How sweet...

Haley & Preston go to different daycares on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because of Haley's preschool. So they don't see each other all day. At the end of the day, I pick up Haley from her daycare, then go to pick up the boys at their daycare.

When Haley and I walk in the door to get the boys, it's like a scene from a cheesy movie. They see each other across the room. Preston cries "Haley!" And Haley joyfully shouts "Preston!" And then they run at each other with arms outstretched until they meet in the middle of the room for a long and loving hug.

Two minutes later they're fighting like cats and dogs. But for that brief moment at night, they're SO happy to see each other. Melts my heart every time.

Grandmas

Yesterday we were telling Haley and Preston that we were going to go to Grandma & Grandpa Shields' house for Thanksgiving and then we would see Grandma & Grandpa Schurz while we're there because we're all going to go see a basketball game. A little bit later, I heard Haley telling Preston...

"We have four Grandmas. Grandma with the little dogs (that would be Grandma Schurz). Grandma with the big dogs (Grandma Shields). Grandma with the curly hair (Great Grandma Curtis). And Grandma with the walking thing (Great Grandma Shields, who uses a walker). And they all love us very much! Maybe they will give us hugs!"

Just a little something cute I thought I'd share.

Junie B. Jones

I'm happy that my kids are at an age where they like to sit and listen to an actual story, instead of just the choppy little board books that we've been reading for so many years. There are so many fun kids' books out there. They may technically be written for an older age group (most are around age 6-9), but the kids seem to follow and enjoy the stories. And much more enjoyable for me to read, too!

We've been reading the Junie B. Jones books at bedtime for the last week or so. They're cute books about a mouthy little kindergardener (hmmm... do I know someone like that?). Haley just loves them and is always begging for just one more chapter before bedtime. Part of that is trying to postpone bedtime, of course, but a lot is that she loves to listen to the story. Even Preston will sit still for 10-15 minutes while we read the books. There are almost 30 in the series, so it will take us a while to get through them - even at the current rate of finishing a book about every other day.

Also on the list of books to read are the Bunnicula books and the Super Fudge books. (Both sets should be arriving soon from Haley's Scholastic book order.) They also really like the two Ready Freddy books we own, so we'll have to find some more of those.

Any other suggestions for books at about this age range? I've been trying to think back and remember the books I loved as a little kid, but my memory is fuzzy. =)

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm feeling thankful for friends!


I'm thankful to have Rosa and Michelle who are friends to both me and my kids; I'm very grateful that they watch my kids for me and do such a great job.


I'm thankful to my December Mommies group. We all became friends because we were all pregnant and due in December of 2003 - and we have stayed in touch ever since!


I'm thankful for all my friends in the Denver area from back when I was single (Melissa, Heather, Ashley, Mary Alice, Amy...). We met when I went to the wrong ward on my very first Sunday after I moved to Denver and bumped into somone I'd gone to college with. Through her, I met the rest of the group. Even though we don't see each other too often these days, I'm glad to have you all in my life. Looking forward to the annual Christmas Brunch!


I'm thankful for John and Greta. We always have a good time when we get together for dinner and/or movies. We've got to do that more often! The kids had a great time playing together, too. (Preston has a little crush on Amber - in the pink. He followed her around all night and kept hugging her and holding her hand.)




I'm thankful for my ward friends (Melissa, Nicole, Sarah, Rosa and the rest) that I'm getting to know better through my Facebook addiction.


I'm thankful for Holly & Mandy - we've been friends since the 6th grade! We live far apart now, but we still keep up.


I'm grateful for my Utah friend Cristie, too! (She just wrote and reminded me that I forgot to mention her originally.) I'm still sad that Cristie moved to Utah and I miss her lots. =( Thank goodness for e-mail so we can stay in touch!


Most of all, I'm thankful for my best friend, Aaron. He's my favorite person to be with and I'm so glad I have him!

Works for Me Wednesday

I do almost all my shopping online - even my grocery shopping! One of our local grocery stores (King Soopers) has a web page where you can go grocery shopping. You click through the aisles just like walking through them at the store and add items to your grocery cart. You get all the same weekly sale prices and club card specials that you would get at the actual store. After you place your order, someone at the store will pick it all up and deliver it to your house the next day (at the time you choose).

One of the bonuses for me is that shopping this way pretty much requires you to make a list, which always helps me save money and avoid impulse buying. Plus, you don't see those little endcap displays that always tempt you to just pick up "one more thing". I can place my order on my lunch hour or on a break and it's much quicker than when I go to the store in person. Add in the fact that I don't have to either drag all three kids through the store or wait and go after they've gone to bed, and it's well worth a $10 delivery charge to me!

If you live in Colorado, check out www.KingSoopers.com and see if your store offers HomeShop. Albertsons and some other chains also offer online grocery shopping.

For lots of amazing tips, or to add your own, visit Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer!

My Worst Date

Rosa had this one on her blog and tagged anyone who read it to post their own worst date, so I'm playing along.

I have a number of bad dates to choose from, but I think I've narrowed it down to one... It started off good. In college I went to the Logan temple to do baptisms. Afterwards, I went to get some dinner in the temple cafeteria. When I went to pay, there was a cute guy manning the register. As luck would have it, the register tape ran out and he needed to change it before I could get a receipt. We chatted while he changed the tape, and by the time he finished the job he had asked for my phone number and a date. A couple of days later, he picked me up for our date. We ended up going back to his apartment, where he proceeded to spend an hour or so demonstrating his voice-recognition word processing program. Woo-hoo, fascinating! Then he decided it was time for dinner, so he microwaved a couple of burritos (mine was still icy in the middle, by the way). He must have enjoyed his though, because as I recall he didn't say a word while he was eating. Just grunted a couple of times in response when I tried to talk. When we'd finished eating, he told me that since it turned out I lived so close (about 4 blocks) it should be okay to walk back to my apartment. He was low on gas and didn't want to drive. That was fine with me - I figured it was a nice night, maybe a nice evening walk would improve the date a little. Of course, it turns out he wasn't planning on walking with me. Nope, just said goodbye at the door and sent me to walk home alone. Needless to say, when he called about a 2nd date, I wasn't interested.

Thank goodness I don't have to deal with the dating scene anymore!!

Now, if you've read this - consider yourself tagged. Post your own worst date and let me know you've done it so I can read your dating horror story!

Addicted to Facebook

I resisted the whole Facebook and MySpace thing for a long time, because I figured it was just something that teenagers were into. But several of my friends that I e-mail with are on Facebook and they use it to post pictures of their kids and things like that. They kept urging me to get on Facebook with them. I finally gave in and set up an account just so that I could look at their photos - I figured that was the only use for Facebook I would have.

I was so wrong! It turns out that there are SO MANY people I know on Facebook. People I know from church, friends from my December Mommies e-mail group, friends from here in Denver, former co-workers, even friends from back in high school and college. Now I'm loving the chance to catch up with everyone and learn more about them from their comments and the things they post. And hey, I've even gotten to know a couple of the teenagers who are on Facebook. I'm now Facebook friends with a couple of the teenagers in my ward and it's been fun to have that connection with them when I see them at a church function. Just from a chance comment I made on Facebook one day, I now get a big hug from Sarah (Mia Maid in our ward) every time I see her. Plus I've learned that she's a really good babysitter who would love to watch my kids - bonus!!

So if you're not on Facebook yet, give in! Set up an account and make me your friend!

Thankful Thursday

Who would have thought a couple of months ago that anyone could post something happy about gas prices? I never thought we'd see it under $2/gallon again, so it's sure nice to see the prices dropping so much. Who knows if it will last, but it's nice for right now.

