Birthday #7/Christmas 2010

Tearing through the paper to get to all the presents on Christmas morning, a tradition started by Grandma Shauna. These pics are out of order because I tried to upload to video of them tearing through but it didn't work. The big gift for Christmas this year was the Xbox Kinect. You use your body as a controller and get a great workout. Dax and Derek were sore the next day. They love the Sonic game. We also got a dance one. We play "family dance off night" with it. Trey got two different dump truck-type toys (one from us, one from Grandpa Brent) that are actually recycled trucks. I guess teaching kids to be "green" is in. You put in these little plastic garbage pieces and it says "yum yum" then Trey started saying "yum yum" kind of cute. Then it sings a song about how recycling is fun. Derek turned 7 on December 23, although he insists his birthday is on Christmas all year long until the 23rd hits, then he decides he actually does want presents on the 23rd. Aunt Alisa gave Derek this "Birthday Boy" shirt he loved it and wore it for 3 days. He loved the Spiderman cake Faux rice crispy treat sushi. Curtis loves sushi, and rice crispy treats so the boys put it together and made him this for his Christmas present. The only sushi my boys will eat for now. All Derek wanted for his birthday was "burned up Anakin" a little Lego character. He was thrilled, and I was thrilled to give him that little inexpensive gift. He also got this little robot insect walking thing that you control with a little remote, and a Star Wars Lego book that talks about all the star wars Lego sets and characters.

Viva Las Vegas

Curtis' sister Alisa and her husband Mike Zoccoli have 3 boys ages 15,13,11. Alisa has a heart of gold. A few years ago they decided they wanted to foster/ or adopt. In September 2008 they were placed with 2 boys, Kenny and Isiah ages 4 and 5 at the time. They had come from an awful situation and adjusted and bonded well with the Zoccolis. There was another brother who was 18 months at the time and was placed with another family. Mike and Alisa eventually got custody of him also. On November 20th, National Adoption day, they adopted the three boys and now they are up to SIX BOYS -Tyler, Joey, Stephen, Kenny, Isiah, and James. They had a big celebration for the adoption and all of Curtis' family came out. While Curtis' mom was here for the week she offered to stay with our boys for a few days while we went on a little trip to Las Vegas.

 We had a great time, and the kids had a great time with Grandma Shauna. We stayed at Monte Carlo where we got a great room rate and we had never stayed there before. It was really nice and a great location on the strip. We went to see the Cirque de sole "Viva Elvis". The Cirque shows are usually excellent and this was one we hadn't seen. Curtis had seen an interview with Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley saying that this was the one show that Elvis would love. It was exactly what he would want and approve. You can't get a better endorsement than that. We checked it out and it was really good. More of a Broadway-type show than an amazing hold-your-breath Cirque show (although there were some elements of that) it told the story of his life. The thing that I liked that I think made it good, is there was no person acting as Elvis. They took news clips and audio so the only person as Elvis was Elvis himself, no bad impersonations. They also took the original Elvis songs with his voice and music but somehow re-did them with a more current beat and sound. It was a fun show. 

We also saw " The Mentalist Live" with Gerry McCambridge. This is a show with the creator of the TV show "The Mentalist" the description was comedy, magic, and mind reading. Sounded interesting. When we get to the show there were probably about 50 people in the audience. As we walked in they handed us a blank white index card. Once we get in to get seated someone came out and asked us to write down our full name (first, middle, last). Then answer to a question that only we would know like the name of a favorite teacher, a significant date, like a birthday etc. And then a specific question that we had and wanted to be answered and he said to be specific like "Will my daughter get married this year" then we passed all our papers in, and one of his assistants collected them and put them in a see-through box in the front where everyone could see them. They never left the room. Gerry comes out and explains who he is, and what he does. He takes some volunteers and does a trick where he guesses the exact number from a phone book that a volunteer picks. Then he goes to the cards in the box and he says he is going to guess what is on the card he pics. He pulls one out and holds it in his hands for a minute. He has everyone stand up and he says I am going to guess the person's initials on this card. If it isn't your initials sit down. He says "M .J." so those are my initials and I'm hoping there is another M. J. in the room so I'm not the one being embarrassed. Everyone else sits down except me. He wanted to hear the person's voice so we were supposed to say "Those are my initials" I don't know how he did it but he asked "is your first name Marilyn" I was shocked there are 100 M names he could have guessed. Then he went to the last name. He said something like "I think it's a common last name Jones, no it's Johnson, Marilyn Johnson ...Marilyn Lund Johnson" WHAT???? I have never seen or talked to this guy, nobody from the show talked to us before we went in, and the cards never left the room. It was crazy. He then went on to guess Mrs. Arnote, the name of the favorite teacher I had written down, and then went to work on a few other people. It was a fun show and a super fun trip. Then we came home and had Thanksgiving with Prime Rib bought from Fry's. My mom would cringe. I decided I wanted a Holiday too and didn't want to spend all day cooking and cleaning.

