Disney on Ice

 

The day after Ben’s birthday we took the kids to Mickey and Minnie on Ice.  My cousin had posted a contest on her blog to win tickets..so of course I had to enter and I won!  I was so excited and thought the kids would love it

Andrew’s face when he saw that Mickey was on the ice.  He was pretty impressed by Mickey’s performance.  All the others he didn’t care so much for.

I missed her smile by a milla-second! 

 

All in all is was a ton of fun!  It was great to have a family day (well for a few hours) and actually have Chris come to something with us! 

Ben turns 7!

Way back in November, Ben had his 7th birthday! He was so excited to turn 7. He had definite ideas about what he wanted. He wanted me to bring donuts into his classroom after lunch, go to Chuck E Cheese with 2 friends and that was it. I love it when they get older :)

I brought the donuts to Ben’s class with milk and balloons for him. He got right up and started directing the class. He asked for volunteers to pass out napkins, another to pass out milk, etc. He had it all under control. The teacher and I were his assistants! He called them up by table, made them wash their hands…it was adorable. So Andrew and I hung out with his class for a while then headed home.

After school we loaded up his two friends and headed over to Chuck E Cheese to meet up with the family. Here is my cute little niece Sierra…oh, and her daddy Alex :)

The whole group

My other cutie niece Ava (Sierra’s sister)

Ben opening gifts and with his brownies

Papa and Grandma were just going to take Ben on a little date after the chuck E Cheese party, but we all decided to tag along. We all went to see Megamind…it was fantastic!

Then Grandma and Papa were going to take Ben on a little date out to dinner at In-N-Out…but again we tagged along :)

Ava getting creative with her stickers

Andrew jumps on the sticker bandwagon.

Ben had a great birthday and finally got his own little date when he got to go to Grandma and Papa’s house for a sleepover…this time we didn’t tag along…we were tempted, but tired kids won out :) Happy Birthday Ben!

To all my local friends

Hi Guys!

We just got home from BYU where they have a "wishing" tree where you can pick a kids name and buy them a gift for Christmas. It gives their name, age, favorite color, and wish gift. We were shocked at how many kids were left on the tree. If you live close by and want to do a nice thing for a little kid in our community, go to the JSFB (Joseph Smith Family Building) between Kimball tower and the Talmage building west side of the quad with the Naked Indian Statue. The gifts have to be in by December 3rd so hurry!

For our Family Home Evening tonight (yes...this week for us it is on Thursday) we met Chris on campus and ate at the Cougar eat. The kids were so excited to be there and get to use the water thing. Anyways, while we were eating Chris explained to the kids why we were there (to pick a kid to buy a gift for) and we were so happy with how excited the kids got. They each spent a good amount of time reading the different wants and needs of these kids and finally picked "their" kid out. For us it was a great way to get into the real spirit of Christmas...that of giving to others. I don't want to sound preachy or anything...I just thought I would pass it along and hopefully all these kids will get something for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Just to make you smile

 

There is really so much to blog about, but let’s be honest – it’s not going to happen this morning. :)  While downloading the 500 pictures (see I told you we’ve been busy) off my camera I came across these gems that made me laugh out loud! 

While in California, my sister was putting these rollers in her daughters hair.  Kallie thought this was a great idea and asked her to do her hair as well.  I was not super excited about this since Kallie already has really curly hair, but we did it anyways. 

Here is Kal all in rollers…..

And THIS is Kallie the next morning!  She was so excited…I was terrified.  We were running late to an event you can’t be late too, just realized Chris had packed his scout pants inside of church slacks, and now i had to figure out how to do hair like this….that I COULDN’T even pull a brush through!  Just check out all those curls!

 

If you really must know I finally threw in the towel and got her hair wet so it was just her natural curls.  She was really mad at me :(

Let’s talk about a boy….

Not just ANY boy, but THIS boy….

Andrew is the “funny” in our family.  He is wild, crazy, insane, faster than sound, and just plain funny.  He is in the fun “I’m two and a half and I rule the world” stage.  Any of you have that stage with your kids?  My other two when through something like that, but this is a whole new ballgame with Andrew!  Let me just tell you three quick stories about my little man.

Tonight as Chris and I were standing in the kitchen talking after dinner, Andrew runs in stark naked and yells, “MY BUTT!”  We find this odd since he had clothes on two minutes ago, but assume he is telling us his bum hurts because he has strep (yep, can you believe babies can get strep on/in their bum?!?!?  CRAZY!).  Chris looks at his bum and tells him he is ok.  Andrew giggles and yells “POTTY!” and runs off.  Chris starts to finish the story he was interrupted in and I just quietly watch Andrew to make sure he goes upstairs to use the potty.  Not so.  He runs into the family room (I can only see his little head) and is standing much to still for my comfort.  Since I can’t leave the cookies I’m making on the stove I have Chris investigate and sure enough he is going potty right there on my carpet.  When Chris figures this out he yells to stop and Andrew gets so excited and starts to giggle and laugh!  Chris is so flustered he picks him up and put him on time out…to which Andrew giggles and runs upstairs.  Chris is trying to catch him to put him back on time out but he keeps getting tangled up in the stairs and his feet!  I’m trying my hardest not to break out laughing because that will just encourage Andrew to be naughty!  Chris finally catches a belly laughing Andrew and puts him on the stair for time out.  I strike a deal that he keeps stirring the cookies and I will clean the carpet.  I finally finish cleaning the carpet and Andrew so sweetly looks up at me and says “done?”  It was adorable :)

