Milestone Birthday

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday!  It seems like people get a bit depressed by turning 30, but I can't say I'm one of them.  First off, thanks to a year of training for that triathlon, and continuing to run afterward, I'm in way better physical shape than I have ever been.  I've lost all of my "baby weight" and I could potentially be done, or close to it, with pregnancy and newborns keeping me up all night.  Plus, I have a wonderful husband and four awesome kids.  I think 30 is not so bad.

My birthday was on a Saturday, so Nate was able to be home.  And I have a husband who thinks birthdays are a really big deal, so he made sure I had a great day.  In the morning, everyone came in to my room to wake me with singing "Happy Birthday."  Then, in honor of turning 30, Nate had the kids bring in my presents--all 30 of them!  This is not a normal thing at our house, so it was quite a surprise!  Let's see if I can remember all 30...

1) Kindle Fire HDX 7" (this was actually from both of our parents, plus some of our credit card rewards).  2) case for the Kindle.  3) OXO can opener.  4) PedEgg.  5) small zippered bag for my bike.  6) coat.  7) Red dress.  8-10) three shirts.  11) U of A shirt.  12-16) Bath and Body Works- 2 body washes, 2 hand soaps, 1 lotion.  17) running capris.  18) phone arm band.  19) phone case.  20) long sleeve running shirt.  21) loofa.  22) Payday candy bar.  23) Reece's minis.  24) Oreo's.  25) U of A basketball tickets.  26) a book called "Divergent."  27) another U of A shirt.  28) Olive Garden gift card.  29) fuzzy socks.  And... 30) iPhone 5s, which I had actually already had for a few days, but Nate was running out of ideas and counted that one. 

Just as Nate warned me beforehand, a lot of this stuff got returned because either it wasn't quite the right thing, or because he wasn't able to shop around for deals and what he got was too expensive.  For example, all of the clothing got returned, except for the red dress.  It was perfect and very pretty.  And Natalie actually picked it out!  But most of everything else that got returned has since been repurchased at a much more budget friendly price.  :)  The only things I returned and didn't repurchase are the coat, the shirts (not including running shirt--I got one of those), the fuzzy socks, the phone case and armband.  But I will buy an armband for my phone so I can run with it without having to hold it. 

But enough about presents.  We then had breakfast and then I went for a two mile run.  Then I took Natalie to see Disney's "Frozen" in 3D in the theater just down the street.  I had one free ticket, so I only had to pay for one of us, and I got free popcorn because it was my birthday.  It was great.  We enjoyed the movie.   I'd heard too many rave reviews about it though, and that's never a good thing... I didn't think it was "rave-worthy."  But we will buy it when it comes out. 

Then in the late afternoon, Nate and I went to a U of A basketball game.  A friend of ours was kind enough to volunteer at the last moment to watch our kids so we could go.  We had been unsuccessful at finding a babysitter and our backup plan was for me to take Kelton.  But I was a bit bummed by that because I really wanted to go with Nate.  So, I was very thankful for this friend taking our kids.  And she wouldn't even let us pay her when I tried.  U of A won the basketball game, though it was a close one.  And this game put us into first place in the nation, and we are still sitting there to this day.

We had planned to go to dinner at Olive Garden and use my gift card, but it was too late by the time the game ended.  (We took the whole family on Monday night for FHE instead.)  So we drove back home, got the kids, made mac and cheese for the kids and biscuits and gravy for us, and had cake.  I made the cake and frosted it, but I let the kids decorate it.  That was fun.  I think I might make that a tradition and let them decorate it every year.

The finished product.  Natalie tried to write "Happy Birthday Mom" but the frosting had been in the fridge and was super hard to squeeze and wasn't cooperating. 

I had a great birthday with the people I love!

Thanksgiving

We headed to Snowflake for Thanksgiving, like we always do.  This year we stayed with my parents, and Rob, Tina, and Christian--along with my niece (Rob's daughter) Shalae and her husband Porter, and Melanie, Tyler, and Jade were there too.  It was fun to take a break from life and get away for a few days.  Nate and I got to go to the temple while we were there and do a session.  It was very nice to go, especially because it was the first time we had been able to go since the church changed the video. 

