Language Barrier

Preston: "Guess what I learned today, mom."

Me: "What?"

Preston: "I learned how to say 'here' in Spanish. Aqui. I live aqui. That means I live here."

Me: "Wow! Who taught you that?"

Preston: "Mrs. Blackaller. She told us that she knows a lot of spanish. I think she must have lived in China for a while or something."

Me: (trying really hard not to laugh) "Or something." :)

Christmas Break

We had a very enjoyable Christmas break. We started it off by going to the Birds of Prey exhibit/museum. Kaden had gone for a school field trip and loved it so much. He brought home a family pass and begged us to take him. Kaden's favorite was either the HUGE condor or Luigi the big Harpy Eagle. Preston's favorite was either the bald eagles or Luigi. Ellie's favorite was Luigi. And my favorite was Luigi as well. We actually got to see Luigi fly, so maybe that's why we all liked him so much.

Next, we had a movie day. We took the kids to see Puss in Boots, went to Outback Steakhouse (yum) for dinner, then Danny took me and Ellie home. We watched a girlie movie at home while the boys all went back to the theater to watch a "boylish" (Ellie's pronunciation) movie. It was an enjoyable day. The only downer was me feeling sick throughout the weekend (which is why I had to come home with Ellie).

Christmas Eve was a cookie-making day. We took our time making yummy sugar cookies for Santa Claus. (This is probably a good time to mention that Kaden found out the truth about Santa this year. So all day long he would ask questions like, "So, do you and dad actually eat the cookies we set out for Santa?" or, "What happens to the oats we lay out for Rudolph?" It was humorous to see his mind work out the facts.) We talked about the Christmas story that night and sent the kids to bed.

We really enjoyed Christmas this year. It was really low-key, but very nice. No extended family the whole day (which we missed) but we really enjoyed being together. I was really surprised that the kids didn't wake up early this year. They insisted that they wanted to wake up at 4 in the morning, but in reality I finally woke them up at 7. We opened Christmas presents, ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, went to sacrament meeting, came home and ate a nice steak and shrimp dinner, and played with each other.

We spent the next few days playing with new toys. Kaden got a ripstick that he continually practiced riding. He's getting really good at it. While Kaden rode his ripstick, Preston and Ellie rode their new scooters. They loved it! We also played a lot of xbox with our new kinect. It is pretty fun. Also, each year santa gives each of us a Jamba Juice gift card, so we made our annual trip to Jamba. Oh, and we got ready for New Years Eve.

We invited a couple of family's over to bring in the New Year. We had LOTS of snack foods/appetizers, played lots of games including the kinect, and enjoyed friends & family. It was really fun!

Yesterday we went skeet shooting with some friends - So Much Fun! Then we went out to lunch with them. The only thing that would have been better is if Brandi (the mother) could have come. She woke up with a migraine yesterday so she had to stay home. :(

Then the kids had their friends come over and play. They love all of their neighbors. I love them too. My kids always have someone to play with and can never really say they are bored. I love it here.

That brings us to today. It is the last day the kids have out of school. I am taking today to do laundry and get groceries. They are taking today to get as much fun in as possible. Danny surprised me last night by getting us tickets to the Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil here in Boise tonight. I was really SHOCKED! So I rushed to find a babysitter and we will be going to that tonight.

And that was our Christmas break. It was very fun for all of us. And this wouldn't be a proper 1st post of 2012 if I didn't say, "Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!"

Commissions

We've started a new type of chore chart at our house. We got the idea from my sister over Thanksgiving. It goes like this...

My kids don't have to do any chores if they don't want to (unless I ask them to do something).

There is a list of different "chores" and the price tag on each. If they do a chore, they put their name by it, and they get the money associated with that task. If they work together at a task, they split the money for that task. They can also get money for doing extra tasks that aren't listed. Essentially, they get paid a commission for helping me.

Their bedroom and their toys/toy closet is considered their space. They are in charge of their space. If I have to intervene and clean their room, they have to pay me a commission for helping them.

They have to pay for half of what they need. If they need a new pair of shoes, they pay for half. If Kaden needs another recorder for school, he pays for half. And they pay 100% for any wants. (Of course, that is besides presents that we get them.)

The reason I am taking the time to document this is because it is working! My kids are not only keeping their room clean (they don't want to have to pay me), they are looking for ways to make money.

Last night my kids unloaded and loaded the dishes - 2 different tasks on our chart. But then they hand washed all of the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher, swept, and wiped off the table. Kaden has helped me with the laundry (very unusual in our house), and Ellie has even gotten excited about helping. My kids don't grumble about cleaning. They are starting to realize that they want/need money to buy the things they want/need. Kaden says that tonight he is planning on helping me with laundry, vacuuming, and possibly mopping. All things he never would have volunteered for before.

