Terrific Teacher

I love Facebook and it drives me crazy at the same time. It's a great way to stay connected with people I may never otherwise talk to, but it can be so addicting and time consuming. I will literally sit down to check my email, see that someone left me a note on Facebook, log in to see what the note says and then an hour later, I don't know where the time went or what I was even reading. It's crazy.

The other day I was Facebook surfing, saw a post from my old friend from high school, Kelly Michel saying that her mom and dad (my awesome high school choir teacher) were coming to Disneyland with her 5 year old son. I too was planning on taking my kids to Disneyland and thought how fun it would be to meet up with my very favorite high school teacher and his darling wife. I got in touch with Kelly to get more info, called Mr. Michel and we planned on meeting up yesterday evening.

After a lot of crowds, miscommunication, and trouble getting together, we finally found the Michel family and were able to spend only a few minutes together catching up before a Disney show started. Although it was only a few minutes, it was great to see them and visit. They are such wonderful people.

Dallin, Claire and I also had a lot of fun together riding rides, watching the Christmas parade, eating gingerbread and hot chocolate and enjoying the Disney holidays (Spencer was at home having fun with a babysitter). A fun way to start the Christmas season!

Thespian Troll

Dallin signed up for an after school theatre club. He had a blast! It was right up Dallin's alley... games, being in front of people, silly warm-ups, being with friends, singing songs, memorizing lines... he loved all of it. At the end of the 8 weeks, each drama student was in a play and performed it in front of family and friends.

Dallin was paired with another boy named Kieran in a play called "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Dallin played the head troll who was teaching the young and inexperienced troll (Kieran) how to act. My favorite part was when Dallin said "TERRIBLE" in a great, dramatic voice. I think the drama gene has been passed onto my Dallin! Way to go Mr. Troll!

Michel Meeting

Facebook is a funny thing. I was checking some updated status' one day when I read that Mr. Michel (my favorite high school teacher... okay, everyone's favorite high school teacher) was going to Disneyland the next day with his beautiful wife and grandson. I was so excited because I already had a babysitter lined up for Spencer and was planning on taking my older kids after school the next day as well. Fate... or maybe a fun coincedence. I called him that next morning, but all I could hear was Small World in the background :). We finally got in touch and planned on meeting sometime that evening.

The amount of craziness it took for us to actually hug and say hello is hard to put into words. Maybe just lengthy and boring, but let me just say that we ran, jumped, fought through crowds, sweet-talked ushers and eventually had a moment with some of my favorite people. It was really fun catching up and spending a little time with the Michels.

The moral of this story is: if you post on facebook that you will be at Disneyland the next day, the Waldrons may stalk you and find you :).

Magnificent Mathmatician

Last year, Dallin was honored in the first NVES awards assembly as the "Spectacular Scholar". This year, Dallin was honored in the first awards assembly as the "Magnificent Mathematician".

He LOVES math and recently won 1st place in his class' match competition (sorry to brag). He makes charts and graphs. He tells me things in percentages (today was a good day, like 87% good). He is constantly asking for a math quiz and gets the answers right (like 98% of the time). He made up a math song where he adds numbers in his head up to 6 digits. Yep, Dallin is one smart, awesome and truly magnificent kid/student!

Gobbling Genius

I go to the gym at least 3 times a week. It is my recharge time. Dallin is in school and Spencer loves kids club... it's Claire I have to drag there. She complains all the way there and ends up enjoying herself... every time... 3 days a week.

The other day, when I was done with my workout, I opened the door to kids club and saw some twinkle eyes. Claire was happy and was holding something behind her back. She proceeded to proudly show me her masterpiece and the fabulous story-line that goes with it. The picture she drew above is of two turkeys (her hands) who didn't want to get eaten for Thanksgiving. These smart little turkeys took matters into their own feet. They captured the farmer and put HIM in the cage (see picture above). Isn't it genius?! Not only is kids club fun, but it a platform for genius work.

Nicely done Claire. Aren't you glad we went to the gym?

