Wilde Things

(XVI) A post to my best friend.

2011-03-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks for standing by me, even when we both think I've lost it. I hope you realize how much you mean to me. I love you with all my heart. And I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

(This picture was from last year, and sadly enough it was not his 28th birthday, I had just forgotten to get candles and that is all we had. I'll do better this year, I promise.)

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know it has come and gone . . . but man I love Thanksgiving. I love the chance to be thankful and to eat a lot of great food. Maybe this year I just over-did the eating thing.

I didn't want to let this holiday slip away without creating a physical list of some of the things I'm thankful for.

MY FAMILY

They exhaust me and make me crazy, but what would I be without them? Travis, Tyler, Abby, Emma, and Porter make my life complete!

GOSPEL

I love the fact that I know the truth. I really makes life so much easier.

FRIENDS

There are a few people out there who must not mind the craziness of our family too much. I rely on them way too much, especially lately.

HOME

We have a pretty nice place right here. It's warm and keeps us all safe. And we have great neighbors.

FOOD

This includes all the good stuff life has to offer (i.e. steak lobster, chocolate chip cookies, butter pecan ice cream).

Oh, there are so many other things I am thankful for. But, I don't want to stay here all night. So this list will suffice.

Love to all and Happy Holidays!

Frank William Wilde

2010-11-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Frank Wilde 1943 ~ 2010

Frank William Wilde, 67, returned home to his Heavenly Father on October 29th, 2010.

He spent his last days in Heritage Care Center in American Fork where he was tenderly cared for by the nurses, aids, and his immediate family including his wife Margaret, their children and grandchildren.

Frank was born July 8, 1943 in Park City, Utah to Byron Farnsworth Wilde and Gladys Emma Judd Wilde. Frank's father passed away when he was just nine years old. He married his eternal sweetheart, Margaret Ekins on November 20, 1964 in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of four children. Frank loved his children and grandchildren deeply and was always involved in their care and upbringing.

He loved to work. His greatest enjoyment in business was working with his family. After founding Wildewood Cabinets in 1989, he worked with Travis, Lisa and Margaret until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2002. Frank loved to make things look better. He always wanted to do the best job possible and worked hard to do what was right.

Frank was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in many callings and especially loved serving as Bishop of the BYU 81st Ward-12th Stake from 1995-2000. He found the greatest rewards in helping young men prepare to serve missions.

Frank is survived by his wife Margaret, daughter Lisa Kallunki (Matt), son Travis William (Sally), three sisters Carolyn Pappadakis, Cathryn Harris, Pauline Richards, and six grandchildren Alisha and Austin Kallunki, Tyler, Abby, Emma and Porter Wilde. Frank is preceded in death by his parents, daughter Stacy Ann (age 8) and son Tyson David (age 12). Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at the Sharon 4th Ward Chapel, 700 East 445 South in Orem.

Friends may call at the church from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to the service. A viewing will be held at the Walker Sanderson Funeral Home, 646 East 800 North in Orem from 7:00-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Interment will be held at the Coalville City Cemetery.

So it has been a little bit since we have posted...

2010-05-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

So I guess it isn't just Sally's job to actually post something to the family blog so here it goes. Life is BUSY. Here is what we get to deal with most everyday. (Many of you already know from personal experience most of these) Work, school, homework, kids jobs, dads jobs, school choir, school plays, little league baseball games, little leage baseball game practices, bishopric meetings, other non essential church meetings, sundays in general, yard working, sprinkler fixing, play groups, breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, cleaning the house, cleaning the house, cleaning the house, laundry, special school event preperation, taxes, reconciling business accounts, paying bills, birthday for Travis, birthday for Tyler, birthday for Abby, birthday for Emma, temple trips, date nights, and that is just the start of it. Like most of you all life is busy and it just seems to keep getting busier. So in honor of our busy lives that we all lead, here are some pictures.

Porter's Birthday

2009-10-02T01:12:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that my baby is turning one!
He definately has made life a little more "wilde" around here, but I can't even begin to imagine life without him.
Lately, he is into bugs. He loves bugs and can actually say "bug." Although, he does call many things that aren't bugs, bug-- but I don't mind one bit because I love hearing his cute little masculine voice. When he does see a bug he immediately tries to catch it. He gets pretty frustrated by those little buggers. Today, he got upset while we were walking home from the mailbox, I was carrying him and he wanted to be down on the ground instead of in my arms. So, I put him down . . . he very quickly found some ants and tried his hardest to get a hold of one of them. I quickly scooped him up and rushed back home, with him pointing and crying, "bug."
We all love our little Port so much!
Happy Birthday Bubba!

Travis Wanted to Post Pictures

2009-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Reasons I haven't updated all summer long (I'm sure there are more . . .)

2009-08-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

10. I have four kids! Isn't that enough? I keep thinking there will be a day when I'm not so tired and worn out anymore. But it doesn't happen. What would I do if Porter weren't such a good baby?

(Three of the four, Porter is usually on my hip)
9. Machine-Pitch Baseball and T-ball. Travis coached both Tyler's and Abby's team this year. The games only conflicted once, but luckily we had some great parents who helped out as well. I was just on the phone a lot with reminder calls, taking care of treats, letting players know the game has or has not been cancelled because of rain. Oh, and washing all the shirts and pants. Tyler loves to slide and when you have two games a week . . . And Abby just thinks she needs to wear her shirt every day.
8. I've been preparing for and teaching the reading and writing class for Tyler and friends (11 in all) that I taught each Thursday. I was kind of nervous at first, I've only ever taught high school kids. But, it was lots of fun and the kids were really cute. Kids really are the best writers. On the last class I held a poetry slam. Tyler and his cute friend Cori tied, and in the final heat Cori ended up winning.
7. Family visitors from Texas and Cali. We really had fun playing and bonding. All the Alvey's even made it up to the cabin for an Alvey family reunion. We miss them all and wish they lived closer!!
6. Speaking of the cabin . . . we were up there every free weekend trying to get the water fixed. Which, we finally did! Yahoo . . . yes, there is now running water inside the cabin. Now, we just have to save up to replace the busted water heater. Ask Abby, the bath water can be pretty cold.

(We did take time for more than just work though.)
5. Doing laundry, mostly from the cabin. I brought home all the sheets from the beds and washed them. I brought home the comforters and sleeping bags and washed them. I even brought home the couch cushions--washed them and had to re-stuff them. Yes, I'm paranoid about rodents, but atleast now I know it's all clean.
4. Everytime I'm on the computer it is for Travis' work. I've been busy doing 2nd quarter taxes, entering bills, paying bills, reconciling bank statement. You know, lots of fun stuff.
3. Celebrating all manner of summer holidays i.e. my birthday, 4th of July, 24th of July, Flag day (okay, I actually didn't celebrate this day, but Travis did get to do flags), Father's day, etc. etc. etc.
(Lighting fireworks with our friends the Chuchrans.)

2. Being pampered and surprised for the first 10 days of August for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Travis was really cute and thoughtful this year. He knew we didn't have the money to spend on a cruise, like we've been wanting to do for the last five years, so instead he wrote me a letter and came up with a surprise for each year of our marriage. For instance, on August 1st we all went up to Ensign Peak were he proposed and opened the first letter up there. On August 2nd we drove down to BYU campus--which the kids loved. Even though it was Sunday, the Eyering Science Building was still open and they loved looking at all the cool science stuff. We also raced down the "stairs from Hell" and fed the ducks in the duck pond. On other days he gave me oven mits (which I've been needing since our wedding), we got to go to lunch, at the cabin I went on a treasure hunt for some jewlery . . . he did a good job. I'm so lucky to be married to the best man in the world!
1. I kept feeling guilt for never posting about our Florida trip the end of May, and since nothing else really could compare to it, I figured what really is the point?

(Emma at the beach in FL)

But, school is starting in a week . . . who knows, maybe I'll become a better poster again. Then again, maybe not : 0

Just a couple quick ones from the cabin . . .

2009-06-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

So, we made a quick trip up to the cabin. It was a mess. The loggers have left it looking like a junk pit. So we worked a lot. But we had a lot of fun too! The kids loved it. And we decided that as soon as we get the water working then the kids and I will start going down for a few days at a time. The work was actually pretty theraputic for me.
We had a short devotional (6/27) over the camp fire Sat. night to remember Joseph and Hyrum Smith's martyrdom, and a short testimony meeting in the special place Sunday in lieu of churh. Abby thought it was the best church she's ever been too. And I kind of agree. If the gospel weren't so gosh darn true it would be easy to become a Quaker. Oh, well . . . it was a nice break from the world.

March/April Update

2009-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while . . . I've been meaning to update for weeks, but time just seems to fly away from me.
So, here is a quick rundown of the last couple months.
March 4th Dads and Doughnuts and Abby's kindergarten check-up. Abgby thought the peeing in the cup thing was real weird. She couldn't figure it out. Everything else went real well. She was so brave during her shots, she told me she wouldn't cry if I held her hand, and she didn't. She came home trying to get Emma to pee in a cup while they played doctors that afternoon. We had to have a nice long talk about that one.
March 5th Draper Temple Open House--this was so awesome. Emma was really worried about riding the bus, but once we got on she settled down. The kids loved everything about it. They loved the sealing room and Abby kept trying to climb up on the chairs to look in the mirrors. She asks every week when she gets to go back to the temple.
March 6-7th YM campout (if you could call it that, Travis all ready updated)
March 11th Travis' 33rd birthday!! The girls were pretty sad that Daddy had to go to work, they wanted to be with him all day long.
March 12th Date night with Abby and Emma. Tyler and Porter went to my mom's house and Travis and I got to take our little princesses to Disney on Ice. The girls had a blast, Emma loved all the Tinkerbell parts (Tink is her favorite). I must admidt, I thought it was a little long, but it was so fun just to watch the girls reaction to everything! I have darling girls and it was fun for Trav and I to get to spend some time with just them.
March 13-14th Youth Conference. After two weekends in a row we definately missed our Daddy.
March 14th (3.14... aka Pi(e) Day) Trav got home for youth conference and we hurried and ate and ran over to our friends house for Pie Day. I love pie, and it was so fun to get together and, well, eat pie. Porter was ornery though and so we did leave a little early to g put him to bed.
March 15th Tyler's Birthday!!! My oldest, little boy turned eight! I still can't believe he is so grown up. We had a wonderful day. Since his birthday was on Sunday, he asked that Travis and I skip our meetings for that day. So we did (all except our YSA mtg, Travis did run to that one at 4:30). But, thanks to Ty's request, it was a great day for all of us! Since we don't have church until 1:00, we spent the morning showering Ty with breakfast in bed, presents, and undivided attention (playing his new Xbox Harry Potter game). Instead of a cake, Tyler wanted homemade doughnuts for his birthday treat . . . and so after church the kids had fun helping roll out the dough and using rings from my bottles to make doughnuts (we used pill bottles for the doughnut holes). While they were rising, we got to watch the space shuttle launch live via internet. It was so totally cool and I cannot wait until we go to Florida and hopefully get to see a live shuttle launch live. Ty requested homemade alfredo for dinner, and then his cousins, grandma and grandpa and neighbors all stopped by too. All in all, it was a great birthday!
March 16th Ty's other G&G came to visit for FHE and to shower Ty with more presenets.
March 17th Preschool field trip to Tracey Aviary. I had never been there, and it was really cool. Abby loved the boy, peacocks. As she told everyone, they have to be pretty to make the girls fall in love with them.
March 19th Travis and Tyler skiing! (See Travis' post) and Acheivement Day Girls' Mother-Daughter activity. As 1st counselor in the primary, I'm over the Acheivement Day girls and help plan all the big activities. We found out just prior to our activity that another ward also had the cultural hall at our church reserved for their RS b-day dinner. So, we wree doing so last minute scrambling, but everything turned out great. We had a great activity talking about temples.
March 22nd Tyler's bishop interview to be baptized. Travis took the girls to have breakfast with his Dad, and I got to go with Tyler to his interview. I was so proud as I sat next to Ty as he nervously talked with the Bishop. He really is a great boy!
March 22nd only one hour of church! Do I sound a little happy? It was wonderful. Our ward only did one hour so those who wanted to attend the Temple Dedication would have the opportunity.
March 24th Abby's 5th Birthday!! The night before we decorated her poster for school . . . and after breakfast in bed, she was so excited to go to school and show off her poster to all the kids in her preschool class. After school G&G Wilde came over and showered the girls with presents. Abby had gotten so many crafty projects for her birthday that she spend most of the day making things! Abby had puffy pancakes for dinner, then so got to go to young men's with her dad. So loves going to yms and this was the perfect activity--it was a yw/ym combined Bigger & Better scavenger hunt. She had a blast! And she got a pink princess birthday cake.
March 25th Emma's 3th Birthday!! Emma was so happy that her birthday was FINALLY here. She loved getting all the attention. She wouldn't let her brother or sister eat breakfast in bed with her. And actually, she ended up coming in the kitchen too, because she didn't want to be alone! She was showered by more gifts from G&G Wilde, Aunt Lisa, and G&G Alvey. We went to CHuck-E-Cheese's for dinner. They had a blast! And Emma loved her purple ice cream cake. It was pretty good, if I say so myself!
March 26th Emma's 3-year doctor appointment. She only had to have one shot and she got a birthday surprise--she loves Dr. Weipert!
March 26th Tyler got to go to scouts for the first time!
March 28th Scouting for Food drive. Kids start getting sick.
March 30th Emma and Porter went to doctor's. Both of them had ear infections! All of the kids are sick, but Tyler is on the mend, I think!
March 31st Abby went to the doctors. Luckily no ear infection, but she still thought she was so sick she was going to die.
April 2nd Porter feeling better, but had his 6month doctor's appointment. More shots :( He's in the 90% for height and 45% for weight.
April 4-5th Conference weekend, everyone still sort-of sick. BUt it was so beautiful, we spent most of Sat. with the windows open and most of Sunday outside listening to conference.
April 6th Tyler still sick and staying home from school.
April 7th Abby's field trip to IFA to see the chicks and ducks. They were out of most of them. But we saw some chicks and a bunny. THen we went to the park. It was a beautiful day!
April 8th RS birthday dinner.
April 9th pack meeting. Yes, we are now a scouting family. Tyler got his Bobcat! He loves scouts and looks awesome in his scout uniform.
April 11th Tyler's Baptism. It was so cool!! I've been to many baptisms, but never as the mom of the kids being baptized. There was such an awesome spirit. Tyler was so excited, and he looked so handsome. I am so proud of him for his decision. He is an awesome son, and I am so lucky to be his mom. Thanks to all the family that helped and came to share in this memorable occasion.
April 12th Easter. Yes, the Easter bunny found our house. But, it was pretty low key, which was nice. The girls had gotten their easter dresses the day before so they could wear them to their brother's baptism. My sister and her kids came to church with us.
April 12-16th Spring Break. My sister, Jane and two of her kids Aidan and Claire got to visit us for the week. Abby and Emma loved having a constant friend. And Adain and Tyler had a lot of fun together too. But, little Porter fell in love with his Aunt Jane and misses her so much. We had a fun cousins party at G&G Alvey's house. The kids went to a movie, they had a cousin's sleep over and G&G Alvey's (and the adults got to go to dinner), and many other fun activities. All-in-all it was a fun break from school.
April 17-19th We all got sick again! Okay, everyone except for Ty. And it was horrible!!
Thats the run-down!
There would be too many pictures to post. So, maybe I'll post some later of the baptism and stuff.

