Sunday, October 30, 2011

Hannah, continued...

Had to post this, especially since my last post was about all of the funny things Hannah does. I found this hanging in Hannah's room, underneath her bunk bed. Luckily I found it! We had them for dinner on a Monday and I found it on a Friday! I wouldn't have known what it was had it not been labeled!! hahaha

Monday, October 10, 2011

Shawn's 30-something birthday

For Shawn's birthday (36, I think!? Wow!) I surprised him with a quick trip (just the two of us!) to Las Vegas. I noticed that Kevin James and Ray Romano were going to be doing a show in Las Vegas on Shawn's birthday, so I bought tickets. It turned out to be really funny! I was a little worried it might be crude or profane, but it was relatively clean, especially Kevin James. He was hilarious. My favorite comment that he made was when he asked if any of us had tried the delicious dipping sauce that comes from the George Foreman grill! We flew to Las Vegas and stayed in the Golden Nugget hotel. It had just been remodeled and it was really fun! There was an awesome swimming pool that was set in the middle of an aquarium with huge fish and sharks! We hadn't ever visited the old strip before. Fremont Street was buzzing with all sorts of crazy people dressed as characters – everyone from Big Bird to PeeWee Herman to Ozzy Osborne! The entire street is covered with a lit screen that plays music and shows little movie-type clips. Very cool! It was fun to get away.


I wanted to get this for West.  But refrained.

Me and Chuckie on Fremont Street - I had to get this pic for Steph's kids.  Freaky!!

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Hannah's Field Trip to the Zoo

I thought that since I went with Chance on his field trip to the zoo in first grade, I should probably go with Hannah on her field trip to the zoo as well. Hannah was so excited to have West and I go down to the zoo with her. The only problem was, it was FREEZING!! It was a snowstorm! And the first grade was taking the field trip rain or shine! Luckily, I had brought West's cover for his jogging stroller. Otherwise he would have looked like the abominable snowman by the time the zoo trip was over!! I really wanted to leave early, and Hannah was crying that she was cold, but we stayed 'till the bitter end! Hopefully she has some good memories!!

West just happy to be here, enclosed by the jogging stroller cover.


Saturday, October 01, 2011

Chance's 9th Birthday

Chance's 9th Birthday
We decided to do a Nerf Gun party to celebrate Chance's 9th birthday. We held it at the LDS Church bowery that is near our house, and asked everyone to bring Nerf guns. It was utter madness. Chance invited over twenty kids and all of them came! I didn't really plan any specific games other than simple capture the flag. I also thought they could do a target practice and win a prize. Somehow target practice turned into Chance wearing the target and seeing if the kids could shoot him! Soon, everyone wanted to wear the target and have a turn! I think it turned out to be a great time. We ordered pizza and breadsticks and it was incredible how quickly it vanished. Kids were grabbing and flinging pieces of pizza right and left. If you didn't rush in to grab one, you were out of luck. We had Oreo and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for cake, because Chance isn't really a cake fan.



This picture doesn't even show half of the kids; don't ask me what I was thinking!

Mom & Loo helping with Westie, always so willing to help!!

The highlight of his birthday was receiving an iPod touch as a gift. He was not expecting one at all! It has been a really fun gift. A few days after he received it, I received a text message from him on it. I didn't know that you could text on it! Then, a few days after that, I received a call from an unknown number. To my surprise, it was Chance calling me through his iPod touch! He had figured out that he could download an App that let him call through the wireless network. It was pretty funny!


General Conference

Chance was asked if he would like to sing in General Conference with a group of children from our area. What an awesome opportunity! They chose eight kids from our ward to participate, with approximately 350 children altogether. However, the immediate problem we foresaw was a conflict with football. To play football, you must dedicate yourself to practices every day, with games every Saturday. General Conference practices were every Sunday, with a few practices on Saturdays. Chance wanted to participate in the choir, but was torn between missing games on Saturdays. Shawn and I ensured that Chance made this decision himself, because we did NOT want to be responsible for him being miserable on the days where the choir practices conflicted with football! We completely removed ourselves from the decision making process, as we did not care either way, and actually wanted him to be able to play football because we knew how much he loved it. We reassured him that we truly did not care what he decided, and that we would be happy with either choice. After careful consideration, Chance decided he would be willing to miss a few football games in order to have this amazing opportunity. After making the decision to be part of the choir, we received the choir schedule. It turned out that Chance would be able to play in every game with the exception of his last one, which was the same day as the conference performance. It turns out he made a great decision. Chance has not complained once about attending the practices, which last two hours each and require the kids to sit completely still and sing. The kids were told not to be nervous, because there were only about 7 million people who would be listening to them!! Augh!! I attended the dress rehearsal at the Conference Center and took a few pictures.



Emma Longhurst * Amanda Turner * Allison Lippert * Mikell Manning

Oskar Petersen * Anderson Clements * Seth Adams * Streamer Redd

We were offered one ticket per family through the choir to see the performance. We decided to stay home and watch conference on TV with Hannah and West. An attorney I work with, Steve Bednar, offered us some of Elder David Bednar's conference tickets because Elder Bednar is speaking in the same session as the children's choir, but Steve was then later told that the tickets could only be used by Elder Bednar's family members. The tickets were on the 7th row of the conference center, which probably would have been the only place we could have sat and actually had a good view of Chance! Another attorney I worked with who was called to the Seventy, Elder LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr., is speaking in the same session.

I am watching the conference session right now from the comfort of my own home. I am feeling so emotional as I see the children sing! I have seen Chance's cute little face a few times. The kids look and sound absolutely beautiful. I am so proud of all of them, and I hope Chance will remember this experience throughout his life.