OUR CHILDREN, OUR LIFE

Morgan- like you've never seen her before!

2012-01-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Miles

2012-01-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

I took Miles grocery shopping and he looked right in my eyes and said, very seriously, "Mommy, always expect the unexpcted!" He makes me smile :)

Karate

2011-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

Elle brought home a coupon for a free trial at a Karate place right by us. The kids learned about respect, learned different stances, practiced punches, and broke boards today. This allowed them to earn their white belts! We are so proud of them and how hard they have been trying at this.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!

2011-12-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

It has been a loose tooth couple of weeks! Elle lost her first tooth and Morgan lost her second front tooth. Thanks to the awesome toothfairy pillows from Grama, the toothfairy was able to find both the girls and give them each a dollar!

Halloween

2011-11-01T08:43:00.001-07:00

Fall Pictures

2011-10-20T12:37:00.001-07:00

Miles' 1st Day of Preschool

2011-10-05T09:02:00.001-07:00

Elle's 6th Birthday

2011-09-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

We had Elle's birthday party on Saturday and had a magician come put on a show. He was funny and the kids loved all his magic. He ws great about letting the kids, as well as adults, come participate, especially Elle. We all had a great time and are so thankful for everyone that came to celebrate with us. :)

Please Stop!

2011-09-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

Miles: "Elle, please stop doing that to me! Stop it Elle! .... Elle, let's play Simon Says. Simon Says please stop doing that!"

Toothfairy

2011-09-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

Morgan is about to lose her front tooth. When she lost her bottom teeth, the toothfairy brought her a gold dollar coin. I asked Morgan if the toothfairy runs out of gold coins and only has silver ones left if that would be ok.
Morgan: What about a real dollar? (traces a rectangle on her pillow)
Mom: Like a dollar bill? Sure, we could write her a note and ask her.
Morgan: Yeah, a dollar bill...with a 20 on it!!

I got a quarter for each tooth, and I don't think the toothfairy is a whole lot richer than when I was little. :)

Kindergarten

2011-08-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Elle starts Kindergarten today! She has all day kingarten and is so excited to eat lunch at school. She even brought a baby with her in case there is show and tell. :) We are so proud of our little girl and can't believe how fast she is growing up. Hopefully time slows down for a little bit and lets us catch up.

Second Grade!

2011-08-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Morgan started second grade yesterday and I can't figure out where the last 6 years have gone. She looked so grown up and so beautiful on her first day, I almost cried when I dropped her off. She has all of the same kids in her class, as she will through 6th grade, and will now be speaking purely in Spanish from the opening bell until lunch. She is excited to get back to school and is not even a little nervous about getting back to Spanish. I am so proud of her (and honestly a little jealous!)

Noah

2011-08-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

We had our friends' little boy Noah come over to play a couple of weeks ago. He lives in St. Louis, so we don't get to see him very often. I was worried he would be a little nervous staying with us for a day, but he walked right in, said he remembered me, and went right to playing. They started playing in the toy kitchen, but soon found themselves outside playing on the swingset and running races. Every time my kids called him Noah, he would look at them and say, "My name is Iron Man." So, yep, we called him Iron Man the rest of the day :) He and Miles got along great, and it made me sad that Noah lives so far away. I am sure they would be best friends if we lived closer. We were glad to have him for the time we did, and hope to play again soon.

Just Some New Pictures

2011-07-30T08:43:00.001-07:00

The Magic of Sacrament

2011-07-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

My kids all think that after they pass the bread during sacrament meeting, they cover the trays with a cloth, then say a prayer that magically turns the bread into water for us. :) I will tell them what really happens, eventually. Right now I think it's too cute.

I love the way he talks

2011-06-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Miles was reading a Noah's Ark book today and yelled out, "I see 2 rhinonasauruses and 2 canimals!" Translation: 2 rhinoceroses and 2 camels. :)

Morgan's Cultural Program

2011-05-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Fancy Nancy

2011-05-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Morgan has been really into Fancy Nancy lately, so we decided to throw a party! We had fancy dress-up relay races, read some Fancy Nancy books, made bracelets, ate chocolate fondue, and put on a fashion show. It was a blast! I expect we will be having more parties for absolutely no reason at all. :)

Spring Break!

2011-04-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

We decided to skip Disneyland this year and just vacation in Vegas. We stayed with family and loved being able to spend time with everyone. It was in the 80's and the kids swam almost every day. We almost didn't come home!

Our first night there, we ate at a place that lets the kids make their own pizza!

We took the kids to the Leid's Discovery Museum where they tried out professions, got in a hurricane tunnel, and played with bubbles. :)

Luckily everyone slept almost the entire way home.

St. Patty's Day

2011-03-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to show off the leprachaun trap the kids and I made this year. He reads the sign telling him not to climb the ladder, homemade out of sticks we found outside, and naturally he wants to climb up. When he reaches for the silver, the paper top falls under his weight and he is trapped at the bottom of our wonderfully decorated oatmeal can!!
We ALMOST caught him, but he was a little too clever for us. Elle thinks maybe he made stairs out of the gold coins he left us (chocolate filled :) ) and climbed out. We'll get him next year, though!

Me llamo Morgan

2011-03-03T15:28:00.001-08:00

Morgan did "show and tell" en espanol the other day at school, so I had her do a video of it at home for all of you! She also decorated a paper person to show off during her show and tell. :)(Sorry about the phone ringing in the background)

A Family for Eternity

2011-02-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

We took our kids to the Salt Lake Temple yesterday and had our family sealed. It was the most amazing experience of my life. The kids looked like angels and I have never been so in love with my husband. Thank you to all who made it to the sealing and thank you to those who were unable to make it who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We love you all so much!

