Maggie's B'day Theme

Last night we were talking with Margaret about her upcoming birthday party. We were trying to come up with a theme for her friend birthday party and Maggie says, "Well, I think I'll have an ass party." Matt said, "What?" And she responded, "Well, it's kind of like a donkey."

We have no idea where this came from, but I have found myself laughing throughout the day as I have thought about it. She's a funny kid.

I think we have decided on a Toy Story 3 party instead. I'm not sure if any of her little friends would enjoy an "ass" party. Whatever that is.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend. We started it in St. George on Saturday night with trick or treating with all the grandkids on my side of the family. The little girls, Maggie, Anna, Paige, Juliette, Claire and Kate were mermaids, (compliments of Chelsea's superb sewing skills) Parker was the headless horseman, Cami was a butterfly and Andrew was a pirate (but if you ask Paige, he was her Prince Eric). The baby boy's were lobsters. Jen's neighborhood is like a movie set when it comes to Halloween. One street was blocked off, their was kettle corn being freshly popped, complimentary water bottles, fresh donuts and the houses were decorated fantastically. It was a lot of fun. Kate and Parker went off on their own with cousins and the rest of us trick or treated with the littler ones. Three year olds are the perfect age for trick or treating. They love it, but they don't mind if they don't stay out for hours. It's great. The three little mermaids were funny with each other. Pretending they were under the sea. And having conversations about their sea friend, Fish and Chips. Hilarious. William understood the concept of trick or treating pretty soon after we started. He was in his stroller the entire time, but Matt would take him up to the door, the person would give him candy and he would promptly dig it out of his bucket. He had a sucker in his mouth the entire night.

On Halloween night we went to Melinda and Peter's for dinner and trick or treating in a neighborhood near their house. Our weekend was busy, but lots of fun for the kids.

The GAP, cont.

I sent GAP the post I wrote the other day and I guess I created a stir.

First off, I know the entire situation was partly my fault. I knew that the stroller was a display item and I wasn't supposed to use it. I was just trying to to make the best out of a very chaotic situation.

So here is what happened. Yesterday I got an email from corporate apologizing for the employee's rudeness. Today I received an email from the store manager asking if he could call and talk about what happened. I emailed him my number and he quickly responded with a phone call. He had actually witnessed what happened with the sales associate and asked me if I was a woman with two children who was wearing glasses. I guess after she yelled at me in front of all the customers in line, he went up to her and told her that her response was inappropriate and shouldn't have occurred the way it did. We chatted for awhile, he asked if they could compensate me somehow and I told him I was fine and would continue to shop at GAP. They didn't need to give me any type of gift card or coupon to make it up to me. Like I said, it was partly my fault for not being prepared. He said that it was only his third day as the store manager at that store and mine wasn't the only instance of an employee being rude to a customer. And that they were having a special employee meeting today to address the situation. I sure hope he didn't get in trouble for my complaint, he didn't do it. He was very nice. About 10 minutes ago I got an email from the district manager making sure that I was happy with how things were handled. I assured him that I am perfectly fine, do not hold a grudge and that I would continue to spend my money at their store.

Moral of this story...the Gap takes complaints seriously and tries to make amends in any way possible. I am impressed.

The GAP

I like to shop at the GAP. It's not too fancy, but not downright cheap either...although today it was downright cheap. If you used your GAP silver card, you got 45% off your entire purchase. Deal, right? And if you paid with cash you got 40% off. So Maggie, Will and I went after art class today. Wow was it crowded. I didn't have a stroller and William screamed at me most of the time because I wouldn't let him down to destroy all the displays. So while I was in baby gap I saw their stroller on display and decided it needed a test ride. I put Will in it, the stuff I was going to purchase on top and my bag of stuff that I needed to exchange on the handle bar (they wouldn't hold it for me behind the counter while I shopped because of "liability" issues). I start pushing the stroller (thinking that I am so smart to use theirs) and the lady behind the counter yells at me, "mam, mam you can't use that, it is for sale." I quickly looked back at her and said, "Yes, I know, I'm trying it out to see if I like it." She rolled her eyes and continued helping the 12 people that were in line. I used the stroller for a few more minutes, not nearly as long as I would have liked to, and then got Will out and hefted him and the clothes around for the remainder of my shopping trip.

I was pretty annoyed. This is the lady who is always working when I shop. She knows my kids names (sad, I know) and also knows that I actually buy things there at the regular prices. I am not a sale only kind of gal. It's not like I was going to walk out of the store with the stroller, I simply wanted to borrow it. And I'm pretty sure that I spend enough money there to justify the loan of a stroller for 15 minutes, so I could spend even more money at their store.

