A few things I want to remember...

Kids are funny, and hard and cute.  I find myself very amused by my own kids quirks and want to remember a few of them.  Keep in mind that these may be funny to me because they're my kids and I'm quite isolated from the outside world, but here goes...

I love finding these monkey's in every small space they can find!

The kids love Chinese food so I try to make it regularly.  This particular night I was excited to be making something everyone likes...almost.  I loved McKay's separation of the foods he'd like and eat and the ones he wouldn't.  Funny.

This is one stubborn girl!  She's gone to bed wearing all sorts of shoes including cowgirl boots and these cute rain boots she got from her cousin Aubrey.  She also went to bed with 8 elastics in her hair just to wake up crying and wanting me to get them out. Taking them out before she went to sleep? No way!

So amusing to me that this was one of my projects this week...making a bigger space for the water bottles.  As you can see I doubled the storage space, Corey was very impressed as will all you bike-wives out there!

Dancing twins.  Brecken actually got frustrated with me this week because I was dancing with Avery, that's his job.  I love that they just take each other by the hands and dance. 

A little 'splainin.'  This is a bible board book of our kids that we read to them at story time or we take it to church to keep them busy there.  The funny thing is is that whenever I read this to Avery she always stops on this page and says "oh no the bird getting him!"  It makes me laugh every time. 

Lastly, the writing on frosty windows.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but every morning after showers and as kids and parents get ready there is always a picture in the foggy window.  It's usually of one of the boys with glasses...a very common tease, but I've seen all sorts of things from scooters to their names.  It's one of those things you just know you'll miss someday when there's no stick figure in your bathroom window. 

A Weekend Away...

       Corey and I (like so many others) were married over Christmas Break while we were going to college.  Of course when you're planning your wedding you don't think about the date that will be your anniversary for forever!  At least I didn't.  Suffice it to say, we almost never celebrate our anniversary beyond a kiss, a note...nothing too big.  We're usually at Corey's parents cabin...with his whole family. It's one of my favorite family traditions and I wouldn't change it.  So we usually say "we'll celebrate in the summer" or something similar to that, but we never do. 

     This year I was determined that we would celebrate our anniversary and it was awesome!  It began with this....

Thirteen roses for our thirteen years together from a very sweet husband of mine!

     My parents came over and we were off for the weekend.  A big shout out to my parents who always make us feel like we're doing them a favor by leaving our kids with them...THANKS MOM AND DAD!!

     We started off with dinner.  Corey had gone to this cool pizza place about a month ago and was excited to take me there.  It's called the Rusted Sun Pizza & it was scrumptious!  It's very small and you  can watch the guys there throwing dough and making your dinner. If you plan on going be sure to get a buffalo chicken calzone with blue cheese crumbles...we loved it! 

   Then we headed over to the Brad Paisley concert.  Can I just say...I love country music!  He had great openers too.  Scottie McCreery was first off and wowed all the teenage girls around us.  He has a great voice and was very fun to listen to.  Then "The Band Perry" came out.  They're one of my favorites and put on  a great show!  Corey was laughing at me singing every word to their songs and loving it all so much.  And then there was Brad.  Wow!  Everything was so BIG!  He put on an amazing show!  Every song he sang was it's own production with lights, animation, video, etc.  He went through at least six guitars, one of which he signed and gave away to a lucky person near the stage.  Corey's little brother had told us what a great guitar player he is and he really is! 

     Scottie McCreery and The Band Perry came out and sang a song each with him which was really fun.  Then he started to sing "Remind Me," his duet with Carrie Underwood and the crowd went wild when we could see her walk on stage.  The rest of the night Corey was trying to convince me that she wasn't really there, that it was some sort of illusion or recording.  I thought he was crazy until I googled it....totally a hologram!  Seriously looked real....amazing. 

     We'd planned on staying our first night at the cabin, but Corey got a hotel close by, a very thoughtful surprise.  On Saturday we just hung out together, did a little shopping and a little eating.  That afternoon we checked into the Grand America Hotel.  It's a very beautiful and very fancy hotel!  I took pictures of our room because it was so pretty!  Here is our suite....

