Yo Quiero Taco Bell

We got a dog. My friend Holly offered him up on Facebook after her husband brought him home from work. The dog had been hanging around her husband's work for a few days acting cold and hungry, and since they already have a dog, they decided to give him to anyone who wanted him.

And that was us.

He's a chihuahua, and his name is Guillermo (pronounced ge-yer-mo). He is friendly to everyone (including our kids who constantly invade his personal space), but his favorite person is Kevin. When Kevin is home, he follows him wherever he goes. We're not sure how old he is, but he seems young.

I've wanted a dog for a little while now, and a chihuahua is the type of dog I've been considering. Two of my brothers have chihuahuas, and their dogs don't shed much, they hardly bark, and they are pretty good with kids - all things I was looking for in a pet.

And we've been loving this new addition to our family. Thanks, Holly!

Has it seriously been a month already?!

I haven't missed a month on my blog so far, and I don't want to start neglecting it because this is the only time that I ever journal anything. Journal can be used as a verb, right?

So here's a pictureless post just to make sure I don't miss a month.

January has been a month of free entertainment for us. Kevin took me on a totally free date. He has been working A LOT this month, which I'm grateful for, but our schedules don't ever seem to match. When I'm working, he's at home, or when he's working, I'm at home. We needed to go do something together. He had $100 gift certificate for dinner that his mom had given him for a place she didn't really like. And he had two sets of free movie passes that he got from giving blood. (He's a universal donor, so he goes in as often as he can to donate.) We had a nice free dinner, we toured the new Cosmopolitan hotel, which is now my new favorite on the Strip, and we watched The Dilemma with one set of his movie passes.

The next week we used his other free movie passes and a free ticket that Rebecca got with her Tangled Wii game to take the kids to Tangled. We'd already seen it, but we liked it so much that we thought the kids would have fun seeing it again. And they did.

Lately free or discounted is about all we can do, and I perfectly happy with that. We have been very blessed over the past year, and we have things that most other struggling students don't have, so I'm okay with cutting back.

My other free entertainment is watching the new season of The Bachelor with some girls in my ward.

I guess this post isn't completely pictureless.

Yes. I am a Bachelor fan. And I've been really excited for this season since I was really disappointed a few seasons ago when Brad didn't choose ANYONE. A few of us decided to watch it together since a couple of girls in our ward have decided to give up TV in their homes. We've just been inviting those fans that we know of because of the racy nature of the show. But if you're a closet fan and you're reading this post, please join us. Sometimes our chatting makes us miss a few things during the show, but you can always rewatch it online the next day, and it really is a fun Monday night party.

And that's about it for January. I hope everyone else had a great month.

Merry Christmas

I woke up this morning to three elves on my trampoline!

I hope you all have nice holiday!

Train Field Trip

Today we all went on a school field trip for Rebecca out in Boulder City. They do a Christmas train ride with Santa out there, and Rebecca loved it last year, so we all decided to go this year.

William and Braden sat with Kevin and me.

And Rebecca sat with her friends. Way too much growing up from this girl lately!

That had an open train car that all the kids loved.

And all of the workers were dressed like this. I loved it.

We took our short ride out and back, and then they unloaded us from the train. I thought maybe Santa was somewhere at the station waiting. Turns out he wasn't there at all today. And Rebecca and William were really hoping to tell him what they wanted for Christmas, and I was happy that we wouldn't have to go stand in a long line for it. Oh well. Bass Pro Shops is fun, and close, and Santa is always there at Christmas time.

Braden lasted about five muntes on the freeway home before he fell asleep. That's candy cane all over his face. I think William fell asleep a few minutes after I took this picture, but you could probably already tell that from his face.

It's not often that we do stuff like this as a family. Even though we didn't get to see Santa we still had fun riding the train together.

Almost a month ago...

