Lexi's 2nd Birthday!

The Birthday Girl!

The Morning

We kicked off the celebrations first thing in the morning. The kids ate breakfast and then we opened the presents from our immediate family. Lexi got a baby carriage for her dolls, some new jammies and a tricycle.

The twins were still sick, so we couldn't do much of anything else to celebrate. Instead, I took Lexi to get her 2-year-old pictures (shown above) taken at the mall. Then we picked up Andy and the twins and went out to lunch.

After lunch, it was warm enough that we could go outside and ride. Lexi's little legs are about a centimeter too short to get the pedals around by herself, but we all took turns pushing her.

The Party

Later that evening it was time for the party! Brayden and Makenzie had been excited all week for the party, and their enthusiasm was contagious. By 5 p.m. no one, including Lexi, could wait for the party to start.

The Invitation

The Decorations

The Guests

Lexi was lucky enough to celebrate with both sets of grandparents. We missed our family members that live out of state or were too sick to come to the party!

The Games

We kicked off the party with Oscar's Trash Toss. I didn't explain the rules very well, but everyone still played and seemed to have fun.

The Cupcakes

These cupcakes were the inspiration for the entire party theme. My sister sent me a picture of them in the summer and Brayden declared that we needed to make them for Lexi's birthday. I also made some elmo cupcakes, but they didn't turn out nearly as cute. 

We even remembered to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl this year! Hooray! She wouldn't blow out the candles, though, so Andy decided to help her out. Lexi, our extremely independent girl, did not appreciate this. We had to relight the candles and let her do it.

The Haul

By this time, Lexi was a seasoned pro at opening presents and wasted no time tearing through the paper on one and moving on to the next. My camera couldn't match her speed and precision.

Once again, everyone spoiled little Lexi. She got lots of fun presents from everyone, including a baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa Mildon and a bouncy donkey from Grandma & Grandpa Rhodes. She promptly decided that the baby needed to go for a ride with her.

The After Party

After everyone went home we untied the baloons and let the kids have a little after party fun as we always do.

The fun came to a screeching halt, however, when one of the balloons popped and each of the kids had meltdowns for various reasons. Too much sugar, cough syrup and stimulation and not enough sleep. It took 45 minutes to get everyone calmed down and in bed. After that, I needed to go read my own bedtime story, a fun little book that our good friends the Noskers gave us for Christmas. :)

2011 By the Numbers

148

Episodes of How I Met Your Mother that Andy and I watched from March to December.

9

Times I had to wash and scrub Lexi's hand before all of the blue Easter egg dye came off.

1

Place Andy took in his age category at the U-Day 5K. . .while pushing the triple stroller.

0

Number of other competitors in his age category.

103

Pounds that aforementioned triple stroller weighs when loaded with all three kids.

2 

Front teeth that Makezie got for Christmas. . .Mater style!

102

Approximate number of miles of lawn my Dad mowed every Monday, including ours, during the summer. (Thanks, Dad!)

7 

Attempts it took Andy to stand up on a wake board for the first time.

1

Attempt was all it took for Melinda to stand up. (That's how it's done, Rhodes!)

11

Hours straight we spent at Lagoon with Grandma & Grandpa Rhodes and all of the cousins.

44.33

Seconds it took Andy to complete the fastest lap of the day at the Miller Motorsports Park on his birthday.

689

Number of 500 word articles I wrote during the year.

30

Temperature outside on a brisk autumn day that didn't even phase 7 preschoolers from having a great time!

6

of Andy's favorite things he saw while on a tour of the new Cowboy's Stadium.

We're Going Sledding!

Every day for the past few weeks the twins have gone sledding. You might find this hard to believe since there isn't even a skiff of snow on the ground outside. But all you need is a little imagination, a staircase and some foam furniture. Check it out!

We've also had some major "snowball" fights with balloons.

After the Storm

This is what our swingset looked like just a few short weeks ago.

On Thursday morning I woke up to see the slide and the teeter totter had blown off. I was so sad. Little did I know what was yet to come. Later that moring this is what it looked like.

On Thanksgiving I asked the kids what they were most thankful for. Makenzie said, "Thanks for building our clubhouse, Daddy. That's what I'm thankful for." (They called the top part of the swingset their clubhouse.) I thought they would be devestated to see what happened and start crying. They were actually in awe of the destruction. But Andy & I were both heartbroken.

The hurricane force winds also caused a lot of damage to the trees in my brother's yard. My brother, Brian, called me early in the morning to tell me that the wind had blown a street light off the post at the corner of our street. The live wires were hitting the chain link fence that runs up the side of his yard to to the corner of our property and keeps on going right to the side of our house, causing arcs of electricity and power surges.

