Winterpalooza

We decided to try out something new yesterday and surprised the kids with an outing to the Utah Kids Club Winterpalooza. The boys had a great time visiting the bounce houses, riding a couple of indoor rides, learning how to drum in the Drum Bus, and watching a show from Scales and Tales full of lizards and snakes to include an albino python names peaches. Faith mostly enjoyed walking around and visiting all of the princesses and superhero characters that were walking around.

I'm pretty sure that Mike's favorite part was the princess tea party.

It was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a cold Saturday morning. There were a couple of activities that the lines got too long for so we didn't get to do them. They are already asking to go back next year and hit those ones up first.

Conversation Hearts- Days 3,4 and 5

The fun continues!

Day 3 question: What do people like most about me?

Zaric: I'm polite
Zaden: I'm fun
Caleb: I'm funny
Faith: I'm funny
Me: I'm funny (I sense a theme here)
Mike: My wife

Day 4 question: What makes me a good friend?

Zaric: I like to play
Zaden: I'm just a good friend
Faith: I'm nice
Caleb: I'm helpful
Me: I always listen
Mike: I can make people laugh

Day 5 question: _____ is the best age to get married because_____.

Caleb: 21 because you can celebrate with alcohol
Zaric 52 because I love my mom
Zaden: 61 because you can retire
Faith: 59 because I want to be 59
Me: 52 because none of you are allowed to leave home until then!
Mike: 20 because that's how old I was when I married Mom.

This is really shaping up to be fun.  :)

Conversation Hearts- Day 2

Last nights random question drawn by Faith was: If you could fix one thing that's broken in the world, what would you fix?

Caleb: World Contention (all countries should be at peace)
Zaden: Pollution
Zaric:  Get rid of crime
Faith: Fix old houses
Mike: World hunger
Me: Child Abuse

So far, so good. They are really getting a kick out of this idea. Conversation Hearts for the Win!

Conversation Hearts- Day 1

I decided to try out a new daily activity for Valentine's Day this year. Every evening during dinner until Valentine's Day, we are going to pick a random question to answer. I'm calling it "Conversation Hearts." The kids are loving the idea. We kicked it off at dinner last night. Here are the answers for Day 1's question: What job would you NEVER want to have?

Caleb: Clown
Faith: Wendy's worker
Zaden: McDonald's worker
Zaric: Cake maker
Mike: Porta Potty sanitizer
Me: Sewage Inspector

Stay tuned for more questions and  answers on display throughout the next couple of weeks.

Year of the Monkey

This week was time to celebrate the Chinese New Year again at the elementary. The kids always enjoy going to this from year to year. This year they had a lot of extra activities, which was fun and a little chaotic all at the same time. We got to play Chinese Checkers and Chess, practice with chopsticks, practice Konji, build a Chinese drum, do a building trivia game, a Chinese puppet show and other fun things before the big finale of the traditional Lion Dance in the gymnasium.

So much fun. I'm so glad that we participate in the dual immersion school and are learning the language as well as the culture.  Such a neat opportunity for these kiddo's. 

Thus Far...

Thus far 2016 has been pretty laid-back and mellow. We've been kicking back, mostly at home and spending a lot of time playing games, watching movies and watching the playoffs while we prep for Superbowl (Go Patriots!).  We have done a few small things though. Since receiving some Christmas money, this little girl has been begging to go back to Build a Bear to make a real bear and spend hers. So since we had a little time on a Friday morning before preschool, I finally took her to do just that.  Meet Lila the pink bear.

I also took the boys to spend theirs. Caleb opted to spend his on a Chrome Cast for his room to be able to access the media server from there (so boring and grown up-ish, right?). Zaden bought some new characters for his Lego Dimensions game and Zaric opted for a fake pet bird, that talks and whistles.

We took a quick road trip to Evanston to get a piece of the 900 million Jackpot Powerball. And won a whopping $7. Skunked again!

Zaden and I made a couple small stylish changes. First up, I added some pink highlights t my hair.

And after he broke his glasses, again.....we went to get those fixed and also ordered him a second handsome pair.  Here's what he picked out.

Faith managed to pick up a sinus infection and some sort of eye infection that kept her down for a couple days, but after a trip to the Dr. and a few doses of antibiotics she's good as new! 

But the most exciting thing that's happened thus far is when the boys and I had some extra time on Friday while waiting for Faith and I took them to look around Petsmart. Mike and I had been discussing letting Zaric get a small pet for a bit now.  He's a huge animal lover and it's been suggested as part of his therapy, in my recent readings, for his anxiety.  So while there, and he was drooling over every animal we saw, he asked for the millionth time if he could "maybe get one someday." So I surprised him and told him that he could get either a hamster or a guinea pig. After meeting a couple of both, he opted for this little nugget.  Meet our new hamster, Shylo.

All of the kids love her. So far they've been checking on her first thing in the morning, having me put her in the ball for exercise in the mornings while she rolls around the house and being very responsible about making sure she has food, water and feeding her treats. She's still pretty skittish about being held, but we'll keep working on that.  We'll see when it comes time to change her bedding in the cage for the first time this week, how well that goes. But so far, I've really been impressed with his attitude toward the responsibility of a pet and with how well the other kids have taken to the idea and wanting to help.  Hopefully that lasts.

And that's it in a nutshell so far.  Still a week to go, maybe we'll actually go do something for a change.....and then again, maybe not. Who knows?

Ringing in the New Year

The kids ditched us for Papa's house for New Year's this year.  So we decided to break out my new party shoes and head for the west border to hit up Wendover for the evening. We arrived around dinner time and ate ourselves silly, then returned to the hotel for a while before we donned our party hats and hit up the casino's to have some fun.

We had a great time people watching, playing some slots and getting out on the dance floor a little and actually staying awake until midnight to cheer it on with the crowd.
The kids were busy partying at Papa's and I received this pic of them with their cousins with party hats and their Jelly Belly champagne bottles.

After we returned home the next day and relaxed some, we continued to ring in the new year with one of my longest time friends, Scott, and his wife Holly with some dinner and nearly 3 hours of conversation.  We did the math and determined we've been friends for 24 years! Crazy!

And the kids continued having fun at Papa's. Faith even had a little "New Year, New us." party and took her new makeup from Santa to give them all makeovers. Papa was even a good sport and donned some blush and eye shadow at Faith's insistence to "fix his face."

We got to enjoy 3 full days of adult-only time where we watched some movies both at home and one at the theater, enjoyed the quiet house lounging around with the fireplace blazing, put together a large puzzle Mike received for Christmas and did a few errands while the kids played their hearts out at Papa's. I spent time with friends, got my kiss at midnight, broke even on the slots and got Mike actually out on the dance floor, not once but twice! 2016 is definitely starting out as a WIN!

Shen Yun 2016

 As part of Christmas, we bought each of the kids tickets to an event that they wanted to attend in the next few months to have a little date with either Mom or Dad. Caleb's event just happened to be  the week after Christmas. So he and I set off, first to his favorite restaurant (Pizza Pie Cafe) for some lunch.

Then we were off to the theatre to see Shen Yun for the first time.

This is a cultural performance filled with Chinese dancing, music and some singing. I was unsure if he would like it as much as he thought he would, but I'm happy to report that he absolutely loved it and couldn't quit talking about it afterwards with me and later with Dad. He's already requesting that we go again next year if it returns.  Since photography is not allowed, I had to borrow a couple pics to show. It was completely beautiful and impressive to watch.

I'm so excited that we were able to do this as part of their Christmas gifts. Instead of just toys, this year we are going to create memories.

2015 In Review!

As the new year approaches, I've been looking back over what a crazy and busy year 2015 has been. It's had it's fair share of low points for sure, but it's also had some amazing high points and that's that stuff that I will choose to continue remembering and thriving for continuance in the upcoming year.

Here's a little recap of all the great things we were up to throughout the year.

Trips: We enjoyed a family trip to the Arches and Canyonlands, Mike and I enjoyed a short trip to St. George, and a weekend trip to Vegas. We celebrated our 15th anniversary with a trip to Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Big Sur, celebrated the 4th of July with another family trip to Bear Lake with my extended family.   We also did our annual camping trip for my family reunion and attended Mike's Corporate Board Retreat in Santa Fe.

Activities: We had 2 successful seasons of soccer, another season of football, several art classes and started dance classes and have attended 2 very successful dance recitals.  Along with enjoying many local trips to the aquarium, the zoo, a Bees game, Wheeler Farm, Swiss Days, a hot air balloon festival and several Paint Nites for us grown ups.  Mike also made his chalk art debut at the Chalk Art festival and had a very successful first round. We celebrated all of the holidays as a family and were able to make it to a ton of Halloween and Christmas activities throughout the valley and successfully pulled off the Ghostbuster themed costumes.

Concerts: 2015 was full of concerts for us. We got to enjoy concerts from NKOTB, Imagine Dragons, Kelly Clarkson, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks and the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Kids: The kids celebrated the finishing of 1st and 5th grades and the starts of 2nd and 6th grades and the grand entrance into preschool. Along with partying hard while turning 12, 7 and 4.

Us: As stated before, Mike and I celebrated 15 years of marriage and also turned another year older. We've been keeping ourselves busy with all of the above and every other little thing that has popped up along the way. We are truly thankful for all of our family and friends that have stayed along for the ride and for the new friends that we've made throughout the year.

May 2016 bring nothing but new adventures, more family time and be full of as many memories as 2015 has been.

Cheers!

Impromptu Game Night

When we had some out of town visitors coming in for a night and another visit from my niece coincided, we also grabbed a couple of local friends and threw together a little pizza and game night on the fly within a few hours.  We had a great time visiting and playing games while the kids had fun with their visitors playing Xbox and other games in the other room after Aunt Becca spoiled them a little, of course.

 We laughed so hard and had such a great time.  We really should be more spontaneous like this more often.