Christmas Fun

The last few weeks have been so busy with shopping, parties, and getting ready for Christmas. We have done some fun things. Tonight was Jeff's work party at Fleming's Steak House, and it was so good!

Last week was our ward Christmas party. They did a breakfast (instead of the usual ham dinner) and had a bunch of fun crafts and activities for the kids. My only complaint was that it was at 8am on a Saturday...way too early for me!

Lexi decorating an ornament
Jackson's first time sitting on Santa's lap (Lexi was too scared!)

Tuesday night we went to the Bellagio with Travis, a friend of mine from BYUH, who was in town. We had him take some pictures of us in hopes that we could use them for our first ever family Christmas card, but there wasn't one where all four of us were looking at the camera and smiling. Ugh! Here are some of the rejects. Luckily I did get one of just the kids that worked for a card...but you'll have to wait to get it in the mail to see it! Oh, and one of Jackson's shoes got left at home...nice socks! :)

After checking out the atrium, we all bundled in our coats and went outside to watch the fountain show, and it was FREEZING when the water sprayed us. Poor Jackson couldn't even move in his coat!

Thanksgiving

We had a BLAST this Thanksgiving! We first spent two days at Disneyland and California Adventure. Emily and Amber met us with their kids. Lexi loves Macey and follows everything she does, so she was in heaven!

Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train.
Luszeck cousins
Mike & Kaitlyn met us that night, too.
watching the fireworksDay 2 Jackson goes for a ride on the Zephyr!
and on the carousel

and he met Chip or Dale (not sure!)

and rode in the stroller a lot.

Thursday morning we headed out to Emily & Steve's for Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. We all had fun hanging out, playing cards, and eating, eating, eating. It was a perfect, warm & sunny day.

The boys

Lexi was happy with her princess sippie cup!

Grandma Luszeck fed Jackson

family photo - notice Lexi found dress ups!

That night we headed down to Laguna Beach and crashed the Banner family party at Steph's parent's house, which was amazing - complete with theater, elevator, dance studio, etc.! Friday the girls shopped and the boys played golf. It was so much fun!

The boys watched plenty of sports in the theater!

Lexi and KaitlynAfter the kids went down it was time for games!

We drove home early Saturday morning to miss traffic.

I spent most of the drive sitting between the kids entertaining them, as always!

I'm Thankful For...

many things, but I'll just name a few (not in order of importance)

1. The fact that my sacrament meeting talk is now done!

2. My Kids. Here are some pics of our trip to see the dolphins and lions at the Mirage last week.

3. My husband. We finally went to Ruth's Chris Steak House Friday night to celebrate his birthday. The food was so good, and it was fun to have a night out without the kids!

4. Girlfriends. We had a girl's night out on Saturday night. We ate at Claim Jumper and then went shopping at the new Town Square. We loved it there! There is a huge new H&M, and I got some cute stuff!

5. Family (wonderful parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents, nieces/nephews, cousins, in-laws, etc.)
6. The gospel. What would my life be without it? I don't want to know!
7. Good food. If you know me, you know I love to eat! Can't wait for Thursday!
8. Freedom and opportunities.
9. Good Health.
10. Road trips. Our next one starts tomorrow...two days at Disneyland and then a weekend of fun with the Luszecks and friends in Cali.

Quick Update

Wow, I'm behind again! For a quick re-cap:

Last weekend I felt like I hadn't fully celebrated fall, so I made this little Thanksgiving decoration with a bunch of things we're thankful for. Lexi saw it and said excitedly, "that's so cute!" I love her little compliments. Who knew a two-year-old could make you feel so good!

And I made yummy sugar cookies - cut into pumpkins and leaves. I hadn't made them forever, but they were so good! A week later they were still soft. And the frosting....yum!



Other stuff:
Jeff celebrated his big 3-0 last week! Unfortunately I got sick the morning of his B-day, so he opened presents but we postponed our visit to Ruth's Chris Steak House to celebrate. Can't wait to go soon!


Jackson got his first tooth last week! It's his top right middle tooth. I can tell the left one is going to come in any day now. Big news for him is that he is finally on a regular nap schedule and is sleeping through the night! I'm loving it!

And for the last two weeks Lexi has been just the sweetest, most obedient little girl! We don't know what happened, but we hope it lasts! :) She has been cracking me up lately with little phrases she picks up on. One of my favorite is that everytime she hears me say "Ouch!" (even when she's in the other room), she'll ask, "you okay? " or "what happened" and often offers "kisses" to make my owie feel better. She's been my little dancing queen lately, and it's been fun to put on music and just dance around together every day.

Jeff recently joined the gym I go to, and it's been so fun to work out together. We've been five times in the last week. I just hope we keep it up. We were asked to speak in sacrament next Sunday. The topic is gratitude. Anyone feel like writing a talk for me? :) I'm going to base it on Pres. Eyering's talk from conference on remembering and writing down blessing every day.

