Ainge family

Fred the Elf

2011-12-20T13:58:00.001-08:00

The kids have been a little naughty today so Fred had to visit with Santa during naptime instead of waiting for bedtime tonight.

He's attempting to be inconspicuous by fishing in the water dispenser. We'll see if it works

Wait, why aren't I going anywhere?

2011-12-08T19:54:00.001-08:00

Soooo.....sometimes I worry about Hunter. Why, you ask? Well. Um. This is why.

His 4 wheeler was on the couch so the floors could be mopped.

I'm pretty sure 1) it can't really go anywhere up on the couch,and 2) where it could go I'm praying it never will.

At least he's wearing his helmet??????

Um, go BYU?!?!

Well, that's one way to do it

2011-12-08T19:48:00.001-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to get spaghetti noodles in your mouth.

And sometimes you've gotta be smarter than the noodles.

Slippery little suckers.

Playing trains

2011-12-08T19:46:00.001-08:00

My kids crack me up all day long. Especially when they do silly things. Things that make perfect sense when I think of them from their point of view.

Case in point; Presley loves playing trains with (or without) Hunter. But until recently it was hard for her to just stand for a long time (she wasn't walking all that early in her little life.) I also think she had a hard time reaching all the pieces. Eh, Or maybe she's just my kid and super lazy.

With that said, this was her solution.

Opening the drawer and CLIMBING in to sit and play. Problem is, she can't get herself out. Plus, the last thing I want is for the table/drawer to get broken. So I snapped a quick picture and then got her out YET AGAIN.

And yes, she is wearing her jammie pants with her dress instead of her matching leggings. Don't ask.

Quite apropos

2011-12-08T19:37:00.001-08:00

I finally figured out what I wanted to put over Hunter's bed. I couldn't put any sort of picture because, knowing Hunter, he would play and destroy anything within reach.

This phrase says:

Boy, (noun) a noise with dirt on it.

I don't think there is any phrase that describes him in a more apropos manner.

I love my cute boy. But he is ALL BOY.

100% Girl

2011-12-08T19:19:00.001-08:00

Presley says just a few words now. The only ones I can really understand are "shoes," "phone," "cheese (as in, for the camera)," and "snack."

Yeah, she's a girl, that's for sure.

At church on Sunday I finally got Presley all situated when she discovered the Barbie blackberry and some animal crackers. She kept saying "hello" into the phone and then proceeded to babble away as if telling all sorts of funny stories.

This little one cracks me up.

****the picture's a little goofy because I was trying to take it without disrupting the speaker during sacrament.

Closet snacker

2011-12-08T19:14:00.001-08:00

I was making breakfast the other morning and I went into the pantry for something and this is what I found.

Apparently I wasn't cooking fast enough to suit my littlest monster.

Halloween wear

2011-12-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween (or really, the month of October) I got the kids some fun orange and black clothes to help celebrate "the holiday of candy."

Here's the best picture I got of them all in their outfits:

And here are a few outtakes for you to enjoy:

Deja Vu

2011-12-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Who does this remind you of????? Hmmmm?????

Friday night football (or, Wednesday night, to be more accurate)

2011-10-26T20:10:00.001-07:00

Tonight we had the ward trunk-or-treat, and this is how my kids were "costumed" for it. I'll blog more about it later, but I just wanted to share how incredibly adorable they were.

First Grade Rocks!

2011-09-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Madison had a wonderful year in 1st grade, she learned so much and made some good friends. We absolutely LOVED her teacher, Mrs. Jett. She was fantastic and you could tell she loved her kids to pieces. It makes such a difference as a parent to know you are sending your kid off to someone who will love and respect your child as they learn. I kept wishing Mrs. Jett would move up to 2nd grade with Madison (not that I don't love her 2nd grade teacher, I do. She's fantastic.)

One of the most special things Madison got to do this year was to anchor Good Morning Smalley with another classmate. See, the 5th graders typically get to anchor the show but I guess they weren't taking it seriously so the teacher in charge decided to teach them a lesson and let 4 1st graders anchor it for a week, and Madison was one of the 4 selected! How random is that !?! So, she and her classmate did M,W,F and another class got to do T, TH. Here is the show for the Friday she anchored. It's about 6:30 minutes long and they do have some news during it, but watch it until the end, the kids get to be silly. It is so fun! We were so proud of her!

Look, so this is the thing.....it took me 5 hours to upload this dang video, so please be nice and watch it.

The other thing that Madison got to do this year was participate in the Smalley 5k and 1 mile Fun Run (or walk). She convinced me to do it with her (because Riley was doing it with his mom--thanks a lot Lindsay) so one Saturday in April we ran for her school. I did the entire 1 mile with her, practically dragging her the entire way....she wanted to walk but ~~I was embarrassed to be walking~~ it was supposed to be a run, so we'd walk and then we'd run. I had to MAKE her run across the finish line. My rule is, you either run or crawl across the finish line, anything else is unacceptable. Once the 1 mile run was over I did the 5K with some friends (who SMOKED me...it was a terrible run for me, but whatever, I'd been sick the week before and that is my excuse. Plus I suck as a runner, but I did RUN across the finish line.)

And here's a picture with my girls....Congrats to Lindsay for her 1st place in the Women's division (she was 3rd overall and ALMOST beat the guy in front of her) and to Julie for her 2nd place in the Women's division. See why I can't run with anyone???? They are way too fast for me! My only accomplishment was finishing before the stroller brigade overtook me.

Congratulations Madison for such a fantastic year! I can't wait to see what you accomplish in 2nd grade!

It's the end of an era (sort of)

2011-09-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

Madison played soccer for a second season this past spring. She enjoyed it, but didn't love it so I told her that she could either play soccer again next season or do gymnastics instead. She picked gymnastics (*gasp* shocking!) and so we said goodbye to her wonderful team after a great season. She had such fantastic coaches and the girls were so sweet, and I actually liked the parents. I would have loved to play with all of them again this season, but Madison put in 2 seasons and decided it wasn't for her.

Ryan and I were not sad at all. In fact, we threw a party to celebrate not having a soccer player for 6 whole months! Hunter will be old enough in the spring....and then my life, once again, will be taken over by soccer.

Here is a montage of Soccer 2011. We got some fantastic pictures of Madison and we will remember soccer with fondness, but still jump for joy that she didn't love it.

Here are Presley and Hunter, hanging out during her games. You know, just because they are so cute.

End of the year dance party

2011-09-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun end of the year party for dance. One of the families invited all of the dancers, their siblings and parents to come play, swim and BBQ. I'm pretty sure they are crazy, but the kids had a blast!

Hunter was pretty excited to get to eat chips...we had to tell him to stop running several times.

And then he discovered the water guns and we couldn't get him out of the water.

So what, he's wearing a pink life jacket.....I'm to cheap to spend $30 dollars for something we already own. Let's just say he's going for the "metro" look and leave it at that. He's so stinkin' cute.

Hey, you, Mr. GQ man....you've got some brownie on your face!

Yeah, he doesn't care. I've given up on trying to keep his face clean....he's always eating!

Poor Presley had to sit in the stroller the entire time. I was so terrified I'd look away for a second and she'd fall in the pool.

Madison had so much fun swimming with friends that I'm pretty sure this was the only time I saw her the entire party.

We're looking forward to another fun swim party next year!

Dancin' the night away

2011-09-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

Madison started dance with Ms. Brenda this past year and LOVED IT! I moved her from the rec center for a few different reasons, but the biggest one being that I wanted her to have more opportunities to perform than the 2 times a year her rec center class set up.

With Ms. Brenda they do 3 or 4 parades, a Halloween show, a few different retirement homes, plus the Logandale (Clark County) fair and their end of the year extravaganza! We stay really busy with her performances, but Madison absolutely loves them.

This little girl adores dancing! She dances around the house ALL. THE. TIME. It gets a bit annoying, but I'm glad we found something that she enjoys so much. This year I've put her in to the gymnastics class as well. I'm getting extremely annoyed with the constant flipping, but again, she loves it so much and is really good at it.

Here's a montage of her dancing last year. A few of the pictures came from a 2nd dance class she did last year with a neighbor that was a professional dancer (no, not that kind) before she had kids. She focused more on technique and Madison really enjoyed getting more dance time in.

Can I just say, Madison is a born dancer, she has the sass and attitude down pat! She has absolutely NO stage fright and seems to really love the crowds. I may be biased, but she is for sure one of the best dancers up there!

Little stinker

2011-09-30T09:22:00.001-07:00

Presley has discovered the drawers in Hunter's train table...every time I turn my back she crawls back up in to it. I'm a little worried she's going to break the whole thing.

"Bucket Seating"

2011-08-26T16:34:00.001-07:00

When I have things to do around the house (in this case, folding laundry) I give Presley a bucket of toys to unpack, repack, and occassionally actually play with. She has recently decided that sitting IN the bucket with the toys makes them more fun to play with.

I'm just happy I can work on a task for 10 minutes at a time now. I only care that she's sitting in it when it falls over and she cries.

(Not quite a) Water Baby

2011-08-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

When we went to Wisconsin this past month we spent 5 days in the water. Presley was a tad bit hesitant at first....see, my kids don't take baths- they shower, so she just did not know what to do when we went to put her in the water. It didn't help that the water wasn't all that warm.

I got a series of pictures with Aunna putting Presley into the water, I was cracking up. The poor girl was having none of it!

She was much better once we took her out of the water and gave her some snuggles.

By the end of the week she couldn't get enough of the water and cried when we took her OUT.

She LOVED playing on the swing

She also loved going down the slide with Ariane

She was fascinated by the frog spitting water

She loved just getting around in the water, she crawled and walked endlessly

There were so many fun things to climb on, she had a ball

We had such a great trip!

Maybe one of these days I'll blog about the other 2 kids, but Presley is just so stinkin' cute!

Doughnut days

2011-08-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

My dad loves doughnuts. That is where I have gotten my love of doughnuts. I have friends that don't like them, and all I can think is, "What is wrong with you? How can you not love doughnuts???" He has an uncanny ability to find a doughnut shop anywhere we go. He can leave a hotel room in a new city, start driving or walking, and without getting lost, find the nearest bakery. It's somewhat of a family joke to us all.

So, obviously, his favorite thing to do with the kids is to take them to get doughnuts once each time we visit. While we were in Wisconsin last week we did our doughnut morning the first morning we were in town, and Madison got to go along with him to help with the family doughnut run. She LOVED it. She got her favorite- doughnut holes. Yum!

***As a side note, when I was about Madison's age I used to go visit my dad's parents in Minnesota during the summer all by myself (when you're the oldest of 6 girls, one-on-one attention was rare, and coveted). Over the course of the few years I got to stay there, those weeks with my grandparents became some of my most treasured memories, I would look forward for the chance to visit with them all year long. As my anticipation of summer break started getting closer I would call my grandmother up and ask when I could come visit. I adored my grandparents (both sides, but for some reason I went to my dad's parents alone and Alyssa went to my mom's. Funny, huh....). Anyway, during the week I visited my grandmother took me to work with her at the college for one day and my grandfather would take me to get a doughnut one morning. I loved that special one-on-one time with them. I really believe there is a special bond between grandparent and grandchild. They are so important in children's lives. I have beloved memories of all 4 grandparents, I miss them every day.

Anyway...back to "The Great (lame) Doughnut Story."

So, since Presley is finally eating real food, and a bit older, I decided that she was finally old enough to participate in this family tradition. (My family likes to eat....whatever)

She loved her doughnut...she got a plain cake doughnut, no frosting or icing (my Nazi parenting ways never truly relax) and ate every bite.

I'm pretty sure Hunter devoured 3 doughnuts before one of us caught on to him. Little stinker!

Sometimes in life it's the little things that seem so inconsequential, that stay with you and matter the most. Seriously, who would think that being taken to get a doughnut would stick with me for 30 years?

Making (not so) beautiful music together

2011-08-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Madison has decided that since she is soooo good on the piano, it is time to help Presley learn. Uh. Yeah, um-hmm, let's just say I told her that she still has to go to lessons to have a teacher help her "get better," even though she is soooo good on it now.

