Wicked

Can I just tell you HOW FABULOUS this play was?

WONDERFUL!!! I LOVED it!!! I can't wait to go again!

(I have been busy with family around, but I will post some more soon)

Our Trip

We had a lot of fun this last week at the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so nice to have Nate's undivided attention for a few days and to spend some quality time with just our little family. The kids loved staying at the lodge and Dylan keeps asking to go on another trip. Here are some pictures. Enjoy:

Cassie looking up at a big bear. Dylan was a little scared to go near it.

Dylan above and Cassie below, both being frogs.

Cassie LOVED the water. Especially these little fountains. (ignore the random unknown leg)

Water splashing down on Dylan.

Playing on a snake.

After forcing Dylan down the big slides 2 times, we decided the kicking and screaming wasn't worth it, so we settled with these 2 slides (above and below) for the majority of the day. (So much fun for mom and dad!)

A cute Cassie.

The water park got old after a while, so we played in the arcade room a little. It was more fun then I thought it would be. The kids loved sitting on everything, we didn't even have to waste coins on those rides!

Nate trying to beat my basketball score. He won.

These indoor water park/hotels are all over the Midwest. I think they would do really well in the West. Mostly, because when we move closer to home we want to have one nearby. They are so much fun! We stayed at the lodge for 3 days and were entertained inside the whole time. We wanted to go on the tubing hill nearby, but it was way too cold for the kids. Maybe next year.

Great Wolf Lodge

Tomorrow we are going here for a couple of days:

Hopefully, we can enjoy some of this:

And this:

And this too:

We are very excited and so are the kids. We went to a similar place like this last year and had so much fun!

Sliced Oranges

FINALLY, a break through! My kids NEVER eat oranges. Or most any other fruit, as a matter of fact. Until today. Instead of spending 10 minutes of making an icky sticky mess of trying to peel an orange, of which I very much detest, and it being rejected from 2 picky little eaters, I decided to try something new. I sliced the oranges. And did it make a difference? Yes. The 3 of us ate 4 oranges in just a few minutes.

And why didn't I think of this before?

Not Much

We haven't been up to much this last week, hence no entry as of late. It has been cold and snowy so we have been hibernating inside. I did finish reading Austenland, but it was a different style of writing then what I wanted (definitely an adult read). I am now starting Goose girl by the same Author, Shannon Hale. It is another children/teen novel and will be good I think.

On Saturday, I was in charge of directing one of the road shows that our youth in the Stake puts on every year. Yes, I know what you are thinking: "Brianne...directing a road show...wow". That is what I thought at first too, but I couldn't say no. I really really really wanted to back out but I didn't. And it turned out really cute too. I am not used to being in charge of so many kids and they ALL listen to me! It was great. At one point in the day (it was an ALL day event. Since our stake is so spread out they had all the practicing and assigning parts that same day, which made for a very long day). But anyway, at one point in the day, I called home to see how Nate and the kids were doing and he said, "Oh fine, we are just watching The Lord Of The Rings right now". Oh. Great. I am sure the kids were loving that. And they did. Dylan has been asking every day since if he can watch "daddy's movie". Great.

As you can tell, I am just trying to waste space so that this will count as an entry.

Here is a little something funny:

Cassie can talk pretty well for her age. I think. But she calls Dylan "Na na" for some reason. I don't know why. And this really REALLY bugs Dylan. They will be playing really nice and all will be happy when all of a sudden Dylan bursts out yelling "STOP CALLING ME NA NA!" or "MY NAME IS NOT NA NA". This has caused many problems in our home. We are trying to teach Dylan that Cassie is very little and just learning her words. We are also trying to teach Cassie how to properly say "D-y-l-a-n". She knows this bugs him too, because when he gets mad at her she giggles and says "Na na" and then giggles some more. Silly little girl. It is hard for Nate and I not to laugh when this happens.

Okay, that is enough. I will try to get some more interesting things going on here soon.

Reading

I haven't been able to get into any book since I finished the Twilight series a few months ago. So, after a couple of people suggested the author Shannon Hale, I decided to look into her and found out that she is fabulous. Just fabulous. I went to the library on Monday, got this book, and finished it last night. I know what you are thinking. My poor children were neglected. And they were, a little. But I will do better.

I also checked out this book:

Which I will start in a couple of days. I don't like to read books super fast (unlike the one above), I like to stretch them out and enjoy them as long as I can stand. But she is a great author. Some of her books are found in the children's section, like The Princess Academy, but don't let that stop you! It was a great read.

Our basement is finished!!!

YAY!!!!!!!! Our carpet was put in Thursday and we now have a finished basement!

We are so happy to have more room in our home and a place for all the toys. Our house isn't very big, so this will be nice when friends come over and all the kids can play downstairs (hopefully) and not be crammed in Dylan's room.

We have hardly put anything down there yet, mostly because we hardly have anything too put down there. It seems like everyone in my family has furniture to give away, but living thousands of miles away from them doesn't help any. So... we are stuck with mr. poof pillow for now (which, I might add, for my aunt and uncle, washed up very nicely and didn't shrink (we didn't put it in the drier)).

Oh, and the ping pong table, this is our little (I mean big) pride and joy that I bought at a yard sale for $10. I think I was more excited that day than I was on Christmas. And the sad thing is, I wasn't even too excited about the ping pong table, I was more excited about only getting it for $10. Yes, this is my father coming out in me again.

Dylan helped me move most of his toys down there today and he was so excited. I didn't quite know why, but he just loves being in the basement. I told him that if he didn't keep it clean down there then we have to bring his toys back up to his room. (Not really a punishment, but it worried him). So the kids played down there most of the day, which was very fabulous because I was able to get a lot of stuff done. A while later, Cassie came wondering up and Dylan was down there for quite a while by himself. I could here a lot of banging around, but didn't worry too much about it. Then tonight, I went to check downstairs and it was SPOTLESS. I couldn't believe it. It is so hard to get Dylan to clean up his messes and I was really proud of him. I had to laugh when I opened the closet door downstairs because EVERYTHING was shoved in there on top of other things. Their little couches, chairs, things that weren't even toys, etc. Silly kid.

Nate was a little too excited about the basement getting finished. He was finally able to pull his kicking bag out and take his excitement out on it. It was pretty funny. I am sure he will appreciate these pictures being on here. And...he worked so hard on learning new things and doing what he could to finish our basement. I am so proud of him!

Now hopefully this will help our house sell better next Spring...