Just Scraping By

I have to be honest -- I have NO desire to blog lately. I'm 2 months shy of baby #4 and it takes every ounce of energy I have just to get through the day. But I will take a stab at hitting some of life's recent events. Most recently, yesterday was Evan's birthday (his 3rd). He was so excited about it the night before. He just kept saying loudly, "I'm going to be 3. I'm going to be a big brother."

Yesterday was a packed, chaotic day, but we were able to sneak away with the family to Red Robin for our traditional "you're turning 3" birthday meal. The kids LOVE this place, and I have to admit, I like it too. They get free ice cream on their bdays, free balloons, the Red Robin mascot guy (sometimes) walks around and greets them and my kids love the food there. So, for us, it's an easy, instant birthday party.

Also, later that day, our neighbor's daughter got baptized, which has been a really cool experience to see. We held an open house at our house immediately afterwards, which was so fun! But it took up most of the day, and then we had a wedding reception to go to that evening, so it really was a jam packed day.

Also, Dallin and I went to San Antonio last month. My mom flew out to watch our kids for a few days, while we took one last hurrah trip before baby #4. We had a great time visiting the alamo, visiting some of the missions there, doing a river cruise, and eating some seriously yummy food. It was great to get away and sleep in and just relax for a few days.

Hopefully some pictures will come later!

Arizona Lorenzanas

The day after Christmas, we hopped in our car towards Phoenix, where both of my brothers live. We stopped off in Vegas for 2 days just to break up the trip a little. We took the kids around to all of the free gimmicks at the museum (ie, the volcano at the Mirage, lions at MGM, etc...) And I have to say that although our meals were delicious there, I have no real desire to go back to Vegas. I was really turned off by the strip and all of the terrible advertisements there. And we saw like 5 people get arrested all on separate occassions, in the short time that we were there.

Checking out the cool fish

Evan happy after a spaghetti dinner at Maggiano's

Once we got to Vegas, the kids had a blast reconnecting with their cousins and it was so great to see my brothers. They have a great little setup there -- they live 1 house away from each other. So, it was so fun bouncing back and forth between their homes.

Cutest kid ever -- baby Ryan

Alex, Aubrey, Maya and Emmy

While we were there, we decided to take advantage of the warmer weather, so we went to the zoo, the train park, a local park by the house, went to a children's museum, Dallin went shooting with the boys, and I got to do some shopping with my sister in laws. We also went out to a fantastic restaurant one night and then went to see the Blind Side, which was great!

Jacob & Alex at the kids museum

Emmy & Aubrey at the kids museum

All of us FREEZING on the train ride

Phoenix zoo

Jacob & Sadie

The rest of the time, we spent playing in their backyards, playing foozball, playing on the Wii, and just hanging out and eating great food. We spent New Year's there and ordered in some yummy food that night and played Dance, Dance Revolution (I've got some good blackmail video of that!) And it was so great ringing in the new year with family.

Uncle Marco and Aubrey

Aunt Michelle & Emmy

Aunt Kathy & Aunt Michelle ready for some dancing!

Who says white boys can't dance?!

We honestly had so much fun there, and Jacob cried for an entire day after we left because he missed his cousins so much. On the drive back home, we stopped off at the Hoover Dam. It was pretty impressive b/c they are building a bridge so that people won't have to drive over the Hoover Dam (we assume for security reasons now). So, that was actually pretty interesting to see and read about.

Christmas 2009

OK, I have a few minutes to post about Christmas this year, so forgive me for the basic recap. Christmas this year was wonderful! I've really enjoyed establishing our own traditions with our kids every year. This year we had our traditional christmas eve dinner: lobster tails and tamales with a few other side dishes. Then we re-enacted the Nativity with our neighbors. All of the kids did a great job and had so much fun watching the video of it afterwards.

Then we came home, set out our treats for Santa and his reindeer, wrote letters to Santa, and opened 1 present that evening. The kids could hardly contain themselves the whole evening. They kept asking us if Santa had arrived in Reno yet and were looking for Rudolph's red flashing nose in the sky. It was awesome!





We told the kids not to come upstairs before 7 a.m. and fortunately they listened. Once they came up, they gathered in our room while we took a few pictures, which seemed like torture to them. Then we went out and started opening presents. We had our traditional Kringle for breakfast which was so delicious and we spent the whole day just relaxing at home and playing with all of the new toys.



Lastly, the next few pictures are from our ward christmas party in mid-December which I forgot to post. The kids all had fun sitting on Santa's lap, except for Evan who seem terrified of him this year. Go figure!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

I am so behind on blogging right now, so I can really only hit the highlights. First piece of good news, my morning sickness is pretty much gone... finally. No more hugging the toilet, going to bed at 7 p.m. or covering my nose everytime I open the refrigerator. From here on out, it should be relatively smooth sailing... hopefully.

Onto much more interesting information, Reno got a great, big snowstorm a week and a half ago and we got dumped on. The kids got a day off of school and they spent endless hours in the freezing cold sledding, building snowmen and having snowball fights. Dallin had just as much fun cleaning the driveway with our snow blower (it's the first year we've had one), and I spent most of the time snuggled up on the couch sipping hot chocolate. I have to admit, I really did miss being outside playing in the snow. But fortunately, I know Reno will get snow again and again, year after year.

