President's Day!

Monday morning began with another tooth being pulled and another note to the tooth fairy:

Meredith and I have been wanting to surprise the kids by taking them to play in the snow somewhere. Last week I had the great idea to do it on President's day. Our Saturdays have been way too busy so this seemed like the perfect time. Our husbands even got on board to do this as a big surprise for the kids. Thanks to some wonderful friends - Kendra- for having everything I would need to deck Brynley and Hayden out for the snow. Jen - for saving Andy's ears with your headband and for keeping my Zachar warm. And Susan- for the use of your sleds. You guys are awesome, and really pulled through for me at the last minute. I love great friends and feel very blessed to have many!

We woke the kids up and then gave them some clothes to put on and told them to keep their PJ's on underneath. They were confused and so I told them we were going to go play in the snow. Hayden got really confused - the gears were turning for sure as he explained that there is no snow in Arizona so we must be going to another country.

We left at 9:15 to meet Meredith at her house, only to have Zac vomit everywhere, just as we turned onto Meredith's street. Did I bring him a change of clothes? Of course not, he wouldn't be getting in the snow, all I had was the bunting he would be wearing later on. And so, Meredith saved us with some not so girly jeans and a white onsie. Meanwhile, Andy had to clean out the puke filled carseat, base, and car while the kids were dry heaving, nice.

Ready to play!

A bit later than we though, and we were off to Flagstaff - a 3 hour drive. The drive was great, we made it to the snow park. We figured it would be so crowded being the holiday but there was hardly anyone there! I think we spent an hour at our cars trying to eat a little lunch and get the kids all layered in their snow clothes. Brynley looked exactly like Randy from Christmas Story, it was so cute!

Before the real fun began!!!

The kids had fun playing on the snow bank in the parking lot. When we hiked to the real hill, I was nervous that they'd be too scared and chicken out. But nope, not our kids! Lindsay went right up the hill and came racing down. Andy went down once with Hayden and then he was on his own the rest of the time. Brynley had fun sledding periodically with Mommy or Daddy.
What a cutie!

And the babies sat pretty content for 3 hours on the sidelines.

Aah, sweet slumbering Zac...

I haven't had that much fun in a long time. It was seriously a blast. The moguls on the hill, did quite the number to my bladder, I "almost" peed my pants a few times. (Thanks Meredith for bringing extra underwear!) Some of those sleds were so fast, and you'd spin around and have no idea where you were going. I am really surprised that no one really got hurt. We had a couple of crashes and nose dives but for the most part, no injuries! Meredith made hot chocolate and cookies, yum! We have deiced to make this an annual tradition!

We topped off the day with dinner at Cracker Barrel before heading home.

Hayden woke up around midnight puking. So, I started the day with one kid puking, and ended it with another. At least Hayden didn't do it in the car...

Valentine's Weekend - Part 2

This is how we began Valentine's morning...

Hayden finally "let" us pull out his first tooth. It really got to the point that I was worried about it. The new tooth was practically in behind it and the old tooth was pushing through the front of his gums, yuk! So, Andy got him into a headlock, I held his arms down with my stomach. He screamed and yelled and thrashed about as I was trying to get ahold of his dang tooth. I finally got it, and it popped out with no effort. Hayden was crying and yelling at me and I told him, fine, I'll stop. He had no idea the tooth was already out! I said, go look in the mirror, he stomped into the bathroom and acted mad at me but was so giddy that he finally lost his first tooth! He was so excited the rest of the day, he immediately got out some paper to write a note to the tooth fairy. With no help from us, this is what he wrote...

(So he forgot the h on tooth, hmm, maybe a toot really did come out???)

The rest of the day was spent playing outside and working on some projects around the house. We installed a new garbage can and recycling bin as a pull out for one of our cabinets - love it - as well as some other things. We also went to Grandpa's to pick lemons, we came home with two boxes of lemons, yum!

We have been planning our family Valentine's day for quite some time. Hayden asked about 6 months ago if we could go to Build a Bear, so we decided that would be our Valentine's date this year. We started the evening with dinner at Paradise Bakery - one of Hayden's favorite restaurants. (For the record, it is the only restaurant not busy on V-day, if you were wondering)

In case you're wondering, yep he is almost always smiling... I love this kid!

Hmm, which one should I choose???

Hayden chose a cute, cuddly dog. Here he is inserting his heart.

Brynley chose a sweet pink Monkey

I couldn't keep Brynley away from the sound station. She kept listening to Hannah Montana and High School Musical. (Good thing neither of them realized they could put the sounds in their animals...)