Morgan the Artist

2011-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

Morgan drew this in school yesterday :)

Hablo Espanol!

2011-01-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

In the tub:
Morgan: "Why does my hair look brown?"
Mom: "Hair looks darker when it's wet. Plus your hair is getting darker...not so blond anymore."
Morgan: "Yea! Now I can speak Spanish!"
Mom: "?????"
Morgan: "Mom! People with dark hair can speak ALL the Spanish!"

FHE

2011-01-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share what we did for FHE last night. I decided that once a month I will do a lesson on one of our prophets. We started with Thomas S. Monson.

First, I laid out these pictures of a him. In the first one, he is 10, then 17-when he joined the navy, then 21-he was called as a bishop the next year, and then 36-he was called as an apostle.
Then I had the kids pick these things one by one out of a bag and they told us something about him.
The picture is of missionaries. President Monson never got to serve a full-time mission due to restrictions of war.
The grandma doll represents the 38 widows in his ward when he was bishop that he visited regularly.
The boat represents his service in the Navy at the end of World War II.
The train shows his love of toy trains as a boy.
The 8 tells us that he is the only prophet to be baptized in a traditional baptismal font. The rest were baptized in a swimming pool or natural water source.
The memory card represents his impressive memory for the faces and names of those he meets.
The duck and dolphin represent his hobbies of fishing and raising pigeons.

President Monson also keeps a picture of Christ by his desk. I went to Seagull Book and got each of the kids their own picture to keep by their beds.

Matt and I learned a lot more than the kids did, I think, but we all had fun. I can't wait to until we do this again next month with a new prophet!

Morgan's New Blog

2011-01-13T17:29:00.001-08:00

Morgan got her own video camera for Christmas (thanks Nana!) and now she has started her own blog to share her videos with the world...or at least her closest relatives! Check it out!
http://BearPurse.blogspot.com

Felt Forest

2010-12-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I made my kids a felt forest and little tiny animals to play in the forest. Some of you have seen my desert and rainforest, but I think this one is my favorite. I do need to give credit to the person who's idea I borrowed:
http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/search/label/craft%3A%20fabric%20and%20fiber

I have been making a couple of felt habitats for some really good friends, but never made any animals for myself. So here it is: :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T18:08:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Elle woke up just after 6am, then ran around the house waking the other kids up. Santa had left us tons of presents and filled our stockings well. Miles got Jesse and Bullseye, so he spent the majority of the day acting out Toy Story 3. Elle got Lotso Huggin' Bear, who interacts with your touch and voice, so she spent all day playing with him. Morgan got a panda bear, whom she has named Louis, but she spent all day on her new Hannah Montana guitar game and is getting pretty good. :)
After presents we ate a delicious breakfast that I was smart enough to prepare the night before and throw it in the oven this morning. Then we played games and toys all day and watched Despicable Me. Grama and Grandma & Grandpa Reay stopped by after lunch and we visited for a while and ate Grams rolls. Finally, Grandpa and Grandma Teri came over for dinner - delicious! Now we are waiting for pie and bed.
Hope your Christmas was as fabulous as ours!

Felt Dinos

2010-12-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the present I made for my favorite neighbor and very good friend. She helps me out so much, so I made her a little Xmas present for her son who is Miles' age. Everything is hand-stitched, including the little dinosaurs. Now I just need to make one for me... Super proud of this one :)

First Lost Tooth

2010-12-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Morgan lost her first tooth last night! It's funny because none of us even knew she had a loose tooth. I was gone to Relief Society dinner, but Matt said she lost it while eating dinner. He also said she was really excited about it.
She put it under her pillow along with this note:

When she woke up, the Tooth Fairy had come and left her a gold dollar coin! Awesome!
I can't believe how grown up she seems all of a sudden. It makes me smile...and it makes me sad.

Breaking Tradition

2010-12-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

This year, we had the opportunity to go see Mrs. Claus. She had an elf fly her in a special red airplane from the North Pole to our library. She told the kids stories and the kids helped her decorate a tree with ornaments from around the world. Then they all stood in a circle around the tree and sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Afterwards, the kids made a special mix of oatmeal (a reindeer's favorite food) and magic sparkles to sprinkle on our lawn on Christmas Eve to help the reindeer find our house. Last, the kids told Mrs. Claus what they wanted for Christmas and she promised to go home and tell Santa.

Camels...

2010-12-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

(I just know this isn't going to translate well in print. You may want to read it out loud so you know how adorably cute it is in real life.)
We were watching Signing Time yesterday and the kids were learning signs for animals at the zoo. They got to "camel" and Miles looks up at me and says, "Mom, I love canimals!" Trust me, you would have laughed had you been there. :)

Seeing Things

2010-12-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

I took Elle to the doctor yesterday for a well check. The first thing the nurse did was check her eyes. They have an eye chart for kids with pictures of things like sailboats, tea cups, hearts, stars, etc. Elle read all the way through the second to smallest line. When she got to the bottom line, she says, "Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot!" and smiled really big. The nurse didn't think it was nearly as cute as I did. :)

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

This year we had Lisa and Troy and families over to our house for Thanksgiving. Lisa did a wonderful job decorating the table and made all of the most delicious side dishes.
Nicole (Troy's, in case you are confused!) made one of the best turkeys I have ever had and a wonderful apple pie. I did three different types of potatoes and rolls. Everything was delicious. The kids decorated their own place mats, and Morgan did Miles' for him.

