Discovery

I have a million things I should be doing right now, but I decided I need to catch up on some blogging...or stop having fun.

We discovered the Discovery Gateway, which is our children's museum in downtown Salt Lake. We've never gone, because admission is ridiculously expensive, but they were having a great New Year's special on 6 month memberships, so we gave in. We love it and in the two weeks we've had a membership we've gone enough for it to have paid for itself. I'm so happy to have an indoor play option for those days when I can't handle looking at my living room walls for another minute.

The whole family went for the first time two Saturdays ago. It was kinda crazy and busy, being a Saturday, but it was fun.

Hannah's favorite is the play house. She'd probably stay in there all day if we let her. She's the pink shirted one in the background pushing the stroller.

Luckily for us, Ben is good at entertaining himself.

She loves this baby. Every time she comes, she finds this baby and plays with him the whole time she's in the house.

Next we went into the under 3 area. I love it because it's a little out of the way and there are couches for the parents and toys for babies and littler kids. I WISH she'd stay HERE all day!

This was Ben's favorite part too.

But all good things come to an end and she went off to discover the water.

And Ben found more fun things to do in the stroller.

She tried to escape in her little car, unfortunately she was caught.

We only stayed for a couple of hours, but we were worn out by the end.

I have more pictures from our next trip, but Google has just informed me that I'm out of free storage. Stay tuned...

The Awesomest Saturday Ever

The third week of January we really didn't do anything. I was so tired, I could barely get off the couch most days. I still am not sure what it was. I'm trying really hard to take off some weight so I was staying completely away from sugar and white flour. That should have left me with more energy, but I think I was having trouble getting through my days without my regular sugar-highs.

I feel like I redeemed my lazy-momness just a little on Saturday. We had the most fun day! Back in November we participated in our local Public Broadcasting Station's reading marathon. The kids had to read (be read to) for 8 hours in 3 weeks. I figured it would be a piece of cake, but it was actually a little bit of a stretch for us. The reward at the end was a "Super Reader Party." Each kid could only bring one parent and I wanted Devan to be able to go too, so I did the reading with both the kids. They very rarely would both sit happily at the same time, however, so I read more like 12 hours over those 3 weeks. Still not that much, but remember, lazy-mom.

We finished our reading the first week of December and on January 22 the day of the party finally came. Of course, Devan ended up having to work that day, so Ben went over to Nana's house and Hannah and I got a Mommy/Daughter Date. 

I didn't know what to expect, but it was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a whole bunch of different vendors advertising, but they each had something really fun for the kids to do.

We touched fossils...

And met this huge dog.

She helped paint Big Bird...

And dug for dinosaur eggs. She loves dinosaurs and loves the little baby dinosaur that she discovered in the egg. But it's small and black and I keep thinking it's a piece of poop when I find it on the floor.

She made a cape.

Made a name bracelet...

Met a chinchilla...

And Curious George!

We're now growing sunflowers in our living room. We have 5 little sprouts. It's so exciting to get to water them and see them grow every day!

After the party, we picked up our boys and headed down to Provo for one of my dearest friends, Lisa's daughter Maddie's Elmo birthday party!

Ben is just 6 weeks older than little Makenzie. So cute!

I was so worried that Hannah was going to have a hard time not getting any presents and having to give one away, but she did great. She is getting super excited about her 3rd birthday though. We talk about it every day.

From there we went to Chad and Ashley's for a game night. Hannah needing to learn delayed gratification only lasted for about 2 hours because they had Christmas presents waiting for us.

They are far more kind to us than we deserve.

We had such a fun night. We probably ignored our kids more than was responsible, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

The Second Week of January

Monday we went ice skating. Hannah has improved a lot since the first time we took her nearly a year ago. We didn't do a video of her with the "walker" last year, but she couldn't stay up on it for 5 seconds before. Look now! Double chick to watch the video on youtube so that it isn't half cut off.

We didn't do a whole lot during the week. The kids had colds and I got these great pictures of Mr. Ben...

He learned how to get up on all fours and rock back and forth this day, but I didn't catch it in the pictures.

Another day, Hannah and I made these snowmen during Ben's nap. I did all the hats, scarves, and noses. She did all the painting and made all the faces except for the very last one.

Ben woke up before we were quite finished, but he waited patiently.

And of course, I broke eye contact with Hannah for 30 seconds and this happened...

On Friday night, Hannah's best friend Arianna and her brother got to come over and play. Devan was so nice and took care of the babies and I got to do the fun girl stuff. 

I love it so much!

Saturday we had dinner at a friend's house and Hannah got to play with her friend Timothy and a giant dog. I think it was her favorite night ever.

We played this great game called reverse charades where the whole team acts out a word and one person has to guess the word. And you may notice Hannah in the background. Yes, even when we're guests in someone's home, my children are never fully dressed.

Sunday I sang a solo in church. I haven't even sung in a small group since high school and I don't think back then I ever sung a solo at church. I was scared, especially since the kids were both sick that week. I kept feeling the cold coming on, but every time I felt a sniffle or hint of a sore throat, I'd chug some water. I think I drank 20 cups of water before I sang Sunday at 1:30 and I made it through. I sang, "I Need Thee Every Hour," and my sweet sister-in-law accompanied me. It was a good, scary experience and I'm glad it's over.