Desert Star!

Last night Than, Kathy, Jessie & I went to the Desert Star Theatre to watch:
which was absolutely hysterical! I LOVE the Desert Star Theatre! I'm so glad that Kathy was obsessed with it so that now I can be obsessed with it, too! For those that have never heard of it before, it's a theatre which produces their own shows based off of other shows and they kind of have local jokes thrown in (like some last night about BYU and Larry Miller). It has some political stuff in there, but it's all in fun. The crowd boo's for the bad guy and cheers for the hero. You can order food and drinks--it's great! The writers are amazing and the actors and hilarious. They have to ad lib sometimes--well, in most shows--but they make it better. I don't know if it's for everyone, but it is definitely for me and I'd recommend it for anyone who needs some serious laughter in their life!

Chicago!

Than and I got to go to Chicago--without our kids (Thanks, Jana!) for 3 days for his company Christmas party. On Wednesday, while we were waiting in our security line at the airport, Than surprised me with tickets to WICKED! Than is the BEST! I was so pumped. We traveled with Sid & Rian--And can I just say how much easier it is to travel without your kids! Dont' get me wrong--we love that we can go places with our kids, but it was so great to be able to just sit and read my book on the plane. What a luxury! :) We went downtown right away and did some shopping on the Magnificent Mile at H&M--Sid's favorite--and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory--my favorite! And then we hopped on a bus and headed to The Oriental Theatre for Wicked!

Than and I both really loved the show. Everything was just fabulous!

Then, on Thursday we had the Christmas party. It was a lot of fun seeing the people that Than works with since most of them live many miles away. We are just thankful that this job is still around and hopefully it will be next year, too! We ate good food and danced until they kicked us out of the place. I almost forget how much fun dancing is--I pretty much forget how to dance since it's been so long. It is so fun to get dressed up and go out! We need to make sure we do it as often as we can.

Our kids survived the trip. They had a great time with Jana, Ben, Benji and Packer. Pacen didn't even want to leave when I went to pick him up! But now life is back to normal, but it was fun to have a little getaway!

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Very scary, but this is Christmas 2003--fresh out of bed on Christmas morning! No kids, but newly pregnant. I got to surprise my family on Christmas day by getting Mom and Loren a World's Greatest Grandparent ornament. Everyone was so excited!

This is Christmas 2004. Pacen was a whopping 6 months old and so dang cute!

This is Christmas 2005. You can see how much Pacen LOVED Santa! Things have changed this year. In fact, today it was so adorable. In his prayer, he said, "Bless for BYU football helmet, BYU football when Santa come." I loved it! Christmas 2005 I was big and fat and pregnant. This picture makes me look like a whale...I still had 3 months to go at this point...yikes.

These are Christmas 2006. Cam was 8 months and not really crawling yet. But she did look fabulous in this little Christmas dress! Pacen was two and a half and had to have two days of opening presents because my family has a hard time saying "no" to buying stuff for my kids. :)

More sleeping pictures...

When we were the support vehicle for Rob Isaak doing Lotoja...
When we got to our hotel at 5:00am before we went to Disneyland...

They love each other!

We are victorious...finally!

It all started out simple enough. Pacen was just a baby and he loved to sleep with us in our bed and it was just so cute and easy to have him in there. We loved it!

We tried getting him to sleep in his crib when he was 6 months old--the first night he cried for 2 hours, and then it got better and better. We thought--problem solved. But then there were California trips, and a trip to Hawaii that threw things out of wack and he came back in our bed.

Who could have resisted that?? So, we fought him with his sleep pretty much his whole life. I'd have to lay by him to get him to fall asleep--we actually got pretty good at it. It wasn't that long of a process and it was easier for us than letting him scream it out...especially since we lived in an apartment and were worried about neighbors. But then Camry was coming and I didn't want to have to deal with Pacen and a new baby not sleeping. But we were worried about Pacen's adjustment with a new baby. So, we let it slide some more.

Isn't that cozy? Luckily, Camry was a fabulous sleeper and we've never had problems with her going to sleep in her own bed...she'll occasionally come in at like 6 am, but we can live with that!

At the beginning of this year, we finally put the major smack down on Pacen. We were out of excuses and with Camry sleeping well, it was well over time we had Pacen sleeping. It was time to go all out to get him sleeping in his room. The first night was probably the worst night of being a parent...ever. We started at 8:00pm, and were determined to get him to sleep in his room on his own. He screamed and screamed and screamed and ran out of his room a bunch of times. Finally we shut his door and bungee corded it shut so that he couldn't come running out--it sounds so cruel--it was! We for sure thought that he'd fall asleep by 11pm or so, but he didn't. We kept hearing him scream and bang his head against the wall. It went on all throughout the night. He finally fell asleep at 6:00 am! Then he only slept until 7:45am. This is what we found when he woke up.

