tree house fun

some catch-up blogging since time seems to be eluding me lately. last tuesday for playgroup we headed up to ogden to the children's tree house museum. they have recently rebuilt this wonderful place and i cannot say enough about how great it was so hang out there for an afternoon. there were so many fun rooms to play in that i can't say for certain which was ethan's favorite but he definitely could've played in the train room the entire time. i'm looking into getting one of these for the office now so i can actually get some work done while he plays! they have this great fire engine that the kids can climb all over and even dress up in official fireman uniforms! of course the moms had to take advantage of this photo-op, the boys were all just too cute in their little hats and jackets. other big hits were the music room with all the instraments to try out, the oval office where sam got to be the president and the great toddler area where you could just play or dress up and pretend to be a mouse in a house. there was a large fish tank built into the wall which contained the "characters" from finding nemo, ethan's most favorite thing in the whole world right now. every time "dory" swam by he would squeal and point and say, doughy, doughy, doughy! the other kids moved on to other areas but ethan wanted to just stand and stare and dory for about twenty minutes. it was great to see the excitement in his face, he really thought it was dory he was meeting. another big hit was the land of the knights area which included a puppet stage and life size chess pieces which ethan enjoyed only because he could knock them over. sam enjoyed the regular chess set with big pieces that were fun to examine closely.drew and sam took the challenge of pulling the sword out of the stone very seriously but alas, were unsuccessful in their quest to become king of england. i turned around in time to see ethan trying to dig something out of the bottom of this dress up chest.i love that his feet don't touch the floor but he doesn't seem to mind too much. getting all five boys in a picture and smiling was nothing short of a miracle but it was worth it. ethan and i ended up buying a pass so we could come back as much as we wanted and we definitely will. it was a fantastic day!

**have you been to the tree house museum?

what's your trick for getting five toddlers to smile at once?**

monitor love

this is love...rich bought me a new monitor with some of our tax return money. it was not a prioroity for me because there are too many other things on the list of what i would like to do with that money. he decided that it would be something nice he could do for me and so he ordered it. i changed my mind about wanting a new monitor as soon as we pulled it out of the box. it's HUGE! and wonderful and i can't believe i ever functioned well with such a dinky monitor before! i am documenting this for two reasons: one, to show how rich's love language is different than mine but somehow we get along great. and two, i think it will be fun to look back and see some of my "old" computer equipment that i thought was so great at the time. love that man of mine, it's nice when you're with someone who knows what you need before you know you need it. thanks honey!

tagged by patsy!

Thanks for the tag Patsy, this one was kind of fun. Here we go....

ten years ago...
wow, let's see....taylor was 3, allie was 2 and spencer was 1 and i was finally seeming to find myself again after my divorce. i was extremely independent and learning how to manage my time between work and children and housework very well. learning to stay home and run minimal errands so i could have more time with my children. even though it was sad to go through what i did, it was also a wonderful time of learning what i was capable of. and learning to lean on my heavenly father. i have to say, i have mixed feelings about this time, hard but oh so good.

five things on my list of thins to do today...
1. drive to west valley to pick up a rocking horse for ethan!
2. wash my hair - check.
3. laundry
4. order subway sandwiches for tomorrow's family lunch.
5. take allie to target to find birthday gifts for the twin's party.

snacks i enjoy...
is this a trick question? snacks huh? i guess that narrows it down a bit.
1. ritz crackers with cream cheese & raspberry jam - yumO!
2. a slice of cheese - who cut the cheese?!
3. graham crackers with milk. thanks to my dad.
4. baby carrots all by themselves.
5. teddy grahams, i know childish, but they're so good!

bad habbits...
1. eating too much ice cream
2. eating too much butter
3. eating too much sour cream
4. eating too much cheese
5. eating too much.... you get the idea.

five states i've lived in...
1. alaska
2. new york
3. virginia
4. utah
5. denial

five jobs i've had...
1. kindergarten aid
2. receptionist at a car dealership
3. customer service for holiday inn - talked to all the angry people! it was actually a really fun job!
4. photographer
5. mom - favorite

five things you don't know about me...
1. i have naturally "live long and prosper toes" that separate in between the second and third toe for some reason i'm unaware of.
2. i was a madrigal in high school.
3. i love giving presents more than i love receiving them.
4. i have always wanted to be a mother and am always pinching myself to make sure that my life is really as blessed as it seems.
5. i worry a lot about the earth and what a poor job we're doing taking care of it.

if i suddenly had a million dollars...
i would buy a nikon d3 and do some serious remodeling to my house. take my family on a disney cruise, and then to hawaii. then i would do several small business loans for people in africa (have you heard about this?) and then rich would make me save the rest.

thanks patsy for the tag!

