And the worst blogger award goes too....

My excuse for not blogging more often is usually that I don't do anything worth blogging. But lately I've gotten to do lots of fun things and still no recent blog entries! No excuses....I just haven't done it. So here is a summary of the fun things I've gotten to do. Most recently, I went to Hogle Zoo with my two sisters-in-law and their kids and my mother/father-in law. It was good to get the kids out of the house and get a little sunshine....the weather was so perfect! Spencer was fascinated by everything. He's a curious one! Kyah just enjoyed being with her cousins.

Who needs animals? This thing is good for hours of entertainment!

Of course the kids got soaked, but the weather was nice...they didn't care!

This is how Spencer was with every animal all day. Just stared in awe.

He especially loved the monkeys...my little monkey boy!

Kyah and Missy

Naturally, they were completely spent and fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving.

A couple weeks ago, Kyle had to go on a last minute work trip to Chicago. I'd never been, so the day before he was to leave, he asked me if I wanted to go. Of course! So we dropped the kids off with grandma and grandpa and had a weekend getaway. Several months ago, Kyle and the machinery department did a show in Chicago. They brought in a very large machine straight to the show in hopes of selling it there. They didn't. Rather than spending $18,000....yes, $18,000, to ship it to Salt Lake, he's been paying to store it in a warehouse in Chicago. He had some interested buyers, so he had to fly out to meet them there. We flew in Thursday night, had a nice steak dinner and took a walk along the path of Lake Michigan. (Our hotel was right on Michigan Ave.) He spent a few hours with the customers while I ran along the lake and the rest of the weekend was ours to be tourists! We took the tour at the top of the John Hancock building....learned a lot about Chicago! Then we went to the Field Museum. That didn't really do it for me! Since it was only 3 1/2 miles from our hotel, we decided to walk back. It was one of the best decisions we made. We got to see so much of the city by walking. We stopped to see the most major piece of art in the windy city....the silver bean!

I'm not much for art, but this thing is pretty cool. We came home Saturday, but not before a day filled with more site seeing. My favorite thing we did was go to the Museum of Science and Industry. We were sort of short on time, so we didn't get to spend nearly as much time there as I would like to have. I could go on and on and on about the amazing things they have there! I would go back if I ever get a chance to go back to Chicago. My favorite thing (which was also heartbreaking to see!) was the fetus displays. Actual still born fetuses preserved from about 5 weeks to 38 weeks and 5 days, with a description of what's going on developmentally. Kyle's was obviously the actual German sub that the American's seized in WWII. It was massive! We really wanted to take a tour, but they were sold out.

Kyle standing next to the sub....this doesn't even do justice for the size of the thing! They actually had to break the thing into 3 pieces, dig a hole next to the museum, assemble it in the hole and build a building around it!

The 21 week actual fetus. There were about 30 or so of these cases lined up to show the progression. The last one made me teary eyed!

And of course we couldn't leave Chicago without trying the pizza they are famous for. By several recommendations, we decided to try Giardano's. I have to admit...it didn't do it for me. We attempted to go there twice and the wait was an hour each time and it's not like we were there at peak times. I didn't hate it, I just prefer other pizza. Although their tiramisu was DIVINE!

It was a really great, much needed getaway. (On a side note, Kyle got the purchase order for the machine last week....YEA!)

And finally.....in March, Mom, Stacey, Ryan, Kaylee, Kyah, Spencer and I piled into my car and drove to Southern California. Glendora, to be specific, where my Grandma, Aunt and cousins live. It was a packed trip! It was Grandma's birthday, so we all spent Saturday doing yardwork for her. That was all she wanted. It was a lot of work, but it looked really good when we were done! And I didn't mind doing a little labor in the gorgeous March California weather. I had a pretty good tan going until I came home! We decided to take the kids to Disneyland and since we had family that are CA residents, they were able to buy us two-fer passes in advance. That way we got to go to California Adventure one day then Disneyland the next. The kids LOVED every minute of it. Kyah's pretty obsessed with several princesses right now and didn't get to see one live princess. I was pretty sad about it. However she was absolutely thrilled to walk through Aurora's castle. She can't watch a single Disney movie without yelling "Aurora's castle!" in the opening. The first day my Aunt Jeanine got to go with us and the second my cousin Lauren and her husband Matt (who happens to work at Disneyland.) We couldn't have done it without their help with the kids! It was such a fun trip!

She didn't quite understand the concept of Disneyland before we got there, so we kept telling her "big park" and that got her excited enough!

