Kids have amazing memories

So what do you do when....

It's way past the kids' bedtime and you are about to take your 4 1/2 year old to bed when she comes up to you with wide brown eyes and a serious expression and asks "Mom, is it Monday?"

"Yes, it's Monday."

"Are we going to have family home evening?"

I'll tell you what you do. You have family home evening.

There's just no way you can tell your child, sorry, it's late, it's past your bedtime, I'm tired, I forgot and don't have a lesson ready... It's really a good thing we have kids around to keep us in line. And to help our forgetful memories.

6 Years

So Nate and I have now been married for 6 years. We just had our anniversary a few days ago. I can't believe it's been that long. So I was just thinking about a few random facts about our marriage/anniversary:

*Nate has been in school the entire 6 years of our marriage (soon to end though! one more semester)
*We have only moved once and it was within the same area.
*I have been pregnant for 4 of our 6 anniversaries.
*To my knowledge, since we have had kids (every anniversary except the first one) we have yet to go out to dinner on our anniversary without our kid(s). We will be the first ones to tell you that that is absolutely pathetic. This is due to the fact that I hate paying for babysitters, and that most of them live about 10+ minutes away (one way) and its a pain to pick them up then take them back home. We actually tried to track down a babysitter this year, but it just didn't work out.

Anyway, happy anniversary to us!

Holiday Bowl and San Diego

A few days after Christmas we headed to San Diego. My brother-in-law works for Pacific Life as their event planner (I think that's what his position is called). As you might know, Pacific Life sponsers the Holiday Bowl and my brother-in-law is pretty involved in the events surrounding it. So when we found out U of A would be playing in the Holiday Bowl this year, we called in a favor. Tennyson was able to get us free tickets to the game. And to get it out of the way...yes, it was a horrible game, U of A played aweful and got absolutely demolished. But hey, at least we broke some records, like the fastest team to get scored on in the bowl, or the only team to get shut out at the Holiday Bowl. Lovely. That aside, we still had a lot of fun--cold weather, rain and all. That was probably due to the really good seats we had and that we actually got to go down on the field during the game. My parents were there too, and my sister and her son. It was fun to spend some time with everyone while in San Diego.

Before the game we got to go in the Pacific Life VIP tent and eat some dinner.

This is us at our seats. And yes, we are as close to the field as it looks. It's not just the camera angle. We were at about the 40 yard line. It was really easy to see.

Shortly before halftime, Tennyson came and took us down on the field. It was pretty cool. We got to stand down there right on the sideline and watch a bit of the game. Nebraska scored a field goal right in front of us. And the baby got hit with a football while we were down there. They were tossing a spare ball over and it took a wierd bounce and hit me in the stomach. I was holding the camera so I couldn't really do anything about it. I guess it was just beat on people from Arizona night.

The next day we went to Sea World. Again, free tickets. We had a lot of fun and the kids loved it. The first thing we did was see the Shamu show. The kids (and us too) really liked it. You can see that Kelton is mad in this picture. That's only because we turned him around to get the picture and he was very unhappy that he couldn't see the show. Then another one of my favorite things was the manta rays. They are just about the only thing you can actually touch. Natalie thought it was pretty fun to pet them too. They are so soft.

So we had a very fun little vacation. Thanks a TON to Tennyson for making it possible!

Christmas

Natalie got an early Christmas present this year--something she really wanted--SNOW!!! She was so sure that it would snow at grandma's house, because it aparently doesn't snow at our house. And she was right. Two days before Christmas, it snowed a couple of inches and the kids were both so excited to get out and play in it. Bad thing is, it never really warmed up enough to melt it all so they could actually go outside and just play. We don't own the best clothing for playing in the wet/cold.

Kelton loved playing with Grandpa's train around the Christmas tree.

Christmas Eve--Natalie and Kelton got new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Webb. So very cute! The lovely bows in their hair were from their packages. Kelton later found a ribbon like Natalie's and had it tied in his hair.

Natalie got a big dollhouse from Santa and Kelton got a train.

This is Natalie coming out on Christmas morning and seeing the presents and her new dollhouse. She was a bit excited.

Santa also left Natalie another present by her dollhouse. You can tell she is excited because she knows it's the one thing she asked Santa for--a little Ariel. It's one of those little Poly Pocket-type dolls. She would later say it was her favorite present.

And Kelton loves his train.

