Wonderful Weekend

My weekend was really relaxing for once! Friday there was no preschool and no school for Maddie because of Parent/Teacher confrences. I went to Maddie's bright and early at 8:30AM. Her teacher only had the nicest things to say. She is in the highest reading and math group, she's way above the average scores on her testing, and she's not even being distrupting with her talking and laughing. We are so proud of her.
Straight from the confrence I went to the gym where Cammie kicked my butt and I can finally walk normal again today. From there a enjoyed a long lunch and chatting with my friend Kara. And to make it even better, Andy had totally cleaned the house while I was gone.
And beleive it or not it keeps going. Maddie and I spent a couple of hours at the mall shopping, followed by all of us going swimming at the new indoor pool/splash park/lazy river/water slide/rock climbing wall. The kids had a blast!

Saturday turned out to be pretty awesome as well, I think it's due to Andy being home on the weekends. We went to Maddie's soccer game (it was cold!) and she played like a champ. She scored a goal in the last minute of the game. We all went out to celebrate at Applebees for lunch. At 9pm a bunch of us girls went out for ice cream followed by a late movie.

Sunday at church I spotted Garen doing the actions to the songs (which he never does at church) and then he actually got out of his chair and participated during Sunbeam class (also something he has never done before). It was a good Day.
I payed for my weekend fun late Sunday night as I vacuumed and cleaned and cut and laminated and set up for preschool, but it was worth it.

And just some random pictures since I didn't take any this weekend:
Sophie putting on my makeup-

Garen enjoying preschool-

Sophie enjoying preschool-

Family Movie Night

The kids have started a new job chore system that is working wonderfully. It's on myjobchart.com. The kids get points for doing chores, being kind to each other, exercising, reading scriptures, doing homework, etc. Then they get to turn those points in for small things like TV time, Wii time, a treat or they can save for something bigger like a new toy, Movie night, a trip to McDonald's, etc. Last night Maddie turned in 250 points for a late night movie night. She was nice enough to let Garen join in even though he didn't have that many points. We watched Princess and the Frog and had treats. The kids were super excited for all four of us to sit down and watch the movie, we don't do that very often. And I was excited when I found these little cups of dip'n dots at Walmart. These were special treats when I was younger but you only found them at selling stands in the SLC mall or at Lagoon.

And this is what Sophie did while we had our movie night-

Polar Express Night

Last night we all got in our PJ's, made hot chocolate and enjoyed The Polar Express. The kids are so excited for Christmas and I have to admit so am I!!!

And earlier that day I got to spend two hours with friends at lunch. I left the kids with a babysitter, which Sophie didn't like, but I enjoyed my lunch and friends in peace.

meatballs in 3D

I got to take Maddie and Garen to Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs last night. We got to watch it in 3D-it was very fun. Garen sat very still staring, I think he was a little bit worried about the objects right in front of his face.
Maddie laughed a lot, changed seats, stood up, dropped her glasses in the row in front of us,and ate her whole bag of treats. While Garen didn't move an inch the entire movie, he didn't even eat his treats. It's funny to see how different they are. But we had a wonderful time!

Movie Night

Last night after Garen and Sophie were asleep we had ice cream and gummy worms while we watched the movie Bolt. Maddie loves staying up late, watching new movies, seeing her siblings go to bed, and eating treats. Andy and I enjoyed the movie as well.

Twilight

Okay so I'm a little late, but I finally got to go see Twilight last night. I went to the late show with a few girls from my ward. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the movie even though it was hard for me to sit that long with my huge self.

On that note, no baby yet. I still have 13 days till my due date, but I hope she comes sooner than that. I feel like I'm finally ready. My last doctor appointment I was just dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced. Which can pretty much mean anything at this point. I could be stuck like this for another 2 weeks or I could have the baby tomorrow. I guess we'll see.

It was so nice to have Andy home for part of the day yesterday! While he played with Garen I went and got a desperately needed haircut and color and got all our last minute baby, Christmas, and grocery stuff bought.

Then, Andy made dinner and stayed home with the kids while I went to the movie. What a great guy!!!

While I'm talking about my great guy I have to add that Maddie brought her poem book in yesterday and showed me with such pride that she was marking a favorite poem with a very special bookmark. When she showed me the bookmark that was making her so happy, I had to smile. It was a piece of paper, Andy had given her to use that he had written, "Daddy loves you" on it. What a great daddy!!!

Got to love Twilight.

