Sesame Street...Here We Come!

(Cell phone pictures again...I never remember to bring the digital camera anywhere!)

I took the kids to the Gateway Discovery Children's Museum last Saturday. We had not been there for months, so this was very exciting for the kids to escape for the day from home. Sesame Street has an exhibit there now. The first two pictures of the kids are at the Sesame Street doors. The exhibit is there to teach children about their bodies, what they are composed of and how they function. Everything is "hands on" of course and they loved it! Seery, you can see is at the sink learning about hygiene. Aidan is in a wheelchair racing a course with another kid running, and another rowing. Needless to say our competitive Kipp boy won the race which gave him his moment of glory, and also taught him a lesson about disabilities. The kids lounged in Elmo's World and served up fabulous pretend healthy meals at Hooper's Store. I highly recommend taking children to this museum. Aidan enjoyed dressing up as a fireman for the day and Seery loved the water play. By far it was our best spent Winter day this season!

Just for Fun...

TV Reviews

The Best Time of the Year?

This time of the year is one of the happiest times of the year, financially I mean. Tax returns are on their way, and for us it's bonus time as well. Extra income is always something we look forward to all year except...... Why is it that I always need dental work done as soon as we do get extra money?! I am the queen of crowns I seem to need one every February along with other dental work! Oh, and the mini van needed new tires today. So, it's very exciting to see an influx of money come our way this one time in the year, but we are always so sad because it leaves our account all too quickly for things that are, well let's face it, not fun.

A Daughter's Example

Here are a couple pictures from my cell phone (Sorry, they're not the best quality!).

Aidan was decked out in his BYU gear this week since the Cougars won their basketball game a couple of days ago! He LOVES his BYU hat right now, he even wore it to preschool today, with his Utah Jazz sweatshirt, weird combo I know, but even at 4 he loves sports! He wants to be a football player when he grows up so he can "run fast and knock people down" as he says.

Seery is all about dressing up as a princess. So the other day she put on her new princess jewelry. I watched her try to put on the necklace (she HAS to do everything herself) and it took her a while to actually fasten the clasp. Each time she failed she would say, "It's ok, I will try again. I want to do it myself." and always refused my help. Within a few minutes she fastened the necklace around her neck all by herself.

Seery was so determined and patient to put on this necklace that she taught me a lesson in the process. No matter how many times we feel like we are stagnant in life or even failing at the task at hand, if we keep trying we will succeed. Patience and self confidence really do go a long way in life and pay off in the end.

Seery's 1st Hair Cut!!

It is hard to believe, but our little 2 year old had her very first hair cut yesterday! She went to a kids salon to get her nails done, she wanted them painted blue with sparkles. And after that she had her hair trimmed to even it out. They even put mousse in her hair, blew it out, and styled her new bob. She loved every minute of her pampering. It was her treat for being so good at the dentist. After lunch we took the kids to see Hannah Montana. Seery ran to the theater with such excitement for the music to come. Aidan was even dancing in the main aisle. (I wonder where he gets that from?)The 3-D movie really made them believe they were at the concert. I would say yesterday was a GREAT day!

A Night of Luxury

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day. I would say that is was the best we have ever had. My cute husband planned a wonderful night that amazingly.... went according to plan! We went to the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. We had never been there before and had no idea what to expect. All I have to say is: Beautiful. We had dinner in their restaurant, The Garden Cafe. As soon as we walked in we smelled flowers everywhere. I have never seen such large fresh floral arrangements around a room with small arrangements on every table as well. The menu was set, which was good because we ate things we probably would not have tried. We had a duck appetizer, which was my favorite. The salad was almost too pretty to eat, with cucumbers cut so thinly and wrapped around each other to make a bowl for the salad with edible flowers. David had the best filet mignon ever and I of course (like always) had the chicken. Dessert was to die for! You could have whatever you wanted: Bananas Foster, Creme Brule, an assortment of cakes and pastries, and my favorite: the chocolate fondue fountain with fruit and cake to dip.

After dinner we had a couple's massage in their spa. I have never seen a spa like this! We were given robes and sandals to wear. When we got into our treatment room we were given champagne glasses with Pellegrino and a berry tonic with hand made chocolates that were not only yummy, but almost too pretty to eat. They gave us time to relax in big arm chairs before the massage. And we were given a tray of aromatherapy bottles to choose our scent(s).The massage was the best I have ever had. The table moved so you were always at the right angle for perfect comfort. They ended the massage with hot towels on our feet and hands. The therapists gave us a gift as we left the treatment room. Then we went back to the locker rooms, which are gorgeous and filled with everything you can imagine. We were able to go in the sauna and steam rooms. And then finish off with a shower surrounded by marble. Of course they had it all, so no need to bring anything--they even had mouth wash, Q-tips, hair dryers, combs, lotion, you name it. Needless to say we left the Grand America feeling truly grand and very relaxed.

I highly recommend this to anyone. Everyone deserves a little perfection in their lives and a night of pure luxury. I am so grateful that David planned everything last night! I also want to send a huge thanks out to my mom, who watched the kids last night, for without that, last night would not have been possible! The kids had a great time with their Granny. Pizza and 2 movies I was gleefully told this morning! It does not get better than that for them.

The Number 7

Some might say that their lucky number is 7. It certainly is the number of many things in my life. My daughter was born on the 7th weighing in at 7 lbs 7oz. Growing up, we had 7 people in our family. My husband has 7 kids in his family. Those were the first things that came to mind. But as of last night we have a new 7 in our lives....

