Christmas Chaos 2008!

Once again we had an amazing Christmas this year. I think the kids were very pleased with what they got from Santa, us, and the rest of the family.

Christmas for us always starts off on Christmas Eve at "mamaw's" (Matt's mom). We eat junk food all night with no limits of what the kids can eat - I think that's their favorite part. We play a mean game of Bingo, in which Corlin dominated this year, winning both games of complete black-out! Way to go Tiger! I think he was just happy no one could steal his boats anymore! We play the "lefty" pass around game, which is always chaotically fun! And we exchange gifts with whomever it was whose name we drew. This year we did something a little different and decided to make our gifts. At first I was not excited about it, but in the end I really loved it. I made a pillow for Savannah that got me started on a pillow-making rampage and I ended up making five of them for various Christmas gifts. I found out I really enjoy making things!

After leaving Lynn's we go to "Nana and Bompa's" (my parents) where we read "Twas The Night Before Christmas" and open a present or two - generally speaking it's our Christmas PJ's! The kids all looked so snuggly and adorable! Then it's home to bed, with their new blankets that Aunt Erynn made them all, to wait for Santa.

Matt and I set the alarm for 7:30 thinking that we were pretty sure we wouldn't make it until then. At about 7:10 we hear a thunderous amount of RUNNING up the stairs. Now, we forgot to tell the boys to come get us before opening presents so we jumped up and made them come in our room while we woke up the younger two! And this is where the total present overload begins! Santa did good this year bringing Blaine scientist stuff, Corlin a Handy Manny Tool Truck, Quinten Martian Matters and Maveri a My Little Pony that crawls. They opened their gifts from each other - which were all huge hits, and then opened the rest of their gifts from us (and the air hockey table that had been sitting in the garage for two months! LOL). I think all in all everything was very much loved. I especially loved the aero garden matt got me, and I'm pretty sure he likes the HGTV design software I got for him!

From there we get dressed and head to Nana and Bompa's house again. Always a big hit. There was stuff everywhere - from huge Kota Dinosaurs, to personalized bean bags, to clothes, to race tracks etc. We eat sticky buns and open presents until it's time to go to the Taylor Family party at Wendi and Craig's house. It's always nice to see cousins that I only see once a year - if that.

Then it's off to Matt's mom's house for christmas with them. It's a lot more relaxed there, so much so that we were able to give miss grumpy pants a nice nap.

And finally, after leaving Matt's mom we head BACK to my parent's house for the Cox Family Party. It was hard having our first Christmas with out Grandpa, but it was a happy occasion still. I got to see my cousin Daryn's baby Kaelyn whome I haven't seen yet, and hang out with my cox cousins, which is always fun.

And then it's home - after a very tiring, but fun day of Christmas. The nearly foot of snow we got this year added a little extra excitement to our day. We ended up driving my parents suburban most of the day so that we made sure we made it up the hill to their house. So we loaded that puppy up - and with four beanbags and a kota it was FULL, and dad followed us home so we could unload all of our "goods".

Here's a few pics from Christmas morning at our house, and also movie night with the new bean bags and blankets!

not sure why i'm waking her up


waiting in our room for us to wake up the others


Santa Stuff








"you won't like me when i'm angry"














And the bean bags and blankets

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Cantwell Style

Last night we were being super silly - as usual, and decided to invent The Cantwell Family Twelve Days of Christmas.

Goes a little something like this (okay, I'm not going to type out the WHOLE song, but just the twelve days.... you get the jist)

On the First day of Christmas my family gave to me: A Little Baby Maveri Jean
On the Second Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Two Guinea Pigs
On the Third Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Three Little Boys
On the Fourth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Four Snow Tires
On the Fifth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Five Untied Shoes
On the Sixth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Six Load of Laundry
On the Seventh Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Seven Birdie Feathers
On the Eighth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Eight Doggy Paws
On the Ninth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Nine snowing inches
On the Tenth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Ten Sugar Cookies
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Eleven Dirty Dishes
On the Twelth Day of Christmas my family gave to me: Twelve Broken Ornaments

Catchy, isn't it??

Our newest additions - The Spice Girls

I will preface this post by saying YES, I KNOW I AM CRAZY! Anyway, onto the story.

Last Monday I went into PetSmart to get some toys for our bird, Scooter. While there I was showing Maveri and Corlin the animals and happened to see a long haired guinea pig! She was so adorable. The people were there cleaning out the cages, so I asked to hold her. Then I was told they had another one in the back, and they went and got her and brought her out to me too. I Loved them, as did Corlin and Maveri. But I was a good girl and gave them back, and we left to go meet daddy for lunch. His response to my love of the long haired guinea pigs was "well, i'm not opposed to it".

So I went back that afternoon and got one. I brought her home and we decided to name her Ginger. The kids were so excited, and they wanted to get an exercise ball for her to play in so we went back to petsmart that night. While we were there Matt was reading the information they had on "piggys" (as corlin calls them) and read that they do better in pairs. SOOOOO, you guessed it - we now have TWO guinea pigs. The second one we got the boys couldn't agree on a name, so she's now Cinnamon Brownie.

