Princesses on Ice...

A few months ago, I got an email for half price tickets to opening night of Disney on Ice: Princess Classics.  So Emma and I enjoyed a girl's night tonight (minus Kate and Addison) and headed to Arco Arena. 

My brother laughed as I came back in the house tonight after leaving to have him take a picture of us.  "For the blog..." he said.  Yup!

I am glad I suggested Emma dress up in one of her princess costumes.  There were a lot of girls dressed up and she would have been upset to get there and see that she didn't.  This is her Christmas Belle outfit.  Although she says that she likes Sleeping Beauty the  best, she was not satisfied tonight until she saw Cinderella.

Attempt at taking a picture of us together.

Still didn't work.

OK, got it now.

I let her get one treat--cotton candy.  Man, there were a lot of ways to spend money there!  I had to keep saying, No, sorry you can't have the $12 snow cone...So I promised her a treat after wards. We got ice cream cones with no cute princess trademark on them, but they were pretty good:)

Emma took this one. She was bored at intermission.  I almost thought she would fall asleep in the chair!

Cinderella's carriage.

The ball.

So this is love, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmmmmmmmm

I tried to get her expression.  But it didn't come across.  She clapped and clapped and oohed and ahhed... We had a fun girly night and even listened to Miley Cyrus on the way home:)  

Primary Program 2009!

Bailey and Emma did great again this year in their Primary Program.  They both looked so grown up and Bailey even sang the whole time:)  Here is the picture from that morning before Church.

I would have liked to have K and A in the picture as well, but we were in a hurry!

Emma is showcasing a lovely blazer and jean skirt courtesy of Eco Thrift ($4 total!)

Bailey's handsome jacket also came from there(5!)

Nathan is wearing hand me downs:)  Which are the best deal ever!

Nathan still has two years until he will be in the program.  He is a long term participant in Nursery with a January birthday, missing the Dec. 31 cutoff to move into big kid Primary.  Next June, we will have Nathan, Kate and Addison all in Nursery together.  We will probably be bringing the snack A LOT!

Scary Halloween, Pumpkin Patches and other Pictures!

Our latest addition to the house: lots of bats, pumpkins and ghosts!  The kids were so excited when we cut all of these out and let them decorate and put them up.

 

For about 3 dollars, you can cover your entire house in cobwebs on purpose!

 

Our attempt at a scary entry.  The kids kept wanting us to make it scarier.

Here they are demonstrating scary.

Side story: Bailey had Scouts two days later.  He was dropped off at home afterward and it was dark. This is what the front porch looked like.  The poor kid must have banged on the door and tried the door handle about a hundred times before I opened it (in two seconds). I guess their plan to make it scary worked  :)

I went to Bishop's pumpkin patch with Emma's class.  Actually, Nathan, Kate, Addison and I went.  Siblings aren't allowed on field trips so we met them there and tagged along. 

Emma's school BFF, Isabelle.  They get to have a play date once a week which thrills Emma.

Nathan loved the pumpkin patch.  Kate and Addison were perfect.  They loved the train, loved the hayride and then fell asleep while Nathan played.  Nathan, was, well, tired and hungry.  But as long as he was allowed to play or do something he wanted to do, he was fine.  We did end up leaving with him kicking and screaming over my shoulder pushing two giggly twins in a stroller.  But, we really did have fun up until then.

We now pick Emma up at regular time instead of having her go to after care for an hour until Bailey gets out.  There is a park right next to the school that we frequent.  It has been so nice outside lately, that it is perfect for the kids to play.  Kate and Addison LOVE swinging.

Emma pushing Addie

She loves to go HIGH!

Mid swing

So much fun she had to close her eyes

They go like this for about 45 minutes until pick up time.  Easy twins, that is the way to go...

A Post Just For Me

So if you are only interested in cute kid pictures, feel free to skip this one!

A few new things I have learned as a mom:

1. Do not wear a purple bra, then put on a white shirt thinking you will change before you have to get out of the car to pick your kids up from school.  You won't.

2. Do not leave french fries in the oven while you are getting ready to leave for ballet class thinking you will remember to turn off the oven and take them out before you go. You won't.

3. Do not look at your son's bike and think the handle is a little too close to the garage door, but you will remember to pull it out of the way later. You won't.

4. Do not think that just because all is quiet, all is well. It isn't.

Luckily, I have actually learned something about being a mom and none of the above things resulted in chaos. 

As soon as I first put on the white shirt, had the thought of changing later, I changed THEN! Because I would have been quite the site at school.

I turned the oven off even though the french fries weren't quite done because I envisioned coming home to a smoke filled, burned french fry smelling house. 

I turned back around in the garage to put the bike away after first thinking I would do it later.  Because I wouldn't, and Ben would come home to a broken garage door!

As for the quiet, let's just say I only trust Nathan to be quiet in one of two places: 1. laying down for a nap, or 2. strapped into his car seat!

So, as I said, this post is just for me:)  To remind myself that I have been paying attention these last eight years. And to remember that no matter what went wrong in a day, it could have been a lot worse!

Pretend you are a year old

I accidentally skipped the 9 month "milestone" picture.  The twin's birthday is in less than two months (during the holidays and end of law school).  So, these pictures are the inbetweeners that we will just call their 1 year old pics.  I made the tutus for Halloween and wanted to get a good picture of them in them in case they get ruined that night.  Picture People is mean and put together some really cute framed pictures of the girl's, but since they are #1 not our only children and #2 I don't want to pay $200 for a picture no matter how cute it is...we came home with these three poses.  There were a lot of cute ones, but I love these. 

For those who know these two girls, this picture shows their personalities so well.  Kate, over abundant in giggles and nose scrunches, and Addison with her little mouth open, a small smile starting to emerge.

She's got the princess thing down

Always so thoughtful, our little Addie

Big Storm, Fallen Trees

With the big storm yesterday, our two front birch trees did not make it. Thankfully, I was gone as the tree is laying right where my car normally is.

It pulled the roots out as well.

Ben actually had a dream the night before that he had to leave school because trees were falling down around our house.

So when I pulled up, I called him to tell him he better be careful what he dreams:)

He packed up his stuff and came home. I'll bet he was just a little glad he had to go chop up a tree and skip class (we are at the 1 month, 4 week mark which can produce some senioritis)

We almost sold this chainsaw at one point. Good thing we didn't as the landlord is out of the state for the next few weeks and it came in handy.

It is now all chopped up and sitting in our driveway waiting for

1. the tree guys to come out and give an estimate

or

2. the landlord's wife to come with a truck and haul it away herself. She informed us she is from German stock, has a twin brother and can work in the rain if need be...umm, OK, as long as I can park there soon!

Nathan Oram: Ladies Man

Really this picture is priceless in itself.  But this is a blog, so you get a story...

Nathan's friend Madelyn (younger sister to the Morgan boys who have also made guest appearances on the blog) had been asking to come play with Nathan all day.  Her brother walked her down and these two immediately started playing.  For a while they took turns, but both wanted to play on THIS bike.  So, at one point Nathan got on and then told Madelyn to get on the back.  I wouldn't have believed he actually said that either except I was there to explain to Madelyn what he wanted.  He kept motioning her to sit behind him.  Maybe she did understand what he wanted and was just not happy that she had to ride behind him.  But she got on and then I ran into the house to take a picture because it really was the cutest thing I've ever seen.