Haley's Birthday

Okay, so we're going way back to the beginning of March for Haley's birthday. Am I really 2 months behind in posting? Wow!

This first picture is the only one I got from her friend birthday party. There was one other little girl there too who didn't want to be in the picture. Notice how there's really only 3 friends and then Chloie and Britton. I really tried to keep it simple and easy, but it still wasn't. It was still crazy and stressful the whole time. At least Haley had a blast.


All the rest of the pictures are from the family party we had at my mom's.

With some of her presents
Her cake
On a nature walk. I just thought these pics were so cute.

With Chloie and Lizzy
I am just so in love with this little girl! She is so much fun.

A bit of randomness

It's been forever since I have blogged and the longer it goes, the more stressed out I get about going back and posting about everything. So, I'll just do it little by little. But, today will just be a random post.

The latest thing our family has been enjoying is going to Classic Skating. A couple weeks ago, Britton's school had a free family night there, so I took the kids. I was a little nervous about being there myself with two kids when none of us are very good on rollerblades. But, when I got there, it was so different than I had pictured. They also allow scooters and strollers on the rink, so it can really be a whole family affair. So, I rented a scooter for Haley and she was off! Britton is a natural on rollerblades, so it just took a little warming up and he was good. The whole night was such a blast! So much so, that this Monday we went again but this time with Jason, too. Haley brought her own scooter and the rest of us rollerbladed. By the end of the night, Britton has trying all kinds of tricks--jumps, spins, etc. I was amazed. He is so funny to watch because he's really fearless and pretty much clueless to anyone else around him so there are always some near misses of him just plowing people over. He also gets so excited about the different little games they play on the rink--the dice game, wipeout, and blackout. It's fun to see him having so much fun and getting so much energy out. I really can't believe that we had never been there before.

Doing things like that always reminds me about what good ages my kids are at right now. I think sometimes I forget that we're not toting around babies and toddlers anymore. And things are so much easier and more enjoyable. I really need to take advantage of that this summer and do tons of fun things. They are at such a fun age and they are capable of doing everything for themselves. Nice.

Jason has been really busy with work lately (which is really good) and it doesn't seem to slow down at all. We have been so blessed since he started his business that I need to sit back and express my gratitude. He's been working so hard and I'm really proud of him.

I really cannot wait for summer! I am so excited to just be able to play with my kids all day everyday. We've really missed Britton a lot this year while he's at school. Speaking of which, I am so proud of how Britton is doing in school. He's come a long way since the beginning of the year. He loves school now and is always saying how fun it is. The other day he was even laughing and joking about how nervous he was on the first few days of school. I am so glad about this because it really is hard on a mom having to send your kid somewhere for the majority of the day when you know they aren't comfortable with it.

I just finished a book called "Stick Figure" by Lori Gottlieb about a young girl's experience with anorexia. I loved it and it was a very insightful look into the mind of a struggling 11 year old. I hope I don't forget some of the things I felt from it about parenting and loving our kids exactly the way they are. And it really made me miss all of my great students from Center for Change. Oh how I loved that job.

Well, I really will go back and post all about all of my pictures because we have been doing lots of really fun things. But, I'll just end this post with something Haley said yesterday. I walked in the room and she said, "Mom, I love you. Do you know why? Because you're so nice to me when I say 'Can we make brownies?' you always say yes" And then she gave me a huge hug and a kiss. I'm glad she's so easily pleased. :)

Turbo Jam Mornings

Almost everyday, I go to my friend's house who has a dance studio and we do aerobics together--Turbo Jam. It is so much fun. It's a great workout and it's great to have friends who make me commit to working out. I love that I am able to do it, but I feel bad that Haley has to sit there and entertain herself while we're exercising. She's actually really good about it, but I know it's not her favorite thing. We've gotten it down to a pretty good routine. She usually brings her breakfast and some dolls or stuffed animals and her Barbie laptop. Sometimes she exercises with us, sometimes she falls asleep on the floor, sometimes she watches tv in the other room. The one thing I can count on though is the interruptions. She loves to make me stop so I can help her go to the bathroom. Or change the channel on the tv. Or tell me a secret. And I definitely don't love the interruptions.

