Fun Weekend

Jeff and Little Dude went on a Father's & Son's camping trip on Friday night. Little Dude was so excited to go camping and sleep in a sleeping bag, and go fishing. The weather forecast wasn't so great for Friday night, which showed temperatures in the 30's and chances of rain. Big bummer since the previous weekend was 100 degree weather. But, since the campground was already reserved and paid for, they decided to stick to the plan. There was light rain through the evening, but nothing too bad for a group of men and boys to handle. Then, I get a phone call from Jeff about 11 pm, saying that Little Dude just threw up all over his sleeping bag in their tiny 2-man tent and he tried to clean it all up with wet wipes, but that the tent reeked like vomit. LOL! The fun doesn't stop there, they woke up in the morning and it was snowing! Hence, they ate breakfast early, packed up all their stuff, and were heading home by about 9am. It ended up being a very memorable Father's & Son's camp out.

Missy, Baby Belly and I on the other hand had a great time without the boys! We went to a girls party on Friday night and had steak & shrimp for dinner, painted our toe nails, and watched the movie Enchanted. It was so much fun! We were in charge of bringing dessert, and we decided to make homemade waffle cones & bowls, and have ice-cream sundaes with all the toppings. We have a waffle cone maker, so Missy and I spent about an hour making 30 waffle bowls & cones for the party.

Then, the next morning we headed over to the mall for some more girl time. Missy has been begging for "dangly earrings". It scares me how grown up she can be sometimes! She ended up, after much convincing from me, picking some cute heart ones instead of fluorescent electric guitar earrings! Good grief- I had NO idea she knew what an electric guitar was! We put her earrings on right away after we bought them, and she was constantly looking in the shop mirrors as we passed, checking out how grown up she was! LOL! We also got some candy from See's and some smelly lotion from Bath & Body Works. She was on cloud nine by the time we were done.

Saturday night Jeff and I had a chance to go see Phantom of the Opera which was in town. It was so much fun. We were totally in the nose-bleed section, but still had good enough seats. The music is so wonderful! The costumes and props were so ornate and gorgeous. All in all, we had such a great weekend.

Organization

Here is a picture of my paper/crayon/pen cupboard - no matter how many times I organize it, my little people get in there searching for the specific crayon or pen they want, and within days, it ends up looking like this. Very frustrating. It's one of those cupboards you end up throwing something into, and quickly slamming the door before anything can slip back out.

The red paint actually fell out onto the floor as I opened it up - practically asking me to organize the cupboard, again.

I ended up trying something new, since the old way wasn't working. I put a tool belt over a 5-gallon bucket. There are lots of little pockets for pens, crayons, tape, glue, and all of the paper and big things go inside the bucket. It's perfect! Besides the fact that I don't have a clue where to store it, so it's sitting in the middle of the floor, but it's worth the satisfaction I feel from being slightly more organized.

Random

We've been busy getting back into a routine again after a fun break. It's been really windy here, so on Monday night after FHE, we went to the park to fly a kite. The kids loved it - we all took turns, and had a great time. It was a very successful kite flying day, and was probably up in the air for almost an hour- fun stuff.

On Wednesday was Back-to-School night for Missy. She was so excited to take us to her classroom to show us what she has been working on. She also loves her teacher Mrs.Sancedo.

The rest of the week I have spent pouring over a fantastically fun book, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. This is no literary classic, or one that will ever show up on school required reading lists, yet it is so wonderful. It is so addicting, and reading it is just pure enjoyment. I started Tuesday evening, and today I am waiting to get the third book from a friend (thanks Kristin:) So, for the very few of you out there that have NOT read these books, or don't because you think you won't like them - read it! I dare you to tell me you don't like them because I haven't heard of anyone yet.

**Speak of the vampire, Kristin just dropped off the book. Hooray!!! I'm off to read for a quick hour before getting Missy from school and heading to a friend's pool (this 100 degree weather is already getting old). Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

More Disneyland Photos

We're Back!

We had such a great time at Disneyland. The park wasn't very crowded at all - maybe 15 minutes max wait time for rides- which was awesome! And the weather was completely unexpected. I brought shorts and t-shirts, ready for 100 degree weather, but it was totally the opposite, with highs about 75 degrees. It was actually perfect for being outside all day long. We had such a great time with Nana and Grandpa, Auntie Heather and Uncle Doug, and Emily and Colby. Missy and Little Dude love being around their cousins.

Missy proved to be quite the rollercoaster rider this trip. She loved Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, and even went on Tower of Terror with me a couple of times (Jeff doesn't enjoy it very much, and I didn't want to go by myself, so Missy went with me). She was so brave the first time going on Tower of Terror, and almost looked like she was about to burst into tears out of fear, that we ended up buying her cotton candy because she was so brave.

Little Dude tried to be the little roller coaster rider also. Below is a picture of his excitement realizing he was tall enough to ride Space Mountain. Knowing my son, and the fact that sometimes a long car ride can make his stomach a little uneasy, I earnestly tried to talk him out of it by saying, "it's really dark in there, and kind of scary" "it goes really fast and makes your stomach feel kind of sick". But he was bound and determined to ride it.

He got off the ride and said, "I liked it.....but I never want to go on that again." LOL! What a trooper. He also went on Thunder Mountain a few times, telling all of us he loved that ride, but looked like this during the whole thing.

We had such a great time, and I have so many more photos that I will post later. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

It's Over!!!

Well, the race is over - thank goodness!!! It's amazing how long it feels even though I attempted to train for it :) It actually went really well, and I'm not very stiff, and didn't need to down the Advil - which is a plus. The night before the race we went to dinner with our friends Jessica and Mark to carbo-load at Old Spaghetti Factory, which was a lot of fun. The race went really well, except I didn't drink enough prior to the race, and got dehydrated. There is a HUGE difference in the temperature running 2 hours later in the morning than I usually do, so I really wasn't prepared for the heat on top of not drinking enough. Hence, I ended up throwing up after the race which wasn't much fun, but after that I felt fantastic! There was tons of food afterwards: drinks, oranges, sandwiches from Subway, the huge cookies from Costco, but since I wasn't feeling up to par, I didn't touch much of anything. Jeff and Baby Belly came to cheer me on about half way through the race and at the end, which was so much fun. There was actually a big group of us that knew each other running the race, which was a lot of fun.

Here's a picture of the three of us who trained with each other for the past 8 weeks. I will miss getting up at 5:45 AM - 4 days out of the week to run together ......well, sort of :) Seriously, without these girls I don't think I would have ever tackled anything like this.

And finally, the finish line! The last 5 miles seriously killed me. I had a really hard time finding my pace. It's really hard when you are surronded by people all around you running faster and slower than you - it really threw me off. I ended up needing to walk 30-40 seconds of every mile after mile 8 - grrrrr. Staying hydrated kicked my butt. I would have like to have gotten a better time, but at least I ran it in under a 10 minute mile - which was my goal. Overall, I am so glad it's over, but I am also so happy I did it! It was a big accomplishment for me - and seeing it through to the end made me very happy.

Busy Busy Bee

I feel like I've been running around with my head cut off trying to catch up with everything! I had my vinyl party tonight, which turned out great- but had tons of orders! Which means I don't feel like I've seen my kids for the past 2 days, I've had a couple of Young Women's rush orders, I'm trying to get ready for our trip, and lastly getting rested and pumped for the race on Saturday! I did a fun quote and some Mother's Day quotes for a group of Young Women in a different ward, and they sent me a picture of how their signs turned out - way cute. Some of those girls where my girls when I was in Young Women's, and I miss them like crazy! I love hearing about their week, and the things they are into, and who's not cool anymore :) Maybe because it makes me feel young... it's by far my favorite calling I've had yet.

Today I was rushing around trying to get things done for tonight, and Missy kept distracting me and asking lots of questions, and desperately trying to get my attention over what I thought was not that important compared to what I had to get done - finally I ended up getting short with her and saying, "Not right now Missy, mommy just wants to be quiet and alone." I immediately felt bad and thought I hurt her feelings. Actually, it was the opposite, she gave me a little sass and said, "Well fine, be by yourself then, it's never as much fun" and promptly left. I immediately starting chuckling. Thank goodness she is so tough-skinned and can handle her mom's impatience. I tried to make it up to her by letting her paint some extra pieces of wood I had laying around, and putting some vinyl on them, which ended up making her day. It's always the simple things that matter.

Missy has been such a huge helper while I've been so busy. Yesterday, poor baby Belly didn't think it was nap time, but it actually was nap time, and I had to cut wood out in the garage. So, it was one of those times that they just have to cry it out, which is usually rare for my kids because I can't stand listening to them so upset. After about 45 minutes, I went up to check on her, and Missy had just gotten in her crib and made her a bottle to try and settle Baby Belly down. Missy immediately said, " Mom, she is so upset. It's your turn to try and make her happy" I was so impressed with Missy and her 'mothering' skills. I seriously love my kids and how sweet they are.