Aaron brought home a receipt last night from buying gas and he was able to fill the van for only $30! Since we've been paying more like $60 to fill up, that was a happy, happy moment. =)

Works for Me Wednesday

My kids love gymnastics and attend gymnastics class every week. We were going to a local gymnastics studio, and it cost a fortune! $40/month per kid. So in searching around for a cheaper option (after all, I'm not trying to raise the next Olympic stars, I'm just trying to get them some exercise doing something they enjoy), I discovered that most recreation centers have all kinds of dance, gymnastics, sports, arts, and music classes for people of all ages. Maybe this is old news to everyone but me, but I'd always thought the rec center was basically just a pool and an exercise room. The classes at the rec center are much more reasonably priced and they're just as good as the classes at the gymnastics center. The kids love it, and it's much easier on my checkbook!

For lots of amazing tips, or to add your own, visit Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer!

Date Night!

When we were at the talent show on Friday night, our friend Melissa (Sherman) volunteered to watch the kids for us any time that we wanted to go out. We must have seemed like we weren't planning to take her up on it - and we weren't really, just because it never really occurs to us to go out on our own without the kids.

So Melissa could tell we weren't really planning on calling her, so she insisted that we should go out the next day. She basically told us to be at her house at 3:00 to drop off the kids so we could have a date. So we did. We had a wonderful evening out and really enjoyed going out to dinner and being able to enjoy the meal instead of dealing with kids the entire time!

The kids also seemed to have a great time, since they were begging to go back to Melissa's within minutes of leaving.

Thank you, thank you Melissa!!

Primary Talent Show

Our ward had a primary talent show last night - we had a huge turnout and lots of fun! Haley & Preston participated in the talent show and even chose their own acts.

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to post the videos on the blog, but you can see them on our dropshots page:

http://www.dropshots.com/taradon#date/2008-11-08/03:09:08
http://www.dropshots.com/taradon#date/2008-11-08/03:11:12
http://www.dropshots.com/taradon#date/2008-11-08/03:31:00

Sorry for the shaky camera work - I was juggling the baby and the video camera!
And just because Brekken didn't get to be in the talent show but I didn't want to leave him out completely, here's a little Brekken video, too. =)

http://www.dropshots.com/taradon#date/2008-09-26/03:22:58

Testimony

At fast and testimony meeting yesterday, Haley was listening to everyone bear their testimonies and then turned to me and said - "Mommy, I don't have a testimony!" So I asked her if she knew what a testimony was, and she said she didn't. So I explained what a testimony was and her face lit up and she said "I DO have a testimony!" Then of course, she was determined that she needed to go up to the microphone and bear her testimony.

The meeting time was almost over, so we tried to convince her to wait until next week, but she was determined that she needed to go up right now! So we asked her what she planned to say. She said she wanted to say. "I love Jesus. I know he wants me to go to church. Amen." We finally agreed that she could go, and up she went (with Aaron). When she got to the mike, she stepped right up and said "Hi. My name is Haley" because we had a lot of new people in the congregation, so everyone had been introducing themselves. And then she got a good look at how many people were out there and froze! With a little prompting from Aaron, though, she remembered what she had planned to say and said it well. Meanwhile, Preston had escaped from me and followed Aaron and Haley onto the stand. He tried to climb up to the mike as Haley stepped down, but Aaron wisely pulled him away. You never know what he might decide to say!

Halloween

We had a great time on Halloween. My office asked us all to dress up (though I was one of only a few who actually did dress up) and bring in our kids to Trick or Treat. The kids were adorable in their costumes and everyone was happy to get to meet them (and Aaron too).


On Halloween night, we had beautiful weather, so the kids were able to go out and Trick or Treat the neighborhood. Haley & Preston wore the same costumes, but we did switch Brekken from a dragon to a bear for the slightly warmer costume. Haley & Preston had a great time running to all the houses and yelling Trick or Treat. Brekken likes riding in the stroller, so he had a good time, too.