Definitely Living the Good Life

I got lost again.  Actually I was sucked into 2 books (The Phantom Tollbooth and the Hobbit), helping in school classes, shopping for maternity clothes (mostly a yuck, although I found a cute dress and some large shirts for $6 at Old Navy that should hopefully get me through until warmer weather), preparing taxes, doctor appointments and just enjoying the wonderful life I live most of the time.  I complain a lot about how hard it is to be home all day with kids doing dishes and laundry over and over and over and over.  I even get way too grouchy about dumb things (something I am working at).  But several times over the last month I have paused and really thought about how good I have it.  I owe a lot of this to Brian and am so grateful for him. It is not just financially that I  am thankful, but I am extremely thankful for his supportive and loving nature. I complain when things are not the way I want (like having him home for dinner every night) but he does everything is his power to help this family run efficiently, to allow me to have time to pursue my interests and to become a better father and husband.  Now to learn to enjoy it all the time and to constantly show my appreciation to that wonderful man.

On to less sentimental thoughts, this year the kids and I out did ourselves with the Valentine boxes.  They turned out great and were so easy and cheap to make.  I was able to help at Kelsey's class party.  She informed me that I need to help 2 more times in her class to catch up to the number of times I have been to Macy's class this year.  I get kind of tired of the competition/fair idea that my kids have.

President's Day weekend was probably one of the best ones we have spent as a family.  I don't know what was different for me but maybe I really took the time to be with the kids.  We went to the dollar movies on Saturday with the intent to see Wreck It Ralph but it was sold out so we hit Hotel Transylvania.  Then we went and had dinner with Emily and Jake and played games.  The kids had fun playing with their cousin and hanging out with grandma and grandpa. Sunday came and we ate dinner at home with only the 5 of us.  We enjoyed everyone's company and conversation. I am sure there was some fighting but I only remember the enjoyment. After we played Just Dance and I forced the girls to dance to songs I like. Then Braden had to have a turn to play wii Resort (he is a little addicted to Super Mario Brothers so it was a success to play something else with him).  Monday we went swimming at the rec center and it happened to be free that day because of the health fair.  After it was the first pleasant trip to the mall.  That hasn't happened in a long time, except for when I have been by myself.  I have hope that we can have another enjoyable weekend like that in the future.

Gotta Love the Weekend

What a enjoyable Memorial Day weekend! I was a little bummed because at one point I was going to be lounging on the beach in Newport. But that didn't happen. Instead Brian and I had a kid free weekend and it all happened by chance.

Friday night Brian and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Sorry I am not that sentimental so there is no post with all the reasons I love my hunk. Just know that I love the guy and maybe next year I will get around to the deep post about my endearing love for him. We went to the most fabulous restaurant and now I am craving the meatloaf. That is right I said meatloaf. We went to Frangk's (spelling?). It was spectacular but expensive. If you are having a splurge night go here. Well I asked my mom to watch the kids for us. She was excited and said they could sleep over. She had been planning on taking them when we were in Newport anyways.

Then our neighbors wanted to do a date night on Saturday night. It was to theaters by my parents, so I pick up the phone and ask my mom to keep them until 10:30. That meant a whole Saturday to ourselves. So what do you think Brian and I did? Get your mind out of the gutter. It has been 10 years and we are way past that. We both exercised. Then we hit Park City for some shopping. I am not sure why I take the mister with me on these outings. I had 2 gift cards I wanted to use and Brian had no money. Guess how much shopping he did? It is a good thing I don't let him out that often. We might be broke. Just kidding but he does go a little crazy when he starts finding things he likes in a price range he can swallow. I came home with 3 pairs of shorts, 3 t-shirts and 1 shirt. Brian came home with a pair of shorts and 3 shirts. We got home just in time to pick up our good friends. We went out for pizza and good conversation. Then kicked back for a little pirate action.