Yesterday as we were exercising, she beckoned me over toward the doorway. I opened the screen door and she told me this:
Her: Knock, Knock
Me: Who's there?
Her: Haley
Me: Haley Who?
Her: Haley Loves You!

It was incredibly cute and put a smile on my face! What a sweet girl I have.

Giving Myself to My Kids

It seems like lately I haven't been very good at giving my kids the attention that they need. I've noticed that a lot of times I put them off to do "my" things around the house. Which means that they end up watching too much tv or playing too many video games or getting into fights with each other. I think that it's probably natural that as kids get older, there is less one-on-one time with the parents. But, I don't want it to be that way. I really want to focus on playing with them more.

Yesterday, we went to the Provo Library for bedtime stories. I'm a pretty consistent attender of the daytime story time, but I've never gone to any of the nighttime events. The kids wore their pajamas and we all really enjoyed the story tellers. It was fun to watch them singing and dancing and laughing so hard at all the jokes. It really was a fun time and I'm glad that we made the effort to go.

Today after school, I didn't want to fall into our normal afternoon routine of me cooking and cleaning and them playing or watching tv. So, I suggested that we go find a park that we've never been to before. I purposely didn't bring a book or anything else for me to work on while they played so that I could just enjoy participating in their play. We picked Exchange Park which is actually quite close to our house, but kind of hidden back in a neighborhood so we've never been there. It is right next to the Provo river, so we started off by throwing rocks in the river. Then we played on the playground, swinging, doing underdogs and spiders. Next, we played freeze tag. Britton and I both were very impressed by how fast Haley is. I had no idea. She really was good at getting away from Britton. We visited the river again for a bit and then found a secret hideout. I won't disclose where it is because it's a secret. We formed a club and decided that we needed to go back there every week for meetings. We built a club symbol out of sticks and pinecones and we're hoping it's still there when we go back. Britton made up a secret handshake and I made up a secret chant. It was so much fun and I can't wait until we make it back there.

When we got home, the kids helped me make dinner. We made pizza. We made a huge mess while rolling out the dough and making different shapes. Britton was covered in flour. But it was so much fun seeing him throw the dough up like the pros. It was good to just laugh and play.

It's sad to me that I have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again. We are all so much happier when I just make a little extra effort to give myself to my kids. It's not hard at all and the rewards are infinite.

Today Haley did something cute and I said, "Haley, do you know how adorable you are?" And she answered, "Yeah, I'm FOREVER adorable!"

The Tooth Fairy Visits!

Britton lost his first tooth Friday night! It was so exciting! That thing has been loose for weeks now. He was so surprised when it popped out and didn't even hurt him.
I was trying to get a picture of his toothlessness and Haley just HAD to be in the picture too. You can't even see his bottom teeth, so you can't see the gap, but it's a cute picture anyway. (Haley did her own hair)

In this one, you can see the gap better. I think he was more than happy to exchange a tooth for some money. What a great deal.

Britton also taught himself to climb the tree in our front yard. I think it's appropriate that his shirt has a monkey on it because he really is our little monkey. He sat out there for quite some time on Saturday. At one point I came out to check on him and he was still just sitting up there in the tree. I said, "Britton, you're just hanging out in the tree?" and he answered, "No, I'm hanging out WITH the tree!" Too cute.

Disneyland--FINALLY!!

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Disneyland trip. We left Feb. 28 at night and drove down to St. George. We stayed the night with Jason's brother, John, and his family. It's so nice to have them down there. It's always fun to see them. We went to church with them Sunday morning, then continued on our way. We stopped in Las Vegas to eat and meet up with one of Jason's old mission companions. Then we kept on driving. The drive seriously was not bad at all by breaking it up in St. George. Our kids were great. Good thing we have a DVD player, a PSP, Haley's Barbie laptop, and all the other things to keep them occupied in the car. What did people do on road trips before all these neat inventions? Oh yeah, they actually talked!!! :) Just kidding, there was plenty of talking for us as well.