Rebecca turned 6. I'd like to say that I'm posting this late because I'm lazy or really busy, but that's not true. I wasn't going to post about her party for fear I would hurt feelings of anyone who wasn't invited, but today while looking through my pictures, I realized that I really want her party documented.

This party was Rebecca's first friend birthday party. We invited all the 6-year-olds and 5-turning-6-year-olds from church, our next door neighbor, 2 cousins, and 2 friends from across town, which turned out to be 15 friends! I told her not to tell anyone at school she was having a party because I don't think I could handle any more little girls! We sent cupcakes to school instead, and Rebecca has a nice party with mostly church friends.

The girls started out decorating sugar cookies and eating pizza. My sister-law Emily made the cookies and brought icing, food coloring, and sprinkles for decorating. The cookie decorating was a hit!

Then we moved to the couch for presents. This is where most of the girls started out.

Except for Natalie who sweetly helped Rebecca with her gifts.

Then they all started moving in to get a closer look. I love this picture of Braden in stride.

Lately Rebecca loves gumball machines at the store, so she was very happy to get her own personal gumball machine from Kaylie and Marissa.

We ended with cake and ice cream. I had some other girly activities planned, like painting fingernails, but the girls just wanted to jump on the trampoline and play upstairs for the rest of the party.

Rebecca had a great time, and I am glad to have my first kid party out of the way. It was not as bad as I expected it to be.

I think I know what we'll be for Halloween next year.

Kevin's mom gave us the idea. I should probably start growing out my hair.

There's no discount for agreeing with me.

We had a fun Halloween weekend this year.

It started off Saturday with our ward's Trunk or Treat.

On our way out of the house: I didn't know if I would remember to get a picture of my kids in their costumes, so I snapped one right before we left for the church.

Matching Forest Pixies: I loved this $7 Target costume, and luckily, so did Rebecca. I thought it was way cuter than the $25 Tinkerbell costume, and apparently, Isa's mom thought so too.

Monkeys: I had to get a picture of these two monkeys. These busy boys (whose costumes fit their personalities) enjoyed hanging out in the hall together MONTHS before they were able to go to nursery since they both decided to walk before they turned one. In this picture, they were enthralled with Shrek who was helping clean up after dinner. The Shumways in our ward dressed up as Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss in Boots, a baby dragon, and Gingi, and their costumes were awesome. Click here to see them.

We ate dinner and mingled and had a great time with our ward family. Our Activities' Committee ladies always know how to throw a great party.

After the ward party, we went to Kevin's parents' house for a Halloween party thrown by his sister Emily.

Here she is as Wonder Woman. She also throws a great party.

Emily told us that we weren't allowed to come to the party unless we dressed up, so I went as Flo from Progressive, and Kevin went as the Nationwide Blue Phone Guy (these costumes were suggested to us by Kevin's sister Laura). I'm okay with dressing up as long as it doesn't cost a lot. For these two costumes I paid $8 for white pants and an old phone from the DI and $3 for liquid eyeliner, red lipstick, and a headband from the dollar store.

Kevin's mom was the witch in Hocus Pocus played by Bette Midler. My dentist father-in-law made her these great fake teeth that made her look just like the witch in the movie. She's British (Scottish to be exact), and I think she's actually flipping us off in this picture.

Kevin's brother Bryan, who looks so cute eating his dinner at the little kids' table, dressed up for a little bit, but not long enough for me to get a picture...

...but I found this picture of him today on Facebook, so I stole it. Don't be fooled. Bryan is buff - he's sticking out his gut to look like Nacho Libre.

Kevin's Granny Bowman was an angel (or a Victoria's Secret model).

Melissa's boyfriend Kody (who was baptized earlier that day) brought his mom who dressed up like Smurfette.

We loved everyone's costumes, and it was so fun getting together. We're hoping that the Bowmans will throw another party next year.

On Sunday my brother had his annual Halloween party. I didn't get any pictures of that one, but we have a fun time at his parties every year.

I love Halloween, and I think I can say that this past Halloween weekend was my favorite ever.