Witchy Woman

Last Saturday, Sissy performed in a Wizard of Oz skit with her singing/acting class. Conveniently, two of the three leads went to none other than the owner’s daughter AND the teacher’s daughter. Hmm…fishy. Luckily, I didn't have to be too annoyed by the "coincidental casting" since Kate landed herself the last lead role as the Wicked Witch of the West;) Wahoo! Katybug only had a few weeks to learn her lines, and I think she did very well…especially, with her witchy cackle!

Above: Threatening Dorothy, “I’ll get your pretty little dog!”

Below: Cutest little munchkin face

And what would a performance be without the obligatory videotaping? Here, Kate recites the poem, Blood Curdling Story:

Blood Curdling Story

Yup. Kind of proud of our little girl.

Museums, Ferris Wheels, and Temples

Okay, so life has been moving along, undocumented. Here are a few items to play catch-up…

MUSEUMS:
This winter may darn well be the death of me. It’s taken every ounce of energy to survive the endless cold. Kate and Cole are both in their prime. Kate is 5 (and 1/2, as she would remind me to say) and is helpful and sweet. Cole is 2 and is cute as can be. But put those two sweetie pies in a room together for 5 minutes unattended and we’ve got a vicious game of cats and dogs. They just fight! It’s a lot to listen to day in and day out. So when I can’t take anymore indoor, togetherness time, that is when we hit the road. People think I’m just a good mom going on so many field trips, but no. It’s prevention; prevention from being the mom who is teetering with the notion of crazy.

So here we are at the NHMU. We’d been to this museum at it’s old, crusty site, but this was our first trip the new place. It has 5 levels and we just started on the 5th floor and wound our way down. Each floor has a children’s laboratory where they can do sciencey activities like puzzles, magnets, building blocks, etc. Plus, lots of their exhibits had hands-on stuff for the kids. Pretty cute all in all.

 

   

   

There were some dancers there from the U that day that made the kids do an interpretive dance. Kate was all about dancing like triangles and horses, but Cole? Uh, uh. He had a meltdown in the middle of the dance floor. Wish I had the pic (which I don’t), but total, typical him. He oddly hates being asked to sing or dance in front of a crowd. Coincidentally, he also hates leaving places when he’s having a good time. The museum resulted in me carrying out his kicking, screaming, boneless self. I’ll take that as a compliment. Something like, “Thanks, Mom, you’re seriously so dang cool!”

FERRIS WHEELS:
The kids and I did Scheel’s several weeks back--I still have to shake my head when realizing that a visit to the local sporting goods store is what we do for fun around here, but now we’re getting off topic, aren’t we? Anyway, the ferris wheel line was about a 2 hour wait. I knew Junior would not last; hence, we bowled, shot guns, did the photo opps, played in the play place and actually had ourselves a lovely time without doing the ferris wheel. I promised Kate we’d come back to do it when we had Dad with us.

Kate asked for weeks, and then last Thursday we finally made it back. There was absolutely ZERO wait time for the ferris wheel so that was wonderful. Kate and the dad sat on the opposite side of the ferris wheel from Cole and me. And sweet Cole kept saying, “Hi, Dad. Hi, Kate,” in a quiet little voice that only I could hear sitting next to him. Pretty darn cute. When we disembarked the ride, Cole cheered, “Let’s do it again! I ride with Dad.” Anyway, the night was lovely. Kate, too, sampled her first piece of buffalo meat while there. And on the car ride home, kept saying, “Mmm…I just loved that meat!” That girl has some Grandpa Lyle in her for sure!

A shot of my babies with the shark they caught:

TEMPLES:
On Friday, our cute nephew, Jaxon, got married in the Manti temple. It was quite the trek going down there; one I haven’t made since graduating from Snow College over a decade ago! But it was fun to drive past my old apartment and town. I swear I don’t recognize anything down there anymore!

So the wedding was mid-day and all potential babysitters were either in school, working, or at the wedding with us. We ended up having to bring the kids, but it wasn’t a problem. The temple has a little “waiting” house next to it that is just for kids. Genius! So while we attended the temple, our kids played with blocks and watched Book of Mormon cartoons with Jaxon’s sisters. So great! I guess I also have to mention that the temple matron assisting us that day was the mother of one of my old, Slow Knowledge, ex-boyfriends. Whew! A good reminder of the bullet I dodged. But funny, nonetheless!

     

After the ceremony the entire family bombarded one of the few restaurants in Sanpete County, The Malt Shoppe, in Ephraim. Being in the sticks, they had probably never seen such a crowd! But the food was marvelous. So marvelous, in fact, that Kate requested it the next day for lunch. Aww…man, just too far of a drive for that;)

Be Mine

Another Lover’s Day came and went (along with mine and Dave’s 11th anniversary). Our anniversary was actually spectacular this year…super unusual, but one of my personal faves. We went to a cooking class at Taste Culinary Boutique at Gardener Village, and the food was DELISH being an assortment of European dishes! The only problem was we only got “tastes” of each of the courses. I mean…SERIOUSLY??? By the time the class was over, we were both starved! We headed Salt Lake way, and ended up at Bruges for the Torpedo waffle and fries; love the chocolate placed just so inside the sugary waffle, garnished with strawberries and crème fresh. Mmmm!!!  After, we hit up Trader Joe’s so we could buy all of the ingredients to make our new, exciting recipes from our class (and we also stocked up on their awesome macaroni and cheese). And then by this point, we decided we couldn’t end the night without a little gelato from Dolcetti. That place is awesome. Every flavor is wonderful…we should know since we sampled almost all of them. I know what you're thinking: What is wrong with these people?!!! Why do they eat so much?!! I don’t know. It’s an illness really. It was A LOT of food, but you know what, it made for a magical night! So fun!!

So Valentine’s Day happened something like this…

We forewent (is that a word?) individual gifts this year since we’ve got a few upcoming adventures in the works that we’re trying to save for. But I still got a darling bouquet from the husband. The leaves were shaped into hearts, and the roses had little diamonds at their centers. Such a cute, unique bouquet!

Dave is King of Romance I think. He comes up with (I’ll say it) the sexiest;) of ideas for Valentine’s Day dinners with the kids. Last year was Carrabba’s take out, which we all love. And this year? Cheese and chocolate fondue. It was so perfect! He had all the fixings, but of course, the kids loved the marshmallows, popcorn, and chocolate the most; pretty sure they were in Wonderland eating that for dinner. But anyway, he’s the one that always puts it together, and it’s always a flawless, fun dinner.

 

       

After dinner, it was time for me to put on my show…the annual Heart Hunt. This year was neat because Kate could READ all of the clues without help. She would read each clue, and then quickly run off to find the heart. We kept having to make her wait for little brother. As you can see, he had a few fits throughout the scavenger hunt:

It’s hard being the little one

 

The hunt ended in Kate’s closet. Sissy threw her arms up in the air when beholding her prize, a Cuddle-Uppet. And Cole beamed at the sight of his new race track!

 

What a consummate Valennersary!

Snow Shovelers

We had a storm that DUMPED snow! Kate was excited to go out in it, but it took a little convincing with Cole. Our little polar bear hates the snow; he does, however, love a shovel! I pulled out one that was just his size, and he even agreed to put on a few snow clothes. The mom was proud, and I think he really had a good time.

      

 

Snow Angels

 



    

And the best part? Hot chocolate afterwards. Cole could only say, “Mmmm…dood (good)"; the perfect payment for all their hard work;)

The Lyle In Me

My dad is Lyle. He's your average Joe for the most part, except that he is a remarkably lucky guy. The man has won various things over the years. I do not have luck like this...usually...but once in a while, something good comes my way. Take, for example, last Wednesday night:

Dave and I got invited to a Jazz game. Lucky. Not any old Jazz game; a luxurious Jazz game including 5th row seats, courtesy of the Peterson's. Super lucky! This is our 2nd time in 1 year sitting in premium seats, which included dinner before, and desserts during half time. Lucky again. There's just nothing else like it. I mean NOTHING. It is a night of pure bliss when you are sitting that close (and we are forever ruined because of it).

And the dinner, lest we forget, was delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed the salad, cheese and crackers, fruit, chicken, rolls, eclairs, fruit tart, cookie, and anything else I may have left off the list. So good and SO FUN! Oh, and winning a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone (valued at $599) all while being on the jumbo tron; that was amazing too. Crazy lucky...just like my old man.

Trying not to boast here, seriously, I'm not. It was just that great of a night to be left off the books!

You Know You’re a Redneck If…

 

The Monster Truck Show; nothing else like it. Revving engines, beers, boobs, kwuality people all around; oh, and two little people who very much enjoyed themselves.

                 

We got there early for a little meet and greet with the drivers. The kids got their checkered flags signed, climbed into real life monster trucks, and fine-tuned their redneckognizing skills. I’m joking. The drivers were all very nice; not so nice that I’d invite them to my kids’ birthday parties (like the Hitman (below) offers, but nice enough for a photo opp at least.

  

  

 

We were really grateful that Dave works in Payson. The southern Utah Valley folk instructed him to buy ear plugs, which we would have never known to do. Ear plugs were definitely essential for enjoying the night since it gets crazy loud! Snow cones and a large ice cream bowl also played a large part in enjoying the night. And let’s not forget those motocross riders; they were actually way cooler than the monster trucks!

 

The best part of the night (in retrospect) was the ride home. Just as we were exiting the parking lot, Cole starts chanting, “Go Potty, Mom!” Oh, heavens. When Cole says this, I know I’ve got approximately 15-20 seconds max to get him to a toilet. But just where were we going to do that? There we were, late at night, in West Valley City, with Cole in the back seat (who had recently polished off 1.5 large, juicy snow cones) painfully repeating, “Keep the underwear clean! Keep the underwear clean! Keep the underwear clean!” Oh, my heart just hurt for him since he was trying so hard to hold it in. We finally found a Starbucks, but by then it was too late. Soaked pants. We went in, tried emptying out the rest of the snow cone in him, changed clothes, and then got back in the car to head home. It was actually pretty funny and we kind of laughed about it the whole way. But then, seriously 2 minutes from home, we hear it again, “Go potty, Mom! Keep the underwear clean! Keep the underwear clean!” Didn’t quite make it home in time for that one either.

Anyway, the kids were SO tired after their monstrous night out. And so were the parents, especially after the ride home. But what a fun night to remember! Everyday since Cole asks, “Monster truck show today, Mom?” To which I reply, “Nope, no monster truck show today, buddy.”  Glad he liked it.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Kate got a My Generation doll this year at Christmas. She lovingly named her Rachel Mya Blackhurst. The doll looks very similar to Kate with dark hair and blue eyes, and Kate has taken to her like she is her own little girl. She sleeps with her, carries her around, wraps the doll up in her favorite blankies, changes her daytime clothes to jammies (and vice versa), and even bought her a salon chair so she can adequately comb her hair. But sweetest of all, she threw one heck of a birthday celebration for Rachel’s 4th birthday (all Kate’s idea), which was on January 5th. She made her a card, blew up balloons, bought her a puppy as a gift, and baked a very special cake in her Easy Bake Oven. She’s a doll of no words, but Rachel Mya surely loved it. At least she darn well better have.