Family Movie Night, Mommy Brag, and Portraits from a 4-year old

Family Movie Night:

The other night we had a Family Movie Night. We pulled the futon mattress into the living room, we all got our favorite blankets and pillows, popped popcorn and snuggled together to watch a short movie before bed. The kids loved it! They have asked to do it every night since. We're planning on doing it again tomorrow night for FHE - Coming Soon to the Zolli Theater: Veggie Tales Lord of the Beans. *lol*


(There's Jenalyn with her funny faces again! - I LOVE IT!)

Mommy Brag:

Not one but TWO people approached me today and told me how much they enjoyed hearing Corbin singing in Nursery today :) One wasn't even a nursery leader, but a parent in there with his daughter. He said he heard just one kid singing so he walked around to figure out who it was and then he realized it was Corbin *awe* and he said he knew almost every word (I am Like a Star Shining Brightly is one of the favorites in our house). The other compliment came from one of the Primary Presidency. She was in there leading the singing time for the Nursery. She said she always appreciates it when Corbin is there because she knows she won't be singing solo *lol* My big boy is such a good singer! He can dance too, you know!

Portraits from a 4-Year Old:

We went to a Financial Preparedness class at the church tonight. They provided babysitting for the little kids (thank heavens for that - do you know how hard it is to get babysitters on a Sunday night?). Well when we went in to get the kids afterwards we were shown two pictures Jenalyn drew of her mom & dad:

Here's dad - complete with glasses and whiskers on his head and face:
And Mom - check out her whiskers: *lol*
Oh geez...how embarrassing is that? HONESTLY!

My First Kegger

We had our friends Chris & Heidi over for dinner Friday night and they brought a KEG! *lol* Their kids were with the grandparents for the weekend so Chris & Heidi were ready to PARTY! So of course we had to take some fun, irreverent pictures! Virgil makes some mean root beer floats!

We had a great time.

Easter Sunday

I'm going to have to make this quick. It's late and I'm very very tired *yawn* I'm just posting this to pacify my sis! *lol* I love you Cher! Sorry I couldn't give you more tonight. It was a highly stressful day today!

But this post isn't about my stressful day, is it? We'll save that for another time and another forum. Lets talk about our wonderful Easter Sunday!

The Easter Bunny hid the kids' baskets and left little notes here and there leading them to the baskets. This worked out AWESOME! We have 9:00 church so it was easy to put off the baskets until after church (out of sight, out of mind, you know) - good thing because when Corbin found his candy he wasted no time devouring it! It was gone in seconds and he was begging for more *lol*

So Jason was scheduled to speak in church but woke up feeling nauseated - no, it wasn't nerves! He doesn't get nervous before speaking - in fact I think he thrives on it (psycho!) So he ended up calling the bishop and rescheduling for another time. ...which meant I had to take the kids to church by myself. I know this may sound terrible, but we purposely got to church LATE - I didn't know if I could sit with the kids thru all of Sacrament by myself! I've never done it and the thought terrified me!

After church we went on the hunt for the baskets. This was a BIG hit! It was fun to watch Jenalyn try to figure out the clues. Like: Find your next clue in the BIG rectangle where you keep your milk. *lol* okay, sounds simple, but it was a lot of fun for my 4-year old. Corbin just tagged along...mostly.

After baskets and naps Grandma Jan & Grandpa John came over for dinner. We did not have a traditional Easter feast - we did that the night before at Great-Grandma "Scrabe's" house. We had pork stir fry over rice. It was really good! I think everyone liked it. It was actually a very pleasant meal with the in-laws! My father-in-law isn't always easy company so this was very nice.

So that's our Easter in a nutshell. I'll hafta come back on tomorrow and post our Saturday Easter celebration at my grandma's house. That was LOADS of fun!

Here are a couple pictures:

(*pfft* The best picture I could get of them together - lame, I know! They were watching t.v. and were NOT interested in having their pictures taken! I could have turned off the T.V. but Corbin would have had a meltdown and his preoccupied-face is much more appealing than his fitty-face! This was before church...and before breakfast so he was cranky.)

Beautiful Jenalyn - I LOVE this picture of her!! She is getting really good at posing for pictures! Actually, I have a hard time getting her to smile normally! She's all about funny faces lately. One day I'll have to dedicate a post entirely to Jenalyn's funny faces! She's hilarious!

And Mr. Cheeser himself! Taken before church.

Jenalyn after church with her basket and Strawberry Shortcake puzzle pail :) Unfortunately I did not get a picture of their baskets before they ravaged them.

And, as I said, once Corbin got his hands on his candy - it was all over! He just kept shoving it in! Look at his little sweater vest! It's covered in drool (good thing this was after church, eh?) he couldn't even get his little mouth closed over all the candy! Good thing the bunny was thinking and only put 1-2 pieces of candy in each egg *winky wink*

So there you have it - not so short after all, eh? And now I'm going to have a hard time getting up for work tomorrow. I blame YOU Cheryl! *lol*

Cover Girl

Why yes that is my girl on the front page of that catalog! How exciting, huh? They were taking pictures of Jenalyn's preschool class one day and they pulled Jenalyn aside and took some shots of just her - because she "posed so nicely for the camera." *LOL* that girl is no stranger to the camera! I'm a snap-happy mama! She knows exactly what to do when someone whips out a camera!