Ski Day

2009-03-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

So Tyler skipped out on school and I skipped out on work and we went skiing. I had a great time being with my oldest boy. It was nice just to hang with him and be in his world for a day. Last year he snowboarded so it had been almost two years since he last skied. On the first run I was a little nervous about how he was going to do because he fell quite a few times. By the second run he was doing better, and by the third run he was flying past me egging me on. Luckily I never fell but he did. I think I did impress him with my no wipe out day. He loved going in the terrain park and going over the hills and on some of the features there. The kid is brave. By the end of the day he was flying through the slush and I was amazed. I love that boy of mine. When I was taking his picture on one of the hills he told me later he didn't like it because he didn't know how to pose to make it look good. Loved the day and love my son. Also you know when his mom doesn't come with us we will forget something--Lunch and sunscreen. I am going to look like one of those freaks who can't lie about where there were yesterday at work. I look like a red raccoon.

Young Men "Campout" and extreme sledding

2009-03-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

So I had the oportunity to go with the Priests and Teachers on a "Campout". We were fortunate to stay at the Laford/Peck Cabin up near Fairview. It was a rough camp. Didn't think the Jazz were gonna pull out the win. Good thing we were blessed with Direct TV. The bed I slept in was a whole lot better than my air mattress from our last campout. After cereal in the morning, (I thought teens slept in on Saturday) we went sledding and "sledding". It was a great time. So here is some video and pictures from our campout. Best winter camp I have ever been on. Sorry to Tyson and Rylan for being so helpful while I zoned out and watched the game last night.

sick

2009-02-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we almost made it through a whole year without being sick, without going to the doctor, without having to stay up all night with crying kids and high fevers . . . but it finally caught up to us.

Abby got it first, and the second she started feeling yucky I took her to the doctors to have a strep culture. (We had been near people who had strep, so I just assumed that is what it was.) Luckily the culture came back negative. And we went home with tylenol and motrin. The next day Emma got it. My poor little girls were pretty bad. Abby hasn't been sick in such a long time, not since before her tonsils and aednoids were taken out. One night, while the rest of us were eating dinner she came in, lay on the floor, and said, "I think I'm going to die."

The next day, after I got the girls and Porter down for a nap, I disinfected the entire kitchen, and myself and started working on dinner I was taking a neighbor who had just had a baby. Abby woke up just as I was finishing and I said to her, "go lay down on the couch until I'm done." Instead, she lay down in the hall where she was and said, "Mom, you are not doing a very good job of taking care of me."

Well, the next day we got Barbie's Diamond Castle for the girls to watch, luckily it made up for my 'not doing a good job.' The girls are both past their fevers. Abby still has a stuffy nose, and Emma has a cough. Travis and Tyler have started to feel it coming on, but then it went away (keeping my fingers crossed). But, my little baby Porter is now sick. I was so confident that I was keeping him away from the girls, and doing a good job of washing my hands and what-not, but nope. He has it! It is so sad, he's lost his voice, and so I can barely hear him cry. And he has a little cough, which hurts so bad because whenever he coughs he cries even more. I'm switching between motrin and tylenol, every three hours, but the congestion is what makes it so bad. Last night I went to check on him, and he was just awake staring at the ceiling, who knows he might have been crying and I just couldn't hear from my room.

Well, I certainly cannot wait for this sickness to be over and to sleep through the night again.

On a side note, if your kid is sick, keep him/her home. At Abby's gymnastics class the other day the teacher had her own little boy there laying on the mats with a bowl. Towards the end of the class, she ran over and held his forehead while he threw up . . . then she went back to the class. Needless to say, as soon as we got home, Abby had a nice long shower!

Happy Birthday Grandma Alvey

2009-02-12T09:14:00.001-08:00

(My scanner isn't working, so I had to take a picture of a pictures, so of course they are not the best quality, but you get the idea.)
My grandma's birthday was yesterday. I realized this on Sunday night, as I was looking over the calendar to see what kind of a week to expect. And I immediately started missing her all over again. She's been on my mind all week. Which is a good thing, even though I miss her, she led such an amazing life and she has always been such a great example to me. She always knew what to say or do to make you feel better in any given situation, even if it was just that you needed to 'get over it.'

When I was a teenager I was lucky enough to take over the cleaning job that my sister used to do each Saturday. I was thinking yesterday, how lucky I was to get to go over to my grandma and grandpa's house each week and clean for them. Okay, that is what I thought I was doing back then. But more often than not I ended up eating with them, playing skip-bo or checkers with them, watching an afternoon basketball game with them, or best of all listening to stories. I learned so much about them and about the hard, but good times they had growing up in Escalante, Utah. It's good for me to look back on those stories now . . .

Love you always Grandma!

Valentines Party

2009-02-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

When I was little, we always had a Beelsey Valentine's Day Party. Well, about eight years ago, we stopped having the extended-Beesley Parties. My mom has continued the tradition amongst the Alvey family (some years) since then. Luckily, this was an "on" year. The kids had a blast with their cousins playing games and exchanging Valentines and trying to guess how many hearts were put up in the kitchen--since they each got a prize it makes me wonder if Mom really counted to know how many hearts there really were, hmmmm, guess I should have guessed to.

It was really fun to get together as a family (we missed the Harris', Dobbs, and Michael & Katrina who all live out of state now, and Chase who didn't get off work). Thanks Mom and Dad for all the fun!

Growing Up

2009-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Emma has finally stopped sucking her thumb! (Okay, she still sucks it at night time, but atleast I got her to stop during the day :) ) I told her months ago that as soon as she would stop, I'd sign her up for dance lessons. There is a cute high school girl in our neighborhood who teaches all the little girls in the neighborhood for pretty cheap. Well, Emma loves it! She is the youngest, of course, but she'll come home and show me all the things she has been learning. And since she and Abby have been 'playing dance' since Emma could walk, she picks up on things pretty quick.

Porter went for his 4 month check up. He is 50% in weight and head measurements and 90% in height. Yep, we've got a tall little man. I also got the okay to let him start sleeping/crying through the night. I've been sort of worried about this because he is a baby that loves to be swaddled when he sleeps (as soon as he breaks free from the covers, there is no going back to sleep), but my doctor said it was time to let him learn. He's also teething, so I was told, when he starts crying to go give him some motrin and tell him it was time to go back to sleep. Of course I thought to myself, "yeah, like that is going to work." But, guess what? It did! The first night I went in twice to tell him it was bed time and to give him medicine, the second night I went in once. And now, he is sleeping through the night. And how lovely it is! Sleep really is a wonderful thing.

A few late night laughs

2009-02-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

Aerial Freestyle Competition

2009-01-31T18:58:00.000-08:00

Friday night, we decided to drive up to Park City to check out the Aerial Freestyle Competition.

We got up there a little late, and then we wished we would have bought lift tickets so we didn't have to hike (with four kids) halfway up the mountain. But, we got up there just in time to see the last two jumps, which ended up being the 2nd and 1st place winners. (Luckily we were able to watch as we trekked up the mountain.) Travis carried Emma on his shoulders, Ty walked--but wished he had skiis, Abby got pulled, and I carried Porter up.

It was cold, but fun. And we even got to sit down and watch the cool fire work show afterwards. Next year we'll just plan on leaving earlier . . . so we'll get to see more of the competition.

Here is the silver medalist making his last jump--he was from China. The US won gold! Here is a cool quote from the winner, Ryan St. Ogne, who is from St. George. "I knew I was fast, but I also knew I needed air on the take off. I went as big as I could; I stretched for my life and somehow I found my feet." It was totally awesome to see his jump . . . these guys are amazing!

Breakfast dinner

2009-01-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

Atleast once a week we have breakfast for dinner. The kids actually eat it and I've always loved breakfast food, so it is a win-win situation. This week we had German Pancakes, or "Puffy Pancakes" as the kids call them.

Here are my breakfast/dinner making helpers.

And the finished product . . . Tyler was particularly impressed at the supreme puffiness!

A bunch of Wilde updates

2009-01-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking at someone's blog the other day and noticed on the sidebar that I hadn't updated in 5 weeks! So, here we go, I have finally updated. You can scroll down to view stuff we've been doing in January, but to check out older stuff, click on the links below.

Dec. randomness

November Stuff

And here's just a cute one of my little Port, right after his bath.

Tyler's Latest Trophy

2009-01-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yep, that is right. Tyler won another trophy (if he keeps this up we'll have to add on the the house to make a trophy room). This one is for his reflections photograph he took. He won at the council level . . . now on to district level. We'll let you know, when we find out.

Porter's Baby Blessing

2009-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Even with 1:00pm church, and meetings all morning long, Porter's baby blessing still was great! Travis gave a wonderful blessing.

We are so thankful to all of our family and friends that were with us. And we missed all of our family that couldn't be there with us.

Christmas Morning at G&G Wilde's

2008-12-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

Some from the Beesley Christmas Party (thanks Michael & Katrina)

2008-12-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

Gotta love the Beesley Family Christmas Party. This year the Bill Beesley family was in charge--it was great fun, as usual.
These pictures were taken by Michael and Katrina, thanks you guys! Oh, Abby actually sat on Santa's lap this year! On the way to the party she told us she wasn't going to sit on his lap, but that she wouldn't scream like she did last year. But then, all of the sudden she stood up and jumped up there. She said she had been watching him and decided he wasn't really scary after all.

My mom made all the cute scarfs so we would look festive for our pictures with Santa, thanks Mom!

Uncle Michael and Porter.

2008-12-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

This year Tyler's school did a Christmas Sing-a-long. It was fun to see all the kids singing different Christmas songs. But, I must say, it was very crowded . . . and I am terrified of loosing one of my four kids in such large crowds.

This is one of Emma all bundled up to go outside, she has all of her own snow stuff, but it was still wet from the day before. So, she is wearing all of Ty's old stuff. If it weren't for those blond curls, she'd kind of look like her big brother.

And finally, the Christmas Eve jammies made by yours truly. I love Porter's the most, he's such a little smunch!

Just some random pics

2008-12-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

In December we lost our camera (not the best timing, luckily we had the camcorder still). We looked and looked for it. We didn't find it until after Christmas, it was neatly tucked away in the corner of the playroom. Here are some random pics before it was lost. The one of all the kids (plus Emma's dolly aka WaWa Baby) was taken by Travis, then I think one of the girls got a hold of the camera, took some pics and stuck it in the playroom. (There were some fabulous pictures of pretend food set out for a grand buffet on the little table as well.)

Date Night

2008-12-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Tyler came home from school with two Utah Flash tickets for Friday night's game. And we thought it presented a wonderful opportunity for Travis and Tyler to go on a date. The boys had a blast.

Tyler even got free noise do-hickies to distract the other team. Travis said that it was the first time Tyler has really gotten "into" a sporting event. They've gone to BYU football and basketball games before and they usually leave early. But they stayed the entire game. I think Travis is excited to finally have a little buddy to watch sports games with. Tyler also got a schedule for all the Flash games, and he is pretty determined to go to another one, or two . . . we'll see, maybe he can take me on a date next time.
While the boys were at their basketball game, Abby, Emma and I went to the Lady Ute's Gymnastic Preview. We got their a little late, so we only saw the floor and beam routines. But, it was fun to watch. The girls both kept wanting to go down and do tricks on the beam too. They also thought it was pretty awesome how high the girls could jump and flip. Now they don't know if they want to do gymnastics or dance. The girls were pretty good, expect Emma thought it was more fun to play and hang on the railing and try to do tricks. They both watched and paid attention when they were sitting on my lap. But, since I don't have two laps, we just took turns paying attention.

As soon as Abby saw the U's mascot (what is their mascot anyway, some kind of bird?) she was terrified. She thought it was going to come and get her. She started screaming and demanded that we leave. But, I bribed her and told her if she'd calm down we'd stop for ice cream on the way home. So she did, sort of. She kept her eye on the big bird the entire time, and didn't pay too much attention to the gymnastic girls after that. She was relieved that it finally left (with just 5 minutes left). As we were leaving the girls each got a poster to put on their walls. They thought it was pretty cool. Although, I had a blast, I think their favorite part was stopping at Maggie Moos on the way home. Abby got chocolate better batter with marshmallows, and Emma got strawberry with sprinkles. (I just took bites from each of theirs.)
Porter also got to go on a date, with Grandma Lex. It was his first time just hanging out at Grandma's house by himself, and he thoroughly enjoyed the attention. I fed him right before we took off for the U and thought he would fall asleep, but he stayed awake smiling, laughing, and talking to Grandma almost the entire time. She said he slept for about 20 minutes. When I got there he was certainly ready to eat again. Thanks Mom for watching him! That night he even slept eight straight hours. (I didn't, my body is not used to going that long without feeding him.)

Belated Thanksgiving Thanks

2008-12-03T14:44:00.001-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. (Okay, I LOVE that there is a holiday where we get to eat as much as we like . . . have I ever mentioned how much I love eating?) But I also love the idea that there is a holiday set aside to give thanks.
In no particular order, here are my "TOP TEN Thanksgiving things to be Thankful for . . ." (so much alliteration, it's killing me : )
10. Travis. He is the love of my life. He is willing to get up each day to provide for me and our kids. He still makes me laugh and makes me look forward to each evening.
9. Tyler. He is the most awesome, cool, smart, handsome seven year old I know. On most days he is the best big brother. He loves to cuddle and never hesitates to sit down and read with me.
8. Abigail. Okay, there are days when she could make me pull my hair out, but dang she is the cutest stinkin' princess I know. She adores her family, and is such a best friend to her little sister. She is anxious to learn and is so full of questions. And, when she looks into your eyes, you can easily forget why you were ever mad at her.

7. Emma. This little girl is my friend. She never wants to leave my side. She loves taking naps with me. When she smiles, she can lighten any room. She looks great in any out-fit (and loves to show off as many out-fits as she can each day). Her hair never stays put, she's such a skwag-a-muffin . . . but oh, so cute.
6. Porter. I know I feel crazy being a mom-of-four, but I couldn't imagine life without our little Port. He is such a smunch. Last night, actually early this morning, when he woke up to eat, he made it all worth it by just stopping to smile at me. I'm a sucker for his smiles. He's going to be a heart breaker.
5. The gospel. Where would I be without it? The gospel binds me to my family and to Christ.
4. Education. I love that no matter the situation I can always keep learning new things. Whether it's being a student, teacher, mom, or volunteer . . . I love learning and sharing what I learn with others.
3. My family. Even though someone is always mad at someone else, I still love them (most of the time : )) I am thankful for the lessons I've learned from them and for the opportunities I've had with them. (Although I must admit I still do harbor bad feelings regarding the blanket situation . . . oh opps, you finally said you were sorry, huh? I guess I'll forgive you.)
2. Travis' family. They are always willing to help you out, no matter the situation. They'll do anything to make you feel comfortable. And, they love you no matter what . . . Plus, they have raised a wonderful husband and father.
1. My situation in life. I'm an almost 30-year-old mom of four kids, with a master's degree, who taught English and creative writing for five years, and published four literary/art magazines along with great students and friends. I've had the opporunity to travel and study at home and abroad. But more than anything, I love that every morning I get to wake up and spend the day with two wiggly little girls who never stop making messes, one little boy who never tires of seeing my skills on Super Mario Brother's 3, and one little boy who has a hard time staying awake for more than 1 1/2 hours at a time. I have a husband who doesn't harbor ill feelings towards me, even if I did eat the enitre 12 oz. bag of dark chocolate & peanut M&Ms for the second day in a row, oh, did I mention he lets me stay at home and do what I love--raise my kids.