SPT - extra special edition

so lelly's spt this week goes like this...the spt challenge for next week is to photograph something that is extra special about you. it might be a physical feature, a talent, or an unknown secret. this spt is all about you! some of you may not know that lelly posts her spt challenge the friday before so we have all weekend to think about it. or in this case, freak out about it! why in the world is it so hard to think of great things about me? everything i've thought of so far is just ok and semi-unoriginal and therefore definitely NOT extra special. i still don't have a great answer for this spt but i decided to type a few things that other people have said about me, we'll see how this goes....

* at girl's camp a few summers ago we had to say something nice about the person sitting next to us. the leader sitting next to me said, "i love wende because she is so happy and friendly all the time that she's like a magnet making everyone around her want to be closer to her." i was stunned and humbled, and immediately tried to nervously laugh it off and dismiss it. she could see where i was going with it and immediately said to me, "don't you dare blow me off, you just let those words soak on in. " that was one of the best moments ever and the reason i can quote it is because i hurried and wrote it in my journal so i would never forget!

* rich says my special talent is being able to pick the most expensive thing on a menu without looking at any of the prices! :)

* my mother once said that she is constantly amazed at what an incredible mother i am. what the hey? i asked her. then she proceded to site all sorts of "incredible mother" evidence and ended up making my day. i don't know if i deserve this kind title, but she gave my ego some much needed strokes!

*one of my sister-in-laws has nick named me "the family therapist" because i'm a good listener and always have good advice. this is funny because i always thought i would be some kind of social worker or psychologist or something. i kind of am, if you happen to belong to my family. it's especially funny because my own self could use some therapy!

photo taken today courtesy of jenny

and lastly....what i say about myself. i am extra special because i have the ability to work smoothly in complete and utter chaos. i usually manage well the fine balance of hugging/kissing mother vs. disciplinarian. i am a loyal friend. i believe in "if i can be done, it can be over done" and "love is in the details" so i always go the extra mile. and, i see the world like i'm looking through a lens - beautiful photographs every where!

**what is extra special about you?

can you feel yourself being drawn in by my magnetism? :)

what roll do you play in your family?**

happy birthday eileen!

tonight we celebrated eileen's birthday at the mandarin, eileen's favorite restaurant. we decided after tonight that we don't go there enough, the food was excellent, i ate like a pig! we will definitely be doing this over christmas when we have the out-of-towners in town, it's practically a family tradition. hopefully though i will get there between now and then. yum. ok, so i am going to spare eileen (and the rest of my readers) a list of 62 things that i love about eileen, and choose ten instead. as a side note: the children are helping witht his list... here goes...

1. she is gentle, kind and patient - no one can recall ever hearing her raise her voice.

2. she loves her grand kids so much, she had a "family tree" painted on her kitchen wall just so she could see all their faces all the time (and show them off of course).

3. she has made hundreds of batches of her heavenly homemade rolls. i've tried to duplicate them several times, they're never the same.

4. she is very brave. she just came home from serving a mission in africa with grandpa - a place you will never find me because i'm too chicken to go there.

5. she signs her letters and emails 143 which means i love you.

6. she makes great buzz light year and lightning mcqueen pjs. (i'll post a picture tomorrow)

7. she's worked as many hours in our yard as she has in her own.

8. she loves to have our family over for cards and brownies.

9. she loves the 24th of july parade - we're excited to watch it with her this year.

10. she raised seven fantastic children who all grew up to be loving and hard working parents.

Happy Birthday Eileen!

We LOVE You!

