SILLY GOMERS!

Utah Trip

2010-10-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

Back in August, my friend Trisha Brown and I decided to carpool up to UT together to see our families. Somehow we survived the trip both ways, driving 12 hrs straight, and even having two kids sharing a seatbelt! I don't know how no one was killed. :) But it was super fun and worth the miles and time! There was a McBride reunion that me and the kids were attending, but ended up also seeing some of the Bates family, and a few friends as well. The fun part was that the McBrides didn't know we were coming, so we knocked on the door. They were so surprised, and thankfully excited to have us there! :)

These are two of my roommates from my freshman year at BYU, Holly and Kristi. That was such a fun year, and it was great seeing them grown into beautiful women with their darling children. I LOVED these few hours we had together. I hope it was fun for them too! (We did not color coordinate our shirts ahead of time, it just ended up that way...funny!).

One of our many stops was to see my brother Kendal and his wife Sharlee and kids. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of them with me, but I did get a few at their home. This is the most awesome wig I've ever seen. TOTALLY cracked me up when Landon found it and put it on. So of course I had to have all the kids wear it, it was too dang funny. I think cousin Jonah used this to dress up as Nacho Libre for Halloween last year. Now we know what my kids would look like with his awesome 'do.

Landon, Jonah, and Marlee, being silly! I wish we lived closer, Landon and Jonah had such a good time together!

We happened to visit on cousin Emmett's birthday, so we got to be a part of his party. We love Emmett (or Murmurt as Marlee once dubbed him). :) Kendal was the master of the ceremonies. It was so great to spend time with these guys....as we use to live near them for 3 years. We had such good times together then, and really miss them a LOT!

Here the kids are at Steph's house. The tramp is always a good source of entertainment. The kids particularly like the games "hyper-extend my legs," "break your neck" and "fall off the tramp backwards." Ok, maybe not, but that's always what I envision when all 12 cousins are on the tramp at the same time. :)

Diggin' away in the sandbox.

McBride cousins (Nathan, Laura, Ben, and Logan) playing Logan's favorite sport. I would LOVE to have this backyard!

McBride game time. The only one missing in all this family fun was Bryce. :( He had to work and couldn't come on this trip. Everyone sure missed him!!

Masen and Weston (just a few months apart), seeing who's gonna win the game "is the frigde door gonna stay opened or closed."

Tawna's house has some pretty sweet kid entertainment as well. This is a little playhouse the kids spent tons of time in, sweeping the floors, ironing, and washing dishes. Awesome little place to play!

All the McBride cousins (minus Tawna's kids) the day we took off to head back home. I love Masen in this picture....such a lighthearted child! :) It was sad to say goodbye, and we had such a fun time seeing so many people. I'm sad I didn't get more pictures of the grownups! But when you're taking care of 4 kids by yourself, you don't always have the time, energy, or memory to grab your camera!

It was a great trip, but like always, it was good to get home. We all missed Daddy!!!

NAUVOO

2010-10-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's official. I'm terrible at updating my blog. But it's better to add stuff late than never I suppose. Most who get on facebook have seen these pictures, but some people don't do facebook, so here ya go. :)

This summer we drove to Nauvoo, IL for a Bates family reunion. We stayed in a campground that is owned by the Community of Christ. It had cabins and a lodge with everything you need to survive. It was a lot of fun! We had a great time with family, and seeing the awesome Nauvoo sites. Here are just a few:

Our first church history stop was Liberty Jail. It's amazing that six grown men lived in that hole for so many months. Must have been awful. Was a neat experience to see this place!

The next stop was Adam-ondi-ahman. It was SO beautiful, and the valley was WAY bigger than I ever thought it was. Very peaceful place!

This is Logan right before his baptism, on Sunday, July 4th. I love this picture. This is the end of Parley Street, where the Saints lined up their wagons to leave Nauvoo and head West, when they were driven from their homes. Logan loves to tell people he was baptized in the Mississippi River. :)

This is a caption below statues of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses, riding to Carthage. This right across the street from the Nauvoo temple.

We got to do a session in the Nauvoo temple. The clouds made for a pretty picture. :)

This is part of the "Camp Nauvoo" campground where we stayed. Marlee and Nanny are playing "princess leaves". Marlee turns just about any object into a princess to play dollies. :)

Little Tubby, getting dirty at the playground.

The Lodge

Carthage Jail, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred by an angry mob. The top window in this picture is where Joseph fell from, right after he was shot. It was a really neat experience going through the jail, walking where the prophet once walked.

This is Hotel Nauvoo. We didn't get to go inside because it is still rented out to people like a regular hotel. :) But it's a hotel that Joseph and Emma ran while they were alive.

This is the final resting place of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith. It is located right next to Joseph and Emma's home, which is the next picture down.

We got to take a tour through this house, and the Mansion House. It was neat to see the rooms and some of the same furniture that was used by Joseph and Emma. The most memorable was a mirror that Emma had used, and a chest of drawers that had a fallout drawer that Emma used to hide the manuscripts of the bible translation. The tour was run by the Community of Christ, and they did not allow pictures to be taken of the inside of these structures.

The original Mansion House (below) was actually 3 times bigger than this, but after the Saints left, the rest of it fell into disrepair, and since there was no one to rent it out, they just tore that part down. This is what remains of the Mansion House. Inside the house is a model of what the original house looked like. It was HUGE! We also got to walk through the Red Brick store, and go into the upper room where the Relief Society was organized, and where the first endowments were performed. But for some reason we didn't take pictures of that.

This is a model of the typical wagon used by the Saints to go West. It's much smaller than I envisioned. This is located at the end of Parley Street next to the Mississippi River.

This is the end of Parley Street (also where Logan was baptized).

A view of the Nauvoo temple from the "city" below.

Logan, waiting for the Nauvoo Pageant to start.

Grandma Bates, we think she had a good time. :)

Marlee at the campground, sweet little gal.

The reunion goers. :) Only 8 of the 14 families were able to come, plus Grandma Bates. It was fun to see everyone, but we really missed the ones who couldn't come too!

I think this picture describes how we all felt after leaving Nauvoo. :)

Landon had the best time catching fireflies and tiny froggies. He had up to 5 froggies in his hands at a time. It was so fun!

We'll never forget our trip to Nauvoo. It took 3 days driving there and 3 days driving home, with 4 days in between. Worth the drive? TOTALLY! We LOVED being there. It was like going back in time in many ways. The bugs weren't terrible, and the weather wasn't too hot. It was perfect. Doing Logan's baptism there was so special too. The water wasn't too cold and there weren't too many onlookers either (although the onlookers thought it was pretty cool too!). It was great to have my Bates family there, and was nice of Nanny and Papa McBride to make such a long trip to see the baptism too. After talking about it, we decided it was our best family vacation yet. We're grateful we were able to make the trip, it was unforgettable!!

Logan's 8th birthday

2010-07-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Logan finally turned 8 on June 27th! He's been looking forward to this for a long time, especially because that means he gets to be baptized. We did a big party for this special birthday. This picture was taken on his actual birthday with just our family.

The big birthday party was on the day before his birthday (since the actual day was Sunday) at a pool in my friends subdivision. Of course it was just my luck that they removed all the furniture from the community pool (because of vandalism) a few days before his party. So our tables/chairs were towels on the ground. :)

Bryce and Aaron Bloom (a good friend of our family).

Tubby hanging out in the stroller, eating his pizza. Love spaghetti sauce faces! :)

The wind decided it was a great day to blow, so our decorations were haggard by the time we were done.

Logan, Landon, and Jake Bloom (one of Logan's best friends whose family moved away but came back to visit and come to the party), having fun in the sun.

Some of

the party kids. :)

Logan loves Calvin & Hobbes, and this is his first attempt at drawing one of his favorite characters. Can you tell who it is?? :)

Bryce videotaped Logan blowing out candles and opening presents, but took no pics. Oh well. Logan got his first set of scriptures with his name engraved on them. He was very excited about that! He actually spends time reading them and looking up topics to study. He also got the Lego Harry Potter x-box game that they've been looking forward to for a long time. He got lots of cool presents from friends too. It was a fun birthday party and I think Logan felt very special. Logan loves being 8! Eight years has gone by fast, and it's been fun watching Logan grow and learn. I love that he's excited to have been baptized and participate in the important ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We definitely have our crazy moments with him, but we really love his strong, excited spirit and his enthusiasm for life. Happy birthday Logan, we love you and are glad you're in our family!!

Marlee's 4th birthday

2010-07-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

Marlee had her 4th birthday on June 17th. She had been counting down the days for over a month, "how many more ni-nights till my birthday Mom?" She was so excited to finally be 4! Her birthday was very "princess" themed. She loved the princess dollies on her strawberry icecream cake.

Little miss, getting ready to open her presents. She got princess puzzles and games.