Decorating for Christmas

2008-11-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

So, the weekend after Thanksgiving, we pulled out the Christmas bins and started decorating the house. The kids were having a blast with everything from tree ornaments to my santa nesting dolls. Travis and I were busy deciding just how the decorations on the piano should look, when we turned around and found Emma trying to pull on the stockings. I started laughing and Emma looked at wondering what my problem was. I said, "Emma, we hang those up by the fireplace." She just said, "But Mom, they're socks." Tyler and Abby thought it was so funny they each got two stockings and all put them on their feet. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny. It's fun to see the kids all excited about things and to have them remember some of our traditions from years past.

Nov. Preschool Field Trip

2008-11-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

Abby's preschool group went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point for a field trip. Luckily, we had our pass, and so we didn't even have to pay. We looked at all the animals, went on a ride in wagon, let the kids entertain themselves in the jail (wierd, but it was the highlight of the trip) and Abby and Emma both rode a pony. This is the first time they have ever consented to riding a horse, and they now want to go out to Aunt Amy's to ride all the time.

My Talented Son

2008-11-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

So, when it comes to the Reflections Program, the former teacher in me always comes out. I used to make my students submit stories or poems. Well, ever since my son has been in school I have made him enter Reflections. He won when he was in Kindergarten (the judges did tell me he was the only one who entered in the literature category).

This year he decided to enter in literature and photography. The theme this year was "WOW!" Today was the awards ceremoy . . . and he won first place in both categories! (And this year more than just him entered :) )
For photography he got his friend from next door to help him. Nate shot some hoops and Ty snapped a pretty cool picture (which he then edited on Iphoto) . . . here it is.

And he wrote a cute poem about his baby brother Porter. (The rules designate that it had to be written or typed by the person entering, without any help.)

MY LITTLE BRO

My little brother is cute I think it is wow!
cause when I kiss him he is cute and it makes me think WOW!

My little bro looks like me I think it is WOW!!!! cause when I look at him and look at his eyes and his moulth and his tung it all looks like me and I think WOW!!!!!!!

he LOKS LIKE A MUMMY in his blankit it is WOW! MUMMYS ARE COOL and when I see him in his blankit it is todaly bonkrs and I think wow!

I love him
I ispeshely think that is WOW!!!
WHEN I love someone I think it is asum and cool and WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travis has reason to be jealous

2008-11-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

So, I am in love with another man. (I still love Travis, but) This guy is just too irresistible! His gorgeous smile can brighten any moment, even if it is the middle of the night. His cheeks are the most kissable things in the world and I probably could spend all my free time just kissing him. He'll cuddle with me anytime and anywhere, no inhibitions. And it's pretty easy to see that he loves me too. Oh . . . yeah . . . I'm smitten.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-04T13:07:00.001-08:00

Here is the Wilde Bunch . . . this year we were all about homemade costumes.

Emma was the cutest little cowgirl (thanks Bryton for letting her borrow the pink boots).

Tyler was the young Obi Won (however you spell it). And Abby was her own, made-up super hero . . . Super Abby Do.

Porter didn't dress up really. His Aunt Lisa did get him a cute romper outfit that had bats and pumpkins and stuff on it, but by the time we got around to taking a picture of him he'd all ready pooped in it . . . such is our life.
We got way too much candy and I'm considering donating some to the food bank, they need candy too don't they?

We're surviving . . . so far

2008-10-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm proud to say that Porter Alvey Wilde is 3 1/2 weeks old and well, we're all still alive.
Here are a few cute things my kids have said to me, Travis, or the neighbors during the last few weeks.
Tyler (at the dinner table, while I was crying) "Mom, do we need to send you back to the hospital or to the doctors or somewhere?"
Abby (at preschool to Jeffrey, her friend) "My baby cries all day long and all night long. He never stops."
Emma (pulling up my shirt to look at my still floppy belly) "Where is the baby?"
Abby (during prayers) "And bless that my baby will sleep so my mommy can sleep too."
Emma (running into the bedroom with the container of wipes) "I get to help with the diaper."
Tyler (getting ready for bed) "He can sleep with me in my bed so that mom can sleep."
Needless to say, I think the biggest issue around here has been the lack of sleep, but that too is getting better (I'm keeping my fingers crossed).
I can't believe how cute he is and how much we all love him. Tyler can't get enough of him. And I'm amazed the kids haven't smothered him to death with all their kisses.
More pictures to come later. I don't really feel like walking upstairs to get the camera to bring it down to upload . . . (yeah you could say I'm lazy!)

I did finally update my blog (and back date them) from some summer happenings. If you want to see the finished basement you can click here. Or if you want to see all my canning click here. And, Abby's first day and school and the girls swimming lessons click here. (Phew, from now on I'll just stay up on my blogging.)

More pictures

2008-10-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

My wonderfully talented friend took some more pictures for me . . . this time all the kids (I still can't believe I have so many)! It was my first outing out with all of them, and it was a bit overwhelming, not the pictures, Cassey is great. But, I had to feed them so we stopped at Artic Circle on the way home. We were only there 20 minutes, but I think I like staying home better.
Take a look at my cute kids though, here is a link to Cassey's site Itty Bitty Pics

One week down . . .

2008-10-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, we've made it through one week with four kids, phew! I must say, after the first couple nights home from the hospital I was ready to drop over from exhaustion. Porter had his days and nights completely mixed up.
Then I got the stomach flu and spent the next couple of nights on the bathroom floor. Porter slept well and even took a couple bottles from Travis. Thanks to all our good family and friends for helping us make it through this first week. We've had tons of greatly appreciated help (do I really have to cook again?), and the older kids have loved playing at Grandmas and with their cousisn.
Now, I'm hoping we can both get some sleep.
The kids all love Porter to pieces! And are always wanting to hold him and help change his diapers.
Today, my good friend Cassey took pictures of him. http://ittybittypics.blogspot.com/ You'll have to check them out, he is such a doll! she was so patient and had a ton of cute ideas. And once he finally fell asleep it was great fun!
Here is one, hope you don't mind Cassey, I copied it from your blog.

Our New Baby Boy!

2008-10-03T06:58:00.001-07:00

We still have not finalized a name yet. He weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 20 inches long. Both the baby and mom are doing well and recoverying nicely.

This is going to be short

2008-09-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know . . . I've been meaning to update in a while, but alas, I'm either too blah or too tired or just plain don't want to.
Anyway, I'm supposed to be making lunch for the girls right now, but I thought I'd take a few seconds to just let the world know that if this baby doesn't come on its own (Tyler has been praying it will come really really soon!) then it will come on Oct. 10th. Yep, just one week and three days (cause you can't count today). Hopefully I'll update before then, so much to say . . .

Canning and food storage

2008-09-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

This summer/early fall I've been busy canning. I canned 71 bottles of peaches, 64 bottles of pears, 7 bottles of pear butter, 3 bottles of baby pear sauce (for when the baby is old enough), and 14 bottles of jam. Yahoo! And I got it all done before the baby came. Oh, I do have to thank Travis for all the help . . . he actually canned 14 of the peaches all by himself. What a great husband.

Travis and an awesome neighbor also framed in the food storage room for me so I didn't have to keep stacking stuff on the floor.

Take a look at all the food storage! Thanks to the perma pak man and Kohler's case lot sale. :0

Just a few things I meant to post from the end of summer

2008-09-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here is Abby on her 2nd day of preschool. I forgot to take pictures on the first day of school. We are doing the neighborhood preschool again this year. But, instead of just four moms, we've got six moms who will be teaching. So, the good news is we only have to teach every 6th week. Abby loves it! And it is so affordable : )

Abby and Emma took swimming lessons the first two weeks in September. They both loved it! Emma was a little more brave than Abby, but Abby finally dunked her head. Emma now asks every day when she gets to go swimming again.

And a few more . . .

2008-08-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

The boys went on a "boys night out" to pick up the scout's from scout camp. So we had a princess party. Aunt Katrina was nice enough to join us for the festivities. She was great at painting nails and applying make-up. We all loved having her visit and watch Barbie Mariposa with us!

Ty's first day of 2nd grade. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He let us walk him down to the bus stop the first day, but hasn't really wanted us down there again. He said school was good! But he comes home hot and tired.

Abby's first official hair cut. I've given her trims, but this time we went to the hair-cutters (during which she did not do a very good job of holding still). I was more traumatized than she was at the amount they cut off! But it looks much more healthy now.

I quick photo update (because I've been a bad mom/blogger)

2008-08-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

Abby and Emma got some play-makeup from a birthday party, which they were dying to try out on Daddy. Tyler thought it was so funny he joined in.

The finished product, doesn't Trav look like a babe?

We were not good about taking pictures while the Harris Clan was here, but here is one of Jane, her kids and most of the other Alvey cousins (minus the Sellers and the Dobbs).

Emma with a sparkler. She loved all the fireworks and would blug her ears everytime, even for the non-loud ones.

This is Kobe and Tyler and Abby and Emma at the Children's Discover Museuem. They got to make cute masks. Love the museum, hate the drive into Salt Lake.

Dear Journal (and blogging world),

2008-08-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight, after singing Tyler a song and kissing him goodnight, he called me back into his room for a question.
"Mom," he asked, very innocent-like, "why do you waddle like a penguin?"
(Hmmmm . . . do I really need to answer that?) I gave him a tired laugh and explained.
He just said, "Ohhhh . . . " then he laughed too, "you just look kind of funny."

Ya gotta love his honesty!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it has been nine years . . .
Look how young we were.
Well Trav, I love you even more today then I ever imagined back then.
Lubba lubba . . . to the moon and back!

An update of Wilde Baby #4, Week 30 1/2

2008-08-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

So this was actually taken 10 weeks ago . . . but I never posted it then and I figured that I could update the world on #4
The facts:
*I was 30 weeks on Tuesday.
*I'm measuring 1-2 weeks behind my due date (but I always measure small)
*At the ultra sound the baby measured 1-2 weeks ahead of the due date.
*We are not finding out what the sex of the child is. Tyler wants a boy. Abby had a dream it was a boy (and she still loved it), and Emma says it is a girl. Travis and I aren't really guessing (I just hope for the best, I don't really know if I could handle another emotional girl).
*I've started having back contractions, the front ones are normal and frequent. The back ones start when I try going to bed and don't let up until the wee hours of the morning, and I don't handle them very well. It takes me a few days to recuperate from them.
*I'm tired all the time! Which is usually true for being pregnant and not sleeping, but I used to be better about faking it. Now everyone just asks if I'm okay because I look so horrible--I'm so old, at least I'm feeling so old!
*I have horrible heart burn, all the time, and I have no desire to eat.
*The baby is very active, the kids love playing games with it to get it to kick.
*And besides all the horrible things I've just listed above, I love being pregnant. I just can't believe I still have 10 weeks to go.

Emma especially loves the baby and tries to lift up my shirt (even in public) to give the baby a hug and kiss.
Tyler tires giving subliminal messages to the baby "be a boy!" every day.
Abby just is surprised every day at how much bigger the baby gets.

And the more I think about it, the crazier I feel . . . but since I was crazy before, it won't be so bad, will it?

The finished basement

2008-07-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

So we finally finished the basement . . . here is Abby and Emma's princess bedroom.
One of my former students came and helped me start painting the floral garden on the wall. Then my mom came and helped me finish. It took lots of hours, but the girls LOVE it. Every night before they go to bed they have to tell me which flower is their favorite. Everyone helped . . . Tyler, Abby, and Emma each got to paint a couple of flowers. Everyone helped witht he bugs too. Thanks Auntie Em for the bug stencils!

Tyler's room is pretty cool too. Yes, it is bright, but we all love it. I pulled an all-nighter to finish the stripes, but it was worth it! They turned out great. And Ty loves the solid green wall. We repainted his red furniture green and blue too. He even got his closet doors green. There are also a million glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. Oh, and we just got a outer space globe/night light to hang from his ceiling that shines stars, moons, and planets all over the room.

The office/guest bedroom/work-out room is also finished (but the private bath is not quite done). I love not having my computer upstairs anymore. It is so nice to have a place to put all the stuff . . .

Thanks Travis for all your hard work! (He did everything except lay the carpet and hang/mud/tape the sheet rock, oh and paint--I did that. We even laid the pergo wood floor in the office.) Thanks kids for being patient with mom and dad while we worked and painted all day and night for months.

Busy Busy Summer Part 2

2008-07-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Little did I know you can only post so many pictures at once to the blog. So here are some more pictures of our busy busy summer.

Busy Busy Summer

2008-07-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that summer is flying by. We had the last coach pitch game for Tyler this morning. It seems like yesterday we were just getting going. I love the summer. I love everything about it. Long days, heat, baseball, bbq's, playing in the water, air conditioning, fresh fruit and vegetables. I love it all. The only problem is we have seasons here in Utah and there is no way to pause the summer and keep it here all year long.

I thought I would post some pictures from some of our recent activities. These have varied from the Lehi Roundup Days, to the fourth of July at the cabin, coach pitch games, Playing in the river and trying to get Tyler to jump from the rope swing, to just hanging out at home. It has been a great summer so far. Sally has even managed to make it through the heat being pregnant (not that she had a choice).

Little Emma Kay

2008-07-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

This morning Emma woke up pretty early (7:00 am), I guess it is only 30 minutes before she usually wakes up. BUt Travis must have heard her, so he brought her into the bedroom to snuggle with me. She usually wakes up both Abby and Tyler before coming and waking me up, so this morning we got a little time to ourselves.
First we gathered up all of the empty boxes from the basement remodeling and went and smooshed them in our's and the neighbors' trash cans. On one of our trips from the house to the trash cans our neighbor opened the door and told us we should get dressed before galivanting through the neighborhood. (He was just kidding and don't worry I was wearing appropriate lay-around-the-house attire.) Emma took this seriously though and went to change her clothes while I gathered up more boxes. When I came upstairs she was dressed in some of Abby's pants, with a long sleeved shirt and a fleece pull over. I said, "Cute Ems, but I think you're going to be hot." She didn't mind and walked out with me, hoping to see our neighbor and show off her outfit. He wasn't out anymore, but on the way she kept telling me, "too big." She was tripping on her sister's pants and so when he got back in the house she went to change again. She came back in the kitchen a few mintues later wearing some capris and a different long-sleeved shirt. I told her the shirt was still going to be hot. She must have believed me because she ran and changed again (don't worry all these clothes will be left in a nice messy pile on her bedroom floor for me to pick up later). This time she came out wearing a cute summer skirt and a light cotton shirt. I told her she looked like a princess, and she must have agreed because she went and found herself a wand. She came back and said some words I didn't understand, flicked her magic wand, and turned me into a prince. Then she said, "Mommy, dance with me." So we twirled and whirled around the kitchen.
She was delighted to have some one-on-one time with Mommy, and I don't think I would mind waking up 30 minutes early every morning to see her smile as I dipped her or twirled her . . . she definately has a contagious smile. Ems, you are 'The Cuter!"

