The Spirit of Christmas

Today I have been really tired all day. Connor and I cuddled up and watched Flintstones Christmas. After the movie was over I didn't want to get up. I told Connor to go play with Aaron and I was going to rest on the couch.

Connor started on a mission. He knew what he wanted to do. I lay on the couch basically oblivious to what he's doing and a little annoyed every time he needed something I'd have to interrupt my resting to answer. He said he needed to make a bell. I told him to stick some things inside an empty water bottle. He shoved an eraser inside a small waterbottle he found and was satisfied with that. He grabbed the santa hat he wore to school earlier and put it on. Then he grabbed a bowl from the kitchen and quickly grabbed his shoes. I told him he couldn't go in the front yard but he could play in the backyard. He said he had to go in the front yard.

This is what he said,

"You don't have any money Mom, so I want to make money for you. I'm going to be like the santas in front of the stores and ring my bell so people give me money that I can give to you"

I was speechless.

Christmas is coming to town!

It really is a fun time of year. Especially since I can use Santa to my advantage. As soon as the boys start to get into it, I just mention the name Santa, and the fight ends. Ahhh the magic of Christmas! Even for Humans!

The decorating fiasco began the day after Thanksgiving. My boys, especially Connor really knows how to use up all my ideas in a day and leave me boggled until the Holiday. I thought I really was prepared buying a bunch of $1 crafts at Hobby Lobby this year BEFORE Thanksgiving was over. Connor raced through each project in a weekend. Now he's asking for more... It's a bit tiring and hard to keep up with!

We have already done the following:

Put up the tree

Put up the lights

Put up all the decorations including stockings

Started 5 Advent Calandars

The Elf is visiting Santa every night

Got the Fireplace working

Made Homemade Gingerbread Cookies and House

Visited Santa






What's Left? Actually I'm pretty impressed with myself doing all this while 8 months pregnant. I really wasn't in the mood, but somehow my kids get me going I guess!

Tis the season!

Imagine:

We are outside in the backyard. A big pile of yellow leaves have been raked into a pile. Connor is pretending to lick a lollypop. He says:

"49, 22, HIKE HIKE HIKE"

He jets across the yard, jumps, and lands dead center in the middle of the pile. He looks at his "lollypop", has a huge pile of leaves held up to his mouth looking like a leaf beard, and screams,

"GOOD GRIEF!"

Ahhhh. The great pumpkin Charlie Brown has been re-lived in our backyard. That's what winter is all about!!!

(Totally worth all of those leaves stuck in the pool pump right now)

Snow or Bust!

Last month my parent's came to visit. Two weeks before they came we had a big rain storm blow through Las Vegas, and up in the mountains got a lot of snow. The first thing I did was call my parents to see if they wanted to take the kids sledding when they came. Both of them said YES immediately. So it was set! We would take a trip up to the snow. The day finally arrived! The boys were pumped and ready to go. So you can only imagine my dissappointment making it all the way to the resort at mount charleston, and there was no snow to be found. Out of some hope of success we pressed on towards the ski resort hoping that not all the snow melted through the hot two weeks we had. Snow began to appear, and when we saw a patetic little pile of snow Aaron would scream out, "SNOW MOMMY SNOW!!!". Sadly I responded "yes Aaron" every time I heard his happy shout. When we arrived at the ski resort we asked about sledding options. They pointed us back in the direction of hopelessness, or so it seemed at the time.

We tried to stay positive and stopped at our normal spot. Under some trees there was a hill with a decent amount of snow that had been sheltered by the shade of the trees. We decided to give it a shot. As we approached the hill, we thought - this could work! It was actually nice not having to trudge through deep snow, and we easily found grassy spots to climb up the hill. EVERYONE but me made it down that hill. Even grandma and grandpa had a try at it. Connor and Aaron went down once together even! Check it out: In the end it ended up a success, and a there was a very relieved Mom!

Posing Aaron

Aaron has been really excited to get his picture taken lately. He's been doing some really weird poses. The whole process pretty much goes like this.

