Days of December

Like everyone else, I'm sure, this has been a busier-than-ever month for us. We started the month off going to the Polar Express at Mt. Hood . . . ALL ABOARD . . . It was a lot different than I expected. I had envisioned in my head that we'd go up the mountain, circling around and around until we got to the "North Pole" where we'd get out and see Santa etc. etc. Well . . . even though the rail is at Mt. Hood the train ride consists of going in a straight line for about 20 minutes and then switches directions and goes the other way. You then pass by the "North Pole" (which is some white storage sheds that are all decorated - or something close to that) and you get to look out the window and see Santa and all of his elves. Then the train stops and Santa gets on and lets each child have a turn sitting on his lap after which they each receive a bell. All in all my girls LOVED it. Both girls have watched that movie a TON this season and they do a lot of fun things to follow the movie. I guess that's all that matters - that our kids thought it was the best ever. I thought the tickets were a little spendy for what it entailed but am still glad we did it. It's definitely something to do when kids are little and still have the magic of Christmas.




Check out all these little girls!! We met some of our good friends there, Bob & Sherilyn, and these are their three girls . . . Baby Nora, Kiara & Alyssa . . .our girls became the best of friends by the end of the night and everyone at the pizza place knew it!!




I've also been really busy with Young Women projects. We had a combined youth dinner one Wednesday and I was in charge of embossing 60 handouts and then attaching candy canes to each. Then the next week we were delivering presents to two families that our ward donated presents for and I wrapped them all by my lonesome (there were close to 50+ gifts). I was also the go-to person for the project, because it was my idea, so I got to gather, sort and oversee that whole project. It was a lot of time and energy, but so very worth it. I am glad it's over though. . .

So my bad news is that I'm all tuckered out from my many projects (I also did family calendars for both sides) so haven't sent out ANY Christmas cards. So anyone and everyone who knows me well know that usually I am really good at doing that early on in the month . . . it looks like I'm not gonna make it this year. So this is my shout out to everyone! Merry Christmas everyone . . . sorry I'm a slacker . . . I love you all and have enjoyed all of the nice updates and pictures we've received! I promise I'll repent and get mine out next year!!!



Dell was soooo embarrased that we drove the 3 miles from Walmart to our house with a tree on the top. We didn't have a truck available and I told him to think of it as an adventure. It really ended up being one since we tied the tree on first and then couldn't open our doors so had to climb in "Dukes of Hazzard" style. I got a kick out of it!



Ashlee putting the star up with help from her Daddy

Mexico, Mexico, Mexico

So if you haven't guessed from the title, we spent all last week in MEXICO, baby! We had the BEST time. All the adults in my family went, so there were 11 of us. The only one missing was Lindsy's new husband, Anthony, and we sure missed him - Lindsy especially did, of course, and went into the ugly cry on occasion! :)

We were lucky enough to have my in-laws come and watch our kids for the entire week and head off to Cabo San Lucas. I have to take my hat off to them. They were just so wonderful. I was really worried about how Alexa would handle us being gone, but from what I hear she did great. They enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Scott & Jessie and Marilee's family. We're so blessed to have such great relatives! I knew my girls would be loved and cared for and can I just tell you what a HUGE relief that is?!? So a huge shout out to all of the Anderson's that helped out with our girls while we were gone. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

We stayed at Riu Santa Fe, an all inclusive resort, that I highly recommend if anyone ever goes to Cabo. It was amazing. The resort is beautiful and is literally right on the beach. We spend all of our time playing in the ocean. I think that out of everyone in the resort we had the most fun. I say that because most of the vacationers were pool-side sitters. If they weren't lounging out, they were in the pool at the bars. My family is just an active bunch so we did a ton of fun things and were constantly on the go. We played in the ocean for hours and hours. The waves were HUGE and we would ride them in and get demolished in them and go again and again. The ocean definitely makes you a respecter of water. Water is powerful! The waves seriously controlled us instead of the other way around. It could be scary at times - needless to say not many people were attempting them like we were. They ferried over to a calmer beach. We LOVED it though. Some of the fun activities we did were jet skiing (which is ten times funner than in a lake - you constantly have huge jumps), snorkeled, played volleyball in the pool, shopped, enjoyed the spa, rode Dune Buggies, went on the zip line adventure where you got to repel, rock climb, walk a tight rope, and go on 9 different zip lines. I think that was the funnest activity for me. I absolutely LOVED it!

