I Heart Concerts!!!

So before Ben and I got married I'm guessing I probably had gone to about 50 concerts. I love concerts!! Since we've been married, I'm thinking that number has been about 10-I guess one per year we've been married. It's one of the greatest things I miss about my single and pre-baby days. Usually ticket prices and finding a babysitter are a big deterrent to us heading out for a concert so they are very few & far between.
Anyway, last Wednesday, we were able to go see Ben Folds in concert at Saltair. I don't think I've even been out to Saltair since the Beastie Boys came in 1995. I've seen some pretty amazing shows out there and it brought back some good memories. Ben was super stoked that Ben Folds finally came to Utah since he's one of his favorite singers. It was an awesome concert! Ben Folds is definitely one of the best entertainers I've ever seen. He is amazing on the piano, he totally involved the audience and put on a great show! We even got a couple shots of him-although they're not great since we avoided the crowd due to my blossoming belly! The baby liked the show too-totally danced along the whole time!

Nick's Birthday Pics

I hate to brag, but this kid melts my heart. He is too cute!!

Happy Birthday Nick!!!

Nick's actual birthday was on Sunday. He thought this was pretty cool because they actually sung to him in Primary on his birthday. Being Sunday, we didn't do much but play all day with his stuff that he got from his party. After dinner we did have some cake (we had cupcakes at his party) and gave him his presents from Mom & Dad. He got a Bumblebee Transformer (we've searched every store since Christmas for that!!!) and his first bike-Spiderman!
On Monday we went out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory, despite me begging Nick to choose to go to CPK. Nick was very insistent on eating there because you get to sit in the cable car, have cheesy spaghetti, and get ice cream at the end! I'm pretty sure Nick enjoyed his entire weekend of celebrating. Happy Birthday Nicky!!!

The Scooby Dooby Dooby Party

As much as Nick loves superheroes, he insisted that instead of a superhero party, he have a "Scooby Dooby Dooby Party". Nick was so excited about his party and inviting all his buddies! However Nick has the unfortunate timing of being born near Spring Break. I hear this will be a problem every year. This means that many kids that he wanted to have at his party were out of town and couldn't make it. So we decided to also invite his whole class from church and ended up having a huge turn out. I think there were 19 kids in all-and to think we invited way more! The more the merrier, right?
At the beginning of the party, while the kids were watching an episode of Scooby Doo, someone stole all the presents! The kids and the Mystery Inc. had to solve the mystery of where the presents were. They followed clues around the house and played some games along the way: Pin the dog tag on Scooby, Stomp the ghosts(balloons), and Pass the Scooby Snacks (hot potato)-which was funny to watch because the kids didn't quite understand how it all worked. We then ate some cake and ice cream. After we found a trail of toilet paper leading us to Nick's room where Skylar, disguised as a mummy, had hidden all of the presents! She totally acted the part including the line " I would've gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" I unfortunately didn't get a picture! Anyway, Nick got to open presents-which was a little overwhelming with all the kids crowding him! He got some really cool stuff, including a Pluto Planet Hero from Kade and a Webkinz Beagle from Skylar. He had such a great birthday party. He loved it and it was totally worth all the chaos and mess afterward!! Happy Birthday Nicky!

One Crazy Week!

So I haven't been blogging too much lately because well, I'm pregnant. There hasn't been too much to report besides the nausea, puking, exhaustion, awesome migraines I can't do anything about, etc., etc. that go with being pregnant and that's not too interesting. I have lucked out with an awesome husband that brings me breakfast in bed every morning (even if it's just an Instant Breakfast!) so that I can actually attempt to get out of bed with something in my stomach and not pass out or throw up. What a sweet guy! Also, I've had amazing kids that don't seem to mind that I sleep in every morning and doze all afternoon as well. They are perfectly content with being total couch potatoes and having their minds turn to mush. So, to put it simply, we haven't been doing too much.
The last week was an exception. Skylar's school was off for Spring Break so I promised her that we'd do some fun things. We were kind of behind in Joy School so we decided to not take any time off for the break and have it anyway. So it was our turn to have it at our house on Monday and Wednesday. Skylar was so excited to get to help out! The unit was on Interest & Curiosity (have I mentioned I LOVE Joy School?) and we had Mr. Nobody visiting the whole week. The kids got to write a book, make rainbow Karo syrup pictures, do some creative dancing, and make creatures out of their snacks. We had a really fun week.
On Tuesday, my friends and I headed up to IKEA for a day of shopping. It is seriously the best place to go shopping with your kids. My kids absolutely love it there! We were able to get all 7 of our kids into the play land place for an hour and just shop with the 2 little ones too young to go. It was so nice! I was able to get a new nightstand for our bedroom and get a little closer to completing the ongoing makeover to get our room done after all these months of working on it. We also got some lunch. We had a fun time. When we left we were even lucky enough to hit the awesome blizzard that hit that left at least 4 inches of snow. Isn't it supposed to be late April?!? It was crazy!

