A Christmas tradition everyone would be jealous of...

I think it was when Drew joined the Evers family that this Christmas tradition began... Before Christmas, all of the men (that includes Dad, Jeff, Drew, Ryan and Scott) go to CostCo. Anything they see that is edible that they want -- goes into the cart. And my dad pays the bill at the end. And then the tradition wouldn't be complete without my mom complaining about the bacon-wrapped scallops (or some similar CostCo product) that is still in the freezer from last Christmas.

This year I think the total bill was around $350 and the items purchased included:

bagel dogs
tempura shrimp
M&Ms (plain and peanut)
beef jerky
jalapeno poppers
mini cinnamon rolls
cookie dough
danishes from the bakery
pita chips and tzatziki yogurt dip
cheesecake
egg nog
Hansen's sodas
cookies (several varieties)
Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches
multiple gift certificates for See's candy

I'm sorry to say for the single males out there reading this and hoping to get into the family to be able to participate in the tradition, all the Evers women are now taken. But for local friends, PLEASE feel free to stop by our house and sample some of the boys' purchases! They will last for a while...

Me and my preggo sister and sisters-in-law

Between the Evers and Syphi women, there are now 5 of us pregnant. Kelly (due the end of January with a girl), Allison (due beginning of February with a girl), me (due mid-March, no more details available), Cindy (due end of March with a boy) and Rachel (due July). Right now, the Evers side of the family is all together and Cindy, Kelly and I are all looking very large! Here is a photo of us taken on Saturday after my mom took us all to see the Nutcracker: And me with Allison at Thanksgiving:

Retraining a picky eater, part 2

So the new food for the day was macaroni and cheese -- the "deluxe" kind with the cheese in a pouch rather than powder. He was really excited to help me make it, and was especially anxious to eat it. WOW! Here are some phrases I heard tonight that I never dreamed of Scott saying:

"I can hardly wait to see what color the cheese is!"

"I love it! This is as yummy as eggies." Eggies = scrambled eggs

"I'm going to eat ALL my macaroni and cheese. Can I have another bowl?"

"Can I try some of that white milk like you are drinking?" (Scott has only had 'pink milk', or milk with strawberry Quik, for the past year.)

"I'm so excited to see what the white milk tastes like. Wow! It is so yummy!"

Who is this child? I know the full moon can have a strange impact on people... Could that be the reason?

By the way, if you are wondering why it is the middle of winter and Scott has no shirt on, it is because I was washing the Lightning McQueen shirt with stickers.

No, we don't need a Secret Santa this year...

It has been 12 days since we went to Disneyland and Scott got his cool Lightning McQueen t-shirt. And he has worn it EVERY DAY since! I have managed to wash it a few nights, but he wants to wear nothing else during the day... I can't even convince him to wear one of his other two Lightning McQueen shirts because they don't have 'stickers' - which is what he calls the multiple race car decals on it. So I'm trying to learn as a mother to pick my battles, and this is one just not worth fighting. Except some of our friends may be a little worried... Here is what Scott's buddy Zach told his mom:

"Mom, I'm glad I have a lot of shirts. Scott only has one shirt now. But it does have a lot of cool stickers."

Retraining a picky eater

Thanks to my friend, Stephanie, we have come up with a new rule to attempt to expand the list of things Scott will eat beyond grilled cheese, eggs and dino buddies. The rule is every day he has to try 2 tiny bites of something new. If he is not willing to try the new food of the day, then no juice or TV or Wii for the rest of the day. No juice is a cruel form of torture in Scott's world. So far some of the things he has tried include apples (he liked that as long as he could dip it in cinnamon and sugar), spinach (he ate 2 leaves and said it was ok, but didn't want more), a granola bar, and -- drum roll please -- PIZZA! Yes, tonight he ate 3 bites of pizza and although he didn't want more, he said he 'kinda liked it'. That is a HUGE victory! Call me crazy, but with this picky eater I look forward to the day when he will be able to put away an entire pizza on his own...

Who can guess my secret?

It has certainly not been easy to keep the gender of this baby a secret! I haven't slipped yet -- at least not that I have realized. If you are behind and don't know why I am not saying what I am having, check out this post.

So I added a poll to my blog for all my followers to place a vote. Before you decide what you think I am having, here are a few things to consider:

1) The doctor doesn't know the gender, but based on the heartbeat, he guessed correctly the last 2 visits. And no, I'm not going to say if the heartbeat was fast or slow... I'll keep quizzing him in upcoming visits to see if his guess changes.