But I do have to say, it is so cute watching her teach the younger kids things. She is so sweet and patient with them, she is going to be a great mom some day....way better than me.

***Okay, so funny story...as I was typing out this post I spelled learn "lurn." I don't know why, I'm a fantastic speller as a general rule. I started laughing at myself, because at least I recognized how stupid that was, and Ryan looked at me weird so I had to tell him what I did. His response? "Glad to see that BYU degree paying off, if BYU calls, don't answer because they might want it back." I wouldn't blame the;, so if I don't answer your call, now you know why.

SuuuuperMaaaaan!!! & his trusty sidekick, "Hunterbear"

2011-08-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hunter got to go to Build-a-Bear with his preschool class for a field trip a few months ago, he named his new bear "Hunterbear." Which, if you've spent more than 2 minutes around Hunter and I you'll know that I call him "Hunterbear" on a really regular basis. He's going to hate me when he is a teenager. So I found it cute that he named his bear after himself. Some might call it cute, others, narcissistic; Tomato, tahmahtoe.

Anyway, his Gigi found a box of BAB outfits at a yard sale and wisely snagged it for my kids. In the box was a Superman outfit for the bear. A few weeks ago Hunter decided he wanted to dress up like his bear, and came downstairs like this. I thought it was so stinkin' cute!

Madison had to get in on the action, so she somehow found her old Supergirl jammie shirt that is WAY too small for her, and came for a quick picture.

Madison's Quilt

2011-08-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

So I finally got my act together and took a class to learn all about the art of making t-shirt quilts. For years I have wanted to make a quilt out of all of Madison's old baby clothes, the special ones at least. So this summer I hired the cutest little girls to come watch my kids while I was gone for 5 hours a day for one week. The kids had the best time with the girls, and I got to learn how to put the quilt together so I could FINALLY get rid of the clothes I've been hanging on to for years.

After roughly 70 hours of work (aka ignoring my kids), here is the result

I'm so excited to make one for each of my younger kids, I have plans to make one for them once they turn 5.

I loaned all Hunter's younger clothes to in-laws for their little guys, so next time I'm in Utah I'll have to dig through and make sure to grab all the things that are special to me so nothing gets lost. Especially now that I know for sure what I'm doing...there were some things of Madison's that just wouldn't work in a quilt, and other things that I didn't think would work but did.

I started a bucket for Presley's stuff and it's getting pretty full already...I'm a bit worried her quilt will end up being really, really large. Madison's ended up a queen and I kept a lot more of Presley's stuff (well, that and she has a LOT more stuff than Madison did.)

Meet Seniorita Grumpy Pants

2011-08-19T19:29:00.001-07:00

She's been a grump all day. Every time I put her down she throws a tantrum. Every time I tell her "NO" she throws a tantrum. Every time I try and give her a toy, she throws it on the ground and then throws a tantrum.

Parenthood is fun!

Thank goodness it's finally bedtime.

Mom, help me

2011-08-03T16:45:00.001-07:00

Hunter: Mom, help me put my underwear on. You hold my underwear and I put my legs through. That's how you help me.

Me: Bossy little thing.....

hmm, wonder where he gets that from?????

Madison, what are you doing?

2011-08-03T16:42:00.001-07:00

Me: Madison, what are you doing?

Madison: Trying to carry Presley like a baby.

Me: Um, I think she might be a little big for that now....but hold on, let me take a picture and then PUT. HER. DOWN. Thanks.

I'm all grown up now, mom. Geez.

2011-08-03T08:56:00.001-07:00

So today I sat down to feed Presley breakfast and she wouldn't eat it. That's not a normal issue with her, she's my child-she's an eater.

Afte attempting to feed her about 5 times I gave up trying and let her have the spoon. Apparently that was what she wanted.

All I can think of is the mess she'll be making.

Ready, Set, Flip!

2011-07-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hunter got to take gymnastics during the school year and LOVED IT! See, the kid has absolutely NO coordination or balance. He can literally be standing still and fall over, hurting himself. He's a disaster. So I put him in gymnastics last January.

He loved having an activity just for him. We would spend every afternoon shuttling Madison around from activity to activity, so I figured it was only fair that he got one for himself.

All week long I would hear, "Mom, is today Monday?" "No, yesterday was ___, so what does that make today?" Then he would go through the week and tell me how many days we had left before it was Monday again. Cute...but a little annoying after a while.

He loved stretching the most. He had so much fun and can't wait to start up again when school is back in session.

She's finally starting to walk!

2011-07-22T10:54:00.001-07:00

So, because of our insane schedule the last 4-5 months Presley got very, very little time to practice walking or heck, even crawl around, so she's a bit slower on the walking front. BUT she's finally starting to master it! We're so happy (and relieved) that she's starting to use her feet. Crawling is so disgusting.

I'm thirsty

2011-07-22T09:49:00.001-07:00

Presley may not be able to walk (much), or talk (much), but the girl sure has drinking out of a straw down like a pro.

It makes her so happy, too!

You go girl!

Rockin' out

2011-07-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

Madison has decided to teach Presley how to be a rock star. I have to say, she'll be a great teacher. She goes around the house singing, dancing and doing gymnastics 24/7.

Thriller

2011-07-22T09:35:00.001-07:00

So....some people want to be Michael Jackson so they wear the one red glove. Hunter likes to be his own person, so he likes to wear one sock instead. It'll be all the rage, um, sometime.......??????

I feel like wearing heels today

2011-06-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

So Hunter and Madison were fighting the other day over some dress up high heels we have. They both wanted to wear the yellow ones....Hunter's argument was that yellow ones are boy ones, pink ones are for girls (we only have pink and yellow ones). Madison's argument was that the pink ones are too small for her, only the yellow fit.

Oh, the dilemma's that I face every day.....I let them battle it out, after I explained to Hunter that high heels are for girls, period. It doesn't matter which color they are, but if he wants to wear them and play, I am fine with that.

Sometimes it's just a rough day

2011-05-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

What do pirates say?

2011-05-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hunter LOVES his "Pirate Shirt." So the other day I was teaching him to say "Aargh" and "Ahoy, Mateys." Well, he got a little confused and when I asked him what pirates say, instead of saying "Ahoy, Mateys," he said "Holy Ghost." So now when we ask him what pirates say he says, "Aargh and Ahoy, Mateys not Holy Ghost."

He cracks me up.

Smile Hunter, I'm going to put this on the blog

2011-05-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago Madison was playing around while I made breakfast and this is what happened.....

She grabbed her camera and said to Hunter, "Smile Hunter, I'm going to put this on the blog."

I had to laugh and then I grabbed my camera and proceeded to grab a picture that would actually go on the blog (her camera was out of batteries).

We had a "green" day

2011-04-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

For St. Patrick's day this year I actually decided to do a "green" theme. Usually I end up being so frazzled on holidays that we don't get to do anything fun or "holiday" related.

Since I make breakfast pretty much every morning anyway I made sure it was green for the kids.

Lets just say it didn't go over too well. It kind of freaked the kids out, but I made them eat most of the Green eggs I prepared. They did really enjoy the green milk though!

They made sure they had enough green on so they didn't get pinched at school....Madison was quite worried about that.

So she made sure to wear a fun headband, just in case....

Madison's dance troupe got to ride in the Henderson St. Patrick's Day parade this year. It was windy. And cold. The kids did NOT have very much fun.

She was wearing green, but decided she wanted my hoodie, so she ended up with a black hoodie and her green headband.

But still waved to us from the front of the trailer!

By the end she was ready to get warm

Hope all of you had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Hairbow? What hairbow?!?!

2011-04-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

Without fail, the second I put a hairbow in Presley's hair she reaches up and takes it out. We end up playing the "No" game. You know the game I am sure: I put in the hairbow, she reaches up for it, I stop her hand and say "no." This goes on for a while, with her intermittently giggling because it is just so funny. Finally I am able to distract her and it stays in...that is, until we get in the car.

She's so proud of herself!

Have you seen my cooking blog?

2011-04-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a little crazy, we all know that. So I've decided to start a cooking blog. You know, because I'm sooo great at keeping up on this blog what I need to do is start another blog.

With that said......

....come on over and see what I'm cooking.

Yesterdays funny story of the day.....

2011-03-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

***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!

Our new backyard

2011-02-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

We've been really, really busy since Christmas. It seems like the older I get the faster time goes, especially January and February (or at least I'm hoping the rest of the year will slow down a bit). One of the biggest reasons is because we have been working so hard on putting the swing set together that the kids got for Christmas.

Since we were going to put the swing set together we decided to bite the bullet and finish off the backyard. Ugh. I hate putting money into landscaping, but it did need to be done and it does look nice. Plus it's a bit more fun for the kids now.

This is what half of our backyard looked like before we started (well, before hardly anything had been done to it). One big "dirt pit" as I have *affectionately* entitled it.

After the landscaper leveled the yard as much as he could we had curbing put in.

Then it was time for the trees and plants to be put in. We did 8 trees, and I think 15 plants (I keep forgetting to count them.)

Then the outer part had to be prepped for the fake grass. Yes, we went fake....we hate yard work.

Then the fake stuff had to be put in. Yay!

Once everything finally got put in we started building the swing set....Oh, the fun......

We had to measure and lay out all of the pieces...that took about 2 hours.

We spend a LOT of time hunched down the first day, Ryan and I were SO sore.

At the end of the day this is what we had accomplished (8 hours we spend on this dang part).

Day 2:

Putting the finishing touches on:

And here it is! Our backyard:

At some point in time we will get on the ball and order rubber chips for the grey area, but as of right now I am FINISHED with the dang back yard. Phew!

In total it took us, both working, about 22 hours to put the swing set together. It was a massive project. We are so glad to have it finished.

Future filmmaker in training....

2011-02-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

Madison has figured out how to make a video on my camera's, so now every time I upload to the computer I find interesting little movies on the memory stick.

All Bundled Up

2011-02-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

So, um, it was a little bit freezing when we went to ski in Utah over the week of New Years....our poor baby girl had so many layers on she could not even bend, BUT she wasn't cold!

It's tough being so cool.....

2011-02-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Not everyone could pull this off quite so easily......

12 Days of Christmas: Post 12

2010-12-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

I bet you didn't think I'd make it, huh? I'm not really good at finishing large projects....especially ones that require large chunks of time, but I did it! Whoo-hoo! So, without further ado, here is my final "favorites" post of the year.

My favorite news story of the year?

In honor of the Christmas season I picked out the Christmas version of this story.

If you've been living under a rock and haven't seen the news story that this spoofs, here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520

My favorite blog post:
Usually I link up to a friends blog post as my favorite. This year I have to forgo that for my favorite Facebook status update....I can't get it out of my head, I laugh daily thinking of it.

One of my friends posted this quote from the show "New Adventures of Old Christine:"

"I used to get turned on by the touch of a man. Now I get turned on by a sale at Target."

I'm just going to leave it at that.....it's kind of borderline appropriate as it is.

My favorite youtube video:

And maybe, just maybe, it's my favorite because I'm from the south and LOVE Waffle House.

My favorite Madison moment?

My favorite Hunter moment?

My favorite Presley moment?

My favorite Ryan moment

My favorite me moment?

12 Days of Christmas: Post 11

2010-12-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

That's right, post 11 belongs to our little Missy-May, Presley Anne. She is so sweet and happy all the time, she has been such a fun addition to our little family.

She has learned to say "Mama" and "Dada." She, of course, said "Dada" first, but only a few days later she moved on to "Mama," which makes me so happy. She mostly just babbles right now, but when she is in her crib and wants out she does cry "Mama."

Everything still goes in her mouth....this stage is rough because I have soooo much tile and even if I vacuum it twice a day there is always a crumb or rock to put in her mouth. She hasn't started solids yet, except for the little melty crackers, because I HATE solids for babies. She is doing just fine on bottles, growing like a weed and chunky as ever. I'll start her some time early next year. I think Madison was about 14 months when she went to solids and Hunter was about 9 months, so she's right on schedule for my kids.

