Spontaneous Dancing

Do you know what I love? I love a spontaneous dance party.

Tonight before dinner the kids had finished homework, and were impatiently waiting to eat. I was fixing dinner, and Lan had just come home. I had heard all the whining I could take for the day, so I cranked up some music to drowned it out. Next thing I now, I am in the middle of a huge dance party. We laughed and dance for 15-20 minutes waiting for dinner.

Once I busted out the camera, the kids started to get silly. But it's these little snip its of time that I will treasure forever!

Weekend in Vegas

Thursday I met my mom, sister and s-i-l in Las Vegas. We spent the weekend there. No kids, no husbands, no worries! We had a blast. We ate ourselves silly and laughed until we peed our pants. I'm so blessed to have a family that I not only love, but I like to hang out with. We have so much fun together, and I know not all families feel that way. Thanks again girls for a great weekend!

Pacific Science Center

Since the kids are out of school, and Landon didn't have to work today, we all went to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I'm so glad we did. The first thing we decided to do was to go see this movie at the IMAX Theatre there. It was amazing!

We got to wear these awesome 3D glasses. Kennedy thought they were sa-weet!

We left the house in such a hurry that we didn't have time to eat breakfast. So we had nachos and Pepsi for brunch! MMM healthy.

After the movie we spent tons of time in the butterfly house. There were hundreds of butterflies everywhere.

This is Kennedy peddling as fast as she can on this stationary bike. She's looking up to see how many calories an hour she was burning.

Of course, Whit had to try the rock wall. She made it all the way across!

This was a human hamster wheel that moved water. I don't really know what it was, but the kids had fun on it.

They had so many different things for the kids to check out. They ran from one thing to the next as fast as they could all day long.

The Fuzz

Sunday afternoon, and my house is quiet. My kids are out of school until Thursday for "mid-winter break" so they have built a fort in my family room. They are all inside watching a movie. Landon is upstairs sleeping because, well it's Sunday afternoon. I am at my computer, and there's a loud knock at my door. Now I'm in my pj's, and am not expecting anyone so I figure it's someone selling something. So I just ignore it and wait for them to go away. Luckily my kids didn't even notice! Then they knock again. I'm thinking, "seriously go away. It's Sunday afternoon and I'm not buying anything". Then they ring my doorbell, and try to open my front door. Now I'm really freaking out. My computer sits close to my front door, and there's an open window next to the door. In order to get upstairs to get Landon I'd have to run right past that window. But someone is trying to get into my house. After a few minutes, all is quiet and I figure they've given up. So I peek out the front window to see if I could see who it was, and I see several policemen in my front yard. I go tearing up the stairs to get Landon, and by the time I get there they're knocking again! I tell him that "the fuzz" are in our yard and at the door, and he asks my why I'm not answering it? I really have no answer for him. So he runs downstairs, opens the door and I hear the cop tell him that they received a 911 call from our house. They come in and question the kids, who don't have a phone anywhere near them. I'm pretty sure they really were innocent. I obviously didn't call 911, and Landon had been asleep. We explain all of this to the nice officers, and they leave. My heart is pounding in my chest. So much for a quiet, peaceful Sunday afternoon. I'm wondering how the crap that happened, and why on earth I decided not to answer the door in the first place. Dang solicitors have really screwed me up!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hair Creations and School Parties

I have been doing all kinds of fun stuff with my girls hair lately. This is what we did for their Valentine celebrations.

Whitley

KennedyThey had a great time celebrating today. Kennedy's class made "sweetheart" houses, and ate cupcakes and cookies. They were on some kind of sugar high!

Chocolate Dipped Love

We once again dipped strawberries for the kids teachers this year! I found some beautiful strawberries at Costco, and they turned out great, if I do say so myself.

Working on their Valentine's

Self Control, What Self Control?

The kids had a half day today, like they do every Wednesday and we had a couple of Valentine errands to go run. My kids were less than excited about running errands, even though it was stuff for them! So like all good mothers, I bribed them. I told them there would be a "special" treat involved for those who came with me, didn't fight, and didn't cause me any grief!