After Miles ate about 4 bites of food he marched over to me and grumpily announced that He was done! I told him to say it again, only nicer this time. He looked me right in the eye and said, "May I please have a piece of pie?" Is it just me or is that not the same thing he said the first time?! So cute. Then we all played Guitar Hero and Apples to Apples the rest of the night.
So thanks to all who contributed to our Thanksgiving this year. We had a great time and we love you all.

Primary Program

2010-11-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

We had our Primary program today. The girls both did an awesome job singing the songs and I got compliments on how well Elle remembered all the sign language. Both the girls had speaking parts and Elle had her part memorized: "As Joseph Smith prayed in a grove of trees, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. Joseph was told 'This is my beloved son. Hear him.'" Morgan was asked to talk for 30 seconds about how she tries to be like Jesus. She wrote her own talk: "I want to do the dishes and my mom said when I do my chores and that is what I did. I did my chores and my chores were my room, playroom, and laundry. I help my mom a lot because she has a hurt arm. I help my mom by being like Jesus Christ."
I am so proud of both my girls. :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Halloween this year! The kids had so much fun dressing up and tried really hard to wear their costumes at least once every day in October. We carved pumpkins and the girls were so excited to pull all the guts out for me, but Miles refused to even have the pumpkin near him! Trick or Treating was fun and the rain hardly bothered us at all. Oh, and we have enough candy now to last us until next year. :)

First Snow

2010-10-28T08:35:00.001-07:00

We had our first snow of the season...before Halloween! Yikes! I was pretty mad about it and actually spent a good 10 extra minutes in bed that morning pouting. The kids, on the other hand, were thrilled! Morgan was at school all day, so Elle and Miles got all dressed up and headed out back. Elle told me that "Sorry you don't like winter, Mom," and vowed to eat all of the snow in the backyard so I wouldn't have to have winter. :) Five minutes later I remembered that my kids can't stand the cold for very long. In fact, it took more time to get the kids bundled up than it did for them to play outside. Luckily, Mom keeps a nice stash of hot chocolate in the pantry.

Together We Can!

2010-10-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Every year, Morgan's school does Reflections. They hand out a topic and the kids can either write a paper, do some artwork, a dance, or photography. This years topic is Together We Can and this is what Morgan came up with to submit.

It is a picture of friends cleaning up a park together. I think she did an awesome job and I am so proud of her!

Where do they get it?

2010-10-14T09:52:00.001-07:00

I had Elle and Miles with me at Bed Bath and Beyond the other day. Miles was touching EVERYTHING in every aisle we walked down. I was pretty sure he was going to break something and I would have to pay for it, so after telling him not to touch things about 25 times, I stopped, knelt down in front of him and said, "I am serious! Stop touching things!" As soon as we started walking again, Miles pats himself down from the neck to the tummy yelling, "I'm touching myslef! I'm touching myself!" I sigh and tell him not to touch anything in the store. He continues patting himself saying "I'm in the store! I'm touching me!"
Where do they learn this?!? Luckily he is the most adorable little man in the world so I couldn't bring myself to actually get uspet. :)

Elle's Birthday Party

2010-09-28T09:28:00.001-07:00

We had Elle's birthday party on Saturday and it was awesome. Last month, we watched an episode of Olivia and her school had a carnival. Elle fell in love with it, and thus her birthday party theme was born. I spent a couple of weeks making some games and painting a big poster of a guy with his head in a lion's mouth that the kids could stand behind and stick their head through. Everything was a big hit. Elle got tons of fantastic presents that are sure to keep all three kids occupied for weeks to come. Oh, and I made perhaps the ugliest cake known to man. I was yummy, but ugly. :) Thank you to everyone who was able to come. We had a blast. Happy birthday party, Elle!

Pre-School

2010-09-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I have all three kids in school!

Miles just seems so much tinier than the girls when they started school. The full sized backpack just makes him seem smaller. He loves school and cries every day that he doesn't get to go. Let's pray that this enthusiasm for school carries clear through high school. :)

Elle looks so grown up and so beautiful. She loves school and is friends with everyone in her class. Unlike her siblings, she will actually tell me what she does every day and I love hearing about it. She is super bright and loves doing all the work and crafts.

To The Thingamajigger!

2010-09-17T21:12:00.001-07:00

Feeding the...ducks?

2010-09-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day that after we drop Morgan off at school in the morning, I spend the rest of the morning cleaning. AKA, I am not taking advantage of having a chunk of free time with Elle and Miles. So on Thursday, I told the kids we could get in the wagon and take a walk. Now Miles has been saying his prayers every night, and for the last week he has prayed he could walk over a bridge. I don't know what he is talking about, but there is a tiny bridge at the pond down the street. So I loaded the kids in the wagon and grabbed the last English muffin because Elle really wanted to feed the ducks. Well, as it turns out, there are no ducks at the pond. We did spot two geese, but they swam away as soon as we approached. Elle tried throwing bread pieces to them, but ended up attracting a flock of seagulls instead. These birds really creep me out! They don't just sit there waiting for you to feed them, they fly and hover right by your face. If Miles hadn't been so nervous of them, I would have grabbed a picture of it. I did get a couple after the bread was gone, though. All in all a great morning. I definitely need to worry less about a clean house and more about getting in quality time with my kidderoos.

Morgan Update

2010-09-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Morgan is loving school. She says she understands a lot of what Mrs. Booth is saying in Spanish. I think that is her favorite part of her day, after lunch of course. :) Morgan can also say 9 words in Spanish: grapes, star, airplane, magnet, bear, hands, hat, fish, and moon. I am so proud of her. She comes home everyday and teaches our entire family her new words. We will all be fluent in no time! :)

What?!