She started crawling, which does not make me too excited. It's so filthy and my kids get into EVERYTHING once they get mobile. It's a pretty recent development so I'm still training myself to remember that she can move around, so now I have to keep my bedroom door closed when she's upstairs (she likes the stairs and I'm afraid she'll roll down them.)

She loves to explore and look, touch, taste everything in her path. She is so curious about her surroundings. She's not a very fast crawler, but she is steady. She can get from one spot to another without me realizing she moved at all. She hasn't learned to follow me around yet, she'll crawl to an interesting something-or-other, but when I leave she sits back and cries for me to come get her.

She has become really attached to me (I think it's just that stage of development) but she wants to be held ALL. THE. TIME. My arms ache constantly and I have a hard time getting anything accomplished when she is awake. I don't remember my other two being this clingy. Once she is picked up she is the happiest baby ever, and she'll put her head on my shoulders and snuggle for a minute. Oh, how I love her snuggles.

She finally got her first tooth in the last week or two. It has barely come through, so I can't even get a picture of it yet! I love the gummy smile that babies have, not that I don't think teeth are cute, but the biting is not! I'm so grateful for the Hyland's homeopathic teething tablets, oh my goodness, I don't know what I would do without them! She has had the roughest time getting her teeth out and I'm not really fond of giving my babies under a year old Tylenol.

She is still an amazing sleeper. At bedtime we feed her a bottle, lay her down, put her blankie over her and she does a half cry as she lay's her head down, and then she is out. It is wonderful! She still doesn't sleep through the night every night, but she only wakes up once, eats and goes right back to sleep, so I don't really complain. She won't sleep in her carseat (she never really has liked it) but give her a bed and she is OUT.

We're so glad she came to our family. She definitely tops the list of my "favorites" for this year.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 10

2010-12-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

This event was probably my most favorite event of the entire year (other than the birth of my 3rd child, and even that might be second because it was pretty painful) so I figure it deserves it's own posting.

My Aunt Lori got married this year. It was so wonderful, my entire family met up in Minnesota to celebrate with her. I have so many wonderful memories with her (with all of my aunts, really. I have an amazing family.) She has tagged along on some of our family trips and I enjoyed that more than I could possibly say. She is so fun and easy going, she always just fit right in with all of us.

Welcome to the family Jason & Stori. We're so excited to have you.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 9

2010-12-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

I'm running behind, SHOCKING I know, but this post was SO time consuming. I've been working on it forever! So here it is....

Favorite #9 is Hunter.

I have been having a lot of fun at Hunter's expense this year (which honestly is a favorite past time of mine). He is so surrounded by girls that he *naturally* picks up some of the things we girls do every day. Trust me, he is 100% boy, but it sure is fun to see what he picks up and what he doesn't from all the females around him. I call it my list of "Why I'm pretty sure my son thinks he is a girl." If you haven't read some of my facebook posts on him I included some of them on the list and added a few more.

Since there were so many pictures I decided to do the post in scrapbook pages, so click on the picture and you should be able to read all about him. I did a list of 21 reasons he is a boy, with a few little captions or paragraphs as to why I'm convinced he thinks he is a girl. It's all in good fun, lest you think I am terribly mean (which I am, but not in this case.)

Hunter has grown so much this last year. He's grown such a personality....I don't know how else to describe him. He is so stinkin' adorable, you just can't help but love him to pieces. Even when he is being a complete stinker he's so cute it's hard to get upset with him. He loves cuddles and gives the best kisses....all day long (or at least lately as he's become a tad bit jealous of Presley) he comes up to me or Ryan and says "Hold me, mommy." Oh, how that melts my heart! It's almost impossible to resist holding him for a bit. When I want cuddles from him and he says no I say to him, "Hold me, Hunter" and he laughs and will give me a quick hug.

This year he finally started talking. When he was 2 1/2 he only said 12 words, so I was a bit worried, to be honest. Madison was almost talking in complete sentences at 1, which I hear all the time not to compare boys and girls, but come on, of course I'm going to! He finally moved on from only saying "No" or "More" and started saying "uh-huh" for yes about 3 months ago. Now he has moved on to "yeah" for everything. They are both so cute! It just sounds so much more grown up than "yes" does.....weird that I think that, I know.

So, every time he sees something neat he yells out "Whoa, Cool!" really loud. It makes me laugh so hard! It's especially funny when we are in the movie theater and he yells it out. I think it's my favorite saying of his.

Um, he's a tad bit stubborn....I mean, come on, both of his parents are so it's only reasonable that he will be as well. HIS favorite phrase is probably, "No, don't want to." Oh, yes, he LOVES saying this to me. It drives me crazy! I don't friggin' care if my 3 year old wants to do something I've asked of him or not, there are certain things that have to be done anyway....like, say, oh....going potty!

We potty trained him, and it was going great, but he decided it wasn't all that much fun anymore. So he is back in diapers now. Seriously, I battled it out for 6 months and after daily accidents I decided it's not worth it. He'll get tired of being a baby and want his underwear back soon enough. I didn't mind making him go potty all the time once he decided he no longer wanted to let me know when he had to go. But I did mind the kicking, screaming, hitting and crying that I encountered every time I took him potty. Not to mention the times we sat on the potty with no "action" just to have an accident within 5 minutes after the potty break. Go ahead, judge me. He won that battle. And you know what, he's decided he wants his underwear back and today he let me know when he needed to go. Obviously what I was doing didn't work, so I'll try this instead. I'm not willing to ruin my relationship with him over going potty on the toilet. If he was 5, that would be a different story.....

He's still hungry ALL. THE. TIME. He follows me around the house saying, "Food me." I feed him, I promise! He just likes to eat (he gets that from me, I LOVE to eat.)

The other thing he says ALL. THE. TIME. is: "Mommy doing?" It drives me nuts. Every 15 seconds, "Mommy doing?" Sometimes all I want to do is pull my hair out. It's cute once, more than that is annoying.

When he decides he wants to do something he says: "Do that." I don't know why, but when I ask him if we wants to do....whatever....instead of saying "yeah" he says "do that." It's adorable.

He also likes to state the obvious. When Presley is crying he looks at me and says: "Baby Presley crying." Thanks, dude, I didn't hear it ::insert eye roll here::

Recently he has started trying to change my mind after I say no to something. He looks at me with the most pitiful doggy eyes and says: "Please, mommy." Oh, how I want to give him the world when he ways that. It melts my stone-cold, hard heart. I don't, because I'm a firm believer in consistency and hate the whining that comes when kids know they can change your mind. But oh, how I want to!

My favorite Hunter story this year was this one. I have to say, this is the story that I got the most amount of comments on....not necessarily on the blog, but every time I ran into someone they would comment on it. I'm pleased to announce that we no longer have to follow this protocol. He outgrew this behavior (and picked up on others, don't you for a second think I have it any easier now, it's just different.)

We love our Hunterbear. He is so sweet and funny, he lights up my days. I'm so glad he's mine.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 8

2010-12-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

I adore my children. I know I constantly whine about them, but I absolutely adore them. They make me laugh. They make me smile. They occasionally make me want to tear my hair out. Every now and again they make me cry. But mostly, they make my heart swell with love. I'm am beyond grateful for each one of them, hence, the reason they will all get their own posting this year (as if I don't post enough about them.)

Madison has become our "toothless wonder" (can you tell we read the Junie B. books?). She has lost 4 teeth this year. I tell her that is she doesn't start brushing her teeth a little better she will end up losing them all! She just gives me the look that says "Mom, you're an idiot." You know the one, it's the one that you used when you were a teenager. Seriously, this 6 year old is a teenager in spirit already. Well, she has the attitude of one, that's for sure.

Madison is my only child that will give me cuddles and hugs without any begging on my part. She is so helpful with anything I ask her to do. She never complains when I ask her to run and grab me a diaper, or my cell phone, or my kindle, or a sippy cup, or anything else. She just gets up and does it without any complaints. She is always so eager to help with her siblings. She makes it so easy to get things accomplished. I love her. I love her. I love her. She makes life really fun.

Now, as much as I adore her, what would a (my) blog post be without the moments that make life interesting? Here are a few of her exploits this year. She really kept me on my toes all year long. She is so stinkin' smart that she makes my head hurt. Seriously, she is always asking me questions that make me have to think really hard before I answer. The last thing I want to do is get into details on questions like, "Mommy, how do babies get into your tummy?"

Oh, yes, we have had that one a few times this year. I've tried the whole, "Well, honey, when mommy's and daddy's love each other Heavenly Father sometimes sends them a baby."

She then proceeds to ask, "But how does the baby get in your tummy?"

My response has been, "Well....um....you see....um....it's like this.....uh, how about you ask your daddy that question?"

I'm stumped. I think I might have babbled out something that maybe might have abated her questions for a few weeks, we shall see. I don't even remember what I said.....Maybe if I confuse her enough she'll stop asking?????

Along those lines, I have to say I am a bit worried for me when it comes to her. She is a bit (and I use that term loosely) boy crazy. We had two experiences this year that have caused a little anxiety on my end. I'm a little worried that I may be on Valium by the time she is even able to date! See, she has a few boyfriends. She LOVES her boyfriends. In fact, she is having a hard time deciding who she wants to marry.....I keep telling her not to worry, she'll figure it out when she is a LOT older. Oy.

Anyway, so a few months ago she was sitting next to one of her favorite boyfriends in Primary during Sharing Time at church . They are kind of cute together and I haven't worried too much that she is a bit obsessed with him, YET. So I guess they were feeling a bit affectionate towards each other that day. I wasn't in there, I got this all second-hand from a few different sources. They kept holding hands, Madison kept putting her legs up on Isaac (I guess she sees me do that to Ryan ALL. THE. TIME. and figured that was a normal way to show affection.), and then they started kissing each other.

On. The. Lips. During. Sharing. Time.

A little bit inappropriate, to put it mildly. The chorister asked them repeatedly to stop kissing/holding hands/ who knows what else, and they didn't. So she had to finally say "Front Row, no touching!" I feel so bad for her primary teachers, she is just like I was and I was a PILL during church. I probably still am....I still talk incessantly during church.

It's not like this is the first time she has been caught kissing one of her boy friends. I'm pretty sure she has kissed all of them. Heck, I'm pretty sure she has kissed more boys than I have.....if not she's pretty close. A year or so ago, after I found out she was kissing her boy friends, I told her that is was no ok to kiss all her friends on the lips. She looked at me and said, "But mommy, I have to, it's 'True Love's Kiss.'" I guess she had found a way to convince all her boy friends to play Sleeping Beauty with her and OF COURSE they have to kiss..... Like I said, she's a little boy crazy.

Along that same line, let's talk about her friend Brady. He was in her kindergarten class and I guess they liked each other a bit. I thought he was about the cutest thing ever, every now and again they would get to play together. Well, I discovered that his sister babysits (she has become my favorite babysitter because she CLEANS my house. Seriously CLEANS my house. I'll pay extra for that!) so we had her over for a night of sitting a month or so ago and Madison went to go pick her up with me. When we got there Brady answered the door in his swim trunks (I think they were anyway, who knows, boys just don't seem to like wearing clothes) so the kids got to say hi to each other for a minute. We got in the car and I didn't think much more of it.

We took his sister to our house and then Ryan and I left. Madison and she had a little bit of time to play before bedtime and I guess Madison thought it was super cool that the sitter was Brady's older sister. When we got home the sitter was telling me how it went and then started laughing, she proceeded to tell me that after we left Madison turned to her and said, all giggly, "Didn't you think Brady was soooo cute without his shirt on?" Are you kidding me?????? She's 6, she shouldn't even realize that he had it off!

See why I'm so worried?????

Overall Madison had a big year this year. She started 1st grade and got to finally eat in the cafeteria. That is what she was so excited about when she went to all day school. At least it wasn't the food that she was so excited about. In what universe should Nachos be considered as a viable "healthy" lunch option for elementary school kids? CCSD apparently thinks that is an appropriate main dish. eesh.

She got to see her first theater production. She went with my mom, my sister and me to see the Lion King show here in Vegas. I was a little nervous because the movie scares her a little bit, but she loved it, she keeps asking when she can go see it again. I'm so glad she enjoys the theater, Ryan and I both love it.

