Sunday Events

Today was a nice relaxing Conference Sunday. It was a little bit difficult listening to all the talks with two little ones. Garen slept through some of it and Andy did a great job helping Maddie understand what conference is. We have been reading about King Benjamin in the BOM, so Andy compared Conference to when King Benjamin was preaching and the Nephites pitched their tents to listen. Andy helped Maddie build a tent that she could sit in to watch our living prophet. Then Maddie drew pictures of King Benjamin on his tower and of President Hinkley. This captured her attention for a long while but Conference is 4 hours-so she got a little tired of watching. But I was able to hear some wonderful talks!!!

After Conference we had Andy's parents and his sister and family over for dinner and birthday cake to celebrate Andy turning 28. Here are some pictures:

Maddie was counting the candles to make sure there were really 28

Andy blew his candles out in one breathe, even though there were so many!

Andy and Maddie licking the candles as they take them off.

Andy's dad, sister, mom, and nephew

Garen's new favorite hiding spot...

Garen climbs in the fridge, then pulls the door shut as far as it will go, and then just stands there waiting for people to find him.

Find Garen :)

Busy Days and a Birthday

The last couple days have been pretty crazy. I substituted on Wed. and Thur. for the Freeskate (or gifted and talented) class. These were half days, so I would get home just in time for Andy to get to work (the night shift) and to take Maddie to her friends birthday party, or preschool, or whatever it was that day. Plus our car started leaking water all over and the heater stopped working, so we had to get that fixed. Yesterday (Andy's 28th birthday), I made him a manly breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, donuts, and fruit.
Then I subbed for a Speech and Language pathologist. It was a lot of fun! I got to see two of the kids I had back in my class when I taught. I got done at the school just in time to pick up Maddie from Preschool. Andy took Garen up the Smithfield canyon for awhile since Maddie and I were gone:

Later Andy's parents took the kids for a sleepover. Maddie was so excited!!! After the kids left we went to dinner and then we got to finally see The Bourne Ultimatum-we've been wanting to see that since it came out.

The movie was really good.

Then this morning, after our paper route in the rain, we were able to sleep until conference. And since the kids were still at Andy's parents house we got to enjoy the first session of Conference together without any interruptions. It was very pleasant and uplifting! Now it is time for Andy to go to work and for me to go pick up the kids-back to life, but isn't it grand!!!

Happy Birthday Andy

I thought this was funny. Andy likes old cartoons and the song is so what he sounds like when he talks about getting older.

Kid Number Three...

No, I'm not pregnant. Meet the newest member of our Monday family:

This is Avery (Andy's boss's little girl). The parents just lost their babysitter and needed someone, so I thought, what's one more kid. I only have her on Mondays, so it's not to overwhelming. But I do get a small glimpse of what it would be like to have twins. (Avery is just a few weeks older then Garen). I found It's quite the chore to get three kids buckled in the car safely and get to the destination on time. Maddie likes to pretend she is their mother and take care of them-sometimes that is really helpful other times, not so much.

Avery stays till about 6:30p.m. and she is really good. But I do feel pretty beat by then; especially because I am getting up at 5am now to do my other new (silly) job-a paper route. So far it is working out well. It gets me up and running in the morning and I get paid for it. But I might be hating life when I have to deliver papers in the snow or in -10 degree weather. This morning it was pretty rough because Andy had to go to work at 4:30am, since he wasn't home I had to drag the kids out of bet and take them with to deliver papers. I was glad when they both went right back to sleep when we got home.

I had to share these pictures. This is Garen trying to stick a book in the toilet. That's his new thing is throwing things in the toilet and the tub. After I told him 'no'. In the second picture he looked up all Innocent and pretended to be reading his book like, "what are you talking about mom, I wasn't doing anything."

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