Christmas 2013

For about a month leading up to Christmas Kendal would tell almost everyone she met we were going to spend Christmas in Logan with Grandma and Grandpa Loosle. We decided to open our personal gifts on Monday so we didn't have to haul extra gifts back and forth. After a family home evening on the symbols of Christmas and how they relate to Christ we opened gifts from Mom and Dad. I stay pretty conservative with gift giving so the kids got four gifts from us (wear, read, need, want).

We headed down on Logan on Christmas eve. The kids were all smiles when they finally got out of the car and got to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a relaxed night at home and made reindeer cookies for Santa. The kids got to wear their Christmas eve Pajamas and we read some stories before bed.

The next morning Andy, Carly (soon to be sister-in-law) Rexton, Lyla, and Campbell joined us early and we all opened presents. The floor was a sea of wrapping paper and the kids were beyond excited with all of their loot.

I cooked a brunch for everyone. My Nana, Aunt Linda, and Uncle Bob joined us to eat. We spent the rest of the day surrounded by gifts and happy children playing and enjoying their new toys. We had a yummy Christmas dinner and had more family time.

Thursday they boys went and shot BB guns in the morning at the shop. After lunch Andy and Casey took the kids (minus Peter) to the Jump Zone in Logan. The kids had a lot of fun there. Kendal had a blast swinging into a pit of foam. We watched a movie that afternoon and spent more quality time together. Thursday night we volunteered my parents to have a movie night with the kids while the siblings went to David and Anica's to play games. We ganged up on Andy and had fun being together.

Friday night was the big Loosle family party. We headed out to my Uncle Kelly's house and got to spend time with family and eat some very delicious food.

On Satruday Casey finally got to go see Ender's Game. (He liked it; didn't love it). We hung out with family some more, and said goodbye to Andy and his crew. My parents headed to SLC to see my Mom's side of the family for her brothers anniversary party. Casey went to the USU basketball game with Cody. Katherine, David, Anica, and I watched a movie with the kids; got them to bed; and played games.
Casey and I had church duties on Sunday and Casey has basketball practice every night this week so we headed home after eating breakfast with my parents and sister on Sunday morning.

Thank you Mom and Dad for a great week; and for putting up with my loud kids and a messy house. We felt spoiled and loved the time we had with our family!

 Kendal HAD to have her table put up as soon as we got home. They love it!

Peter is 18 months!

Peter is growing into a cute little toddler with a funny personality.

He is still our champion eater, but now he doesn't want to eat in his high chair he has to be at the table with us. It's fine until he wants out of his seat and has to stand on a chair to eat with us (I don't let this fly at dinner time, too much food to grab/spill.). Pete still likes to push chairs around my kitchen and get into my drawers, take the stove apart, or play in the sink. Let's just say my chairs are laid down for about 80% of the day. Now Pete uses the legs to get a little higher so he can still reach my counter tops. He surely loves to climb. If a chair happens to be up next to his high chair he gets in and yells mama until I notice and either get him down or get him food.
Peter's vocabulary is expanding daily. Some of his words are: dis = this, ees = please, uish = squish, apo = apple, chss = cheese, ruf = rough, ush = push, ickle ickle = tickle tickle, Gampaw = Grandpa, Mamaw = Grandma, he also has down words like bye bye, pants, socks, nana, up, Mama, Dada, and a few more that are escaping my thoughts right now. Pete likes story time, but he doesn't want to sit to listen. He likes to wander around me or crawl on my while I have the book. He likes to bring me Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and How I became a Pirate to read . Brown bear repeats and rhymes, and he loves the pictures in the Pirates book. 
Here's a bit more about Pete at 18 months:
Peter likes to sit on the edge of chairs and benches and dangle his feet.
He loves to find shoes and make us put them on him.
Like I mentioned in the side bar, Peter likes to stomp his feet in front of you and run away giggling expecting us to chase and tickle him. (He got this from Grandpa Darrington : )
Peter is very naughty with the computer. If the office door gets left open I will find him on top of the desk, pulling cords out, emptying drawers, banging on the keyboard, pressing buttons, etc. It's the one area he won't leave alone.
He still hides in my pots and pans cupboard. He shuts himself in, pulls all of my pans out, or sits on the edge dangling his feet.
I've given him three haircuts so far (he's needed more, but I procrastinate and he's cute with long hair).
Peter is friendly like his sister, he finds others in church or the store and wants to sit on their lap, feed them, or jibber jabber at them.
Pete loves to find the night light in his room and take it apart. He also taunts us by turning the TV on and off by pushing the button. He also pulls the electronic cords out from around the TV and tries to plug them back into different holes. He has an engineers mind and loves to figure things out and put things together. Ok with toys not with my household electronics / appliances.
He will help clean up a lot better than Kendal, but then he'll also dump the basket of toys all over the floor that we picked up two minutes earlier. 
Unlike Kendal Peter loves the vacuum. He wants to stand in front of it, climb on it, push it with me, unplug the cords, and take the attachments off to play with.
Peter likes to make faces in his mirror in the car. He sticks his tongue out and talks to himself. 
We've warned Kendal about treating her brother nice, and now is the age that her actions are coming back to bite her. Peter likes to pull hair, sit on and grab at Kendal when they are arguing over a chair or toy. I warned Kendal, and now she can see what I was talking about.
Peter's hair is still blond and pretty thick. I can see my side of the family in Pete a lot; then he smiles then I totally see Casey. He's a bit of a shorty, but I'm not expecting a 6' something kid, he'll probably be similar to his Grandpa's or Daddy.
Pete gives three kinds of kisses. A sweet peck, an open mouth slobber, or a lick your face loving. He also gives sweet little hugs that I take when I can get.
He's turning into a little Linus and likes to haul a blanket around the house. He's also down to one binky (we've lost the other 3). We were ready to just finish with Binky's then cold and flu season hit, and his molars are coming in fast and mean. So we're holding off for just a bit, (unless he looses his last binky then we'll see).

