Category: Family Fun (Page 22 of 25)

Thanks to our friend DaNae, who loaned us a wheelchair. It’s a big hit and EVERYONE wants to ride in it. That’s why it’s staying in the car only to be used at school or church or other places if we need it–not at home. The last thing I want is the kids careening out of control giving each other wheelchair rides. Jenna said to me yesterday, “Mom, I don’t EVER want to walk.”

What? I wasn’t sure I got that right. You don’t want to walk? Because you think it will hurt?

“No,” she said, “because I like riding in the wheelchair.” Great.

It’s Thursday night, so that means Mr. MythTV (Tivo’s younger brother) will record all my favorite shows for me. Thanks Myth!

And something totally unrelated (because that’s how my brain works) If you want to check out some new drugs for women, click here.

Hello, and I hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS! We got home Late Saturday night, which could actually be considered early Sunday morning, then went to church at 10:30. The kids all did fine in our absence, but they were all so happy to have us back. Especially John, who talked non stop about the party he went to on Saturday night and the monster truck he got from his great grandma Coleman. He’s been clingy and wants to sit on my lap constantly, but we can handle that.

Our Christmas was nice, low key, and ready. Nothing I could do once we got back, so there wasn’t much stress. We got up around 7 and ripped through the presents quickly and efficiently, making the maximum mess in a short amount of time. The kids seemed pleased with their gifts, and Ryan and I were fine with our lack of gifts. We played and watched movies most of the day, until we went to my parents house in the afternoon for a family dinner. Chaos and loud boisterous laughter were prevalent. We all enjoyed ourselves.

We came home exhausted and fell into bed. I slept well until just after midnight, when I started experiencing major diarrhea. I don’t know if it’s something left-over from Mexico, or just my body’s way to tell me that I shouldn’t eat pure sugar all day, even if it is Christmas. That went on for hours. I was probably in the bathroom 30 times. I don’t want to be too graphic, but I couldn’t believe that much liquid could come out of my body.

Around 7:30, I got up to use the bathroom *again* and couldn’t make it back to the bed. My head was buzzing, I was sweating profusely, and couldn’t even stand up. I called to Ryan and he helped me back to the bed. It was then I realized I was severely dehydrated. Ryan went and got me something to drink while I lay there with my head buzzing. It felt like there were 100 moths flying around in my head. After drinking some water and some Dr. Pepper and taking some anti-diarrheal medicine, I rested for a while. Actually, a long while. Except for trips to the bathroom, I stayed in bed until 4:00.

The kids came in to climb on me or ask questions every once in a while, and Ryan was working from home, so they were pretty much on their own. So much for my extensive list of all the places I wanted to shop the after Christmas sales, including the grocery store, since we had been out of milk, eggs and birdseed since we came back home. Ryan (my hero) went to the grocery store last night and got those three items, along with hot dogs and buns so I can have something to feed the crew today.

This morning, I got up cautiously, not knowing how I would feel. I think I’ll live, although I probably won’t venture out of the house today, either. I’ll be here. In my disastrously messy house, trying to find friends for the kids to play with. At their house.

The only good thing about being sick was that it was a quick way to lose those three pounds I gained on vacation, even though I know it’s all water weight and it will quickly cling it’s way back to me.

Yesterday at church, our neighbors who moved out and have been living in a hotel for over a week while they wait for their new house to be done, came to church. Impulsively, I leaned forward and said, “Why don’t you guys come over after church for dinner?” even though I really had nothing planned. So during Relief Society I tried to think of what I could make quickly enough for dinner guests right after church. When we came home, we knew we had at least 15 minutes to clean up the house, as they would surely have people to chat with after church. We quickly cleaned up our messy house, I tossed a pork roast in the microwave to thaw, cleaned the counters and started boiling some water. Luckily I had been to Costco on Friday and had picked up a large package of their chicken ravioli, so I made one package with a white sauce, and one package with a red sauce. I got out a couple of packages of cressant rolls, and the kids all said, “are we having pigs in a blanket?” Oh, why not? So, we wrapped up little hot dogs and voila–pigs in a blanket. I threw together a big salad (also from Costco), and there you have it–instant dinner. The roast didn’t get done in time, but I cooked it anyway, and we’ll have it tonight. The best part was that I had a cake left over from the ward party the night before (can you believe it? I took a cake and it didn’t get touched–I brought the whole thing home with me) and a neighbor had brought over a fresh apple pie on Saturday to thank Ryan for hooking up his computer, so we had cake and pie for dessert. It was fun to have them over, and I didn’t stress out about cleaning the house or planning the food. Instant dinner party, and it was still fun even though things weren’t all planned out and perfect. Let that be a lesson to you (and me).

This is Megan, Natalie and Jenna and cousin Kaylee (Scott’s little girl) and John. Cole and her boys were also there with us, but had already gone back home.

We had a wonderful day at Niagara falls. One word of advice if you ever go there—Go to the “Cave of the Winds” tour first, as they give you not only plastic bag ponchos to wear, but also lovely sandals. Had we had our sandas when we went on the “Maid of the Mist” in addition to our plasticwear, our shoes and shocks wouldn’t have been so squishy for the rest of the day. I’d love to stay and chat, but we’ve got things to do, places to go today!