2010-08-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

Miles: Am I adopted?
Mom: No! Of course not.
Miles: Mom, you're as crazy as a road lizard!

First Grade!

2010-08-25T09:57:00.001-07:00

Day 1

Morgan started first grade this week. Her school starts at 9am and I don't pick her up until 3:45. After lunch, her teacher puts on a horse apron that makes her forget how to speak English. She then teaches the rest of the day entirely in Spanish. Morgan says she does not get at all frustrated with this, and she already understands a little bit of what Mrs. Booth is saying.
She already has friends at school and is loving every minute of every day. She has been waking up so early in the mornings because she is so excited to go to school. I am so proud of her.

Day 2

Carnival

2010-08-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

The girls ran in our room this evening with huge grins on thier faces. They told us they made a carnival in their rooms and needed some customers. Of course Matt and I were more than happy to be the first to try it out. It started in Elle's room with an obstacle course. They had two laid out side by side so Matt and I could race eachother. We had to jump over a stuffed animal, balance along a body pillow, jump on a square pillow, then go back. I won.
Then we had to hit a stuffed animal off of the toy box so that it landed on a dollhouse and rolled onto the floor. The best part was Elle played the drum after every game. Kind of a victory noise, I guess, like the bells ringning at real carnivals.
The girls worked really hard on thier carnival and even cleaned it up afterward, with a little persuasion. It was by far the best part of my whole day.

Cows

2010-08-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Miles informed Matt today that when cows laugh, milk comes out their noses. :)

Miles New Seat

2010-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

We got back in town on Sunday from a wonderful week in Veags. When I moved the carseats back into my car, I put Elle in the middle instead of Miles. This gives the little guy his own window for the first time. The first time we all went on a drive, Matt asked Miles how he liked having his own window. Miles just smiled, peered outside, and sang, "I look out the window and what do I see?" So cute. :)

Swimming at Nana's

2010-08-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

We are visiting family for the week in Vegas and Morgan and Elle are turning into little fish in Nana's pool! All three kids are totally comfortable in the water and love floating all by themselves. We are having so much fun!

Slumber Party

2010-07-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, we had Ava over for a sleepover. The girls played with every toy we own, and then went out back to play pirates on the swingset. Then their ship sank, so they went back downstairs to play school. After dinner, the girls got jammies on and played the straw game. Ava won. :)

We then layed out sleeping bags, popped popcorn, and watched Barbie Fairytopia. They girls had a blast. The next morning, Morgan wrote Ava an invitation to another sleepover and had me fold it into a paper airplane so she could fly it to Ava's house. I foresee another slumber party in our near future!

Chalkboard Messages

2010-07-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

I put an easel with a chalkboard in the playroom. Every day for last 2 weeks Morgan has written "I'm on vacation" with various spellings of vacation. Tonight I walk in to turn the light off, and there is a different message on the chalkboard. "I'm going to Mexico."

Blah, Blah...

2010-07-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Morgan's has this new habit when you are telling her to do something, like chores, she kind of rolls her eyes and says, "Blah, blah, blah..." and then walks off. It is both frustrating and adorably cute. What is a mom to do?

Toy Story 3

2010-06-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our little family went out and saw Toy Story 3 in 3D last night. So cute! I think I may have liked it more than the kids. Elle only wore the 3D glasses the first half of the movie and then decided she didn't like them anymore. I'm surprised she didn't have a headache by the end. Morgan's face lit up several times. I love when she laughs and is genuinely happy. Miles wore his Buzz Lightyear shirt and shoes and brought Woody to see the movie. Woody waved at the characters onscreen and whenever they showed the word Andy on the bottom of Woody's boot, Miles would look on his Woody's boot. I love those moments when there is nothing but enjoyment with the kids and I realize all over again how much I truly love them.

Miles and Woody asleep on the ride home.

Just to Brighten Your Day

2010-06-11T08:42:00.001-07:00

Chef Morgan and Chef Elle

2010-06-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

An hour before church on Sunday, Morgan makes the announcement that she is making dinner that night and it will be pizza! So after church I took her to the store and she picked out all her own ingredients. She even asked a store clerk where to find the pepperoni; pretty brave for her. :)

When it came time to make dinner, she asked for a stool so she could reach the counter and asked me if we had an apron and a chef's hat. I could only find an apron. So she read the directions on the pizza crust box, spread her olive oil on the crust with a basting brush, spread the sauce with a spoon, and sprinkled cheese and pepperoni all by herself. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Eight minutes later, we had what was probably the yummiest pizza of our lives.

Not to be outdone, Elle made dessert. She scooped the ice cream (with a little help from Daddy), put sprinkles on it, and a tiny umbrella. So delicious and so cute.

I think I may never have to make dinner myself again! If anyone wishes they had a chef to prepare dinner for them, I have two for hire. :)

Fire Station Tour

2010-05-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we scheduled a tour of our fire station. My sister and brother came and brought their kids and a couple of families from my ward tagged along. We had tons of fun. The fire chief talked to the kids about fire safety and embarrassed all the parents when we all realized we hadn't had a single fire drill in our homes. Oops!

Lincoln is such a smarty pants and answered almost every single question the fire chief asked us. They asked Lincoln if he was a genius, and replied that he was a scientist and he makes potions. He is such a cutie and had us all laughing the entire time.

Ava got up and demonstrated Stop-Drop-and Roll for us. She even remembered to cover her face with her hands.

Then we got to see the 2 different kinds of fire-trucks and the ambulance. We headed outside and covered our ears when they turned on the siren.