In a galaxy far far away . . .

2008-06-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Some of you know and understand (as well as can be understood) Tyler's obsession with Star Wars. Well, for those of you who don't, get a load out of this morning's story . . .
The girls were supposed to be gathering the garbage cans and Tyler was supposed to be cleaning out the garbage can cupboard; however, neither of these things were happening. So, as I was loading the dishwasher I yelled into the other room where they were playing and told them I wasn't going to fix breakfast until their jobs were done.
I heard Tyler tell the girls that they would continue training durning their jobs, and that they should use the force to speed through getting the garbage cans. And, that is just what they did. Tyler came running in the kitchen and the girls ran to the four corners of the galaxy (I mean house) collecting the garbage cans.
While Ty was washing out the garbage can cupboard he was asking me who I thought he was. He gave me a hint, he had a blue light saber and he wasn't Anikan. I guessed Hans Solo first and then Ferrus, I was wrong with both guesses. He informed me he was Luke, because Luke used Anikan's old light saber until he lost it fighting Darth Vader. (I have a hard time keeping up with all the star wars information he expects me to remember, and he usually gets quite frustrated with me.)
Anyway, the girls were almost done gathering up the garbages when all of the sudden we hear a crash and Emma starts wailing. In a true Jedi Master's fashion Tyler ran off to find his young Padawan. After a few minutes Emma came running into me, still crying. I asked her what happened. Tyler was right behind her with the silver garbage can from her bedroom. "It's okay Mom, she was attacked by clone droid C3P3, but I got him." I just laughed and asked Emma if that is what really happened, she shook her head "no," and continued crying. . . . Maybe she was brainwashed by the Imperial Forces.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Since it was Father's Day, I asked the kids to tell me why they loved their daddy. Here are their answers.

Abby: Because him always play with me. He always lays down with me and tickles my back. Because I love him!

Tyler: Because he loves me. He plays Mario Brothers 3 with me. He helped me pass count Doku on my Star Wars game. He snuggles with me. He lets me go to work with him sometimes.

Emma: Plays babies with me. Listens to choo choo trains. Me drive in him car. Love Daddy!

Travis is the best Daddy. The kids love him. Last week while he was gone to Moab on youth conference Abby had to sleep with a picture of him every night. When he finally got him, they showered him with hugs and kisses. We all love him more than words can say.

Happy Birthday Sally!!!

2008-06-11T16:49:00.001-07:00

So today is my beautiful wife's birthday. I thought I would share with the whole world how much I love her! She is the best. I don't know what I would do without her. OK I do know. I would be a complete wreck. I would never be able to find anything. She is such a strength to me in all I do and try to do. I don't know if other guys love their wives as much as I do mine. But really who else could do such an awesome job of teaching and raising our children. She is patient beyond my understanding with them. She is always there to lift me, console me, encourage me, tell me when I am wrong, and make me into the person I am today. We were talking the other day about why we fell in love with each other. I told her it was because she had long pretty legs. The real reason, OK, well the other reason is she is perfect for me. So on your birthday Sally I want you to know how much I love you and eternally will.

Is it only Thursday?

2008-06-05T15:47:00.001-07:00

Do not get me wrong, summer has started off wonderfully!! I love having Tyler home . . . he just is so full of energy (which is not so easy to contain) and the girls are starting to refuse to play Star Wars with him. Good thing for neighbors. Still, we have not had much down time. It must be my growing belly, but I am exhausted ALL the time. Luckily, Travis is starting to feel better (after being laid up most of last week and all weekend with another bad back--he literally did nothing but lay on ice and go to the chiropractor's for most of last week). But, I have seriously started to wonder how much more crazy I am going to be rasising four kids? I am assuming that the new level of exhuastion will just phase out until it becomes the norm.
Anyway, this week we have taken Tyler to swimming lessons every day, played with cousins, gone to the movies, visited Great Grandpa Beesley, gone to the aquarium, played with friends, had baseball practice, and last night I think we were all a little pooped. . . .
Before putting the kids to bed, we read scriptures, which just happened to be Alma 51. Tyler loves this chapter because it talks about Captain Teancum, his very most favorite Book of Mormon hero (probablly due to my parents dog who was named after him. Tyler loved the big German Shepherd and still misses him, even though he has been dead for three years). After reading the chapter Tyler was pumped, but then quickly remembered what happens in the upcoming chapters when Captain Teancum dies trying to kill Amalickiah's brother Ammoron. He wondered why such a good man had to die. Tyler must have been tired and very emotional. We thought he was okay about that, when he started crying because he missed my parent's dog, Captain Teancum. We finally got him feeling okay again, when Travis asked me to say the family prayer so we could get the kids in bed. Well, I probablly was not the best to pray . . . I don't know what I said, but as soon as we said Amen, Tyler ran to his room. I thought he was just obeying until I got Emma in her crib and walked into Ty and Abby's room. Tyler had his head under his pillow crying because he knew Great-Grandpa Beesley was going to die soon and he was going to miss him.
Tyler is my sensitive one . . . but, I have to admit, I climbed up in bed and cried with him for a while, as I tried to explain death and why it is okay for Grandpa to die. Tyler said, "that does not mean I will forget him or stop missing him and when I think about him it just makes me cry."
We called my mom, who was over at Grandma and Grandpa Beesley's and she talked to him for a minute and told him she would go tell Grandpa that we all loved him. After that Ty still cried for quite a while, I think two hours total. Abby was very cute. She climbed up in bed with us and told him it was okay because we would see Grandpa again, even after he died. Tyler finally decided that on Saturday we would take a ton of pictures of him at his baseball game and hurry and get them developed and then take them over to Grandpa's house (Grandpa Beesley always talks to Tyler about baseball and has told Tyler how much he would love to come to one of his games, unfortunately he has never made it). That thought must have made Tyler feel okay, because he finally fell asleep.
I was so worked up that Travis and I stayed up until 12:30 watching Oceans 13, which did calm me down (I know it is stupid, but those guys just make me laugh. Travis laughs at me cause I call the Oceans cast my friends).
Anyway, while Travis was in the shower this morning at 7:40, and the kids were all still sleeping (miracle) from the late night, the phone rang. It was my dad. My grandpa had died just 10 minutes earlier. . . . and my sister Emily had a little boy (actually the birth mother had the little boy and my sister and brother-in-law were on their way from Texas to see/get the baby).
Thankfully Travis stayed home from work with me until the kids woke up to help break the news to them (I was too emotional to have to handle another last night). Tyler took things really well though. He cried for a while because now Grandpa was not even going to get to see pictures of his baseball game, but then he turned to me and said, "I don't think I can cry anymore, it just wont come." Abby however had a little melt down, and Emma just kept coming and telling me she wanted to go to Grandpa Bee's house.
I am going to miss my grandpa. Last night, as I was trying to make Ty feel better I was telling him some stories about Grandpa. It made me remember when he took me and my sisters and three cousins to Lake Powell. It was so much fun! We sang "Turn Out the Lights, the Partys Over," over and over, we probablly drove Grandpa crazy. We hiked to some small waterfalls and carved Grandaughter's Grove on the rock wall. We spent a scary night camped at the dock, and watched helplessly and Grandpa tried to tie down the boat so it wouldn't blow away. And we all took turns trying to keep Grandpa awake on the drive home. There are so many other memories of Grandpa, he actually confirmed me a member of the church, He has always been there for me and my family, and well, we will miss him. . . . but, we are glad he has finally made it!

This is a picture of Grandpa at the Shawgo baby blessing just about a year ago.

Prince Caspian, the Return to Narnia

2008-05-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, Travis, Tyler, and I read The Chronicles of Narnia. It took a few months to get through all of the books. We usually only read one or two chapters a night (unless we were at a really good part) then Ty got to stay up a little later. Anyway, we fell in love with Narnia, the Pevensie family, and especially Aslan! So of course we were there on opening night (last Friday) to watch Prince Caspian.
Grandma Wilde watched the girls. Thus, Travis and I got to go on a special date with Tyler. And boy, did he love it! He wanted to stay and watch it again. He was so excited to see Reep-a-cheep, and Trumpkin (the DLF--who did an awesome job) he actually gave a little cheer--which was fine since cheers were going up throughout the entire theater. I enjoyed it, but thought they read a lot into it (like the love story between Susan and Prince Caspian--I mean come on, it is not like she is coming back to marry him or anything . . . but it was funny to see Tyler covering his eyes durning the kiss). Travis and Tyler thought it was better than The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but I am not quite sure. We all really loved it though and cannot wait until The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which does not come out until May 2010 (so long to wait)! Maybe by then Tyler will be old enough so we can go to the Midnight premiere.

My Turn to Post

2008-05-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

So the other day the kids found my camera and snuck in my car and made it into there own photo studio. Here are some of the results.

Yes! It is true . . .

2008-05-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

We are crazy enough to be adding another one to the Wilde Family.
Four, it sounds like a lot, huh?
We are all very excited! Ty is hoping for a boy (me too). And of course, Abby wants another little sister. Emma is pretty indecisive, right now.
The baby is due on Oct. 17, 2008. So, I am just 16 1/2 weeks along (and all ready feeling huge!).
When and if I ever start feeling better, I will post more of the going ons around here.
Until then, happy day!

Four-Year-Old Lip

2008-04-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

This morning, Emma was helping me load some clothes in the washing machine. On our way out of the laundry room she pointed to the cabinet where the cleaning supplies are kept, so I asked if she wanted to help clean the bathrooms? She responded with a "YAY!"
My little two-year-old loves to clean (really she just dumps the rag in and out of the bucket until the floor is a wet mess). On our way out I yelled to Abby, who was busy playing in the other room, to ask if she was ready to to her bathroom job. (Her bathroom job is to clean the sinks and countertop--which she loves because she gets to play with bubbles and spread them all over--I am usually the one who does the cleaning, afterwards, but atleast she thinks she is doing a job.) I was expecting her to be as excited as Emma. Instead she said, "Nope mom."
I asked when she would be ready. She responded with a very sarcastic, "in like one hundred days."

An old tag

2008-04-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

I've Been Tagged! (This was a long time ago, I am not very good at tags . . . I still need to do the bag tag, I will get to that one soon. And since I am so late in even completing this tag I am not tagging anyone; therefore, I am not posting the rules.)

Middle Name: Marie
M- March is the birthday month at my house. We celebrate everyones b-days, except mine.
A- Avocados are my new favorite produce item.
R- Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. Too bad I have not had much time to do it lately.
I- Immediately is something I am not very good at doing.
E- English is the language I speak, and the subject I taught for six years. (Although I think it was technically called language arts)

1. Do you like cheese? Yes.
2. Have you ever been arrested? No
3. Have you ever shot a gun? Yes.
4. Your favorite song? Don’t really have one.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No, well yes, if it is for a pap smear--yuck!
6. What do you think of when you eat hot dogs? That this is one meal my kids eat well.
7. What's your favorite Christmas song? Baby its cold outside.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Juice--apple is my favorite.
9. Can you do push ups? Yes, but why would I really want to?
10. Is your bathroom clean? No!
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring.
12. Favorite Hobby? Reading, sleeping, and traveling.
13. What are you listening to right now? Its A Big Big World (Abby is watching it in the other room.)
14. What is the last thing you ate? Triple chocolate chip cookie dough.
15. What is one trait do you hate about yourself? I am rude, I do not realize it, I just think I am being bluntly honest.
16. Middle Name? Marie
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? 1. I wish I would have ordered more cookie dough from Tylers school fund raiser, because I am afraid I am going to eat it all. 2. I should really check in the garage to see if we still have that keyboard or atleast tell Sue I want hers because I am sick of copying all my spaces and not being able to use my apostrophe. 3. Why am I doing this instead of taking a nap?
18. Name the last 3 things you have bought recently. 1. CD-Rs 2. Plastic page protectors 3. Tickets to my neices school play--Honk! Hannah was a wonderful frog and fish.
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Water, milk, blue gatorade.
20. Current worry right now? How long it will take to finish the basement.
21. Current hate? Throwing up.
22. Favorite place to be? On the beach.
23. How did you bring in the New Year? Put a puzzle together with the family. Went to friends house to eat navajo tacos and play the wii until 8:30, watch Pirates of the Caribean with my husband..
24. What is your quirkiest habit? Lately, I click my tongue.
25. Name three people who will complete this and return? No one, cause I am not tagging anyone, I know, I am bad and boring.
26. How many siblings do you have? 4 sisters, 2 brothers
27. Do you own slippers? Yes.
28. What shirt are you wearing? A brown sweater.
29. What shampoo do you use? Costco.
30. Favorite colors? Blue
31. Would you like to be a pirate? No.
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I do not really sing in the shower-- my brain is never that awake.
33.Favorite female name? It changes every time I have a baby.
34. Favorite male name? Same as above.
35. What's in your pockets right now? No pockets.
36. Last thing that made you laugh? A funny email forward from a teacher at Alta about jobs. If you want a really good laugh, let me know, I will send it to you.
37. Best bed sheets as a child? Jungle ones.
38. Worst injury you've ever had? I broke my arm twice two summers in a row, in the exact same place. Doing the same thing--riding my bike..
39. When's your birthday? June 11
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2
41. Who is your loudest friend? I am probably the loud one (how annoying)
42. There is no 42
43. Does someone have a crush on you? I hope my husband does.
44. Do you wish on shooting stars? Only when my kids tell me to.
45.What is your favorite book ? To Kill A Mocking Bird.
46.What is your favorite age? Do not really have one. All ages have been good. Now is good--so that would be almost 29.
47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding? We didn’t have a song at our wedding but the following songs are on our wedding video. Some Garth Brooks song, A Tim McGraw Song, Butterfly kisses, A song from the Princesses Bride, and other love/country songs. Travis picked most the country ones. Which is weird cause he does not really like country.
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? No idea, suprise me.
49. What were you doing at 12 am this morning? Sleeping.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? How much longer do I get to lay here until I have to get out of bed and fix Tyler breakfast?

Yahoo, March is almost over!

