Disneyland

This year since we were spending Christmas out in California with my family we decided to stop at Disneyland for a few days. The kids loved it!! Tyler's favorite ride was Astro Blasters with Buzz and Makenzie's favorite was the rocket ships in Tomorrowland. Disneyland was decorated for Christmas and everything looked so beautiful. The castle had fake snow on it and at night lit up with icicles. We really had such a good time, especially since both the kids were tall enough to go on almost all of the rides. We took them on space mountain and splash mountain. Tyler didn't like either (cried on both) and Kenzie was too scared to know what to do. Hopefully we didn't traumatize them too much.

Droubay Christmas Party

This year our Droubay christmas party was at Jeff and Amy's house. It was so much fun. Every year it seems to get more and more chaotic as the family grows. But that is what I love about it! We always eat a meal and then exchange cousin gifts, sibling gifts and have a white elephant gift exchange. The best white elephant gift this year was probably Zach's homemade recipes for cooked liver and cans of kidney beans (expired of course).

Here are most of the kids- decorating christmas cookies so the adults could have some time together.

Tyler opening his present from Grandma and Grandpa droubay - a racecar set. He loves it!

Santa Claus

I took Tyler and Makenzie to the Provo Mall where they rode a train and sat on Santa Claus's lap. Fortunately, this year they were both brave enough and neither cried. Hooray! We are making progress.



Tuesday we went up to Brigham City to see Mike's parents and the kids decorated this beautiful gingerbread house.

Seattle

Not too long ago Mike and I took a trip to Seattle where he was interviewing with Amazon.com.
It was a fun three day adventure. They put us up in a fancy hotel in the middle of downtown and we spent one day sight-seeing. Here we are at the Farmer's Market. It was fun to walk around and see all the little shops.

We ate lunch at the Sky City restaurant which is at the top of the space needle. It rotates all the way around in 47 minutes so we got to see a lot of Seattle from up there. It started snowing while we were eating though and by the time we were done it was nearly a white-out.

Girls will be Girls

For Thanksgiving we went out to Mike's grandparents in Tooele. We attempted to get some pictures of Makenzie and her two cousins, Lucy and Meg, but as you will see these girls did NOT want their picture taken. There is not one single good picture where they are all smiling or even looking at the camera. It's pretty funny. There wasn't anything we could do either to change their minds about having the pictures taken. Ah.... girls will be girls.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2
Attempt #3
Attempt #4
Attempt #5
Attempt #6

Tagged

So I've been tagged -actually it was quite a while ago that Jeff "tagged" Mike and I. I guess this means I have to write 6 facts or habits of mine and then tag 6 other people. So here goes:
1) I love to organize!! I hate clutter. Every once in a while I get in an organizing mood and will organize all of our closets or drawers or shelves. When I was in New York City this summer, I loved organizing all of Maline and Alan's closets and kids shelves. I don't know why but I just love the feeling when everything is where its supposed to be.

2) I eat way too fast. I blame it completely on being raised in a big family with 4 brothers who ate as fast as they could. If I didn't join them, I wouldn't have gotten anything to eat growing up. It doesn't bother me that much, except when other people notice or when I make a really nice dinner that takes me an hour or two to make and then only 10 minutes for Mike and I to finish eating. I will admit- I do love food though, especially chocolate and brownies. In fact I work out just so that I can eat what I want .

3) I don't like slow drivers. I don't mind if they are going the speed limit but when they are going like 10 mph less than the speed limit for no apparent reason, I mean... c'mon people. I do like to drive a bit on the fast side although I have slowed down immensely since I've had kids. I used to always be speeding. I also hate when people are going extra slow in the fast lane and won't move to the other lanes even though there is no one in them. I know, this might be a little harsh. But it's just how I feel. Fast lane is for fast cars.

4) My least favorite chore is grocery shopping. It seems to always be a 2 hour ordeal. First you have to go to the store and go up and down every single aisle (I always have my kids with me too which means it takes twice as slow). Then you have to checkout and buy everything. Then you have to tote everything to your car and then carry it into your house and then finally put everything away. By the time I'm done, I'm usually so exhausted that I don't want to go again for another week or two.