Enjoying her cake and dollies....

Nanny McBride made this beautiful Snow White dress for Marlee's birthday, she loved it!

Marlee's best friend Kendis came to celebrate her birthday with us. They had the best time playing dress-up and watching Tinkerbell movies. We definitely have a girl in the house!!

I can't believe it's already been four years. Like I said on facebook, my dolly is growing up! :'( It's a real treat to be Marlee's mom. She can be a real firecracker, but most of the time she is funny and sweet. We love our little girl! Happy birthday Marlee!

Updates

2010-05-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been kind of a long time since I've posted anything. Since I've gotten on facebook, my blog has suffered a bit, but posting once in a while is better than never! During Spring Break, Bryce's mom (Nanny) came for a visit and treated us to the Phoenix Children's Museum (thanks Papa, too!). The kids really had a fun time, and hopefully Nanny did too. :)

Here's Marlee at the sand-art booth.

Logan and Nanny playing the xylophone.

This is Masen laughing hysterically at what Landon is doing in the next picture. They had all sorts of cool car/ball rolling tracks in this room. It was pretty cool.

They have this "noodle forest" at the museum which consists of hundreds of swimming noodles hanging from the ceiling and the kids had such a fun time walking through the forest to the other side. I didn't get any good pictures of that, but it was a highlight of the museum.

The kids are actually sitting still to listen to the Prophet for General Conference. We love those moments. :)

So Marlee pulled out her butterfly hairclips and started attaching them to Masen's head. I can't believe he sat still for her to do that, and didn't take them out right away. It was just a matter of time before our girl decided to dress up one of our boys. :) The following picture says it all about how he felt about the experience. Poor thing, this surely won't be the last time. :)

For a Primary Activity in April, we had kids bring cardboard boxes to make into cars. After they made their cars, we had them drive around the hall in the church, following road signs, to re-enter the gym to watch a drive-in movie. Then they played red-light green-light. It was such a fun activity and some really cool cars were created. Marlee made her car into a bed a few days later and we found her here. Looks......comfy?

This picture was taken by Logan on our 10 year anniversary on April 25th. Beautiful backdrop eh? :) Can't believe it's been 10 years, it's flown by so quickly. While we've definitely had our fair share of trials and challenges, it's been a lot of fun and we've experienced so many joys. We have so much to be grateful for: our children, the gospel, our testimonies, a home to live in, Bryce's job, our families, and so many great friends. It's been a happy 10 years, and I am excited to see what the next 50 or 60 years bring. :)

Masen's 1 year pictures

2010-03-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

I know I already posted pictures from Masen's first birthday, but these are his official 1 year pictures. Jen did such a great job again, and I'm having a really hard time deciding which one to frame and put on my wall. I also need to pick one to have our friend sketch to frame and put up with all my other kids' baby pics sketches.

This picture below makes him look like such a big boy and not so much a little baby. I love it.

This one cracks me up, his face looks so funny when he tries to blow raspberries! He doesn't just use his lips, his whole face gets involved to make it happen. I just had to include this one. :)

Anyway, he's such a funny little boy, full of personality and excitement. Just thought I'd post these cute little pics. :)

Masen turns 1

2010-03-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

Really, has a year gone by already??? My sweet little baby boy Masen Todd turned 1 year old on February 16th. That year FLEW by! Masen has been a good little baby, and is a lot of fun for both us and the kids. He's got the same intelligent look in his eyes and a very similar personality that Logan had as a baby, like he knows what's going on around him. I guess we better hold on tight for the wild ride ahead. :) Right now, Masen loves Baby Beethoven/Bach/Motzart, Baby Tad, his "naney" (blankey), hearing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Little Star," playing patty-cake but making Mom clap her hands by grabbing her thumbs and clapping them for her, loves to turn the x-box on and off repeatedly (little pill), loves splashing in the toilet when the older kids forget to close the lid/door (grrr), likes to hear us cheer when he stands on his own, and really likes to be on the trampoline. He has an intense excitement about many things, and he cries and bangs his face on the floor when someone takes something away from him that he was playing with (it sounds terrible, but it's actually really comical!).

Masen getting ready for his birthday cake.

A few minutes later..... :)

Big yummy bite of cake.

He really ate a lot, considering his size. He loved feeling the texture of it on his fingers too.

This is his birthday present from Nanny (Bryce's mom). I love the cute little cowboys on the blanket, it is so cute!! Masen liked it too!

Here we are getting ready for mother's group. It can be pretty chilly in the mornings here in AZ, so we put this cute little hat on Masen to keep his ears warm. You can't see it, but there's a Superman logo on the top of the hat. I love his smile in this picture. We love our sweet baby Masen. He'll always be my baby!

Family pictures

2010-01-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

So we had our family pictures done at the end of November. And yes, I'm just now posting them. We took them in a pecan orchard about 20 miles south of our home. Here are a few of our favorites:

Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

For FHE on Monday we decided to carve a pumpkin. We let the kids draw whatever face they wanted, and not try to make it "better" for them. We just carved them how they drew them. We used one pumpkin to save on clean-up, and carved 3 sides of it...worked out pretty well.

This was Logan's side of the pumpkin.

This was Landon's side.

Marlee's side was just a bunch of scribbles, a little too hard to carve, so I thought she'd like a simple star. :)

They were all very proud of their pumpkin!

And here are pics of the kids right before we left for Trunk-or-Treat tonight. I made the kids' robes and scarves when we were in Prescott for fall break. It's always nice to have Mom McB close by for tips on sewing! Overall, I think they turned out well, and people were able to figure out who they were at the ward party, so that's always a good thing. :)

Marlee as Hermione Granger

Landon as Ron Weasley

Logan as Harry Potter

The three best friends ready to cast their spells! Landon had fun telling people at Trunk or Treat to "give me your candy or I'll cast a spell on you!" He thought he was hilarious. :)

Someone asked if I had a hard time getting them all to want to be Harry Potter characters. Logan and Landon were happy about it, but Marlee wanted to be Snow White. Unfortunately, her Snow White costume is 2 sizes too small, and is undone at some seams, so we told her she had to be Hermione this year. She didn't throw a fit or cry or anything...and once she saw the boys in their costumes, she was excited to get into hers. So they all had a good time. I almost forgot about Masen! We put him in some Phoenix Suns warm up pants and jacket and drew a goatee/mustache on his face....he was a Suns player. But darn it, we didn't take a picture! Duh, I can't believe we forgot. Oh well. Happy Halloween!!

Kid pics

2009-10-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

So these were done way back in August....I know, I'm a procrastinator. I decided to use these as their annual pictures instead of the pictures they take at school. I like the scenery better I think. Jen took these for me with her fabulous camera. Thanks Jen!

As you can see, Masen was having a GREAT time!

Here is Logan, 7 years old.

Landon, 5 years old.

Marlee, 3 years old.

Masen, 6 months old (well, he's 8 mo old now, but only 6 here)

I LOVE my babies!!

Sleeping and growing

2009-10-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

I just love it when I go in to wake Masen up from his nap to feed him and he doesn't hear me come in. And sweet little Marlee got so tuckered out she fell asleep on the couch. Love catching them sleep!

Poor little baby has been so fussy lately because his other bottom tooth is trying to break through. Sometimes the only thing that will make him happy is putting him in the baby swing outside. In the past few weeks he's gotten his first tooth and learned to crawl. He's growing up too fast! I'm seriously trying to cherish his infancy while I have it. I'll be so sad when I don't have a baby anymore. Can we just pause life for a while??

First day of Legacy Traditional

2009-08-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

So the boys finally started school yesterday. Is it totally nerdy that I have them wearing matching outfits? Lanny liked his first day of school, and was excited to tell us that they wrote numbers in shaving cream on their desks. How FUN! Logan liked his class too, and liked learning how to write letters using the clock face instead of the old way. We're excited to see the many different things they'll learn. It will be a great school!

Now we just have to figure out how to get Marlee to quit whining "I want to go to school" and "I want to grow bigger now." :) I do have to say I've enjoyed having one-on-one time with Marlee. We've been practicing counting, colors, and shapes. We'll work on letter recognition soon. I finally have time to do that with her! Hooray!

Answered prayer

2009-08-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

So this is pretty cool. Our washer kicked the bucket and we found some on craigslist but none of them worked out, for various reasons. So I went on Home Depot's website last night to order a new washer. It was going to be pretty darn expensive....so while I ordered I prayed saying, Ok Heavenly Father, if we aren't supposed to get this washer (which wouldn't be delivered for another week), please let something better come along that's a better deal before the new washer gets here. Lo and behold, our home teacher's wife (who is also my friend) wrote me a note on facebook today saying they got a different washer and are selling their old one (that's only a little more than a year old), and selling it for very cheap. It has what I'm wanting in a washer too...lots of room, and is a good brand. I didn't tell Lonni this yet, but this is totally an answer to a specific prayer! I just feel so blessed and so grateful that Heavenly Father is aware of our needs, even in the little things in life, and am grateful for His tender mercies in caring for us and answering our prayers. Cool huh?