Mom grabs camera

Aaron strikes a pose

Aaron says cheese

Mom takes picture

Aaron says, "Can I see it"

Repeat 100 times!

Here are some poses:

Human Work

"This is Human's work," says Connor matter-of-factly.

By Humans, he means Adults. Turkey Day was another project that I wanted the boys to participate in, that turned into Mommy and Daddy's handywork. Connor was very good at eating the Pineapple, and Aaron quit soon after he realized that the skewers poked him (and after eating about 50 grapes). They eventually came back to view the finished product.

So here was our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner:

Doggie Dog World

Just recently the kids have really started playing with our dogs - if you can even call it that. Before they were probably happily ignored, but now they are being tortuously played with! It all began a few months ago, when they decided that putting them in their "cages" (their dog kennels) were fun. When I discovered both dogs, and both boys crammed into a tiny Kennel, I decided that the game had gone too far. Now I tell them to create "cages" by blocking them into places and using pillows as walls. They make forts out of pillows and blankets all over the house now trapping the dogs into all different places all over the house. When I hear the whining and whimpering, then I am sad to tell them the game is over. Usually what I find at that point is that they have completely abandoned and forgotten about them, kind of what they do when they're done playing with a toy. Somehow it magically gets cleaned up by the clean up fairy every night...so they must think. I'm always sad though because it has kept them occupied during this hard part of my pregnancy. It is hard sometimes to keep up with those boys and constantly keep playing, especially when sitting hurts my back, and moving makes me tired! So, I'm glad the dogs have stepped in as friends. It's been a while since they've gotten the attention anyway, and thankfully they don't mind being tugged, sat on and pulled by the kids. Like this:



See how happy Connor is, and how he doesn't even know that he's choking both dogs! That's love (kind of)!

Connor is obsessed with getting a new dog now. I asked him who was going to feed it and pick up it's poop. He said Daddy. I said, lets ask him about that...I don't think that's how it works. Of course Dad says we'll see...the vaugue answer that's not a yes or no - in hopes that the kid will either drop it or forget. Totally not the response that I was thinking that he was going to give. The answer is always, it's your responsibility, and two months later the parents are doing everything right? So Dad was right, Connor only brings up the dog idea every month or so, and for now forgetting about it has been the best way of dealing with it. They have two dogs!!! That should be any kids dream come true!!

Bone Guy

I am always pretty surprised by how excited my kids are about Halloween. They LOVE to decorate the house with spookie decor, and they especially love the "Bone Guys". Skeletons are a hot commodity in our house. Aaron drags a "bone guy" everywhere he goes like a security blanket. Once while we were waiting outside of Connor's school for him to get out, another parent suggested that I teach him the bone names, while he was so into it. Good idea!

We had fun going to "Spookie Town" out at Bonnie springs again this year. Brian joined us, and the kids were not dissappointed with the "Bone guys" riding horses, carrying knives. I thought it was a bit overkill for a kids attraction, but they loved that they were passing out candy to them. I just don't get boys sometimes I guess. Only one close call in the Petting Zoo, with a deer eating Daddy's clothes. Besides that, we had a great time.



Halloween was a success this year to say the very least. According to Brian it was the most candy he had ever seen kids gather at Halloween time. We started out in our neighborhood, then we went to the church for trunk or treat. After that we ended up in a friend's neighborhood and that's where we hit the jackpot. Around 7:30 people start despirately passing out their candy to get rid of it. They start scooping candy into the kids bags by the handfuls. Good to know for future reference!

Happy Halloween!

BACK UP!!!!

Just a few weeks before Aaron's birthday I started working on his 3 year video. Things started as normal, I began shuffling through several folders trying to find good photos that I haven't used anywhere else. Highlighting all the special times of the year. Soon I find myself engrossed in the project, and I can't stop until it is finished. After a couple days, and hours worth of work poured into the video, it seemed to be complete. I pressed play on the preview, and that was the last mistake in a series that would lead to utter destruction of thousands of pictures.

