Jazz Game!

As many of you know - I am a big fan of the Utah Jazz. Well, the preseason is here and since I found 4 upper bowl tickets to a preseason game on ebay for only $7.99, I figured it would be a fun family outing.

Amber and the kids picked me up from work and we hit the Wendy's AND McDonald's drive thru before heading downtown to the game. Kate refused to eat McDonald's nuggets and Ethan prefers the Wendy's ones as well - but Nicole wanted McDonalds (and Amber & I prefer McDonald's also - especially since it is Monopoly time - I love Monopoly time at McDonalds). After everyone was happy with their dinner we headed downtown. Being the tight cheap-skate that I am (and the fact that Amber and I never carry cash), it took about 15 minutes to find free parking - and not very close either.

On the walk there, three different times Kate could smell popcorn popping. Kate has a weak spot for concession stand popcorn. A week earlier, we went to the U of U football game. After getting Kate a hotdog, pretzel, candy and Sprite - she smelled the popcorn and would not rest until she had some. So we went and got a big tub of popcorn. She gleefully carried it up to our seats at the U football game where Holly & Dave, and Grandma & Grandpa awaited. She told them all that she got the biggest bucket of popcorn and they could all have as much as they wanted. What a good girl for sharing. However, about 10 minutes later, upon realizing that her popcorn bucket was only about 1/4 full, she yelled at everyone at told them that they had all eaten too much of her popcorn and revoked their sharing privledges. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Back to the Jazz game, Kate immediately started asking for popcorn, which we managed to hold out until the end of the 1st Quarter to get her some (we arrived with about 7 minutes left in the first quarter). Thankfully, the vending stations take credit cards and we got some popcorn.

Nicole is also a big Jazz fan. Last year during the playoffs, she watched every game with me and whenever she wore her lucky Jazz T-shirt - the Jazz always managed to win. Last year, she knew every player and their jersey number. You could quiz her. She was also smart enough to know that Matt Harpring is the worst player on the Jazz, and that we were glad that Fisher left. They gave out posters with the season's schedule on them. Which Nicole is proudly displaying in the picture below. Now all we need to do is cut out the picture of Harpring and it will be fine.

When I got home from work the next day, both Nicole and Kate had hung their posters on their bedroom walls. I was one proud papa to see them being excited about the Jazz.

Ethan also had a good time at the game. He didn't squirm too much and actually sat on my lap and watched (as long as he had some candy, food or as you see below, a sword [straw] to play with). He even cried both times we took him out of the arena to go walk around. He wanted to be in where he could see the court.

He did get upset when I made him pose for a picture with the court in the background though.

We all had a great time, I even ran to the car in the rain and sleet so my family wouldn't get wet and wouldn't have to walk the 3 miles away that I parked. (It was very cold and very wet)

Ethan Snack Searching

First of all, I didn't think anyone really looked at our blog, but it is funny when you haven't posted anything for a month how many people start asking you when you are going to update. So, sorry to everyone that it has been a month.

In our kitchen we have a little corner door that functions as our pantry. For Ethan, it's kind of like a walk-in pantry. Well, the door doesn't shut all the way, so Ethan has access to it basically whenever he wants. The other day he was after a snack. You could hear all this noise coming from the pantry, and here is what it looked like when Amber found him:

You may note from the picture above what he has grabbed in his right hand. Here he is leaving victoriously from the pantry:

And here is his path of destruction that follows him almost everywhere he goes:

Ethan sure is fun to have around!

Ethan loves Oreos!

Amber went out with her sisters and mom tonight, so I had the kids. Amber dropped them off at my office and then I took them over to the new Chipotle. Needless to say, that was my choice, not theirs - but they each ate a cheese Quesadilla and for $0.80 a piece - that's a lot cheaper than McD's. On our way home, we stopped at a pet store - just for fun - to let the kids look at the animals. Ethan is fascinated by birds. Kate wants a kitty or a puppy. Nicole likes the animals as long as they are locked up. When I finally dragged them away, all 3 kids were crying. Ethan was tired. Kate wanted to take a pet home, and Nicole was crying at the simple idea we might ever have a pet. I know I'm the idiot - it was a lose, lose, lose situation from the beginning. When we got home I did a little swamp cooler work (the stupid thing started leaking again and I'll be visiting Home Depot tomorrow, hopefully only once, to buy some supplies to attempt to fix it) Swamp coolers are the biggest pieces of shiz in the world. I hate my swamp cooler more than the devil himself. Anyway, Ethan didn't eat much of his quesadilla, so I started feeding him some mandarin oranges. Kate started crying because it was our last cup of mandarin oranges. So I gave her an Oreo to shut her up. Well, I had forgotten that Ethan LOVES Oreos. As soon as he saw it, he immediately wanted nothing else. Here is the video for you to enjoy...