2) While I was pregnant with Scott, I loved corn dogs. Same with this one.

3) Scott was really active, but Charlotte didn't kick much at all. So far, this baby is really tame.

4) By this point in both previous pregnancies, I had gone through at least one CostCo size Tums bottle. I haven't had much of a problem with heartburn up to this point.

5) I felt more nauseous with Scott, and more exhausted with Charlotte. But during this baby's first trimester, I felt more nauseous AND exhausted than both other pregnancies combined. It really was miserable.

6) Drew isn't ready to talk about names at this point, but so far my votes are Patrick and Natalie.

So what do you think???

Our First Family Disneyland Adventure

30 years ago (I am so old) I celebrated my 4th birthday at Disneyland. It is one of my earliest memories... Specifically, I remember watching a big orchestra play, and they announced, "Is it anyone's birthday today?" Of course my parents yelled from the back that it was my 4th birthday and they played Happy Birthday just for me. I also remember getting on to the submarine ride, and the Disneyland employee helping me on the boat said, "Welcome, Stacey!" I was SO thrilled and exclaimed to my parents, "He knows my name!" Maybe it was because I was wearing a shirt that had STACEY spelled across the front in giant letters...So now that Scott is 4 1/2, we figured it was time to take him for his first Disneyland experience. We have been talking up the trip for a while, and although I don't think Scott and Charlotte really knew what they were in for, they were excited about going. And we were especially lucky to have 13168 Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and Aunt Shannon along for the party!

Scott and Charlotte walking to Disneyland the first day, not quite sure what to expect: The highlight for Scott was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We called it the Zurg ride since (if you haven't been on it) it is like a laser tag game where you are shooting at targets all marked with a "Z". I think we went on it about 6 times during the 2 days. Fortunately the ride is also fun for adults, so nobody minded going over and over. And just ask Scott -- his high score was 80,600. And as you exit the ride, they of course have you walk directly through a store filled with Toy Story and Cars stuff. The first time after the ride, Scott desperately wanted another Lightning McQueen shirt. The second we bought it, he took off the Lightning McQueen shirt he was wearing at the time to replace it with the new one. And as of today (6 days later) he has worn it every single day.

Scott with Aunt Shannon: Scott's follow-up note to Zach about his favorite ride:Scott also thought the tea cups ride was hilarious, and really liked driving the cars in Autopia. He did go on the Matterhorn, but that was a little too scary.Charlotte did fine on all of the rides she went on. When she was scared, she just would cling to whoever was holding her, rather than scream. That was fine with me. She did say, "That was fun!" after the Alice in Wonderland ride... I think her favorite part of the trip was the parade and the princesses. At one point we went into the all-princess store and she was in HEAVEN. She spent a while picking out her crown and her Sleeping Beauty sunglasses.Doesn't she look spectacular? I haven't been able to convince her that the crown is not supposed to be warn like a headband, but I guess when you are a princess you can do whatever you want. And while Charlotte was getting decked out in all things princess, here is a picture of Scott, totally bored to tears while being surrounded with all this lame girly stuff. It took about 5 minutes before he was out cold:Both kids were NOT excited at all about seeing the Disney characters in person. We did the character breakfast in the park, and Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Chip and Dale all came to our table while we were eating. Scott hid his face anytime one of them showed up. Charlotte did sort of warm up to Minnie and gave her a high-five and a tiny hug. But when we saw Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the park, neither kid wanted anything do to with them.My favorite part was the parade and fireworks. I have never been to Disneyland when it was dark, so those two events were brand new to me. We saw the parade both days and we all loved it! And the fireworks were absolutely spectacular.

Watching the parade:Needless to say, we had 2 tired kids and exhausted parents and grandparents at the end of each day. 2 days was just the right amount of time and December is definitely a great time of the year to go because of the Christmas stuff and the short lines. It was all magical...

