Logan and Kristin visit Emily

So yesterday, I had a day off and I wanted to see my friend Emily at her house in Camarillo. I really don't mind the drive, and I just miss the area. It brings back memories of growing up whenever I drive through Ventura County. So the first stop was to pick up Emily at her place. Then we headed to the Camarillo Outlet Mall to eat. We went to Johnny Rockets. I have not been there in years! So it was very funny to see Logan's reaction when the waiters started dancing. He started to wiggle with them and even tried to sing the song! This kid is all about dancing and singing and music in general. After lunch, we did some shopping and then headed to see the movie Tangled. It was very cute and actually kept Logan's attention! {I think that it was due to the music.} After a quick stop to the restroom {Logan drank the enitre soda, on his own!} we headed to Target. I did a little shopping and then we drove to Chuys for dinner. Emily's husband Nick met us there and we were able to chat and watch Monday Night Football. Logan was so tired that as soon as I hit the 101, he was out! I love visiting my best friend and I hate being so far away... someday we will be closer so our visits won't be so far in between.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2010

This Christmas Eve was a busy one. The night prior, I had to work, until 1am! So I was exhausted the next morning. We woke up early and got ready to head down to my Grandparents house in Victorville. I love being able to spend time with my Grandparents. This year they also gave Logan 2 gifts... he was super excited to open them. So he did... he received a remote control Smart Car from my Grandfather and a wooden train set from my Grandmother. They were so thoughful and he loves them. After spending a few hours and hanging out with family, we made the trip from Victorville to Valencia to spend the rest of the evening with Donald's father's side of the family. Santa came to visit the kids again, and Logan was thrilled to see him and get more presents. There were so many kids it was chaos trying to let them all unwrap their presents at the same time. Logan loved his guitar and dumptruck. After the adults playing their gift exchange game {Donald got cash and I got a gift certificate to the Olive Garden}, we headed home to make sure that Logan was in bed before Santa arrived. Logan almost stayed awake the whole way home, but knocked out about 20 minutes away only to wake up as soon as we got home. We had to put him back to sleep and I was able to sneak a picture of what Santa had left for the next morning...

On Christmas morning, I was tired beyond belief, but Logan was thrilled to find presents under the tree from Santa. Donald's parents came over Christmas morning to have breakfast and watch Logan open up his presents. The kid made out like a bandit! He got everything he asked for, even BIGFOOT! Clothes, cars, video games, yo gabba gabba shoes, were just to name a few of the loot he gathered Christmas morning. After Donald's parents left, we got ready for the day, and sat around and cleaned up some of the Christmas mess and then headed over to Don and Carries for dinner. All of the cousins were there {minus 1} and they had a blast playing with eachother and eachothers new toys. For dinner, we had steak, potatos, rice, hawaaiian rolls, and for dessert, apple pie with ice cream! YUM, right? I was so full by the end of the night. We were all very tired and had an amazing Christmas. We left around 8pm and I had to get into bed for work the next morning at 6am!

BTW~ Since Logan has received his Big Foot toy, he is now terrified of it! I think that he thought it was stay in the plastic case like it is at Target and never roam free in his play room. Now, Bigfoot stays "asleep & tired" in the play room.

Family Christmas

This year, the Schlicher Family Christmas party was held at Green House Cafe. It was pretty convenient for me because I had work that day and all I had to do was walk through the mall. Logan and I went there early and had to wait for Donald to get off work. We sat and ate with Donald's parents and his sister Becky. Logan was SUPER excited when Santa came to visit and give presents. His face was priceless and he was so happy to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. {Bigfoot, of course!} It was a little smaller this year, and I really missed having it at Donald's Nana & Papa's house, but maybe next year we will go back.

Thanksgiving 2010

Well, this year, we made our way to my grandparents home in Victorville, Ca. I LOVE Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite holidays. Seriously, you eat! What's not to love? So, the family was small in numbers this year, but it was fun to see my great-grandmother and great-uncle there. {Logan was wondering where "Grandma Kim" was and Donald told him that there had been a grandma limit & there were too many grandmothers so she couldn't make it.lol.} The food was amazing and it was great to visit with my sister Kelli. Donald, Logan and I left around 6pm, which felt like way later, but we were exhausted and I had to work the next day. So, thank you again to my grandma for cooking an amazing meal and to my family for being there. I am very thankful for my family, the Gospel in my life and for all the many blessings I have received through the years!

Disneyland Trip

Yesterday, Logan and I met up with one of my best girlfriends {Emily} and her brother {Mikey} and we visited our favorite place, DISNEYLAND!