**what is your favorite thing about mom?**

random bits of friday

taylor's love of sewing continues with these awesome pajama pants that he made in FACTS at school. he was so excited when we found this electric guitar fabric - so taylor. he got an 'A' on this project and can't wait to start the next one - a large "stuffed" electric guitar. no girlie sewing projects for this teenager. pictures are courtesy of allie who had way too much fun photographing him in all sorts of "punk rock" poses which will not be included in this post. we all know that allie loves to sew, so she was thrilled when grandma gave her a year's worth of sewing lessons and a joanne's gift card for christmas. she is very excited for the sewing projects to come but also because grandma is so fun and we always enjoying spending some time at her house. i'm glad for allie to have the one on one time with her, that's not easy to come by when there are 23 other grandkids to love!last week on our way home from sewing, we were talking about what we love about grandma. we came up with patient, kind and loving. allie said, "i just know grandma loves me." i agree! today was also a check up at the dentist for all the children, this was ethan's first time. he watched allie get her teeth cleaned and was more cooperative than i would've guessed. he didn't love having his teeth looked at, but really, does anyone? just about every friday this group of boys gets together to hang out which usually means a lot of pizza is consumed and somethng electronic is being played in the backround. but, after nate gave our family a bunch of really great board games for christmas, something amazing happened! they started playing settlers of catan and can officially be called settlers nerds. last week they had to end "one of the best games we've ever played" (taylor's words) before it was finished and so taylor actually photographed each player's cards and what the main board looked like so they could set things back up this week and it could be exactly the way it was and they could keep playing. yea, like i said, nerds. i really do love this group of boys that taylor hangs out with, they are good kids and you can't ask for more than that in the eighth grade right?

**are you a settler's nerd?

what is your favorite board game?

what's your favorite thing about your grandma?

do you enjoy your time at the dentist**

blue and gold?

with a theme like chinese new year it was more like the red and gold banquet. i have been switching back and forth with the two cameras and when i uploaded pictures tonight i realized that i totally skipped over this part of my week. i am the webelos leader in my ward and was in charge of decorations. i realized that i am the only leader there without a cub scout now that spencer has graduated. is it just me or is pack meeting painful enough that you should only have to attend if you have a child in there? i haven't minded being the webelos leader, it's been a good calling for me because now i really understand the cub scout program and i have had some really great boys but i still hate pack meeting, it's such a waste of time! ok, negative rant over. i have this cute friend jen in my ward who just always makes me laugh and smile whenever i talk to her because she is so real and colorful. i just love her. while we were decorating for the dinner in the morning she decided that we needed a gong of some kind for the boys to ring when they earned an award. i thought it was a funny idea but where would she find something like this? a few hours later at pack meeting she showed up with a giant brass plate she found at the DI, drilled holes in, made tassels and used them to hang the "gong" from a big stick! what the hey? she also found a giant wooden spoon which the boys used to ring it! i couldn't believe it, i could never pull anything like this off! i love people like this! i didn't get a good photo of the gong, dangit, but you get the idea. speaking of awesome women, my sister in law jenny made this dragon. herself. with scissors. without a pattern. out of butcher paper! what the hey?because i wasn't blogging last year, i did not post pictures of the most fantastic hawaiian decorations she made out of butcher paper which were so great they were used at: our extended family "hawaiian" christmas party, her ward's blue and gold banquet, my ward's blue and gold banquet, another ward in my stake's b&g and a birthday party! (and i still have most of it down in the basement ready for the next hawaiian themed party that comes along.) the thing that makes them so cool is all the details she puts into them, like eye lashes and nails on the claws. i gasped when i unrolled this dragon! she always tells me that the only talent she has is making banana bread. whatever! this is the coolest thing i've ever seen and i kept getting comment after comment about it all night long. keep in mind in this picture that those are doorways underneath it to give you and idea of how big it is. the body and the head are two separate pieces, again it was the coolest thing ever! i'm hoping this will be my last pack meeting until ethan turns eight because of my new girls camp director calling. it will take a while to replace me but i'm trying not to "sit on my trunks" while i wait.

**do you hate pack meeting?

have you ever been the webelos leader?

could you make a gong in a few hours from things you found at the DI or a chinese dragon out of butcher paper?**

date night

rich has been pulling some long hours trying to wrap up a deadline at work and so last night i took my kids to dinner. one, because i hate to cook nice dinners that my husband doesn't eat (i know that's stupid but whatever), and two, i thought it would be fun to have a date with my kids in the middle of the week for no real reason. we chose sizzler because there's something for everyone. we had a ton of fun, the boys especially couldn't stop laughing at each other, i'm sure the people sitting near us...oh wait, there wasn't anyone near us. ethan loved getting a plate from the salad bar with little piles of all of his favorite things...fresh peas (although he prefers them frozen), sliced olives, mandarin oranges and cantalope. when we were almost done with dinner we tried to get a self portait with the kids sort of standing/kneeling around me. we were laughing at the bad ones and finally decided that this one would do. our very gay waiter asked if he could take a picture for us (noticing our difficulty) and i said, "no way, we're having way too much fun!" i've noticed this is people's reaction when they see you taking a self portait anywhere. is it rude to say that i can take a better picture of myself than they could? by the time we got home it was straight to bed which was a very good thing for the mother after such a long long fun, but long day.

**do you hate obnoxious people in restaurants?

*do you love going out to dinner in the middle of the week for no good reason?**

warming up his vocalizer

a few weeks ago ethan learned to say his real official first word. NO. he has a few other sort of words in his repetoir but he doesn't know to use them, only repeats them when we tell him to. but not NO, this is knows how to use and does so often. i told rich that he would only be cute saying it for a few days and then we would wish him mute again, it is kind of fun to finally hear his little voice, so cute. the last few days he's added to his vocabulary with "doughy" - which means dory from finding nemo and "ayee" - allie, his sister and favorite person (although i noticed yesterday he was finally starting to get the 'l' sound there in the middle, and yesterday he finally perfected, "nemo" which is great. three words. yesterday while we were walking around toys r us he was practicing and i got some of it on video, mostly for fun. i've never done a video before, so here goes nothing...

the second video is of ethan doing the nemo, dory thing, plus is looks like i shut the video off about five seconds too soon, we maybe would've gotten some good tantrum material there!

**did your toddler take forever to talk?**

fun day

to celebrate eileen's upcoming birthday, jenny, andrea, eileen and i (and all the playgroup kids) headed to the mall to shop! we were looking primarily for a new suit for mom, but we found such a great deal we also found a new outfit to get her ready for spring. we entertained ourselves pointing out all the hideous clothing in the stores available for purchase - at really expensive prices too. i did not think to photograph any of the previous pieces which were real doozies, but jenny was kind enough to pose with this beauty! jenny, it's definitely you! :) ethan has been such a struggle to take anywhere lately but today at the mall he just sat and chilled in his stroller as long as dory, nemo and blanket are present, not to mention cheerios.before i left for the outing this morning, i checked the batteries of my p.o.s. (point and shoot - or piece of crap which ever) so that i could take a self portait of the four of us shopping, but, you guessed it, i FORGOT - crap! i'm so mad at myself, what a cute picture it would've been! so jenny and i took drew, joey and ethan to play at the mall "playground", i loved being able to chat with jenny and let the kids just play! it was making me think of how fun playgroup at the park was in the fall. i can't wait for warmer weather! after the mall we went to visit brandon at jason's deli and have some yummy lunch. poor brandon is sick with the flu and looked miserable. luckily he's on the downside and is heavily medicated but he just wasn't his normal bear-hugging self. one of our favorite parts about a visit to jason's deli is the FREE soft serve ice cream at the end. after lunch ethan and i went to toys r us to try and find a rocking horse, no luck, but ethan did find the isle with all of the ride in cars and trucks. he loved the corvette best but had to try them all on for size anyway. it's also not a complete trip to toys r us without a ride on elmo and pumba. which ethan reminds me of every few seconds that we're in the store by pointing in their direction and grunting. rich has been pulling some long hours trying to meet some deadlines so tonight after the kids and i whip our crazy house back into shape, i'm spending some of my christmas money on a date with my kids. whoo-hoo.

