The Little Things in Life

Tannen has been a climber the last couple of weeks. He has been completely wearing me out. It doesn't help that for our kitchen table the chairs have wheels on them. I don't mind him on the table really. It just seems inevitable like the rest of my kids. But he keeps getting on the counters and it is driving me nuts. Marcus and I are brainstorming on how to hook the chairs to the table so he won't move them around.

A couple of weeks ago we were driving up to my family reunion. We grabbed the kids lunch in the car. For their toy they got a pack of playing magic cards. They were playing with them and all of a sudden

Kylie says: "Hey its a boob card."
Wendi: "What?"
Kylie: "It's a private parts boob card."
Marcus looks back at the card: "No it's a spade card like a shovel."
Kylie: "It's a private parts boob card."
Marcus and Wendi: "No it's a spade card."
Kylie: "You mean our private parts are called spades?"
Wendi exasperated: "No the card is called a spade, like a shovel, not your private parts."
The light finally goes on in Kylie's head. But we had a great laugh about it. And now you really want to go look at a spade card don't you?

So Landon has become obsessed about hair. You know lemonade stands that kids set up. He told me last night that he wanted to have a stand to brush hair. I thought it was pretty funny. He has been talking about it all day today. To be fair he get on kicks all the time. He also wants to be farmer because for a field trip he got to milk a cow. He informed me this week he needed to be a farmer for his kids. He is planning on having tons of them since I won't have anymore. And his reason is he needs enough food for them so he is going to have a farm. Marcus got to come home early from work today. I told Marcus about the hair stand and he wasn't thrilled. Later Landon fixed one of the neighbor kid's training wheel that was coming loose and then ask Marcus for the wrench. He told him no and then after Landon left the room decided he could keep it. He said it was better than a brush. So now they are out in the garage working on the Truck.

Which brings me to my next subject. We bought a new vehicle. We really needed one seeing as our little girly is due in 4 weeks. I had a friend tell me about a guy her uncle used to be partners with. He will go down to auctions to find you a car that you want and charges a finders fee, but basically you are getting the car for trade in value price. She gave me his number last Monday. I called him Tuesday. He went to the auction on Wednesday and found us just what we were looking for. We drove it Wednesday night and bought it Friday. It felt pretty crazy. Our requirements were pretty specific. Marcus only wanted a Chevy Suburban, or a GMC Yukon XL. The same car. We had to have it under 100k miles, and I had to have captain chairs for the second row. I didn't want kids climbing all over the bench and couldn't flip it up with big car seats all over it. Apparently those are pretty hard to find, and they only make them in leather. I also wanted a DVD but it wasn't mandatory like the seats were.

We took a Monday off of work about a month ago and went to SLC to look at the cars we had pulled up on KSL. It is about 3-4K less over the mountain then it is herefg. We almost bought a Suburban but ended up not doing it. It squeaked and we didn't like the dealer. So it was really nice when he found one so darn fast. We ended up getting way more then we were hoping for. It is a '04 Yukon XL Denali. White with leather, captain chairs, DVD, navigation system, sunroof, and completely fully loaded. Any option you could ask for it pretty much has. We don't even know how to work most of them. But we like it. It fits us perfectly and we can haul all the kids and the boat. It will be a gas guzzler but that is just the way it is going to be. I have to say I love not having to bend over to toss Tannen in the middle of the seat (we have to separate Landon and Kylie).

Marcus is fixing up the truck so we can sell it. It has over 200k miles and our car is in waaay better shape. So Marcus has been driving the car to work everyday. We decided to use the money from the truck towards the boat and hopefully in about 6 months the boat will be paid for. Now all I have to do is figure out how to pay for the Yukon off early.

I have been nesting a lot lately. Just don't necessarily have the energy for everything. It is nice not to worry about a car anymore. But I have been shopping for baby and school stuff. I am trying to get the kids in a different school. Over all last year I didn't like the experience and after researching it Bridger was about the worst school for behavior issues. I have ordered, shopped, and sorted and gotten just about everything we need. All that is left is shoes for Landon. He wears them out like crazy. I can't believe I am going to have a little 2nd grader and my little Mae is going to be in Kindergarten. She is so excited!!

A Family of Water Skiers

Kylie on water skis. She was the most adorable little thing on them. She tried first and didn't get up. She didn't want to try again but I really felt like she needed to. So I bribed her with a starburst. And what do you know she got up perfectly except she didn't stand up all the way. Here is some video of her first run!!! I had a permagrin watching her and still do when I think about it. She did one more run later and got up and did the same run. She totally loves it!!



Landon on his first try. He got up on his first time trying but didn't stay up very long. I really tried to get him to get up again but he wouldn't do it. Kylie had gone first and you can't have your little sister show you up. So he said he would try later that day. He did and was awesome. I don't have video of it but I do have a picture. He also was losing his trunks and pulled them up and still kept going. It was a good thing we had Uncle Daniel in the water to help them start off. Aunt Kimberly was holding the other end of the rope with a handle. Aunt Ginger was our photographer. And I was in the water for moral support reminding them what to do.





Marcus is my biggest ski bum and I love it. This is the reason why we have a boat. I love watching him water ski. Here is a video of a run with him on the ski. This was part of our Simons Reunion and we all had a great time. I will hopefully get some pictures from Kimberly who took a ton of them. Then we can get those posted as well.