"TuRkEy DaY!"

Our Thanksgiving was an absolutely perfect day spent with family and those we love most. I took a ton of pictures of nothing to exciting just your usual turkey dinner and visiting with family. It was wonderful, to me Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the Christmas Season I really spend the entire month of December with my heart full of gratitude and joy for all that is good in this life and most importantly celebrating our Savior's birth. It's impossible to not feel happy and joyful this time of year for me anyway and I am so grateful for the many blessings in my life. The three most important featured in the picture above... Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

Cousins they sure do love each other! We are missing a few though Brev, Elle, Lincoln and Luke. We thought we were doing pretty good just getting these four to cooperate.

Sigh...I love this picture they are cheering for Thanksgiving!

The kids table..., probably the best place to be on holidays. Remember the kids table growing up eating nothing but olives stuck on your fingers, giggling and relishing in the joy of grown ups not watching to closely because they are too busy stuffing their own faces with delicious food. The kids table did not disappoint it was full of mischief just like it should be.

I just have to put in these pictures of Luke. I have mentioned this little one's love of food on this blog countless times. A friend of ours commented a few days ago that Luke was probably going to enjoy Thanksgiving as a holiday over Christmas. He likes toys alright but nothing gets this boy going more than a plate full of food all for himself. Can you just see the anticipation on his face as he is watching more and more food be brought out to the table, he's gritting his teeth, his little hands clenched as he cheers for every new item, he's in heaven!

"But wait where did everyone go, there still plenty of food to go around!"

This moment is perhaps one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving spending an hour doing the dishes with the girls. I was thinking about this the other night and why it should bring so much joy to me and I realized exactly what is so wonderful about it. An hour alone visiting with the ladies while the dads are in charge of the kids and we can sit around with nobody hanging on our legs begging for food, or take me to the potty or somebody hit me, you get the idea. The men think we are working but really there is so much joy going on in this kitchen. I love you girls, Tam I am still laughing about that "gaggy salad", I kept Eric up all night with the giggles about that one...

A modern day version of a "sleigh ride together with you". Kyle took all the kids for a winter ride in the Rhino, they loved it!

You may find this picture a little strange but this sums up my entire weekend. This was the first trip Eric made out to Utah that I didn't spend the night he left in tears missing him and wishing he wasn't going. I of course was sad he was leaving, but it was such an unexpected blessing to have him home for the holiday and I am so grateful to have spent the weekend with him. This picture was on the way to the airport Lancey was so sad Eric was leaving and they spent the whole ride with their hands like this. Every time I looked over I would get teary eyed finally I just grabbed my camera and took the picture. Eric I know it's hard being away right now but when we start getting sad just look at this picture. You are so loved and we miss you, we are halfway there.....

Holiday Treats

No wonder they say you gain 5- 10 pounds through the holiday season. Not only with all the family gatherings, parties, and just the plain need to go out more and celebrate, that alone makes it hard to stick to eating good. But then they have to line the stores with all of my favorite holiday treats and I am such a sucker I have to buy them all. I went to the store today and came back with not one of these items but ALL FOUR. How pathetic and not only that but I can't limit myself to one treat a day, I eat them all, all day long. Good luck to me come January I have no intentions of limiting myself anytime soon!



I love these, why don't they sell them all year long, but then I guess maybe that's what makes them so special. Right now they are hiding in my sock drawer, if the boys see them they will be gone within the day, best to keep them hidden....

This is something I have never seen before but I was at my mom's on Sunday and she had just bought her some pumpkin eggnog, delicious. If you like pumpkin and you like eggnog this is a must have this season!

This one might just be my favorite Farr's peppermint stick ice cream. Oh my goodness there are no words.....However keep in mind Dairy Queen's Blizzard of the month for December is peppermint and it is fabulous as well.

Okay really this one is my all time favorite Stephen's hot chocolate. My grandma keeps laughing at me and says now every time she sees these she thinks of me. I have one cup in the morning one when the boys are napping and another at night as I am laying in bed. What's worse is every time I go to the store I come back with a new flavor. I currently have five options to choose from, my personal favorites are cherry chocolate, orange creme and candycane cocoa, so good.......

Happy Happy Holidays Everyone!

Happy Minute

Eric just called me with news that has made my month he was able to get a ticket last minute for $187.00 from Wednesday to Friday to be with us for Thanksgiving! This is such a bonus his next trip out wasn't supposed to be until Dec 20th and we were both feeling pretty sad that we would be celebrating Thanksgiving apart. He has finals starting really soon and didn't think he should come out for Thanksgiving, not to mention the expense. But when he found that ticket price how do you turn down $187.00 round trip ticket over one of the biggest flying weekends of the year. So even though he will spend most of his short trip studying at least I can sit by him and take joy in his presence and he is devoting all of Thursday to us, I am so happy I could just cry right now!