Aaron heard one of his favorite songs blasting from the computer speakers so he ran as fast as he could to look at the screen. I had been working on it from Brian's Laptop, so instead of moving it to the desk where my hard drive was, I had strung it on the ground over to the table where it sat. This left a loose cord dangling like a zipline from the table to the floor where the hard drive sat. Aaron paid no attention and jammed right through the cord.

"BAM"

and that was all I heard before I watched the video come to a complete hault, and a clicking noice started coming from the drive. I crumbled to the ground beside the hard drive and became panicked. I turned it off and on, even gave it a couple knocks and blows (like you do with old nintendo games), but nothing worked. The clicking still continued.

Literally all the video and photos of my family were on that drive. Over 30,000 photos and 40 gigs of video were stored there in neat folders. I started to cry. I didnt' think about anything but that I had to get this drive fixed now. After stopping by my local computer "fixer" store, they informed me that the drive needed to be repaired so it would have to be sent to a company with a clean room.

The company they recommended said their prices started at $700! I began to cry again. I decided to call around and do my own research before sending out my drive. I found out there are two companies in town that do this sort of thing. The one I sent it to called me the next day and told me it would be $1250 to restore. And no guarantees. So I began to think:

I had just burned video up until Christmas of 2010.
I checked my video camera and it had video back until March 2010.

First discovery: I only lost 3 months of video completely.

I found my old hard drive that had broken a couple years ago.
I paid $60 to get the photos off of it, and it had up until April 2009.

Second discovery: 20,000 photos recovered, including ones of the boys birth.

I went on Shutterfly and was able to get photos from 2009 and 2010 that I used in my photo books.

Third discovery: 1,000 pictures from 2009-2010

Facebook and my blog have hundreds of more of my favorite missing pictures.

In conclusion: $1250 might be a little steep to pay when I have all this in backups thanks to modern technology!

After discussing it with the sales person, he informed me that a promotion was going on and they could do the same job for $625. If they had offered that to me first I might have said yes, but after analyzing the situation I decided I would hold off for now. I have the drive still, so I might do it someday, but that someday is not today!

Now I am going to burn a copy of everything and have Brian keep it at his work...just incase. I think I should start on that project soon! Like yesterday. I don't want to go through this again, that's for sure!

Rain, Rain, DON'T go away

It's a little strange sometimes when I realize that my boys, including Brian, have been living in the desert so long they don't experience the things that I had when I was a kid. For instance, it rained and got extremely cold all of a sudden a few weeks ago. It literally went from 100 degrees one day to 60 degrees the next. I threw open the windows, listened to the thunderstorms and tried to soak it all in like I'm sure desert plants do in this situation. Connor got extremely tired of the rain and cloudcover after only half a day. He kept asking where the sun was. I told him if we move to the rainforest this is how it would be. Didn't he like it? He said he likes the sun and the rain.

As a family we were walking to the West Fest down the street, and we were admiring our tree-lined streets. Brian starts complaining about a tree dieing, "Look, the landscapers haven't been taking care of our trees!". I pointed out that the tree wasn't dieing, but the leaves were changing color. It's fall! At least I live around some trees that aren't EVERGREEN!

It's going to be a challenge to give my children an education in different aspects of life, but isn't that what raising kids are all about! The excitement of the challenge!

Well, well...

Aaron really cracks me up with the things he says. A pretty common line he uses is "Well, well Mommy!" Which is his way of saying "Oh well".

The other day I was putting him down for his nap, and it was a time he was refusing to go down. His excuse was, "I'm too tired to sleep Mommy!"

In the mornings we always ask the boys about their dreams. Usually the conversation with Aaron goes like this,

"How was your night Aaron? Did you have any dreams?"

Aaron responds, "Good!"

Mommy says, "Great! What were they about?"

Aaron pauses and responds, "Uhhhhhh, Good!"

Mommy asks, "Did you dream about anyone, or anything? How about Connor, or Daddy, or Mommy, or Baily?"

Aaron matter-of-factly states, "Good!"

