Wii Update

C is a fierce competitor in Wii Bowling. He is constantly out bowling his competition which includes his dad, his uncles, his cousins, his aunts, and dear ol' mom. He now wants to go do the real thing. It sounds like we have a bowling date set for our next FHE.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We are visiting R's dad in southern Nevada. Now that might sound warm as you think Las Vegas or something, but no--it's just as cold as it was in Utah with snow and all. We slept in their moterhome, which C thinks is just like a hotel. C was up at the butt-crack of dawn trying to get us all up so we could come inside the house and see what Santa left us. We did manage to get him to lay back down and let everyone sleep until a more reasonable time.

We've had a fun morning opening presents and playing with new toys. Santa brought us a Wii. R is setting it up with his brothers and dad--who knows when the boys or I will get a turn to play it. MK made off with quite the haul--lucky little girl. The boys didn't do so bad either.

We've enjoyed spending time with family. I wish I could see my family as well, but can't really be in 2 places at once.

On the 10th day of Christmas . . .

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me CARPET!

It's true! We are FINALLY getting carpet in the rooms downstairs, the stairs, and the landing. Could we have taken any longer? Probably, but I'm glad we're not. =) Soon, we'll be setting up a room downstairs for the the boys so MK can move into their old room (right now, her bed is in the living room and her clothes are cluttering my room.) Also, R can move out of the cold, dark dungeon unfinished part of the basement that he's been using as a study. We'll be playing "musical rooms" as my mom used to say when I was younger.

I'm so excited to move things into place instead of tripping over things and having things stuffed into corners and on top of each other because we don't have room for them right now. I'm getting giddy.

10 Years Ago

I had one of those rare moments when all was quite and I could hear myself think--ok, it was when I was in the shower. (Maybe this is why I've started taking longer showers.) So, during my long shower I started thinking how it has now been 10 years since I lived in France. 10 years ago, I was living in Versailles as a missionary. I spent Christmas Eve at a Cathedral in Paris for Christmas Mass. We had tried to get into Notre-Dame de Paris, but "no room at the inn." I remember riding back to our apartment down Les Champs-Elysee toward l'Arc de Triumph and looking at all the lights in the trees that lined the streets. It was beautiful. We spent the next day exchanging small gifts and eating a 10 course meal. (Not exagerating--10 full courses! Oh, it was a lot of food. Delicious food, though.) I also remember talking to my parents on the phone and wanting to talk to all my brothers and sisters so bad that I slept on the couch so that I'd hear the phone ring at some crazy hour like 3:30 am, but I was so tired and groggy that I didn't get to talk much--I just wanted to be able to go back to sleep.

It's funny that even though I know time has gone by--I see it everyday in the fact that I have 3 growing kids--I'm still shocked to realize that it's been 10 years. It just sounds like so long ago, when it doesn't feel like it's been that long ago. I still talk to college buddies, and it seems like it wasn't all that long ago we were doing crazy things like working at a Haunted Forest one freezing cold night (shout out to J & Melissa!), driving 8 hours round trip in the middle of the night to see boys (Yup, Melissa and J again), going sledding at the sanddunes (you know it J & Kat!), staying up to 3 am playing harts, phase 10, etc and then making pancakes (we had to outlaw phase 10 after many unfortunate incidents involving slammed doors, shouting names that were not given to us by our mothers, and overall annoyances), and-oh yeah-going to classes.

I'm getting old.

Up On The Rooftop...

 

Up on the rooftop......Nope, not reindeer. It's my boys! We spent a good part of Saturday getting the house cleaned up so we can make room for out Christmas decorations. R climbed up on the roof to put up our Christmas lights. Both C & S wanted to go up and help dad. So this is them on the roof "helping" dad put up the lights. C went up last year to "help" and wanted to do it again. This year, C was a little freaked out by it. S was loving it. He's our little daredevil. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have encouraged something like this to our budding Evil Canevil.

Vacation = Laundry

Am I right? My laundry room is still full of dirty laundry, and I've been doing laundry for 2 days. Yikes! We came home Sunday night from a fun trip to sunny Arizona to visit with R's mom, step dad, sister, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, pets, etc. We had a blast, but now I feel like my house has exploded. I'd say more, but I need to go change the laundry. MK needs clean pjs.

Not a Baby Anymore

It's been a while since we've had a babysitter over. It's been at least 3-1/2 months, you know, before MK was born. But things changed this week, and I've had a babysitter for my kids twice this last week. First was last Saturday when R and I went to a Salt Lake Real Soccer game. It was fun--I'll post more on that later. Second was just last night when I needed to go into work for a training and get all set up for today's big return. Well, C and S love having babysitters--someone who plays and plays and indulges them in their crazy imaginations. When I told C that we were having a babysitter last Saturday, he was ecstatic--spastic is more like it. When I told him he'd have another babysitter last night, he smiled and cheered. However, not 5 minutes later, C came to me and thoughtfully asked "Is it okay if we call our babysitter a kidsitter? Because I'm not a baby anymore." So, we no longer hire babysitters--Just kidsitters.

Field Trip to the Fire Station

S's preschool had a field trip to the local Fire Station, and MK and I got to go along with him and his class. I bundled MK up in the stroller and tagged along. MK did great--didn't fuss and fell asleep near the end. Anyways, it's a pretty impressive building that was built only a couple of years ago. The kids got to go inside an ambulance as well as a firetruck. Each child could try on a firefighter's hat and coat, but S (and a few others) didn't want to do it. It was funny to see the other kids put it on and see how the coat just drowned them--it'd drape to the ground. The tour included the police station as well. We got to see where police officers take finger prints and interrogate suspects.

It was fun to be able to do this with him. I didn't get to go when C was in preschool. C's first year in preschool, he broke his collar bone the night before the field trip. His second year, I had to work.

Here is S examining the inside of a firetruck. I love that he wore his "fire beanie" for the field trip. It's black with red flames. Fitting, isn't it?

 

At the end, the EMT doing the tour handed out rulers for each kid. He prefaced this by asking the kids not to hit with them or play swords with them. He was talking to a group of 3-4 year-olds. Even as he was handing them out, kids were starting to play "star wars" and more. I got another picture near the end with S in front of a firetruck holding his ruler.

S at the Firestation

It was a fun morning. I had a great time spending time with S and being able to be a part of his preschool experience. He loves preschool and is learning so much. He surprises me with how much he learns and remembers. This year, his teachers are teaching the alphabet in sign language along with the written alphabet. The other night, we were sitting around reading scriptures and then goofing around as a family. I don't remember why, but C, S and I were raising our hands for some crazy reason I can't remember any more. All the sudden, S told me that that (us holding our hands up, fingers closed) was the letter 'B.' It took me a while to understand what he was talking about, but he was right. It was the letter 'B.' He's gone on to tell me what other letters he knows. What a fun kid!