Weekend Getaway

We had planned on going to visit by brother Cameron in Utah this last weekend. It's been planned for about a month now. We had to wait for basketball season to be over so we'd have a free Saturday. :0) Unfortunately, Mackenzee decided to get sick on Tuesday. We kept our fingers crossed that she'd be better by the weekend. Thankfully, her fever only lasted for 24 hours, but then her nose exploded with a cold and a cough magically appeared. And, to top off that, Jaysen had to go and get sick on us as well. He had caught whatever bug Kenzee had. I called my SIL, Holly, on Thursday night to let her know we might have to bail. She said that as long as it was just colds to still come. So, I told her I'd keep her posted.

{This is Cameron and Holly}

Miraculously, Jaysen woke up Friday morning feeling better, but with the same nasty cold that Kenzee had. So, I called Holly again, and she said that we still had to come, colds and all. :0) I think both Austin and Landon would have had heart attacks if the trip was cancelled. So, we packed up the car and headed off.



And, though I know most of you will be shocked at my laziness...I didn't take a single picture the entire weekend! What's wrong with me? I took the camera...just didn't take the pictures. Sigh.

{Landon and Austin}

Anyway, we had a great time! We did absolutely nothing and it was fabulous to just hang out. They have a new home now and so we got to snoop around and check it all out. It's ginormous! So much so that they don't even use the basement. I think Holly should use it as a girl haven though. Set it all up with her crafting stuff and have girls nights galore down there. :0) I would come!

{Greta and Alina....and Santa too. :0)}

The kids had so much fun playing together even though I heard Alina tell Mackenzee "I hate you!" a few times. Gotta love girls.....they didn't really like "sharing" too well. I told Alina that she could come home with me and she was mad when she found out it wasn't real. :0) Normally none of my neices and nephews actually take me up on the offer. It's been made to most of them because they're all so stinking cute...but she's the only one that literally wanted to hop in the car and head out of town. I loved it. :0) And...I've never heard Greta talk SO much. It was non stop. I couldn't believe my ears. Normally you have to drag even just a word out of her. She is still scared of Jaysen though. She said it's because he's a boy and has cooties. I can't say that I blame her.

Poor Jaysen slept most of the weekend trying to get better, and Kenzee nose was an ever flowing river of snot. So gross! Cameron had a hey day playing the Guitar Hero we brought with us {Just go buy one Cam!!!} :0) and the boys tormented the girls non stop. What can you do? I just sat back and watched it all. :0)

We did go to the Mayan for dinner on Saturday night. I can't say that it was the best food I've ever had {Kind of like Cafe Rio} but the atmosphere was so fun for the kids. We had to wait an hour for our table {With 2 two year olds!} but the kids had so much fun watching the little shows and the people diving into the water. Kenzee was scared to death of the man walking around in the headdress and loincloth. :0) It didn't help that Cameron growled at her to scare her when the man came around. {MEAN!} But she lived.

And now we are home...Thanks so much for putting up with us this weekend! We hope we weren't too much trouble! Unfortunately, I have begun to get whatever Kenzee and Jaysen had. I hope your family doesn't get it! I'm sorry! But you said we should come! :0) I'll send a couple bottles of cold medicine to replace the ones we drank. :0)

March Madness?

Saturday was Landon's last basketball game for the year. Landon played great and scored 5 baskets! He was definitely on a roll and had so much fun playing with his friends. It's been so much fun to watch him play with his friends.
After the game was over they had an awards assembly where they passed out medallions to each of the kids. In 2nd grade, they don't keep score, so there was no 1st place team. Everyone gets a participation medal. He was so excited to get it though! In soccer they have only passed out ribbons, so to get an actual engraved medal made his day.

I want to thank all of the family that came to his games to support him. He really loved having you there rooting him on and it made him feel truly special. :0)
Now that basketball season is over, we are able to get our Saturdays back, which will be nice. It's been almost three months of Saturday games, and Jaysen and I were ready for a free weekend. There won't be much time for relaxation though. He's got swimming lessons starting next week and then soccer starts up the beginning of April. Jaysen is already thinking of coaching the soccer team too....I swear it never ends! :0)

Can We Go Bowling?

Landon has been bugging us to take him bowling for a while now. It seems everytime we go down to the bowling alley or call in, it's league night and they have no lanes available! Apparently, EVERY night is league night.

So, when he asked me yesterday morning if we could PUHLEASE go, I let him know they probably weren't open AGAIN. Miracle of all miracles....I called down there and they were letting "regular" people play! Finally!