The fire chief got all of his gear on to show the kids how he would look and sound if he were trying to rescue them in a fire. He crawled over to Morgan and she just smiled. Who knew she could be so brave?

We all had so much fun and learned a lot. Thanks for coming with us!!

Hippity Hop Ball Races

2010-05-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

We had Ava and Owen over for a playdate today. While Elle and Miles were napping (an absolute miracle, btw), Morgan, Ava, and Owen had hippity hop ball races out back. They had so much fun...but Ava and Owen never made it across the yard without falling once or twice. :)

Elle's New Song

2010-04-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

Lemonade Stand

2010-04-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, I really thought we took more pictures of this, but apparently we didn't. Matt did get a good video, though. The kids had a great time and they made $15. They have decided to save their hard earned money to put toward a new swing set. I have a feeling we may need to do a lot more lemonade stands...:)

Hmm...

2010-04-19T16:08:00.001-07:00

The kids were drawing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway today while I changed the light bulbs in our outside lights. When we came in, I helped Elle wash her hands and then told her to go dry them off while I helped Miles. She walked right past the towel and into her room to dry her hands on the sheets of her bed.

A Good Day

2010-04-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

My step-dad, Randy, has surgery on Tuesday. On Friday I couldn't stop thinking about it. So, finally, I called Matt, Dustin and Lisa. We all agreed to fast this Sunday for him. Dustin went to church with us and was such an amazing help with the kids (they call him Uncle Awesome and Uncle Rockstar). When we got home we were all dying of hunger and thirst, so I got started on dinner right away. I think we ate dinner at about 3pm. I'm sure I will be hungry again before bed. We all broke fast together and ate parmesan chicken, funeral potatoes, and Jan rolls. Delicious. Then we listened to the kids all play together downstairs while we played a game of Phase 10. Matt won. I know, you are surprised. It was the nicest Sunday I have had in a while. Thank you, Dustin, for sharing it with us.

Bounce House, Part 2

2010-04-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

I was doing my third load of laundry for the day when I noticed the kids were quiet. I ran from my room down the stairs only to discover this:

And, yes, after the kids went down for a nap I may have bounced along the pillows once or twice.

Super Hero

2010-04-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

I was teaching singing time in primary on Sunday and we were doing the song "I Belong to the Church..." There is one line that sings "I believe in our Savior..." Miles was singing this song in the bathtub Saturday night and when he got to that line, he sang "I believe I can save her..."

Ever the super hero.

Cali

2010-03-31T11:09:00.001-07:00

I am too tired to actually write anything, but I thought I would post some pics of our Cali trip...finally :)

Smarties

2010-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Elle remembered something today I had only told the kids once several days ago. I asked her how she knew that and Morgan piped in, "Maybe she ate too much smarties!" Cute.

Statues

2010-02-19T07:43:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I took Elle to the mall for a mommy-daughter night out of shopping, bonding, and most importantly...Hot Dog On A Stick! Of everything in the mall, Elle was most fascinated by all the mannequins. We would walk by a group of them and she would turn around to look at them, then rush over and pose like one of them and hold really still. She kept saying, "Look Mom, I'm a statue!" She even made me take a few pictures of her. It was awesome. Hands down the most fun I have ever had at a mall.

Morgan's Party

2010-02-01T07:33:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we had Morgan's birthday party. Three out of five friends invited showed up, not too bad. We played Pass the Present to start with so all the little girls got to open something. I think it was a hit. Then each girl got to make and decorate their own magic wand, followed by cake and ice cream. Now I must say that the picture of this cake does it no justice. In real life, this was by far the cutest cake I have ever seen. I am very proud of it. So I think everyone had tons of fun. Thank you to everyone who could come and I will try to get Morgan to hurry with the thank you cards. She has been playing with toys non-stop and making jewelry right and left. Tons of fun!

How to Get Out of a Job

2010-01-23T18:20:00.001-08:00

Whenever I ask Miles to do something lately, he runs in place and exclaims that he can't do it. Then he sits down, out of breath.

The Late Over

2010-01-16T13:16:00.001-08:00

What is a late-over you ask? I learned the term "late-over" from my niece, Ava. Apparently it is just like a sleepover, but the friend goes home right before bed. We had actually planned on a full sleep-over last night, but Morgan suddenly had a fever and was crying on the couch and Ava had to go home. We didn't have time to get in jammies or pop popcorn and make a mess with it downstairs, but we did have time for a little fun.
We had english muffin pizzas for dinner. Usually I would let the kids decorate their own, but after I did one, I was just too into it. Yeah, I did them all. But they turned out cute and the kids loved them. After the kids ate their pizza, they got a rock candy sucker. These are awesome! I haven't seen them since I was a little kid and got so excited when I found them so cheap at a party store. A total hit with the kids.

After dinner the kids cuddled on the couch and watched Harry Potter. Then Morgan got sick and that was that. Everyone had fun up until then and we are definitely taking a rain check on the sleep-over part of the sleep-over.

Potter Puppet Pals

2010-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

I finally let my kids watch Harry Potter. Well, the first 2 anyway, it starts to get scary after that. They were so into it, we all watched Potter Puppet Pals: Mysterious Ticking Noise on YouTube. My kids are hooked, they sing it all day long. You have never heard anything as funny as Miles' "Harry Potter, Harry Potter, UH!" Love these kids. =)

Uncle Troy Hair?!

