DS Love

Over the last few years Trent and I have vacillated back and forth about how much media and technology we want our children to have access to.  It's not that we have anything against it, but we recognize that our children are only young once and don't want them to spend every waking moment playing video games.

They have wanted Nintendo DS's for the longest time.  We hesitated because they are pricey and the games are pricey too.  We didn't want to buy them and then have them sit around collecting dust.  But, this past week we went for it.  We were planning on getting them before our big move in August anyway, but since we're heading to UT, ID & CA for the next 3 weeks we decided to get them now.

The kids are in heaven!  They have been pretty well behaved this week and I have found that they are respecting our rules in regards to their usage, which makes me happy.  I will say, they are going to make my cross country drive...solo...very pleasant.  I don't think I'll have any issues in the car.  My kids are good travelers anyway, but every little bit of distraction helps during long car trips. 

So here's to Nintendo...Three Cheers!!

I found Carley watching Luke play like this on the couch...so cute!  He even rested his cheek on her head at one point...ahhh, a proud mama moment!

The Dreaded Dinner Dilemma

The following narrative is a one act play, of an actual event.

The Dreaded Dinner Dilemma

by Millie Price

The scene is an eat-in kitchen with a dining room table set for 6.  You notice all the chairs are occupied by a family except one.  Just as you see this vacancy, you hear a loud wailing voice from beneath the table...

"no no NO" 
"it's not fair"
"NOT again"
"you are mean"

sob...sob...sob...

Meanwhile, ignoring the voice, the family prays and begins eating.  The voice continues...

"i quit"
"go away"
"please go away"

yell...yell...yell...

"i don't need you anymore"
"no no no"

sob...sob...sob...

"i'm going away"
"i do not like it"
"see i do not like it"

The family are now finished eating and begin clearing the table.  The mother and daughter excuse themselves to retire to the bathroom for bath time.  The voice from under the table emerges...it is a small 3 year old girl, who is now bright eyed and chipper with the hopes of having a bath herself.  Upon hearing that she is not allowed to play in the bath, only get washed up, she promptly takes her place at the dinner table and eats her entire supper.

The End

Carley is currently my worst eater.  Most nights she has decided to not eat, try or like dinner before it's even on the table.  In fact, I'd say she refuses dinner 3 out of 5 nights.  This night was no exception. We have tried time outs, going to bed early, an array of various bribes and punishments, etc.  You name it, we've tried it.  She's so stubborn. 

On this particular night, I glanced over at my mom with pleading in my eyes and we found ourselves chuckling at the ridiculous situation we found ourselves in.  She looked at me and said, "I don't know what to tell you.  None of you kids did anything like this."  That pretty much says it all!  We have both exhausted our idea banks. 

We are currently open to suggestions!!!

Shadow Shot Sunday #9

I've had a sick household this week so I haven't felt very interesting or inspired.  A few days ago, the sun was out for the whole day!  It was so wonderful.  It was still chilly, but we were able to be outside without jackets for a while...oh yeah!! 

I tried to experiment with my kids making cool shadows on the sidewalk, but the moment was forced and we were all a bit crabby.  I only ended up taking 5 photos before we'd all had it.  I didn't get the desired photo I was going for, but I will revisit this because it could be cool...at least it is in my head!

To see more shadow shots, or better yet to join in the fun yourself click over to Hey Harriet's site!!

a slow week

This week has seemed an eternity.................................I am so thankful that Friday has arrived.  Recently, in my private thoughts I had been entertaining the possibility that we just might squeak through this winter without any major illnesses, but it was not to be.  Apparently our time was up and we were hit by the bugs this week. 

We've been nursing Carley's nasty nose the past week and this week it decided to turn into a night time cough.  This morning she woke up with a lot of extra mucus in her throat and has been walking around telling me she has "magic in her mouth."  I had to ask her a few times to repeat this because I had no idea what she was meaning.  Finally it clicked.  She was referring to the rattling of the mucus that was making her voice sound funny...this is her "magic".  What can i say, she's an inventive child! 

Luke woke me up in the middle of the night on Tuesday with an upset tummy, I'm sure you know where this is headed, yep, straight to the porcelain god!!  He threw up, face was white as a sheet, had the chills, fever, got to stay home from school....I barely slept the rest of the night because I was terrified that the flu would rip through the entire household. 

**i have to insert a disclaimer here.  i do not do well around vomit.  even typing the word makes me draw in a deep, measured breath.  i'm one of those people who lurch at the sight or smell of you know what.  i can't even eat spaghetti anymore due to an unfortunate series of events that involved: our brand new van, a christmas trip, my newly pregnant self,  a spaghetti dinner, a sick child, throw up all over the back of my chair and in my hair, and to top it off we were stuck in the car and had to drive this way for 20 minutes to find the nearest store to get supplies to clean up!  we had to drive, in the middle of winter, with the car window down and my nose out it....not one of my best memories. 

Luckily, or more likely I've been blessed to have had Trent home every time our children have been sick in this way.  Between med school, internship and residency he's been an extremely busy boy for the last few years, so I consider it a huge blessing that he's been present every time to take care of these situations.  He takes care of everyone, cleans the bathroom and even washes the sheets for me!!  So naturally I was scared stiff when Luke woke up ill.  Not only because Trent was no where near, but also because I had been secretly dreading this inevitable moment.  But I have to congratulate myself.  I held my own!  Granted, it was just one child and he did make it to the bathroom in time, it wasn't complete pandemonium, but I'll take it!  Also, I have to admit that I had to cover my nose and mouth with a hand towel, but those are minor details...right?!!!  I am seriously proud!!

Emry has been healthy through all this.  Of all my children, she gets sick the least.  In fact, she's only been sick a few times her whole life, she's got some good germ defenses!  I've managed to stay pretty healthy as well.  I've only had my allergies act up a little and have had to deal with a few headaches, but nothing an ibuprofen didn't wipe out. 

So now it's Friday, oh Friday, happy day.  We are all on the mend, just in time for the weekend!!

Shadow Shot Sunday #8

Il bacio...the kiss

 Isn't this fun!!  Please feel free to click over to Hey Harriet's blog for more Shadow Shots! 

SNOW DAY!!

We finally had a snow day!  The weather forecasters said we were going to get hit with a big storm starting Sunday morning.  I never put much stock in what they say because they're usually wrong, and this day was no different.  We got up and dressed for church like every other Sunday and off we went.  Well during Sacrament meeting, Luke noticed that it had begun to snow.  I remember looking out the doorway from our row and seeing how pretty it looked falling from the sky.  Then when the meeting was over I noticed that you couldn't see the sidewalks...30 minutes later during Sunday school, church was canceled.  We had 3 inches already!!

After walking to my car, warming it up and brushing it off my feet were ice cubes.  I wore these great black, wedge heeled BCBG sandals and was now paying the price...I should have worn boots!  So I got into my car and crawled home.  The roads were already very slick and there was no way I was going to end up in the ditch with these heels on, no way!

By 6pm the schools were already closed for the following day, but I didn't tell my kids.  I was hoping maybe they'd sleep in if they thought it was a normal school day.  No dice, they were still up early.

Having never experienced the utter elation of hearing your school's cancellation called over the radio in the wee morning hours...they were ecstatic!  You'd have thought it was Christmas morning in my room.  The kids were jumping around, acting like wild monkeys!

Homemade hot chocolate and warm biscuits for breakfast.  I made extra cocoa so they'd be able to have more after playing outside.

This experience has been added to the ever growing 

list of "firsts" for this insane year! 

Shadow Shot Sunday #7

No words today, just a picture.   Ahhhhhh, when can I go back!!

Please join our shadow shot sunday group by clicking over to Hey Harriet!!

Foggy Day

A few days ago the weather outside was foggy.  Not your typical morning fog that is gone by noon...it stayed foggy the entire day.  It was gorgeous.  I love how the fog is just sitting close to the ground in these pictures.  It adds just the right amount of haze, mystery and chill to the woods.

