Pump It Up!

Yesterday afternoon we got to spend a couple of hours at a place called Pump It Up at a birthday party. It is one of those party places that has a huge room full of "inflatables" for the kids to slide and jump on. Courtney actually got invited to the party (from a girl in her preschool class) but siblings were also welcome to attend, which made the kids all so excited.

I think the favorite activity was the big slide. I even went down it (at McKay's insistence)!

Hannah...

Courtney with her birthday-girl friend...

McKay going down his favorite way -- on his back using the mat...

And Hannah finally got Hayley to come down by pretty much pulling her...

(Hayley did go down more on her own later and decided she liked it).

Other activities included climbing around the obstacle course...

And just another cute picture of Courtney...

The last half-hour of the party is spent in the party room for cake, snacks and present opening. The birthday girl gets to sit in a big throne and the parents had each kid sit in the chair with her while they opened their present (and the mom took a picture). Hannah decided she really, really wanted to sit in that throne so when it was Courtney's turn, she climbed right up next to the birthday girl (who she doesn't even know). I had even talked to her beforehand about how it was Courtney that got invited to the party so she was the one that got to sit in the chair with the present. Courtney got stuck trying to squeeze in on the other side, and she slid off after a minute. There were too many people around for me to pull Hannah off (and I knew she'd probably make a huge scene about it) so I was glad Courtney wasn't upset about it all.

I talked to Hannah about what happened afterward and had her tell Daddy when he got home (she explained she was being "selfish"). It's frustrating and discouraging sometimes to watch your kids make selfish choices like that around other people. I don't know if she learned anything from the experience or not. I guess you just keep trying to set an example and do your best to teach them how to be considerate.

My Weakness...

Today we managed to bake and frost one of my favorite holiday (or anytime!) treats -- sugar cookies! Oh man, I eat way too many of these things, which is why we don't make them very often.

The kids were excited to help cut out...

and frost the cookies...

(only McKay forgot to come inside after getting Courtney and help frost even though he had just been in helping put food coloring in the frosting -- he claims his doesn't "have a good brain" and was quite upset that he missed out)

Hannah and Courtney did pretty good at spreading the frosting on their own (and managing to eat some along the way)

Hayley's favorite were the sprinkles (which she kept calling frosting). At first, she would take a plain cookie and just try to dump sprinkles all over it. And she actually did pretty good at restraining herself from too many sprinkles once we got started. That's not to say we didn't end up with cookies with lots of sprinkles!

(These were done by Courtney...)

YUMMY!

A Girl and Her Books

Peeked in Hayley's room last night on my way to bed and saw this...

She managed to stay asleep even with a book fallen over on her head. This girl LOVES her books and insists on a big stack in her bed every naptime and bedtime. She "reads" them out loud (don't ever try to tell her that she is only "looking" at them and not "reading" them) and makes a neat pile on the other side when she's finished. We often struggle with her about how many books she can take with her -- some nights there is not much room left for her!

I had all the kids at the pediatrician yesterday afternoon for McKay and Courtney's annual well-check exams. Hayley sat in the room with a pile of books (from the book basket in the room) and read them out loud to herself. The pediaitrician commented a couple of times about her expressive reading.

(And FYI from the check-up -- McKay now officially weighs 103 lbs! We do need to start watching his weight more as this time his height and weight increase weren't as proportional as they've been in the past.)

Preschool Program

Today was the last day of Courtney's preschool before the Christmas break so her class had a little Christmas program and party.

The parents were invited to come and watch a little program they had been practicing. They did it in their main "chapel" area of the church where the preschool is. The kids sang a few songs and said a few lines from the scriptures about Christ's birth.

Courtney had a short line and did a good job -- although she said her part super fast! (It was "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.")

Here's a shot trying out my new zoom lens...

She was kind of funny during the program. Every time she would look over at where I was sitting and notice I was taking a picture, she would stop and "pose" for me (even in the middle of a song).

Her class after the program in the church lobby area...

After the program, the kids went back to the classroom for their lunch and then the party. After lunch, they get to play on the rug while the other kids finish eating. Courtney decided to do puzzles.

(I'm not sure why she was scrutinizing this piece so closely!)

They had a craft (which I was in charge of -- a popsicle stick reindeer ornament), snacks & cupcakes and then a little book exchange.

I managed to attend without Hayley this time (she had a playdate with a friend) so it was nice to spend the time with just Courtney!

Winter Wonderland

Tonight for FHE we took our annual trek over to "The Woodlands Winter Wonderland" light display. It is a small display area they have set up near the ice rink where you can walk around and see several light displays.

They have a huge tree...

And the traditional dove symbols that The Woodlands uses throughout its holiday displays (street light flags, etc.)

Here is McKay running ahead under the light arches...

As I mentioned, this light display surrounds the ice rink that they set up every winter (it's in a big tent). Hannah really wanted to go in and watch the ice skaters, so we did for a minute. Hannah got very teary watching because she really, really wanted to try it herself. (McKay was also begging to go ice skating, but at least he wasn't crying about it.)

We told her we couldn't go tonight because it was too late but maybe we'd try to come back when we had more time. She kept telling me how it looked so fun (and I told her it's not as easy as it looks!) and then she got worried about falling down, etc. We'll see if we end up going back. Can you just see Brian and I trying to herd our 4 kids around on the ice? Makes for an interesting mental picture at this point. :-)

Here's a last picture at the light display (you can tell Hannah was still upset about the ice skating).

And also tonight, I got copies of the pictures the designated photographer took of the kids with Santa at the ward Christmas party. They turned out cute!