Halloween Fun

Last Saturday we wanted to have a little fun, so we went down to Freemont Street (totally old/crappy area by the Strip) to try fried twinkies and fried oreos! I had heard about them for years and had wanted to try them, but it was a HUGE disappointment. They were so nasty! We tried a bite and then threw the rest away. Probably better that way...one less thing to crave! :)

Afterwards we met our friends at the Bellagio to watch the fountain show and check out their fall atrium display. It was awesome, as always! Here are a few pics from it.
This bucket of spilled apples was so cool.
I don't know where they found a pumpkin this big!
I just LOVED this tree creature.
Can you see the water fountains

shooting over Jeff's head?

And here are the kiddies on Halloween night.

We went to our ward trunk-or-treat,

which was a lot of fun.

Lexi just squealed with excitement when she saw her costume. It was so cute. She loves Barbie the Island Princess and asks to watch the movie every day. Now she wants to dress up everywhere we go. Yesterday we had to compromise to take off the dress and just wear the shoes and necklace to the gym and to run errands.

Jackson was our little cow.

Can you believe how blue his eyes are??

Thank you Luszeck genes! :)

(Another) Trip to Cali

Last weekend (I'm behind - I mean the weekend of the 19th) we went to California for our friend's surprise birthday party on Friday night. Mike is Jeff's best friend from growing up, and a bunch of their old friends from Yucaipa were at the party. It was hilarious to hear all of their stories from high school. Jeff's parents watched the kids that night, and they were nice enough to watch them again Saturday morning so Jeff and I could go to the Redlands Temple.

Saturday afternoon we met some of Jeff's friends at the apple orchards in Oak Glen. Lexi was so excited to wear a balloon hat and ride on a little choo-choo train.

Sunday we went to church and had dinner with Jeff's family then drove down to San Clemente to stay with Mike & Lindsay. On our way down, we got kicked off the road due to a fire burning on a hill to the side of us. (This was the start of the fire that was in Orange County). It was pretty scary to see such a big fire burning so close to us and know that if the winds changed, it could head our direction at any time.

Monday we woke up and there was tons of smoke outside from all of the fires. Despite the poor air quality, we decided to head to Disneyland as planned. Jeff and I finally redeemed our annual passes that his parents had given us. We spent most of the day at California Adventure, which I had never been to. Loved it! They have the best roller coaster I have ever been on, and we loved Soarin' Over California, the Bug's Life kids rides, and the Maliboomer. Lexi was hilarious dancing with the Miner 49's band. They asked kids to come up and learn a dance. She didn't follow instructions like the other kids, of course. Instead, she just pushed her way to the front of everyone and just danced around. It was hilarious! She stole the show! We stayed until around 8:00pm, and by that time Jeff, Lexi, and I were exhausted...but Jackson was somehow wide awake! Where do kids get their energy from???

Jeff had to work the next morning, so we drove home that night. Due to the fires, the I-15 was closed, so Jeff and I had to drive through an alternate route which didn't get us home until 2am. We were dead, but it was such a fun weekend, and we can't wait to go back to Cali for Thanksgiving.

Friday night we took the kids to a pumpkin patch.

Jackson hung out with Jeff

while Lexi got to go on rides!

He was still happy!

I attempted to get a cute shot of the kids with the pumpkins, but this is the best I could do with my SLOW camera (after which I informed Jeff that I need a new one!)

Saturday night we took the kids to the BYU/UNLV game. It was Jackson's first football game, and he loved it!

We were all happy that BYU won!

And Sunday, we went to church.

Fall Treats

Last night we had a meeting at my house for a Music Makers group we're starting. I though it was a perfect excuse to make some yummy treats! I served Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Gingersnap Crust. Yum! I especially loved the crust! I found a few recipes off of allrecipes.com that I combined to come up with this:

Crust:
1 1/2 c. gingersnap crumbs
3 T. brown sugar
6 T. melted butter

Mix and press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.

Cheesecake:
2 packages cream cheese
3/4 c. sugar
1 (16oz) can pumpkin
1 1/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. salt
2 eggs

Beat cream cheese and sugar. Add pumpkin and spices and mix. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Pour onto crust. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Chill overnight.

Top with a layer of homemade whip cream (add sugar and vanilla to taste).

NOTE: I thought the cheesecake could be a little bit sweeter. I think next time I try it, I'll increase sugar.



I also served Carmel Fondue with apples and banana slices. This recipe has been a favorite for years, and it's so easy.

1/2 c. butter
2 c. brown sugar
1 c. karo syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Warm almost to a boil to melt sugars. Add vanilla.

Weekend Fun

Friday night we had a ward luau. We dressed the kids up for it, and it was a lot of fun to eat and hang out with our friends. Lexi loved it. She danced up front during all of the musical numbers they had. And she found a few packages of butter that she thought was some type of dip, and she went to town! I think she was on her second package when we found her. Yuck!



We spent most of Saturday and Sunday watching general conference (which was great! I loved so many of the talks and felt really inspired to live better.), but Saturday night we went out with our friends to Tony Romas, since they had some all-you-can-eat ribs special. Halfway through the meal we piled all of our bones on one plate, and we were amazed at what we had eaten. Kris and I tied for the most with 2-3/4 racks of ribs each! I think we're all done with ribs for a long time!