The kids with their stockings.

Playing with Grandpa. It involved a lot of running away, coming back, running again, and so on. For some reason they didn't really want to go to sleep after this.

Christmas Party with Santa

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. Natalie was soooo excited to get to see Santa and sit on his lap and tell him that she wants a little Ariel for Christmas. She's been waiting a while to tell him that. Kelton was pretty excited to see him too and was not scared at all. He had no problems jumping up on his lap, even when it wasn't his turn yet. (I think I might have been scared. It looked a bit like Cousin It under there.)

Nate was kindly sacrificing his head in order to keep Kelton happy. Nate was tossing him around and leaning him back and Kelton was grabbing anything he could get ahold of.

The primary sang a song during the program. I bet you can't tell which one is my child. She blends right in with the crowd. That right there is genuine Natalie for you.

Old News???

By now this really does seem like old news (to us) but...

We are having another BABY!

It's old news because I am actually already 20 weeks. We waited until I was 18 weeks to even tell anyone. We wanted to have an ultrasound first to make sure everything was okay, and it is. And we are having another BOY! He will be coming sometime from mid to end April 2010. (due April 26th)
Waving "hi"

Inspired by Melanie, and Christmas lights

So Natalie dressed herself this morning. As soon as she came out I was immediately reminded of my little sister Melanie. For those of you who won't understand, this is what Melanie dressed like every day when she was little. And also of note, Nate actually took her to the store in this outfit.

Later on this morning Nate put up the Christmas lights outside. Both kids wanted to be out there with him. They both love to help.

Thanksgiving Pre-school

Today was my last turn to teach pre-school until next year--and I survived! Today was actually a pretty easy day because I only had 5 of the 9 kids here. We did some fun, cute Thanksgiving crafts and I thought I would show them off. The kids had a lot of fun doing these.


I wish I could take credit for the ideas, but I got them from familyfun.com The pilgrim hats were super easy. It's just a marshmallow dipped in chocolate (using a toothpick) and then set on an upside-down shortbread cookie. (like the Keebler ones with the fudge stripes) Then you use frosting to draw a buckle. The turkey hats were a big hit too.

This little girl of mine. This morning she asked, "where are we going today?"

Me: "We are going to a baby shower today and you are going to come with me because daddy's not here to watch you."

Natalie: "A baby shower? Is it naked!?"

I'm still laughing about this one.

Complex workings of the TV

Natalie hit the TV so Kelton went up and hit the TV.

Me: "Natalie, don't hit the TV. If you do it Kelton is going to do it too and he won't stop if you keep doing it." (I can't tell you how many times each day I say something like this)

Natalie: "Why? What will happen?"

Me: "You could break the TV."

Natalie: "Yeah, the glass would break and then all of the people will come out!"

I'm sure most kids think the same thing (even if it makes no sense) but it's still funny. Hey we still do have a tube TV so I guess you could maybe fit some people in there. I wonder what her explanation would be if we had a flatscreen...

Halloween

After about a month of asking I was finally able to tell Natalie that yes, today was Halloween. We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat last night and the kids had a lot of fun. Natalie was Tinker Bell (Bee Bell as Kelton would say) and Kelton was Peter Pan. Although the consensus was that Kelton was Robin Hood. I admit that his costume was very multifunctional. I realized after I made it that people would think he was Robin Hood. But come on....Tinker Bell and Robin Hood? Yeah, that doesn't really work. Oh well, he was really cute anyway. Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Link from the Zelda games...he really could have been almost anything!

We carved pumpkins yesterday. I was at a meeting while Nate and the kids cleaned out the pumkins, but how cute is this picture? I guess they were supposed to be taking turns pulling out the seeds. Yeah, we all know how well that works. Nate said they had a ball. They probably couldn't believe they were being allowed to make such a mess.
And here is the finished product. Nate did the one on the left and I did the one on the right. It's a web. Get it? Yeah, nevermind... (we had one little girl get the joke at the trunk-or-treat)And here are the costumes. I put some better pictures from the Halloween story time below because this year, for the first time ever, I actually had to put clothes on underneath my kids costumes! It was actually cold outside--very different. We probably should have put jackets on them as well, but then Natalie wouldn't have been able to wear her wings, which you can't see anyway because they kept turning sideways.Beautiful little Tinker Bell dancing to a song at storytime. Robin Hood, I mean Peter Pan inspecting his treats.

So sleepy

Time: about 10:20 this morning (naptime is around 12:00)

Where: family room floor

What: Kelton fast asleep midway through his snack (string cheese in his left hand) and possibly intending to play with the block in his right hand.

Why do they insist on waking up so early in the morning when they are clearly still SO SLEEPY!

Fun Weekend

We had just about the entire Burgess family here for the weekend for Tina's baptism. (Erica, this post can be for you guys--we missed having you here!) On Friday night we had a lot of fun going to Disney on Ice. Our original intent was to leave Kelton home with a babysitter because the show started at 7:30--after bedtime. But we ended up taking him and I was really glad because he loved the whole thing. Along with seeing Mickey and his gang, we saw scenes from the movies Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King, and just about the whole new Tinker Bell movie. All the kids had a blast and I think the adults enjoyed it more than we expected. Very fun. However, a 2 hour Disney production geared toward little kids shouldn't start at 7:30. We had some tired kids by the end.

This was right before the show started. You can see how excited Natalie is.Tinker Bell Lightning McQueen. They used real cars for this part. They looked just like in the movie. The windshield was some kind of computer screen so the eyes could move around and blink.

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Emily at Pump it Up--which is an indoor inflateable jumping castle type place. Again, the kids had a lot of fun. And so did some of the adults--Nate and Tennyson raced each other through the kid sized obstacle course. Sad to say that Nate got his trashed kicked. Tennyson launched himself headfirst like a madman through the whole thing. Nate was laughing too hard to ever gain any ground. They both literally fell out of it at the end and just layed there. Pretty funny.

The first picture is Natalie going down the slide and the second one is Kelton. Nate is at the top of the slide in both pictures. This slide is a little steeper than it looks in the picture. Kelton would go down it all by himself. It was funny because he would look terrified on the way down but as soon as he stopped, he would get the biggest smile on his face and want to go again.

This is right after the three of them went down the slide together.

Then that night we went to Tina's baptism. (For friends who might be wondering, Tina is my brother Rob's wife.) As you can see, Nate baptized her. They didn't fill the font very full and Nate just about had to go in with her to get her under all the way.

Despite the craziness of a ton of people, Rob getting kidney stones, and a sick baby, we all had a fun weekend.

For Contact Lens wearers

So I love getting a good deal. And I got one today I thought I would share with all you contact wearers. I got an eye exam today because I needed to buy more contacts and new glasses (my children were kind enough to break my old ones for me). We don't have any vision insurance so contacts can add up. I always buy my contacts online because it is so much cheaper. Anyway, the place I buy them from is visiondirect.com. I had been wearing Acuvue Advance but decided to try the newer Acuvue Oasys--which is basically the same thing but a bit better and only a few dollars more per box. So here's my amazing deal. I got them for $162 (for 8 boxes) and Acuvue has a $100 rebate for people buying Oasys for the first time! So I am getting my years worth of contacts for $62. Not bad at all considering EyeMasters wanted $350! (I would have then still gotten the $100 rebate, but still.) So if any of you are needing new contacts soon and don't have insurance... Even if you don't wear that particular kind of contact lens, I have found that visiondirect just has the overall lowest prices on contacts of anywhere online or otherwise. Like way lower. So check it out if you need contacts. Okay, PSA all done. I just really don't like it when people I know end up spending way more than they have to on something that's already so expensive. :)

I promise I don't abuse my kids

So here is my cute little boy... (by the way, it's way too hot for what he's wearing. I was just trying new clothes on him. Someday it will cool off, maybe.)

And here is my cute little boy with a nice black eye. (Purple, if you ask Natalie)

So it doesn't show up quite as well in the pictures and it's actually already getting better. It happened two days ago. What happened? He fell off the trampoline. But, he didn't fall off by way of the giant hole, he fell out through the opening in the enclosure. So it could/would have happened even if our trampoline wasn't half dead. Anyway, I heard him screaming and when I went out his whole face was covered in blood. I had to spray him off with the hose to even be able to tell where he was bleeding from. Turns out that he must have landed on or somehow hit the existing scar he had up by his eye and popped it open. He got the scar about two months ago. I didn't even know that could happen! He had a little bruise and a bump which then turned into a black eye by morning. It's just funny how little boys bleed a lot more than girls. Natalie also fell off the trampoline through the opening in the enclosure when she was about three. But did she bleed? Nope.