Quotes of the Week

I thought these were too funny and didn't want to forget them.

Carly: "Look at the bright side...we've got a van."

Abbie (while decorating gingerbread cookies): "Daddy, can you help me with the colorful arms?"

Thanksgiving...Yes I know it is December!

So perhaps I shouldn't even bother to post these pics because I am so incredibly behind but what the heck? I really do have good intentions people. My world has been filled with shopping and late nights of gift preparation, which is all I can say at this point as the readers of this blog may very well be the recipients of said gifts.

So here's a little "taste" of our Turkey Day. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and my parents and then stopped by Drew's parents for pie. We love having family so close!

The girls made these cute headdresses in school and the turkey became our centerpiece after I made him for Primary music time one week. His name is Quirky P. Turkey in case anyone was wondering.

Abbie and Daddy

My mom and aunt Virginia

My poppa. Isn't that goatee just so sauve and debonair?

Savannah and Carly

Pumpkin pie and Black Friday ads. Does it get any better?

Hopefully I can get Christmas posted before Valentine's Day rolls around but I make no promises.

The Maxfield Family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas!

Disneyland

So our highly anticipated trip to SoCal has come and gone and it could not have gone any better. We all had so much fun! We hit the road on Tuesday and stayed the first night in Primm, Nevada. This was not such a magical place but it was good to stay and rest a while. The girls got up bright and early (still on Utah time) and so we decided to just be on our way. Since we knew we had some time on our hands we made a stop in Calico; a ghost town in the desert. The girls were a little nervous about actually seeing a ghost but had fun climbing up the hillside and learning how to duel in a showdown from their Daddy. Carly is just upset that she always has to be the one to play dead at the end!

The next day was Disneyland at last! The weather was perfect and actually a little hot at times. We did not have to wait in too many lines with the exception of getting princess and fairy signatures. (see below)

The girls were remarkably well behaved. I figured we would have to rent a stroller or wagon midday because they would get tired of walking but they just kept on going. By the time we would head back to the parking lot on the tram though, little Abbie was barely able to keep her eyes open. Abbie also impressed me because she was too short to ride a lot of things (especially at California Adventures) and she took it very well. It made Drew and I sad that we had to keep telling her she could not ride, especially since Carly and her cousin Mekenzie were big enough, but she would just say things like, "I know...if I was six I would like it."

We got to see the Pixar Play parade the first night and Fantasmic the next night. This was by far the highlight of the trip for Carly. She absolutely loved the show and was so cute and excited about it. It was wonderful to see her all lit up like that because she seems to be growing up so fast and it really showed me that she is just a sweet little kid who still believes in magic and fairytales. It was truly the best possible way we could have ended our time at Disneyland.

Savannah was nothing short of an angel for the trip. She hardly cried at all in the car (even the 13+ hours on the way home) and did great just riding along in her stroller at Disneyland. We took her on as many of the rides that allows babies as possible since this meant that no one had to wait and we all got to ride together. In hindsight I wish I would have taken her out of the stroller and introduced her to one of the characters and at least gotten her picture with one. I guess it was all I could do when we spotted a character to get out the girls' autograph books, pens, and cameras before they closed the lines. Silly mom!

Saturday was spent driving down to San Diego. We took a little side trip to the beach so that the girls could see the ocean. I figured we could just do a quick 10-minute stop and let them get their feet wet but I should have known better. They loved to jump the waves and of course ended up with wet pants. But Abbie took it a step further by falling over and getting completely drenched in sand and water from head to toe. Needless to say this required a quick wardrobe change before we headed to Sea World.

After spending two days in the Magic Kingdom, I'm afraid Sea World seemed a little plain. But the shows were fun and the girls all enjoyed seeing the animals so close. I must have been burned out on taking pictures because I have a total of two photos and they're both pretty bad. The photo below was taken at the dolphin show. Yes...it is just a splash of water because I was too slow to capture the actual dolphin itself. Whoops!

So we can't wait to go on such a vacation as this again. Thanks to Rachelle and Mekenzie for coming with us or letting us come with them, whichever the case. It was a lot of fun and something the girls will remember and talk about for a long time to come!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...

I'm sure you're singing the title just like I am right now. If you haven't heard the version by Keane, I high recommend it!

Halloween was pretty fun this year. Unfortunately we were not able to host a party this year (so don't hate us because you thought we forgot to invite you) because our house is too small and we are too poor. But Drew and Carly had the day off and so we had plenty of time to get ready, take some fabulous pictures, show off our costumes to Drew's mom, get dinner, and then hit the streets for some serious trick-or-treating. Drew and I switched off who was at home giving out candy and who took the girls out. It was nice. Not so rushed as years past since we didn't try to visit every relative or get lost trying to find a trunk-or-treat in West Point (last year...don't ask!)

We also got into the spirit of things by making a "haunted house" to decorate our house with. Carly took it in to her class for show and tell since the letter of the week was H and the theme was Halloween. It couldn't fit much better right? Unfortunately they ran out of time in her class due to other festivities and she didn't get to do her show and tell. Oh well...we tried. At least I remembered to send something with her this week. We're kind of hit and miss with the show and tell items I'm afraid.

Another development this month has been my discovery of digital scrapbooking. Where has this been all my life? It is fantastic! It takes every bit as long to create a page (at least for me) but you can download all sorts of paper, embellishments, stamps, etc. for free online and the best part...you can change your pages as many times as you like if you're not happy with the results. I also can't wait to print them off in a nicely bound book rather than finding room to store yet another 3-inch binder. So I don't answer the door or the phone when you try to contact me, you can bet that I'm parked in front of the computer and too engrossed to break free!

Suzie Homemaker...

...or just Wendy whacked out on domestication?

My friend Cindy told me to take a picture and add it to my blog, so I'm taking her advice! The above photograph is the result of a week long surge of domestic energy. You see Cindy and I had the fabulous idea to can some peaches and the snowball got a rollin'! On Monday we did the peaches, Tuesday I canned tomatoes, Wednesday I canned salsa, Thursday I took a hiatus, Friday I made raspberry jam, Saturday another break, and then Sunday I made bread. It is lucky that this picture is taken somewhat from above so that it is not so obvious how flat the bread came out. But hey! This feels like an accomplishment to me so I'm going to run with it. We even picked the tomatoes ourselves and if you can believe it Abbie said (and I quote), "I love to pick tomatoes!" They had a great time.


This has not only been a time of harvest, it is also off to school for the girls! Carly has loved kindergarten. Every day she brings home a worksheet or artwork that she has done that day and proudly shows me. For the first few days we got detailed descriptions of what she had done such as "I got to school. I hung up my backpack..." you get the picture. Now that school is such an old hat we usually get a few less details. This week she is the "Star Student" so she got to take in a poster all about herself and do fun/special things all throughout the week. She is really excited about it!

I wasn't planning on enrolling Abbie in preschool because basically I'm too cheap and didn't think she really needed it, but someone in my neighborhood invited me to join in a kind of joy school that they were doing and I'm really glad I did. Abbie is super excited about going to school (she goes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings) and she can't wait to compare with Carly what they did that day in school. Although the girls are 23 months apart, their birthdays are such that Abbie will only be one year behind Carly in school so she can't wait for next year to come so that she can ride the bus too!



Well that's about all the fun we can stand around here aside from the fact that our AC/heater is broken and the repair man is here now to fix it. Gotta run!

Not-so-hostile Takeover

So it's me, Wendy, and I'm afraid I've got to take this blog thing into my own hands so that it can be updated! March?!? What was that five or six months ago? Hopefully we can get this going a little better now that we have remembered the password to your blog account!

We've all been doing well and our family has change JUST A LITTLE since the last blog. In case you didn't already know, our little Savannah was born on May 19th and is absolutely beautiful! It is so fun to have a baby in the house again. The girls love her (a little too much sometimes). They have not shown an ounce of jealousy, which I am really happy about. They just think that their little sister is the cutest thing ever and love to show her off to everyone who comes around.

Abbie just had her 4th birthday last week. She was very excited about it and so being the cruel mother that I am I would use it as punishment. If she was throwing a fit or acting up or something I would treaten that I was going to cancel her birthday and not let her turn 4. It actually worked a few times to quiet the storm but now that her birthday has come and gone I'm going to have to come up with something new! Abbie is going to start attending a neighborhood preschool and a dance class next week. She is super excited about both and I think it will be nice for her to have something of own to do.

Carly is going to "officially" start kindergarten on Tuesday. We have a preview day last week but it was only for a couple of hours and I was there most of the time so I don't think it really counts. When we went back to the school for her assessment it really hit me. No, not the tears of sadness that everyone talks about shedding when their first child goes to school. I was actually really, really excited for her. I started thinking back to my days in kindergarten and elementary school (not that I can remember much) and I was kind of overwhelmed by happiness. In fact, I'm a little jealous of Carly. I know she is going to have so much fun and she will soak up everything like a sponge. She is very smart. Maybe I had these feelings so strong because I'm the exact opposite lately. I honestly feel like I'm losing my mind. I can't remember a dang thing let alone learn new things! I'll have to live vicariously through little Carly I guess.