Second story was not so adorable.  Andrew has this new obsession with my purse and wallet.  He LOVES my wallet.  I always hang it in the front closet on a high hook, but Andrew has figured out all he needs to do is get a kitchen stool and he can reach anything!  A few weeks ago I came downstairs to find my wallet and all it contents all over the downstairs.  I quickly picked up what I could find, and put it all back away telling Andrew that my wallet was mine not his.  I don’t think anything of it until last week when I tried to return something at the store and they needed my id.  I couldn’t find it anywhere!  I laid my whole wallet on the counter and it was no where in sight.  I’ve been looking for it all week and have not been able to find it in any of Andrew’s usual places.  Chris even looks through my wallet.  We have been going back and forth on traveling to California and it was really bothering me I didn’t have my drivers license.  So today I decided it was time to just call it quits and get a new one (I just had it renewed this March).  I collect all the papers you need to prove you are a human being, pack snacks for the long wait at the DMV, get kids off to school and head down to my doom.  First line goes quickly…partly because Andrew and I were so enthralled watching the poor gal in front of us trying to get her two little kids to not run outside, jump on the counter, hit the guy behind us, ruin the person in front of her picture because they kept jumping into the chair…you get the horrible picture.  I take my picture, get my number, and sit down to wait to pay.  As I’m sitting down I figure i will get all my receipts ready for my next errand…returning Halloween stuff at Wal-Mart.  As I am looking through my wallet I realize there is a pocket I’ve never seen before.  I put my hand in it and magically I pull out my drivers license!  No joke, as I’m pulling it out Andrew yells, “SURPRISE!”  I’m sure it had nothing to do with my discovery and everything to do with the fact he just found a second set of car keys in my purse….but the timing was amazing.  I grab all my stuff, Andrew, my purse, my wallet, my receipts, and my newly found ID and go back to the counter to try to explain to the nice man that I no longer need a new ID and if I still had to pay the $18.00 since he took my picture all ready.  I swear he must have thought I was a crazy lady!

The last Andrew story for tonight…..The other morning I was enjoying some quiet time while Kallie and Andrew played in Kallie’s room.  I had just gotten Ben off to school and looking at my emails online when I hear Kallie yelling, “Mom, I’m locked in my room and I need to go potty NOW!!!!”.  (Our kids locks are on the outside of their doors and Andrew loves to turn the lock and then lock both of them in whatever room)  So I run down the hall and unlock the door for her.  As I look inside her room Andrew is laying on her bed with three pillows behind him, surrounded by baby dolls, and has our jar of chucky peanut butter in one hand and a peanut butter covered spoon in the other hand.  As I walk in he smiles with his mouth full of peanut butter and says, “Hi Mom!”.  Priceless. 

Another thing I love about Andrew?  He is so polite!  Example:

Me:  Andrew can you please pick up your toys?

Andrew:  No thank you mom.

Me:  Andrew it is time to come inside.

Andrew:  No thank you mom.

Me:  Andrew it’s time for bed!

Andrew: No thank you mom!

The Day Before Halloween Which is Really the Day We Celebrated Halloween

I think the title to this post is catchy and sharp. I really don’t know how you would convey all of the information in that title more succinctly and still sound so much like Dr. Seuss as I just managed to do. Did I mention that I came up with it while I was very tired? Wow.

After we got all the chores done it was time to get dressed and go to the Halloween party at the church.

 

That’s right I even got into the spirit and shaved off half of my beard. The effect on most people ranged from disgust to awe to admiration. It does seem kind of weird to sacrifice my beard for a Halloween costume. I wanted to shave the alternate part of the top of my head so that I could tell people I was a checkerboard, but I figured sacrificing communication with my wife for a couple days was probably not worth a Halloween costume.

Of course, after being a little angel all day Andrew decides to switch sides once we get to the party. He was fascinated with the jugs of water and decided this was a good time to learn about hydrodynamics. I disagreed. He threw a tantrum on the floor which he converted into a low profile army crawl back towards the water. So went the party. Luckily they also had fishing and a cupcake walk for the kids.

After that we headed up to the trunk or treat in Grandma and Grandpa’s neighborhood we ran into all of our cousins.

 

Katie was the Spider Queen.

From there we went trick-or-treating at Grandma’s house and around.

It was indeed a very fun night! Andrew thought the whole ordeal was really about who got to ride shotgun. The houses by Grandma are kind of spread out so we were driving between them. Andrew would try to stay behind to steal his seat of choice. When I made him go to the door he would wait until someone would answer and then bolt for the car yelling, “I ride by Mom!” Finally, at every house I had to tell him he wasn’t allowed back in the car until he had a piece of candy from that house. I’m sure he’ll understand the real spirit of it all a little better next year 

Grandma of course added her own entertainment for the night with some colorful language. Katie was telling her about a diet plan and Grandma said, “So this is your b*!@#, huh?” She meant to say “binge” but she repeated the wrong word in conversation at least one more time.

In the car ride home Kallie asked me if we could sing the “banana” song. So I started, “Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas…” “No, DAD! The one that goes ‘hey, hey goodbye’!" It took me a while before I could stop laughing. She was referring to of course to the well known oldie Goodbye.

When we got home Kallie didn’t get to sleep until about 30 minutes after everyone else because she had to get her babies all settled. I’m thinking we have too many babies.