Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Why is it they never listen?

Why is it that when you give the kids specific instructions to put their mugs in the sink when their cocoa is done that you come back to find them right on the table where you left them....
And that when they are supposed to pick up their stuff and put it away........
you find them up playing house in your room, in your bed, spreading their toys out and making a bigger mess.....
or up on their bed playing Legos ?

Christmas morning

This year we had to take the "Waiting to go down stairs" picture after presents because Aiden was fussy and would not sit for a picture. We figure once he got his presents he would be in a better mood.
Aiden was excited for all the snacks in his stocking and spent the time working his way through them while we opened presents. He would put his snacks down long enough to open when it was his turn and the go right back to eating.
The kids were so excited to get bikes from Santa.

They had to pose on them and test out the seats.
Aiden was excited to get a Magnadoodle. After he played with one at Uncle Sam's over Thanksgiving I knew he needed one of his own. It was especially great when he started jumping up and down saying "I love it, I love it"
Court gets to feel like a big kid now with her own boom box and Hanna Montana CD for her room.
Tyler got his own football and a target practice net to go with it. Now he can practice all the time.
Casey has been trying to convince us that he was old enough for a pocket knife ever since he earned his whittling chip in Scouts. We finally gave in and he was very excited to open it on Christmas morning.
I finally got my steam mop. Chad said it was a lame gift, but I convinced him it was what I really wanted and it would make my life easier to have it. Yea!
Daddy's best gift was a surprise gift of an RC controller, he was so beside himself. It made my gift of a transponder pale in comparison :) it is the small thing bellow the controller. He did not expect either of these and these two things were what he most wanted.
For breakfast we had Crepes.
Look at those flipping skills!
The Kids waisted no time getting out back and making ramps to jump their bikes. Way to brake them in.


All in all it was a great Christmas morning. Latter that afternoon we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Kitchen's house to eat, spend time as a family and exchange gifts. Last night we were also with Chad's family at Dave and TeriAnn's where we had dinner and a short program. followed by a white elephant exchange and The opening of Jammies.

What I love about Christmas

Some of my favorite thing about Christmas....

The waiting to go downstairs on Christmas morning
Hot Cocoa
the smell of my REAL Christmas tree.
Fuzzy jammies and socks to keep me warm
Hearing from friends and family

Skateboarding at Uncle Dave's

Uncle Dave got a half pipe in his back yard and Tyler has been waiting to get to go and try it out. He was so excited to finally get his chance.

Daddy even tried it out. looking a bit wobbly daddy!
Oh! daddy fell down!
He seam to be a lot more steady now.
Tyler was great. He was going back a forth and making turns. He practiced dropping in with Dave. pretty soon he should be able to do it on his own. He is always asking when we are going to Uncle Dave's again. I think if he spends a few hours at it he should have it mastered before we know it.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Waiting away the day

It's Christmas Eve and the kids have been off school all week. It has gone well so far...until today. We have stayed pretty busy this week. Mon we went to McDonald's for lunch with friends. The kids had dons all their chores so I figured they deserved a reward. I went over to Sam's Club with a friend to stock up on snacks and stuff while another friend stayed with the kids at McDonald's. Brave friend, thanks :) I'm not sure what we did Tues, but whatever it was the kids were good. Wed. we had a company come and Aero seal our air ducts and then the kids went to the gym I used to work at for "Mommies Day Out" They were there for 3 hours and I got all my gift wrapping done. Now today we have nothing really planed so we are waiting around till Daddy gets home from work.... With not much to do the kids are starting to pick on/at each other. I should let them go to the park or something.

Tomorrow is Christmas and we are all so excited for it. I think I will start feeling it when Chad gets home and we can start spending time as a family.

