Sunday, January 28, 2007

The Park and No Paige

Over the past couple of days, 5 to be exact, we conducted a little experiment. We sent Paige out of state and measured the decibel level at home.

Any guess as to the results? Dramatically lower!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The impetus for the experiment was an invitation for Paige to join one of her friends on their family ski vacation. After weeks of wrestling with the decision, Mindy finally interviewed the family and role played with them what was acceptable behavior with our little girl. Once they successfully passed each of the role-play situations and got the green light from Mindy, I pulled out the recording equipment.

The report on Paige was when they brought her home: Boy she is an aggressive skier.

But otherwise she made us proud and didn't break anything. Our first foray into sending our kids off. We can't decide if we feel old or duped.

By the way, when Paige walked back in the door, Garrett and Ryan both yelled out her name and ran to her. Ohhh (5 minutes later they were fighting but...)

So we hung out as a family of three. Weird. We have a park the kids love.







And we read books in the same bed without Paige




But it is nice to have the noise back. Little breaks remind you how much the noise is a part of your life.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Are You Pregnant?

So, most of you know that I've been watching my friends baby the past couple of months. One thing I've learned from this is that two kids are HARD!! Another thing I've learned is that the second one is not as traumatic as that first one.

The 3rd thing I've learned, Thomas is baby-hungry. He loves her and kisses her and wants to hold her and feed her and give her toys and blankets and binkies and dress her up! No kidding, he's always trying to put his hats on her and wrap things around her neck, yikes! The first thing he does when he wakes up, he calls for Ava. Every baby picture he sees he calls Ava, even his own baby pictures. This is really funny considering that Ava is half black and looks nothing like him.


I keep getting asked if I'm pregnant. Having a "2 kids, 18 months apart" practice run has really made me wonder if I ever want two. I think Thomas wonders why he can't have her all the time.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Perler Beads

For Christmas, Ben got a crafty item called perler beads. Those of you who were at our house at Christmastime know that he got a lot of them - 3 large yogurt containers full to the brim! You take these little beads, place them on a "frame" and iron the top. They melt/stick together and you can made key chains and stuff.


The boys were working with them last night and having a blast! This morning when I went to change Emma's pants I found an interesting thing - LOOK!

All she could say when questioned was "In Nose."


Sunday, January 21, 2007

Winter Wonderland?


Do I really need to write a caption
for these pictures? I think
they speak for themselves!

It's Still Cold!!








































Melanie got a call from one of her friends Sunday night, that there was SNOW at Higley & McKellips. She said I'm going, are you coming- Yes, Dad & I are in!!! Seeing is believing!
It had been raining so everything was wet as we drove east on McKellips. There was no snow until we got to the intersection of Higley & MeKellips!! We got out and played around a bit, got it the car & drove to Alta Mesa Park. It was full of people with snow ball fights going on everywhere. You can see the snowman that someone made. People were sledding too - where in the heck did they get the sleds??
It was an exciting evening - different from any other I have experienced in Mesa, Arizona!!!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Yes, we are all crying COLD!!!




See for yourself - It's COLD!!!

Cold?




This is our way of keeping the cold out of our house... off to Home Depot to replace the weather stripping on the front door.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

It's Party Time!

The party should have happened YESTERDAY (the 13th)... so since Mom and Dad forgot, Emma took matters into her own hands. She decided to mix her own cake.





Then bake her own cake...





Purchase some appropriate decorations....





Finish decorating the cake.






Invite some IMPORTANT PEOPLE...






And by the end of the day she had scored some pretty nice gifts!





All-in-all, it was a GREAT 2nd Birthday for Emma Lee Thomas! But don't let her fool you; if you ask her her age - she'll say "FREE!" It begins...

Basketball Season

The girls have started a wonderful basketball league here. They only have about 7 games. They hold both the practice and the game on Saturdays. So they meet one hour before the game, practice, then play. Great for Mom and Dad


Paige is playing with all the girls from her soccer team, the same ones who won everything this year. Paige is the energizer bunny on defense. She had like 20 steals the last game.


Kate is having a great time learning the game. The refs are great. They hardly call anything especially traveling or double dribble. The games are a hoot to watch.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Sad Snow


This is from our last snow storm, the snow didn't last very long but we still managed to get some sledding in.
It took me a long time last night to add a post, plus update to the new version. So I'm posting again to keep up my skill. (Brent's at the temple with the YM, the kids are asleep, so I'm alone with nothing better to do :)

Not much is new in my life but I've been


promising


to write something


on the Tidbits.


I put it off because nothing really eventful


has happened in my life lately. But today


I saw something that


I don't think any of you have seen.

It was pretty dang cool if you ask me!




So I snuck into Mom's room,




stole her camera




tried to be




secretive




and




"click."




Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Early Christmas Anyone?

I want this

If anyone is feeling generous or philanthropic.... Eldon, are you satisfied?

Mike's in the background making "office" jokes to that last sentence, anyone seen the sexual harrasment episode of "The Office?"

Christmas Morning

Grandma had drilled the plan into the boys heads; first knock loud on Melanie's door to get her up, go jump on your mom and dad's bed and then come knock quietly on grandma and grandpa's door. Christmas Eve the boys knew exactly what they were going to do the next morning. Surprisingly before the sun was up Christmas morning, Melanie was jumping on their beds. In a daze Logan started running for Melanie's door. Mason simply pulled the covers over his head. Melanie finally got them out of their confusion and we had three kids jumping on our bed.

The kids were all so happy with what they got, it was fun to watch.

Brent was hoping Logan would be disappointed that he didn't get a 4.10 shot gun. He didn't even say a word about it and was completly satisfied with his presents. So Brent made Logan look too see if he had missed any presents. Low and behold behind the couch there was Logan's gun. Ya, he was verry happy.

Lucky for Melanie she could sneak back up to bed after opening presents, while the rest of us dreamed of being in bed. Of course the kids had no intention of taking a nap or going back to sleep.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Must Read Book


This is one of the best parenting books I have read because it comes with very specific ideas and examples, which I like much more than concepts or principles. I still haven't started doing any of the suggestions, but... Watch out Paige and Kate you are going to learn to work and be independent!!

A must read, especially Glenn and Melissa (older kids)

Get it here or on Amazon.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Christmas 2006

It was GREAT to have Brent and April come down for Christmas BEFORE the holidays... we all went to the Mesa AZ temple square and saw the lights with cousins on Christmas Eve. We even watched a movie... and we were ALL attentive and quiet during the 6 minute movie called "Luke 2."




Then, it was GREAT to have Eldon and Mindy come down AFTER Christmas... we had a BLAST playing at the park, eating oranges and riding around all over the place! (Thanks Jeff & Melissa!)



How many kids can you fit in and on and around a dune buggy???






It is going to be so dang hard to go back to school next week! AUGH!

Christmas Highlights

Going to the Temple for a choral concert. It was probably only 50 degrees but it felt like 30 to us.

Opening up the Christmas Eve gifts, which always happen to be PJs


Trying to open the presents for the kids to play with on Christmas



Rosas. Enough said.



Kids making Sourdough Waffles with Grandma


Breakfast at Grandma Moffat's house


Playing with Jeff and Melissa's toys



Getting to see and hold Rusty. The happiest baby of the year.


My big New Year's Eve activity. Playing Uno with the kids


Celebrating New Years at 9pm thanks to a New York feed. The host of the party we were supposed to be at got sick, so we moved the party to our house.



Here's to more sleep in 2007.