Globetrotters, Disney on Ice, and Hugo

For Christmas my grandparents have generously sent a check every year for us to by the kids a gift from them. Last year and this year we have used it to buy each of the kids a ticket to an event. Normally we would not be able to do these things, so it is such a fun surprise! The kids love to see on Christmas day what kind of tickets they receive. This year the boys went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. They loved seeing all the tricks that the players were able to do. Reuben and Lincoln were really excited to get their picture with Too Tall, who is actually shorter than Reuben. Unfortunately our computer has given me problems and lost the photo :(

Kaitlyn's wasn't a surprise this year. I asked her ahead of time if she'd like to go to Disney On Ice or go see Hugo in the "real" theater. (normally we only go to the dollar theater). She picked Hugo, she had read the book last year and was really excited to have the opportunity to see the movie in 3D no less. I was lucky enough to go with her to this. I loved seeing it in 3D. I think the last 3D movie I saw was a Michael Jackson one when I was a kid. Kaitlyn loved the movie and we both enjoyed having one on one time together!

Eve was surprised with Disney On Ice tickets. Eve and I were able to go together to this event. She is my chatter box! She talked my ear off on the car ride there. The show did a brief overview of The Frog Princess, Cinderella and Tangled. Tangled of course was the show stopper. The skaters even twirled up in the air holding onto fabric which looked like Rapunzel's hair. The second half of the show our friends invited us to come sit with them because they were only 5 rows from the ice. During the show I would lean over and say to Eve "isn't that cool" after a couple of times she asked a matter a factually , "Mom, could you please stop asking me questions". It made me smile.

All of the Disney princesses came out at the end dressed in white and gold to welcome Rapunzel to the princess club. It was very magical. Eve was waving to all of them the whole time :)

Christmas 2011

So, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth over here. Just keeping busy. Looking back I didn't really take any pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas this year. It was a nice relaxing Christmas. Christmas Eve we spent just as our small little family. We had our traditional steak and potatoes dinner, with Dickens Pudding for dessert. I think Reuben was the only one, of the kids, that enjoyed the steak and no one except Ryan and I enjoyed the dessert, but hopefully the rest will learn to like it as the years go on. To me it isn't Christmas Eve without the food traditions. My mother is such a wonderful cook and all of us looked forward to her special holiday meal traditions. After dinner we had the kids open some pajama pants that I had sewn. Then the kids schemed and talked Ryan and I into letting them open their present from each other. (We put all of our names in a hat on Thanksgiving and draw out a name of someone else in the family, the kids love this.) Ryan and I decided it wouldn't be the end of the world if we gave in and that it was actually a good idea because this way the gift from the family member wouldn't get lost in the chaos of opening presents in the morning. It ended up being wonderful! We all played the game Reuben received and Lincoln could not stand to part with his squinkies from that moment on, the girls loved their hand picked presents too. After some cookies were put out for Santa it was off to bed.

Lincoln saw me working on these pajamas and just had to have super hero pajama pants just like Reuben's, luckily I had enough to be able to make both of them.

Here's the gang holding their presents that they purchased for each other in the family.

Christmas started with opening of presents and then going to church. It turned out to be a relaxing afternoon followed by dinner at our dear friend's house.

My Boys

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but I just had to include this picture.
Most mornings are spent like this. The kids finish waking up in front of the t.v. More often than not Lincoln will snuggle up the Reuben or at least sit right next to him. They truly are such good friends or as Lincoln likes to say "best bubby". We have fantasized of someday owning our own home and having more bedrooms and space. The cute part is Reuben still always says he wants to share a room with Lincoln. Don't get me wrong they do have their moments when they would like to play without the other, but I know they really do love each other. As a mother moments like these just melt my heart.

Happy Halloween

On Saturday night we carved our pumpkins together. I love how they turned out this year!

Lincoln - ghost, Eve - Hello Kitty


Kaitlyn - panda, Reuben - four ghosts

Girl Scout Camp

Last weekend I was able to go camping with Kaitlyn's girl scout troop. It is hard to believe that I have been their leader for almost 6 years now! We went camping with all the girl scout troops from our town this weekend. It was such a fun and beautiful time of year to go camping. The trees are all changing colors which made for beautiful surroundings and there was a Halloween theme to the camp out since it's October. We started off the first night having a scavenger hunt. The following morning a naturalist came and brought a couple of owls and a possum. That night we had a monster bash (which I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of). There were carnival games, dancing, and of course everyone was in costume. The last morning we celebrated Juliet Low's (the founder of girl scouts) birthday. Our girls had fun with the troop we shared a cabin with, it was a just a great camp out over all :)

We made a craft during our free time inspired by this.


The other troop included us in on their doughnut eating contest

and their bobbing for apples game


Here is a photo of all the girls from our city that were at camp.

