January Kid Dates

This year for Christmas Ken had the great idea of giving each of the kids a date with us instead of “stuff.”  So we picked out some things we thought each of them would enjoy and picked some days in January to do them.  Mark was the first one this month.  We went to Sub Zero for ice cream (they make the ice cream in front of you and then blast it with liquid nitrogen to freeze it).  It was a little chilly sitting there eating ice cream, but boy was it fresh and delicious!  Mark got mint ice cream with oreos and Ken and I shared a chocolate and caramel ice cream with cashews.  YUMMY!Then we headed up to BYU for bowling.  Ken posted silly names for us on the score pad  - Senor, Sleepy Queen and Stick Boy King.  It was quite a bit of fun and nice to have some one on one time. Ken creamed us both games, but he was sore the next day from all that exercise – doesn’t it stink to be over 30 sometimes!

On vacation Ken showed the kids a They Might Be Giants song about the colors of the rainbow.  Abbie picked up on that real quick and made Roy G. Biv his own name tag one morning.  So cute.Mark won second place at the district level for his Reflections entrance “America the Beautiful.”  We all went down to cheer him on.  I’m glad we can be happy for each other!  Oh, and our awesome neighbors brought over the newspaper clipping with his name and picture just this morning – THANKS Diane!I bought a couple of more rolly-carts to help organize my kids junk drawers so we could use the dressers for clothes instead of junk.  Well Spencer didn’t have a junk drawer and so he had been using under his pillow and I just had to get a picture of a  few of the things he’s been sleeping on for the past year or so before he put it into his new cart drawer.We had some friends over for dinner and games with the kids a week or so ago.  It was just so much fun.  We had enchiladas, spanish rice, salad and o.j. for dinner and then played Pit and A to Z.  It worked out great that each kid could have an adult on their team.  Jessie and Trevor won the first round and Ken and Spencer the second.Our second date of the month was with Spencer and Abbie.  We took them up to Trafalga  with a family pass thing.  First we played a round of indoor golf – which I thought was quite fun.  They have black light up so the kids clothes and socks glowed and they had everything painted with glow in the dark paint.  We got about half way through the golf when Spencer got a little bored so we checked on lunch and the kids played some air hockey. After lunch we tried out the 4-D movie.  You actually had to seat-belt yourself in because in addition to the 3-D glasses the chairs bumped and tilted.  The first one we watched was more like a bad dream where you can’t control where you are flying and it made me so sick.  So Ken and the kids had to watch the second one without me.  Ken said it was way better than the first one – it was a roller coaster ride though space.  He said that since you could see the track in front of you your body could prepare for what was ahead.   Abbie and Spencer had fun telling Mark and Jessie all about it.

Spencer and I put together this lego tractor and he had to make sure and get a picture before it got wrecked.Spencer and Abbie love to put on Abbie’s undershirts over their clothes as their “modest basketball uniforms.”  I think it’s so cute.OK this is a long post…Abbie collected all of “her” books from around the house and opened up her own library on the piano.  It was so fun to check out her books.The next morning Spencer collaborated with her for an extra fancy library.  I got to check out 4 books and we read them together.  All morning they kept reminding me, “Don’t forget mom, your books have to come back at 3:00 today.”Here’s a little I’m sorry to those waiting to see the cards for stamp day.  Our computer died last Thursday morning….I had the picture taken….but I couldn’t do anything about it.  So after two new motherboards, a new fan, processor, power supply,  and heat sink we are finally up and running again.  So hopefully they at least inspire you to go create.Wow! you made it to the end of a long journal entry!

Vacation here we come…slowly

So we left the Christmas Day partying a little early to come home and pack for our trip and we were even in bed with the van loaded sometime around 11:00.  That’s not so bad.  And we even got up way earlier than I get up and showered and finished gathering stuff when we found out that 1/2 the freeway from here to Missouri had been shut down from snow. 

So now what do we do?  We go downstairs and watch Star Wars! None of my kids have seen any of them, but when Jessie was little she would say, “Star War’s is my favorite movie,”and we would add, “that I’ve never seen.”  I didn’t actually join in the fun, I picked up the house from the previous day and kept my eye on the road updates.  And by noon enough of the roads were open that I was willing to take my chance at getting through.

Now for a few highlights:

Ken and the big kids went sledding down the hill behind my parents house. Only my kids didn’t stay outside nearly as long as I remember being out there as a kid. We read lots of books.  Abbie got some really cute small chapter books for Christmas – Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.  We celebrated my dad’s birthday with a huge Chinese buffet put on by my sisters.  For anyone who knows me it wouldn’t have been my choice, but I did try one of everything they made and except for the fact that it was Chinese it was delicious.  He also had a garden full of cupcakes for dessert. The only snag was the candles wouldn’t actually quit relighting and so Mark and Conrad were recruited to help him out.Some of us played Twister…And St. Petersburg was played many times.  I think Becca managed to play three times in one day! Mark and Jessie got to go ice skating for the first time.  Jessie didn’t want to let go of Becca at first, but by the end she was having a blast.  While they were skating we took the other kids to a crayola playland.  We also found a cool gingerbread house display with a train and the ski lift that worked.  And, man was it cold out there!! We had a delicious dinner at my sister’s house that I hadn’t been over to see yet.Mark and Grandpa made his pinewood derby car and put together a model car. Abbie decided she loved Twister…. We had an end of the year BBQ. The girls got all fixed up for the stake New Year’s dance and helped with food and decorating…and Spencer had to be in their picture.Our “memorable” experience for this trip was discovering that Spencer is hugely allergic to my sister’s cat.  He had a bad reaction last trip but it was combined with a cold and so we weren’t really sure what was wrong.  Anyway, Ken spent a long time of the phone with our pediatrician trying to get some medicine called in so that he could actually breathe.  Poor little guy (and poor Ken too).  But by the end of the trip he was a pro at using an inhaler.  Ahhh….the things we get to learn.

