chilly fun

Yesterday was the first short sleeve weather day in a while.  It felt so nice to not have a sweatshirt on!  Until we went ice skating anyway.  Robie's sister works down at Horton Plaza's ice skating rink and has been asking us to come down and visit her at work, so yesterday we did. 

The ice was REALLY wet.  We saw a few people fall while we were getting ready, and they got up looking like they had fallen in a freezing cold swimming pool - totally soaked.  Robie said something like, "I guess you don't want to fall" and that was the end of the fun for Lauren.  All the way down she was talking about how she was going to show us all how to skate and help us, but she freaked and couldn't do it.  She went out, but was crying and was completely distraught.  She wouldn't even admit she was scared - she just kept complaining about her skating boots hurting - the same ones she skates in every single week!  I was getting so mad, then I just let it go and took her skates off and enjoyed watching the other kids skate. 

Fox actually had the most fun of all.  Of course, his fun came at the expense of Robie and Jani, who took turns basically holding him up off the ice and dragging him around.  Every time they tried to take him off, he begged to get back on!  And now this morning, he is talking about what an awesome job he did ice skating yesterday.  I reminded him that he actually just had daddy and Jani carrying him around and he said, "I ice skating by myself" in total disgust that I was clearly paying no attention to his awesome skating yesterday.   He did have a one minute segment where he was actually doing some sort of marching (first steps of ice skating).  It was short lived, but we'll take it. 

Anyway, between some shopping on the way down and the way back, a lunch stop and a snack stop, we had a really fun day just kicking it with the family - I guess I do really love these guys :)

Our little lion

Lauren has been ice skating every week with Robie's mom and loving it. Robie's sister, Jani, is handicapped and has ice skated for Special Olympics and special skaters for years. The older girls skated a little when they were younger but this was actually the first time that one of them has skated in a show. She was so excited - I thought she might be a little bit nervous, but she was just pumped up for her moment to shine.

 see, she's the lion with the hair thing and her arms out...

It was fun to see Nana (Robie's grandma, so the girls' greatgrandma.  She helps Robie's aunt cater the food for the judges and all the volunteers for the shows, so was working hard, but took a break to watch Lauren :))

I'm not going to say we loved every minute of it, after all it was a 2 1/2 hour long skating show!  My feet were seriously frozen, I almost made Brooke take her Ugg's off and switch with me, but first I think they were too small, and second, she said her feet were cold, too.    Of course, we actually had two parties later that night at which I was taking quite a few desserts: 

so I was also feeling just a little bit time-crunched in the first place!  Great thing about two parties in one night is you only have to have one cute outfit and get ready once :)  Our neighbor, Lucy, even asked us to pose for this shot and then took it for us - and it turned out super cute. 

and we got one of Lauren on santa's lap the ward party.  Can you believe that none of the other kids had any interest in getting on Santa's lap?  didn't bother me or robie a bit! (i'll crop that picture, eventually, or will I?)

Fun day, but along with having a sweet head cold, I was ready for a nap!

Special turkey lunch...

Fox is still pining for the time when he can go to school with his sisters.  He doesn't cry anymore when they leave (usually anyway), but he does still want to get his lunchbox ready whenever we go anywhere, so he was thrilled when I told him his day had come and he could get his lunchbox and we were going to school.  Lauren was having a lunch in her class for a Thanksgiving party and we were going.  He was pumped up.  As we were leaving, I said, hold on, i need to grab my camera (I was intending to use it for pictures in her class), but when I came out he was standing over in our little picture spot on the front lawn ready to get his picture taken.  He assumed I meant that it was time to take his picture since he was going to school.  I obliged of course, but my favorite was the picture that i took after I said it was time to go, because he took off running towards me.

