I am thankful for...

My home.

As the wind blew and the rain came down in sheets which then turned to snow, I reflected on the blessing of a home. It was extremely windy last night, and rained all night long, in torrents that could be heard throughout the house. Whenever I woke up, I sent up a little prayer of gratitude for our home.

I realize this is a picture of palm trees, which are not indigenous to our area, but you get the point.

When we have extreme weather, I always think of the pioneers, suffering the whims of mother nature without shelter.

Or homeless people without protection.

Or even those people who have some sort of shelter, but it isn't sufficent.

I am thankful for our home, our warm, sturdy, safe, comfortable home that protects my family from the elements.

Laser Tag

Has anyone played laser tag before? We went with Brian and Lisa last night and it was SO MUCH FUN! We were all on a team against 5 teenagers, and we lost horribly. We had so much fun it didn't matter though.
We were all sweating by the end of our 30 minutes of play time, with good reason. We were up and down the ramps, ducking, running (even though your not supposed to do that) crouching, reaching, and moving quickly the whole time.
I have terrible aim, by the way.
There was one teen boy who I shot and chased, then the next round he did it to me, and we were both laughing hysterically. Ok, I was, and he was chuckeling, but you get the idea.
I laughed at myself so much that I was very glad for the bathroom trip I took before we started.
I highly reccomend everyone go do this. Do it with other adults or teenagers, and do it with your little kids. (they have to be 8)
It is a little spendy, $10 per person for 30 minutes, but so worth it. I will be keeping my eye out for coupons.
Because we are definetely going again.
So go try it!
Oh, and don't wear white like I did. Maybe thats why I got hit so much.

Water Fun

On Monday, we took the kids to swim at the Blackfoot pool. It has taken me a while to get these pictures on here because they are from my cell phone and I didn't know how to use the extremely small photo card. (Seriously, the thing is smaller than my thumbnail, technology, for heaven's sake.) But now I know, so here they are!

We had a lot of fun at the pool. I was worried the baby wouldn't like it and one of us would be sitting out with her, but she loved it.

My cell phone doesn't take great action shots, so you'll have to believe me when I tell you that this is Payden,

and this is Michaela.

Here they are clowning around, having a grand time. My girls are fish and love the water. They are both very good swimmers.

Here they are jumping off the diving board. This is Payden jumping off,

and this is Michaela diving off.

We have this little floatie that has a seat in it, and that is how Corrine rolled at the pool. She LOVED it. She really liked this ball, as well.

Ava used her little frog life jacket thing, and once she was confident she wouldn't sink, swam all around the pool on her own! We stayed right with her, but she loved not having to hold on to someone.

Corrine kept trying to drink the water, so I had to hold her up a bit so she couldn't reach it. It was pretty funny.


Here is Ava in her little frog thing. We got this at Walmart, and if you have pre swimmers you have to get this. Way better than water wings, Ava is so skinny they would have floated off. This thing is all one piece, and worked like a charm.

We will surely do this more often. Way fun!

Girls Spa Night

Last night we had a fun night just for the girls. We made homemade spa treatments and gave each other the royal treatment! The girls were a little skeptical about putting egg in their hair and pumpkin on their faces, but were excited non the less. We also had chocolate to eat and listened to soft music.

Michaela was the first to get the hair care. She was slightly grossed out by the egg mixture, but it smelled good so it was ok.

Then Payden was next, but somehow I lost that picture.

Ava was next, and she liked being pampered, even though she was getting tired!

Michaela did my hair, but didn't like putting her hands in the egg! We all got drips on our faces from time to time! I really liked getting this done, it felt so good having my head massaged while Michaela rubbed the stuff in.

The next treatment was pumpkin on our faces! We made a mask and slathered it on, complete with cooled cucumber slices for our eyes. AHHHHHHHHHHHH

Payden next!

Ava was a little hesitant, but didn't want to be left out. So she agreed!


Payden did my face last.

Then we painted our nails, hands and toes, after we did a treatment to exfoiliate our hands. It was a fun night with my girls, and we all have super soft hair and skin today!

Our house won't work!

