General Conference Report

It's either really funny or really sad that I have had this draft half done since last April and am now realizing I better add the pictures and post it before the next General Conference comes and goes!

A few days before General Conference this time around I happened to stumble across this article where the lady talked about her paradigm shift regarding General Conference. Basically, she realized that since the talks are published in multiple formats after Conference, she can always read, listen to, or watch them later. But she only has that one weekend to build bonds of love and testimony with her children. So instead of shushing them the whole time or getting frustrated when they didn't sit still and eagerly do every Conference activity she'd prepared in just the way she'd envisioned, she decided to do more smiling, snuggling, playing, and enjoying with them. I took that to heart. And...it turned out to by our favorite General Conference experience as a family to date!

Yes, I still prepared coloring pages, match the speaker with the picture, conference journal activities, etc. But I didn't stress if they didn't do those activities.

I also prepared some non-conference related crafts, and also puzzles, train tracks building, etc. Quinn and I had so much fun just spending the time doing those things with the kids while Conference played and we all listened, but without shushing kids and getting frustrated. Heck, they're only 4, 2, and 1 years old! (Um...now 5, 3, and 18 months -- things change when you wait six months to publish a blog post!)

I want my kids to associate General Conference and hearing the voices of our prophet and apostles with feelings of love, kindness, happiness, and goodness. Because, really, those are the feelings that come from the Savior so if you think about it, it's ridiculous to create feelings of stress and anger over something that's supposed to be leading your family closer to Him. Right? Anyway, I was grateful to have seen the article and loved our stress-free General Conference!

We ended General Conference with a picnic dinner at the park and talked about the things that had stood out to us from Conference (Ok, well, Quinn and I talked and the kids responded to our questions with one- or two-word answers. We're in the tradition-establishing stage right now and hoping that the traditions will flourish a little as our kids get older.)

p.s. Sadly, I've turned into a bit of a city slicker. It grossed me out to think of eating on the grass where people let their dogs do their business. So instead we spread our blanket on the cement!

First Day of School!!

My baby is in Kindergarten. It's hard to believe.

Yesterday was her first day at the most awesome school ever! She's had some bad experiences with school in the past, so I was determined to find a school that would be perfect for her.

When I took her to visit this school and meet the teacher, I asked her afterward what she thought and she said, "I finally found the school I love!" And then begged me everyday to go back (glad I didn't take her there until a few days before school started!). She was super duper excited for her first day.

She's way into posing for the camera.

I tried a second time and said, "Ok, for this one just stand up nice and straight!" But she couldn't resist popping a little knee up.

When I went to pick her up her teacher said she had a great first day. I decided to take an "after" picture. She was yawning in this one (first-day overload).

But by the second picture she was back into her posing groove. :-)

Love you Caitlyn! I'm so glad we found a school that is so perfect for you!

When daddy takes the kids to Costco...

They come back with an Elsa costume and a Spiderman costume, and they are the happiest kids alive.

Then Caitlyn gets out the fan and stands in front of it so her dress blows in the wind for real just like Elsa.

Then Nathan adds his super hero cape to his costume so he can stand in front of the fan too.

Then Caitlyn shows off her most dramatic Elsa face.

Costco is good.

Daddy's are great.

Kids are awesome.

No wonder he was so grumpy!

Caitlyn's Preschool Volcano

A couple weeks ago it was Cait's turn for show and tell at preschool. I didn't feel like we had any incredibly remarkable toys to share but I didn't want her to feel bad about not having a toy as cool as some as the other kids had brought to share. So I had an idea and helped her demonstrate how to make a homemade volcano. She had a blast doing it. It was fun!

Nate and His Cars

Every night when I put Nathan to bed he requests something to sleep with. Not just anything. It has to be one of his cars. Not just any car. I usually have to try several times before I come up with the right one -- the one he feels like having 'keep him company' that night. Or usually a few cars/trucks actually.
The other morning when he woke up I went to get him and found him with all his cars lined up.

