Christmas at the Zobe's

My first Christmas with just us. It was quiet,relaxing, nice and non rushed. I pulled the pre-wrapped presents out around 10 on Christmas eve, lovingly placed stuff around the tree and was in bed by 10:45. I liked that. Mason was up a little after 7 and the other 2 were quick to follow. We opened presents and had a great morning.

My intent was to "wrap" the entrance to the living room hoping that they would tear thru it like they do at football games. Not so. They lifted the corners and went inside. Such good behaved children. :) Not wanting to destroy anything that isn't theirs.

Yep, Nat got a Barbie jeep. It was, of course, a big hit.

Don't you absolutely just adore this little pixie horse bike??!!!! Thanks mom and dad! He loves it!

How I love this kid! His own fishing pole with hat and tackle box. Look out lakes here we come!! And I do mean we as in Tyler doesn't care much for fishing and I think it's awesome! Night crawlers? Umm yeah, I might have a hard time with that one.

As for me, I wanted a new pair of slippers.

Thanks Jean and Maren! My new ones are nice and toasty.

And so that was Christmas. I hope you all had a great one. Now, onto a great new year!!!

Yeah, I know...

Yeah, I know it's December 14th. I know I didn't blog in November. I know I'm behind. But I am done with Christmas-shopping, presents, the dinner everything. Still a little unsure where to buy silly bands, but hoping that the other presents will through the boy off the scent. I am excited for Christmas this year. I am excited for the gift from Santa that will hopefully be a tradition for a while to come. We have The Polar Express book on CD and it seems that we listen to that story everytime we get in the car. I decided to buy one silver bell and put it by itself in a box. I'll slip it under the tree towards the back and when the kids find it and open it- there will lay a silver bell from Santa Claus's sleigh. With a note attached "Always believe in the spirit of Christmas." Mr.C

Genius I know!!! Love it! Love the idea. Thanks Chris van Allsburg. You wrote a great book!

I won't recap November really. It came, it went. My parents came for Thanksgiving which was fabulous. I love family so much. My dear sweet friend moved her family to San Diego. That was hard and came with flowing tears. Both from me and the kids.

But now we have a reason to go to sunny CA.

And November saw a new family member. A very cute, small, family member that we have given the name Sam.

Sam is our Elf on the shelf. This cute guy watches my kids behavior and then flies to the North Pole to tell Santa how they were that day. Then he watches from a new spot. Genius! I love Sam. He has saved many a tantrum and fit throwing since coming. Is there a year round elf? Does anyone know? If there is please tell me so I will purchase him right away. And that's us so far. Oh, and we got, what is in my humble opinion, the most perfect Christmas tree ever! Real, smelly, and full. Love it. Love Christmas!.

huh????!!???

I love my sweet Natalie. We are best friends and I hope she wants to be my best friend forever. I also love to hear that girl sing. But, as I heard her singing away the other day I started to question exactly what they're teaching my sweet princess in Kindergarten.

This is what I heard, sung to the tune "This old man"

"This old man, he has crack
in a city on his back
with a la la la la give a dog a bone
this old man is having stones."

I half expected the next line to talk about a magical white powder that makes everyone happy. I know we live in a REALLY liberal city, but come on people. She's only 5!

Halloween-ZoBell style

Actually we don't really have a style, but here's our Halloween experience anyway. I took the kids to Hunters pumpkin patch where Mason and Nat loved getting lost in the hay maze and Dallin and I went down the big chute slide about 50 times. He loved it! We got our pumpkins out i n the field and carved them later that night.

Mason's is scary, Nat's is happy, Dallin's is a dog. The kids had fun. Sadly, they caught the pumpkin disease and the inside's turned green with white fuzz. We had our own science project growing in the window sill for a while. Enter the Family Fun kit with sticky felt faces that you stick on the pumpkin. No carving. The kids were just as excited. We'll remember that one for next year.

The kids did trunk or treat at the church. Mason was Darth Vader with no mask. So he looked like a kid dressed in black. Nat was a pink fairy, and Dallin was an alligator. Except his zipper broke so it didn't really zip.

Good times had by all though. And the chili dinner afterwards was super yummy!

I decided to throw a Halloween party for Natalie's kindy class. Just the girls though. I had them all were their costumes, because you can't at school. (Which is a completely different subject that I won't get into.) I had made sandwiches in the shape of pumpkins and bats, string cheese cut in half, and then took a knife and made slits in the cheese to look like fingers. Apples, carrots and dip. And dry ice in my big orange pot. It was truly the hit of the party. And then when I dumped apple juice in and it made the bubbly sound, they all screamed and ran around the kitchen. MOM POINTS, MOM POINTS!!!!

And then we made a craft. I am NOT a crafty person. I will ruin stuff as easy as putting hot glue on a little round eye. When the RS talk about having craft night, I cringe and shudder at the very thought of sitting around a table with "crafty things" all around. But thanks to the family fun website, I found a craft that maybe, maybe, I could do. I stayed up the night before and painted 10 tiny pumpkins black. Traced some bat wings on craft foam along with eyes and ears and TA DAH!!!!

This is Natalie's. I give family fun magazine credit for coming up with this cute idea. I give myself credit plus a gold star for actually doing something that turned out. Yeah me. Yeah Halloween.