Fitness Friends

Our family has a new favorite past-time... it's called Crossfit and we love it! Peter and I go over almost everyday to the Nilsen's garage and do the WOD (workout of the day) and the kids go over a few times a week and do the kids class. The WODs are intense and some of the craziest stuff we have ever done, but we all love the challenge and working out with our friends!

Shooting Star

This post has been a LONG time coming. The reason I haven't busted this post out is because I honestly don't know where to begin. Dallin had the most amazing season of basketball in the fall and if I tried to elaborate, it would be super-braggy and long-winded. But here we go anyhoo... he was nothing short of amazing. This season, Dallin played on the Bulls team. He was *6 and his coach was Anna (a manager who works at the Rec Center). He acted the role of "team captain", encouraging his teammates and educating them on how to play. The Bulls had a great season (#1 in the division) and Dallin is ultimately to thank for that... he was a machine.

Saturday mornings were like Christmas for me... I couldn't wait to see what Dallin would do. He had stellar lay-ups, tricky moves, around the back passing, etc.

One of my favorite moments this past season was when we were walking to our car after a game. He had scored 32 points and informed us that he currently had 80 points in his "career." Yep, he takes this stuff pretty seriously.

Dallin and basketball are like peanut butter and jelly, cereal and milk, Batman and Robin... two things that should never be separated. He doesn't just enjoy basketball, he IS basketball.

Another season is quickly approaching us and I can't wait to see how many points Dallin adds to his "career"!

Silly Skaters

Yep, we love us some jib jab ;)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Shoe Size

Claire is almost 5 and wears a size 9 shoe

Spencer just turned 2 and wears a size 8 shoe.

Just sayin...

Disneyland Desire

For anyone who reads the fine print, I mentioned in my "girl's getaway" blog entry that we went to Disneyland on Jen's birthday (the day before we left for San Francisco). I just found some photos that I completely forgot that I had taken on my cell phone. Although it was a little more crowded that we had anticipated or hoped (darn you Space Mountain and Tower of Terror riders), we still had a lot of fun none-the-less! It was Jen's wish to spend her birthday here... wish granted! Here's a sneak peek into our day...

silly children waiting in line for Thunder Mountain (Claire's first time... and she LOVED it!)

Dallin about to board the train

Nervous Claire waiting for the Thunder Mountain train to take off

The dry and happy Splash Mountain riders

The soaked and even happier Splash Mountain riders

Emerging through Sleeping Beauty's castle

The cute girls in their pink teacup

Ready to take off on the Matterhorn bobsled

It was a wonderful day and a great day to spend Jen's birthday!

p.s. Spencer really was with us, but was usually hanging out in the stroller, asleep, or riding rides with Nana. Unfortunately none of that was caught on camera... poor 3rd child. But I promise you that he had a fun day as well ;).

Beautiful Bomber

Claire played a fun first season of soccer on the Purple Bombers!

She was lucky to be surrounded by her cute friends, Owen and Eric and she had a great time learning and trying her best to make some soccer moves.

She had the most fun cheering on her team mates and running through the parent tunnel at the end of each game. The after-game snacks were also a highlight.

At the end of the season, they had a team party at the Pizza Factory where they each received a nice plaque/trophy. Claire's first trophy!

I'm pretty sure soccer isn't Claire's deep love/addiciton, but it was sure fun playing with friends and learning something new! Go Purple Bombers!

Pappy People

Pappy Birthday

So Pappy Together

Pappy Talk

Don't Worry Be Pappy

I'm Just Pappy to be With You

Pappy Days are Here Again

Shiny Pappy People

To Make Somebody Pappy

If You're Pappy and You Know it, Clap Your Hands

Spencer's favorite movie right now is Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. At one point Huey, Dewey and Louie bust open a door and sing "and a happy, happy, happy, happy!" (finishing off the song "We wish you a Merry Christmas"... and a happy new year). Spencer belts this out singing: Pappy, Pappy, PAPPY, PAPPY!!!

