Let's Go to the Movies!

Tangled came out on DVD this Tuesday and I decided to have a fun little movie theater experience for the kids. We invited some neighbor kids and a friend of Kate's over for the movie premiere of Tangled. :)

My Mom did this for us when we were young. We would get money to buy food from the concessions and then watch a movie with our friends. It was a lot of fun so that's why I wanted to do it with the kids. Growing up, we also played restaurant where you got to order your food. We had a big chalkboard that we would write all the food items on and even used a fake register to accept the money. It was fun. Jeni has done this with her kids and now they want it everytime they watch a movie! Great...

I made tickets and ripped off part of their ticket and then gave each girl 25 pennies so they could buy their food. They liked couting out the money and buying their food.

Kate colored the popcorn bags

The girls in line at the concessions. haha.

Kate, Alyssa, Elsa and Dallas

Getting ready for the movie to start (I was surprised Preston joined in and sat through the entire thing! Miracle! The licorice and candy helped.)

Two of the girls hadn't seen it yet so they were excited to watch it. It was a fun afternoon.

Kids

Kate has been taking ballet this school year and she has learned a lot about technique. She knows the positions and she gets to have a recital in June. She's been in a ballet/dance class before, but this time she is learning and doing more since she's older. But I have to say extracurricular activities (like this) are spendy! How do parent's do it?! She wants to do swimming next. Then gymnastics and soccer and... haha!

Lindsey is a good baby. She will be 8 months soon and she's easy going. She is doing better with eating solids and doesn't just spit her food out. Thank goodness because that was frustrating! Now she will eat cheerios, ritz crackers, baby food from the jar, some pasta, mashed potatoes (she loves them) and other baby finger foods. She has started to pull herself up to a standing position in her crib and the other day I found her like this! She thinks she's pretty funny! The kids like playing with her and she still scoots around, not crawling yet, but trying hard. She tips over the magazine rack and will make messes before you know it. Since we've had nicer weather lately she likes the baby swing outside. She's fun to have in our family.

Preston was watching Little Einsteins in the office and I came in and found him in the bumbo! haha! He was in the bean bag chair first, but thought this was more comfy, I guess. Lindsey won't sit in it anymore so it's good that someone uses it!

Birthday Celebration for Me!

My parent's, Jared and Marci came up last Sunday after Church for dinner. It was also my birthday celebration with them. :) My parent's and Jared came over for the weekend and stayed with Marci. So it was fun to have them come visit for the night.

Kate had set up this table with flowers, tablecloth (a blanket) and her tea set. She adamantly told me not to touch it or clean it up. She wanted to have a tea party with Gma Vicki and Marci later. Kate was SO excited to have them doing this with her. When I walked into the room it was the cutest scene ever! I even loved Lindsey lounging in the baby play stroller! haha.

Lindsey joining in on the fun. She was enjoying her tea cup a little too much.

Kate pretended to cook for them. Since she likes to pretend she is on a cooking show she talked her way through the meal preparation and even told them to cook the meat until there was no pink. Marci and my Mom thought that was funny.

Here's some of my awesome family and my birthday cake. It was a skor cake- chocolate cake with caramel inside and cool whip and skor chips on top. Kyle and I went out to dinner (a yummy Mexican restaurant- their carne asade is amazing!) for my birthday while Darbi watched our kids and we were too full for cake or dessert so I didn't make anything on my real birthday. Kate kept reminding me of how old I was turning. She was excited for me, but I can't believe I'm already 31!!!

Jared playing on the ipad2 (haha) and Marci on my Dad's ipad. Jared's ipad even talked to him. We thought it was pretty funny!

Las Vegas Part 3- Last One!

On Sunday, we went to Boulder City to have dinner with family friends after Church. After dinner we decided to drive to the Hoover Dam and check out the new bridge that they just finished a couple months ago. Kyle and I saw a show about how they built it on Modern Marvels so we wanted to see it. It was spectacular!

We first drove on the road that goes over the dam so we could see the architecture of the new bridge.

Then we went to an area where you can walk out onto the bridge and look down! Yikes!!! I kept having scary thoughts of a kid falling over the edge or me dropping Lindsey! I took some pictures with my arm holding the camera sticking out over the ledge- it's so high up! It really is amazing how they built this new bridge. You can see in the distance how much the water has gone down in Lake Mead- the white part on the rocks is where the water level used to be.