I call them "The Spice Girls"

Here's a few quick pics of our newest family members (oh yeah, and now we're up to five animals if anyone is counting!)

Ginger on the Left, Cinnamon Brownie on the right


Ginger




Cinnamon Brownie

So small, yet so big!

Our little tiny baby girl is growing up! Maveri is 16.5 months old, weighs just over 20 lbs, looks like she's maybe 9 months old, and now sleeps in a "big girl bed".

The little monkey decided that she was big enough to climb over the rail of her crib last week, not taking into mind the long drop down to the floor after she got over the rail! She fell once, thankfully not getting hurt. But, I figured if she did it once she'd do it again - and she did try.

So, the little baby girl got a big bed on Friday. I don't really like to use a toddler bed because then you just have to buy ANOTHER bed in a few years anyway, so my kids go straight to a twin bed. We were lucky to find one that goes perfectly with her existing furniture, and we hadn't thrown out the old bed rail from Corlin's bed yet....so it worked out well. Now all we have to do is paint the room! We love to paint rooms! LOL

Maveri is loving her new freedom, maybe even a little too much. It takes a few tries every night to get her to stay in bed. She does much better for daddy than for me, but that's usually the case around our house. And in the morning she gets up, opens her door (since we have the hook type handles she can open it) and goes to find her "brudders" to play.

So, for the first time in nearly 7 years (other than when we moved to this house), my crib is taken down....never to be put up again! It's very weird to be past that stage, but I suppose it's a good thing. Now if we could just get past the DIAPERS, that's one stage I won't mind giving up!

Okay - so here are some pics of the little princess in her new bed!

Disney Magic!

Yes, I really do believe that Disney is magical. How can you go there and NOT have an amazing time? It's clean, the people are overly friendly and it rubs off on everyone!

In case you can't tell, we just returned from a surprise trip to Walt Disney World in Florida! It was AWESOME. The kids knew NOTHING about the trip whatsoever. We basically woke them up at 4am and said "we're goig to the airport" on the way there we gave them hints and finally Blaine figured it out, although I'm not sure it really sunk in until we actually went to the parks the next day.

Flying with four kids is a bit of an adventure, but went surprisingly well. Blaine and Quinten were also surprised with an early xmas present of Nintendo DS's to keep them occupied. Corlin was given an Fisher Price Kid Tough Portable DVD player and two Mickey Mouse DVD's which kept him busy, so we just had to figure out how to entertain a very wiggley 16 month old baby girl! The key - food, food food and more food! But she eventually fell asleep and all was well.

On the way there we told Corlin we were going to Mickey Mouse's house - the boy is obsessed with the mouse. So, upon landing Corlin looks around, grabs my hand and says in a very cute angry little 3 y/o voice "mommy, the airplane didn't take me to Mickey Mouse house!" SO CUTE. We had to explain to him that it took us to the city of Mickey's house, but that we'd go to his house later! LOL.

The first night was very cool because I got to meet someone who has been a very good friend of mine for over five years whom I've never actually met. Her name is Kerry and we met on an online board of mommy's who were all due to have a baby in October 2003 (Q just came a bit early!). We ate dinner with her and her beautiful family at Joe's Crab Shack. I got an entire bucket of crabs, which was interesting. I had never done that before, but it was YUMMY.

Our first real day of Disney action was spent in Animal Kingdom. The safari ride was awesome, so cool to see all those amazing animals. Everest was a blast also. The younger two didn't care so much for the Bugs Life 3D movie, but overall it was a great day. We got to meet Goofy, Pluto, Pooh Bear, Tigger, Eyore, and Donald!

Day two was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There are so many fun things to do here. Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster were our first stops. Corlin didn't really enjoy Tower of Terror, but at least he went on it. Blaine and Quinten both loved it. We got to meet "fantasia Mickey" while we were here too. And the new Toy Story Mania ride was awesome! We had dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is a favorite of ours.

Day three was Epcot - part 1! I love Epcot, it is one of my favorite parks. So many cool things to do and see. We checked out half of innoventions, and made it about half-way around the country walk today. We had an awesomely yummy dinner at Teppan Edo in Japan, where they cook the food in front of you. Very cool.

Day four of Disney Parks was Magic Kingdom, which is always a favorite for everyone. There's just something about it that makes you smile. Not to mention all the fun rides! Corlin's dream finally came true today - Mickey Mouse's House! We got to go there in the midst of a rainstorm, but I think it helped to keep the lines down a bit! Corlin was so excited to see where Mickey lives, and to give the "real" (vs. the fantasia) Mickey a big giant hug! Maveri gave the mouse a very adorable kiss as well! We also got to see the SpectroMagic parade that night, and everyone loved it - especially Maveri who was up on her daddy's shoulders dancing and clapping right along with everything!

Day five was back to Epcot - part 2. Soarin' and Mission Space were two rides we started the day off with. We also finished the rest of innoventions and the other half of the countries, and we got to see the lights/fireworks show (which neither corlin nor maveri cared much for!) Despite the fact that I was horribly sick that day, it was a very fun time!

