Movie Night

Me and my friend, Brenda, went to the late show last night to have a little break from the house and kids. We saw Sydney White. It was so funny! You should all see it. It's like the modern day Snow white and in this one she has 7 dorks. We laughed the whole time! After the movie, we went for ice cream at Caspers and just talked for a couple hours. It was so refreshing to spend time with my girlfriend without being interrupted every 2 minutes. I ended up getting home about 1:30 a.m. I was tired, but it was worth it.

This is Garen helping me put the laundry away:

Back to School Night

Tonight was back to school night at Maddie's preschool. The kids got to show the parents around, tell us what they do, and show us things they have made. Maddie was so excited for us to come see one of her favorite places! She absolutely loves everything about preschool and she has wonderful teachers!

This is the house where Maddie attends preschool (and yes, there is much more to this very large home, it just wouldn't fit in the picture):

This is Maddie and her friend Jacob showing us what they like to do at Preschool:

And this is Garen playing peek-a-boo on the ride home:

Just some pictures from today

Garen playing on his 4-wheeler

We are getting pretty squishy with 3 car seats in my car!

Maddie playing the piano:

Garen Making a mess in the tub:

Dentist Day

No, my kid's teeth didn't look like that. Both of their teeth are great. No cavities or any other problems. But you would think that they had all kinds of painful problems the way they scream the whole time. All the dentist does is look at their bite and teeth alignment, then brush and floss them, but my kids do not like that. I always end up holding their arms down while they cry. Today was Garen's first visit-he has 8 teeth and 4 coming in. And of course Maddie has all her teeth and they are all very close and straight-which means they will be less room for her permanent teeth to come in-which means braces. I guess we'll worry about that when that time comes. Have any of you had to suffer through the dreadful kid's dentist appointments yet?

Rain Rain Go Away

The last couple days have been pretty gloomy and wet, but the kids don't seem to mind at all. Garen really enjoyed watching the rain and the lightning. He was very interested in the thunder noises coming from the sky.

Garen was trying so hard to find an airplane in the sky or something that was making that loud noise. Can you hear the thunder?

Maddie really loved playing out in the rain puddles with her rain jacket on.

No More Training Wheels?!

Today was the day for Maddie to brave the unknown world of a two wheeled bike.

Andy taking the training wheels off.

She was getting the hang of it, but did not want Andy to let go of her.

Andy teaching her how to put her feet down so she doesn't tip over.

She did pretty well, but we're not there yet.

After giving a few really go tries we went back to training wheels until she's ready to try again. We did move the training wheels up higher so hopefully she will learn to balance better. I'm sure she'll get it before Winter, if not there's always next year.
PS. thanks for the outfit and hair things Alisha!

Just Another Day

Today was just another busy day, nothing to exciting, but fun nonetheless. Just a warning-there are a lot of pictures!
Andy left early this morning to go fishing for the day. Garen was up at 7am and we had breakfast and got ready for the day. We left the house about 9:30 to take Maddie to gymnastics.

This is an older picture, I didn't take my camera today. Maddie is loving gymnastics and getting better every time. She loves her one-on-one time with her coach.

Me and Garen did a little shopping while Maddie was at gymnastics. We picked her up at 11:00, visited some old friends, then dropped Maddie off at her friend's house. I got home just in time to lay Garen down for a nap before my sister-in-law came to drop of her baby...Levi.

It was so fun to have Levi for a couple hours. I forget what it's like to have a newborn in the house (he is 5 weeks old). Amber (SIL) came to pick him up a few minutes before I had to leave again to pick up Maddie from preschool.

Maddie on the outside playground of her preschool. Notice she is not wearing shoes-she is never wearing shoes.

When we got home we squeezed in a snack and then on to play time.

Garen and I got a little one-on-one time while Maddie played outside-it's nice to have these moments since they don't happen very often. Then 3 of Maddie's friends came over for a few hours to play.

They were making sweet music (okay loud music)

of course they played being mommy-cooking and cleaning

A tea party was next. Poor Garen, the only boy among 5 girls.

next was doctor play-this is Maddie holding her sick puppy. (notice how clean Maddie's room is in the picture :0)

on to the Little People village.
Maddie's friends left about 6:30, we ate dinner then went on a little walk.

