Weekly Wrap-up: The Superhero Party

Well, we survived the week. That's about all I can say. It's once again been a crazy one. Last Friday Ben was laid off from his job. The company ran out of money and hence no job. So, this week has been crazy with searching, resumes, and interviews. We have seriously been blessed because Ben hasn't even "applied" for a job yet. He has totally been set up by friends and associates calling to offer him a chance to come work at their companies. He has received three offers so far-two paying more & offering better benefits than his last job! He's hoping for another offer that he should hear from tomorrow and he will decide which one to take by tomorrow night. So it's totally been a blessing in disguise!! Our bishop told Ben that it's because we pay our tithing. I totally believe it and I'm so thankful it's worked out so well.
Well, if there's a week to not have to go to work, this has been the one. Ben, Skylar, and now McKade all have had colds and just felt kind of lousy. So Ben has been able to take some well needed rest and I've been able to leave the kids at home while I ran a thousand errands trying to get ready for Skylar's big birthday bash. I could totally get used to having him home all day!!
I got to get together with a couple of my friends this week for some good 'ol girl time. On Tuesday the kids and I went to lunch at my friend, Rachel's house. Rachel's been my friend since high school and she was my first roommate in college. She's got two little boys about Nick & Kade's ages. We had fun hanging out and it's so great to still get together after all these years of knowing each other. Then on Thursday, my friend, Stephanie was in town from Montana so we went out to dinner. Ben was just getting back from Baptisms for the Dead with the YM when Stephanie came by and he had forgotten that we were going out but he was a good sport to put the kids to bed so I could have a chance to fun visit with Stephanie. Thanks sweetie!
This week has been all about Skylar!! Thursday, lost her tooth. Friday, spotlighted at school. Saturday, Birthday!!! Skylar had such a great birthday and it all began at 1:30 am when she ran in to tell me that the tooth fairy had come! I had just gone to sleep at 1:00 so I wasn't as excited as her. I told her to go back to sleep & we'd see what the tooth fairy brought in the morning. The very generous tooth fairy ended up spoiling Skylar since it was her birthday by giving her 1 dollar, 6 quarters, 6 dimes, 6 nickels, and 6 pennies. She was ecstatic!!
Then came the party! Skylar had such a fun Justice League superhero birthday party! We had totally planned on having the whole thing outside, complete with a superhero obstacle course. Of course, we weren't planning on the 50 degree rain & snow that came through just in time for the party. So we scrambled a bit the day before trying to change everything around. We were a little stressed about having the 24 kids (yes, I'm crazy!!) that were invited smooshing cake into our carpet instead of our grass but it all worked out and only 18 kids showed up, whoo! whoo!
We had some pretty awesome "superheroes" show up, including Skylar as Supergirl, Nick as the Flash(of course!), and McKade as Batman. We had a superhero scavenger hunt where we searched for Green Lantern's lost ring, pin the tail on Supergirl Skylar, Wonder Woman's lasso of truth (hula hoop over a bop bag), Superman's pass the kryptonite game, and Hawkgirl's (or should we say crazy looking Spencer?) pinata. It ended up working all out & the kids had a blast. Ben always teases me because I'm "that" mom that makes a huge deal out of birthdays but I just want my kids to realize how important they are to me and to have the best day ever. It's totally worth the stress beforehand!! I love you my sweet six-year old Sky!!
P.S. Here's proof that Ben gets into the whole party thing too. He made the invitations himself and totally worked the picture over to exclude some superheroes that Skylar didn't want and put in some she did want. You're a sucker for our kids too Ben!! Ha! Ha! I love you.

Sweet Sky Grows Up

Our little Skylar is not so little anymore. Six years ago at this time I was being induced to bring her into the world. She wasn't about to show up on her own. So, her 6th birthday is tomorrow-yes, 24+ hours of labor, I deserve a medal! I can't believe it's gone so fast and been so much fun!!
Skylar is having a great birthday week. Yesterday, she lost her first tooth! Last Friday she told me at lunch that she had a loose tooth. At first I didn't believe her because I've heard this a thousand times from her-she's been so anxious to lose a tooth. But this time it was actually true. She was spotlighted today at school-Ben, the boys, and I got to go talk about her and bring her favorite treat for her class. She wanted to show everyone at school her tooth so she decided to wait to put her tooth under her pillow until tonight. She's totally stoked that the tooth fairy is coming on her birthday! How exciting is that? Happy Birthday Skylar!!