Another aspect that I like about this is that they think it's worth it. Some, if not all, of the tasks have a pretty high price on them. I thought about decreasing the price from what my sister had set. In fact, I did a little bit. But they still get paid a whole $1 to take out all the garbages in the house. And because the price is set so high, they think it's great. They totally want to do the chores because they get paid pretty well in their eyes. And for me, if I am expecting them to pay half of all their needs, I figure they need the opportunity to make enough money to save for those things. And lets face it... I would be paying for 100% of all of their needs if not for this system. So if they're willing to work for the money that I would be putting towards their needs anyway, I'm all for it!

It's a win, win situation! Thanks Jodi!

V Is For VEST

Preston came home from preschool the other day and was so excited to try on his craft. Here are some pictures...

I just love the gangster pose that he insists on doing in pictures. :)

See Jane Run...

Preston and I have been going through our special "Learn To Read" book and he has been doing so well! Check it out...

True Love

The other day I went up to my room and the kids were watching a movie. This is what I saw:

Then, of course, Preston had to get in the picture...

Ellie loves her brothers so much. She adores Kaden and she continually copies Preston. It really is true love.

2010 Year in Review

I'm copying our cousin Katie. :) I saw her do a year in review post on her blog, and since I didn't do the best with posting last year I figured it was a great idea for me to do as well. So here it goes...

In January we started the year out with some sledding with the cousins. It was a lot of fun. Of course, we won't mention the fact that I ran into a port-a-potty and we think I cracked a floating rib from it... Happy New Year to us. :)

In February, I began to really enjoy doing Ellie's hair. She was starting to get more of it and therefore I loved to put it in a pony tail.

March was Kaden's birthday. He got some cool lego stuff, so the kids put it together (with a little help from dad) and then they took turns playing with his lego car. Aren't they adorable?

April 10, Kaden got baptized. It was a beautiful day! Totally a day for him to remember.

In May we were getting packed up for the first move... Yep, we moved twice in two months! While I was busy packing, the kids liked to go on walks. Kaden was such a big helper with his brother and sister. He's such a good kid!!!

We celebrated my birthday in June and I wanted to have a video game party. :) We invited some friends over and played Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. It was tons of fun! Even Danny got into it.

July: Before moving (2nd move) to Boise, we got together with my family. We went skeet shooting and the cousins LOVED it. They even shot a rabbit. (poor rabbit)

August was the beginning of the new school year. We live right by the school so Kaden gets to walk with some friends every morning.

September 9th was Preston's birthday. He wanted to take one of his new friends to the movie. We went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3d. They loved it. They even got to eat happy meals before-hand.

October was full of monsters (and one sweet little frog).

In the beginning of November, we enjoyed a nice fall day at the zoo with Katie and her kids. It was super fun.

And finally, December brought Christmas into our home. I made the kids pajamas and they turned out pretty good (in my estimation).

Hope your 2010 was as fun-filled as ours. We miss the friends and family back in Utah, but so far we really love the Boise area. Here's to happy times ahead for 2011.

Christmas 2010

We had a lot of fun over the Christmas holiday. We got to spend time with my parents and my brother who all came to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. We loved having them here. It was tons of fun! My parents even taught Danny and me how to play Pinochle. I can't wait til we can play with them again. My mom and I will TOTALLY beat the boys next time. Can't wait for the rematch. :)

We didn't get a lot of pictures, which I'm pretty sad about. We did get some of the kids opening their PJs on Xmas Eve, and then a few of Xmas morning. Ellie was so excited about the pajamas that she jumped up and down. She was also very funny about her presents Christmas morning. She would open one, hold on to it, open another, hold on to both of them, open another one, try to hold on to all three of them, etc. So funny.

Preston got some sea monkeys. He didn't quite know what they were at first, but now he loves them (so does Kaden). And Kaden got a pretty nice yoyo that Danny and I did some research for. We got one of the nicer ones that's for kids. He has been practicing it a lot. He loves to walk the dog and try other tricks with it.

For New Years Eve we stayed around the house and played lots of games. The kids loved it. We got Blokus, Farkel, and 2 other really fun games for Xmas. It was enjoyable to just stay around the house and play games with the kids. Then we watched some movies and wished each other a happy new year.

Again, we didn't get a ton of pictures... but HERE is what we did get.