 

The bathroom was my favorite!  You can't really tell but the tub is super deep.....we're gonna consider that on our bathroom remodel this spring!

Corey's actually sleeping in the bed in this picture.  It's funny how I dream about sleeping in almost daily and then when I get a chance to I'm up and ready to go at seven-thirty...oh well.

 The courtyard view outside of our hotel balcony

City and County Building

The courtyard by day...

     After we checked in we changed into our work-out clothes for a run.  We ran around the city and county building, the library and ended up at a place called Euro-treasures.  I'm so sad we didn't have the camera or even a phone because it was such a fun, crazy & interesting place.  It's a warehouse of antique....stuff.  They have tons of chairs, tables, desks, night stands along with a stuffed lion, half a rhinoceros (I thought of you Harrises!), an elephant foot and more.  We probably spent an hour just looking. 

The only picture I got of us together on our weekend was right after our run.

    For dinner that night we went to Sugarhouse BBQ.  It was really great!  Another place we'd recommend if you like Barbecue.  They've been rated best barbecue in Utah for the past thirteen years!  Pretty impressive. 

Then we got some junk food and headed back to the hotel to watch the Jazz vs. Jimmer game. 

    The finale to our fabulous weekend was the yummy and fancy breakfast buffet at the Grand.  It included smoked salmon, blintzes with berry sauce, fresh fruit, croissants, brie, etc.  In other words...yum.   

     Happy Anniversary Babe!  I had a great time celebrating with you this weekend!  Maybe we could do it again...you know, next year!

Boys and Girls

     So here we are again talking about what the twins are into....feel free to skip if you've read this post way too many times on my blog.  Every once in a while it seems like the twins grow new eyes.  They start seeing things they've never seen or thought of getting into, that's when the twin storm hits at the Larrabees.  This time they pushed their heavy rocking chair over to their dresser and got into the Eucerin which Avery proceeded to style Brecken's hair with.  They both got baths and Breck got a Dawn hair scrub, but he woke up greasy still. 
     Our latest mishap has directed my thoughts to the differences between boys and girls.  I know we have  little to go on since we have very little in the pink department here, (and every time Avery does something different from her brothers we say it's because she's a girl) but I really think there are some amazing differences here. 
     Take the first picture.   Both 2-year-olds heard the same (mouth covered to hide my amusement) rebuke for getting into the Eucerin. Notice the level of guilt here.  Brecks looking straight forward, Avery's eyes are averted.  Picture #2 makes the point even further.  Avery (whose face looks angelic by the way) is shamefully displaying the reason for her guilt while Brecken is energetically exclaiming "wook boys I got cwazy hawr."  I do believe girls feel more remorse than boys. Hmmm. 

     Another thing I've noticed is that girls see messes, boys don't.  Very often I've asked my kids to clean up their rooms or the living room or clear the table and to their credit they try.  They really do, but.....it's rare that I don't go in and show them what they've missed.  I try not to be upset or critical, since I realize this is in their DNA as a boy, they really don't see it.  This is very valuable information when dealing with boys and men alike.  To my amazement I've walked into a room and found Avery singing the clean up song picking up toys or other mess...it must be a girl thing. 
     Sound affects.  This is one of Corey's favorite ways to tease me.  Picture this...the boys sitting around making sound affects for cars, airplanes, missiles, etc. and Corey says "hey guys, lets see if Mom can sound like a motorcycle."  He knows I can't, as a mother of four boys I've really tried and failed but my youngest boy started doing it probably before he could actually speak words. 
    Lastly, wrestling.  A few years ago Corey was pulling 24 hour shifts at the fire department.  Our boys didn't get to see him as much as they wanted to so I decided to try and "fill in."  One night after dinner I told the boys I'd wrestle with them.  I'd watch them do this every night their Dad was home and it seemed pretty straight forward.  So I gave it a go and thought I was doing good until Keaton stopped and said "no Mom, lets wrestle." 
     Thankfully Corey comes home each night and I can do the dishes and see all the messes and take care of them while he makes sound effects and wrestles, it's an arrangement that's working well for us.