Yesterday the power went out due to a very wet snow storm we had(on the first day of spring break!) We had been at the mall shopping, and came home to have lunch.
Cooking a meal without power is difficult.
Ava was concerned with the lack of electricity, and was going around trying things and proclaiming things like " the fan won't work either!"
After a trying a few things, she says to me:
"Mom, our house won't work!"
I explained that the power was out, that it would come back on, and please stop turning everything on because we had to leave soon and I didn't want everything turned on if the power came back on when we were gone. The power came back on while we were eating lunch. Ava hopped down from her seat, and went happily around the house turning every single light in the house on. This appeared to be very comforting to her; our house worked again!

WARNING:

The reckless celebration of St. Patricks Day may cause slight discoloration of certain bodily excretions.












Not the least of which is breastmilk.

Go Green!

No, I don't mean low flow toilets and solar panels, I'm talking about St.Patricks Day! This is a fun holiday, for some very silly reasons. I love to make green meals, and seeing everyone wearing green clothing. There is something strangely unifiying in seeing complete strangers all decked out in green. Today was no exception. I got to pinch both Michaela and Payden because they forgot and came upstairs without green on. They each took turns "pinching" the baby.

I saw some very cute leprechaun templates on a cool cooking blog, which I used throughout the day to make meal time fun. They made an appearance at every meal all day.

For breakfast, it hung out on a cereal box. At this point, the girls just thought it was odd, and looked at me funny for putting it there.

Then for the girls' lunches, I made cucumber and cream cheese sandwhiches, with green cream cheese. I stuck a leprechaun on the sandwhich bag.

For me and Ava's lunch, we had green cream cheese and avacado, ham and spinach sammies. Yum! And green apples. I stuck the little guy in Ava's sandwhich. This mostly just confused her, she didn't know what leprechauns are. Have you ever tried to explain what one is to a four year old who has never heard of it before? Yeah, that was fun.

For snack, green cream cheese in celery sticks. The girls were starting to get it by now, and were commenting on where else they may see the green man.

Then for dinner, we had green pasta (normal pasta boiled in water with green food coloring) with pesto sauce and spinach. I shaped it into four leaf clovers, and stuck the stingy midget in there.

And since the girls were getting sure they knew what I was doing with the lepreachaun, I changed it up a bit. On the bottom of their glasses of green milk, I taped the face of the leprechaun.

A fun green day, for sure!

A memory in the making

I was up a ton last night with Corrine (a theme to my life) and realized something. The older you get, the more patience it seems you have with your children, and life in general. With Michaela, I had much less patience and only bemoaned the lack of sleep I was experiencing when I got up with her in the night. Since then, however, I have realized just how fast babyhood goes, how little time your children are babies. Each child has given me more experience and a new perspective. One short year, and they don't fit in your arms as well. Too soon, and they are off on their own, and don't need you as much. So last night, in spite of how tired I was, every time I got up with her, I tried to sear the memory in my mind. To capture it with all my senses to last for when she is grown. She is almost 9 months old already, and it feels like I didn't have enough time to cuddle her. I may have been tired, but I held my precious baby like a life line. I appreciate that time with her because I know it won't last.

Triathalon fever

So I did what I have been wanting to do now for quite a while; I signed up to participate in a triathalon. It is just a sprint, not a full length. 700 yard swim, 13 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. You swim on Friday night, then bike and run Sat. morning. This is a good arrangment for me. I can swim, but am not a "swimmer" so that is really going to poop me out! I have a friend who is a swimmer and has been giving me some pointers on swimming, and even has me swimming with my face in the water! (Thanks Kim!) I am super excited to do this, and somewhat nervous. This is in just under a month! No doubt I will be the last to cross the finish line, probably half alive, but my only goal is to finish. Kim is also doing the same race. I told her that if I haven't crossed the finish line an hour after the last person, she can come drag me across! I also bought some tri shorts and a new jersey, and I tried them on and showed the kids. Ava says to me "Mommy, why are you wearing those funny clothes?"