Moral of the story, sometimes a discount isn't worth the hassle. Be prepared. Why was my stroller not in my car? (another story for another time) And the GAP needs to work on their customer service a little bit.

LOVE Him

will 14 months

he says:

hi

mama

dada

puppy

pumpkin (pupin)

ball

kay

ba ba

go

(he says this a lot, especially when we are in the car)

he loves:

throwing balls (and lots of other things)

his blanket

peek-a-boo

to point, either with his own finger or the pointer stick he is holding above

dad

mom

grandpa bruce

i love that:

he squeezes between the cabinets and me and stretches out his arms so i will pick him up

he sleeps all night and until about 8:30 every morning

he likes the car

he loves to wrestle

his personality:

he's stubborn

but happy

he throws tantrums, throws things and yells when he doesn't get his way

he doesn't cry when he wakes up in the morning or from his naps,

mostly just yells for someone to come and get him

when he gets excited he stomps his feet like he is marching.

he likes to dance, which also includes stomping his feet

NASCAR

Getty Images

I haven't posted about NASCAR lately...

Matt and I went to the Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. I swear WT activities/sports are the best. And the people watching doesn't get any better. I like to think that I don't fit the NASCAR fan stereotype. But if I do, I don't really care. It's fun. Matt and I have been to quite a few races in all the different NASCAR series and the people at each race are so different. And the difference between going to a race in the South and one in the West is like night and day. At this race if you were over 60 and a female you weren't required to wear a bra, or so it seemed. The people are almost more interesting than the race. Almost.

We are down to the last 8 races of the season in the Sprint Cup series. Our favorite, Carl Edwards is doing well. He's not leading the points, but he still has a chance at the championship. We don't like Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch or Brad Keselowski. We always kind of hope they wreck out of the race.

Rambling

Life has been busy...

I'm Kate's soccer coach this season, don't laugh. Okay laugh, it's pretty funny. I get my arthritic body out there, stretch, kind of run and kick the ball around with the girls. Other than the chaotic scheduling, so that I don't have to take all the kids to practice or games with me, it is pretty fun. And I get to spend time with just Kate, which is great.

Speaking of Kate she is loving middle school. Her day starts early, 7:40. Her dad takes her to school every morning and I pick her up when school is out. I went to her school open house with her last week and her school and teachers seem nice. We've made a deal with her that if she gets straight A's first semester, she gets to have a cell phone. I know, we are way behind the other kids her age. We've been putting off the inevitable. I hope she gets all A's. I will feel better if she has a phone and can contact me if any of those scary kids she goes to school with bother her.

Scary kids. Middle schoolers are scary. Well, most of them. Is it only the mother's that notice that? I'm pretty sure Kate doesn't. And 8th grade boys. Do you remember 8th grade boys. I do!

It's weird to only have one child in elementary school. Parker's best friend moved away over the summer and he seems to be adjusting to school without him okay. He is really liking third grade. He got into the GATE program and is really happy about it. The first day of school he came home with a letter asking me for permission to test him for the program. He and I talked about what it was and he was hoping he would get in. No joke, he checked the mail every day for the results to his test. I was really worried that he might not get in and be VERY disappointed. Luckily that didn't happen. He started the program this week and they built boats out of tape and straws and learned about water displacement. He gets to go to GATE for an hour and a half twice a week. I think it will be really good for Parker. He seems to be a bit bored in school and can use the extra challenge. As well as we told him that they don't allow children who misbehave to be in the program. So, no behavior issues so far.

Margaret started preschool and LOVES it. She is learning to write her letters and even has homework, which makes her feel very grown up. She also has art class on Monday and dance class on Thursday and Friday. We keep busy with all of that. She is quite a handful these days with whining and being stubborn. She is also a chatterbox. And if she isn't talking she is singing. I called my parents the other day just so she could have someone else to talk to. Sometimes my ears hurt. She still makes me laugh all of the time.

William is so adorable and so busy. He gets into everything. I had an epiphany the other day. I never knew why it seemed that the baby of all families is kind of spoiled and a bit entitled (please don't take offense if you are the baby of your family, this is a generalization). We were at Sam's and Will was yelling at me for not giving him the box of crackers I had put in the cart. Maggie tried to give him each item she could reach until she got him to stop yelling. So here was my epiphany, the baby of the family is spoiled by the older siblings, not the parents. If Will is unhappy and I ignore his plea for something, someone else gets it for him. He has three siblings who are at his beck and call at almost all times and can't stand to hear him cry/scream/yell. No wonder he is spoiled and yells at me when he doesn't get his way. He is not easily distracted either. When he wants something, he knows it and sticks to his guns until he gets it. Luckily he is cute and gives great open mouth kisses :)

I started working a bit from home. A good friend of ours has a business and I am doing the scheduling for his crews. And I will start doing the billing in the near future. I like having a job and working (at something other than being a mom), so I think this will be great for me. And since most of my friends have moved away, it helps to keep me busy.