5) My favorite book is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I'm sure most of you have read it and if you haven't, shame on you. I am in love with Edward, the vampire. We read it for book club about a year or so ago and there were those of us who absolutely loved it and some that really didn't. Apparently, their Edward isn't as good looking as my Edward. I am anxiously awaiting for the 4th book in the series to come out. Unfortunately, it won't be coming out until August of 2008. My second favorite book is These is my Words, by Nancy E. Turner.

6) My favorite movies are Field of Dreams, Pride and Prejudice (the new one), and the Notebook.

I am tagging Jodi and Jaclyn from work, my sister-in-law Angie, my brother Jon, and my friend Alyssa.

"Because I have a brain"

The other day Tyler asked if he could sit in the front seat of the car instead of in his booster seat. I told him no and that he had to wait until he was older. He wanted to know how old (he's always asking for the details) and I told him- "I'm not sure.. maybe 8 or 10 years old." His reply, "And when I'm 12 I get to the priesthood" . I was pretty shocked- because it was pretty off the topic and because I know I've never talked to him about it so I said, "Wow! How did you know that?"

"Because I have a brain, Mom".

Pretty good reasoning if you ask me. What a silly boy!

White Christmas

As much as I love this warm weather that we've been having here, I just can't get into the Christmas mood yet. I think that mostly it's because of the lack of any snow. We haven't even received one flake yet at our house. Mike is already wanting to get out all of our Christmas decorations and he's listening to Christmas songs. I'm trying really hard to get into the Christmas spirit. But I just wish it would snow instead of being 66 degrees outside. And I know it's supposed to get colder but I hate it when it's cold and doesn't snow. Then it's just torture for me because I'm freezing and it's completely ugly outside. So please please-

just snow already.

Picture cRaZy!!

So I just got my pictures developed from this summer in New York City and you won't believe how many photos there were. 421!!!!!! How is it possible to take that many pictures in 12 weeks? And I did delete a lot too. Okay- I did some math and that is 35.333 pictures a week which is only a little more than 5 pictures a day. So I guess it's not all that bad. But I can't even think about how long it's going to take to scrapbook them all. YIKES!!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

So I've been working on scrapbooking my pictures from this summer in NYC and I can't help but get a little homesick for the city life. Mike is laughing at me right now too because the last two weeks there I was always complaining about how I couldn't wait to get back to Utah. And that was true. By the end of the summer I was sick of our teeny tiny apartment and the a/c unit that only worked half the time and traveling around on the subway everyday. But I don't think I ever complained about all of the things to do there. I miss our favorite spots- the Burger Joint, the Shake Shack, Riverside Walkway, Hippo Park, Central Park West, Grimaldi's (the list could go on and on). I miss the energy there. Of course I realize that I have either forgotten or minimalized all of the things I didn't like about the city since I've been back here but I still miss it. We had such an exciting summer there. It truly was an ADVENTURE. I'm thinking about planning a trip back after Mike graduates to visit Alan and Maline and relive the memories.

Staying or Going?

The other day I asked Mike to tell me what percentage he thinks we have at staying in Utah after he's done with school. Unfortunately, he said probably only 30%. I'm trying not to even think about it although I have an inkling that we will be leaving come graduation this spring. So I'm in denial now. I love it here and am so comfortable with our routine. And I love our townhome. It's the first place we've had that doesn't feel like an apartment. I feel like I could easily be happy here for another 5 years. I had to take some pictures so I can always remember it.

Ask and you shall receive

The other month I showed Mike a picture of a bench that I really liked in the pottery barn catalog. Of course we couldn't afford it so Mike suggested that he build it. The next thing I know, he's on his way to Lowe's to buy lumber and a new saw. It only took him a couple of days and now I have a spitting image of the one in the catalog. It sits under our bay window in our kitchen. Gosh, is my husband talented or what. Unfortunately, he only builds something about once every 2 years- but still..... when it turns out like this I can't help but be proud.

Annual Droubay Halloween Party

Every year we get together with all of Mike's siblings and his parents to have a Halloween party and carve pumpkins. This year Makenzie dressed up as snow white.

Here's Tyler in his spiderman costume. He is so skinny and the extra muscles on the spiderman costume make his legs look even skinnier.

Mike carving his pumpkin.

Kathy, my mother-in-law, and I

#28

28 years old. Still in my twenties.... phew. I'm getting pretty close to thirty. But as for now I'm still safe. Thank goodness I'm not old.... yet. HA HA.

