My Best Helper

I find that I spend a lot of my time in the mornings cleaning. Since Harris and I are the only ones that are home during the day, he ends up being my best helper. :) Don't get me wrong, Chet and Liv help a lot too, they just aren't here as much.

Fortunately, Harris loves to help! I usually don't even need to ask, he just says, "Mommy I want to mop". (or vacuum or clean the sink) Those are the three things he likes to do the most. Here are some pics that I took of him helping.

He loves to help clean his room, as long as I do everything but vacuum. That's his job.

He will usually rinse all the dishes for me while I load the dishwasher. When we are done with that he will scrub the sink for like 20 minutes. It always looks way better when he does it.

He loves to mop with my Shark Steam Mop. I like that I can let him use it because it is chemical free.

This one I forgot about. He loves to dust the table as well. It works out well since he can fit under the table without bumping his head.

I know that he probably won't always be like this so I felt it was important to document it for proof. He already doesn't like to put his clothes away. He just shoves them all in the same drawer! Oh well, at least they are put away. I'm just grateful for the help that I am getting right now. :)

ABQ Zoo

Because Chet had to work late on Tuesday, he took a half day on Wednesday and we decided to head to the zoo. We love the zoo here, it is so fun! Once again, we were not disappointed by the animals. The first animals we went to see were the polar bears. They have an amazing enclosure that they live in. There are waterfalls and a water slide and giant balls that they get to play with. When we got there they were playing with the balls. It was so cute to watch them carry the ball around. (There were two balls but they both only wanted the yellow one.) After they played with the balls they started climbing to the top of the rocks and diving into the water! It was amazing! (Unfortunately we didn't get video of the diving just them playing with the ball.) The kids were in heaven and didn't want to leave. The bear in the video had just taken the ball from the other bear. After he took it he went and hid in the back of the enclosure with it. The other bear would hear the ball and then stand up looking for it. So fun. :)

There were also a ton of baby animals! There was a baby elephant, giraffe, zebra, a takin (its in the yak family), and several monkeys.

For some reason we only took a picture of the baby zebra. Isn't he cute though?!

Another thing I love about this zoo is how close you get to be to all the animals. That cougar was only an arms length away. Not that we would dare to stick our arm out to prove that. It's just a "guesstimate". :)

Yep only that little tiny rope to keep us from getting into the pond with the flamingos.

It was a fabulous day!

Paramore Concert 5/10

So, I've blogged before (See 5/26/09 post) about my affinity for darker teen girl music (Garbage in the 90's, Evanescence in the 2000's and Paramore in the 2010's...). Anyway, I am lucky in the fact that I get to share my love of music with my children. Harris loves to ride in my car and listen to "loud music" (usually Pearl Jam) and Olivia shares my love of the band Paramore. I have no problem admitting that I absolutely love Paramore. I think they write fantastic songs with great music and meaningful lyrics.


Anyway, I take a lot of heat for some of my musical tastes but I don't care. :)


When I really like a band I try to support them by purchasing their CD's (actually I dowload it on iTunes...) etc. and also by joining their fan club. I have found that I greatly benefit from most fan clubs, I usually get great access to all sorts of cool stuff including the early chance to purchase great seats to concerts and the chance to win prizes. For some reason (it could be that I don't fit the usual demographics of some of these bands) I seem to win the contests I enter. I had the chance to meet Evanescence a couple years ago and won an autographed headband from Paramore a couple tours ago.


Last summer Liv and I went to her first rock concert and saw Paramore open up for No Doubt. It was great but way too short, at the conclusion of the show I promised Liv that when Paramore came to Utah again that we would go and we would have amazing seats. I didn't know at the time that we would no longer live in Utah the next time they came but a promise was a promise :)


When Paramore announced the availability of fan club seats for their Utah show we had already committed to moving to New Mexico. The show just happened to be the day after Mother's Day so I was able to successfully pitch a Mother's Day trip back to Utah. Jaime graciously accepted my offer and we booked our flights.


Back to my winning ways with goth girl bands, I entered and won Meet and Greet passes for the show as well as Early Entry passes. Along with the great seats I was able to purchase through the fan club, I knew I was in for a cool experience.


