R-U-B-E-N

My baby brother plays for his varsity basketball team at school. We have all wanted to go to a game, but he's so far away, and we only come really during a holiday or summer, when he's not playing. But to our surprise we discovered that he would be having a home game during break!!!....then when we realized that all 5 sisters would be home, and there are 5 letters in his name....coincidence? I think not!!

Our original idea was to buy shirts and just use a marker to write his name. But as our plan evolved, we decided to go classy and make them nice. We bought shirts and the special paper you print and iron on. And Wala....instant cheering section! We even had people from the school thinking it was cool and taking pictures of us! He was a little embarrassed, and got a little teasing from his teammates, but secretly they were all jealous that they didn't have enough sisters to spell their names! And one day Ruben will appreciate it too.

Christmas

Waiting on the stairs Christmas morning.....gotta get the pictures in before we can open presents!
Charley got what she wanted from Santa...a unicorn Pillow Pet. Gabby got a Ladybug Pillow Pet.
Look at that huge paper mess!!! The girls were spoiled by Grandpa and Nana, and all of their Aunts and Uncles....I have a lot of siblings.

We did our normal Christmas traditions....Christmas Eve party with the Zendejas side....Presents in the morning, omlets for breakfast, the boys playing basketball, and then Christmas Party with the Rosenthal's (my mom's side). It was a great day!

And Ben gave me the best gift!!! ....he made me a book! the first page had a picture of an Apple. The second page had a picture of a witch, the third a picture of a lady shopping for purses in China Town, and the 4th picture was of a google map!....Then it had a note telling me to leave my calendar open for a few weeks from now, and baby sitting provided by Calvin and Courtney....because we are headed to NEW YORK CITY, NY!!!!....tickets purchased for the flight and for us to see WICKED!!!! (I'm actually really excited b/c I've actually read the book), and hotel booked!!! We are going with some friends. The husband gave it to his wife for Christmas too! It's going to be so much fun!!!

uDrove Humanitarian Bowl

In the club box of Boise State Stadium....with the blue field

With my friend Wendy....I miss having her live so close!

The Albas! so cute!

Calvin & Courtney got to come with us....in fact we stayed at Courtney's families house, and her sisters watched the girls while we went to the game! They were awesome!

Last week we had the chance to go up to Boise, ID to go to the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl. Fresno played Northern Illinois University. Our friend Micah coaches for Fresno, and his whole family was going to be going, it was a good excuse to go see them, so we went! We even got to sit in the club box seats!! Yep, we felt cool! We drove up after work friday, and came home sunday. It was a quick trip, but very fun!

Lights, Computer, UPDATE!!

Calvin in front of the temple
They added a few new features to the temple lights...this nativity scene is one of them. They are floating on the reflection pond. It was gorgeous!
Love the lights on Temple Square
Sunday was one of the warmer nights we have had, so we bundled the girls up and met Calvin and Courtney up at the lights on Temple Square. We were not the only ones with that idea, there were thousands of people there! But that's the fun of it all I guess.

*my computer is still out of commission. The tech people at the district office couldn't fix it, so they sent it to mac to fix it.....a little more serious then I thought. I'm not sure how long it will take, it's been a few weeks, hopefully soon.

*Update...I've decided to just catch up with what I had....I hate getting to far behind, so I put up about 6 new posts....Enjoy!

VEGAS!! & Santa!

Ben and I at the work Christmas party in Vegas.

outside the Rainforest Cafe' with Brooklyn, our friends daughter.

The first weekend in December we went to VEGAS!! Ben's main office is down there, and they had their yearly reviews and Christmas party. We brought my sister Lexi to help watch the girls while we went to the Christmas party. But during the day we hung out around the strip taking the girls to circus circus to see their little acts, and the MGM to see the lions, and lunch at the RainForest Cafe'....and of course while the boys were at work on that Friday us girls went Shopping!!!

Santa was at my work party this past week. Gabby was all for Santa, but Charley was scared...she's been scared of things a lot lately. So I only got a photo of Gabby.

Princess Party!

