Jungle Jim's

We took the kids to Jungle Jim's on Saturday to burn off some energy. I could barely stand to watch them on the rides I was getting so dizzy, let alone join them, so I made Trent do most of the dirty work. It was fun, but you know how I get around other people's (stranger's) kids and this was no exception. I swear I always leave these kinds of places thinking that most of the children out there must be raised by wolves...

Anyway, Isaac rode this jeep ride 3 times. It was his favorite, although you cannot tell from this picture...

Juliet was a good big sister and took care of Isaac on most of the other rides.


I knew that we should have put Juliet in front on the swing ride because Isaac wouldn't take his eyes off of her.

This roller coaster was seriously *fast*!! I was so nervous that the kids wouldn't like it and be stuck riding until it was over,

but, as you can see, they loved it and rode it two more times.

Happy New Year 2010

We rang in the new year with a New Year's Eve party at Jason & Lisa's house. The kids were able to join us and hang out for a little bit and then we put them to sleep around 8pm.

Trent scolded a 3 year old girl for hitting Isaac, which totally caught me off guard, but then I thought it was pretty funny. Juliet got caught up playing and peed in her pj's. Isaac and I were just our usual selves...

Here are pics of us at midnight.

My brothers were both able to come into town to spend the holidays in Salt Lake City and this was the first time that they brought *girlfriends* home with them. It's still strange for me that they are old enough to do this, but they were both great girls with fun personalities so I don't have any complaints.

Here's a picture of the Lee's after a dinner at Asian Star.

Videos Are Up To Date

The videos on the sidebar are now up to date:

Isaac 15-18 Months

Juliet 2½ Years Old

Halloween 2009 (Juliet singing Halloween songs and her preschool performance)

A Day in the Life (The kids during a typical day in the summer)

Thanksgiving Prayer (Juliet saying a prayer before Thanksgiving dinner)

Preschool Xmas Program (Preschool "performance")

Christmas 2009 (Juliet singing songs and both kids on Xmas morning)

Merry Christmas

Somehow, the kids slept in until just past 7am this morning. When I asked Juliet if she thought Santa had come to our house in the night she told me she didn't think so because she didn't hear him. Cute.

When the kids walked into the dining room, they were really excited and surprised to see their new toys. They both ran straight to the 3 corner thing with the blue door-- they love playing pretend anything! Juliet checked to make sure Santa ate his cookies and then we ate waffles with whipped cream and blackberries while the kids chatted with Trent's parents on the web cam.

Juliet got a dolly, gear for the dolly, the Crayola Twistables that she's been asking for, The Wizard of Oz soundtrack, a Ni Hao Ki Lan doll and DVD, and a pirate pop up game.

Isaac got a dump truck, a tractor, a fire station set, Matchbox cars, plastic bugs, and a vehicle sound puzzle.

And they are *sharing* a play place and another kitchen. I think they are set on toys for a long while!

More Santa Pics

Juliet wanted to dress up and sing Christmas songs for the video camera. I'll try to get caught up on the kids' videos over the weekend and post them soon.

We also thought we'd sneak in one last visit to Santa before he makes his way back to the North Pole so we headed to the mall early this morning and to our surprise, there was no line! We just walked the kids right up onto Santa's lap. Juliet had a lot to tell him. First, that she wants a dolly, and second, that we would make cookies for him and the reindeer to eat, but she was going to eat some of them too because even Santa has to share. Santa was very kind to take so much time to listen to her and told her to be sure to go to bed early tonight. Since then, she has reminded us several times that we all should go to bed early...

Isaac didn't have much to say. He wasn't scared or happy to see the Jolly Ole Guy, but he was content sitting on his lap.

Playing in the Snow

We needed a way for the kids to burn off some energy before nap time this morning so I decided to put on their snowsuits and let them play in the front yard while Trent shoveled.

Isaac was more interested in the shoveling part than the playing and wouldn't keep his gloves on, but would cry when his hands got cold. So, he came back inside after about 20 minutes and helped me fix lunch while Juliet played with her Dad.

Isaac's 1st (real) Haircut

Trent's cut Isaac's hair a few times, but this was the little guy's first real haircut. He did really well, no screaming, just got a little wiggly when the clippers came out.

Above are what he looked like before...

During: eating Goldfish crackers and playing with the spray bottle.

And here's the after pic.

The cutest part was while I was paying, he looked out the windows into the parking lot and spotted a yellow snow removal thing (what are they called?) and started clapping his hands and jumping up and down yelling "tractor!" So, we had to make a last minute request for Santa to bring a toy tractor...

Copy Cats

It's funny how much our kids enjoy doing the things that Trent & I do. As most of you know, Trent is an obsessive cleaner. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that he has been known to call out someone (in front of a large group of our friends) who's tracked dirt into our house.