2010-01-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

This is what I woke up to this morning.
The hair may be demanding all your attention, so you might miss the bags under his eyes. The reason? Miles decided at some point in the night to get out of bed and go play PBSkids.org on the computer. How do we know this? When Matt went to check his email before leaving for work, he found the website up on all 3 computers. Umm...can you say "like father, like son"?? No idea what time he finally got himself to bed, but obviously it wasn't early enough.

We Love You, Papa

2010-01-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

Papa is going in for surgery on Friday and we want to wish him good luck and to get better soon. We love you!

CHRISTMAS

2009-12-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

We have been so busy playing with all the toys Santa and family brought us, I haven't had time to post our holiday fun yet. So here it is.

On Christmas Eve, we had Grama, Charise, Ty, Ava and Owen over for dinner. For once, I didn't accidentally freeze the ham, so it turned out wonderfully and on time. Even my mustard ring turned out. Shortly after dinner the Christmas Elf knocked on our door and ran away with amazing speed, as we were unable to catch even a glimpse of him. But he did remember to leave a present for each of the kiddies. And wouldn't you just know it, they all got new jammies! After putting on their new jams, the kids all went downstairs and played MONSTER with Dad/Uncle Matt. Then it was time for bed. Charise and fam went home, but Grama slept on our couch.

Matt heard Elle at like 5am and got up to tell her she couldn't get out bed yet. He couldn't sleep after that, so when he woke me up at 6 he was fully dressed. He said Elle couldn't wait anymore, and Morgan was starting to stir. So we woke up Grama and Miles and all ran as fast as we could to the Christmas tree.

I think it's funny to look back on your childhood and remember how excited you got about what presents you were going to get. Now, I don't think I give a single thought as to whether or not I am getting any presents. I do, however, lose sleep with the excitement of how much the kids will love all of their presents. The expressions on their faces and the things they say is what I look forward to for months. Also, this year I spent countless hours making presents for each kid to make up for the economy. I even sliced up my thumb in the process, which still hasn't completely healed.

Miles' favorite presents were his new Woody and Buzz. They sleep in his bed every night and run every errand with us. He flies around the house in his new super cape and plays a lot in the playroom alternating between his new basketball hoop and his "sock-it rock-it robots," as he calls them.

Elle wears her new princess dress every single day. She also carts around her barbie, who has a matching dress. I keep finding Polly Pocket in different rooms throughout the house, despite picking it up every time I see it. She also got a fur-real puppy who spends most of her time sleeping in Elle's bed. Whenever Elle is supposed to be cleaning her room or taking a nap, I can always hear her playing games on her laptop instead.
Morgan has already used her new knitting machine to knit a scarf for Bear Purse. She rides her scooter on the one strip of tile in the house and is counting the days until the snow melts and she can take it outside. Her barbies drive around in their new car wearing a new princess dress that matches the one she got. We also read her new books together every night.
Matt and I are spending the loads of money everyone was so nice to give us. We already bought two new board games that are fun with just 2 people, so now we can have a fun date night right at home. We are also looking forward to turning in our babysitting coupons with Grama and going to Cheesecake Factory and the movies!

Thank you, Grama, for spending Christmas with us. It makes such a difference to me to spend the holiday with family. Thank you for all the gifts, everyone. We sincerely appreciate each and every one. Hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours was!!

Come see!!

2009-12-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

Am I the only parent who starts to panic inside when the kids are giggling out of control downstairs and then run up and ask you to come see what they have built? Well, this happened to me on Saturday. Expecting to yell and scream once I discovered what the had destroyed, um..builit, I walked tentatively down the stairs, only to find that the kids built their own bounce house! They gathered pillows from every single room in the house. And yes, I spent a while bouncing on it myself. New Saturday morning family tradition? I think so.

Candlelight Christmas

2009-12-15T11:08:00.001-08:00

Last night we took the kids to This is the Place for Candlelight Christmas. As soon as we got there we hopped on the train and went to see Father Christmas. We call him Santa, but This is the Place is all about old school. So we got a picture of the kids with Father Christmas and they told him what they wanted for Christmas. He gave each of us a candy cane.
When we left that house they had two live reindeer outside. The kids had been so excited all week to see live reindeer, but didn't have much of a reaction at all when we finally got to see them. I thought they were pretty awesome, though.

After that we took the train back to the entrance. Elle and Matt we both too cold to do anything else, so they went and warmed up in the car. My feet were so cold I was in pain, so I was quite jealous. But Morgan and Miles weren't done yet, so we kept going. We went into a couple of the houses and did some crafts and saw a puppet show. It was a really great family night out.

Brrrr!

2009-12-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone is wondering, when we woke up this morning the weather channel let me know it was 10 degrees outside. The windchill made it feel like -4 degrees. We got several inches of snow yesterday. Matt shoveled the driveway at about 7am and I had to shovel again at 8 am to get out. By the time Matt got home, you couldn't even tell it had been shoveled. So send us your warm thoughts. =)

Take me down to Paradise City

2009-12-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

Morgan: Mom, what does that building say?
Mom: The New Yorker.
Morgan: Like New York City?
Mom: How do you know New York City?
Morgan: You know, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.

Close Morgan, and very cute.

Busted!

2009-11-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

If any of you watch Phineas & Ferb, this is from the musical cliptastic countdown of the top 10 songs from season 1. If you don't watch it, you should. It is awesome.