This pictures are backwards, but you get the picture!....Charley's friend Aurora invited Charley to her birthday party at a hair school. They got their hair and nails done! I think I had just as much fun as Charley!
The finished product! ...Isn't she so cute!?
Getting her nails done!
Gabby chilin'
Getting her hair done!

Christmas Tree

Pictured above...Gabby eating the ornaments.....then getting mad when I tell her she can't eat them....poor girl is teething and everything is going in her mouth!

Charley hanging Ornaments!

Gabby finally catching on and hanging ornaments!

Thanksgiving

New Cousin Kyler!

The week after we got back from Omaha, we loaded the car and drove up to Rexburg! Ben's youngest sister had her first baby a week earlier, and we decided to spend the holiday up with her and her family, and Schramma and Schrampa, who were up there helping Char out.

On the way home from Rexburg we stopped off in Bountiful where my sister and family were spending Thanksgiving....so we got to see our other little nephew...little RyRy.

Trip to Omaha

We went to Omaha the week before Thanksgiving. I went with the girls, and Ben stayed home. I was asked to dance at a few places, and they paid for our flight out there. Plus we got to see family....of course we had to stop by and see Bella! Charley just loves her cousin Bella!
You may wonder why Gabby is wearing my shirt...or why Jordan is wearing my pants and Sara's shirt?! ...well...after I danced at UNO Gabby needed a diaper change. Jordan went to the back room to change her. Little did she know that Gabby had an explosion! And it got all over Gabby's clothes, and Jordan's clothes! So in swoop Gabby took our 4 peoples clothes....Gabby wore my shirt home. I wore my hoop outfit home. Jordan wore my pants that I wore there, and Sara's shirt....Sara had a tank, shirt and sweater....Good Job Gab!
Me hoop dancing at UNO...I also danced at Union Pacific.
And we also went to the temple and trail center. Charley loves seeing the temple we were married in.
A few years ago a walking bridge was built that goes from Nebraska to Iowa....it was a nice day, so we went....and we got to be in two places at once!

Conversation....

This was a true conversation I had with Gabby! It was hilarious so I had to blog about it. ....if you have been around Gabby, you will know that she is starting to talk...

This afternoon I was getting the girls ready to go to my work party. I was telling Charley that Santa was going to be there. Charley had told me what she was going to tell Santa then I started talking to Gabby:

Me: What do you want to get from Santa? Do you want a Pillow Pet?

Gab: NO

Me: Do you want a baby doll? (let me add, those are two things she is getting!)

Gab: NO

Me: Are you just saying no b/c that is all you know how to say?

Gab: NO

Me: Well, what do you want for Christmas then?

Gabby points to the TV

Me: You want a TV?

Gab: YES

I seriously about fell out of the chair laughing! When I told Ben, he said he was talking to the girls about Christmas and how he wanted a new TV....I'm not sure if she got that from him or what, but if she did it is amazing what they catch on to.

Other Gabby Sayings:

"Here go" (as she hands you something)

"Where puppy go?"

"It's cold" (this one is cute, she says it as she folds her arms and pretends to shiver)

"Mama"....which she will yell for hours on end until I answer her

"DaDa"

"Bye bye"

"Hello"

"ball"

"yes/no"

and while she was at my parents house she started saying "Nana" and "Grandpa"

and then when Ben's parents came out we got her to say "Schramma & Schrammpa" a few times

....and the list grows every day. We are still working on her saying Charley....she'll get it soon enough!

my love/hate relationship...

...with technology. I have grown accustom to it and love it, yet it annoys me so. One, I don't know how to use half of it, and two, I don't know how to fix you when you are broke.

My trusty old mac computer has blown a little fuse where the connection cord connects. But lucky me, my computer is a work computer, and I just have to hand it over to some awesome tech people and they fix it for me for free!....and they give me an new computer to hold me over until it is fixed. However, this new computer is very slow, and has issues of it's own. So until my old computer is fixed I will have not pictures to share.

