Yesterdays funny story of the day.....

Just as a warning, this story will have only one (completely unrelated) picture and a liberal use of the word "hell."

So, yesterday I was driving Madison to school.  I let her sit up front since it's so hard for her to climb over the other kids and get out when we get there.

Avril's new song "What the Hell" came on the radio.  I was debating in my mind if I should change the radio station.  I always changed it when All-American Rejects song that had "hell" in the lyrics came on, but hey, I like Avril's song and nothing else had been on the last round of station-flipping I had done.  So I wasn't sure what was more important, good parenting or a good song.  I was mostly just hoping the kids were distracted enough to not notice what was on the radio.

As I'm debating it in my mind, Madison looks at the radio console and reads "What the Hell" out loud.  She looks at me and clasps her hands over her mouth so fast.  She KNEW she wasn't supposed to say that word.  She didn't really do it on purpose, so I wasn't mad, but I just said to her, "Madison, you know that's not a good word to say."

Immediately Hunter pipes in using the sweetest, most innocent little voice and says, "What the hell, mommy?" , "What the hell?"  (yeah, I know you can't understand anything the little guy says, but  of course this was unmistakeable and clear as day.)  Just like hwe would say if he used the phrase correctly.  He sounded so adult I couldn't believe it.

He was just repeating what Madison said and was trying to figure out what it meant, but I lost it.  I was laughing so hard I almost hit the car in front of me.  I still laugh thinking about it. 

I'm just hoping he doesn't decide to try out his new phrase at preschool.

And yes, the lesson is learned.  I will now be changing the station IMMEDIATELY when Avril's song comes on and the kids are in the car.

Soccer season: Fall 2010

Madison played soccer for the first time during the Fall 2010 season.  She did so good for a beginner!  She is getting pretty good at managing the ball, but still gets nervous during the games.  The aggressiveness intimidates her a little bit I think.  She is just naturally a gentle person.....

(she's #8)

She loved learning about the game......

Cheering on her teammates.......

And she especially loved the trophy  at the end......

At the end of the season she was sad that she hadn't gotten a goal, but she wanted to play again this season.  So now we're hoping she gets one in the next 9 weeks!



Hunter's preschool Chrismas party

Hunter's in two different preschools so he always has something fun going on between the two of them.  This year he had a family preschool Christmas gift exchange and party at Ms. Nancy's.  He had so much fun! 

For their December field trip the kids got to go to the Dollar Store and they each got to pick out one thing for themselves and one thing for their assigned friend from school (I got no pictures, I was too busy corraling 6 3-4 year olds).

At the party they took their friend's toy to him/her.

Then they got to open their own present

This is Hunter's friend Lucie, she was the one who got him his monster truck.  Funny story, last month I drove on their fieldtrip and ended up with Lucie in my car.  She gets in the car and sees Hunter, turns to me and says, "I like to kiss Hunter on the lips."  Hunter turns to me and says, "Yeah, I like to kiss Lucie on the lips, too."

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be in trouble with both Hunter and Madison when it comes to the opposite genter.  Ey-yey-yey.

After the kids sang songs and exchanged gifts, they were able to decorate some cookies.  The kids had so much fun!  Ms. Nancy even let Madison do a little decorating too! 

Thank you Ms. Nancy and Ms. Catrina for such a great Christmas party!  We all had so much fun!

There's a monster in the house

Hunter likes to run around the house and "roar" at people.  We then pretend to be scared and he giggles uncontrollably. 

It cracks me up every time......

Merry Christmas 2010

So it's March....what's your point?  As if I NEED to point out the fact that I am way behind on my blogging.  At least I'm getting to it!

Christmas in our household is always a drawn out affair.  We have found it impossible to keep the kids present-opening to one day, so we have given up all attempts to control it.  We basically have a full month of present opening.  Maybe we are Jewish in disguise????? Who knows.  The kids love it and I've come to terms with it and realized it is not that big of a deal- I can't think of any reason it would be hurting them, so who cares if it's not normal. 

So, a few weeks before Christmas Grandma Ainge always has a Christmas party at her house for the entire family.  It is one of my favorite things, I look forward to it all year.  Unfortunately, we are the ONLY part of the family that doesn't live in Utah, so we don't get to go every year, which was the case this year.  There was simply too much going on for a quick trip up north.  We try to make it most years, but it's not always possible.

Since we weren't able to go to the party Grandma Ainge mailed the Santa gifts for the kids to us.  Ryan and I decided it would be only fair for the kids to open the presents the day of the party.  They were SO excited.  Each of the kids got jammies and a pillow pet.  Madison was jumping up and down for joy since she had been begging us to get her one.

Madison got a Unicorn

Hunter got a Dog

and Presley got a Ladybug

Hunter saw the ladybug and decided he just HAD to have it, so since Presley is pretty used to getting everything taken away, she ended up with the dog.  Poor little girl, I'm sure I'm giving her complex after complex. 

Just to brag a little bit here, I actually did put up a Christmas tree this year.  Yep, that's right, I made the time to do it.  See, for a little back story, last year (to the great consternation of my mother-in-law) we did NOT put our tree up.  I couldn't do it, I was late into my pregnancy, we had too much going on, we went to Utah twice in one month, plus we actually spent Christmas there, so it just never happened.  Sometimes priorities shift when you are 200 months pregnant and barely surviving at it is.  But this year we were spending Christmas at home, so I had to put it up (and I did so gladly).

