Santa . . . yes, Santa

I know it's only November and Thanksgiving hasn't even come and gone yet, but we went to see Santa on Wednesday. We figured that Drew wasn't sick and we had better take advantage of it and let him see Santa this year. Santa was a little late in arriving, and they had the beginning of the line right next to the candy display. Bet you can't guess what happens next... Drew grabbed a Rolo and was opening it behind my back. A nice lady came and offered the kids some brownies they had out, so the kids were sitting next to his chair eating brownies and waiting. When Santa arrived their little faces lit up and they got the biggest grins, it was priceless!! The pictures aren't that great, but it was so fun. They also had some great booths set up for the kids to do crafts and they loved it. Santa looked real too, what a great bonus!

Going private

Because of special spirits on the internet, we are going to go private. Please email us your address or leave a comment so we can add you to the list. To clarify, we have been getting spam on our blog and we would like to avoid this in the future.

"Disneyland" (Disney on ice)

So we finally got to go to our "big event" we've been looking forward to for so long. This time around, we made sure we had the right date, the right time, right venue just so we didn't have a repeat performance of last weekend. However, as much as you try to plan and re-plan there will always be kinks in your plans that sneak up at the last minute. Yesterday Alexis got a huge fever like 103.9 at one point. We figured she just had what Drew had which was a 24 hour bug. Sure enough, she was feeling much better by today though not 100%. Since we had dropped a good chunk of change on these non-refundable, non-transferrable tickets, we all decided to go anyway. It all went pretty well except at the end Alexis was just so exhausted and tired she threw a HUGE tantrum in the parking lot. It was so embarrassing! Everyone probably thought we were horrible parents, but we somehow convinced her to let Daddy carry her to the car. Once we got in the car, Madison screamed non-stop from SLC to about North Orem. I don't know how these things end up being more stressful than fun, but hopefully the kids will have good memories. Alexis loved the little Belle doll we got her and Drew loved the Mickey Mouse doll that he got. (Shouldn't there be a more manly name for doll, when it's for a boy?) That was the highlight of the evening for them. I worry sometimes that we spoil them too much. Oh well, it's once a year and Alexis' adoration of princesses may only last a few more years. She seems to be growing up too fast!

My great husband

John is going to roll his eyes when he sees this post, but that's too bad. I decided I had to let everyone know what a fabulous husband I have, he's so amazing. Not only does he do lunch with the kids four days a week, but he watches them at night three days a week so I can go to school. He surprised me with a box of See's Cherry Cordials last week because I was having a day listening to Drew whining again. This week he's cleaned the house, the car (it was almost ready to be dropped off at the dump it was so bad), done laundry and dishes and given me foot massages. (He cleans the house on a weekly basis, and he hired Steph to come and help once a week to do deep cleaning for me!) But the best part of this week was when I bombed a test, and I don't mean "oh I didn't do well", I mean I BOMBED it in full glory. I was so frustrated because I just hadn't had time to study and I really did deserve what I got, but it still stunk. When I got home, John opened two little bottles of sparkling cider and we drank to celebrate my imperfectness. It was so fun to be so bummed and yet to be having such a fun moment with him. What a perfect husband for me, I couldn't have asked for anyone better!
As a side note, Madison rolled over for the first time today. It would have happened sooner I'm sure, but I'm the type that loves to hold the baby. Only recently have I begun to put her on the floor to play and only because I've had sick little kids who need my arms as well, and because she's becoming a tank, both John and I are having immense back pain.

OOPS

John joined a city league basketball team and even if he won't admit it, he's very excited to be doing something fun and athletic. This is the warm-up session before the game. They were all very limber after this. (Note the shoes Drew and Alexis, even though you can't see hers, are wearing, they have huge feet!)

John's team warming up. They didn't win, but they sure did try. They only had five guys there and the other team was filled with really big guys. They didn't lose by a whole lot though, so that was nice.

As you can see from the picture, we were all really excited to go to Disney on Ice. I bought tickets earlier this week, and we got VIP seats. That means I paid a lot of money to watch people dressed up skate around an ice rink. Anyway, the kids were all excited. I left my morning class early so that John could take off half a day of work to come home and help us get ready to go. All day the kids talked about it, we even borrowed a cape for Drew so he could be a Prince and Alexis could be the Princess. I started dinner in the crock pot so that when we came home we would have a nice hot dinner and we could relax the rest of the night. We left two hours early so that I could take a quiz at school and then stop by the Disney store to get Drew some Mickey ears. FYI - the Disney store does not sell Mickey ears, you have to call Disneyland and order them, how silly is that? Anyway, finally we were on the road. On the way up, John and I were talking about how I think it is more important to give your kids experiences than things, IE excessive toys. When we got there, we found some cheap parking, a block and a half away, and we unloaded everyone, coats, diaper bag, well you get the point. We walked to the Energy Solutions Arena and it was dark. Yes, the only people we saw were janitors. So, we looked at each other for a minute and John remembers that there is a Jazz game tonight, obviously it's going to be hard to watch people ice skating on a basketball floor. John runs to the car to see what our confirmation slip says, and he calls me and says: "You are a special spirit, boy have you done it this time." I'm thinking great, we're supposed to be at the E Center and now we aren't going to make it on time. Lo and behold, I have the wrong day. Yes, it's NEXT Friday. How special can one person get? Remember how I was telling John about experiences being important. Well, his next question is: "Since we're already here, can we go to the Jazz game?" How can you say no after that discussion? We ended up having to go buy Alexis a new shirt so that she didn't have to wear her princess dress to the game. I had Steph turn off our dinner, we went to a food court instead, and then we took them to their first Jazz game. They did really well. I think Madison liked it the best, she was so enthralled with all the sounds, colors and movements going on. Alexis and Drew loved the blow up bear that was knocking the refs on the head. Overall it was fun and exciting, but not exactly what we had planned for!

Halloween

We took the kids to Steph's work for trick or treating. They got some great candy, thanks Steph.

Alexis and Drew loved painting their pumpkins. Alexis was concentrating the entire time, it had to be just right. Drew in his Diego underwear, yes he's potty trained finally!!



Grandma Hakes taught Alexis how to head bang. Well, kind of. After we taught her how to dance while she was head banging, this is what we got. We found it hilarious!

Growing

Madison is getting so big. She is sitting in her little chair and she is can turn the little dial to make music and fun sounds. It's amazing that at only four months old she can be this cognizant of things around her. She also really wants to just sit, she just doesn't like being on her back anymore. Oh how quickly they grow.

Drew has an infection like thing on his leg that he doesn't like so much. The poor kid, he's such a trooper though. He loves to pick the movie that we are going to watch and is getting really good at saying "Jungle Book, Ariel, Pongo (101 Dalmations) and Baby Einstein, he can even give the name of which one he wants, Mozart, Animals, etc.

Alexis loves to say family prayer and she does such a good job. Tonight her prayer went something like this: I love girl scouts, I love boy scouts, thank you for today, I love Grandma, I love Stephanie, thank you for today, I love princesses & barbies, I love boys, thank you for today and so forth. It is so hard not to bust up laughing when she's praying. And when she's done, she says "I did a great prayer, huh? It was a long one!" It's fun to see them growing.