Friday, November 30, 2007

Getting our Christmas Tree!

Don't let the date on this entry throw you off. I started this post on the 30th and am just now getting it finished on Dec 3rd! It's been a busy couple of weeks as you can tell. So anyway, I was bad and skipped bible study last Wednesday night so that we could get our Christmas tree. Thankfully I knew the other ladies would understand. We went to Cobb's to get our tree and at first thought about trying to do the "cut your own tree" thing but you need to do that when there's daylight and since it would basically be up to Papa Vaughn to do it, we figured probably best to wait another year or so until he can have some actual help. Anyhow, we found a nice tree rather easily and got home early enough in the evening to still work on setting up some Christmas decorations. As for the tree "picking" pictures, Papa Vaughn forgot to grab my camera for me so I'm stuck with cell phone pictures. And and by the way we don't normally dress Big Boy in such weird winter attire. Papa Vaughn also forgot a jacket for Big Boy so he was stuck with whatever I had in the car, which was one of my jackets and Boopy's hat. Big Boy didn't seem to mind that he was wearing a jacket dress.

The kids had nearly as much fun helping put up decorations as watching the Christmas tree get tied to the top of my car! Big Boy was such a big helper! He helped carry quite a few boxes of my Christmas village downstairs without even being asked. Then it was all about watching to see what kind of house would come out of the box. Both Big Boy and Boopy are fascinated with the village and LOVE it when all the lights are on.

Then it was time for Papa to bring the tree in and set it up. We only set it up and actually decorated it on Thursday night, which I will blog about later.

First the tree needed a hug.

Papa had to be supervised to make sure he was doing it right. And yes, Boopy is half naked. The tree actually got set up after dinner. She made a major mess and was quite content to remain without a shirt. Crazy girl!


Thursday, November 29, 2007

Yosemite

The day after Thanksgiving brought a morning of quiet and relaxing around the house awaiting Grandma & Grandpa Prohaska's and Aunt Guya's arrival. Yes, I broke the tradition of early morning shopping. This year we just couldn't justify it. Hopefully next year will away for some extra cash to start our Christmas shopping as tradition! Anyhow...Guya and Grandma & Grandpa Prohaska drove in from Vegas in the evening and we enjoyed a nice easy dinner. We planned on taking a day trip to Yosemite on Saturday and had so much fun! The weather wasn't too cold yet so we were able to walk around without freezing too bad.

Big Boy was SO happy to see his Guya!

Enjoying the fall leaves and Mama's hot chocolate, which promptly became "mine"!

Getting some love from Grandma Prohaska.



Big Boy REALLY loves the grabbing bear that Grandma & Grandpa bought him. Boopy is in LOVE with her park ranger rubber duck that they bought her. Sorry I didn't get a picture of her with it.

A family photo opportunity.


We ended the day with a stop in Bass Lake for their Christmas parade. The people there were so sweet. Such a nice quaint town. They gave the kids teddy bears from one of the floats and lots of candy - just what Boopy thought she needed!

All in all a wonderful day. Guya, Grandma & Grandpa Prohaska left on Sunday morning. We took the kids to see "Mr Magorium's Magical Emporium" in the afternoon. We highly recommend it for simply family fun. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Thanksgiving

Wow! I've fallen a bit behind in my blogging! I figure with the amount of stuff going on over the last week, you all would forgive me! Anyhow, here's how our Thanksgiving went. We enjoyed a nice quiet, relaxing day at home. Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn picked up GG and spent the day with us. We tried some new recipes this year that turned out great. Papa Vaughn, who often claims he can't cook is really becoming quite a good one!

Many of us spent the morning relaxing and snuggling.

Then it was time to eat. Yum! Yum!

Then we enjoyed a lovely music concert.

Followed by a round of "wheelbarrow". First it was Big Boy's turn.

Then it was Boopy's turn.

Then we watched "Astronaut Farmer" with Grandma & Grandpa Vaughn & GG. After that it was time for them to head home. There was still time in the evening for some playtime. However, a game of teeter-tot turned into "Attack Mama"!

Here's Boopy trying to play teeter-tot with her babies.

Some all around cute playtime.



Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Boo Goes to Knott's Berry Farm!

