Like Mother, Like Daughter

Self portrait by Andie

My little Andie.  I have so much to catch up on my blog but I had to post this.  We decided to take the kids out to dinner tonight.  When we got to the restaurant we found out we had an hour wait so we decided to go to the mall and kill the time.  Well, the girls favorite store in the mall is Claire's.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a jewelry/knick-knack/frou-frou store full of stuff the girls WANT.  Of course, Andie wanted something.  When we told her no she totally freaked out and got very mad.  

As we walked out of the store and were walking towards the car Dave and I hear Andie say, "Well, that just sucks."  Dave and I both look at each other in shock and ask her, "What did you just say, Andie?"  She kind of paused and said, "I won't say 'cause you'll be berry berry mad."  So we had a little chat about that one.  Nice.

Then later Andie kept asking how many days until her birthday which is on February 8th.  We told her, "Forty-one days." She smiled a bit, very self-satisfied, and said, "Well, Daddy, I'm sorry your birthday is in a really, really, really long time."

She's a peach.

Santa 2008

"I want a fashion puppy..."

"I want a microscope..."

"I want to get the h#%* outta here!"

Tangent

Okay – I'm a little upset. What year is it? How long have we had the internet? Is Larry Miller the only one with any sense? Seriously.  

Dave had family in town, so we decided to all grab Thai food and go see a movie. We did check the Megaplex Theaters (our favorite reserved seating movie theaters also at Jordan Commons and The District) website at Thanksgiving Point for tickets and saw that it was almost sold out, but it was too far away for everyone to drive. We got tickets on Fandango at the shiny new Cinemark at the University Mall. Never again.

We arrived 30 minutes early. We smashed up against each other in a big sweaty line, winding around a teeny tiny ticket area waiting to get into the theater. We were finally let in, frantically running around and body slamming each other to claim a seat. Don't you love entering a theater that appears to have plenty of open seating, but upon closer examination you've got five or six people saving whole rows of seats with a bunch of coats? Awesome. So guess what seats we got? Second row. Bad word. Very bad.  

This is ridiculous! Ridiculous because we could have calmly reserved our seats online at a Megaplex Theater, relaxed and had a nice dinner, and then showed up just as the movie started with our happy little seats waiting just for us.  And if someone had had the audacity to be sitting in them when we showed up, we could have proudly displayed our reserved tickets and kicked their sorry butts down to Second Row Hell. Glorious! And we pay the same amount of money to fight through the stinky masses and end up with a neck spasm even after showing up 30 minutes early? Hmmmmm.  I think I'm done with Cinemark.  "The Best Seat in Town?" I don't think so.  

All done. 

There's No Place Like Home

My dad took this beautiful picture

We just got back from a fabulous Thanksgiving in good old Arizona. So fun. We took the kids down the weekend before so we could spend more time with family and make the hideously long drive worth it. Sadly, I got sick the first five days we were there and had no voice. It was my kids best Thanksgiving ever. Why is it when I finally get a vacay I get sick?  Anyway, I was spoiled and loved every minute of it.

Usually Thanksgiving is a big production on my part and I'm cooking and baking for two days. This one was awesome! All I had to make was creamed corn. Weird. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was spoiled. Dave and Chandy cooked our turkey in the neighborhood BBQ pit the whole night before which turned out to be... interesting. Aaron stuck his gross feathery bones in my mashed potatoes while I was feasting which I think tainted the wonderful BBQ turkey experience. I still haven't decided about the BBQ turkey. . . love you Dave and Chandy. But everything was delicious. Katie even insisted on making Mom's pie crust for the pumpkin pies. Good job, Kate!  

We weren't planning on staying as long as we did but I was so glad. My Dad wanted to drive back with us and he couldn't until Friday so we decided to wait. Dave left us the day after Thanksgiving for a week so I would have had to take that drive alone. What a pair we were . . .  a seizure victim and a half blind old guy (love you, Dad). We made it!

Our days were filled with eating, lounging, playing in the sandbox, swinging, swimming, eating, setting up Katie's Facebook, eating, visiting, playing with cousins, shopping, eating, helping Katie set up her blog, chasing dogs, playing cards and eating. Not every family wants to spend time together but thankfully mine does. I am spoiled. Aaron always gives me guilt for living so far away and I always roll my eyes and say leave me alone. But it's nice to know I'm loved. I love my family. And there's not a whole lot of time left to be able to drop everything and leave for two weeks so I'm glad this time we did. It was so worth it.

The Sibs, minus one

Avery wasn't interested in getting in the picture

My dad the pirate

Our attempt at the nativity with five toddlers. Not bad.

Fun at the park

All the cousins

Andie's absolute favorite thing. . . next to swimming

Three adult men. . .

My little brother Aaron.  Isn't he precious?

Andie in an underwater photo

Alex's turn

Yay, for Arizona in December!  Thanks ,Dad.