That's right, it was our very first Christmas at our own house, with just our little family.  I was so excited I couldn't hardly contain myself.  Not that I don't love spending time with family, but I was so excited to create our traditions and have time together just us.  I love my little family and really enjoyed our time together.

We read the Christmas story in Luke and used our Nativity so the kids could help

Then we sorted all the presents and grabbed pictures with them.  Oooh, the suspense....

And here is what they opened on Christmas Eve, that's right, see, Scandinavians and Germans traditionally open family presents on Christmas Eve and then just the Santa presents on Christmas morning.  I always liked it this way because, (a) it drew out the joys of opening presents, and (b) the Santa presents were just a little bit more special.  Santa brings all the really good, big presents.  I don't think I knew that the rest of the world opened everything up on Christmas morning until I was in high school.

They even got to finally see what was in the big wrapped boxes that had been sitting on the floor for a month.  I threatened them with no Santa and no big present if they opened it or played on it.

What was it?????  A swingset from the Grandparents Ainge.

After we opened the presents, we:

Made sure the stockings were hung

Made sure Fred, our Elf on the Shelf, was in place to report to Santa

Made sure the cookies for Santa were made (he requested Chocolate Chip this year)

And maybe had a few licks along the way.....

Or maybe even a more than a few.....

But have no fear!  We accomplished the cookies for Santa!  In the shape of snowmen

Mommy even added some carrots for the reindeer later

We couldn't make cookies for Santa and not eat some ourselves!

We put on our Christmas jammies and went off to bed.....

Since all the kids were *ahem* "good little boys and girls" this year, Santa brought them each their most requested present

a beauty salon for Madison

a train set for Hunter

a fun bunch of toys for Presley, she's easy

On Christmas day Hunter woke up sick (with and ear infection he ended up having for 3 months that took 3 rounds of antibiotics +2 antibiotic shots to clear up) so he cried and slept most of the day.

And Presley just wanted to play with all the boxes

Whew!  Christmas was exhausting for me!  The kids were finally finished.....well, until my parents arrived later in the day and they got to open a few more.  Seriously, do you see how it never ends for us?????  I'm not complaining, trust me, I just am forever trying to get the kids all together and hold still to open a little here, and a little there.  I'll just shut up now, I'm pretty sure I'm just digging myself into a further hole.

Madison got the Build - a - Bear wardrobe that she had been begging for.

Hunter got a Basketball hoop

Presley got a University of Memphis tiger that she likes to climb on

And a phone, you know, because she's a girl and you KNOW she will love a phone.

Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas!  We had so much fun!

Thanksgiving 2010

***It's March and I'm finally able to blog our Thanksgiving trip from last year....We have had a busy, busy last few months.  But we had so much fun that I couldn't just not blog it at all!

This past year we had Thanksgiving with the Ainge's and Christmas with the Hanson's.  So, for Thanksgiving we went to Utah for a few days to join in the annual festivities.

We ended up leaving a day earlier than we had planned because of the "White-out" that was supposed to hit the next day.  It ended up being almost nothing (which I found hilarious), but we got to Utah safe, which was all that mattered.

The night we arrived we celebrated Hunter's birthday.  This year he got a Spider man cake, which he LOVED!  He loves all things Spider man.

He got a kick out of getting to blow out his candles.  It was really the first time he "got" what was happening.

He got presents, which he found SO exciting!  He loves to open presents.  He got his first BYU hoodie, a Toy Story car ramp, a Dinosaur, a Build-a-bear Batman outfit and giftcard, and a fun DVD.  He had so much fun!

The Ainge family has a tradition of each person making a pie for the big day on Wednesday.  Madison and Ryan both made apple, Madison got a kick out of getting to make her own.  What did I make?  I paid homage to my southern roots by making an AMAZING Sweet Potato Pie.  Oh, it was delicious!

We always spend Thanksgiving day at Grandma Ainge's house with the entire extended family.  This year I got a picture of all the younger kids together.  It way quite the ordeal!  Trying to get multiple young kids to all look at the same camera and smile at the same time can only be described as....fun....yeah, it was *fun*.  But I got a decent one out of it.  We only grabbed the kids that had been born since Ryan and I got married (otherwise it would have been HUGE).

I also got a few pictures of Presley with the cousins that were born really close to her.  I love that my kids get to grow up with cousins their own age (at least they get some on Ryan's side since MY sister's aren't providing any for them! Don't get mad, I'm just giving you a hard time because I love you and I can :)~).  I love all of my cousins and have REALLY enjoyed all the times we spent together growing up, and then now as adults ourselves.  I'm hoping my kids will feel the same way about theirs.

Presley and Malea, Malea was born almost a month after Presley.

This is Presley with Allen, Ryan's brother's first baby.  Presley is about 4 months older than him.  We had a hard time getting these two to stop looking at each other!  They were each fascinated with the other one!

Our biggest adventure over the weekend was trying to get the annual Live Nativity picture we do with the kids.  Again, trying to get all the kids to look at the camera and not make funny faces was not easy (but I got funny pictures for the "blooper reel" under the picture we picked)!  But we did it!  We got a good one for my Mother-in-law.



Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!