Fun In The Snow

After the big snowstorm earlier this month, the kids wanted to go play in it. Preston had the grand idea of making a snow "gum-ball machine", so he and his friend went to work on that. Kaden, on the other hand, wanted a really great snow fort. He invited a neighbor friend over to help him with it. They got about 1 foot of the walls up. Then it got dark. It was a good idea though. :) As for Ellie, she just wanted to be a part of the big kids' fun. And she just played with the fluffy white stuff.

Pictures!

Video Time

I have had a request to post more videos on my blog. So here we go... (mainly for grandparents; if you are not a grandparent and still watch them all - Good on ya) :)

(Preston had been pretending earlier about how when the blocks fell, they would go through a long process of falling down the stairs. This is Ellie copying him. "Cool trick! It fell off the wall, and on the step, and off the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, then down the stairs.")

(This was when Preston was doing the pretending. Ellie still wanted to be the one pretending)

(Ellie playing dead. So funny!)

(Ellie pouting.)

(We have started a tradition of playing a game on Sunday as a family. We have done Monopoly, Hide & Seek, and this last Sunday we played Yahtzee. It's been lots of fun and here is Preston rolling. He was on a team with Kaden. I loved how he would say, "I whoosh for a 6, I whoosh for a 6!")

(Kaden playing Yahtzee. He was so serious about rolling.)

(Ellie was being crazy! She got all wound up right before bed. And whenever she says that she loves someone, she'll say, "I like-a Mommy," etc. Funny.)

And as a side note... These videos took forever to upload so I hope there is somebody out there who is glad I posted them. :)

June

We have a lot of pictures for June...

My birthday was in June (30 years to be exact - ugh) and Danny splurged and got me the nicest camera I have ever owned. It takes still shots as well as video, so I've been having a blast with it (when I can and when I'm not busy packing or unpacking another box.)

First, we have lots of pictures of my cute kids. While playing around with the settings on the camera, I figured that they're my greatest subjects to practice on. :)

For my bday, I decided that I wanted to try making homemade ravioli. It sounded yummy! :) It was actually delicious. Our only complaint was that we didn't have a pasta press so the pasta was a little thick, but other than that - YUMMM! Ellie just really loved the bread; which we happened to buy from Macaroni Grill. She ate more of that bread than she has ever eaten of anything in one setting.

We also had some friends come over for a "birthday party". (We miss you Angie and Chad.) Chad let my kids play with his iPhone and they had a hard time putting the thing down. What is it with kids and electronics these days?

Chad and Angie brought over Dance Dance Revolution. We played that and Guitar Hero for my birthday. I know, strange request... but we did do what I wanted. :) Even Danny danced for us. :)

In other pictures, Ellie the banana head was eating some yogurt and decided that it would look great on her nose. Then the next day, she decided to finger paint with her yogurt. Again, I had just gotten the camera and was a little picture-happy. :)

June was about the time when Ellie decided that she loved trying on other peoples shoes. She is still in that phase and still loves to wear others' shoes (whether it's mom's or dad's or her brothers', it does not matter).

When Danny and I were in the process of looking for a house in Boise, we had our computer set up with his laptop beside it and we went through hundreds of homes virtually in the matter of a weekend. We narrowed down our list to give to the realtor. Basically, we did a TON of the work in finding this place. It was actually at the top of our list before we even came to Boise to walk through homes. Anyway, Danny took a picture of our computer setup... we called it our command center. We spent a lot of hours at that command center!

When the kids woke up for Father's Day, they wanted to draw pictures and make cards for Danny. They all did a really great job and were so cute while making them.

In between moves, I tried to take the kids to the park as many times as possible. It was my way of trying to make up for the lack of fun this summer. That is also when Preston finally learned how to keep himself going on a swing. Now that's all he ever wants to do.

I also have a couple of videos that I recorded of Ellie. They are so cute that I can't help posting them. :) It's also one of the first videos I recorded with my new camera. It's not completely in focus, I'm still working out how to download it off my camera, etc. Just bear with me. In explanation of the first video, Ellie's favorite cartoon is Dora. There is a Dora episode with "super babies" and there's a song that they sing in the episode. She LOVES that episode and loves to sing that song. In the second video, Ellie was really starting to talk a lot and say different words.

I guess that sums up June. It was a busy month, and worth the post!

Pics

Video 1

Video 2

Easter '10

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We got to enjoy the weekend with Danny's siblings. We had an Easter egg hunt at Justin and Megan's house on Saturday. Megan provided some egg hunting glasses to help the kids in their search. And we each supplied enough eggs for an entire army to have an easter egg hunt. The kids had such a fun time.