2008-03-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

I cannot wait until April First. Not because I am planning any tricks or anything, I just think the March burden will be gone. I am feeling some of the relief all ready, but I still have to make it through the primary activity today (had I mentioned I have recently been called as first counselor in the primary pres.?--Yeah, a bit overwhelming! Especially since besides nursery I have never even had a primary calling.) At our first meeting, I found out I am over the nursery, and I need to find four new teachers quick! (**Note, people in our ward will not say yes to this calling.) I am over the activity day girls (which I thought was simple enough until I found out our leaders are overwhelmed with a group of 30 girls). I get to plan the fall primary program. Oh,and we are in charge of the primary activity, which is today! Not to mention many other little odds and ends which keep me up at night wondering what they were thinking. Oh, well. It has been a while, but I have started my lists again, and Travis just laughs at me when I get so excited to cross something off. Wish me luck, April has to be better, right? Oh, and if anyone knows anything about the activity day girls and can give me some advice on the large group, I would love help!
Oh, on a side note . . . the other night at dinner, I confessed how overwhelmed I was this March with birthdays and asked if everyone would be okay with a week-long family vacation next year instead. Everyone agreed and started spitting out places they wanted to go: Abby said San Diego, Tyler said Texas or San Jose, Travis said Puerta Villarta, and Emma said beach. So after some debate, we have decided it had to be somewhere we could fly for 25,000 miles each (since we only have 141,000 miles saved up we do not want to go over) which is mostly anywhere US or Mexico. The flight/layover should not be more than 6-7 hours, and the less the better. It has to be some place warm in March, and have a beach. And Tyler would like some kind of museum to explore and maybe a theme park. Oh, and it has to be some place none of us have ever been (which excludes San Diego, San Jose, Houston, parts of Florida, many church history sites, most of the Hawaiian islands, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Puerta Villarta, and probably many other places in-between). We looked into a Beaches Sandals Resort, but since we have so many kids it is pretty expensive although awesome looking. So, right now, we are tentatively thinking Cocoa Beach, Fla. It is just barely outside of Travis mission, so he never went there. And it is right next to the Kennedy Space Center, and if we plan it right we could see a launch. (Is that where Heather and Will are?) Well, we have not decided for sure, but we have a month or so before we need to reserve our flight. So, if anyone has any grand ideas, let us know!

Emma's big day--2 years old!

2008-03-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well, my sweet Emma had a very hard time waiting for her birthday to come along!! Every day she kept saying, "my birthday?" On her birthday eve she even started getting a little bit ornery that she did not have presents to open along with Abby. So, on her birthday, she woke up extra early, and instead of waiting in bed while I made breakfast, she came and helped me.
She loved opening presents, but, when we tried to do "heavy heavy hang over they poor head," she would yell, "No heavy head!"

She was delighted with everything she got and so happy that it was warm enough to go to the park and meet G&G Wilde and Daddy for lunch. She did not eat much, but hey, it was the first time we had been to the park this year--she loved it!Her favorite part of the day however, was playing in the sandbox with her new sand toys. And since we were all caked out, Emma got a Marie Calendar Chocolate Silk Pie. Which tasted ever so lovely!

Our big four-year old, Abby

2008-03-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Of course Abby got breakfast in bed (A and B pancakes, I wonder why I go to the trouble though, cause she did not eat anything once we started giving her her presents). She got a few presents before Daddy had to go to work (mostly clothes and boring stuff), she was very happy about getting new princess jammies though. The day before, she had told me she wanted to stay in bed and in her pjs and just watch tv all day. But, she did not really. She played the usual mess-up-the-house game with Emma.v And she kept asking when I was going to make her cake.
Travis came home from work early and left her real present on the front door step. From the minute she saw her new bike, she was inseparable. She looks pretty cute on it. But she gets too concerned with honking the bell and forgets to watch where she is going. Needless to say, she has run into a few curbs. She is getting the hang of it, but she has no desires to listen to mom and dads rules or to stay within boundries. (We have looked into gps kid tracking devices, but due to the expense we have decided we better just become good and fast runners.)

All in all, it was a great day!!

Easter

2008-03-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful, yet busy Easter. The Easter Bunny found our house regardless of the crazy month! The kids all got a cute Sunday outfit, shoes, sunglasses, and plenty of chocolate candy. Apparently even the Easter Bunny knows that Abby refuses to eat anything but chocolate!
We forgot about taking a picture until right before bedtime. Thus, the kids were not too cooperative.

But, Emma certainly did not mind showing off her new shades!

Fire House Field Trip

2008-03-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

The field trip to the fire station was awesome!! We teamed up with another neighborhood group so there would be more of us, and it turned out great.The kids had a blast. The fire fighters were so cool! And Abby has declared that she wants to be a fire man when she grows up. Now, every time she hears a siren she thinks we need to go help.

Disney Princesses on Ice

2008-03-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

A kind of sort of early birthday present. Really just an excuse for a fun Daddy-daughter date. Abby had been so excited the entire month . . . well the night before she decided she was not going to go. The next morning I decided to show her some scenes from you tube. It worked! She was so excited to go! She loved dressing up and going on a special date with her daddy. And even though it was late, they had to stop for ice cream on the way home.

St. Patricks Day

2008-03-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

Since St. Patricks day is Tylers favorite non-traditional holiday we of course had to try to catch a Leprechaun. Tyler thought up a new way to catch him this year. We usually make a box and hold it up with a stick and tie a string to the stick and tie the other end to his finger. When he hears the leprechaun then he can pull it. He didnt think that was too accurate. So instead we put a gold peso and an oreo cookie in a large box, and tied the string around the oreo. That way he would pull the box shut on top of him as he tried to eat the cookie. It must have worked too! Well, almost. The smart little guy used the peso to prop the box lid up! And he only ate part of the cookie.
He did leave green footprints from the box to the sliding glass door.

When Abby woke up and saw Emma, she thought the leprechaun must have walked all over Emma too. But, Emma had realized that the leprechauns footprints tasted a lot like frosting. Go figure! She ended up licking up most of the footprints from the table.

**Note to reader. Our computer (and a bunch of other junk from the basement) is upstairs because Travis has been finishing the basement. Well, of course Abby spilled lemonade on the keyboard, now my space bar and apostrophe /quotes buttons do not work (the number pad doesnt either but I can use the numbers up top). I get around the space bar issue by copying a space from some misc. document and pasting it in between every word. But Im too lazy to go searching for an apostrophe. So, pardon, the lack of possesion on words like Patricks day and Tylers favorite. And Instead of breaking my contractions I still included contrations without the apostrophe.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

2008-03-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here is Tyler getting breakfast in bed. Strawberries with milk, sausage, and orange juice (all at his request). He opted for breakfast in mom and dads bed so he could watch TV.
I know we were supposed to downsize, and it seemed like we did . . . but he still ended up with quite a bit.
Happy birthday my big seven year old!!

Happy Birthday Travis!!

2008-03-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is the birthday of my dearest husband. I just wanted to let him know that 32 is not really that old. Afterall, he still has a good eight years until he turns 40 : )
Today, after the kids and I delivered breakfast in bed to him, we went around and told him what we love the most about him.
Tyler said he was thankful Dad was finishing the basement so he would not have to share a room with his sister anymore.
Abby said the same thing, except she was happy he was finishing her a pink room to share with Emma.
Emma said PLAY. Which we can assume means she loves her daddy when he plays with her.
And I am so thankful to have a husband who loves me and my kids and does everythings for us! Thanks for going to work and providing for our family and taking such good care of us! Travis, you are a wonderful husband and Daddy!
Happy Birthday!!

Tyler's Basketball

2008-03-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Ty had a blast playing basketball this year. And Travis thoroughly enjoyed coaching his team. (Most nights:)) Ty said his favorite things about basketball are rebounding and shooting, which he did quite a bit. He just needs to work on dribbling and passing a little more!

I tried importing a video clip, but for some reason it would not work. So, here are some pictures instead.

Ice Skating (FREE)

2008-02-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

I heard about this free outdoor ice skating rink in South Jordan, and since I am always up for something free I figured we had to try it out. http://www.utahadventurer.com/content/view/145/59/ (you'd better go this week, it only lasts until the end of Feb.) Travis and I actually went and rented the skates Friday night (only $1.50 for adults and $1.00 for children) and we get to keep them until Monday evening. I was a little nervous about the kids, especially since they all hated how tight the skates were supposed to be. But once we got on the ice, life was bliss. We showed up just as they were starting the last class of the morning, so we decided to have lunch first. We ate at The Pie Pizzeria, Tyler declared it was the best pizza he'd ever had. We also took a jug of hot chocolate, which stayed hot even until we got home (the kids were sharing with the neighbors once we got home).

The ice was a little choppy and slushy after all the mornings lessons. But, luckily someone showed up to clean the ice with the Zamboni, which terrified Abby. Everyone else thought it was a blast to watch.

Since we were practically the only ones on the ice, the kids were very brave. We all had so much fun (Tyler of course didn't want to leave). I did put snow pants on them, so when they fell it wouldn't hurt so much (or get them too wet). Emma even ventured off on her own, for a little while. Tyler was doing jumps (small ones) and trying to do figure eights. And this is the first time we've ever been. Maybe next year I should sign him up for lessons. We all had a blast, and the fact that it was free made it even better. Plus, since we still have to turn the skates in on Monday, we're planning on going ice skating again for FHE.

The rink is right between South Jordan's City Hall and Library, so a few people stopped to watch. Some of the little kids ventured onto the ice without skates. Abby was giving them lessons, and became fast friends.

I would highly reccomend this fun activity to everyone. If you don't have time this week, don't forget about it next year. Wouldn't it make for some fun pre-Christmas activities?
Oh, by the way, I heard about this and some other good deals like leap pad books & stuff for 70% off (I got 9 books for the kids birthdays fo $30.00 and I didn't have to pay shipping apfrog.com/en/shop/leappad_classics.html), and disney glasses and flip flops 2 for 6 plus free shipping at http://www.savvyshopperdeals.com/
I'm not a member, but I do stalk their web site pretty regularly. Like I said, I'm always up for a deal!

We've been toilet papered

2008-02-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's been years since I've been toilet papered. Actually I think that last time I remember being toilet papered was in middle school. But sure enough, when I got out of the shower today, lo and behold I found we'd been toilet papered. The culprits used TWELVE double sized Charmin rolls, and they did a most excellent job of creating the biggest mess ever! I still haven't cleaned it up, and to tell you the truth, I don't think I'm going to. I think I'll make Travis (I'm such a nice wife, huh?).
The sad thing is, I know who did it, and there isn't much MORE I can do to punish them. Especially since the older of the two confessed to the deed, and has all ready cried her eyes out over it. The younger of the two just said "yep, me too." And showed her silly grin.
Yes, you can guess it. We were tiolet papered by my very own, sweet little girls.
Travis had just purchased a twelve pack of Charmin tp yesterday, and instead of going downstairs and putting it in the storage room (like he should have) he left it at the top of the stairs. Well, all morning the girls had been scooting around on it, riding down the stairs on the slick-plasticy surface, and finally toliet papering the basement.
They wound it around the little kitchen and tore some up and put it in the toy washer/dryer & refrigerator. They wrapped up dolls and teddy bears and strollers and everything else they could wrap it around. Afterwards, they must not have thought it was enough, so they tore off little pieces and left them askew all about the floor. It looks like much more than twelve rolls.
Luckily, the tp was on sale ($4.99 for 12 rolls), but still, I wonder if any of it can be salvaged.
Maybe if I just stay out of the basement for the rest of the day I'll forget about it.

When one door opens . . .

2008-02-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Today Emma accomplished the great feat of opening doors.
Below is a list of things she was able to do thanks to her new talent:
1. Give her glowy-worm a bath in the tub.
2. Help Princess (her Teddy Bear) go potty, and flooded the toilet (thanks to the tp)
3. Open the hall closet and help herself to the band-aids, which she tried to open, but instead tore them all up.
4. Almost wake Abby up from a much needed nap (luckily Ty saved me on that one).
5. Successfully put all of her animals to bed with blankets and pillows for each.
6. Let herself in her sister's bedroom and found some clothes to play dress-up in.
7. Shut herself in her bedroom, forgetting she knew how to open the door.
And I have discovered that if I want to take a shower by myself from now on I'll need to start locking the door.
Happy Day!

MARCH MADNESS!!

2008-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it is not March, et. I also know that the NCAA have not yet decided who is even going to the playoffs. But, today starts my one month count down until my own March Madness begins. (The stress actually started a few days after Christmas when I went to tuck Tyler in bed and he said, "Mom you know you only have a few months to start planning.)
In one month is Travis' birthday. And to tell you the truth, he's the one I'm stumped with this year. Especially since we both agreed after Christmas that we were not going to spend money on frivolous things. Any ideas would be helpful.
Tyler's birthday is the 15th--and I don't think he'll be getting much, since the new bike he needs costs more than we had agreed for the budget.
Abby's birthday is the 24th and we're actually thinking of painting and fixing up Tyler's old Spider Man bike to be more girlish.
And Emma birthday is the 25th. At first we were going to move her out of her crib and turn her room into a Big Girl room that she would get to share with Abby. But, none of us are really ready for that. So, I'm not really sure about Emma either. She definitely doesn't need anything.
I've been working on finishing all of the kids baby books (I know I'm way behind . . .) I have Tyler's finished and I'm working on Abby's. Luckily my mother-in-law, and sister-in-law have helped out with those throughout the years with beautiful scrap book pages. So now I just have to fill in all the pages in between.
My goal this year is to stay within or under budget and still make their birthdays memorable! Four is one month is pretty overwhelming. But hopefully I won't be completely bonkers by April Fool's Day.
Besides just my immediate family we have four cousin's birthdays and four good friend's birthdays.
Well, I better stop typing and get back to the baby books.
Wish me luck!

Preschool Field Trip

2008-02-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I have taken the opportunity yet to rave about the preschool group that Abby (and I) are apart of, but if I have you'll have to endure some more of it . . .
Three other ladies and I formed a preschool co-op to save a few dollars this year and to ensure that as mothers we would be more involved in our children's early education. Since there are four of us, we each take one week a month. We hold classes every Tue. and Thurs. and the kids go to someone elses house each weeek. There are five kids total, and they are relaly great, easy to manage kids. I only have to teach the third week of the month (which means I get time to volunteer at Tyler's school class during the first week of the month). We divided up the alphabet and the numbers and we also choose themes for each month and daily lessons. So far we have learned about pets, seasons, holidays, (and a couple other something elses which I have seemed to have forgotten). This month we're learning about ocean and sea life. So, naturally we thought it would be appropriate to travel to the Aquarium in Sandy. I've wanted to go to the aquarium since it re-opened in Sandy a couple of years ago. (It is actually just blocks away from my parents house in what used to be an old Smiths, then a Macs.)
All of the kids loved it! There were tanks of jelly fish (which I'm usually terrified of, but I was okay with them behind the glass). There were sharks, and an octopus--he was pretty cool, we saw him climbing the glass tank. We got to touch sting rays, and crabs, and sea stars, and other stuff. It was really awesome and we will definately be going back, especially since we bought a family pass (which was so reasonably priced--about what it would have cost to go twice we get to go all year). Anyway, if you ever get the chance you should definately go. Of course I forgot to take my camera, but we're planning on taking Tyler when he's out of school on President's day, so I'll try to remember the camera then. Check out their web site. http://www.thelivingplanet.com/LPA/home.html

Food, Sleep, Sun

2008-01-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

This was the greatest vacation ever. I think a few people are a little stunned when they find out how little we really did in Puerta Vallerta, but it was exactly what we needed.
We were able to sleep in until around 10:00 am every day. Oh, and the sleep was wonderful. I was able to sleep through the night. No checking on the kids at 2:00 am and 4:00 am. No waking up thinking I needed to go to the bathroom. Just deep thorough sleep--I even dreamed again. (Mostly in the morning when I could hear the Mexican maids outside our door talking).
We didn't eat often. Only once, sometimes twice a day. But, oh, was the food incredible. I'm still craving all the chips and salsa and fajitas and everything. The last night I think I had my favorite meal. A fajita burrito. I couldn't quite finish it all, but it was the yummiest thing I have ever tasted. Steak strips, chicken strips, sweet onions, peppers, mushrooms all sautéed in some kind of awesome sauce, plus rice and beans all rolled up in a huge flour tortilla, then adorned with fresh guacamole and salsa. And to drink . . . sweet strawberry margaritas that were to die for (virgin of course) and pina coladas. Ummm . . . I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. Better stop.
The other awesome part was just relaxing and soaking up the sun. Whether we were sleeping or reading or just watching the billions of Mexicans trying to sell us something, we were in the sun. I read two good books. And Travis even got to read, something he hasn't had time for in a long while. The temp. was between 77-80 the entire time. It was truly perfect. It was so nice being next to Travis and not having him on the phone the entire time. I didn't even mind the 5 minute phone call to work each day. Luckily just to have his phone on would have cost $3.50 a minute because of roaming charges, so it was sweet. And since we didn't have his phone, we never knew what time it was. It was sort of nice. We ate when we wanted, we slept when we wanted . . . it was a true vacation!
It's just hard coming back to reality. But, we did start to miss the kids. They were excited to see us, well mostly the gifts we brought them. They loved having Grandma, Abby actually woke up the other morning wanting Grandma to come back for all day.

