The Equivalent of a Vacation Slideshow

This is a fair warning that you are about to be inundated with vacation photos!

Edward had a conference in Las Vegas that he invited Lucy and me to accompany him to. We decided that since it was near Salt Lake City, we would make a quick stop there before heading to Vegas. Edward's oldest sister lives with her family a few hours from Salt Lake City, so they met us there. It happened to be the same weekend of our church's semi-annual General Conference. Since General Conference is broadcast live worldwide, children under the age of eight are not allowed to attend. I sent Edward into the conference and gave our nephew my ticket. Our brother-in-law and niece were also able to attend the conference. Jessica and I visited the Visitor's Center and Temple Square with our little ones while the others were in General Conference. Their oldest son, Judson, was such a trooper to help us with the babies.

Lucy's First Airplane Ride



She was SUCH a fantastic traveller! We had cancelled flights, lots of waiting, and lost luggage, and she was so pleasant through it all. We were very grateful.



Edward and Jessica with their babies, Audryn and Lucy

Meeting Audryn for the first time

The Christus at The Visitor's Center on Temple Square

The Salt Lake City Temple

This is where both my parents and Edward's parents were married in the 1970's. It's so beautiful.

The Carle Family with Edward, Lucy, and Me and Andrew Olsen.

Edward's family has recently reconnected with a friend that served his mission in Sikeston when Edward was a little boy. It was a delight to meet him. He was kind enough to take time to meet with us and give us a tour of the church office building. He is the author of a book about the early church pioneers and their extraordinary stories of faith and sacrifice. He generously gave us a copy, and we are excited to get started on it.

Jud and Olivia

Olivia

Judson

Sweet Katrina

Edward

Cutie Audryn

While we were in Salt Lake, we got to spend a few precious hours with my lifelong friend, Dylan, and meet his beautiful, funny, talented family. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take any photos! We haven't seen each other for fourteen years, so it was beyond fabulous to see him again! Dylan was a great friend to me from the day his family moved here when we were in the third grade. He is still the same funny guy I knew way back when!

We left snowy Utah for warm and sunny Las Vegas early Monday morning. We arrived at our hotel, The Palazzo/Venetian and felt a little guilty. It was pretty fancy schmancy! Edward had just a minute to freshen up before he was to report to his conference. Miss Lucy and I met up with my dearest friend, Jessie (her husband is also and American Family Insurance agent) for lunch.

We set out to walk a long The Strip. Um, that was a bit interesting. I certainly felt like a fish out of water! The Strip is a tad bit Sodom and Gomorrish.

This was inside our hotel. It was kind of disorienting.

The gondola was also inside the hotel.

Indiana Jones at Madame Tussauds

Edward and MJ

Walking along The Strip

The Fountains at The Belagio

Paris

Edward's youngest sister, Mary, lives with her husband in the Las Vegas area. She rescued, Lucy, Jessie, and me from the strip one afternoon and introduced us to Red Rock Canyon. It was by far the highlight of my trip to Las Vegas. These pictures cannot begin to represent the breathtaking scenery. It was such a humbling experience to feel the love our Father has for us to create such beautiful things for us to enjoy. I don't even feel like I have the proper words to describe just how amazing Red Rock Canyon is.

Mary Caroline and Lucy

Jessie and Me

This place is massive. The two arrows are pointing to two hikers.

This sweet scenery is just as breathtaking as the canyon.

We had a fun trip, but it was so nice to get home to all of our babies. They were graciously taken care of by my mom, Aunt Cathy, and Andrea.

There's no place like home!

The Progression of Parenthood

When did I go from only letting the children out of the house dressed like this...

...to letting them leave the house like this? This is how she fixed her hair to run errands today. And I was okay with it.

The first few years of parenthood were spent spiffing the kids up in matching, clean clothes. They never left the house in anything that didn't match. That digressed to letting them wear whatever they wanted while we were at home. And that digressed to letting them wear whatever they wanted pretty much any time of the day. I still have the final say over what is worn on special occasions or holidays, picture days, and church days. I am pretty vigilant at catching someone trying to smuggle a tiara to church or holey jeans to family photos. Other than that, they can pretty much use their creativity with their appearances.