**do you love to shop with your sisters?

what's your best trick for getting a toddler to behave in public?**

bitten by the bakerella bug

it's all patsy's fault that i've been spending way too much on bakerella's blog this past week. it's so cute, if you haven't seen it, you must check it out! i am not a baker, not really, but i have been so inspired by how easy she makes it look that i've totally been bitten by the bakerella bug. so i was dying over the cupcake bites but decided i'd better try the original ball version first and see how it goes. so i gathered ingredients and recruited allie and kayla to help me. we began friday evening making the velvet cake. i have not been able to find a red velvet cake mix at any store so we ended up making one from scratch. i will post the recipe on the bloggermomscook blog incase anyone is interested. once the cake has been cooked and cooled, allie had the messy job of adding the cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake crumbs. (i'll post the cream cheese frosting recipe on the cooking blog too). we decided next time it might be just as effective to use a potato masher. after we had all the batter rolled into balls, into the freezer they went for easier dipping later. by this point, it was late and kayla had to go home so today when allie and i were ready to dip the cake balls into the chocolate we called kayla back over for the fun part of the process. the girls had way too much fun, they made a huge mess! we decided to do half and half with the white chocolate and i even tried my hand at drizzling - yeah, it was hard than i thought i would be. so they are not super gorgeous because we were kind of globby with the chocolate, but it was really fun and one batch makes a ton. we fed several teenagers hanging out at our house tonight and past out several to our wonderful neighbors. they felt too fancy for just a plate so i wrapped them in cello with a bow. today i went to roberts and bought some fondant because next allie and i are dying to try the cute little roses atop cupcakes! so cute!

**do baking projects intimidate you?

have you ever drizzled chocolate before?

have you ever made red velvet cake?**

the good stuff

tonight rich practically forced the children to have dessert after discovering EIGHT different containers of ice cream while organizing the freezer in the garage. allie lined them all up on the counter and then laughing said, "mom where's your camera?" so this picture is courtesy of her. and while i admit that i don't normally have this much ice cream in my freezer, in my defense, it's my favorite thing ever, and there were no repeat flavors so none of it would've gone to waste! you know that question about being stranded on a desert island with only one kind of food what would you choose? my answer is ice cream, hands down, i would want to be stranded with ice cream. who wants to live in a world without it? also in my defense i have to say that those two western family brand ice creams you see in the picture, were not purchased by me, i have no idea where they came from. i only buy the "good stuff" which means nothing with preservatives. when rich and i were first married, i knew all my "training" was starting to sink in when one day when i sent him to the grocery store and said, "when you get the ice cream--" and he cut me off with, "i know, i know, only by the good stuff". my most favorite kind is baskin robbins prailines and cream but lately i'm also loving bryers cherry vanilla and peach - which i had a bowl of tonight. YUM. i could taste ice cream for a living, in fact, why don't i taste ice cream for a living? that's a job i could get totally passionate about.

** if you were stranded on a desert island what food would you want with you?

have you ever had this much ice cream in your freezer at once?

how do you feel about cheap ice cream?**

how the states came together

last night was spencer's fifth grade program about the constitution. he was so bummed the other day when he came home from school after finding out that he wasn't chosen to be one of the soloists, something he had his heart set on. i tried to explain that out of the 60 something kids who auditioned, there were only 8 solo parts and so this by no means meant he is a bad singer, on the contrary, the boy has a gift for music in general. i had to laugh that during the entire program, spencer was mouthing the words, every line, every speech and every lyric. the boy has found his calling this year. the best part was trying to get deema, isaac and spencer to take a picture. normally they're great and really ham it up for the camera, but for whatever reason thursday night was "no touchy" and i couldn't even get them to scoot together. i've said before that i live for this kind of stuff, kid programs are my favorite thing, i always have a moment of feeling my heart skip a beat. and when it's kids singing patriotic things, well, i pretty much have no chance of keeping dry eyes. i love this country!

