Kid Kingdom

As mentioned in my previous post, I took Dallin and Claire back to Disneyland after a 3 month hiatus... so deprived, I know. We dubbed this day as a "no crying baby day". We all absolutely adore our baby Spencer, but we all also admit that our day at Disneyland without him was a lot more productive and fun. Plus it was a blast hanging out with my older kids, giving them my undivided mommy attention. We also had the added bonus of catching up with our good friends the Randles and Newbolds! Here are some of the highlights and moments I actually remembered to pull my camera out for:C is for Claire

A is for dAllin :)Meeting up with the Randles and Newbolds
Dallin, Ella and Julia ridin' solo on Dumbo (pink elephant on the left)
Claire and Victoria... the giggly Teacup girls
Good friends+no crowds+fabulous weather+
a date with my older kids=a wonderful Disneyland Day!

Bear BM

I took Dallin and Claire to Disneyland/California Adventure yesterday. We walked past this huge grizzly bear and here is our short, funny conversation:

Mom - "Dallin and Claire, go stand under the bear... I want to take a picture"
Dallin - "Okay"
Claire - "No way, he will poop on me!"

Good call Claire... you can never be too careful when it comes to giant grizzly bear poop. Thanks Dallin for taking the chance.

Cartoon Coma

Spencer is only 4 months old and he already loves watching TV and video games. I think there is some kind of cell that is naturally ingrained into the male species that draws them to the boob tube. Spencer's all-time favorite (all-time = the past month) is The Backyardigans cartoon. If he is ever crying or in need of some TV attention (TV attention = mom needs a break), turn on the Backyardigan's intro and he is hooked. The combination of the bright colors, cute music, and dancing gets him all zoned in... or zoned out, depending on how you look at it. What can I say? Boys will be boys.

Nightmare Night

So I was going to title this post "Mini Mom". Unfortunately not because I have lost any more of my baby weight, but because we finally gave in and purchased a minivan today (I vowed years ago that I would never go there). We got a steal of a deal and drove out to LA to pick it up this afternoon. The drive was long but surprisingly peaceful (Spencer usually cries in the car, but he has been really sick today and ended up sleeping the majority of the way there). We drove through some LA-type neighborhoods until we turned this corner and the view of the sun setting over the ocean literally took my breath away. This is exactly what we saw:The kind people who sold us the car lived right up the hill from the Trump golf course in a quaint, yet amazing neighborhood. They also ended up being LDS. This part of the afternoon/evening was great. The van is great, the people were great, the kids were being great, the view was great... and then we drove home. Dah, dah, dah.

I really don't want to bring anyone down, so I am going to give you the quickest run-down of the evening's events that I wish to forget, but know I need to blog (for reference, I took Dallin and Claire home in the new van while Pete took a screaming Spencer home in the Tahoe):

1 - We picked up Burger King on the way home. The kids spilled the milkshake in the new van. I am mad but not mean.
2 - I take the wrong exit, lose Peter and pay for it dearly as I struggled to find my way back in LA.
3 - The kids say they are not feeling well... Dallin proceeds to throw-up EVERYWHERE. It is on his shirt, pants, shoes, hands, seatbelt, seat, behind his seat, floor. We pull over, remove his clothes, and spend an obnoxious amount of time trying to get all traces of barf removed. Forget "new car" smell, we have barf... and a naked boy in the back. I am quite mad, praying not to be mean.
4 - At this point, Dallin has missed one of his best buddies birthday party and is quite upset in the backseat. We are both sad and mad.
5 - We are about 20 minutes away from home when the new van (we named it Obi 'Van' Kenobi) started to chug. My heart stopped. It would chug then race forward, chug then race forward. I prayed and kept pushing, then prayed and kept pushing. I finally had to pull off into a gas station. I turned the car off, said a "folded arms, eyes closed" prayer with the kids and turned the key. Nothing (for anyone losing faith, keep reading).
6 - I grabbed my new iphone to call Peter and there was no reception. I kept calling and calling and there was nothing. No dial tone, no ringing, nothing. Dead car, dead phone. Luckily I happened to have 3 quarters and a pay phone next to me. I called Pete, and my prince came to the rescue (with a sad, sick, screaming baby in the back seat :( ).
7 - While the kids and I waited, we played 20 questions and danced. I was trying everything in my power to not cry. I decided to try my phone again, it fell down the crack of the car and the face shattered. What?!!! Now I am super-mad, super-sad and wondering how in the world I break all of this to Peter. Little bit at a time.
8 - Peter rescues us, he figures out what is wrong with the van, my handyman hubby fixes it and follows us home. Prayers really are answered.
9 - We arrive home at 9:15 p.m... LONG day. Got the kids to bed, drove over to Best Buy to have my phone fixed and here I sit at midnight with everything finally okay. The van is okay, my phone is being replaced, the kids survived and I am not mad/sad/borderline psycho anymore.