My Little Sick Kids

2009-10-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Morgan walked into the living room and laid down on the couch and fell asleep. She almost never takes naps, so I was a little worried. When she woke up I told her it was time to eat dinner so we could go to tumbling. She started crying and asked to not go to tumbling. That is when I picked her up and noticed she had a fever. Over the next 24 hours, she threw up about every 45 minutes. We got her into the doctor and they put an IV in her little hand and pumped 500ml of saline into her because she was so dehydrated. The doctor said there was such a small chance she had the H1N1 virus, but she looked so sick he ran the test anyway. This morning we went back in and found the test had come back positive. They pumped 250ml more saline into her and sent us on our way.
Now Miles, Elle, Matt and I are all running fevers. The doctor gave Matt a prescription for Tamaflu because his lungs already sound kind of bad. Because the rest of us are all pretty healthy otherwise, we are to just tough it out.
Hopefully we will all be better soon and get to re-enter the real world.

Morgan had to leave her IV overnight so they put an arm band on her. She actually got pretty attatched to it and was sad when they took it off.

Luckily we already took the kids trunk or treating at my mom's ward, so missing Halloween night is not as big of a loss.

When Did I Become the Child?

2009-10-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Morgan: Mom, are you making a cake?
Mom: Yes, but it will be after you go to bed tonight. You can see it in the morning.
Morgan: Mom, here's the deal. I can watch you make the cake or I can help you make the cake. These are your two choices.

Nilla Cakes Update

2009-10-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

On the off chance that any of you are following my Nilla Cakes blog, I have updated it with two cakes I did last night. Just FYI.

Bath-tism

2009-10-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Morgan: Dad, will I get baptized in a river?
Dad: No, they don't do that anymore. You will be baptized in a baptismal font; it's like a giant bathtub.
Morgan: Oh. (She starts singing) Jesus came to John the bath-tist, in Judea long ago...

Now I'm not sure if it is as funny in print as it was in real life, but trust me it was hilarious. She actually still sings those words in primary and I think it is too cute to correct her.

Beautiful

2009-09-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Every so often, I realize how absolutely beautiful my girls are. There are those times I look at them and they smile and I suddenly realize they are growing up. Whether it be the look on their face that lets you know they understand a little bit more today than they did yesterday, or the fact that they dress themselves and seem to have their very own sense of style. My girls are growing up, beautifully.

Elle's 4th Birthday

2009-09-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we had Elle's 4th birthday party. She wanted to have a tea party with all the girl cousins and friends. All the girlies were dressed up in their finest tea-party dresses. I had been buying things at the DI and dollar store for a month, so the decorations turned out really cute. We had pretend rose petals scattered over the table cloth and fresh flowers as our centerpiece. Each girl had her own (real) tea cup and saucer.They got to choose from pink lemonade or pink hot chocolate (Fancy Nancy brand bought off Amazon!) There were tiny cucumber sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and fruit and cheese kabobs. While the girls seemed more interested in the "tea", Miles probably ate 8-10 peanut butter sandwiches. I think he was feeling a little left out that he was the only boy, and found comfort in food. After tea time, the girls all sat around the coffee table. I gave one girl a little present and while music played it was passed around the circle until the music stopped. Whoever was holding the present got to open it. We did this until every girl got a present. Then we played the princess tea party version of pin the tail on the donkey, called Kiss the Frog. It was really cute!

Finally, the adults ate cake and the girlies ate mini cupcakes. (And yes, I made them myself! I stayed up until just after midnight the night before. It was seriously fun for me!)

Elle then opended her presents and we called it a day. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming to the party and for all the presents! Elle is ecstatic with everything and can't decide what she wants to play with first.

Why Are Kids So Cute When You're Mad?

2009-09-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Mom: Elle!! Don't slam the car door! You almost slammed Miles' hand in the door!

Elle: Oh no!! Did his whole arm fall off?

Mom: Ummm...no.

Kid-isms of Late

2009-09-14T18:01:00.000-07:00

Miles: "Mom, is Hazel a good guy?"

Morgan: "Mom, what are we having for lunch?"
Mom: "Grill cheese sandwiches."
Morgan pats Miles on the arm.
Morgan: "Don't worry, Miles. You don't have to have a girl cheese. Mommy can make you a boy cheese sandwich."

My New Blog

2009-09-11T20:31:00.001-07:00

As some of you know, I have started cake decorating classes at Michaels. I am loving it. So I decided that since my skills in this area are very basic, I would like to watch how I am progressing. With this goal in mind, I created a new blog http://www.nillacakes.blogspot.com/. The posts are probably going to be quite long and maybe even a little boring, so I don't really expect anyone to follow it. But I also expect a plethora of pictures, so if you get bored, you can always just scan the pictures to see my latest creation, or disaster, as the case may be. Anyway, thought I would let you know. =)

Elle's First Day

2009-09-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Elle had her first day of preschool today. We all walked to school, and by that I mean I walked and pulled the kids in the wagon. My friend Allison stayed outside with Morgan and Miles and I took Elle in. She found her name on the coat rack and hung up her backpack. Then we went over and found a book for her to read. She was feeling a little nervous, but then Mikey from her sunbeam class came over and sat with her. She looked up at me, smiled, and said bye.
When I picked her up, the teacher said she did very well. She would stop sometimes in mid-coloring and say that she missed her mom, but would take a deep breath and go back to coloring. Elle said she had crackers and white-all-over cheese and apple juice for a snack today. She was pretty disappointed when I told her she didn't come back until Tuesday.
I can't believe how grown up my little girl is.

By Popular Request...

2009-09-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you have enjoyed Night at the Museum 2, here you go:

"Hey baby, check out the gun show goin' on over here. Boom! Bang! Firepower!"

Ready for Church

2009-09-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

...and actually on time for once! Just thought my family looked especially cute today and wanted to share.

