Santa Encounters

We had a lot of fun chances to see good Old Saint Nick this year! The first was at our ward Christmas party where we saw a reindeer, an elf and Father Christmas! I didn't get a picture but Keith kissed the reindeer on the mouth!

We wrote Santa some letters with our wish lists and sent them off to the North Pole. A few days later he wrote us back and the kids got official certificates for being on the "nice" list. Way to go guys!

Jack did make the nice list (barely) but was napping when the mail came.
We also took the kids to the Utah Symphony to see Here Come Santa Claus. It was fun. They play familiar Christmas music and the kids get to sing along and ring bells.

The line to sit on Santa's lap was really long and we were so disappointed we didn't get to see him. But we hadn't been home more than 10 minutes when the doorbell rang and standing on our front porch was Santa himself with candy canes and oranges for the kids. They were ecstatic!

Merry Christmas!

Sinterklaas-A New Tradition!

This year we started a new tradition in the Nigbur house. My mom was born in Holland and we have a rich dutch heritage that is very fun & dear to me. Growing up we often celebrated Sinterklaas. On Dec. 5th Sinterklaas (or the dutch Santa Claus) would visit and fill up your wooden shoes with yummy dutch cookies & candies. He rides a white horse and has little black elves named Zwarte Piets, who if you're bad put you in their bag and take you to Spain! So last night at around 7:30 the doorbell rang and this was waiting for us on the front porch!
Wow! That was so nice of Sinterklaas to come all the way from Holland on his white horse & bring us these goodies! And we were so lucky to have escaped the dreaded Spain bag too! (Although I would love to visit Spain, so maybe next year I'll be a little more naughty!)

The kids LOVED it! They immediately ate about 10 pieces of chocolate & cookies and emptied their little containers to put other treasures in. So fun!

*Now I wish I could take credit for this creativity but I can't! Our adorable neighbors the Boogards did this for us. I need to remember & erase this * before our blog gets made into a yearly book! :) My kids are convinced that it is from the true Sinterklaas but really that sweet family gets all the credit! I told Anissa I've been meaning to do Sinterklaas for years (just like my dutiful sister does annually) but have never gotten around to it! Well now it's officially a new tradition thanks to them!

Happy Sinterklaas everyone! I'm off to eat more chocolate!

Getting into the Spirit!

Jack's getting excited for Christmas! Can you tell?!? Ho Ho Ho!
I must be also because I bought my first Christmas gift the other day (for myself!) Happy pre-holidays everyone! :)

Happy Halloween!

We had such a great Halloween this year! The kids were so excited about all the parties, candy & costumes. Here we are all dressed up for a family party. Our kids told us we were lame because we weren't dressing up! So Keith & I pulled these outfits together that afternoon. Not bad for a 50's girl and Harry Potter!

We carved & painted pumpkins last weekend! It's so much work & mess to carve so we just did one. Hannah picked a heart eye, Nick chose a circle eye, Jack chose a diamond nose & we compromised between a scary & happy mouth! What teamwork!

Jack was a cowboy, Nick was a skeleton & Hannah was an angel. Jack was terrified of Nick's costume and didn't want to wear his hat most of the time but he was a major trooper when it came to trick or treating! He lugged his pumpkin all around the neighborhood & ward trunk or treat. He wouldn't let anyone carry him or his pumpkin. What a hard worker! And he was so polite, always thanking people for all that free candy! :)

We got way too much candy & we couldn't have asked for better weather. Today it's rainy and cold but last night we didn't even need jackets! It was a very fun & fabulous Halloween!

That Ain't Rain!

So the weatherman predicted rain for today! Now I'm not a meteorologist but that ain't rain baby! Seriously what the heck! I am in no mood for this type of weather! What happened to fall? I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops on Tuesday at the park with my kids with my AC going full blast in the car and Thursday this happens?!?!

I thought Nick was going to burst driving home from Kindergarten! He wanted to drive with the windows open he was so excited about the snow! We dressed in last years gear (hadn't even thought about buying new gear for this year yet) and ran outside to play in the new white stuff!

Even though I'm dying inside my boy's reaction to it all made me smile! Jack didn't eat any of his lunch because he was so full of snow! Hopefully the first snowfall is somewhat clean!

Goodbye summer! Where did you go autumn? Hello winter! Pull out the hot cocoa and bring it on I guess :(

California!

We just returned from one of the best family vacations ever! We spent the last 10 days in California! One of the things we miss most about living in Vegas is the super closer drive there! We've been at least once a year for the last several years and just because we moved to Utah, we didn't want to miss the chance to head to sunny California in 2011!
We spent 2 days at Disneyland and 1 day at California Adventure! The kids couldn't wait to go!

Keith wanted them all to have mouse ears this year so Hannah got some sparkly pink number while Nick chose Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack picked Woody ears! Say cheese!

The day we went to California adventure was so NOT busy! We walked onto every ride. Sometimes we rode rides time after time because there was no lines! It was fabulous! Jack's favorite was the new Little Mermaid ride which we did a total of 5 times, Hannah liked the Tower of Terror the best and went 4 times and Nick's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.

