Family Date Night

On Wednesday night we had a family date night. We had planned to visit the North TX State Fair and watch the rodeo, then added up how much admission for six people, parking and even a couple of rides per child would total and decided to find something cheaper. (We are trying very hard to budget better.) The kids have been asking for quite a while to go to Cabella's, so we started the evening by heading there.

For those of you who do not live in TX, Cabella's is a sporting goods store . . . on steroids. The store is HUGE and has a small aquarium and multiple exhibits of animals from around the world that have been stuffed. The kids loved the fish, although Kylie was a bit concerned about the sunken boat in one of the tanks for the fish to swim around and under. She was afraid that the fish would eat anyone who tried to ride in the boat. We tried to explain to her that no one would ride in the boat because it had sunk, but she remained nervous about it. The kids liked the catfish best - I think because of the whisker thingies. Rob liked the gar (or gars???) best. I liked the koi.

The next stop was the African animal exhibit. The elephant was a huge hit, as was the rhino. Jack loved the lions and the girls loved the baboons (which they called monkeys). On to the next exhibit, which I think was North American animals. It was a three story high mountain in the middle of the store covered with animals ranging from chipmunks to sheep to bears - including black bears, brown bears, a grizzly bear and a huge polar bear. I had not realized how large polar bears are. The girls learned the difference between male and female moose (meaning the antlers) and had Rob repeat his grizzled tales of living near woods that contained many of the animals. Each of the kids got to pick out a postcard as a souvenir (they were on sale for about 10 cents) and we went upstairs and bought some cinnamon roasted almonds and cashews. Megan and Kylie requested a picture with the stuffed moose. Jack complied, but Beth was not interested in participating.



We visited another animal exhibit that had a lot of deer and TX animals like armadillo and rattlesnakes and wild pigs things whose name I forget. This room had a talking figure of a hunter/woodsman that initially startled the girls (to the amusement of several men in the room who were admiring the antlers or something), but that they enjoyed after getting over their surprise.

Rob's favorite part was the guns, of course. They have a gun museum room thingy that had him drooling. The girls were more interested in the stuffed ducks. They learned that male ducks are usually more colorful than females, which Megan and Kylie thought was a bit backwards.

After Cabella's we headed off to Chick-fil-a as the girls had gotten certificates from the dentist last week for free kids meals. I have no idea what was going on that night there, but the drive thru line went all the way around the building and the dining room looked packed, so we opted to go to the BK next to it instead. The kids were thrilled with their BK crowns :) Meg, Kylie and Jack had a blast on the slide thingy. Beth preferred to stay with Rob and I and lick all the ketchup out of the little paper cups. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to our next family date night!





On a completely different topic, Rob and I reorganized and cleaned our library today. I LOVE that our kids cannot resist books on the floor. When I was sorting through them, all four gravitated to the library and read and read. Simon climbed up on the couch next to Megan and Meg read a Henry and Mudge book to him. He fell asleep :)

Another thing about our kids that I love is that cut veggies never make it to the table in our house. As soon as the kids figure out that I am cutting up fresh veggies for dinner, they come running and end up eating almost all of them before I even get them on a plate. Tonight we had grilled hot dogs and sausages, homemade french fries (baked), and a veggie plate with cucumbers, carrots and celery. I think three slices of cucumber (out of two fairly large cucumbers) made it to the table :)

The 2nd Day

Kylie and Meg's first day at school for the year went well. They both love their teachers and Megan has a lot of friends from previous years in her class. Kylie made four friends yesterday, two boys and two girls, however "their names are secret" (according to her), which I think means she forgot them :) We took Simon with us to pick them up from school and decided that in the future we will leave him at home - at least until it cools off to the 60's and everyone drives to pick up their children because it's "too cold". Simon behaved well, and started off happily, but by the time we got to school his tail was between his legs and as soon as we stopped he hid under the stroller. Too much noise I guess between all the cars, the buses and the bazillion parents that walked their kids home yesterday. He pulled so hard at the leash on the way home that I was afraid he would strangle himself and once we got inside he hid under the desk for quite a while. I have to admit that he's a bit of a wimp.