This little guy gets cuter, funner, and more mischievous every day. We love you Pete!

I came out of the shower one morning to find these two sitting in a box together watching their morning cartoon. : D

Darrington Party

It was hard this year trying to schedule a party for Casey's family. Between everyone's schedules (work, school, basketball), and different holiday plans we decided to have a Sunday dinner at Casey's parents home.
After Casey's game Saturday (first loss of the season : /) we headed out to Raft River. We've had some good family time the past three weekends there between Thanksgiving the Webb party that no one came to because of snow and our party this past weekend.
Sunday we went to church with Casey's parents. Peter went to his second successful nursery time (I think he does well because he doesn't have to sit still, there are toys, and above all they have snacks!). Kendal went to primary with Grandma. Apparently she wouldn't hold still during singing time and had to keep checking the nativity out with another little girl. Then she turned around and started leading the music.  Instead of lessons they got to hear some Christmas stories, decorate a cupcake, and make a baby Jesus craft.
After church the family started rolling in. Before long we were all assembled and the wonderful chaos began.  There are 8 going on 9 grand kids right now. (Kendal 4, David 3, Bryker 2, Jaxson 2, Hunter 2, Becca 2, Pete 1, Keegan 1, Baby Anderson {still cooking}) Needless to say with a house full of toddlers it was crazy.

 I attempted ornament hand prints with the kids. They looked fine, but I baked them and the kids pushed a bit to hard painting them so many broke (O well). We ate a delicious dinner of french dip and yummy side dishes. Cody and Grandma each read a story. Some of the kids were surrounding Grandma and by the end of the story she was almost toppled over.

 We did the annual cereal game where we pass wrapped cereal left and right to a story that Mom reads. The kids were anxious to unwrap gifts so by the time we were done a good majority of the boxes had torn paper. Pete opened his before the story began and spent the entire story walking around trying to get help tearing into the box to get the cereal.

Next we did our gift exchange. Peter got a cute Sunday outfit from Grandma and a big toy dump truck from David. Kendal got two princess dresses from Grandma and a hair clip holder with a bunch of hair clips from Becca. This morning Kendal kept switching between her princess dresses and twirling around the room. Casey and I were spoiled by his parents with a crock pot a blue ray dvd player, and some cash. Sarah gave Casey a gift card to Amazon for him to get Kindle books or other fun stuff. I got a nifty tool kit from Jordan. After some yummy desert and more play time we headed back to our humble abode filled happy thoughts of the day. 

I love the holidays that bring family together and Christmas time is definitely my favorite family gatherings.

30 blows

Casey turned thirty this week! Casey hasn't been looking forward to being thirty. I keep telling him thirty is still so young, but he begs to differ.
We got to see Casey for a couple of hours on his birthday. We had pizza and I made a pineapple coconut cake for him. The kids have missed daddy time lately so they were happy to have him for a bit.
Casey has been super busy teaching, grading, making lesson plans, and coaching. His freshman (c team) is undefeated so far this season. We are grateful for the hard work he puts in at school and here at home.
I'm very thankful I have this wonderful man in my life.
Casey - I hope this year brings many wonderful things your way and you realize that being thirty is not so bad. I love you!

Thanksgiving

We headed to Raft River for thanksgiving on Wednesday night. We got some cousin time and family time in. Thanksgiving day we went up to Grandpa Webb's house for a final family holiday there. There were a good number of the extended family there to eat and catch up with each other. I thought Pete would love thanksgiving because he loves to eat but I didn't factor in that he hates waiting for food and we ate at his nap time. He did not appreciate stating at a counter full of food for over half an hour before he could dive in. After he ate he was pretty good. Kendal loved running around with her extended cousins and the fish pond great uncle Kurt and aunt Kris put on. We had our fill of very yummy food. Casey went out and shot with bows with a group.
We returned to Grandma and Grandpa's. We played some more and uncle Cody joined us later.
Earlier in the month we made thankful leaves for FHE. It was nice to look at them all month as a good reminder to see some of the many things I thank God I have in my life.
Black Friday (or Thursday as it should be called now) wasn't a big deal this year. We went to a couple stores Friday and did a bit of shopping. After we ate lunch with Travis, Chelsea, and their sweet kids. Always nice to catch up with each other : ) Friday afternoon we went for a drive with Kenny and Cheryl to Malta and they picked out a pretty Christmas tree. Pretty much all of Casey's family does a real tree. I grew up with fake trees, I can't smell to enjoy a real tree and I don't like the fuss, sap, and needles so we go with an artificial tree.
We had a good time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. Casey had practice Saturday so we came home and we put our own tree up.
It was a good weekend full of yummy food and great family.
Sorry no pictures. Our camera is pretty much dead. Luckily we found a good deal on a new one for Christmas.