Halloween

The kids had a great Halloween. Dax dressed as a Mad Scientist, Derek was Black Spider-man (much different than the red and blue spider-man he had been two prior years) and Trey was an Alligator because that is the costume my neighbor gave me that fit him. Mad Scientist doing an experiment with dry ice. The kids loved the dry ice. I think it was their favorite part of Halloween. After we went to the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday night, we headed to the zoo to meet my old friend Kim. We had been friends since middle school but lost contact for a while so we finally met up after not seeing each other for almost 20 years. She brought her daughter Emily, who is Dax's age. It was great to see her again, and she hadn't changed a bit. You couldn't see very many of the animals, but the zoo had other little rides and exhibits. Of course, they loved the mad science, and there was also one where they could look at scorpions under a black light, and another chance to wear their costumes.

9 weeks down......It was in the stars!

The kids just finished the first quarter of the school year. Now they are on fall break, I can't believe how fast it goes. I had a parent-teacher conference first with Ms. Dowdy, Derek's teacher. Derek is doing well, but still struggling in reading and writing. We work on this daily, but his teacher says he is a whiz at math, and also a deep thinker. Overall he is doing well. Ms. Dowdy told me how well-liked he is and that he is a sweet boy. So happy to hear that. 

 A little funny story about Derek. The other day we were driving to church and Curtis and I were talking about how there are so many vacant spaces in shopping centers and even half-built projects with no end in sight because of how bad the economy is. I didn't even know the kids were listening and Derek pipes in and says " I thought the Jonas Brothers were the economy" laugh out loud, I don't know how he linked those two things together, but what makes it even funnier is a few weeks back I was watching the news and of course, they were talking about the economy and somehow they started saying how right now Teenage Girls are ruling the economy because what they buy effects so many other things. Derek is right, the Jonas brothers are the economy right now. 

 Dax of course is doing well in school as always. He still has the problem of reading too much. In 4th grade, it was a problem as well. A problem is that he is reading his book and not listening in class, or doing math or what he should be doing. Miss Roe even told me that she told the kids around him to take his book away from him if they catch him reading when he shouldn't be. She told me one time they even found him laying on the floor under a table reading. The teacher made it out like he was hiding, when I asked Dax he just said he was trying to get comfortable, and didn't know he wasn't supposed to be reading. I guess of all the problems to have, reading too much isn't so bad. 5th grade seems to start offering activities that the younger grades don't get. 

Soon after the school year started they had elections for class senators. Dax decided he fit the description of a candidate so he decided to run. I was proud of him for that, he wrote his speech all by himself and he actually did a great job. Even political Junkie/marketing genius Dad approved and made no improvements. I think he said 8 kids ran, but there were only 2 spots. I knew his speech was good, and he always does a great job of speaking in public, but this is an elementary school and they don't necessarily vote for a person for the right reasons. Dax learned early how dirty politics can be. He lost to the kids who brought in candy for the class. Two brought in candy, and those two won. I'm proud of him for trying.

