin to believe that Dutch at two had a 8 month old sister and Maylee at two was being potty trained. They were still babies and yet to me they were the big kids. But not Talli she is definitely the baby and I am so glad I have had the opportunity to have a baby for an entire two years without having another one. She'll definitely be a bit more spoiled than the other two because of it but it's also helped me to realize that I need to let Dutch and Maylee still be the little kids and not just the big kids. Because I've realized now that 5 & 3 is not a big kid, they're still little, they still want to be held and snuggled and I'm going to try and hold and snuggle them as much as possible until the day they decide that they are actually too big but I won't make that decision for them.

I was at my friends house and Talli climbed into her car seat and grabbed the babies binky and sat in there for about 10-15 minutes straight. It made me realize she might still be my baby but she's not a tiny baby anymore! And one of Maylee & Brookie hanging out.

Snow!

David one time introduced Maylee to "snow" (powdered sugar) to put on her pancakes. Since then she will not eat her pancakes with syrup and she has to pour the snow on her plate by herself. Dutch and Talli have followered her example and now they too love snow. The only problem that I have with it is they would rather lick the snow off their plates then actually eat it with their pancakes.

Talli after having licked her plate clean.

New Year's Eve

New Years was a blast this year. All of David's siblings came over for the evening and we played just dance 3 and hung out. Dawn and I played so much and danced so hard until we were hot and sweaty, it was a blast. I'm pretty sure that has got to be my favorite video game. We got most of the boys to dance some songs and it is always hilarious to watch. Maylee, Dutch and Talli also loved playing Just Dance. I really need to get it for our Wii. About two minutes before midnight we finally decided that we better watch the ball drop and say happy new years since that was the whole point of the evening right? It was hard to turn the games off but we managed to do it.