Weekly Wrap-up

So not to start out negative but this week is probably one of the worst that we've had in awhile. I'll start with the highlight of my week-Monday-which was our good day. I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. This is not my favorite thing to do. I always come home with a headache and feeling like I really need to put everyone in the bath for about an hour to get rid of the ick feeling but my kids love it so I continue to go. Skylar's birthday is this week so she got a free pizza from the Chuck E. Cheese club. I've been promising her all month I'd take her so I finally got up the nerve and took her. The kids had a blast. They love it so much. Every time that we've gone in the last 6 months I told Skylar not to use her tickets for the dinky toys that she loses on the way home and instead save them for something cool. Since it was her birthday, I finally let her use them and she got a gumball machine for 800 tickets. There were even enough tickets left that she wanted to get something for Nick so she got him a little lizard. She was so stoked and I was happy she had learned about waiting and saving for something better.
Our neighbors gave us their old swingset so the kids had a blast all week playing on it. We made them cookies on Monday night to thank them. That was pretty fun and the cookies turned out really yummy-of course that's because I didn't make them!

The next day or so were just normal and uneventful and then came Thursday morning. I woke up with a major migraine. Thursdays are my errand days-I take the kids to the library and then run crazy for the next hour or so until I have to pick up Skylar from school. Anyway, errand for the day: doctor for McKade-meaning a shot and tears, etc., etc. I wasn't too happy for the day to begin. But begin it did. I dropped Skylar off at school and then went to the gas station to get a Dr. Pepper (part of my get-rid- of migraine routine). As I pulled in, I was hit by another car pulling away from the gas tank! So I am about to pass out at this time from my head pounding and then this. We weren't hit hard and the boys and I were fine but our car was a little banged up on the side. The guy that hit me was really nice but Latino and with the pounding in my head, I honestly couldn't understand him. I called Ben to come over to the gas station to help me out with the whole thing and to translate. I felt awful at this point because I didn't want the guy to think I was racist or something. I'm totally not-I've dated guys from all over South America and some of my closest friends are Latino. Anyway, Ben came and the cops came and he was declared at fault. But he doesn't have insurance on his car because he was in the process of getting it repaired. So, for us to fix the car, we will have to pay $500 for the deductible. Awesome!!! By the way, I think this is the 10th (at least!) time I've been in an accident in the last 15 years. I promise I'm not a bad driver-I've never been at fault!!! I think I have some kind of sign that says "HIT ME!" that follows me around-maybe like that Arby's thing floating above my head or something!! If you ever see it, please ignore it!! So, here's the damage: not bad, but bad enough.
Anyway, I don't want to be such a pessimist but needless to say the rest of the week has not been too great with other events I won't go into detail about right now-this post is long enough already! We did have our friends the Tongs stop by on Friday and the Meyers over on Saturday to play games and it was fun to just chill with them. We needed some chill time!! Here's a cute picture of McKade & Amy-finally at the age they begin playing together. They're both a little dazed because it was about 10 pm but sooooo adorable. Speaking of adorable, Q-Tip has totally won me over!!! Isn't he a cutie?

McKade is 18!!!

McKade hit the big 18 month old mark today. It's crazy how fast time has gone. It seems like just yesterday that he was born. He's such a cute kid. He's so crazy and keeps me constantly on the run but he gives the best cuddles ever and he's so sweet. I love the mischief in his eyes. I took him to get his pictures today. He wasn't about to perform for anyone. He just kept looking at the photographer like she was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen. She was the worst photographer I've ever had take pictures of my kids, so I don't blame him. He only smiled in one picture. I guess that's all it takes.

Weekly Wrap-up

Another busy week. As life goes on, I'm figuring it out that there really never seems to be slow weeks anymore. Ben says this is mostly my fault because I set myself up for craziness as I attempt to do the impossible sometimes. He's totally right. Monday brought canning peaches and pears. I had never done pears before and I was a little scared about doing them but they weren't that hard. Every time I take on canning, I think "What did I get myself into?" But I was able to pretty much get everything done in one day since Skylar had a friend over and the boys were asleep in the afternoon. I was so proud of myself that I decided to can more pears on Friday afternoon. We ended up with 32 jars of peaches and 36 jars of pears! I'm hoping that will last us two years because I'm definitely taking next year off!!!
So after the canning I definitely deserved a Girl's Night Out which came on Thursday night. My friends and I got together for dinner and a little shopping. We hadn't gotten together pretty much all summer for a night out and this was definitely overdue. It's always nice to have girl talk, even though most of it ends up being about our kids!
Friday night we had a block party at our house. We have a few neighbors who basically don't get along and we're kind of in the middle of it all. We had a good turnout and hopefully this will help to make the neighbors more friendly to one another. If not, at least we had a good time and some good food.
Saturday we drove up to the Hanamaikais house in Ogden for a birthday party for Ame. Ame is almost a year younger than Skylar but they continue in their daddys' footsteps and are instant best friends once they get together. It's so fun. Brittany and I were commenting on how cute they were holding hands and wondering at what point do you get to old to stop holding hands with your friends? Definitely too soon when you have good friends. I wish I had a picture of it but I was too lazy to get the camera out of the car. Ben had a LAN party on Saturday night and had to be a little late because of the party. That's the true test of friendship-Ben being late so he could be with Quinn and his family!
Anyway, we rearranged the seats in our teeny tiny car to put Nick in a booster and so Skylar and Nick sit next to each other now. We really need to get off our butts and buy a bigger car! But for now, this has definitely been better for everyone as it cuts down a little on the whole Nick and Kade feud and Skylar and Nick can now spend long rides creating exciting stories and playing their "games". I'm so glad they're such great buddies. Now we just need to work on the boys getting along!!
Today Ben had to speak in church about morality. I guess he had to be "pre-approved" by our bishop to take on the heavy topic. He did a great job. He's such a good man. I am the luckiest.