On Monday, we went park hopping. We went to two different parks and then came home for lunch then left for the airport.

Grandma Dee Ann with Kate and Lindsey

(my setting on my camera was weird so all the pictures turned out really light)

Grandma with Preston and Lindsey and Preston kept scooting away from her- 3 yr olds...

I love these trees and couldn't believe they already have popcorn trees in March! We had such beautiful weather and the kids were pretty good for the trip (a few melt downs for them and us). We had fun visiting and kept saying "this is the last time for ____" since we probably won't be coming back if Dee Ann moves away. Kind of weird! We've been coming here almost every year for 10 yrs. Thanks Dee Ann for a fun trip!

I meant to also tell of our stressful time flying to Vegas. Kyle realized on the shuttle bus to the airport that he didn't have his license!!! What?! He was the one that kept asking me if I had birth certificates for kids and my license then he forgets his! They were in a pair of work pants at home he later remembered. Well, this one guy on the shuttle bus said "they won't let you through without a license since after 9/11." Another lady said, "they have let me on before without mine." So we had some hope. He had a picture ID from work and a credit card that he used and... they accepted that and let us through! Phew! It was so stressful though because I thought we'd have to fly separate or reschedule...who knows. Thank heavens we don't look too dangerous with 3 kids in tow!

Las Vegas Part 2

On Saturday, we got to the Children's museum right when it opened to beat the crowds and it was much better this time. No school buses and hardly anyone was there! It was great. The kids loved it.

They had a Berenstain Bears exhibit and I grew up reading the books and now Kate loves them too.

Preston wanted lots of carrots at the Smith's grocery store.

Kate was most excited to go shopping at the grocery store (she had remembered this from last time).

Big bubble surrounding Kate

Lindsey hanging out in the stroller with a cute new outfit on from Dee Ann.

They had a Spin exhibit and so we all got in and spun around in this thing.

The wind machine. The wind gets up to 70+mph inside.

We took the kids to the strip on Saturday night. We saw Buzz and Woody on the sidewalk and the kids were so excited to see them. We took our picture with them and then afterwards they asked us for money. haha. Typical. We thought they were from a casino doing this. oh well.

Inside the M&M store on the strip. It's 4 stories of M&M stuff! Crazy. The kids had fun looking at all the giant M&M's.

The M&M wall....you can get any color you want...Kate was in heaven choosing all her colors, but I made sure to help her. They charge an arm and a leg for those M&M's.

The pretty chocolate fountain inside the Bellagio. We saw the atrium inside the Bellagio too. They decorate it different throughout the year and right now it's flowers and butterflies.

The water show at the Bellagio is my favorite!!! It's dancing water they put to songs- amazing. We watched only 2 shows because by this time the kids were melting down and "so tired" as Kate kept saying. We saw lots of BYU fans on the strip because the BYU basketball team had just played in the tournament that night.

Las Vegas Part 1

We went to Las Vegas last weekend from Thursday to Monday to visit Kyle's mom, Dee Ann. She might retire in October and move up to Washington so we figured we better go visit her one last time. It was a nice getaway and the kids were excited to fly on a plane and see Grandma Dee Ann. The weather was amazing while we were there. It was in the high 70's. I had just gotten some shorts for the kids so we were able to use them.

The plane was completely full both ways so I held Lindsey in my lap and she took a 2o min cat nap both times. On the trip home she made friends with the people behind me. She would crane her neck trying to see them. It was funny.

This was a typical activity while there. haha. Kate and Preston playing on her ipad and ipod touch. Cut the Rope, watching Curious George shows and reading Toy Story books were popular. I got some Angry Birds playing time too. ;)

We went to go to the Children's Museum, but there were 4-5 bus loads of kids so we went to the Springs Preserve instead. It was way above the level of our kids and not as exciting, but they had this one play area outside with a train and sand.

We went to the Bass Pro Shop at the Silverton Casino and they have this huge fish tank. Kate remembers seeing it last time we came here (2 yrs ago- she has a good memory) so she wanted to go back and see it again. A lot of what we did was the same stuff we did 2 yrs ago partly because Kate wanted to see it all again and relive that trip! Preston was kind of scared of the manta rays.

We watched the manta rays eat their fish. The diver would put it near their mouth and the manta rays would slurp it up and eat it. It was interesting to watch.