7 was the number of hours it took for my husband to get home from work!!!! Seriously! He works in the SLC area and we live in Utah county of course and on a normal day the drive takes about 50 minutes. Yesterday's storm seemed to hit our area the hardest. It snowed between 2 and 6 pm yesterday, non-stop. It was white out conditions at times. It was really windy too, just adding to poor driving conditions. David left work at 5 pm and arrived home just before midnight! Many roads were closed, mostly in our area, cars abandoned on the road from running out of gas, several accidents, and cars that couldn't make it up the hills. I felt so bad for David and everyone else just trying to get home. An hour could pass by and he hadn't even moved an inch! There were school buses in our school district stuck on the roads until late at night, many students were stuck in their elementary schools, our school had a couple. But luckily we did not lose power like 1,500 other people in the next town and stayed warm. There are only 2 ways into our town. The main road was shut down for the night because of huge snow drifts. However sometime around 11 pm they opened up the windy background, which is the fastest way to our house and slowly let a few cars in at a time.

Seery did not want to go to bed until she saw her dad. She fell asleep on me finally after 11 pm. Aidan of course went to bed on time, when he is tired he goes to sleep no matter what. Seery... doesn't matter how tired she is once she decides to do something she does it. David carried her to bed. Obviously she didn't know that because she woke up in the middle of the night wanting to see her dad. She just loves him so much.

Well, we love our house, but we did not think about what winters would be like out here. With such limited access to our town, and being in the mountains... I guess there might be some very long commutes in the winter. (Had we realized that......)

Our Snow Angel

Valentine's Day & Kids

Well I must say that I was suprised to see that David was the first to post anything on this blog, and so touched that he would say what he said. I think he's a keeper!

Today was Aidan's Valentine's Party at his preschool. We went to Target yesterday to pick out his Valentine's... a first! He picked out pirate cards that came with red heart suckers and of course the very traditional boxes of conversation hearts. (Brought back memories to me of those elementary school days when you decorated your own shoe box for all the cards and candy that would be passed around.) Aidan decorated a white bag. He also picked out some really nice cards for his grandparents. It was so nice to sit with both kids at the kitchen table this morning writing on all the cards. I wrote "From Aidan" on everything but he would trace the letters after I was finished and wrote lots of capital letter A's over everything. He can write his whole name but it does take him some time, as those of you who know him well, will know what a perfectionist he is. Everything must be perfect, not in an obsessive way, he's just careful and deliberate. When I picked him up from school he was so excited you should have seen this bag filled to the brim with candy and cards. He told his wonderful teacher today that he loves going to school there and that he loves her! She is amazing and can I just say, for the hundredth time, it is so refreshing to have such a great preschool nearby that is well run by educated people. Anyways, when he got into the car he was telling Seery and I "Happy Valentine's Day!" (I know it's a day early, but at the age of 4, it is whenever the candy is passed out!) and he shared all his candy and cards with us. I was so touched that he split everything equally up between everyone. He felt bad that we had missed the party. It amazes me how compassionate he was, I mean come on, not many kids would split up their loot with such happiness.

Last week I had my first parent-teacher conference, and it went really well. Aidan is above target in every area as he has already accomplished everything that his age group should by May. He has show-and-tell almost everyday and they can bring whatever they want in their "Apple" bags. His teacher said that he explains where he got the item, like from his 3rd Birthday or whatever, he describes everything possible about the item and ends with "And this is how it works" even if it means pushing a toy lizard off the counter top to demonstate that it can jump. That made me laugh. It was nice to hear a part of his personality that has developed further outside the home. It makes me smile every time I think of that--"and this is how it works"--so Aidan.

Seery. She is just such the little woman these days. Her vocabulary rocks, she says grown-up phrases like "I have something important to tell you". She loves to dress-up. Yesterday she was playing with her cousins, and she had pink sunglasses and dress-up high heels on and she was sitting on her princess couch just taking it all in. She is quite the helper around the house. If I am cleaning anything she has to be right there with me cleaning too. She loves to have her hair fixed everyday. She likes to hold her "pretty bucket" and pick out a barrette or ribbon. She gives the biggest hugs, but be warned-- she does not like to be kissed right now. She will run and get a wipe and wipe off your kiss! She likes to do everything for herself. She is adamant about dressing herself and putting on her own shoes. So I'm thinking, she has got to be ready now to potty-train now right? So I talked to her about it and she informed me that she can't right now that she would like to go shopping first to buy new underwear (she already has some) because she does not want pictures of anything on them, just pink! She cracks me up. She LOVES to go shopping and will find any excuse to go to just about any store. She will go to the shoe section find a great pair of heels and a new purse to go with it. I know, we are going to have a little princess/diva on our hands, wait a minute we already do!

To my honey bunny. . .

With Valentines Day coming up I thought I'd put a little 'I love you sweetie' blog on here. Elise told me the password, which I figured meant that I could have free reign and write silly things and I don't think anyone knows about us doing this yet so she can't get too mad at me.
I'm lucky to have such a hotty as this in my life everyday. She is an absolute delight and makes me laugh like none else. She is my better in all things and I love her for that (except I can get out of bed earlier than she can). Sometimes the kids try to make me made by calling me 'mom', but I find it flattering or at least more so than being called 'dad'.

Happy Valentines Day Elise and I love you!