She played her first season of soccer. I am beyond relieved it is over, it was so time consuming. She liked the girls she played with and her coach. She didn't mind practices, but the games made her a little bit nervous. It took her a bit to get used to the scrimmaging. After the first game she stopped asking when she would make a goal and just asked when she would get to kick the ball! Poor girl, we should have started her last year before it got more competitive. But she did like it, she says she wants to play again next year. In this picture she is kicking the ball, she's #8.

I'm constantly reading on facebook the funny things that other kids say. Mine don't say really funny things often, but every now and again they cause me to laugh out loud. Here are some of Madison's lines from this year that were too good to forget:

***One day Hunter was being a stinker and she looked over at me, so serious, and said to me: "Mommy, Hunter is going to go to outer darkness because he is so naughty." Once I stopped laughing at her I said, no he's not, he's only 2, he's just being a 2 year old. You on the other hand shouldn't be so quick to say Hunter is naughty....you're 6 and know better and still do naughty things. Heck, the majority of "naughty" things he does he learned from her!

***Another day Hunter was being silly and making us all laugh, Madison looked over at me and said, "Mommy, get a picture and put it on facebook." When she said that I started thinking maybe I spend a little too much time on facebook.

***Who could forget the infamous phone call she made earlier in the year? Read about that here. It was hilarious. This story was probably my favorite "Madison Moment" of the year. I still can't get over the fact that she made that phone call.

***My last favorite little story of the year came during the 43 days my car was in the shop. The first day we had the minivan rental she got in and said "Wow! Cool! Awesome! Exciting!" as we were buckling in to leave the house. All I could do was roll my eyes at her. Later on she said, "Mom, can we got a minivan?" My response was a firm, "No." She got so sad, so I said to her, "Madison, when you are older you can get a minivan, but I don't want one." She thought for a second and said, "Really? When I'm 16 and start driving I can get a minivan?" I said, "Oh, yes, you can, and I will write down that you said that."

Guess what her first car will be? Just because I'm so super nice like that.

I love my big girl. She is so fun, I'm so glad she came to our family. I wouldn't trade her for anything.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 7

2010-12-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

"My Favorite Mommy Moments"

You know how in You've Got Mail Meg Ryan's character goes on about how she never comes up with a good comeback when she needs it? She thinks of it an hour later? Well, that is me. Maybe that is why I love blogging and facebook so much, it gives me a chance to think before I speak....it also tends to help with the *foot in mouth* disease I suffer from.

As an almost totally unrelated topic, doesn't hearing about that movie just make you want to run out and get a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils? It does for me. Every September I think if this movie and wish I could get a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils delivered to me.....

Anyway, I've titled this story "Witty Comebacks Timed Perfectly." That's right, there were a very few occasions this year in which my stellar wit was displayed.

Drumroll please..............

Madison: "Mommy, can I have....." (who knows what she was asking for)

Me: "No"

Madison: "I like daddy more than I like you."

Me: "I like daddy more than I like you, too."

That's it. Yep, that's really it. My ONE witty comeback for the year. I still think it was brilliant. I'm sure I had more, but I only remember one. I'm so lame.

I kind of lost my mind this year. Literally. My poor family... I can't remember anything. Just this morning I was trying to remember what I had to do today and I almost called Ryan to ask him if he knew. Thankfully, before I called him, I remembered I had to go and buy his present. At least I hope that is all I needed to do.....

Yesterday I went to Target and got some stuff off of a list and maybe a few other things but forgot one of the main reasons I went. So Ryan had to stop at the grocery store on his way home from work to get the sour cream that I needed for our dinner. As an FYI, that is the SECOND time in the last 5 days I went to Target and forgot the most urgent item I needed. Last time it was a birthday party gift for the next day. Ryan had to run to Toys R Us at 11:30 pm because the party was so early the next day.

Which leads me to the fact that I completely forgot to take Madison to a birthday party this year. Just plain forgot.

Just recently, again, this week, I was assembling Christmas Cards and started to close one of the envelopes up without putting a card in it. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.

Or how about the fact that I forgot about school picture day and almost sent my daughter to school looking like a rag-a-muffin. Thankfully someone sent me a text with a question about them and the picture turned out fantastic and Madison was only a teensy bit late for school.

Remember in my "favorite recipes" post I alluded to a cooking debacle? (and I'm not referring to the time a few months ago that I almost started the house on fire while boiling water. Oh, yes, a true story).

I was making my Roasted Chicken with Apples recipe and I was tripling the sauce recipe because I was making 4 chicken breasts. No big deal right? I grabbed 3 frozen containers of cider out of the freezer and started preparing it. While making the sauce I kept simmering and simmering and could not get the sauce to thicken. I'm not great in the kitchen, but I have made the recipe multiple times and never had a problem. I finally gave up after about a half hour of simmering and we just ate it as it was. As I was finished eating and waiting for everyone else to finish it occurred to me that I had put in 3 CUPS of cider instead of 3 HALF cups.

Paying attention to details is apparently not my strength right now.

Another one of my favorite stories from this year was when some friends came over to dinner and I made spaghetti and salad. Easy right. It was delicious (spaghetti is probably my best dish, again, lame, I know). Anyway, about a week later I opened the oven and there sat the garlic bread I had made for it. I had turned off the oven and left it in there to stay warm and simply forgotten about it.

I could go on and on with my list of "Way to Go Amanda" moments from this year. But seriously, I've forgotten them all, giving more proof of my "lost mind."

Let's change the topic to "My favorite discoveries" from this year. I know, I know, they could have gone in one of my previous postings, but honestly, I didn't remember them in time so I am adding them on to this one.

Once again, it's my blog, I can make any rule I want :)

My cousin Brent introduced this "favorite" to me. I forget water every time I go somewhere. I'm constantly stuck somewhere, thirsty, and without water. If it's Target or the grocery store it's no big deal, I just buy another water. Well, when I'm at the mall there is nowhere to buy one that isn't $3 for a tiny bottle. I ahte spending that much on a bottle of water. Well, I discovered that GNC has large bottles of water for under $2 (I think they are about $1.86 after tax). Seriously, it made me so happy to discover that. I'm also pretty sure we have already established I'm a dork right?

My sister-in-law introduced this one to me: Elf on the Shelf. Seriously, it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I think I got the last one in the city of Las Vegas. I went to Border's and got lucky, someone had returned theirs.

We named ours Fred. Every morning we find him in a different place around the house. After reporting to Santa he has landed in mommy and daddy's room, Madison's room and Hunter's room. Every morning Madison and Hunter run through the house looking for where he might be that day. We love our dear Fred. We welcome him to our yearly traditions.

I also discovered this year that if you buy picture frames at Costco they include a coupon for 100 free 4x6 pictures from their 1 hour photo. I develop everything there anyway. That is $13 right there! So my 2-3 picture frames are only a few dollars. Plus, they are better quality frames than the $5 or less ones at Target or Wal-mart. Whenever I need to develop pictures I pick up some new frames first and then pay. Saving money makes me happy. Oh, and you are allowed to use more than one at a time. I hadn't developed pictures in forever and used 3 last time I went.

My last favorite thing I discovered this year is Magnesium. Seriously love this stuff. For a few months this year I started running, badly, but running none-the-less, and I would be so sore. So I took 2 Magnesium on the days I ran, and 1 on the other days, and I didn't get quite as sore. When I first started I could hardly walk the next day, Magnesium made it so that I didn't feel like I pulled every muscle in my legs, I was just achy. I can handle that. So, for all of you that run (and I think every one of my friends does), try it. It makes such a difference. I got mine from Costco, it was pretty cheap. So, once the holidays are over, and I am home for more than 3 or 4 days at a time, I will be running and dieting again to try and get this dang baby weight off, and Magnesium will save me. Unfortunately it won't save me from hating running, just hating the pain the next day.

Um, do you like how I used the word "Seriously" about a hundred times in the post? Right now I'm seriously too tired to care.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 6

2010-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

I shouldn't have a favorite sister, and honestly I don't, but it's hard not to really love a childless sister who will *voluntarily* watch your 3 monsters for a week so you and your hubby can go to NYC without them.

***Just to set the record straight, I'm pretty sure any of my sisters would have done this for me, she was simply the unlucky one without a job during the time we needed her.

We took full advantage of our temporarily childless state.

We did everything we possibly could have done in the 7 days we were there.

We saw 6 shows, yes 6.

*Promises, Promises

*Rock of Ages

*Elf

*Wintuk (a Cirque show)

* Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

*Jim Gaffigan, Comedian

We ate, oh how we ate....it was wonderful

(I love food, for any of you that might still be wondering).

We, of course, ate at a few little pizza places here and there. But, we discovered the most wonderful Italian place, Tony's...oh. my. goodness. it was pure heaven. The reviews lived up to the hype. The Veal Parm was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. Go there. Period. Go there. I've had some good Italian over the years. Nothing could touch this. I would move to NYC just to eat there regularly.

We are slowly getting around to all the famous pizza places in NYC, this trip we hit up Lambardi's. It was good, I think I just prefer John's. Honestly though, I just love NY style pizza. Yum.

My other favorite find, thanks to Natalie Hill, was Shake Shack. I made Ryan eat there twice it was so good. I don't usually care for fries, they don't do it for me, but their cheese fries were incredible. Their Black & White shake was heavenly. Even their burger was amazing. I'm getting hungry.....

Seriously, I love food.

Did I mention we hit up Carlo's Bakery? You know, the one from the TLC show Cake Boss? Oh, yes, we did. I have to say, I was a little worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype of the show. It's not like we got a cake or anything, but the pastry's were yummy. The Chocolate Cream Puffs were incredibly good.

Just as a little side note, don't try to eat lunch in Hoboken. There are not a lot of options. Just warning you.....

It's a really good thing we walked miles and miles and miles every day.

We even got a few sports events in

The U. of Memphis vs. Kansas game was the reason we decided to go to NYC in the first place. Everything else was just icing on the cake.

Even though the purpose of the trip was to see Memphis play basketball, we did make time to also attend the Giants vs. Redskins football game. We survived the frigid, bitter cold during the game and cheered the Giants on to victory. My poor brother-in-law, who is a huge Redskins fan, must have been just tearing his hair out watching them lose to the Giants. We are huge Peyton Manning fans, but it only fair to cheer on his brother (especially since the Colts SUCK right now).

Alas, no celebrity sightings like the last time we were in NYC. Maybe next time.

Thank you my dear Aunna for taking such good care of my kids. I owe you. BIG.

And a HUGE thank you to my parents who took us to NYC for our Christmas present, I can't think of anything that would have been more fun.

12 Days of Christmas: Post 5

2010-12-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

In all my lists of favorite things I haven't yet listed Ryan. I can't believe it!

He is my most favorite of my favorite things....

This year was a big one for us, we hit 10 years of marriage (if you haven't read "our story" yet you can read it here) and we had our 3rd child. We still managed to find some time to do fun things. I joke that we are putting a few girls through college with what we pay for babysitters....it's not that we pay that much per hour, we just really enjoy going out and doing things together!

We didn't do as much this year as we usually do....typically we have a date night two or three nights a month, this year we barely hit once a month. I guess that's what a new baby does to your social life :) We saw one UFC fight live (he saw one without me after the baby was born), Carrie Underwood, Terry Fator's Vegas show, "The Wedding Singer" and "The Drowsy Chaperon" at the Hale Center theatre in West Jordan, UT, and that was about it.....I don't think we have ever had such a low key year! Considering I did a few blog posts that chronicled the shows we saw, the concerts we went to and the trips we took, I can honestly say we had a calm year compared to 2008 & 2009. We had a few trips, they will be chronicled in later posts :)

12 Days of Christmas: Post 4

2010-12-13T19:33:00.000-08:00

Old picture, I know, but it's still one of my favorites

Pretty much all of you that know me know that I am a disaster in the kitchen. I rarely sign up to take meals to people because I get so nervous that my food will make them sick. I try. I really do. I actually even enjoy cooking, I just get so frustrated when I spend hours cooking and then even I won't eat the result.