We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Anaheim. Definitely not the nicest place around, but it was within walking distance to Disneyland, had free internet (except Jason brought the CHinese power cord for our laptop, so we were out of luck as far as that goes), had a swimming pool, and most importantly it was just down the street from the WorldMark where my sisters were staying. My kids love jumping on the beds in hotels and I always let them. Where else are there two beds right next to each other to do tricks on?
.

We went to Disneyland for 4 days--Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. If we were to do it over, we would go Wednesday instead of Friday because we had hardly any lines until Friday. But, Friday was Haley's birthday and we wanted her to get all the perks from that. But, more on that later.

I won't go into details about every little thing we did. I'll just say that I love Disneyland! Britton's favorite rides were: Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Haley's favorite: The carousels and pretty much anything in Fantasy Land, and Soarin over California. My favorites are still Space Mountain and California Screamin. I'm totally a roller coaster girl, but I do enjoy just about everything. I was way impressed by how they changed up the submarine ride to be a Nemo ride--good move. And I loved the new Toy Story Mania--so much fun. I loved how uncrowded it was the whole time we were there and I also loved spending 4 days, so that we could just take it easy and enjoy everything. I didn't love how much we had to pay for food everyday, seriously, $6 for a corndog? Anyway, I guess you expect that though. Haley got to spend her birthday there and the promotion for the year is that you get in free on your birthday. Since we already had passes, she got a $60 gift card to spend in the park. She loved her "credit card". She also had a pin that she wore that said it was her birthday, so everywhere we went everyone would say, " Happy Birthday, Princess!" She loved it! She is the perfect age for that kind of attention. She was beaming the whole day. She picked out some really fun princess toys and then bought a light saber for Britton to build (always thinking of her brother). It was such a fun day and a great way to end a fun vacation week.

Waiting for the Bug's Life show
My cute family
Adorable
More bug eyes!
Not sure what this is :)
Another carousel!

Indiana Jones



Gotta love the face I'm making! I was leaning forward because Dylan and Destry wanted me to so that you could see them in the picture. So, I just end up looking weird. Oh well, they look cute! You can barely see Britton back there behind Dylan.


I think the carousels must be the easiest thing to take pictures on because I have about a hundred of them. That's really not all we did, I promise!

Britton!
Haley!
Dylan, Destry, Haley, Britton




Britton wiggling his loose tooth. He really wanted it to fall out at Disneyland, but no such luck.
Biz, Dar, and Ethan
Me and Haley on Small World
Seriously, more carousel pics?

Buzz
Thunder Mountain Railroad--Haley's first (and last) time on that one
Getting Aladdin's autograph

Waiting while people went on Indiana Jones--Haley was too short


Wednesday we took a break from Disneyland and drove to the beach. Our GPS took us the LONG way there and both my kids threw up in the car. Nice! It was raining and I was beginning to question our decision. But, when we finally arrived at the beach, the sun was out and the rain was gone. My kids love the beach and didn't even care that it was cold! They got in anyway and spent tons of time playing in the sand. They buried each other, collected seashells and seaweed, built sandcastles, and jumped the waves. I really hope we're able to have a beach house one day. When we got back, we went swimming and sat in the hot tub and then met up with my sisters for dinner. It was a fun day and a nice little break from Disneyland.

Good Friends

Our good friends, Sara and Allen, stopped by when they were in town last weekend. It was a quick visit, but it's always good to see them. We hope to be able to go visit them in Boise this summer.
Eden on the horse

Sorry this picture is blurry, Haley took it.
Eden moved right as I snapped this picture.

Britton, Davis, and new baby Tyler. Of course Britton was in love with Tyler. I love the expression on both the big boy's faces. So tender.

Pictures Found on My Camera

I love some of the things I find on my camera.

