The Polar Express

So, we had heard that the Polar Express expedition in Heber City was AMAZING....so we nearly killed the entire family getting there and spent a good deal of money on tickets, only to be dissappointed in the end.

They tell you that you are going to the "North Pole" to see Santa, when in reality, you go BACKWARDS (which really bothered Ally) on a train going 10mph, in the dark with no lights or attractions along the way until you see a man in a Santa suit standing in a snowbank with a sign that says "North Pole" and red flood lights......then, you turn around and go 10mph back, but at least you go back FORWARDS I guess!! LOL

In all fairness, they gave us hot chocolate and cookies and sang a few Christmas songs while waiting for Santa to stroll through the train cars.....needless to say, we won't be rushing back next year.

Poop?

It is so amazing what kids remember......

As a family tradition, Matt takes the kids to The Festival of the Trees every year and they get to see Santa.....last year was the second year and when I asked Ally if she was excited to go and see Santa, she said "No, he stinks!". I started to laughed and asked her what he smelled like and she said "Poop, I think" with her nose all turned up like the memory was just as vivid as the day she first smelled it. I thought that was so funny that she could remember that from the year before, when she was only 2 years old.....

Today is the day that they are headed out for 2008 and SHE STILL remembers! I asked her about it this morning and she still claims that Santa smells like poop. She was scarred for life by some dirty Santa with gas at The Festival of the Trees!! Poor Kid....

Family Pictures

We decided to brave the photo studio for Christmas pictures this year and we actually did OK considering 2/3 kids were running 102.0 degree fevers just a few days before the occasion. Next year I think we will all have an attention span long enough to make it through the sitting. :o)

Life Lessons with Daddy

Poor Matt...I think this is a life lesson meant for a son, but he's making the best of three girls! I suppose it might come in handy one day, like learning to tie a tie, but for now Ally sure had fun helping Daddy clean up for Thanksgiving Day. (Maybe they ought to work on his chest next???)

Big Enough

For a few weeks now Ally has been asking to play on the computer and telling me "I'm bigger for it now, Mom", so I finally sat down with her to see if she could do it....WOW, she is big enough!

She can move the mouse all around, click to match numbers, letters and play all sorts of games. I knew she was "pretty smart" (we all think our kids are smart), but I really did not know she could do all that!

I guess she is getting bigger for lots of things right before my eyes. It is amazing to think that I didn't get my first computer til I was a senior in High School and she is starting at three years old! Boy will I feel dumb when she gets into school and I don't know how to do her homework, LOL.

Mad Hatter

Cedar is obsessed with hats lately, whether it is a winter hat, ball cap or just the hoodie on her jacket, no outfit is complete without a hat. These are a few of her latest fashions and the funny this is...she will walk around like this for hours! I'm afraid she is going to be my little (expensive) fashionista!
What you can't see in this picture is that she has red velvet Christmas shoes on her feet...what a stylin outfit eh? I blame this one on dad, and he even took her out of the house in such a get-up!

And don't even think about asking her to take it off...she will respond with a resounding, NOOO!

Who me?? Yeah, I'm cute! (at least mom gave her a hat that matched, LOL)

So Thankful....

So, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I think it is only right that we all stop and ponder our lives. It is so easy to find things to complain about and have the "poor me's" but if you REALLY stop and look at the world around you, most of our complaints are pretty trivial.

DID YOU KNOW THAT IN AMERICA.....

-According to the Bread for the World Institute 3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.6 million people, including 3 million children, live in these homes.

-According to America’s Second Harvest, over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year -Proportion of Americans living below the poverty level: 12.7 percent (34.5 million people)

-The average poverty threshold for a family of four: $16,660 in annual income

-The number of children under age 6 living in families with a female householder and no husband present: 54.8 percent.

IF YOU COMPLAIN BECUASE YOU DON'T HAVE "THE RIGHT PAIR OF SHOES", HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THESE:
IF YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE MISTREATED BY SOCIETY, LOOK AT THIS LADY:
IF YOU THINK YOUR JOB SUCKS, CHECK OUT HIS GUY:

IF YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR COMMUTE TO WORK, CHECK OUT THESE PEOPLE: LASTLY, IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE HAD A BAD DAY....THINK AGAIN

I am SOOO, grateful for everything that I have and mostly for my wonderful family and friends. Life gets busy and I may not tell all of you as often as I should, so Thank You for your unconditional friendship, love and support.... I Love You!!

