He has a dream.....

Last week we were in Arizona. (Oh how I miss the warm weather!!!) During our 10 day adventure (which included MUCH travel time in the car) the kids managed to watch Tangled at least a dozen time.

Okay, maybe not quite THAT many times. But it was a lot.

Which is why this little ditty was stuck in EVERYBODY'S head pretty much the entire time!

Kids change everything

Me and my honey at the Oregon coast. Note to self-when you lean back to take a self portrait with your phone you give yourself a double chin......

I have been married for 8 years now. I've been a mother for nearly 7. Yes-life came at us fast.

And in the 8 years we have been married, aside from our honeymoon, we have never gone away together, just the two of us. Never. Honestly.

The kids have slept over at grandma's house now and again giving us a night to ourselves. But it's not the same as really going away. Because at home even when the kids are away responsibility is always just around the corner. There is always something that I feel like I need to be doing because the kids will be home soon and everything is harder to get done when the kids are home.

So 4 weeks ago when my husband told me he had to travel to Oregon for work and I booked a flight to go with him it wasn't only exciting-it was monumental! 6 days and 5 nights without kids. Without the pressures of what need to get done around the house. Without church responsibilities or play dates. No dishes. No laundry. Just us.

Okay my husband has technically been working....but I have had no responsibility. :)

But you know what-everything we've done has been filled with "Oh, the kids would love this."

That's right-we have spent nearly all our time thinking about all the things the kids would be enjoying if they were with us.

Like on our drive to the coast there is a long tunnel we had to pass through. "Oh, the kids would love this."

On the beach we came across this:

Then we spent the next 10 minutes talking about how much our own little Zoey would have gotten such a great kick out of that. Being 5 it's likely she would've thought somebody had put it there just for her. Because childhood is magical like that.

When we were driving through the little coastal town trying to decide where to eat we ate here:

Yes, we ate the the Bliss Hot Rod Grill.

Not because we thought they would have the best food in the entire town. But because we thought the kids would love it.

And I was more than a little disappointed that another family was already sitting at the table inside the car....

Because wouldn't the kids just get the biggest kick out of that?!?!?!?!

Dance, baby dance!

It's dance recital time again. Good things for dance recitals or I may never update my blog. :)

Zoey, of course, took dance again. The girl LOVES LOVES LOVES it. And for extra fun this time around Adam also took a hip hop class. So it was dance fun for all!



All the good pics were taken in the dance room before hand. They did the recital in the auditorium which is way fun for the kids to be up on stage but way crappy for taking pictures and video. But what do ya do. Oh-you take pictures and video in the dance room before hand! That's what you do!!!!





The pout is on purpose-they danced to It's a Hard Knock Life and they were supposed to be pouty orphans.



Adam's class danced to Walk the Dinosaur, and this is Adam's dinosaur stance. The kid cracks me up.



Mike was out of town so I was on my own to take both pictures and video. Wow was that fun.

I took video with my phone when the practiced in the dance room, and my phone usually takes pretty good video but it's pretty blurry this time. I did use my real camcorder during the actual performance. But I can also send the video from my phone directly to Youtube while the camcorder actually requires me to like pull out cables and download it to my computer and stuff.....so for now you get the blurry rehearsal videos in the dance room.

Look at it this way though, at least I blogged. :)

Person, place, or thing?

At daddy's birthday dinner tonight the kids were playing 20 questions. One round went a little like this.

Son: It's a thing
Daugter: What kind of thing?
Son: Um, it's something electronic that you carry with you and can charge.
Daughter: Is it a cell phone?
Son: Sort of. It's a kind of phone. It's made by AT&T.
Daugter: Is it a computer?
Son: No. Computers are made by HP.

Santa Clause is coming to Town

I enrolled Zoey in the Community Ed dance class again. The girl LOVES to dance. And this really is a cheap option and I happen to really like the teacher.

Tonight was supposed to be their Christmas recital, but a few weeks ago on a dance night we had a "blizzard" (hardly!!!!) and the school district cancelled all evening activities. So the teacher bumped the recital to next week, which is when we will be in Disneyland.

Which means I took my camera tonight and took lots of pictures as they practiced in their costumes.



Zoey is the only one wearing her Santa hat because they didn't stay on very well. But she had barrettes in her hair so we pinned hers on good.



And I only had my 50mm lens and the dance room isn't that big which means I couldn't get far enough back to get a picture of the whole class. But I got lots of cute close-ups of Zoey. :)





I also snuck a shot of the token boy in the class. Isn't he adorable?



And, of course, a video of the dance, which will melt even the heart of the Scroogiest Scrooge.



Thank you! Thank you!

Snow Fort

Forgive the crappy title. I'm tired and my brain refused to think of something clever.

Last week while I photographed my new nephew my brother-in-law entertained my kids in the backyard. He was appalled that they had never built a snow fort. And so, he built them a snow fort.



And then showed them how to make snow balls.





And then pushed them over into the snow????



All I know is that they played outside for 2 hours. Which means Uncle Justin is welcome at our house any time!!!!

Precious

I love how 3 year olds perceive things. I love how they talk, seriously. Today in our Language Arts lesson we read and discussed Rumpelstiltskin. After reading I asked them to illustrate a couple key parts of the story. My 3 year old kept coming and showing me his drawings of Rumpel-skeleton.

Why can't they stay 3 forever?