Seattle

In December, McLain was sent to Seattle for a training for work. He ended up having to drive, so I got to go with him! ROAD TRIP!!! So we sent the kids to my mom's for a few days and headed north...west.

We left early Wednesday morning and drove pretty much all day long! It takes a good 13 hours or so to get there from Richmond.

We learned a few things about Oregon. It's against the law to fill your own gas tank. Who knew? Thankfully, the guy came over and started filling ours before we did anything bad. We also came in contact there with a nice old man that tried to change lanes right where we were, saw us at the last second, swerved back into his lane, and decided to show us how wrinkly his middle finger was. It was so funny. He was totally yelling at us and cussing us out. Grumpy old man, we were in that lane first!

We got to Seattle that evening at 6:00 or so, right at rush hour...awesome timing! There was another ornery driver in Seattle. As we were driving slowly in the slow traffic, the guy behind us apparently wanted to go faster. He totally kept flashing his brights at us. Over and over. Didn't he realize that we were going just as fast as the rest of the cars? Honestly. He finally was able to pass us and he got back into our lane just in front of us. Just as he pulled into our lane in front of us, he tapped his brakes. So we had to slam on our brakes real fast. Then he sped away. What a turd. He was obviously very mad at us. He wouldn't have thought it was so funny had we hit his beautiful shiny car.

Seattle roads are somewhat confusing. The hotel was next door to the airport and as we were trying to find our way to the hotel, we ended up in the one way lane for airport parking. We did not want to go to the airport! Luckily the nice lady didn't even question us. She just told us the right way to go. About 2 minutes later, we were in the airport parking lot again! We were so confused. But we finally made it to the hotel. (Just for the record, it wasn't really a great hotel. The free internet was so so so slow, there were hardly any channels on TV, and there wasn't even a pool or hot tub. Really??! What hotel doesn't have a pool?)

Thursday and Friday, McLain had training for 8 hours. So I tried to entertain myself in the hotel all day. I played games, watched TV, worked out in the fitness room (they have a fitness room, but no pool?), and slept in. By the end of the second day, I was pretty bored.

By the time the trainings were over in the evening, many of the things were closed in Seattle, like the museums, Pike Place market, and so forth. So one evening we went to the HUGE mall and walked around. It was so so big! I'm used to the dinky one in Logan that has like 10 stores in it. The one in Seattle was ginormous!!! And the other evening we went to the Seattle Center.

Here are the pictures capturing our fun at the Seattle Center.

Space Needle (so cool)

us in front of the Space Needle (which you can barely see)

view of the city from the Space Needle

view of the bay from the Space Needle

looking in the cool mirrors, which made us
tall and skinny

short and fat

and somewhere in between

posing in front of a fountain, in front of the Space Needle

and making a heart in front of a fountain, in front of the Space Needle

because we heart each other.

Then we drove home on Saturday. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking the kids for us.
I really enjoyed Seattle and loved seeing it from up high in the Space Needle. I hated the traffic and the weird roads, but it was beautiful to look at. And it was so good to get away and be with McLain for so long.

Yay for road trips!

Kid 1, Kid 2, Kid 3, and Dad

I thought I'd do another quick update on the kids and how stinkin' cute they are!!! (And there's a little something about Dad at the end).

KID 1

Ben is so smart. He loves preschool and is starting to sound out words a little bit. He loves writing his letters and it just blows my mind how smart he is!


This little boy loves his sisters so much!! He is so sweet! I love watching him help Brooklyn put together puzzles. He is so patient and helpful, always reminding her to match the colors. He understands what Brooklyn is saying more often than I do and always says "No, Mom, that's not what she said. She said..." And Brooklyn loves him too, and just follows him around and can't do anything without him.

I love watching him with Adilyn. She is his pride and joy. He is so gentle with her and always has to give her a hug and kiss before he goes to sleep. Just today I overheard him explaining to Brooklyn why it's so important not to give Adilyn an owie.

"And Brooklyn, Heavenly Father gave her to us. And Brooklyn, Heavenly Father made her so special. And that's why we have to be so gentle and not give her owie's"

And my favorite thing that he does is when Adilyn smiles at him, he always says "I love you too, Adilyn!"

KID 2

Our little Brooklyn is just too funny. She is super accident prone. She'll just be walking in an empty room with nothing around her at all, and somehow she'll end up falling very dramatically. It's like someone pushed her or something, but there was no one there!!! And because she is always falling, she got her first stitches last month. She fell and hit her chin on a bed, which resulted in three stitches. She was a trooper! And she still tells us about it all the time!

And she is so funny. She calls everyone "her boys." When talking to any one of us, or all of us, it's "Come on boys!"

A few weeks ago in church, I was trying to get her to be quiet, which by the way, is impossible!! I whispered to her that she needed to be quiet. She said (in a very loud voice, of course) "No, Mom, I'm talking to my boys." So I watched her to see what in the world she was talking about. It was so funny to watch her look up at "her boys," (known as the bishopric to most) and continue her conversation with them (still in a very loud voice). "Hi boys! What are you doing?" What a crack-up.