We seriously thought that he had bruises all over his face, but luckily, it was just black washable marker. But he did have one real big bruise on his forehead from all the banging. That day I tried to keep him awake so that he could fall asleep on his own for his nap, but he screamed for 2 hours, and when he finally fell asleep, I was curious so I opened the door only to wake him up because he had made a bed right next to his door. Argh!

So, this all lasted for a few days, and then we tried the Super-Nanny's sleep suggestions, and they worked after probably 3 weeks of being consistent, but he wouldn't sleep in his bed...he'd sleep on the floor. Usually right in the doorway, but sometimes, he'd sneak out. He just has had major attatchment issues.
So, Pacen has been a floor sleeping since February, but we had a major break through this past week. Than has gotten him to sleep in his bed--HIS BED--all night long. THIS IS HUGE!!!
We think it's only becaue Benji is sleeping in his big boy bed now, and we keep telling him how awesome it is. But I really don't care how or why he's doing it, I just love that he's doing it at all. It is wonderful that he still loves to snuggle with us. We love that about him, but let's be honest, it's about dang time...He's three for crying out loud. So, we are victorious....finally. Let's hope it lasts. :)

Home Teachers

We are so lucky to have Brother Clegg and his son, Ammon, to be our home teachers. We've had them since we moved in and they are the best! Home teaching is as assignment in the church for men and young men who hold the Priesthood to visit families. Usually they go in pairs--a son and a dad, or two men, to visit the families that they are assigned to--often they have two to three families that they are assigned to teach. This is what the church's definition says, "As part of their responsibility to watch over the members of the Church, home teachers visit their assigned families at least once each month to teach and strengthen them. Home teachers establish a relationship of trust with these families so that the families can call upon them in times of need."

Our home teachers are so great. They are so faithful in coming to visit us each month and really care about how we're doing and make sure that we have all the things that we need. Ammon is 17 and gives the most heartfelt lessons--I love it.

Today when they came over, Pacen had his blocks all over the floor, and after Bro. Clegg had given us a message, he just got on the floor with Pacen & Camry and started building a huge tower. He said, "Well, this is the best way to break the ice with the kids!" And he was totally right--Pacen warmed up to him--and Camry, too--and they just played for 15 minutes building. It was really one of the best home teaching experiences I've had. I could tell that they just really wanted to get to know the kids better and were having fun with them, and my kids loved it too. I'm very grateful for the Home Teaching program and for Home Teachers who love our family.

Camry's Christmas Dress

Camry got to wear her new Christmas dress on Sunday. She loved it! All day she was saying that it was her Snow White dress. These pictures are all blurry because she wouldn't stand still to take the picture...she kept swaying back and forth saying, "I pretty girl." Thanks, Grammy!

Busy Week

Since we have gotten back from Thanksgiving, I just feel like we've been so busy. We drove back Friday, and then on Saturday we had the BYU vs. UU football game, which most of you know by now BYU won in the last minute of the game--yeah! Now Pacen keeps talking about how Max Hall is his favorite, and how I like Austin Collie and Harvey Unga. Go cougs! We had some tailgating before the game which is always fun with our friends. We love BYU!

Then the week started. I had to do preschool this week (a group of six moms in my neighborhood do a "preschool" in our homes. Each of us take a week--we do Mon. & Wed. for two hours). Pacen loves it, and I love it, too, but I just wasn't prepared to teach this week. It all worked out like it always does, but it just adds stress planning and getting everything ready. So on Monday we did that, and then we had the people that Than home teaches over for dinner and Family Home Evening which was fun. We have lots of great families in our ward.

Then on Tuesday, I had to do a lot of Enrichment stuff. I had to make the program to go with our dinner and plan things out with my Enrichment counselor who actually said that she loved what I came up with--yeah! I'm always self conscious of what I do, so I was glad when she said that she like it. Then I had to start making lots of phone calls to people to get everything squared away.

That night we went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Salt Lake with some friends that is awesome by the way. It is amazing how talented those people are. It's definitely not a feel the true meaning of Christmas thing, but it was a lot of fun and three hours of fantastic music and crazy lights.