They kept giving them showers after they were dressed

Dad helping with the birth certificates - Hayden named his dog Mark (after a friend of his) We kept pushing for Marco, but he wouldn't have it. Brynley named her monkey Sammy, but later told us her name was Aubryn (that's one of her babysitters names).

They have been so sweet with their new guys. We had a fantastic Valentine's day, there's nothing like spending it together as a family!

In case you were wondering - the tooth fairy came and brought Hayden an electric toothbrush, new toothpaste, and a 2 dollar bill.

Valentine's Weekend - Part 1

It was quite fun to have Valentine's Day and President's day fall on the same weekend, does that happen often? Not sure... Anyway, it all began Thursday night. I had an enrichment to teach, Andy was in charge of getting the kids' Valentine's done and helping Hayden decorate his box. Everyone was still alive when I got home and all Valentine's were done and in proper order - Success!

Friday morning, Hayden was so excited to go to school and take Valentine's to all of his friends. Brynley, Zac and I were gearing up for the playgroup Valentine's Party to take place at our house! Since a lot of my friends hadn't been to my new house yet, I decided to host.

Cookies and decorating stuff, ready to go

Brynley showing me her cute bag

The kids each decorated a bag for their valentines. We then set them all around the room so they could each fill each other's bags. One problem... most of them can't read yet. It was interesting, all the moms and kids swarming the bags, trying to find the right one. All Valentine's eventually made it to their proper home, I think.

Kate, testing a cookie... Zac on the other hand, slept through the whole party! What a guy!

20 something kids 4 and under + frosting + sugar cookies + sprinkles = A lot of fun, and NO frosting on my new carpet, walls, or furniture!!! It was a miracle really, thanks moms for keeping an eye on your kids!

Meredith tried really hard to get a picture of Bryn and I, this was the best she got, what a stinker!

(This picture was taken after the room was half cleaned)

Poor Andy spent a long time Thursday night cleaning the playroom. It took a total of about 30 minutes for every toy to be off of the shelves... Thanks hon!

Andy and I went out Friday night while Meredith watched our kids. We went to The Keg and had some great steaks. We actually ran in to some friends there and invited them to sit with us so they wouldn't have to wait an hour for a table. It was a lot of fun eating with them. After dinner, we saw The Uninvited, holy cow... crazy movie. Let's just say it's not quite what I'd call a romantic Valentine's movie. We had a great time celebrating Valentine's day that night! I have the greatest husband...

Is it just me???

... Or do we all make a To Do list for after the kids go to bed? It seems that I have so many things to do after the kids are in bed, and not nearly enough hours to accomplish them... And inevitably, American Idol always wins out!

Tonight's List:

* Shred and divide up chicken I cooked earlier
* Can 20-30 pints of black beans
* Finish Laundry (I am literally on load number 10 for the day... not kidding. Having one child up in the middle of the night with a bloody nose and another up in the middle of the night puking, made for a lot of bedding and towel laundry. Not to mention playing up in the snow all day Monday and having all of that laundry to deal with (blog to come) made for a lot of laundry.)
* Blog, blog, blog!!!
* Sweep and mop kitchen floor (It got thrashed on Friday and I haven't had time to do it)
* Make fliers for community garage sale and block party
* Type up recipes from Enrichment last week and for some friends
* Send out enrichment email with recipes and handouts from last week
* Do dishes

Dishes are done. First 10 pints of beans are processing. Kitchen floor is clean.
Last load of laundry is in. American Idol is on, it's only 11pm, and I think I will blog a little now!

Not everything will be accomplished tonight, but it's a start.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have had so much fun the last two days! We hope you all had a great Valentine's Day... I'm too tired to blog right now, maybe after church tomorrow!

Ladies... Eat your hearts out...

Never, ever, in my wildest dreams would I have thought at 18 that this would excite me the way it has. You decide how excited you would be:

Together, Andy and I ripped out our Powder Bathroom and built a food storage room! It only took about 6 trips between 4 different hardware stores to get it done. Sealing off the toilet hole seemed to be the hardest thing. It was imperative that it be sealed off correctly so as to not leak sewage gasses into the room. This type of project is not something people do very often apparently. Start to finish, we were done in 6 days. That was with a 2 day break between finishing the construction and painting. I am pretty proud of what we did, we make a very good team!