Today

Today was filled with:
*car cleaning
*shopping
*errand running
*snacking
*hide and seeking
*classroom helping
*park playing
*chuck e. cheesing
*AI results show watching
*Guess Who playing
*kid goal setting
*laughing
What a great day!
*

Haley Today

This morning started out pretty rough. Haley was in a mood. She was whiney and tantrumy and I wasn't in the mood to give in and neither was she. She was definitely trying to see if I would back down. Anyway, it was a difficult morning, but once we got through it, we had a great day.

Two funny things she said today.

Haley: Mom, can I watch a movie?
Me: Can I read you a book instead?
Haley: No, that's WAY too wild.

I had to laugh at that one. Since when is reading considered a "wild" activity?


Then, later we were cleaning up some blocks and I was singing and dancing as I put them away. She quickly said, " Mom, stop that right now, it's flustering me out."

What!?!

It's Been Forever

It's been forever since I blogged. I have Disneyland pictures to post and I want to write about Haley's many birthday parties. I still can't believe she's 5. Wow.

But, for now, I don't have time. So, here's something funny that Haley said the other day.
She walked in wearing a princess dress.
Haley: "Mom, tell me I look charming!"
Me: " You look charming!"
Haley: "Thank you!" (as if she hadn't just told me to say it) "Charming means really, really pretty."

She is really, really pretty and charming and pretty funny too! I love that girl.

We did it!

This morning I just realized that tomorrow is the last day of the month and that we actually did our "no spending". Yippee! The kids and I did a little dance this morning to celebrate while Haley sang, " We did it! We did it!" a la Dora.

It seriously has gotten so much easier as the month progressed. I really do think that at least I have changed how often I think about spending money. Here are some more of the observations I have had over the last month.

*I have a lot more time when I'm not running errands several times a week.

*We still have had so much fun as a family. I think I was worried that I would get bored this month or not have anything to do. But, we have done so many things and almost all of our usual things. We've been swimming at the rec center about 4 times and we'll probably go tonight. We've been to 2 BYU basketball games and there's another one tomorrow. I still take Haley to story time at the library and to dance class. It's just that we don't follow that up with shopping or eating out which is really good. I didn't realize how often we go out to eat or grab a treat or whatever after some sort of activity. That's a really bad habit to have and hopefully this month will help me break it. We went to the Bean Museum and then had a picnic one day. I workout with friends almost daily and play basketball every week. Anyway, it was just good for me to see that most of the things I really enjoy doing are free (or already paid for by passes/season tickets) so I really don't have to spend money to enjoy myself.

*It is so liberating to walk into a store and not be tempted AT ALL by all the good deals and good food. I had to go to Macey's to get some rolls for a funeral luncheon (before we started this we made the exclusion for church things (tithing, fast offerings, activities, dinners etc.) because those are things that are important to us) and I loved being able to walk in, go straight to the bakery, pick up the one thing I needed and walk out without even looking at all the other things that I don't need but end up buying anyway. It was such a great feeling.

*Confessions: I did end up buying gas last week. There were a few trips to Salt Lake that I hadn't anticipated and I got low quicker than I thought I would. That would have been fine, we could have walked to and from school and church for a week, but I had to take Haley to a hearing test with the district audiologist in Lindon. When we left, the light for the gas was already on, so I knew I would have to get gas. But, I purposely just got a little bit so that I wouldn't just drive all over the place for the rest of the month. The purpose of this challenge was to help us cut out the unnecessary spending, not really to save on gas anyway. But, maybe I'm just making excuses.

*Another confession: I bought some tights yesterday for Haley's dance class. Her other pairs all had runs or holes all of a sudden. Maybe because she insists on wearing dance clothes pretty much 24/7. Anyway, I probably should've just made her go tightless even though they really aren't supposed to, but I guess I was just not in the mood to be that cheap. Somehow I justified it because it was only a couple days before the end of the month and we had done so well all month. Oh well, I guess I can't be perfect. :)

*I meant to write about this earlier, but I never got a chance. Right after I wrote my last update post I had mentioned that we would have to go buy milk for the second half of the month. We were totally okay with that and had planned on it all along. Well, that night, my nephew Hyrum slept over at our house. When his dad came the next day to pick him up, he said, "I have some things for you." Then he pulled out some grocery bags filled with snacks and a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. It was the nicest thing! In fact, I got a little teary-eyed later telling Jason about it. Then, the next Saturday, my two brothers showed up on their way home from grocery shopping with another gallon of milk for us. It was so thoughtful. So, we have a day left and still plenty of milk. I have such a wonderful family. It was so great to see that other people cared about our silly little challenge. I have had so many other people ask us about it and how it's going and take interest in what we are doing.