This can go on for hours if we were to let it, so I let it go at Good and think "Well, well!".

Another thing that has been going on lately around our house are little crying fits. Who knows what mood they will wake up in the morning. Sometimes after school Connor turns into a crankapotomus. Aaron is the most stubborn mad guy I have ever known. If he is upset about something, unlike Connor, he can't let it go! So we have a crying boy for sometimes hours since he won't let it go.

Now when Connor starts getting upset, Aaron has a new way of showing off. An example would be when I'm making Connor take a nap because he is tired. I'll put Aaron and Connor down at the same time. Connor will start getting upset and start cryng.

At this point Aaron turns and smiles at me, and says "I'm being happy Mom!" Talk about rubbing it in!

Aaron is also very excited about the new baby girl. He things that the baby is going to fall out of my foot one day! But now he insists that he is NOT a baby or a "Cutie Patootie" anymore. I even said this to Connor one day: "Come here baby!" and Aaron screamed, "No Mommy, Connor is NOT a baby!"

So basically these are a few things that get me through the day. Knowing that these things Aaron says aren't going to be around forever, I try to remember those funny little quirks that make the boys who they are today.

Good Morning Dreams

The morning times are really fun for me. Usually both my boys wake up pretty happy, and they come to my bed to spend some quality time talking. I almost always ask both of them how they slept and if they had any dreams.

Last night Connor said he had 5 good dreams and 1 bad dream. The good dream he told me about was about the ice cream truck (we had ice cream last night!). Connor told Aaron and I his bad dream:

"I got a new bike and I loved it. I left it outside and when I came back a wolf had come and knocked it over and ruined it."

Last night we saw a dog that looked sort of like a wolf. I thought that was a weird dream for him to have.

Every other morning when I ask Aaron if he had any dreams his exact response was always, "Good". Today was the first day where he actually changed his response. He said, "I was at the playground and I slipped". Wow, his first dream to describe and it was bad!

Hopefully there will be a lot more good dreams to come!

Swimming Fiasco

Since we have been living at the Reyburn's house, this is the first time, with my own kids, that we have lived somewhere that had a pool. Since the pool has been warm enough, guess where my kids are almost every day:



Yes in the POOL! Eventually I had to put my foot down and take a day off for their dry skin sake. We also have swimming lessons and a lot of times they want a double dose of swimming!

Another special treat this summer is that both kids can swim alone with their floaties, so that means that mommy can watch from the sidelines...knowing that I might have to jump in at any time though ; ).

So the decision to have a pool in the backyard is actually a good one. I was a little scared about having my own pool, but I think these guys are going to get plenty of use out of it. Glad we can be outside when it's so hot during the summer!

Fun in the Desert

There is only so much that you can do once it hits the scalding temperatures of over 100 degrees F here in Las Vegas. Thankfully, so far we have only hit the unbearable heats this past week, which is pretty good I think! If we can get through most of June spending time outside without being in water I think that we somehow beat the three months of determined home-bound, or vacation-bound summer here.

So, when the $10 circus ticket advertisement hit my email box, we were ready to go! In fact we invited a few friends along. Mateo, Nico, and Dylan all joined the fun.

The discounted tickets were for a show that started at 7:30pm, which I knew was late for the kids, but I thought one night they could stay up later, and Aaron took a good nap before, so no big deal.

We got to the show early and saw the elephants and horses up close. Nico enjoyed the jugglers. The show began, and little did I know it was going to last until 10:00 pm! I was really surprised that the kids made it all the way to the end, and enjoyed the show! It was actually a success! So glad! And we got out of there without them wining about not getting a $22 cheap light up toy! Yay!

