December

December was a busy month for us! Search and Destroy participated in their preschool Christmas program. I wasn't able to get any video on the little camera though because I was using the actual video camera and Aaron wasn't there to help.

Search's class dressed up as reindeer and sang about Rudolph. The funny thing about their performance was that Search was the only one that sang. His teacher put him in front of the microphone and the kids on either side of him in hopes that he would motivate them to sing. But mostly the kids just watched him as he sang his little heart out into the mic. Even though he's got the rhythm and pitch down, the kid doesn't pronunciate his words. So you really couldn't understand much of what he was saying. It was pretty funny.

The happy Rudolph. His teacher let them keep their costumes and he is still obsessed with those antlers.And the tail. A tail pinned on a shirt opens up a whole new world of possibilities in a child's eyes. This shirt serves as a costume for all kinds of animals!Destroy's class sang a few songs too. They sounded so cute. He was also part of the "worship team" where some of the kids did some dances. I have no idea what the worship team is though, I guess I should ask.See, here he is gettin' down! Literally :) We had fun decorating the tree. My mom buys each one of us new ornaments every year and I have all the ornaments that I was given or made from growing up, so our tree sags under the weight of the ornaments. Would you like a tree with those ornaments?And of course, just to please me, because no one else cares, the kids got new Christmas church clothes this year. I love Kohls.If you're goofy and you know it, do thumbs up!We spent Christmas eve with two families, the Rupps and the Pearces. We got to partake of some yummy fondue, the Rupp's Christmas eve tradition, and the kids put on the nativity. Well, actually they just fought over who got to be the donkey and who got to be Joseph. Oh wait, maybe that was just Search. Since Mikaela was the only girl, Mary was reserved. See? There's that reindeer shirt, serving as the donkey.
I believe my kids are suffering from what I call "holiday confusion". For their Christmas presents this year I went the day after Halloween and bought a whole bunch of costumes on clearance. They LOVE dressing up and using their imaginations, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity. I spent 30-40 bucks for about 10 costumes. But, I think they're confusing Christmas and Halloween. But, maybe not, because it's Halloween everyday at our house.

Knight vs. cow. Sorry, cow, I think you're out of luck.

Search calls himself the "flying cow". Aaron's parents got him these cool bat wings that retract with strings and then pop out like a parachute when you pull a string. He loves them.
Red Power Ranger and Batman on the plasma car.
Watch out for Spidey!
Green T-Rex's putting together the pirate legos that Santa brought Destroy. But, these costumes have also been green rhinos and lizards.
Roar... you can still be fierce even when you're this cute!
December flew by... and now onto 2009! Whew!

We're back and in action!

For Thanksgiving the boys and I flew out to Washington to visit my brother. Poor Aaron got to stay home and work every single day we were gone, including Thanksgiving day. Fortunately, some of our friends invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner, which they scheduled for noon, just so that he would have time to eat before work. They were so sweet.

While we were in Washington we stayed with my brother, his wife and their four kids. Search and Destroy had a blast terrorizing their house and playing day in and day out with their cousins. My parents, other brother and family, Grandparents, Great Uncle, Dad's cousin and wife and my cousin and family all met us at Dave's house for Thanksgiving dinner. There were 24 of us total. We had an awesome dinner, thanks to Honey Baked Ham. It was delish!
The day after Thanksgiving everybody skipped the shopping and headed over to the Great Wolf Lodge, a ginormous indoor water park/hotel where we stayed for one night and played at the water park.

We watched Santa and five of his elves skydive to the hotel. Meet Santa. And elves.

We got to declare our greatest wishes to the fat guy. Somehow, I don't think this is the same Santa that jumped out of the airplane. Sorry, that sentence was not intended for younger eyes/ears.



Almost all the cousins on my side, minus Brett and Luke.

