Mother's Day and Disneyland

For mother's day this year Nate and I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland. It was hard finding time to pack and shop without the kids seeing anything but so worth it. After sacrament meeting Sunday we left the church and headed home. The kids asked what we were doing and we told them we had a surprise planned. Always keeping us in check Andy told us it would be unholy to leave before church was over...he soon got over it, but I'm still glad he was concerned! We went home and changed our clothes and told the kids to get in the car. (Nate had loaded the suitcases earlier and covered them up.) When we got to the Park N' Jet the kids started to really get curious. We told them where we were going once we were settled on the shuttle. They were in so much shock that they just kept asking questions over and over, reality didn't settle in until we were in the airport security line...suddenly the kids started singing and dancing and saying thank you over and over again. Seeing them so happy over the surprise was an awesome gift to myself!

This year Andy was tall enough to go on so many more rides than last January. It was fun to be able to ride rollercoasters with him. Maybe next year he will be tall enough to go on the Indiana Jones ride. We tried different shoes each day and spikey hair but we couldn't pull it off. Next time we are packing his roller-skate shoes!

Maya loves Disneyland. The whole atmosphere turns her into a little angel. She loves seeing all the characters and princesses. She is brave enough to try just about any attraction they will let her ride.

Luke was such a little man on this trip. He was patient when he couldn't go on rides and didn't fuss no matter how hard we played, suddenly he would just fall asleep for an hour or so in the stroller and then he was ready to go again.

My Own Leprechaun

We really like holidays and St. Patrick's day is no exception. This year we all had fabulous green outfits, a leprechaun visited our house and he died the toilets green, messed up all our stuff and moved things around, he left footprints all over our house and even left us some yummy treats and green silly string. We ended this beautiful day with our traditional all green dinner, but this year I got a new surprise... I didn't know the leprechaun was actually one of our own.

Small Talk..

January 2009

Conversation snippets in a house of little people

Luke…after I stopped him from trying to bite my hand he bit his own and then offered it to me saying, “Want some?”

Luke: if he doesn’t want to do something as he heads towards doing it keeps pausing and says, huh?, hoping you’ll forget or change your mind.

Maya: Out of the blue while driving around in the car…”If you’re walking round and you’re invisible people won’t see you and they’ll knock you over. That’s why it’s not good to be invisible.”

Maya: we were having rotisserie chicken for dinner Maya’s eyes got really BIG and she asked with a quiet curious voice, “Who’s going to eat the bum?”

Andy: “I’ve got a great idea so we never have to pay taxes.”

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Maya: Mom when I grow up I want to be a kid so I can live with you.

Andy: So, do they call people from New York, New Yorkers or storks?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Andy: Mom, wanna see my weapon I designed that may not work but could be used in war?

Desiree: Well, that’s because most of our "ancestors" came from Europe. Andy: What about our uncle-brothers?

Maya: When I grow up and we are the same age mom, let’s dance together at the basketball game.

Outside the Box

(Andy and Principal Doree Strauss)

Every month Andy's school selects a theme for their "Star Student". The teachers each pick one student from their class that exemplifies that quality and they get an award in a special assembly for just the students and their parents where they tell everyone why they were selected. Andy was selected for the month of February for being "creative." Many students were chosen because of their creative abilities in writing or drawing, Andy was chosen for thinking outside the box and always coming up with new ideas and new ways to do things.

Such a perfect fit for Andy. This kid has a solution to any problem and the gears in his brain are always turning. He already debates and solves problems better than a 16-year old, so we don't know what we are going to do when he is a teenager! We are so proud of you Andy.

Since Andy is off-track we were able to celebrate the occasion by having lunch at one of his favorite restaurants, Red Robin and then we were off to Boondocks to play.

Our Happy New Year' Eve

We decided to not look for a babysitter this year and

have a family friendly New Year's Eve time to go along

with our family friendly Christmas which was wonderful.

Maya and Nate at the Children's Museum Rock wall.