The boys with Mateo on the stage:



Tiger Tricks:



The finale of Elephants:

T-ball Bliss

Connor is very picky about what he does. If he doesn't like something he is pretty vocal about what he want's to do and what he doesn't. Honestly I like it that way, that way I know that I'm not making him do what he doesn't want to. Here are some examples of activities he likes and not-so-much:

Likes:

Golf
Gymcats
Piano
Swimming

Dis-Likes:

Soccer
Tae Kwon Do
Pre-school (at least he never wanted to go)
Swimming Lessons

Thankfully T-ball has made it to the LIKES list this year! I think it was largely because Daddy was the Coach. I don't think he wants any other coach besides him now! Honestly, I think it really was a great bonding moment for both of them, and it is great to see as a stay at home Mom. I am constantly with them, and therefore the bond between the kids and I are so great. It's awesome to let some of that go to Dad finally.



Connor had a great season, and we learned how to get him to hit the ball well. You just say, "Connor hit the ball REALLY REALLY HARD" and poof! Magic happens! What a fun season!

San Diego Trip

Wow, so behind on what we've been up to, but I guess that's how it works when you don't have a perminant home. Seems like I haven't really settled yet. I was hoping to get so much done since I wouldn't have the normal workload when owning a house, but it hasn't happened yet. Hopefully soon!

So last weekend we took a trip to go see Katie Graduate from Mesa Community College in San Diego. We started the trip off with Connor's pre-school graduation! It was adorable. The kids were all dressed in their caps and gowns, and I finally got to hear all the songs that Connor has been coming home singing!



The day had started earlier for us since Baily had thrown up and wasn't eating in the morning. We brought her to the Vet, and they quickly determined that she had Pancreitus and could cost us a pretty penny. By the time I started calling around for quotes, Brian had already told them to go ahead with the treatments. We were too busy getting ready to go anyway, so it was probably a good thing anyway.

So after that stressful beginning we headed out for California. The kids couldn't have been better. We made a quick stop at the Build a Bear workshop and got Connor his first Build a Bear. He had already decided on a Panda, and when we got there they had one in his favorite color! GREEN! He was so excited. They asked if we wanted to put a button inside him to sing a song, or record a message, and right when she said that Connor pushed the Pomp and Circumstance song...so it was decided.

In California we arrived at our hotel on Coronado Island. It was beautiful. There were flamingos in the pond in the front of the hotel. The whole hotel was enclosed, but outdoors. We were on the first floor and had a view of the water and of the San Diego Skyline.

We took a walk down the waterfront in the morning on Saturday. The kids played at the beach, built sandcastles, and searched for sandcrabs. The water was great.



That evening we went to Katie's graduation. Besides Aaron falling in the fountain outside it was great!


Connor and Aaron with Cousin Sereine

The next day we took a look at the flamingos and took a nice bikeride down the waterfront.






We ended on a great note seeing my cousin and her new baby ZeeZee! She is adorable.




So we had a great trip! Hopefully a lot more to come soon!

Moving is Hard

So lately I haven't really been posting or doing anything else besides getting myself and my family out of the house. We hoped that we would be in escrow by the end of April so we wouldn't be in limbo about where we were going, but at this point we are still in the Dark. Let me start at the beginning of the story, and you will see where I am at this point.

So last summer, Brian and I were discussing options of where Connor would go to school next year. He will be entering Kindergarden in the fall of 2011. Since the housing crisis our area has stopped growing, which in turn has caused the plans for a new elementary school to fall through. The school Connor was zoned to go to was not the best, which wouldn't bother me so much if I was teaching there, but since I don't we wanted to explore other options.

The first option was to use Brian's parents address and drive about 10 miles to one of the best elementary schools in Clark County. The down side would be not only the driving, but that his friends would be far away. This would be the easiest solution though...logistically.

The second option was to look at renting or buying a house in the area we wanted to be in. After looking at house prices, we saw that the payments would be less if we bought, and we could rent our current house out above the mortgage payment of the new house. So we decided this was probably a good investment in our family's future. We decided to buy a house.

Our search went on for months. I looked at countless houses with the boys until Connor got frustrated and said, "Why are we not getting any of these houses?" I told him that people were getting them before us. So every time we would find a house we liked he would say "Hurry and get this one before they do" and would point to another group looking at the house.