Around the house

2009-07-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

We thought this was a pretty good bitter-beer face (does anyone remember those commercials?). Masen just woke up from a drive around town. :)

This is my sweet little Tub-tub. All of our kids have been given silly nicknames that just evolve over time. Tub-tub has stuck for Masen. He's so chubby, I love his giant belly.

This is my sweet little princess. Yes, sweet little princess. If I keep telling myself that, maybe it'll come true! No really, she is sweet...I just don't feel that way in moments like this. She got ahold of our (thankfully non-toxic) washable markers and decided she was going to wear lipstick like mommy. She turned out more like the evil version of Ronald McDonald. :)

Logan was getting in touch with his creative side. Kept him busy for a while...always a good thing for my boys.

I was just about to give Masen a bath when I walked in on this! Talk about major weebs! It actually looked bigger in person.

So these are just the pics we have taken lately. Usually what I blog about is what we take pictures of...I know, kinda boring. We're heading to UT this week so I'll be sure to blog about our trip when we get back. It'll be fun to see everyone!

Masen's 3 month pictures

2009-05-20T18:40:00.001-07:00

This is Masen, three months old. Seriously? Where did the time go? He's not a newborn anymore! We are just loving him to death. Thanks Jen, for taking the pics, I love them! These are some of my favorites.

Missing teeth, smiles, feet, father/sons

2009-05-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

Logan is now missing all four front middle teeth at the same time. This picture was taken before the last one came out this past week. So he's got a big hole in the front and talkth like thith. He thought he was hilarious sticking his dimes/nickels in his nose and ears. (Sorry cashier lady at Walmart.) :)

As if his cheeks couldn't look any chubbier, Landon gives us a big cheesy smile and his cheeks double in size! We like to call Landon Caillou, and then he says "I don't have a circle head, I have a square head!" I think it's round. :)

Princess Marlee (or as Marlee would say "not princess Marlee, I princess Ariel!")

He's already got that boyish look of mischief.

Masen is always quick to give us smiles. He likes to look in the mirror and smile & coo at himself too. It's really cute. Masen really likes when we play patty-cake with him. That's when we get him to smile the most, and it almost makes him laugh.

Mr. Monkey Toes.

I took these pictures when Masen was just a few weeks old. I really like this one, just such a good remembrance picture of how little they really are at birth. He has really long toes and an amazing ability to spread his toes apart that puts me and Logan to shame (we can both spread our toes apart pretty far). :)

Bryce took the boys to the Father/Sons outing last weekend. Aside from the hoards of mosquitos (and sleeping in a tent), they all had a pretty good time. Bryce isn't a camping fan, so this was a big sacrifice on his part to create some memories for Logan and Landon. Thanks babe! Landon came home with loads of beer bottle caps and thought he had a treasure. :/ I don't think we'll be hanging on to them for very long. Good times.

Baby blessing weekend

2009-04-06T22:59:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was really nice. My mom flew down from Oregon and stayed with us for 5 days so she could be here for Masen's blessing. It was nice having her here...it was the first time she's been to our house in Casa Grande, so we enjoyed showing her the desert scenery and giving her a feel for what life is like in AZ. We think she had a good time. :) Tawna (Bryce's sister) and her family came too, along with Mom and Dad McBride (of course). Thanks for making the long drive Tawna...especially being 7 weeks from having your own baby! The blessing itself was really nice....I'm grateful for Bryce and that he honors his priesthood. It was nice to share the weekend with our family and friends.

This is our first family picture. We'll have to have Jen do a real one for us soon (or maybe in a few months after I shed these unsightly pregnancy lbs!).

The cousins playing in the backyard. Thank HEAVEN for backyards!!!

Mom McBride made Masen's baby blessing outfit (as she did for all the other kids too). It turned out SO cute! Thanks Mom and Dad, for all your help while you were here!

I really like this picture of Mom Bates with Masen. Sometimes it makes me sad that she doesn't get to see our kids more often. It can be hard living so far from home. If I didn't love this AZ sunshine so much....

We of course had to show grandma the Casa Grande Ruins. It was a fun outing.

And here's the star of the weekend. :) Masen has just been a joy in our family. He's is such a content, happy baby. He sleeps so well, and eats well too. He's already 13 lbs! He's such a sweet little boy, full of smiles and gives us a coo once in a while too. We love him SO much and are so grateful he was sent to our family.

McBride happenings

2009-03-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

So the kids were invited to a b-day party for Reiann and they got ahold of the pinata after it was broken open. They had the funnest time. Those Sherwoods sure know how to party!

Marlee has rediscovered her girly sunglasses and thought it would be fun to wear them during lunch. Cute little goober.
The boys love to hold their baby brother. They are actually pretty good about sanitizing before they even ask to hold him. They love to "play" with Masen (meaning they squeeze his face and talk to him like he understands their jokes). I think they want to keep him. :)

You can tell he's SO comfortable when they hold him. :)

And Logan lost his first tooth! Unfortunately, he lost it during lunch and the school gave him a lame necklace that didn't stay closed and the tooth fell out and got lost. But don't worry, he put the necklace under his pillow so the tooth fairy would know that he lost his tooth. :) Logan was thrilled to find money under his pillow!

Things are good in the McBride home. Masen is actually a REALLY good baby. Except for about 5 nights of waking up twice, he only gets up once a night to eat...and some of those nights I've had to wake HIM up! Thankfully he's not really colicky...just a little gassy...which makes him a little cranky. But otherwise he's been an ideal baby. Super mellow. We love our new little addition (and our old ones too). :)

ps: Masen went in for his one month checkup today (monday). He was 11 lbs 3 oz (or 9oz, I can't remember!). And was 23 inches long. He's a good growing boy, already gained at least two pounds. He's our little chubby bubby!

Introducing.....

2009-02-24T14:30:00.001-08:00

MASEN TODD MCBRIDE

FEB. 16th, 2009 5:17pm

9lbs 3oz, 22 inches long

Sweet as can be!!

I love the funny faces they make when they're sleeping. :)

What the hail???

2009-02-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

So last Sunday we were totally bombarded with hail. We've never had this much since we moved to AZ. It almost looked like snow, so of course the boys went out to play for the few hours that it lasted. :) It was kind of fun to see it there....but still not fun enough to make me wish we lived in it! (snow that is).

And this picture has nothing to do with hail, but thought I'd add it here anyway. Landon decided to wear this costume while playing Lego Batman on the xbox. It was funny that he kept the mask on too...I don't know how he could see the screen. If you look closely, you can see his adorable little wedgy, given by the fact that his costume is built for a two year old, not a four year old. :) Silly Lanny.

One silly little gomer

2009-02-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Marlee was being the biggest cheeser the other day. She thought she was hilarious eating her bread and butter and getting it all over her face. She was laughing so hard, I had to get pictures. She's must be a part of our family, a total gomer!! I love being a mom!

Christmas pictures

2009-01-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

So here are our Christmas pictures. Seems like I'm always running behind with posting stuff, but it's better late than never. Seems like I always say that too. :) Anyway, here are the kiddies with their new Christmas jammies that Nanny McB makes every year. This is the 1 gift they get to open on Christmas Eve. I love homemade jammies!

Marlee was more excited about her new Ariel toothbrush from the dentist office than any of her actual Christmas gifts. We just stuck it in her stocking, and that's all she would show the camera over and over and over. It was funny.

Ok, so Marlee got these cute princess accessories from my sister Melanie and the boys decided they wanted to try it all on. We got it on video where they admitted that they put those on by their own free will, without any encouragement from Mom and Dad! Blackmail for the teenage years is a beautiful thing! :)

Logan went first, and then of course Landon had to get in on the action. It was too funny.

The boys enjoying their mini foosball table.

Marlee has been surrounded by superman, spiderman, batman her whole life and has joined in with that fun. She finally got some girly princess stuff and is really getting into it all. It's been fun to watch her. She LOVES LOVES LOVES her little polly pocket Ariel doll. She's missing her seashells in this picture (sorry), but Marlee just looks so cute and excited. She always wants her in mermaid form, not her princess dress. :)

We had a merry Christmas and hope everyone else did too!!

Sweetheart Tag!

2009-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

So Suzi tagged me on this. I tag anyone who wants to play:

You are being sweetheart tagged.
What is your husband's name? Bryce
How old is he? 32
Who is taller? Bryce by far!
Who can sing best? Bryce
Who is smarter? We're even :)
Who does laundry? Me
Who pays bills? He makes the money, I make sure it gets spent. :)
Who mows the lawn? Usually Bryce
Who cooks dinner? Usually me
How long did you date? From first date to marriage, one year
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Bryce...I'm too stubborn. It runs in my family.
Who kissed who first? Bryce kissed me first. He told me to close my eyes and stick out my lips. :) I'm not kidding.
Who wears the pants? As I've said before, we each have a leg in the pants. :)

You don't have to do this, unless you get really bored.