A funny story... You'll notice in the above pictures that Andy is using a shop vac to drain the toilet. I, along with Hayden, was standing behind the vacuum part when suddenly Hayden said poop water was coming out. Sure enough the vac was spraying our feet and legs and it stunk pretty bad too! Not sure what was up with that.
Painting in progress

The finished product, not perfectly organized yet, but it's a start. I didn't take a picture of it, but we put our freezer where the sink used to be.
This is my kitchen pantry which now has a lot more space than it did before. (Although I just realized this picture was taken during the reorganization so it doesn't actually have that much bare room but it is very organized now) I am so excited to have so much storage room. My master bedroom closet, no longer has to serve as my second pantry as it did in my old house! It's a good thing too because our current master closet is quite a bit smaller.

Don't worry... we have another bathroom just down the hall, this one was a little pointless.

So... Next time you need a bathroom turned into a storage room, we're now experts!

Broken Pinky Toe at IKEA

I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting this post, I teased about it a few weeks ago.

Here's the story...
We had a lot of shopping to do at IKEA, the kids went to the Play area while Andy, Zac, and I went shopping. As Andy was making our purchases, which included a large dresser, and shelf for the playroom, I went to get the kids from the play area. I meet up with Andy at the registers and he is looking at his receipt confused. It turns out the guy took $250 off when Andy handed him a coupon for $25 off. Hmm, we could have walked out but it was Saturday, you know, the day before Sunday. We just couldn't go to church knowing we had walked out. Now if it had been Monday and we had a whole 6 days to repent, that would have been a different story! (You all know I'm kidding right???)

On with the story... The kids and I were standing by our precariously stacked cart while Andy tried to pay the extra money to the manager. As Andy walked over, the box with the dresser in it, slid right off the cart and landed on Hayden's foot. I thought for sure it had broken his ankle or something but luckily it landed right on the edge of his foot. That was a heavy box by the way! I sat on the floor holding him as he bawled, meanwhile it seemed to take forever to get the security medical guy to come and help. We took Hayden to the first aid room where he got his foot wrapped up.

The aftermath

For being so brave, Hayden got an ice cream cone for the ride home.
To top it off, once we loaded the car up, Andy realized that the guy forgot to charge us for two bags of rocks, about $3.00 total. I was so fed up I told him we should just leave. But, he went back in and paid for the rocks...

Hayden's foot is now better, it has been a few weeks. Poor guy has a crooked toe now!

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

My sweet Visiting Teacher dropped off some huge lemons and grapefruit at my house a few days ago... What should we do with them? Make lemonade of course!

Brynley and Hayden had a great time squeezing the lemons. (Brynley knocked over the juice at one point and we lost a lot, I tried not to get too annoyed!)

The kids and I had fun squeezing the lemons. We had about 8 good size lemons and made about 2 quartz of Lemonade, not bad! I can't wait until out fruit trees are producing fruit so we can make fresh squeezed juice any time. (I guess that would require planting them first, maybe in few weeks... )

Food + Friends + Football = Fun!!!

We hosted our very first Super Bowl Party on Sunday night! With the new TV and the new house, we decided we would take a shot at a party. Not to mention our Cardinals were playing ...

In an effort to keep the party somewhat contained we only invited a few people, our friend's the Bernigers, the Simpson's of course and our friends the Luptons. Unfortunately for the Luptons they didn't get out of church until 4:30 so they missed a bit of the game...

Notice Brynley enjoying herself some food!

We decided to just have appetizers to munch on for the night. Our spread included: *Bacon Wrapped Chicken Pieces *Hot 7 layer Mexican Dip *Sliders *Huge Veggie Platter *A Huge (All Red) fruit platter (Thanks Jen!) *Shrimp with Cocktail sauce *Vegetable Pizza *Chicken Enchilada Dip *Cowboy Caviar *Frito Pie *Red Velvet Cupcakes *Amazing Brownies *Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars *All the Soda and Crystal Light you could drink! I think I'm actually missing something but I can't remember... ( The Chicken Wings never made it out of the freezer - Sorry Andy!)

Trying to get a picture of the kids eating

This is where Andy and Steve stayed the whole night!

It was an exciting game from the kickoff; we screamed, we cried, we jumped up and down, I even almost peed my pants... But our poor cardinals lost, I almost didn't want to wake up the next day... Oh well. Steve was remarking the whole night that he had never seen me so excited about football. I guess if I have a team I feel somewhat connected to, the football fan in me really comes alive!

Lucky for us, we had two Intel employees in our midst so we had plenty of 3D glasses to go around! (By the way, Intel created that particular 3D technology, go Intel!)

On a side note... Let's talk Commercials...

We learned that apparently my 5 year old son is a boob man. He quite enjoyed the Go Daddy Commercials... I was shocked when Jen told me that she saw Hayden's mouth drop open at the cleavage shot in the second Go Daddy commercial. (I didn't even think he was in the room!) Then Hayden made a big deal about it, as did everyone else... Ugh.