If you haven't figured out my post yet, this is my annual "What I was willing to eat" post, i.e. "My favorite Recipes & Favorite New Kitchen Gadget" post.

Here goes.....

I don't think I have ever posted about this recipe (and I use the term "recipe" loosely). It is my family's favorite thing to eat and I love it because it is so easy.

I was talking to one of my sisters a while back and complaining about the lack of easy recipes I have. She immediately spouted this one off to me....one of the girls who works in my dad's office had given it to her and said it was her family's all time favorite recipe. I'm not sure if that is true, but I could probably say that it is my family's. Thank you Vicki and Allie for sharing with me.

BBQ Biscuits

1 can of Grands biscuits (it doesn't matter which one, I use whatever I have on hand, the honey butter ones are yummy)
1 lb ground beef
BBQ sauce (I have made this using Sloppy Joe mix and it is yummy as well)
Grated Cheese

Cook the beef, once cooked stir in BBQ or Sloppy Joe sauce.

Using a muffin tin (or a small loaf pan, which I prefer) squish the Grands to cover the bottom and side of pan.

Spoon the beef BBQ mix into the biscuits. Top with Cheese.

Follow baking instructions on the Grands package. I always bake the longest amount, I found that with the mixture on the biscuits it takes a few minutes longer to cook.

That's it. Seriously, it's that easy. See why I use the term "Recipe" loosely???

Sweet Chex Mix:
I actually made this as my holiday treat this year, I love it that much.....Heck, anything (well, almost) that is sweet is an instant favorite. I have gotten a few friends addicted to this stuff as well...you're welcome :)

Here is the actual recipe,
1 1/2 c butter
1 c white Karo
1 c sugar
3 c rice chex
3 c corn chex
6 c golden grahams
1/2 c coconut
slivered almonds

I modified mine to be:
1 c butter (1 1/2 just tasted too buttery)1 c honey
1 c sugar
12 c rice and corn chex (It's actually about half a box each. I don't even measure anymore.)

3 c golden grahams (I didn't like having so many golden grahams, it was just too sweet so I lower the quantity of gg and upped the chex, I prefer it that way)

1 c marshmallows -I eyeball it and put in however much looks yummy

1/2 c coconut - same thing, I probably add more

Slivered almonds

In large (I do mean LARGE) bowl combine cereals, coconut, marshmallows and almonds

In saucepan combine butter, sugar and honey/Karo

Bring to a boil and let boil for 2 min

Let sauce cool a bit (or it will melt the marshmallows, which I think is yummy so I don't let it cool very long)

Pour over cereal mixture-I do half, mix really well and then pour the other half. That seems to coat it best

You can spread it on wax paper to cool, but I just leave it in the bowl and eat it and eat it and eat it.

Needless to say, I only make it when lots of people will be around, otherwise I make myself sick.

Black Bean Dip:

I begged one of my friends to share this recipe with me after she made it for book club. I am not much of a dip fan, I don't really care for chips so I rarely eat dip. That being said, I am addicted to this dip. I make it every chance I get. I think it is probably pretty healthy, too bad the chips ruin it. But, it would probably taste yummy on carrots or something. Just so you know, it's really, really yummy with the lime flavored Tostito chips.

I'm crossing my fingers that my friend will not mind me sharing it with the entire cyber world...It's just too good to keep to myself.

1 can black beans, drained
1/2 c fresh salsa
2 T cilantro (I use WAY more)
2 T lime juice
1/4 tsp cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste

Blend all together in a food processor.

That's it, eat and enjoy.

Roast Chicken With Garlic, Apples & Cider:

This recipe actually came from Red book magazine. It looked so good I couldn't resist making it, my family loves it, and it really doesn't take that much time to make. It sounds longer than it is.

I have a funny story about this recipe coming in a future blog post, while you are waiting on the edge of your seat, make this.....it's delicious.

2 Chicken breasts
1 T Olive Oil
1/2 t Salt & pepper
2 T Minced garlic
1 T Parsley
1 Golden Delicious apple
1/2 cup Apple cider
2 T Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup Cream

Heat oven to 400*

Brush chicken with olive oil, salt & pepper.

Bake 20-25 min

In skillet: simmer garlic, cut up apple, cider & mustard gently for 10 min, stirring occasionally.

Stir in cream. Add chicken and simmer until sauce thickens.

Stir in parsley.

My adjustments: I double the sauce recipe. We like sauce of any sort, BUT I do not double the mustard. I'm not a huge mustard fan so I keep it at 2 T, otherwise it's too strong.

Also, it's pretty hard to find cider during the year, so I buy a jug during the holidays and freeze it in 1 cup increments.

Chicken Spinach Lasagna Casserole:

Here's another recipe I tried from Red book, funny enough, these are the only two I've ever made, but they were definitely wonderful. Trisha Yearwood did a spread for the magazine and included a few recipes (I'm guessing it was to promote her cookbook), anyway, I have made this a few times and even took it for a dinner to a girl who had a baby....it was that good.....and that easy.

1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1 (4 1/2 ounce) jar mushrooms, drained
1/3 cup mayonnaise
6 lasagna noodles - COOKED (I made that mistake once, you have to cook them in this recipe)1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine spinach, chicken, cheddar cheese, onion, cornstarch, salt, pepper, soy sauce, soup,sour cream, mushrooms and mayonnaise.

Put a layer of noodles in the bottom of a greased (9x13x2 inch) lasagna pan.

Spread half of the spinach mixture over noodles.

Place another layer of noodles on top and cover with remaining spinach mixture.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese, then pecans on top.
Bake for 1 hour.

Apple Butter

Did I mention that I made HOMEMADE Apple Butter this year? Before you start to think I'm even close to Martha Stewart it's about the easiest thing I have ever canned. Thanks to the delicious apples my mother-in-law brought me (along with the easiest recipe EVER) I have a pantry stocked with them. Yay!!!

20 apples, cored and peeled and cut into small pieces
4 cups of sugar
1 T of Cinnamon

Yep, that's it.

Stir it all together and put in the crockpot on high for 1 hour. Stir and cook for 8-9 more hours on low.

With about 1 hour left to go use an Immersion Blender (stick blender) and blend it smooth. Let it cook another hour and then I put them in 1/2 pint jars and gave them a water bath for 10 minutes.

You really can't mess it up. Seriously, we left one batch on high for about 3 hours and it still turned out just fine.

Here are a few more recipes (with links, thank goodness!) I love:

Skillet Macaroni and Cheese

Oh, this is so yummy. I just discovered it recently and LOVE it. I am a little addicted to Panera Bread's Macaroni and Cheese (What?!? You haven't had it.....try it, or maybe you shouldn't, it is sooooo yummy) and so I am going to get some white cheddar and try to replicate it. Send your prayers, I am not very good at creating dishes.

Pot Roast Soup

This is incredible. I use my leftover french dip sandwich meat and make this. We love, Love, LOVE it. If the deliciousness of the french dip sandwiches wasn't enough to get me to make the meat, the soup is. I add zucchini to it because, well, I love zucchini.

French dip sandwiches

Once again, another favorite recipe from my wonderful friend Lindsay. I will forever owe you for this one. I get the Kaiser rolls at the grocery to go with this and look forward to dinner all day as it cooks. The website even claims it is the number one most requested recipe. There is a reason, folks. This is the recipe I use in the aforementioned Pot Roast Soup recipe.

My favorite Rolls

Since my husband earned some serious brownie points this year by buying me this baby, I have been working non-stop trying to perfect my bread making. I have made many roll recipes and this is my favorite. I tried the favorite roll recipe from Our Best Bites, but I thought they were just eh. But this one....oh, they are yummy.

I also discovered Dough Enhancer ( I got mine at a Bosch store) this year and now will not make bread without it. I know, I know, it's not as healthy, but hey, I'm making white bread dinner rolls. I'm pretty sure there isn't too much healthy about them anyway. Also, I am now converted to bread flour. I buy it at Costco and love the difference in my bread.

That's it for this year. I stuck to the recipes I seem to always make, over and over again. Happy cooking!

12 Days of Christmas: Post #3

2010-12-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

I'm always on the hunt to find products that I like, things that make my life easier, but most of all, products that simply do what they are supposed to do. Here are a few that I found this year that I recommend. Thank you to my friends that originally recommended them to me.....I'm always grateful for help in making my life easier.

My top pick of favorite discoveries from 2010 is this: Shout grease stain spray. I LOVE this stuff. Seriously. You know when you get spots on your clothing and nothing will take them out so you end up having to throw them away? Yeah, this stuff gets those spots out. No joke. Even if the item of clothing has been washed and dried multiple times. I have gotten out chocolate, spaghetti sauce, random grease stains and so on. If my regular OxyClean stain spray didn't get it out I go with this. I have a really hard time finding it, I tried 3 Targets, 4 grocery stores, and finally found it at Wal-Mart. I made a special trip there to get it and I bought 4....so now I don't have to go back for a while. Try it, especially if you have kids. Oh, and did I mention the fact that it gets out the nasty newborn poop that gets everywhere when they explode? Oh yes, it does....

My other favorite cleaning product is a drain disposal foam cleaner. I find it at Target, it's not very expensive but it cleans my sink disposal and makes it smell heavenly. It's pretty awesome. I hate having a nasty sink so I use it about every other month and it makes me feel better about being a crappy house cleaner.

I discovered 2 different lotions in the last year and I love them both. Living in the desert makes for some seriously dry skin, I have tried almost every lotion out there in the past 10 years and I'm pretty sure I won't be changing these products any time soon. They both work amazingly well. And funny enough, I get both of them at Costco (they are cheapest there).

I use Amlactin when my skin is especially dry, it works so well, and it is super thick. I don't love the smell of it so I often will mix half-and-half with my Jergen's cherry almond lotion (yum).

The other lotion I love is a 100% Shea butter. I find it at Costco for $15 for 4 jars. They last a LONG time and smell divine. If your Costco doesn't have them, they are on Amazon for $15 for 3 jars. They make my hands so soft, I love it!

I promise I have fun posts of family things coming....I just don't have all of my pictures on the laptop and I haven't been blogging from home. Delta is offering free internet access on their flights so I have been able to blog from the airplane during our 5-6 hour flight to and from NYC. Cool, huh!

12 Days of Christmas: Post #2

2010-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

If any of you are not on Facebook and have missed my CONSTANT postings about my Kindle obsession, here is an entire "Favorite's" posting making up for it.

I received a Kindle for my birthday and LOVE it.

I can't put it down.

I take it everywhere.

I'm bummed I didn't get one years ago.

I wish I could put every book I own on it.

I'm completely converted to digital e-books.

If you're on the fence about getting one yourself, get one. It doesn't matter which E-book reader you get, just get one. I wasn't sure I really wanted one but, trust me, you'll love it.

Just so this post isn't ALL about my obsession with (1) Reading, and (2) my Kindle, here are my favorite books of this year. I'm sure most of you have read the first one, but if you haven't you MUST! I haven't met anyone who didn't love it.

The Help

This book was wonderful.

I have a hard time putting into words everything I loved about this book. It wasn't so much eye-opening, as it was heart-wrenching. It was beautifully written, sensitive, and touching.

You may read my review on http://www.goodreads.com/

Become my friend and you can get constant emails of books I loved and hated. I try to keep my rantings to a minimum.

The Book Thief

This book is amazing. I've recommended it to a few people and they liked it, but I'm not sure if they LOVED it quite like I did. I'm not sure if I loved it because I read both The Help and The Book Thief within 4 days and they tied into each other so much, or if I simply just loved the story. Seriously, it is such a beautiful story. While I read it I could not put it down. I might have even bawled like a baby in a few places. For whatever reason it moved me.

Whatever, I'm a dork and I like to read.

I might even enjoy the use of tabbies, highlighters and book journals while reading good books.

But, um...., maybe not......or at least I won't admit it.

Again.

It was really interesting reading 2 books that focused on separate, very different, oppressed races. Enough of my book report. Read them. And them call me, text me or email me your thank you.