Thanksgiving Down South

This year we went down to Pasadena to be with Drew's family for Thanksgiving. We were so lucky to see 2919 Grandma and Grandpa as well as 4 other Syphi children (Allison, Shannon, Gary and Christian) and their spouses (Ted, Emily and Candacy) and lots of cousins (Josh, Noah, Sydney, Jill and Leah). It was a party, as always! Food was FABULOUS, with highlights including Shannon's first turkey ever, and Allison's famous desserts.
One of the best parts for me was watching Scott and his cousins entertain themselves while I was mostly able to sit around and enjoy chatting with my sisters-in-law. Scott and Josh were particularly hilarious to watch as they invented their own games, all involving tennis balls. Seriously, they were busy for HOURS in the laundry room with a few laundry baskets and 4 tennis balls. What else could a 2 or 4-year-old boy possibly need to stay occupied? One night Drew was saying the prayer and said something about being grateful for our cousin Josh. Scott stopped Drew and said, "Josh is not my cousin, he is my friend!"
The ladies were also able to escape for an afternoon for a little shopping and pedicures. Man, I loved sitting next to one of my cute pregnant sisters-in-law, Allison (I have 3 of them), while we just chatted and enjoyed being pampered.

Since we are the rebels of the Syphi clan and do not live in Utah or SoCal, we aren't as fortunate as some of the other siblings who get to see each other more often. But I just love that no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, it is always so wonderful to get back together, catch up, laugh and just enjoy being around one another.

Stay tuned for my next post tomorrow about our Disneyland trip...

Our Thankful Tree

This year I ordered a bunch of cute crafty things (I need lots of help when it comes to being crafty) from Oriental Trading Company. My favorite thing was this cute bulletin board tree. We put it on our pantry door and Scott LOVED writing things he was thankful for on each of the leaves and putting them on the tree. If you are interested in ordering this tree for next year, you can find it here. Since I know you can't read what is written on the leaves, here is the list:

Scott:
It is almost December
Tennis
Bowling
Chocolate chip cookies
My clock
Lightning McQueen shoes
My silly friend Zach
For getting $100 (he wishes...)

Charlotte:
Going to class with bells, stamps and bubbles (all the highlights of her Little Gym class)
Skittles
Kitties
Princesses
Trees

Mommy (me):
Pumpkin pie
My friends

Daddy (Drew):
Mommy (good answer)

Zach:
Playing with my brother

Grandma:
Giving presents
Family vacations to Hawaii

Living my childhood dreams...

I had better start this post by first stating that I am now and have always been a nerd. Just ask my brother and sister. When I was about 6 years old, my grandma asked me what I REALLY wanted. My response? A giant calculator that counts all the way to 100! I had big dreams.

So today Scott, Charlotte and I were in the grocery store when we saw a HUGE calculator. I spotted it first, but didn't say anything. As soon as Scott saw it, of course he desperately wanted it. And my 6-year-old dream came rushing back to memory... How could I pass such a fabulous item up, especially when it was $6?

Scott spend much of the afternoon playing with it. He would yell to me every once in a while, "Mommy, guess what number it is now? 192,923,234!" My favorite was that he called it a 'compulator' - which makes sense if you combine 'computer' and 'calculator'.

My nerdiness lives on... Here is Scott with the giant calculator in action:

And here would be Cindy (my sister) and Kelly's (my sister-in-law) reaction to all of this:

Early Christmas Miracle!

I really hate having pictures taken of the kids... Wait, that isn't quite accurate. I love having the pictures of them, but I hate the process of actally getting the portraits taken. The last time we went to get photos taken of all the Evers cousins, Charlotte had a major meltdown and the pictures were not the adorable vision I had of 3 smiling children. So I got up my nerve to try again for Christmas pictures. I had low expectations and just hoped that Charlotte wouldn't throw a tantrum (which is rare for her) and that both kids would at least LOOK at the camera - smiling was optional. But I was pleasantly surprised with the result! The kids weren't ecstatic to have the pictures taken, but at least there were no tears! The In-and-Out bribe did the trick:

This year's Thankful Turkey

Last year in preschool, Scott made a Thankful Turkey with Miss Cathy that was my FAVORITE art project. Here is a link to the picture of last year's turkey. So here is the unveiling of this year's turkey and the things Scott is thankful for:

In case you can't read the feathers in the picture, they say:

1) Star Wars Blast 1-2-3 (Not quite sure what this is, but Laurie H. says it may have something to do with a Wii game Scott played with Jacob and Jonah.)

2) When my mommy makes rice crispy treats

3) Crayons

4) Computer games

5) Typing

So the last feather reminds me that I need to do another post with more of Scott's notes. He's written some excellent ones recently... Stay tuned for that one!

Annual Primary Program

This year Scott is a Sunbeam in Primary. For those of you who have no clue what this means, in our church Primary is for kids ages 3-11, and Sunbeams is the 3 to 4-year-old class. So Sunday was the annual Primary program... I tried to prepare Scott for the big event bribing him with 8 chocolate chip cookies if he stayed up on the stand and was a good boy. I had pretty low expectations for him actually singing along with the rest of the kids. He told me Sunday morning that he didn't want to sing the 4th verse of I Am a Child of God because he didn't know the words. But Zach (his best friend) knows ALL the words. Impressive, Zach!