Our second school day got off to a challenging start when we slept through the alarm and woke up 20 mins before Rob and the girls had to leave. The girls had picked out their clothes the night before though and they jumped up and got ready really fast, so they weren't even late to school! They even had time to eat breakfast :)

Beth decided to sleep in Jack's room last night (he has a double bed in there as well as his crib - yes, I know he's two, but he hasn't climbed out of the crib yet and having him still sleep in his crib makes life so much easier!), so she and Jack slept through the morning rush. They woke up around 8:30 and talked and played for a while before deciding they wanted to come out. I loved listening to them through the baby monitor! After breakfast they headed off to the playroom and I thought "wow! It is going to be so much easier to get things done!" I stopped thinking that about 10 minutes later when Jack and Beth decided they were tired of entertaining themselves and there were no older sisters to help entertain them.

So homework was put on hold and paint sets came out . . .







They both loved painting. Beth neatly painted her pictures and when she was done, there were no stray drops of water in the paints, no paint on her hands or clothes. Jack, on the other hand, had managed to get paint and water all over his side of the table, all over his hands and even all over his face. They both had fun though!

Then we decided to play with blocks . . .

Beth built several "little castles"


Jack opted for towers




Then Beth built a big house and the smaller blocks turned into people who lived in the house. I love listening to the conversations she has when she is playing!


Jack got bored building towers and did kung fu with the blocks instead




No homework done today, but that's ok :) I spent time with two of my kids :)

On Monday all the kids and I made a tree for the front window. We usually have some art project on display there, but haven't for a while. We decided since school was starting and it will be fall soon that we would make a fall tree. I bet ours is the only tree where the leaves turn purple and pink though! We have one blue leaf, which Megan carefully made, then announced that it was "the blue leaf from the old oak tree" - she then said "I love that phrase!" I don't quite know exactly where that phrase came from, but she reminds me of myself at her age :) I remember giving things names too. There was a little clearing in the woods near my house growing up that I named "the white way of delight", which I'm sure was inspired by Anne of Green Gables.

In Response to Becca . . .

Becca, finally having gotten around to reading the posts on this blog from the past month, wrote the following on my facebook "wall" ~

"Being a ham (starting young, but he is related to his Aunt Becca, so he comes by it naturally)"

Cute Laney...CUTE :)

To which I responded with ~

I knew you'd love it :)

Becca's response to this was ~

its SLANDER! :) you have no proof!

As I would hate to have anyone think I had committed slander, I offer the following as proof of my claim that my children inherited their "hamminess" from Becca . . .












Although I suppose it could have come from Rob too . . .

Kylie's first day of Kindergarten

The house is very quiet. I guess that's what happens when half your children head off to school for the day. My little Kyliekins started kindergarten this morning. It was not nearly as hard as sending Megan off was and I think it was made easier by freaking out over trying to find Kylie's vaccination record so they would let her in to her class. I strongly recommend it for parents who are nervous about sending their children to school!

Last night the kids all took baths and I gave everyone a hair cut. Kylie decided she wanted her hair cut short so she could be "hair twins" with Megan and Beth. I double-checked a dozen times to make sure that's what she really wanted, then chopped off half her hair. She looks adorable, but I will miss having a daughter who has hair long enough to french braid. After the hair cuts, we picked out outfits to wear. Kylie had hers picked out a month or two ago when I brought home her new school clothes. Among them was a cute little daisy dress that Kylie loves. She has new school shoes, but they are pink and don't really match the dress, so she got to wear her church sandals to school today. Megan's taste is a bit more eclectic. She originally said she wanted to wear a floor length skirt with a white blouse, but I suggested we pick something else and she picked a cute little outfit that matched her new High School Musical sketchers. The socks were her choice :)





