Pleasantly Surprised!

I guess I need to let go a little more and realize that my kids really can do a lot more than I let them and give them credit for.
I was getting together a little Easter craft that I will be using this month to give to the girls I visit teach and to those who come to my craft night. Sam and James said they wanted to help. I was a little weary at first, but decided they could help.
Needless to say, they ended up doing it all for me. They were so excited and happy to help. What a huge teaching moment for me. My boys are always so anxious to help and be useful. I definitely need to look for more ways in which I can let them be more involved, develop skills, and learn how to do more things. After all, they do surprise me daily!

Chlobug

Chloe is growing up so fast! She is just so stinkin;' adorable. So hated her baby food so it is on to table food for her! She is doing great eating now. She loves bagels, pancakes, mashed potatoes, cauliflower, apple sauce, and SO much more! I love to see her eat. She gets so excited (I have NO idea where she gets that!) :) when
she sees that it's time to eat!
Sam and Chloe have become such great friends. It is cute to see. She loves looking for him, getting his attention, and then getting him to play with her. I love this!

Tressa is 21!

We had a great time at Tressa's birthday party. She got her mission call on Wednesday and is going to St. Petersburg, Russia! Crazy!
She really wanted to go hope for her birthday, but wasn't able to, so we tried to all pull together to make it a great party for her.
We had it at my parents house and she invited the family and some of her friends. She just wanted to keep it casual and play kid games. So we just had some fun party decorations, a nacho bar, an ice cream cake, and play pin the tail on the donkey and some other classic games. It was fun for the kids and even more fun to see her friends playing these games.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We LOVE holidays and this is the first year that I have really gotten in to St. Patrick's Day. I have even roped a few of my friends and neighbors into it more and I love it! :)
When Seth woke up in the morning I, still in bed, said weakly, "hey come here." He came and I pinched him and giggled (totally wide awake), "you don't have any green on!" I know, I know, I'm such a dork. I had been waiting to do that all night. Ever since I had put on my comfy green t-shirt to sleep in the night before! hee hee hee :)
We had a fun time with the kids. They were left a Leprechaun gold trail to wake up to that lead them to some cute festive shirts and a green breakfast of green pancakes, green butter, and green juice.






We had some of their friends (Parker, Macie, and Johnny) over for a fun holiday lunch. They munched on green mac 'n cheese and rainbow jell-o. They finished it off with over the rainbow pot of gold cupcakes and chocolate covered mint oreo pops.



Dinner was green enchiladas, green beans, and more rainbow jell-o.




It was so fun to have such a fun time with the menu and talk to the boys about gold, green treats, leprechauns, and getting pinched all day. I hope that these fun times will be great memories for them to store for the rest of their lives! My mom was fun like this and I love thinking about all the things she did with us.

Eye-Opener

Monday was one of those days that will stand out to me for the rest of my life. We were in our jammies, taking it easy because we had just gotten back from our trip the night before and I thought we deserved a lazy day. The house was a mess and I hadn't finished unpacking and the boys were eating whatever they wanted.
My friend, Arlee, stopped by to return something and came in for a while to hang out and talk while the kids played.
Sam asked if he could have pancakes for lunch and I of course said, "sure, why not." Arlee then said, "wow, Karen. You're soft!"
She didn't mean it in anyway and I'm sure she doesn't even remember this happening. But wow did I get a slap in the face from myself.
I had become what I had vied I would never become. The mom that lets her kids stay in their jammies, do whatever, and eat junk!
I had a talk with myself and then with Seth and we both agreed it was time to get things back in order.
We are having purpose for each day. There is a reason to get dressed. A reason to act good, a reason to eat what is prepared, and a reason to sit down together at the table for dinner, and a reason to not wine at anything and everything that happens....and I had lost that reason!
It is always hard to notice in your own life when you need a correction and I am so glad that I had this experience to open my eyes and be able to react in a positive way to it.
I am pleased to announce that we have had an exhausting, but great week. It takes a lot of effort to keep yourself and your kids in line, but we have seen a great difference. The best one being that we all eat the same meal for dinner. No more, you like this so here, and here's what you'll eat. It's this is what is for dinner and we are all going to eat it.
I know this may seem silly to some, but to us it's reality. And it's baby steps!

