Sushi

Last night after my chemistry final (woo!  I'm done!), my mother-in-law was awesome enough to invite us out for dinner.  There's a great sushi place (I can't believe that the words "great sushi place" are coming out of my mouth & that I am actually the one thinking it...) near my in-laws that they frequent quite regularly.  (They have a 50% off special Tuesday & Wednesday nights so that makes it even sweeter.)  We met there and ordered.  I wasn't sure if Steven was going to eat much because he's not a super big eater in general and what is a 2-year old going to eat at a sushi place anyway?  We ordered him a kid's meal but it didn't arrive until after the sushi did.  Josh gave Steven a piece of sushi that had been fried in tempura just to see if he'd try it.  That kid of mine ate the whole piece!  We didn't have to coax him or bribe him or anything!  He probably would have eaten more if his meal hadn't arrived then.  My mother-in-law said, "Josh, you're raising that boy right!"  I was shocked that he ate it and how much else he ate!  Steven is constantly surprising me :)

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we spent with Josh's family again.  And yes, we did go to the Grand America brunch again.  It's so good, what can I say?  This was a little different, though.

Apparently there are two events on Thanksgiving day at the Grand America.  One is a buffet & one is a brunch.  Apparently the brunch is the one we usually go to & the one that has more variety.  No one told this to my mother-in-law when she set up the reservations (nor did they mention it the several subsequent times that they called to confirm) & we mistakenly signed up for the buffet.  It had a lot of the same food, and the food was great, there just wasn't as much variety as the one we usually go to.  The atmosphere was much better this year, though, because it was much quiter, more intimate, and a lot less crowded.  However, I'm pretty sure we'll be going to the bigger one next year...the variety just can't be beat. 

After we ate, Josh & his younger brother went over to their brother, Jeremy's, and played Halo for a while.  That evening, Chirin, my mother-in-law, & I continued our tradtion of a Thanksgiving Day movie & saw  Morning Glory.  (If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it.  It's pretty darn funny.) 

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing.  I don't really enjoy shopping in general so I didn't join the masses for Black Friday shopping.  I did, however, go shopping on Saturday with a good friend of mine...but that was more about spending time together than anything.  Also on Saturday we had some friends over for game night which was a ton of fun. :)

I was only able to upload a few pictures this morning before work so I will be adding more hopefully today.

This is Sofia & I in front of a Christmas tree at the Grand America after we ate.

The guys were playing nerf wars & Sofia got caught in the crossfire ;)

Okay, so this actually wasn't on Thanksgiving...it was when we got together for my birthday the Sunday before.  Close enough ;)

Halloween

A bit late, I know. I think I've mentioned this before, but although I do have time at work to blog, I don't have access to my pictures so I hate posting things without pictures. Therefore, I put things off until they are late. Anyway, this Halloween was pretty fun! Last year I invited my siblings that live here over to my house to carve pumpkins the week of Halloween. I decided to continue that tradition this year. My family came over the Sunday before Halloween & we had dinner before carving the pumpkins. (Thanks, Ginelle, for the yummy soup!) I also associate donuts with Halloween (I'm not sure why...it probably comes from my mom) but since it was Sunday I didn't really want to go buy some & I didn't want to buy them a day early & then be stale. So...I decided to make my own! Let me tell you what...they were pretty good, but not really worth the effort in my opinion. It took quite a long time to make the dough, roll it out & fry it. I didn't even get to carve my own pumpkin! :( Bummer. So next year, I'm buying them or we're not having them at all.
The Tuesday before Halloween, Steven had a party at the babysitter's. They were able to dress up in their costumes & they even trick-or-treated from each other. I think they had a pretty good time. :) Steven was a frog (inspired by his occastional hopping on the floor & saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!" & Sofia was a "Halloween ballerina" I guess you could say. I didn't really have a specific idea in mind, I just kind of threw some things together. I wanted to get her a cute black tutu & decided to make one instead. It was pretty easy (although time-consuming) & WAY cheap. I also found some cute orange leggings in Target's $1 section so I used those as well.
On Halloween (well Utah's Halloween [Saturday] because Halloween actually fell on Sunday) we went to my sister's house in Sandy. She made really yummy chilli & cornbread (the delicious form that is a mix of yellow cake mix & corn meal) so we ate dinner before we took the kids trick-or-treating. It was SUPER cold & really windy that night so we didn't stay out that long. I was a little bummed for Steven that he didn't get to go out more but then I remembered that he's TWO & doesn't know the difference & that meant less candy he tried to eat. He was super cute in his frog costume & he had a lot of fun going out. He definitely caught on to the whole idea of Halloween!

Sofia hanging out while everyone carves pumpkins

 Steven & Josh carving a pumpkin

 I love how concentrated my niece, Anna, is

 Steven showing off his pumpkin

 Steven in his frog costume at his daycare Halloween party

 The princess & the frog ;)

 Steven & Sofia

 Sofia in her cute Halloween costume :)

 I LOVE the faces she makes!

Random Funnies

-Last weekend Josh & I went out to celebrate both of our birthdays.  Both of our birthdays are in November & we got a bunch of free meal coupons so we decided to take advantage of one of those offers.  One of my co-workers' daughters babysat the kids for us that night.  Steven asked to play with Josh's iPad (which he actually calls "Steven's iPad" ;) ) but the babysitter told him no.  Steven didn't like this so he put her in time-out.  I laughed pretty hard when I found this out.  :)
-Steven likes to put just about anything & everything in time-out these days.  He'll put his toys or his juice or even movies in time-out & sometimes will even set the same timer we use for his time-outs.  We don't even put him in time-out all that much (maybe once or twice a day on average) but it must be making an impact on him if he's putting other things in time-out.  ;)
-A week or two after Halloween Steven randomly started knocking on things (the door, the wall next to the bathtub) & saying "Treat!".  One night we were sitting at the table for dinner & Steven said, "Go bye-bye" & pointed to the door.  Josh opened the door for him & Steven walked right out into the hall.  Josh closed the door & watched him through the peep-hole.  Steven was talking & walking around the hall a bit.  After about a minute, Steven knocked on the door & said, "Treat!  Candy, please!"  Josh opened the door & said, "Yes?  Can I help you?" & Steven responded with "Treat!  Candy, please!"  I gave him a little cereal puff thing & he proceeded to go back outside.  He repeated this a few times before we finally had him stop.  It was so funny! :)