The Mom Song

I received a copy of this video via email and thought it was funny. Thanks, Philip and Carol!

Shake Your Booty, Part 2

Tessa really, really likes to shake her booty. The evidence:

Hot Water

Our hot water heater went out on Saturday. Well, not really out - the pilot light wouldn't stay lit. So Jay spent the weekend checking it every few hours and relighting it so we'd have hot water. Unfortunately we didn't figure it out until late Saturday afternoon and we didn't have hot water for Saturday night baths. No big deal, we figured - we'll just give the kids their baths and wash their hair Sunday morning (another advantage of having 1pm church). The problem was Tessa - she was having none of that. She insisted that she "needed" a bath. Jay tried and tried to convince her otherwise, but she basically insisted. So he ran a cold bath for her. She stepped in, looked at him, and said, "I'm ready to get out, Daddy." Yeah, no kidding.

The plumber came today and it's fixed. And we all enjoyed nice, hot baths tonight for the first time in a few days. The only problem was me - I got used to turning the faucet all the way to HOT and I ended up with a scorching hot bath that I had to drain and cool down with cold water before I even got in. At least I got my money's worth!

Reading Rainbow and the Daddysaurus

I love to read. Love it. Some people love to watch TV, some people love music. I love to read. I'm not happy unless I'm in the middle of a good book with a nice stack of books on my bedside table, ready to go. I'll read almost anything - biography, travel memoir, chick lit, LDS fiction, mystery, fantasy, history. Sometimes I'll go on a tear and read every book that I have or can get from the library by a specific author. Or I'll find a book about an interesting subject and read several books on that subject. I read two newspapers every day - mainly to keep my brain cells from slowly dying - and subscribe to several magazines, both weekly and monthly. If I have a few minutes to spare during the day and the kids are otherwise occupied, I'll sneak upstairs to grab my book and try to sneak in a chapter or two.

So far the kids seem to love reading as well. There are plenty of habits that I hope they don't get from me, but if they inherit my love of reading I will be thrilled. They love to order books from the Scholastic Book orders that William brings home from preschool and I try to let them order a book every month, as long as it's in the budget. We go to the library at least once a week and they all love picking out books of their own. Henry is reading chapter books; he likes to read books in a series and his current favorites are Arthur and The Secrets of Droon. He also reads books about sports, geography and science. William always chooses books about dinosaurs (surprise, surprise) but has recently begun to branch out into prehistoric mammals. Did you know that the names of prehistoric mammals are harder to pronounce than the names of dinosaurs? Well, they are. Tessa goes with whatever catches her eye - she loves Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer, and Mickey Mouse, as well as storybooks about her favorite princesses. Her favorite bedtime books are Curious George and Dr. Seuss. And who doesn't love a good reading of Green Eggs and Ham?

While reading with the kids is one of my favorite things to do with them, pretend play isn't. Sorry. It just isn't. I get bored playing play dough or fooling around with Tessa's Little People. There are only so many times I can dress and undress her baby doll or place an order from the play kitchen before my eyes start to glaze over. Blocks, plastic dinosaurs, cars and puzzles hold limited appeal. Board games I'm better with, but again, there are only so many games of Candyland or Chutes and Ladders that I can manage (thankfully Henry has moved on to Trouble and Sorry, which hold my attention longer). Thank goodness Jay seems to be a more creative parent than I am. He can do of all the above things with the best of them and even throw in a few rounds of what we call "Dinosaur", which I believe involves the Daddysaurus (Jay) protecting the baby (Tessa) from a predator or two (William and/or Henry). As long as things don't get out of hand, nothing makes the kids happier than a round or two of "Dinosaur" at the end of the day.

Jay is also more of a music lover than I am. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy music. But Jay is the one who loads his Ipod with fun songs for the kids to listen to through the speakers. He puts in the Primary CD that we get every year with songs from the Primary Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation and encourages the kids to learn them. He suggests singing a song during Family Home Evening while I am content to go straight to the lesson. I have come home from an hour or two out by myself on a Saturday and found Jay hanging out with the kids, playing music.

Maybe, between the two of us, Jay and I can help our children love to read, enjoy music, be creative, and have fun. And if they learn a thing or two about evading a rampaging Daddysaurus as well, all the better.

Shake Your Booty!

All three of my kids are downstairs, standing in a circle, shaking their bums, and singing, "Shake Your Booty". It's 5 pm and I'm tired. Is it spring yet?

Happy Inauguration Day!

Today is the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. I know politics can be a touchy subject, but I'm excited because we actively supported Obama during the election and were thrilled when he won the presidency. I really and truly believe that he will be able to bring our country together and solve some of the big issues facing us. It may be a long road, but I pray that he will be guided to do what is best for this country. Hopefully we can all come together and support him as he leads us for the next four years.

Afternoon Church

In January, our ward changed meeting time schedules from 11am - 2pm to 1pm - 4pm. We are still getting used to it and trying to figure out our Sunday routine. We have determined that it's in our best interests to have dinner basically ready to warm up when we walk in the door at 4:15ish since the kids are starving at this point (except for Tessa, who is still in Nursery and gets a snack) and giving them a snack this late in the day pretty much ruins their appetite for a timely dinner (which, for us, really needs to be by 6 pm since Tessa is in the bathtub at 7 pm these days). Today we made the mistake of not doing that and, well, it wasn't pretty. We offered a minimal snack to get them through the soup cooking and biscuit baking process, but it wasn't enough and there were several meltdowns before dinner; meltdowns that I'm assuming had their orgin in a low blood sugar kind of reaction to the frustraton of not being able to eat dinner Right. Now.

