Those Crazy Kids!

Oh the joy of being a child. The ability to play and imagine and be goofy. Last nights antics were aliens on the attack. These hats were some sort of protection for them. Nathan thinks he really had the girls conned. He whispered quietly to me, "Mom, they actually believe there are real aliens." Ya, I think they're smarter than that. Either way they were having a blast and hootin' and howlin' far too late in the evening. They eventually got the aliens to relocate to Russia.

Our little baby Jack Jack is a sniffer. He thinks it's hillarious. All you got to do is sniff at him and he runs with it. This is my best picture yet of him in action. Whats not to love.

I'm starting to mess around with my camera a little more and liking what I am learning so far. Slow and steady wins the race right?

100 things you didn't want to know about me

Ok, so this is inspired by a friend. Big challenge but sounded fun.
1. I am the only girl in a family of 5 brothers
2. I got exactly what I wanted-2 boys, 2 girls
3. My husband and I are perfect for each other
4. I believe we were destined to meet
5. I am a loner
6. I love to be with friends too
7. I am organized on the inside
8. But can't seem to keep the outside clean
9. I detest cleaning the kitchen
10. I like to go grocery shopping
11. I like to go clothing shopping
12. I like to go shopping
13. But not with 4 kids
14. I learned how to knit
15. Have 2 sweaters to show for it
16. Would knit more if I didn't live in Vegas
17. Never thought (wanted) I would live in Vegas
18. Lived in Hawaii for 10 years
19. Lived in Utah for too many years
20. Lived in Texas for not enough years
21. I still watch soap operas (ya, so what)
22. I love country music
23. Wish I could sing but pretty sure I can't
24. I love color (my house shows it)
25. I love to decorate
26. I love to scrapbook
27. I am a crafty girl
28. I am ticklish
29. I like to get the mail
30. I love the rain
31. I am a list maker
32. I am a forgiver
33. I don't hold a grudge easily
34. I don't trust easily
35. I bite my nails sometimes (gross, I know)
36. I am a night owl
37. Therefore, I am not a morning person
38. I love to sleep in
39. I love when my husband is home
40. I love baby feet
41. I love having a newborn
42. Wish I could relive each of my kids
43. I think I am a spiritual person
44. I can tune my kids out
45. Saran wrap and I are not friends
46. I love to get a massage
47. I love to eat out
48. I love chocolate
49. I am a junk food junky
50. I LOVE DIET COKE
51. I don't like the cold
52. I'm a skinny girl
53. Wish I wasn't so skinny in a certain area
54. I LOVE my mom
55. My dad is gone
56. That still hurts
57. I am a casserole kinda girl
58. Wish I had more style than I do
59. I drove grandmas Nova for far too long
60. My first car was a VW Schirrocco (whats that you say?)
61. I rarely do nothing
62. My 9 year old thinks he's smarter than me
63. He's probably right
64. Growing up I always had to pay my own way
65. I wish I could have taken more dance lessons
66. I love to dance
67. I love that my girls love to dance
68. I love Nathans laugh
69. I love to watch Samantha dance
70. I like talking to Kristen
71. I am proud of my husband
72. And how hard he works
73. I can be a little morbid
74. I can freak myself out easily at night
75. I don't like scary movies
76. I love the show 'The Office'
77. I am not very good with money (lets face it)
78. I get uncomfortable in large groups
79. I don't like being in charge
80. I know what I want
81. I am usually a happy girl
82. I am a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl
83. I often feel like an outsider
84. I admire other people
85. I like to learn from others
86. I get migraines
87. I was almost kidnapped as an infant (for real)
88. I did not go to my junior prom (but I'm ok with that now)
89. I like change, it's exciting
90. I love holidays
91. Needles make me woozy
92. My life has definitely had it's challenges
93. I feel extremely blessed
94. I loved my wedding day
95. I love Disneyland
96. I lived in Norway for 6 months
97. I've been to the 4 Corners (don't hate me)
98. I've not been to the Grand Canyon (don't want to)
99. I am afraid of heights
100. I am getting more claustrophobic in my old age

Done...finished...and now my mind won't stop, there is still more in there!

The facts of life

1. Doug pulled himself together long enough to take Kristen to her Daddy Daughter Dance. Took her to McDonald's after. She came home beaming!

2. I reminded Nathan to be careful when he decided to help cut the carrots for dinner. He said "I know mom, I'm just like Ermel." (Ermel??) "Ya, you know the cook on TV" (Oh, you mean Emeril) I laughed REAL hard at that!

3. Even sick little girls think it's OK to play in the rain, that would be Samantha. Can't blame her, it does look fun.

4. Samantha said out of the blue one day, "Uncle Matt is bald. That's because he has no hair." tee hee hee.

5. We have a new nickname for Jack. Cracker Jack. The boy helps himself all day long to whatever crackers/cereal he can get his chubby little hands on.

6. Jack walks a little sideways and looks a little loopy doing it at times, soooo cute! It's like he needs his tires re-aligned .