Elle Maly Phongsavath

Round 2 my sister Ashley's turn!!!!!



Little Elle Maly Phongsavath born November 21st, 2008 at 7:50 am, weighing 6 lbs 7 oz.


Next week is going to seem very dull and boring after this exciting week. My sisters due dates were just two days apart, how lucky am I to get a niece and a nephew in the very same week!



Elle and her cute little mommy! Poor Ash has had C-sections with both of her kids, she gets so nautious from the medicine they give her. She spends most of the day sick and kinda out of it, lucky for her she has lots of willing family members to love and cuddle Elle all day while she sleeps it out.


Again I am one proud aunt!


Elle is the first grand daughter, the little princess after five crazy boys. Well four crazy boys but I am sure Lincoln will be crazy soon enough, right now he is still to sweet and little to be considered crazy. Elle let us know that she was not about to get lost in a sea of boys, she made her presence known. She has an excellent set of lungs on her and wanted every one to know she was not too happy to come out of her nice little home in mommy. Her little personality is there already, I can just see her a few years from now putting all them boys in their place and letting them know who's boss after all what are us girls for, we are ALWAYS the boss.

Brother and sister---watch out Elle, this one's a little baby crazy. Ashley is going to have to watch Brevy like a hawk, he is very interested in his new sister, poor kid will have her eye poked about before she is even a week old.

Look at these two little cousins together! Today was the greatest day I just alternated between the two, it was baby heaven...

Sadly I did not get a family photo of the Phongsavath clan, tomorrow for sure!

Congratulations Souli, Ashley, and big brother Brevin, we love you!!!!

Lincoln Reginaldo Cano

My new little nephew Lincoln born on November 17th 2008 at 2:30 pm weighing 6 lbs 6 oz!


You might think this was my own child with all of the pictures I took of him but in a way he kind of is. Being a sister is the most incredible thing in the world, my two sisters are my two very best friends so their children mean the world to me. I had the most amazing opportunity to witness this little sweetheart being born yesterday and it was incredible. This was my first time watching a life being brought into this world and it was such a miracle. I just don't know how you can watch something like that and deny there is a God. It was so beautiful and spiritual. Thank you Teri and Thiago for letting me be a part of this incredible day and celebrating your new son with you, he is an angel!!!



My sweet sisters....

I think they are the only two people in the world that I never feel envious or jealous of. Don't take this the wrong way but you all know what I am talking about. Where we are mostly happy for others with their successes and joys in life sometimes it is hard not to wish part of it was yours; job promotions, new houses, new baby, a fancy car. I would give up anything to see my sisters be happy, their joys truly are my joys.

"What a world, what a world." (Sorry I watched Wizard of Oz this weekend I have that in my head now.)


A new little family of four!

I am so excited to watch another little Cano boy grow up and be loved by his sweet family. Carson and Lincoln we love you!

Sweet little Lincoln and his mommy cuddling for the first time. Doesn't she look beautiful, Teri had such a beautiful pregnant glow but my goodness she has an even more wonderful new mommy glow. It was such a tender moment watching my darling sister kiss and love her new son. She has waited for this moment for a long time, she started trying for this little guy when Cars was not even a year old almost three years and two misscarriages later she finally got her dream of holding another of God's precious children as her own.

I am one proud auntie! (and stupid Soulie tying to ruin my picture).

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Smith for keeping the boys all day so I could have a most wonderful day without them making life a little harder.

Here is what they spent doing for the short time they were with me at the hospital. Grandpa Deano took them racing the halls in wheelchairs, see what I mean about them being terrors. A little of this could definitely go a long way.

We love you Cano family!

Called to Serve

Eric's youngest brother Greg got his mission call yesterday he will be serving in the Tennessee, Knoxville Mission and leaves Feb 18th 2009. I find this so ironic we used to joke around when placing bets on where he would go, we always laughed that he would go to Kentucky or something. Where it's not Kentucky, Knoxville Tennessee is pretty darn close, we visited there a few times while living in Kentucky and even have some good friends that moved there last summer. But we couldn't be more happy for him, there will always be a special spot in my heart for Kentucky and the surrounding states, there are such great people there and it thrills me to know my brother in law will be serving them. Greg we are so proud of you, you will be such a good example to the boys and us of course. Eric had an uncle that served a mission when Eric was just a little boy and Eric has such fond memories of writing him and learning about missionary work. I can't wait for Lance and Luke to have this experience as well. Lance and Greg have such a sweet relationship, Lance just adores Greg. Whenever I tell him we are going to Grandma and Grandpa's house Lance's first question is "and Greg"? Lance loves all of his uncles but with Greg being the youngest he has always been around the most, he visited us the most in Kentucky, he still lives at home so Lance has had so many opportunities to play with Uncle Greg. Eric's other brother Matt left for his mission when Lance was just two months old, so he really had no memories of him until he returned home, and was too little to really teach him about missionary work, but this will be such a great experience for the boys to witness. Congrats Greg, we love you!

