Secret Santa

Guess what??? We have a secret Santa! We have been trying to figure out who it is for a week, but don't have many clues. We know they are fast runners because I opened the door about 3 seconds after it rang one night, and they were gone. We also discovered they must know us pretty well because they brought us cookies form Kneaders (yum!) and a hat for Clark (we love it, he hates it- he attacks it when we put it on him).
So, whoever you are... thanks. It is really nice to know that somebody cares about our family enough to go out of their way at such a busy time of year and bring us a little holiday joy.
Does anybody else have a Secret Santa?

Bye Bye Summer.

Okay Okay, I admit it. I don't love summer as much as I used to. It makes a huge difference when you are a kid with a pool in the backyard as compared to an adult with weeds in the backyard. But as happy as I am to feel some cool weather, I am sad that summer is gone. Hopefully there will be some great weather in the fall and winter won't come too soon!

Christian and Owen got to play in the leaves before it rained. Although, there are an awful lot of dogs that play in that park. I am pretty sure that those leaves are pretty gross. I couldn't help but cringe every time they threw a pile of them up in the air. But it was worth seeing Owen be so proud of his jumping, and Christian doing what he does best... getting dirty. Well, so long summer! See you next year.

HAPpy BIRTHDAY JASON!

31 reasons why we love Jason:
1- He is not embarrassed to play with his kids in public. We went to a ward carnival, and he was the only Dad doing the games.

2-He studies really hard so that we will have a good future.

3-He is a hard worker.

4-He is patient when teaching Christian the alphabet. (believe me, this kid takes patience!)

5-He is good looking (with or without a beard).

6-He has a great sense of humor.

7-He has a really funny alter-ego.

8-He loves Disneyland.

9-He stays with me in the hospital when I have babies.

10-He is quick to smile.

11-He knows how to vacuum.

12-He lets me do all of the decorating, but will tote the heavy seasonal boxes up the stairs.

13-He will pose and smile for a picture.

14-He can reach all of the tall cupboards.

15-He makes up nicknames and songs for the kids (and Clark).

16-He loves books.

17-He will eat what I cook even if it is not his favorite.

18-He likes to drive on road trips.

19-He is nice to people.

20-He doesn't wear cologne... and doesn't need it!

21-He helps put the kids to bed.

22-He appreciates a good joke.

23-He lets me have hobbies.

24-He loves his family.

25-He sees the best in people.

26-He gets ready for the day without waking me up.

27-He listens to good music.

28-He looks nice in jeans.

29-He likes to play scrabble.

30-He will change he channel when I watch tv with him.

31-He is the best husband and dad!

Mother Goose Day:

Christian had his first preschool program. All of the kids memorized their favorite nursery rhyme and performed it for a parent. His teacher also invited my Mom which was really nice. Anyway, Christian is so funny. I read the entire huge nursery rhyme book to him and instead of picking one of the better-known rhymes, he picked one called "Bat, Bat." He memorized it abut a month ago, and has been really excited to dress up as one of the characters from the rhyme. He performed it perfectly, and was so cute! All of the kids did such a good job, I can't believe how wonderful this preschool is. I hope that they are still teaching when Owen is old enough to go!
The rhyme went like this:
Bat, Bat, get under my hat and I'll give you a slice of bacon. And if I bake, I'll make you a cake, if I'm not mistaken.

I have decided that nursery rhymes are really weird!

Sean and Kelli get Hitched!

I am WAY behind blogging, and there are many events that I will probably not get around to, but I just can't skip the most important even of the year: Kelli and Sean's Wedding! It was so wonderful to see them married on September 2nd. I had fun helping Kelli with a lot of the details, and was really excited that she asked Christian to be the ring bearer. He was such a crack-up. He was standing up there and all of the sudden just sat down and looked bored. I thought maybe he wouldn't last when there was a bee flying around and when he started randomly talking, but he actually did really good. Afterward he told me: "That boring guy talked too long!"

Sean and Kelli chose the American Fork Amphitheater which was where Ryan and Marge were married, so it was extra fun. I helped make the cupcake stand... which I forgot to put a picture of on here. Oh well!

They had the darn cutest photographer from Green Apple Photography. I want her to take pictures of my kids. She is really patient and takes a ton of pictures that are cute and unique.

A lot of people came to the reception that I knew, it was great to see most of my husband's side of the family, as well as our scrapbook friend Mindi. Thanks everyone who supported my best friend.

Kelli, I love you and I am so happy that you found Sean. You are a beautiful bride and did such a wonderful job making all of the wedding arrangements. It was a perfect day! Next I will blog their honeymoon! Just kidding, i will leave that one up to Kelli!