We told them on our last day they could pick a toy to buy! I think it's always interesting to see what they will choose. Nick built his own light saber, Hannah wanted a Minnie Mouse art set and Jack chose a Buzz Lightyear toy that spun around with lights on it! So fun!

Hannah was very excited to visit Pixie Hollow and meet a fairy. She was so happy that Rosetta was there because apparently that's her favorite fairy followed very closely by Tinkerbelle! I was afraid she would be to grown up to do the Princess Fair again (I think she went just for me!) But she met Jasmine, Cinderella and Aurora there! Nick and Jack were too cool to have their pics taken with either fairy or princess! What silly boys!

Nick did however really want to see the Star Wars show! Both he & Hannah were invited to participate and went through an official training to become certified Jedi Knights! Nick fought Darth Maul and Hannah fought Darth Vader. She even Jedi pushed back 2 Storm troopers! What a studette!

We of course had to visit both Mickey & Minnie in Toon Town. Jack was so sweet and ran right up to Mickey for a high 5! It was a milestone because the first 2 days he was terrified of anything that moved! I was convinced he had PTSD. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the Jungle Cruise! We are glad he eventually decided Disneyland wasn't all that bad!

As you can tell our kids were exhausted at the end of each night and fell asleep on the car ride home! It was a lot of walking but so incredibly fun! I think we'll wait until we don't need a diaper bag or stroller until we go back! But super, super great times!

I will never understand how he can sleep with his neck bent like that! On a day we didn't go to Disneyland Jack took a nap at the condo and slept through the rest of us watching TV and playing right next to his bed! We could not get him to wake up! He was spent!

We drove to Oceanside 2 days to play at the beach! My kids LOVE the beach! The love playing in the waves and the sand! Keith helped them build this cute little sandcastle, I got a pic just before Jack demolished the whole thing! :)

We walked out on Oceanside pier (one of the longest in the country!) to get milkshakes from Ruby's! Yummy!

Jack chillaxin' in the chair!

The waves got pretty big and the water was pretty chilly but Keith was a good sport about taking the kids out!

Hannah talked us into renting a Boogie Board one day and she was a natural!

She could do it all be herself and was super brave!

What's better than burring your busy boys?!?

Jack couldn't even move, it was a little sweet justice!

With the help of Grandma Dottie we stayed in a beautiful condo in Escondido. It had a beautiful new pool with a water slide and was so much fun!

We could have spent the whole trip at the pool! We couldn't get them out of the water or off the slide!

We had a beautiful view of the resort off our balcony and some cute little ducks lived down by the pond. We fed them our leftover toast every morning after breakfast!

On the long drive home we pit stopped in Vegas and visited some dear friends, the Pryors! Avery, Ashy and Anistyn are very close in age to our 3!

I promised my friend Lori I wouldn't post this pic, but she put it on her blog, so there!

It was the night of the BYU/Utah game and their cute family was all decked out in Cougar blue. It was a good thing we left before the game was over because the Utes slaughtered BYU 54 to 10 and Jared probably would have kicked us out! Sorry guys!

An attempt at a family picture, it never goes well!

So there you have it! 10 fabulous days spent with family, friends & fun! It doesn't get better than that!

A Big First!

So do you remember your first concert? Mine was Chicago at Parkwest, I was in junior high. Hannah's first was Selena Gomez at the Maverik Center when she was 7! (BTW Selena Gomez's first concert was Brittany Spears when she was 11!) Our good friends Veena & Sara invited us to come! Thanks so much, we had a fabulous time!
It was a surprise right until we got there! Hannah was super psyched!

Our tickets weren't that great but we could hear it all just fine! :)

2 cute girls rockin' out at the show! (2 cute moms also rocked out but sorry, no pic!)

The goodies purchased there; matching necklaces, Sara got a T-shirt and Hannah got a cool new backpack!

Another very successful GNO! (Veena I'll plan the next one, this time my treat!) Thanks again for the fun!

Utah Man Sir!

Keith had this great idea to buy season tickets for University of Utah football! I was a little skeptical at first (especially when I heard the price!) but I'm glad he talked me into it! I think it's going to be super fun! We took the kids to the opening game last Thursday and we had a fabulous time! The Utes won and the kids really enjoyed themselves! Our Raymond cousins also bought season tickets, so we get to enjoy all the games with them too! Bonus! :)

Go Utes!

Back to School

Hannah started 2nd grade! Can you tell how excited she was to go back to school? She has basically been waiting to go back since the last day of 1st grade! She was so opinionated about her new back to school clothes too! I think she looks great! Say cheese!
She has 2 good friends from 1st grade in her class this year; Grace & Zoe! Her teacher Miss Demke seems really nice and Hannah is so excited to have a class pet, a hamster named Cookie Dough. She gets to bring it home for a weekend sometime! Goody! I'll be waiting on pins and needles for that experience! (sarcasm!)

Nick started Kindergarten this year too! I cannot believe how time flies! I swear we were just taking Hannah to her 1st day of Kindergarten! He is such a stud & also picked out his own first day clothes complete with black light up sneakers! :)

He is officially now a Willow Canyon wildcat! His teacher Mrs. Christensen is super sweet and Nick is most excited about recess and going to centers!

Yay! It's going to be a great year!