Vegas

The only Vegas experience I've had before this trip was a one-night-stay at the Excalibur where we got in late, caught the Jousting and Dinner Show, and left early the next morning. We didn't see the strip, walk around, or anything, so this town was all new to me. But I guess I must have made a lasting impresion on this town, after all they did name a street after me! :)

We got in about dinner time and called the front desk to see how to best get to the Planet Hollywood Hotel where there was a sushi buffet Seth wanted to try (we were staying off the strip). They informed us that there was a shuttle that would drop us at Bally Hotel, just 2 hotels away, and that it was leaving in 5 minutes. So we raced to get ready and got on the shuttle.
I had no idea that each hotel is like a mile long! We had the two boys on foot and Chloe in her car seat. It was a little after 5 and we went walking and walking and walking to try to mind this buffet....30 minutes later...
Vegas is dirty!...in more ways than one . I felt so uncomfortable there with all the gross and grime around me and my family. I felt like the worst mom in the world having my little ones in that type of an environment. Thankfully my sweet little ones were looking at the lights and towers and things and not even aware of what else was around them.
So, the buffet (Todai) was heaven to Seth, so I guess it was all worth it.... :) Don't worry, I found my favorite buffet too! :) The breakfast buffet at Terrible's. Yum Yum Yum!

The rest of the trip was great, now that I knew what to expect and how to avoid the "yuckies." :)
We loved our hotel. It was right by the monorail and the airplanes flew right over us. The boys thought there could have been nothing greater than trains and planes passing every 5 minutes! They spent most of their time swimming in the hot tub (the pool wasn't heated - big downer) and playing with their new Chuggington trains they got.


The reason we went to Vegas was because Seth and his dad really wanted to see BYU play in the Mountain West Men's College Basketball Tournament. We had fun going to the games. Seth went to them all and his dad and I switched off going with him. It was fun to see BYU play with how well they are doing and having a player like Jimmer. He had his amazing 52 point game while we were there.

I got to go a shopping spree thanks to Dad M. It was fun to got shopping all by myself and for ME! The time flew by too fast, but not so fast that I wasn't able to find some really cute clothes. I even found a sweet little booth on the strip where I scored 3 pairs of funky sunglasses for $12. You can't beat that, especially with how quickly I go through sunglasses!
We even got the boys their summer sandals...crocs. They are my favorite for kids. They can put them on themselves, you can just wash them off, and you can add cute things to them to personalize them and talk them into wearing them! :) James wanted nothing to do with them until we found the balls to put on them. Now he doesn't want to wear anything else. Sam was an easy sell. We just had to tell him they were fast shoes and he put them right on and wanted us to watch how fast he could run now that he was wearing them! :)

We did find a few great things to do as a family. We rode the monorail a few times. I love how excited Sam gets about trains. It is so fun to watch. From the anticipation before it starts, to the complete focus he has to not miss anything while it's going.


The funny thing about the monorail is that as "convenient" as they try make it, it really has some funny quarks. At one stop you have to ride an elevator up to the ticket booth. Then get on another to go up over the monorail, and they another to take you back down to get on it. 3 elevators to get on the thing!

We took it to MGM and saw the lion habitat they have. It was fun.

We then took a tram to Mandalay Bay and saw the Shark Reef. It was huge and very impressive. We loved the whole atmosphere of it. You were able to literally walk into a huge "cave" of water and be surrounded by sharks, fish, and turtles.






All and all it was a fun trip. It was nice to get away after being cooped up and sick, and the nice weather was fantastic. I'm not sure we would jump back down there, but it was a fun experience.

Sick

This picture pretty much sums it up! We have had more than our share of sickness at our house this last month! Since Valentine's weekend we have had something or another. Chloe got 2 ear infections, Seth as well-with a bonus sinus infection, Sam and James a cough that could be heard 'round the world (and never ending founts of boogers), and I have thankfully stayed (relatively) healthy to get everyone through it.
I thought we were all turning a corner and getting better when Chloe started the throw-ups Thursday. Then I thought we were all turning another corner when our stomachs started bothering us last night....I thought it was just a little bug and was determined to get to church. Everything was going great until Chloe throw-up all over me during stake conference. I bet that was fun for the rows of people behind us!
Let's just say that we are still alive and on about or 3rd week of hanging out and sporting our jammies.
Here's to hoping that Spring is right around the corner with healthy, happy days where we get dressed and are up to doing things.

Boooor-ing!

A co-worker snapped this shot of Seth during a meeting this last week and sent it to me. I absolutely love it. This is one of those, "A picture is worth a thousand words."