Owen's 18 (or 19 if you are keeping track) Checkup.

I am so far behind blogging, I don't know where to start. So I will start with today. Owen had his 19 month checkup. He is doing great. I can't remember any of the stats, and I am too lazy to go find the paper, but I do remember he is 30th percentile in weight and 75th percentile in height. So that is why all of his t-shirts are really wide and show his belly.

it was really funny because I filled out the autism questionnaire, and it asked if he could stack blocks. Well, we haven't played with blocks in such a long time, and I couldn't remember him stacking anything, so I put "no." Well this concerned Dr. Buchanan, so we talked about it and decided that he did things that equalled stacking blocks. So, he is fine. But anyway, we got home that day, and I was fixing lunch and I walked around the corner to check on Owen and he had gotten a bunch of cans and stacked them almost as tall as he is. I just started laughing and said, "well, I guess you CAN stack blocks!"

Christian kept saying how lucy he was because Owen had to get a shot and he didn't. He screamed a lot more because I was holding him down compared to the actual shot.

I am really really glad that I have such healthy kids. Oh, and cute to boot!

VOTE FOR ME!

Hey everybody! I have entered the contest at the scrapbook expo his weekend. If you get a chance, please go onto their blog and vote for my page! It is #13 and looks like this. You can vote twice. The blog is www.pebblesinmypocket.blospot.com
You can start voting at 2:00 on Thursday. Thanks for your support!

Off to Pre-School!

Well, it's that time of year again. Most parents are happy to get rid of their kids, but it is really hard for me to give up my best buddy for two mornings a week.
Then I saw the cute little school out in front of Mrs. Palmers house and realized that Preschool is going to be so much fun for Christian this year.
He (of course) wouldn't tell me what they did today, but later mentioned that they "Did so much stuff I just can't member!"
I m so excited for all of the things he is going to learn and do this year with Carol and Suzy. I remember about 10 years ago talking to Suzy about sending my future children there. I am so glad that I met her and her family and can't wait for the coming year.
Christian, you are such a big boy... I am proud of you!

Aunt Holly... We Miss You!

Aunt Holly... are you home yet?? We have missed you and hope you had a fun time in Australia.

Like Popsicles on the Fourth of July..

I know what you re thinking: "Hey Brittany, where are your firework pictures??" You mean the ones that I don't have because I was in the house with two scared little boys? Yeah, well... sometimes Moms miss the things we love because we love our kids more. Christian has become really sensitive to loud screaming sounds ever since Owen was born. Owen must have just been feeling the competition of those screaming fireworks because he was quite unhappy.
But gosh-darn-it! Don't you just love a watermelon mustache and playing in the backyard?? We had a ton of fun on the fourth. It was really special because all of the fam was still here from Matts wedding. My kids could be outside 24/7. Happy birthday America!

Matt and Maggie's Wedding Day

Congrats Matt and Maggie! We are so excited for both of you. I still can't believe Matt is married!
Their wedding day was perfect. They were married at the Draper temple, and had a reception in Matt's front yard that night.
It was really interesting chasing the kids around. But 3 horses, 200 fish, 1 emergency room visit, 60 M&M's, 1 yellow balloon, and many helping hands got us through the night. It was a LONG night!
Oh, and incase you were wondering... the fish is named Fish, and he is still alive.

Matt and Maggie's Wedding Dinner/ Luau

We had so much fun at the wedding dinner last Thursday. Christian had a ball running around the church with Jace and Tyler. They were so exhausted afterward! Owen was obsessed with his new girlfriend Julianna. He would not stop hugging her. The Mocks stayed at our house and Owen got to the point where he was smothering poor Julianna. She started to scream when he got near her after a while.
Elvis came... I guess it is becoming a Weidauer Wedding tradition. This one was cute, but didn't make me drool like the guy at Marge's wedding. He was busy that night. Although, this Elvis could really sing!
It rained so we had it at the church instead of outside, but it ended up being really fun. I think that Matt could have been embarrassed worse, but Holly and Emily went easy on him. I hope Maggie knows what she is getting in to!- Well, too late now!

Shaving Cream:

How do you get your kids to stay in the tub for 45 minutes while you get ready?
SHAVING CREAM! I just squirt a bunch in a cup and take time doing my make-up and hair. It is like magic, and because I shop at the dollar store, it only costs pennies!

Motorcycle Dudes!

I went to target a few weeks ago and got harley pictures. They turned out pretty cute, but the people who work there are complete morons. This is my third REALLY bad experience there, but I keep going back because it is only 4 bucks a sheet. I know, I should just save up and go somewhere that has actually dealt with children. I guess I am a slow learner.
So anyway, we get there and the girl refuse to greet us because she is on the phone in the back room. She looked at me but wouldn't say anything, so I popped my head back there and said "Hi, do you know when you will be ready?" She told me that my appointment wasn't until 10:00, and we would start then. I said "Okay." I thought: Oh, I'm sorry. Did I interrupt your little phone call? Obviously you haven't wrestled 2 little kids in the morning and tried to convince them to take pictures. Witch (-w +b).
So I waited the 5 minutes or so, about 4 minutes after my appointment started, she came out and said "Hello! Are you doing the harley Davidson pictures today?" "Yup." "Okay, I will go get that ready."
By this time Owen was already having meltdown #2. Yeah, maybe you should get that ready. Maybe you should have had it ready AT 10:00 WHEN MY APPOINTMENT STARTED!!! Freaking idiot!
10 minutes later: "Okay, it's ready, come on in." The girl has the camera in her hand and I put the boys on the motorcycle. She just sits there and says "say cheese" over and over. THe boys are excited and smiling... yet strangely enough, she doesn't take one picture. Not one. So Owen climbs off the motorcycle. For those of you who have kids, you can probably guess what happened next. That's right... he wanted NOTHING to do with it. He didn't want near it. So that is why there are only pictures of Christian on the motorcycle. BTW: I was the person thinking of the poses, making him smile, and telling the dumb girl to take the damn picture.
The story isn't over yet... So I had a coupon for a free picture, but it couldn't be a Harley one, so I told her to take some of just Owen and Then the boys together. She sets a chair up and holds her camera. I set owen on the chair and he is being all cute because it is something new. I sat there for over a minute before I said "Are you going to take any pictures?" "Yeah, but I have to take the harley background down first." I am really not a patient woman, but I must say, this was way beyond my breaking point, so I said: "Well, could you do it because we have been waiting for you for over 20 minutes and that is why my kids are grouchy." She looked at me like I killed her dog. So we got a bunch of pictures of the boys... no thanks to her. And we went to walk around the store while she uploaded them. When I came back she showed me the pictures and all of the ones with the boys together were gone. I said, "Didn't you take some of both of the boys?" "Yes, but they weren't looking at the camera so I deleted them." "Can you get them back? I want to see ALL of the pictures" "Even if they are not looking at the camera?" "Yes, ALL the pictures." It turns out that it was not within her brain capacity to retrieve the pictures, so we had to go back in the studio and shoot some more. She sat the boys about a mile away from each other and finally got a cute one. I hate her.
Oh there's more... I go to pick the pictures up on the day that she wrote on the paper and guess what??? She wrote the wrong day down! So I had to wait an extra week, and go out there again. I am done with target portrait studio. Why don't they give their employees some basic training or something?
So if anyone has advice of a place that is close and a good price, let me know!
Oh, and sorry about the long story!

Update:

It has been a while since I have blogged because I have been doing a staging class, and it has sucked all of the time out of my life. I really haven't taken very many pictures the last couple of months, but I do have a few updates:
Christian finished his first year of pre-school. He will really miss his teacher Miss Stacey. He calls her Aunt Stacey, which I think tells a lot about her. Though I must say, he is really excited to go to the Palmers next year.
Christian has been driving his Jeep and going on a lot of hikes with Daddy. They talked me into going a few weeks ago, and Christian outwalked me by far.

Little Owen is such a cute boy! He it getting really big. Here is a picture of him and Ike who is 9 months older than him. And FYI. I was outvoted and forced to get the boy's hair cut. I miss Owen's little curls after his bath. He looks much to old now. He is walking everywhere. He can say "car" "Ball" "Mama" (which is how he says Christian, not me). "Nye, nye" (night night). He also knows what a Cow, dog, snake, and pig say. His pig is dang cute.
He is walking everywhere and wants to do everything his big brother does. I am grateful that he goes down the stairs backwards so that I can remove the gate soon. I am not grateful that he can climb up on the couch and coffee table.
All in all, we a busy and doing good. Thanks Jenny for checking in!

Easter

Easter was a busy and fun day. We started the day out with fun Easter baskets. Christian got a race car track, and owen got a Webkinz. Owen was so funny because he wanted to wear his bunny ears all day. Every time I would take them off he would cry. Or he would crawl over to me with them in his hand and give them to me.
Then we dyed eggs. I didn't want to have too many hard-boiled eggs to eat, so it didn't take too long. Christian was pretty sad that he didn't get to do more. Maybe next year I will do more and look for a good Deviled Egg recipe.
THen we had everybody over for an Egg hunt and dinner. It was so much fun to have everybody over at our house. I have always thought Easter was such a fun day... hopefully my kids will grow up with many good memories as well.