So after about 7 months of looking a house came up on the market that we had seen 4 years ago, but couldn't afford to buy at the time! It is in the exact location we wanted, best schools, parks and on walking and bike trails! We looked at it and remembered the large 1/4 acre lot with a pool and half basketball court! The house is smaller and older than our current house, but has plenty of room for our family.

We quickly put an offer in and they accepted! But as you know in the short sale game, we are now waiting for the bank to accept the offer - and this is where we stand today. We have heard the bank has the appraisal and should be giving us the approval soon.

So we found some really good renters for our house, and decided it would be best to save money for the last couple months before we moved into our house. We are now staying with Brian's parents, and it has worked out so well. Brian's Grandma is staying here, and it's great to see her light up when she watches the boys. We are trying to soak in all the moments while we are here and enjoy the grandparents, Great Grandma and all the company around us!

Now you are caught up on what has been going on in my life...hopefully now I will have a month to breathe and enjoy the summer with the boys. We have been very blessed and we are hoping everything will work out for the best!

Connor is in the House

A few things have already changed now that Connor is 5. He thought he would be able to be the parent as soon as the magical day arrived, but I told him several times this was not the case. He can't give out timeouts when his brother gets on his nerves.

Another big step is that he "graduated" from nursery, and he now has to join us at church. The real deal. I am downloading a weekly children's bulletin for him to work on while we are in Church, and I brought some extra paper for him to draw on. Connor did very well. He always stands during prayers, and says them the best that he can remember.

Palm Sunday was his first mass, and they acted out the story of Jesus' Crucifixion. Pretty heavy stuff for his first Mass. He was very interested in it though, and even explained the whole story for Aaron when we got him after Mass.

Poor Aaron though. The ladies in the Nursery told me he just stood and looked out the window talking about Connor the whole time. He didn't really play with toys. They said he'd get used to it, but I realized that he is rarely left without Connor or myself, so this is very new to him.

Connor gave him a Palm and explained to him, "Don't worry Aaron just go ahead and play while I'm not here. I will go to Mommy's and Daddy's church and bring you back something special every time". Too bad we don't get Palms at every mass!

Something Connor did really touched my heart that day. As we were getting ready to go I noticed this picture that he drew during Mass:



I asked him what it was and he said, "It's Me and Jesus holding hands. He loves me and I love him!"

Monster Jam

We went to our annual Monster Jam Truck Races Last month, and haven't added the pictures yet. Here they are. Connor was so happy to be there. We stayed until after 10pm, and Brian and I knew that we were doing this for the kids and not for ourselves!!! Aaron passed out at 9pm, even with the loud trucks racing around the stadium! He was a little shocked by the fireworks, but nothing he couldn't handle. Fun family moments!

Fly Hunt

A popular Summer game in our house is what we like to call the fly hunt. Living in a golf course community has it's drawbacks (I guess the dogs don't help the matter either) and we have suffered from the pesky bugs for the past couple of years.

We are already starting to find a couple of those buggers in the house this year. Aaron and Connor make sure that I know that they are around.

"BUG BUG BUG!" Aaron cries every time a fly lands in his general vicinity.

That means I must drop whatever I'm doing right that instant, pick up the fly swatter, and get it, or else I will hear "BUG!" about 100 times before he just might give up on it.

So today I was washing the dishes, and of course as I am drenched in soapy, dirty dish-water I hear Aaron scream "BUG BUG BUGGGGG! Gettem mommy!".

Thankfully, my ever-so-helpful 5 year old son says, "I'll get him Aaron!"

He picks up the closest thing to him, which is a pen, and starts on the hunt for his prey. I had to give him credit for helping me out. When I wanted to get the dishes done he was there for me, but a pen doesn't seem like it has the correct surface area to get a fly, but hey- maybe that will help me out since unless that fly is on it's last leg of life (you know when they fly really slow and you can literally touch them mid-flight) it will keep the boys pre-occupied for a while.

No less than a minute later I hear Connor scream, "I GOT HIM MOMMY! I DID IT! I DID IT!"

"WOW!" I exclaimed in shock. I couldn't believe it!