Mall of America

Ever since we moved to Wisconsin my kids have been after me to take them up to Mall of America to the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park there. 

Maybe they're having Disney withdrawals.  I ran up to MOA after we first arrived here to go shopping with my mom and as we pulled into the covered parking Carley yelled out, "We're at Disneyland!!"  I started laughing and had to explain that this wasn't the Mickey & Friends parking structure at the happiest place on earth, just a shopping mall.  I think my kids have a distorted view of reality!

I promised them that if they behaved for Grandpa & Grandma while I was gone to Italy that I'd take them up to play for a day.  Well, they held up their end of the bargain so it was time to make good on my promise.  We picked the day, ditched school and had so much fun running around, riding rides! 

Carley cried this entire ride.  I wanted to stay off and watch Luke on a different ride so I tricked her into riding with my mom...BIG MISTAKE!!  she was very upset about it.  i thought she wouldn't really mind, but i was wrong and i felt bad about it too.

 Lego Land's new displays...they are gargantuan and totally awesome!!!

Woo hoo, what a great day!

hipstamatic app

My sister introduced me to this sweet app a few days before I left for Italy and it's super cool!  It has a lot of different functions and variety of lenses and film which allow the user to create fun pictures.  We took these while we waited to pick the big kids up after school.

Miss Carley

My CeCe is 3.

She is a silly, fun loving, chap stick eating girl.  

She still hasn't realized that her full name is Carley Alene Price.  If you call her by her full name or by a cute nick name like cutie pie, pumpkin or princess...she will correct you by saying, "My name is Carley!"

She is a girly girl who loves all Disney princesses.   She can often be heard singing Ariel's, AaaAaaAaa chorus to herself.  She plays dress up every chance she gets.  Just yesterday she entered the room wearing a backpack, cape and frilly skirt announcing with hands on hips, "I Am Adventure Girl!"

She is a clepto.  She has swiped a variety of items over the past few months: glasses, stapler, tape, ruler, scarf, wallet, books, markers, shoes, legos, measuring tape, etc.  The up side is that she's an honest clepto and doesn't loose any of these items!  When something goes missing in the house we've learned to ask her first.  She almost always produces the item immediately.  We've arrived at the conclusion that if she doesn't produce it then she didn't take it and it really is lost!

She is the official school bus lookout!  She gets up with the big kids everyday before school.  She sits on the steps and watches out the window while Luke & Emry get their coats, boots and backpacks on each morning.  When they get onto the bus, she's sad.

She is almost exclusively seen wearing pink.

She is great at playing by herself and sometimes struggles sharing with others.  Her favorite daily activities include: watching super why & strawberry shortcake, playing polly pockets, reading stories, coloring, playing games, playing my iphone & dressing up.

She is the family clown.  She loves to laugh and make others laugh.  She has a silly way of contorting her face with a million different expressions, which make you giggle.  She's a big goof!

She gets into mischief every single day....she's very sneaky.  Lately she's been hitting up my make up drawer.  No matter what I do to discipline her, she doesn't care, the temptation is too great.  Just this past weekend she ruined grandma's quilt by getting mascara all over it.  When confronted with it, she had no problem blaming it on a mouse!!

She is the supreme snacker and enjoys 11sies with who ever is in the kitchen.  In fact she enjoys 9sies and 10sies too!

She has a MINION...he goes by the name of Grandpa.  He does all her dirty work.  If she snuggles up to him,  he'll make her just about anything (his specialty is peanut butter toast).  She's even got him feeding her dinner!  Since we moved here she's forgotten how to use a fork and he does the airplane game with her, now he's created a monster!

Carley is a great girl, it's a lot of fun to be home with her during the day.  I can't wait to see what she does as she gets bigger.  I think she'll have lots of friends and be successful at whatever she puts her mind to.

She attends gymnastics on Tuesdays. 

After presenting this fine piece of artwork to me I asked her what it was..."A Hairy Carrot"

Sometimes when it's too cold to function...we go out to lunch!

She can often be found brainwashing her minion while he's busy at work in his office! 

Her favorite games to play are memory and go fish.

I love you baby!!