David Archuleta!!!!

Again I'm just a tad bit behind so I'm playing catch up. I really try hard to post every Sunday but life gets in the way. We've had a couple of fun things happening lately....so here goes.

Last Friday night I took Abi and two of her cute friends down to Salt Lake to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert featuring DAVID ARCHULETA!!! Were they excited? well maybe that's an understatement! There were over 1.5 million people who were put in the lottery to be drawn out for tickets. And while we didn't get tickets to the actual live event, we did score some tickets to the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to watch the simulcast. Nonetheless we were excited and those 3 girls were just utterly on cloud 9.

We started the day with leaving early and stopping at Target and Rue 21 to do a little shopping.....girl style (okay maybe Julie style too). We then stopped at In-N-Out and met Gina and her boys. Then we were off to the concert. Salt Lake was crazy and insane but my awesome sister called in a favor to a business (maybe i better withhold the name) right across the street from the JS Building and they so graciously agreed to let us park in their parking lot. Yay!! That was awesome. At this point my Dad calls to ask if we had made it (they got tickets to the real thing and were attending with our wonderful friends from Kentucky, The Greens). Then my dad happens to mention a little tidbit of golden information. I calmly let the girls know that after the concert their little superstar would be signing autographs at the new Deseret Book store just down the street. WOW! You would've thought I just handed them the world. They started screaming and jumping up and down.....all the while as I'm trying to explain that it would be us and 10,000 of our closest friends trying to get in to see him. Nevertheless, their hopes would not be crushed. I just knew their hearts would be broken when we arrived and would find the line backed up to Phoenix. :) Well throughout the concert, I'm trying to figure out what the best plan of attack should be. I finally decide that this once in a lifetime opportunity could totally warrant missing half the concert. So as I watch the girls drool over his every little move on the humongous screen (it was perfect, he was big as life), I inform them that we will be leaving calmly and quietly as soon as he is finished with his last song. I thought their eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. So as serenely as we could master, we walked peacefully out of the theater. As soon as we hit the door, I said "Run girls." We took off running and didn't stop until we hit the line at Deseret Book. Surprisingly we were maybe 100-150 people from the door. We waited outside for just a little bit and then they wound us in and out and up and down through the store. We bought some hot cocoa, loaded the girls up with CDs and books and settled in to wait approximately two hours before they would see his beautiful face.

They had a total blast and it was everything they thought it would be and more. I will spare you all the details but the mommy bear inside me had to come just a little once we got up to him just in order to get the few pictures I did. There was a lady in line, quite a few people in front of us (she was probably 65), and when we had our turn she was STILL talking to him!!! It was crazy and the lady kept getting in my pictures. In the one picture of Abi and Mr. David, I cropped crazy lady out but the camera focused on her so it's a little blurry. But it was pretty funny because we caught a picture of him as he was telling the lady "OKAY." In other words, "go bye bye." I mean seriously....let the 12 year olds have their moment :).

After all the happenings, we stopped by grandma and grandpa's house and had ice cream and cookies and got to visit with the Greens before they headed back to Kentucky. We sure love them like family.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience for the girls and one they will never forget. He was darling with them and genuinely a real sweetheart. They listened to his CD all the way home and dreamed about everything little thing he said to them. What fun girls!

Wolf For Nick.....

Nick has earned his Wolf in the Cub Scouting Organization and received 3 arrow points along with it!! He has worked extra hard and has had such a great time in Scouts. His leaders have been amazing and truly gone the extra mile. He was a little sad to say goodbye to his leaders who are really like a Grandma and Grandpa but is already having such a great time with his new leaders and new den. Nick, we are so proud of you. Keep it up little bud!

Snow Day....and Potty Training

The weather has been crazy this year. A few weeks ago we had a great snowstorm.....lots of beautiful, awesome snow. Then we had rain that melted it all away....then we had a week of weather in the high 40s and 50s (which I totally didn't complain about)....and then we had another big snowstorm this weekend.....which was promptly melted by more rain today. Now I'm all for the snow melting early but c'mon we really need a white Christmas. If it's going to be cold and wet, we definitely need the white stuff. Now come March, I'll be begging for Spring but I'm really dreaming of a white Christmas. :)

When that first big snowstorm hit a couple weeks ago, the kids were ecstatic to get Meili out in it and show her how it is done. We got her all bundled up and took her out. She was a little reluctant and resistant at first. She knew she wanted to explore it but was also a little nervous. Well it didn't take much and she was right at home....having a ball. In fact this little bit of information that I'm going to share next brings me to the second topic of our post. She got so busy playing, she peed all through her snowsuit and then started yelling "I pee, I pee." So her little snow day came to an abrupt end but then she realized it's even more fun after the snow playing because Mommy has hot cocoa waiting inside to warm up all the little fingers and toes.











Potty Training 101. Well our little Meili is a star. She completed the potty training course with stellar marks and is actually quite amazing in the potty-going department. For the last few months, Meili has sporadically used the toilet. We've been in and out of Pull-Ups and tried all sorts of rewards but ultimately I decided I wasn't going to stress about it because it was just something that would happen eventually....right? Well, she became a very convenient pee-er. If we were out and about running errands, at a doctor's visit, basically anywhere but home, and she would get bored, she would announce she needed to pee. So we'd take off running for the closest potty and of course most of those days, I would have just put a diaper on her. So here I am trying to balance her on the toilet, hold her puffy coat my purse and any other random objects, squatting myself trying to get her aim right so it's not shooting out the toilet and down her leg....and all scrunched up in a tiny stall. Oh and then try to put the diaper back on while she's standing up. Not so fun. But the moment we would get home, she would just forget all about using the toilet (by this time I of course have a pull-up on her) and just go about using the pull-up as her potty.

So one day I decide that the Pull-Ups are going bye bye. I never used them with my other kids, because well frankly kids are not dumb. They know a Pull-Up is just a glorified diaper. It's really more of a life saver for mom. So I realize that the safety net needs to be removed and we go straight to underwear. Of course I have all the really cool underwear with Jasmine, Cinderella, Belle, etc. I have a little talk with Meili and tell her she needs to keep them dry and tell mom when she needs to go to the bathroom (nothing really that different from the previous weeks), but this time I tell her that we might have to spend a few minutes on her bed if she gets them wet (I know, I know call Child Protective Services). Anyway, so of course she had a little accident. I gave her a little hug and a kiss and told her I loved her but we should probably sit on her bed for a few minutes and think about how we can do better next time. Well, my girl is a super star. She only had one accident after that (I didn't count the snowsuit event since she was just having so much fun). And even now she wakes up completely dry. She is a total CHAMP!!! She's so dang smart....which we knew all along.