 This year the schools start offering Band or Orchestra instead of regular music classes. At the end of 4th grade when Dax brought the info home on it he told me he wanted to do Viola. I initially tried to discourage him from this. 1)- I didn't know if he was serious about this, or if it just seemed the thing to do because other kids wanted to 2) I know this is a commitment, they have to commit for the entire school year, I didn't know if he would really stick to it that long. Not excited about investing in something like this if he isn't committed, but I guess he would have to once he signs up. 3) I didn't know if he would be responsible enough to carry his instrument to a from school. All these things make it seem like these are all the reasons I should sign him up, but this is Dax. Brainiac in the class, scatterbrained when it comes to anything else. 

The school year starts up and Dax is still saying he wants to play the viola. I asked him why he decided on that instrument and talked about it etc. I talked to the orchestra teacher and he is now playing the viola. There is a side story to this... Way back when I was pregnant with Dax, we took birthing classes like all first-time parents do. Our instructor was into natural healing, crystals yada yada (all birthing instructors seem to come from the same mold) After Dax was born, I called her and told her, etc. She asked if we would mind if she could do an astrological report for our baby. Yeah, sure whatever. She asked very detailed questions down to the minute, he was born, his zip code, etc. A few weeks later we get a Book, a full 8 1/2x11 page size book. Probably over 100 pages of his astrological report. The book talked about how the planets lined up at his time of birth etc. We look at it with a grain of salt, not taking any of this too seriously. When you have your first baby and they are brand new, they are just this blob, they don't smile, or show any type of personality. So reading about what his personality was, yeah whatever. We didn't buy it. Especially since We know the parent's personality we didn't buy into too much of what this was saying. With Curtis being so athletic and loving sports, of course, this baby would love sports as much as his dad. I specifically remember reading this one part on his personality with my Mom and it was saying how he would be musical and enjoy the arts etc. Laugh out loud, that is so not either of us. My mom jokingly and trying to get a rise out of Curtis said "oh this baby is going to grow up and play the violin" That didn't go over well. Fast forward 10 years, Dax is wanting to play viola he honestly has no interest in sports (he will watch occasionally with Dad). I'm laughing thinking back about his astrological report and my mom's comment. I have not looked at the thing since then. I pulled it out and it is actually pretty accurate to his personality. Kind of interesting. I don't think he should base his life on what this report says, but it is a nice little compliment to the other tools we have to make decisions in life. He is doing the Viola and actually likes it. Both his orchestra teacher, Ms. Kellis, and Miss Roe brought up the fact that Dax is so charismatic and has a great sense of humor. He makes them laugh, and they both enjoy him so much in class. So happy to hear that. Dax also graduated from speech therapy. He started that in 1st grade because he had trouble pronouncing his R's and a few other sounds. Now he is finally done. Hooray

Floida/Mission reunion

Curtis served his mission in Tallahassee, Florida a few years back (1991-1993). His buddies from his mission decided to have a reunion there when BYU and Florida State played Football against each other on September 18th. Since Curtis actually lived and worked right there at Florida State and he LOVES BYU football it was a great excuse to go back. I would have loved to have gone with him, but I can't bear to travel anywhere with Trey right now. We didn't really want to leave Trey or the kids with anyone and be all the way across the country. We decided Dax would be his travel buddy.

We sent them off with a Florida Farewell. My mom used to make Alligator bread. I was so happy to have gotten the directions and recipe from Marilyn M. a few months back. I finally had an excuse to make it. This gator turned out a little on the fat side. I needed a longer pan to make him long and lean. Maybe next time. He was still tasty with southern BBQ. The kids liked him too.

First, they flew into Pensacola, FL where I hear it has beautiful WHITE sandy beaches. Dax was impressed with how white the beaches were. I have heard the beaches described as sugar or flour. Curtis was sad when the gulf oil spill was going on a few months back and at one point they thought the oil would hit those beaches. Luckily it didn't, they are still beautiful.

There was one point early in the trip when Dax thought it would a miserable trip since he left his Nintendo Dsi and games in the car. Ughh. That boy's life revolves around video games. They would be doing a lot of traveling in the car so he really wanted his games. I overnighted the games, he had them the next day, and now life was good again.