She loves Ben and Adilyn too. As mentioned earlier, she pretty much doesn't leave Ben alone, and I'm not even sure she knows how to function without him. And she will not leave Adilyn alone for anything. We're still trying to get her to understand how to be gentle, but it's a slow process. But she is so cute. She can be crying her little eyes out, but if she sees Adilyn, an instant smile shows up on her face!

KID 3

Adilyn is five months and growing like a weed. It's so fun to watch her. The kids can get her to smile and laugh more than McLain and I can. She adores them, and is only afraid of Brooklyn on occasion. :)

Her blessing day was back on November 6th. She was beautiful and I'm so thankful for the Priesthood and that McLain is worthy to bless our children.

This is our most recent family picture. It was taken on Adilyn's blessing day. It's the only one where one of the kids didn't have a hand over their face. So instead of having their hands over their faces, they just look funny. Oh well!

DAD

And now I have to brag about my dad. He made this cradle...

...for me when I was a baby. Isn't it beautiful? And it even rocks. He gave it to us so that we could use is for Adilyn. I love it.

Good job Dad!!

Scriptures according to Brooklyn

Oh Brooklyn. She's so funny.

Every night we read scriptures before bed. We each read one verse, with me or McLain helping the kids with their verse. At the rate we're going, four verses a night, we'll probably finish the Book of Mormon in about 10 years or so. Hey, that's okay.

Anyway, Brooklyn never just reads a verse all the way through without variation. She usually comes up with some way to make us laugh. She definitely has a mind of her own and wants to be different.

Here are some of the REAL experiences we've had reading with her.

First, there's the "I just don't want to read tonight."

Me: And it came to pass,
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: (silence)
...and so on

Next, there's the "I'll read a little, just to humor you."

Me: And it came to pass
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: Nephi
Me: had made an end
Brooklyn: (silence)
...and so on

We've got the "Oops, I forgot to say it, so I'll make it up later."

Me: And it came to pass
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: Nephi came to pass after
Me: had made an end
Brooklyn: made end
...and so on

There's the "Oops, I forgot to say it, so I'll make it up later, and for the rest of the verse!"

Me: And it came to pass
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: Nephi came to pass after
Me: had made an end
Brooklyn: made end came pass after
Me: of teaching
Brooklyn: teaching came pass after
Me: my brethren
Brooklyn: brethren came pass after
...and so on

We've got the same as the two previous ones, except she uses her own words.

Me: And it came to pass
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: Nephi fruit snack
Me: had made an end
Brooklyn: made end
...and so on

and

Me: And it came to pass
Brooklyn: (silence)
Me: that after
Brooklyn: after apple
Me: I, Nephi
Brooklyn: Nephi apple
Me: had made an end
Brooklyn: made end apple
Me: of teaching
Brooklyn: teaching apple
Me: my brethren
Brooklyn: brethren apple
...and so on

There's the "I'm gonna add my own words again randomly."

Me: ...and the Lord
Brooklyn: Lord
Me: did curse
Brooklyn: curse Daddy Mommy
(~~~WHAT??? She really said that!! She must have been mad at us that day!~~~)

And the most recent one, the "I'm gonna use my own characters tonight."

Me: ...he called
Brooklyn: he called
Me: their names
Brooklyn: their names
Me: Mosiah,
Brooklyn: Ziah
Me: and Helorum,
Brooklyn: and He-um
Me: and Helaman
Brooklyn: and Cinderelly and Santa!

What a goof!!!

Creeper

So finally here is my Halloween post. I know it's like 2 months late...sorry.

Ben was so excited to be a creeper. And pretty much everyone had to ask what in the world a creeper is.

This is a creeper...



It's off of Minecraft, which is one of the computer games that McLain plays that Ben loves to watch.

~~~~~

And Brooklyn was just a cute little kitty this year. That's what she was last year, so we did it again because we had the ears and she isn't really old enough to care yet. Next year she will be more excited to choose. Besides, we lost the ears trick-or-treating, so she can't be a kitty again anyway.


~~~~~

This is pretty much what Adilyn thought of the bumblebee costume the whole time!


~~~~~

And the kids in their cute Halloween shirts from Gramma Merrie.



Happy Super Late Halloween!!!

Ben's Preschool Christmas Concert

Tonight was Ben's preschool Christmas Concert. So cute!!! They learned a bunch of Christmas songs at preschool and then performed them tonight. I love watching little kids sing.

We were afraid Ben wouldn't sing, since we have had experiences in the past (namely, Primary Sacrament Meeting Program) where he wouldn't sing and it was pretty traumatic, but he did awesome tonight!

Here is a video of one of their songs. Ben is sitting in the front in the white shirt. And for those interested, Mikaela (the girl he wants for Christmas) is two people to his left, with the dark hair.
The funniest part is at the end when they are supposed to take a bow. Watch Ben. Funny!

Sorry for the awful picture quality, hopefully you can see it. We totally need a new camera!

It was so fun and I'm glad he loves preschool so much! Don't you love how everyone else bowed, but Ben hugged himself!! We thought it was hilarious!

And we had to get a picture with him and Mikaela! They're so cute and such good friends!


Good times!! And it was even worth giving up the free tickets to the Aggie basketball game tonight that we were offered!