Mount Rushmore

On our way home from Utah Ryan asked if I wanted to take a detour and see Mount Rushmore. I said sure but was a little hesitant because I didn't know how much time it would tack onto our already long trip. It ended up just adding a few hours and was a fun little break in the long drive. We arrived around dinner time and let the kids run around a little and took some pictures and then we were back on our way. I've always wanted to see this landmark! I am glad we were able to make the stop!

Natural Water Slide

On my Dad's birthday we all went on a hike in Alpine to a natural water slide. The hike was a hot one without shade, but it was fun to cool off at the top. The natural water slide is a waterfall made from granite rock. The water is all glacier or snow melt from the mountain which made the water really cold! Two of my nephews were brave enough to go down the huge slide and a couple of kids, including Reuben, went down a smaller one. Most of us just had fun wading in the pools of water, while all the Mom's there had their blood pressure going through the roof that their little one's wouldn't get hurt or fall down the drop-offs all around us. I am really glad we all went, it was really neat to see.

Going to the Zoo

I have to pinch myself sometimes! I am really so blessed to have Rochelle and her family in my life. They surprised us with a family pass to our local zoo! I was speechless when she emailed me to let me know about the surprise. I still am. I just feel so blessed to have such an amazing friend! It is more than just a zoo pass. She is an amazing friend and I won't get all mushy on the blog, but you get the idea :)

A trip to the zoo together seemed perfect! There is a new Elephant exhibit at our zoo that is huge. The zoo really did a fantastic job if I say so myself.

My husband's a podiatrist, so I had to take a picture of the elephant's foot bone.

Crazy best friends

I don't take enough pictures of this beautiful girl! I love her so much! She is growing up way too fast.

I love watching them together. They are such good friends.

This bear was just hanging out. He was so cute! Grace took one look at this bear folding his arms and said, "Look the bear is praying". I love kids, they see the world in such a wonderful way.

The zoo has a neat butterfly exhibit. I was lucky enough to have a little visitor.

I hope we can go together many more times this year!

Summer Days

I have to give a shout out to my kids. They have been wonderful this summer. We have been stuck at home A LOT because I have been babysitting so much. I feel bad that we haven't been to the pool more or doing other fun things but they really have been great sports about it. I love them so much. We are going to Utah next week! I am SO excited to be with family and also to have a little break! It will be wonderful!

The kidos decided to randomly have horse races! I love it when they all play together.

School's Out For Summer

getting off the bus on the last day of school

Our bus stop crew

The kids are officially on summer break! It has definitely already felt like summer because of the hot days we've been having and pretty much every night at either Kaitlyn or Reuben's baseball games. I love it! (I didn't get to the bus stop in time to get a picture of Kates )

Memorial Day Parade 2011

Eve's Daisy troop

Reuben's baseball team

Kaitlyn's baseball team

This year three of the kids were able to be in the Memorial Parade in our town. Eve was so excited for about a week before that she was going to be able to be in the parade this year. Ryan had to work so Lincoln and I cheered of the kids from the sidelines.

Spring Break

I'm a little behind on my blogging. Life has been super busy. Spring break this year seemed to slip away this year. I had one day off from babysitting, so as a family we went to the Children's Museum. The kids were stoked! We went and they had a fun time until we went in the massive sand room. (note, never go in the sand room :) Lincoln ended up with a face full of sand. We spent the next half hour flushing his eye with this little eye cup they had there (I guess it has happened before). It broke my heart to hear my little boy cry and scream in pain. Finally we decided to take him to the doctor to make sure all the sand was out of his eyes. Lincoln refused to open his eyes from the point he got sand in his eyes until we were sitting in the patient room at the doctors. Luckily Lincoln had not scratched his eyes and the sand was out as far as the doctor could tell. The doctor gave us some drops to put in his eyes to keep them moist in case there was some more sand hiding out in there.

Despite the crazy Children's Museum visit, we all seemed to have a good Spring Break. The kids had fun doing crafts at home and playing with their friends.

Mario and Luigi K'nex

(The Luigi motorcycle stands up great. My kids just had fun posing it.)

We were lucky enough to try out some more K'nex this week. We were sent the Mario cart and Luigi sets for free in the mail. The only catch is to blog about what we thought about them. The kids were super excited to open the package as soon as it arrived. Reuben was stoked that they were Mario and Luigi! Everyone huddled around the table to put them together. Both sets went together really easy. The only negative feedback for the sets is; on the Mario one the rocket booster/exhaust pipes fall off really easy, as for the Luigi set when you press Luigi on the bike to ride it then the motorcycle breaks in half unless you support it right. The positives were that they are easy to put together, very cool characters, and the Mario Kart propels forward if you pull it back and then release it. When all is said and done I would definitely recommend both of these sets! The kids were fighting over who would get to play with them first!