It's a White Christmas After All!

It has become one of our many family traditions to do chocolate covered pretzels.

Nicholas was able to do it himself with out much help, but William on the other hand still needs mommy's hands to guide him.

Working together to get the pretzels done.

Nicholas proud of his work.

This year we were supposed to go to Elko for Christmas, but seeing as I was as huge as a house and very close to my due date, we opted out of the 16 hour drive. So we spent our first Christmas in our new house.

The boys were spoiled as usual, getting way too many gifts.

There were lots of games for learning, and even some just for fun.

Santa even brought a few that mommy wasn't too sure of, like the Nerf machine gun...
Daddy likes that one though.

THE NEW VEHICLE

DODGE DURANGO: HEMI 5.7L SLT

So we have known for a while that we needed to get a vehicle with more seating for quite some time. We have put it off thinking that we have plenty of time... Well, the date of need was rapidly approaching and we felt that needed to stop talking about it and get it done.

We took the first step on Tuesday. We went to the bank and applied for pre-approval. It was a rather painless event. I thought it was going to be a little harder considering what it took to get pre-approved for our house. For the rest of the day, we researched the vehicles that we wanted to look at in person. After we made our list, we were ready to look.

I had an appointment in the morning with Dr.Shope at 9:00a.m. so we were planning to go out after that. Greg looked online to see where we should go. We went to Tacoma and looked around at some of the vehicles on our list. At the top were Honda Odessy and Toyota sienna. Although I never wanted to be a van mom, no offense to anyone who reads this who is. It's just not me. I had my mind made up. I was getting a van. At the first dealership, I realized that the features that I liked about the vans really weren't as appealing as I thought. Outside of the sliding doors, I would have had some of the same issues I was concerned about with getting an SUV. So we kept looking at some of the other vehicles we had on our list... Jeep Commander, Dodge Durango, Acadia, ect. We decided to drive a Dodge durango. It was right in the price range that we were looking for. It was a nice color and had most of the features we were looking for other than the leather seats and movie player... Then when we drove it, we decided that we really like the Durango, but not the one we drove. It SMELLED like WET DOG! Not a pleasant smell for anyone little loan a pregnant woman. The interior was more worn than a vehicle should be at four years old. So we passed on that particular vehicle. We went to another dealership where two of our friends had purchased their latest vehicles.

We pulled in and Julie called me asking what dealership we were at and she said don't talk to anyone accept Dan! At the time, he was with another customer and another sales man named Alex came to talk to us. At this point we weren't even really out of the car. I was on the phone, and Greg started talking to Alex. Meanwhile Bryce called the sales floor to have Dan come find us. It was kind of funny. Dan came out and we talked for a minute and then we went to look at the Durango's they had. They had starting with the 2004's. Which was a little bit older than we were looking for. We asked if they had anything else that was newer. Alex showed us two more and we decided to go on a test drive... This time, we found what we wanted. It had everything we were looking for as far as the options except for the interior outlet switch. We went to visit one of our friends who lived close by. I called my mom to see if she could get me the book on it, and we went from there. As you can see, we got it for the price we wanted and we are happy.

It has leather seats, sun roof, Movie player, heated seats, ect...

It seats eight and has lots of space. No more stress about bringing the baby home. We will have lots of room, and we'll even have a few extra seats.

SPUR OF THE MOMENT

Friday morning when Greg got off of work he asked me if I wanted to go somewhere? I was expecting him to say that he found a Jeep that he wanted to go look at that was a few hours a way... I was surprisingly wrong. He wanted to go on a mini vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. One of my friends told me about it awhile ago, but I thought that the prices were a little steep, so my initial reaction was not really. However, we looked at the prices and discovered that it was significantly less expensive than it had been during the summer months. The weekends are still more expensive, but if you go on a week night you can get a pretty good deal. So we decided to go. It is only about an hour south. When we arrived and nicholas was so excited...