The zoo

I think I like zoos. Or maybe I like seeing how excited the kids get when they see each animal. We went to the zoo last Saturday. It turned out to be perfect because it wasn't hot and all the animals were out roaming around. They have a new tiger exhibit and that was pretty cool.

Yep. The kids took a ride on the camal. Then announced when they got off that maybe they could go across the desert. Nat proceeded to tell the other kids in line how much camals drink and why they have humps. "For holding water inside the humps." Gotta love that girl.

The aquarium is so awesome! The kids spent a good chunk of time just watching the fish and then down to the sharks. Don't they look terrified?! The sharks were pretty cool though. And neat to see up close. We'll have to hit the shark feed next time, I'm sure that's a sight to see.

Nice pose miss moo. "Ain't nothin but a shark! Uh. uh , uh." with the finger snap and the head roll.

And how is it possible that my Dilly Dal is old enough to hold onto the carousel horse by himself? Boy these kids get big fast. What a great time at the zoo. Thanks weather man for helping make it a great day.

Another year has come and gone

It was my birthday last Monday, the 20th. It was a great day filled with homemade cards and phone calls and a lemon cake made by my sweet Love and kids. Nat wanted to make me a tinkerbell cake. I guess I know what kind of cake she'll want this summer. I got a new camera from my Love which is totally awesome. It's a Sony xl5v or something but it does the 10 second picture take and panoramic and clearer pictures. I love it! Look out pictures, here I come! Tyler also framed a picture that we got taken while we were in Hawaii. I looove that! My mom sent me the green pitcher. (I know that your laughing right now Ems, and Amy too.) But I remember the green pitcher clear aback to when I was about 8 years old. We made Kool Aid in it, it was the ice water pitcher on the table at Sunday dinners, O.J., punch, you name it. The green pitcher has been around. I told my mom that when she and my dad die, that's all I want. So it was sent loving this way with my mom saying," Why should we be dead? Just have the pitcher now." I was happy and filled it with juice right away. Ahh the sentiment.



Oh does my Dal love dogs!! We'll get one someday but for now he loves to look out windows and watch for "buh buh." I saw this hat at Michaels and couldn't resist.























His own buh buh hat. Hopefully that'll tie him over for a few years.











Mason and Nat started soccer this year. Mason's 3rd year and Nat's 1st. Mason is a good player! He stopped 6 balls from going in the net off the other team. On one he actually dove and fell in the net and brought the whole thing down. That's my boy!!





Nat's team is called the purple transformers. She happened to have a purple tu-tu with sparkles on. Perfect!



She's having fun and running the right way so far, so that's always good.








And Fall, well, you came early. Way to early for me. Please linger thru October with minimal rain. Saturday was gorgeous! I'll take 2 months of that weather please.

Welcome.......

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. My name is Beck and I have been MIA for awhile. It was a fun, crazy, awesome summer and I am sad to see it leave. I am sad to see the sun go. Anyway, the following things are entitled "Welcome".

Welcome to year 7 of your life pal! Yes, my Mason turned 7 in August and he is such a great kid. We went to Utah for our usual summer trip around his birthday so that he could go fishing with grandpa. That's what he wanted for his birthday. Sweet, yes I know. He went with both grandpas one morning and caught 2 fish. Then ate them for dinner. What a great time he had. And grandpas too. And he also used his state skills to earn a little "green" on the side. Remember a few posts ago I mentioned that he was really into the states? Well he can name all 50 starting in one corner of the country and moving his way across to the other corner. So at seperate times, he went up to his grandpas and said," Grandpa, will you give me a quarter for each state I can name?" Both of them are probably thinking,' sure o.k. so he know 3 or 4 states.' Tyler and I were holding back laughs as he ripped off all 50 and earned a combined 25 bucks! Way to Go!!!!! He's learned the capitals for all of them now and we are proud as puddin of that boy!!

Welcome to Mount Rushmore! As part of our Utah trip, Tyler went with his dad to Sturgis, South Dakota (capital Pierre) for the annual Harley Davidson bike riders get together. He loved seeing all the bikes and had fun riding his. Nothing like riding a Fat Boy on the open road with your dad to see motorcycles. He detoured one afternoon and rode up to see Mount Rushmore. O.k. this is awesome to me.

People totally carved President's faces in a mountain. So cool! Notice the scruff on my Love's face. He let the old facial hair grow out to blend in better with the Harley riders. Man Love, you are one hot, good lookin Love. And in front of a National Monument no less. Anyway, I'm glad he got to see that. Awesome!

Welcome back to school!!!!!!!! We started school on the 8th of September and, nothing personal Amy Grant, but it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!!! Mason is in 2nd grade now and my sweet Nat started Kindergarten. AAhhh, another child leaves to take advantage of the wonderful educational system that we call Kindy.

Our regular picture in front of the school sign. Doesn't he look like a smart little 2nd grader?

I can't believe my Nat is old enough to be a kindergartner.

Oh man do I love these kids! And I am getting so much done around the house! And my Dilly Dal Pal is reaping some serious mom time. I love it. Natalie is in morning Kindy so she comes home for lunch and then she reaps the mom time while Dal takes his nap. Everyone wins!!! I love school!!! Teachers are underpaid. The end.

The bus ride home. Her favorite part of school. Hey, it's a big deal when your 5!

And that's the end of our welcomes. Hopefully I won't get so far behind again that I have to reintroduce myself. I'm Beck. Thanks again for stopping by.