Mexico

2008-01-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

So Sally and I left for Puerta Villarta on Monday the 21st and got back Thursday the 24th late that evening. Needless to say we LOVED it! We had a great time and enjoyed every minute there. We were able to do a little bartering, read a couple of books on the beach, eat at Pippi's twice and enjoy many other fine restaruants.

The best thing about it was it was the first trip away from the kids since Tyler was a baby. The first and definately not the last. We were both able to decompress the last 8 1/2 years a little into our four day stay. Sally and I are still having withdrawls from fresh guacamole and salsa. We keep saying we are hungry but can't find the right stuff to satisfy our cravings.

Being in Mexico was a lot of fun. I had never been outside the US. Granted it is only our neighbor to the south, but it is still definately a different country. The worst thing about our trip was getting off the airplane and getting hit up for a time share before we even got out of the airport.
One of the highlights was on Tuesday when I wore a superman T shirt the kids had given me for Christmas. All the mexicans loved that as I walked down the street. "Hey superman want to try our tequilla", "Hey superman I have great prices for you." The best however was one guy we passed twice that day going to and from our hotel. The first time he said, "I don't usually have to resort to violence but I will." As he held up a toy cap gun. I walked a littler further when I heard him shoot. I reacted as if I had been shot and he fired again. This time I think the pretend bullet hit my leg. Just a flesh wound. He recognized us later that night and had the best line,"Hey Clark Kent and Lois, want to go on a tour tomorrow." Maybe you had to be there but the superman shirt was a hit with the locals. I even found my lost brother at the flea market. He was of course 9-10 inches shorter and about the same weight. His tan was a little darker but he had on a superman shirt too. I should have gotten a picture with my brother from a different mother. I will let Sally tell you more about the food and other fun things we did like sleep and eat and sleep and eat...

Shredding it on our Boards

2008-01-20T15:07:00.000-08:00

So my lovely wife heard about this Burton Learn to Ride program a couple of weeks ago on the radio. It was the opportunity to learn to snowboard for free. She got us signed up and locked into a session on the 19th. So Ty and I were pretty excited. Having grown up on skis I have always wanted to try snowboarding. Well needless to say it was awesome. I had a blast just being with Tyler not to mention learning from an 18 year old from New Zealand how to do it. There were four of us in the class. I was the oldest. My boarding buddies for the day were, Tyler age 6, Devin age 9 and Cameron age 15. I was definately the old guy. I still showed them up and by the end of the day I had the turns down and was going pretty good. Tyler was more interested in going fast and pointing it straight down and letting it ride. I have to admit, my left shoulder is a little sore from all the heal side to toe side turns. I buried my shoulder in the snow more than once. All in all Ty and I had a great time and will definately do it again.

The Good News

2008-01-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

I hope I won't jinx us, but I just wanted to let the world know, WE SOLD OUR HOUSE. Not the house we're living in, but the BIG, BEAUTIFUL Saratoga house. We're barely going to break even with construction costs (after all the agent fees and what-not are taken out). So the only thing we'll loose is the monthly payments since August, power bill, gas bill, city bills, ect. Things could be worse . . . we're just super excited, especially since we didn't have any money left to pay the payment for any more months! Yahoo! Hopefully after next Friday (when we close) I'll be able to start sleeping a little better. And one day, we'll finish the rest of our basement.

Christmas Holiday Cont.

2008-01-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was a blast. Even if Travis and I were exhausted. You see, Tyler was so excited he couldn't sleep. He actually went to bed fine, but then he woke up at 1:00 am (right after Travis and I had fallen asleep) and couldn't sleep. We sent him back to bed and he came back every 20 min. asking if it was morning yet. FInally we let me sleep in our bed with Travis and I went to sleep in his bed (Travis can sleep through his wiggling and worming). Travis said he would fall asleep for 20 min. then wake up again and ask what time it was. He did that all night long. Actually by 5:30 he must have been exhausted because we eventually had to wake him up at 7:30 so we'd have time to open presents before we got going.
Tyler said his favorite thing he got was his Darth Vader mask and light saber. Abby loved her princess dolls and dress up clothes. And Emma loved her farmer Jed farm that Abby and Ty got her. She also loved the dress up clothes, all the chocolate from her stocking, and well everything else too . . .
After opening gifts we went to Grandma and Grandpa Wilde's for Christmas Brunch with the whole family. Everything was so divine. Mmmm. . . I could have just eaten all morning long. There were orange rolls, baked eggs, sausage, coffee cake, fruit, and I'm sure there were other yummy things I'm forgetting. Next we got to open presents. We're always so spoiled by the Kallunki's and Grandma and Grandpa, and this year was no different. The girls loved their sunday dresses and Tyler loved his comfy blue sweater. But, the highlight was the books from the Kallunki's. Tyler wanted to go home and read his Nate the Great book right away. And Abby LOVED the cool princess story she got. It came with crads that change the story, so you can assume she was all about that. My favorite thing was the scrapbook pages. I'm so lucky that my sister-in-law and mother-in-law are so talented!!
After opening all the gifts, we came home for a nap. Well, everyone except for Tyler took one. I don't know what to do with that kid.
The rest of the holiday as just spent at home enjoying the things we got. I loved having Tyler home from school. We miss him when he is gone.

Time-out

2008-01-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

I am taking a break in my update spree to implore the blogging world to answer a question of sanity. Here's the scoop . . . my daughter, Emma Kay (21 1/2 months) is naughty. She is cute, very cute, but also very naughty. The problem is, she loves TIME-OUT. I don't know if it is because her brother and sister coerced her to join them in time-out from the second she could start crawling; or if she just really likes the rug, by the front door, that she rolls herself up in, while she is in time-out. Whatever it is, time-out doesn't do the disciplinary trick it is supposed to.
Last night, when she wouldn't eat dinner, she actually got down from her chair, and put herself in time-out, until the rest of us finished. We didn't ask her to go, but she went anyway.
Then again, at lunch today, she got down from her chair and started playing under the table. I was finishing my own lunch and tried coaxing her to get back up in her chair to finish eating. She just laughed at me and called for "Do Do" aka Abby to join her under the table. I didn't know what to do, and before I could think straight I said, "Emma, if you don't get up you'll have to go to time-out." Well, it was too late. I heard a "Yay!" And Emma scooted out from under the table and ran for time-out. I yelled for her to return, but to no avail. The hard part is, she doesn't care where she is sent, she can make it fun. She loves her room, she loves her sisters room, she loves my room, she loves the couch or the other rug, she could entertain herself anywhere.
So now I don't know how I'll ever get her to come out of time-out and eat her food or how to properly discipline my little goof.
Any suggestions? I'd love 'em.

Christmas Update (partial)

2008-01-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Everyday I keep telling myself, YOU NEED TO UPDATE. However, until right this minute I have been putting it off. It actually has gotten so bad I wake up in the middle of the night and think, "I should go update." But, it is so cold in the corner of the unfinished section of the basement where I keep the computer that . . . alas, I keep purposefully putting it off. Then, I put it off more because the list keeps getting longer. Like, did I ever write about the BYU football game that Travis and I took Tyler too? No, well that was in November, I'm not going back that far. Or did I write about the Cinderall play that Abby and tried to go to, but missed? No, but I think I wrote about it somewhere. And did I ever announce to the world that Emma is officially potty-trained? Yep, even at Grandmas house. We do have to make frequent trips to passing gas sations, but she even sleeps through the night at nap time. I have so got it made right now!
Anyway, on to my December updates . . .
This is going to be quick (I hope)

On Christmas Eve morning, our neighbors/friends invited us to go sledding with them. We had a blast. The kids were brave, the snow was great, and it was so nice and sunny. Emma did have to pee behind a bush so I just had to remind to kids to only eat clean WHITE snow.

Christmas Eve at the Alvey's. I was in charge of some of the games for the kids. Since there were kids of various ages, I didn't want to bore to older kids with Pin the Nose on the Rudolph (which the younger kids did play and LOVE) so we also learned and performed the hula to Hawaiian Santa. The kids and I had a blast, even if I was completely out of breath by the end. Thank goodness for I-Tunes, and my roommate from the 'pit'. Thanks Ang for being my inspiration.

This is a scene from the traditional Alvey grandchild nativity. Abby and Tyler were chosen to be Mary and Joseph this year. They were super excited. Emma was the angel who announced the birth of Jesus, at the beginning, but she kept making her deput throughout the rest of the nativity. This always makes me laugh. I know it is supposed to be spiritual, and it still is, the kids just do things their own way. They make it definately memorable.

This is Abby showing off her Cinderella doll that Santa brought her. And yes, Santa did come to our house. And he brought way too much if you ask me. By the time Abby had opened her presents she was delighted Santa came. She actually pulled up the blind on the window and yelled out, "Thank you Santa, I love you!" Today, randomly she started crying and I asked why. She said, "Because it is not Christmastime anymore. And I want Santa to come back." Oh, my little bi-polar princess.

And here is Emma. She was so happy with everything she got. She tore through everything so quick she wanted to unwrap everyone elses stuff too. Here she is sporting her bright blue princess gown while doing her grocery shopping, with her new laughing baby doll.

Many more memories to post, but for now this will have to do. My fingers are frozen . . . adios.

Santa, Please Don't Come to My House!!

2007-12-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

So, Abby HATES Santa. This is all very new and strange to me. Last year she loved him. But, this year she wants absolutely NOTHING to do with him. We wrote our letters early to Santa this year. And all was fine in the Wilde household. Everyone was excited and merry and bright. The kids, all of them, were overjoyed to go to the Beesley Christmas party. They knew Santa was going to be there and they would get to sit on his lap. Well, the night of the Christmas party was fine . . . up until Santa entered the building. It was at that point that Abby ran and hid underneath the table to hide from him. I couldn't see her, but I could hear the shrieking. I went and pulled her out from the table and asked her what the matter was. she said, "I don't want to see Santa." I thought that if I just held her she would be fine. (Travis still wasn't at the party and Tyler and Emma were excited to see him, so I thought I could just hold Abby and all would be well. But, nope!) Abby would not stop screaming. I kid you not, it wasn't just a small little whimpering, it was all out screaming her-head-off! She ran into the kitchen where my grandma Beesley was standing and climbed between her legs and wouldn't let go. She eventually found a dish towel that she hid over herself in the corner and refused to budge until Santa left. Tyler got to sit on Santa's lap and Emma tried, but was a little scared (nothing like Abby though).
On our next run into Santa, we were at the mall. Tyler knew Santa was there and was begging to just go look at him. He was fine with not waiting in line to sit on his lap. He just wanted a look. Abby must have sensed we were getting near, because as soon as we got about 100 yards away, she started howling again. Tyler, Emma, and I went to get a closer look while Abby kept her distance, still crying, with Dad.
Saturday night though, was probably the worse. At the ward Christmas party, not only was Santa in attendance, but the grinch showed up too. Our family was asked to read a little poem during the devotional, prior to dinner, which went well. Abby and Tyler memorized the poem, Emma looked cute, and we all said it on cue simultaneously. (We received many compliments, maybe we should become pros :) ) However, as soon as we got our dinner and sat down, someone announce that the Grinch had entered the building. Abby got down from her seat (she'd even been eating good) and ran to hide. I finally found her and had to go sit and eat with her on my lap. She was curled in a ball with her hands over her face the entire time. I think she fell asleep for a while even. It was sort of difficult to eat the delicous roast beast, green slime, and who-hash with her on my lap, but I managed.
Anytime she thought the Grinch was coming near our table she started shrieking again. Well, the Grinch finally left, and what do you know. . . Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up. When they showed up, Emma had to climb in my lap too. By that point, I was really happy to be there. I actuallly tried to tell Travis we should just leave, but Tyler wanted to sit on Santa's lap. Mrs. Claus came over to try to console Abby, unfortunately it just increased the problem x's 20.
When people started to clear the tables and clean up, and all the kids were all ready lined up, I finally stood up. Abby was still bawling, but she ran out and I told Travis he could chase her, if he wanted. I took Emma, who was fine with me holding her, and Tyler and we took our spot at the very end of the line to see Santa. I knew Abby hadn't gone far, because I could still hear the periodic wailing coming from the halls. By the time we got to the beginning of the line, Emma wasn't too sure about Santa either. Mrs. Claus was nice enough to send a candy cane for both of the girls. The funny thing is, Tyler was so nervous by the time he got to Santa, that he forgot what he wanted to ask for. Good thing we mailed his letter a few weeks ago!
You would think all is well, right? We're not planning on seeing Santa anymore this year, Abby should be fine. Well, she's not. She is scared to go to bed because she doesn't want Santa to come in her house while she's sleeping and look at her. She doesn't want him to, "know when she is sleeping or know when she's a wake." And she most definately does not want him to come to our house on Christmas Eve and leave ANY Presents! To get her to stop crying last night, I told her I'd write Santa and tell him not to come. Well, that just made Tyler start crying. So, we've asked the neighbors if Santa could leave our gifts at their house. They said it was okay, but they wouldn't let Tyler come over at 5:00 am Christmas morning to open them. Who knows, we'll have to work something out!

Happy Holidays!