We hung out with aunts and uncles (my brother Dave),

and spent time with grandparents (my mom's mom). Isn't she darling? Sorry Dave, you're darling too.
We had so much fun on our trip but wished Daddy could have come. We have been late to preschool two out of three times this week because we are still on west coast time. The three hours make a huge difference! (like when Search woke up at 2:15 am for the day on the first night there. I thought it was a nightmare, but it was real.) Just when I finally got them used to the west coast time change, it was time to come home. Hopefully we'll be back to normal in a couple of days.


Yesterday we went and got our Christmas tree. Last year we had so much fun cutting our tree down that we decided to do it again. We went to a different place this year that had a train shop with race car tracks. The kids had a blast.

Here's me and baby Dodge. You're probably wondering why we call him baby Dodge. Well, we made a deal with the kids. They could name the child while in utero as long as Daddy and I could name the kid after it's born. The names they were choosing were more than a little odd. Like Dodge, but we thought it was appropriate because he'll be doing a lot of dodging once he gets the hang of it :)

A cute family pic!

Bossy kid and Airplane Hair

Remember back in grade school when there was always a bossy kid or two in your class? Well, the bossy kid these days happens to be my very own charming 5 year old. I know he's bossy with his little brother at home, but I didn't realize what a boss he is at school until I went to volunteer in his class the other day. Some of the other kids were telling me that Destroy "thinks he's the boss around here". It amazes me that he even has friends!

On thursday we got a note home from his teacher, a note for misbehavior. Not the first, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Here's what it said:

"(Destroy) wants to run the class. He told us what he wanted to do and would not do what was said by the teacher."

We got to have a long chat that night about who is actually the boss at home and who is the real boss at school. He wasn't too responsive and gets very defensive and quiet (a big feat for him) when we try to talk to him about his misbehavior. Let's hope that this, uh, confidence, I'll call it, turns into a healthy, positive type of leadership someday.

The other day while brushing his teeth before school, Search told me that he has "airplane hair".

I can see why he calls it that. The wings that his hair creates really do seem to pick up and take flight some days.

Speaking of hair... does anyone have a solution for static? I have major static hair going on these days and it's driving me nuts!

Date part 2

The other half.

Aaron and I had a conversation while raking. Can you guess who said what???

Person A: "If they had leaf raking competitions, I think we'd win the title".

Person B: "Well, there isn't much money in it you know".

Person A: "Who said anything about money? I'm talking about the fame!"

Person B: "I don't think there's much fame in it either."

Person A: "You never know. We are in Indiana!"

We ran out of time and we weren't able to pick up the piles. I'm praying that there are no big wind storms in the next 24 hours.

Next up:

Yeah, those lovely decaying weeds have to go.

Date

Today I had a date with my husband. Can you see him??? We got to rake leaves. 16 big piles.

Ahhh... I feel better. But my hands sure don't!

Tomorrow brings part 2 of our date. The other half of our yard!

Lucky 7 Tag

7 things I can do:

MEGAN:
1. Make my kids laugh.
2. Have fun creating cool stuff - especially sewing.
3. Control 8, 9 and 10 year old boys - AKA the cub scouts. But I have a hard time controlling my own 3 and 5 year olds!
4. Clean off the kitchen counter 6 times a day.
5. Ignore all responsibilities and read an entire novel in two days.
6. Forget to put the trash out for three consecutive weeks in a row.
7. Transition easily in and out of single parenthood depending on Aaron's rotation of the month.


AARON:
1. Push the kids higher on the rope swing than Megan (if I'm home, they refuse to let her do it)
2. Do 30 pull-ups in 1 set (Thank you, CrossFit)
3. Put the toilet seat down (6 years of trying to change me, and this is Meg's one victory)
4. Fall asleep at red lights while driving. Scary, huh!?!
5. Insert needles, tubes, and blades into every possible human orifice (and sometimes I just make my own)
6. BBQ-I have spent the past several months perfecting my ribs and BBQ chicken recipes.
7. Scare the bejeebers out of Search. I almost don't even have to try.