Anyhow, when we were leaving Preschool this afternoon we ran into one of the other moms and Jenalyn showed her the cover and said "That's ME!" She said, "WOW - you're a STAR!" *awe* Jenalyn looked so proud!

Funny story though, the lady taking the picture said she kept saying, "Hurry - I have to sit on the potty!" That explains the slightly strained smile *lol*

What a cutie pie.

Since this post is all about my girl, I'll share her latest "thing." SUPER HEROES! Ever since we discovered Super Why she has been all about Super Heroes. Today she was struggling with her tights and I asked if she needed help and she said, "No, I want to be strong! I want to be a hero!" All the while grunting and tugging on her tights. I guess if you can put your own tights on that makes you a Super Hero. *wink* She also carries the Super Readers around in the palm of her hand. They go everywhere with us...I even have to give each one of them kisses goodnight!

New Layout

So I decided to take the leap and switch up my layout. Tara's cute new layout inspired me. Now I know that when you do that, it wipes out your links list and other fun little things, I think I'll be keeping this layout for a good long while! That was a lot of work! I hope I didn't miss any of my friends while re-creating my list!

In other news, we're home sick from church today *blegh* we all have colds! The kids are too boogery to take to Primary and nursery today...and Jason and I are just feeling too lousy to want to move more than necessary. >>stomping my feet<< I didn't want to catch this!!! I hope I can avoid the full-blown YUCK. I'm popping vitamins and chugging O.J. Hopefully that will work.

FHE on Saturday Morning?

Jenalyn came in to wake me up yesterday morning and spotted my Book of Mormon by my bed, she grabbed it and announced that we needed to have Family Home Evening.

So she climbed up on the bed with me and with the dim light from the lamp and a tiny bit of sunlight thru the windows, just me and my sweet little girl had "FHE". Before opening the book to "teach" me she said we needed to have song and prayer. So we sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" (so softly so we wouldn't wake up daddy) and then she said a sweet little prayer. Then she opened the book and started to "read" it to me. She mumbled a lot but I caught a couple phrases, "Be careful with other people's feelings," "Heavenly Father gave us our spirits," and "Jesus loves us." *awe* SO sweet! Then she closed the book and took my arm, feeling the bones in my wrist and told me that there is a spirit in there *giggle*

It made me feel so good to know that she actually listens once in a while when we have FHE. We had a lesson no too long ago about how Heavenly Father gave us our bodies. We talked about how our spirits live inside our bodies - everyone has one. It was a little difficult to explain the difference between your body and your spirit to a 4 year old - but at least now I know she was listening :)

Color Me Bad, Pat Benetar and Pearl Jam

Oh MY! I love the noon hour on the radio! It's the BEST! We've got the Nineties at Noon, the Old School Lunch, and the Flashback Cafe (is that what they call it?). It seriously pumps me up! Makes me feel young again! The only problem is...which do I listen to? It's too hard to choose!

New Stuff

I got new skates yesterday *woohoo* and I took them for their first spin tonight :) Aren't they awesome? Huh? Aren't they? They felt a little tight tonight, but I think it won't take too long to break them in. I love love love my Wednesday nights with Venessa. It's so refreshing to get out once a week and just be *ME* and not mommy, or wife, or housekeeper! Venessa and I always have such a good time together. We're such goof balls! I LOVE YOU V! *gigglesnortgiggle*

So that was one purchase - we also got a new point-n-shoot camera that fits in my purse :) Jason calls it my blogging camera! Now I can snap a picture whenever/wherever and BLOG about it :)

Who else loves tax season?

My Handsome

So we finally got Corbin a true Sunday outfit. He has been wearing polo-type shirts for too too long! Thank goodness for Easter season :) it's really tough to find decent church outfit for boys! When Easter comes around you really have to stock up, I'm learning!

Anyhow, my little man looked so handsome today! I couldn't quit snapping pictures!



(I love these kissable, pouty lips!)

Chuck E. Cheeeeeeeeeeese

Chuck E. Cheese opened here in, what, November? Well, we finally made it over there last night *woot* We had SO much fun! It was my first time and, of course, the kids' first time too. That place was an absolute madhouse! Craziness everywhere! It was crawling with kids of all ages!

On our way over there we explained the rules to our kids: (1) NEVER wander off without mom or dad; and (2) NO fits when it's time to leave! Well, as soon as we got in, got our food ordered and found a table (that was the hardest part), Jenalyn bolted! Surprisingly we didn't panic too much. But once we found her we reiterated our expectations and made sure she didn't take off without one of us again.

We met up with Jason's aunts, Nancy and Dale, and his parents. We had a great time! I think the kids did too :) First thing when Corbin got up this morning, "Chuckeycheese mommy! Lets go!" *lol* He talked about it all day. We're definitely going to have to go back!

Here are a couple pictures - Jason had Jenalyn and I had Corbin (and the camera) that's why there are more pics of Corbin on the rides: