From Fort Wayne, I flew straight to Phoenix and met Andy and the kids there for Thanksgiving. Yes, Andy made the six-hour car ride alone with the three kids. He's a trooper!

 

In Phoenix, the kids enjoyed their favorite Thanksgiving tradition: swimming!

 

Grandpa Hammond flew from Philadelphia to join us this year, which was a special treat. We've seen quite a bit of him this year, and I love that the kids are getting to know their great-grandfather better!

Last week I flew out to visit my sister, brother-in-law and nephew, Ben, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I got in really late at night so I didn't get to see Ben until the next morning. I could hear him when he woke up and Rachel was still sleeping, so I went into his room, picked him up and rocked him in his rocking chair.

 

He was definitely a little nervous about the whole situation, but his only reaction was to bury his face into my shoulder, which just made him more cuddly! When Rachel woke up and came to see what we were up to, Ben looked at her but made no effort to escape. We thought that was so funny!

I had so much fun hanging out with Ben! He's almost sixteen months and it's such a great age. He is very sweet, giggly, and cute! He loved wearing my boots (pictured above), having me chase him with the Fisher Price popcorn popper toy, and shooting baskets in his hoop.

Rachel and Michael were pretty fun to hang out with too. ;-) Rachel and I did our favorite activities like making delicious meals (I can't stop thinking about the pumpkin ravioli we made), making cookies, taking naps, and watching funny YouTube videos.

Saturday night, Michael and Rachel took me to a popular restaurant that just opened nearby called Scotty's. They have great, unusual burgers, although I passed on the one with peanut butter on it.

 We tried to get a little photo shoot with Ben and me, but he wasn't really in the mood.

 Rachel was much more cooperative.

Michael and Rachel, thanks so much for your amazing hospitality! You guys spoiled me so much! I can't wait to come back  (Andy, can I go back?!?!)!

We've had such good news around here in the past few months. My sister is expecting another baby, Hank arrived safe and sound, and now I get a new sister-in-law!

 

 My brother proposed to his girlfriend on Friday, she said yes, and we couldn't be happier for them! We skyped with newly engaged couple on Sunday so they could tell the kids their news. Benjamin and Christina asked the kids if they wanted a new aunt. They said yes, and they told them that now they can call "Miss Christina" "Aunt Christina."

Benjamin and Christina also asked Hannah and Ellie to be the flower girls, Joey to be a ring bearer, Andy to be a groomsman, and me to be a bridesmaid! Apparently, our little family will be kind of a big deal at the wedding! ;-) Ha! I just love that Benjamin and Christina want to include all of their family in their big day. When we told the girls that they get to wear pretty dresses as the flower girls, Ellie said, "Anna? Snow White?" So, we're hoping Benjamin and Christina decide on a Disney-themed wedding.

Congrats again, Benjamin and Christina. We can't wait to celebrate your big day with you!!

Reviewing the Cathechism questions...
Me: Ellie, who made you?
Ellie: God.
Me: What else did God make?
Ellie: Dragons.
(The correct answer is "all things" so really she could have said almost anything and still gotten the right answer...except for imaginary animals.)


The two year-old version of "This Land is Your Land"
Ellie: This land is my land, this land is my land, this land is my land, this land is my land...


While driving past a 7-11... 
Hannah:  If it is hot and my kids are good, I am going to buy them Slurpees.
Joey: I am going to be a very nice, but very strict Dad.
Hannah: Don't be too nice.
Joey: If my wife wants to stay home with the kids, I will let her.


We had a little girl over who got very nervous whenever she saw Andy. Ellie tried to make her feel more comfortable by telling her, "But he doesn't have a beard!" It made us laugh that Ellie remembers her former phobia of beards. The ironic thing is that this little girl's dad does have a beard, so maybe she has the opposite phobia!

Things that Ellie says all the time that I love:
 Me: Ellie, do you have to go to the bathroom?
Ellie: No, I good.

Ellie: I want to hold you! (instead of I want you to hold me)

Yes, after Andy got laid off from Yahoo, he got a job at Google! There is an office about an hour north of here, and he'll take a free Google shuttle there and back every day. He's wanted to work at Google for a long time, so it's exciting that in the Lord's providence it finally happened, and when we least expected it!

The best part is that while his last day at Yahoo was at the end of October, he doesn't start at Google until December, so he has about six weeks off! When we found out about this unexpected time off, Andy sent me this article about his goals for the long break.

The kids and I just love having Andy home all the time. He has been mostly using his time off to work on a big project on the computer, but he also has been helping out around the house with running various errands and watching Ellie for me on Fridays while I help at the kids' school. This coming week I am taking the opportunity to go visit my sister for a few days so he will be holding down the fort while I'm gone. The best part? It was his idea!

At first Ellie was really confused about why Andy was always home. She kept saying, "Daddy, office?" We told her that Yahoo closed so now she says, "Daddy, office? Yahoo closed?" We try to leave Andy alone as much as possible so that he can make good progress on his project, but every once in a while Ellie will go up to him and ask, "Daddy play hide and seek with me?" He can never resist. The two of them also have a new tradition of sharing a bowl of cereal (Ellie's second breakfast of the day) after he gets back from taking the kids to school.

He can't resist the mooching either.

We are so thankful that the Lord provided this wonderful job and as a bonus an amazing six weeks off. As usual, He has blessed us above and beyond!

On Saturday, Hannah's good neighborhood friend Riley had a Frozen birthday party, and we were all invited. Her parents went ALL OUT and it was such a special, fun treat for the girls. They even had snow in the backyard!

Neighborhood besties: Chloe, Hannah, Riley

They invited the REAL Elsa to come! ;-)

The girls were stuck like glue to that sweet, patient girl all night and hung on her every word.

Ellie was excited about having another opportunity to wear this Anna costume again. She loved listening to Elsa, but she also liked playing with the plastic figurines that were later made into snow globes.

Face painting!

Oh happy day!

Frozen girls!

For some reason, Ellie did NOT want her face painted, but she lit up when Elsa asked her if she wanted her nails painted.

Elsa did some magic,

read the girls a story,

and sang all the Frozen songs with the girls.

Then she showed them some magic snow she brought all the way from Arendale.

Each kid got a handful and threw it in the air while they sang, "Let it Go!" Even the Mad Hatter joined in the fun.

Riley's dad is an awesome photographer. How cool are these two shots he got?

Joey's birthday is during such a busy time of year that we finally got around to having his birthday party this past Friday. He invited four of his friends over for a slumber party. The boys came over after school and played outside until well after dark. They played several rounds of "Ghost in the Graveyard" which has been a neighborhood favorite ever since the time changed.

The kids finally came inside to have pizza and ice cream sandwich cookies. Joey opened his presents, and then the kids all played inside until we put on a short movie at 8:00. It was lights out at 9:00, talking until 9:30, a stern "Go to sleep!" at 9:45, and then we didn't hear from them until...6:15! I'm used to Joey and Hannah sleeping in, so the early wake up took me by surprise. So did the early enthusiasm/chatting/laughing/shouting. They put video games on which kept them entertained but did nothing to help the noise level. Our poor neighbors! Seriously though, Joey's friends are so sweet and well-behaved (and enthusiastic!). It was fun having them over.

Watching Tom and Jerry and the Lost Dragon.

Pancakes for breakfast!

I love how all the boys and Ellie are topless.

We had a lot more pictures from Joey's party, but they accidentally got deleted from my camera. Andy was sweet and staged this mini photo shoot afterwards of our Minion theme.

I loved these cute little Minion Twinkies. This is my kind of Pinterest project...brain dead easy!

I had so many pictures in the last Legoland post that I didn't include the videos my parents took. They are really short and too cute not to share, so they get their own post.

This was the elevator at the hotel that turns into a disco as soon as the doors shut. Check out the kids' dance moves!

Kid Tower Power

These are videos from when the kids were racing the Lego cars they built. I love how the more excited Hannah gets, the more she flaps her hands.

And the Beetle Bounce.

About a month or so ago, my mom told me that she had read this blog post and saw that Joey wanted to go to the Legoland Hotel for his birthday this year. My mom had already thought about taking them, so it seemed like the perfect time.

I told Joey and Hannah they were going to Bubba and Nana's house for the weekend, and they were thrilled. Imagine their excitement when my parents drove them to the Legoland Hotel instead. I guess the valets were even impressed by the kids' off the charts enthusiasm because they asked my parents, "Did they know they were coming here?!" 

