FFF... Favorite Foto Friday

What? You mean you don't let your child ride in the back window of your car?

Well neither do I! But apparently Bryant thought I wouldn't see him climbing into the back window of the car. He honestly climbed up there and didn't say a word. I've never heard him be that quiet! Finally I said "Bryant, you need to be in your car seat." He said, "Mom, if I was a cat then could I sit in the back window." I said, "Yes, cats don't have to be in car seats."

Well... stupid me. I totally set myself up. Bryant started being a cat. For the next 10 minutes he meowed and hissed every time I tried to get him out of the back window. OMG- I thought I was going to kill him. Where does he get this stuff? We don't even have a cat. How does he know they like to curl up in windows?

Anyway, there you have it. My current Favorite Foto. It makes me so mad to think about that day... and yet I laugh every time I see the photo.

Turkey Destruction and Black Friday

Seems like it's been forever since I posted on my blog. In essence it has only been 4 days... but oh time flies when you're having fun!

Thanksgiving was good. Suzi and Austin came over and spent their first Thanksgiving as newlyweds with us. It was nice to have family over. We sure wish my parents and brother as well as Zac's family could have joined us too.

Bryant was really into Thanksgiving this year. He made tons of Thanksgiving decorations for our house. He also helped chop onions (any excuse to use a knife since normally he's not allowed to use one) and he drank his fare share of sparkling cider out of a "wine" glass. But... his favorite thing by far was destructing the Turkey Leg with his teeth. He just devoured the meat right off it. He thought is was sooo cool to eat with is hands and make grunting caveman like noises while at the dinner table. It was fun to watch him eat(and Uncle Austin too...).

After dinner, Suzi and I caught up on all our reality TV that was Tevo'd (I Love NY, Tilla Tequila, Project Runway, The Shot, etc.) Then we got ready for our Black Friday shopping. We drove into town and were waiting outside the mall at 10:00 p.m. Thanksgiving night. The mall didn't opened its doors until 1:00 a.m. It was crazy... more than 10,000 people waiting in line (that's what happens when you only have one mall in town). The crowd was so large, mall officials called in Boise Police to handle crowd control! It was pure chaos (and I loved it) as thousands of people tried to cram their way through the front doors, many of who were scraped and bruised as people pushed to get in.

Here's Suzi and I waiting to get into the mall. It was SOOOOO cold. (*and no I'm not wearing a french baret on my head. It's the hood to my sweatshirt*)

This is what the mall looked like at 1:00 a.m. It was packed. We could hardly move for the first few hours we were in the mall.

This is what the floor around the front entrance to the mall looked like after the mall opened. Can you tell it was total chaos?

I suppose you're wondering if I got some good deals while I was shopping... Why, yes I did. Suzi and I shopped until 11:00 the next morning. Wish I could tell you what I purchased... but that would ruin Christmas surprises for many people who read my blog.

But, I will share with you one of my purchases. Can you guess what it was?


Well, it's not the boy who looks a little too comfortable in those boots. He's going to hate me when he's older for these pictures.

Look at this one with his hand on his hips! Ohhh Baby.

Honestly though... I did get these great leather boots for only $20.... on sale from $80.00 I thought they were really cool... and apparently Bryant did too. Maybe I'll have to find him some leather boots for Christmas. Anyone know of a website for boots?

Happy Shopping!

FFF... Favorite Foto Friday

On this day last year, I took this absolutly stunning photo of Bryant at Ste. Chappel Winery. It is probably one of my very favorite photos... EVER. He looks like a model. I'm often stopped and told I should get him into modeling. Maybe some day.

Delightfully Tacky

So, I am happy to report that yesterday I had my first delightfully tacky experience at Hooters. I've never been to a Hooters. I guess Boise finally hit the "big time" because we recently got one.
Funny enough, I went to Hooters in a official work capacity. I was meeting a client's son and he wanted to take me to Hooters. I was one of the few women there and our waitress seemed happy to have some estrogen in the joint! I will admit that I had a great time and the food (hot wings) was great. I'll probably go back again (soon!).

On another (somewhat related) note, the same client's son gave me a gift to remember his deceased mother by... a giant faux diamond ring. His mother and I both love BLING BLING. We would often discuss diamonds and other gems... rather than discussing the "social work" things we were suppose to be discussing. Anyway, I love the ring and it will always remind me of her. I am just so pleased with it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you know I am thankful for each of you... both my blogger friends I've never met and my friends in real life. Each of you add something to my life and I appreciate your presence.

The Bachelor Finale... and ***Snow***!!!

Who watched the finale of The Bachelor last night?