They had this mermaid show and Kate was in heaven when the mermaid came down to play a hand clapping game against the glass. I got lots of questions later about mermaids and if they were real or not. haha.

Kyle and I went to the Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show on Friday night at the Mirage. Kyle has been wanting to see it so we went. He knew all the songs and I think I knew 3 of them. haha. The lady next to me was in heaven, she was covering her mouth with her hands when it first started. It's amazing watching these shows and the talents that people have. And the sets are amazing as well. Up above and down below the set where people and props come up and come down from is like a whole other world! I want a tour of the behind the scenes next time! They had VW bugs on the set, dancers, roller bladers, gymnastics, tumbling...it was hard to watch everything going on! It was a fun show. Before the show, we splurged and went to an expensive steak restaurant and it was so good! We shared a cesear salad, BLT wedge salad with a spicy blue cheese dressing (it was amazing and I want it again!) steak, macaroni & cheese and whipped potatoes. Delish!

Smoothie Night

Last night for mutual we had all the young women come to our house. We talked about the Word of Wisdom (find out more here ) and why it's important to follow. Then we made yummy fruit smoothies. I did some research online to find copycat recipes from Jamba Juice because I LOVE their smoothies. Razzmatazz is my fav there. So I thought I'd share what we did. They turned out yummy. I made them again for lunch for Kate and Preston today.

Razzmatazz:
1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries
1/2 c. frozen peaches
1/2 frozen banana
2 scoops of orange sherbet
3/4 c. ice
Cranberry Raspberry Juice

I really didn't measure too much, just throw in and mix in blender really good. Add as much juice as you think it needs. Ours were pretty thick and yummy. We just wished we had Jamba Juice's blenders!

We made strawberry and peach one's too. Just change the ratios of the fruit and use orange-mango-peach juice instead of raspberry juice. We also made some using Vanilla Yogurt instead of the sherbet and those were good too. I bought all the frozen fruit and juice concentrate from Winco. My friend told me you can buy ice from Jamba Juice so I went there and the guy didn't even make me pay for it. Sweet!

Mid- Winter Break

It's been 2 weeks since I last posted! Time flies. I think of posting something, but then something else comes up. You know how it is.

We had mid-winter break, which is a week off of school in the middle of February. I don't know why they do that, but they do in Western Washington (we didn't have it over in Eastern WA). Mid-winter break was the week of President's Day.
Monday- Kyle had President's Day off so what did we do on his day off??? I had Kyle, Kate and Preston go to the dental office so I could clean all their teeth! Dr. Hopewell was nice enough to let me come and clean their teeth for free even though I don't work there still. So nice. Kyle wasn't excited, Kate was excited so she could get a toy and Preston didn't know what was going on. Kyle complained the most and Preston cried the most, but we did it and all of them got sparkly teeth. I was jealous and want my teeth cleaned now! Then after the fun at the dentist office me and the kids left to meet Marci at North Bend and headed over to my parent's house for a couple days.
Tuesday- Sara and Jeni both came to my Mom's so us girls made some cards, hung out and had an early birthday celebration lunch for my Mom.
Wednesday- Marci and I were going to leave at night, but there was a snow storm coming and the pass was closed the day before so we left after lunch to get over the pass. Marci was a champ and drove the whole way so I could be in the back helping/feeding Lindsey. At one point our suburban wouldn't change into 4 wheel drive so we stopped and restarted the car to see if that would help. It did. Plus, Marci and I both said silent prayers that it would work. Phew! The roads were completely covered so we could drive wherever! It was snowing pretty hard, but we made it fine and the kids weren't too bad.
Thursday- I took Lindsey to the doctor because she wasn't eating good and kept pulling at her ear. Sure enough one ear was infected so we got her on her very first round of antibiotics. I hope she doesn't get ear infections a lot. Then, we went to playgroup in the morning. I don't normally go since Kate and Preston are both in school so they were excited to go and play with friends.
Friday- we were going to go to the zoo, but with gross weather and sick kids we stayed home. It was nice to not have to rush in the morning to get ready for school this week. We discovered we have a rat in the garage! Gross!!! I thought it was a mouse first, but then my neighbor looked at the poop (gross, I know) and said it was a rat. Also, they have had issues with rats in their yard. So we got some rat traps and finally caught the thing a couple days later. I had to throw away some food that we stored out there. It was in heaven eating top ramen and cereal.