Fashion sense

Just a few pictures to show my kids' awesome fashion sense. I had absolutely nothing to do with either of these outfits.

So here's Natalie: princess crown, church dress that is about 2 sizes too small, elbow/knee pads, princess shoes, and a cape. I really should have asked her what exactly she was. What's sad is that she was later playing outside and slipped and scraped her knees up pretty bad--she had taken off the knee pads. It's kind of funny that they actually would have come in handy.

And Kelton: I guess it's possible that I had something to do with the buttons...I don't remember exactly. The top one comes undone all the time and I probably started to undress him when I got sidetracked, phone rang, or something. Then I found him like this. He was walking around swinging that string of beads in his hand. When I saw him, he immediately reminded me of an 80's music video.

Valentine pre-school party

Today Natalie's preschool group met at my house and we had a Valentine's Day party. The kids were all really excited to bring Valentines and we had a lot of fun. We made Valentine baskets out of milk jugs (I needed 9 jugs. It only took about a week and a half to save up that many. We drink sooo much milk!), we graphed conversation hearts by color, decorated sugar cookies, played "pin the lips on the heart person" and passed out Valentines. They had a lot of fun and were excited to not be doing school-type stuff (because that's "boring" one kid told me) although I still snuck it in with the graphing. Which they enjoyed, by the way, and did a really great job at reading the graphs. So here are some pictures of Natalie after everyone left. You can see her Valentine box and she's decorating a sugar cookie for me.

Checking out her Valentines...

She wanted me to take a picture of her finished sugar cookies. Mine is the one on the right. Heaven knows I LOVE frosting, but I had to scrape some of that off when she wasn't looking. You can't tell from the picture, but that frosting is about 3 times as thick as the cookie itself.

Diapers

So I just discovered something kind of cool. I like shopping online, but have never really thought about buying stuff like diapers online. I just always figured that they would be just as cheap at Walmart. Well, I looked into it and good old Walmart is not the cheapest place to buy diapers. Here's my discovery: amazon and diapers.com are both cheaper, offer free shipping, and you don't have to pay sales tax! That right there saves a few dollars. Shipping is only free at amazon after $25 and at diapers.com after $49, but when buying diapers, it's really not hard to spend that much.

So here's the really cool thing--even if its just a one time thing--if you use me as a referral at diapers.com, you can get $10 off your first order (and they give me $5 off). Some of their diapers are on sale right now, plus the $10 and no tax adds up to quite the savings. (I just placed an order and got all those deals--it was awesome) Oh, and the shipping is 2 day so the diapers get to you fast. You might have to spend $49 to get the $10 off, but you would need to spend that for free shipping anyway. If you are interrested, you can use the code CHERIE at checkout, or you should be able to use my email address as well.

Anyway, I love to save money and I like being able to pass that along to my friends--so here you go!

Goodbye Plug

Okay, so it's gone. As far as Kelton goes, the plug (aka pacifier) is no more. And I just have to say, I love those things, until I have to take them away. The night of Kelton's birthday was the last time he got to have it.

First of all, I was content to just let him keep it. He only used it to go to sleep. Every night (or naptime) he would calmly and quietly go to sleep with his blanket... and his plug. But he's getting a little old--meaning I was starting to feel embarrassed if anyone saw him with it--and here's the thing. In a little less than three months, we are going to have another baby in the house, who, if I have any control, will be using a pacifier. So Kelton would have access to a pacifier anytime he felt like stealing from his brother, and then it would be impossible to take his away for good. Because I've learned that the only way to get something like that out of mind is to first get it out of sight. So this is the reason why Kelton no longer needs a plug...and why we as parents stuck with it...night after night after night...