Happy Birthday

Well, I wish I could share this day with you all. Especially since it is such a BEAUTIFUL day here in Utah!! Sunshine and in the 70's. With just a slight breeze. It's a perfect day for a birthday! My kids woke me up with kisses, Mike made me a delicious breakfast, I went out to eat lunch with my sister-in-laws, and I'm going out tonight to celebrate with Mike. Oh- by the way- today is my chocolate day. Mike bought me chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge brownies and made me a double layer chocolate cake. I love it!! It's a chocolate lovers dream and I'm not going to make myself feel guilty for eating it all. Hooray and happy birthday to me!

Just Be

In a world where you can be anything,

just be yourself.

Makenzie's Room

Now that Makenzie is in a big girl's bed, I painted her room yellow and redecorated it. She loves it!

Ready

I've decided that I'm ready for fall. Today I got a glimpse of colder weather as it was probably the first day that hasn't been in the 70's, 80's or yes, even the 90's. This summer has just been so hot. I love everything about fall. I love the back-to-school atmosphere. I secretly miss being able to buy new notebooks, folders, glue, markers, pencils, and maybe even the occasional protractor, for school. When I was younger I used to match the color of my notebooks with the folders. Each subject had a certain color- I can still remember some of them (yes, I know I am a complete dork and by confessing this am becoming vunerable to being made fun of for weeks to come). Math was red, geography was green, social studies was blue and science was yellow. I even miss having to go home the first day and make book covers out of paper bags for your textbooks (do they still make kids do that?)

But even more than back-to-school, I always get excited for the fall wardrobe. There's nothing more comfy to me than your favorite pair of jeans, a hoodie sweater and boots. It's definitely my favorite outfit. And then there is the start of college football, the beautiful turning of leaves on the mountains and of course, my birthday month (October). Hooray for me!! So how can you just NOT absolutely love fall??

My Birthday Boy

This past Sunday Tyler turned 5 years old. I can't believe that I have a 5 year old now. It sounds so wierd to say. I still think of him as my little boy, although he's definitely not so little anymore. He started preschool this year (he just barely missed the deadline for Kindergarten) and loves it. He's still all boy- loves cars, trains, spiderman, balls, and sports. We made him go on a treasure hunt to find his presents this year. It was so fun to watch.

My sister and brother, April and David, came over on Sunday night to help us celebrate Ty's birthday.

So grown up!

End of Summer

There's nothing like ending the summer with a fun-filled trip to Lake Powell. Mike's uncle and aunt, Richard and Lynne, invited us this year to join them down on their houseboat for a week in September. We decided to bring along Tyler and leave Makenzie. The trip was so much fun!!! It was perfect weather and so nice to just relax. We went swimming, laid out in the sun, read books, played games, went hiking to Rainbow Bridge, cliff-jumping and ate about 20 lbs of snacks. Once again we left with a week's worth of sunny memories to last the year.

Tyler and Mike on the waverunner.

Tyler loved swimming in the water down at Lake Powell. Since he had a life jacket on it was easy for him to just float and hang out with all of the rest of us in the water.

Our cousins- Ryan and Sarah (nice face Ryan). We love hanging out with them! They are so much fun to goof off with. They always make us laugh so hard!

This is me trying to get fancy jumping off the cliff. Tyler yelled at me from the boat to do a back-flip but I thought better in my old age :) So I did a cheerleading kick instead. Tyler was proud of me anyways and told me what a good job I did when I got back in the boat.

We bought Tyler a new spiderman fishing rod for this trip. He was so excited to try it out and we did catch a whole bunch of fish. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the HUGE fish that I caught. I was so excited to catch a fish (on my first try by the way) that I started screaming at the top of my lungs. I'm sure I scared all the other fish for miles and woke up anyone who was even the littlest bit sleepy. I couldn't help myself though. It was the biggest fish we caught. I still am so proud!

Mike's grandparents- Oma and Opa - came on this trip and we are so glad they did. They were such a hoot and I'm still amazed at all the things they can still do. I hope I can be as active when I get older.

The rest of the crew - The group that came to Lake Powell with us was so much fun to hang around. I'm still smiling at all of the funny jokes and stories that took place. We can't wait for next year to go back and hang out with everyone again. What a perfect way to end the summer!! Thanks again to Richard, Lynne, Ryan and Sarah for the invite. We love you guys!!