December 24th, 2008. Logan's 5th Birthday!

About a week before Logan's actual Birthday, I took the kids up to Auburn to go see the snow with Grandma and Grandpa Shaw. We drove about 10 minutes East and there was snow everywhere! The boys have not spent much time in it, so I was wondering if they would take much interest in it. Logan absolutely loved it. He loved trying to make snowballs and throwing them at everyone. He didn't mind the cold on his hands, but the weather was pretty nice, considering how much snow there was.

We went back to their house and in the evening we took Logan to John's Incredible Pizza Company. He was dying to go back after seeing it with his friend. I told him it would have to be one of his presents cause it's pretty pricey to go, and he didn't mind at all. He had a blast. It was almost overwhelming for him with all the rides, all you can eat pizza and he got some great birthday presents. I wouldn't go there every birthday just because we are not that high maintenance, and don't want to teach our kids that, but it was fun to try it out.

On the way home I asked him "What was your favorite part of the day?" and he replied "the snow!" I think next year we'll just have a sledding party for his birthday!
We ended up saving the cake for the BIG DAY. He had requested a Bulldozer cake that we had seen in Family Fun Magazine. I decided, if I'm gonna spend 2 hours making a cake, I wanted people to be able to enjoy it with us! It turned out pretty well, and I made Dave break open my new Christmas present to take pictures of it (he did so in stealth mode, so I wouldn't be able to examine it until Christmas morning.

I can't believe he is 5 already! It doesn't seem so long ago that I was spending that Christmas Eve in the hospital. Logan, you have been such a joy in our home. Thanks for coming into our family! We love you!

Thanksgiving

Okay, so it is time to finish the update. Thanksgiving day was great. Grandma and
Grandpa Porter flew in from Utah. Dave's Cousin Ben and his family were visiting from the Bay area too. We had a wonderful meal and I didn't have to work it this year, so I was mostly relaxing. I had a cold Thursday morning though, so on an empty stomach (due to rushing around to get out the door) I took 2 Dayquil. I felt loopy and dizzy the whole day. It has been years since I have taken any of that stuff, but now I remember why I hate it. I felt like I couldn't carry on a conversation the entire time I was there, and every time I picked up Audrey I was afraid my arm would give out and drop her. Note to self-toss the Dayquil!
Thursday night I stayed at Lisa's so we could wake up and go meet Amy and Valerie for some Black Friday shopping at 5 AM. Second note to self- returned almost everything from black friday deals after realizing the presents I had bought were not likely to be what my kids wanted; is it really worth waking up at 4 am for???
After shopping a few hours, we went and picked up Dave's mom to get her out of the house while her Christmas present was being delivered. Her kids/husband got together and bought her a baby grand piano. It was pretty fun to see the shock on her face. Once again, my photos don't do it justice, but it's the best I could get at the time.

Okay, so it's been like another month since my last post. I guess it's time to update our life. Several weeks ago Dave and I were instant messaging on the computer and I jokingly said we should go to Oregon to see my family since gas was so cheap. He responded by saying we should leave tomorrow because it was a slower week for him. So we started making arrangements to find people to work for us. Everything just kind of fell into place. Later that evening Dave called and said he thought we should leave that night, so the kids would sleep in the car, since we had no time to find entertaining things for them to do on the way. So, about 7 hours after we decided we were going, we were on the road. We drove ALL night, in thick fog (we were only watching out to make sure it would not rain, we didn't even think about it being foggy!) with our children weeping and wailing in the backseat (apparently the sleeping in the car thing wasn't on their agenda). It was a pretty rough trip, but we had a great time once we got there. It was fun to see everyone, since we don't get to visit very often. Dave had so much fun playing Rock Band at my brother's house, that 3 days after we got back, he brought it home himself.
While we were there we also did some Christmas shopping (mostly for me) and Dave got me a new camera. I was also told that I could not break it open until Christmas, or it would leave nothing exciting to open Christmas Day (hence, the lousy photos). I am greatly looking forward to trying it out!