10 Lessons learned:
- don't feed your car-sick kids Burger King
- don't feed your car-sick kids Burger King in a new car
- make sure you are always following the correct black Tahoe when changing freeways
- always keep an extra pair of clothes handy in the car (and maybe some Febreze)
- check thoroughly under the hood of the "new" used car you are purchasing
- always keep some extra quarters on hand
- kids are happy no matter what is going on around them as long as you are happy (even if you are faking it)
- don't drop an iPhone
- iPhone insurance is worth the extra money
- pray... it works.

Blue Boy

Doesn't it bother you when parents get on their blogs and brag about their kids? If you just answered YES to this question, then please stop reading HERE.
Every Friday, Dallin is sent home from school with a "behavior knight slip". Each day at school, all of the kids in his class start on the color GREEN. If they misbehave, they are moved down to YELLOW. If they continue to act like little monsters, they get moved to RED and if they become complete terds, they go to the PRINCIPAL.
There is, however, a silver lining... it's actually blue. If the kids are exceptionally good/helpful/quiet/clean/etc. they are moved to BLUE. This is a big deal for these 5 and 6 year olds... especially MY 6 year old. When I pick him up from school, the first thing Dallin says is "guess what mom... I got on _____ today." I am proud to report that it has always been green and blue... usually a mixture of the two throughout the week.
Last week however, Dallin came home with an all blue week!!! Quite an exciting thing for all of us. He tries so hard to be a good student and friend at school and I am grateful that his efforts are being recognized. Go Dallin-Blue!!!

Church Crowd

Who: The Chaparral Ward
What: A ward party
When: January 9, 2009
Why: To ring in the new year and welcome in the new bishopric
Where: the Bishop's home (ie: our house)
How: We have no idea.

A few weeks ago, we had a really fun evening with over 100 members of our ward coming in and out of our little home. The kitchen was filled with the bishopric member's favorite foods, the backyard was filled with lots of happy/crazy kids, the family room was filled with minglers and people having a difficult time trying to get through the crowd to the food, and the kids rooms were filled with all of their toys that had experienced a major dump-and-run.
Normally, I would be extremely overwhelmed and frustrated with the sheer amount of people and mess, but it was such a fun opportunity to have so many people that we love in our home at once. Plus, the amazing activities committee wouldn't let me do a thing. They came early and set up EVERYTHING and stayed late to clean it all up. We truly have such wonderful and supportive ward members and it is always a good time when we get together. I am looking forward to the next ward activity... at the church. :)

Bishop Boy

Last Thursday, Bishop Waldron attended his first bishopric training meeting. At one point in the meeting, the senior bishop stood up to conduct, looked over at Peter and asked if he would like to report from his mission :). A little ha ha jab at how young Pete looks/is.

Even though Pete is young, he is doing a great job leading the ward, building up his business and somehow finding the time to remain the greatest dad and husband. We love our Bishop.

Plentiful Pink

The other day, Claire and I had a party... a PINK party... actually, a PINKALICIOUS party. A few blog posts ago, I mentioned how much Claire LOVES her Pinkalicious book. It is a story about a little girl who loves pink, eats TOO many pink cupcakes and wakes up one morning FABULOUSLY pink. Her mom takes her to the doctor who then tells her that she cannot eat anything that is pink (BOO), and can only eat things that are green (YUCK). This is Claire's FAVORITE page. She loves looking at the pictures of all the pink food. We then had an idea... WE wanted to be pink too! We went to the grocery store and bought some pink goodies as well as rummaged through our kitchen for anything else that could possibly turn us a rosy hue. We set out some pink flowers, turned to the favorite page in her book and ATE! After every bite we took, we would ask each other if we had turned pink yet. At one point after a swig of pink lemonade, Claire exclaimed "MOM! YOU'RE PINK!!". I then looked at her and realized that SHE was pink too!! We were successful... we had some mother-daughter bonding time, ate a yummy pink lunch and used our imaginations. Please excuse us while we eat some green food to get us back to normal.Patiently waiting to turn pinkSpencer in a purple bumbo at a Pinkalicious party... poor guy.