 Best part of the day, though, had to be watching Lauren being tormented by all of the horrible food. They had Boston Market turkey lunch with turkey, cornbread rolls, and mashed potatoes and gravy.  She did finally try her cornbread roll and of course liked it, but seriously, she was in her own personal hell with other parents and other kids in her class encouraging her to eat her turkey dinner (and I thought it was awesome)

Let the good times roll

I decided to take the kids up to Utah for the whole week of Thanksgiving break this year.   Robie stayed in San Diego to work for a few more days while I drove up with the kids on Sunday.  It actually wasn't that bad.  Aside from my poor choice of book on tape (weirdly offensive chick lit book) , there weren't really any problems on the drive up.    In fact, I think they were better on the drive up than when we were on the way back and they knew I was available to help them.  They are definitely at a great traveling age, though, dvd players, ipads, ipod touches - they were easily entertained!  We tried experiencing some new things in Salt Lake for the first couple of days we were there.  On Monday we went to the Sweet Candy Factory.  Let me just start this by pointing out that I think all of the candy that they make at the Sweet Candy Factory is disgusting - jelly beans, those candy coated peanut things, cinnamon bears, more jelly beans.  Anyway, the tour was still interesting - i think the kids liked it and it actually reminded me a lot of when I used to work at Pepsi (not that I was back in the factory a lot, but still).  Their favorite part was when she let us taste the jelly beans that didn't have the final waxy coating on them (they were better that way I will admit) and then buying a bunch of candy afterwards.

  We headed over to Gardner Village afterwards to check out some of the quaint little shops (this would have been funner without Fox and Lauren in tow).  Lunch at Archibald's was delicious, though :)  Since it is Utah and it is November, it was quite brisk walking around - Brooke was totally freaking out in this knitting shop, only problem is that she really wanted to buy all of their items, but they were all only being shown as demonstrations of classes they teach on knitting (not in our timeframe of the afternoon).  bummer for her.

On Tuesday, we went to this indoor jumpy place, which also has "mini golfing in the dark" with neon balls. it was funner than it sounds.  Fox was scared at first of the jumpies and then he really got into it.  He was showing this yellow blob of air who was boss - I think he took him down right after this (which involved him laying down on top of it and laughing hilariously. 

Emily and I even got in a workout as we raced the kids up to the top and then down the jumpies. 

Wednesday night, mom had gotten tickets to this "Savior of the World" production downtown Salt Lake.   I "took one for the team" and stayed home with the little kids while everyone else got dressed up and hit the town.

 They actually said I really missed a pretty good show (with a few lame sections), and I definitely missed the visit to Crown Burger on the way home.  I had a great time with the little ones and even got them all to sleep.  This is an accomplishment mostly just because Jenn's little girl, Maddie, has some serious "stranger/aunt/anyone else" danger going on.  Don't worry, I figured out something that woudl make her feel comfortable and just like at home - the ipad.  I told her she could hold it until she fell asleep if that would make her feel better, so she did.   Seriously, it was hilarious to find her asleep clutching it in her warm, sleeping arms.

Thankgiving was quite pleasant - we went to a movie (it's sort of a tradition).  The Tylers (that's us) went with the flow and went to the Muppet Movie.  After seeing Arthur Christmas a few days later, we should have stuck to our guns and gone to that instead.  The kids liked both, but I'm not so sure.  This was also the point at which I lost my ipod touch at the movie theater and didn't realize it.  After looking through bags/pockets/counters for 2 days we got it when we went back to see Arthur Christmas (thank goodness for some honest Utah folk). Good food was shared and then the card playing commenced.

On Friday we went back down to Salt Lake and went to Heritage Park.  We went there over the summer and had seen that they have a special Christmas event.  I was doubtful of this event, as well (man, I sure sound like a Scrooge) but it ended up being fun.  The favorite definitely had to be the dancing in the old schoolhouse.  They had all sorts of dances (the Virgina Reel is one i remember the name of) and some people playing instruments and telling you what to do.  Besides Robie, who had gotten injured playing soccer that morning (woos) we were all getting into it and having a good time.

They even had some singers in costume come in and sing some carols - they were even mixing it up, mashing different songs together and changing the tune a little.  Pretty fun.