My favorite Christmas pictures

This year our Christmas was so fun.  Each of the kids picked out a gift for each of the other kids and then Ken and I assigned each gift a “good deed” value.  We had a little chart on the fridge where the kids could mark off good deeds and see how close they were to “buying” their gifts.  We tried to have them focus on serving each other for the good deeds, but having extra dishwasher unloaders and garbage taker-outers was fun.  My bed was even made for a surprise a couple of times (yeah!).

On Christmas morning Abbie came in having had a scary dream (I HATE those) and joined Ken and I in bed.  Suddenly she realized that it was Christmas and turned to Ken and asked, “Dad do you think Santa has come?”  He told her to run and go see….it was so sweet to hear her little feet running down the hallway and listen for her to take it all in.  She came running back so excited, “I know he’s come!  Daddy there’s a red wagon out there.  And it has PRESENTS in it!!”  It was a perfect way to start the day.

We had breakfast first, because I couldn’t wait, but Spencer wasn’t hungry so while the rest of us were eating he went to the tree and loaded all the presents into the wagon to bring in to show us.  The other kids were mortified, so all the gifts but his were returned to there place under the tree. Here are a few of my favorite moments:  Abbie got Jessie the Horse Lover’s Encyclopedia. Spencer realizing that Jessie got him his very own measuring tape. He totally knocked her over with a hug!Abbie drew this very cute bird for Mark.  (On a side note, before Christmas Mark and Abbie were making silly presents for each other which consisted of  Kleenexes that had been decorated with Crayola markers.  So I think Mark was expecting something a little more silly.) After presents Jessie made herself comfy in the red wagon.  (It did NOT look cozy to me!)  She stayed there reading all about horses and then made some friendship bracelets with her new floss. Abbie and Ken put together her two new puzzles from Spencer; she was quite proud of the 100 piece one. At Ken’s parents Jessie had Grandma Jennie. And Spencer was being a ham!  Boys are so fun! The other great photo sequence was when Spencer got a new hat from Grandpa.  Spencer is the little boy who sees what team Dad is rooting for and sides with the other team.  After the last BYU/Utah game Spencer told everyone that he was a Utes fan…After all the fun we came back home and started packing for our trip to Missouri so could get the car all loaded before Saturday morning and be ready to be on our way.

I’m thankful for the time Christmas allows us to think of others and I’m so thankful for my kids good examples of loving each other.

Christmas Countdown

Ken went with the Young Women in the ward for their last activity of the year.  It was dinner at the Brick Oven, and being a little bit selfish I decided that if he was going out to dinner so would the rest of us.  The kids picked Bajio, not my first choice, but they have the BEST ranch dressing.  After dinner we stopped and got and order of french fries to share…because that’s what sounded good to the pregnant lady.

Our after dinner activity consisted of a bag of tiny twist pretzels, dark and milk chocolate, and some cinnamon and lemon oil.  Oh, I just LOVE this family tradition.  Can you see Spencer snitching?We also went to Thanksgiving Point and watched our first ever 3-D movie, “The lights before Christmas.”  Man, my kids are spoiled!  My first 3-D movie and I’m 30 and Spencer gets his at 4.  It was not quite what we were expecting…but very cute.  All the character were clay figures and after the show they actually showed how they made it and I think that was the most interesting part.  WOW --- not a job I’d want moving little clay figures half a millimeter and snapping a picture for days on end.I got to share an afternoon with Mark and helped the 3rd graders decorate gingerbread houses.  Do you love his marshmallow snowmen?Our new neighbors gave us three tickets to a BYU basketball game and we decided it would be fun for Ken to take the 2 little ones, the big kids get to do everything.  They were SO excited.  BYU was creaming the other team and the kids thought is was so funny when everyone cheered for the other team when they finally made a point.  They also loved watching the cheerleaders and we heard about all their moves.  For part of pack night we cut out snowflakes.  The kids were excited to be able to add their creations to the ones we hang from the ceiling in the hallway each year. A few nights before Christmas the kids slept in the living room under the tree…well…they played and were silly until really late.  This tradition always sounds like fun…but ends up being a grumpy mom wishing that maybe we didn’t continue this from year to year.  This year poor Abbie had an accident and ended up sleeping in Jessie’s bed and Mark and Jessie finally fell asleep leaving Spencer with no one to bug, but me. Jessie had been bugging me for weeks to get her hair cut to donate to “Locks of Love.”  We finally did it on Christmas Eve.  She was all smiles!!  Actually I’m kind of jealous…She looks so cute in short hair and I wonder why as a kid I was so scared to cut my hair.  Oh well.  It was great to see everyone’s reactions and how happy everyone was for her to be able to donate it.