Wicked

On Saturday we went to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater in L.A. It was fabulous, and just as good as the first time we saw it in March!

My hot honey and me.

Hillary, Spencer, Heather, Mike, me, Ben, Mom, Dad, Cousin Trisha, Aunt Di, Uncle Steve

Heather and I spotted Adam Wylie, who played Boq in Wicked. Being the Gilmore Girls fans we are, we had to get a picture. (Adam was Brad, Rory's Chilton classmate.) Just think, he actually talked to Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel in person and we talked to him in person. Wow! ( I don't have many brushes with fame, so indulge me here.)

Ta-dah!

I don't want to jinx myself by announcing this to the world but I have to shout this out to everyone:

Jake is finally potty-trained!

(There are no letters large enough, fonts fancy enough, or colors bright enough to do justice to the excitement I want to convey here.) Did I mention how much I hate potty training? Oh, yeah, I hate potty training. It's pretty much the worst part of parenting for me so far. I think that someone should start a potty training camp where I can send my kids and they don't come back until they are completely potty trained. I would pay large sums of money for such an opportunity.

So we've had 7 glorious accident-free days and I really think we are in the clear! It's about time...we've been working on this for a year and he just turned 4! Yay for you, Jake!


From the potty training manual for Jacob E.M.:

Note: Do NOT try the following. It is completely futile. I repeat, failure to comply may lead to serious frustration on the part of maternal parental figure.

1. If he poops his pants in a corner of the house every day, put an x on the floor with masking tape to remind him that he can't go poopy there. Remove tape once all corners have been marked.

2. Buy him any toy in the store and make him earn it by keeping his underwear dry and clean for three days. Try to the keep the toy away from him for two months.

3. Have him run around naked all day. Explain to neighbors why he is naked and that you really aren't white trash.

4. Make chart after chart and tell him, "Each time you go potty you get a sticker. After _____ number of stickers you get ______."

5. Have daddy handle it.

6. Tell him all his friends go to the potty, that he can't go to swimming lessons or preschool or play at the Ikea kid's drop-off until he goes to the potty all day.

7. Make him wear one of his baby sister's size 4 diapers because you're out of pull-ups.

8. Move to a new house and show him all the new potties. Inform him that we could not go to the potty anywhere else in our new house. Repeat: No poopies in the new house. DO NOT get angry when he gets in the van and poops his pants.

DO try this: Wait until the kid is ready! This is easier said than done...but just do it.

A Week of Late Nights

I have been so tired lately, too tired to even pull myself out of bed to go work out at the pool at 6:30am. Sorry Audra and Marea! I have had a week of late nights. Here are the reasons:

Thursday & Friday: Camping. Talking around the campfire and then sleeping in a tent. I'm not sure how well you sleep in a tent, but I don't. I could hear coyotes howling in the night and something medium large rustling in the bushes nearby.

Saturday: Writing a talk for church. Procrastination is one of my many weaknesses but this time I was helped along by a late call from our bishop's counselor (Tuesday), going to Legoland Wednesday, and camping Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Sunday: Mindy. Definitely on my short list of best friends in the world. We had a sleepover and of course, we couldn't just go to bed...too boring. We had a blast which made it that much more sad when she left again. Kate woke up a couple of times that night because of the 4 new teeth she's cutting, but she was easily consoled with her pacifier and some Motrin.

Monday: Kate. Her teething/congestion/ear infection combo returns and she feels significantly worse. She has a burning fever and is pretty much delirious with pain and can't sleep. Yours truly is up the better part of the night with her. I finally drag her to the doctor and get some antibiotics.

Tuesday: Blogging. I have to get caught up on my blog! See Legoland entry.

Wednesday: Twilight. I decide I finally need to start reading New Moon, so I can start Eclipse, (books 2 and 3 in the Twilight series, a vampire romance, written by Ben's cousin, Stephenie Meyer --check out her website) but then I couldn't put it down! I can't explain the draw since I have a significant fear of vampires, which is why there was no way I could take the book to a lonely cabin in the mountains or a somewhat remote campsite to read. Yes, I know vampires are not real; it's completely irrational. Blame my Dad for thinking Nosferatu was a funny movie and appropriate for a six-year-old.

Thursday: So You Think You Can Dance. I had to get caught up on six hours of the best summer show (as you can see I've been busy.) Thank goodness for TiVo! The finale was this week and my favorite dancer won!!! I love this show because I am amazed by people who can just pick up a dance in a matter of hours and perform in front of the nation. I can't even do aerobics or give a talk without my heart wanting to jump out of my chest.

So tonight I promise to go to bed early. AND I'll be sleeping on a new King size bed. We're buying a new bed so we have a bed for our guest room. Wait, guests are coming to stay for the weekend...Spencer, Hillary, Miles and Justin are coming TONIGHT. So much for sleep.

Legoland

The boys worked hard all summer to earn enough LEGO stickers on their Legoland castle chart! Using kind words, going to the potty (Jake), helping out with chores or playing with baby sister earned them a couple of Lego stickers. (Basically, they did anything remotely good and we exclaimed, you get a sticker, and maybe, later that night, it made it on the chart -another case of lazy parenting!) Of course, this was a ruse, because we were secretly planning to go with our friends the Carlsons on August 8th all along. So, when we returned from our long vacation to Utah and Northern CA, we had about 4 days to fill in 300+ legos. Boy, they were REALLY good for those couple of days. And, we had a blast at Legoland. Great job, boys!

Ian taking the wheel on a boat ride with Whitney

Little hams: Kater-Kates and Livy-Lou

Jake and Albert E.

Triumphant return from the the Dino-coaster. We had to talk Ian into this one.

Matt and Mindy TOTALLY cheating in the Fire Truck Races

The fabulous four- Ian, Jake, Olivia and Whitney

The daddies on the Knight's Tournament -scary!

Any Star Wars Fans?

We love Star Wars! A day doesn't go by where the boys are not wielding a light saber, battling evil droids, siths and storm troopers or staging their own Jedi Training Academy(our new favorite attraction at Disneyland).

Have you seen the new Star Wars stamps...pretty cool! http://www.starwars.com/collecting/news/misc/news20070328.html


Jacob and Ian went to get the mail from the new mail box yesterday. Apparently they couldn't reach the mail at the very back. Jacob came running in the house yelling, "Mom, I can't reach the mail and Ian can't reach the mail so you have to get it...YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE!"

Back from Vacation

I've been road tripping with the kids for the last two weeks. Here's a photo log of our journey:

First we visited my sister Stefanie in St. George, UT. This is her son, Nathan with Katie-Kates.

We were at the Places (our sister-in-law's family) in Bountiful, UT for the 24th of July.

We visited my dear friend Amy and her three girls, Millie, Abby and Jane in Midway, UT.

We hung out at Grandma and Grandpa Morgan's in Draper. Hill and I are sporting our new dresses - gotta love T.J. Maxx!

Kate learned to say ball.

Jake playing with his favorite uncles, Spencer and Justin, a.k.a. Super Mario Brothers.

At the Aquarium in Sandy with grandma and grandpa.

Hanging out with cousins in Draper.

Then we drove across the lovely, beautiful, scenic I-80 to

the Hellewell Lodge in Baxter, CA. (between Reno and Sacramento)

Lumberjack Ian.

Turns out the boys LOVE chopping wood.

My parents came with us. Here they are at Lake Tahoe.

We finally picked up Ben in Sacramento and visited Ben's sister Heather and family while we were there. The boys enjoyed seeing more cousins!

Panning for gold in Baxter. (We didn't find any!)