More Disney pics

2008-12-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

Here's Landon fighting Darth Vader....I don't know if I'll be able to figure out how to upload the video onto my blog, so a picture will have to suffice. Logan got to fight him too. Such a fun idea!

Logan got to be a part of a magic show. Bryce has no idea how this guy did this trick...a floating table. Pretty fun.

My handsome boys in their matching super hot "Look out for Motorcycles" shirts. :)

Disneyland!!!

2008-12-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

So a couple of months ago we heard from Bryce's brother Doug that they were going to Disneyland at the beginning of December. We told Logan that if he could stop sucking his thumb (he's 6), he could go to Disneyland. Amazingly, in a couple days, he was thumb-suckin' free (except in his sleep...which isn't really his fault cuz he doesn't know he's doing it. In fact, one morning he woke up with his thumb in his mouth and asked "Mom, does Dad stick my thumb in my mouth while I'm sleeping to trick me?" It was too funny.) He's done a great job keeping his thumb out during the day, so this last Wednesday, they headed to CA to spend the day at Disneyland on Thursday. It was a super cheap trip with gas prices low again, and a free place to stay with Kimberly's parents (thanks Davidsons!!). Marlee and I stayed home because Marlee wouldn't appreciate it anyway, and there's no way in heck I'd be walking around Disneyland at 6 1/2 months pregnant (I can barely walk through Walmart without my body paying for it for the next 3 days). They had the greatest time. In one part of Disneyland they had a Jedi training camp and then got to fight Darth Vader using their new jedi skills. :) I'll post video of that later. Logan's favorite ride was Space Mountain, and Landon's was the Buzz Lightyear ride.

On Friday morning they decided to visit the beach. The water was freezing from what I hear, but the weather beautiful and great for a beach day. They had such a fun time. I'm sad that I missed it, but hopefully we'll go again in a few years and we can all enjoy it together. It was fun to spend some one on one time with Marlee (even though she did walk around the house crying "find Daddy!"--she's such a daddy's girl). They all came home safely to me last night and it was good to have them home. Fun family times!

Halloween!!

2008-11-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween pics, now that we're half way through November and nobody really cares anymore. :) Better late than never I say! So on your left you have Peter Pan, in the middle you have a cute little duckey, and on your right you have Indiana Jones. I made all of Landon's Peter Pan costume (thanks to lots of help from Nanny!), and I also made orange duck leg pants for Marlee too. We found Logan's stuff at Savers. I've never put so much effort into their Halloween costumes before. I just don't think of it till last minute, then I usually scramble for something (anything) for them to wear. They really liked their costumes this year, so it was a fun time for them. We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat. There wasn't a huge turn out, but we brought Christy Boulter and her kids with us so that made it more fun for all of us. And of course the kids came home with lots of candy that we JUST got through eating (thank goodness it's gone now). The kids had a great Halloween and are already asking what they get to dress up as next year. Fun times!

Fun Getaway!

2008-10-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been forever since I've blogged. About a month ago Bryce and I decided we NEEDED to get away from the kids and just be a married couple! It was long overdue. We hadn't left the kids overnight since I was pregnant with Marlee, so it was definitely time. We found this cute little Bed and Breakfast tucked away in downtown Phoenix. It was surprisingly quiet and relaxing, especially being in the middle of a bustling city. Thanks SO much to Jen and Liesl for taking our kids so we could have some time alone together. It was a much needed vacation and it really rejuvenated us to survive being parents again. :) I highly recommend the overnight away from kids thing, and to make it two or more nights if possible!

The pool was a little run down, but it felt good and we had it all to ourselves.
What a pretty little place! It was old (built in the 1930s), but it was a fun place to escape to. Definitely overpriced, especially for it's age, but it was nice to have breakfast delivered to our room instead of having to get ready to eat, and having to eat with a bunch of weirdos you've never met. We'll probably do a regular hotel next time, but we'll definitely try to keep this a tradition.

It's a........

2008-09-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

BOY!!!!!!

Logan and the Priesthood :)

2008-09-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

So Bryce has had this annoying cold since we got back from Oregon in August. It just won't go away. At dinner the other night, I suggested that maybe he should get a priesthood blessing. He said he's thought the same thing, and maybe he should call our home teachers soon. Logan said "well I'll just give you a priesthood blessing dad." Bryce said, "you can't honey, you don't have the priesthood." Logan said "well, just tell me where it is and I'll go get it." After talking for a few minutes we figured out that he thought the consecrated oil is "the" priesthood. :) I guess we haven't been very clear about what the priesthood is. :) It totally cracked us up.

Tagged

2008-09-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Tagged
I got tagged by Brooke Colvin. How to play this game. Post these rules on your blog; List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5-6 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

Joys
1. My hubby and kids
2. Icecream anything
3. All my girlfriends

Fears
1. Hubby and kids dying
2. Currently....having something go wrong with this pregnancy
3. Logan as a teenager!

Goals
1. To be better able to hear promptings of the spirit.
2. Not to get too fat with this pregnancy.
3. To get to the wire brush first every morning (said in my best Irish accent.....you'd have to hear the joke to understand......).

Current Obsessions
1. My pregnancy....can ya tell??
2. Fretting over that darn Legacy school getting here in time for next year.
3. Olive Garden.....mmmmm....Olive Garden.

Random Surprising Facts about Myself
1. I LOVE the 1800's era...although I'm glad I didn't have to live back then without modern conveniences.
2. When I was like 5 or 6 years old, I used to say really bad swear words. I learned them from the neighbor across the street. Don't worry, I grew out of it. :)
3. I hardly ever make my bed. I know, sinful.

Ok, I tag anyone who reads this and wants to play.

Landon's birthday

2008-08-26T18:25:00.001-07:00

So Landon turned 4 on August 14th. He tells everyone everywhere we go "I'm four now and I can whistle, see?" He'd been telling me for months that he wanted an Indiana Jones birthday, so that's what we shot for. He got an Indiana Jones hat, whip, and figurine. He seemed happy. We love our Lanny SO much, he's such a wonderful little boy. So thoughtful and so full of love and cuddles. I can't get enough of that, and his cute chubby cheeks that I don't think will ever go away. :)

We of course did our traditional "eat at McDonalds, play at Peter Piper Pizza." McDonalds is WAY cheaper, plus we know they'll eat the food. We wasted a ton of $$ trying to get them to eat PP Pizza once and vowed we'd never do that again. We never have. They had a blast at PPP.
Thank goodness this is the last cake of the year that I have to make. This is LEGO Indiana Jones if you can't tell. :) I had to use the x-box cover to try to make the image right. It doesn't look perfect, but it turned out pretty good. Logan and Landon both loved it, so I guess that's all the matters. :)
Now our birthdays are done, for another 6 months anyway. All of our birthdays are in the summertime, so this next baby will be the oddball of the family....with a February birthday. It'll be nice to not be big and pregnant in the summertime though. :)

Silly Landon

2008-08-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

This morning Landon said "Mom, I like elevators better than medicine. Why? Because they go up and down." I didn't even ask him "why?"....he just said that on his own. I had to laugh. :)

The Bates Reunion

2008-08-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

So I guess I've fallen off the face of the blogging world for a few weeks. That's mostly because we went to Utah, Oregon, and Idaho and got back this week. It was a really fun vacation and we got to see most of the Bates and all of the McBride family members. Thanks to Steph M. and Mom Bates for letting us stay with you! We had a great time!

This is our little family at a lake near McCall, ID where we camped at a church camp for our family reunion. It was a nice little camp with bathrooms and showers, and a big kitchen to prepare everyone's food. The kids actually got brave enough to get in the freezing water. Unfortunately, we all came home with coughs and colds.....those cold temp changes get us every time! Arg. Oh well, it was worth the fun I guess.

So we had a little talent show the night before we left camp. It was fun. I had to do a polynesian dance of course, and my sister Shari did one of her Mexican dances. I love her dress, it's so pretty. She did a really good job.

I think this picture captures most of the family that attended. I think there were about 75 people in attendance for the reunion, and that just covers my mom, siblings, and nieces and nephews. Some were not able to come, and we missed them. It was fun though.

Mom Bates and Lanny.
Marlee and Bryce taking a walk down to the lake.
Logan said his favorite part about camping was helping in the kitchen. Groups of siblings were assigned to cook 1 meal for each day we were there. I think Logan helped with every meal. Thanks to everyone who cheerfully let him stay in the kitchen with you!