Luke loved playing with the balls and sending them up the chute.


Making New Year's Eve masks at the craft table.

Building a skyscraper in the construction zone.


Riding the train from the museum, to the restaurant to meet
some family for dinner, was one of the evening highlights
for the kids.

We had dinner at the Macaroni Grill with Grandma Lee
and Grandpa Frank and...


Hailee, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Tina.
(Uncle Shawn was sick so their family stayed home.)

After dinner we met up with another cousin Hannah at the

First Night Festivities where the kids had fun chasing her and

throwing snowballs. She's a good sport.

Uncle Dave had top billing in the arts pavilion

where he did performance poetry.

We made it in time to hear The Poet Michele,

Brad Thomas and Orion. I don't know if the performance

mesmerized the kids or if cuddling with their Aunt Chelsea in the

warm tent kept their attention. Dave, Adam, Chelsea and

Hannah stayed to hear some more music, but after watching

the fire dancers we headed back home to finish off the evening.

We played with silly string...

poppers...

and sparklers.

Then we went inside to watch Dick Clark and NYC

countdown to the New Year...but we actually missed the

official countdown because we all got engrossed in

West Side Story during a commerical break!

Then we put the kids to bed and were grateful for the end

of the year and are looking forward to a much quieter 2009!

Christmas Elf Card

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A new way of sleeping...

I HEART NYC

This is Wendi. Wendi's been my best friend since elementary school. I met her on a school camping trip and we felt bad that she was all alone and asked her to hang out with our little group. Little did we know that she would be the life of the party and she has been ever since. So naturally I couldn't resist when she asked if I wanted to go to NYC for a weekend to see Little Mermaid. One of my favorite people and one of my favorite cities. Couldn't ask for more.

I've seen a bajillion Broadway shows before this trip, but Little Mermaid was my first Disney Broadway show. It was so awesome that it became the theme for our trip.

I love that NYC is alive so late at night. After our show we hit all the fun shops around Times Square that suck tourists in to blow all their money. I have never seen so many M&M's in my life. This shop is new since we moved from there and I couldn't resist bringing my kids home candy in their favorite colors. This is only part of one wall. There were four more with more colors.

When we finally woke up the next morning after our late night out we headed down to see the progress at the World Trade Center sites. It is going to be a pretty cool memorial. It was nice to be there with Wendi and see it again with fresh eyes and remember what happened to all those families and to America on 9/11.

We had so much fun shopping on this trip. We found great bargains at Century 21, H&M and of course one of my favorites...purses in Chinatown! This trip made me so homesick for New York. I wish I could go more often.

(Lourdes, Desiree, Wendi, Carol)

Our second night we met up with some friends of mine that came in from Long Island to shop, eat and see a show with us. Carol and Lourdes are two of the reasons that I love New York so much and it was good to see them again. We ate at Cafe Napoli in Little Italy, so delicious, and stopped by Ferraro's to get some of my favorite treats for dessert. It was hard to find a show that between the four of us no one had seen, so we kept with our Disney theme and saw Shrek. Cute show, probably one that you see last on your list, but still funny. The donkey stole the show just like in the movie.

For our last afternoon before we headed to the airport we went to see a little off-Broadway show called Alter Boyz. It was a parody of all the boy bands over the past few years. It was so funny, we literally laughed for 90 minutes straight! One of Wendi's heros from So You Think You Can Dance the TV show a few seasons ago was in the cast. I'm sad I didn't see that season, because he was hilarious. He happened to be the one right outside our exit door after the show and it was so fun to watch Wendi get a little star struck. It was a fabulous way to end a fabulous trip.