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Pictures of the resort




On the beach

Rich & Tyson - Me, Lindsy, Kylee & Ashley

ck out this wave . . . my bro, Tyson's at the bottom and another swimmers at the peak

Tyson & Kylee

Ashley, my mom & Lindsy enjoying the waves

famous arch in Cabo



Mark & Ashley



Family Shots

Mollotte kids youngest to oldest . . .Tyson, Kylee, Lindsy, Mark, Me & Rich





Rich & Lorena

A Week of Escapades

So here it is, a week before we leave to Mexico, and wouldn't you know it'd have to be a crazy, hectic week - shocking!

Frame Disaster:
Tonight is my YW in Excellence for Mutual (a Wednesday night activity for our young women ages 12-18 in church) and I volunteered to make these cute frames that have all of President Hinckley's "Be"s. Anyhoo it's super cute, but can I just say that the frames were a nightmare. I bought cheap frames from WalMart that were plastic thinking I could spray paint them and it would be no biggy. Well think again. I used up 3 cans of spray paint and you could still see the original color bleeding through. To makes matters worse, the last day that I put another coat on it was cold outside so it looked like the paint cracked. I think it looks horrible. I ended up getting some craft paint primer and painted each of the 13 frames again - then went over it again with a normal coat of white. It took me well over 2 hours. The project is done - YEA for that, but I think the frames look hideous and I don't want anyone to know I did them. I think we should have thrown them all away, bought a nicer frame, and started fresh. I got out voted though so we'll see. I hope the girls will like them anyway. Dell thinks they look really nice . . . that's what any good husband would say after seeing their wife freak out over painting 13 frames for the 20 bazillionth times!

Our toilet fiasco . . .
So our toilet started leaking around the base. I got tired of it having a constant rim of water so decided to take action. I asked my dad what he thought and he said to tighten the nuts around the bolts that holds the toilet down - sometimes it can get loose and water leaks. Well I tried that and it seemed to make it worse - instead of a little water there was now a puddle. Knowing that my in-laws are coming on Saturday, and we have to get this fixed ASAP I went to Lowe's to see if I needed to get a new washer or something for the bolts. I talked to the guy and he said I needed to get a whole little wax ring replacement kit. I asked him what I needed to do, bought the stuff, and came home to fix the problem. I'm actually pretty proud of myself . . .this is me patting myself on the back . . . anyhoo the first thing I did was shut the water off and disconnect the hose from the wall to the toilet. Then I took a utility knife and cut all around the toilet to unseal the caulk. After that I scooped all the water remaining in the toilet out so it wouldn't leak all over the floor and then waited for Dell to get home. Once he got home he picked the toilet up and moved if off its "sitting spot". We, or I rather, had to clean all the prior wax ring out of the way and clear a new spot. It was pretty gross. The wax is like straight grease. So we got that cleaned up, put a new wax ring on, positioned it just right and placed in back in tow. After I tightened it back up I caulked around it (like 4 times because I didn't like how it looked) and then we were done.

Wouldn't you know it works like a champ no. No more leaking!! Dell said normal people would've called a plumber. I told him that may be true but normal people aren't trying to pull off Mexico and Christmas within a month of each other!!

One for the history books . . .
My sister, Kylee's volleyball team made it to State in volleyball. This is the first time Othello has ever made it this far. She had a GREAT District tournament last weekend and State is this weekend, here in Tri-Cities. We're so excited for that . . . go Ky!!

Picture Taking Nightmare

So Alexa turned two at the end of September and I hadn't gotten her 2-year pictures taken yet. I know that's a ridiculous thing to have stress you out . . . but none-the-less it's been nagging at me in the back of my mind. I'm usually "Johnny on the spot" when it comes to getting things like that done. Anyhoo with Lindsy's wedding and Halloween and everything else consuming my time I've let it slip.

I knew getting her pictures done would be a trial. Maybe that's the real reason I've put it off. I ususally like to go to JCPennys to get their pictures done - that's where I've always done them in the past - but I remembered that at Alexa's one-year photo op she had a hard time there because the room is dark and I think the lights scared her. So we're in Walmart (one of my thousand trips there - living so close to Walmart is a curse . . . they get all my money!) and I decided it might be a good place to do it because #1 we're frequent WalMart visitors and she knows the store and #2 the room isn't dark and scary looking. So I book an appointment for first thing today.

Of course our morning is chaotic and everything goes wrong so we show up late (another bonus for going to WalMart - it's ok to be late - at JCPennys they'd bump you off the list). So we go in and she immediately FREAKS out. Crying, closing her eyes, just totally uncooperative. We tried for over 30 minutes to get even ONE shot to no avail - even with me holding her she refused to let go of my neck. I was SOOOO MAD at her. I was gritting my teeth, trying to bribe her with candy afterwards, everything. She didn't care. Needless to say she won the battle and we left WalMart with no pictures taken. I'm still so mad! Dell thought it was funny when I called to vent. I think maybe next time he should take her and then we'll see who's laughing!!!!