7 Things I can't do:

MEGAN:
1. Solve computer problems.
2. Motivate myself to go rake our yard.
3. Leave stacks of paper unorganized.
4. Watch a movie without asking questions and commenting (and Aaron hates it!)
5. Make eggs. Ok, well, I've never tried because Aaron always does it :)
6. Take the kids back upstairs to their beds in the middle of the night after potty breaks and bad dreams. They just sleep in the papasan.
7. Keep my mouth shut when I see a bad driver.

AARON:
1. Convince my wife that I really am listening to her when she rambles even though I'm not.
2. Stay awake in conference. I have quite a reputation in the residency.
3. Keep up with the yard work.
4. Be nearly as productive at home as Meg is.
5. Play with my kids for more than 5 minutes without getting poked in the eye, kicked in the groin, or maimed in some other way.
6. Believe that I'm almost 30.
7. Produce "x" swimmers.

7 things that attracted us to each other:

MEGAN:
1. Looks. He had lots of time to work out back then and it paid off. Though, I'd have to say that he looks better now than ever! Thanks again, Crossfit!
2. Ambition. I didn't really care that he wanted to be a doctor, but he was so motivated and determined and knew exactly what he wanted. It was pretty appealing. I was ready to hop on board that train!
3. He was flirtatious :) And those of you who I went to BYU with know that I was a ridiculous flirt. So we meshed well.
4. Wide range of strange facts of knowledge. Like he would do really well on jeopardy.
5. He loves to ski, camp and enjoy the outdoors. I knew I'd never marry someone who didn't!
6. He was very involved in his calling as EQ president at the time. He has always been very involved in his calling and in the gospel in general. He always seems to have answers to all my gospel questions because he knows a lot about it!
7. He was not shy about telling me how he felt about me. And that made me feel good :)


AARON:
1. Her smile. So warm and caring...and teeth perfectly aligned without gaps (spending as much time in a dentists office as I have, I can't help but notice)
2. Her dedication to things that matter to her. I knew she'd be a great mother and she has yet to prove me wrong.
3. She is a great friend. People are drawn to her, I guess kind of like I was.
4. She laughs at my jokes, especially the ones that aren't funny.
5. She's hot. Smoking hot.
6. The "come hither" look. 6 years and I still can't resist it.
7. She's real. What you see is what you get. No drama. No shows. She's as genuine as they come.

7 things I say most often:

MEGAN:
1. Stop picking your nose!
2. Get buckled!
3. Love you!
4. What should we have for dinner?
5. Are you even listening to me?
6. You're silly!
7. Uh, I don't think so!


AARON:
1. No, I will not write you a prescription for medical marijuana.
2. What are we having for dinner?
3. This is Dr. Madsen, I was paged.
4. (Enter child's name here), what are you doing!?!?
5. zzzzzzzzzzz
6. Just a minute. (Meg's least favorite thing to hear)
7. I love you so much. (I'm sure the kids are so sick of hearing this)

7 celebrity admirations:
MEGAN:
Ha! To be honest, I hold the opposite of admiration for celebrities. Except maybe Ben Stein cuz he's smart.

AARON:
Celebrities??? What are those???


7 favorite foods:

MEGAN:
1. I have a vegetable obsession right now
2. I also have a cookie obsession. But that never goes away.
3. fruit, especially mango, pear and pineapple.
4. potato prepared any way
5. Anything Aaron makes on the grill
6. soup with bread to dip in it.
7. basically any type of bread, roll, etc.


AARON:
1. Pizza
2. Steak
3. Shrimp
4. French Fries
5. creamy crock-pot chicken over rice
6. Warm brownies with ice cream
7. sour candy


7 people to tag:
whoever wants to!

"Wook, mom! I ate awe da waisins!"All 7 boxes.

All I have to say is... I'm glad he's out of diapers!