A local radio station sponsored a Father’s Day Contest, where you write an entry about the father in your life, and they will honor the winners with a day at Lagoon on the Saturday before Father’s day. Well, of COURSE I entered. But then I forgot about it. I mean, that was all the way last week that I entered, so I wasn’t thinking about it. Imagine my delight when Scot from Kosy called me and told me that they had picked my entry, and we would be getting Lagoon passes for the entire family. They are even including food vouchers good at certain venders in the park, and there’s a little meet-n-greet for the winners and thier families where there will be drawings for MORE prizes, such as DVDs, Lagoon passports, etc. WOW!

When I told Ryan about it, he asked what I had written about him, lies? Of course not! Just your general schmooze, suck-up letter. I’m pretty good at schmoozing and sucking up when I need to! So, here it is, my entry (all of it’s true, by the way) about my wonderful husband and the father of my children–Ryan.

Ryan is the best husband, father and friend you will ever hope to meet. He loves his children, and has never been afraid to change diapers, bathe kids, or hold babies. In fact, he LOVEs babies and will always find a cute baby at church or family events to hold. He’s great with the kids! He plays with them, teaches them, and reads to them. He’s not the best at doing little girls’ hair, but if necessary he will do his best with a lopsided ponytail.

Ryan is also a wonderful son to his parents. He is always available to help them with electrical, computer problems or other fix it jobs. He’s equally handy and helpful to his in-laws, who love him like their own son.

Ryan has always supported our family so that Mom can stay home with the kids, and he is great at supporting all of us in our activities. I recently was in a concert and he brought all five kids (even the two year old) to come to Mom’s concert.

What a lucky girl I am to have such a fabulous husband! We all love him, and would love to honor him at your Lagoon Father’s day Party.

There’s no such thing as a free vacation. Unless you’re a kid, that is, and your parents are paying for the whole thing. But since I won this trip, or at least part of it, we were curious to know how much we were spending on our “free vacation.” We were careful to write down every purchase, keep every reciept; from the tiniest $2.50 churro to the most expensive hotel costs, we kept track (actually Ryan did, in his PDA). Would you like to know the grand total?

Well, it cost us $1266.21 to take the family (7 of us, mind you) to Disneyland. Not free by any means, but pretty good for 5 days.

Here’s the breakdown:

$267.33 Gas
$317.79 Food
$575.68 Hotel (one night in St. George on the way down, two nights in Aneheim)/ Disney Passes
$105.41 Misc (Valet / Parking / Souveniers)

Things we didn’t pay for would be: 4 adult 3 day passes to the park, and two nights in the Disney’s Grand California Hotel.

And why do we do it, my friends? Why do we drive for 11 hours with 5 kids in the car, turning my clean car into nothing more than a large garbage can for wrappers and empty water bottles? Why do we haul our kids around the parks through the drizzling rain, trying to catch as many rides as we possibly can?

To see their excitement when a Disney Character stops to talk to them when they have a free moment. To see their faces light up when they get to talk to Crush the turtle. To hear them say, “This was so much fun. Thanks for bringing me, Mom.”

Well, we made it through another soccer season–Hooray! Last night was Megan’s last game, and as it severely complicated our life to have a gave, I made dinner to take with us, planned it all out, and when we got there, we didn’t see anyone from her team. We waited, then tried the other school where the game was once on a weeknight, and went back home to check the schedule. Oh, the game’s at 6:30, not 5:30. Ugh! I hate it when I do that.

But the game went well, and the coach gave out awards. Megan was so pleased to be given the “Energizer Bunny” Award, because she keeps going and going and going. She’s a good player, that Megan. Her coach convinced us to put her on a competetive team next year. I know I’m going to regret it, but who am I to stand in her way if this is the thing that she’s going to excell at.

Today we’re doing the organizing and packing. Tomorrow we head out to the great land of California, to the place called Disney. It should be fun!

Since the kids are out of school this week and we seem to be the only family in Alpine District not taking a vacation right now, I’ve gotten some time to do some fun things with the kids. Monday we made cinnamon rolls and had Sam and Jesse Knight (and Michelle) over for the afternoon. Even thought it was snowing off and on, we all had a great time. Then we all went to the library and visited Julene and Italo and gave them their first wedding gift! We feel pretty special about that.

On Tuesday we went and saw Curious George, which was a cute movie, and I LOVE the Jack Johnson soundtrack. I may have to get that for myself. John’s not feeling well, so he has been pretty clingy and tired, and I’ve spent a lot of time holding him. And last night we went to a 40th birthday open house for our friend Ava. Can’t believe she’s forty, and I’m seeing that the old 40 is coming faster than we wish.

Today, we’re probably off to the dinasaur museum, then round up some friends to play with if we can. How was your spring break?

Melinda talked about matching dresses for Easter, and I must admit, although I don’t want to get my kids anything matching right now, I have quite often bought or made matching dresses for the girls. It was so much easier when they were little and would wear whatever you put them in. My personal favorites are the fruit and flower print jumpers. I was really proud of those dresses (yes, I made them myself!). One year I made dressed for all three girls, and their two female cousins! The plan was to take a family picture, but that didn’t work out. So, why did I go to so much trouble? Maybe I had so much time on my hands because I wasn’t involved with PTA that year. Now, my girls have too many dresses that they don’t wear, and I don’t want to hear the complaining about having to wear matching. I did get them different colored peasant skirts (blue, purple and pink) for Christmas, and I guess I’ll have them wear those with white shirts for Easter. I’ll try, at least.