Maddie stopping to climb the fire hydrant-as long as she doesn't pee on it.

Me and Kelsey on our walk with the kids. It is so nice to have such a wonderful friend right next door.

When we got home it was time to have baths, brush teeth, get pj's on, scriptures, prayers, songs, and read stories.

Maddie reading to Garen

Then finally the kids are all tucked in, so I can start cleaning up the spilled food, the hundreds of toys, the dishes, and the laundry.-Just another day.

Good Night

Shoot'en some hoops

Garen and Maddie playing outside this morning.
Garen was getting very upset that he couldn't get the ball in the hoop (because it was to tall). So we moved the hoop up against the stairs so Garen could stand on the steps and put the ball in. He played with that basketball for about an hour! Maddie was busy shooting the big ball with the water gun.


SLAM DUNK!


She looks innocent here, but you should see her when she is using that gun. Yikes! She takes after her dad-Andy took her dove hunting a week ago and she loved it!
He might need to grow a few more inches before he goes pro.

What Garen has been up to...

....pulling all the pillows off the couches and covering himself with them.

...Climbing on and in everything you could possible imagine

...and his newest accomplishment, climbing up and sliding down the slide without falling or hitting his head at the end. He practiced this for about an hour, during which he fell off the ladder, slid down head first, and bonked his head on every inch of the slide. But he didn't cry once and was very proud when he started making it all by himself!

...and of course, Garen's been making us smile and laugh everyday!

Everybody Likes Free Stuff

Last night we got a call from this company that said if we came to Bear Lake and heard their 90 minute spiel we would get a free trip to San Diego, including 4 star hotel, round trip tickets, and a $60 gift card for restaurants there. So of course we go check it out. It was a place that sale something real similar to Timeshares. It was actually really cool. You pretty much pay a certain price then you get free vacations for the rest of your life, plus you can pass it on to your kids and they never have to pay anything-they just get free vacations to all over the world. And the places you stay are never a hotel, they are very nice 2 and 3 bedroom condos. The price of this really wasn't bad at all, but we are a poor little family and decided against spending money we don't have. But, we still get the free trip to California!!! We will probably go in January some time.

When we got back from Bear Lake, Andy went to work and I took the kids to a child's health and wellness fair. It was actually really fun. They had puppet shows where the kids could brush the puppets teeth. They got all kinds of free, toothbrushes, coloring books, food, balloons, and stickers. The police and firefighters were there teaching the kids how to be safe. And the police department took pictures and gathered info. to create a profile on each kid. They send it in so if your child ever gets lost or anything they get the info. right out and every police station has it (hopefully we will never need that, but its good to do anyway). They had people dressed up like the Incredibles, Spiderman, and Shreck. They also had doctors doing free check-ups and dentists looking at teeth and there were rides there! Maddie had fun and learned a lot! What a great thing for the community to do, all for free.

There was so much going on this is the only picture I got.

These are of Maddie playing with her friend last night:

Maddie playing with her neighbor friend

If you can't tell, this is Maddie and Maya singing "Ballerina" a song they made up. This is what they do when they play. They pretend they are Cinderella and they make up songs and dances about princesses and things. It very funny to hear what they come up with some times.

The Garen Spectrum

Nerdy Garen


Cool Garen

Loud, Quiet, Loud

This morning I was so tired after our little endeavour last night. But I woke up quickly when I got to the 2nd grade class I was substituting in. They were so much fun, but very hyper and very loud. I really enjoyed my time there. If you ever need to feel good about yourself, just go to a 2nd grade class... the little girls would come up to me throughout the day and tell me they liked my hair or my clothes or just give me a hug. At the end of the day all the kids were saying 'thanks for being my teacher' and giving me a hug goodbye! How sweet these young spirits are.

Later I had the privilege of going to the temple with my wonderful husband. It was nice to get away to a place so calm and peaceful! We are so lucky to have Andy's parents near by to watch the kids-they are so good to us!

Since we were up so late last night, both the kids slept today. When bedtime came they were far from being ready for sleep. This is what they were doing at 9:30p.m.
Garen caught a glimpse of Andy with the video camera, so he had to stop and check it out. That's why we never get great videos of him because as soon as he sees the video camera he stops what he was doing and wants to touch it.