Bug's life....it's a real stomach wrencher!

Ryan and Kaylee getting ready for the Bug's Life movie.

Spencer's favorite....Nemo! He was wide eyed and smiling the whole time!

Sometimes husbands do the nicest things!

We took my car into the dealership this week because there was a short in the heating element in the passenger seat. If you turned on the seat heater, it'd shut off after about 5 minutes. Minor repair...no big deal, right? So we took it and they pulled the seat out to replace the part only to realize that they were missing a part and couldn't complete it until the next day. OK, all they needed to do was put the part in and put the seat back. So I was really confused when Kyle told me someone had called him to tell him it still was not finished and I couldn't have my car back until the next day. Kyle went and picked it up yesterday and I didn't go anywhere last night after he got home so I didn't drive it again until today. I went out in my garage this morning and it is immaculately clean. It looks like brand new again...and it needed it BAD! The extra day was only to get it detailed! What a cute husband I have!

Kyah goes to preschool

Once you turn 3, you are no longer qualified to get help from DDI Vantage, the group that has been helping Kyah with her speech/other areas she was behind in. They refer you to the Granite school district for continued help. The program is pretty similar, only for ages 3+. They have to qualify to be considered for the program. So I had her tested in December after DDI "kicked her out." Fortunately, she did NOT qualify, which means she is too smart for the program. She tested right on where she should be in most areas and was even a few months ahead in some. Her speech was still about two months behind average (which is a VAST improvement to go from not talking at all when she turned 2, to being barely behind, and progressing very rapidly!) Because she didn't qualify, they referred me to a Young 3's preschool through the school district. She could start school as soon as she turned 3, rather than waiting for the following school year, as most preschools do. She started February 2, and she LOVES it! She would wear her backpack all day if I'd let her. One night I was fighting her on going to bed and I told her that if she'd go to sleep, when she woke up in the morning, she'd get to go to school. She marched herself right up the stairs and got herself into bed. Her teachers are fantastic and they have a speech therapist in every class. She seems to get a lot of one on one attention from her. It is so great and I am really enjoying my one on one time with Spencer two mornings out of the week!

The most AMAZING ski cabin!

One of Kyle's employee's (Greg) family owns a cabin right on the slope of Brighton. It is incredible! You put on your skis and ski right out the front door to the lifts and when you're done, you ski right back into the cabin. Greg invited all the company and their families to come up to visit the cabin. It was a lot of fun! Everybody brought something to share, so we all hung out and ate and of course skied. His family has owned it for years and years and it's been passed down through the generations, which is the ONLY way you could ever own a cabin in that location. They will rent it out just to pay the annual expenses, but that's not very frequently. Because he is a friend, he said he would rent it to us as a discounted rate and it's nearly always available because they don't need the money. Kyle and I really really want to get a group together to go spend a few days up on the mountain!

The view from the front window....incredible!

Kyah loves her cousin! She would not take off her jacket, hat and gloves the whole time we were there!

Love my little guy!

Sister-in-law Bambi and nieces Kaitlyn and Missy

She is SUCH a ham when she sees a camera!

Kyah is 3!

I'm a little late on this post, because my laptop died, and I didn't have any other way to upload pictures off my SD card. My laptop is like a cat....it's on it's 3rd life! Suddenly came back after weeks of not working!
Anyway...the last two years, I've made a pretty big deal about Kyah's birthday parties. Obviously, the party is more for the adults, than it is for the kids. I decided this year, I was going to just do something small with our families and it ended up being more work than had I just thrown her a well planned party! The weekend before her actual birthday, I was just going to have all of my family over for dinner and make a cake. Kyah really enjoyed helping me! Then two days later, on her birthday, we did another dinner with all of Kyle's family. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoy our families, so it was all worth it!

Helping make the cake!

Helping eat the beater!

Looking at the cake while singing happy birthday.

The favorite toy of all the girls. It caused quite a fight!

This is Kyah's cake from her second party. She LOVES Aurora and she still carries these cake toppers around the house with her and is quite protective of them!

Today's rant and rave...well, everyday's rant and rave, but I'm doing it publically today.