Then, I'm not kidding - 30 seconds later, Kate has gone upstairs and put on a Cinderella costume:

Nicole put a dress on, and they started playing Trick-or-Treat by taking turns being inside the pantry and handing treats out to each other as they knocked on the pantry door.

Then I look over at Ethan and he is a mess from his Oreo.




Then he starts grunting and pooped what seems to me like a world record quantity. I've tried to train him to do this only when Mom is around, but I got stuck with it this time.

These are the joys of having kids!

Peruvian Kate

Well, My mom and dad just got back from Peru. They brought back some artifacts and Kate got dressed up. I can't see her wearing these anywhere, but they're not bad for dress-up I guess. These things remind me of when I would go to little centers in Chile where you think you should buy some souveniers and you think they are real cool at the time. Then you get the things home and you're like "What the h was I thinking - these are lame."

Well, once I saw a companion at the U wearing his Chile artifact coat, and I thought "He looks ridiculous."

I'll post some more stuff later.

Kiddie Kandids

Since Ethan and Kate both had Birthdays in the last couple of weeks, it was time for pictures to be taken at Kiddie Kandids. Here are the best of them...

Ethan's 1st Birthday Party!

Tonight was Ethan's 1st birthday party. His birthday was August 30, but we were in St. George, so tonight was the family party. Attendees are as follows: G&G Jo, Grandma Rosemary and Grandpa Russ, Grandma Nan, Aunt Ashley & cousin Ally, Mom, Dad, Nicole, Kate, and of course - the man of the hour - Ethan.

You might remember we always make a special cake for our kids when they turn 1 and let them do whatever they want to it. Ethan destroyed his after some help from his sisters. I gave him a bath afterwards which had plenty of cake floaties...but you should have seen the floor that Amber cleaned up!

We had a blast. The girls fought (what else is new) over who got to play with Ethan's toys first, while the only toy Ethan was interested in was Grandma Jo's cane. I've attempted to post a video of him playing with it (see further down).

Here's Ethan with his special "football" cake from Linda Gerlach.

In addition to playing with the cane, you might notice that Ethan is quite the walker now. Just yesterday he started gaining confidence in being able to take more than two steps at a time, and now, he's basically got it down. This can mean only 1 thing - we'll be in the emergency room some time this week getting stitches from him falling head first into some sharp corner. Somehow, Nicole never had stitches in her forehead, but Kate has had 3 sets. The last time Primary Children's was asking lots of accusatory questions as if I did it to her. I was this close to going off on them.

Anyway, here is hopefully a video of Ethan:

Enjoy!

PS - Quote from Kate on the way home from St. George:

Kate: "Daddy - remember the meatballs at Ikea?"

Daddy (bewildered):"Yes Kate, I remember them."

Kate: "Those are good, huh?"

(I don't know what her obsession with Ikea is. We've been there once or twice and she thinks it's the greatest place on earth for some reason... Like the time I was super mad at the girls and told them if they didn't start behaving and quit fighting that all of their privledges would be taken away. I then gave some examples like no more out to dinner, no more movies at bedtime, etc., etc. - then Kate pipes up and gives one more example, "and we won't get to go to Ikea anymore Daddy?")

Here are some random pictures:

Ethan having his birthday breakfast. Since we were in St. George, he got one of his favorite items, Hostess mini powdered donuts!

This is Kate and Nicole at Ethan's Party:

Kate on her birthday:

Kate at Pre-School:

And Kate on her first day of Preschool:

Kate says the funniest things!

Ok - we're in St. George so I don't have access to post a photo at the present time, but just thought I would leave some thoughts from Kate (she just turned 4)- she is hilarious.

First some background leading up to Kate's Quotes. You must know that my parents own a dog "Brittany" that is 13 years old (that's 91 in dog years) that is now deaf, toothless and must be fed a special diet of soft meaty bites and wet dog food. You all know what wet dog food looks and smells like. Well, this weekend has led to Kate's first encounter with wet dog food.

Also - most of you are aware that my daughter Nicole (Kate's sister) has some anxiety issues (she gets it from her Dad). Nicole makes herself nervous about a variety of things, which usually leads to her making herself sick and she throws-up or cries a lot. One thing she is deathly afraid of is dogs. And sometimes, she gets nervous about going to school.