Connor put the pen up in victory, and just then my Grandpa says, "Is that my pen?"

Now if you know my Grandpa, you would know that he is a pretty quiet man, for the most part. I usually can get into some in-depth conversations with him, but usually he doesn't out of the blue say something like that to the kids.

Connor was in shock, and he immediately said, "Oh, sorry Grandpa!" and placed the pen next to him.

OF COURSE - Aaron started yelling "BUG BUG BUG!!!!! Gettem Connor!".

Connor turned to Aaron and calmly stated, "Unfortunately Aaron, that was the last fly we will get today." I just smiled.

Spring Up!

(Picture is at Spring Mountain ranch last Spring)

So Spring is upon us Las Vegans, and this is the time of year we have to cherish. Unlike most of the world, I dread summertime. Pretty much the rest of the 9 months here are beautiful though, and I adore the time when I can shut off all electronic air temperature control devices, open the windows wide and enjoy the fresh outdoor air, and even the birds singing indoors.

It makes me feel alive when I can enjoy the outdoors all day long. I think that's actually something I feel very lucky that I can do everyday, since I stay home with the kids. If I want to go hiking at 10 o'clock in the morning, I pack them up and go! Something I couldn't do when I worked. Sometimes I would not even see the sun until I left that day, and during daylight savings time I sometimes would even miss the sun!!!

So that is the upside of Spring. The downside is that Connor has allergies and the almost forgotten cough has now returned. Coughing day and night has kept most of our family up. Hoepfully with a little medicine Connor's cough will again dissapear and we can enjoy Spring with all of it's gifts!

The Naked Truth

I brought the boys to the pool a couple weeks ago, and I was put in a situation that I had never been in before - at least with the boys.

I have only been to the Heritage pool a couple of times, and it's connected to a rec center mainly for seniors. Therefore, when I go to the pool during the day, especially the early morning hours, I am faced with primarily senior citizens. Even though it's a stereotype - I feel the eyes of the elderly upon me, like I was on their turf, and how dare I bring two toddlers into their area. I think to myself that it's a public pool and I will keep them as calm as I can as to not disturb the peace.

I realize after we step into the pool that I had forgotten to put on Aaron's swim diaper. I know that in the past that has saved me with him, and I didn't want to get in a bind. So I trudge back to the changing room to grab the diaper.

I walked into the main changing room which consists of at least 5 rows of lockers, and no more than one other person in there with me. As I'm changing Aaron into his diaper two older ladies, of larger stature, come bursting into my row of lockers talking and laughing as they come in. Ok - no problem - They must be child lovers since they chose my isle of all the isles to come into, and I was already putting Aaron's bathing suit back on, so I'd be out of the way in only a few seconds.

Quickly everything changes as I overhear the one in the purple floral shirt say to her short friend, "Aren't children not allowed into the changing room...they have a family changing room for the small ones like THOSE!"

I realized quickly that she was directing her conversation towards me, not her friend as she pointed and raised her voice.

She continued, "Do you really want YOUR children to see US naked?"

I now also came to the conclusion that she wanted me to answer HER. So I turned to her, and looked at both of the stout women for a second, and contemplated my answer. At this point I was a little peeved because she was questioning my right of being there. They didn't have to come into the one isle that I was in, and decided that was where they would HAVE to peel their clothes off. Maybe it was the way she was ordering me, it made me feel like I had to cater to them since this was the isle they wanted to use. The few times I had been there I changed in this room, with no problems at all. On top of that the sign on the door did read, "NO CHILDREN OVER 5 YEARS of AGE." Which, both of my children were not. So I was breaking no rules.

I calmed down, thought about it, and said, "You're right, actually, I really don't want them to see YOU naked." Honestly, I don't even want my kids to see me naked!

So I grabbed the stuff out of our locker, and trudged out of the room. The family changing room was actually very nice, since it had a shower, toilet and swim suit drier all to ourselves!