Some pics of us waking up in the tent. The nights were FREEZING!! We're use to sleeping in temps of 83 degrees at night. At this campground, it got down to 45 degrees at night. It felt Arctic to us!

Our kids really enjoyed camping, and Bryce and I had a good time too. We all got filthy dirty, but I guess that means we had a good time right? :) We had so much fun, it wore us all out. Logan rarely falls asleep in the car, but on our way back to Grandma Bates' house, the kids slept like this for almost 2 hrs. It was heaven!

So that was our trip! It was a LOT of time in the car, and we're always glad to get back home to our beds, but it was worth all the effort and $$ it took to go. We look forward to the next Bates reunion in two years! Oh, by the way, I'm pregnant. :)

Logan turned 6!!

2008-07-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been a couple weeks, but Logan turned six years old on June 27th. I can't believe he's going into first grade this year. Seems like just yesterday we were crammed into our small Aggie Village apartment (about 500 sq ft) in Logan, UT, bringing home our first born child. Time has flown! Logan is a sharp boy with LOTS of character and has a very strong personality. We sure love him!

So, Yoda didn't turn out as good as Elmo did, but at least I tried. Logan liked it, and that's the important thing I guess. :)

Logan and Jake couldn't wait to try out the new Lego Indiana Jones X-box game that Logan got for his b-day. Silly boys.

Needless to say, we've had lots of Indiana Jones theme music being hummed around the house, and lots of belts being turned into whips. Whenever I tell Landon to do something, he says "do you mean Indiana Jones do your chore?" Kids are funny.

Kid tag!

2008-07-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

My sister in law, Sharlee, tagged me with the kid tag. The answers kids give are so cute and pure! I tag everyone who looks at my blog to do this on their blog. Why not, it's so fun! So here it goes....

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Logan: "I love you."
Landon: "Don't make Ni-Ni cry." (Ni-Ni is a nickname for Marlee).
2. What makes mom happy?
Logan: When I give hugs and kisses to you.
Landon: Playing with Ni-Ni.
3. What makes mom sad?
Logan: When I kick you.
Landon: Hitting you.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Logan: By tickling me.
Landon: Tickling.
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Logan: Mean to Jennie. (I told him about this for a teaching tool....:))
Landon: Playing with toys.
6. How old is your mom?
Logan: 28
Landon: 28
7. How tall is your mom?
Logan: 20 feet
Landon: "Like THIS big" (showing with hands as high as he can reach)
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Logan: Spend time with friends.
Landon: Washing the dishes.
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Logan: Cook.
Landon: Make baby stuff.
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Logan: I don't know.
Landon: You are Nettie. (??)
11. What is your mom really good at?
Logan: Bunco.
Landon: Cleaning the dishes.
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Logan: Basketball (SO true!)
Landon: Playing baseball.
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Logan: Work at home.
Landon: To clean up.
14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Logan: Pizza.
Landon: Raisin Bran. (??)
15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Logan: When you take me to somewhere that I like.
Landon: Playing baseball.
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Logan: A princess.
Landon: A skeleton (??) (I'm totally cracking up.)
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Logan: Play games.
Landon: Play frisbee.
18. How are you and your mom the same?
Logan: We both like going for rides together.
Landon: We both like to eat icecream.
19. How are you and your mom different?
Logan: Cuz I'm a boy and you're a girl.
Landon: We're different standing up.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Logan: Because I'm in your family.
Landon: Cuz I'm special.

Memories

2008-06-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

So my friend Jen did this on her blog and I though it was cute... so here we go.
Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2.Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :) If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Birthday girl!

2008-06-19T16:54:00.001-07:00

Marlee turned two on Tuesday! She's getting to be such a big girl. She still LOVES Elmo like he's her best friend, so she got a bunch of Elmo gear for her b-day. I made the cake and she loved it, tried to give it kisses actually. :) We're going to try to put her in a big girl bed next week, we'll see how that goes. She saw her GI specialist last week and is 25 lbs 11 oz now so she's finally big enough for her heart surgery. Yippee! We'll see her cardiologist in August and he'll tell us when the surgery will be. We're glad she's growing and seems to be mostly healthy. Marlee is a JOY to our family and we're glad she's healthy enough to celebrate her birthday!

Duck lips face. :)
Not too shabby for homemade.
Our pretty little birthday girl.

Logan's school fiesta

2008-06-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

Logan's school had a "last week of school fiesta" and they took a picture of our family for free. This is actually a picture of a picture since they didn't give us a digital copy, and our scanner isn't usable right now. But I'm sure you can tell who's who. :)

Chocolate faces

2008-06-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

So after swimming at the pool a while ago, I took the boys to McDonalds for a hot fudge sundae to ride home with. Amazingly, the only mess they made in the car is what you see on their faces. I was glad I didn't have to clean anything sticky off the seats. :)

Out of the mouth of babes....

2008-06-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Landon says some pretty funny things sometimes. Today he and Logan were wrestling and Logan tooted. A few seconds later Landon said, "Ewww Logan, your smell tastes yucky." It was too funny. :)

Random things....

2008-05-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

Marlee devoured a peanut butter sandwich (which she never does) and had leftovers all over her cheeks. :) Good girl to eat!

So I planted 2 rose bushes last year, and added 3 more right in front of my house. They are growing way better than I expected them to. I LOVE having rose bushes. They grow surprisingly well in the desert.
Below are last year's bushes, they're off to the right side of the house where an ugly bush and tree use to be. It's all hooked up to a drip system that came with the house, so there's little work involved with keeping them up. Nothin' beats that! (Actually, self-grooming bushes would beat that, but I'm pretty sure they don't make those yet.) :)
Ok, so Landon came out of his room the other day dressed (or undressed?) like this. We had to laugh and take a picture of course! Silly kid!! I have no idea what possessed him to do this.

Slip 'n' slide!

2008-05-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

So the kids have been excited for summer to come so that we could go swimming. It was a hot day so we decided to pull out the slip 'n' slide and the kids had a blast. Even I got into the sliding action, but I'll spare you the pictures of that. :) We're looking forward to swimming lessons this summer. Our local pool is really cool. It has a kiddy area, just right for babies and toddlers. Plus it has a deep area for older kids and a water slide to boot. Adults get in for $1.50 and kids are a buck. When we lived in Logan, there was a city pool just like the one here and it was $3 per person, so we were excited when we found out how cheap we could get in for. The kids are itchin' to swim!

Tired little girl

2008-05-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

The other day I put on a recorded show for Marlee and Landon to watch while I got lunch ready. When I was just about ready to bring them to the table, Bryce came out of his office and found Marlee on the couch like this:

She gets tired so much earlier in the day and easier than the boys did (that's a symptom of ASD). I have to say that I love how she takes 3 hour naps still, and sleeps 11-12 hrs a night. I hope that doesn't change after her heart surgery! Anyway, I'm just glad she didn't fall off the couch!! :)

Funny little Marlee

2008-04-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this is Marlee trying to be funny! At the dinner table one night, she just started looking up at me from under her eyebrows with her head bowed. It looked so funny I had to laugh. She looks like she's giving the worst stink eye ever. So now we make the face at her and she does it back, waiting for us to laugh. She a little ham for a girl. As I've said in other posts, Marlee is into Superman and Spiderman. She goes right along with the boys in dressing up as superheroes.
Lanny and Marlee put on Superman capes at least once a day and run from the front of the house to the back of the house to feel their capes flying in the wind. It's so darn cute! The best part is that they both hum the tunes of the Superman music while they run. I love it!

Fun at the park!

2008-04-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

Nanny and Papa came to visit us over Conference weekend so while the boys went to Priesthood mtg, me and Nanny took the kids to Villago Park. The kids love to come here. It was fun to have Nanny and Papa down...wish we could see them more often!

Logan finally got brave enough to attempt the monkey bars. He went all the way across by himself. He really is a little monkey! :)
Lanny could slide and swing and play at the park all day. Every day he asks "where are we going to go today mom?" He loves to play with friends and they love to play with him. At mother's group, he holds hands with my good friend's daughter. They play so well together. So cute!
Marlee just wanders around the park, and once in a while will climb the steps and go down a slide by herself. She's pretty brave for being so little. She's got the coveted water bottle of Nanny's. Doesn't matter what the shape or size of Nanny's bottle is, my kids always want to drink from it!
Listening to the Superman soundtrack on the way out of the park, Marlee tensed up in anticipation and started "flying" like Superman. She LOVES LOVES LOVES that music!
Thanks for coming to see us Nanny and Papa!!

Around the house....

2008-03-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Marlee had some pretty wild hair after her nap a couple Sundays ago. We were actually able to squeeze the top portion into a pony tail. :) Think Superman and Star Wars are just for boys?? Think again. We listen to the soundtracks of those movies when driving around town and Marlee screams "Ma-Man" when the music comes on. She gets so excited. She loves to watch the Superman movie, and even likes the boys' shirt when we can manage to get it off of Landon. :)
For an FHE we talked about the Urim and Thummim and then created our own version of it with treats--graham crackers layered with peanut butter, choc.chips, and melted marshmallows on top. We got the idea from an FHE book my sister Nancy gave us...thanks Nancy!
As you can see, it was a messy treat! :)

Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

For our family, the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday because "the Easter Bunny likes to keep the Sabbath day holy too!" :) The kids don't even question that, it works so great. So Saturday morning, I decorated the eggs with the kids while the "easter bunny" hid candy filled plastic eggs in the backyard. They were so surprised when we got done coloring eggs and found that the easter bunny had been in the backyard all that time. They had a good time egg hunting. Ahh, the good ol days of being young and having pure excited fun!

Personality Pizza

2008-03-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

So Logan had his first school project from his CE (curriculum enrichment) class. He had to create a personality pizza, using all sorts of different kinds of materials. Then he had to write a poem, describing how the different parts of the pizza are similar to his personality. Thanks to Nanny, we had some cool supplies to use to make it. I helped him of course, but he did a lot of the work. This is a project for older kids, since generally kids don't start in the CE program until 2nd grade, so he needed more help than older kids would need, but he did a good job. Here's how it turned out.

Here's his poem:

A Slice of My Life
I am a half ‘n half pizza, normal on one side, but I have a really silly side too!
I am the crust because my skin turns brown in the summertime when it’s hot out in the sun.
I am the sauce, feisty and spicy.
I am the cheese, at times I “melt”-down when my temper gets hot.
I am the peppers, adding zip to the people around me.
I am the olives and mushrooms, I might seem a little different at first, but people like me when they give me a chance.
I am the pepperoni, making life fun.
On my silly side, I am the pine nuts, acting “nutty” for a good part of each day.
I am the firecrackers, bursting with energy.
I am the silly eyes, making funny faces to make people laugh.
I am the glitter and shiny cheese, sparkling and wanting to be seen.
I am the pizza, I AM ME!

(thanks for the supplies Nanny!!)

2 "proud parent" moments in 1 week!!

2008-03-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

So our kindergartener Logan comes home from school each day with either a star for good behavior, or a checkmark (or two, or three) for not so good behavior. The other day he came home with a checkmark, and as we looked through his notebook, we found the reason why. The picture below explains it all. His teacher wrote the message in green:

We of course tried not laugh as we explained that "fart" is not an appropriate word to use, especially for school assignments. (Rolling my eyes). And as if this wasn't enough to make us proud, we got a phone call from the principal today, who said that Logan had something he needed to tell me. She handed him the phone and all I heard was sniffles. So the principal took the phone back and said he was too sad to tell me. She explained that Logan received a referral to her office, and the referral said that "Logan pulled down his pants and showed his butt to his classmates." As you can imagine, I was mortified!! I heard her stifle a giggle and the principal said "I'm trying not to laugh, but it's good that he's crying because he knows he made a mistake, and we're going to have him apologize to his teacher and classmates when he goes back to class." Of course I thanked her for calling and said we'd talk to him about it when he gets home from school. It was so embarrassing to get that phone call! Logan was so afraid to tell us about it when he got home, especially because we have talked to him about keeping his private parts private, particularly in public! But we made him explain what happened (and trust me, making him tell us about it was punishment enough!). After he told us, we asked him why he did it. He didn't have a reason, he just did it. If I had to guess though, I think he was trying to be funny to his classmates, the gomer! We pried for more info, and he said they were lined up in the hallway when he did it, and his teacher didn't see, but his classmates told on him (good for them!). I'm glad his teacher didn't see it, she doesn't need that image of him as a memory of Logan McBride throughout her teaching years. I'll say this much, if Logan is like this as a kindergartener, I can't wait to see what he'll be like as a teenager! (Again, rolling my eyes). Now you can see why I'm such a proud parent today....(sigh).

Boys night out :)

2008-02-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

Bryce wasn't able to sell a pair of tickets recently, so he decided to take Logan out for a father/son date to a Suns game. It was even on a school night! Logan had a really fun time with his daddy. They got there early so they were able to go to the floor seating for a while and got to see Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire warming up together. Logan fell asleep in the car on the way home, but they were both glad they went.

Yay for crochet!

2008-02-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

My sister Shari made this darling little dress for Marlee and gave it to me when she was a new born. She's just now fitting into it. Shari did a really good job, we think it turned out really cute. Marlee wouldn't keep the hat on, of course, but people at church loved the outfit. Good job, and thanks Shari!

The matching booties are hiding, but they're really cute too. :)

Update

2008-02-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Well, we got some lab results about Marlee's hair. They tested her protein digestion and it came back abnormal. They said this is why her hair fell out so easily, and also adds to why she's so little (in addition to her heart defect)--I guess the way you digest protein affects growth. So the next step is to see a GI specialist (Gastro Intestinal), and they will tell us what we need to do to fix her digestion problem. We really hope it's not surgery, but if that's what it will take to help her get better, then I guess we better do it. Poor little girl. They couldn't find her veins when we got her lab work done so we've gone twice and have to go back again for MORE. They just dig around in her arm until they find the vein. We have to wait until her bruises are healed up before we can go back, and then they'll do it all over again. She's gonna hate the doctor's office before long. She's got small veins like me. Anyway, so that's the latest. We'll keep you posted on what they will have to do to fix her protein problem. Poor thing.

The saddest thing....

2008-01-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, so remember how I posted about how cute Marlee's strawberry blonde curls are? I said in that post that I wanted to document her hair for journal reasons, just in case those curls ever went away. Well, little did I know that they would LITERALLY go away. I'm so sad. Starting after Thanksgiving, we noticed Marlee had a lot of hair on her jammies when she would wake up in the morning. She's always sucked her thumb and twirled the back of her hair with her fingers. But after T-day, her hair would come out when she played with it. We've found chunks of hair about a 1/4 inch thick that she had pulled out during the night. We didn't worry too much at first, but it just kept coming out. She worked her way all around the back of her head and now the only thing that's left is the very top part of her hair. (The bottom pictures were taken a couple weeks ago, and even more is missing than what's shown). We took her to the doc about it and she didn't seem concerned at first. She said that she's heard of kids pulling their hair out before. But it's weird to her that it doesn't hurt Marlee when she yanks it out. Marlee was sitting on my lap a while back and I heard this fabric-ripping sound, she handed me this patch of hair and said "here"--it didn't even faze her, like it didn't hurt at all. So because it's not hurting her to pull it out, the doc thinks there might be some kind of nutrient problem, possibly with her liver producing the right protein digestion thingies. (Whatever the liver does with protein, I have not idea). She's going to have Marlee do some blood work to see what they can figure out. It just makes me so sad, all that pretty hair is gone. Plus it's so stressful thinking that something ELSE could be wrong with her, in addition to her heart defect. Poor little girl. She's the sweetest little thing. It makes me so sad to see her have so many illness problems. So that's what's going on with Marlee these days.

BEFORE

AFTER

Don't you just want to cry??!! I do!

New Years Day

2008-01-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

We didn't have plans for New Years Day and Bryce had the day off so we decided to head to Tucson and check out the zoo there. My friend Jen told me they thought it was awesome, and that she liked it better than the Phoenix zoo and it was about half the price. We'd have to agree that it's awesome. The animals are so close up and it's way less of a walk between the animals, unlike Phoenix. The kids liked it a lot too. We'll definitely have to go there again!

Giraffes are so cool.

I found that this is a good spot to boost my confidence about my weight. :)

The polar bear was hiding out forever, most people left without seeing him. Right when we were about to leave his area, he came out to say hi to us. :) He came right up to the window looking for food. It was pretty cool. Isn't that crazy, a polar bear in the desert?!

We thought this tortoise was pretty huge. I wonder how old it is.

Looks like Marlee had a little too much fun. :) Good times.

Christmas day (finally)

2008-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a little different for us this year. It was our first time having Christmas morning with just us and the kids, no in-laws or outlaws. :) It was actually pretty fun. The kids were so excited when they woke up and saw all the presents under the tree. Logan thought it was pretty funny that Santa put two avacados in his stocking...Santa must know he loves them. :) On Christmas Eve, the boys heard Santa's sleigh flying overhead, and we told them that he couldn't stop until all the people in the house were asleep. It didn't take them long to be out! We were surprised how long they slept....they didn't wake us up until 8am. I woke up at 6, wondering where they were. I was sure they'd be too excited to sleep long this year. We had a really fun day together, playing with toys and focusing on the kids. Below are some pics of the kids and their toys. For some reason we didn't take a picture of Logan with his new big kid basketball hoop, but he was really excited about that gift. He can shoot baskets for hours. Enjoy!

Landon enjoys his marble contraption track.

Logan and Landon got cowboy guns and have enjoyed shooting each other to death. :)

Marlee makes a good little mommy....it's her first "dolly." :)

The kids got "SORRY" for Christmas. I remember playing this game over and over with my sister Shari when I was growing up. We loved it. Logan seems to like it too.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy new year!

Polar Express

2007-12-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

Every year in Williams, AZ the Grand Canyon Railway turns into the Polar Express and travels the North Pole. :) In order to ride, you have to make reservations a year ahead of time. We made our reservations last January and we didn't tell the kids a thing about it. We spent the night in Prescott with Mom and Dad McBride. The morning of our train ride, we had the kids watch the animated Polar Express movie. Then later, we said we were going somewhere special. When we got to the train station, we went to get our tickets and we had the ticket master tell the kids where they were going. Logan and Landon got so excited! They couldn't believe they were actually going to ride the Polar Express to the North Pole!

Before we got on the train, we got to go visit with Mrs. Claus and write letters to Santa. There were gift shops and a line to take pictures with Santa. Logan and Landon are waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap. Papa is holding Marlee while in line.

Logan was born in Logan, UT, but he was only 1 year old before we moved to AZ, so he doesn't remember the snow. This is the kids first time playing in snow. They thought it was pretty neat. It was weird to be so cold and to touch snow again. We were so glad we could drive back home and not have to live in it. We'll definitely have to visit it again sometime though.

Nanny made special bathrobes for the boys to wear on the train (thank you Nanny!!). On the train they served hot chocolate and a cookie. On the way to the North Pole, they told the story of the Polar Express. On the way back, we sang Christmas songs the whole way until Santa came on board and gave each kid a bell of their own (it was a nice bell too, not a tin piece of you know what).
The train is taking off!! Yay!!

Going on the Polar Express was a special family activity that we won't forget soon. It was fun to have Nanny and Papa along with us. We won't do it every year, but I'm sure we'll do it again sometime in the near future. The kids loved it!

Wanna hear a funny joke?

2007-12-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

I stole this joke from my cousin's blog---it's too funny! Lock me up!!

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized. "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, and then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No."said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

Performing Polynesian style :)

2007-12-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know already, I have been polynesian dancing since February. It started out as a Samoan woman (Tia) in my ward teaching a few of us a couple dances to perform for the Relief Society birthday for Enrichment. None of us expected it to be a long term committment. But after the Enrichment, a few more activities came up that we would need to perform for. It has just kept going and going and more and more people are asking us to perform for them. We now know 6 dances as a group (I know 8). I would be embarrassed if everyone knew how much time and thought I put into my polynesian dancing. I haven't been really good at something for a long time---probably since clogging. I don't have any real strong talents (for show anyway), so it's been exciting to find a new talent and to be pretty good at it. I help teach the new girls that join the group, and my instructor has told me that I do all the dances like a real polynesian....that made me feel really good. Last night we performed for the city of Casa Grande. Every year they have an Electric Lights parade with entertainment downtown before the parade starts. We were the finale of the entertainment. Here are some pictures of us dancing:

From the island of Hawaii (I'm in the middle back cuz I'm "tall")

From the island of Samoa

From the island of Tahiti

Another Hawaiian dance (yes, we are wearing skin colored leotard tops) :) I'm so happy to be dancing next to my dear friend Jocey...I love her!

From the Tongan islands

Another Samoan dance (I'm in the middle again)

I really love being in this group, and I love my instructor too. I've made really good friends by being a part of this, it really is so much fun to dance and perform. Plus it's great exercise--we practice twice a week for at least an hour and a half each time. Maybe I'll figure out how to put a video clip on my blog and you can see us in action sometime. I guess that's it. :)

Christmas is coming!

2007-11-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

For Family Home Evening this week, we decided to decorate our Christmas tree. The kids got to hang up the shatter proof ornaments (thank HEAVEN for those!--and for prelit trees!), then I rearranged them evenly on the tree the next day, and added the bows. I'll have to add a picture of the final outcome of the tree later. We like our Christmas tree. The kids had a fun time decorating, and we talked to them about why we have Christmas, and why we put a star on the top of the tree. It was a good FHE.

My dolly :)

2007-11-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

We are constantly being told how cute Marlee is (which is true of course). :) This past Sunday in particular we got a lot of comments on her cuteness, probably because of this cute little hand-me-down dress she was wearing. I just had to post it because she really is a doll.
For the longest time Marlee has had these cute curls at the bottom of her hair. I'm posting this more for journal reasons than anything else in case her curls go away. We get lots of comments about her cute curly strawberry blonde hair too. Can you tell I love my dolly? :)

Baby portraits

2007-11-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Recently Bryce created a website for the wife of one of his mission companions who lives in Awhatukee (30 mins from us). The website is for portraits that she sketches of people from pictures that you give her. In return for services, she drew these pictures of our kiddies at 1 year of age (except Marlee, she's 9 months in hers). They are perfect images of the kids, we LOVE them so much, and they are hanging in our livingroom for everyone to see. She charges $250 for each picture, so we feel lucky to have them. They will always be a treasure to us!

Halloween 2007

2007-11-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know this is long overdue, but since Bryce doesn't have mutual on Wednesdays anymore, I've really gotten out of the habit of blogging that night (he's the Exec. Secretary now instead of YM pres). Anyway, here's our Halloween picture. That's right, just one picture. We are really lame when it comes to cameras......we didn't even snap them trick or treating, we just had them pose in their costumes. We'll do better next year, hopefully. Also, most people start planning Halloween costumes about a month ahead of time so that they have time to make the costume and put a lot of effort into it. I, on the otherhand, remember that Halloween is a few days away and I scramble to think of what we can throw together so they can feel "dressed up" (as you can see by the picture). In case you're wondering, Logan is Luke Skywalker. He used his imagination a lot that night, but we don't think he knew that no one could tell who he was. :) Lanny of course, is Darth Vader. And Marlee is a Pooh bumble bee (found her costume the day before at a moving sale for $3). I was just glad to find something for her to wear. :) Anyway, the kids had a great time at our ward Trunk or treat, which we had the Saturday before Halloween. And I'm SO glad it wasn't Halloween day, because Logan came home from school on Halloween and started throwing up. We couldn't even blame it on too much candy because he only had one or two pieces at school that day. Then of course Lanny started in a couple days later, followed by Marlee a day or two after that. Thankgoodness for our trustworthy barf bucket (an old gallon ice cream bucket). So needless to say, we didn't do any trick or treating on the actual day of Halloween, but the kids didn't seem to mind, and they got PLENTY of candy at our ward party, so they're good for treats for a couple weeks. That's our Halloween story, I'm sure you're completely amused.

Suns open practice

2007-10-24T20:54:00.001-07:00

Bryce decided to buy Suns season tickets this year as an investment (meaning we'll sell most of them and hopefully make a good profit). Last night on our way home from our "vacation" we stopped in Phoenix for the Suns open practice. Because we are season ticket holders, we got reserved seating on the floor for the practice....we were in the second row from the court. The kids loved seeing the Suns gorilla and he came by to give them fives. There was such fun entertainment, Logan was going crazy.

As you can see, we got a real close-up look at the players in person....we have to admit we were a little star-struck as we are major Suns fans. Bryce was in heaven. We sort of felt out of our league because we don't really fit the season ticket holders mold. There was a meeting before the practice on being a season ticket holder and there were all sorts of fancy looking people there. I had to go to the bathroom and a worker from that meeting escorted me there personally to make sure I could find it ok (I just expected him to point the way and tell me good luck). It felt funny being treated so well. It was a fun night, and hopefully something we'll do as a family tradition each year. Go Suns!!!

Fall Break

2007-10-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

This week is fall break for Logan, so we decided to go to Nanny and Papa's house for "vacation." I put vacation in quotes because, for me a vacation would be without my kids, right? A vacation away from my job. Oh well. It was nice to have a change of scenery anyway. Nanny and Papa have a mile-long tub from the 70's, so we decided to throw all three kids in together. Even though Logan is a little big for that, they all had such a blast splashing and laughing. Thanks to Nanny and Papa for hosting our family vacation. :)

We still love his chubbies

2007-10-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

I just love the many faces Landon can make with his chubbies. I'll be sad when they thin out and we can't play with them anymore. He looks like a baby kitten in the one. Silly Landon.

Princess Leah and Luke Skywalker

2007-10-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Logan loves to have light saber battles, and would have them all day if he could find someone willing to play along. Anytime the battle starts, Marlee comes up whining to play along. So we give her a light saber and she's so happy. She even moves it side to side like she's fighting too. It's very cute.