We got a phone call shortly after they arrived at the hotel, and Andy answered. The squeals and shouts were so loud, he had to hold the phone away from his ear. I asked him what they were saying and he said, "I literally can't understand a word they are saying, except I think they are talking about a toilet." (Apparently the toilet in the hotel room was funny.) 

The four of them spent Friday and Saturday night at the hotel and went to Legoland all day Saturday.

From here I'll let the kids (mostly) tell you about the weekend in their own words:

Hannah: Here is when you first get in. In the background there is a play area. Right behind us is a big area with Legos.

Hannah: This is on the wall in the hallway by our room.

Joey: Our room!

Joey: This is the treasure box in our hotel room. There was a scavenger hunt to find the code. The code was 5225, and inside we got two Mixels (mini Lego sets). Their names are Gobba and Slumbo. Then when the maid came we got two more Mixels, Tentro and Lunk.

Hannah: Also we got four chocolate coins in the treasure box, two for me, two for Joey.

After the scavenger hunt, they headed to the pool.

Hannah: There were Lego blocks in the pool. It starts shallow and then goes deeper, deeper, deeper. I love swimming in the deep end.

Hannah: This is on another floor. 

Each floor had a different Lego theme.

Hannah: The first night we had dinner at Islands (a nearby restaurant). The food was really delicious. We even got coloring pages.

Joey: Since (the weekend) was my birthday present, I got a vanilla milkshake with whipped cream and a cherry on top and even a candle on top. P.S. I turned eight.

Hannah: Joey shared his milkshake with me. It was delicious.

Saturday morning...

Joey: Since we went to the Legoland Hotel, we got to go into Legoland early.

Hannah: I was super excited to go to Legoland with Nana and Bubba.

Andy loves this picture solely for the hats. 

Storybrook Lane

Joey: The Dragon is one of my favorite roller coasters, especially the big drop.

Joey: We went on the Dragon roller coaster five times. We love it! I think this shows that Bubba loved it too.

Hannah: I love pedaling on the pedal cars.

Hannah: I love driving the car because you get a driver's license.

Hannah: This is the pulling area. You have to pull, pull, pull and when you get to the very top you let go and you drop, but it's not fast.

Joey: This is a place in Legoland where you can play any Lego video game you want. I was playing the Lego Movie game. I was Emmet and Hannah was Wild Style.

Hannah: This is where we built cars and raced them.

Joey: I didn't win very much with my first car, but I made a second car and it was as fast as lightening.

Hannah: My car won a few times!

Joey: I won the race! I ended up winning a bunch.

Hannah: Here are the girl Lego Friends.

Hannah: This is the fire show. They are funny firemen.

Joey: We chose to sit in the wet zone, but we didn't get wet at all.

Joey: I don't believe anyone has THAT many Lego pieces, and, to let you know, that WHOLE Christmas tree is made of Legos.

Joey: The boats were soooooo busy. They were crashing here and there. At one point, three boats were blocking the whole entire way.

Hannah: Me and Bubba loved this pirate ride that twisted in circles.

Joey: Ugh! I would NEVER go on that! It would make me so sick.

The Castle play area.

Hannah: Here I'm taking a picture with two princesses from Legoland.

Joey: The dragon claw was really fun. Bubba and I were on the second level. It threw us all around. At one point, I thought I was going to fall out and fall into the water below.

Waiting in line at Legoland can be fun!

Joey: The Technic cars are my very, very favorite roller coaster...well, maybe the second (after Space Mountain).

Hannah: I love the big drop.

After being at Legoland all day, they ate dinner at the hotel.

Hannah: The dinner is so good at the Legoland Hotel. I loved the corndog, and I loved the macaroni and cheese.

Joey: I had a lot of food at the Legoland Hotel: a piece of pizza, a hot dog, bread roll, and a lot of fruit.

Check out time was 11:00 on Sunday so they had a little more time to watch TV and play with the Legos in their room. 

Joey: This is the kid's room. We had a TV and bunk beds in our room. Once, I was going to sleep, but the covers slid off and fell on the floor. I was looking frantically for them, and I finally found them on the floor. (The only reason this story didn't get edited out is because I love that he used the word "frantically.")

Hannah: We had a box of Legos in the room to play with.

Joey: Hannah was playing with her Mixels, and I found this box of Legos and started playing with it.

Joey and Hannah were so excited to come home and tell us all about their great weekend. We can't thank Bubba and Nana enough for such an amazing treat! Our kids are so lovingly spoiled!