"Boo", Big Boy's beloved truck has taken a trip to Knott's Berry Farm! He was kind enough to let us tag along and made sure to watch out for big Boy on the rides. Here he is on the drive down to Buena Park on Monday. (Why, he is called "Boo", we have no idea, but for some reason that is his name according to Big Boy.)


Giving Boo some love.

And because I took his picture in the car, Big Boy wanted to take Boopy's, who was sleeping peacefully. Then he had to take a picture of their wonderful "Moo" drinks. Not too bad for pictures for an almost 4 year old! (By the way, I didn't edit these pictures at all!)

My parents, who had just flown in from Washington to Las Vegas to visit my sister for Thanksgiving the night before, were just crazy enough to be willing to join us on the fast but fun day trip. The trip was inspired by the fact that Knott's honors military members and veterans in November yearly by giving them two free entrances and allowing up to six other guests to enter for only $13.00 a piece. Not a deal that we could pass up! Needless to say it only cost $34 for all of us to get in - thanks Mom & Dad! :)

We were pleasantly surprised at how many things there were for our two little ones to do. Granted, Boo probably would have gone on every ride possible but unfortunately for him there were height limits so we were limited to most of Camp Snoopy. It took a short bit to warm Big Boy up, but soon he was brave enough to try out the school bus and tugboat. Boopy went on with Grandpa and Papa but didn't want to sit on her own on the seat and tried to escape before the ride started. We did get her own the bus with Mama when Papa and Big Boy decided to go on it again. Silly Boopy!


Then, Boo was SOOOO excited! We found "BIGS" to ride! This is how Big Boy refers to Big Trucks. Which, by the way, we saw a lot of on the drive down. I think the drive was almost as exciting to Big Boy as the day at the park!

After the "Bigs" we found a "Huff N Puff" train that the kids ride on themselves with their own kid power. Well, okay, the attendant often helps give a little shove but mostly they do it all on their own. Big Boy went on the ride first by himself and we were so happy to see him enjoy it and move along fine. Of course Boopy thinks she can do everything Big Boy does so she practically ran when the opportunity came to sneak in on the ride. The attendant didn't question her age and she obviously seemed capable so we took the chance and put her in a car in front of Big Boy and hoped he could muster enough strength to push them both! In her defense, Boopy did move the lever just she saw the other kids do, just not sure she had much force behind it. Grandpa got a video of the kids on this ride that I'll try to post when I get it from him.


Next to the "Huff N Puff" were race cars! Oh what fun! I had the joy of riding with Boopy and trying to keep her from flying out of the car. The ride turned faster than it looked around each corner. She had a great time though, so it was worth it. Big Boy and Boo rode with Papa in a McDonald's car. A perfect match and also thoroughly enjoyed!

One down side of a full day at an amusement park with an 18 month old girl with attitude is the word "MY" that she has learned. Oh my, she is so stubborn. She was convinced that I had bought this LARGE soda just for her and no one else and no sharing allowed. Any chance we could, we snuck a drink trying hard not to get caught and hear the dreaded "MY" and get this face.

It was nice to have Grandma & Grandpa along for the day for many reasons, but one selfish one is that Grandpa could take a picture of all of us together. Thanks Dad! :)

Grandpa also got to spend some much needed play time with the kids. He hadn't seen them in person in a year! Grandma had come out in September to visit and help out while Charles was gone and got to see the kids then, but it was still great fun for her to enjoy them again and see all the changes in the short time period.

We did get Grandma in some shots too. Here's a nice one of the three girls. Well, okay, nice of me and Grandma. I'm not sure what was up with Boopy. She looks drunk to me. Maybe it was all that soda...no that was later on after this picture. Who knows.

At least it's not as bad as this one! This looks like bitter beer, old man Boopy! Not a face I'd seen before and not really one I want to see again unless we need to entertain a crowd somewhere.

Okay, to make it up to Boopy, here's a really cute picture of her sitting in a play plane.

Overall, a great day, long but great! Boo made it safely through the park. He even rode on the top of a stage coach, on a train pulled by a steam engine that was robbed by train robbers, won a stuffed duck, sat nicely while Big Boy got his silhouette done and enjoyed a nice dinner at the end of the day at Claim Jumpers. A well deserved day of fun for Boo and the family!