I had previously rounded everyone up and got them in on a 5K Turkey Trot run.  So on Thanksgiving morning, Dad, Rob, Tina, Mel, Tyler and I headed out to burn off our day's calories in advance.  When I decided to do the run and get everyone involved, it didn't occur to me how cold it would be in Snowflake at 8 a.m. at the end of November.  It was 34 degrees.  It was cold.  But really, it wasn't too bad and I think all of us actually wanted to take layers off during the run.  This picture is from afterwards.

I felt like my run went really well.  I didn't feel like I was struggling at all and it felt easy overall.  It was also nice because Tyler happens to run at exactly the same pace as I do, so we ended up running the whole thing side by side.  We ran it in about 30 minutes.  The timing got messed up, so we don't really have exact numbers.  Now here's the deal, when you run races with Melanie, you usually have to wait around for the awards.  :)  Melanie was the women's second place winner.  After the race, we waited, and waited, and waited.  Everything was finished and we weren't sure what the holdup was.  It was at least an hour since the last of us had finished and it was still very cold outside and we really wanted to go home.  Finally, they got to the awards.  Melanie may disagree, but for the rest of us, it was worth the wait.  So what exactly do you get for getting out of bed on Thanksgiving morning, running over three miles in freezing weather, and winning??

 

 

A turkey hat, that's what!  I've never been so happy in all of my life to lose at something.  It was so funny watching all of the winners trudge up to claim their prize...  It still makes me laugh to think about it.  A turkey hat.....  (which our kids absolutely loved and played with for the rest of the day)

We had a nice Thanksgiving meal a bit later.  Then in the evening, I went with Melanie and Tyler to Walmart to do some Black Friday shopping.  Rob and Tina went too, but it was a complete madhouse there and I'm not sure I ever saw them.  Moving through the store was so impossible (I'm not kidding...) and frustrating that I abandoned almost everything on my list because it just wasn't worth it.  I got the stuff I really wanted and was ready to get out.  After the really good experience I had last year at the very same store, this one was maddening.  I think they must have changed management or something. 

But to end on a good note, we had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed being with family.

Funny kids

A few minutes after Kelton came home from school, he sighed and said:

"I just don't know what we will be eating for Thanksgiving!"
Me:  "Well, I can tell you what we will eat."
Kelton, very excited: "Stir Fry?!"

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that won't make the menu.  That has been his favorite meal for a while, and I guess he just dared hope for a minute that maybe the biggest, best, maybe even most American meal of the year would be... stir fry.

 Kelton--Kindergarten

 

Natalie was assigned a school project involving pilgrims.  She was doing some research after school and afterward, she asked me how long ago plastic was invented.  I told her I didn't know and would have to look it up, but that the pilgrims didn't have it (I don't think...).  She then asked about metal.  I told her they had metal, and that the difference between the two is that metal is naturally found on the earth and plastic isn't.  Plastic is man-made.  To which Natalie replies:

"You mean this... (holding up a My Little Pony) was made by boys?"
Me, laughing: "Natalie, 'man-made' means it was made by people.  Not necessarily by boys."
Natalie, now also laughing and feeling a bit silly: "Oh, please tell me you aren't going to post that on the blog!"

Natalie--3rd Grade



Favorite quotes of the day

This morning while the kids were getting ready for school, we heard Natalie (8 years old) say this to Kelton.  They were talking about these people who come in and read to Kelton's class.  Kelton thought they were adults and Natalie was correcting him.

[said very matter-of-factly] "Kelton, those people who come and read to you in your class aren't big.  They are in high school.  They are just teenagers.  They don't know everything yet."

I'm going to have to save that one for a few years down the road.  I love how her statement that teenagers don't know everything yet also implies that she thinks that I, as a grown up, do.  I wish she were right on both accounts.

And Kelton (almost 6 years old) made me laugh last night.  We were listening to the radio and some ad or something was on.  I wasn't really paying attention.  All of a sudden, Kelton got really excited and said,

"Work!  They said 'work!'  That's where Dad lives!!"

