Christian’s Soccer Winter 2012

I usually am not able to go to Christian’s soccer games as they take place while I’m teaching. I was really excited yesterday when I took the day off of teaching and so I was able to come and watch him play.  Jared says the team they were against is one of the best they’ve played so far so they didn’t win like they usually do so Christian was a little upset.  I found it personally fun to watch our boy run around and play with the other kids.

This is Christian and another little boy Evan, warming up before the game.  His coach told me he think’s they are bookends because of their height and skill level is so similar.  They pretty much looked this way the whole time they played together.

 

Here is what Vivian did for half of the game…run off.

The other times, she was pretty angelic looking.

Here’s one of the best photos of Christian playing…and it’s pretty typical of how they were set up…in a pack.  It was cute.  I’m so glad I got to come and see Christian play.  He’s such a fun boy.

St. Patrick’s Day 2012

St. Patrick’s day this year was a little different because it was on a Saturday.  This means that I taught violin and piano lessons that day so our family activities were a little broken up.  But at least we were able to spend some time together as a family.  Jared was very sweet and made baked French toast that Friday night while I was preparing some things for Saturday and then popped it in the oven when he got back from the co-op.  Christian was very excited when he noticed the peculiar hue of our French Toast and was quite certain that it was due to mischievous leprechauns.  

Here is a random photo of Jared with Vivian (she is playing with my bracelet).  I am so goofy that I didn’t even realize until we went to our friend’s for dinner last night that when Jared got the kids ready for the day while I was teaching, he didn’t put a stitch of green on anyone of them…

I on the other hand was so worried about finding a green shirt that this is all I could find in my closet.

According to my students’ though, it was actually the color “puke”.  Whatever.  At least I had remembered that I had a little  green eye shadow so I had another shade of green on s well.

The next day we had a beautiful storm outside on and off all day.  At one point that evening the light in the kitchen suddenly got very warm and beautiful and I realized there must be a rainbow outside.  Low and behold!  This is from our back porch!

Just because, I decided to take a photo of our “jungle” as well.  The weeds here get so think in February March and personally because I dislike using weed killer, I procrastinate this task a little too much.  Don’t worry, this week I got a lot of the yard picked up.  It doesn’t even look this way any more.  Since Christian’s been on break I am able to get a little more done with Vivian occupied by playing with her brother.  We’re hoping to really get our lawn in good shape this next month so hopefully the next photos of my yard will have nice green grass.

Wicked!

This month I got to do something that I have always wanted to do but have never had the chance.  See a Broadway musical performed live! 

Yes, I’ve been to many a musical but it’s always been by a community group or school.  This is the true deal.  I’ve been to many an Opera live, but a musical is different.  The reason why being that honestly, at our house we  are cheapskates.  The weird thing is that we are both cheapskates about different things and so together we are very frugal though apart, not so much.  I bought the tickets in October with Jared’s blessing because they were discounted with a group rate because a woman in our ward arranged them. I was so nervous!  It was really fun and I loved it, but if I’m ever going to that venue again, I utterly refuse to be on the balcony again.  It was so steep I kept feeling so dizzy.  Not so fun.  But I did survive, and it was better once the show began.

It was also a great show and I loved all the amazing lighting, smoke and glitter that made it so magical.  Besides the music which was just so moving.  The playbill had a quote that said that people respond to musicals emotionally rather than logically and I totally agree.  My emotional side very much was drawn into the presentation!

Thank you Honey for the terrific night! 

I’m a Princess…that’s why!

This past month Vivian has exhibited her diva-type personality more and more…along with her gigantic love of baby dolls and pretty much all things girly.  We’d been taking her in for various tests for about two weeks to see why she hasn’t gained weight lately.  I felt so sorry for her that I broke down and gave her another princess doll…the pink one is what she picked out.  Go figure. Here she is with her art kit and her entourage in the middle of the floor.

One night she was so tired that she fell asleep on our bed during prayers.  So sweet….nothing is cuter than a sleeping baby is there?

And this gorgeous get-up is part of our daily detail…

Now this next photo illustrates how I wake up every morning…as you can tell, I’m not yet conscious.  Otherwise this photo would not have been taken.  And yes, Vivian keeps all these dolls in bed with her and brings them into our bed along with a Sippy cup of water (not shown) when she gets up for the day.  Her blanket is usually here to but I think it was a warmer night so she didn’t bring it in with her to wake me.  Speaking of what Vivian sleeps with, there is something pretty hilarious about her bedtime routine as of the last couple of weeks and that is that she wants to wear a “princess crown” to bed every night and screams incessantly until it is placed on her brow before we turn out the lights.  I guess there could be worse things…right?

This next photo is from a couple of Sunday’s ago while we were all relaxing in the loft and Vivian left for a minute and came back garbed in Jared’s socks.  Silly girl.

The next photo is poor quality because I couldn’t get my camera to work right with the light, but I had to document the incredible MESS that Vivian and Christian made with some colorful bubbles that Christian got for his birthday.  Luckily, they are washable…though honestly a pain to get out. Vivian was the one really enjoying the mess and Christian was so upset about it that he ran upstairs to get clean without any prompting.