The Meet and Greet passes came with a hitch, however. The email I received took great care to specify that the M&G pass was for me only, meaning that I couldn't bring anyone with me. Needless to say, Liv was none too pleased about that and asked me to get a hold of the band and ask if she could come too. I obliged but never heard back. When the day of the show arrived I decided to try to sneak her in with me. I went to the M&G section and thought I would try my hand at being sneaky. When the security guard pointed out to me that I couldn't bring anyone into the M&G, I explained that I had flown in for the concert from New Mexico and that the girl was with me. I told the security guard that since she didn't win the chance to participate in the M&G, that she could just wait in the hallway while I met the band. (now, I had no intention of of actually doing this but wanted to tug at the guards heart strings a little) Liv gave the guard her puppy dog eyes on cue and the guard said he would let her in rather then make her wait in the hallway...


Meeting the band was awesome, it was great to be there with Liv and see her face as she got to meet Hayley and the guys. The band was way cool and seemed genuinely excited to meet such a young fan. Pictures below.


The show itself was amazing. The band was in great form and Hayley was captivating. (this is the point in the blog where Jaime rolls her eyes at me, but it is already known that I find something compelling about lead singer rock chicks). Again, pics are below.


To sum up, the total experience was one of the best music fan times I have ever had and I am so glad I got to share it with Liv.

Liv waiting patiently for the band to arrive at the Meet and Greet...

Liv and Hayley chatting.  Hayley told her how beautiful she was and how cutely she was dressed.

Liv and I with Paramore.  All the band members are super tiny so I had to crouch down so I didn't look so gigantic.  This picture turned out only slightly less geeky on my part than the picture I took with Evanescence a couple years ago.  I'll have to dig that one out.

We had great seats!

Liv rocking out...

 

So, we got our seats from the fan club and were excited because they were on the 5th row and were close to the stage.  When Liv and  I sat down we were very disappointed because the seats were too far over and the speakers were in our way.  A few minutes before the show started we noticed that there was some room on the 2nd row...we headed on down and got ourselves an upgrade. 

Mother's Day

I seriously have the best husband and kids. Saturday morning I woke up to breakfast in bed, cards and presents! Yes, Mother's Day came to our house on Saturday this year because we would be in Utah on the actual day and the kids would be with their grandparents so Chet decided we should celebrate Saturday before we left. I felt so loved and so special it brought tears to my eyes.

These are my cards that Chet and the kids gave me. I love that Liv's has Mickey's on it. Harris wrote his all by himself and told me that it was written in Spanish. :) If you take a close look at Chet's card you can see that some of it is underlined. My mom used to underline the parts that she thought were really important whenever she gave anyone a card. Chet always thought it was funny but being the good "son" that he is he does it too. ;)

My sweet Olivia made these for me at school. I absolutely love the painting! I am going to find a frame so that I can hang it in my bedroom. The bowl on the side is a paper plate that they cut up and drew on and then weaved it into a bowl. My daughter must really know me because she decorated it with "hidden Mickey's".  Can you see them? (she's so cute)

And last but not least is my new pride and joy! ;) My limited edition Dooney and Bourke Disneyland purse! Isn't it the cutest thing you have ever seen?! I am so spoiled. :)

It really was a great Mother's Day. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mom to two amazing kids and for my wonderful husband who works so hard so that I can stay home with them.

Fish and Flowers

Albuquerque has a very cool area that they call the Albuquerque Biological Park which consists of the zoo, an aquarium and botanical garden all connected by a little train. We love it so much that we got a season pass for it! We had already been to the zoo so we decided to go to the aquarium and botanical garden. The aquarium is small but not as small as the one in Utah. The kids had a great time despite the size. :)

 

Liv trying to get picture of the baby halibut that are buried in the sand.

This giant puffer loved the kids. He would swim right up to the glass and open his mouth really wide. I guess they looked tasty to him. ;)

They have 2 sea turtles that they hand feed every day. It is so fun to watch. They are so graceful and peaceful.

When we were done at the aquarium we headed over to the botanical garden. I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. There was a "castle" that when you walked into you were "mini" meaning that everything inside was actually giant sized. The kids had so much fun running around inside there was even a slide and a maze. We had so much fun and plan on spending a lot of time there during the summer.