I thought it was funny, but in case that comes across as sad to anyone, I did clarify and ask, "Dad lives at work?"  He kind of rolled his eyes, like he had realized his mistake, and said, "No, Dad lives here."  I think what he meant to say instead of lives, was "goes."  It was funny though because I'm sure dads and families alike kind of feel like dad lives at work sometimes.  But we are very grateful that they do.  Even though they would much rather "live" at home.  :)

Time Out for Women

Time Out for Women was yesterday and the night before.  This year I went with my Mom, Christy, Melanie, and Tina.  We missed not having Erica there, but she just lives a little too far away to make it work.  Since Melanie lives in Gilbert now, we all stayed with her and didn't have to get a hotel.  And we stayed up way too late, of course.

I thought all the music and the speakers were great.  The overall theme was "Higher."  On Friday night, Hilary Weeks did the music (and also talked about the power of kind words) and the speakers were Brad Wilcox (spoke about conversion and improving ourselves) and Sheri Dew (who spoke about something really awesome, but I can't remember what!  Someone help remind me...).  On Saturday, Mercy River did the music and the speakers were Mary Ellen Edmunds (spoke about our thoughts and changing them), Sandra Turley (spoke about our ability and desire to create), Richie Norton (spoke about being our authentic selves), Michael Wilcox (spoke about different kinds of prayer), and Laurel Christensen Day (spoke about overcoming our fears). 

It was a great weekend and I had a lot of fun!

Oh, and in that room of 5500 women, I ended up sitting right in front of my best friend from high school, Rebecca (Baldwin) Norton.  We were able to talk and catch up during the breaks and it was so fun to see her!

Halloween stuff

We had lots of Halloween festivities this year.  On Saturday, the 26th, we went to a neighborhood BBQ in the afternoon, followed by our Stake BBQ in the evening.  (Gotta love AZ in late October.  We had snow cones at the Stake BBQ.)  Right after the last BBQ we went to the town Halloween celebration.  We didn't do a whole lot there, but there was a trunk-or-treat set up by a local church.  We only went through part of it, because it was getting late and we were all tired.  I wish we would have got there sooner so we could have done the whole thing because the trunks were all decorated so cleverly.  It was fun to walk through.

 

Then on the 30th we had our ward trunk-or-treat.  There's not much else to say about that.  We all showed up, passed out candy, took kids around to get candy, and were done in about a half hour. 

 

We didn't do to well at getting pictures this year.  I forgot to take them before the trunk-or-treat.  Or rather, I didn't have time to take any before.  So, the only pictures I have of kids in costumes are from after the trunk or treat.

 

Natalie was Hermoine from Harry Potter.

I don't think we need much explanation here, but Kelton was a pumpkin.  I wish you could see his hat better.  It has a stem, leaf, and curly vine on it.  He originally wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog, but I couldn't find what I needed to make the costume and didn't want to spend $30 on the stupid looking store bought one I saw.  It's funny because after Kelton told me he wanted to be a pumpkin and knew I was going to be making his costume, he said, "And I don't even care if it's kind of horrible!"  Wow.  Such faith in his mother's crafting abilities.  I assured him it wouldn't be horrible at all.  A pumpkin was about the easiest costume ever to make.

Damon was a monkey.  We bought this costume years ago for Natalie.  I love how ever since, we have somehow easily convinced each of our children to wear it, not only once, but two years in a row!  I think it may become a new Webb rule.  Arie better be on board.  And it's great because by this point, no one else who bought this costume is still using it.  When Natalie wore it, (and even somewhat with Kelton) there were handfuls of other kids wearing it too.  Damon got to be unique.  We got so many compliments on how cute he was.  But, as you can see, we didn't do a very good job of throwing it back on him to take a picture. 

And here is my absolute favorite picture to take of my kids in this costume.  It cracks me up every time.

Arie was a kitty.  Nate and I thought she looked like a skunk.  A lot of people guessed she was a bear.  It just now occurred to me, as I am sitting here typing, that we should have painted a nose and whiskers on her.  Oops.  That might have helped.  Sorry fourth child.  Arie absolutely refused to wear the hat, which Velcro-ed under her chin.  Each time we tried, she screamed and pulled until we took it off.  The only reason we got a picture of it on her (and we didn't even attempt to Velcro it) is because we distracted her with the Kit Kat we had previously taken away.