Disney Or Bust!!

DISNEY WORLD

We just got back from a week in Disney WORLD with my Mom and Happy...and for those of you who haven't been there, it is HUGE! I took over 400 pictures, so I will just show you some of my favorites.

Ally was so funny on the airplane....when it was taking off she was patting her legs, and when I noticed it and asked her what she was doing she said she was going "super-fast" like The Little Einsteins...she cracks me up. Then once we had been flying she asks with all seriousness "how are we going to get down? I don't have a parachute on my back!" We had to explain that the plane would land so we could get off...she felt much better.

All of the kids were amazing....after days and days of walking, not sleeping well and generally burning our candles at both ends, no one was fighting about bed time and I can't believe how well they did with the whole experience. Matt vows that we won't return until the kids can all carry their own luggage and meet height requirements for ALL the rides, but I bet we'll go back sooner than that. :o)

The Queen of Far, Far Away

Monkeying Around!

This year was my favorite Halloween in a long time! My mom came over to see the kids and we took them trick-or-treating around the neightborhood. I thought Cedar would lose interest and fall asleep, but she LOVED IT!

No matter how tired she got, she was up and ready to go to the next door, in hopes of CANDY. (This child runs if she thinks food is involved in anything!! If I even open the fridge or the pantry door she is hot on my trail to see what I am getting. It reminds me of a cat we had once that could hear the can opener). When her bag got heavy she insisted on carrying it and would not let anyone help her for fear that we would steal some. :o)

Ally would have gone door-to-door all night if we had let her. Thank goodness it started to rain, and that was finally a good enough reason to come home. We had a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again next year. Ally already informed me that whe wants to be a T-rex next year....we'll see if she remembers.

Halloween Time!

We have been so busy the past couple of weeks...here is a peek of what's been going on in our neck of the woods!!

Hungry ducks!!

Ever been to Layton Park in the fall when the ducks are starving??? I recommend taking more than one loaf of bread to feed them or they will chase you down! We had a great time once we got out of bird country.

Sugar and Spice

Teddy Bear Picnic

Ally is growing so fast! It seems like just yesterday she was a baby. I know we all probably think our kids are the smartest and the cutest etc...but she never ceases to amaze me with her wit and adorable personality!

Fall Fun!

Black Island Farms

Every year we take the kids down to Black Island Farms and let them go hog-wild! They have so much fun going down the big hay slides (except the big rug burn that Ally won't stop whining about), getting lost in the corn maze and riding out on the hay ride to pick a pumpkin!

This is probably one of my favorite activities of the year...and a great excuse to take some fall pictures of the kids. Brittney and Ally got their faces painted and Ally thought it was her duty for the night to try to scare all the other kids with her freaky face!! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait til next year when Cedar is just a little bigger. Whoever thought of turning a farm into Agratainment is a genius!!

Let It Snow!

I love the change of seasons, but it was a little bit of a surprise when we woke up this morning to >6 inches of SNOW....in mid-OCTOBER! I may have to rethink our Halloween costumes this year to include snowpants! You gotta love Utah weather; it's supposed to be back up to 70 by the end of the week.

My kids busily gathered their snow suits (which were too small from last year) and headed out bright and early. Even Cedar wanted to check it out so we bundled her up the best we could. This is the first year she will really get to play in the snow, and so far she is LOVING it....socks on her hands and all!

I remember Ally at this age, would not play in it at all....I bought her a brand new snow suit, gloves and boots and she just sat in the snow and cried. I remember the scrapbooker in me being so disappointed because she had a miserable look in all the photos. It is all about the scrapbook, RIGHT?

Matt and I hurried to sweep the snow off of the hot tub cover, the poor bushes and trees that were being weighted down and the trampoline which was sagging down quite a bit, then we stopped to have some fun with Gunner and the kids. Gunner loves to chase snowballs and eat them...check out that air!

Brittney quickly taught Cedar that you are supposed to eat the snow and bury your face in it! She didn't seem to mind. Infact, when I offered to take her in to get warm she scowled her best scowl and told me "Noooo!". Kids are tough. They were going down the slide at speeds a little over my comfort zone, but the snow seemed to break their fall....good thing Matt's an ER nurse so we won't have to wait long!