Yummy

Myla's Garage

Has your trike dropped it's tranny?

Is your big wheel busted?

Has your scooter lost it's scoot?

Bring it on down to Myla's Garage and she'll fix it on up for ya.

Myla uses specialized tools, such as a toy blood pressure cuff, to get to those hard-to-reach places.
She's not only hard working, she's dang cute too!

Her handy assistant, Cade, will take care of all the cosmetic needs of your vehicle.

Lollypops, apple juice, and trips to the park accepted as payment.

Multi-taskers

It isn't good enough to just watch Dora the Explorer on TV anymore...we've got to listen to the theme song on their FP3 players too. We got them these FP3 (Fisher Price 3) players for Christmas to help with the road trip to Utah. They really like them. We put their favorite TV show theme songs and primary songs and other Disney-type songs on them and they love to walk around the house singing at the top of their lungs. It's fun.

Planes, Trains, and Tea Parties

Little Miss Paige (of the Buchanan clan) had a tea party this morning with 10+ of her closest friends. Myla was invited to go and talked about it this whole weekend. She was so excited! She just loves Paige and Mimi (aka Maren).

Here is Myla and Princess Paige. Any tea party is not complete without some handmade aprons by Maren, right? Maren made at least 11 perfect little aprons for each of the girls. Aren't they so sweet?! Myla is definitely an apronista-in-training. She made sure I hung it up right next to all of my aprons. I'm sure we'll be putting it back on again soon. So, what do the boys do while the girls are "princess-ing?" We do boy stuff. We picked up James, Paige's brother, and headed off for our own morning-o-fun. First, we stopped off at Sonic for some blue slushies. Then we drove through the airport a couple of times to check out all the cool airplanes.

Any boy time involving James and Cade has to include trains. So we went home, put on their favorite Thomas movie, set up the trainset, and enjoyed two blissful hours of girl-free train time. And let me tell you, it was glorious. No fighting and no fussing.
After the slushies were purchased, the airplanes were seen, and the train was set up, Mom was no longer needed...so I enjoyed some Gavman time.

Future President?

Double Date

This is my little brother, David.

I was 13 years old when David and Richard were born, so I changed their diapers, fed them, played with them, etc. etc. I never did forsee the day when I would double date with them. Last night Kevin and I went on a double date with David and his girlfriend Rachel--who, coincidentally, used to be a student at Sequoia where I worked, and is the granddaughter of Kevin's boss. Small world. We went to see Yes Man and David, generous as always, paid for our tickets, after a little scuffle in line between Kev and Dave. We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again sometime! David and Richard are now almost 18 years old. They'll be graduating from Westwood this year and they are preparing for missions. They are pretty much adults and it's really fun to get to know them in this new phase of their lives. It's crazy to think that in a couple of years they could be away at college, or in the military, or married. I'm just grateful that they want to spend time with their super dorky older sister. :)

Candy Canes

When I was a kid my mom couldn't keep candy canes on the tree. Of course, we were the type of family that liked to lick our candy canes to the sharpest point possible, and then poked each other with them. As a family tradition my dad would buy the big candy cane poles for each of us and then we would watch White Christmas and lick away on our huge candy canes trying to get it the sharpest fastest to see who we could draw blood on first. Well...we didn't draw blood, we did love each other. :)

So what brings up the topic of candy canes weeks after Christmas is over? I was doing some leftover Christmas cleaning and found we have about a kajillion candy canes hanging around. I usually put them in a bag, thinking we'll use them for something, and then eventually throw them away around October...you know, in preparation for buying fresh candy canes. It's a vicious cycle. :)

So here is my question for you: what do you do with your leftover candy canes?

I'm thinking it's a pretty slow blogging week when I write about my leftover candy canes. :)

Yes, It's That Bad

We are trying to expand Gavin's repertoire of food. Today we tried apple sauce. He really likes sweet potatoes, but he needs some variety in his diet. Men cannot exist on sweet potato alone...even little men. Well, let's just say Gavin didn't take too well to apple sauce.

We decided to end his dinner session when he puked up all of the apple sauce we had fed him. I guess he really didn't like it.

Utah Time

Christmas evening we left for Utah to visit Kev's family. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, so here is a hodge podge of pics.
These were the road conditions when we got to Cedar City. Thank goodness Kevin was driving. It stresses me AND Kevin out when I drive in less than ideal conditions. :)

First, we spent a couple of days with Grandma Pat. We had a great time! We went sledding (see the following post), opened presents, played with our cousins, visited with family, ate yummy food, saw Christmas lights, played and got some great tips for my new serger.

We love Grandma Pat!

The kids LOVED this shaking ball thingy (yes, that's the official name) that Aunt Wendy picked out from them.

Well, at least Gavin got some sleep. :)

Cade and Aiden

Oliver has the cutest smile ever!

Then we went to Grandma and Papa McMillan's house for a couple of days. We played in the snow, ate more yummy food, opened more wonderful gifts, went to The Body Worlds exhibit, watched Wall-E, saw Aunty Caroline, visited and played.Myla with Grandma Lynn

Papa pulling Kevin on a snowboard in the backyard.

My snow angel.

And my other snow angel.

Papa pulling Kev and Myla

Papa pulling Kev and Cade

We also got to visit our good friends Jared and Sienna. Poor Michelle couldn't come because she was sick. We missed her! Kevin and Michelle are cousins and Jared and Michelle lived in AZ for a couple of years while Jared went to school. We got to be great friends while they were here and we miss them now that they live in Utah again. Siena is their adorable daughter. We met at Temple Square and toured it a bit. When the kids got too rambunctious we went to a McDonald's with a playland. We had a great time!

For New Year's Eve Kevin's brother Paul and his wife Hailey hosted an awesome party! We had a great time playing air hockey and Rock Band and watching movies and munching on yummy food. We had to bail before midnight (I could blame it on the kids, but I'll admit, I was exhausted!). We had so much fun!

We wish everyone the best in 2009!

Sledding anyone?

I'm not a fan of cold weather. And yes, I make it known. But now I think I know why! Everytime we go to Utah and play in the snow it is blizzarding...literally. Really, how fun is it to sled down a mountain when the wind chill factor is 30 below and you've got snow in places you didn't know you had. Well, this trip changed my attitude. We went sledding with the family and the conditions were perfect! It was sunny, yet still crisp. The snow was perfect for sledding. The park we went to had a great little mountain perfect for kids and the inexperienced (like me). We had a great time. All of these pictures are courtesy of Kevin's mom, Pat. I love these pics!

Cade couldn't wait to get to Utah to play in the snow. He even said when we were up there, "Mom, I think we should live in the snow." Wait, I probably shouldn't be posting that. It might give Kev some leverage in the "where do we live?" debate. :)
Paul set up a rockin' hot chocolate station. If anyone got too cold, Paul was there with some warm cocoa. Poor Hailey couldn't participate in the sledding...she's got a bun in the oven.
No, I wasn't haven't a bit of fun. :)

Cade racing down the mountain.

Check out Aubs...she's flying!

Kevin and I doing a double.
I love this picture of Wendy and Oliver. So sweet!

Cade and Kevin piggy-backing it.

Ryan and Olli swooshing away.

Paul and Aiden having some fun.
Myla going solo.
You have to click on this picture to see the faces of Aubrey and Wendy up close. It's quite possibly one of my favorite pictures of all time.
Paul showing me how it's done.

Wendy floating away. That's all folks!