It's hard to believe this year has gone already. This year to come is going to bring so many changes, it will probably fly by. This last year I felt like I was checked out of life for most of it. I sincerely tip my hat to working moms. I don't know how you do it. I had such a hard time balancing everything, I constantly felt overwhelmed and out of control. Then I got pregnant in Aug and while I was able to quit due to Chad getting a promotion :) I was now very tired and nauseous all the time, so again, I never felt like I could handle much. It is only recently that I feel normal again, who knows how long that will last! Since I was working this summer we did not go to my parents like we have the last few years, but we made up for it at Thanksgiving. The kids and I went to California for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we had to leave Chad at home due to his work schedule. We had lost of fun. it was especially exciting because this pregnancy we decide to see how long we could go without telling our families about it. We have always tried to tell at lest Chad's family in a creative way. My family always got a phone call. This time around I tried to think about how we could tell them and I asked Chad if would be bad of us to not tell them and make a game out of seeing how long we could pass it off. Especially since most of them think we are done having kids and are not expecting us to be making any announcements. I made it to Thanksgiving with my family. I was 21 weeks by then and couldn't hide it any more, especially for a week and a half! I spent the day with my mom and sister at my cousins wedding before I finally revealed it to my mom on our way back to my house from Mesa. I had worn a flowy dress to hide it, but it hurt to try holding it in by the end of the day. She was very surprised and immediately reached for her phone to call dad, but I told her she had to wait till we got to California (She was driving home with us for our holiday trip). My brother Sam had one of the best reactions. He walked in and gave me a hug. and as we stood there talking I noticed he was looking directly at my eyes (until I would look away and then he would gape at my stomach). Until my mm started giggling a little and then he couldn't stand it any longer. "OK this is REALLY awkward" he said " are you pregnant?" He was relieved that the answer was yes, he was unsure if he had just forgotten or what. Deveren was also great. he walked in and said "your pregnant!" I said "No I'm not, I've put on some weight" Then after his look of paranoia my mom broke in and said I was. I was seconds away for crying, it was going to be so great! I'm obviously pregnant so he was really confused. We are going to Chad's families tonight, so we are anxious for their reaction. It has really helped to pregnancy go by fast, I'm more than half the way through, now it may slow down. It was always fun to see if I could wear an outfit to get by for one more month.

Update -

Chads families reactions - We walked into TA's and G-pa stood and looked out he side of his eyes looking, but trying to not look like he was looking. He then walked over to G-ma and TA where she was asking TA, is Nicki pregnant? TA said "I sure hope so". They talked for a bit and mom walked over and asked if we had an announcement to make.


The next day we went over to mom and dad's and Nick and Kristy and Ashley and Bart who were not there the night before got to see. Nick was so confused and kept trying to get Kirsti's attention. He finally had to go stand by her and ask her. She said, "I'm not asking" he made her ask and she asked if we had an announcement to make. He was relieved to hear the news and they were both very happy for us. When Ashley got there he brought attention to my belly and she noticed. She was so excited.

Phoenix Zoo

Tyler's friend Makenna invited us to the zoo for her birthday party. They have some great membership that they can get unlimited people in so the whole family got to go.
We played at the playground while we waited for the last guests to arrive.
everything in included with their membership so we started off the day on the train,tram ride around the zoo.
The boys sat in front of us with the kids from the other family that was with us.

We got to see lots of the animals which was great because then we got them out of the way and checked off.

Aiden was excited to see the elephants. They did not have elephants at the last zoo we went to and he was looking for them.
Also included was entrance to the sting ray pool. The kids enjoyed trying to pet them as they went by. Court said she pet one, but it was when no one was with her. She said they felt gooey.
Here is our family with the birthday girl.
Casey even wanted to try feeding them. Tyler decide not to, but then later i think he helped his friend Nicholas feed some. They only wanted to feed the smaller ones. If a big guy would come by they would wait to put their hands in. They would feed them by holding a shrimp or sardine pinched between their fingers while they held their hand flat and the they had to get their hand low enough for the ray to swim over it and suck it our of their hand. Casey said it felt like a vacuum.

We also got to ride the carousel which we did twice. Aiden kept excitingly telling me that he ride the tiger! Well he doesn't really know what a cheetah is.



We went to the petting zoo which is full of goats. I was hocked that Court was willing to pet them! Maybe it was the rubber combs they have for you to use to pet/brush them.
While Court was being oh so brave and off petting each goat, Aiden preferred to stick by daddy's side and look from a far.
Outside of the petting area they had a fake cow which you could "Milk" the kids tell me it was just water.
Aiden did not mind sitting on the pretend animals in the playschool area.
The one thing we were unsure if we would be able to do, but it turned out it was also free with the "magic" membership was a camel ride.
I was sure Adien would be scared and not want to go near the camels, but he said he wanted to ride and so Chad rode with him. He loved it!
Each of the kids went with a friend and it was a short ride. I'm glad we didn't pay the $5.oo fee per rider, cuz let me tell you, we would not have rode.
I told the kids to thank Mackenna and her parents for inviting because this was the best time they were ever going to have at the zoo. we would never be able to afford to pay for each of them to do all the things they got to do on this trip. We had so much fun and it was so nice to be able to go as a family too.