As a result of watching Trent, Isaac goes crazy over the vacuum. He will have complete meltdowns if he thinks we're going to vacuum and then we don't. One snowy morning, Nanny Ada tracked in a tiny bit of snow and the next thing we know, Isaac is wiping it up with a dish towel. Honestly, one of his first words after "Mama" and "Dada" was "clean up."

Juliet is a pretty good cleaner too, but her heart (like her Mama's) is in making lists. We spend many Saturday mornings writing lists together. It's not easy to tell from this picture, but her "list items" are written in surprisingly straight lines.

Cookie Exchange

This year's cookie exchange turned out great. Honestly, how could it not-- an event focused around cookies? I made the tri-colored sugar/mint cookies (bottom right in above photo), which turned out okay, but were not my favorite of the night. It was just so nice to laugh and catch up with friends!

19 Months Old

Isaac is at one of my favorite ages. He's so cuddly and affectionate, which is a wonderful surprise since we could never get him to sit still on our laps for the first year of his life. He'll run up to us at full speed from across the room just to give us a spontaneous hug and kiss.

He says about 30 words, most of which sound very similar to each other, but those who spend a lot of time with him are able to differentiate as to what he's trying to say (he's trained us well!) Most of the time he is tugging on one of our arms so he can show us exactly what he needs/wants.

His favorite movies are Finding Nemo, Jungle Book, and Peter Pan. And he brings us a book about trucks to read every single night. He's learning his colors, enjoys coloring, playing with play-doh, and cooking us dinner in the play kitchen.

Christmas Program Disaster

Juliet's preschool Christmas performance was this afternoon. She was so excited to sing and dance and wear her new dress, but when it was show time, she clammed up. I don't think she sang a peep the entire time. When I approached her 1/2 way into the performance to ask her what was wrong and she told me that she wanted to go home a take a nap. Now, this is where I should have said, "okay" and packed her up and left, but I was worried about what the other parents would think of me (crazy mom that makes her kid leave if she doesn't sing) so we stuck it out and we all suffered.

The minute we got home, I turned into the mean stepmother from Cinderella and made Juliet take off her new dress. She, of course, screamed that she wanted to continue wearing it and I responded with "No, only girls that sing when they are supposed to get to wear pretty dresses." This resulted in a major meltdown for Juliet, complete with the ugly sobbing cry.

By the time I got back to my office I was nearly in tears myself! How could I be so awful to my child. I was a perfect candidate for those horrible stage moms that you see on TV. I wish I would have followed through with my parenting style and let Juliet live with the consequences of leaving her Christmas program. Of course, I still would have left disappointed that our little star wasn't willing to shine, but now that I've had the whole day to reflect on this event and wishing I could have a do-over, the only good thing that has come out of this is that hopefully next time I will do better. Oh, how I hope that next time I will be able to accept that my child is not perfect and neither am I.

Congratulations, Nanny Ada!

We are so proud of our Nanny, Ada who was sworn in as an official US Citizen yesterday morning! I know she worked really hard studying for the citizenship test and passed with flying colors! The kids were so excited to surprise her with a cake this morning. Congratulations!!

Ronald McDonald House Dinner

I'm in a Recipe Club with my friends from high school and this month, in place of our regularly scheduled night, we decided to cook dinner for the people staying at the Ronald McDonald House.

The menu was: Enchilada casserole, Cesar Salad, Rice, Tres Leches cake, and a sherbet lime aid.

34 Months Old

Juliet continues to make us laugh with her large vocabulary and the stuff that comes out of her mouth. She desperately wants to be a mama and talks about this subject daily. Last week she asked if "when I'm a mama, could I brush Isaac's teeth for him?"

Since most of the TV that the kids watch is DVDs, she rarely sees any commercials. So, when I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas she said, "a present!" And when I asked what kind of a present, she told me, "a toy!" and when I asked what kind of a toy, she replied, "a good one!" Well, that helps a lot.

S's are still tough for her to pronounce, but I love to hear her talk about "fmiley faces (smiley faces), kwares (squares), karey things (scary things), and kwirls and fiders (squirrels and spiders)."

Speaking of pronunciation, she has developed a real Southern accent and will tell you all about her pretty "hayer (hair)" or her favorite "bayer (bear)" I don't know how this happened, but it's darling.

Church Christmas Breakfast

We took the kids to the neighborhood church Christmas breakfast again this year. Both kids greeted Santa as he made his entrance to his seat, but when it came time to sit in his lap, they were a little hesitant. Neither of them were scared or anything, but Isaac just doesn't enjoy sitting still on any one's lap and Juliet just didn't have much to say to him.

Here's Juliet showing off, then quickly eating the sugar cookie she decorated.

Isaac's favorite part about meeting Santa was getting the candy cane.