A couple weeks ago, my visiting teaching companion used the expression "catch the dust before it falls." Every time I think about it, I find myself SO irritated (not with her, with the expression.) I try to be an organized person and, of course, I prefer my house to be clean all the time. But I feel like I'm trying to clean up the "dust" of a volcano eruption while it's still spewing ash! How do you catch the new stuff when it falls faster than you can keep up with it? It's not that I mind doing the work (once)....it's that I mind doing it, then doing it again 20 minutes later, and again 20 minutes later, and so on. I spend about 20-30 minutes a day vacuuming, depending on whether or not I vacuum the upstairs. Add to that 30 more minutes to mop just the main floor and that's nearly an hour! (Not daily, just when I have the time.) Do you know how much damage my ADD daughter can do in just 20 minutes without constant supervision? I am feeling particularly frustrated today because I am running around at 100 mph, trying to get my house in order before we leave for St. George in the next couple of days. By the time I finished vacuuming, the living room was a complete disaster. So I cleaned it again. I mopped and she went upstairs and pulled every article of clothing she could reach out of her closest, off their hangers, filled up a duffel bag and emptied it downstairs to "try on." Between her and a needy 1 year old who follows me around holding onto my legs, it is next to impossible to get anything done. I know I'm not the first to have kids while trying to keep a clean house. The part that really gets to me, is that people are able to accomplish it. I seriously spend almost my whole day picking up after my kids/doing chores. No wonder I feel like I'm no fun anymore. I don't have energy to do anything else after a day where I am going non-stop! What am I doing wrong? Is my daughter really that much more out of control than other kids? Is it that wives have husbands who are willing to actually help and/or pick up after themselves? What's the trick?

A MUCH needed break!

Anyone who knows me, knows I have the world's naughtiest daughter! Lately she is pushing me to the brink of insanity. I am being totally literal when I say that my day consists of following after her and picking up the disaster she just made. While I clean one up, she makes the next, and so on. I'm sure she's doing it for attention, but how do I give her attention when she's the one creating the issues that take up so much of my time? (I did try something new that worked today....hopefully it'll continue to work!)
Last Friday was my birthday and it was one of her worst days yet. (I swear she is getting worse and worse every day!) Kyle had told me earlier in the week that he'd planned something for Friday night/Saturday morning and to pack my ski gear and swim suit. Those were my only clues. I was in such a bad mood by Friday afternoon. I didn't know what to pack (I love that Kyle went out of his way to plan something special for me, but I don't think I'm so big on surprises....I like to be prepared) and the kids were making me crazy. The plan was for Kyle's sister to come pick up the kids in the early afternoon, so I thought I'd save myself the headache of what Kyah would get into while I showered, by showering after she picked them up. I waited and waited and she never came. I finally called to find out where she was and she and Kyle had decided that Kyle would leave work to come get us and take them to her. Thanks for telling me this. Then Kyle got there and I was even close to being ready. I even went so far as to say I didn't even want to go.
We dropped them off with Bambi and headed North (still with no clue where we were going.) We ended up going to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho for a quick overnight getaway. I did not realize just how bad I needed a break like that! Kyle got us a room at the Alpaca Inn. It is the nicest hotel in LHS, because they recently remodeled it. The little town is so cute. It pretty much just consists of main street with a few hotels and restaurants and of course, the pools. The buildings are all so old. It's really a neat place. The owner of the hotel was super super nice (as are all the people we came across there!) Once we got there and checked it, I was able to settle down and relax a bit. We went to one of the 4 restaurants. It was only fancy one there, inside the Riverside Hotel. They had this soupy artichoke/spinach dip I just wanted to drink, it was so good!

We went to the pools at 9:00 at night when the temperature was somewhere in the 20s. They have a good set-up.....they have heated locker rooms and heated floors, because it is SO cold! Your first instinct is to run from the dressing room, into one of five-3 foot deep pools. But you step into the pool and your next instinct is to step right back out! You definitely have to work your way into them because they are so hot! It was so nice and relaxing. It was totally dark and you are pretty much surrounded by steam coming off the water.
This is a daytime picture, but you get the point! It was so great to sit around and do virtually nothing! There is a ski resort just 25 miles away and we did plan on going skiing, but we both decided that we were so relaxed (and needed it) that we bagged the idea. We both love to ski, but let's be honest....it's a lot of work! Better saved for a time when that is the only plan! Instead, we slept in (if you call 8:30 sleeping in) went out for breakfast, went back to the Riverside Hotel where they have private rooms with small lava pools and soaked for a while longer, then got tandum couple massages. It was relaxing, but definitely not the best....and I've had the best! I told him I was sore and wanted an all over deep tissue massage and basically got an oil rub down. Can't complain too much though! We decided this is something we need to do more often. It's only about 2 1/2 hours away and is perfect for a quick relaxing vacation!