We had Landon's basketball game at 12:15 and while we were there Jaysen's parents invited us to go out for lunch with them and Jaysen's brother, Jeff. So, off we went to eat and Landon was so excited to see Gage there with his dad, Jeff. Gage is the same age as Landon. So, of course, there was some instant negotiating going on between Gage and his dad over our bowling outing. The begging and pleading if he could come. Finally, Jeff caved under the pressure of Gage's pleading eyes. Not only did Gage get to bowling with us, he got to spend the night too!

So, off bowling we went and on our way there Gage reveals that he has NEVER been bowling! What? Well, he did pretty well for a beginner....

Do you see that picture of a strike? That was Mackenzee's first ball...the boys went crazy!

We had a great time, and now Gage wants to go bowling ALL the time. :0)

Pinkies Up Daddy!

I caught Mackenzee sneaking MY Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies into her bedroom yesterday and figured I better see what she was doing with them. This is what I found.....

Dora saves the Accident Prone Girl

If any of you have been unfortunate enough to experience DORA in all of her glory, you will know that in each episode she is "saving" something with the help of her trusted friend Boots the Monkey and Backpack and her reliable talking Map to guide her on her journey. Her last BIG adventure was saving the mermaids. Yes, Dora saved the entire mermaid kingdom from the wicked octopus. She is so brave.

And, if you are frequenters of this blog, you will also know that my dear Mackenzee is OBSESSED to say the least, over Dora the Explorer. Especially over Boots the Monkey. She even makes the "oooo oooo ahhh ahhh" sound like he makes on the show. Well, just recently, Mackenzee had the opportunity of having Dora save even her. Let me explain....

Now, if we had a map, I'd tell you that the map would start singing

Anderson's, potty, big glass of water!

Sing it with me now! I'm just kidding. I won't force that trauma on you. Back to the story....As you have read, Jaysen was gone last weekend on his golf getaway. Our friends, Zach and Holly, took pity on me and invited me and the kids to their house Friday night for homemade lasagna. Yum! I had planned on cooking chicken nuggets for the kids so I was thrilled! As you have also read, Kenzee is potty training and has been doing smashingly well. I figured we could try a test run on going out without putting on a pull up for protection while we went over for dinner. She NEVER goes in the pull ups anyway. Why not give it a go right?

She was doing so well. She ran upstairs to let me know she had to go and we ran into the potty and made it! Whew! So excited! I explain to Holly that I was giving her a trial on not having to wear the pull up and she was doing so well. She is excited for me. All mommies are excited when less diapers are involved. :0) Not five minutes later, Kenzee runs back up the stairs screaming, "potty mommy potty!" We run in again, but she doesn't make it. She pees her pants. Sigh. Pathetically I sit there thinking, well at least she didn't get any on their floor. Yeah....so I strip her pants and panties off and tell her to hold tight and I would go grab a diaper from the car. Kenzee freaks out. She doesn't want me to leave her in the bathroom. She's half naked, she's not going outside in cold weather like that! Thankfully, Holly saved me and offered a Dora pull up. I gratefully took it from her.

Kenzee is now happily running through the house in just her shirt and a pull up. We all sit down at the table to eat at this point. Can I just tell you how yummy the lasagna was? My girl loves to bake with some garlic! Just the way I like it! She even made homemade breadsticks! I was spoiled rotten. Landon was in heaven because he loves lasagna too. Kenzee....she ate some grapes. Sigh. And, because we were ALL spoiled, Holly gave Kenzee a glass of water with ICE! Now, I need you to picture this. We are all sitting around the table eating our yummy meal. Kenzee refuses to eat any of the green beans I put on her plate and I refuse to give her more grapes until she has eaten at least ONE green bean. Yes, we are fighting over this at someone else's dinner table. I'm grateful that Holly loves me. I'm sure she was laughing inwardly at this battle of wills. My daughter is a quick one though, and I swear she just lunged across the table to try to get to the grapes.... and she knocked over her glass of ice water in the process. There is water all over the table, her chair, the floor, AND her shirt. Holly and I clean up the water mess, Kenzee wins the rest of the grapes, and now she is practically naked. No shirt {because it's wet and she refuses to wear it now}, and no pants because she peed on them. At this point, I'm just SOOO frustrated. I resolve to never take her anywhere again. She's like a wild animal!