 Here they are checking to see what they got.  I didn't let them dump everything out because it was bedtime.  It got adequately sorted the next day.  I had to laugh at Natalie's sorting.  She had a pile of suckers, chocolate, gum, etc... and Reese's.  I informed her that Reese's are chocolate.  She replied with "yeah, I know."  It's not that she had that many of them that they needed their own pile.  I'm sure it's because she thinks they are just that good--they get their own category.  I can agree with that.

While we were at the trunk-or-treat, Arie reached into her bucket, found a Kit Kat, bit through the wrapper, and started eating it.  I took it away because I didn't want the mess all over the costume.  This goes without saying, but... she was mad.  We let her have it when we got home.  She thoroughly enjoyed it.

 Last night, on Halloween, I took the kids trick-or-treating on our street.  They always get at least as much candy on just our street as they do at the trunk-or-treat.  We had a lot of fun going around to our neighbors.  And I think we now have a year's supply of candy... which will probably be gone in about a week.  :)  Happy Halloween!  Now on to Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight was our pumpkin carving night.  We had a small pumpkin for each of the three oldest kids.  Nate even came home from work early to join in the fun.

Step One:  Getting out the pumpkin guts.  Natalie is a hand scooper.  Kelton used a spoon, but at one point decided to try his hand.  I think I feel the same way about it as he did.

Here they are with their carved pumpkins behind them.  Have I ever mentioned that my kids are crazy?

Here's Natalie's creation.  It's Nightmare Moon.  (bonus points to anyone who actually knows who that is)  It doesn't quite look like her, but it was the best Natalie could come up with after I explained why her detailed drawing wouldn't work carved into a pumpkin.

Here's Kelton's.  We told him he could draw anything he wanted, but he wanted it to look like his Halloween costume.  More on that tomorrow...

Here's Damon's.  For a three year old, he has mad pumpkin carving skills.

A week or two ago, I gave the kids a bunch of random materials and some glue to make a picture.  I didn't help them at all.  They did a really great job.  I thought it was funny how Natalie and Kelton's ideas for their pictures and their pumpkins were about the same.

Kelton's picture. 

Natalie's picture.  (My Little Pony)

Damon's picture.  Notice all the D's he drew on the picture.  :)

And during our pumpkin carving, Arie found a Dum Dum sucker and got it open.  We let her keep it, but since she walks around everywhere, we confined her to her chair.

She couldn't decide which end she liked better.

Oh, it goes this way!  Silly girl.

Grandpa Burgess

This post is a little late in coming, but my grandpa, George Dale Burgess, passed away on September 14th, at 94 years old.  He had a stroke, and then got pneumonia and was never able to recover.  My whole family made the trip to Lehi, Utah for the funeral.  The funeral was on Saturday, the 21st.  So we left on Wednesday night after school and work and drove part way to Flagstaff.  The motel we stayed in was a Super 8 and was way better than the previous motels we've stayed at there.  We will have to remember that for future reference.  Doing that took about four hours off our trip, but we still had a lot of driving to do on Thursday.  We found a vacation rental house in the Lehi area, and stayed there with Christy, Rob, Chad and Melanie's families.  It ended up being cheaper than a hotel and much more convenient for everyone.  We spent the day on Friday with family and at the fun center we visited a few months ago when we were in Utah.  The funeral on Saturday was very nice.  It made me a little sad to see my grandma.  I can only imagine how hard it would be to be separated from someone you've spent the last 70 or so years with.  I have such great memories of visiting my grandparents.  I will miss my grandpa, but I am happy that he has been able to move on to something far better.

My Mom and Dad with all of their children.

 

My family

My grandpa was an officer in the Navy during World War II.  So he had military honors at his burial.  After we were done at the grave side, I overheard someone behind me say that everyone should experience a military burial at least once.  I would have to agree.  It was very neat experience.  You feel a sense of pride in the person who served, and also for your country.  We should have prepared the little kids for the guns though.  But I'm not sure I realized that the several men with guns about twenty yards away were going to actually fire shots.  Not real shots... but the kids didn't know that and they were plenty loud and pointed at us.  The kids were pretty scared and very hesitant to uncover their ears afterwards.