Right after that, a tree fell on his house. Andy and my Dad went over there to help him get it off before it went through his roof. What they didn't realize was that another tree had been uprooted but was being held upright by the tree Brian was cutting with the chainsaw. When he made it through that branch, the second tree fell and hit him while the chainsaw was still going. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Andy said he could feel the wind trying to pull his contacts out and it was like trying to dodge bullets with all of the pinecones and other debris flying around.

 Every few minutes another tree went down. Along his driveway. . . .

 . . .by the road. This is one of the largest that went down. I would guess it was at least 60 feet tall.

Two more along the road went down as well. Just like dominoes.

 This is the view from my parent's house, which is directly on the other side of Brian's house.

A total of nine trees were uprooted and another four snapped in half. We were all very sad to see the trees fall down. My Grandpa Mildon planted those trees when he built the house in the 1950's. My dad has many fond  memories of those trees, as do we. Having campouts, playing in the irrigation under them, losing countless softballs and birdies up in the branches and trying to get them down. My kids loved going exploring through them and making up different adventures. I wish I had a "before" picture to show you this house. It was so secluded and beautiful.

The house on the other side of my parent's yard sustained some damage as well. A large tree branch fell and crashed through their awning and tore off some of the soffit. Did I mention the home is for sale? So much for curb appeal. Fortunately, no one was hurt when this fell either.

What a wild wind storm!

Waiting for the Train

Trains! Trains! Trains!

Silver trains. Black trains.

Speeding-down the track trains.

This is the opening of one of our favorite books, Trains! Steaming! Pulling! Huffing! by Patricia Hubbel. So naturally, we were all excited to learn that the iconic Steam Locomotive No. 844 would be chugging right past our house on Monday.

 

We went to the Union Station the day before where we posed by the huge wheels which measured 80” in diameter and got a quick look inside of the engine of 844. The kids also got to see 833, which is out of service.

At 8 am Monday morning, we bundled up and braved sub-freezing temperatures for 30 minutes to see No. 844 for approximately 30 seconds.

I think there is something melodic about the distinctive whoo-whoooo of the whistle, followed by the chuffing of the steam and accompanied by the clickety-clack of the wheels on the track; the sounds of a steam engine are almost soothing. Brayden just thought it was loud. Cool, but loud.

This is the second time in their four short years that the twins have been able to see a steam engine go past our house. When we got back inside, they immediately wanted to know when we could see it again. Hopefully soon.

While most people think that living near railroad tracks is a nuisance, we enjoy it. The kids get so excited every time they here the horn on a diesel train and run to get a view of it. It is also fun to get a glimpse of the past through events like this. My Grandpa Mildon worked for the railroad and that's how he ended up living in Uintah. My Dad remembers seeing steam engines go be every day, but on special days they would wait outside to see a brand new diesel engine, sneaking a peek into the future. My parents liked it so much that they made it their permanent home as well. We are fortunate to be third generation Uintahns and experience all that the town has to offer. Maybe someday our little railroad aficionados will make it their home as well.

Giving Thanks for Traditions

At my bridal shower, my soon-to-be sister-in-law gave me this advice: “Keep the traditions going; they are very important to Andy.” At the time I didn’t really understand the impact of traditions. My family didn’t have any real rituals that I could think of. But they obviously meant a lot to my husband, so we carried on some of his family’s traditions. Every Christmas, we baked and frosted countless sugar cookies. Even when I was recovering from surgery and barely had the energy to eat cookies, let alone frost them! But it was tradition, so I (begrudgingly) went along with it.

It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I understood the importance of traditions; they give young and old alike a sense of comfort and security in an every changing world. Sometimes change can be scary—like the first time a toddler encounters an automatic flushing toilet! Traditions make things less scary. This summer, as I watched my three kids look forward to getting Grandma M’s mail every day and take such pleasure in helping Grandpa M fill up the bird feeders each week, I realized that even small, everyday tasks can become much anticipated traditions.   

I started thinking back to my own childhood again and realized that my family did have quite a few traditions: like the plate of frosted graham crackers that we got to eat on our birthday BEFORE it was time for cake or watching Jazz games with my Grandma M. and eating the gummy bears that she kept on hand just for me.

Sometimes, breaking traditions once in a while can be even more memorable than carrying them on. For example, while vacationing in Southern California over Thanksgiving one year my family ended up eating Pizza Hut pizza for dinner instead of the traditional Thanksgiving feast. My parents told us we could choose any restaurant we wanted and we picked Pizza Hut! We still laugh about that to this day.

This Thanksgiving, with an attitude of gratitude, I am giving thanks for traditions, big and small! It has been so much fun creating our own family traditions with Andy and the kids: annual family vacations, giving goodbye bones at the door, family themed costumes on Halloween and Sunday hikes.

As I mentioned before, we have also kept the cookie tradition alive and the kids get so excited to help Mommy and (especially) Daddy when cookie day arrives. They even have their own little rolling pin.