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great
importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be
sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and
appreciate the kind way you always handle things.
Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Planting Grass and Early Birthday Party

Andy's parents came this weekend and Andy and his dad were able to till up the the back yard and plant some grass seed. So we are hoping next Spring we will have a backyard filled with green grass. It was so nice for Boyd to bring his tiller and help Andy all Saturday get the work done! We really appreciate it! And Jann probably played 30 games with Maddie, which she absolutly loved!
Andy working hard tilling up the yard-

Spreading grass seed-

And done! No, we didn't plant hay, it's just there to keep the seed down and help it grow-

Then to top it off Andy's parents took us to dinner at Applebese to celebrate Andy's birthday. Andy turns 29 next Sunday, but his family won't be here and he will be working all weekend, so we celebrated a little early.
After dinner I made a strawberry shortcake with pudding in the middle (one of Andy's favorites).


Then after the kids were in bed Andy's parents watched a movie with us. We got the movie 21, I'd never heard of it before, but it was pretty entertaining.

The Office

Okay, so neither Andy or I have ever seen a full episode of The Office before. We just never got into it or maybe it was on at a bad time or something. But the last couple of weeks, Andy's friend from work let us borrow Season 1-4. Now every night after the kids are in bed or when Andy gets home from work we watch 2 or 3 episodes. We are loving it!!!! It is so hilarious!

It's something I've come to look forward to every night with Andy. I will be sad when we finish watching the episodes from season 4. But I think Season 5 will be starting on TV here soon.

Many of you have probably figured out the greatest of this show before now. I'm glad we came across it to give us our nightly laughs!

A relaxed couple of days

On Thursday, Andy and Maddie went on a daddy-daughter date and went to see Alvin and the chipmunks.

Garen and I played at home.

Then Friday evening Andy's parents took both Maddie and Garen for a sleepover. So Andy and I had the whole evening to ourselves. We had a lovely dinner and then decided at the last minute to catch a movie, just because we could. We saw Jumper-it was pretty good! Thanks for the recommendation Sara.

When we got home it was nice to just chill and have the night together. This morning Andy had to go to work, but I got to sleep in a bit and then lay around and read my book in silence until the kids got home.

Then today with most of the cleaning caught up and my errands done, the kids and I just hung out all day long. The new snow storm kept us from playing outside, but it was an enjoyable, uneventful, relaxing day!

Feeling Tired

It has been a fun week, but for some reason I am just feeling incredibly tired. One of my favorite things I did this week was have a girl night with Brenda. We stayed up till almost 2AM watching Becoming Jane and talking. It was some much needed time together even though we had to pay for the lack of sleep later.

Also this week -I babysat several times
-Did a Pampered Chef Show
-Substituted the ESL class (English Second Language)
-I sub 5th graders tomorrow
-Enjoyed taking and watching Maddie in Ballet, preschool, (Andy took her to gymnastics this week).
-Prepared and did sharing time as well as my Sunbeam lesson.
-And just the normal daily erronds, cleaning, cooking, and so on.

I just have to tell you about Saturday night. I didn't feel to great with this lingering cold. And like I said, I was tired and everything seemed to be taking my 10 times longer to do. I finished my Sunday preparations about 11pm just after Andy got home from work.
I thought to myself, I should really do the dishes and pick up this mess so we can wake up Sunday morning to a more organized house. But the same minute that thought came to me, it left again, and I went to bed.
Andy said he was coming up soon. Of course I zonked out right away and when I woke up in the morning, all the dishes were done, the floor swept, the toys picked up, and even the bathroom and bedroom tidied! It was so much easier to get up and get ready early Sunday morning with a clean start. What a wonderful husband I have!!!

Maddie dressed herself today! Notice the hat, bunny ears, crown, and angel hallow. Behind her is two backpacks and a pear of wings. And the hula skirt gives it just the right touch! What a cutie!

Garen was feeling very lovey towards his sister. He would jump on the bed a few times then land on Maddie and give a nice hug and then repeat the process. This went on for about 30 minutes! I'm glad they like each other, at least during that 30 min. they did-

Enchanted

This afternoon me, Maddie, grandma Jann, and great grandma Margaret went to Enchanted. The movie was very funny and all of us loved it. It was fun to have the grandma's join us. Before the movie Maddie was upstairs in the bathroom for a long time. When she came out, she proudly showed me how well she did her hair. She was so happy with her hair that I let her wear it like that to the movies. I few people took a second look at her, but just smiled. After a group of young girls were looking at her, Maddie's Great Grandma said to her "when those girls get home tonight they are all going to do their hair like yours." It was an enjoyable time. We need to have family girls night out more often!

Maddie's beautiful hair-