We stayed through the weekend, which gave the girls a chance to wear their Christmas dresses on Sunday - we tried to get a good picture for my mom, to no avail... maybe next year, mom :)

That also left us some time for Fox to hang out with his cousins, Sam, and Kiana (I swear he and Sam actually played a lot, not on the ipad :))





anniversary (of what?)

There was this one year where we both completely forgot our own wedding anniversary.  I think it was when Robie was commuting to LA 2 hours each way and training for the Ironman competition, so he would wake early, do one workout, leave for work by 5:30, then come home by around 8, do another workout.  Anyway, he was riding his bike on the trainer and I was watching tv when my mom called to wish us a happy anniversary, to which I still didn't clue in and said, "of what?".  awkward pause, "um, your wedding anniversary."  so sad.   I guess it's the old "go big or go home."  That was an example of "go home".  We've done numerous vacations for our anniversary (US Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Cozumel were the most recent _ also termed "going big").  Anyway, this year we wanted to celebrate in the "go home" style - that's right, we took the kids with us to Chick-Fil-A.  They play, we chat, we don't pay $50 for the sushi that we both really wanted.  Really, though, the best part was that Robie made his yearly physical for that day so that he could come early - home by 4pm - that was gift enough!  So he hung out with the kids - played a little soccer and then something prompted him to start playing dodgeball.  They only had one ball, so it wasn't quite as dangerous as it might seem, although I wouldn't say he was taking it easy on them.    Nonetheless everyone had a good time, including me who laughed until he got me out without even trying (it's a lot harder than it looks to move out of the way :)) 

Don't worry, I'm already planning something more in the "go big" (it will be our 15th after all) category... any trip suggestions for me? - we just have to be able to use our miles to get there, and possibly a timeshare to stay (keeping it very cheap for us!) - any favorite destinations? tops on the prospective list for me are (none of which will probably work with the timeshare situation: British Virgin Islands, Belize, Fiji, Australia (that trip would get a little too pricey i think), maybe even Europe?....

little project

Every day after school the kids come in the front door and dump their backpack right in the doorway.  Didn't they realize they are supposed to be piled neatly inside the front room?  Oh yeah, that wasn't a great option either, so I finally tried to find a solution.  I got this table off Craigslist.  Here are the things I considered:  I had exactly 30" in all 3 of the places I was considering putting it.  So basically any table that was 30" wide was pretty much in.  Except for it was not very attractive.  So I painted it. I started with a beige color and that was just too plain, so then I added a glaze with a little yellow in it on top.  I liked the yellow a lot, but the glaze was too light, so I added more paint in.  Then I was worried it was too yellow, so I put a little gray glaze on the top.  I'm not sure if it looks that much different than if I had just painted it yellow, but in the end, I actually really like it!  I thought maybe I would get sick of it, so I was nervous to post it if I hated it in like a week, but it's been in there for about a month and I still like it, so I guess it stays :)  {too bad one of the doors has already broken off from the kids yanking it open to put their backpacks in.. oh well :))

Pumpkin time

I really don't even like Halloween.  Does that sound terrible?  I don't like things that are scary, gory, creepy, involve death or monsters, so that pretty much rules the whole thing out, I think.  BUT Robie happens to be an awesome pumpkin carver and costume maker, and his mom is also a costume creator extraordinaire, so due to the fact that I don't really have to do anything, we will continue to celebrate Halloween :).

Pumpkin carving skills at work:

The girls had a party down the street before trick or treating.  They were pretty excited, Fox on the other hand, was not feeling well, so he didn't even want to put his costume on. 

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The medicine started working for Fox just before it was time for trick or treating, at which point he was loving the idea of walking around as Buzz Lightyear getting free candy.  Robie had made us some sweet costumes for a costume party we had attended, so we just had to wear them trick or treating and to sit out on our culdesac handing out candy.  I actually think they looked even cuter just sitting in a chair and the stroller, but it was also fun to see all the funny looks we got :0

What really matters is that it is over.   Just kidding, sort of, I do really like to see my kids have a good time, and Halloween is definitely good for that!

