Tori

Today Tori had a hard time going to Primary. She just did not want to go. As I walked her to the primary room, and we stood outside of the door she said, "Mom I just don't want to go!" I asked her why, and her response was, "We just sing too many songs and it makes my mouth hurt!" That's a new one! I got a good laugh out of that and thought I'd share =)

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday. This year was our turn with Brandon's family, so we headed up to Conifer to Jeremy and Tisha's house for our Thanksgiving feast. We got there around 12:30. The house smelled so good! I hadn't been up to see their new house since it was completed (sad I know) so Tisha gave me a tour. It is gorgeous! After that Brandon pulled out Alexis's front tooth that was hanging by a thread. We decided that was a good idea, since every time she would bit into something she would scream in pain. You can't be in pain while eating Thanksgiving dinner! Dinner was delicious. We got more then enough, and will be snacking on ham and turkey for a few days I am sure. After we ate Nana let the kids open up ornaments that she got them. She gets them a new ornament every year, and the kids always love getting them.

Notice the toothless grin? Alexis was quite taken aback when she first looked in the mirror after it was pulled.

Nana got the girls these adorable porcelain ballerina ornaments. Levi got a cute little mouse on a candy cane.

After that we played some games. Jeremy and Tisha have tons and tons of fun games. The kids were in heaven. I got some good ideas for Christmas presents too =)

Our favorite game had to be Rock Band. We all had a blast, and quite a few laughs with that one.

Brandon had fun teaching Levi how to hold the guitar. Like father like son =)

Brandon's mom is a nurse and she was able to have some of the extra flu shots from work, so she gave everyone who hadn't already had them, flu shots. The kids and I already had them, but Brandon hadn't and he somehow talked his mom into letting him give it to himself. He had us all cringing, but he thought it was great!

We all then decided that we wanted to go to the movies. Brandon and Jeremy took the kids to see Bolt in 3-D which they loved, and us girls all went to Twilight. It was my second time seeing it. I loved it! I know it has gotten mixed reviews but I have to say I thought it was great! I could see it over and over and not get tired of it =) That ended our day. I missed being with my family, but we had a really fun day with Brandon's family. I am so grateful for the close relationships we have with both of our families. I love this time of year.

"Come What May and Love it"

Today I went visiting teaching, and my wonderful visiting teaching partner, Celeste, gave an excellent message based on a talk given by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin at General Conference this past October. The talk was titled, "Come what may and love it". It was a really great talk. Little did I know at the time how it would help me throughout the day today. Kristalyn watched the kids while I went visiting teaching (what a lifesaver!) After I got home I watched Mason for a few hours so that she could finish up some things at her house. Before she left we were talking in the front room. The boys were running around playing. Things got a little quiet and that should have been my first clue that something was going on. I said goodbye to Kristalyn and went to go get the boys. I heard giggling in the laundry room in the kitchen. As I opened the door and walked in, this is what I saw:
Both of those red food containers were full, as was the water container.

Sorry if these pictures gross you out, but I had to include all of them so you can get the full visual. (In case you weren't sure, that is cat food in the litter box.)

The remaining cat food was poured out into the pantry.

Now after seeing this site, I admit I panicked a little. I immediately removed the boys, to asses the damage, only to have all three of them run straight into the front room and onto the carpet with the cat food/ water/ kitty litter all over their feet. As I could feel myself begin to freak out, the words of Elder Wirthlin's talk popped into my head. "Come what may, and love it". In his talk he said " Learn to laugh. The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable." So as horribly gross this mess was, I decided to just laugh, go get my camera and not stress about it. Now if you thought the drama ended there, you are wrong. Later on when Kristalyn came to pick up Mason, we once again were talking in the front room. (Maybe I should be doing less talking, and more supervising). Levi and Weston shut themselves in the bathroom, and when I went to get them out this is what I saw. (notice the opened toothpaste?)
Here is where it ended up:

What a day! I am grateful that I was able to hear that lesson this morning. It definitely helped me get through the crazy happenings of the day. I am sure if I didn't have Elder Wirthlin's words fresh in my head these boys would not be smiling in this picture. =)