Also I forgot I have been meaning to put this picture up for awhile now. We got a Smith family picture done in August right before Eric left, I have had our copy for while now but just hadn't got around to scanning it on yet. I think it turned out so great, everyone looks cute, nobody is making a goofy face. And you will pay special attention to Lance for once we got a professional picture of him where he is actually smiling and not crying. I think it had to do with the fact Greg was making faces at him to make him laugh. But I just love it, I wish there was a way I could just zoom in on the four of us as well, it has to be one of the best family pictures we have ever taken.

For anybody that cares here is top to bottom left to right,

Top row: Ryan and Megan, Grandpa (Steve) and Grandma (Elaine) Brooke and Matt

Bottom row: Greg, Luke, Eric, Lance and me, Gaby, Josh, Spencer and Julia

Christmas List.....

I have created a monster, Lance's list from Santa keeps growing and growing and growing as of today it is as follows;

Walking Talking Lightening McQueen
Winnie the Pooh Hundred Acre Woods
TinkerBell the movie
Wall-e the movie
Wall-e the game on the TV (thank you Mitchell, Stace we will have to coordinate on exactly what this is, that is the only information he is able to give me)
Donuts (no lie, this is a new addition as of today)
Batman Car (again, thank you Mitchell)
Cookies
and of course daddy!

Eric aren't you glad to see you made the list!

I am a little afraid once Christmas is actually here, the list could be a mile long, every day he adds something new and not once forgets the old standbys. Not only that but we go through this list at least ten times a day and it takes him about ten minutes to remember them all , but remember he does!

The other day he informed me Christmas is just taking too long and he was ready to go buy his presents himself, here he is shopping bag in hand, ready to go. I am thinking I may need to go buy him one little toy and tell him it's Christmas just to make him stop talking about it. At first I thought it was really cute, now it is getting pretty annoying having him ask me "if it's Christmas yet" and when he does something nice I have to write it down and make SURE and tell Santa about it. I am rethinking things different for next year, maybe I do need to wait until December to start celebrating, it's going to be a LOOOOOOONG 6 weeks, until the big day is finally here!

Tis the Season....

This weekend we spent at my mom's house helping her decorate her house for the holidays. Yes we know it is only mid November but we have started this early ever since I was a little girl and now anything later just doesn't seem right. Seeing how I don't have a house to decorate myself this year I thought it would be fun to help my mom with hers. Of course when I say help I really just mean telling her what a great job she is doing and watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate while she does all the hard work, though I do hand her the items she is needing while she is perched in her many weird positions obtaining that "perfect look". The lady is crazy, you should see some of the ledges she gets herself balanced on while she is in the mode of decorating. Not to mention it takes her four whole days to get her finished result, she will put something up and then take it back down again until she finds just the right thing. But the results are spectacular, I like to think I have learned a little something from her in this regard but I then look at hers compared to mine and realize I have much, much more to learn. These are just a few pictures of just one room she had finished when I left, since she doesn't have a blog I will showcase her hard work for her and maybe pretend it's mine for a day.

The boys "helping" Grandma, I am pretty sure she was happy to see us go, as helpful as they are, she got a lot more accomplished when the boys were not around, imagine that!

Lance was obsessed with all of the ornaments that sang, or lit up. He sat by my mom for an hour watching her pull out each and every ornament for the tree, oohing and aahing over them all.

Luke does nothing but climb these days, here he is helping himself to inside the box of ornaments, squashing a few bulbs in the process.

But sweet Grandma always take the time to teach and love instead of getting mad. Here she is showing Luke a family favorite ornament of our little cocker spaniel named Susie we lost a few years ago.

Another example of Luke showing off his climbing skills, he loves to balance on the weirdest things. He is sitting on top of a toy town that you drive your cars around on, how this is comfortable I don't know.

Thanks mom for the fun weekend, and letting us get in the Christmas spirit with you!

Too Funny

I have decided that the older kids get the funnier they get. There is definitely something really great about little babies, their smell, snuggles, sweet innocent little faces. I also love Luke's independent, headstrong toddler years but I swear nobody can make me laugh harder than Lance. Two examples:


The other day we were at the mall shopping for a winter coat for Lance we walked by the candy machines and there was big giant gumballs that Lance wanted me to buy for him.
Lance: "mommy candy?"
me: "sorry buddy we have no money, maybe next time "
Lance:" oh, okay" with a very sad look on his face, you would think I had just told him Buzz was dead.....
A few minutes later we walked by the Pretzel Maker
me: Come on Lance let's get a pretzel and a sprite"
Lance: "sorry mommy, no money next time"
Whoops! That took some explaining that I in fact did not have change for the candy machine but I do have a debit card with money in the bank. Of course he still doesn't get it, but once his sprite came he no longer cared how we were paying for it.