Princess Hazel

2009-09-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

We had Kristi, Tom and kids over the other night for pizza and Guitar Hero. When they showed up, we were still waiting for the pizza to be delivered, I took Hazel into Morgan's room to play dress-ups. I kept reading on Kristi's blog how she loved to put on different shoes and hats, so I was sure she would love the girls' selection of hats, dresses, and princess slippers. Every time she tried on a different outfit, she would walk out into the living room and walk around the island to show off her new attire to Mom and Dad. She was perhaps the most adorable little princess I have ever seen!
Tom, you were a rock star as usual, and Kristi, you were awesome! I never would have guessed that was your first time playing. We had a blast and can't wait to do it again.

More Bolt Quotes

2009-09-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Miles was playing with the princess cell phone this morning. It has a pretend camera phone that flashes and makes a shutter sound. He held the phone up to me, said cheese, and pushed the button. Then he looked at the phone and said with a smile, "That's a keeper!" So cute.

Morning excitement

2009-09-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

I dropped Morgan off at school this morning at 8:15. I pulled Elle and Miles in the wagon past the construction and at the corner of the street across from my house I started to break up the usual argument of who gets to open the garage door today. Then I hear this little boy yell. I look up to see a little boy of maybe 2 chasing a dog into the street. It is not a terribly busy street, but it is long and straight so people tend to book it down the road. So I called to him to stop and NOT go into the street. He kept calling after a dog who had ran across into the townhomes. The little boy was tiny, thin, dirty, and only wearing a pair of camo shorts.
I made my was slowly over to him as not to scare him. I tried asking him his name, and he pointed to the sky and told me that was a bird. I asked him where he lived, which one was his house, and he pointed to Elle's feet and told me that was a shoe. I could see I wasn't going to get anything out of him, so I ended up calling 911. I had been standing with this boy for almost 20 minutes by the time a policeman showed up. Just as he finished taking the information, a mom down the street came out yelling. Yes, it was his mom. She walked over (I would have been running, but that is just me) and asked where he was. I told her I found him trying to cross the street. She picked him up, no hug, and told the policeman he would have to come to her house if he wanted to talk to her and walked off.
Now, obviously, I only did all of this out of concern for this boy's safety. But would it have been too much to ask for a simple "Thank you"? Thank you for finding my boy, thank you for staying with him, thank you for anything?? I would have even been happy if she seemed happy to see him, if she seemed at all relieved that he was ok.
It is certainly not the way I would have liked it to happen, but I feel like a better parent today.

Crafty Again

2009-08-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

I used to feel like I was super crafty, until I started reading everyone else's blogs. There are so many women out there who makes things I could never even dream of making. It actually put me in a craft slump. But with Morgan back to school, I have had extra time on my hands and needed to keep busy. So I decided to get crafty again. Nevermind comparing myself to everyone else. All of my crafts are for my kids, and they don't know if I don't do the best job.

I noticed the other day that Miles still has a dinosaur frame I made for his nursery when he was born. So I put the finishing touches on his new frame today.

My kids are really into file folder games, ever since I made some from the book "File Folder Fun." The bear one I actually found online, but the underwater one I made on Power Point all from clipart. The mermaid, treasure chest and most of the animals are on velcro so they can all be moved around. My kids spend hours playing with these.

FYI

2009-08-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Mom, did you know that chickens love to eat monster jello? That is jello that is made out of jello.
-Elle

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

2009-08-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

-by Morgan

Stop fighting!

2009-08-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

It has been one of those days. No matter what I try to do, the kids are fighting every 10 minutes. I tried time outs, time apart, time together, getting out of the house...all to no avail. Miles finally settled in on my bed to watch an episode of Mickey Mouse when the girls started screaming, again. So I came downstairs to see what the problem was. I told Morgan to tell me the truth, which seems to be all it takes to get her to actually tell me truth, about why they were fighting.
"Well, Mom, I was on the floor cooking 2000 bones for puppy purse and then I got up and walked around to see all the animals at the fair, like the bunny. I was walking around and Elle wasn't, she was just up on your table!"

I couldn't even muster up a little bit of anger to scold Elle for being up on the table.

Temple Square

2009-08-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

The girlies have been learning about temples at church, so Matt and I thought they might enjoy a visit to Temple Square. I got the kids and I dressed up and we met Matt after work and all went down there. After walking the grounds we ate dinner at the Nauvoo cafe. So delicious, I recommend the chicken salad sandwich! Then we looked at the temple on more time before crossing the street to the conference center. We were going to take the tour, but the kids started fighting and crying so we decided it was probably time to head home. The kids tell me their favorite part was the angel Moroni on the top of the temple and the temple itself. We had an awesome time and it makes we wonder why we don't go there more often.

Kindergarten

2009-08-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

Morgan had her first day of Kindergarten today. There is just something about her having to follow a bell schedule and bring her own snack in her own lunch box that makes her seem so grown up all of a sudden. We all walked to school this morning, and by that I mean I pushed all the kids in the stroller...kind of heavy after a while. Once we got there, Morgan took Elle's hand and they went to play on the playground together. There were a bunch of big kids on the playground, but the girls managed to go down 2 slides before the bell rang. Her teacher came outside to bring the class in as soon as the bell rang, and Morgan all of a sudden froze up. I dragged her in loving mother fashion to the door where, luckily, there was a school official who offered to help Morgan to her classroom. Morgan took her hand and walked inside without so much as a glance back at Mom.
I picked her up three hours later. The teacher said she was nervous and shook a lot, but didn't cry at all. Morgan said they got to sing songs and draw pictures. She is excited to go back tomorrow and already has tomorrow's outfit laid out on the chair in her room.