Another tradition that we kept going was having soufflé for breakfast every Christmas. Andy’s family finds this funny because as a child, he refused to eat soufflé. During this phase his Mom cooked two Christmas breakfasts: one for Andy and one for the rest of the family. Cooking two breakfasts is a tradition I hope I never have to duplicate! I do hope, however, that my children carry on some of our traditions when they have families of their own and even invite me over for Christmas breakfast when I'm old and grey(er).

Now it's your turn. What are some of your family traditions? I'm always looking for new ideas!

The Saga of Sulley

Move over, Martha! There’s a new criminal in town and I’m killing it with the craftiness! Like many crimes today, mine was born out of necessity from the struggling economy. I simply did not have upwards of $1,000 to buy a Sulley costume. That’s right. . .$1,000!

It all started in late September when we were talking to the kids about what our family was going to dress up as for Halloween. A few different ideas were tossed around and we finally landed on Monsters, Inc. Before finalizing things, I did a quick search on e-Bay to make sure I could find a Sulley costume for Andy. There were lots. After I had already made the twins’ costumes and purchased Lexi’s, I got back on e-Bay to bid on one for Andy. It was then that I realized the majority of the costumes were for kids; the adult sized costumes were very rare. Disney discontinued them and put them in the “vault.” Probably so they can bring them back to coincide with the sequel scheduled for 2013, Monsters University.

After bidding—and losing by a HUGE margin—on the only three adult Sulley costumes I could find, I became desperate. Time was running out. I called Savers and the DI to see if by some miracle someone was as naïve as me, didn’t realize the value of the costume and decided to donate it. No such luck. Costume rental shops? Nope. I called Disneyland and Disneyworld. Nada. Disney outlet stores? Nothing. I couldn’t even attempt to sew Andy’s costume because not one fabric store between Sandy and Logan carried blue faux fur—or even white faux fur that I could dye for that matter! I was really getting stressed out at this point. The kids were so excited, I didn’t want to be mean mommy (yet again!) and ruin their fun.

Then, as I was watching Monsters Inc. with the kids for the bazillionth time, I noticed something. Sulley looks a lot like the abominable snowman. And that’s when I hatched my brilliant plan. I would buy an abominable snowman costume and modify it to look like Sulley. It would be simple really—a misdemeanor on the scale of craftiness if you will. With my sister as my long-distance accomplice cheering me on, I got to work.

In the mean time, a fourth costume that I was bidding on sold, but the buyer didn’t pay. So the seller contacted me and offered it to me for the low, low price of $520. It was tempting. I could turn around and sell it next year and maybe even make a profit. But after hemming and hawing, I decided it was too much of a gamble and went back to the snowman.

The first step was to dye the costume teal blue just like Sulley. One quick trip to the craft store and I had a bottle of Rit Fabric Dye and some purple fabric spray paint for step two. Unfortunately, the dye only turned the fur a very pale sky blue. Another trip to the craft store. I decided to use fabric spray paint on the entire thing since the dye didn’t work. I took the costume outside and began to spray it over the grass. But the clothing rack I had it on was too wobbly and the wind was blowing slightly. So I moved onto the paving stones where I thought I had cardboard strategically placed to catch any overspray; unfortunately, I did not. I had committed a felony in the eyes of my dear, sweet hubby—whom I affectionately refer to as Anal Andy—and vandalized our property. This time, with my brother as my accomplice I set out to destroy the evidence of my crime with some paint thinner. Nope. Lacquer thinner. Uh-uh. Acetone? Not even close. The paving stones are still blue. (Sigh.)

Next up: one pair of gloves and one pair of shoe covers. The fur only partially covered each. The rest was white rubber with unsightly brownish colored veins all over. I decided the best fix was once again spray paint. This time I used extreme caution when painting. Things were finally starting to fall into place.

Fast forward to three days later when I checked on the gloves and discovered that the paint was still tacky. For some reason the paint would not fully dry on the rubber. So, on Halloween morning I made yet another trip to the store for a pair of brown gloves. I found about 20 single gloves in a box on the shelf, but none of them had tags. I grabbed two and took them up to the register. The clerk informed me that they were only sold in packs of 6 and she couldn’t sell them to me. Ummm, yeah. Then why is there a box with so many single gloves in there? Whatever. I made another quick run up and down the aisle and found a different pair. That afternoon I unstitched the fur from the rubber gloves and sewed it on the gloves I just bought and put the finishing touches on the costume.

Much to my pleasure, Sulley only slightly resembled an overgrown cookie monster dressed as a Viking. Brayden, Makenzie and Alexis all overwhelmingly approved. Most people knew exactly who he was despite the fact that he didn’t have a tail. One teenage boy even yelled “Kitty!” when he saw Andy. Awesome! A few people took pictures. Very cool. I tried to ignore the people who thought he was supposed to be Sascawatch. Since when does Sascawatch have horns, purple polka dots and purple triangles on his back? Idiots.

So was the crime worth the time and punishment? I’ll let you be the judge.