The Hunted

By Brian Haig

What?!? You've never heard of Brian Haig? You've never read Brian Haig? Oh, how you are missing out. My family LOVES him. His books are so good. And funny too. I adore funny books. This book does not follow his series, it is actually based on a true story set in Russia in the late 80's. It was incredible. I wasn't too sure about it until about half way through. Now I can't stop thinking about it. It ended up being one of the most fascinating books I've ever read.

Other books I read this year that I loved: The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. I have to admit, I loved them. I also could not put them down and pretty much ignored my kids and husband while reading them.

Flags of our Fathers was another one I read and loved. I accidentally got the Young Adult version. Oops. But on a positive note, it wasn't quite as graphic and violent as I had anticipated.

There you go. A few new recommendations. Happy Reading! And please, send me your favorites.....I keep running out of books to read.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 1

2010-12-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

I've decided to break my annual "Favorite Things" post up into 12. I thought it might be fun. Now, as a preface, there is no guarantee that I will be posting daily throughout the month of December, BUT I will work very hard to get my 12 completed before Christmas. AND I may post more than one per day on occassion. It's my blog, I can do whatever I want.

****If you'd like to see what I rated as my favorite things the last few years you can click HERE or HERE.

In years past I have mentioned my love for Christian Dior mascara.

I love it.

I pay, what I consider, way too much for it.

BUT, I have the dinky-est eyelashes so it is worth every penny. My thought is: save on other items, splurge on mascara.

This year I discovered Dior's Lash Plumping Serum.

Am.

In.

Love.

Seriously, if you have dinky, thin, lame eyelashes like mine get yourself some. It will be the best $28 you ever spend on mascara (well, mascara enhancement. You use both.)

You'll thank me.

As if I needed one more reason to feel inept in the kitchen....

2010-11-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

Apparently I have been creaming butter and sugar wrong all my life. I recently googled a cooking question and ran across this website. Now I can have my food turn out like crap but at least I know I creamed my butter and sugar correctly.

Q: What would I do without google?

A: Probably feel more competent. I'm a huge fan of denial and ignorance.

Happy cooking!

A Boy's Life: Building Towers

2010-11-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

I've been making fun of Hunter a ton on facebook lately for all of his girly tendencies. Maybe I shouldn't, but it's fun and I probably won't be stopping anytime soon. I figure if I laugh about all the kids put me through I won't feel compelled to bang my head against the wall quite so frequently.

More often than not during the day he exhibits boy traits. I promise, he is all boy. He simply is surrounded by girls and doesn't realize that playing barbies just as one example is more of a girl thing. This is what he was doing the other day while I played on the computer.

***Don't tell Ryan I let him, he gets mad at me when I don't stop him. He is still under the impression that I actually have control over the kids.

He loves to build a tower out of our Cd's and then kick them over. Every time they would fall over he would go "Whoa, cool!" He did this for about an hour. I figure it wasn't harming anything and I got computer time...I'm sure if I was a better mom I would care and would have stopped it, but then he would have gotten into trouble and I wasn't really in the mood to yell at him and send him to timeout.

Um, yeah, and the underwear thing is normal at our house. The second he comes in the door he strips his clothes off and runs around like that. As long as he will let me put clothes on him when we leave the house without a battle I don't care. Plus, I think he is so stinkin' cute in just his underoos.

Mom, I want skinny jeans.....

2010-11-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Recently Madison and I had this conversation:

Madison: Mom, I want skinny jeans

Me: You have skinny jeans

Madison: No, I want skinny jeans

Me: Madison, you have skinny jeans, all of your jeans are skinny jeans

Madison: No, I want skinny jeans like my friend Jane* name changed to protect innocent friends She has skinny jeans and they are tight on her

Me: Well, honey, they don't make skinny slim so that's as good as it gets for you. As it is they are 2 sizes smaller that you should be wearing and they still fall off. You're too skinny for the skinny jeans.

Life is rough sometimes. If only I had the same issues. My skinny jeans are plenty tight.

Do you love the boots? I'm jealous target didn't have them in my size.

Have you seen my new banner?

2010-11-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

I'm really proud of it, I FINALLY figured out how to do it after about a year of trying. That's right, I am that inept on a computer. I finally found a website that is teaching me how to digital scrapbook correctly, apparently I have been doing many things incorrectly. And it has taught me a ton of tricks. The only problem now is that I have to go back and redo all the pages I already completed. Seriously, I am so glad I finally a way to learn the basics before I waste any more time messing up my pages. I'm officially converted to digital format.

I {heart} October 2010

2010-11-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned in blog posts of past, I love the month of October. I have to say that this year was a tad disappointing compared to some of the October's that we have enjoyed. Now that Madison is in school full time and Hunter is just starting to get into the celebrations (not to mention the fact that he is in 2 preschools, that in itself seems to leave us with very little free time) I no longer participate in the many fun activities Vegas has to offer. It's funny, growing up I never in a million years would have ever picked Las Vegas as a place I would consider moving to, but I love it. This city is surprisingly family friendly. Much more than Memphis.....

Anyway, there were quite a few activities that we passed on this year, but the one activity that my kids and I look forward to all year long is the Pumpkin Patch. A friend set up a group time for us on a non-school day and we had so much fun! AND this year it moved to a new location. It is no longer in the parking lot of a casino....I actually miss it there, I thought it quite apropos that Las Vegas' "Pumpkin Patch" was in a casino parking lot, but it was a lot nicer.

While we were in Minnesota for my Aunt Lori's wedding (I'm kicking myself, I didn't get any pictures with the bride and groom. I was too busy getting family pictures....I actually have a recent one of me and my sisters, YAY! I have the cutest sisters.) I was able to take my kids to a REAL orchard/pumpkin patch. It was wonderful.....we had apple cider doughnuts YUM homemade apple cider YUM and apple cider and onion bratwursts YUM. I enjoyed it! We also got to take a hay ride, the kids loved that.

I got some of my favorite pictures from the past year there too (the autumn page at the top is comprised of pictures all taken at the orchard). We were able to go with 4 of my sisters, 2 brothers-in-law, 2 cousins + 1 girlfriend, 1 set of aunt/uncle and my parents. It was quite a group, but we had a wonderful time with everyone. I'm hoping there is another family wedding soon, it seems to be the only time we all get together! Our entire family had a wonderful time. Congrats Lori and Jason!

Next up Madison had her Halloween Parade at school. I tried to get Hunter to wear his Superman costume to it, but he was being a stinker that day.

We ended up going to Utah for a really, really quick trip the weekend of Halloween....the kids had Friday off of school and so we headed up to see Aunna and Phil. We fit in a BYU basketball game (the final score: 101-52, BYU. At least one of our sports teams is good this year.), a family movie to see "Despicable Me," trick - or - treating at the Provo Town Center mall where the kids were able to see their cousins for a quick hello, and, of course, family time (aka football). It was a packed 48 hours, but we had a great time.

Our kids were able to get a quick round of trick - or - treating in once we got back from Utah. Ryan took them around our neighborhood and they got a few goodies for the next week. My rule for candy is: for 1 week the kids can have 1 piece of candy a day, then Ryan gets to take it to his co-workers. I don't like candy and I REALLY don't like my kids eating it. It makes them monsters, more so than usual, so that is my compromise.

I'm alway sad as October comes to an end. It will be an entire year before the festivities start up again, the holidays begin to come upon us with all their stress, and the realization that another year has passed so quickly startles me. I hope all of your Octobers were as enjoyable as ours.

Presley Anne turns 7 months

2010-11-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

She is growing up so fast, as I was searching my pictures for this posting I got a little alot teary eyed looking at how fast time has gone. It was only a few months ago that she was a tiny newborn and we brought her home from the hospital. Every day she is developing further and getting more of a personality. I figure we've got 4 really strong personalities in this house already, what's one more.....

Over the last few months she has.....

... learned how to roll over both ways.....

...learned to take a bottle (but flat out refuses real food).....

...become a full fledged drool monster (but no teeth yet).....

...found that a finger makes a great chew toy....

...discovered the thrill of driving a Corvette....

...turned into part goat....

...become more curious about her surroundings....

...discovered she is a really cute baby....

...become more of a Momma's girl (I'm sure that will change with time)....

We love our little girl. I'm so glad we have her. She is finally sleeping through the night consistently, she rarely cries and she always has a ready smile for me.

Being Superman is hard work (part 2)

2010-11-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes even super heros need a hug from mom.

Being Superman is hard work

2010-11-01T16:48:00.001-07:00

Sometimes even super heros need a snack break

I feel like I'm in a bad remake of Groundhog Day

2010-10-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

I think the hardest part of being a mom is doing the same thing over and over, day after day. I can pretend to handle the laundry, dishes, never ending cleaning, errands, extra-curricular activities, cooking, etc. What gets me is the amount I have to get after, ie yell, at my kids for all the things they do daily. You'd think that asking nicely yelling at them to stop doing certain things would eventually get them to stop, but not my kids. Maybe it's the stubborn in them? Or maybe it's just what kids do??

This has been my life for the last few months...if I've ignored your phone call, email, facebook comment, or just you in general, this is why....I've been really, really tired and grumpy, but we'll just ignore that for right now.

5:30 pm Bedtime for Madison and Hunter

9-10 pm Feed Presley and the crash for my only 2 solid hours of sleep a night

12 am Presley wakes up to eat

2 am Presley wakes up to eat

4 am Presley wakes up to eat
4:30-45 am Presley falls back asleep

5 am Hunter wakes up

5:15 am Madison wakes up

This went on for about 2 months. For the last 2 years Madison has been getting up before 6 am 90% of the time. I don't think she's slept passed 6:30 am more than 3 or 4 times. It was really rough, I'm not the best mom when I'm sleep deprived and add on a pregnancy and newborn and it's just not pretty. Please don't try to tell me I should have just put my kids to bed later and then they would sleep in.....trust me, I tried that, I'm not completely stupid.

This is what I do all day long....Some days I think my entire neighborhood can hear the thunk, thunk, thunk of my head beating against the wall as I attempt to figure out a way for the kids to FINALLY figure out what STOP! means.

Get off my bed and PLEASE stop jumping on it

Hunter, put your underwear back on/stop playing with my ball. That's mommy's ball, go get yours.

Hunter stop throwing toys at your siblings

Stop spinning on the chair

Get off of the treadmill

Madison, no gymnastics on the couch, and definitely don't teach your brother that

Hunter, stop running into all the furniture

Hunter, that is Presley's chair. Get out.

Get out of the fridge

No more cheese sticks, you've already had 3 today

Get out of the pantry, I'll make you food if you're hungry

Madison, will you PLEASE stop writing on everything. I'm soooo glad you can write now, but not every item you own is supposed to be written &/or glued upon.

Hunter, stop playing with the water and flooding the kitchen.

can you see the water?????

I have to say I've been dealing with it much better now that Presley is waking up only once again and Madison and Hunter are finally sleeping a little bit later. They were sleeping until 7:30 am which was pure heaven but they are back to 6:15-6:30ish. I can handle that, but I desperately miss the 7:30 sleep in time.

Anyone want 2 extra kids?

At least they're cute.....

2010-09-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

.....Because they are monsters.

I really love my kids, but they keep me on my toes.

Um, I think those are a little big for you

2010-08-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hunter decided to put on his daddy's shorts. I think he has a little bit of growing to do before they fit him.

So he decided to use them as a blanket while he watched Sesame Street.

Whatever works, dude.

Madison starts 1st grade

2010-08-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Madison began 1st grade today. She is most excited to be able to eat in the cafeteria I did convince her to let me make her lunch at least. She has several friends in her class, and her teacher seems nice. It's hard to believe that she is in 1st grade, time just goes so quickly!

She made sure to give her siblings hugs goodbye. The last week or so she has been a little bit clingy. I think she has been nervous.

Anytime she sees Presley she has gone up to her and given her a hug and a kiss. She is so sad that she will be at school and won't be able to see her as much. She has told me that she wants to make sure she gets as much time in with her as she can before school starts.

She even let me snap a few pictures when we got to school. I'm anticipating this not being quite so easy in future years. She's still not embarrassed by my hugging her and kissing her goodbye. I can say I will miss this when she gets older and she realizes it's not cool to do.