We met up in Burbank and then carpooled together {since they live in Newbury Park/Camarillo and we live in Palmdale} and made the drive in good time. First on the list was California Adventure since neither one of them had ever been there. We picked up our fastpasses for The World of Color Show and then headed over to Toy Story Mania. Logan LOVES this ride. I actually let him have his own gun and he did pretty well. He score 16,500 points! The skills on this kid. After hitting a few more rides in California Adventure, we made our way to Disneyland.

Since Logan is now 38 inches, he was able to ride the Mater Horn! {In May when we went with my family, he was about 2 inches too short! He's growing like a weed and to think in just a few more months he will be able to go on all the rides! Yippie!} He said that it was fun but that it was too fast. haha. Then we stopped and grabbed some Fastpasses to The Haunted Mansion {decorated as the Nightmare Before Christmas}. We waited in line for Pirates and by the time we got off, we were able to walk onto the Haunted Mansion ride. After, we ate and watched the Mark Twain Boat and the Pirate ship sail around the water. Logan loves watching the ducks that wade and the canoes. We then caught the Captain EO show, which Logan was not a fan of, and hit some of the rides in Storybook Land and Fantasy Land. Sadly, in all of the many trips I have taken Logan, he had never gone on the Teacups or Dumbo. So while Emily and Mikey went on Thunder Mountain, I took Logan on these rides. After these rides, we made our way back to California Adventure to see the World of Color show. It was AMAZING and I was pretty impressed. The show is 40 minutes long and you had to stand, but it was great. Logan even liked it and I could tell that he was very tired because he was starting to rest his head on my shoulder while the show was still going. Once I put him back in his stroller, he asked me if we were going on more rides, and I said no, we were headed home. He whined a little, put his hands in his pockets and fell asleep as we were leaving the park. The poor guy never took a nap all day and was exhausted! He slept the whole way home until I went to pull him out of the car. Then he slept in till 10am this morning!

We had such a good time with Emily and Mikey and we will have to do it again!

October Updates...

So every year around this time, I am completely swamped! I totally neglect my blog, so here is the update, and I promise I will keep it updated more frequently.

On the 18th of October, Logan and I made our way to Anna & Rachel Phelans house to make some Halloween sugar cookies. The receipe made the cookie dough very sticky, so needless to say we used about a ton of flour to keep it from sticking! {not really, but you get the idea} Logan and Anna took turns choosing the cookie cutter and then pressing it into the dough, but after 5 tries, they were done and just wanted to go play. Rachel and I finished cutting the rest. When the cookies were baked and cooled, the kids came back and tried to decorate them. There was orange and white frosting, and several different sprinkles to place on the cookies. Anna didn't want to frost her cookies, she just wanted to eat the sprinkles. Logan made a mess with the sprinkles! All in all, they seemed to have a great time and the cookies were delicious! Thanks to Rachel {& Anna} for inviting us over.

Next on the list of activities was a visit to our local pumpkin patch. I decided that it would be more enjoyable if Logan had all of his cousins. We would drive past it and he would beg me to go there, so I figured might as well make it a big group. However, once we got there, Logan did not want to go on any thing! I decided to go on the very large inflatable slide with his cousins to show him that it was fine. That slide was a blast! After the slide, we went to the petting zoo part where there were chickens, rabbits, and goats. Again, I went in with Logan to feed the goats, but he was less than thrilled. Especially when they saw him holding the bowl of feed and they jumped. So I put some feed in his hand and showed him how to hold it out so that the goats could eat it. Once it was gone, he realized that their spit was all over his hand and he cried out saying no more and that he was done. So, the final stop was to let some of the older kids go on the trampoline with the bungie cords. I again, tried it. I was doing back flips and after about 10 minutes, I was ready to get off! I am either getting too old or am just way out of shape! :) As we headed out, Logan realized what was happening and cried wanting to go down the large slide. Poor kid, maybe next year.

Our ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat Party happened on the 28th of October. Logan has been very insistant that he dress up as Freddie Krueger this year. He has such a twisted mind! He kept telling Donald and myself that "Freddie Krugie" was a nice guy and that he really liked him. So, I tried to find a "Freddie Krugie" {how Logan pronounces his name} costume and luckily the smallest size I could find was a size 8 in boys. So it was very big and I told him that we would have to get a different one. I went to our local target and found him the cutest Lion costume. It's a fully body one, so I knew that he would stay warm trick or treating on Halloween night. He agreed to it {not like he had much of a choice} and that was the end of Freddie Krueger {for now}. At the trunk or treat, Logan and Anna, of course, were very cute. They danced to the music and walked with each other from trunk to trunk collecting their candy. We had a chili and cornbread meal and some delicious desserts.