Example 2

Sorry this one will take some explaining some Lanceisms, you know those little things your kids do that makes them their own little people and unique from any other child.

Last night we were trying to talk to Eric on the web cam only Eric's computer was giving him trouble and would not boot up the program. Lance was very dejected he did not get to see daddy on the computer and would not come downstairs to get in the bathtub. Lance is the kind of kid that works great with behavior and consequences to get him to do what I ask of him all I usually have to do is threaten to take a privilege away from him and he jumps right up doing what I ask he is so afraid of the consequence. He has been way into Christmas (hmm I wonder where he gets this from, oh yeah I have been watching Christmas movies since October) and he is really excited for Santa he has a list a mile long already of what he is asking for. So I told him Santa was watching and if he didn't do what his mommy asked Santa would not bring him presents. Worked like a charm and he was down the stairs in seconds.

An hour later it's bedtime here is another Lanceism before bed after we say prayers I have to tell him what fun things we are doing the next day and then he goes to bed dreaming about his exciting little life and all the joy in it. We really don't do that many fun things, he is just a really excitable boy and finds even going to the Post Office thrilling. We sort of got out of routine and I ended up not telling him what we would be doing the next day.

Last Lanceism before the end of this story I promise, the little turkey has to have me tell him good night twice. First time I lay the boys down I give them kisses tell them good night and leave. They babble and laugh with each other for ten to fifteen minutes then when they start getting tired Luke falls asleep and I hear Lance begin his whine. So I have to go in again and this is what I hear every night " mommy, store, Grandma, Carsy" or whatever it is we are doing the next day. I have to reassure him that plans have not changed and we will be doing what I said we were doing then I kiss him goodnight again and he can fall asleep at peace that his world is right.

So (I'm sorry this is a really long story and probably not very interesting to anyone but me it's just so Lance that I want to remember it) last night I put them to bed at 8 as usual, and start watching Grey's Anatomy and precisely ten minutes later I hear him begin to whine, that's my cue to go in. It occurs to me as I am walking to his room that I didn't tell him the plans for the next day and I am wondering what it will be that he needs reassurance about. I go in kiss him again and ask what's wrong.....
Lance: "mommy Christmas want my presents Cars, Pooh, Tinker Bell, Lancey a good boy, I got in the dub a dah (bathtub in Lance's world)".

Oh I love this boy, poor kid in there worrying about not getting his Christmas presents and being a good boy, in Lance's words he is "too funny"! Oh and in case you are wondering his Christmas list is the new walking talking Lightening McQueen, Winnie the Pooh hundred acre woods and TinkerBell the movie, as of right now that is, it changes daily but those seem to be the mainstream wants......

What will you keepsake this year?

A favorite family tradition of ours is every year in November we go to Hallmark to pick out ornaments for the Christmas tree, each of us get to pick one out and then every year as we decorate the tree we love pulling out previous ornaments and remembering different times in our lives. I started this tradition as a kid with my sisters and have carried it on with my children and Eric in recent years. I have a complete collection from 1994 to 2003 of the Holiday Barbie ornaments, I love each and every one of them and love admiring them each year. This year we had to go slightly earlier than I would have liked but since I don't want to wait until the end of December when Eric comes back we decided to go this last weekend.

Too many options for a little boy to choose from, but really when he saw "the one", it was no contest what he was going to bring home.....

What else but a talking "Buzz Lightyear"!

My only problem is explaining to him that it is not a toy and goes on the Christmas tree. So far he has given that zero amount of thought and carries it around like he does all of his Buzz paraphernalia. Who knows if it will actually make it to the Christmas tree come December.

Now Luke was a lot harder to decide what ornament to get, we let him look around for a bit and all he did was chuck boxes left and right and try to destroy Hallmark so after two minutes of this behavior it was back to the stroller for him and was left up to us to decide for him. So far he has zero interst in any TV so all of Lance's close seconds would not work ie; handy manny, nemo, or little einsteins, though Lance tried his darnedest to get us to agree with those.

Poor quality picture but this is what we finally decided on....it's just a little boy and I wish you could see the expression on his face but it is full of mischief mixed with sweetness a perfect little Luke. He is constantly getting himself into trouble but with that little face it is impossible to be mad at him.

"This is for me, sure I will take it and eat the box!"

We had a great night carrying on our yearly tradition, hopefully next year we will be able to get the parents one as well. Hallmark is too expensive, but too cute as well, so what do you do but just get the kids theirs!