If he could he'd have all his cars in there with him. Or for a while he requested his gigantic dump truck every night and I had to tell him it wouldn't fit in the crib with him and he'd be uncomfortable. Such a funny boy.

BST Revisited

When Caitlyn was a baby I did a blog post with a video of her signing, here. I didn't think about it at the time, but since then I've realized that I should have given some credit where credit was due. I've just never gotten around to doing it. But now that Benjamin is starting to sign I've been thinking about it more and decided to sit myself down and do it this morning.
My friend Amy Thayer of Oh So Savvy Mom introduced us to Baby Signing Time when were in our first BYU married ward together before we even had kids. I made a mental note that as soon as we had kids I wanted to use these awesome videos to teach our babies to communicate early through signing.
My video of Cait was inspired by her video of her baby boy signing on her blog. Since then we've introduced the video to lots of our family members and friends and we've loved watching each of our kids experience the excitement of communicating with us at a very early age. Thanks Amy!
P.S. What's a blog post without a picture? Or two. Or maybe three.

P.P.S. We pulled up at the grocery store the other day the same time as "our" fire engine (the one the kids got to climb in last year and have lovingly claimed ever since.) One of the firemen saw the kids' excitement and was nice enough to wait for us to get out of the car and over to the engine and then let them climb around in it again. Pure happiness for the kids.

Ode to Seaworld

We love Seaworld.

We never, ever get bored of Seaworld. 

I love that we live 5 minutes away from Seaworld so we can go for a couple of hours or how ever long we feel like and then hop back in the car and head home.

Last week was an especially fun trip to Seaworld for a couple of reasons. First, they just barely finished redoing their entire entrance, so now it has a bunch of pools with different sea creatures you can touch. My kids love it.

Second, since Benny is walking now he was able to go on all the rides in Sesame Street Bay of Play with Cait and Nate and me. He was SOOOO happy! 

When I lifted him up to get off the Abby's spinning sea star ride he started screaming bloody murder and arching his back and trying to wiggle out of my arms because he wanted to stay on and go again. Poor kid. Good thing we live close and can come back again pronto.

Heck even the flowers are awesome at Seaworld! I had to get a picture. Whoa is that my finger in the corner?

Oh, and Benjamin flipped my sunglasses off my face and into the pool of seals, so that was exciting. I was worried one of the seals might try to eat them and choke, but the lady said they wouldn't so no worries.

p.s. They had a bunch of flamingos walking right down the sidewalk! Never seen that before!

SEAWORLD FOREVER!!!

St. Patty's Day

I've never done a ton for St. Patrick's Day. Just the normal wear-something-green-so-you-don't-get-pinched. But this year we got a little more into it.

First, I ran a St. Patrick's Day 10K on Saturday -- my first 10K ever! I've done lots of 5Ks, but a friend named Carol Tuttle encouraged me to register and train for a 10K to give myself a fun outlet for the energy that gets pent up sometimes being a stay-at-home mom. So I did and it was GREAT! Especially because it forced me to load everyone and the jogging stroller down the elevator, into the car, and out to the park where I'd jog on the sidewalk in a circle around the play area so I could keep an eye on the kids while running. Hassle? Yes. Sometimes. But worth it.

Quinn and the kids were waiting at the finish line to cheer me in.

Then, for preschool the kids were supposed to bring leprechaun traps, which I'd never heard of. So I looked online and there were some seriously complicated designs. I decided to opt for something simpler so it would be fun and not a pain to make. Both kids really had a great time making them and I think they turned out pretty cute!

PLUS, I discovered that doing a craft together on Sunday morning was a calm, happy, constructive way to spend time together before church and I've decided from now on I'm going to plan a Sunday morning craft every week!

Here's Teacher Marina at preschool showing all the kids everybody's traps.

