My new love

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos...eat your heart out! If anyone has seen Kelly Ripa's Electrolux commercial, you know why I was swayed into buying this. After a month of it taking 4 hours to dry a batch of clothes, it was go big or go home. The consumer reports were great on these babies, but I'm not going to lie... they cost a pretty penny. I spent 2 hours (no lie) on Saturday, sitting in front of my washer and dryer. Brodie didn't spend as much time, but still enough time that it could be considered embarrassing.
The washer was so quiet we thought it wasn't working, and it fit double the clothes. The dryer is the biggest one you can buy. I was either going to buy the cheapest or the best, there is no half-way for me. All it took was a phone call from Sears to Brodie and he said "get whatever you want, babe". He should have known better!

California Dreamin' on a Winter's Day

Every now and then, I like to post something to persuade those family members living in colder climates to move here or come visit. So, not only are we playing outside...but we are playing outside naked. Yes, we do this every January. I had just changed Abbey's diaper and was going to take her up to the bath and she escaped outside. She was going down the slide naked, but the pictures were scandalous so I left them out.
Earlier that day I took the kids to the park (while Brodie was at home awaiting the arrival of my new washer and dryer) and it was t-shirt weather! Just some of the perks of living in So Cal.

Priceless!

A trip to Costco with a lizard in your purse on December 23rd, because you're afraid it might die in the car...$140. The look on his face in the morning when he gets a pet lizard from Santa that Mom swore he would never get in a million years so he quit asking a year ago..Priceless! (Meet our new pet named Scales)
Monkey jams $12 (thanks Grandma!) & a baby doll set that has a stroller, playpen, highchair...that you realize at 2 AM is going to take 'til 3:30 AM to assemble... $32.
Lego train that really moves, but that your 7 year old built in a couple hours (not enough to keep him busy for our entire Christmas vacation-darn!) ...$79
The look on her face as she sits in her baby's high chair (you're going to break it Abbey!)...Priceless!
Keeping them busy enough Christmas Day to knock them out cold on Christmas night...PRICELESS!

Christmas Morning

For the second year in a row, Abbey loves playing with Grandma's chocolate box.

For the first year EVER, I actually like my Christmas tree. My old tree cost $20 at Walgreens, if that gives you any idea of how nice it was. I would set the old one up on a big rubbermaid container with a blanket on top of it, to add some extra height. It looked really funny in our old house with the huge vaulted ceiling. This year I actually spent more than $5 on Christmas decorations, which made a huge difference I think.
Christmas morning we went over to Pulsipher's for breakfast. The Webb's and Sanchez's were there and the kids (and Dads) had a blast riding Brooke's doone buggy. She was nice enough to share her Christmas present with everyone. They were getting serious air! As you can see, the weather doesn't exactly scream Christmas! I was so glad we went over there or we would have been really bored and lonely on Christmas Day. Bronson and Casey came over Christmas afternoon and we played Mario Bro's and had appetizers. That's my new tradition...no heavy cooking on Christmas Day and stay in your jams.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve we had our friends Erik and Chareese over and Brodie's mission companion Carl and his wife Chantel. The kids played reindeer games outside in the freezing California winter.

Callie, Tallen, Kelsee, Payson, Crew

This is our attempt at a family picture in front of the tree. You should have seen the other ones.
Our little Abbey girl was a huge grouch on Christmas Eve. She was pouting and wouldn't let anyone touch her or play with her. Her cheeks were super rosy and dry that night, kind of like mine were at her age.
Of course we had to read " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" like Grandpa Bruce always does. We weren't lonely this Christmas Eve 'cause we decided to invite some friends over. Imagine that! Brodie was sick as a dog, so I stayed up til all hours wrapping presents, etc. At 2 AM I thought I was done except for one little box to open and get out for Abbey. Little did I know it would take me 90 minutes to put it together. So I watched a movie while I did it, and got my magical middle of the night burst of energy. I cleaned everything so it would be perfect in the morning. At 4 AM I went to bed and actually had a hard time falling asleep. Its times like that that I was really wishing there was a Harker around to stay up with me and join in the craziness!

Abbey is 2!

Bronson, Keelia, Payson, Casey, and Payton were all at the party. It was Thanksgiving weekend. Jesse and Tina had just left.
Casey, Keelia and I didn't know if we could pull off the Dora cake, but we didn't do too bad...
Abbey got a new baby, stroller (thanks Bronson and Casey!), and a Dora backpack. Now we can throw her old broken stroller in the trash! We obviously have been feeding into her Dora the Explorer obsession. She started out calling her "Dee-dah", but now she says Dora. She is starting to say all the character names. For a while Swiper was "Bowzer" for some reason, and Benny is Menny. We watch Dora many times a day, especially if Mom is busy.

The coliseum...we had some Canadian guy give us a tour.

St. Peter's Basilica was Brodie's favorite thing in Rome. There was so much to do in Rome, we must have walked 10 miles the first day. That night we started getting taxi's because I wasn't doing super great with the pregnancy and was getting worried. We must have spent $100 on taxis but it was soooo worth it! We found some random young guys that were from the U.S. that were studying to be priests in Rome. One guy was from Montana and the other was from New York. We started chatting with them and one of them asked if we minded if he showed us around. He gave us an amazing tour of St. Peter's. I think we got a lot of info from this priest that wouldn't have been in a regular tour... and it was free!
The Sisteen Chapel was amazing, but we were super glad not to be there in the summer when there are huge lines and it's super hot. We didn't have to wait in line for anything and there wasn't tons of people.
We met Mike and Lisa over there. We knew they would be in Italy but planned our trips independently. It was a total coincidence that we were in Florence on the same days. Brodie and Mike talk all the time because of work, but Lisa and I see each other once a year (crazy!) We go out to dinner maybe once a year together at home. We've decided it is way easier to just meet in Italy for dinner! Mike served his mission there, so it was nice to have someone with us that knew his way around.
Look closely and this guy is giving everyone the bird! Of course Mike pointed this out to us...thanks Mike!