Then we all stayed the night for ping pong, games, and a super yummy dinner. Easter morning we woke up and read some Easter books that the kids got for Easter (Kaden and Kinley actually listened to the books - the other kids played). Then we enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch.

It was a lot of fun and we were very happy to be able to celebrate this sacred holiday with loved ones. Thanks to Justin and Megan for the use of their home. It was another successful party at the party house. :)

Pictures

My Cute Kids

One evening (it happened to be Kaden's birthday) I sat down and took some pictures of my adorable children. I don't do this enough.

Click Here

"I'm Starving"

This morning, at approximately 1:30 AM, Danny and I were awakened to Preston rushing down the stairs frantically. Of course, the first thing that I thought was that someone had an "accident" and we were gonna have a mess to clean up.

Danny beat me out of bed. I was in the process of climbing out of bed when I heard what Preston was so worked up about. This is what I heard:

(sounding panic-stricken) "I need food. I'm so hungry. I'm starving. I need to eat."

Apparently the 7 bites of chicken and pasta that I practically had to force him to eat last night was not quite enough to hold him out until morning. Either that or he was still asleep through this whole exchange. I have a tendency to think it's the latter. :)

Danny patiently told him that it was almost breakfast time so he could go back to sleep and he would eat when it was morning. He laid back down, went back to sleep, and this morning he had a toaster strudel and string cheese for breakfast. (Don't ask me - that was his choice for breakfast.)

New Years Eve

We enjoyed New Years Eve and New Years Day with Danny's brothers and their families. We started out early the morning of the Eve and we played games all day at Justin and Megan's house. The kids LOVED playing with their cousins and the grown-ups LOVED playing ping pong. We spent the night there (after staying up 'til nearly 4 in the morning) and then went to Heber on New Years Day.

We went sledding on New Years day which was way fun. We went to Kim's (sister-in-law) parents unfinished cabin where they had a nice little hill for sledding. Her dad also had a fun little tracker on snowmobile tracks and we were pulled around behind that as well. Kaden loved the sledding and really loved playing with his cousin, Kinley. Preston really love playing on the "playground" with his cousin, Tanner and wouldn't stop eating the snow. It really was a blast until I ran into a port-a-potty. :)

Funny story, really. The hill was actually a road. On one side of the road was the edge of the hill which dropped with a steep decline - we stayed away from that. And on the right side at the bottom of the hill-road was a port-a-potty. Danny had built up a bank as to prevent anyone from hitting the thing. No one had hit it all day long and we were having a lot of fun.

The last run of the day, I took Preston up the road to go down one final time. On our way up, I said to Preston, "Should we go up higher so the ride lasts longer?" And, of course, he said, "Yes!" So we went up higher than we had all day long. Therefore, we went faster than we had all day long. Therefore, we jumped the bank that Danny had built and hit the port-a-potty going backwards (the tube always turned me around so I was going down backwards) going what seemed a million miles per hour.

I hurt my neck and back and had a pretty bad headache. Danny and his little bro, Matt, gave me a blessing a little later. Long story short, I've been recovering from what I think was a cracked floating rib for the past few weeks. But it seems much better now. :) And again, funny story now that I look back at it.

Here's some pics:

New Years Eve

New Years Day

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas was really great! We made cookies on Christmas Eve and the boys really enjoyed that. I told Kaden that he was allowed to wake up early on Christmas morning 'cause I was sick of being the first one out of bed. :) So when they got ready for bed, Kaden told me he was for sure going to wake up really early. We also put Ellie's baby monitor in their bedroom so they could let us know when they woke up. We wanted them to wait to come downstairs until we were able to be ready to take pictures of them.

They went to bed at around 8:00 and by 9:30 we heard Kaden in the monitor whispering, "Dad, is it midnight yet? Can we come down yet? Has Santa come yet?" Of course he was sent back to bed. :)

Kaden forgot all about the monitor and came downstairs at about 6:00 Christmas morning. We were lucky that we woke up and I was able to stop him and send him back upstairs so that we could wake up Preston and Ellie. We got the kids and they all came downstairs together. Ellie wasn't quite sure why we had woken her up so early. Preston was excited about everything he saw and would have started opening every present he saw (whether it had his name or not) if we hadn't stopped him. And Kaden was really excited about his spongebob spinning toothbrush. :0) They finally spotted the robots from Santa and were super excited to play with them as well as the Nerf guns that were from me and Danny.

We enjoyed opening presents, played with toys, made a nice dinner, and ate Christmas dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Hyde and Uncle Wes. Weston stayed the night and we played games, games, and more games. Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas.

