California Vacay: The Decision and Drive

You may remember me mentioning a trip to NYC that Rob and I had planned. I got an amazing ticket price, babysitting was all set up, and we were anxiously awaiting for the time to arrive. So what was the problem??

Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m the first person ready to travel anywhere, anytime. But this time it just wasn’t sitting well with me. Something wasn’t right. I decided to take my feelings seriously when there was an issue with our airline tickets and I had to call to straighten it out. The whole time I was on the phone with the agent, I kept hoping she would say the tickets wouldn’t be valid so we couldn’t go. Then that night as I was reading the scriptures I felt, yet again, that it just wasn’t the right time for Rob and I to go. As soon as I made that choice and started thinking about taking the whole family to Disneyland and the beach instead, I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

Who knows if there was a “bigger” reason for us to change plans, but we had such a fun and memorable time all together!

On the first day of our drive we stopped for a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt at Discovery Park in Cedar City. It’s a huge wooden playground with mazes and play structures and all sorts of good stuff. The kids had a great time.

Then I hid the eggs in a little woodsy patch close by and the kids searched. Caroline caught on pretty quickly. (In this picture, I cropped out a guy totally looking at my butt!)

                  

Nate searched enthusiastically.

Madeleine got discouraged. Haha.

Then the kids counted and ate their booty…

   

 

and watched a large kite being flown overhead.

 

It even swooped down and came within an inch of slamming into Rob.

After this, we drove on to Las Vegas. We stayed a few blocks off of the strip and the hotel had a shuttle to the Fashion Show Mall next to Treasure Island. We decided to eat in the food court and walked down to see the pirate show. Boy. I think I said this last time, but I’ll say it again and I mean it. We are never driving or walking around in Vegas again! It’s bad enough when you are an adult but I sure felt terrible exposing my innocent children to that filth. The pirate show is now a show full of nasty women, gross dancing, and sex jokes. We left after just a minute. We had to squeeze ourselves through the tight mass of people who had gathered to ogle. We walked around for a few minutes and further exposed my children to more filth. Then, as we were about to board an elevator to cross the street, Nate ran ahead and in a dark corner by the door, slipped and fell into a puddle of WHO KNOWS WHAT!  It could’ve been ANYTHING. Nate said some splashed on his face and he licked it and it wasn’t water. EEEK!!! Also, if you want to shoot a machine gun with “gorgeous” topless women, I saw a few huge ads for it there. Dumb…

Anyway, our hotel was really nice (Springhill Suites Convention Center) and we found out we are capable of all sleeping in the same room together. Good to know!

A Pink Party for a Princess

Madeleine recently turned 4 years old! She decided to have a pink princess party. Sure, it’s a little cliché, but I figured it’s her birthday and she’s only 4 once and may not be into princesses or pink for much longer.

 

All day she kept telling me, “It’s my birthday so I get to do whatever I want.” Why, yes it is and yes you do! I use the same excuse on my birthday, too!

All the girls were too cute in their princess dresses. I made ribbon streamers for them to dance with and twirl around.

 

She requested pink food, of course, so on the menu was strawberry milk, strawberry whoppers, and pink cupcakes with pink sprinkles.

 

 

         

         

Then I had my sister come and give the princesses a manicure.

 

 

Madeleine and I are so happy her party went so well. Thanks to all the little girls who came and had fun and brought lots of gifts!!

 

Madeleine’s family birthday was celebrated at each of her grandparent’s homes. She received a jumping game, My Little Ponies, a Madeline doll, a backpack full of art supplies, Gerald and Piggie stuffed animals (her favorite books), a Strawberry Shortcake waterslide bath toy and some other things that have slipped my mind but are no less important .

Madeleine can’t wait until next year!

Family and party guests are welcome to view or download more pictures here.

Babe in Snowland

We waited all winter for snow and finally got some in March. Rob and I took the older kids sledding but Caroline felt left out so we took her to the backyard for her first experience in deep snow.

She didn’t love walking in it, mainly because she couldn’t.

 

She didn’t want to play, just eat and eat and eat.