Giving the precisely folded flag to my grandma, with Aunt Deonne and Dad at her sides.

On Sunday we woke up and headed out and drove the whole way back home without stopping overnight.  It was a long, all day trip that took about 12 hours, not including stops.  But the kids were really good and it didn't end up being too bad.  It was a quick trip to Utah, but it was worth going.

Here's grandpa's obituary, though I've already mentioned some of the info in it.  I wanted it posted here so it ends up printed in my blog book.

My baby is one!

Arie's first birthday was yesterday.  It is hard to believe it's been a whole year since she was born.  It even makes me a little bit sad.  Sometimes you just want your kids to stay little!

Arie had fun ripping some of the paper off her presents.  I just love this cute little face.

We gave Arie a Fisher Price Ballapalooza and a sippy cup.  (The toy wasn't something we planned on buying, but when I found that $60 toy in the store on clearance for $25, I couldn't leave it there.  Plus, we had no idea what to get for Arie's birthday, so we figured this would work.)  Arie got a really cute outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Burgess and a bouncing elephant toy from Grandma and Grandpa Webb.  And she liked her cards from her grandparents.  I had to rescue them so she wouldn't destroy them.

After Arie opened her presents, she figured she would try to get away with things that she's not allowed to do on a normal day.  Unfortunately, it didn't last for long.  Also, notice the open cupboard... Arie will not leave my cupboards, and their contents, alone.  As soon as Nate gets a spare minute, the baby locks are coming out. 

Of all the presents, I think this one is Arie's favorite.  Should have known that babies are not too hard to impress.  She thinks this sippy cup idea is the coolest thing ever.  If you need to take it away, you have to pry it out of her hands, which results in a lot of angry screaming.

Later in the day, after the older kids got home from school, we all headed out to the park to play.  Poor Arie doesn't get to play outside very often because, #1--she can't walk yet and we live in the land of dirt and rocks, and #2--she still puts everything in her mouth, including dirt and rocks.  So she enjoyed being outside on her birthday.  She loved the baby swing, once she realized it wasn't scary. 

She was not really interested in being restrained for a picture with her sister and brothers.

Here's a little sidetrack from the birthday action.   I've known this before, but in going through my pictures from the day, I noticed that I have a compulsive photo bomber.

Sometimes he is a little more sneaky...

And sometimes he is very much... well... not.  And yes, this was supposed to be a picture of Arie.  Do you see her?

I had no idea what to do for Arie's cake, and since I couldn't ask Arie what she wanted, I asked the other kids.  They decided that a butterfly would be good and I thought it was a great idea.  It turned out cute, though I wasn't overly excited about it.  The butterfly was cute, but I don't really like how I decorated it.  I should have used different colors.  I don't really like yellow.  So why did I use so much yellow?  I have no idea. 

Here's the birthday girl with her cake.  You can see from this picture that the cake looks really big.  It looked big in person too.  Shockingly, it is made from one cake mix in a 9X13 pan, cut into pieces. 

I call this the "what are you doing to my cake, dad?!" picture.  Kind of a fun side note... this same "1" candle has been put on each of our kids first birthday cakes.

This is while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her.  We sang it throughout the day, and she loved it every time.  And she would always open her mouth, like in this picture.  I think she wanted to sing along, but didn't know how.

Instead of attempting to get the one year old to blow out the candle, we let the other kids do it for her.

Mom and Dad with Arie.  She is mad though, because I had already given her that piece of cake you see in my hand, and she had tasted the frosting.  But then I took it away because Nate wanted to video her eating it.  She was not happy.  Honestly, I can't blame her.  I would have been pretty mad myself.

Messy baby!  But she loved it.

And then she got a bath.  She loves baths.  Her favorite thing to do is sit by the running water and methodically try to grab the stream of water with her hands, though she knows she can't actually grab it.  She enjoys trying and it's cute to watch.  This happy little girl is very much loved by everyone in our family.  Happy birthday to our sweet one year old!