It scares me that she looks 16 in this picture. The thought of THAT terrifies me.

I'm so excited for all that this year will bring.

Kindergarten Celebration

2010-08-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Madison had her last day of Kindergarten on August 5, 2010. She loved her year of kindergarten and was able to make such good friends throughout the year. She had the perfect teacher for her and was able to learn so much. By the end of the year she was reading on a third grade level, we are so proud of her!

The celebration was so fun. The kids put on a production and sang many of their learning songs for us parents. They also got to get their "diploma" and shake the principal's hand. It was so fun.

After the celebration we all got to go back to the classroom and have treats and get a few quick pictures.

Congratulations Class of 2022!

I love my boys too

2010-08-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

It's pretty much impossible to get a picture of Hunter when food is around, this is the best I could do.

My girls

2010-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

I love my girls.

My favorite things: Presley

2010-08-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

She is such a happy and content baby. Mostly she likes to be held, but on the occasions where I put her down (which sadly is too often) she is satisfied with either:

Her "buggie" that sings on her carseat, or

Sitting in her chair &/or a water bottle.

Some of her (my) other favorite things are:

Painted toenails,

and of course, cuddling with mommy.

She is so dang cute I can't stand it. If I could I would hold her all day long and never get anything done. I'd say she was my favorite thing but that spot is reserved for naptime. Nothing beats peace and quiet.

My favorite things: Hunter

2010-08-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take much to make this kid happy. Some food, a BLUE sippy cup (preferably with a straw), no clothes, and a chance to sit on a grown up's chair. The only thing missing in this picture is his "towel."

Help wanted: Weekend nanny while parents travel

2010-08-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Any takers? Ryan and I would love to take advantage of this:

Ah well, maybe one day.

If any of you hop on board Jet Blue's deal let me know so I can be jealous. And give you a high five for being so awesome.

Seriously, the places we could go.

Forever yours, faithfully

2010-08-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today Ryan and I celebrate 10 years of marriage. Time has gone by so quickly, but at the same time it feels like we have been married forever (and not in the bad way).

I have been wanting to do this post for years, even before I began blogging I had wanted to write down "our story." I just love it and every time I tell it I get chills. I thought our 10 year mark was a good time for it.

I even got Ryan to contribute a few sections. His are in BOLD.

So, here it is, the story of "us." Get comfortable because it is a long one.

Our "happily ever after" began in 1999.....

It actually began in early 1999, before we even met....

In 1998-99 I had the privilege of rooming with some of the most amazing girls ever and living across the hall from my best friends (Marie, Cara, Beth, Becky, Sarah, Liz-I still love all you girls). Seriously, I love those girls to death still and would have lived with any of them again, but as life sometimes goes, they all either (a) graduated; (b) transferred colleges; (c) got married; (d) got a job that included room and board, but did not allow for roommates-meaning me-and THEN proceeded to (c); OR (e) did study abroad and THEN did one (or both in this case) of (b) and (c).

I was left alone to fend for myself.

As my potential roommates started falling away one at a time, it began to start feeling like a conspiracy!

Anyway, since I was pretty much roommate less I had to decide where I wanted to live all on my own-which is pretty tough actually, you never know what you are going to end up with (case in point, our crazy roommate that THANKFULLY got married over Thanksgiving break, she was the reason Becky and Sarah lived across the hall from me instead of in the room next door-I forgive you girls though, it all worked out, I got Beth and Marie out of the deal and still saw you all the time.)

Now, for any of you who were at BYU during this time you may remember the "great housing shortage." It was incredibly difficult to find BYU approved housing for several reasons, none of which make any difference in my story. So, I started trying to find a place to live at the end of my winter semester with no luck. Nothing felt right, it was frustrating.

Have any of you ever had that happen to you???? I can't remember any other time in my life where I felt the feeling of nothing being right quite like I did at this point in time.

***As a side note, I'm a planner. I don't do well just winging it. I can deviate from a plan with the best of them, but honestly, at this point I was close to panic attacks.

All summer I had tried to figure something out, but just kept feeling like I should be patient. Patience is NOT one of my virtues, but for some reason I actually listened and waited it out.

I ended up driving to Utah with no place to live.

I started my job with no place to live.

I crashed on Beth's floor for a few nights ("illegally" I might add-thankfully no one told on us and she didn't get fired) trying to figure out what I should do as I had no. place.to. live.

***As another side note, I think everyone has something specific in their life that really, truly matters in determining where their life takes them. In my life I think it's where I live. I put more prayer and thought into where I live than most anything else. Almost everything really big in my life has come as a direct result of where I was living at the time. This is an example of that.

So, to continue.....at my first day of work I spend the majority of the time on the phone calling all the different apartment complexes and houses that had advertised openings.

They were all full

apparently most students are a bit more on the ball about finding housing than I

Except one complex

So I went to check it out

It was okay

The apartments weren't that bad

it just DIDN'T FEEL RIGHT.

I was beyond annoyed at this point. And frustrated. Probably close to tears, too.

I got into my car, after telling the apartment manager that I'd think about it and get back to them, and tried to figure out what to do from there. I looked out the window and realized I was only a block, if that, away from the complex I had really wanted to live in the year before, Liberty Square. Liberty Square was known for being a social place to live and most people I had known that lived there liked it. I like being social and wanted to be in that kind of environment.

I had called earlier in the day but was told they were full and had a wait list of 68. I thought about that but then realized there was no harm in going in anyway and just double checking.

I walked into the office and asked the lady at the front desk if they had any openings. She told me no, but, the girl standing next to me was filling out paperwork to sell her contract so if I wanted to buy that one she would bypass the wait list and just let me have it.

I immediately, without even thinking, asked, "Who do I make the check out to?"

I just KNEW it was right, just like that.

The girl selling her contract asked me when I needed to move it, she hadn't even begun to pack her belongings. I told her that I could crash at Beth's for a few more days probably. The lady behind the desk was listening and told me that if I wanted she could swap my contract for another one up for sale, but that would put me in a different building (and also a different ward-Ryan's). But I would be able to move in right away. It worked for me, I didn't care one way or the other, so I moved in the next day.

After my mission, my buddies and I lived on "Condo Row" near the BYU campus, but it was kinda stuffy and not very fun, so after our sophomore year we wanted to move. It seemed like all the hot girls lived at either King Henry or Liberty Square, so that's where we were headed. King Henry didn't have any 4-person apartments open, so it was off to Liberty Square.

The new girls I ended up living with (Amy, Amanda and Elise) had all lived together in my new apartment the previous year, so they knew many of the people in our building. Including the bishopric, which was how Amy ended up suggesting me as a Family Home Evening group leader (aka mom). The other leader (aka dad) was Clarke. Clarke and Ryan lived across the hall from each other and also had the accounting undergrad core classes together. They got to know each other REALLY well throughout the year. Because Clarke knew both of us we ended up meeting through him during the "All-Sports Pass" frenzy that ignites all wards at the beginning of each school year.

At BYU students have the opportunity to buy what is called an All -Sports Pass. Basically, at that time you paid like $50, and the student is able to get into all sports events for that school year. Most of the sports you just show up at the game and you get into the GA student section without needing a physical ticket. The only sport that students get a physical ticket for is football. The passes are sold in seat order so if you wanted to be able to sit by someone you knew you had to buy your pass at the same time. So at the beginning of each year it was customary for groups to get together and buy the tickets at the same time so you sat by friends, or at least a group you knew, and not all by yourself.

Since my roommates had lived there the year before and knew many of the students in our complex/ward, they went around the building to get a group together the night before the tickets went on sale.

I had a ton of homework already and since I didn't know anyone anyway I passed on the excursion-which is beyond abnormal for me because I have always been up for meeting new people and NEVER passed on an opportunity to avoid homework, so I was home hanging out in my pajamas, reading glasses and philosophy textbooks while the girls went out recruiting.

Clarke and Ryan were out doing the same thing and since Clarke and I knew each other they decided to stop by and invite us to join their group.

The group my roommates has begun to put together had decided on a different time than Ryan and Clarke's group, so in an effort to combine the two groups I put on a hoodie and went with the boys to find Amanda, Elise and Amy.

The next morning as we were all in line and unbeknownst to me Ryan strategically maneuvered his way in line to get his tickets right after I did, to make sure he sat next to me at the games (I guess it was love at first sight for him).

I wouldn't say love at first sight, but Amanda definitely made a great first impression. As Clarke and I went door to door to corral people for football tickets, we stumbled upon Amanda's apartment. I knocked and this cute southern blond girl opened the door and said she loved football. Well, maybe it WAS love at first sight.

As our group had waited in line for a few hours we were able to get to know each other a little bit. During the next week, between getting the tickets and the start of football season, I went to see my friend Beth and she asked about the new people I had met at Liberty Square. In passing I told her about this "cute guy I met" but didn't think he was interested in me, just super friendly. Ryan came off to me as the Mr. Popularity he was-here was a guy who was on the HS football team (I was in the band), on the prom court (I was NOT), and dated someone new every weekend (I didn't)...I'm starting to sound like a Taylor Swift song, so I'll stop here. I didn't see that we had much in common, other than our mutual love of football, so I didn't think that much about him after that.

A week later (Thursday) was the first game. I sat with him and 5 other guys the entire game.

I kinda love football

And I'm kinda quite passionate about BYU football

And I kinda like to watch the game and yell at the players (demurely, of course)

I can honestly say football brought Ryan and I together.

Other than my roommies, the only other people I knew in our section were Clarke and Ryan. No offense to the girls, but it was more fun watching the game with the guys than just chatting with the girls. What wasn't so fun? Watching my buddy give Amanda a backrub while asking about this new girl that I met. I managed to point out that Amanda was the girl I was into, and he was nice enough to stop the backrub, after another 5 minutes or so.

The next night was the campus wide Fall Fling (which is so fun...it is a huge party the campus puts on each year, of course I was there!)

I hadn't planned on meeting up with Ryan, or anyone really, but out of 20,000 or so people we managed to run into each other (fate? coincidence? stalking?) and we just kind of hung out the entire night. He put up with me running into someone I knew every 30 seconds (back when I was super social and knew a ton of people. Now I know no one it seems), hopping from dance to dance around campus, and watching "Freaky Friday" at the end of the night (I kinda dig that movie-the original, NOT the Lindsay Lohan version, plus my feet hurt and I was tired). On the walk home, while Ryan was chatting with someone else, my friend Becky(who so thoughtfully chose this weekend to come back to the Y and visit) kept trying to convince me that Ryan was crushing on me. I kept saying, "no, he's just super friendly." I'm kinda clueless a lot of the time. If you don't tell me you like me I'm going to assume we are just friends. I was never able to tell when a guy liked me without a heads up. She said, "Amanda, a guys does NOT watch 'Freaky Friday' and NOT meet back up with his friends if he doesn't like the girl he's with." Becky, you were right.....we've been together pretty much every day since.

For some reason, I haven't been able to shake her.

Um, yeah, for the record: Ryan pursued me. HE made sure he found excused to come to my apartment and visit. HE left gifts for me on my car. HE asked ME out on dates. I didn't chase after him, heck, it took me forever to be sure he even really liked me! I had gone into the school year wanting to just focus on my job and school, not really planning on dating much. Once we started dating I figured at some point we would break up, that's what people do. All that changed when we invited himself home with me for Thanksgiving....but that is a story for another blog post.

The night after the Fall Fling he found a way to invite my "roommates" and me to the movies with him and a few friends. My roommates had other plans so I thought, what the heck, it had to be better than sitting home on a Saturday night by myself. So I went with him and 2 other guys.

On Sunday he came over with Clarke while we planned our FHE for the next night. Monday he convinced his FHE group to go with ours to the corn maze (he also somehow got himself invited to my apartment to watch "Gidget Goes Hawaiian," my all time favorite movie. And just for the record, at that point I started getting a clue that he did indeed like me. NO guy watches that movie without an ulterior motive--even I'm not that clueless.)

And it goes on and on.....