So we get home and I took some of her here. I guess having a lame textured wall as a background is going to have to do because that's all I can do and when she's older and asks me why her 2-year old picture is a lame one I'll let her read this and see that it was all her fault! :) Oh the joys of motherhood!!

What's your vote?? Which one should I blow up to be an 8x10 for display??

Halloween & A Wedding

The end of the month was out-of-control busy for our family! We had Halloween and a wedding all wrapped up into one. My sister, Lindsy, got married on November 1st. So what that meant for us was coming a day early to help get everything prepared. It actually worked out well that way because our ward here was doing a truck-or-treat on Halloween, which isn't my favorite. I don't like them because usually it's really cold and dark which means you hurry through to get the candy and then go home. No visiting occurs, no checking out all of the cute costumes because everyone's bundled up in coats etc. etc. You get the picture. Anyhoo my parents' ward does a big party. They have a simple dinner and then a carnival and then have everyone make a huge circle in the gym where all the kids go around and get their candy that way. I much prefer Othello 1st Ward's methods! So our kids got to enjoy that. Ashlee was Ariel from the Little Mermaid and Alexa was a ladybug.



After the party we ran the girls home to my mom's and then came back to the church to start the wedding decor. We have a large family and extended family so there was plenty of hands to make the work light. It went by relatively fast and we decided to stay until it was completely done so the next day we wouldn't have to come back until it was time - and so that we could concentrate solely on the food aspect of things. I guess the food was a hit (so all of our hardwork paid off) because quite a few people asked my mom at the reception who catered the food. My mom was like, "ummmm . . . our family" . . . we got a kick out of that. Everything looked so nice and went perfectly. I can honestly say I'm glad it's over. I think my poor mom is completely worn out. She worked her little heart out (I'd expect nothing less!).

Anthony & Lindsy Prows

So our weekend was a whirl. I'm glad this week is seemingly slow so we can get caught up. . . I'm pretty sure my furniture would like to get dusted this week and my floors mopped since I skipped out on it last week. Gross, I know . . . hey cut me some slack . . . didn't you read about my weekend! :)

A bride for a day

Ashlee & Haley

Alexa enjoying herself at the reception

Alexa happy now that we're on the way home!

Soccer season comes to an end

Ashlee completed her first soccer season this fall. She had a total of eight games and nine practices. I can honestly say she really LOVED everything about it. She never complained about going to practice, and would come home before and after practice and kick the ball around in the back yard making "golds" as she calls them.

The beginning of the season had me a bit worried . . . she seemed to always be running at the back of the pack and was content with others kicking the ball and taking control. So anyone and everyone who knows me, would know that that's totally not in character for me and at times I would think to myself, "self . . . how is this MY daughter!!" :) We'd have little talks where I'd tell her to do whatever it takes to kick that ball . . . be aggressive . . . run as fast as you can . . . if you score a goal I'll buy you a milkshake. Basically all the things that good mom's say to their oldest child during their first sporting experience! All kidding aside, it was so much fun for us to watch her each week, and to see her HUGE improvement. She had so much fun doing it and really that's all that matters. . . that and the fact that she scored 4 goals by the end of the season . . . one in each of her last four games! :)

Pumpkin Patch

We've had a fun-filled, busy day! It started this morning bright and early with Ashlee's 9 a.m. soccer game. She did a great job and got another goal. She only has one game left, and boy can we see a big improvement since week 1. It's been so fun to watch her get better and better with each game.

After her game we decided to head out to the Country Mercantile and spend a few hours at the pumpkin patch. I thought it wouldn't be that busy since we arrived before 10:30, but boy was I wrong. There were so many people out there! I guess they all had the same idea we did. The girls had so much fun going through the straw maze, climbing the straw pyramid, walking through the petting zoo, riding out in the pumpkin patch, choosing a white pumpkin, playing in the bounce houses and looking around and sampling all of the fresh salsa inside the mercantile! Ashlee was able to go with her class last week, so she was an old pro and new all of the fun things to do. Alexa, on the other hand, didn't know what to think. She stayed close to Mom and Dad and didn't say much. She was a people watcher today. When I asked her if she had fun, she just kind of grunted, so I don't know what her true thoughts were. Although her vocabulary isn't huge at this point, she can DEFINITELY say "NO" and "yesh" (thought she favors NO - shocking, I know) so her grunt must have meant she was undecided! :) It was a very fun way to spend our Saturday morning . . . we've been very busy lately so it was nice to do something as a family and enjoy ourselves.