We are counting down the days until Honey and Papa come home from their mission. We can't wait.

Parker's Baptism

On Septemeber 11, 2010 Parker was baptized. It was a great day. His cousin Maren and him are three months apart. We had Parker wait a couple of months to be baptized so we could have a family baptism. His Grandma Carole gave the talk on baptism and Kate gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. I thought it was great that out of all the people he could choose from to give the talk, he picked his sister. During the talks and his confirmation I noticed that Parker was paying very close attention to what was being said. Both he and Maren bore their testimonies after their confirmations. It was a special day for him and our family. After the baptism and confirmation we had a big party at the Teeples' home.

Firsts (Almost)

Almost his first unassisted steps

First Day of Preschool

Second Day of 3rd Grade (we didn't have time the first morning)

First Day of Middle School (6th grade)

Summer Vacations

From August 6th to the 28th we vacationed as much as possible.

We went to Heber, Utah for 10 days

Parker, Nick, Kate

Maggie after Seven Peaks (i forgot the camera that day)

Scera Pool

Maggie, Porter, Kate, Seth, Parker, Anna

we had a bunch more cousins there, but I didn't break out the camera until the very end

our favorite front porch

Juliette, Claire, Will, Miller

call us crazy, but we took all of these kids bowling

Miller, Kate, Owen, Parker, Will, Porter, Seth, Andrew

Maggie, Anna, Lily, Paige, Jack, Isabel (Juliette not pictured)

Kate and Parker did a fine job helping all the kids

We went to the Colorado River

(i forgot my camera, so we made do with Kate's)

Teeples Grandchildren

Evan, Bentley, Amelia, Parker, Luke, Maren, Kyra, Will, Kate, Maggie

One Year

The time has flown since Will was born. He is a great baby and continually has us laughing and smiling. He thinks it is especially funny to bang his head against things right now. He is taking lots of steps (his record thus far is 10 in a row), but is still crawling most of the time. He likes to eat, play with his siblings and he LOVES balloons and balls.

He can say:

ball

baby

da da

ma ma

ba ba

captain (he gets the c and the n part)

kate, said kay

hey

He has two, almost three teeth and he weighs 18.7 pounds.

For his party we had a beach ball theme with lots of balloons and balls for him to play with. Chelsea made him an adorable cake that he really took to. He was funny poking his one finger into it again and again. He even wanted to share it with Grandpa Bruce.

He is such a happy baby and I feel lucky to be his mom.

Awards, a Princess and Graduation

This last week was busy with end of the school year celebrations. Parker was on the A-B honor roll and received an award. He and Talon have been the best of friends this year. Maggie went to a birthday party for her friend Jurnee. They dressed up as princesses and she and Jurnee both happened to pick Snow White. Kate finished fifth grade on Thursday and received awards for A-B honor roll and Most Improved. Her teacher, Mr. Shaw told us that he has never had a student who improved more than Kate did this year. Middle school here we come :(

Birthday Boy

Talon, Jack, Luke, Parker, Daniel

Ashton, Drew, Jason

Parker turned eight in July and we had two celebrations. One with family and another with his friends from church and school. His friend party was all about legos. The boys built their own lego cars and raced them on a track that Matt built. It was funny to watch them cheer their cars on. They were all pretty competitive with one another and really wanted to win. We raced them in heats and the winner of the final race got a prize. They also built towers, played a lego guessing game and had cupcakes. Talon got to spend the night, which made the day that much better for Parker. I was surprised by how smoothly the day went with all those boys running around. I'm pretty sure everyone had good time and I know that Parker did.

River 2010

Our first vacation for the summer was a trip to the River. We had a lot of fun and missed Honey and Papa immensely. (Note to Papa:I have more pictures to add, but I'm having some pixel difficulty.) I will add them when I get it figured out. Kate skied on one ski behind the boat for the first time. Parker tried it as well, but I didn't get any decent pictures of it. Maggie went on the horseshoe and William ate his first Oreo. He loved it.

Schedule...

I need to get on one.

The house is a disaster.

Something always hurts.

Maggie only has her hair done 50% of the time.

The laundry is overflowing (I swear it multiplies like rabbits).

Time to kick my rear end in gear. Neutral has not been a good place for all involved.

4th

We had our July 4th celebration at Grandma and Grandpa Teeples house tonight. We played minute to win it games, the kids swam in a little pool, we ate dinner and celebrated Matt's 36th birthday. Which is actually tomorrow. We made the kids semi-matching shirts for the day. They turned out pretty cute and were really easy. We all had a great time. And Happy Birthday to my great husband. He really is a gem.