Buddy is home and the world is right again...

My brother-in-law Daniel left his mission in Charlotte NC on January 23rd. We were all ready meet him at Ontario Airport that night but his flight from Salt Lake was canceled so we had to pick him up Saturday morning at John Wayne in Irvine.

Here we are, making our way into the airport. We got there with 5 minutes to spare. :)

Daniel and Nancy! We were all just SO happy!

Daniel and Rachie!

We have a picture just like this one of Daniel and Joey at the airport when he left. We didn't know if Aaron would even remember him, but he did. He even made him crafts and picked a toy to give him. He adores him and he still won't leave his side! :)

Naomi had these shirts made for the boys. We stayed up late Thursday night making this sign. The boys colored the letters and they chose what pictures to put on. Aaron insisted that there be a gingerbread man with balls on it! :)

David's parents took us all out to El Torito right after Daniel got released. David and Daniel are doing "something" in this picture.

The Jacobs and Team Y were there of course. Steven just got home from his mission in August.

Here is Daniel with his girls! :)

This is me being a "torito"

Here's Steven leaning in for a kiss. Daniel's first bit of action caught on film! ;)

We met the Wheeler clan at Disneyland yesterday and the boys had a blast!

Here they are getting ready to go on Midway Mania

Daniel took Aaron for his first ride on Space Mountain. He is just under 40in so we put him in snow boots to add a little height. It did the trick and he got to ride all three Mountains last night. We even got to ride Splash Mountain twice.

We are so proud of Daniel. My boys adore him and it means so much that they have so many awesome role models in their lives. They are already talking about serving missions themselves.

Joey's Tooth

Joey lost his first tooth last week. We tried to let it work itself out but it started dangling and flapping when he talked, so we tried everyday for three days to pull it out. He didn't like it much but he was very brave. One night, I told him I was going to dry it off and when I did, it popped right out. He said "Ok Mom, no more tries tonight." He was so happy when I opened my hand and he saw his tooth inside. The one right next to the gap is almost ready to come out and he says that he'll let us pull it when it's time. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Grandma Ruth for teaching me proper tooth extracting methods. :)

Some Fun With JibJab

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Cy's First Haircut

Cy is the first one of my babies to have a nice full head of long beautiful hair. Joey was totally bald and when he got his first haircut it was really just a formality. Aaron had little wings just above his ears, and I begrudgingly allowed those to get trimmed when he was about a year old. I wanted to let Cy's hair grow out a while longer but it is just unmanageable. The back is always frizzy and nappy from the car seat so I finally broke down. I don't take the boys to the salon because, in my experience, they wiggle just as much for a stylist as they do for Daddy, and a crooked haircut from Daddy is free. :)

I think you'll agree that it was time. It's getting a little unruly, no?

He didn't cry but I wouldn't say he loved it either. LOL

Here's the finished product.

He looks like a little man, doesn't he?

A Festivus Miracle! (Snow Part Deux)

I posted yesterday's blog prematurely, I couldn't imagine that it would get snowier, but it did. Sorry there are a million pictures, it just amazes me! I've never seen anything like this up here. It snowed for nearly 20 hours straight. It may seem silly for those of you who live in snow but it is totally fascinating to me! School was canceled for David and Joey for the rest of the week, so happy early Xmas break to us! David and his boss are calling it a Festivus miracle! :)

This was just before sundown the day of the storm.

Here's our snowy friend Thomas.

The airplane teeter totter in my backyard.

My house the day after.

David took the boys sledding in our front yard!

Looking down my street the morning after.

I had icicles on my house!

We drove out to David's work to see how the conditions were. Above is David's school, below is the wolf we almost ran over on the way there! (Yes, it is a wolf and not a wild dog, I didn't get very close for obvious reasons!) What a bizarre day!

Does it snow in Apple Valley?

Yes it does!!!

We do see a little snow every year up here, but we've never had a storm like this one.
It doesn't even feel like California at all!

This is my house all covered in snow.

Here's my mom's house all covered in snow.

Joey's school district canceled school halfway through the day, so here are Cy and Aaron all bundled up and off to pick Joey up.

We went to Sabrina's to build a snowman!
(I'm a little sad, because my good camera had a dead battery, so I had to settle for my wee one!)

Ruby refuses to go outside.
Whenever I open the door she hides behind the couch and shivers! :)

Joey's Faces

So it drives me a little crazy, but I love it! I can't get a picture of Joey smiling anymore, he always makes some silly face just as I take the picture. I was looking through recent photos and I just started cracking up because there were so many of my goofy faced boy!
Here are a few of my faves! :0)

Happy Thanksgiving mom! I gave myself a haircut!

Other than the fact that my mom made her best turkey ever, this Thanksgiving was kind of a bust for us. Don't get me wrong, any day just hanging out with family and eating food is awesome, but last night and today were a little chaotic. We went to Disneyland yesterday and at about 9:00, Joey started screaming that his ear hurt. We left and took him to urgent care and of course, he had two ear infections. I figured as much; no kid begs to come home from Disneyland unless something is really wrong. We had dinner/lunch at my mom's and that was great, she made a delicious meal and we had a good visit. Some of the usual family were missing so it was a little off though. David's parents are in Europe (LUCKY!) so we didn't do anything with his family today. I used to gripe about having to travel to two places on TG but now I realize that I wouldn't have it any other way. I missed his family this year. To top things off, Joey had and allergic reaction to the amoxicillin and we had to take him back to urgent care. We live an hour away, so I wasn't thrilled, but we went and got him a new prescription. He is feeling better thanks to the motrin and the little bit of amoxicillin he ahd before the bad reaction. I did get to see Bolt in 3D today with David, Aaron, Megan and Evan. (Joey is going through a scared of the dark phase so he wouldn't go.) That was really fun, it's a cute movie, I recommend it for the kiddies! :)

We finally came home and sat down to watch House and Bones. Having boys, who usually have very little hair, I never expected to encounter an "I cut my own hair" experience. But my sweet Aaron found daddy's beard trimmer and gave himself a little touch up. He was so proud when he came out to show us, I just smiled and got my camera. I am seriously so thankful fo that little boy, he just made my day, seriously! So here are some pictures of the fun...

Here's daddy finising the job. :)

He wasn't happy about gettng the rest of the haircut, he's never liked them much.

But we had to do what we had to do.

I have so much to be thankful for, I love my life!
But here are just a few things that I am especially thankful for today:
1.I am thankful for my mom and family, they work so hard to have nice family gatherings.
2. I am thankful that they've drastically improved the whole 3D experience, it used to make me sick, but thanks to the updated technology I had a great movie going experience today.
3.I am thankful that gas is so cheap, the extra trips down to the doctor would have been SUPER expensive if we had had to do this two weeks ago.
4.I am thankful that my DVR finally got my season pass right and recorded my shows.
5.I am thankful for all of my family, I wish I had been able to see everybody today.
6.I am SO grateful for my kids. They are just filled with pure joy and there is never a dull moment in my life with them around.
7. And last but certainly not least, I am very thankful that we already took our Christmas pictures this year. :)

I am way behind and I have so many pictures to share. So I decided to make a slide. These are pictures from our Halloween festivities. Except the pictures of Aaron and Cheeto, those are from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy! :)