*I am so surprised that we still have food in our cupboards, freezer, and fridge. I really thought that by the end of this month we would have to get really "creative" with the things we were eating. But, we have been able to eat meals that are pretty much our regular meals. In fact, I think our kitchen is more stocked today than it is normally--weird. I way over bought on a lot of things so we will have plenty for the next few months. We even spaced the treat type of foods out better than I thought. This has been very good for me to know better how much we need to spend on groceries and the kinds of things that we go through quickly, etc. Surprisingly, I think we can spend a lot less on groceries each month than I anticipated. I will definitely be a smarter shopper now after doing this experiment.

I have learned so much in this past month, but this post has taken me longer than I thought to write. I want to make this a regular thing that we do because I know that I always have to "relearn" things. We may do it once a year or a couple times a year, who knows. But, hopefully, we'll just be able to remember what we've learned and not be so wasteful and spendy. I think everyone should try it for a month just to discover your own spending habits and thought processes--it's very enlightening.

A Mother's Job

Britton (a few minutes ago): "I wish the kids could live all by themselves. Then we could have all the fun that we want."
(Pauses to think)
"But, then we'd have to eat garbage."

It looks like I'm doing my job well--keeping the kids from having too much fun AND from having to eat garbage.

"No Spending" Update

Well, the month is half over and here is the run down for how it's going with not spending any money. So far, so good.

*I had to buy some children's tylenol when we ran out last week when Britton was sick.
* I was completely unprepared for Valentine's Day at school. This is the first year I've had a kid in school, so it's not something I really think about. When I planned for the month, I actually did think about it, but more in the context of me and Jason and I figured I could make a special dinner and we could do something at home or something free. But, I didn't want to make Britton not have something to take to school. My original intentions were to have him MAKE valentines and treats so that we still didn't have to spend money, but my week was too crazy and that didn't happen. So, last night at about 10:00 I ran to the store for valentines.

And that is all the money we've spent so far. I'm pretty pleased.

However, I think the next two weeks will be harder. I'm to the point where I really have to conserve on gas if I'm going to make it through the month. So, I'll probably be starting to walk a lot more often. We have plenty of food, but we are getting low on some of our favorites, mostly the snacky treaty types of food. So, I'm going to have to be more organized about planning out meals and cooking ahead since most of the easy-to-grab-at-the-last-minute things are gone. I will have to buy milk soon too, but that is something that I planned because I really didn't know what to do about that. I thought about trying to freeze milk or use powdered milk which both probably would've worked. But, in the end, we just decided milk was the one thing we would buy midway through the month.