At first I was shocked. Then I was pissed off. I'm a hopeless romantic and wanted a "happy ending." But today... after sleeping on it, I decided it was really the best finale ever. Finally, a Bachelor that told the truth. A Bachelor that didn't try to convince not only the viewing audience, but himself as well, that he actually fell madly in love with someone in 6 weeks on a TV show. Finally a Bachelor that actually had the balls to tell each girl, "Look, I like you a lot, I've invested a lot of time in getting to know you, but I'm sorry, I don't love you and I ain't gonna sit here and pretend I do just so ABC has a happy ending."

Plus you have to admit, it makes tonights "After the Final Rose" show super interesting. I'm still not even sure what his reason was for dropping both chicks. But it'll sure be fun watching him try to explain again tonight. This will be the first time in the show's history that the "After the Final Rose" show was better than the finale. I can't wait.

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In other news, it's snowing in Boise this morning. It finally feels like Thanksgiving! The holiday's are my very favorite time of year. Zac, Bryant and I did our Thanksgiving shopping last night. It was a total madhouse at the store... but I loved every second of it.

Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is my favorite shopping day. I love the rush, the thrill of the hunt, the people fighting, the pushing to get in line, etc. Suzi and I are starting our shopping experience at 1:00 a.m.
I can't tell you where we are going... because I don't want to encourage all my local readers to shop there too... but we'll be shopping all night and all the next day. I can hardly wait!

The Nanny Diary... Day #6

Today was a good day. Went to Costco, the park and few other places. Tonight I treated the kids to "make your own ice cream sunday's." You would have thought they'd died and gone to heaven. They picked out great toppings and put lots of each topping on their ice cream.

I have to admit, I was a sucker and let the kids get a little crazy with the whipped cream.
Don't let the innocent look deceive you. Delaine gives Bryant a run for his money.
Yep, this cutie gave me a whipped cream kiss while he had this mustache on. Bryant thought it was so funny that I got whipped cream all over my face when he kissed me!


I don't want to deceive you though. Things aren't all quiet and peaceful... as evident by this video. This is how many of our evenings are... WILD. But the kids do love each other and do love to egg each other on. It's fun for me to watch. They're having such a good time.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

The Nanny Diary... Day #5

Sorry for the delay in posting. We had a big storm and the electricity went out. Everything is back to normal now... except I have 3 scared kids who don't like thunder.

We started today by getting Bryant a haircut. Why do 5 year old boys want mohawks? I think they look kind of trashy so I won't let him get one... I'm too conservative for that. But, he did talk the hairdresser into using gel to get a mohawk look. I think he was trying to impress Delainie. Unfortunately for me, she kept telling Bryant he looked really cool.
After haircuts we went on a voyage out of town. I actually got up the nerve to take the kids outside of Lehi! We went to Boondocks Fun Center (we have one in Boise too). The kids were so well behaved. Aren't they cute walking into the center?
Bryant usually likes to play laser tag and ride the go-carts but we couldn't do that since we had the babies with us. So, instead we purchased an all day pass to the Kiddy Cove. The kids had a total blast. Even the babies climbed all the way to the stop of the play structure.
Carson was a little timid at first, but he decided he liked the independence that the Kiddy Cove gave him. He climbed for 4 hours!
Bryant really liked the bungee swing. He spent hours jumping and swinging on it.
I caught this picture of Delanie coming down the slide. The slide was extremely fast. I know this first hand because when it was time to leave the babies wouldn't come down from the top of the play structure. Bryant and Delanie tried unsuccessfully to get them down. Finally I had to resort to climbing up to get them. I almost broke my leg coming down the slide. It was so fast that I crashed into the net at the bottom. It was fun though... I wish the twins would have gotten stuck a few more times!

The Nanny Diary... Day #4

Today nobody threw up! Thank God for small favors!

Mackenzie went to school and Delaine spent the day at a friends house. So, I took Bryant and the twins out on the town.

We started out by going for a nice walk at Turkey Point. Bryant thought it was super cool to push the twins in their stroller.

Then we went to a really cool dinosaur museum. These are real dinosaur bones. Bryant was totally enthralled with the whole skeleton idea.

In part of the museum they had a whole room devoted to teaching kids about erosion and how plants, animals and environments become extinct. Bryant and the twins were thrilled to be able to play in the water. We spent at least 45 minutes in this room.

Bryant really enjoyed building a dam to stop the water flow.
Bryant is really starting to get the hang of his new "big brother" role. He loves helping the babies... especially Cassidee. He felt so grown up showing her how to use the computer and play dinosaur games.

One of the really cool things about this museum is that kids are encourage to touch many of the exhibits. Here are the twins playing on a dinosaur.

