Recent events

Well, one of my favorite non-holidays came and went -- St. Patty's day of course!! The leprechauns - or leppychauns (as Derek calls them), came and turned our milk green and peed green in the toilets -- they did it because they're sneaky of course!

Since I was gone for breakfast time, Dave held up the tradition of green breakfast!

Jenna has been rather beastly lately -- and ALWAYS is tugging at my leg to be held. Honestly - it drives me crazy. The other night I was trying to make dinner, and she kept tugging, but I had nasty hands and was NOT going to get her -- so she fell on the floor, grabbed her binky and started rubbing her fingers along her eyelashes (which is what she does when she is tired to self-soothe). I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Derek got invited to make and shoot rockets off with the Webelos this past weekend. Derek LOVED spray-painting his own rocket --

On Saturday Dave & Derek were out all day long shooting rockets -- they had a blast (no pun intended). Derek found a little friend out where they were -- it's a lizard! Dave said he almost killed it a couple times due to squishing, but eventually he had to let it go.

Hailey & her friend Ashlynn had a late-night -- I introduced them to the game M.A.S.H. which they played for quite some time, and then we got a redbox movie & I made fruit kabobs & fruit dip. :)

The vain pleadings of the young

I came home tonight from school to find my mirror covered with Hailey graffiti. She has been asking for a cell phone forEVER. We continue to tell her it ain't gonna happen right now. First, I must say that Hailey doesn't even really like to talk on the phone anyway, but is still begging for a phone. In case you can't read it, here's what it says

PLEASE

Give Hailey a cellphone
Reasons Why - I will do these
Keep her Grades up
Be Helpful
Babysitting for Free
Great Attitude
Won't bug you to buy me things at the store
You can take it for a while if I'm bad.

In addition to her note, she had little papers crammed in at the cracks of the mirror saying "Please buy me a cell phone".

Although her attempts are in vain, she sure gave it a good go. Gotta give her an A for effort :)

A short jaunt...

Have you ever gotten into a rut, where you just NEEDED to GET OUT!?!

Well, our family has seemed to be running on auto-pilot for a while now. We've been so crazy busy, that we have all only seen each other in passing. SO - to REMEDY this, we decided to get out of the house for the weekend.

So - we made the LONG JOURNEY down to Salt Lake :) LOL~!

We planned some fun activities with the kids. We hit up the Clarke Planetarium, the Children's Discovery Museum, and roamed the Gateway. I love downtown!!

Jenna absolutely love, LOVE, LOVED, the freedom of walking all around! She hardly had us carry her at all -- she booked it everywhere we went!

Luckily - we had some very fun moments down there, to counter the unexpected bickering and whining that came along too (I don't know how they made their way though -- argh!).

Here are the highlights :)

This is the closest Hailey's going to be coming to driving for at least a few more years :)

This was Derek's absolute favorite! He stood in the play store inside the Children's Discovery Museum for the longest time. He'd scan his groceries, then take them back and restock the shelves. It was really cute!

Hailey made an awesome parachute for the little wind-tubes they had.

The best part of this place is that it has something for EVERY age! Jenna had a ball playing with the blocks!

We are alive!

So after inspiration to get back to blogging, here I am with an update. No pictures for now, since I've taken just a handful of pictures since Christmas. Slacker, I know.

In January I started back to school. Full time. What was I thinking?! After a couple years off, I reevaluated and realized I was only 2 semesters away from finishing my degree in Sociology. SO - after some serious contemplating and some encouragment from Dave I decided to jump in. I am gone all day Monday & Wednesday and half of Friday. Every moment in between is spent either studying, doing laundry or toting kids between activities. Thank goodness for this only being temporary. Thanks to my MIL for her help in watching the kids a couple times during the week to help out!!

Dave & I both signed up for the St. George Tri that is in May. Due to our chaotic schedules we don't get to train much together, but are doing our "things" where we can squeeze it in.

The kids are great! Hailey & Derek are in gymnastics (gyNastics as Derek says) and they both LOVE it! Hailey's still doing the school choir as well. She just finished up the 5th grade science fair. ATTENTION: For anyone who's child has not yet reached 5th grade-- DO NOT, I repeat - DO NOT, procrastinate getting the project/presentation board, oral report and written report until the weekend before it is due. It is NO fun! Luckily we all pitched in, but Hailey did a great job getting all the data together. She analyzed the relationship of temperature and placement in the deflation of balloons. Go Hailey! :)

Jenna is almost officially 18 months old! She has been SO much fun. She sleeps great, loves to eat all day. Among her many healthy options, she is often to be found sitting on the bottom stiar with the box of fruit loops as happy as can be! She loves her brother & sister. She folds her cute arms during prayers, gives many hugs and kisses, brushes her teeth ALL the time, loves to play in the dog's food and water (ew!) and many other little things! She is tons of fun for our whole family.

Dave's staying busy with lots of work! Things have been busy, but good for him over the past few months. We're looking forward to taking a little break once I'm done w/ school & his work has settled down a little. *Dreaming of vacations for now*.

Alright - so on the Valentine's day, I'm pledging my love to my blog, and I promise not to neglect anymore!

But of course that is a distant second to how much I love my sweet Hubby and my kiddos. I'm such a lucky lady to have such a great family!!

Happy Valentines Day all!

December - catching up!