7. Our oven broke this weekend, big stink! Doesn't heat up. Sounds like it could cost as much to fix as to buy a new one. We'll see, they come out on Monday.

8. Nathan got 100% on a bones in the body test. It was hard, full of stuff I don't even know. He studied hard and saw the results. He is very proud of himself and so are we.

9. Doug is finally feeling better.

10. I'm grateful for my beautiful children and all the crazy joy they bring to my world.

Signs of Spring (and Summer?)

Walking into church last week a light bulb went off in Samantha. It was a beautiful day and she got SO excited. She said, "Mom, its so nice outside, that means it's spring, then it's summer! We get to swim soon!!!!" Unfortunately I can't seem to make her understand that even though it's nice outside it's still way too cold to swim. That poor girl has been asking all winter when she can swim. I decided to heat up the spa let them play in the hot tub one day since it was 70 outside so they wouldn't catch a chill. They had more fun than they could stand. Our little wild child Samantha jumped into the big pool and immediately came up crying, I almost had to jump in to save her but she made it to the edge. Less than 5 minutes later she jumped back in the freezing cold water. She is an animal.

We have also been enjoying bikes outside and have gone on a few walks. We rode bikes to school one day and that was fun for some, but not all.... Though they are now asking everyday to ride to school. Me, not so much up for that everyday. But I will try harder to do it more often as our schedule allows. We have a great walking trail that crosses under all the roads so there is no traffic to contend with, which makes it nice and safe, though it involves some serious hills.

Nathan is out at the crack of dawn every morning jumping on the trampoline. With all the freezing cold weather and sick kids we've had they now have some serious energy to burn.

I love this picture of Jacks chubby little feet.

New Tradition

We have a new Valentine tradition in our home. A Valentine Gingerbread house. Christmas came and went and we never made our Gingerbread house so I saved it. I bought some valentine candy and away we went. The kids had a lot of fun and want to do it every year. I figured since there is so much to do around Christmas time this was a great idea and so now we will save our gingerbread house making for February.

We have had a fun week getting ready for Valentines Day. The kids have all been in good spirits and had fun at their school parties. This year I got too ambitious for my britches and decided to make the kids books for Valentines. My friend Heather learned how to make board books so I mootched off her and we started LAST week. Well, I didn't finish them, du! But I have a good start and the kids loved the idea of having a book on what we love about them.

Tomorrow night Kristen has her 2nd annual Daddy Daughter Dance at school. Poor Doug has been sick in bed for 2 days now. I sure hope he perks up for her tomorrow, or I guess I'll have to play daddy for the nite.

I am still struggling with my picture editing and placement. One of these days I will figure out how not to have sideways photos and other annoying things...

It's good to be loved

It seems to often that I "help" my children make decisions on purchases. Especially when it comes to gift giving. In my defense they don't usually know what they want to get any way. But this year they proved that they can make decisions, and good ones at that. For my birthday Doug asked them what they wanted to get me and each of them had very specific ideas. The great thing was, Doug let them. He took them where they wanted to go and let them choose. I'm sure it helped that each of them questioned me about it before hand. For example Nathan said to me "Mom, if you got shoes for your birthday, what kind would you want?" and Kristen at Target steered us toward the scrapbook isle and said "Mom, if you see anything you like tell me, ok." They were so cute about it and I couldn't wait to see what they came up with.

I have never seen them so excited to give gifts, and they were each so proud of what they chose. Samantha picked out jewelry, Kristen scrapbook stuff, Nathan sandals. I loved everything. They were perfect gifts and even more perfect because they chose them.

The evening would have been even more perfect had they believed that I would be 35 forever. They asked how old I would be on my next birthday and I told them I would be 35 forever. They could still celebrate my birthday but the number would never change. They almost bought it. Then they laughed at me.

Some NOT so great firsts

For as long as I can remember (at least 10+ years) my mom has sent me chocolate covered marshmallows for my birthday. Not this year. Apparently she can't find them anywhere! It is bad enough to be turning 35 (its all downhill to 40 from here) but now no chocolate. It is a sad, sad, sad, day for me......

A second first for me is this little gem.... Amazingly we made it almost 10 years with children before THIS happened. Who knew being late for church would be a blessing in disguise. Normally we would sit on the benches for sacrament, but yesterday we were late and had to sit way in back on folding chairs in the cultural hall (Blessing) Jack seemed not himself during sacrament, very tired, didn't want to eat. About half way through it happened. Vomit, and were talking a lot of it! All over Doug (tie is not salvageable), all over Jack, all over the floor. I tried to clean the boys up but there was no point. All they could do was leave. I spent the rest of sacrament in and out of the bathroom, cleaning up the floor and chairs. Fortunately I am in Nursery and had some Lysol (sp?) in the cupboard to disinfect the area. It could have been worse, I can't imagine if we had been on carpet, that would have been so disruptive. People took pity on us and got others to cover my nursery class so I could go home with Doug. What a day. Jack does seem to be feeling a little better today, no more puke.