A Great Day Indeed!

"Aside from actually seeing you being born and that time that Wayne Gretzky said "What's Up?" to me in line at the bank, you being out of diapers is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It truly is."
-Dr. Cox, Scrubs

Nick is officially COMPLETELY potty-trained! He hasn't had an accident in over three weeks, including through the night. We are all so excited!! He earned a three pack of Justice League guys-Flash, Green Lantern, & Martian Manhunter. Nick is SOOO excited about this. His ultimate favorite guy is Flash and finding a 3 inch one has been quite a feat in itself. But we found it & he earned it! We're so proud of you Nicky!!!

My new favorite thing

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the ocean, whales, dolphins, fish, etc., etc. and since I don't live near the ocean, my fishtank is the closest thing I have to it. They also know that I love things to be clean! So once a month I suffer to clean my fishtank. Well, this very strange looking device is my new favorite thing. It is the JBJ Instant Siphon Gravel Cleaner. It is used for cleaning fishtanks. It is seriously awesome. Most gravel cleaners require you to suck the air out somehow to create a siphon. The suggested thing to suck with? Your mouth!!! So you need to suck gross dirty water out of your fishtank into your mouth!! Disgusting!! Ben insists that he won't kiss me if I do that and since I want him to kiss me and the idea of sucking the yuck out of the fishtank isn't appealing to me, I suffer each month trying to create a siphon by pushing the darned vacuum back and forth a million times to create a siphon. It's very complicated and takes me forever to do-but it eventually works and I don't have to suck the water! Anyway, I was determined to find something that worked better and I found this. The little pump thing creates the siphon for you-no sucking involved! It works so well. It usually takes me about 2 1/2 hours to clean my whole fishtank-this cut it down to 1/2 hour! Amazing and well worth the added cost! It will really make a big difference in my life-adding an extra 2 hour onto my month for ME time-every second counts, right? Maybe I'll have to upgrade to a bigger tank now....

Weekly Wrap-up

The week started off with Labor Day meaning no work and no school. We decided to take advantage of the sales and spent the day looking for a new couch. Ben and I are extremely indecisive people but we finally decided on one and are now enjoying our new couch that is sooo comfortable and not worn and torn. Yes, I finally admit that a white couch was not a good idea to have with little kids around. So does anybody want one that is worn and torn? We feel kind of embarrassed to even give our old one away. But if you're desperate....
On Wednesday Nick begun Joy School at our house. He has been so excited about it for weeks now. The night before he insisted that he needed a backpack. We found him one and he didn't take it off for almost 24 hours-except that I insisted he needed it off to sleep. It was really cute. Joy School is a neighborhood preschool program that a group of mothers take turns teaching. The curriculum is all ready for you and you just supply a little bit of time and lots of love. It's so great. I've had so much fun teaching Skylar and now it's fun to continue with Nicky. We have a great group this year-2 boys and 2 girls, so that should be really fun. Three are kind of "second generation" kids since the old group consisted of their older siblings. It will be fun to get to know the younger ones. I'm really excited.
Skylar started dance again on Friday. She is going to be in the competition group, Mini Stars, this year. She has really anticipated moving into this group but was a little hesitant when we told her it was going to be harder work. She finally decided she was up for it. She was so excited to get back to dancing. They got down to business and started practicing for their Christmas concert the very first day. Skylar's all about getting down to business so she loved it.









Our kittens opened their eyes this week. They are the cutest little things. Here's Nick with his favorite, Flash, and Skylar's favorite is Kara(Supergirl). The white ones are Arrika and Q-Tip. Kade loves giving them kisses by blowing on them-I think he's taken the whole "blowing a kiss" term literally. It's so cute! It's been so much fun to have these kittens and the most fun is still to come!

SUMMER 2007

The Summer is unofficially over. We've had such a fun summer. Here's some highlights:

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE:
Big fish at Big Springs & Nick loved the stinky geysers








Fishing with Grandpa Bruce







Visit to Bear World-the bears were walking around our car!








SKYLAR LEARNS TO SWIM & WE GET TO SEE UNCLE ED:








TENNIS & SWIMMING LESSONS:








BEN & CYNDI's 10th ANNIVERSARY & GET-AWAY TO SF








PARADES & CAMPING ON PARADE ROUTE:








WARD PIONEER TREKS (Ben & Skylar-no pictures of Ben!):








CAMPING:















OREM OWLZ Games:
















WATER FUN-Swimming, Slides, & Sprinklers:

















& JUST PLAIN OUTDOOR FUN: