Our Adventure in the Land of Awesome

Our Labor Day weekend was amazing!
Those of you who don't care much for college football might not know about the Boise State/Virginia Tech game in DC. For everyone who does care, we were lucky enough to go to that game!!! Jason's fabulous and amazing sister came over to stay with the kids so we could both go. (Have I mentioned how much I l-o-v-e having family in Texas!? I do!) Then our wonderful friends Ela and Devin spent the last day with them so Melissa could get back to work. Also, huge thanks to my mother-in-law for helping us get our incredible seats. My sister Abby and bro-in-law David are great hosts. Thanks for letting us stay at your place!

We flew out Saturday and got there in time to have dinner at the famous, (at least according to Abby and Bill Cosby) Ben's Chili Bowl. We had some artery-clogging chili cheese fries that were to die for. (ha-ha)

The rest of that night was spent playing Rock Band and Just Dance on the Wii. Just as fun as always, maybe more so with fam!

Sunday we went to church in an old, gorgeous building. Then we went to see some of the monuments.
We saw the Albert Einstein monument

The Lincoln monument

The Korean War monument

And the Vietnam wall and park

Later that night we went to the FDR monument and got some classic group pictures, which are to come. (hint, hint David...)

Monday was game day!!!!!!

We even made it on TV for a split second.

To bed at 2:30am, up at 4:45am to make it to our 6:00 flight. So worth it. The game was so amazing it would have been worth it even if Boise State lost, which they didn't!!!! Let the National Championship discussion continue.

Major Milestones!

Colby:
My sweet, sweet, adorable baby boy just started Kindergarten yesterday. I cannot believe I have a child old enough to go to school. School is all day in Texas, and it scares me! But I think he is going to love it and excel in school. We take him to school (because the bus comes too early, he's getting up much earlier than normal anyway) and then he rides the bus home. Yesterday the bus was supposed to drop him off at 2:45. So Eva, Lilia, and I were at the bus stop 8 minutes early watching the road for a yellow bus. 2:45 rolls by, then 3:00, by which time I'm getting so scared for my little kindergartner that I looked up the school district transportation phone number on my phone and called. They said at most schools the buses were running 15-20 minutes behind, so to wait awhile longer and then call. Anyway, sometime between 3:05 and 3:10 he got home! It was so great to be able to get him off the bus and give him a big hug. All he would tell me about his day was that he got to play at a playground. Maybe he'll have more to say today.


Eva:
Eva had the warning that she wouldn't be able to go to preschool while she still sucked her fingers. Colby got warnings from preschool about his germs and thumb sucking. That was when we bought the Malava stuff to help. At the beginning of August was the time for Eva to stop. She got plenty of warnings about what was coming. The first time I put the stuff on her nails she just sucked it right off. Then, I told her again that she was not going to be able to go to preschool if she didn't stop. The yucky-nail-stuff was just there to remind her every time she put her fingers in her mouth she wasn't supposed to. So after that first nail painting, she pretty much didn't suck her fingers again. I would say it took her only 2 or 3 days to be over it. Amazing what kids can do when they set their minds to it!
Another milestone that happened this month, Eva was cutting some paper with her little kid scissors and decided it would be real fun to cut some of Lilia's hair. I had braided some of Lilia's bangs on the side of her head. Eva chopped off the braid. I can't believe it, but I didn't take any pictures of the half braid! Luckily, it almost looked like it could have been on-purpose-bangs. Eva got told the story of how I liked to cut my hair when I was a little girl. I told her, "Grandma warned me if I cut my hair one more time she would cut it all off." And I did it again, and she did cut it all off, and I cried because I looked like a boy and kindergarten was about to start. Hopefully I never have to cut off all of Eva's hair. That would be a tragedy.
I have been so bad about taking pictures lately. This is a picture from Eva's 4th birthday.


Lilia:
She got her first haircut, thank you Eva. But her real milestone this month is REALLY being potty trained!! I guess the way I see it is if she can wear undies to church and I'm not worried about getting her out of nursery to take her potty every 15 minutes, then it is for real. We tried a few months ago to potty train her. It went really well, but all of the sudden she started having multiple accidents a day, and then she asked for diapers. So we put it off for a couple of months, started up again in August, and viola! No more diapers!! At least for about 7 more months. And if you've actually made it to the end of this post you just read the most exciting milestone of this month! Baby number 4 is due March 30, 2011.


Jason and Dana:
We got to go to our first (hopefully of many to come) Jack Johnson concert in Houston! It was soooo last minute. I found tickets so cheap in Austin (on the day of the concert) that I finally talked Jason into going. Then we thought we couldn't go because we couldn't find a sitter. We were going to drive home right after the concert, but instead we ended up taking the kids and getting a hotel and Melissa, Jason's sister who lives in Houston, stayed with the kids because she's SO AWESOME like that! We planned it out so late that we missed both opening bands, but got there about 10-15 minutes before Jack started. The stress and 4+ hour drive, each way....so worth it.
The camera wasn't charged so all I have is pictures from my phone. And some video. I tried to upload one but it didn't work. I'll try again later.


4th of July parade with the ward

Colby and his best bud Bryson sharing a sucker

Roasting marshmallows in our backyard


And finally!!!!! Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games series, comes out today!! The girls and I are headed to Costco in about 2 hours to pick up a copy. Read these books! You won't regret it.

Little Funnies

Colby:
We were having playgroup and he was asking my friend Lisa what her kids' grandparent's names were. Then he wanted to ask her what her husband's name was. He must not know the word "husband" yet. So he says, "What's your...............Who's the one you love?"

Eva:
We rented Barbie in A Mermaid Tale for the second time from redbox yesterday. My kids obviously liked it the first time. Eva says, "When I grow up I want to be a surfer girl and a mermaid and a doctor and an adventure girl."

Lilia:
Lisa, same friend as before, has a 6 or 7 month old daughter named Lucy. My kids love Lucy and never leave her alone when we're around her. In her honor, Lilia named one of her baby dolls "Baby Lucy." There were two baby dolls on the kitchen counter and Lilia told me she wanted a baby. So I hold out the non-Baby Lucy doll. Lilia says, "No, I want Baby Lucy." So I give her the correct doll and ask, "What is this baby's name?" about the doll she didn't want. And my super adorable, sweetest daughter ever says, "Stinky Baby."

Monkey take a picture. So funny.

We went to the free movie at Regal the other day. Neither movie they were playing was animated, but a friend wanted me to meet her there so we went to Kit Kittredge. I actually really loved the movie, but my kids couldn't get into it. Not the most fun hour and a half of their lives, but the very last 30 seconds there's a little monkey that gets ahold of a camera and takes a picture of the little kids. My kids thought it was the funniest thing ever. Lilia talked about it for at least a week afterward. She would say, "Mommy, monkey take a picture! So funny/silly!" at the most random times. Then we went to Toy Story 3 and a monkey gets wrapped up in tape, so that got added to the hilarity.

Elliot "Hot-pants" McGee

This video doesn't do him justice. I know more people got video of him, so PLEASE upload it so I can watch it over and over.

Reminiscing

I love watching old videos.

So that's it! We are sold out of Croshaws.

Ready for lots of pictures? You sure? Okay. Be prepared, I can't take a clear picture to save my life.
Last week we got to go home for the final Croshaw wedding. My sister Abby married David on June 22nd in the Salt Lake temple. These two are so perfectly matched. I think they have more fun than the rest of us combined.
We got in a week before the wedding (I flew alone with my 3 kids on a 6 AM flight...worst flight ever, I don't recommend early morning flights if you have to do it on your own with multiple kids. AND we missed our Saturday 6 AM flight because the airport is much busier than I thought it would be at 5 in the morning, "luckily" we got on the Sunday 6 AM flight. Did you catch the 6 AM???) and had enough time to go to Boise for a couple of days. We were there for Grandpa Boise's birthday. The kids got to spend all day Tuesday with Grandma Boise while I got to spend it with my Tina!!!! We all had such a great time. The feeling I got driving into Boise is how I know we'll be living there again some day.
The rest of the week was a whirlwind of cousins playing, jumping on the trampoline, playing the piano, watching movies, glow sticks, and non-stop fun! For them at least. Friday there was a reception in Pocatello and us moms had to keep the kids out of the house for practically the entire day. We did that by going to the play area at the mall, going to the new Shrek movie, (my personal favorite Shrek movie! GO SEE IT!) lunch at McDonalds where they got to (had to?) play for almost 2 hours, and a trip to walk around Costco because we just didn't have anything else to do. And it was raining that day. But the reception was great. Lots of cousins and friends to see.AC/DC!!
Saturday was the wedding, and while the day was packed and there were a few snags it seemed perfect. In between pictures and the luncheon and the reception there wasn't a spare minute to think. The kids were troopers. The kids and I had a fun burst of dancing at the reception. (And BTW, my nephew Elliot is a child prodigy with his dancing. If I can get my video uploader to work you'll see exactly what I mean.)Alex took this picture. I can't figure out how he got them to all smile like that!I love this picture SO MUCH!Grace or Mia took this picture. It's a masterpiece. I got to see my best friends from 6th and 7th grade at the reception! Tirae and Tavia, who without facebook I would probably never have figured out how to get in touch with them.Tirae and I. ♥

I'm so happy for Abby. She's so in love and so happy. Thanks for that David!
Monday night we flew home, luckily Jason was with me this time. It was a much nicer flight thanks to him.

(Colby and Lilia and I got a nice case of the flu the day after we got home, but at least we were home for that part.)

If you can stand it, there are 2 more posts below.