New Moon

We weren't able to go to see New Moon opening night, but we did make within a week of it coming out! I had to get Erica a Twilight shirt for Christmas and give it to her early so we could show our Twilight pride. The movie was great and the boys tolerated it (well, Wes won't admit he liked it). :D We had a good time and it was a lot of fun. I can't wait to already see it again.

Trimming the Tree

Liam was just SO excited to decorate the tree this year. He asked every minute of every day until we finally decorated when we'd be able to put the ornaments on the tree. He had so much fun looking at each ornament and finding a special spot for it on the tree. He also had SO much fun dancing to Wes's sax-playing Santa that he got when he was in High School. I really need to get a video of him rocking out and pretend-playing his own sax to it.

Our tree turned out beautifully this year! Although, now it looks a little small since we have such high ceilings. hehe. Wes thinks we need a 10-footer next year. I'm thinking not. ;)

Transiberian Orchestra

Wes has always mentioned how much he loves the Transiberian Orchestra. This year they came to Reno so my mom thought it would be a great gift for him for his birthday! We kept it a total surprise until the day of(the day after Thanksgiving). My mom gave him his card and it said she was baby-sitting so we could go out to dinner and then to the concert. What a treat! And he was so surprised.

Wes chose, yes you guessed it, Sushi, so we went to my favorite sushi restaurant. Compromise. :D We had some time after dinner and we were near the temple so we decided to drive up and enjoy the view and the peace of the temple. On our drive it started really snowing. It was GORGEOUS at the temple. Wes got a pretty good shot:
Then we stopped at Starbucks and got Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Gingerbread hot chocolate. It was PERFECT for a cold, snowy date night.
The concert was amazing. I'm not a HUGE fan of all their music because some of it is a tad too rockish for me, but I really loved the show. However, I really love some of their Christmas music and some of their traditional classical gone rock songs are fabulous. Wes loved every minute of the show. It was 2 1/2 hours!

The first part of the show was more of a Christmas story. They even had it snowing on us at one point. It was really neat.
The light show was just phenomenal.

This is fire on the stage. They had it changing colors and then the torches would light to the tune of the music. When they would come on, Wes and I could even feel the heat way in the back. Amazing!
Toward the end, the amazing violinists came up into the crowd(see how shredded her bow is from playing so hard?)
The finale was phenomenal.

It was an amazing show that's hard to describe. It's just one of those must see type of things.

Thanks, Mom!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Liam was SO excited for Thanksgiving this year. He had it in his mind that Nana would be making us pumpkin pie. Much to his joy, Nana surprised him and Papa with pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving morning!! He and Papa really, really enjoyed their breakfast pie!
We went to my sister's house for T-day. Izzy showed her Thanksgiving spirit!
Wes was inducted into the "Turkey Privileges" this year by being allowed to inject the turkeys and help with the deep frying process.
Nana enjoyed coloring with the kids.
Turkey coma:
And even MORE pumpkin pie. Liam is obsessed. He ate pumpkin pie every single day until it was gone. I guess Nana did a good job.
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tree Lighting

Last weekend Legends here in Sparks hosted their tree lighting ceremony. Santa was at Scheels for free before the event and the line was surprisingly short, so we thought we'd say hello. Liam assured me that he wouldn't cry this year and that he was excited to see Santa. He told us the truth! :D He went up and hopped on Santa's lap and got right down to business. Santa asked him what he wanted and he's been consistent in saying, "I would like a Thomas track where he is getting his breaks..." It is some sort of Thomas track set that he wants. At least he knows what he wants right? When Santa asked him if he wants anything else he said, "Nope! Just that. " When Santa asked him if he had been good this year he said, "Oh, Yes" and when Santa asked if he had any slip ups he simply said, "Nope." ;)


Here he is in deep conversation with Santa:

After Santa, we went out to the area of the tree lighting. They had a little ice rink set up for skaters and a choir. When they did the countdown to have the tree light up, all the other trees and not the giant Christmas tree lit up. It was funny, but fortunately, they did get it to light up.

Liam was most excited for the ice skaters and we did have a good view.
Heather, Shaawn and Izzy met us there. Izzy looked so cute in her little hat.





It was a fun little tradition they've started. It definitely got us into the holiday spirit!

Hanging Out With Papa

Last weekend Liam and I headed to Yerington so that I could get some studying done and just so that we could have some fun with my parents. Saturday morning my mom and I helped to seal and package cookies to send to soldiers overseas and my dad and Liam went out on their own for some fun.
They packed up the ice chest and headed to the Flying M Ranch to go fishing and look for deer. Liam had a VERY early morning(think 1:30am...) so he slept the ride out there. They did find some deer and Liam told me all about looking at the deer through Papa's binoculars. They also went fishing which Liam thought was great until they caught a fish. Then he wouldn't go near it and told Papa that he needed to put it back in the water. Go figure... Papa says we need to work on that. He enjoyed wearing Papa's hat and riding in Papa's truck. They had sandwiches together for lunch and he slept a little more on the ride home.
We had a wonderful weekend and it was nice to get out of Reno for a little while. Wes got lots accomplished at home-- we can now park in our garage! I'm sure he also enjoyed vegging and watching movies and having the house to himself for a bit.

I thought this picture was just so cute of Liam wearing Papa's hat and packing the ice chest.

It's that time of the year again...

Well, probably not quite, but I did it anyway. It's time to Elf Yourself. This is one of my favorite Christmas things. lol. It never gets old to me. This years is especially hysterical. It's a must see. :D