I don't know what has possessed me, I have never been a competitive sport person, or really a sport person at all. I started running after Payden was born, and started thinking about doing races. The confidence to do one was never there, until I began talking to people who had done some. I realized that I don't have to have a perfect body or be in top form to do this. People of all shapes and fitness levels compete, so I am told. All I know is that I am super pumped to do this. In September, I am also registered to run in the Pocatello Marathon, a 10k.

Never in a million years did I ever think I could add triathelete to the list of things I am. But here I am, so excited about it that it is always on my mind. I got my bike tuned up, got my new duds, have been running, practicing swimming techniques, and picking my triathelete friends brain for everything to tips on what to eat before the race to what transitions are like. I have very few days left to train, so I have set a schedule to make sure I get in enough of everything to be ready.

Ready is relative, and just means that I won't die sometime during the race.

I feel so powerful doing this. I know that it is only the beginning, I can't wait to do a full one maybe next year!

Idaho State Championship!

We spent all night on Friday and part of the day on Saturday at the Stephens performing arts center for dance competetions. We were there from 4pm until almost 9pm on Friday, and a couple of hours on Saturday. This year Ava competed with her dance group. They got 1st place! (Dance teams and individuals don't compete against each other, only against themselves, so there can be lots of 1st's.)

I have to say that Jason took these pictures. I am the team mom for Ava's team, which means I stay with them backstage until they perform (no easy feat keeping these youngsters happy and in one place for almost an hour) walk them on stage and make sure they are positioned correctly, take them offstage, then get them back to their parents. So Jason took these pictures and the ones of the girls getting their trophies.

Ava's team was sooooo cute on stage. They did really good and had lots of fun.

Here is a picture of the girls with their teacher, LaChere, getting a team trophy for a team dance.

A picture of the trophies about to be awarded. They only give out 3 per division.


Since we are there so long, we packed dinner and ate in between performances.

Lunchables, chips, dried fruit, yogurt covered raisins, waters and red fish. Yum.

Here is the Michaela and Payden doing their baseball dance. It is to the song from High School Musical.



This is their solos. They both did so good this year; Michaela got two first places and one 2nd, and so did Payden.

This is how they do the solos: they line the kids up in rows, and four kids do the same dance at the same time. They exit, and the row behind goes, until all have had a chance. The result is you listen to the same portion of the same song over and over and over.....

These things are always crazy, but I am getting the hang of it. Costume changes, (the older girls have 3), getting to the right stage at the right time, finding their numbers and getting them on, knowing the difference between a show and a line solo, etc. This year was actually more fun, even with having Corrine with us. She actually fell asleep with all the earsplitting music and cheering going on! Darn, I should have gotten a pic of that. Oh, well. Next up, SpringFest in Taylorsville next month!

Ouch

This just looks uncomfortable.

She was so tired she just zonked.

You can even see her other hand is stuck in her crib. I did fix her after I took these pictures!

Dear Mom,

A note from Payden:

Dear Mom,

I love you! You are the best mom ever! I hope you have a good dinner- Big Foot pizza! I love you! You are so nice!
Love,
Payden

P.S. Our Christmas lights are still up!

Did you say yes?!

Ava has been asking me for a while to plant the seeds in this little pot kit she got from her aunt and uncle. It was broken, so Jason had to glue it first, plus it just seemed like she always asked at the wrong times. So yesterday, she asked me again. Jason had fixed it, and nothing else was going on, so I said sure. Her reaction made me feel guilty....maybe I should say yes more often.

Ava: Mom, can we plant my seeds from Uncle Paul and Aunt Jackie?

Me: Sure.

Ava: Well, its (she was starting to argue with me)....did you say yes?

Me: Uh huh.

Ava: Oh.

Our Sweet Corrine

Corrine sleeps in the cutest ways. She will hold her head, sleep on her tummy, or cover her eyes, like this. She also sometimes sleeps on her side with her arms above her head.

Corrine is babbeling and saying the most adorable sounds. She has Da-Da down, we are just trying to get her to say Ma-Ma!

Family pile-up!

Sunday evenings are lazy and fun. Sometimes we play board games, or make cookies, or just hang around and read. Sometimes, we tickle and horse around, like tonight. The girls all took turns piling up on me, then on Jason. Having a gaggle of girls really is so fun!


I am under there somewhere!



Bury Daddy!