Skating, Sleeping, Silly Pictures

Darren rarely falls asleep anywhere except his bed and sometimes the car. I had to capture this cute picture when he fell asleep watching tv at my grandma's house. I love it!

Our neighbors let us know about a free skating night last week at the Ice Center in Murray. Darren and I watched while Rick took the girls skating. This is Carlyn and Anneliese with Olivia, our neighbor's daughter. Rick went around a couple times before he dared take the girls on the ice. Then they'd barely started when they had to leave for the Zamboni. That was Darren's favorite part of the night.

This was toward the end and if you can see Carlyn is in the middle with Brian and Will on either side. It was really great of them to help and Will especially was really sweet. Annie's feet were hurting so she was sitting down at this point. Rick was just getting some laps in but is there next to Brian.

This isn't the best picture, but Anneliese was hesitant, understandably for a 3 year old, so she was either hanging on Daddy or the wall the whole time. If you notice the bottom left corner, that's Carlyn. She didn't look like she was having the greatest time. I was chasing Darren all over the bleachers the whole time so I still got my exercise in :)

I was trying to get a picture through the glass of them and Rick asked for the camera. This is how the girls were for a good part of the time and Darren was so excited to see them because we'd been sitting there for a long time according to him.

Not the best picture, but I had to put it in to show how brave Carlyn was getting. I was so proud of her. She did fall several times but she did great. She was grinning the rest of the night and saying that she LOVES ice skating and can she take lessons. We can't right now, but I'd like to keep that enthusiasm up. She asks to go every day now. Rick did really well too and didn't fall once.

Friday night my sister's high school choir and her 4 kids, my Mom and Dad, my brother and his girlfriend all were going to the BYU Men's & Women's Chorus Concert. My sister said they ended up with extra tickets and Carlyn and I got to have a Mommy/Daughter date. She'd specifically asked for one recently and we realized it had been awhile so this was perfect. Even though it was Friday 13th and Rick and I were having an off day, we had a really great time. We even got ice cream at McDonald's afterwards and she felt so special. She told me that she loved it so much that she could just hug me for the rest of my life :) That made it worth it for me! We really loved the concert and had a great talk in the car both ways.

My parents stayed over at my Grandma's house Friday night after the concert. Saturday morning while the men moved a pool table for my Dad, my mom helped me with my house and a few things I had to do. I'm realizing that we just don't have enough room for 6 people in this little house and I'm feeling crowded. So I'm having to get creative with a few things. I'm no good at that. I did set up the toddler bed in Darren's room and that's this picture above. Saturday he was so tired that he didn't even fuss or get up. He just fell right asleep and I had to take a picture. He's taken naps on the bed but won't go to bed at night on it. I'm okay with letting him get used to it first.

While he was napping the girls were playing. I'd done a little rearranging (not done, as obvious in the picture) and they liked the change. Here is Annie folding socks. I hate that chore and I wish she could really mate them because she's always playing with them. Plus, there seem to be a ton of ones without mates. UGH. They had been to a birthday party and then played at McDonald's while my parents, Mathew, grandma and I had lunch. The kids weren't hungry but they ate half of mine :) I should have taken pictures of them after the party with their tutus and hair clips and crowns and decorated goblets. Thanks Jess they had a blast! Also, I got a lot done with my Mom's help and I feel a lot better though I've still got a lot to do.

Then they started taking pictures of everything. They took at least 20 of their play kitchen and several of each other. These were my favorites, but not the funniest. Carlyn took this of Annie.

Annie took this of Carlyn. Good pictures. Maybe they'll be photographers :)

Another thing Darren has gotten in the habit of doing is washing his hands in the bathroom sink. Yes our bathroom is that yellow! Short story: our other bathroom has rubber ducks and is so cute. When I was pregnant with Carlyn Rick painted the bathrooms (both of them) to match the ducks on the shower curtain. I love it in the other bathroom. :) Anyway, Darren is standing on a cute stool our neighbor gave us and if I can't find him, this is where he is. He turns it on, tries to get soap, and washes his hands. He usually won't stop on his own so I have to turn it off, dry his hands, and pull him out of there. It really is cute though. You can't see in this picture, but he's standing on his tippy toes. He just wants to do big kid things like the girls. See how proud he is of himself!

Funny Kids and a Few Happenings

I'm so behind on posts with a ton of pictures to download, and I'm annoyed with my slow computer. I usually use the laptop but I don't have a way to download the pictures here so the few I have are from someone else. I haven't really felt like blogging, so forgive me for blending several into one.

Okay, so maybe I'm the only one who will think this is cute, but my kids are so funny! I put at the end of the last post about the girls playing "hospital" which totally cracked me up, but I have to tell you some of the funny things they say and the things Darren does.

Annie got a new Book of Mormon from her new Sunbeam teachers and is so proud of it. I tried to hide it so I knew where it would be on Sunday and she found it and was flipping through the pages. I heard her say to Carlyn, "This is my Book of Mormon. Mr. Church gave it to me." Knowing both her teachers and female I asked, "Who is Mr. Church?" "Dat man. At church. Dat gave me my Book of Mormon." I finally figured out that she got mister and sister mixed up and says church because she can't remember their last names. :)

I can't believe Annie is a Sunbeam (Sunbean if you ask her) already. Here is a picture of her class (minus a couple kids). Annie is the one leaning on the table in case you can't tell. She was a little nervous the first day, wanting me to sit with her for a minute, but then she was fine. She's really quiet in sharing/singing time which is totally opposite how she is at home. Maybe she'll loosen up eventually.

Every time we drive within view of the hospital Carlyn says, "Look! There's the hospital where the baby's going to be born." Every time. No matter how many times a day we pass it.

Darren has an innate sense of how to play video games. Whether we were playing darts, bowling, tennis, rock band on the wii or a video game on the PS3 he knew just what to do and would try his hardest to pick up a controller and play (not too poorly on Sonic, I might add) and if he couldn't get the right one, he'd pick up any remote he could find and do the right actions. We were laughing so hard at him playing the guitar for rock band with Daddy's help. SO CUTE! He's getting so smart too and communicating so much more with words and signs. I do have a picture of this, so I'll have to post it later. He also learned how to snort and now runs around snorting and laughing. He also figured out that he like to stand and pee in the tub (naughty and annoying, but also a little funny).

Carlyn said, "Mom, I've got to change out of these jammies. Its sweltering in here." Sweltering! Thanks Word Girl (PBS kids, if you don't know.)

Two weeks ago I felt kind of guilty for having so much "Me" time. I had 2 dr appointments, a dinner with some girls friends on Thursday night, a Mamma Mia party Friday night (which deserves a post of its own but that would involve incriminating pictures of my singing and dancing with my neighbors), and a baby shower Saturday morning. I got home and felt a little guilty when Rick whispered to me, "We really need a date, but I don't know if we can find a babysitter at this last minute." It was a Saturday late afternoon, but I agreed that we did need a date. So, he called his sister Belinda who happily watched the kids at her house. They ate, played wii, she gave them baths for Sunday in her huge tub, and the kids played with their cats and dog. They were on cloud 9. But here's the funny part: the kids were playing in the hall when Rick said that so they had no idea they were going to Auntie Bee's house. I heard Carlyn the next minute saying, "I'll be Aunt Bee. I'll make the snacks for us and you go play with Josh (Aunt Bee's boyfriend.)" Annie said, "Come on Josh, let's go play. Aunt Bee, you come when you are done with the snacks." The went on in this scenario for several minutes while Rick and I were cracking up. Thanks Bee and Josh, we really did need a date and enjoyed it very much. We had a wonderful dinner and I got to finally see "Twilight" which I liked much more than I expected after everyone's comments.

Every year a group of friends from high school gets together at Christmas time and has a party. This year we had to put it off until after Christmas and it was last Saturday. I'm glad we do it and we really need to do it more than once a year. There are two pictures because her husband wasn't home until after Jody needed to leave. We had a wonderful meal and visited at Marilee's house.