But our trip didn't actually end there. We got to the airport and found out that they had cancelled our flight because of weather (despite the fact that every other airline flying to the same place was still heading out). Our fits and pleas for help were ignored so we grabbed a cab back into the city, booked one of the last two rooms still available in our hotel, literally threw our suitcases into the room and ran down the street to the Lion King theatre minutes before the 8:00 show. There were cancellations and we got the best seats in the house. Plus no one for two rows was sitting in front of us. It really made missing our flight easier to swallow and almost made up for having to wait another day to see my family! The next flight wasn't until the following night so we hit another matinee show and enjoyed the fabulous Mary Poppins. The actress playing Mary Poppins was comparable to Julie Andrews. She did a wonderful job.

We did more shopping, playing and eating than sleeping on this trip. I forgot what a night owl Wendi is, always ready for action. Our husbands and children were so nice to let us enjoy the show and to squeeze in phone calls with us between all the playing. I love Broadway shows and can't believe we were able to squeeze in so many. It was awesome.

Wendi is a year older than me so I've spent my life copying everything she does just a step behind. We did cheerleading together in junior high and drill team together in high school. When I was engaged to Nate I was a little embarassed that he was a dentist, because Wendi was already married and to a dentist. We love so many of the same things that it's just fun. To this day we still find that we like the same things right down to driving the exact same car in the exact same color....and wouldn't you know it when we pulled out our cameras to start documenting our trip I laughed so hard because we pulled out identical blue cannon elphs. Wendi is such a great person and a great friend, I guess its okay to copy sometimes! I can't wait to do this again next year.

Thanksgiving 2008

I am so grateful for my wonderful little family. I only remembered to take one picture this Thanksgiving and that's this lovely photo of Nate with a pickle. When he was in high school his campaign theme one year was "Vote for Nate, he's faster than a pickle!" The ingenius strategy worked and I had to take a picture of the infamous pickle before it made it into the garbage can.

I love spending time with my kids. We try and take turns taking each of the kids out on special dates with us. This time I took Andy to CPK and the Jazz game. The afternoon before we left he took me to the side and said, "Mom, I should have told you this before, but I'm kind of embarassed that this is called a date." It was too cute. It was easy enough to convince him that it's okay because with your mom it's not the same thing as a real date, but it was a reminder that soon enough my 1st grader that gives me hugs and kisses and even lets me hold his hand at school will soon be too old for that stuff. I wish I knew how to slow it down! Andy had the best time at the game. The Jazz were playing the Milwaukee Bucks. Andy was born in Milwaukee and decided that for that game the Jazz were the enemy against his home town and was the loudest and only Bucks fan in our section.

Maya is growing up so quickly. I've never seen a four year old so obsessed with jewelry and make-up. She still is obsessed with anything pink and constantly hovering over her little brother Luke. She's such a sweet little friend, I hope that adolescence doesn't change what we have. It's nice having her on the girl team in our family. This picture was taken at her friend's birthday party at Classic Fun Center, we had fun with the scooter and bounce houses and jungle gym. I wish my basement looked like that!

Luke is my little joy that almost wasn't. We were done at two kids because I get so sick when I'm pregnant, but we decided to go against the fear in my gut and have been blessed ever since. He's such a happy little camper and so curious and into everything. I love hearing him say, "Hey, mama" with the biggest smile when I get him out of his crib each morning. He loves "jumping" and Bombee (Barney the dinosaur), cows and talking. The other day he brought me the phone and said, "I wan call my daddy, happy bithday." I dialed Nate and Luke sang Happy Birthday to him on the phone. It's his favorite song right now. Sometimes I call people in my family that are patient enough to listen to Luke babble on the phone. The other day he was wandering around with the phone and ten minutes later I realized that my poor mom was still listening to him sing Happy Birthday and telling her over and over "Um, cow moo."

Pumpkin Patch

A little pumpkin for me, and a little pumpkin for "Lukey."

We love the corn maze!

Each October we take the kids to a fun pumpkin patch by our house for one of our FHE activities. It's fun to watch the kids race around checking out every pumpkin. They try to find their favorite small pumpkin and their favorite giant pumpkin. This year they added small tractors for the kids to climb on and a simple corn maze.