 

 

I like these pictures because she looks like me when I was little. I wish I had a scanner so I could put in an old picture of me, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

A Birthday Party and Another Birthday Party

In December, Nate turned the big zero six. I decided to throw him a surprise party (Okay, I stole the idea from my neighbor who threw her six-year-old a surprise party just a few days before). Nate already knew about his friend birthday party coming up but he didn’t know about the family party we had planned.

The night before, Rob and I stayed up and made this beauty out of his favorite candy, skittles.

The day of, Rob took Nate on a little photowalk to the park while family gathered. Here is what happened when he walked in the door.

Then, a few days later, his friend party had been planned to take place. Nate had handed out the invitations to some kids at school without me ever getting a chance to meet the parents or anything. So I had no idea who these kids were and had no idea how to get a hold of the mothers.

Well, birthday party morning came and Nate was sick. Not just a little sick, but a lot sick. I had to call the moms I knew and cancel the party. Then I had to ask around to other moms to find out last names of the random kids Nate invited and looked online to find phone numbers. I actually got a hold of all the mothers! I was shocked, relieved, and yes, annoyed. Since the party was so close to Christmas, we had to move the party to the week following Christmas.

The day of the rescheduled party came and I tried to remind the moms of it but still only 1/2 the kids made it . Nate was quite bummed, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

Don’t tell Nate, but even besides the low attendance, this party didn’t exactly turn out to be a riot. Rob and I had all kinds of silly, messy games to play and most of the boys didn’t want anything to do with getting messy. They just sat there. Lame.

Nate also decided he wanted a red oreo cake. Okaaaay. So I did red frosting and the entire cake was covered in whole oreo cookies. Well, I’m not sure why, but none of the boys liked it and they made sure to tell me.

The other totally cool thing we did was set up the entire living room with hotwheels trick tracks. It was awesome!! Annnnd….none of the guests wanted to play with them. At all. They kept telling me they wanted to watch a movie. What is it with these kids?

Next year, Nate’s inviting just a couple friends and we’re going to Chuck-E-Cheese.

Regardless of how the party went, we sure love our growing kid. He makes us feel so much love every day.

(More videos of him opening presents are here).

Us

  

This last month has been an odd one for us. First, Rob was assigned to work nighters for a couple of weeks. After the kids went to bed, he would head out the door in sub-freezing temperatures to work out on the freeway. His assignment? Oversee grouting underneath I-15 and US-89 in North SL. Then, in the blink of an eye (my eye, at least) he would be home. He’d sit at the table trying to finish his reports and not fall asleep until about 10:30 when he’d head upstairs to sleep in interrupted abundance until 2:30 or so. We’d all enjoy the afternoon together, he’d go back upstairs for an early evening nap, and then leave again. It was a weird schedule, but doable temporarily. It was fun having some extra daytime hours with him.

Then came the assignment for Rob to go to Morenci, AZ for 3 weeks. Rob has worked hard to avoid travelling for work too much. I have worked hard arranging for me and the kids to go with him whenever it’s unavoidable. This time, Rob needed to go and, this time, the family wasn’t able to go with him. Nate has already missed 3 weeks of school while we went to Denver, it is a drive of 13 hours to Morenci (which is basically in the middle-of-nowhere desert of south-eastern Arizona), and we already have a family trip planned for the week after he gets back. So, he was stuck going and we were stuck staying. He did, however, negotiate to be able to come home for a few days in the middle.

Before he left we had a few days together as a family to hang out. Rob and I also went on a really great date to Park City where we shopped and ate dinner. I also wanted to get some portraits together. Our wall has some spots that need filling-in and I decided I wanted another one of us up there. 

The first week he was gone was so busy for me planning a birthday party and all sorts of other to-dos. It went by relatively quickly, even if it was a little stressful.

Then his weekend home came and it was so filled with fun! We celebrated his and Madeleine’s birthdays (post to come later) and just generally enjoyed being together as a family.

Now he’s gone again. But, he says the work is going quickly and he is hoping to come home a few days early, so that’s fantastic! The kids and I sure miss him. His happy-go-lucky spirit is such a joy to have here.

I’m so grateful for the technology now that enables us to communicate so readily with each other. He and Caroline even shared some chips together over FaceTime (video chat app). Nate prays every day that his dad won’t get bit by a rattlesnake or fire ants or get stung by a black scorpion. Madeleine misses wrestling with him.

