Bend-a-Roos and Grandma

03Grandma & Grandpa suprised us with a visit on Friday and Grandma brought her Bend-a-Roos/Wikki-Stix. These are waxy sticks that you can cut, bend, repair, stick together, etc to make anything you can dream up. Grandma had some wikki-stix and the kids (and the Grandma) had so much fun playing with them, she ordered a bunch of bend-a-roos (she has hundreds in numerous colors). Well, we all sat down (including Ky's friend, Bronwyn) and played and made things for a couple of hours until it was bedtime and time for Grandma & Grandpa to go to Dave & Robyn's. Ky & Bron began making glasses, and then everyone wanted a pair. They all wrote their names. Lyssa likes to make people and animals. Kylie liked symbols (peace is her favorite right now). Treyson liked the most difficult animals, which required Mom's help (gorilla, dinosaur). In the picture, he ended up with a bone. :) I'll attach the pictures below of our great time!

Sledding Fun

Let me begin by saying I believe Idaho is the coldest (ok, maybe not THE) place on earth (or at least out of Utah, Idaho and Guatemala). So, the reason we choose to make our annual trip to visit TJay's parents and brother around Christmas? Ya, I don't know either. When they told us it was warm, after all it was almost up to 30 (30 is still BELOW freezing), I knew we were in trouble. Luckily, his parents' new home is very well insulated! :)

However, while we were up there, we were invited to tag along with Jeff and his family (T.Jay's brother who has kids our kids' ages) up to a neighbors "cabin" and go sledding, hot chocolate drinking and chili eating. LOVED IT!! We traveled up to Ashton, Idaho and it was absolutely beautiful! The view of the valley and the river running through it was awesome. Everyone had a great time sledding. I was amazed at how many times Treyson went down and walked back up (except when he could hitch a ride on uncle Jeff's snowmobile - which is the way to go when you go sledding)! The girls got in this big sled and went down an iced trail Jeff carved out with his machine. They jumped! and totally got air so many times! They loved it. Ky was even in the sled when it jumped the road. TJay had a great time going down like crazy. I, of course, screamed the whole time (I am such a wimp sometimes). It was so much fun! Idaho is fun also, we don't love it for the weather, but we love it for the cousins and granparents! We have so much fun!

I can't find the pictures that TJay's mom took. She stood at the bottom of the hill most of the day getting the perfect pictures! Glad she loves to do that so that I can just copy! :) I will just put them up randomly when I discover their where abouts! :)

TWILIGHT!!

TWILIGHT!!TWILIGHT!! I am soooooooooo excited. I've been reading Midnight Sun online and it's getting me so excited for the movie on Friday! I'm also totally thrilled to be going with my sweet Kylie. She is so excited, especially to see Jacob (a total hottie - according to Ky). She is so excited too. We've been looking forward to this for a long time.

In other exciting news . . . I had a date last night with my sweet Lyssa. We had the most fun. We started out going to the chiropractor for adjustments and a 10 minute massage (Lyssa's first professional massage). We went to Chili's for dinner and ate dessert first - just in case we didn't have room for it after we ate our dinner. Then we took Trey to Dave & Robyn's for his sleepover (we always love to see Dave & Robyn!). Then we went to Roberts and after looking over the entire store for the perfect craft, we found what we wanted to do: paint. So we bought some way cute things, rented a chick flick and went home to watch a movie & do crafts. We made hot cocoa, of course, while we painted and watched. It was great to have some one to one time with Alyssa. Sometimes she feels left out, being the middle child and all, but I want her to remember that she is an important and loved part of our family!

Treyson . . . can't be left out. Friday he had his Adaptive PE test (gross motor skills) and he ROCKED! Last year when he was tested, he scored at 13% (7% is severely delayed; 12% is moderately delayed; 50% is normal). So the district supervisor qualified him for services. After one year: The supervisor thinks Trey's score will be around 60-70%! That is a huge difference in a year. The man testing Trey was so suprised at how far he was getting on the test. Treyson even did things on his own that he needed to be tested on. Treyson is awesome & I'm so proud of him! (Even if he didn't want to come home from Dave & Robyn's and wanted a longer sleepover). :)

TJay . . . this is a longer blog than I'd planned, but I can't leave my sweetie out. He is leaving for Seattle tomorrow. He'll be gone to a PASS conference for SQL for the week. Back on Saturday, we will miss our Daddy! He will have a lot of fun and do a lot of networking and learn a lot, so that is good. And, while he is gone . . . TWILIGHT!! (I had to return to it).

Just Happy

This is just a happy blog, so if you're grumpy go ahead and skip it. :) I'm just feeling good today (maybe because I don't have to go to the gym until tonight, so I'm having a leisurely computer morning).
Kylie is a BEAR to get up in the morning: it goes like this, "Kylie, get up" (kind of softly spoken by me). "KY, it's time to get up" (hollered a bit more harshly). "Kylie get out of bed NOW! You're going to be late for school! (so, now I'm a WEE bit cranky & harsh). Sometimes it's repeated and lectures and yelling (both ways). Followed by "have a great day at school". (ya, right, like that's going to happen now.) So, after one of these all too harsh mornings (in which I yelled at my sweet hubby for suggesting I was being a bit too mean), TJay (who wakes up the same way Ky does - BAD) suggested I begin the mornings by just laying down with her and hugging her. So, I've tried that, I get up earlier so that I can crawl in bed next to my Ky and just lay there by her giving her hugs. Guess what? It works beautifully! Ky gets up (still not right away, but eventually), I feel good, we always get some time alone together (everyone else s still asleep), and the morning starts off beautifully. So, my mornings go better now. :)
Also, I was so worried last week about parent-teacher conference, it's always a bit nerve-wracking, sometimes parents suprise you with bad vibes. But 24 out of 27 parents showed up (yeah) and it went so well. :) And, it's over!
Wednesday, I get to go to a fireside to listen to one of my favorite authors (not Stephenie Meyer): Rachel Ann Nunes. She wrote the Ariana series which a fun LDS novel series. I'm excited for that.
More good news, we are finalizing our Thanksgiving trip to Moab plans and I'm so excited. We are renting a house with 3 rooms and a kitchen, for about the price of a motel room. We will be going to Canyonlands and Arches and I'm just getting excited for hiking around with the kids. We had such a great time last month, I'm excited to be going again.
Next week, our school has 2 half days and Friday off! woo hoo! I'm excited for that. Friday is my date with Kylie (and Robyn Cash and a bunch of webb cousins) to see Twilight! In Kylie's words, "the guy who plays Jacob Black is a hottie!" (she is right, have you seen pictures of him?) The other two get to play with Uncle Davey, since Daddy will be gone to Seattle all next week (i feel a chocolate pancake dinner coming up).
So, anyway, I'm just happy right now. (knock on wood). And happy I got to sit and get caught up on my friends' blogs and blog a bit this morning. I love lazy, rainy mornings. I don't have to go in to work until 11:30. Perfect! (Gina, thanks for drawing an eye for me - it's up on the bulletin board because it's our eye unit now.) :)