Yes, this is how Spencer says the word.

Say it... doesn't it make you feel so pappy?!

Girls Getaway

I LOVE October for many reasons, but one of my favorite reasons is because it's my birthday month. "Birthday months" are used to their full potential in our home. If there is a movie to be chosen, all you have to say is "it's my birthday month" and the movie choice is yours. If there is a pair of shoes that I have had my eye on for quite some time, I feel a lot less guilty buying them cause "it's my birthday month". It carries a lot of weight.

This past birthday month was wonderful... not only because I got a new pair of shoes :), but because I was able to share it with my mom and my sister. Oh, and guess what?! It was my sister Jen's birthday month too! Because it was 2 people celebrating a birthday month in October, we decided to go big... San Francisco girls weekend big. (p.s. before we actually drove to San Fransisco, my Mom and sister Jen flew So Cal so that we could go to Disneyland with the kids. Super-duper fun start to a fabulous weekend)

This is the first time us Hinckley girls have ever taken a trip together and it was so much fun!

We went shopping, ate at some fun restaurants (ahem, Slanted Door), went to the De Young Museum,

enjoyed the drive (except for in the psycho city), and had a lot of fun together.

Now the notes below will make absolutely no sense to anyone but me, Mom and Jen... some of my favorite inside jokes from our fun San Fran adventure:

-Tropisueno

-Juan ("uh oh!" from behind a tree)

-bottomless chips and not so bottomless butts ;)

-I sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice to your house, did you get it?

-Hillary Clinton the "dignitary"

-there is no where to go pee in SF

-Incorrect pronunciation game at De Young museum

-unisex bathrooms

-coconut, rice, black beans, sugared bananas = heaven

-homeless man knocking on window... Jen rolling up the window

-cell phone tracking in Nordstrom

-green velvet pants and a red velvet jacket

-ugly shirts turning out to be really cute purchased shirts

-Awkward family photos

-Mama Bear snoring

-radio hopping on car ride

-Jen rapping solidly to "Airplanes" song

-"noisy hangers" waking us up

-creepy man who lost his voice trying to make us laugh and failing miserably

-"Am I supposed to be driving right here?"

-Vitamin C tablets

-oyster initiation

-gelato

-"good thing we didn't take the continental breakfast upstairs!" ($40 later)

-golf clap

-don't step over the tape on the floor!

-you get a discount at Bloomingdales on everything but the things you want to buy

Cyndi Lauper had it right when she sang "girls just wanna have fun"... it must have been her birthday month.

Thanks for the fun weekend ladies!

Hello Halloween

Sorry, I had to post all the photos up top... they were being stubborn!

Our Halloween kicked off on Thursday evening when we went over to the Chase's house for their extreme pumpkin carving event. We brought our biggest pumpkin, Peter cleaned it out and I was in charge of carving it. The kids decided on "Happy Halloween" for the front and it took so stinking long, that we only ended up with "Happy". We simply had a happy pumpkin. After each pumpkin had been carved, Bishop Chase would put a roll of toilet paper that had been marinating in lighter fluid inside the pumpkin and then would light it on fire. It was awesome... definitely extreme. The pumpkins were so bright and ours was so 'happy'. It was a great night of friends, amazing decorations and yummy food.

Halloween weekend ended up being nuts, bizarre, stressful and not my favorite... so I've decided to have my kids tell you about it using their own words...

DALLIN -

"Halloween was bad because I didn't get to go trick-or-treating (true since Halloween fell on the Sabbath this year, but he did go trunk-or-treating the night before and had a blast). I had a book parade at school and was a little nervous to go in front of the whole school and show them my costume. I was Harry Potter. It had an awesome light up wand and I went around to people and shocked them with spells. I liked my robe... I would pretend to trip on it and make the kids in my class laugh. I went to our ward carnival/trunk-or-treat on Saturday and got like 1000 pieces of candy... I am exaggerating, but I did get a lot. My favorite part of the ward party was going through the spooky alley... it was not scary at all, but a lot of my friends were in there. I also really, really liked handing out candy on Halloween night."

CLAIRE -

"I dressed up as Pinkalicious for my preschool party. I played games. I played bowling and I knocked a bowling pin over. I got one candy at the preschool party (she got WAY more than that :)). I was in front for the costume parade and got a little embarrassed. I had a part in the pumpkin song ("Oh, my it's getting late"). My mom and Spencer came to see me. I made Pinkalicious cupcakes for my class and the girls liked them... the boys liked them too. Jaden liked it because he thought the cake was red, but it was really pink. I went to the church trunk-and-treat party. I went trick-or-treating. I liked getting candy with Bailey and Cassidy (her most fabulous babysitters). I love the balloon game because I threw it REALLY hard. On Halloween night, I changed my costume like 10 different times and answered the door to hand out candy to kids. I dressed up like Cinderella and went over the Chuck and Ciel's house (next door) to trick-or-treat. My favorite part of Halloween was when Mom and I went to the bookstore and we read Halloween books. My favorite books we bought were "The Ugly Pumpkin", "5 Little Pumpkins", "When a Monster is Born". In "The Ugly Pumpkin", my favorite part is when it says "OH MY GOSH... I'M A SQUASH!". I like Halloween."

SPENCER-

"Mickey Mouse" was his costume and he went around saying "Tweet Tweet" (trick-or-treat). I will have to narrate this one since Spencer is a man of few words. Spencer really likes the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show, so we thought it would be fun to dress him up as Mickey. I am going to call his costume "Mick" because he was only partially dressed. Spencer refused to wear the ears and we couldn't find one of the yellow converse shoes I ordered for him online, so we unhappily settled for blue. He did rock the black tights though. He spent the entire evening at the carnival crawling through chairs and hanging out by the balloon dart game (livin' on the edge). Peter and Spencer were buddies that night and he was quite the handful. Spencer loved marching in the costume parade. He went trunk-or-treating for a bit and then decided he'd rather hang out in the car and watch a movie. On Halloween night, he went to sleep really early... not the most memorable Halloween for him but then again, he's only 2.

MISSI - I was a disaster all weekend. Running here, running there, cleaning up this, setting up that, making treats, fixing problems, appointments, parties, etc. etc. ... all with 3 little kids in tow. I am still exhausted. Kind of ironic that I was a butterfly for Halloween... trying to stay composed as I fluttered from one place to the next. I was also partially in charge of our ward Halloween carnival/trunk-or-treat. It was a lot of work and it ended up being a great success. A highlight was participating with Peter in the adult pie eating contest. We came in 2nd and I don't think I'll ever be able to eat a chocolate cream pie ever again... at least not until Thanksgiving :). All-in-all, SO happy the weekend happened and is checked off my to do list.

PETER-

Pete was in charge of a funeral on Saturday in San Diego, came home, took a quick nap and then I abandoned him to go to the church to finish setting up. He got all the kids in their costumes and brought them to the party. He played Mr. Mom that night. Kind of ironic that his costume was a prison inmate... he probably felt a little trapped and hand-cuffed to Spencer. Peter is a great Mr. Mom, by the way. After we all cleaned up our party mess, Peter drove the kids home. I came home to find Spencer in bed asleep and everyone else out playing in the garage. Apparently we hadn't fit enough into one day because Peter spent the rest of the night cleaning out our garage, while I cleaned our downstairs explosion. We finally went to bed at midnight with nothing left in us.

As for the actual Halloween day, Peter had his usual bishopric meetings and the kids and I made more treats for my primary class, watched some Halloween classics (Charlie Brown!), and played some games. We went to church and the scariest part of Halloween was Spencer in sacrament meeting. We made it through, had a nice day and spent the rest of the evening handing out candy and watching Claire change into a hundred different costumes.

It was a weekend, it really was fun, and most importantly... the kids had a Halloween blast.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love,

Prison Pete, Crazy butterfly, Harry, Pinkalicious and Mick(ey)