We {heart} Visitors

My parents and sister surprised us and came for a visit this last weekend.  We love when family comes to visit!  We cooked a turkey dinner because it was what Tucker had asked for his birthday dinner and we hadn't really seen Nana and Papa and Winni since before his birthday.  Tucker got to open some late birthday presents.  Some very much needed new pants and church clothes.  We watched a movie, had popcorn and went to bed way past our bed time.

There isn't much to do in Wendover, we know this.  But we didn't really want to sit around the house all day so we decided to go to the World War II museum they have here.  AMAZING!!!  I wish I had taken my camera.  It was cold, snowy and windy but so cool.  We plan to go back many times and explore a bit more.  And remember the camera. :0)

 Winni took these with her phone and sent them to me.

When they left Sunday morning, Katy was being a pill, nothing new there, and I told her that if she didn't give Nana an Papa hugs goodbye she was just going to have to go home with them.  She jumped right off my lap and said okay.  Shocked, I didn't think she was serious and asked if she really wanted to go with them.  She went and got her baby and asked if she could take them with her.  Never in a million years did I think she would want to go.  She went right to Papa and blew me kisses goodbye.  It was the hardest thing to do, taking her from Papa and telling her she couldn't really go.  She started crying and saying that she wanted to go to Nana and Papa's house.  Poor Nana couldn't handle it and stated crying too.  What a backfire idea.  We will know not to threaten with that again.

I had to take some pictures of them all dresses for church so that Nana and Papa would know that she did stop crying and was happy to be going to church.

 We might have had a problem getting a good picture.


Tucker wanted to show you how handsome he looked in his new church clothes by himself.  And he wanted me to tell Nana that the size 14 fit perfectly.  He is growing bigger than we all thought. :0)

Find the Girl

She is in there.  Somewhere...

Thanks Grandpa and Nana!

The kids have all received a lovely letter from Grandpa and Nana who are on a mission right now.  They have all come on different days and when Katy's came in the mail she couldn't wait to open it.  She walked around with the letter and bookmark for a week.  Hugging them and saying, "Grandpa.  Nana."

Heart Hair

 Norma does not let me touch her hair.   She is very good about brushing it every morning so that I won't.  I was able to talk her into letting me put hearts in her hair for Valentines Day.  Yay!

Not to many tears.  By the time she came home all but one of the elastics were out of her hair.  It is just so fine, it doesn't hold up much.  At least we got pictures before hand.

SOLD!!!

That's right.  Nate got permission to drive the Charger into Orem for us to sign the paper work today.  I'm so glad that is is over and done with.  I hope... 

I am so sad that we have left some amazing neighbors and friends.  We will miss you all so much!  But new adventures lay just around the corner for us.  We can't wait for summer here in Wendover.  We have so many plans to do things as a family out here.

Potty Training in the Bag

I've been waiting to post this because I didn't want to jinx it.  But I think it is safe to say that Katy has the potty thing down.  She wakes up dry.  She only seems to have an accident when the kids are home for the day and she is to distracted to remember she needs to "water".   We have only had the toilet flood twice, when she used a whole roll of toilet paper to wipe.  (We have now moved it and she has to ask for some to wipe.)  She "plop, plops" in the potty and think she has earned a "cony" (pony) every time she does.

I am so glad to have had the go quickly and somewhat smoothly.   It does make my baby grow up more.  Too fast in fact. 

Late Christmas Gifts

For Christmas the boys got new 3DS's and they were both purple.  Santa put a coupon in their stockings for them to pick out a skin so they would be able to tell them apart.  They finally showed up today.  After a phone call from the company to make sure that we were at a real address and would UPS be able to find us.  :0)

I also got a skin for my laptop.  I knew as soon as I saw this one that I wanted it to remind myself that I can do this school thing.

Hard to Tell the Truth

Nate and I love that we can run errands and leave Katy with Tucker.  We needed to go to Smith's and I didn't think to clearly when I told Norma that if she finished cleaning up the living room she could play on the Kindle while we were gone.  I pulled it out and left it on the table for her and we left.  Forgetting that I need to put in the pass code for her to even open it.  I had found out the day before when Katy had tried to get on without my help, that if you push to many buttons it tells you that it is resetting the Kindle to the original settings.  I had caught it just in time the day before.

