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.

Swim Lessons

Kylie treading water





Landon waiting his turn


Landon swimming out to his teacher and flipping over



Landon's head under swimming back

We did swim lessons for the first time this year. They were every day for two weeks. The kids had a wonderful time learning. I am sold on doing swim lessons because I think my kids will do something that there teacher tells them to do, and getting over their nervousness or fear of it. I was amazed that they ended up swimming without plugging there nose and swimming with their head right in the water. I think I could teach them those skills, just not in two weeks.

I do plan on working with the kids now and I have a list of the names of the things they were learning so we can practice together. Some of the things they learned were hum bubbles, bobs, jellyfish floats, front float, tuck floats, glides, strokes on front and back, and rolling over in the water.

No Training Wheels

Kylie starting out on her bike without training wheels


Good thing she has daddy's help

We decided to take Kylie's training wheels off of her bike. She was interested in learning but a little apprehensive. We had to buy a new tire for her back will because it was bare. We couldn't find a white tire. Then we decided to get her pads. They now have a set with gloves in them. Which I thought was really cool. Landon didn't have those when he was learning. She got all geared up and then Marcus worked with her for about 45 mins. to an hour. She didn't seem to be go very far and had a hard time with the balancing. But I figured it would take awhile to figure it out. Thinking Landon learning in two days was really fast and unusual.

We took a break for a couple of weeks in practicing. Life just seemed to be busy. Then last Thursday the kids were hanging out and I suggested that they go out and Marcus could help Kylie on her bike some more. He didn't have very much time because he had his softball game. So he got her balanced and started and off she went like she had been riding a bike for awhile. It was crazy. She still had a hard time with starting but after about 30 minutes really was getting it figured out so she could go by herself.

Here is a short video of her riding.





So I guess I have two crazy kids. Or maybe it is typical and lots of kids learn that way. We were trying to decide where she all of a sudden had her balance. Marcus wondered if it was the two weeks of swimming lessons. And I wondered if it was practicing on the neighbor's scooter.

No More Bottles

Little bug with his sippy

Yesterday was the day to take Tannen off bottles. I have been thinking about it for a while. But had a harder time with it because he didn't drink sippy cups very well, and he has been so little for his age that I didn't want any of his food sources to go away. I decided I was just going to do it. He only had a bottle of water yesterday morning and then for the rest of the day he just had his sippy. I had to buy two more of the Nuby Sippy Cups. As they are my favorite for switching and he seemed to lean more towards them. I thought it would take a good week to adjust and that morning and evening when he gets his big snuggles would be the hardest. But he did fine. He resisted a little but eventually just took the sippy. Yay no more bottles - at least for a few months. (Two more months until my due date!!)

Birthday Birthday Birthday

Marcus' birthday was Friday June 11th. We thought we would drop kids off at my mom's and get a hotel and play Friday and Saturday. Tannen is crazy about my mom, and wants her constantly. Probably because there is something that reminds him about me and she will carry him until his heart is content.

But first in the morning Marcus worked his typical half day on Fridays (he works four 9's and a half day on Friday - perfect for an early weekend). The kids slept in and then we had swimming lessons at 10:30. We had to get back for my Dr.'s appointment at 11:45. Marcus was a little late getting off so he meet me at the Dr's and then took the boys. Kylie wanted to hear the heart beat. I ended up waiting for a while and was there for an hour. But everything looks good and he said I was having a boring typical pregnancy. Just what he wanted. He said I didn't want to be one of his interesting cases, and I heartily agreed. We made it home, had lunch and then the kids got to wrap up their presents. They hid them and play hot and cold so Marcus could find them. They seemed to get a kick watching Marcus look for their presents. We finished cleaning up the house - not much because I had my book club here the night before. And packed up.

We made it to my mom's house around 4:00 and got the pack n'play all set up. I was pretty anxious after we dropped them off. I have never left Tannen for more than a couple of hours, and definantly not over night. Marcus didn't seem to conserned about it. I think guys get used to leaving kids because they can be gone all day and sometimes over night from their kids. I wasn't worried about Landon and Kylie at all.

Marcus and I checked in and then went out to eat. mmmm Texas Roadhouse. Then we went to Prince of Persia. It was pretty good. I did get tired of all the fighting but hey what do you do, besides Marcus liked it. It was late when we got out. We ran to Winco so I could get some food seeing as I have to eat something right before I go to bed. I was really looking forward to no kid noises and sleeping in as long as I wanted. But unfortunately I woke up at7:30 to go to the bathroom and then couldn't go back to sleep because I was starving. I finally went down and grabbed breakfast and was too awake to fall back asleep. It was nice to take as long as I wanted getting ready in the morning though. No one to cry at the door or ask permission for something.

We went to a gun shop and looked at pistols forever. But hey I learned a lot. Then we shot some and Marcus ended up ordering a Springfield DX 9mm. He had a permagrin on his face and we went to lunch. We were kind of not sure what to do with ourselves after that. We looked around in stores that our kids always run through. Then we decided to pick them up. I was happy to find that Tannen didn't miss me at all. He was delighted to hang out with my mom. We then headed out and stopped in at Marcus' parents house. They made bbq and a birthday cake. I hit a wall on the way over after getting up so early and probably wasn't much for conversation. We made it home around 9:00 and I crawled into bed at 10:00.

Happy Birthday Marcus - I hope you had a great two days!!!!