*A TASTE OF WINTER

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to Utah to visit my grandma before she had surgery. Kyle decided last minute that he was going to come. I was just planning on taking Ansley and Claire, but since the weather was supposed to be bad and since he was off of work, he wanted to come, too. He told me the night before that he wanted to come and that I should just "throw some stuff in a duffel bag" for him and the kids. Let's analyze that, shall we:

7 people x 3 days = 21 outfits

plus underwear, diapers, and pull-ups

plus socks and shoes

plus pajamas

plus coats, hats and gloves

That is one mighty BIG duffel bag! Right....I will just throw some stuff in a duffel bag. Yep. 7 people can never just throw some stuff in a duffel bag and take off for a couple of days. Our days of spontaneity are over!!

It was a quick trip, but we managed to get in some fun. Kyle took the kids tubing at Lindon Park and they had a BLAST! They are in love with snow. We have lived in the desert so long, that we forget what winter is all about. We used to miss winter, but now spending 3 days in it is plenty!! We had a nice visit (minus all the illnesses) and the kids got to play in the snow all they wanted. Thank goodness that Kyle's mom held onto all of her kids' snow clothes, so our kids are fully outfitted when we come in the winter. They are mismatched and their feet are always wet and cold (we don't have any boots and I refuse to buy them), but they don't care. They love it. It was nice to see everyone, but it will be even nicer next time (in June) when it is warm, the kids aren't all sick, and I don't have to pack winter clothes!

Josh on his way up the hill for another run.

Ansley...ready to go.

Ans and Eli. Yes, Eli is wearing pink snow pants. You take what you can get. He didn't mind a bit!

Nate speeding down the hill.

Eli after he and Ansley hit a bump in the snow, launched off the tube and ate it. He shook it off and continued, but his booty was sore. Is that not the cutest face there ever was? Sad, but adorable!

Thank goodness that is over!!!

Who would have thought that roofing would be so hard? It stinks!!! We paid some company to "load" the roof with the tiles, so all we had to do is lay them in place. Simple enough. Kyle and Tuna spent a day working on it and were able to lay one side. Kyle was very sore from bending over laying tile at a wierd angle for hours. He decided not to get back on the roof for a few days. The next week, Kyle decided he could finish the roof himself. The kids were off of school for President's Day and wanted to help. I wouldn't have let them anywhere near the roof, but by the time I realized what was happening, 4 of the 5 kids were on the roof!! Kyle insisted that it was perfectly safe, but I kept imagining one of them slipping off. I had to go in the house...I couldn't handle the stress. Kyle realized that since the kids are shorter, it would be easier for them to lay the tiles, so he put them to work. They formed a little assembly line and helped finish most of the other side. The cheapest labor we have ever used! They did a great job and weren't scared at all. Eli got down after about 20 minutes, but the other 3 stayed up until the job was done...which was most of their day off of school. Thanks kids! The next day, Kyle and I finished it all up. We finished the ridge piece and laying a small area of tile. It is not fun work. When we finally got it all down, Kyle said he wouldn't be getting on that roof every again!! Did I mention that roofing is NOT fun? It isn't.

The work crew. Very cheap labor.

Gulp. I could just imagine one of the neighbors calling the police on us for child endangerment.

The finished product. Each tile placed with love!

More of the finished product. Now...we move on to concrete.

Construction RULES!

P.S. Thanks to my best friend, Lisa for the new blog format. She has become somewhat of a guru with photoshop and editing html. Thanks again!!

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS...

2 Hannah Montana tickets....$150

Concert t-shirt, program, and light-thingy....$60

2 over-priced beverages....$7

Dinner after concert....$30

Cost of going with your daughter to her first concert and her wanting you there.....PRICELESS!!

A couple of weeks ago, Ansley and I went to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert in Las Vegas with Ansley's best friend, Lauren and Lauren's mom, Jennie.

This is a picture of Ansley purchasing her t-shirt and other items. What a racket!!!

Ansley and Lauren overlooking the arena. As you can see, we got there a little early.

Ansley looking down on the stage. She was amazed that you could be that close to the stage. (impressive...even though no one was on it)

Ansley checking out the stage with binoculars. Crazy. We were so close, we could see the cheesy expressions on the dancers faces...not to mention the 3 huge screens you could watch, but Ansley wanted to see every detail.

I took this picture to show how much money they are making off of children and their parents. This is just a small portion of the arena and all those little lights you see...cost $10!! Now, quintuple that area and you can imagine how much money was made on the lights alone...not to mention that $30 t-shirts that EVERY SINGLE girl was wearing. Like I said...what a racket!!

Hannah/Miley singing something about blue jeans. Very catchy tune!

Hannah/Miley

How was it...you ask? Imagine 20,000 pre-teen girls screaming at the top of their lungs for 2 solid hours. Honestly, you can't imagine it...it has to be experienced. Ear-splitting. Ansley had a blast and was in awe of the whole thing. We don't get to Vegas much and to Ans it is truly the "big city". It was fun to watch her experience it all. She is growing up so fast and I am sure the next concert she wants to go to will not involve her mother. Did I mention that this was her first and ONLY concert? I am glad we were able to go. The two of us rarely get any time alone. It was nice. For one night, I got the best of both worlds...mom and friend to my daughter.

Sick of being sick...

I don't know about anyone else, but I have had it with the cold and flu season. I don't think we have gone a week in the past 3 months without someone being sick. Last week, Eli got deathly ill almost overnight and it turns out he had Strep. I was then paranoid that everyone would get it, but no one else has, but everyone is SICK! Josh has had a fever and cough off and on for a week. Claire was at the doctor on Wed. and she has an ear infection and is requiring Albuterol nebulization (fancy doctor talk) for her respiratory infection (she is wheezing a lot). Eli was on an antibiotic for Strep that seemed to clear it up, but has done nothing for his horrific cough that keeps him up all night. Nate is coughing his guts out all night and has been complaining about his throat today. Ansley had 2 dance team performances today and when I went to pick her up, I could tell something was wrong...she feels like crap and her throat hurts. Lovely. Our doctor told us when we took Eli in last week that the flu (Influenza) is really bad right now in our area. Maybe we can all get that next. Hooray!

Kyle and Eli crashed in the recliner. Eli was really sick. He had a high fever (notice the flush cheeks) and could only sleep sitting up because of his cough. Kyle would sleep holding him until 3am or so and then prop him up on the couch to sleep the rest of the night. It was a long couple of nights and it looks like we aren't out of the woods yet. His cough is back and I can hear him coughing in his bed right now.

Here is Eli getting a nebulizer treatment. In our house, we call it "smoking the pipe". I know that is ridiculous, but when Nate was little and starting needing these treatments, he didn't understand what we meant when we said, "You need an Albuterol treatment". It was way over his head. So, Kyle starting calling it his pipe because it looks like smoke when the medication is coming out. Anyway, Eli had to "smoke the pipe" at the doctors office last week because she thought he had pneumonia (nope) and we had the nurse questioning our parenting abilities because we kept saying, "Eli you have to smoke the doctor's pipe. It is just like our pipe at home, so don't be afraid of the pipe. Just smoke it like you do at home." I am sure she thought we were insane. I then started to over-explain our use of the terminology because I didn't want her to think that we are drug users or pot-heads or anything. I told her that I didn't think of it like a crack pipe, more that a peace pipe. That helped. It really eased her trepidation about sending our helpless child home with us. It seems so normal to us after all these years, but I guess it sound really bad to outsiders.