Girls' Night Out

One of Malia’s experience gifts this past Christmas was another trip to see Disney On Ice. As expected, she was super excited, probably even more excited than last year since she knew what to expect this time. She really enjoyed the show and honestly, I think this year’s story was better than last year. Last year they spent over an hour just retelling Toy Story 3. This year they had many 5-10 minutes stories that included all the Disney princesses, Toy Story, Finding Dory, Inside Out, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, etc. I had forgotten where our seats were and was pretty excited when we arrived and I remembered that I received a rockin’ email coupon code and as a result we had great seats. When the show was over, I asked Malia about her favorite part. She said it was the whole thing. It’s always fun for me to see how excited my kiddos get when they get to experience something super cool so seeing Malia’s enthusiasm was probably the highlight for me!

Rock It!

At the end of January, Daniel and his jazz band took first place in the high school battle of the bands. Today they participated in the regional competition and took second place. From here they go on to the state competition next month and they were featured in a local newspaper article. It is kind of fun to see him in print!

I’m Not Lion, It Was a Great Day!

Matthew, Malia and I went on an off-track adventure this morning. We haven’t been to the zoo for awhile and two new polar bears have recently moved to the zoo so we went to see them. We arrived just as the zoo was opening and for the first hour, the only people we saw were zoo keepers. Honestly, it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. It was also breakfast time for the animals so we got to see them noshing on their varied breakfast eats. Even the lions, who are normally just lounging out in the sun, were enthusiastically partaking. They had settled in right next to the glass so we got an up close and personal view of them. It was pretty cold when we arrived, but as we’ve discovered in the past, the animals seem to be more active when it is cooler and pretty much all of them were eating, playing or roaming their habitats. It was a great day to be at the zoo!

Woot! Woot!

Today we received Notification that Matthew has qualified for the State Geography Bee! I’m so proud of him!

The Kind of Things Nathan Does When He’s Bored

He’s in His Prime!

Matthew has turned eleven! Although sometimes I forget how old he is because he small for his age, he really is on the cusp of being a young man!

As usual, we had a threefold celebration. We celebrated with my family last Sunday. It was also the day we celebrated Chinese New Year so Matthew opted for Chinese almond cookies rather than cake. We did arrange them in a big eleven and we even stuck candles in them. Matthew, who is determined so show everyone that he really isn’t a little boy anymore, even lit his own candles…although he did accidentally blow a bunch out when he blew out the first match. 😉

Matthew’s real birthday was yesterday and we had a little celebration at home. We stacked up doughnuts, lit some more candles, and sang again. We also gave him his presents. He got a little Bluetooth speaker, BYU socks and  BYU football jersey from Kevin and I, a new set of ukulele strings from Nathan and a ukulele stand from Malia.

Today he had a shindig with some of his besties. He wanted to go bowling so he invited a handful of cronies and we fed them lunch and cupcakes before Kevin took them to the bowling alley. Easy party for me, fun party for Matthew!

I remember that when Matthew was born, I thought I had boys all figured out. I already had two so adding another to the mix would be no big deal, right? I also recall that Matthew totally threw me for a loop. He was, and still is, his own person. His interests are different from both Daniel’s and Nathan’s and he has his own way of doing just about everything. But honestly, it is a good thing. He is stubborn and determined and doesn’t let much of anything get in his way. He is forging his own path and is the child that reminded me how to laugh. I love him for that. I had gotten far too serious by the time he came around and he made every day an adventure. He has been an amazing addition to our family and in spite of the struggles that have come along with all his allergies, I definitely wouldn’t trade him for someone else.

It Was a Love/Hate Thing

Over the past few years, Daniel and Nathan have gotten a lot braver about trying new foods and have discovered that they like many of the new things they try. Matthew is also a bit braver, but still errs on the side of caution. Malia is still firmly in her picky food stage as well as her allergen induced caution. As a result, I was enormously surprised when she actually agreed to try several new (to her) things this evening. The first was wontons, which got an enthusiastic thumbs up. The second was a piece of gau (which I love and which is totally weird to anyone who wasn’t raised on it). She was enthusiastic at the outset but quickly decided that it “isn’t right.” I was fine with that, proud of her for at least trying it. I thought she had finished it but was proven wrong when I discovered ten minutes later that she was still holding it in her mouth. I gave her a napkin to spit it out and then she moved on to Chinese Almond Cookies.

So gau was a no go, but she loves wontons!

Apparently, Santa Chose Just the Right Present This Year