Hide-and-seek Marlee

2007-10-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Marlee will "go missing" for a few minutes and I have to wonder why it's so quiet. Recently I've found it's best to look first in the bathroom. She goes in, usually in the dark, and sits on this little stool and plays with the bath supplies. Thankfully she can't open the lids by herself yet, but I'm sure that's coming soon. We'll have to put the safetly latches on asap, darn it. She's so cute when she's sitting there in the dark, and gets this cute look on her face when I find her, like "look what I discovered, and you caught me!"

Love you, BYE!

2007-10-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Every time either Bryce or I leave in the car to go anywhere, these three line up on the couch to sign "I love you" then wave "bye bye." If we drive off without signing "love you, bye" back to them, they fall apart and cry forever....."call him, make him come back, I wanted to say love you bye bye....please call him, make him come back!" Needless to say, we don't usually forget to sign and wave. :) We don't want to invoke the belly-achin' on the other spouse stuck at home. :)

Lightning McQueen

2007-10-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Logan always picks out tomatoes from his dinner because "they're gross"---the other day he picked this one out. After he finished the rest of his food, he was looking intently at this tomato. He said "hey guys, this tomato looks like Lightning McQueen!" Sure enough, it does look like the profile of the "Cars" star. :) The basil even happened to be in the right place for the tire. We thought it was pretty funny.

Rub-a-dub-dub

2007-09-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

We've never given Marlee a bath with the boys before, because the boys have always bathed together (and 3's a crowd). But Logan is having his own baths now, because he's a big boy of course. So we plopped Landon and Marlee in together and Marlee thought it was the funnest thing ever. She squealed and splashed and had so much fun. Landon thought it was a blast to be taking a bath with sissy too....so novel for both of them! Marlee discovered that she can make "toot" noises with the ducky in the tub by squeezing it with the hole on her wet squishy leg (she does have minimal amounts of leg chub, believe it or not). She just laughed and laughed and laughed every time she did it. We got that one on video (unfortunately our camera isn't digital, so I couldn't post that cuteness here). Rub-a-dub-dub, two silly gomers in the tub.

Lullaby Lammers

2007-09-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

So Landon has been in a phase of sometimes taking naps, sometimes not. Lately I've been giving him the choice of sleeping in his bed, or playing quietly in his room with toys (either way, I still get MY quiet time). He always chooses to play quietly with his toys. The past few days he's been REALLY REALLY quiet in his room. And every time I go in to tell him he can come out (which is about an hour after I haven't heard him at all), I find him here, just like this (not always wearing the hat though, this time was too funny to not take a picture):

Book of Mormon Stories

2007-09-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite things to see is Logan reading Book of Mormon stories to Landon and Marlee. He only needs help with a few words, but he does a great job. They do this together every night for family scripture study. We sit nearby to help explain whats going on, but Logan reads for the family. It's fun when they actually remember the Book of Mormon characters and what their stories are.

Off the subject, but just FYI.....Marlee had her second Echocardiogram today. The hole in her heart looks the same, and the right side of her heart is still enlarged. The left side is supposed to be bigger than the right, but in her heart, the right is about twice the size as the left. The good news though is that the left side is supposed to be shaped like a donut, which hers is. If the right gets so big that it forces the left to shape into a "D" shape, then we'll have to act sooner about it. But so far so good. She'll meet with the cardiologist in one month and he'll discuss the Echo with us further (the lady who did the Echo told me this info today). But everything is about the same as what we knew before, no better, but no worse either that I know of. We'll keep you posted!

I've been tagged--7 random facts about me

2007-09-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Kristi to share 7 random facts about me, so here it goes...

1. I always sneeze just after putting something minty in my mouth (mouthwash, gum, you name it).

2. I eat my dinners at lunchtime and my lunches at dinnertime, because I can't wait until 6pm to eat a big yummy meal.

3. I call people "stupid idiots" when I'm driving....(terrible habit that has rubbed off onto Logan, poor kid....I'm a bad mom sometimes) :(

4. I have nightmares about my teeth coming loose and falling out.

5. I'm pretty good at Polynesian dancing, for a white girl. :)

6. I have Batesbutt syndrome--(My butt is disproportionately larger than the rest of my body, makes me ANGRY!!).

7. I could talk about the "Twilight" series for hours, and I wish the characters were real. :)

Now I'd like to tag Jen and Erin to share random thoughts about themselves on their blogs!

Brothers

2007-09-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

Since Logan has started school, he and Landon seem to get along so much better. Maybe absence really does makes the heart grow fonder. :)

Landon's birthday

2007-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Landon's birthday was August 14th, and he wanted to have a Superman cake. He also LOVES Toy Story, so he got Woody and Jessie. He was SO excited to go to McDonald's AND Peter Piper Pizza (we did PPP for Logan's birthday and spent way too much for yucky pizza that no one wanted to eat, so we ate at McDonalds and played at PPP--MUCH cheaper). So his b-day had a "variety" theme. :) He tells everyone we see that he's "thaweeeeee" now, and holds up his three fingers. He's so cute, we love our Lanny.

Elmo and Grandma Bates

2007-09-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken when I was home in Nyssa, OR for my 10 year reunion in July. Marlee is cuddling with Grandma Bates (Marlee has Gma Bates' name, Rebecca, for her middle name). Marlee also loves Elmo. In fact, "Elmo" has been one of her newest words, along with "baby," "hot," "up," "bye-bye," "no-no," "mama," and "dada." (Not to mention the 12 other words she can sign, little smarty).

MY Man!

2007-09-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is a blog copycat, but I liked the idea and thought I'd share a little about "us"

MY MAN:

Who is your man? Bryce Jared McBride

How long have you been together? 8 1/2 years

Dating/Engaged/Married? dated 10 months /engaged 2.5 months/ married 7 1/2 years

How old is your man? 30

Who eats more? I would love to say Bryce but we probably eat the same most the time

Who said "I love you" first? Bryce knew I loved him before he loved me, but he was the first to say it.....I hated being patient. :)

Who weighs more? Bryce, thank goodness

Who sings better? I would have to say Bryce, but we sound pretty good together.

Who's Older? Bryce

Who's smarter? Depends on the subject

Who's temper is worse? We both have short tempers, but when I'm pregnant, mine is much worse!!

Who does the laundry? Oh solo mio!

Who does the dishes? Mostly me, but he lovingly takes a turn now and then.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're standing at the foot of the bed facing it, I sleep on the right

Who's feet are bigger? Bryce's by far---size 12!

Who's hair is longer? Mine

Who's better with the computer? Bryce by a million

Who mows the lawn? Mostly Bryce, but I've taken a turn or two

Who pays the bills? Bryce makes the $$, I manage it

Who cooks dinner? I do, but Bryce is good about doing it here and there too

Who drives when you are together? Bryce--he gets car sick when someone else drives

Who pays when you go out to dinner? Bryce

Who's the most stubborn? We both are a little, but I'm probably worse

Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong? Bryce, he's such a good man

Who's parents do you see more? Bryce's--they live LOTS closer than mine

Who kissed who first? Bryce kissed me....he told me to close my eyes and stick out my lips

Who asked who out? Technically, Bryce asked me first, but I was totally the first one to pursue a conversation/relationship with him

What did you do? We ate at some restaurant by Movies 8 in Provo, then saw Patch Adams at Movies 8 with Enoch and Dan.

Who's more sensitive? He is more sensitive to my feelings than I am to his

Who's taller? Bryce by a mile, ok, really by only 10 inches

Who has more friends? Me

Who has more siblings? Me, by 10

Who wears the pants in the relationship? We each have one leg in the pants

Logan's First Day of School

2007-09-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Logan started school a few weeks ago, but I had to blog his first day pictures. His teacher is Mrs. Vega and he is definitely the minority in his classroom. He's learning all sorts of spanish. In fact, the other day he came home and was working on his homework. I told him "you only have five more letters to trace," so he counted them "uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco...si cinco!" I just had to laugh. He pronounces all his friends names with a pretty good spanish accent. It's funny. He seems to like school for the most part, and we're getting use to a quiet house during the day. :) Logan is a good kid with a good heart. We're sure glad he's in our family!

I love your chubbies!

2007-08-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

I love to squeeze Landon's chubby cheeks. I always tell him "I love your chubbies." He says "I love your chubbies too." We had to catch some of the chubby squeezes on camera. Marlee doesn't have chubby anything, so we just let her smile, and Logan just has regular kid chub, but we thought we'd give him a squeeze anyway. :)

I'm getting computer literate!

2007-08-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here's my first real post ever. I finally am figuring out how to do all this funky blog stuff. So this is my family. My silly gomers (otherwise known as hubby and kids) are Bryce (the hub), Logan(5), Landon(3), and Marlee(1). Silliness is a part of our daily lives, and we are all definitely a bunch of gomers. Hope you enjoy checking us out. I'll try to keep us updated once a week. We'll see how that goes. Happy blogging! (ps: this is the only recent family picture I can find--it's at a lake in Prescott with Nanny and Papa's rowboat).