Jungle Jim's

Last Friday Kylie and Sadie were promised a sleep-over with their cousin T.J. Someone (Sasha) forgot to call and tell me that their plans changed and they weren't coming out. Someone (Sasha) was in big trouble! Someone (Sasha) will be getting the bill for the nights activities since we had to keep these girls happy. Thanks to my cousin ('s wife) Emily we had heard about a fun place called Jungle Jim's and figured it was a good time to try it out. The girls loved it and Sadie has requested that we celebrate her birthday next month at Jungle Jim's. It is similar to a Chuck-E-Cheese with pizza and arcade games, but there are also some bigger ride there that the girls loved. The highlight of the night was when Sadie went for her first ride on the bumper cars and was hit head on by a little boy. By the look on her face you could tell that we forgot to tell her that bumper cars are meant to be ran into. She was beyond mad, after she got over her initial shock. I wish I'd taken picture of her reaction, but I was too busy laughing!

Kylie getting ready to drive
Still a little unnerved after her first "bump".
Getting the hang of it...

It's no Indiana Jones ride (my parents were probably on the Indiana Jones ride the exact same moment that the girls were on this ride. Can you believe they didn't invite us!!) but they were still pretty impressed.

Before the ride started...
After it started and they realized that this ride moves fast!!

4 months old

Brynlie went to the doctors yesterday for her 4 month check up. She is in the 88th percentile for her height and the 75th percentile for her weight. She's gained 2 lbs in the last two months. Our doctor said that she is definitely not starving! As you can see by the picture below, she also got three more shots. What you can't see in this picture is Kylie and Sadie with big smiles on their faces because it wasn't them getting the shots this time.

2007

Annie had this on her blog. And now for your reading enjoyment...

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? I delivered a baby after only three pushes...I really thought that this was a myth that they told to convince women that it was okay to get pregnant. I am here to tell you...it can happen! I also attended weddings for three sisters in one year.


2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I normally set a goal to work out more and lose weight, but last year it only lasted a couple of months. After throwing up twice after walking in the mornings with the crazy ladies in our ward I called it a year. Now that I am not pregnant I can't wait for the warmer weather to start walking again...crazy, athletic, much more in shape than me ladies and all.


3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Half of the ward did...kidding...a little. Jamey had Cole in June, I had Brynlie 12 weeks later to the day, and if Tawnie had gone the day she was scheduled for she would have had Tyler 12 weeks to the day after me. But instead, she went 6 days earlier.


5. What countries did you visit? None. Pregnant women don't travel well. Jared went to Mexico with my dad, grandpa, and Vince.



6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? A figure.



7. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Brynlie.



8. What was your biggest failure? I wasn't patient enough with my children.



9. Did you suffer illness or injury?No major injury's, but I was sick for 9 straight months.



10. What was the best thing you bought? We gave into the dark side and bought a mini van. And after swallowing my pride a bit, I love it!! I was officially a soccer mom during the spring when Kylie was in soccer.



11. Where did most of your money go? The mortgage, and Wal-Mart, sadly.



12. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The birth of our baby Brynlie.


13. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? About the same. ii. thinner or fatter? The scale says I'm the same, but it sure sits differently now! iii. richer or poorer? Richer income, but also richer in debt.



14. What do you wish you’d done more of? Spending time outdoors with the girls, working out, dating my husband.



15. What do you wish you’d done less of? Spending money, working, throwing up.



16. Did you fall in love in 2007? I was already in love with my husband, but I did fall in love with a certain little baby girl...



17. What was your favorite TV show? Heroes, Veronica Mars, Prison Break, NCIS, Journeyman. (The Law and Orders and CSI's, minus Miami, are also favorites.)



18. What did you want and get? A healthy baby



19. What was your favorite movie of this year? I'm still playing catch up since I didn't really go to the movies much. I did recently watch Bourne Ultimatum and really liked it.


20. What did you do on your birthday? Jared was in Mexico so the night before was girls night out at T.G.I. Fridays. On my b-day I taught my primary class (and they were little devils that day!) and continued my living room and kitchen re-decorate that I did while Jared was gone. :)



21. Who did you miss? Jake and Mindy were back East in Kentucky with the Military, Jennifer was on a mission in Nauvoo, with the exception of Vince and Meagan all of my family lives far enough away that we don't see them as often as we would like. I am grateful for how close Vince and Meagan are.