Well, these are all sorts of out of order -- backwards really, but here we go.

December was so much fun. We had a great time seeing family & friends, and spending time with them.

We had a great time w/ my family on Christmas eve, doing our traditional mexican fiesta. The story - one year eons ago, my mom was really sick on Christmas eve, so my dad ventured off to find what we were going to eat, and came home with some type of mexican food. Ever since then - we've had a tradition of eating mexican on Christmas eve. So, we enjoyed delicious Cafe rio style burritos & all the fixin's. We did a live nativity, where all the children get to dress up. This year my kids assigned parts were: Jenna - Angel, Derek - Wise man & Hailey - Shepard. They were a good looking group!

Our little family does a tradition of jammies on Christmas eve, so we all got home & opened our jammies. Everyone loved theirs, and I loved mine! That night we had Hailey & Derek sleep in the toy room (with a child knob cover on the door), so no one would sneak out. We left a phone up there for Hailey to call us when they woke up. We called Dave's folks to run right over to watch the opening of the presents. It was GREAT! Santa brought Derek a leapster (which he'd been hoping for for months!) and a scooter. Right after he opened all his gifts, he says "mom, I'm going to go upstairs to play my leapster in my room, come get me when breakfast is ready". He's NEVER gone off to "be alone" -- he LOVES his leapster though!! I made Hailey a rag quilt for Christmas - it was quite a project, but it turned out so cute & she loves it (and will be able to have it forever -- if my stiching holds up). Jenna was entertained to just observe & open her few gifts. Our big family gift (which Dave does each year) was a Wii. We have had lots of fun playing. Derek domintates at sword fighting, Dave at wake boarding, me at frisbee dog & Hailey at Just Dance. It's fun to play as a family - and everyone enjoys it!

Dave's folks & my folks (who were in town this year from az) joined us for brunch - Breakfast casserole (a tradition) and fruit. It was delicious! We just lounged for most of the day, and then had Christmas dinner over w/ Dave's family. We had all sorts of shenanigans over there -- sword fighting w/ all the kids (foam swords) and a hoot & holler band -- everyone had an instrument.

The remainder of December - aka Christmas break, we saw some movies, sledded when there was good snow -- at WAY too much junk, and enjoyed family & friends. We have thorougly enjoyed 2009, and are already running into 2010!~

Dave & his dad playing Just Dance on the wii

Hailey & her new quilt.

Jenna & Grandma!

The wise man, angel & shepard!

December fun so far

Oh the excitement after the first big snow has fallen. The smell of clean air, the children bundled up from head to toe in bunchy warm clothes, all so they can go out and play.

Well - Hailey decided that instead of me shoveling the drive, I should leave it for her "hill". She created her own launch pad setting the sled at the boarder of the snow, and running from the far side of the garage & jumping onto the sled. She really flew down the driveway. (If you watch the video, you'll get to see Derek participate in the fun as well).

What can be more fun than doing snow angels in the fresh powder? Derek loves making snow angels!

Dave surprised me by getting us tickets to the Phil Vaser concert a couple weeks ago. We had great seats (no one directly in front of us!), and had a blast listening to the music & watching the drunk people dance to country. It was a good time!!

Linda gave the grandkids a little pre-Christmas spoiling. Last Sunday she had over all the grandkids, and made oodles (and I do mean oodles) of candy & holiday treats. Each kid got to bring home a box of goodies to eat, or share w/ friends. She got each of them some goofy glasses for fun - cute, huh? :)

Monday we hit up our annual session of the Forgotten Carols (no pics, dangit). I always love going to this performance, and it really puts me in the Christmas mood. If you haven't seen it - I would HIGHLY recommend. It's become one of my favorite traditions!

Tuesday night we went to Temple Square with Dave's folks, and two of his aunts. It was beautiful & fun to check out all the lights.

Here's Jim w/ his sisters - Helen & Edith. We were so glad they could come up!

A shot of the Salt Lake Temple :)

Me & my little buddy Derek

Yesterday I hit up Gardner Village (one of my favorite spots for all seasons) with Amber, Cambrie & Ethan. Besides Amber realizing she had lost her wallet (which thank goodness was found), we had a nice time. They had all their elves out on display, which the kids always love. And to top it off, it was a pretty nice day - into the 40s!

The stroller babies - checking everything out

more elves

Derek needed to take a picture, so here's Amber & I w/ the elves. Not a bad picture for a 4 year old, eh?

-- And here's the sledding video - check it out :)

Clear Creek

In Hailey's school district, all 5th graders are able to go to an overnight camp called Clear Creek. I was lucky enough to be able to go up with her as a chaperone. The camp was absolutely beautiful, and the kids (all girls) had a really good time.

Here's Hailey in the very COLD morning en route to breakfast. There is an older couple that work/live up there, and this is the view they have every morning -- getting to watch the sun come up. It's so beautiful!

Hailey and I on our way to the cabin for lights' out (which due to some loud girls, ended up being well past midnight -- on a school night no less).

Hailey & some of her buddies that are in her class scored a great "private" section of the cabin (a separate room w/o a door). Here they working their shenanigans.

There were several stations the girls got to do. Tie dying was just one among the many -- bracelets, picture frames, robot making (out of recylables) in addition to some other team building activities.

Isn't Hailey's tie dye shirt wonderful!?

Hailey & her BFFs getting ready for the skits.