Holly, once again, took pity on me and offered some of her daughters' clothes that she had grown out of. Once again, I am indebted to her. She leaves to go get them as I give my daughter the "mean mom" look. It worked so well on Landon....Kenzee doesn't really care. Have I mentioned the word frustration? Holly reappears with a pair of pants and....a PINK DORA SHIRT! Because my daughter needed to be rewarded for her behavior! :0) {I'm just kidding Holly. We love you!} Kenzee is now thrilled! She immediately assumes it is hers. I don't argue, because I'm just DONE at this point and...Dora has SAVED my daughter from her nakedness. It's not worth it.

Holly has just given the shirt to Mackenzee at this point. Mackenzee has a very satisfied look to her when I tell her she can keep it.

Thanks for saving us Dora...I mean Holly. :0)

BBFF

I watched my friend, Holly's, little girl today for a few hours while she went and got her hair done up all sassy. She looks really cute by the way. Ellie is adorable. She melts my heart. Seriously. She can do no wrong in my book. They were sitting here in the windowsill together and Ellie leaned over and gave Mackenzee one of her fabulous chin kisses. I ran to grab my camera hoping she would do it again, but the moment was over. :0( That's ok. I look at this picture and imagine that this is probably what Holly and I would have looked like if we had been friends when we were really little. Ellie looks just like Holly in my opinion. And Kenzee is her momma's little girl. {And yes, she is shirtless...again. What can I do?}
Holly, these pictures are for you. You always say that you don't have good pictures of your girls and it frustrates you. Ellie is just so stinking sweet. She sat here and just let me shoot away on my camera. Of course, she did get up and down a few times...but that's ok. :0) The first one is my favorite. She's just beautiful. :0) Thanks for letting me watch her. I know it was hard for you, but I'm glad you feel like you can. Bring her over any time. Seriously...I'm home. And she's soo easy to take care of. Besides...it keeps Mackenzee entertained and that helps me out SO much more than you know. :0)

Superheroes without super powers

After the death of President Hinckley, there was a surge of emails in my inbox about how we could honor his life. One of the best ones that I got was from my friend, Montay. It was to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days {signifying his 97 years of life}. Well, I didn't get started right off the bat. I'm a slacker. But, our goal is to get it read before our new temple is dedicated. Landon is excited to be able to walk through it during the Open House. So, we started last week on our reading. Landon is such a good reader now that he likes to read it out loud for all of us to listen. It's worked out pretty good, and besides some of the funny "Bible speak" he does a great job.



But that's not what this post is about. We were reading about Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. He was really concerned about the whole thing.






Me: Do you understand what that just said Landon?



Landon: He just cut off that guys head!



Me: Right. But why did he do it?



Landon: Because the Spirit told him to.



M: Right. So, if you've prayed and the Spirit speaks to you....{I didn't get to finish my thought}



L: Then I can kill someone.



M: What? No! No, no...this happened 600 years before Jesus was even born. It was a totally different time and different laws and rules. The Spirit isn't going to tell you to kill anybody. That's what laws and the police are for. To take care of the bad guys for you. I meant if you've prayed, the Spirit will help you to accomplish your goals if that's what Heavenly Father wants.



L: Oh. Ok. Cause I didn't think we were supposed to kill anyone.


Whew. Got that one over with. So, we finish the chapter and I'm sending him off to bed and I said:



M: You didn't know there was such cool stories in the scriptures did you?



L: Nuh-uh! He's like a superhero getting the bad guys!

I got a giggle out of that one. But then it made me think about what he said for a minute.

This is what our kids look up to. These are their heroes. Flying men, Dark men in masks....men and women with SUPER powers. Make believe and fantasy. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Landon loves Spiderman and has for 3 years. Fantasy is fun. It gets kids to use their imaginations, and I love that. But the people they should look up to and revere as HEROES, should probably be more realistic. Don't you think? Nephi rocked. He was a good kid that listened to his parents. He respected his father and was obedient. He had horribly mean brothers that beat him up on several occasions. He never fought back. {that I can remember anyway} He was brave, strong, courageous...and a real guy. A "superhero that got the bad guys". Landon is getting a poster of Nephi for his room. He is enthralled with this man. What a good example for my kid.

I'm not saying that Nephi has to be everyone's hero. This is just what has happened in our house. But there are numerous people in the scriptures that did "super" things that maybe our kids don't even realize. Moses is a great example of a man who did great and awesome things. I talked to Landon about him as well and he was in shock that water would move like that. He told me he wouldn't ever want to walk between water like that because it would be too scary. :0)

It's just something I thought about this last week. Warm fuzzies. My kid wants to be like Nephi. Who am I to stop him from trying?