When Mallory appeared today, she was so proud of herself for the "fancy" (as she called it) hairstyle she created. As much as I cringed, how could I crush her accomplishment and feelings of self-worth? So I asked myself, "What's the harm?" In the end, there wasn't any. There was no harm letting her parade her fancy hair at the electronics store. And no one ever laughed or said anything about the fancy hairdo. I doubt anyone thought a thing of it.

I recently had the chance to visit with a life-long friend and meet his beautiful family. Their three year old showed up wearing one sneaker and one sandal (in the snow). Did I think he was weird or his parents were too liberal? Not in the least. I thought it was cute!

It's taken almost 12 years of parenting to learn to let some things go - fancy hair and all!

Little Sucker

Guess who is putting herself to sleep by sucking her thumb now?

I've never had a thumb sucker. So cute!

April Fool's Fun

It's the most wonderful time of the year... April Fool's Day! All week the kids have been taking sides. We've heard, "I'm on Mom's team!" and "I'm on Dad's team!" at the house. Ross even said, "This is our second favorite holiday after Christmas." We have had a lot of fun with it in years' past, so the kids really anticipated it this year. Here is a synopsis of some of our Tom Foolery:

• Drew put some of his (clean) underwear on Mallory's arms while she slept.


• Edward stuffed tissues in the tips of Drew's shoes.


• Edward and Elizabeth saran wrapped the boys' doorway. Ross could see it but Drew didn't. It startled him a bit.


• I drew mustaches and beards on Mallory, Drew, and Elizabeth with eye liner. I tried to get Ross, but he woke up. That kid can sleep through numerous finger sticks each night, but that eye liner really tickled his lip! And Elizabeth woke up and asked what I was doing in her room at 1:00 a.m., but I muttered I was just kissing them good night. She bought it, and I laughed.


• Mallory did a ginormous, man-sized toot this morning. I said, "Mallory! Whoa!" She giggled and said, "April Fool's!"


• My favorite one was pulled off when I picked Elizabeth and Drew up from school. Apparently just my mere breathing is mortifying to Elizabeth. I embarrass her daily without even trying. So I wore a bicycle helment as I drove to pick her up today. Priceless. The pick-up duty teacher was laughing. Elizabeth yelled, "You're ruining my life!" as she got in the van. I'd say it was a successful prank!


• I created some fake poo using ripped up wet toilet paper tubes. Everyone but Mallory knew it was fake. She came in the bathroom this morning, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the turd on the toilet. She whispered, "Poop."

Edward tinted the milk green with food coloring.

I snuck over to Andrea and Tommie's house and hung a sign on their house that read, "Welcome Home Waddell Family - Winners of the 2010 Missouri Duck Calling Competition"

And perhaps the best prank was pulled off by Mallory! Edward and I will be attending our church's semi-annual General Conference in Salt Lake City on Sunday. We secured our tickets, and they arrived yesterday. They were in an envelope, and I set them down with our mail yesterday. As Edward was clearing off the table for dinner last night, he noticed that the tickets were missing. He and I tore the house apart looking for them after the kids were put to bed. He even went through the trash. All night we kept asking the big kids if they had anything to do with their disappearance, and we could tell they honestly had not. I asked Edward if he had done it, and he, too, sincerely had not. This morning he found them in one of the kitchen cabinets. At dinner tonight, I again quizzed everyone to find out who did it. Mallory smiled and said, "I did!" I thought she was joking so I asked where she hid them. I then asked Edward where he found them, and they were one in the same.

That's my girl!

My Cute Creation!

At our house, we really feel strongly about teaching our kids how to work. They all have daily chores. We feel they will benefit as adults if they learn how to work when they are young. The older they get, the more they despise chores. Too bad! Mallory is still at the age that it is a treat to get to do chores. She is more than excited if I ask her to help me dust or fold washcloths. Ross is now at the age that it's as if I told him to swim through a shark infested pool when I tell him it's chore time.

We wanted to get an early start with teaching Lucy how to work. I came up with an age appropriate chore for her. I found a dusting rag at the dollar store. I cut it up and sewed it to this thrifted outfit. As she has tummy time, she will be able to help clean our floors! And with a household of seven people, our floors get really dirty really fast! When she starts scooting and crawling within the next few months, she'll have the floors shining in no time. It's a win-win situation!

My Cute Creation

April Fool's!

This is really a product in Japan.