At first the kids were scared of this huge shark... but then Bryant decided it was really cool. Carson on the other hand screamed bloody murder. He went running and hid behind my legs.

At the end of the museum tour the kids got to dig up dinosaur bones in a huge sand pit.

And lastly, I have to say that taking all three kids was really easy. The hardest thing was getting them all loaded in the car! Actually, with Utah being Mormon country, everything is set up and geared towards large families. I didn't see anyone with less than 4 kids! It kind of made me sad that I only have Bryant. It was fun to watch all the large families having a fun day out.

And so I leave you with this picture that Bryant took of me. See... I am still standing and I don't have big black circles under my eyes... YET.

The Nanny Diary... Day #3

This is how my day started today... at 5:45 a.m. I was covered in puke again! Poor Carson. Luckily he's been a good mood despite all the barfing.

This washer and dryer has become my best friend. Thank goodness Christy and Dan invested in this fancy washer and dryer. It's really making life easier for me.
But you know kids... even while sick they're still wanting to play. They made this really cool fort and played in it all morning. They played school. Mackenzie was the teacher. She gave Bryant two "pink slips" for talking back. Yep, that's my kid. Mr. Attitude. Mackenzie was really getting frustrated with Bryant. Especially when she gave him homework (she wrote out adding and subtracting problems on a piece of paper for him to complete). Bryant did the first two problems and then tore the paper up!
Finally after a few hours of nobody puking, I decided to brave the McDonalds Playland. All of us were getting sick of being at home. All 5 kids had a blast. They played hide and seek in the play structure.
The babies were happy to eat chicken nuggets and french fries.
So tomorrow we have our first "scheduled" day. Mackenzie is off to school and we have errands to run. We need bread and a few other things around here.

I better go... we're currently having World War 3 between Delanie and Bryant. They're fighting over animal crackers. OMG- it's not like we don't have a 25 boxes of them!

The Nanny Dairy... Day #2

Got Puke?

We have plenty around here. Three sick kids, 2 beds puked on, 5 clothing changes, 8 baths... all of which equals 6 loads of laundry TODAY.

Delanie looking sad... holding her bowel to puke in.

Mackenzie with her bowel. She just started getting sick this evening.

Carson puking all over the stairs. Am I a bad Nanny... running for my camera and taking pictures of the kids while they're sick?

Funny story... we took a walk over to the church again. The kids like to ride their bikes and scooters in the parking lot. On the way there I gave Carson a piece of licorice to eat. A while after we'd been there, I looked over and Carson had puked about 3 times- all over the front doorway of the church. It was bright red (from the Licorice) and looked like blood. Actually, it looked like something had been sacrificed in the doorway of the church. Needless to say, we left immediately. Hopefully they'll get it cleaned off before people arrive at church tomorrow morning.

Other than that, things are going great around here. Kids had lots of fun playing outside. We also spent a lot of time playing the Wii. The old kids are bowling so good they're getting scores in the 200's!

Between barfing... here's Kenzie, Bryant and Lanie playing the Wii.

The Nanny Diary... Day #1

Some of you may have noticed that I've been MIA since Halloween. I've been super busy. Last week I was in Seattle for a Scrapbook Convention to relax and prepare for my newest "job." Yes, that's right... my new job for the next 10 days is Nanny!

I am in Utah for the next 10 days being a Nanny for my friends Dan and Christy's kids while they are on a cruise in the Caribbean. I am watching 5 kids under the age of 7! Bryant is here to "help" me and Zac is at home. He was supposed to come too but he ended up with step throat and couldn't come.

So, today was my first day. The twins woke up at 7:oo a.m. The other 3 kids woke up shortly thereafter. I was a superb Nanny and made a great homemade breakfast of Cinnamon French Toast and eggs. By next weekend I'm sure I'll be giving them cereal...

Here's MacKenzie eating her Yummy breakfast.

We had lots of fun playing outside and going for a long long walk.

Bryant is loving his big brother role. He was actually over-protective. He absolutely went into panic mode when Cassie got this close to the end of the swingset.

The three older kids rode bikes and scooters for 2 hours this afternoon. They had never met prior to this trip... but they are the best of friends already.

Carson and Cassie were happy to go for a walk. They are super kids. Full of smiles and hugs.

But I won't kid you... there was plenty of this too. I just couldn't help but smile when the meltdowns started. Luckily all the meltdowns were short lived...

Please wish me luck for Saturday. We're going to attempt an outing. Dan and Christy told me that the twins are well-behaved if they are in a shopping cart or stroller. So... Target, Wal-Mart, Cabella's here we come.