I've been really happy with this experiment so far. The first few days, it seemed like every time I was in the car, I thought about grabbing some food or a treat or something or running to the store. So, I had to subconsciously remind myself that I couldn't spend money. But, it really only lasted a few days. Now I rarely even think about spending money. I am really surprised how quickly my thought habits have changed.
Another thing that I have noticed is how much food my kids waste. I guess I knew they did before but now, knowing that I can't just run to the store when we're out of something, it bothers me more. Seeing the half a cup of milk on the table or the bowl of uneaten cereal didn't really phase me before. Now it seems like I'm always saying, "Don't ask for food unless you're actually going to eat it!" I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. I think it's good for my kids to be more aware of what they are wasting and try not to do it, but I don't want to always be nagging them either.
I am amazed at how dedicated my kids are about this too. They will ask for things, out of habit, and I will just say, "We can't get that right now, it's February." And they are just fine with that. No fits. No tantrums. They don't even complain or say that they can't wait until February is over. The other night, I had planned to take Haley with me to the BYU basketball game. At the last minute Britton decided he wanted to go too, but we only had 2 tickets. He really wanted to go. I said that maybe we could make an exception and buy him a ticket, but he didn't want me to do that. He ran into his room, got his wallet, and pulled out all his money. We counted it up and he had enough to buy a ticket. He still had some change leftover so he wanted to buy a brownie at the game. I offered to take his change and just pay for his brownie so they wouldn't have to count it all out, but he said, "No, you can't spend any money, I'll just buy it." It was so cute. We had such a fun time at the game. The whole way home he kept saying, "I'm sure glad I had enough money to go."
Last week I had to buy some things for some church stuff (things that would be reimbursed). When I got out my wallet to pay for it, Britton practically yelled, "Mom, but you can't spend any money." It was kind of embarrassing. I explained to him that it was okay because it was for church and I would be getting the money back. I'm just so happy that he is so dedicated to helping us do this.
I have had to say "no" to a lot of things already. Things that I normally would say "yes" to. Some are things that I really like to be able to do, but most of the things are things I say "yes" to but don't really need to (and probably really shouldn't). Even though I've said "no" to things, I really don't feel like I've missed out on anything. I think this is a really good thing for me to realize. I am not a huge spender as far as shopping goes, but I do love to get out and do things like go to movies and out to eat. But, it's good for me to see that I can have really fun times with my friends and family without spending money.
Well, I will post more updates and more things that I have learned/realized as they come. I think the next two weeks will be more challenging, so wish us luck!

One to Remember

Yesterday Haley and I were walking to pick Britton up from school. She insisted on bringing her notebook and pen to draw as were walking.

At one point she turned to me and said, "Can you please carry these for a minute?"

I took the notebook and pen and then she said, "I have a situation in my bum" as she started adjusting her underwear.

It was probably the funniest thing I have ever heard. And the way she says "situation" is just priceless.

Thankful Thursday

Yesterday did not turn out the way I had planned, but thanks to my family, it was still a great day.

Britton woke up, burning up with fever and with a sore throat and a cough. I knew he was too sick to go to school. I had quite a few things planned throughout the day that I was really looking forward to, but I knew I would have to cancel some of them to take care of Britton.

Britton asked if he could have a blessing, so we called my dad to help Jason give it. My dad was here in just a few minutes. It's so great that he's always willing to come over at a minutes notice. Thanks Dad!

Jason volunteered to go a little bit late to work so that I could go to my aerobics class. It's not really a class. A friend of mine who lives around the block has a dance studio in her house, so we've been getting together to do my Turbo Jam DVDs. We decided it would be really fun to have a group get together once a week, so yesterday was our first day with the group and I really didn't want to miss it. Thanks Jason!

In the afternoon, Haley had dance class. I really didn't want to make her miss it. When she got up in the morning, she immediately put her leotard and tights on. Several hours before she asked me if she could go. When I told her it didn't start for 2 1/2 hours, she said, "We can just wait in the waiting room." Needless to say, she was more than a little excited for it. So, I called my mom and she was more than willing to take Haley so that I could stay home to take care of Britton. Then, she took Haley over to her house to play for the rest of the day and I was able to just snuggle with Britton and take a nap with him. Thanks Mom!

In the evening, we had planned to have my mom watch the kids so we could go to parent/teacher conferences and then to our ward temple night. I wasn't sure if my mom would still want to knowing that Britton was sick, but she didn't mind at all. It was so great getting to go to the temple. We have been so busy lately and Jason and I rarely have anytime to spend together. It was so nice to be together in such a peaceful place. Thanks again Mom!

While we were at the temple, Jon and Mijoung offered to take Haley swimming with them. She was so happy and had such a good time. She ended up having such a fun day because of all the things people took her to do. Thanks Jon and Mijoung!

I am so glad that we have so much family nearby and that they are always happy and willing to help. What a blessing!

Flashback

I just found these videos of Christmas 2007 when we were in China. It's actually not Christmas Day, we did our "Christmas morning" early, before we left for Thailand. Anyway, I thought I would post these videos.

Proof that she is listening in Primary