Oh, and one funny story is that after we got Ellie dressed that day, she wanted to put her new shoes on. She walked around in her new shoes for about an hour and loved the sound they made on the kitchen tile. She also kept walking to the garage door while waving her hand. She was so excited that she could walk with these shoes on and she just wanted to go bye-bye.

Christmas Eve Cookies

Christmas Day

Surprise Visitor

Last night we were just getting ready to eat dinner when the doorbell rang. When I went to open the door, I heard some bells. I immediately thought we were going to have some carolers so I called to Danny to join me. When I opened the door, I was taken by surprise. There stood a jolly old Saint Nicholas with sleigh bells and all!

We invited the old guy in and he came in and talked to our boys. They were so excited! Kaden immediately went to stand by him. Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and Kaden replied, "I don't really care what I get. I won't complain." I think Santa was a little surprised by the comment and couldn't think of what to say except, "Well, that's what Santa likes to hear!"

Preston was a little more hesitant. He was scared of Santa last year and then he figured out that he got presents from him on Christmas. So this whole year Preston has said many times that, "I can't wait to see Santa again." Of course, I knew that when the day finally came for him to see the big guy, he would be nervous. And he was. He wouldn't stand by Santa, but he was sure to let him know that he wanted a Transformer for Christmas. (We are done shopping and he is not getting a Transformer - Ellie might have to get him that as her present for him.) :)

Santa gave each of our boys (Ellie was already in bed) a candy-cane and he gave Danny and I each a carmel! Yummy - Homemade! Kaden was so excited to go tell his teacher today about our surprise visitor. (And we're still not sure exactly who it was in that big red coat... ???)

Pictures

SnowBound

The boys have been begging me to be able to go play in the snow. They were going to when the snow first fell, but we couldn't find their snow pants. I finally found all of their snow gear and they were extremely ready to go play in the fluffy white stuff.

They got all bundled, and I had to take some pictures. Then when they finally got outside, Kaden was so excited that he just dived into the snow face first. He had snow all over his face (I think he learned not to do that.) :)

Kaden tried to start a snowman. Preston watched. Kaden held up the start of his snowman for me. And the snowman didn't get any farther than that cause they saw a mound of snow to go play in.

They definitely had a lot of fun together playing in the snow!

Pictures

Things To Remember - Preston

Preston has a certain look that he gives me to get what he wants. He looks at me and says, "Please, mom?" with an adorable look in his eyes. Whenever he does this, it melts my heart and I usually say yes. In fact, the other day he wanted to take a cup of water up to his room while he was watching a movie. I told him that he would spill it. He looked at me with that unbelievably sincere look and said, "Please, mom... I promise I won't spill it. I'll be super careful." Of course, I let him - and in fifteen minutes he came down crying and heartbroken, exclaiming, "I spilled it, mom!" :)

He also has a GREAT imagination. He loves to play imaginary games and he has to ask my permission every time. "Mom, can I play my new batman game - outside of the xbox?" He has to specify that he is not asking to play the xbox but is asking to pretend that he is batman. :)

He likes to just have my attention. He will stand there for five minutes saying, "Mom, mom, mom, mom..." if that's what it takes for me to say "what". And most of the time his reply is just, "I love you."

He adores his big brother but will stand up for himself when needed. He throws a lot of fits, but is getting so much better at refraining from his fit-throwing. For the past few months he has really figured out the word please, and he uses it to his advantage. The majority of the time he will accept my answer of no as long as an explanation of why is accompanied with the word. He is very sweet to Ellie, and also very overpowering to her at the same time. He will give her a kiss, but nock her down while doing so. He's loving, and sweet, and he tells me I'm so pretty.

I love the little guy so much!

Halloween 2009

This year our kids had the "Batman" theme for Halloween. Preston was Batman, Kaden was Joker, and Ellie was Batgirl. I have to say that I made Ellie's costume and was SO excited with how it turned out. Plus she even kept the mask on.

The boys, of course, had been looking forward to the festivities for a while. They were so anxious to get dressed up and go get candy. They loved wearing their costumes - they wore them almost all day long.

I've decided I have become a lot more lenient as a parent. I remember rationing Kaden's candy and letting him eat a couple pieces each day until it was gone. Now, having 3, I let them go for it as soon as we got in the door. They were allowed to eat as much candy they could until bedtime (which was only 15-20 minutes, but still.) I even gave Ellie some candy to eat. She LOVED it! And I really enjoyed watching them. I've learned to just enjoy the moment just a little more. :)

Pictures