So how did we get rid of the kiddos the rest of the weekend? Brian's mom called up and asked she could have the kids for an over nighter. Since we had filled up the 2 previous nights, all that was left was Sunday night. This worked out perfectly because we ate dinner at his parent's, played games and left the kids for the night. We didn't have to pick them up until 5 PM Monday night. We met up at a BBQ and Brian's brother's house. I don't know how we orchestrated such a perfect weekend but we did. It was glorious and all is well at our house.

Tulip Festival

I know those here in the state may not believe it, but we did have one beautiful weekend in May. Luckily this was the weekend we chose to visit the Tulip Festival. The grounds were gorgeous. The weather perfect. The kids had a good time and I bought myself a new purse.

I know, doesn't exactly seem like me. But I have been dying to get something a little more wild. My old purse was begging to be retired (it has been with me for several years) so I jumped when I saw something I could handle. Actually a few weeks before I had another purse picked out but Macy was with me at the time and as soon as she saw it she had to have the purse. I was out of luck because she had enough birthday money for the purse. I just couldn't bring myself to buying the same purse as my 7 year old.

Back to the Tulip festival. My mom and sister came with us and that just added to the enjoyment of the day. After several hours Brian dragged us home. He was hot and hungry.

We even purchased a frog at the festival. Mom agreed because it was an aquatic frog and could not leave the water. It also did not require any extra care. It could live with the goldfish we have had since last May. The frog was named after a favorite cousin until mom said no and the name was changed to "Daphne".

Well the sad news is the frog did not live long. He died 3 days later. Not sure if it was the trauma of being hauled all through the gardens, being underfed (we lost the food given to us and could not get more until 2 days later, however, I was told these frogs should only be fed every 2 to 4 days), being overfed (Brian overcompensated for losing the food), being scared to death by Darla aka: Braden (Imagine seeing 2 small holes and 1 gaping hole filled with lots of white rocks at the waters surface and then hearing a thunderous noise yelling "hi froggy" over and over again. Now add a large stick like thing stabbing into the water trying to touch you. Get the picture.) or if there was something with his water (we gave him his own space for a day to make sure he was eating). Anyways his burial was the luv.

Here are a few parting shots from this fun day.

So behind

Here are the top 3 guesses as to where I have been in the blogging world.

1. I have had my baby. (In my dreams)

2. I went on a fabulous vacation. (I couldn't talk my doctor into letting me do this and who wants to vacation 9 months pregnant.)

3. My life has been crazy, busy like most people's and I didn't make blogging/journaling a priority. (This is the true answer.)

On St. Patrick's Day my friends threw me a shower. I am usually not for baby showers when it is past your first, but they made me. For several weeks I was able to evade the suggestion of a shower from many friends, but Melissa, Alacey and Mia would not have it. They were going to either surprise me and or let me have a say in who was coming. They called Brian up to ask which direction they should head. He said that I was pretty stubborn and their reply was they were too. In the end they won, mainly because Melissa, who is pregnant with twin boys, called and said she had to have a shower so I had to too (she has 2 girls the same ages as mine).

The shower was wonderful and they worked so hard. There was a chocolate fountain and 2 different cheese fondues (thanks Emily) and some really delicious punch. Of course I forgot my camera so the only picture is one I took when I got home. It was the centerpiece that was also a gift. It was just too cute. These wonderful friends really out did themselves.

It has been so long that I can't remember what else went on that same week. I do remember (because of the pictures) that a week ago Saturday we took the kids to the Scottsdale Arts Festival. They had a great time in the kids area because there were so many fun projects to do. In fact Brian and I didn't get to spend much time walking around looking at the art. But we were happy because the kids had a good time and the weather couldn't have been better. I know that Macy had died and gone to heaven with all the projects.

Kelsey refuses to smile for pictures. Here she is mad at me for taking her picture.

I caught this picture of her when she wasn't expecting it. She is holding one of the butterflies she made.

Macy on the other hand loves to have her picture taken. She is holding another type of butterfly project. Are you impressed that she let me pull up her hair that day?

This is the cute paper hats they got to make. They colored all over a paper square piece of paper and then it has shaped into a hat. When they were done a bee sticker was placed inside so you could have a bee in your bonnet.

Auntie Em

For the past 2 weeks you could find a lot of excitement and fun at our house. The first big round of excitement came when Aunt Emily flew in for a visit. She had a conference to attend for work. She arranged to fly in a couple of days before so she could hang out with us a bit more. When she arrived she had even more excitement for Macy. Her flight was a little late because a plane in front of hers sucked a bird into its engine on the runway. Macy thought that was a neat story and wants to hear about it the next time it happens.

The first stop for us was the zoo. There was supposed to be a lot of fun Halloween things going on like feeding the animals a special treat in jack-o-lanterns. Well none of us could follow a schedule nor find the exhibits we wanted (we are not regular zoo goers yet, however we did win a free year membership so I think we will try to use it more than this one time). So we only saw left over jack-o-lanterns that the animals didn't play with any more. We still had a good time because we bought a purple and a red snow cone and the girls got to ride the merry-go-round and the girls didn't have to walk (we dusted off the strollers).
We made sure Emily tried our favorite restaurant, Joe's Real BBQ. She also had to go to our ward trunk-or-treat. Macy and Kelsey were so excited that she got to take them around to each trunk. The girls got to see her hotel room and thought it was the best playroom. Vacationing in a hotel with them will be scary. We might have to prolong this experience. We also made sure she saw a lot of downtowns. Our adventures took us to downtown Tempe, Old town Gilbert, Downtown Mesa and the temple, Old town Scottsdale and the Great and Spacious Building (aka Scottsdale Fashion Mall), and also downtown Phoenix. Most of these were driving adventures but adventures nonetheless. On the way out of downtown Phoenix we even saw Play World. This was an adult store or club (not sure because we didn't stop this time) that welcomed couples. I thought that was a little out of the ordinary. Maybe Brian and my next date night :)

Last Week

Three important events took place last week. The first was we cooled off into the high 70s over the weekend. At night the low was around 54 degrees. It was great to awake wrapped up in blankets and not have our air conditioner turn on for two whole days.

This weather made one of the other events blissful. On Saturday we put in our winter lawn. For those of you who don't know but the perennial grass that grows here can't take cold or frosts so it goes dormant in the winter. I don't mind this because this perennial is called Bermuda and it is such an awful grass. It isn't soft and comfortable to sit on and it is the worst weed I have ever seen. You should see the strangling runners it sends out. Anyways, so we can have green lawn in the winter we scalp the lawn and put rye seed down. This rye grass is so green and is the softest grass. I love to just go outside and lay on this blanket of nature. I can't wait for it to start growing. We did do it a little differently this year so we hope it grows. To save time and money we did not cover it with a compost or mulch. Some people have said that it is not necessary so we tried it. Besides golf courses don't do this step. The problem is I think it give the birds easier access to the seed and we have flocks on it every time I turn around. It is the girls job to chase the birds away.

The other event was a fun murder mystery party my friend Carri and I hosted. I let everything in my life go to pot to work on my costume and do things for the party, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Because of this lack of chores I am playing catch up this week. (I guess that is not entirely true. The weather was so nice on Monday and Tuesday that I took the kids to the park all day on Monday and for a couple of hours on Tuesday and that threw things off too.)

Carri did such a great job of writing about our party that I will just link you to her post if you want to read more and check out all the wonderful costumes. It was really fun and I would recommend this type of party to anyone. The only problem is that you are limited to the number of guests you can invite which is dependent upon the package you buy. As a side note, we have always purchased a clean version of a murder mystery. We don't really want to find out what the normal version entails because the clean ones still involve some affairs, obviously a murder, blackmail, and bribery. Just nothing graphic. For instance, at the party my husband was not Brian but at least I was interested in Brian.

Of course I forgot to get a picture of my whole costume, so a sideways shot will have to do. Poor Brian was made fun of all night for his small guns. We borrowed some kid ones from a friend. Everyone else seemed to find larger ones.