We put the traps outside and then at the end of preschool we went back out to see if we'd caught a leprechaun. You can see Nathan there in the green and white striped shirt and Caitlyn next to him in the pink, purple, and green striped shirt crouched down to look inside their traps. Nada. But the leprechaun did leave a big pot full of gold coins that Teacher Marina passed around. 

The kids were kind of disappointed that there wasn't a leprechaun in their traps. So when we got home I helped them set their traps outside again and I snuck out and put a tootsie pop in each trap. When they found the suckers I had them write a thank you note and put it in. I'm pretty sure they ran outside at least 12 more times before the end of the day to check the traps even though I assured them the leprechaun would only come once. :-) 

I'm glad it was fun for them! 

By that time I was kind of in the holiday spirit so I made Irish Soda Bread and Boxty for dinner even though I hadn't been planning to make a holiday themed dinner. While we ate I pulled out the laptop and showed the kids pictures of Ireland and read about why we have St. Patrick's Day, which was news to me, too.

I've decided to try to do something similar for every major holiday.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Creative Miss Caitlyn

Caitlyn has the gift of creativity. She loves to draw, paint, cut, color, decorate, craft...the sky's the limit.

Here are some of her creations.

For Valentines she made little dangler hearts to hang from our dining room light, and also made hearts to hang from the ceiling so it would be "raining hearts".

She's amazing at cutting out detailed little shapes and pictures, like this picture from a coloring book that she colored and cut out (all by herself with her little preschooler scissors).

Her favorite thing right now is playdough because she loves to watch little videos on YouTube of people making things like Disney characters and stuff out of playdough.

We love your happy, creative spirit Caitlyn! Keep up the good work!

Whoa.

My last post was from Halloween? Clearly it's time for a new post. Or two. So since Benjamin started walking like a pro a couple weeks ago (before that he was walking like a novice -- take a few steps and decide it's faster to crawl), I'll post a video of him doin' his thing. Love you Benny!

Birthday Boy

So when Quinn turned 30 we were living in Virginia and I threw him a big surprise birthday party. He enjoyed it so much that I decided to do it again this year for his 33rd birthday. Sadly, a few days before the party I asked him what time he would be coming home from work and whether he had any requests for dinner (just to throw him off the trail even though I'd already spend two weeks planning the party menu). To my surprise he said, "You know what I really want to do? I really want to go to Chuck E Cheese! I always wanted to go when I was a kid." Hmm... at first I just played along and continued with my plan. But when he kept talking about how excited he was as his birthday got closer and closer, I decided I better say something.
I initially attempted to maintain the surprise and just tell him the kids and I had already planned something fun, so could we go to Chuck E Cheese the next night? But then he said, "You didn't plan a party or something did you? Because I would really rather just do something with our family." So I finally had to say "Quinn! I planned a big party and invited over 30 people and already bought most of the food and rented the clubhouse and everything! I'm sorry, I'll never do it again, but for this year can you please attend your not-so-surprise party?" Ha ha! He was not super excited about it, but he showed up like a good sport. And after it was over he said, "That was actually really fun! Thanks hon, you went to a lot of work for that." Which was deeeeeefinitely true.
Unfortunately, I was so focused on making sure everything went smoothly during the party that I only took one, single, solitary picture. A picture of the birthday cake. And Nathan is the only member of our family that even made it into that single picture. So I have no pictures of all the fun decorations and all the wonderful friends and all the great food. BUT I did take some post-fact pictures a couple days later, so here they are:

Quinn's birthday breakfast before he left for work. His mom sent Batman decorations so Cait and I had fun decorating that morning before he came out for breakfast.

The birthday cake. I promise the rest of the clubhouse looked a lot nicer than this table looks in this picture.

Some of the activities I had prepared to keep little guests busy at the kids table.

My favorite decoration. A chronological collage of pictures from Quinn's 33 years and counting.

A few games and activities for the party -- nothing too fancy. 

So Quinn, I'm glad you had fun after all! And yes, we did go to Chuck E Cheese the next night and had a blast there too. :-)