Now it's your turn. Copy and paste this to your blog with your own 2007 moments...

Conversations with Kylie

Today we were driving down the road and Kylie and I had the following exchange.

Kylie: Mommy, do you know why I am glad that we have a TV in our car?

Me: Why?

Kylie: Because before we had it we just had to look out the window all the time.

Happy Birthday Annie!!

Annie's birthday was yesterday, but better late than never!

Annie all geared up to go 4-wheeling Christmas Eve

Annie at the cabin.
Annie playing with Kylie at Jake and Emily's wedding. Annie "cleaning" the earwax out of her ear...resulted in a trip to the doctors.
Annie and Russ feeding each other cake at their reception.
Annie snuggling with baby Sadie.

Happy 25th birthday! We love you!!

Opposite attract...and then they attack!

There is no clear winner yet, and I'm not talking about the Presidential Primaries. I am talking about the battle that is waging in the South household. Jared and I disagree on how clean a "clean house" is. I hate clutter and messes and unvacuumed carpets while he likes his house to have a "lived in" feel to it. Unless it comes to his tool box, garage, or storage room, he thinks that putting things away means leaving it where it lies. He says that that way he can always find what he is looking for. Meanwhile, I am constantly following behind him and putting things away. This system causes problems though. For example:

Jared: Where are my pants?

Me: Hanging in the closet.

Jared: Why are they there?

Me: Because that is where they go.

Jared: If you would leave them on the floor I would be able to find them.

Me: If you would put them away you would too.

Jared: They are away on the floor. That is where I like them.

If the house is not clean, I am not happy. It causes me too much stress. I can't sit down and enjoy a movie, or take a nap, or do much of anything if there are messes everywhere. Jared says I create my own insanity. I say he creates my insanity by making messes. One of my biggest irritations is when he leave his church clothes lying on the floor because that means more cleaning and ironing and possibly dry cleaning that could have been avoided. Two Sundays ago I was picking up the bedroom when I made a decision. I would leave all of his mess alone over on his side of the bed. I thought that this would last a couple of days and then he would admit that it is nice to have me help clean up and that would be that. But NO!!! It took him 5 days to even mention the mess, and instead of acknowledging how helpful I am, he told me that it is nice to have his mess left alone. I was clearly not winning this battle. Score 1 for him. Two days later, on Sunday, he got out of the shower and instead of getting dressed, went out and watched TV. I smiled to myself, because I knew why. A few minutes later he came in to me and asked me what he was going to wear that day since his church clothes were all wrinkly on the floor. I suggested that he iron them. Score 1 for me! Unfortunately, he has extra shirts so he only had to iron the pants. That night I walk into our bedroom to find...

his church shirt draped over our headboard and MY nightstand,
his sock carefully placed on our TV,
and his pants hanging from our lamp on our dresser. I am starting to sweat it at this point. I may have to admit defeat. He is a much more worthy opponent than I first thought. But I suck it up, add the clothes to his growing pile, and admit he has earned another point. A few days pass and he mentions that there are too many cups on his nightstand and needs to put them in the sink. I am excited!!! He is going to clean up the mess. He then takes all of the cups and puts them in the BATHROOM sink. Score 1 for him, again. The next morning I move the cups back to his nightstand. Score 1 for me. Last night he was looking for his slippers. I suggested that he dig through his pile. He tells me that it is too messy over there to find anything and starts throwing all of his mess onto the bed and floor. I can tell that he wants me to break down and clean it, but he doesn't want to admit it. I have told him over and over these past two weeks that all I want is for him to admit that it is nice to have me clean and a promise to stop complaining about me cleaning. I guess he is not ready to admit defeat yet either. He goes out to the car and I hurriedly throw all of us stuff back over to his side of the bed before joining him. I would post pictures of his side of the bedroom, but I just can't bring myself to show anyone this mess, yet. The scoreboard is pretty much even right now. How much longer until we have a winner?

Who is this child?

SADIE ALYSSA
I have hesitated to write this post because I am afraid of jinxing myself, but here goes...

For the first year of Sadie's life she was such a little sweetheart. Then she turned one and the terrible two's started a year early. She became such a strong-willed and independent little girl. She understood the power that she had by screaming and throwing public tantrums, especially when I was pregnant with Brynlie and physically not able to keep up with her. Sadie has this temper that you sometimes don't see coming. And that girl has endurance! I learned quickly that I was going to have to change my stategy to win any battles with her. She really struggled with me being pregnant and not being able to give her the attention that she needed. And she also did not like that I did not have a lap for her to sit on. I didn't realize just how much she wanted her mommy back until the day Brynlie was born and I showed her that the baby wasn't in my tummy anymore. The first thing she said was..."baby popped out. You hold ME now?" We started potty training this summer while I was pregnant. (I was doing Kylie's hair in the bathroom one day when I started to smell something and realized that Sadie had decided to go number 2 in the toilet all by herself. I guess she was just making sure that I noticed that she was ready to be potty trained!) The potty training did well for the most part, but after days of no accidents she would have a bad day and go through all of her pants in one day. It was so frustrating! And then one night a magic fairy came and sprinkled some of her magic dust on my middle child...oh, sorry, this isn't a fairy tale. I just don't have any other explanation for what has happened. Sometime, shortly before Christmas, Sadie stopped peeing her pants. She has only had one accident in almost a month! And she has decided that she doesn't need a pull-up at bedtime either (well, not so much decided, as got lazy and kept forgetting to put one on. But the end result is the same...dry in the morning!!). I am so excited about this latest accomplishment. But that is not all...Sadie has also decided that she likes to make mommy happy. So instead of her normal refusal to do as she is told she will now gladly do it saying..."I being good mommy?" I will admit, this question originally started any time Kylie was in trouble. Sadie would quickly chime in saying..."I being good mommy?", but this had evolved past getting enjoyment out of her sister's troubles. She now wants to be good for me. I can't say that she always obeys, but wow...what a difference a month has made! I am so impressed with what a mature little girl she is becoming. Tonight, she and Kylie has a race to see who could clean their assigned room first. She had the family room, and Kylie had the basement. NEVER has Sadie won one of these races. Normally this is just a motivator to get Kylie to clean (since she is a bit competitive and does not like losing to her little sister), and then they both have to move on to Sadie's assigned job. But not tonight. Tonight Sadie actually cleaned a room by herself. I don't know who was more excited, me or her. (Of course, Kylie didn't like this, and two hours later she is still down in the basement.) I love my little Sadie so much and really enjoy seeing what a big girl she is becoming.

Christmas Ornaments

A few lessons I've learned about decorating the Christmas tree and children...

They offer Christmas bulbs in GLASS and SHATTERPROOF. You would think that this would be a no-brainer, but as I looked at my ornament boxes this year, I realized that I hadn't paid much attention previously. The first year that we had a tree I bought a set of purple ones and did the tree in purple and silver. They were all glass and lasted through 6 Christmas seasons. Last year I decided that I would hit the after Christmas sales and purchase red ornaments for this year. When I opened the package this year, I realized that they were labeled SHATTERPROOF. What a concept! Why had I not noticed this before? Since I was decorating the tree with the new red ornaments, I let Kylie and Sadie decorate a little tree with the purple ones. Lesson #1: If you have kids, or are planning on having kids, DO NOT BUY GLASS BULBS. Or at least, do not get attached to these bulbs. You will only get hurt in the end. I had 15 purple balls when I pulled out the decorations. I only put away 8.

Last year I went to Relief Society and they gave each of us a beautiful GLASS (see lesson #1) ornament filled in the bottom with sand and seashells and with a message attached about Jesus. I have two of these ornaments because I inherited Meagan's that she got while living with me. My girls also thought that these ornaments were beautiful and decided to take one to their room to play with. Lesson #2: If the ornament is clear and filled with something they can see, your children will be drawn to it. And they will break it. Probably in a hard to get to area like a crack between their bunk beds and the wall. Meagan...your ornament will be waiting for you safely packed away in a box.