Late Night Gone Awry

     A few weeks ago the kids decided they wanted to have a "late-night."  For those of you who are un-enlightened about this it's basically a sleepover without the sleeping over part.  Kids come over and play and watch a movie, eat pizza and junk food and then go home to sleep.  Very fun, right?? 
    Since we had three age groups present I decided to try and organize some activities beyond watching a movie.  After everyone got their fill of pizza we had a lego competition.  It turned out really cute and the kids had a fun time.  Here are the results....

Tate and AJ made it clear they were not in it to take part in a competition, but made a "cool car" nonetheless.  These two are such awesome buddies, I love AJ's arm around Tate!

 McKay's friends Kalen and Keison made this very cool warrior ship.  McKay's awesome at legos and went off on his own to create & didn't finish in time for pictures.

 Sydney and Keaton were my favorite.  These two (along with another friend Moses) have spent the last two months scootering.  Every spare second they can find they're riding.  So it wasn't suprising that they created a "guy on a scooter with no hands."  Super cute.

The grande finale of the night happened when a very heavy trophy of Corey's was knocked off the mantle and landed perfectly on McKays head.  He got a good gash and we had our nice neighbor doctor over to check him for a concussion.  Thanks to our neighbor and a bit of super-glu (seriously), McKays great!



Christmas Pics

     Probably my favorite holiday picture of the year....Brecken and Avery giving me their "sweet faces."  Like they weren't just planning to eat the gingerbread house in front of them.  They're sporting their new pj's from Great Grandma and Grandpa Gough. 

 Our Christmas Eve Nativity

Christmas Morning Faces...Christmas is magical with kids

Adam, Hayley and Wyatt (Adam got that sweatshirt from my parents and his wife....funny)

     We had Christmas breakfast at my Mom and Dads, our traditional Swedish pancakes and breakfast casserole...yum.  Then we were spoiled by my parents.  I snapped a picture of Adams' family and then didn't take another picture the rest of the day, too busy having fun I guess.  

     Mid-day we went to church and enjoyed a beautiful choir program.  At first I thought it'd be a bit crazy having Christmas on a Sunday, but it was so nice to be there and feel such a strong Christmas spirit.  I loved being able to wish all my friends in my ward a Merry Christmas too.  

    After church we went to Corey's parents for dinner where we were spoiled again and enjoyed being together.   Hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours. 

I hate to admit it....

     I know what you're thinking...why is she posting a Halloween picture in January.  Please note the winter sweater beneath the vampires cloak...I took this picture in December. As you can see Tate was not too happy about it, but I couldn't resist.  I'm one of those parents who occasionally put the (not so pressing) needs of my children on hold for my own enjoyment and I couldn't resist this one. 
     Tate was playing dress ups, a very common occurrence at our house.  He was jumping around and got a little over exuberant and bit his lip and started to bleed.  He came up to me crying and I said "Tate! this is awesome! You've got REAL blood coming out of the side of your mouth and your dressed up like a vampire!  You look great, lets get a picture!" 
     As you can tell by the picture Tate wasn't nearly as amused as I was.

Why I LOVE Christmas Cards...

     Aren't Christmas Cards great??  I love them.  I love getting "fun" mail almost every day in December.  I love seeing pictures of friends and their families and how they've grown.  I've actually gotten a Christmas card with a pregnancy announcement...very cool.  We got a card from our Bishopbric, our insurance agent and our dentist.  My Mom always sends a beautiful card from an art gallery my parents love.  There are simple, traditional and very artistic and contmporary cards.  One amazing friend of mine sends a CD of cool Christmas music with their card. 
     Mostly I love getting cards from people who I haven't spoken with for years.  There's something about a Christmas card that gives you a free pass when it comes to that awkward.."I haven't done a good job keeping in touch with you moment."  When I send Christmas cards I send them to our close family members and old friends.  I love sending a card to someone that we loved once in our lives to say just that "we loved you once and we remember that at Christmas."  So thank you for all the Christmas cards!  Our door is full to the brim and I'll keep them up as long as I can get away with it!