Night #1: He cried. Of course. Expected. Knew he would. It sounded like the poor kid had just lost his best friend. Then I remembered that Kelton has never--not even as a baby--been able to cry himself to sleep. Crap, I hadn't factored that into this whole process. So, end result? Kelton cried so hard and got so tired that he eventually threw up, screamed even harder when he realized that I was going to give him a bath, finally calmed down and was held by daddy until he fell asleep. It was about 10:00 by that time. He normally goes to bed at 7:00. We almost caved in. It's not worth cleaning up throw up every night just to have him pacifier free. But we didn't do it. I'm a firm believer in making sure a 2 year old knows that you mean what you say. If you say, "no plug" then give it to them, they store that info away for later use and it just makes it harder to take away the next time. Kids are too smart to not be consistent as a parent.

He never threw up again. We did something to help him--not too sure it worked--but I think it did help for the first few days. We took one of his pacifiers and cut a little bit of the tip off. Doing this defeats the whole purpose of a pacifier because if there is a hole in the end, you can't get suction. So he wouldn't be able to suck on it, but at least he would have one in his possession and wouldn't feel like we had just ripped it away from him. After a few days of that we just stopped giving it to him because it started making him mad. He knew it was useless and would just throw it.

So we had a few days where he was just fine as long as one of us just stayed in the room. Sometimes he'd fall asleep quickly, but most times, not so much. So that got ridiculous real fast. Then we just started putting him down and leaving. And now finally, after about 10 days, he goes to sleep pretty quickly--like he used to. Well, not quite like he used to. He still cries when we put him down but it only lasts for less than 5 minutes--and then, miraculously, he falls asleep! With no plug!! Now we just need to move him out of the crib, teach him to use the toilet.... yeah, I think I just might wait until he's old enough to figure it out on his own.

Another present and Canning

Kelton just got money from his grandparents for his birthday because we didn't know what to tell them to get for him. Well, we saw this toy on my brother and sister-in-law's blog because they just bought it for their daughter's 1st birthday. It looked so awesome, so this is what Grandma and Grandpa Burgess and Webb ended up getting for Kelton. So it's a tricycle, but it has a base so it can rock. Or you can flip the base up and it becomes a handle so you can push them while they are riding, or you can take that off completely and it becomes a normal tricycle! Awesome, and very multifunctional. Kelton loves it!

And on the subject of birthday presents, I used my birthday present for the first time today--also compliments of money from parents/in-laws. I got a pressure canner and canned chicken today. It took a while because I had to wash all the jars and the canner and then trim all the chicken. But it was really very easy. You basically just put the raw chicken in the jar then put it in the pressure canner for a while. It cooks in its own juice and is now ready to be eaten or stored. So I did 19 pints with a total of about 20 lbs of chicken. I'm so excited to finally have done this! Although, it is a little weird to be able to put chicken on a shelf instead of the fridge or freezer. I know we do it with canned chicken from the store, but it just seems different when I've made it myself.

Birthday Boy

Kelton had his second birthday a few days ago. He had a really fun day and we got to spend it together as a family. We got him a Mega Bloks table and some extra blocks and he (and Natalie) really liked it and had a lot of fun playing with it. I made him Elmo cupcakes and an Elmo cake. We had the cupcakes after lunch--once he figured out how to blow out his candles. He loved being sang to and continued to sing to himself the whole time he ate his cupcake. He would scoop some onto his finger, sing the first line of "Happy Birthday" and then eat it. He did this for almost every bite. Later that afternoon we went to the park so the kids could play. Then after dinner we went to McDonalds and got ice cream cones. (Natalie ate her entire cone by herself. I was a bit shocked that she could eat that much ice cream.) And then best of all, they got to play in the Playplace. We had a fun day together and Kelton enjoyed his birthday!

Elmo cake! We saved the actual cake until last night. Rob and Tina's family came over and had dinner with us. Then we had family home evening together and cake afterward. We had a lot of fun. Kelton was a bit overwhelmed by so many people loudly singing Happy Birthday, but he was very glad to get more cake.

Natalie's head is blocking the cupcakes, but that is what Kelton is reacting to in this picture.

Just as a note, we decided it was time for Kelton to give up his 'plug' (pacifier) and thought that his birthday would be a good time to let him have it for one last time. I'll let you know how that's going in a few days...

It's funny...Because it's true

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.