It worked like a charm. They asked me the whole time what the treat was going to be, if they'd ever had it before, etc. After we finished our jobs, we stopped at this yummy little cupcake shop. Now Landon and I have been there before, and it's dangerous! But I had never taken the kids there. They were stoked! We all picked out a cupcake, and then I saw that they had a few 6 packs put together already. They were day old, and marked half price. Well, I'm a sucker for a sale AND a cupcake! So we got an extra 6 pack for tomorrow! YUMMY- After dinner we inhaled them, and they were worth every single calorie. I've been thinking about that 6 pack in my fridge all day, and wondering since there are only 5 of us, who gets the extra one. Oh yeah, that will be me around 9pm tomorrow tonight I just know it! Good thing I've got my trainer on Friday

Whitley's in the Friend

I am so excited! We just got our March Friend, and Whitley is in it! She wrote a song that she sang for her baptism. Afterwards she wrote a letter, and sent it along with her song to the Friend. That was almost a year ago, and she's finally in it. She is super excited and I couldn't be prouder! If you get the Friend, go check it out

Just a Plain Old Saturday

Colton had a 5 mile hike with the scouts this morning, and it is freezing! However, he didn't seem to notice. Things started out a little rough for Whit this morning. She had a total melt down. This was a regular occurrence when she was little. For the most part, she has outgrown them, but every once in a while she loses it! This was the best shot I could get of her. She really flipped out when I tried to take some pictures, but I decided that it might help her to see how ridiculous she looks when she is out of control. She sat on that kitchen chair for a good half an hour until she finally calmed down. What was the fit over, you ask?? Vacuuming the stairs! Yep, it's about a 3 minute job, and she lost it.

It was finally warm enough to ride their bikes outside today. So after Colton got home, and they finished their jobs they took Kennedy's skate ramp out for the first time.

They were a little timid at first, but they loved it

Not to be outdone, Landon decided it would be smart for him to give it a whirl. Luckily he is smart enough to take it nice and slow.

The best part of this picture is Whitley totally wiping out on her roller blades next to the ramp. She went completely horizontal!

Invisalign at Last

I got my Invisalign today. I've been putting this off forever, and I finally broke down and did it. Lucky it's just my jaw, and not my teeth, that is messed up so I will only have to wear them for 6-7 months. However, they hurt like crazy. My teeth are aching, and I now have a horrible lisp! They say that will go away, so we'll see. Right now I feel just like Mr. Ed!

On the bright side, they are extremely hard to take off and you only take them off to eat and brush, so I'm thinking maybe I will loose some weight since it will be such a nightmare to snack all the time. Maybe now I can finally loose those last 10 "baby" pounds! (yes, I am blaming my kids and not Fatburger)

Grandma Ruth has a Birthday!

This is my mom. She is one of my most favorite people in the whole world. We like to tease her and give her a hard time, but she really is amazing. I know that no matter what happens, my mom will be there to support me. She is my rock, and I'm so grateful to have such an amazing example to look up to. Thanks mom for just being you. Happy Birthday, you're the best!

What a Weekend

My dad came to visit for the weekend. YEAH!! It was great to have him here. The kids loved it. We went straight to Claim Jumper from the airport for dinner since my dad hasn't ever eaten there. He loved it!
There were only two things that my dad wanted to do while in Seattle. He wanted fish and chips from Pikes Place Market, and he wanted to see the house he lived in when he was born. He lived here until he was 3 and doesn't remember any of it. Why he wanted to see that house, I'll never know. So that was the plan for Saturday. Colton wouldn't let us do anything else until he opened his presents. We made him wait until Grandpa Scott got here. He got mostly money (which he loved) and several books and Cd's about the priesthood (which he needs).

Straight out of bed

Did I mention the ipod? That was all he wanted for his birthday. And orange ipod. I think his face says it all!

This is the house that my dad was born at. We roamed around for a few minutes and took a couple of quick shots. I was waiting the whole time for someone to come out and ask us what the crap we were doing. Luckily they didn't.

This is a funky little bench on the way to Pikes that the girls just had to have a picture of. My dad got his fish and chips, and shared with everyone (accept me, of course)
Sunday morning Landon, Grandpa Scott, Bishop Doty, and Brother Thompson gave Colton the Aaronic priesthood. Landon gave him an amazing blessing.
And then we hit the mother load! We found a place called Salty's. On Sunday, they do this huge buffet with tons of fish among a million other things. My dad loves fish, and so does Colton so we thought we'd give it a try. We wanted a nice place, and this was it. It was the finest buffet I've ever been to, and we all ate way more that we should have.

After Salty's we came home and watched the Cardinals get beat in the Super Bowl. My dad left first thing this morning, and it was really hard to see him go. I knew I missed my family, but I don't think I realized how much until my dad was here. Thanks dad for a great weekend, with way to much food. You being here meant so much to all of us, but it really made this birthday special for Colton. We love you, and miss you already.