Early Christmas

So I got my Christmas present a little early this year. We had decided that it was time to replace our failing little digital camera with a nice digital SLR camera. Brian and I did some research and decided on a Nikon D40x, which got delivered a few days ago. We decided against wrapping it up and putting it under the tree so we could make sure it worked (in case we needed to send it back) and also so we could use it for Christmas!

I haven't had time to look at the manual yet or start the big learning curve on what all the features and options can do with this camera, but I did get it out yesterday and just played with it a little taking some random shots of the kids after school.

Here's McKay and Hannah as they walked in the door from getting off the bus:

Some other random shots of the kids...

(And by the way, on the counter there are some pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins -- a new recipe we tried. They turned out pretty good!)

After school, Hannah went over to the table and taped several pieces of paper together which she announced would become her Christmas "wish list":

I asked her why it needed to be so long and she told me there are still lots of days before Christmas to fill it up! She ended up only writing a handful of things on it.

The first on the list is ice skates (first time I've heard that request). Second on the list is a "wife" for Fasty (the name of her scooter). Funny girl. Most of the others are related to Littlest Pet Shop and when I asked her about this (since she doesn't play with all the ones she already has an awful lot), she said it was all she could think of. So I mentioned how she likes the computer (thinking computer games) and she said "Oh! A new laptop!" and promptly added it to her list. Can you tell me have too many computers in our house? :-)

After the wish list was made, Hannah decided to play beauty salon and got out the fingernail polish to paint her and Courtney's nails. She left the polish on the table and a little while later I discovered that Hayley had decided to paint her own nails too. Keeping in mind that she did it totally by herself, she really didn't do a bad job (at least none got on her clothes that I could tell).

She also did her toenails -- you can see that a lot of the toes got painted too!

And a last picture...

This is Courtney riding around the kitchen on Hayley's little bike (yes, even after I said I don't want bikes in the house). Since she got her scooter and also learned how to ride her bike, Courtney has been driving me nuts lately with consantly wanting to be outside riding. It's hard for me because I feel like I should be out watching her and helping watch for cars, etc (since she rides up and down the actual road) but I just have too many other responsibilities to spend my whole day sitting outside (as much as I'd like that). So I've decided (or maybe it's just convinced myself) that she is old enough to be out there on her own, as long as she stays within a few houses of ours (which she does). There are often neighbor kids out (with their moms) so then I don't worry quite so much. I feel like a bad/negligent mom, but I suppose it's better than her just sitting around watching TV all day. And I do go out when Hayley is out there, because she's not old enough yet to be trusted on her own.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I think we've finally got the Christmas decorations up (at least the ones that are going up this year). It's so fun to share the excitement of the kids this time of year.

We put up the tree last week for FHE.

Watching closely...

Everyone helped put on ornaments.

The Little People nativity set is always a favorite to get out.

This last weekend Brian put up the icicle lights (I always hate watching him climb up on the wobbly ladder).

McKay was dying to do it himself, but he's just not quite old enough. He did do lights on all the bushes out front by himself.

And finally it's our annual pose with the kids by our wooden snowman, "Willy Melt" and "Betty Won't". Hannah finally "got" the names of the snowmen this year when I explained it to her.

A Tooth Story

I took Hannah in to the dentist today. We noticed her top front tooth is growing in over a baby tooth that hasn't come out yet. (I tried to take a picture.)

The dentist took a look and repeated what I’ve been told before about Hannah’s mouth being too crowded and needing other teeth pulled as well. She suggested pulling all the teeth at the same time and using (oral) sedation because of how anxious Hannah has been about it (she was really worried when she heard that sometimes they do shots to numb your mouth).

Hannah will end up getting 5 teeth pulled! The baby top front tooth that is not coming out, plus two more on top (just next to the front teeth) and two on the bottom. We have scheduled the appointment for the 21st. All 4 kids already have an appt. that day for a regular check-up and cleaning (Hayley’s first time!) and they said it wouldn’t be a problem to just do Hannah’s cleaning while we are waiting for the sedation to kick in.

It looks like Hannah inherited her mother's small mouth, as I also had to have 4 teeth pulled when I was a kid. I predict she is in for some major orthodontic work in the future!

P.S. She made sure to ask the dentist if she could keep the teeth they pull out for the tooth fairy.

Solo Rider

Courtney is now officially riding a bike with no training wheels! Hooray! She has just taken off and is loving every minute of her new "big girl" accomplishment.

I had taken her training wheels off a month or so ago because I thought she was ready to try (she balances really well on her scooter), but my attempt to help her ride didn’t really go anywhere. Yesterday afternoon the weather was nice and she wanted to go out during Hayley’s naptime. Some neighbor boys came out while we were outside and one boy had a smaller bike he was riding with no training wheels. He offered to let Courtney ride it -- she agreed, hopped on and just took right off! I think the smaller size helped her figure out the balancing easier. We brought her bigger bike out, lowered the seat some and although she was a little wobbly at times, she did really well!

Field Trip Time

Last week Hayley's little preschool group went a field trip to the local Kroger grocery store. We've done this field trip in the past with the other kids when they did preschool and it's always a lot of fun.

They get to go back in the bakery to see the big ovens (and this time we saw tortillas being made).

And hair nets are a fashion must in the bakery!

This trip we got to walk around on the back side of the milk coolers (the first time I've been back there).

The highlight for the kids is always getting to touch a lobster!

At the end, they gave the kids a little snack in the deli area.

Here is Hayley with her friend Cambri. Cute girls!