Kiki came over to see Kylie off and stay with Beth and Jack so I could go too without having to get them both up. We left slightly late as we couldn't find Kylie's vaccination records, but made it to school on time. Kylie did great! She put her lunch in the pile of lunch boxes and her backpack in her locker and headed off into her classroom without a tear. Megan did great too :) Her BFF (best friend forever) from kindergarten is in her class this year and she is very excited about it! It felt different this year. We knew enough to bring all their stuff to school on "meet the teacher" night, so they just had their lunches to carry. We knew quite a few parents and teachers and knew our way around school.

You know, sometimes it seems so odd to me that I'm the mother of school-aged children. When exactly did this happen???

Kiki and Beth had lots of fun waiting for us at home. Kiki has an iPhone and has downloaded lots of games for the kids onto it. Beth spent the whole time sitting on the couch and playing on the iPhone.


Jack slept through the whole process. When we got home, Rob left for work, then I searched the house for the vaccination records. Of course, it only took ME 10 mins to find them (Rob was the one looking for them earlier as I was making lunches and feeding the girls and doing hair). I called the school to see if I could bring them by after Jack woke and discovered that no, they had to be their NOW. So, Beth and I rushed upstairs and got her dressed, woke up Jack and headed back off to school. 30 mins later we were back and suddenly things were quiet and calm and sort of eerie. I am not used to just having Beth and Jack. I am going to head off to do homework and housework now. Beth and Jack are playing nicely with each other in the playroom. Simon is contentedly destroying a plastic juice container. I feel odd - like there is something else that should be going on.

The following picture was taken this morning (after we got back from everything). Jack and I were in the backyard with Simon and we spotted a beautiful yellow butterfly. It was flitting back and forth between the flowers in our yard. The contrast between the purple flowers and the yellow butterfly was so beautiful ~

Dinner at the Knowltons

Rob and I both read - a lot - and both of us have discovered things in the books we have read that we want to pass on to our kids. One of the books we've both read and loved is called Cheaper by the Dozen (there's a sequel too). The parents in that book use every opportunity to teach their kids and meal times are often used to drill the children on various subjects. We have not gone quite as far as those parents did - we have not yet painted the morse code on the ceiling (although I admit that I'm tempted), but I guess we're getting there.

At dinner on Thursday Rob and I were working with Kylie on fractions. Kylie has always shown a propensity for math. She could count to 100 when she was three. (Meg, on the other hand, shines at reading and was reading at age three and is now reading at a 9th grade level - she just turned 7 and is going into 2nd grade.) Anyway, so Rob's explaining the concept of fractions to Kylie and does so by taking all the biscuits off the plate and dividing them into piles to illustrate the math problem he's asking. It made us laugh when we noticed what we were doing :) Anyway, after he had illustrated several problems, he had her answer several without using the biscuits. (i.e. what is half of four?) We asked her "what is half of two?" and from the other side of the table, my little three year old pipes up without hesitation "One!" What a smartie! Rob told them they each earned a square (per our reward chart) for being smart - lol :) He also reduced the number of bites Kylie had to eat to get another biscuit every time she answered a question correctly.

Happy Anniversary Laney

12 years ago my life changed in the most unexpected way. I never thought I would walk into an apt. in Rexburg, ID and meet a girl, who I thought could only exist in my dreams, but there you were. I had no idea what I had been missing my whole life until I realized, at that moment, that I had never been complete. Once I knew I had been missing my other half, I could not rest until you were with me forever. I had never meet anyone like you. Breathtaking beautiful, so smart, very sweet and funny to boot, the perfect combination of everything.