In the end, I was actually thankful for the lady's advise, because I remember going into the swimming pool locker rooms when I was young, and I can't shake the images of the ladies in the locker room just like them. Now I can spare my own children of having that memory too.

Cabin trip!

We took a trip to the Cabin in Duck Creek this weekend, and it was a really fun trip! We started out thinking that there was going to be a pretty big crowd, but for some reason or another it dwindled down to our family and Jackie and Mateo.

We made it up on Thursday night and spent a somewhat lazy day around the cabin, and out sledding around the house. Connor and Mateo spent about 2 hours outside playing in the snow. We made a snowman, and thankfully the weather was really warm. A lot of snow melted over the weekend we were there.








Saturday we headed to Brianhead, and skied. Connor and Mateo spent the day in skiing class, and Mateo became a little semi-pro skier! When I took Connor up the bunny hill, I soon found out that he had no idea what a "pizza" was, so I ended up holding him between my my own pizza legs the whole way down. When he screamed, "I want to go again" I feared that we might not make it down again, but I brought him up knowing I did not know when we would get the chance to do this again. All of us enjoyed the day, especially considering that the crowd was not very big!

Today we packed up and headed home. The boys played around the cabin - mainly Mario games - and we sadly waved goodbye to a great, relaxing weekend!

Are Legos actually for kids?

Ok, so maybe I got a little too ambitious, thinking this would be a great project to do with the boys. Quickly it went from being a "Daddy and me " Project, to a Daddy project. Brian worked late into the night to finish the truck portion of the 1000 piece lego set, and most of the time Brian and I were working on it, the boys were off doing their own thing. Thankfully, Connor loves displaying things, so these are still on display at our house over a month later!

Fun Discovery

A friend of mine told me a while back that there was an outdoor mini-golf course in Las Vegas. Of course, the last one that I knew of had been torn down years ago- Scandia - right on the strip. This excited me since my kids really haven't done much mini golf, and I know they would love it.

Today, the weather was beckoning for us to be outside, but I was ready to do something other than the playgrounds, so we headed to the other side of town to play some golf. Both boys loved it. They even gave Aaron a little plastic club just his size. I had my little camera with me, but the battery died, so all I have is a picture from their website. They basically turned a parking lot into a golf course.

Aaron kept racing ahead of us, but the nice thing was that there was only one other group on the course, and they were behind us. Also, the entire area was fenced in, which put my mind at ease.

After we finished, Connor said, "It's time to go, I'm sweating too much!" It's only January Connor - wait until this summer! Guess we've gotta get back before the weather gets any hotter!!

Little Pig Little Pig let me come in!

Night time is a time for reading and cuddling. Most of the time after brushing our teeth Daddy will put one to bed and I will take the other. We will read books, sing songs, Connor will have a reading lesson, and say our prayers. I tuck them both in, and ask how their day was. A couple times a week though, we will all gather in one room for a story. Lately both boys have requested "The Three Little Pigs". As a kid, I remember this being one of my favorite stories too, since the kids built houses. I wanted to build a little house of my own. So I thought - my kids would probably enjoy building their own houses too!

So yesterday we set out for our building materials. After a quick stop at Lowes we picked up enough boxes to make three little pig houses. I realized quickly after cutting a box, that if we put two together, it would make one large house, which is MUCH more fun than three small houses that you can't even move around in! And who needs a stick and straw house anyway, the big bad wolf will just blow it down!

So Connor and I started taping and decorating his brick house. We even put the kitchen inside! Connor really wanted flowers, and he made his own sign that tells the wolf to go away.

When Aaron woke up from his nap, he was excited to help decorate the outside. I don't think he understood that it was a house that he could go inside. I opened the door and let him in, and I can't even describe the look of excitement that was on his face. It was one of those looks that I will never forget, and made the whole project worth it.

Aaron loved drawing all over the walls of the house. Connor begged to sleep inside. So I setup a sleeping bag, and left the door open. He slept all night his house.

Today we will work on some small decorating projects, including framing some pictures of the little pigs (Connor and Aaron are going to dress up today!).

It's fun to be a kid again!