This is the kids standing by the dragon the guards the entrance to the castle.

There was a giant garden inside the castle. There were all different kinds of veggies you could play on.

This is inside the giant pumpkin. It was very real looking inside with seeds and strings hanging from the roof.

The slide went through a giant log. We could have spent way more time here but there was a lot more to see and do.

So oddly enough Harris is terrified of ants. Fire ants to be specific. We had to really coax him to get near this thing. He was quick to jump away when we were done taking the picture. It's funny the things kids are scared of. Liv was afraid of flys!

It was a wonderful day and so far I am really enjoying all that ABQ has to offer. Hopefully we get to have lots of visitors to share all this with. :)

Easter

While it was hard being away from family we had a great Easter. The weather was so warm that we were able to have our Easter Egg hunt outside for the very first time! The kids loved it! I was a little worried about hiding the eggs in the orchard because we have Roadrunners that live there and they are carnivorous. We avoided that problem by hiding the eggs while the kids were getting their Easter clothes on. Since it was Easter and Conference Sunday the kids got a more dressy and a less dressy outfit. I had them wear the less dressy outfit for the egg hunt. Aren't they darling?!

Looking for the eggs with the help of Disney. ;)

Harris finding his first egg and possibly a lizard. There are lizards living all over in the railroad ties.

Liv was the lucky one who found the egg hidden in the cactus palm. Yes she managed to get it out unharmed.

My mom used to make something called "sunshine eggs" every Easter with the eggs that we had found. Since I got married I have made them as well. Harris heard me talking about making them and said that he wanted to help. Well, he went and got his eggs and was putting them in the sunshine on the windowsill and then said "look Mom I made the 'sunshine eggs'". How cute is that...

It was a wonderful day of sunshine, fun and the spirit.

Spring Break

Two weeks ago we were able to go to Disneyland for spring break. I know that I have said that Christmas is my favorite time to be at Disneyland but I was wrong. There is something about springtime there, it's amazing. Living in Utah it seems like winter may never end but when you get to Disneyland you realize that there is still hope for good weather. It's warm and sunny and happy, not cold and cloudy and depressing. I think that my favorite thing to do while I am there is point out all the different kinds of flowers. My mom had an amazing green thumb (she got yard of the week in Orem 3 years in a row!) and was always telling me the different kinds of flowers whenever we would go anywhere. Seeing and knowing all these flowers makes me feel close to my mom and I know its cheesey but I hope one day Olivia and Harris will be somewhere and recognize a flower that I have pointed out and know what it is.

Harris was so funny this trip. He abbreviated everything! So here are the kids on Mr. Toad, Pooh Bear and Casey Jun Jun. I didn't get a pic of him on his favorite ride Pi's aka Pirates. Haha! Silly boy. We did actually get to do Casey Junior twice this trip! We haven't done this ride in years because the line is forever long but because we were there during the week it was pretty slow.

Since there are 4 of us we take turns with each other on the rides. Usually these are the two rides we end up doing the most ; Splash and "Autop". Splash is my favorite and Autopia is the kids favorite especially at night.

The last few times we have been to Disneyland my dad has come with us. I was sad this time that he wasn't going to be able to be there because we were going during the week. Well Wednesday morning he called and asked us what ride were on. I told him that we hadn't quite made it to the park yet but we were on our way. After I hung up I thought that was a weird phone call and then it donned on me "He's Here!". Sure enough when we walked into the park there he was leaning against a light post waiting for us. I was so glad he came the kids were too. They immediately started fighting over who got to go on what rides with him. It was a great surprise!

This is poor Harris on our way back to the Disneyland Hotel on the last night. He was so sad. He cried all the way back to the hotel that he "wished we lived at Disneyland". It broke my heart. Usually the kids are fine with leaving because they know that we will be back sooner rather than later. I think that he wanted to stay because it is a familiar place to him and New Mexico where we were headed "home" to was still very unfamiliar. Thankfully after a good nights sleep (and we promised we already had the next trip back booked.) he was fine with going "home".

 Goodbye Disneyland until next time!