We came home and I sat at the table to pull up my text book that I have downloaded to the Kindle, only to turn it on and see that it had been reset.  I was so mad!  I knew it had been Katy because of what had happened the day before and there were chocolate cake finger prints all over it.  I made her sit on a time out while I tried to see if I could save everything that had been lost.  That is when I hear Tucker from his bedroom, (where he was playing) that it had been Norma.  The light bulb came on in my mind.  I remembered what I had told her before leaving.  I hate being so absent minded. 

I turn to Norma and she is just sitting there and I asked her if she had reset the Kindle.  She bursts into tears and said yes.  "It was really hard to tell you the truth."  Never have I been prouder of my girl.  I hugged her and had her tell me what happened.  I asked if she didn't read the Kindle when it said it was going to reset if she kept pushing buttons.  She said no.  I just told her next time if she doesn't know what it says to stop doing anything and ask for help.

It was a learning experience for the both of us.  Me to learn to take a breath and get the whole story from everyone and Norma to tell the truth from the beginning.

Mischief

While we taught the neighbors how to play the card game 'Dork', the almost 3 year olds happen to be really quiet.  You know the saying,
    "Silence is golden.  Unless your 3 year old is in the house, then it means trouble."
Katy and Bella decided they needed a make-over.  That pink on their foreheads, is nail polish.

They had it all set up at the vanity.  Making sure that they were putting it on well in the mirror there.

So luck that it didn't get on the floor at all.  Just their faces.

Not 10 minutes later, we hear, "Bella, you can't have scissors."  Sarah, her mom walks into the bedroom and Bella holds her hands up like at gun point, "I didn't cut the doggies hair."  Eva has a patch missing from her chest. :0)  These girls are a blast!  I am so glad that Katy has such a good friend so close.  We do a lot with Sarah and Bella.  Thank goodness for a wonderful neighbor.

5th Grade Party

Tucker wanted to have some friends over for his birthday.  He asked for pizza, cake and games.  I am not the cake decorator that my mom is, but I do have the next best things.  Grandma Thomas' 7 minute frosting recipe.  Heaven on cake!

These are just some of the games that Tucker had to choose from.  Our family favorites. :0)

When when only 2 of the 4 were there, they didn't want to play a big game til everyone showed up so UNO won out.

When everyone came, Killer Bunnies had a chance.  Shot down quickly when it turned out to be to hard to teach 4 new people at the same time.  UNO Major was the fall back.

Cake and presents and then a ride home.

My boy is so big!  It has been really hard leaving all of his friends from his ALL class.  He is doing well, but sometimes misses having the kids think like he does.

Love you Tucker!  Happy Birthday!

11

My Tucker is 11 years old.  I thought 10 was bad.  11 is worse.  Nate was working last night and I was suppose to be doing homework.  But I was much more in the frame of mind to think of my baby and all that he means to me.  I posted all about the day he was born here if you want to read it.  Made me cry.  One of my favorite things about this blog is going back and re-reading all the different things that happen in our life. 

Tucker is an amazing helper.  He is getting older and starting to talk back more but that is just a sign that he has his own mind.  He helps me with chores most of the time without any bribing.  He is so good at helping with Katy.  Maybe not as good as Thad is with her, but Thad has that bond with Katy that just makes it easier for him to help.  Tucker is very smart.  I love having him help me with games and even homework.  He is a really good friend when he wants to be and he is growing up so fast.  We have had to buy him new pants since the beginning of school because he has grown almost 4 inches.

I'm excited to celebrate his birthday today.  I feel bad because I packed all the birthday stuff that I usually decorate with in the storage shed and forgot to get it last time we were there.  But we are having some of his friends over for pizza and card games tonight and it will be fun.  Pictures from that tomorrow!

Now back to homework.  I have put it off long enough.

12 Years People!

Just had to throw out there that Nate has put up with me for 12 years.  Wow!  To celebrate, we spent the day at my parents, shopping and ended it with chinese from China Light!  Wonderful!  Love you hunny!

Favorite Clothes

Thad had an assignment today to wear his favorite clothes and at school he gets to write about why they are his favorite.  He chose well.

I love seeing him in this!  Really missed seeing Gerald this year but I know that him and his new bride are well and enjoying life.