Horton

Last night we took the kids to the drive-in to see Horton Hears a Who. We figured this was the best way to take the kids to a movie. We don't think they are ready for the theaters yet, it is cheaper because kids under 8 are free, we wanted to enjoy the good weather, and we like drive-ins. The movie was super cute and I am probably going to buy it when it comes out. It was definitely worth seeing, but it does not have to be seen in a theater to enjoy. I feel that only action movies are really worth seeing in the theater. They need big screens and loud speakers. Everything else can be seen in the comfort of your own home. This is mainly because I hate paying that much money for a movie ticket. If they were cheaper I might go to the movies more often. I have come to cherish the Redbox in Safeway.

The kids had a good time, but we made the mistake of bringing too many candy options. They were more interested in the candy at the beginning of the movie and I am sure they ate a pound of it before we took it away. Next time we will only bring popcorn and licorice.

And today I have let my kids runamuck while I have been finishing my trip and updating photos in my sidebar link. This should hopefully be done today. It will include most of our photos from Maui. I am thinking of removing the password mainly because I can't remember it myself. I hope that my house isn't demolished but this is the only way I could catch up. Tomorrow I will probably be spending the day cleaning up the disaster created by 2 free spirits.

Camping

Our little family took its first camping trip this weekend. It started out a little rocky. First of all, we were supposed to go somewhere around Payson. A friend who had stayed over Thursday night called Friday morning and said it was too cold for tenting it. They had to put their kids in the sleeping bags with them and had a terrible night. The ranger station had said the low was 37 degrees and some Internet weather page was reporting 27 degrees. Luckily a friend who was coming with came to the rescue and we ended up staying by Prescott.


We also left later than expected. Brian's meeting with the big-wigs went a little longer than expected. He also had to put out some fires that were created during this meeting for half of the drive. Luckily we made it with some daylight to spare so we could pitch our tent.




The girls had a lot of fun. Macy had 3 friends to tag along with. Kelsey had all the dirt she could ever dream of. Kelsey would just sit and run her hands through the dirt and lay in the dirt. To top it off she had a runny nose that she would smear across her face and the dirt would stick to it.





That evening we roasted marshmallows and taught our friends, the Cranes, how to make campfire eclairs. The Cranes had made it up there early enough to make tin foil dinners. The next morning we had breakfast burritos and sausage.


What we learned on this trip is that once you have kids, a large tent is a must. Sleeping was miserable we had enough room in the tent for the queen size air mattress and half of a sleeping bag. Since Macy and Kelsey are half a person we thought it would work. Macy was excited to have Kelsey sleep next to her finally. Well Kelsey wasn't going to sleep anywhere near Macy. So she had to come up on the air mattress with Brian and I. When Kelsey got to sleep with mom and dad, Macy had to too. This meant that Macy moved to the mattress and dad had to try sleeping on the hard ground in her pink sleeping bag. He couldn't do it. So all four of us crammed into 2 sleeping bags (Thank you Grandma Bonnie for the 2 sleeping bags zipped together. We are still using the double-wide you gave us.) It was miserable. There was no room and the mattress has a small leek somewhere. The girls woke up at least 2 times each. Macy didn't know where she was and would cry out loudly to have the light turned on. Kelsey would then wait until Macy was asleep and would wake up and scream. She must have been claustrophobic because she would hit me and try to push me off the bed all while screaming and crying. I felt bad for the Cranes and any campers around us. Needless to say we are buying a new tent and a new aerobed. On the bright side of things the girls slept until 9:30 AM on Sunday morning.


On Saturday we cleaned up and went to Lynx Lake where we rented a boat for an hour to zoom around on. Then we went to the mall in Prescott for lunch. I am sure they were happy to see our dirty, smelly crew in Honey Baked Ham. For dessert we grabbed some ice cream and kids managed to get dirtier.






It was a good time. I am glad Brian made me go and I am sure we will go again.