Our last day of "parking" we decided that since it was Friday and according to the online callender the Magic Kingdom was open late we would go to breakfast with Kerry and then hit Downtown Disney for some shopping before going to the park. Little did we know that when we got to the park around 2 there was a sign saying they were closing at 7! WHAT?!?! Come to find out they were having "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" from 7-midnight, for an additional charge, of course. So we figured it was our last night there, why not? So we just spent the rest of that day doing the rides that we didn't get the time before, and also some that we did. I am so glad we decided to spend the extra bit and get the tickets for that night. We literally walked onto every ride in the park. There wasn't a wait for anything - we're talking Space Mountain, Buzz lightyear, Splash Mountain etc. NO LINES! They also had "dance stations" throughout the park where you could go and dance with some of the characters etc. We spent some time in there as well. We also spent a lot of time in the Toon Town Store - seeing as every time we walked into Toon Town we got rained on! That was our refuge from our Toon Town Curse! We partied all night and didn't leave until nearly midnight - rain or not! It was such a fun day/night and I am so glad we stayed and ended our trip that way.

The next day we flew home - relatively uneventful, but it is what it is!

I am HOPING that this link works and you will be able to see the pics from our trip. If not, let me know and I will post some individual highlights!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=12vtizqi.ah5ecd8q&x=0&y=gmy273&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button

Happy Birthday Corlin!

Today our Corlin Benjamin turned THREE! Can't believe it. We had two parties for him - one was his "friend" party this morning at Chuck E. Cheese, and the other was the "family" party at our house tonight. I think he had a lot of fun at both parties, and overall had a really fun birthday, and here's the pics to prove it!

From this morning....

riding a ride


Maveri driving a Jeep!


Corlin and Lucas LOVED this simulator ride. They probably rode it 8 times in a row!


Maveri being, well, Maveri and climbing on everything.


Corlin, Lucas and Mikey playing Air Hockey. I love how they can barely see over the table top!


Opening his presents this morning.


gotta love the facial expression in this one!


And onto the party at our house tonight.

Opening Presents





This is when Scooter jumped onto my mom - scaring her to death. It was pretty hilarious (sorry mom)!



Our nephew Bently - 2.5 months old.


Blowing out the candles


My masterpiece of a Mickey Mouse cake. I was up until after midnight decorating this sucker, so I'm gonna show it off loud and proud (lol)!


And now, just some random shots of my "baby boy", or "punkin" or "tiger" as I often call him!

His first birthday


you can't really see HIM, but I love this pic from right after his birth!


right after he was born


on his blessing day


Not Loving the Bumbo Seat


sleepy baby


Halloween 2007


Okay - that's probably enough for now! Happy birthday Corlin, we love you!

Our not-so-spooktacular Halloween!

You know how you always have grand plans for holidays, and all this great stuff you want to do for your kids? And then, how that never actually happens?? Yeah, that totally happened to us this year for Halloween.

It started wednesday night, when matt didn't feel well. By thursday morning he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up. So, off to the doctor he went. Strep throat and ear infection - Rx for keflex. That night I noticed something weird behind Corlin's ear - it was all goopy and green and gooey, so off to the doc we went (again). When we got there they registered his temp at 100.something so I requested a strep test just in case. Good thing I did, he has strep too - and impetigo behind his ear. Rx for amoxicillan and bactroban. While there the ped said if anyone else starts in with a headache or stomach ache etc. to call and get them a script. I went to bed that night with a pounding headache, woke up with the horrible sore throat, so off to the doc I went. The wouldn't just call me in a script b/c of my INR/coumadin stuff. INR levels down to 1.7, but aparantly antibiotics make your levels rise, so they're keeping me on the same dose for now and put me on penisilin with a recheck next thursday. Matt and I continued to spend the rest of Halloween day in bed, while the kids watched Goosebumps on TV all day. Come trick-or-treat time it do-or-die so I took a darvocet from my surgery sucked it up and went. I was the grown up who wasn't dizzy every time I stood up! We went down to the ward Trunk-or-Treat, and when that was over we walked back to our house hitting all the houses on the way back. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Even Maveri was getting the hang of things at the trunk or treat, and started asking people for "mum" (some). It was pretty cute. After we got home I decided to tough it out a little longer to make some chili. I've had chili on halloween pretty much every halloween of my life, and I wasn't going to let a little thing like Strep throat get in the way of that. It was my first time making it, but in the end it turned out pretty darn good (if i do say so myself).

We didn't get our pumpkins carved, we didn't make it to mamaws, or grandma greats, or to Bryce and Sally's halloween party. But, Halloween comes every year, so maybe next year will be a little bit more exciting and less sick!

But, I did snap a few pics from the school parties and trick or treating.

Quinten's class party pics






At Blaine's class party they made me into a "toilet paper mummy"


A group shot before ToT'ing


Poodle Skirt Girl


Cowboy



Handy Manny



And - the HOT DOG - when he told me this is what he wanted to be I wasn't sure how we'd pull it off, but it looks like we did alright!