Boy, was I in for a surprise! Not only did Scott stay on the stand the whole time (with the exception of one potty break), but he SANG! I couldn't believe he knew the words to most all of the songs, except for the 4th verse of I am a Child of God, which he had already been approved to skip. It just goes to show that kids ARE listening and learning, even when you think they have no clue what you are trying to teach them. I was a huge wimp through the whole thing... I cried on just about every single song! It was just adorable to see my sweet little boy up there singing those special songs. And by the way, he was wearing his little man shirt and tie from this post. Too bad I couldn't take video...

One of my favorite moments was how Scott jumped every time he sang the word TRUST in the phrase, "Teaching me how to TRUST and obey..." I'm pretty sure they didn't teach the kids to jump at that moment, but if you know the song, jumping at that point does fit the music. The other moment I enjoyed was watching Scott and Zach and two of the girls walk out for their potty break, all dressed nicely with shirts tucked in. Then a few minutes later they walk back in and Scott and Zach's shirts are both completely hanging out. Hey, at least we got them to wear ties!

Celebrating the month of Halloween!

Where should I begin??? Halloween is not a holiday to celebrate on one day alone... Seems like this year I realized for the first time that the Halloween includes the pumpkin patch trip and wear-your-costume-preschool-day and the church Trunk-or-Treat activity and the neighborhood BOO tradition... Trick-or-Treating on the 31st is such a huge deal because we have had a million activities leading up to and anticipating this culminating event! So my next several posts will include how fun it has been for us this year celebrating Halloween!

The Main Event

And the crowning event of the month, October 31st... The REAL trick-or-treat adventure! Fortunately the weather cooperated and didn't rain while we were out. So we had 4 kids (Scott, Charlotte, my niece Elle and our neighbor Alex) and about 8 adults (me, Drew, my mom and dad, brother Jeff, sister-in-law Kelly and neighbors Tony and Cristina). We are pretty lucky to have lots of kids living close by, so it was easy to just hit a bunch of houses in our neighborhood and watch those candy buckets fill up.

Charlotte's method was to stand at the door long after the other kids had run off to the next house. She did not understand that after they give you candy, you say "thank you" and walk away. She would just look at people with those enormous brown eyes, holding her candy bucket. Consequently, she had the biggest haul for the night because her cuteness and persistence earned her extra candy at each door. Seriously, those eyes are weapons.

Scott had a few great comments for the evening... One was something like, "I don't like peanut butter. I want that one." To another person he said, "Hey, I haven't seen you before." And at the end he was SO tired from carrying his super heavy candy bucket. Life is hard when you are a pirate and people are giving you free candy.

Here is Charlotte stealing from Scott's candy. I have a picture of my younger sister doing EXACTLY this same thing when she was probably about 2. Must be a second child thing...

Who knew my family was so artistic?

Now that carving pumpkins is SO much easier with the fancy tools and templates you can buy, we are becoming quite artistic with our pumpkins. My dad is especially good...

Charlotte absolutely LOVED helping Grandma clean out the pumpkin guts. We were all shocked since this is a girl that says just about everything is "too scary." Here are some photos of the artwork in progress as well as the final results:

The Third Annual Pumpkin Farm Pilgramage

In the middle of October we made the drive to Wheatland again this year to the Bishop's Ranch Pumpkin Farm. What a fun place! The train ride was a big hit this year, as was running around in the pumpkin patch looking for just the right pumpkin. What was not so popular for the under-5-years-old crowd was posing adorably for photos. We came home with the fabulous apple cider, a couple homemade corn dogs, a few pumpkins with personality, but no cute pictures of both kids willingly sitting on pumpkins. These will have to do:

"Smile, Scott!"
"Don't try quite so hard this time."

"One more try! I guess that will have to do..."
The only decent picture of Charlotte.

Trunk or Treat!

A week after the visit to the pumpkin patch we enjoyed the annual ward Trunk or Treat activity. Although Scott was really bothered that we kept saying "trunk" instead of "trick". Our wonderful neighbors Tony and Cristina came with their adorable boys, Alex and Christopher. And we were extra lucky to have my little niece, Elle, with us too! The kids were very patient waiting through dinner for the main event. Needless to say, the night was a big hit!