I was tough-tied, how could I approach this beautiful, sophisticated woman? I knew I was way out of my league, but I didn't care. Every time I felt like quitting, because I could just not get through to you, I kept coming back. I could not help it, there was something about you that I could not get out of my system. Somehow I managed to impress you enough to marry me. (Once that happened, I didn't think I would ever be able to ask for anything else in life) Our marriage has been full of the greatest highs and the hardest lows.Through it all, your presence and love has kept me going. It has been more of a learning experience that I ever could have imagined. It has been so worth it to be with my best friend. I look at what we have gone through, the moving from ID to New England to TX, the 4 great kids we have and everything else that has taken place in between those things.

Laney, I am so glad for the time we have spent together and I so look forward to the years to come. Life is better because of you. 143x100

Rob

12 Years Ago Tomorrow . . .

Rob and I were married in the Portland Oregon Temple.


Marriage has been harder than I thought it would be. All the fairy tales end with "happily ever after . . . " I think it would be more appropriate to put something like "mostly happily, but occasionally frustratingly, angrily, exhaustedly, and overwhelmedly ever after." That being said, I wouldn't have missed this for the world! Rob is my best friend and I am so glad I get to spend the rest of eternity with him!

We've had our moments - twelve years ago, Rob had just driven with me to pick up my parents at the airport for our wedding (this was the first time he had met them by the way). He came down with the flu that afternoon and stopped and bought Nyquil on our way to the hotel. He then crashed for the night in MY hotel room, so I ended up sleeping on a portable bed in my parents' room. We called and asked his parents to bring his stuff to the temple the next morning, but as he didn't have it all together, we ended up with no shirt for him. Fortunately the temple had them available for rent, but we had to return it before we left, so in all the photos after the ceremony, Rob has on a grey t-shirt (turned around backwards as it had a design on the front). He was sick as a dog that whole weekend, so I got to watch a lot of tv and spend a lot of time staring at the ocean from our wonderful beach-front balcony on the Oregon coast. He felt much better the morning we checked out, although we discovered the lights on the car had been left on and the battery was dead. Yes, some people have dream honeymoons, but ours makes a much better story I think :)

The story of how we met is my favorite though :) Rob had gotten home from his mission about six months earlier and was living at home with his parents in OR. I was at Ricks (now BYU-ID, I know, but it will always be Ricks to us), planning to work for one summer term than move down to Provo as I was transferring down to BYU so I could stay with one of my roommates, Rachel, who had graduated from Ricks that spring. Rob woke up one morning with a strong feeling that he should go to Ricks, so he packed up his stuff and left the next day. He had not applied (or been accepted obviously), had no job and no place to stay. He did know a family in the area that he was able to stay with for a day or two while he found an apartment. He happened to move in with several friends of mine. I, not knowing he had moved in that day, called that evening to invite his roommates over. Rob answered. I thought he was someone else - someone I knew - so we had a lovely conversation for several minutes until I figured out I was talking to a complete stranger. I was very embarrassed. His roommates had been planning on going to visit another girl (one of his roommates had a crush on her), but since Rob was the new guy, they let him pick. He said he wanted to meet me, so they headed over. From the moment he walked in the door, he didn't say two words to anyone. I tried to talk to him, but it didn't work very well. HE claims that he was tongue-tied because he says I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen :) I like that excuse :) Rob says he knew from the moment he saw me that I was his future wife, it just took him 48 hours to get up the guts to ask me. We finally ended up talking towards the end of Saturday evening. He came over after church the next day and finagled his way into going on a walk with me alone. Talking with him was like nothing I have ever experienced before. It sounds corny, I know, but we already knew each other. It was like suddenly I discovered the best friend that had been missing my whole life. He gave me my first kiss that night (I had just turned 19 three days earlier). He was waiting for me the next day when I got off work. That night he asked me to marry him. I couldn't imagine living without him, so thirteen weeks later we got married. Yes, it was fast, but Rob likes to quote one of the last lines from "When Harry Met Sally" - "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Rob - I love you! I'm so glad I have you to spend the rest of my life and eternity with!