Scary

Since we have laptops and ipods with internet access that are numerous places in the house, I want to make sure my kids know that they are always being watched just in case that will somehow deter them from looking at things that are inappropriate.   So anyway, in order to keep that sense of stalking-ness, I like to sneak up on them sometimes, just so they know I don't always announce myself.  Brooke was upstairs and it had been quiet, so I figured she might be on her laptop up in her room, so I snuck up the stairs softly, walked into her room and slowly (so as not to arouse suspiciouns) creeped up the ladder to her bed (it is a loft over a desk).  As I peered over the edge, I saw she was just up there reading a book on her Kindle.  And she was focused, so focused she didn't even notice me watching her.  I thought it was pretty cute and that I should take a picture of her because she is so into reading.   It took me a while to go downstairs, get the camera, come back upstairs, but luckily she was in the same spot.   As I did the same thing I had done previously, I must have made some small sounds as I went to take the picture, because she looked over just as I was getting the camera ready.  And I scared her half to death.  She jumped about a mile, then she started crying because I had startled her so badly.  Oopsey.  Luckily, she did recreate the reading so I could still get my shot (although if you look close in the re-created shot, you can see the red splotches on her face from the crying :))

As a sidenote, this was actually a couple of weeks ago and I forgot until she reminded me the other day when she overheard me and thought I was telling someone else the story and was super embarrassed (I wasn't telling it then, but now.....)  Also, she was really into the Kindle, but has now gone back to her books, and is currently finishing another Harry Potter book every week or so (short days in middle school helped her finish 2 this week)

Lauren's birthday

Lauren is 6 today!  Aren't all kids super excited about their birthday?  I coincidentally was working in her class as a volunteer for the first time today which involved a lot of her coming out and asking, "is it my turn yet?"  I'm sure that will subside as I go in more often, though, or not.  She chose Chick-Fil-a as her lunch place, since I told her I would take her there and she could go on the slide (she and Fox both love the play place, and the chicken of course :)).  As we left Chick-Fil-A she declared the day the "best day ever."    After school, she played with friends, watched a movie, and ate her requested dinner, spicy salmon. 

 Late soccer practice left us with eating dinner at 8pm, that's late for us! 

See how excited she was about her dinner? In pure Lauren form, her requested meal that she absolutely loved last time had a little brown spot on it (just a discoloration on the underside of the salmon) and she absolutely freaked and would not eat her dinner.  I was so mad - I mean, not only is salmon not cheap, but it is WHAT SHE ASKED FOR!!  Thankfully, Robie was there to be the calm voice of reason so the rest of her birthday present opening/cake eating could commence.

I was actually pretty proud of myself for making a wise move this morning.  I let her open one present from Grandma Neilson (my mom).  It turned out to be a baby doll and she absolutely loved it.  So then the rest of the day I didn't hear the old "when are we opening presents?"  I mean, she still asked, but only once or twice as opposed to 2 billion times.  Plus, then she could take the baby in for her sharing and show off to her friends outside.  Just helped make the day "all about Lauren".  Fox was absolutely hilarious. Our video camera has a full memory (need more memory cards), which is unfortunate because he was totally going crazy over her gifts. She got a stroller/baby carrier for her baby and when they pulled it out he was leaning in yelling, "what is it?  let me see.." Then they get it out and someone says, "oh, you just have to put the wheels on". so he turns to Robie with this crazy intense look and is like, "dad, you need to put the wheels on, put wheels on... WHEELS!!"  He was just totally amped up about it.  He didn't even want to go to bed, because he just wanted to push it around until Lauren reminded him it was her stroller.  So I whispered over to him, "it's ok, you can play with it while Lauren is at school tomorrow."  Lauren gave me a knowing glance and said, "Mom, you're not very good at whispering.  i can hear you."