And here he is...my hottie of a husband! This is so very GQ isn't it? Drew is doing great as far as family and personal life go. Unfortunately work has not been so fun for him lately. He was assigned to be on a committee that is taking a lot of his time so he feels like he just gets behind on his regular tasks and is wasting most of his time with this committee. I can tell that it is really stressing him out so I hope that it will be over soon. He did make the switch to working four 10s recently though and we are loving that. It is so awesome to have him home for three-day weekends! It's like having a Saturday to get the necessary things done and then another Saturday to do fun stuff. The girls really love it too. They are always happy to spend time with their Daddy. He is truly their hero and can do no wrong in their eyes. He's such a fun dad too. I need to take lessons from him on spending time to actually PLAY with the girls and not just tell them to GO PLAY somewhere else. Drew...you're my hero too!

And last and least, there's me. You all should be shocked and amazed that I included a photo of myself and didn't even photoshop it. Feel free to marvel over the fact that at the tender age of 28 I actually do have an AGE SPOT on my face. Yikes! Don't think I don't notice it and promptly frown every time I look in the mirror. Other than feeling like I have little to no brain capacity these days, I'm doing well. I dislike to strongly dislike my job most days. I always think I could get so many fabulous things done around the house and with my kids if I didn't have to work but in all actuality I would probably just spend more time on my butt in front of the TV so I guess it's a good thing I have a couple of jobs to keep me "productive." I've been thinking about possibly going back to school one day when the kids are older to get a nursing degree. What?!? I know, I'm crazy. I don't tolerate bodily functions very well so this may not be the right choice for me. But I just love having babies so much that I thought instead of popping out a bunch more maybe I should just help other people have their own babies. I don't know...just a thought.

So there you have it! An update on the Maxfield familia. I'll try to post again before another six months have gone by.

Baby #3

So here she is; baby #3. You can tell she's a Maxfield, can't you? She's got the same cute pouty lips as her sisters and I think she's got Carly's nose too. This ultrasound was actually done a month ago so I'm sure she's changed even more since. We can't wait for her to get here! Any suggestions for a name?

Just Some Of The Things I Like About You

Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I'm married to a fun, beautiful, wonderful girl who loves me. I have two great daughters, and one on the way. so I was thinking I could post a little blog dedicated to my sweet girls.

Wendy:


Wendy is a wonderful mother and wife. She is very concerned about the upbringing of her girls their safety, well-being, and learning. She also makes sure her husband (me) is doing what's right.

• She's kind, gentle, and thoughtful.


• She's very smart. I can't play Jeapordy or Wheel of Fortune with her without getting put in my place. She's good at most everything. She keeps a beautiful home.


• Within just a little while of being in our new home we've gotten new carpet, painted, new light fixtures, new tile, and it's always clean-ish.


• Wendy's got a great sense of humor.


• We have fun together, and she let's me be me. She doesn't judge me harshly for my mistakes.


• And just look at her.... wow!!! She's beautiful.

Carly:

• Carly is a fun smart girl. She likes to hang out with her "daddy", and that makes me feel special to her.


• She is a kind girl who loves her family and sister (even though they bicker sometimes).


• Carly is funny, I love it when she tells jokes or dances funny.


• She keeps me in line. Just yesterday she was telling me I shouldn't listen to the type of music I was on Sunday.


• I love it when she draws pictures and writes "daddy" and "carly" on them.

Abbie:

• Abbie has a great sense of humor.
• She always, I mean always tells us that she loves us.
• She can be a good snuggly kid.
• She doesn't take no @#%@ from anybody.
• She's also very social, likes to be out playing, or hanging out with her best friend Carly.
• I love Abbie's voice, it's cute. Some people make fun and say she sounds like she's been smoking.
• Sometimes she just looks at you and grins. I like it.

Anyways, I love my girls. I'm quite lucky.

The Maxfields Decide To Try Out A Blog

Well, what can I say, we need to get with the times. We've finally purchased cell phones for ourselves, thought the next step would be to do this blog thing. So here we are.

We've moved into our new home in Clinton, and things are going great. We've recarpeted, painted, got new furniture, put new lighting in, and last Saturday we retiled the bathroom. Still a number of things that we'd like to do, but a little at a time right.

The Holidays were great, despite the fact that none of our new furniture had arrived and to my (Drew's) dismay the TV had to sit on the floor. Shows you where my priorities are. He he.... But things were fun. We spoiled our girls, and didn't do too bad for ourselves either. Now that our furniture is here we also bought ourselves a new big screen TV.... so I can sit and enjoy my couch potato ways. Needless to say we had a great Christmas.

The snow here in Utah right now has been falling like mad. It's pretty fun having so much. The girls and I made a snowman, but still haven't gone sledding. I guess that's next. Wendy's still not showing at all with her pregnancy. I'm very excited to be a dad again. I love my girls... and still haven't given up hope for a boy someday. At least if the 3rd one treats us okay. I know this is a short blog, but I have to start out small with this confounded technology. So someday soon expect to hear more.

-Drew