That should be enough background...so here are the quotes: (also - it's funny to know that Kate just made herself lunch. She poured about half a bag of pretzels onto a plate and got out a juice box).

Also, please remember Kate's special squeaky voice...it's a cross between Minnie Mouse and a little girl...

Quote #1: Last night, Kate was closely watching Grandpa as he made Brittany her dinner. He scooped out half a can of wet dog food and then kind of smashed it up. Then Kate said, "Granpa, Does Brittany eat dog pooh?"

Quote #2: "Granma, guess what? If I go to pre-school without throwing up or crying, then I get a toy!" Mom's (Amber) response: "No Kate - that's just for Nicole."

and Quote #3: this one came in the middle of the night the other night. My alarm went off which woke me up, but just caused Kate to stir. She was in the middle of a dream and started talking in her sleep. Kate(crying) :"Nicole!...Nicole!...Daddy - Nicole just took my coloring book!..." How would it be to be so young and innocent that the worst nightmare you can have is that your older sister just took your coloring book.

I'll put more pictures up on my next post.

See you all later!

Picture Post

Okay, so I think I can put a few pictures in the same post. I'm really getting good at this. Here are a bunch of pictures:

This one here is a picture of Ethan sleeping on top of me. He must have been super comfy sleeping on top of his soft pillowy Dad.

Here are our 3 kids driving their pink Cadilac Escalade. When Ethan is old enough to drive, I will be spray painting it and having it "murdered out" just like Big Black's Pinto.

Here are Colo and Kater-Tots getting ready for Kate's water birthday party for her friends. They are eating popsicles, because those popsicles are not allowed in the house.

Here's Mom (Amber) and the two girls riding a space ship to outer space at Disneyland. Kate is classic, everytime the ride went up, she would ask if they were in outer space. Just like when we took off in the airplane on our way to California, she kept asking when we were going to "Blast Off!"

Nicole is our ballerina. Here she is preparing for her recital. It's funny to know that about 30 seconds before this picture she was bawling about who knows what, but as soon as I pulled out the camera to get a picture of her being a baby, she immediately put on a big smile and show for the camera.

While Ethan and I were waiting for the girls in the princess shop, I put this "Prince" crown or whatever it is on him. He smiled for about 2 seconds before ripping the thing off his head. Kudos to Mom for capturing this picture while he still had a smile on his face.

Here is me and all the kids on the teacups. I don't know if Ethan was supposed to be on the ride or not, but I snuck him on and he loved it. Nobody even threw-up! You should note that we are, of course, riding in a pink teacup. I wonder who requested that?

Lastly, here are my 2 princesses with their favorite princess, Cinderella. This would be like me hanging out with Emmitt Smith or John Stockton. They sure had a fun time.

Nicole Elise

Here is our big girl Nicole Elise. She is 6 and a half and just started 1st grade. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Bickmore, but she might as well go by Sargeant Bickmore. I call Nicole "Colo". She is a good helper around the house (when she wants to be). She loves princesses and Barbies and most of all, she loves her sister Kate and brother Ethan. The first picture is taken at Disneyland where Nicole was trying on some princess tiaras. The other picture is taken of Nicole in our front yard on her first day of 1st grade. She is wearing her favorite Hello Kitty backpack.

Kate Marie

So I'm on to post #2 - I'm too dumb to mess with this too much, so I figure I'll do one post for each of my kids with a picture of each... Then, I'll just upload as many pictures as I can so Lori can see us.

This one is Kate, I call her "Kater-Tots". She is a genuine sweetheart. She just turned 4 and had a horrible birthday. She got the 24 hour flu and laid on the couch for her entire party. She did wake up long enough to barf all over the place and said, with her little high-pitched squeaky voice, "it's no fun to throw up on your birthday."

She is my favorite 4 year old in the world - and the cutest one too!

First Post Ever!

Okay - I don't know what the h I am doing, but since my dear sister Lori is on a 4 year mission and keeps giving me crap that I don't have a blog - well, I am going to attempt to post some pictures for her benefit. I can't imagine any other person will ever look at this and I'm sure it is going to be ugly (except for the pictures of my kids). But here goes...

Here is a picture of child #3 Ethan Jeffery. He is a machine. He turns 1 on August 30th and he is taking 3-4 steps at a time. He loves to crawl upstairs and get into trouble