Where did it go?

Time is quite elusive, you know? The past month has been filled with nonstop activities, fun, and craziness. Our little family flew out to Utah the day before Thanksgiving to enjoy some good food and great company. My parents have a Wii, so wii had fun playing all the little games. Even Emma got in on the action:

Sarah was in heaven with tons of little kids to play with. Thanks to my three 5-year-old nieces, she now supposedly "only likes girls" (except for Daddy and Andrew and Grandpa and her friends), and she is infatuated with Hannah Montana, or Hannah Bantana as Sarah says it. One day she went out and helped my dad mow the lawn. When I asked her if she wanted to go play with Grandpa, she said "No! I'm going to HELP him."


It was really fun to see some of my nieces and nephews that I hadn't seen for about a year. This next video is really for my parents - they'll love it. My dad always read us the story of "The Tar Baby" when we were little so I recorded him reading it to my sister's kids and Sarah. I love this!! WARNING: it's very long.

Dennis came back home for work a couple days later , but the kids and I stayed longer to squeeze in more time with family and friends. Here are some of my cute college roommates I always miss like crazy... We got to relive old times and stay up until 3:30 in the morning, but it wasn't quite the same to wake up with all the kids at 7:00!


I was pretty nervous about flying back with the three kids all alone, but luckily some nice souls took pity on me and held Andrew when Emma had her meltdowns. Sometimes people can be so sweet and selfless (I'm sure it wasn't fun holding a stinky-diapered little guy at the end of a two hour flight).

Emma has finally started to talk a little more. It's not much, but at least she's trying to repeat us sometimes. On the way home from the airport, I wanted to show Dennis what she'd learned in the 5 days we were apart.

Once we got home we had a whole list of things that need to get done before Christmas... first and foremost being the decorating of the house and tree. It was a fun family night to put up the tree and all play together. Sarah is a really good helper - she tried to help Daddy do it just right!


Emma doing her best at helping - playing a good game of peek-a-boo


Andrew just enjoys being in on the action. Side note: Andrew had his 9-month checkup this week. It was quite the adventure! As we walked into the waiting room, Emma threw up all over the floor. I tried to get her into the bathroom, but someone was in there. She threw up 5 or 6 times from the door to the bathroom door. Once the bathroom was available, she's already lost her entire stomach contents. And... wonderful mother that I am (sarcasm here), I had given her pink cereal and strawberry milk for breakfast. It was quite a sight!!! She just had a short-lived little stomach bug, but what better place to get sick than the pediatrician's office, right? Andrew got all checked out and when they weighed him I was really excited because he was 17 lbs. 12 oz. Then they told me it's only the 10th percentile. Poor guy can't beef up to save his life. Big surprise on the length though... he's way above average. His doctor said you can't really fool genetics!


The other morning, I was doing dishes while the girls had their breakfast. Andrew started making some noise and Sarah asked me to go get him. I told her I would in a minute, but I wanted to finish. So, I turned around and both girls were gone. This is what I found! Sarah and Emma got in, but Andrew just desperately wanted out!


And later that day... Emma always wants to sit on my counter while I get ready in the morning. I guess I wasn't keeping track of my eyeliner when I found this. It looks like she tried to draw a mischievous little villain's mustache on herself.


Last night we made omelet's for dinner. It was really fun for everyone to do their part to help...


And then the evening ended with a dog-pile on me!


This year's Christmas photo we took while in Utah...