Each year I try to buy the girls an ornament for the tree. When Sadie was a year old I got her an angel, since she was such an angel. The next year I picked her up a Minnie Mouse bell at Disneyland since she loves Minnie so much. This year we decided to go with something a little less fragile: a plastic "snow globe" with a Disney princess in it. Lesson # 3: If you buy a special ornament for a little girl and tell her it is hers, don't expect her to look at it and not touch it. And if you buy a plastic ornament filled with water, it can pop.
The angel in the middle of this picture is from our nativity scene. I though for sure that the girls would be drawn to baby Jesus. For some reason, the angel became their favorite. The other two are Sadie's ornaments from the past two years. Lesson #4: If you let your 2 year old watch you hot glue wings back on her angel or arms back on her Minnie Mouse she will break them off again since she knows that you can fix them.

Christmas, Part 2

As I mentioned earlier, Mom had several activities planned for us this Christmas. On Sunday, we had our "cook-off", a cooking contest between the guys and the girls. The girls decided to go with a Mexican theme, while the guys did the typical guy meal...meat and potatoes. Come on boys, can't you be more original? Okay, so they did prime rib and twice baked potatoes, but really, who wants nasty old prime rib when you can have MEXICAN!!? The contest ended in a tie, but only because the guys paid the judges. (Sorry guys, this is my blog so I can tell the story how I "remember" it. Get your own blogs if you don't like it.) I will admit that the guys worked very hard on their food. So hard in fact, that after Sacrament meeting every single guy except Dad needed to go home and help and were unable to make it to the other two classes. Now that shows dedication!

Here is the girl's beautiful food. Yummy!

If you look closely, you can see the guys food at the end of the counter. I didn't get any good pictures of their food, but if you go to Squire's blog on my links you can find a couple good ones that Annie took.

That night Jared and I took the girls swimming at the motel and Sasha and Jason joined us. It was Brynlie's first time swimming and she really seemed to enjoy it. We wish TJ could have been there with us! The girls have so much fun swimming with him. The next day was Christmas Eve and the day was spent 4-wheeling, shopping, and doing last minute things to prepare for the big day. That night we dropped off gifts on the doorsteps of a couple of families in need, sang some Christmas songs, read the story of Christ's birth, and opened our Christmas Eve gifts. Each year we buy a "spiritual" gift for one other family. This year books and DVDs were very popular. Before going to bed I took the girls swimming one last time. I highly recommend that as a Christmas Eve activity. They were so worn out they fell right asleep! Here are some pictures of the Christmas morning. We were all spoiled, as always, and are so grateful for everything that we received from everyone. If we didn't already thank you, and even if we did, Thank You all for everything! We know that we are so lucky to have such a great families! It has been great seeing everyone this holiday season and look forward to many more. And an extra special thanks to Mom for all of the planning that went into making this Christmas such a great one.

Here is Brynlie with Grandma Merrell. She was checking out all of the gifts Santa left while we made her sisters wait in the back. Sometimes it pays to be the baby!

The girl coming out of the back to see what they got.

"Look Mom!"

Sadie and Kylie enjoying their desks that
Santa got them. Now maybe they will leave Mom's piano bench alone.
Mom, Vince, Meagan, Brynlie and a burp cloth on Vince's shoulder.
Dad, with a small stack of his presents. (Can anyone tell me how to rotate this picture??)
Kristi and Chuck checking out his new Hot Wheel truck. Yes, Chuck is just a grown up kid. I'm pretty sure that he put some Hot Wheels on their wedding registry .

Annie and Russ. You can't see it in this picture, but in another picture I swear Russ has his big toenail painted. Care to explain Russ?
Sasha and Jason checking out what Santa left for them in their socks. Call me crazy, but doesn't Jason's gift looked like it has already been opened and used? Hmm...a meat thermometer. Didn't the guys use one of those the day before when cooking their prime rib?
More picture of Vince and Meagan. Also, Uncle Randy and Aunt Lou Ann holding Brynlie. Sadie was very grateful that they stopped by, because she put Uncle Randy right to work opening up her princess figurines that Santa brought. What are they thinking when they package these toys? In addition to the age requirements and batteries needed, they should also list time and tools needed to open up the package.
Kylie and Mickala. No, Mickala did not get a Barbie (although she may have secretly wanted one), she is just helping Kylie with hers.
The End!