Wednesday, I had preschool again, then Jana and I put up a new shelf in my living room--I love it! I'll have to get a picture of that. Then, that night we got out CHRISTMAS TREE! Pacen and Camry were so excited! Pacen kept saying, "Were getting a Christmas tree like Charlie Brown!!" So, that night we decorated and had tons of fun. Camry is obsessed with her rocking horse ornament, and keeps going to the Grinch ornament and saying, "Grinch...scary!"

Thursday, I tried shopping with the kids but they kept seeing everything I tried to sneak into the cart--argh! So, then I had Beto's Super Nachos with Jana for lunch, and then her sister, Tracie, cleaned my teeth (she's in Dental Hygiene School) and then came home, made a bunch more phone calls for Relief Society, made a yummy treat and then had Book Club at my house. Thank goodness for a good husband who brought home pizza for dinner! Our book was To Kill a Mockingbird--Thanks Shauna for the idea!--which I loved and was so grateful that I didn't read it in highschool because it was a real pleasure to read.

Then, Friday I shopped with Jana for Christmas all morning, then we had lunch with Than and Ben (with the kids, and while we were getting our checks ready, Benji threw pacen's soft football over his head and hit a lady who was lunching next to us--gotta love going out to eat with kids!) and then hung out with my friend, Rian for the afternoon because Than wanted to shop some more for Christmas that night.

Saturday I had to help make our Enrichment invitations where Pacen decided to poop his pants--SICK--and then that afternoon we had our first co-ed indoor soccer game. It was a blast, even though I had a hard time running because I was so sore from this work out class I'm trying to go to at 6:00am at our Stake Center. Six AM is very early for me, but it is a fantastic class, so we'll see. We lost, but it was our first game together so hopefully next time, we'll be able to know what each other is thinking. Then we watched many hours of college football with Jana and Ben. And now today is Sunday which I love!

The Great Birthday Challenge!

So, my sister, Erin, is awesome. So are mom and Loren for helping her get The Great Birthday Challenge together. On Thanksgiving Day, Emily and I knew something was up, but we didn't know what until my mom came out with six presents for each of us (We each have our birthdays in October and November): Than, me, Emily, her husband Marc, Chris--Erin's boyfriend, and Ken--Erin's former boyfriend that has become a part of the family (I know--Pace women are strange!) So, we unwrap the presents to find that we all have matching shirts in our 'team' color that read, "The Great Birthday Challenge 2007". With the fires being during that time, they felt that they couldn't really celebrate our birthdays correctly and so they were making it up by setting this all up for us. Than and I were the blue team.
Emily and Marc were the red team.
And Chris and Ken were the green team. We were all competing for the grand prize of $125, the second place prize of $75, and third place for $50. Yes, when my family decides to do something, they go all out.
There were ten different competitions, points for first, second and third...the team with the most points at the end would be with WINNER! Of course Than and I were talking a bunch of smack because obviously we would win.....

We had to pop each other's baloons without getting ours popped. I must say that mine popped on its own accord and had nothing to do with another person's feet!
We had to do a bunch of tricks with an apple stuck between our foreheads. We lost this one...the key is getting even....note Emily and Marc....the winners of this game.

We had to wrap a present with one of each of our hands ties behind our backs, we did the tray of objects game, a water baloon toss (we won each of these!), hoola hooping which we got out butts kicked on, a three legged race, and one where we had to find each other blindfolded--so fun.
It all ended in a relay with the scores so close--It all came down to this! Seriously, the team that won this won the whole thing! We had to go across on the stilts, come back, pop the balloon, then the other person on the stilts, come back, pop the balloon, then go as fast as you could with an egg on a spoon, come back, pop a balloon, the other person would do the egg race, and when that person got back we had to dig for a piece of gum in whipped cream and the first team to have two bubbles blown was the winner. You'd think that was a piece of cake....

Whipped cream up the nose...
Apparently, you have to chew all of the sugar out of the gum before a bubble can be blown, and unfortunately, I had the most sugar filled piece of gum on the planet, and I couldn't get it to make a bubble, so we got 3rd place. Can you believe that! Us.....losing....impossible to believe...I know. Chris and Ken got first, Emily and Marc second, and us, sadly last.
Chris had to heat things up by chucking an egg at Ken, and it all got a little crazy in the end. And no birthday celbration would be complete with out cake and medals. So, THANK YOU to Erin, Mom, and Loren for making this Thanksgiving so fun!
And here is a picture of us right before Thanksgiving dinner. We sure had a lot to be thankful for this year.