Finally, October 31st, Halloween! We went to stake conference and then went home to let Logan take a nap and eat some "normal" food prior to the consumption of sugar. Since I had to work the night prior, I wasn't able to carve pumpkins with the rest of Donald's family so I did mine on our kitchen floor 2 nights prior. Later that same day, Donald did his. We brought our pumkins over to Donald's parents house to display on their porch for the trick or treaters. Logan had colored a pumkin with his cousins the night before, so it was there too. All the kids were dressed and very very ready to go, so we headed out. Logan did quite well holding his own. He was very excited for some of the halloween music that he recognized {Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, again, twisted mind!} and was only so so on the candy collection. Towards the middle of trick or treating, he wanted to be held and when I picked him up, he would say that his feet were really tired. So Donald carried him in between houses and then he would lug his pumpkin basket full of candy to collect his final pieces. Upon entering Donalds parents house at the end of the night, Logan wanted to dig into his candy! He was alloted only 2 pieces and started to become very cranky, so we collected every thing and headed home. He actually enjoyed trick-or-treating and the next night thought that we were doing it again. Boy was he disappointed when I told him it only happens once a year! haha.

All in all, it was a very successful start to the holiday season and I am looking forward to the months to come!

Logan and the Firestation

Logan and his buddies {plus the mommies} went to our local firestation. We were able to walk around to see their kitchen, their gym, where they sleep and of course the many "fire engines" they had in the garage. Logan hopped right into the truck and sat in the seat. It was pretty funny when he put the helmet on his head. {He tried to turn his head with it on, but because it was too heavy, his head dropped to the side pretty fast.lol} Of course, they all received {sticker}badges like the real firefighters and they were able to take home 2 coloring books. Logan had a great time and loves talking about his visit with the firefighters!

On a side note: Logan and his buddy, Michael were in the front seat, so I went to the front of the truck to take a picture of them at the wheel. The picture didn't turn out, so I looked down to erase it so I could capture another, and Logan took it upon himself to try to get out of the fire truck on his own. Needless to say, the drop was more than 2 feet and he landed flat on his belly. Everyones gasps were enough to scare him and he began to cry. I knew he wasn't hurt, just embarrassed, so he kept saying, "I'm fine. I'm fine", everytime someone would ask him if he was okay. I even asked him later in the day if he had fun, and his reply was: {with a sigh} "mom, I'm fine." I love this kid!♥

Weekly Update

Well... I am back to working! {Outside of the home, that is}. I had interviewed for the new Macys a couple months back and never received a call back so I thought nothing of it because I was applying for a part time job. Well, last week, they called me and hired me as a part time associate in the Women's shoe department. This actually works out great for me because I am able to go online and choose my own schedule. It is perfect! The only problems I've been having is during training. I have had to get a sitter for Logan since it is during the day, but once the store opens, I should be fine. Although he has been at Anna's house a lot, he doesn't seem to mind hanging with his {girl}friend! :) I am very excited and hope that this allows me to make a little money while Logan is still cared for. This gives me some time and allows Logan some Daddy and me time.

Besides work, we have been still attending Storytime at our local Barnes & Noble and this past Saturday, our ward had a Luau. Logan had a blast watching and dancing to the Hawaiian dancers. They were great and very cute!

On a side note: My grandmother and grandfather came down to watch Logan for me this Saturday since both Donald and I had to work. I was a little scared of how the outcome would be, but he seemed to love {great}grandma being here. She brought him a teddy bear dressed in a Halloween costume and he tells me he loves his "tiny bear". They took him to McDonalds for lunch and he talks about it and being in their car. Thank you again to Grandma & Grandpa coming down here to watch Logan. ♥

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Last night was Donald's sisters' {Sarah} birthday. Donald worked until noon that day, so it gave me some time to get things ready for Logan to stay with his {girl}friend while we went out to eat for Sarah's bday and so that I could get some homework done. We dropped Logan off around 6pm and made the drive to Valencia to meet everyone for dinner at Buca. It was an Italian restaurant where their portions were very large. We had a blast eating, chatting and laughing. It was very loud in the restaurant which was hard at times to hear everything, but it was a blast! We left a little late to pick up Logan, and when we arrived he was still awake looking out the window, waiting for us. That kid... He didn't take a nap all day so I was very surprised that he was still awake. As we drove home, he said he had fun and was happy that mom and dad came back to get him. lol. The kid didn't even fall asleep until 11pm that night! It was a great day and again Happy Birthday Sarah!