Q&A:

Q: Why August 5th as a wedding date when we got engaged in March?

A: The Wedding Singer movie, Robbie and Julia got married on August 5th.

While we were dating there were 2 movies we watched at least 25 times each, The Wedding Singer and 10 Things I Hate About You. Seriously, at one point we could both recite the lines from each. Ryan jokes that I started dating him just so I could steal his DVDs and watch them whenever I wanted. They are still 2 of my favorite movies.

Q: Why did you title your post "Forever yours, faithfully?"
A: We listened to that song about a million times while dating. I have this super annoying habit of putting songs I love on repeat. It's obnoxious, and he put up with it until we got married. Now he won't let me do it while he's around :( I also had it engraved into his ring.

Q: Where did we honeymoon?
A: Hawaii. It was actually really sweet, Ryan wouldn't tell me where we were going, just that I should pack beachwear. I never imagined I'd get to go to Hawaii for a week. It was so much fun. He kept it a secret for months, until 2 days before our wedding when he accidentally slipped and told me. Which actually turned out to be a good thing because his grandma asked me about Hawaii the night before the wedding, not realizing I wasn't supposed to know where we were going, so I was eternally grateful for Ryan's slip up.

In Hawaii we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor and on a dinner cruise.

We also met up with an Ainge family friend for a day of sailing. It was hands down my favorite part of Hawaii. He even took us out for a sunset sail after dinner. It was amazing.

At the end of the trip we were so sunburned and tired we treated ourselves to a day of air conditioning and saw a movie (The Replacements, which I still love to this day) and had ice cream at Ghirdelli's afterwards. It was nice to get out of the sun.

I'm so grateful for Ryan, I love being married to him. We have so much fun together...I can't wait for the next 10 years! Happy Anniversary!

My little stinker

2010-07-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hunter has hit the terrible two's full-stride. I can no longer keep up with him. The hardest part right now is that he has discovered a world of fun inside his crib by himself. I have learned that if he even THINKS he can get out of his jammies he will not fall asleep--at all--EVER (theory has been proven....I don't even want to talk about it.....)

This is now what I resort to so that he will fall asleep.

1. Tape his diaper on him.

I ran out of duct tape so now it is packaging tape. AND, I can't just go around once, he has wiggled out of that a few times, I have to circle his body at least three times.

2. Put his jammies on inside out and backwards.

For a while we just had to put them on inside out, but alas, he learned how to unzip them that way as well.

3. Safety pin them on.

For about 2 weeks I was able to just put the safety pin at the top of his jammies so the zipper couldn't slide down. Then, a few weeks ago he discovered that if he is REALLY patient he can wiggle his entire body out of the neck hole. So now I have to pull the fabric close together and safety pin it that way so that he doesn't have any extra room to wiggle.

Seriously, if he figures out how to get out of his jammies after all of this I give up....I don't know what more I can do.

Once we get him "jammied up" we have to follow his little routine to get him to lay down.

First we have to put him on the floor and say "one, two, three, up" before putting him in the bed.

Then we have to have his pillow in the EXACT right spot (we have spent upwards of 5 minutes finding the CORRECT spot, it drives me nuts).

Our final step is wrapping his "towel" (that's what he calls his favorite blanket, it actually used to be Ryan's when he was a baby) around his back and shoulders.

Then he bounces twice and lays down.

Typically if we follow all these steps he will fall asleep pretty quickly-thank goodness.

Stinker.

The art of building a bear (or in our case, a kitty)

2010-07-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

Ryan has been promising Madison that he would take her to Build-a-Bear for two years now. Since we ate lunch at the mall he figured now was as good a time as any. So, here is our Build-a-Bear adventure.

She picked Hello Kitty as her bear. No shock there.......she LOVES Hello Kitty.

She got to help stuff it, she thought that was pretty cool.

All complete. One stuffed bear.

I'm pretty sure her favorite part was being able to "wash" her bear.

She picked Hello Kitty unders. Again, no surprise there :)

While she was dressing her bear I was attempting to distract Hunter so he wouldn't tear the place apart. Here is how our interaction went:

Me: "Hunter, smile for the camera"

Me: "No seriously, smile for the camera"

Me: "Hunter, stop being a monster and smile for the camera"

Me: "I give up, you win"

The end result: One Hello Kitty bear dressed in her Hello Kitty attire.

Madison even got to register her bear with a birthday and everything. She named her Isabelle.

On the way home she even buckled her in so she would be safe. At least I've taught my kids something!

Preschool 2010

2010-07-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

Hunter started preschool this year. I found someone who takes 2 & 3 year olds, and being smart, signed him up! I loved having a few hours a week with both kids in school. It made errands soooo much easier. Plus Hunter loved it. Every time we would go to the stop sign by our house he would point in the direction we took to preschool and say Ms. Kelly, over and over until I figured out what he was saying and then I would tell him that it wasn't a preschool day. He would get sad and quiet for a few minutes and then do it all over again the next time we went to the stop sign. I'm so glad he loved it!

Here he is with Ms. Kelly on the last day of preschool.

Here he is with Ms. Amanda, his other teacher

They did so many cute projects throughout the year. Here are a few of my favorites. Most of the worksheets and such didn't even make it home. Hunter likes to tear paper and when I put him in the car he would cry until I let him hold his work for the day. Thus, most were destroyed, but I dealt with the crying when it was something I wanted to keep. These are two art projects I loved:

This one is a bit blurry because it has real popcorn on it and so the scanner couldn't get a clear enough picture since it couldn't lay flat....oh well, I still love it!

Towards the end of the year Hunter got a Caterpillar in a cocoon to take home and watch and after a week or two it would emerge as a butterfly. Thankfully it took very little work on my part to get it "hatched." I put it in a shoe box, per the instructions, and one day I stopped home for a quick minute and found the butterfly had emerged and had gotten out of the shoe box! I quickly put it back so the kids could watch it fly off. Here is where I found it trying to escape out the back sliding door:

When both kids were home from school I let them take it outside and watch it flap it's wings to gain strength.

Hunter tried to help it on it's way. The instructions said it would flap slowly for a few hours and then fly off. We got lucky and went inside to eat dinner and as soon as I let the kids go back outside to check on it, it flew away. Of course I didn't have my camera for that part!

They (and by they, I really mean Madison. Hunter didn't really get it) really enjoyed seeing the different stages of cocoon to butterfly. I thought it was pretty cool, too!

The very last day of preschool the kids got to have a water day. Here is Hunter all ready to go. He insisted on wearing this hat and then would not take it off for about 2 weeks. The kid slept in it and everything (I have a post coming on his obsession with his hat). I put my foot down for church.

Isn't he the cutest thing you ever did see? He is so cute that I have a hard time saying no to him for anything!

Ms. Kelly and Ms. Amanda made the most adorable books for the kids/mom's and gave them out the last day. Here is Hunter's. They interviewed him for the book and I died laughing on some of his answers. Granted he barely talks and hasn't figured out how to answer questions, but he did a great job.

(he's a little obsessed with balls, so this doesn't surprise me in the least)

(Blue is his absolute favorite color. When he starts the dishwasher he will only use the blue cascade tablets-he leaves the orange ones for Madison)

3 months old already! Where has time gone?

2010-07-05T16:44:00.001-07:00

Presley is such a happy girl. She loves attention and gives the sweetest smiles to anyone who talks to her. She still loves to be held and will now follow people around the room as they move.

She has discovered her feet and loves to grab onto her toes. I LOVE her little fat rolls, they are so dang cute!

She is starting to give us different facial expressions when we talk to her....I love watching our kids grow and develop different skills. She is cooing and mimicking our mouth's movement and trying to figure out how the heck we make the sounds we do! It is so fun to watch.

The other day I went to get her out of the car and discovered her headband around her mouth. It explained why she cried the entire way home! A few days later I watched her grab her headband and try to pull it off but it ended up over her eyes instead. Poor thing.....I torture her to death with her bows, but she is so cute with them!

Madison was trying to calm her down one day and this is what I found. I think she might be a tad bit too young to play with a sword.....but hey, at least she was willing to help me out!

Happy 3 months mark Presley!

As I look over the posting I realize that Presley is in her carseat A LOT. I feel so bad for her but we are in the car the majority of the day. It's just part of being the 3rd kid. It also explains why she cries every time I put her into her carseat. She knows that once she's in it will be a while before she gets out again.

Catching up with Madison

2010-07-05T16:13:00.001-07:00

The last few months have been incredibly chaotic for our family. Madison has had so much going on that the other kids and I are exhausted just driving her around! She's had school, swim lessons, piano, gymnastics and a few play dates. I didn't mean to over schedule us quite so much, but hey, it happens and next year I will be MUCH more careful in what I put the kids in.

Swim Lessons

She has been in swim lessons for the last month, she did 2 sessions and LOVED them. I'm so glad, I'm such a water baby that it would make it hard for me if one of my kids didn't enjoy the water.

For the first session she stayed in level 1 to refresh all of her skills. With us not having a pool she doesn't get to swim near as much as any of us would like. She did great! I love her swim instructor, the first skill she teaches the kids is the "recovery." I think that is what she calls it. Basically the kids have to learn to go under the water and then come up and float on their back. She says that if they know that skill they should never drown. Hey, I'm a fan, the last thing I want is to deal with the death of a child via drowning. Madison got this skill down pat last year and did great with it again this year.

In her second session she did Level 2 and was diving by the end. I was so proud of her, she was terrified of diving but thanks to positive peer pressure she was diving with the rest of them. She also began learning side breathing, front stroke and back stroke. She still has a bunch to work on to get really strong in level 2, but she did so well!

Random Story with picture

This is just a random story about her, but I love this picture and got a kick out of her creativity. She discovered this new show with a superhero named Spartacus in it. It's beyond cheesy, but whatever. She likes it.

Anyway, she put on her super girl jammies and her snow boots so that she could be Spartacus and save whomever around the house. Mostly she just ran and jumped off of all the furniture. Luckily I got a cute picture of her before she ended up in timeout for the aforementioned jumping off of furniture.

First Piano Recital

Madison had her first piano recital this past month. She has been in piano the last 6 or 7 months and is actually doing really well. I wasn't sure how quick she would pick it up, or really if she would even like it, but she loves it and, for the most part, practices without me having to nag her.

She got to play 2 songs and was able to memorize the first one but had the book open just in case she needed it for the second. She played "The Opposite Song" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." She is reading the notes on the staff and is able to play with both hands. I'm so proud of her.

She has a tendency to be silly, but she took the recital seriously and was very professional during her turns.

Of course I forgot my camera that records video, so I was only able to get still shots of the night. I was bummed about that but excited that the other 2 kids made it through without too many issues.

I'm a big boy now!

2010-07-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

About two months ago Hunter decided he didn't like diapers anymore. I LOVE them....there's not much that I dread more than having to take my child in to some nasty bathroom to go potty. Ugh....the germs give me the willy's just thinking of them.

Anyway, back to the story, every time I would tell him that it was time to change his diaper or tell Madison to go potty he wanted to go potty on the real potty also. I would frequently go looking for him and he would have stripped all his clothes and diaper off and be wanting to sit on the potty. It was actually becoming a pain in the butt for me.

So, after a few weeks of this happening I decided it was time to potty train the kid. If he was that interested then I was willing to go through the torture of potty training. The hardest part is finding a period of time where we would be home for more than an hour at a time. Once I decided to become 100% anti-social for a few weeks we started the process.

Dare I say it? We have success! I have a big boy now! And oh, my goodness, a little boy in his unders is about the cutest thing ever!!!! His favorite are his Elmo, but he will wear spider man or another Sesame Street character in a pinch. However, he will let me know that they are not his first choice. I tell him to get over it and if he doesn't have accidents then he will be able to wear whatever ones he wants. I'm such a sympathetic mommy.

The unknown result of potty training is that he pretty much refuses to wear clothes anymore. This is what he looks like at home all day long. I don't even care anymore. As long as he will wear clothes without a battle when we have to go out then I'm not fighting that battle. Besides, he is just too freakin' adorable to put into words going around all day in his unders.

I'm so proud of my little guy!