We didn't get too many pictures of the lodge or the outside, but it is a really cool place. They have lots of activities, the only down side is you should expect to spend money if you do more than just the water park.

We stayed in the kids camp room. It had a wilderness bunk bed theme. It was really neat. It was like they had their own room inside of our room. We took our bags up to the room and decided to go on a little tour of the lodge. The first thing Nicholas said was "this is soo awsome!". He continued to say that as we walked to the different parts of the lodge. After taking the tour we decided to go to the water park.

William said "wow" when he saw the park. I was glad to see that William was excited too. They had lots of activies in the water park. Some for every age group. They had the kids play area which had kids skidoos that sprayed water, a slide and little adventure place, a wave pool, hot tub and water slides. There was just too much to describe how cool it was. The pictures do not do it justice. The bucket below that says Great Wolf Lodge fills up and dumps about every five minutes. It is really cool to watch and to get hit by the water. Nicholas was scared of it at first, but then he braved it with daddy and was fine after that.

Nicholas spent most of his time on the water slides. He went with daddy and by himself. He was just tall enough to go down with out help on most of the slides. There were a few slides that he wasn't able to go on though because he wasn't quite tall enough only by a few inches. Greg was even a little disappointed when he wasn't able to go down the big one that circles like a toilet flush. It was a double ride and Nick wasn't tall enough and in my condition, I couldn't go down the slides. Yet another reason I hesitated when Greg asked me if I wanted to go. I love waterslides! I almost had as much fun watching Nick run up the stairs and come down the slides. He always had a smile on his face and wanted me to give him a high five. He bonked his head a few times coming down the slides, but that still didn't slow him down. Total he went down the slides over a 100 times. Yes, I said a 100. Crazy kid!

William's favorite part was riding in the wave pool. I took him out in a tube and he laughed the whole time. I've never seen him so happy. Most of the time he has a serious demeanor to him much like myself.

After we were finished at the water park, we went to eat dinner at one of the restaurants in the lodge. If we ever go back, we are planning to take our own food. It was good, but a little pricey. The kids meal was served with a hugebucket of fries. I was surprised as it was more than what the adult plates had. Good thing we have boys with big appetites. Nicholas was so worn out that he fell asleep on my lap at dinner. I thought that William would do the same, but he was so wired and didn't go to sleep until 11:00p.m. very, very unusual for him. He is ususally asleep by 7:30-8:00p.m. I thought for a short time that we had made a mistake by not bringing the pack and play, but once he fell asleep, he was fine on the bottom bunk. What a big boy!

EARLY CHRISTMAS!

We received a box of goodies from Greg's parents (aka Emitt Grandma & Grandpa). In the box were presents to go under the tree, and some pre-christmas goodies. We have enjoyed the yummy apple cider, reeces peanut butter cups (my favorite!), whoppers, cookies, and the blankets. The boys cuddled up in the blankets as soon as we pulled them out of the box. They both have used them daily since we received them. What a great gift! Thanks for the treats!

OUT OF TOWN COMPANY!

Crystal and I have been friends since elementary school. She has always been a great friend, but it has been a few years since we have seen each other. I was delighted when she told me that she was going to be coming to town.

Thanksgiving weekend we had our first overnight guests. Crystal and her family visited from Calgary, Alberta. Her husband Jason is an AC/DC fan and they had tickets for the concert that was in Tacoma. We were able to spend two days with them. It was great fun! I am glad that they were able to come see us. We were especially excited to see Chloe who is only nine weeks old. We watched her while they went to the concert...

Nicholas was able to practice being a big brother again to Chloe. He loved holding her and liked looking at all of her tiny features. It also made him think about Hailey and how she was going to be soon. He is excited to be a big brother again really soon. William was really curious about her too. He wanted to lay on the play mat with her and liked to touch her little hands.

Thanks for coming to visit! We loved having you and hope to see you again soon... We're hoping some time in the spring!