On Thursday we did the library thing (see previous Eric Stoltz sighting!) and then headed to the mall to get Nick's birthday pics taken. That of course, ended up being an all afternoon thing so we also got some lunch there. We also went to Build-a-bear where Skylar made a bear for her best friend, Camille, who's birthday was on Friday. We also did a lot of running around to get ready for Nick's birthday party which was on Saturday.
Friday was our craziest day by far. It was finally a super nice Spring day so we headed up to Hogle Zoo along with our friends and a thousand other people. I have never seen it so busy there! Despite the crowd, we had such a nice day. We haven't been for awhile so it was fun to see Kade's reaction to all of the animals. The highlights of the day were the penguins, the elephants, and the awesome white crocodile. We decided to get a season pass this year and can't wait to get back with Ben!

So after the long day at the zoo, we literally pulled into our garage, Skylar ran in to get her present for Camille, Ben got in the car, and we headed over for dinner at Camille's house for her birthday. Her family invited our family over for delicious, gourmet, homemade pizza and cake and ice cream. We had a really nice night with them. We didn't get home until after 10 and needless to say our entire family was completely exhausted.

Saturday was equally as crazy. Ben and Nick had a morning out and went to Big Guys, Little Guys at the library. I heard that they got to pet snakes, saw sword fighting, played games, and ate some lunch. Nick was so excited about getting to have a day out alone with his dad. They had such a great time together. That afternoon was Nick's big birthday party-which deserves an entire post itself. So, the week was quite a big one-I guess to make up for the last few months being not too exciting. I definitely hope this week will include many afternoons of my kids being couch potatoes and me snoozing away. I need it!

My Celebrity Encounter

So I've come face to face with a few celebrities in my time. No one too exciting. I've seen the usual Utah celebrities: Steve Young, Marie Osmond, Donny Osmond, etc., etc. When I was 17 I sold something to Sigourney Weaver at the mall. When Ben and I were at Disneyland a few years back we sat next to Geena Davis & her entourage during lunch. There's also a few pro skaters I've had the pleasure to encounter: Chris Senn, Steve Caballero, Bucky Lasek, Gershon Mosely, Brian Howard, and Tony Hawk himself. These have all been pretty exciting.
Anyway, every week I take my kids to the library for story time. I've been doing it since Skylar was way little. It's part of my weekly routine. We sing some songs, get our wiggles out, listen to a story, and watch a puppet show. Once KSL news was there and the kids and I did end up on TV. Other than that, nothing unusual has ever happened. Until today.
Who shows up at today's story time? Eric Stoltz!! I couldn't believe it. He was with some chick and a little girl just acting like any old dad taking his kid to story time. But he's not any old dad-he's Keith from Some Kind of Wonderful-one of my favorite 80's flicks! I have to admit I was a little star struck. Not that he's a real hotty or anything but he's just sooo cool in Some Kind of Wonderful as the artsy nerdy guy. I always had a mini crush on him. Anyway, in person, he's really super skinny and definitely wears a lot of makeup on film because he has a TON of freckles. I walked right next to him while he was reading a book to the little girl and it was definitely him-totally his voice. I was so amazed and am embarrassed to admit that he caught me a few times staring. For the most part, he went pretty much unnoticed-most of the moms there are probably like 21 and have never even heard of him but one girl was getting his autograph at the end of story time. I'm not one that really cares about autographs but I wish I had the guts to approach him and ask him what the heck was he doing at Provo Library's story time?!? Crazy!!