Busch Garden's Christmastown

As part of our weekend as my parents' house, we (minus Dan) drove up to Williamsburg and went to Busch Garden's. So fun! The first we did was wait in line to see Santa. It was a longer wait than we thought, but it worked out. Kevin liked the elves just fine, but Elena was too scared to get in the picture. I don't know if you can tell or not, but the elves all had pointed ears and glitter on their cheeks just like in "The Santa Clause."
Elena was happy and sweet when it was time to sit with Santa, and it was Kevin's turn to be scared. The poor little man cried the whole time. He waved at Santa when we left though. I think he just wasn't too happy about sitting with him. These are the pictures that I took with my camera, but my mom actually bought the official ones despite the fact that Kevin was bawling. We have one on our fridge now.
Isn't this the cutest Santa's workshop ever?! I felt like we were on a movie set. We were the only ones in the room, the line was through a doorway and around a corner.

The rest of the night we saw shows, ate some snacks, and shopped. Bethany and I took this picture in one of the stores. I love my sister!

My cute parents:

Some of the rides were open. This was Elena's first time getting to drive a bumper car solita! She was so proud of herself.
Kevin is a huge "Frosty" fan. He was pretty tired by this time, but he was still willing to pose for a moment.
In the Christmas spirit: Of course we had to decorate our house for Christmas the first day that we were back home!

Thanksgiving

We were lucky to be able to go to my parent's house again. Yum! I love having them close. We enjoyed a busy Thanksgiving morning filled with parade-watching, cooking, and leaf-jumping but had a very lazy evening topped off with slivers of several of the 6 homemade pies.
Here's a bunch of pictures of fun in the leaves:

My dad is the coolest!

Who doesn't remember how fun this was when you were little?
Kevin was not a fan of the leaves in the morning but finally warmed up to the idea by end of the day:

On Friday morning, we went to see Tangled with Shelby, Laurel, and Michael. It was so fun to go with everyone: both my parents, Bethany, Dan, Kevin, and Elena. Everyone really liked the movie. I thought it was great. It'll be one that we buy for sure. Kevin was so good - especially considering that this was his first ever movie in a theater, and it was during his naptime. Friends since birth:

Bonus Pictures

Look who's spoiled rotten! :) The lollipop was one of the decorations for our Young Women's Noche de Excelencia (with the youth from church). It was Hansel and Gretel themed. Elena was so happy! She licked it a bunch for a day or two, but quickly forgot about it. Thank goodness! :)
One of Kevin's friends had a Buzz costume. Since he's a second child, he already has a favorite movie: Toy Story. (When Elena was this age, she wasn't even watching TV yet.)
He was in heaven! He kept pointing to himself and saying, "Buzz. Buzz."
After putting on my makeup one morning, I was surprised to see this. I walk into the kitchen and Elena said, "Look, Mom, I wrote pig." What a smartie!
Dan and I actually went on a date in November with a paid babysitter who put the kids to bed and everything. My friend Whitney asked me to document it and then post pic, so here it is (taken by wonderful Elisa before we left).

Halloween 2010

A little backstory about this Halloween: Elena's Dorothy costume was 75% off last November, so I figured that this would be an easy year to have us all dress up together. On Oct. 31st 2000, Dan and I went on a date as a cow (Dan) and a farmer (me), but we haven't coordinated costumes since then. Most years, we don't even dress up. This was a lot of fun. Kevin's super cute costume was a consignment buy and then Dan and I slapped our costumes together mostly from things that were already at home.

My friend Jenny and her cute daughter Aris at the church's trunk-or-treat

Have I mentioned that I love him?!

Elena and Kevin are about to go trick-or treating in this pic.

Kevin cried and tried to run away at the 1st house. At the next house he hesitantly held out his bucket. Once he realized that he got candy every time, he couldn't go fast enough. At the 3rd, he ran past his sister to get to the door first. We had so much fun!

I thought this was too cute. This is what Elena wore one night while she was watching Dan light the candles in the jack-o-lanterns:

I'm excited to see what the kids will be for Halloween in 2011. This was the first year that I didn't buy at least one costume a year ahead of time. They'll get to choose next year.

Pumpkins!

During Whitney's visit, we also went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins. We took so many pictures of the fun that I think I'd better let it have it's own post.

At Hawks' Pumpkin Patch:

A little blast from the past - 2008:
2010:

What a stud!!!

Whitney is not a fan of this picture, but I love it!

Always so meticulous:

Kevin didn't quite understand: "Do you want me to eat it? Throw it on the ground? Is it okay if I get dirty?"
He had some help with the face, but Kevin draw the ears 100% on his own.

Whitney was gracious enough to pose with the first pumpkins that were done:

Here's the completed set: Whitney, Elena, Dan, Me, Kevin

Whitney's Visit: Biltmore and Reynolda

We were soooo lucky in October to have my wonderful, fabulous friend Whitney come to visit for a week! It was perfect weather and the absolute, most beautiful part of fall. Everything was just starting to turn all red and orange. You can really tell in the pictures that we took on the balcony at Biltmore. We went on her first day in town (Saturday):
I was super happy that Dan was able to come. I'd been hoping to go there with him and Whitney ever since the last time she came to visit in 2005. We hadn't been able to get a trip together at the time. I guess we thought that going 5 years later with 2 small children would be better. :) Dan got us all discount tickets at the hospital and we had a perfect day!

I love them. They were so good during the tour. We were in the house for about 3 hours. Elena listened to the self-guided tour on her headphones for the first 2 hours. Kevin was good as long as I kept him entertained with new toys or held him. It worked out well since I'd been to Biltmore once before.

I tried so hard all day to get a pic of both of them smiling and looking at the camera. Impossible. This was as close as I got:
This is a side view of the house. Whitney and I walked over to the gardens while Dan entertained the kiddos at the toy store. There's a picture of Whit in the amazing gardens below this one.
I wish that we'd been able to take pics inside, but of course, that's not allowed. Plus, if we had been able to, this entry would be even longer!

Everything was beautiful and I'm so grateful that we went!

When we were all done with our very long day (right before she and Kevin passed out in their car seats), we asked Elena, "What was your favorite part of Biltmore House?"

Her response: "The [shuttle] bus ride and playing in the dirt."

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Dan had Tuesday morning off, so Whit and I were able to visit the Reynolda House while he watched Kevin and Elena. I cannot even express how great this was. I was out of my house with one of my very best friends at a museum with no kids!
During her trip we also shopped, drove around town looking at leaves and gorgeous houses, we talked, watched movies, and played a TON of Skip-Bo. It was the perfect week! Come again anytime, Whit!

Preschool Fieldtrip #1

We went to the Homeland Creamery on September 30th with Elena's preschool class. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day. We had a great time on our hayride, the kids loved feeding a baby calf, and running around.
I loved seeing how their cows are treated. I once toured a giant dairy farm in UT and I couldn't believe the difference. It almost made me tempted to start spending $5 on a gallon of milk. Almost. Maybe I will be able to support such great and small companies in the future!