Princess Morning

2007-12-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

Abby and Emma have been playing princess non-stop lately. Last night, in fact, they were playing princesses the entire time Travis, Tyler, and I were watching Extreme Home Makeover. The girls came running in yelling, "Mamma, Mamma!" I shushed them and told them to wait until the commercial. (I know, bad mom.)
So, when the commercial came up I yelled to them and asked what they wanted. And, what do you know, they wanted me to play princesses with them. I told them "Not tonight." And Abby said, "Mom, you always say that." So I promised I would find a fancy dress and play dress up in the morning.
So, of course, first thing this morning Abby came running in saying, "Can we play princesses now?" I laughed and told her we had to wait until Tyler left for school.
The girls usually wait by the window and watch Tyler run down to the bus stop, and then they usually hang out there until the bus comes. But this morning, as soon as Tyler headed out the door. They started begging to play princesses. So, I told them to run and put on their dresses. I was trying to kill some time so I could get the dishwasher started. But, they were unusually fast at changing into their princess clothes. So, they had to wait while I finished the dishes. Abby said I was like Cinderella, since I had to do my jobs.
As soon as I started to dishwasher, I looked around and thought I should really just keep cleaning, but I promised. So the girls and I walked into my closet to find a princess dress. And guess what, I didn't have one. I am not one to keep dresses I don't wear (and actually I've never had fancy frilly dresses). Then I remembered . . . I dug down in one of the tuber-wares in my closet, and pulled out my wedding dress. Abby eyes about popped out of her head as she said, "Wow!" And Emma, was saying, "Mine, Mine," over and over again. So I put on the dress and we went to the ball (It still fits, by the way!). We were short a few Prince Charmings (I did call Travis to see if he and a few of his employees could come help, but they were too busy).
We ended up using teddy bears. They worked pretty well. It was pretty fun dancing and twirling. And the girls went crazy when I let down the train of my dress. Abby was a little forlorn that she didn't have a white dress as fancy as mine.
After a while, Abby brought me a magic wand and I suddenly became the fairy god-mother from Cinderella. Abby was Cinderella in a lovely blue dress and Emma made a gorgeous Sleeping Beauty in Abby's pink dress (it was a little big). It is pretty fun having girls and taking the time to play dress up every now and then.
Sorry there are no pictures! I'm sure they would have been humorous.
Tonight while we were in the car Abby said, "Daddy, guess what. When I get to be a mommy and get married to Tyler I get to wear mommy's pretty dress."

Lots of updates

2007-11-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it has been a while. But, I finally have posted again. There are quite a few posts below, if you have time, read them! I will be posting more, but it is cold in my basement and my fingers are a little frozen after typing for the last couple hours. So, until then, happy reading!

Yahoo!

2007-11-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

Tyler has been asking me, since his birthday last spring, "when are my teeth going to be loose?" So, you can imagine how thrilled he was a couple of weeks ago, when he finally had his first loose tooth. He said, "Finally, everyone else in my class have all ready all lost their teeth." He was a little nervous about wiggling it too much, so, the first week he was very gentle and the tooth didn't move too much. The second week, he started getting frustrated because he wanted it to come out, but he didn't want it to hurt. Every day after school he would come home and start wiggling it, so by the time it was bed time, his tooth was usually hurting so bad we had to give him some Tylenol. After two days of coming home and crying, I was sick of it. So, last Tuesday night, I was fixing dinner. Tyler was supposed to be doing his reading homework with Dad, but he couldn't stop crying. I told him to come in the kitchen so I could feel how loose it was. He quickly asked, "You're not going to pull it are you?" I had threatened to the day before when he wouldn't stop crying. I hesitated, then gave a sure and confident "NO." As I turned towards the sink to wash my hands I got a glimpse of Travis, his jaw was open and he was just staring at me. (He knew I was lying.)
Tyler came over and I started softly wiggling it. Then I got a hold of the little tooth with my thumb and pointer finger and very quickly pulled up. The tooth came out very easily. Tyler was wailing and yelling, "You lied, you lied to me!" I tried calming him down by showing him the tooth, but it did no good. He hated me for the next five minutes.
Then, after he had looked in the mirror a couple of times and inspected his first tooth, his attitude began to soften towards me. That night, as he was saying his prayers he said, "Thank you Mommy pulled my tooth."
I'm glad he is quick to forgive. Sometimes lying is necessary.

Watching kids shows make me realize

2007-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

The other day, after Tyler came home exhausted from school, we turned on PBS kids before we started on homework for a little down time. The kids and I were all snuggled in the covers watching Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman. (If you haven't watched this you'll have to check it out. It is a cute non-cartoon game show for kids. There are five kids who compete in real life challenges and win stuff.) Anyway, this week, Ruff (who is the host of the show and a dog) was trying to romance the poodle next door. He had been trying to right a poem, which wasn't turning out very well (I tell ya, its because he was trying to rhyme!) Anyway, he sent one of the contestants to this place called the Green Veggie. She had no idea where she was going, but it ended up being the local setting for SLAM POETS! I was so excited. Watching this episode of Ruff made me realize how much I love Slam poetry, and how much I miss teaching students to participate in SLAM poetry. Up to this point I don't think I have missed teaching, but after this show I remember how much I really enjoyed training, helping, and watching my creative writing students preform their poetry! Oh, I might have to email Alicia and see if I can't come watch a performing day sometime. Even though there are some really crappy poems, it is amazing how good some high school students are at writing and performing.

Sundays at our house

2007-11-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Sundays at our house are always a little crazy. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we actually made it to church while they were still singing the opening song. However, there were not many seats left, and we didn't want to be the family to have to open the screen, so we slid into a row with four chairs set up. Emma was sort of being a runt and wanted her own seat, so Abby had to sit on Daddy's lap. This all worked out okay, and actually helped keep Abby entertained till the sacrament came. During the sacrament Travis was having a hard time holding the bread out in front of him so Abby and he could get a piece. Well, they finally did, and Travis was starting to pass the bread to Tyler when Abby says, (in a not-so-quiet voice) "My bread wasn't very big, I need another." And she grapped a couple more pieces and shoved them in her mouth, smiling (she was quite proud of herself). I was shocked and couldn't say anything. Travis was trying to laugh, without letting her see him laugh, and Tyler didn't know what to do. He was holding the tray, but I think he was kind of waiting for Abby to put the bread back or something. After a second, Abby swallows and says, "Mmmm.. . ., Tyler you have two too." I quickly shook my head and took the tray away after Tyler took his one piece. Of course everyone within earshot was trying to hide their chuckles. Oh, well, I guess we got to take the sacrament that week. Maybe Abby was just catching up for the weeks we'd missed.

Later that night, Tyler was helping Travis put the home-made noodles in the pot for the chicken noodle soup. Tyler asked Travis, "What makes the noodles puff up in the water?" Travis explained that it was the baking powder. Tyler said, excitedly, "Oh I need some of that for my church shoes. That way they'll get bigger and fit next week." (Oh, had I forgot the mention the fiasco before church about the shoes, probably because that's just a normal occurance.)

Halloween

2007-11-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

I never understand why the secondary holidays are so exhausting at our house, but they are.
We started out the morning with pumpkin and bat shaped pancakes.
Then I had to paint Tyler's face and adhere his pointy ears and bald green wig for his yoda costume. As he was leaving he yelled, don't forget you have to dress up before you come to my class.
Once we got him out the door I had to start work on Abby's hari-do for her Sleeping Beauty get-up. We started with a pony tail and then tied small starnds of hair into knots, next I bobby pinned the knots flat against the pony tail and then had to curl the stards with the mini curling iron (why do I do this to myself). Anyway, the final effect was magnificent. We put a little dab of make-up on and "wall-a," a georgous Sleeping Beauty!
Emma was much easier. All we had to do was zip up the kitty costume, put some black make-up on her nose, and pencil in some wiskers. (Which she quickly wiped off.)
Then we were off to gymnastics (they were supposed to dress up). Don't worry we took an alternate outfit for Abby, I thought it would be a little difficult to tumble in a gown.
After gymnastics we ran home, quickly ate, and hurried off to Ty's school to help in his class.
Eek, I forgot a costume!
So I hurried and threw on a robe, rubbed on a face mask, which luckily I'd been given a few years ago as a gift, put (non)hot curlers in my hair, and put Travis' slippers on my feet--I couldn't find mine.
The Halloween party turned out great. It was so much fun to be able to go and help in Tyler's classroom. The kids all looked great, and they were so much better behaved than my high school students used to be on Halloween. The kids played Halloween Bingo, made a spider out of an egg carton, they listened to a cute story about a witch and made a jack-o-lantern out of orange construction paper.
The other moms also brought their little kids, and so Abby fit in perfect. It was a fun and busy day!
And afterwards it was fun to see the whole school at the Halloween Parade.
Next we went home and eagerly waited for Travis to meet us there. Since I dressed up, I was making him too. He was happy to have a reason to wear his letterman's jacket again.
Then we were off the Grandma & Grandpa Wilde's house. While there we also got to see the Kallunki's. Grandma had great treats; carrots, grapes, and a donut. Besides the regular stuff in the basket.
Next stop was Burger King drive-in for a quick dinner on the way to the ward Trunk or Treat.
I love Trunk or Treats. In an hour the kids had way too much candy and it was time to go again . . .
This time we ran up to Grandpa Alvey's. While there we stayed till the Shawgo Family showed up.
Then, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Beesley's house. We were glad to visit with them for a while, it has been too long since we've been there.
Then, finally home, so the kids could quickly go around the neighborhood and show off their costumes and I could finally wash the face-mask off my face!

Gymnastics

2007-11-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

Tyler, Abby, and Emma have been taking gymnastics, and they love it! Tyler actually started in an all boys tumbling class. He has become great at standing on his head and doing tripods throughout the entire house. He even challenged his teacher to a head stand competition one week, and won.
Abby has her class on Wednesday morning, the same time I have Emma in a mommy & me class, so it works out great. Abby's teacher told me she was really impressed with Abby's upper arm strength. She's great at holding herself up on the bar. She definately has her daddy's build.
And Emma loves sommersaults and walking on the beam. It has been a great activity that all the kids have enjoyed. And it is really close, just a few miles away at the Open Court near Thanksgiving Point.

Skinny Man

2007-11-21T13:30:00.001-08:00

So, a little over a month ago, Travis hurt his back (if you didn't hear the story, well . . .) and after being laid up for a week he finally became determined to loose weight. It helped a little to have the chiropractor and the physical therapist and his regular doctor telling him he should loose weight and he would feel much better.
So, Travis has started cutting back, stopped the Wendy's lunches, and tries his hardest to stay out of the kitchen when his wife and kids are dipping pretzels in the chocolate fountain. (He did induldge a little in those, but I used dark chocolate and it's healthier for you, right?)
The really cool news is that, depending on the day, Travis has lost between 25-30 pounds! He looks great. He weighs about the same he did when we were married. We had to go out and get him new jeans and he's wearing his old church pants. He's really looking awesome. His cute dimples and the cleff in his chin stand out so much more when he is skinny. And, he doesn't snore, as much!
Travis says he wants to loose 25 more pounds. But, I think he'll actually have to start exercising for that!

Crazy season

2007-10-25T14:26:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning, really early, I checked on the kids to make sure they were all covered up. (I was cold so I figured they must be too.) Anyway, while I was walking past the living room window I happened to see this white stuff on the ground. I was so excited I had to wake Travis up to tell him. He didn't seem as excited as I was. I don't know what it is about snow that makes me giddy.
So, when Tyler woke up, and I told him to look out the window, I was ecstatic to see he was as happy as I was. He went and woke up his sisters and they all ran outside barefoot. Actually, Abby had been in the bathroom and didn't even take time to put her pajama pants back on. (And sadly enough, my three big green peppers did freeze, I knew I should have picked them!)
Needless to say, we eneded up being 35 minutes late to church because we couldn't get the kids inside. Actually, they kept running back inside to get warm, eat their snow balls and then run back outside for more. Emma must not remember to snow from last year . . . she was entranced. She could have looked out the window all day long! Tyler said, "I have to eat all the snow now, because I know it will be melted when we get home from church." And he was pretty much right. (I know this picture didn't turn out well, but if you can see the snowballs the kids are shoving in their mouths than it's all good.)

Potty Time for Emma Kay

2007-10-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of months, Emma has had a fascination with the potty. It probably has something to do with her wanting to be just like her big sister Abby. So, I brought out the ducky (which my mom used with us when we were little). She's great at sitting on it. However, she likes it a bit too much . . . she could most definitely sit on the ducky all day long. The bad thing about it is, she would sit on the ducky forever and never go potty. The second I would take her off the ducky and put on her diaper she would then go. So, when she turned eighteen months on the 25th of September I put the ducky away and took out the little toilet we got for Abby (Abby was too afraid to sit on the ducky). I thought that if the little potty was out, maybe she would get used to it and she'd just start going. Well, she never went on her own, but I sometimes could tell when she was going poop (sorry for the vulgarity) and I'd hurry her into the bathroom to sit on her potty.
After conference Sunday, when Travis waiting for her while she was sitting on the potty, and hurt his back (and had to stay home from work for most of the next week--no wonder Dads don't usually help potty train) we had kind of stopped the potty issue. Until . . . last night. After baths, the girls were waiting to be lotion-ed while sitting on my bed watching Rachel Ray cook some great looking choup. All the sudden we heard a little "toot." We looked at Emma and she quickly covered her mouth and started laughing. I was nervous she was going to go to the bathroom on my bed, so I asked if she need to go potty. "No," was the only answer I got. I went back to putting the sponge curlers in Abby's hair and to the "choup" and didn't think any more of it. Well, meanwhile, Emma had gone in the bathroom. Tyler helped her put her little seat up on the toilet and move the stool over to the toilet. Then she climbed up onto the potty and went poop. I didn't know what was even going on. Tyler had all ready come in our bedroom by this point, wondering what Rachel was making (he didn't mention anything about Emma and the potty). A few minutes later Emma came in clapping and saying, "yeah!" I clapped with her and said "yeah" even though I didn't know what was so exciting. Then she grabbed my hand and took me to the bathroom. And lo and behold, there was poop in the potty. Then I really clapped and asked if she needed to go more. I tried lifting her up to put her on the potty, but she would have none of that. She climbed up by herself and then went pee. Yahoo! Well, after that she would not let me put her diaper on, so we put on big girl panties. About 30 minutes later her undies were wet. So, we don't have an amazing 19 month old potty-trained little girl. In fact, she doesn't want anything to do with the potty today. But at least now I know she nows what the toilet is for. I'll let you know in a year when she's really potty trained, until then . . . adieu. And again, sorry for all the potty-talk!

Hives

2007-10-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

Early in the summer Tyler started to develop hives at random times. The first time it happened we were in Saratago working on our house. His eye had swollen up and he continued to get worse until we got him some benadryl. Since then we have taken him to an allergist and had him tested. After getting pricked several painful times we found out he had a slight reaction to sagebrush. Needless to say that wasn't the cause of his hives. Since then he gets them at random times and they go away after giving him benadryl. The doctor just told us to be detectives and narrow things down. But with so many enviromental possiblities especially with school we are definately not Holmes or even Watson. So if anyone out there in blogger land has had any good solutions of how to deal with his hives let us know.