**do you have an suggestions for preparing kids for disappointment while still encouraging them to give it a shot?

do you enjoy kids programs?

did you know that at first none of the states wanted to sign the consistution because they were afraid of giving away their state rights?**

the truth about this week

hi my name is wende and i am a blogging lame-o this week. the truth is, it's been kind of a bleh week and i have been lurking and commenting on other's blogs but never really felt like i had anything to blog about myself. it started out ok, i loved have everyone home for the holiday, especially because we stayed in our pjs all day and played board games and a wii family bowling tournament. this is turning into a really fun day-off tradition around here. i started our friend cooking blog which you can check out here and so i was inspired to bake that day too. but then, tuesday we missed play group and stayed inside all day because ethan has another dreadful cold. the whole week has been pretty much in doors with an onry two year old. so as i was lurking on some other blogs, i noticed jill's spt - pick me up post in which she talks about how when she needs a pick me up, she sends good mail because it makes her feel so good. well duh! why didn't i think of that? i was totally inspired by this so i went to work making a bunch of spring cards and such and by the time i had to go pick up allie from school, i had a stack of good mail kristi-style in recycled food boxes, and my mood totally improved! i also lurked on bakerella's blog, who patsy has got me addicted to lately. i was inspired by her blog about the cupcake bites so i bought the ingredients and decided that it would make me so happy to create something yummy and out of the ordinary this weekend since there's not much on the calendar. just two examples of how blogging has totally improved my life. seriously, it really has.

** how has blogging improved your life?

did you know that the FDA now strongly recommends NOT giving cold medicine to children under five? ahhhh!**

the sewing gene

i'm excited to do a post about taylor today, i feel like i haven't talked about him in forever. last year taylor loved his TLC (modern day home-ec) teacher so much that this year he signed up to take her 8th grade home-ec class knowing full-well that he would have some major sewing to do. he said he was cool with this because "sewing is so fun", his exact words. he was thrilled to shop for fabric for various projects and had no problem what-so-ever standing in an all-women line at the fabric store. he is definitely my most mellow child and also those most comfortable in his own skin so this part didn't surprise me too much. what did surprise me was this great HAT that he came home with thursday! not that i didn't think that he could do it, but he did a great job and i was totally impressed! he asked if he could sign up for an extra project that he could do at home on allie's machine? what the hey? then he went down stairs to allie's room and the two of them fought over her machine and who's turn it was to use it! what's happening here? apparently the sewing gene didn't get passed just to allie. too bad it skipped a generation (me).

**can you sew?

do you think it's ridiculous to stand in the fabric cutting line only to turn around and have to stand in the check out line at the fabric store!?**

not quite what i had pictured

i have to say that when i heard about a movie being made about my delicious edward, i was excited but skeptical. how on earth would they make a movie about vampires that sparkle in the sunlight and go crazy over the smell of human blood without it being ridiculous? who on earth would they find to play a man so beautiful that it's some times hard to look at him? seriously, in my mind edward's face is vague without many details because i can't even envision someone that good looking. so today, i found out they have finally cast the entire cullen family of vampires and even though i think they did a really good job casting some definite beauties, and even though it makes me feel really excited about august 2nd when breaking dawn - the 4th book is released, and even though i feel a little excited to see one of my favorite guilty pleasures on the big screen, i look at this picture and see now that i had a reason to be skeptical.

**do you love edward cullen too?

how do you feel about good books being made into movies?

who would YOU cast to play edward?

will you go see this movie with me?**

wax from the past

friday morning ethan and i headed to spencer's class for their special presentation of the presidential wax museum. each boy represented a past president, each girl a president's wife. they were dressed at their character and had a red button on their desk that you could push and then they would deliver a speach about their life. i've said before how much i appreciate spencer's awesome teachers and how much spencer has learned in their classroom this year. he LOVED playing the part of abe lincoln although i wished i would've known that he needed a hat - let it go, let it go. he really enjoyed researching about abe's life and learning about what an awesome man he was. ethan woke up with a bad cold - dang it - and wasn't it any mood to have a stranger (spencer wearing a beard) hold him and wouldn't have anything to do with him until he removed the beard! all of the kids did a great job! here's to great teachers!

**if you had to choose a president or president's wife to learn about and represent, who would you choose? i think i'd be nancy reagan, or maybe barbara bush, i love that cute grandma lady.**