Me, looking very big and prego, next to Mesha, Jody, Sarah, and my best friend growing up, Heather

Heather swapped out with Marilee to take the picture. Marilee is due in about a month with her first baby, the others happily done having kids. We're coming up on our 15th reunion this fall. CRAZY!

Monday afternoon we got to go the Draper Temple Open House and it was great! It is so organized and kind of amazing to realize the number of volunteers it takes every day of the open house, which lasts quite a long time. The girls especially loved going inside the temple and seeing how pretty it was. I'm really glad we got to go. First we watched a little movie at a nearby chapel assigned ahead of time. Then we got on buses and they drove us to the temple. The kids thought that was pretty cool. It dropped us off at a covered walkway to the temple. Then we took the tour through the temple. The girls loved that they got their own brochures and checked each picture off as we went through. It was so cute. I could really see that Carlyn was understanding when we said there was a place for baptisms for the dead, and then the place where people got married. They loved the Celestial room too, the chandelier especially, and were excited because on Sunday they'd just learned the Plan of Salvation so they recognized Celestial from that. So cute. Darren just liked how it was so quiet and he could make so much noise when nobody else was. We tried to shush him, but a 17 month old doesn't listen too well. When you leave it takes you on a covered walk again to the chapel next door for water and cookies and a beautiful display and then out to the buses again. Did I mention I was so glad we got to go? :)

Trunk or Treat, Halloween, & a Little Extra

Okay, I think I'll do this in chronological order. We dressed up the kids on the 25th and took them downtown to the Gallivan Plaza Block Party. Look at these cute kiddies. I loved how they looked. They were roasting in their long sleeved shirts, poor kids. It was a very warm day and Halloween was pretty warm too.

Carlyn choosing her pumpkin from the Block Party. They were out of decorations though, which worked out fine and we took the pumpkins home to decorate, which never happened. Oh well.All the kids at the Trunk or Treat. Darren really had a good time. He loves candy and his favorite in the world are suckers. Belinda was going around with him and had to keep him away from me or he cried for a sucker. So funny.

The next day was our Anniversary, as mentioned earlier. Carlyn took this picture of us that night. We sure look different than we did 8 years ago. (Look how long my hair has gotten.)

I took a picture of this one because I thought it was funny and creative of Carlyn and Annie to stick these tub toys to the tub wall, 1 in each square. There's D's head in the picture. He walked straight up, bent over and did a flip in the tub. After making sure he was fine, I took a picture while he was crying. Am I mean or what? I thought it was hilarious.

One morning I wasn't feeling well and I slept in because Darren did and I woke up to find this. They had made a bed for themselves, put in a movie, and got snacks. I LOVE it when they can take care of themselves like that. What cute & good girls!

We had FHE at a friend's house on Monday night and Rick put Annie in the car while he came to get Carlyn & Darren. She was complaining of being tired, so he just put her in and shut the door. I was talking in the kitchen for at least 15 minutes before I freaked out asking where Annie was. Then Rick said he put her in the van so we ran out and she was asleep, sweet little thing. She's good that way and will tell me when she's tired.

Here's my silly little Tinkerbell. Her hair was cute at the trunk or treat, but it was hard to do her hair in a ponytail, so I decided to do pigtails for Halloween. It was adorable and stayed much better. This picture makes me understand why my parents used to call me a little imp!

Here is D with cute whiskers on Halloween. He was such a doll that day and enjoyed very much being mobile and collecting was more candy than I'll let him eat. We noticed that our friends, whose kids are similar to ours in ages (theirs are spaced further apart and are also girl, girl, boy) had dressed their kids in similar costumes to our kids. So we had to get pictures. Here is Darren & Jake as a lion and tiger on Joel's lap. I love that grin.

Here is Joclyn and Anneliese as Tinkerbells. They wouldn't look at the camera at the same time and I couldn't get Annie to sit better. Here is Jensyn and Carlyn as Snow White and Cinderella. Two of the most beautiful princesses ever, I'd say. They've been friends since they were born. So cute!