Still, I have to say we are enjoying this schedule more than last year. 11am church starts right about lunchtime and it's just not pleasant for anyone. In the past Jay and I have been huge proponents of the 9am start. Our kids are up early anyway and then we're home at noon with the whole day to hang out together. But we're liking this schedule for several reasons. First, it's nice not to have to be out the door before 9 am. It's totally doable, considering the kids are all up in the 7 o'clock hour anyway, but it's nice to have the extra time. Second, we find that the kids are in better moods in the morning and get along better. They are generally grumpier in the afternoon but by the time we get home from church on our current schedule it's dinner, family movie night, snacktime, bedtime for Tessa, bedtime for William, bedtime for Henry. And third, it's nice for Jay and I to be able to read the paper, prep dinner, and finish our respective lesson preparations without worrying if we're running late.

So there really doesn't seem to be a downside, unless you are a child in Nursery who still takes a nap sometime in the afternoon. Bless their hearts, some of them literally are melting down over little things or seem to move in slow motion by the time 4pm comes. Today during singing time (the last 10 or 15 minutes of class) one of our most active kids quietly walked over to a little chair and watched instead of participating in the songs while another child literally laid down on the floor while they were singing "I Am a Child of God".

So we are enjoying the change in schedule for now, which is weird because Jay and I used to love 9am church. Things change when you have kids, that's for sure!

Walking with (what else?) Dinosaurs

Last night was the big show - Walking with Dinosaurs. We bought three tickets and presented them to William for his birthday, thinking that it would be either me or Jay (depending on weather and if I wanted to drive to SLC), Henry and William. Somehow Henry assumed that the third ticket was for whomever William chose to invite, as in a friend from across the street or Primary or preschool. Not the case, but when William invited Henry to go along and said "it wouldn't be the same without Henry", it sure was cute.

So, anyway, the show. Amazing! Really and truly, I've never seen anything like it. It was a little dry at times (the narrator was a "paleontologist" who talked us through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods) but the dinosaurs were incredible. The smaller dinosaurs - one that William calls an Oliviasaurus for some reason (but I'm sure that's not right), the raptors, and the baby TRex - were actually people in dinosaur costumes, but they were so well done that it was pretty easy not to get hung up on that. The big dinosaurs were very life-like. There was some dino-fighting, but no bloodshed. Not that this would have bothered William - he's addicted to the show Jurassic Fight Club on the History Channel and they show fairly realistic, computer animated dinosaurs, fighting and bloodshed and all. Anyway, it was very fun and by the time the mama TRex made her appearance to protect her baby from being whacked by an angry ankylosaurus, even I'm-to-cool-to-applaud-Henry was clapping and whooping it up. We really enjoyed the show and highly recommend it if you get a chance to see it.

Goooooooo, Henry!

Today was Henry's first Jr. Jazz basketball game. It's really fun for him. His team is comprised of 1st and 2nd graders, mostly 2nd graders I think, that have played before (they are offically the Advanced league; there is also a Beginners league for the same age group). The time committment is pretty minimal - an hour each Saturday during January and February where they spend 15-20 minutes practicing a skill and then the rest of the time scrimmaging with another team. His team also does a weekly shootaround on Monday afternoons that we'll try to make for him as well. Anything to burn off energy this time of year!

Henry's team is the Magic (all the team names are from the NBA) and they played the hated Lakers. Henry scored 4 points and had a nice steal and a few good defensive plays. He says that they won 22-12, but I think they'd win every game if Henry was in charge of scorekeeping. It's good to see him excited about learning new things and sports are a good way to keep him active and moving around.

The whole family went. The time seems to go by more slowly for William and Tessa. They typically go on a walk or two and then sit and watch the kids play for a bit as well. Tessa insisted on taking her Dollar Store, Beauty and the Beast themed pom poms and shaking them around. I think Henry was a bit embarrassed because she'd yell "Goooooo, Henry" and jump in the air. But he was a good sport about it and invited her to sit with the team toward the end of the game.

Jr. Jazz lasts until the end of February. Then we have both Henry and William playing soccer this year from the end of March until early May, followed by baseball in June. It's fun to see the kids enjoy being active and learning how to play sports.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow? Let it Snow (sigh).

The winter doldrums are here. After all the chaos of the Christmas season it's nice to get back to a regular routine, but it's too bad that regular routine has to be in January and February. It's generally too cold to play outside with the kids, so everyone seems a little punchier than usual. The TV is on way too much. It's hard to be motivated to go out and about with the kids when it's such a chore to get boots and coats on and navigate our way through the snowy mess. Thank goodness things start to seem brighter around March. If we can just make it through the next two months, we'll be fine!

Go Utes!

The Wright household is happy tonight! Utah beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl tonight, 31-17. As much as we are Ute fans around here, it's also fun for me as an Auburn fan to see Alabama lose. I'm not sure how much sleep Jay will get tonight; he is streaming the Ute Postgame Show via the internet and seems to hunkering down for a long night of reliving the glory!

Go Utes!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year, everyone. It's been an eventful week. Here are a few highlights:

*Our heat went out on Christmas night during a winter storm. It was fixed the next day, but we woke up to a frosty 52 degrees in the house on the 26th. Thank goodness for our gas fireplace, which warmed up the family room quite nicely.

*The boys have used their new sleds a few times to go sledding.

*The kids were able to pick out their gifts from Granny and had fun picking out things that they liked. Thanks for the Christmas money, Granny!

*Tessa saw her first movie on Tuesday when we went to see Madagascar 2. They all enjoyed it and Tessa sat pretty well through the show. We went with our good friend Melissa, her son Easton, and her sister Sarah. It was alot of fun.

We're looking forward to a fun 2009! Henry will turn 8 and be baptized this summer, William will start Kindergarten, Tessa will start preschool, and we hope to take a family vacation to the Happiest Place on Earth (but don't mention it to the kids, please).

We hope you all are enjoying the end of the holiday season.