Spring Break '09 Part 2

After staying in Mt. Home AFB one night, we continued our journey on to Utah and made it there safely. In a nutshell- here was our trip:

Saturday we saw the movie Monster Vs. Aliens and everyone loved it, including me.

Sunday we went to American Fork to attend church with Adam's younger sister Trinna. Her precious baby girl was being blessed that day. It was so great to be there for it.

Monday I took the kids to the dinosaur museum, and then went there again that evening because they hadn't had enough. Here is what kept them busy. They built dinosaurs with these soft, stuffed dinosaur parts:

Played on dinoaurs:

Played with minature dinosaurs in sand & water:

Dug for dinosaurs bones with special brushes, like real paleontologists do:
Tuesday we went to the Hogle Zoo and it was freeeeeeezing. So here is the only picture I took, indoors with the stinky giraffes. My cute Mom is holding Lucy:The kids had a fun time. I'm so glad they got to know my parents a little bit better. By Wednesday morning I was ready to go home. So I loaded up the kids & car and drove home in one day! It was nice to have a few days of Spring Break at home with Adam. Utah was fun but the drive was long. I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.

Spring Break '09 Part 1

I still don't know what came over me. I decided to drive to Utah alone with all three kids! My kids were wonderful. I don't mean to boast, but they really were amazing. Jack was such a big helper and never once complained.

I split up the drive on the way down and spent the night with a friend. She lives on Mountain Home Air Force Base outside of Boise. The kids thought it was sooooo fun to stay on base. They were able to see real F-15 fighter jets which was a huge treat for them.

I met Jen seven years ago. Our husbands went to law school together. The law school was having a social before the first week of school began for the first year law students. I still remember the first time we met like yesterday! We both had bellies, standing there in the law school building. It was only a matter of days before we became dear friends. We both had our first children (both boys, ofcourse) within a week of each other. We would go on walks through Colonial Williamsburg almost every week! We often met at a little Muffin shop that quickly became a favorite of ours. Those were fun times. I miss them.

It was so wonderful to see Jen again. It's amazing how with dear friends, kindred spirits, you pick up right where you left off and don't miss a beat.

Jen's husband is in Iraq so it was kind of like having a girl's night when I stayed a night at her place. We put the kids to bed and visited. It was a lot of fun. Here's a pic of Jen and I:
I used her camera to take pictures of the kids, so I'm still waiting for Jen to send me copies. Jack & Caleb hadn't seen each other in over four years! But they had no problem getting to know each other. They hit it off right away, just like they did when they were two. Jen is an amazing hostess and made us a delicious dinner, and a huge yummy breakfast. Then she sent us off with lunches packed for the drive. Thank you Jen! You are super-woman!

Field Trip to the Pet Store

Owen's preschool went on a field trip to the Pet Store, which I organized, thank you very much. My kids were not at all shy when it came time to pet the animals:J.F.Y.I., we went to Petco because I thought it would be way less stinky than the 'other' pet store in town. Well- it was less stinky. However, they hardly had any animals. We had to be content with small snakes and fish. It was kind of a let down. So- if you're wanting to see lots of animals (i.e. dogs, cats, turtles, guinea pigs) then you have to be willing to put up with the stink.

St. Patrick's Day '09

For the second year in a row I could NOT find a shamrock cookie cutter. Nevertheless, my kids still had a great time using whatever cookie cutter they wanted to:
This year I tried to explain why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day . . . they were way more interested in decorating cookies:
We had Grandma & Grandpa Nebeker over for a St. Patrick's Day feast! (Shepherd's pie, Irish Soda Bread, peas, Grandma's yummy green jello, and green punch. I'm so upset I forgot to snap a picture of it!) After dinner we frosted the cookies:
Grandpa arrived with a CD player playing Irish music. The kids were thrilled! They couldn't wait to finish dinner so they could return to the living room and dance. We listened to it as we ate, it was so much fun! Thanks Grandpa- for bringing the Irish jig to our house.
In the morning, before Jack left for school, I got on Youtube and showed my kids what a bagpipe is, and what it sounds like. Sometimes I just love the internet. The kids thought it was pretty cool. Jack was so excited after school that day- because a REAL person had played the bagpipe for the kindergartners. He was thrilled.

Valentine's Day

I know February is old news, but I had to post about Valentine's Day because we had a FUN day. Better late than never! I want my children to know that we DID do fun things with them.

I was in charge of Jack's classroom party. We did three activities:
1. Made home-made valentines

2. Decorated sugar cookies with LOTS of candy and frosting

3. Passed out valentines to class-mates

Jack lives for holidays. He was thrilled to have me be in charge of his party. It makes me feel so loved to know that he likes it when I'm there! I hope that lasts.

After school we loaded up the kids and drove downtown. First we went to Sonic for dinner, because we were in a hurry to make a show, Playhouse Disney Live! It was basically like watching the Disney Channel- except Handy Manny was a real person instead of a cartoon character. But the kids LOVED it. Here we are waiting for our corndogs at Sonic:

And here we are at the arena watching Playhouse Disney Live!!!

Owen's T.L.C.

I had a wisdom tooth removed over a week ago. From the day of the surgery, Owen has been concerned. He's offered to rub my feet, scratch my back, and so forth.

We were recently picking up sweet, little Eden for school. We were doing our routine car-pool pickups. As Eden walked to our car, Owen rolled down the window and yelled,
"Edeeeee- hurry up! My Mom had a tooth yanked out of her head and it hurts really, really bad!"

I was laughing so hard I think I did more nerve damage to my already damaged nerves. I was NOT expecting him to do that. He's been saying the 'funny things' in our house lately.

Owenisms

* We were swimming at the YMCA recently, when Owen said, "Your face is connected to your head, right Mama?" He then said, "Your eyes, nose, and this" touching his face,"Is your face." "THIS-" he says, rubbing his hands on the back of his hair and chin, "and this, is your head."

* While we were at the YMCA, Lucy accidently slipped on the ground from running. Owen said, "Lucy- you have to be careful or else the garf-liars will get mad at you." It took me a several seconds before I realized that "garf-liars" means "life-guards."

* Owen's fascination with the human head continued into the weekend. During sacrament meeting at church Owen whispered to me, "Mama, where do your nostrils end?"

* Adam recently praised Owen for a project he worked on during preschool. Owen responded by saying, "It's because I followed the injections." (Translation: instructions)