Catsup

Oh wait I mean Catch up! That's right I need to catch up! I haven't blogged in a while and I've thought so many times I want to write this down! So here it goes a long catch up post!

Valentines day! For the the first time we really did Valentines day. I don't normally buy into Valentines day. I just feel it's a lame excuse for cooperate America to suck more money out of you, on flowers that magically quadruple in price, and chocolates. I even saw a commercial for a heart shaped pizza that could be delivered to your door. Will someone please tell me how a heart shaped pizza says I love you? Anyway I think Brent and I both do a really good job of showing our love to each other through out the year so Valentines day has never been a big deal. We might go out to dinner, but NEVER on V-day, too crowded and crazy. But this year a friend of mine had a great idea for a gift and I figured if I'm doing a gift maybe we can just do a full blown V-day. So we did. All be it over the course of like 2 weeks! LOL We got a room at a nice resort in Scottsdale which thanks to priceline was only $64! Great deal for a 4 star resort! (This was more for practicality then romance initially. We want to redo our floors since the carpet is trashed. We decided why not do it V-day weekend and get a room since we won't be able to walk on them for 3 days when we are done. But we have put the floors on hold due to "funding" for the moment and so then the room was kind of unnecessary but could not be canceled because it was booked on priceline! Way to go! So we were forced to have a romantic night out! Silly)Then we spent the day window shopping at the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall. Some guy actually tried to sell Brent a 2.5 million dollar watch. That's right I said MILLION!!! Who? Why? When? Would anyone buy that watch? Beats me but apparently this sales man thought Brent might be the guy. Crazy! Brent made me a delicious dinner on V-day. And the next week we went to The Melting Pot for dinner! It is a wonderful fondue restaurant that we have hear people rave about. We've wanted to go but it's pretty pricey. Well we got a gift certificate and some coupons for Christmas and so we decided to go for V-day. It lived up to all the hype! It was delicious! And a wonderful dining experience! We ate for 2 1/2 hrs!!!! I was so full when we were done I could barley move or breath! It was very private and romantic! Perfect night out for a special occasion. Although I'd love to go with some friends, that could be really fun too! Although I don't know that we would go for the "big night out" again if we didn't have a gift certificate and coupons. Since the total was $130 for the two of us once we left a tip!!! So V-day was lots of fun but I still don't think I'm sold on the whole concept of flowers and chocolates cheesy cards etc! Just say I love you and do sweet things all year and that's good enough with me!

You are definitely going to think we are crazy when you read this next part. Last week we babysat 7 kids at one time, 3 of them were 1 yr. old! I was a little worried despite the fact that I'm the oldest of 7 and I've had lots of experience babysititng a lot of kids at once. But they were never all very young! The oldest was 8 followed by 5, 4, 3 and then 4 1 yr olds! But I am proud to report that when the parents arrived no one was seriously injured, all children were alive and happy. Two of the kids were in bed. All were in their pj's and had teeth brushed. The house was clean. And call the kids were calmly listening to a story! Yes we gave ourselves a big pat on the back. As well as saying, "man when we have 1 it will be a piece of cake!" Now we get another "parenting test" this week. The parents of the family I nanny for are going to be out of town starting tomorrow morning and they will be getting back Tuesday evening. So 4 kids 24-7 for almost a week! Wish us luck! I'm not really that concerned I'm with these kids all the time. I love them and they are great kids. I'm mostly worried about Sunday, 8 am church is going to be painful! Especially since Brent and I have a hard time getting to church on time just the two of us! And dealing with 1 yr old twins! Yikes! Thankfully my sweet friend Mary said her and her hubby would sit with us during church! It will be interesting since Brent teaches Sunday School and I'm in Young Womens. Not quite sure how that is going to work! Also Thurs and Mon nights will be fun since Brent will have class both nights so I'll get to do dinner and bed time by myself. Anyone want to come hang out??? LOL I told Brent if we survive 7 hrs with 7 kids and 6 days with 4 we should be pretty confidant that parenting will be ok!

I also don't think I've mentioned on here that I'm going to be the camp director for my ward this year! I'm so excited! I LOVED camp as a young women and hope to be able to help them have as great an experience as I had. I'm sure it will be a lot of work, but at this point I'm wondering what I even need to do! I guess I'll figure it out!

So look for updates of if we survived this coming week and how girls camp plans are coming!

*WARNING*

Watch the DIY (do it yourself) network at your own risk. Doing so may induce thoughts of ones ability to do home improvement projects by them self! The following is the result of watching the DIY network!

Before

(ok so we forgot to take before pics and this is all we got!)

During

Tearing up the laminate

Where the toilet used to be.

Protective gear

The toilet found a new home in the entry way for about a week!

After

Ta Da!

Learning

I love that the little ones I get to play with are constantly learning and saying cute things. Example during our ride home from preschool the other day the following conversation took place.

Gavin: Terina you know what I want to be when I grow up?
Me: Gavin what do you want to be?
Gavin: I want to be a policeman & a builder.
Me: That is great! Gavin those are both really great things to be!
McKinley: I want to be Tinker Bell & Aurora!
Me: Kinney that is awesome!
Gavin: Kinney you can't be that!
McKinley: Yes I CAN!
Gavin: No you can't they are not real!
McKinley: Terina tell Gavin I can be Tinker Bell & Aurora! *spoken with tears in her voice*
Me: Gavin if McKinley wants to be Tinker Bell & Aurora when she grows up then she can! McKinley, you can be what ever you want, you already are a princess so Tinker Bell & Aurora will not be a problem!

Then we talked about how Gavin's B-day is coming up he tells me how he's going to be older!
McKinley: Terina I'm older now, before I was older I was I was baby like Gage & Marley. And before that I was in Mommy's tummy!
Me: (with a laugh) Yes McKinley that's right you were. Then seeing a teaching opportunity I ask "Where were you before you were in Mommy's tummy?"
Both Gavin & McKinley *confused silence* I don't know where?
Me: You were with Heavenly Father in heaven!
Gavin: Oh yeah that's right! I learned that in primary, there's a song about that.
McKinley: I think Heavenly Father tickled us! A lot!!
Me: Silent hysteric laughter!
Gavin: I think he must have changed our diapers too! Man that must have been a lot of diapers!
Me: Uncontrolled laughter! Where do they come up with these things?!?!?!?!?!?