Needless to say, I was not exactly thrilled to clean this all up!  Oh and in case you were wondering, yes, the tub was bright blue!

I am so loving this stage my baby girl is at.  There is something so fun about two-year-olds….especially when they are not screaming and throwing a fit.  It makes the calm times just that much sweeter.  I’m so thankful that I have her to be my little munchkin.

Railroad Park

For President’s day, my friend Claudia invited Christian, Vivian and I to join her at the Railroad Park in Scottsdale.  I had never even heard of it before but it was really a fun place for the kids.  Being president’s day, it was a little crowded but I really do want to go back there sometime soon for sure.  Vivian was very excited to get to ride on the little train they had there.  Here we are sitting on it (Christian wanted to ride in the cattle-car which made me feel Closter phobic just looking at it so he’s not in these.

Claudia and Greyson.  Vivian really likes this little boy…it’s so sweet.

Inside the model building they had a little caboose the kids could play in…they were excited about it and we went back here a few times.

This photo of Christian is a little overexposed because there was so much light coming in the huge windows they have there.  It’s very cool here because they have a gigantic room with model trains all over it.  Vivian was content to watch the trains for quiet a while though her brother was not as intrigued as she was.

Claudia took this photo of us…as usual, I’m the one who looks distracted.

The kids really wanted to just climb on things.

They had a little museum and a train car that you could walk on and look at. FDR, Eisenhower, and some other past presidents used for campaigns and such.   The very narrow hall was a little uncomfortable for this spoiled child. Can you imagine trying to pass people down that hall?

We went on the carousel (but since I was holding Vivian, I didn’t get any photos) she LOVED those horses and was pretty annoyed that I wouldn’t let her go back on it.

They have a couple of playgrounds there so before we left, I let the kids play for a bit.  With all the kids off of school, it got a little overwhelming to keep track of two.  How do parent’s do it with more than one child to watch?

Vivian has become a very good climber

Christian is amazing on the monkey bars… I’ve even considered putting him in gymnastics.

Vivian wanted to try out every slide.  She calls them “wee’s” right not which cracks me up.

I got a little frustrated though because at the end of every slide, she wanted to sit right down and try out playing in the sand right at the bottom of the slide.  So I would pick her up and move her to a different spot of sand, she’d scream and climb up to get on another slide and then try out the sand at the bottom of that one…and it’d start all over again.

Thankfully, Vivian realized that her brother could slide with her at the same time on the double slide and so she insisted it was his job to slide down with her.  After a few minutes of this I was ready to go home.

Here’s a photo of Vivian the minute we got in the car.  She is very against wearing shoes so the minute we get in the car or somewhere where I can’t see her very well, off come the shoes.  Oh well.  She does have cute little toes.

Thanks Claudia for such a fun morning. We loved it!

Renaissance Festival 2012

We got a fun opportunity to go with my friend Patti and her Husband Mark to the Renaissance Festival.  I wanted to go to the festival forever.  It reminds me of the first Band and Orchestra Tour I took when we went to Excalibur in Vegas and I had my first real adventures away from home.  The festival was so fun and colorful with all of the colors and all the vendors in costume.  I loved this pretzel vendor with his stand.

Patti and Mark insisted that princess Vivian get a garland…at first she was a little concerned with the itch factor I think but now she wears it all the time.

Christian was very excited to try on all of the helmets…Patti and Mark bought him a sword and he wanted a plain one (he later confided in me that he wanted to decorate his own rather than have to pick someone else’s design…my little artist).

Vivian was trying to convince us to get her a sword to…I was ready to but Jared was afraid of the battles that would break out at our home since two-year-olds are not very sports-man like.

Here are the kids waiting with Mark and Patti at the Knighting Ceremony.

The Kind and Queen Knighted all the children in mass.  Christian took this very seriously and walked out of the thrown room with a very star-struck look on his face.

Vivian and her daddy watching the Knighting Ceremony.

When Christian saw this giant slide/dragon tower, he just had to go down it.  I wonder how many steps it took to go up it…

Here he is looking out the top window at us.

At the bottom…he made it all the way down in the dark.

Next we went to the petting zoo and Vivian wanted to pet every single animal in there.

She was pretty frustrated she couldn’t reach this sweet baby lamb who just wanted her mother.

At one of the shows, we sat down (it was 3pm) and after I took this photo of the kids being so good, the announcer announced that since it was later in the day they were going to get more raunchy with their show and so if anyone wanted their kids to keep their ears clean we needed to leave. At least we got an applause for being good parents, but it’s dumb to me that the humor has to get so crass that people can’t feel safe with their kids at something that you’d hope could be family friendly.  Just saying…

The crowning moment for the day was that Christian got to see a jousting tournament.   He loved it, and Vivian got into it to.

 

She got so concerned about this whole thing that she kept her little hand on his lap and they had their heads together.  It was such a darling display to me of their special relationship.  I am so thankful that I have these two little munchkins to share my life with.  They are my greatest blessing.  Thank you Patti and Mark for taking us.  We had a fantastic time!