Darling Dancers

Ask me what I want to be when I grow up and without hesitation, I will say a dancer (a back-up dancer to be more specific). Since that dream will be squished until I retire from the baby-making department (can a woman in their 40's still be a back-up dancer?), I am absolutely content living my dream through my own little dancer (in a non-stage-mom kind of way).

Claire started taking ballet/tap lessons last week with her BFF Aubree and I literally cannot contain myself. I know she is my daughter and of course I think she is wonderful, but how can anyone deny the cuteness of these little girls, dressed in pink working those baby legs? I am in heaven. Claire is too. Forgive me if there is a weekly post with little girls twirling in tutus, just simply understand that I am crazy... about dancing.

Waldron Weekend

We had a very memorable and fun time last weekend. Peter's parents and brother Steve drove down from Arizona to visit and support Peter as he was sustained and set apart as bishop. They arrived on Friday afternoon and we had a great time visiting and playing with the "grandparent gifts" they always so generously bring. Susan is an elementary school teacher and it is always fun to see and read the books she spoils us with. For dinner we went to Red Robin to celebrate Claire's birthday complete with loud restaurant singers and an ice cream sundae.
On Saturday, we watched the rain fall outside while the boys played XBOX and the girls made super-fabulous Play-doh creations.

When the rain stopped, we grabbed some lunch at (guess...) Chick-fil-A and headed to Mulligans. We played arcade games, the boys fought each other in Laser Tag and I became a little addicted to winning the kids tickets (to trade in for cheap loot). Claire thankfully loved the "Stomp-on-the-Spider" game which produced quite a few tickets for my, I mean their collection.

Claire rode the train with Grandma and the teacups with Daddy and both Dallin and Claire had fun riding on the carousel.

That evening, we celebrated Dad's birthday at Outback Steakhouse, this time with no obnoxious singing or birthday dessert (per Dad's request).

The next day we were able to enjoy the morning together since church started at 12:30 (as opposed to the 8:30 we never became used to).

It was so wonderful to have Dad, Mom and Steve here for Peter's big weekend. One of the most special moments was when Dad set apart Peter as a High Priest... it was a beautiful blessing and hopefully worth the drive for them.

Afterwords, they had to head on home for the new week. How grateful we are that they made the trip out and we always love having them visit. If only we all lived a little closer...

'Alicious Addiction

My daughter has a serious obsession with these books:

She got them for Christmas and we read them numerous times each day.

As I was tucking her into bed tonight, she asked if we could read Pinkalicious "just one more time!?". I am such a sucker when it comes to my kids wanting to read books... how do you say no? I sat next to her, opened the book and she began to recite the book to me... yep, that's how many times we have read these. She made her way through her favorite book and when it was 'The End', I proceeded to put the book back on her bookshelf but she demanded that it stay by her. She fell asleep this evening, holding her dear Pinkalicious book.

Claire definitely gives these darling books 5 stars, 2 thumbs up and a high recommendation to any little girl who likes the colors pink and purple. They are absolutely readalicious.

Play-Doh Party

Our little princess turned 3 on January 1st and all she wanted was a birthday party at Chick-fil-A with all of her cute little friends and most importantly, it had to be a Play-Doh party. Claire LOVES Play-Doh. What happens when a sweet little princess has a wish,
it must come true!We had a fun gathering of 7 of her little friends, 3 of her favorite babysitters, and 1 special teacher (Sister Cherry) at her party. We had lunch, went crazy in the playplace, made cakes out of Play-Doh, had some cupcakes of our own and watched Claire open her presents. She was in 3 year old heaven.Happy Birthday to our favorite little girl... we cannot get enough of this spunky, happy, beautiful ray of sunshine that twirls around our lives.Love you, Claire-Bear!

Peter Priesthood

Ok, so we have been keeping a secret. Over the past few weeks, we have had to play dumb, make up stories and even lie a little. Today the secret was revealed in sacrament meeting when Peter (yes, my husband) was sustained in our ward as the new bishop. What an amazing past few weeks we've had... we truly have felt the hand of the Lord in our lives. Peter, I mean Bishop Waldron will be incredible and will be such a great blessing to our ward. I often pat myself on the back for choosing such a fabulous guy :). Here's to the next 5+ years of dedicated service by a truly wonderful man...This photo was taken just a few hours after Peter was called... he was still in shock.