Rob, I love you!! So much!

            

1st Place in Photography

Nope, Rob didn’t win this title. Nope, I didn’t either. Nate did!

 

 

Nate has picked up on how much fun taking pictures can be. He makes sure there’s enough light. He focuses. He frames the subject just right. Then he makes adjustments if the shot isn’t exactly what he had in mind. 

For Christmas he got his own camera. He has enjoyed photographing and taking videos of himself and his sisters playing. We never even taught him how to use it. He just picked it up and was off and running.

Last Fall, his school held a Reflections contest. The theme was: Diversity Means... Rob asked Nate if he wanted to participate and sure enough, he did. There was a whole list of things he could do: write a story, draw a picture, etc. But of course, he chose photography. We didn’t give him any ideas as to what he should photograph and why. Rob explained what diversity meant and Nate decided he wanted to color some rocks and take a picture of them. Fantastic idea!

Nate went to work coloring. Then he gathered his rocks onto the deck and snapped some photos. Rob imported them into Lightroom, Nate chose his favorite and then pumped up the colors a little bit. We printed it and mounted it on stiff cardboard for the presentation.

Guess what?! He WON! Nate got 1st place in photography in the entire school. How COOL is that?! Here’s where the sad part comes in. Rob put Nate’s email address on the entry form, not thinking that that was the form of communication the PTA President would use to notify the parents the day before the award assembly. We had NO idea until the next week and had completely missed the entire thing. I wanted to cry. Actually, maybe I did. Nevertheless, Nate was stoked to have won and when we had gotten back to school a week later (we were in Denver) his teacher gave him his gold medal.

 

You should have seen that kid walk towards me with it around his neck. I’ll never forget how proud and happy and excited he was. He was even pumping his fist. He also got a certificate, some free activity/kids meals coupons, and went on to the next level of competition (which he didn’t win. But that’s totally ok).

I’m going to be framing his photograph and hanging it over his bookshelf by his bead. I’m so proud of this kid. He’s the best!

Allen + Cupcake

...Because everyone loves pictures of kids covered in food...

Nate As Of Late

The biggest news first. Drumroll please…Nate has one less tooth in his head. Well, kind of. His permanent tooth had half-way grown in behind his baby tooth, so for a while he had one more tooth in his head. But now he’s back on track without even a hole. That’s convenient!

 

Nate is such a great kid. It would take me hours to write everything great about him. Here’s just a sample of what he’s been up to as of late.

This kid talks, and talks and talks. Still. He explains everything step-by-step. He asks questions until he understands, which usually doesn’t take very long at all.

He gets sucked into Infomercials. Granted, they do seem to be written at a young child’s level. He will try to convince me we need whatever gadget is being sold. “Mom! It comes with a free cupcake holder! It’s very powerful! But dad will have to buy it because it’s hundreds of dollars.”

Nate is a great friend. He tells me all the time that he doesn’t know why some kids are mean to other kids. We talked the other day about Ely and how it might be hard for him to make friends because he is partially blind and gets frustrated with things easily. I overheard him tell someone that he was working hard to become Ely’s friend. That sure made a mom’s morning.

Nate is the best big brother. He plays with his sisters to no end. He’ll put up with their emotional swings and bossiness. He’ll make them laugh. They love him with all the little sister love they’ve got.

Nate can get very stressed out when trying to make decisions. Hmmm, sounds familiar to me. Sometimes he’ll tell me to just make the decision for him. Again, sounds familiar to me.

He hates being put on a timer. This stresses him out more than anything, I think. Panic attacks including hyperventilating and crying usually ensue.

Nathan ponders. When he is told or taught something, especially gospel-oriented, he ponders and then asks very thoughtful questions. Similar experiences happen routinely. Just the other night we read and talked about Mosiah 27:9 “…causing much dissension among the people; giving a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over them.”  Well, tonight he asked Rob, “If children break the commandments, will the devil have power over them?” Rob gently explained that the devil doesn’t have any power over children; that Heavenly Father loves and protects him.

Rob and I love our high-spirited, highly-spiritual son.