Check out their awesome snowman!

Look how much snow we got!

Snow Angels

Evan getting a push from Dad (although he wasn't very happy about the snow blowing in his face!)

Evan keeping me entertained inside while the big kids played outside.

It's been a jam-packed December, like always, full of work christmas parties, school and church christmas programs, christmas carolling, trimming the tree and decorating the house, etc.... I've thoroughly enjoyed all of it -- especially hearing my kids sing christmas carols at all hours of the day. If you're ever privileged enough, my kids sing a rockin' version of "Feliz Navidad", complete with hispanic accent and all. It's hilarious!!

Aubrey at her pre-school's christmas program

Trimming the tree

Anyway, now that most of the shopping is done and the christmas cards are out, I'm looking forward to concentrating on the true meaning of christmas. I've noticed that the years when I am pregnant or just had a baby, I'm more mindful of the real reason why we celebrate this season. I know we have a lot to be grateful for, and I hope all of our friends and family have a merry Christmas and a new year filled with peace and joy.

Bdays, turkey day and more

We've had a busy past few weeks. Aubrey turned 4 this year. We started her special day with her traditional smiley pancake breakfast, which she's requested the last 2 years. Her birthday fell on a Sunday, so we celebrated with a small family party that day. We threw up some decorations and had cake and ice cream in the afternoon, and she was so excited to be turning 4 years old. She is still a really good girl -- cooperative, helpful, sweet (most of the time), and generally well behaved. She really is a big blessing in our family.

Who can resist chocolate chip pancakes with a big whip cream smiley face?

The following weekend, Aubrey had her official birthday party. It was princess themed so all the girls came dressed as their favorite princess/ Disney character. Aubrey dressed up as Tinkerbell and we had about 5 girls over from our church for the party. We played Pin the Frog on the Princess and decorated tiaras that the girls could take home. The rest of the time, they played, ate pizza, cake and ice cream, and watched Sleeping Beauty. It was a low-key party and all of the girls were so calm -- which was a huge help for me since I am still not feeling completely like myself yet!

The Pretty Princesses!

Decorating our Tiaras

Ready for birthday cake (round 2)

Opening presents

Also, this year, we decided to spend Thanksgiving at home. We spent it with our neighbors who have become like family to us. I seriously don't know what we did before we knew the Dobbs. They help us out in so many ways -- I truly am grateful for them. We ate TONS of food, played games, and just relaxed and talked while we munched on more food. It was great!

The surgeon - ready for his first incision
We're definitely outnumbered by the kids!

Evan diving into his yummy jello
The kids playing and playing some more
Dallin taking the kids for a spin around the Dobbs' awesome backyard

And lastly, since our last General Conference, we have been working on a "Warm Fuzzies" jar. For those of you who listened to Thomas S. Monson's talk, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyway, we challenged our kids to earn 100 warm fuzzies, and when they did, we would reward them with something special. Well, they did it! And they chose to have a campout in our basement. They specifically thought of this reward on their own, and we thought it'd be fun. We let them eat popcorn and snacks while they watched a movie and then they set up the tent and slept in it with Dallin. (I slept upstairs in my comfy bed! :) We would have camped outside except it was really cold and snowy outside.

Catching Up on Halloween

OK, so here's a quick recap of Halloween this year:

Ward Halloween Party

Every year our ward has a trunk or treat at our chapel. This year was no exception, although they moved it indoors because it was quite cold that evening. My dad was in town visiting so he and Dallin took the kids to the party. As usual these days, I stayed at home in bed. But the kids had so much fun. They came home with a ton of candy, played all kinds of games there, and they got to walk around in the costume parade. This year, Jacob really wanted to be Darth Vader, Aubrey was a princess (of course!) -- Snow White to be exact, and Evan was superman. Dallin and I usually dress up, but since I wasn't up for it this year, he got dressed up as... well, I'm not exactly sure what he was supposed to be. But maybe you'll have a better idea than I did once you see .

Ready for the party

Yeah, I'm kinda at a loss for words, too! :)

Pumpkin Fun
Also, while my dad was here, the kids went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm over in California. It's about a 2 hour drive (or more, I think) over there, but it's a cute pumpkin patch, complete with a train ride, petting zoo, hay ride, all kinds of playgrounds and things for the kids to climb on, a puppet show, and more. We usually alternate going between Bishop's Pumpkin Farm and Apple Hill, but being that I wasn't feeling well, we thought it'd be best for Dallin and my dad if the kids went to the pumpkin patch. A good time was had by all.








Trick or Treat
My kids absolutely loved going trick or treating this year. It was fun because this year, Evan really "got" it. After every door, he'd turn around and yell, "Let's do that again!"

A Mischievious Looking SuperManI know I'm biased -- But she is Soooo Cute!

I know you're thinking, "Luke, I am your father"

Ready for some candy!

And finally, I'm including a few other random pictures from the last few weeks. The first is of Jake finally learning how to ride a bike with no training wheels. It's taken him a while, but he's finally starting to get the hang of it. Here he is practicing behind our house.






And the next few pictures are of the kids walking along the river with their Daddy (one of their most favorite things to do!) We love the Truckee.