We made to rounds to client's offices, grandma's houses, & friend's houses and had a great time including the kids playing in the leaves for a half hour at one house. Then we came back to our neighborhood where we enjoyed hotdogs & a little extra at a friend's house and then went trick-or-treating. Darren was done by the time we left our friend's house and Rick took him home to bed. I walked around the neighborhood with the girls for a long time and they would have kept going but Grandma Linda came over and went to a few final houses with them and brought them home. I was exhausted, but the kids didn't seem to be. Carlyn was a die hard trick-or-treater and I'm sure she would have kept going forever. Annie was awesome and only complained once when it was lightly raining on us, but she kept up with her big sister like a trooper. I don't have a picture of Carlyn on Halloween by herself, but it was the same costume as before.

Fun Stuff!

I almost forgot to put up these pictures of a family party a couple weeks ago. We had a great meal and a good time, but the highlight was the pinata for the kids. They were all cute and had plenty of candy and we didn't have any America's Funniest Videos moments (though there was a close call.)

Darren's turn-he thought he was big enough to do it himself, but couldn't hold the bat.
Carlyn whacked it really hard but it doesn't seem that way in this pic.
Annie didn't do too bad either.After choir practice for Stake Conference Saturday morning I came home to Annie throwing a fit, but she was supposed to be a waiter ushering me to my seat for breakfast that Rick made. This is our little drama guy. If I don't pick him up as soon as he wakes up it is DRAMA. He was even more mad because I decided to grab the camera instead of him.
We've been looking for a used upright freezer for some time now and we always call just after they are sold. This time KSL.com let me down and I found it on craigslist. We got a great deal too. I need to go grocery shopping to fill it up, but so far I just got ice cream with the kids. My friend Debbie from college and I have tried to get together several times in the last months. Every time we plan it one of our kids get sick. The same thing happened last week, but this week we got lucky. She came down on Thursday and the kids played, we ate lunch, and we all had a great time. I'm so glad that we got a chance to catch up more than by blogging. Our kids are pretty close to the same ages and they had a great time. They didn't want to say goodbye. Thanks for coming Deb, it was GREAT!
This is our jungle/desert where the kids had a great time playing.
Seriously, I took about 12 pictures of these guys and all of them are blurry! They are only a few months apart and were very cute playing together.
The 4 girlies. So cute! They are so much alike too. Reading my friend's blog I always think how similar they are and she says the same too.

After they left the girls were pooped and had a nice rest on the couch. Playing wears you out!
Later we went to the library where they had tattoos at the children's desk instead of stickers. Love Annie's? I wanted to dress her in biker chic clothes today. Its awesome!
Carlyn's is a pirate octopus reading books. We finished the day with a quick trip to the store and ice cream cones. D is a pro.
This is what we do when Carlyn is at preschool. They really do love each other.
A neighbor that Rick did computer work for gave him just the right amount of peaches to make a peach pie. I used my mom's recipe and it was fabulous! Delicious.

A Blast From the Past

I got together Monday with two good friends of mine who used to be in the ward, Stephanie & Candice. Candice now lives in MN and even though Steph lives close, we don't see each other much. It was so great to see them and the kids had a blast! We met at Wendy's and had lunch. Then went to Liberty Park, then to Stephanie's house where we pizza for dinner and just kept visiting & playing. It was hard to say goodbye.

Shaylee, Carlyn, Trinity, Nicholas, Braxton, Easton, & Anneliese
Nicholas & Darren in strollers when they really wanted to be running around. They are about 3 months apart.
Candice & Stephanie
Annie (in the back) at the pond at Liberty Park. They have a concrete waterfall, stream & pond for the kids to play in. Its great!
D loved to splash.
Here we were all melting and just about done. We had a snack and went to a 7-11 for Slurpee.
Carlyn & Trinity are good buddies now. She's 6 and they had a hard time saying bye.