Last Chance

Ok this is everyone's last chance to send me their email if they want an invite to our blog. I was waiting until my grandma and grandpa figured out how to create a google account so they could still read. Kristalyn helped them with it, so in a few days we are officially going private. =)

Kids say the funniest things sometimes

Tori and Levi both said cute things today so I thought I would write them down before I forget.
I was driving Tori to school this morning and our conversation went like this:
Me- " I love you Tori"
Tori- "I love you too mommy"
Me- "You are my sweet little girl"
Tori-" You are my sweet big mommy".
(I know she didn't mean this in a mean way)Later when were walking Levi into his preschool a little boy saw Levi and yelled, "Hi Levi!". Levi said hi back. I then asked Levi what the little boy's name was. Without pausing Levi replied, "He named Kid". These things may not be funny to anyone else, but I got a good chuckle out of both of them today =)

Our Quick Getaway

This past weekend Brandon and I traveled to Utah. It was only the second time that we went on a trip without the kiddos. It was really hard leaving them. I almost called the whole thing off a few times, but I am glad that I didn't because we had a blast. We decided to leave really early in the morning (3 am) so that we could get there by 10:30 or so, and have a whole day to do stuff. We rolled out of the house around 3:15, and about two hours into the drive the snow started to fall. We stopped at a gas station right outside of Cheyenne and were informed that we couldn't go any further because the roads were closed. I actually was asleep when this happened, but a few hours later I woke up to find us parked on the side of the road and Brandon asleep in the back seat! He told me what was going on. Finally about 4 hours later the roads were opened and we were back on our way. Needless to say it was a very long drive, much longer then we anticipated. We arrived to Cindy and AJ's house about 4:15. Here are a few pictures of us while we were waiting for the roads to open. We got a little slap happy as time went on.

That night, Cindy and AJ and us decided to got to the spaghetti factory. It was an interesting experience right from the start. Cindy and AJ know what I am talking about, but I won't go into detail. Here we are waiting to be seated. Brandon seems to like goofing off for the camera when I am trying to get a cute normal pose =)

Because we had to wait forever for the server to come to our table they gave us free oreo shakes at the end of our meal. We tried to get a cute shot of us drinking out of the shake, but as AJ was quick to point out in this picture, I look a little woozy. I promise it was just a chocolate shake though!

Goofball Brandon again. By this point I just wanted a good picture! Can you tell by my face? haha

The next day we went up to see the house the AJ's parents are building. It is going to be really pretty. Cindy got some pretty cute pictures from when we were there, but I accidentally left my camera in the car =(. After that we went shopping! Cindy and I love to shop, and we had a blast. We went to Downeast and Old Navy and came out with some pretty cute things. Brandon and AJ were good sports, and we know they secretly love to shop too. =) Next, we went to AJ's parent's house for a birthday party for his sister's husband. His family is very nice and always so welcoming. Daniel and Katie drove up from Provo and met us there. It was so great to see them! The boys then moved the piano that AJ's parents gave us (which was the reason for the trip), into a Uhaul we rented. It was quite the funny site seeing them all lift if down the steps out to the truck. I, once again, didn't get any pictures but Cindy and Katie did so maybe they will post them on their blog. We then headed back to Cindy and AJ's and hung out. AJ made us Tipanyaki (I know that I spelled that wrong) for dinner. It is a Japanese dish, and it was delicious!

After dinner we headed out to find some cables to hook up to the T.V. so that we could hook the computer to the T.V and watch a movie. We went to Walmart and Best Buy. We seemed to get sillier as the night progresse. Here are some pictures from when we were driving.

The boys thought it would be funny to see if we could jump over these posts. We thought we would have no problem doing it, but we were wrong. We both got stuck on top of it. I don't' know how Katie got out of doing this!

The boys then had to try. Brandon decided to try and do a hand stand on it.

After that we headed to a custard place ( I can't remember what it was called), and we got some yummy custard. Then we headed back to their house, and spent the rest of the night just visiting and having a lot of laughs. The next morning we headed back home. It was way too short of a trip, but we were so glad that we got to go. We had so much fun, and were sad the whole way home that it was over. Thanks guys for a great weekend!

Worst. Mom. EVER!

I am feeling really bad. Today Alexis had science club after school. It is right after school. When she has Girl Scouts it goes until 4:30. For some reason I assumed that was when science club ended too. So I am at home with the kids and we are doing a little craft, and I glance at the clock. The time said 4:07. I have plenty of time to finish the craft I thought. I then had the thought, what if it ends at 4:15? So I went upstairs and logged onto the school website to see. I click on the science club page and it said 3:15-4:00!! I begin to instantly panic. It is now 4:10 and all I can imagine in Alexis sitting outside of her school waiting for me, and me not being there. I ran downstairs yelling, we have to go now! We are late! Alexis is all alone! all the kids looked at me like I was crazy, but they followed me out the door, each with no shoes on. I got them all loaded in the car, and rushed to the school. Sure enough..there she was.. all alone sad as could be. Could at least one other parent be late?? NO. Just me. I felt so terrible. Especially when I saw her sad little face. She said, "Mom, I was so scared that you weren't coming". Talk about rubbing salt in the wound! I think I win the award for worst mom of the day. Thank goodness she is so forgiving. I still feel awful though. =(

Levi Starts Preschool

This past week Levi started preschool. Many of you know that he has been in speech therapy since February. Well, that ends on his third bithday and they are then transistioned into preschool with speech therapy in a preschool setting. His birthday, being October 16th, misses the regular October 1st deadline by a few weeks. Since he is in this program they waive that deadline and he is able to start preschool once he turns three. I have had mixed feelings about this. A big part of me did not want to send him at all! I want him to stay little forever, and at least stay home with me for another year before he starts preschool. The other part of me, (with a lot of persuading from Brandon) understands that this is the best thing for him and his development. So, needless to say, we enrolled him in preschool. He is going to preschool at the Elementary school that I grew up at, which is also the school where my brother Michael is attending right now and is in 6th grade. Levi is very excited about "seeing Michael in the halls" as he puts it. His teachers are wonderful, and I really like that it is in a smaller setting. He was originally supposed to start two weeks ago, but he has been sick, so unfortunatley (wink, wink) he had to wait another week to start. As I was walking into the school to drop him off my mom just happened to be walking out, because she had just finished voting. She walked with us and stayed there until I dropped him off, which definitely made it easier for me. When Brandon picked him up, his teachers said he did great. I can't believe my baby is in school! =(

Halloween and then some

I thought I better post pictures from Halloween before it becomes old news. We had a fun Halloween. Here are some pictures of the festivities:

Tori as "Tinkerbell"

Our scary dead pirate!

Alexis's 2nd grade class at their Halloween party

Alexis the "Vampire Princess", Brandon looking hilarious in Levi's mask, our kids with their cousin Tallyn before Trunk or Treat and My friend Alisa with her daughter Harmony, who I watch.

The day after Halloween I got to watch Mason while Kristalyn helped with Super Saturday for her ward. Levi and Mason always have so much fun playing together, and always end up getting into some kind of trouble together. This day was no exception. I was doing the Tori's hair in the bathroom, and I could hear Mason and Levi laughing hysterically in the front room. It sounded like they were having fun so I didn't think much of it. That is until I saw a banana peal fly by the bathroom door. I walked into the room just in time to see Levi throw a smashed banana at Mason which resulted in both of them erupting into a fit of laughter. The sight I saw did not make me laugh. There was banana squished into the carpet on the walls and all over the toys. I had given the boys bananas to eat about twenty minutes before, and just assumed that they had finished them. Boy was I wrong! Mason seemed to get the brunt of the hits, having banana all over his hair, face and shirt. As you can tell by the picture, they thought the whole thing was hilarious! After I was able to clean it all up I was able to get a little bit of a laugh out of it myself. =)