Last week I went home to Omaha to dance. My dad got a few requests for me to dance for Native American Month. All of the dances paid enough were they covered my plane tickets for me and the girls, Ben stayed back to go to work. (we missed him though) It was a fun week trip! The girls loved the attention from Nana and Grandpa.

We took lots of pictures and video, and I will post them at a later date....or when my computer is fixed.

This coming week is Thanksgiving, and we are headed up to Idaho for the holiday. Schramma and Schrammpa will be up there helping Char.....Char had her baby on the 16th!...little Kyler! The girls are excited to meet their new cousin!

So until next time...I hope to have my computer back!

A picnic in NOVEMBER!

You would never know it by looking outside today, but last Saturday was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was 70 degrees and sunny! The BYU game was on and we didn't get the channel on TV so we couldn't watch it, and we were going to have to just listen to it anyway. So Ben decided to take a picnic to the park and listen to it on the car radio. It was one of those days were there was no way we could not be outside.

Only we didn't have any picnic stuff on hand, so we just got kids meals, and called it good!



The girls had so much fun! And so did we! Now it is getting cold...and snowy, so I'm glad we got outside one last time before we get stuck inside.

Trunk or Treat & Aunt Kays

Originally We were supposed to have our ward Trunk or Treat tonight. Everyone was there with trunks open and candy in hand. We had said an opening prayer to get the party started....and it started Raining!!....hard. After about 2 minutes, we all decided to move the party inside. So the adults lined the hallways and rooms and the kids just went down from person to person. It was a combined 3 wards, so there was a ton of people passing out candy. And for the amount of people that we had to organize very last minute, it all ran smoothly, and the kids only had to wait about 5 minutes before they could trick or treat.
Charley was an old pro at the trick or treating. Gabby started out wanting to hold every candy that she got, but she's a quick one. After about 5 minutes she realized that if she put the candy in her bag she could get more...then she was off. She was a very efficient 15 month old. She was all business going from person to person, it was hard to keep up with her!

Ben was Roy (from Siegfried & Roy), and I was the White Tiger that Bit him, Charley was Belle, and Gabby the Goblin!

Our ward activity was really early. It went from 4-6pm. It was actually really perfect timing. After the activity we took the kids to Aunt Kay's house to trick or treat. It has kinda become a tradition of ours. After Kays house we went to a few of her neighbors houses and called it good, and visited for a little bit. We came home and bathed Gabby (she left a black ring in the tub!), and sent them to bed by 8!!!

And now that they are in bed, we got to enjoy the girls loot! All Chocolate is separated and bagged for mom and dad!! My dad always called it the "Dad Tax"....Ben heard about that, and decided to implement that with our kids!

We had a busy and FUN Halloween!! It is always ten times better with kids. They make everything worth it! Even though tomorrow (Sunday) is the real Halloween, we live in Utah, so Halloween was actually tonight. Our festivities are over....now on to Thanksgiving!

Halloween...office and country club

Friday night we went to the Alpine Country Club for their Halloween party! We have a membership through Ben's Firm, they have a corporate membership. We went with some friends from work. The girls love their little girl, Brooklyn. It was really YUMMY! They had a huge Dinner buffet, then they had games and dancing and a spook ally. It was mostly kids dancing, which made it really fun for the girls, they were both out there shaking it! It was so cute! They had little costume parade, and the girls got little goody bags....they tore into them before we even got home!
Even though she was a little Goblin, she was still so stinkin' cute! She ended up being a hit, and everyone loved her!
Earlier that day we took some cupcakes to Ben's office. Plus Charley wanted to show Allison her princess dress, Allison works there, and they have become quite good friends! Since Charley was going to be dressed up I decided to dress Gabby up....Even though Ben wanted to dress Gabby as a goblin. Since I got to dress Charley, Ben said he wanted to dress Gabby. But I wasn't going to dress her up like a monster, so I put a princess dress on her.
I'm pretty proud of Charley's dress! I made it! I think she made the perfect Belle....even down to her brown hair and blue eyes. Plus she is just gorgous!!
My poor little baby...she was playing outside the day before and face planted on the sidewalk. She has little scraps on her forehead and chin.