Baby Alive

Yeah, so Santa brought Courtney a Baby Alive. Courtney's best friend, Hayley, has a Baby Alive and so does another girl in the neighborhood. So Courtney has been wanting one for a long time. Mrs. Santa found a great deal on one online and thought of Courtney's desire but didn't really investigate the Baby Alive too well. She understood that it peed, but figured that Courtney has another doll that pees and it lost its fun after a while and hasn't peed in a year. So she thought things would be well.

When Courtney opened Baby Alive she found some powder along with a baby bottle and an extra diaper. She gave her mom (me) the powder and wanted to make her baby some juice. I decided to read the packaging and realized that the powder is what makes the baby poop. Yes, the Baby Alive not only pees, but it poops. As Bryan said, "Yes, we want to re-live some of the best memories we have of having babies....not!"

Courtney wouldn't give it up until we had made the baby poop. So I mixed up the juice, took off the baby's clothes (she only came with one extra diaper and they aren't washable), put her on the toilet (I have my limits) and let Courtney feed her. The baby makes very realistic eating noises, sucked the bottle dry and yellow stuff started coming out. It wasn't really pee, but it wasn't really water either. Anyway, Courtney was pretty grossed out and I wasn't too thrilled with it either. So we fed her a bottle of water to clean the system out and we decided that we didn't need to ever do that again. Baby Alive can pretend to eat a bottle and be just fine.

But seriously, who thought up a pooping doll?!?!?!

Rosenbruch Museum

There is a wild life museum in St. George that is there for education and preservation. Ethan won 2 child tickets to it and I decided that we should use them. I'm not a big fan of stuffed deer and such, but Ethan wanted to go so we went. It only took us about 20 minutes to see everything the kids wanted to see. There was a bunch of animals and the kids were given binoculars so they could look at them up close. The bug room was only fun for about 30 seconds until Ethan saw a huge bat in a glass case and was out of there. The part they really liked was the kids room where a tent was set up and a lookout to see wild animals. Safari clothing was there and the kids played hide-and-seek for a long time.

Here are some photos:

Christmas!

Yes, I'm a bit slow posting Christmas, but we've been busy!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We went to the movies with my parents and sister (the second Chipmunk movie) and then we all went back to our house for Christmas Eve dinner. Since my parents and Leigh Ann had ham for Thanksgiving, we had turkey for Christmas. It was soooo yummy and we have loved having leftovers at our house!

After they left the kids began begging us to let them open their Christmas pjs. We kept holding them off and holding them off, until about 6:30 and then we let them go nuts. They had fun and everyone's pjs fit (except Courtney's are a bit long). We spread reindeer food on the front and back lawn and then set out pie for Santa because we were too tired to make cookies. Bryan and I then spent the next few hours trying to keep the kids in their beds. All day we had been checking Norad to follow Santa's path and this got them so anxious. But they finally fell asleep.

Christmas morning Ethan came to in to tell us that Santa had come and that we needed to get up. I had told him the night before that he couldn't get up until 7 a.m. but it was 6:30 and he just couldn't wait. So we got up. They got to play with their Santa gift (Ethan got a skateboard and Courtney got a Baby Alive which Santa didn't investigate well enough because it not only pees, but it poops too....gross!) and check out what they got in their stocking while Bryan and I made breakfast. Ethan got some books in his stocking and took them into his room to read while breakfast was cooking.

We then ate and began opening our gifts. It wasn't too long after we started that my parents and sister showed up. We finished opening all our gifts and the fun playing began. Our living room looked like a tornado had hit it, but the kids were having a blast. Bryan got toys to go with his bike and an air compressor from his parents, among other things. I got a bunch of pedicure things (yeah!!) and a cool blender-thing that has been working non stop making smoothies, ice cream and orange julius ever since! It's been great.

My parents and sister left (she had to go back to Phoenix to her husband on Christmas Day) and we went on our traditional Christmas Day Hike! We don't have to go very far from our house to find cool hiking spots. We decided to go on a hike through the lava flows about a mile from our house. It was so much fun and the kids loved exploring around.

We just spent the rest of the day playing with our toys and relaxing. It was a good Christmas!

2010 FHE Lessons

Last year I found a posting on sugardoodle.net where someone had made FHE lesson plans to go along with the Primary lessons. We did this and LOVED it because it helped the kids remember what they learned in Primary better. This year someone else put together a packet so I thought I would post the link.

http://www.sugardoodle.info/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5512

Ethan's Cookie Party

Ethan wanted to have a cookie party with his friends but I kept putting it off because we were just too busy. Monday morning he told me that it would "really make my Christmas special" if we could have one. How could I put that off?!? So we made invitations and invited his two best friends over. (Courtney was a bit upset that she wasn't included, but she already had her party last week.)

They got here at 9:30 to roll out cookie dough and make some Christmas shapes. They each got their own cookie sheet and while they were cooking the boys played. When the cookies were cooled, they each got to decorate their batch. Then we had hot chocolate and they got to take them home. It was tons of fun and something that Ethan wants to do every year!

Ethan's Christmas Recital

Ethan's Christmas piano recital was last Saturday. He did a great job! He was pretty nervous about playing because the song was hard for him and he doesn't like to read music so he kind of guesses at what the next note will be. But he did work hard to get the song prepared. I think he did well.

After Christmas break we are switching his piano teacher to one who is close. Ethan is pretty excited and so am I. I loved his previous teacher but now I won't have a 30 minute drive each way! But the new teacher has 3 recitals each year.

Here are some photos and video:

Caroling

Last night was Mutual. It was a combined Laurel/Priest activity to go caroling at a local nursing home. Bryan was a bit nervous that no one would turn up so he asked us to go along, thinking that there would at least be someone there to sing with him and fulfill their commitment to the nursing home. Ethan and Courtney were thrilled to be going to Mutual with the young men and women!

We met at the Church and they actually had 3 leaders, 4 girls and 7 young men show up! It was a good turnout. When we got there we found the common room but the Jazz game still had 5 minutes left and the old women wouldn't let us turn off the TV to sing. ;) So we walked the halls caroling to all the people who live there. It was nice and we had some really neat experiences. We were invited in to sing to one woman and another woman was having her birthday so we sang to her. The kids were a bit nervous at first but everyone warmed up.

By the time we got back to the common room, the Jazz game was over so they were ready to pay attention to us. I played the piano and the youth/leaders sang about 6 songs and then we ended with "We wish you a Merry Christmas." It was a great night.

Because it was a youth activity we ended it at Del Taco. Food and youth always go together ;)

Ethan and Courtney loved going and had a great time singing. We may make this a family Christmas tradition!