Dax at a Shark museum.

Dax getting eaten by an Alligator

King Dax getting spoiled rotten by Dad. I would never do this. I'm too cheap and mean.

I can not get this picture to go in the right direction. Dax and Curtis holding a wicked young Alligator. His mouth is taped shut, but they said it whipped its tail around and even for a small one had some strength. Nothing to mess with. I want to know who get's to put the tape on that mouth and take it off???

Dax driving a go-cart. Once again spoiled rotten

The next night they were at Panama City Beach. This is Dax on the Balcony of the Hotel.


Game DAY

BYU lost, but we won't talk about that. They still had a great time.
After the game, Curtis and Dax headed over to the Waffle House which was right next to their hotel, but still about 7 miles from the stadium. They sat down to eat and who was at the table next to them??? Legendary BYU coach LaVelle Edwards. If I wasn't married to Curtis I would have no clue who this man was. So random that they would run into him. LaVelle and his wife were at the game, but at this point they were nowhere near the stadium, crazy that they happened to run into them where they did. He was very nice and took a picture with them, then after they ate Curtis had a minute to chat with him. If I were ever to run into LaVelle Edwards I would want Curtis to be there because he knows every stat and every bit of trivia about this team and coach.

Curtis, Lavelle Edwards and Dax

Dax at Wacolla Springs. You can see a big Manatee in the water behind him. I think those are the ugliest fish.
Dax and Uncle Herman at Wacolla Springs. They met up with Herman who is in the Air Force in Panama City, FL

Swim Lessons

Trey Started Swim lessons today. We knew we had to get him going on this since we have the pool in the backyard. The net that we use as our pool barrier for the last 7 years is on its last legs, hopefully, we will get him swimming before it snaps. He does love to swim and play in the water.

Today was his first lesson and he loved it. I knew he would, none of my boys have ever been afraid of the water or swimming. He laughed, and splashed and couldn't wait to get in the water before his lesson started. He is the first kid that I actually got in the water for the lesson. Dax and Derek took swim lessons at a different place and they didn't require me to be in the water with them.

When I came home and told everyone about the swim lesson, Dax and Derek were so proud of him. Derek asked, "did you take pictures?" I thought that was cute because they were so proud of their baby brother. Unfortunately, I was in the water with him, so no pictures.

Kids Today

We have realized that with DVR we have created a monster. We can record shows, pause them go back, and watch the funny parts over and over and over. The monster is that the kids don't understand that we just can't always make a show appear on TV whenever we want, although it seems that way most of the time.

 There has been this TV show that Derek keeps seeing commercials for and he wants to watch it, but when he goes back through his "kid channels" he can never find it. So I did a search through the DVR and it said this show, Sonic X, only comes on Saturday mornings, and it was on one of the networks, WB, that showed other shows besides kid shows(no Disney, Nick, or Cartoon network, etc). I set it up to record, of course, we didn't find this show until the day after it already aired, so we have to wait almost a week to watch it. He doesn't understand why I can't just make it appear on TV. 

 Every day Derek asks me if the show was on. I tell him "no," Today he came to me and he said "every time I go to the channel that you told me it was on, there are only adult shows on the channel and they never have any kid shows, I don't think it's the right channel for Sonic X". I laughed and told him when I was a kid that is how TV was. We only watched cartoons on Saturday mornings and there were no "kid channels" with "kid shows" He asked me what kind of shows I watched so I told him the Flintstones, Jetsons, Smurfs, etc. Then he said "I don't like those shows" he knows that because he has watched them on Boomerang, another kid channel. I told him that's all there was to watch there were not really kid shows like Hanna Montana, Zach and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc. and we only had about maybe 10 channels, not 250. He couldn't believe that I didn't have the Disney channel or any other of his "kid channels" and then he said, "why were they so mean?". Hahahahahah-laugh out loud. I didn't realize what a conspiracy it was to be mean to us kids, it was just the way it was. Spoiled rotten brats that we are raising.