Princess Party

2007-10-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I never realized what it took to become a princess. Abby and Emma were invited to Bryton Chuchran's Princess Birthday Party. Needless to say it took hours of thought and preperation. Abby has been asking all week when the party would be. Although it was a good motivational tool (ie. threatening to cancel the party), the continued questioning of when the party would be got rather old. Finally it was Saturday and the girls got to get ready after there naps. Abby's nap was only about 40 minutes, because she was so excited. Sally did Abby's hair amazingly beautiful. Emma on the other hand had a few complications with her hair. She had taken a nap with curlers in her hair. Unfortunately she doesn't have enough hair to curl very well. It was like she had patches of curls with no connection. Sally was able to find a headband that worked out well.

With tiara's in hair, body glitter, makeup, and lots of prettiness all around, they were able to go to there party. They had a great time. I never would have dreamed I would have two beautiful little girls who truly are my princesses. I am lucky to have such great kids whom I would do anything for.

If you were wondering what the Prince Charmings do during parties. Well they go to BoonDocks and play arcade games of course.

Fall Colors

2007-09-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

We took a lovely drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the lovely fall foliage. The colors were amazing and it was a perfect fall day. When we started up the canyon the info sign at the bottom said that is was 32 degrees. That is pretty cold. We were however lucky enough to experience the first snowfall of the season. After picture taking it started to snow. Not enough to stick but definately enough to make Abby's nose red and everybody cry that they needed hot chocolate. Sally loved the fact that it was fall and she was wearing a sweater. She smiled all the way down the canyon. Fall is her favorite season by far. I even enjoyed the fall moment.

I'll Build You a Rainbow

2007-09-23T15:22:00.001-07:00

So on our Sunday drive up to the mountains we had the radio on. Being it was Sunday we are required by an unseen power to listen to "church" music. I knew I should have changed it from FM100 to KOSY 106.5 when Stephen Kapp Perry says, "Here is one we haven't heard in a while." All of a sudden it comes on. "I'll build you a rainbow, way up high above sprinkle down raindrops..." I tried to change it when I realized what it was. Sally says no I can handle this. What she meant to say was, I'm really not going to ball like a baby and cry to such a sappy Mormon folk song. Well needless to say by the end of the song Sally and I are both crying and Tyler and Abby are trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Tyler's line of questioning was something like this--Why did she die? How did she build the rainbow? Did the dad die too? Her body didn't just disappear did it? Why did the ambulance take her away? Why are you crying mom? Why are you laughing mom? How come you are crying and laughing at the same time? Abby on the other hand just started crying five minutes later when she got it and said. "I don't want the mommy to die."

"Neither do we Abigail, neither do we". LIfe has a funny way of teaching us things. I believe God was telling me today secular music on the Sabbath is alright. Atleast it won't make you cry like a baby. Or no music is better than sappy mormon songs, that make you cry inspite of how much you really can't stand the songs. But then again Afterglow does have a new best of CD out I think. Hmm...

I'm A Dork!

2007-09-22T20:58:00.001-07:00

Okay, I don't really know how to say this. My brain is still in shock . . . you see, I just went to see the STUPIDEST movie ever. You know how some shows (Like Princess Diaries 2, What a Girl Wants, and High School Musical) are okay and even fun to watch at home on the Disney Channel when you're flipping through the stations and there is nothing else on. Well, tonight we actually paid $15.00 plus $30 in babysitting to go and watch Sidney White. I must admit, my face is still sore from laughing. And, Travis and I were still smiling and laughing so much at the grocery store when we went to get cash for the babysitter that the lady at the check out line had to ask if we were okay. But, I think we were laughing more at how incredibley stupid we were for actually watching it. I had to keep asking Travis what had possesed him to choose this movie. I know Amanda Bynes is hot and all, but I didn't realize my husband was so into the "high school" genre. I don't think I have ever been to a movie with so many teenagers. I felt like I was back teaching. I think I must have ruined the movie for them by laughing at all the wrong parts and laughing at all the oohhing and aahhing being done throughout the theater.
Travis said that Doug Wright had given the movie three stars, so he figured it had to be a good one. http://movies.ksl.com/phputil/review.php?movie=987
Travis wouldn't admit that he didn't fully love the movie (he's stubborn like that). He just kept saying, "You know you liked it, you couldn't stop laughing." And he is right, I couldn't stop laughing. You know those kinds of movies when you are just laughing at yourself for watching it. Well, I have to admit that I am a dork (once you see the movie you'll understand the meaning in being a dork, or dating a dork for that matter). And I think you should all go see the movie . . . just wait for a matinee, or till it is in the dollar theater, or atleast don't pay a babysitter too. And make sure you don't take it too seriously.
Oh, and I just have to say, I'm glad I'm not in college now, I definately don't have the body to fit into the latest trends.

Garbage Man

2007-09-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

So, my kids are obsessed with the garbage man.
I know most kids love watching the garbage man, and many kids even want to be a garbage man when they grow up, but my kids' obsession reaches a different level. Until just recently (because 1st grade started) every time Tyler heard the garbage man he would run around the house looking for a pencil and paper. Then he would run down the street yelling, "Can I get your autograph?"
Luckily, a few things have stopped him from attaining the garbage man's autograph--which he covets so deeply. #1 The garbage man does not come at the same time every week. Sometimes he comes in the mornings, sometimes it is during lunch, sometimes it is late afternoon. So, luckily Tyler cannot anticipate his coming. #2 Tyler always forgets, until he hears those familiar garbage sounds, that he wants the autograph and he never knows where a pencil and paper are. Thus, he has to search everywhere for them. #3 He did get very close once, just a few feet away from the garbage man, but the truck is so loud the garbage man just thought he was another kid waving. So, the garbage man happily waved back. #4 We have to roll our garbage cans down to the end of the street, our streets are so narrow that the garbage man cannot turn around, so we roll them down to where he can get them.
Tyler was getting better and faster and I really thought we were going to get his autograph, but alas, school started and he no longer gets the chance. However, the obsession must have been bequeathed to Abby. Yesterday, during lunch we heard the garbage man. Emma actually heard him first and started pointing. Abby quickly realized what it was and started heading to the door. I yelled, "You can't go outside without clothes on!" (Okay, I have to quickly explain why my 3 year old is naked at lunch. She spilled water on her clothes--not much water, but she hates being dirty and wet so she usually goes and changes. We go through multiple clothes during any meal. Yesterday I did not want to dirty more clothes so I told her to just finish her lunch without clothes on.) Anyway, she ran to put clothes on while Emma and I were on the porch watching the garbage man dump ours and the neighbors' cans. Abby eventually came running out, hurried to put on her flip-flops and started running down the street. I yelled after her, "Where are you going?" By that point the garbage man had finished our street's cans and was headed down the road.
She stopped at the edge of the lawn and sulkily said, "I have a note for the garbage man."
She didn't have anything with her and so I asked, "Oh really, when did you write this note?"
She, matter-of-factually, replied, "Gosh Mom, Once Upon a Dream."
My laughing must have changed her sullen mood, because she brightened up, turned and headed back down the street. I asked, "Where are you going now?"
She said, "I think I know where he lives."
Somehow I convinced her to come home with the promise that we could try to give it to him next week.

I got tagged

2007-09-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Um...what's tagging?
I think this is what I'm supposed to do

ME
(This was written by Travis . . . hopefully you can tell. Everything in parenthesis is by me--Sally)
What is his name? Travis
(I think we was supposed to put her name? Anyway, we're married, get it?)
How long have you been together? We just had our 8th Anniversary

How long did you date? 11 months
(give or take that long -- I left him to go to Nauvoo for 4 1/2 months in between)
How old is he? 31
(Luckily I'm not THAT old, yet)
Who said I love you first? I did
(definately)
Who is taller? I am
(thankfully, I hated dating guys who were shorter than me)
Who sings better? I am definately the better singer in the car, she is at church
(I sing at church? Usually I'm chasing the kids)
Who is smarter? Hands down her... She has the masters degree
(nuf said)
Whose temper is worse? I don't get mad, so definately her
(Whatever!)
Who does the laundry? 90% of the time she does
(probably more like 99.9%)
Who does the dishes? 85% of the time she does and the 15 % of the time when I do them she re-does them to fit more in the dishwasher
(well if they don't all fit the first time I just have to do them later anyway)
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do
(and he snores, so sometimes he gets to sleep on the entire bed and I go for the couch)
Who pays the bills? I make the money she does the rest
(which means I'm the one always stressing about the money)
Who mows the lawn? we both do
(mostly me, he edges though)
Who cooks dinner? sally mon-fri usually me on the weekends
(or we eat out on the weekends)
Who drives when you are together? I do, she makes me nervous when she drives
(he makes us all car sick)
Who is more stubborn? equal but she might have a slight edge
(I'm not stubborn, I promise)
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I always am wrong
(yep)
Whose parents do you see the most? both about the same
(thats what you get when we live 15 minutes away from both)
Who kissed who first? I kissed her after weeks of deliberation
(yeah, I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with him or me . . . it was like three weeks)
Who asked who out? I did, tricked her into thinking there was a big group going to see a movie
(so he picked me up to go to the movie and I asked where everyone else was, he said no one else wanted to see the X-Files, who wouldn't want to see the X-Files?)
Who proposed? I did
(Yes, and he was very romantic)
Who is more sensitive? I am
(apparently, I'm just moody)
Who has more friends? neither one of us has too many friends
(do we actually have any friends?)
Who has more siblings? she does

Who wears the pants in the family? Not me
(I don't either, Emma does lately)

(I guess since Travis didn't tag anyone, no one has to do this . . . aren't you all lucky!)

Fall Days

2007-09-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

My favorite season of all is Autumn. I just love it. The cool breeze, long sleeve shirts, hot chocolate (mixed with ice cream, of course), and chili in bread bowls . . .
Well, with all the storms we've received lately, I've started to feel slight hints of it on the air. On Sat. morning we had the back screen door open while we were eating breakfast and I asked the kids, "Do you notice anything on the wind?"
Abby took a sniff and she said, "It smells like cold and garbage cans."
Tyler said, "No it doesn't Abby, it smells like fall."
Later, when I was taking a shower with the bathroom window slightly open so I'd have to turn the water up a little higher, I was remembering how well I love taking showers on fall/winter mornings. I am against turning the lights on in the bathroom while taking a shower, and I love taking showers in the dark. Then I had a quick thought . . . I no longer have to get up at 5:30 am to take showers, and since I usually don't get a shower until 9:00 am or later I probably won't get those pitch-black showers anymore. I smiled to myself, because I won't mind the bathroom a little lighter. I'm just happy to be home with my kids. Wow, this is my second year not working . . . and I still love it! Even on those crazy, hectic days with sick kids and tons of laundry and dishes that need to be cleaned.

Fun Times

2007-09-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

I've been horrible at posting and keeping the world updated on our family life. So this is a quick Top Ten of the last few months (in no particular order).
10. Abby started preschool! Yahoo, she loves it. She just wonders why she doesn't get to go all day like Tyler. And Emma wonders why she doesn't get to stay at preschool with Abby (although Emma and I are having fun with each other, she still wears her book-bag around the entire time Abby is gone). Abby wishes she could go everyday. And she is so proud of all the cute crafts and projects she gets to bring home to show everyone.

9. Tyler started the FIRST GRADE. Yep, he leaves us all day long. And it really does seem like he is gone forever. He leaves at 8:45 am and doesn't get home until 3:45 pm. The first day, during lunch he left his lunch box on the school lunch tables. He didn't know what to do with it. But he said, "It's okay Mom, three other kids did too. Our teacher just took us to the lost and found and there they were." There are a lot of little things that we are getting used to.

7. We drove to Vernal with Travis. He had to measure some kitchens. we ended up spending the night and visiting the dinosaur museum. The kids loved swimming in the pool.
6. Summer projects: we did some good and needed cleanup around the house. Somethings that I've been putting off since we moved here. We cleaned closets and drawers, the family painted a mural for the kitchen, Travis finished my 1910 piano that I got for $20.00 from KSL.com, we filled our flower beds with ground cover and flowers, stained the playhouse, washed walls, got the carpets cleaned, etc. etc. And it was really nice to have everything clean for a couple of weeks, but now we're falling back into the dirty life style.
5. We finished off Tyler's baseball season with a fun bar-b-que and awards banquet for all the players and their families. It was great fun. Travis really enjoyed coaching The Sharks, and looks forward to next year.
4. We spent most days staying cool in the basement or outside playing in the pirate pool. It was the cool spot in the neighborhood and many of the nieghborhood boys would have been happy to stay all day.
3. We had fun celebrating Joey's baptism and Elijah and Lizzy's baby blessings with the Shawgos. It was a special day, and we were glad to be apart of it.
2. We went to Deer Creek with our neighbors and had fun playing on the beach, zooming around the lake on the wave runners, and bobbing along in the tubes. Tyler is all ready trying to talk Dad into getting some wave runners so we can go whenever we want.
1. The highlight of the summer had to be our trip to San Jose to visit the Harris Family. Jane was an exceptional hostess and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. We went to the boardwalk, the beach, the Redwood Forest (and even got to ride on the train), the park, the beach again, and numerous other places. Abby was content to just play in Claires princess room all day! She had a blast with her cousin. Tyler also learned all the ins and outs of Star Wars Lego 2, he loved playing X-Box with his cousins. Jane got a babysitter one day so we were able to go out and get a pedicure and manicure. When Travis arrived Friday night, we got another babysitter and went on a double date with Jane and Aaron to see that Stardust--which was an awesome movie. It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever been on. Jane kept us entertained, well fed, and even made sure I had plenty of time to read (I finished 4 books while on vacation--granted I stayed till 1:00 am reading most nights, but it was so nice)! The drive home wasn't even that bad. Thanks to the Shawgos we had a portable dvd player for all three kids. The girls mostly watched the same things, which left Tyler to watch whatever he wanted. It really was an awesome vaction. We all loved it!

Okay, now that that was entirely too long, I won't have to post for a while.

4th of July

2007-07-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

We had a fun (and exhausting) 4th of July.
After an awesome breakfast with all the fixin's we took a drive up AF canyon. After a rather long and car-sickening drive (Trav and Abs think it is fun to go fast around all the curves and loops) we ended up at the Stuart Falls trail head. Travis and I had hiked to Stuart Falls eight years ago on on the 4th of July and we thought it would be a fun hike that wouldn't be too strenuous for the kids.
It was fun . . . it took me a while to remember all the words to "The Princess Pat." But, after a while, we were singing, and hiking, and Emma was enjoying riding in the back-pack we borrowed from the Shawgos. She kept patting Travis head and she loved sucking water out of the camel pack.
Tyler did awesome. You could tell he was tired, but he just kept going and going.
Abby did pretty well too. But, everytime someone passed by with a dog I had to lift her up. As we got closer to the falls she was so tired she just kept tripping over the rocks, so I ended up carrying her the rest of the way.
The falls were beautiful. Tyler got pretty soaked and found out on the way back why I told him not to get his shoes wet. Emma enjoyed getting out of the back-pack. Actually she enjoyed being out so much that she didn't want to go back in. That was okay, we ended up putting Abby in the pack on the way back and I carried Emma (who is slightly less heavy then Abby).
Well, that was just the start of a great day! But, enough for now . . . Emma needs a nap.
Love you all!