Beauty and the Beast

We had been looking forward to "Beauty and the Beast" for months! We had known for a while that the high school students were going to perform it this year, and Macey was so excited! She was even so excited that she insisted that she wear her Belle dress to the performance.

The night of the performance, out of no where, Macey had the biggest meltdown ever!! Scott and I spent 45 minutes trying to calm her. We tried everything! Usually, one or both of us is able to talk her down, but she was inconsolable! We were eating dinner before leaving, and after a huge talk, I was able to get her over to the table. Then, FINALLY, the real reason for the breakdown, she was tired!

We tried everything to keep her awake, but at 6:30, this sweet girl collapsed asleep at the table. Jemma was having a hard day, so I volunteered to stay home with them and Cooper went with Scott. (As you can see, the little pirate wasn't quite as tired!)

I made Cooper a bag of snack mix, and he and Scott took off. Last year, Cooper was less than impressed with the musical, so we had no idea how he would do this year. But He was SO excited to go on a Cooper and daddy date!

Cooper LOVED it! He had no problem paying attention (or commenting right out loud)! Here is his Beast face:

The Gaston Face:

Cooper got to meet the cast afterward!

The New Van!

The deer accident happened on a Monday morning. We were blessed with really great car insurance, and we were blessed to live in a small town that works with us. I drove away in a rental car, from the collision repair place that morning. It was the last car they had, and it was a tiny Ford Fiesta, but we didn't have to pay anything for it. Our insurance covers 80% of a rental up to $500--and our rental car company said they would take whatever the insurance company offered as full price. So we didn't have to pay anything out of pocket.

The problem was that we knew we could only keep the rental car a week and a half. We could work around having one car--and putting 3 car seats in the back, but we needed to get up and find a van.

If you haven't been around our blog (or our lives) very long, our little family is growing pretty quickly! We knew we wanted a van, but we wanted more seats. The only vans that have 8 seats are Honda Odysseys and Toyota Siennas. So, that's what we decided we should look for.

Well, easier said than done! We scoured the internet for days, trying to find the best deal. We made list after list, but vans kept disappearing from offline--the good deals were selling fast. We finally narrowed down the list, and said a lot of prayers, and got ready for a trip up north.

We weren't able to leave until Saturday afternoon, and we had a small window to shop. We headed up to Orem--which is over 2 hours from our house--and dropped off the kids with Scott's parents in between.

Our first stop was a small place called Patriot Motors. They actually had 5 Honda Odysseys all in our price range, year, condition--everything!

Scott and I really felt the process of getting a new van was from Heavenly Father. We both feel like the miracle of the accident to finding a new van so quickly, and with such ease, was Heavenly Father's way of guiding us to something better. We aren't sure why, but with most things in our life, we tend not to ask "why?" but accept that Heavenly Father knows why and that's all that matters!

We ended up buying the first Honda Odyssey we test drove! It just all felt so right! It is a beautiful van, and we are so completely in love with the upgrade. We got a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L (which means it has leather seats!). It has the 8 seats that we wanted and only 85,000 miles on it! It had a beautiful CARFAX history and it has been well taken care of. It did not have a DVD player, but we paid a little extra and they are installing one for us. The doors are automatic, and it has a sun roof. The seats can fold down to create a bigger trunk area, and there is a storage area under the van behind the front seats.

Our little Mazda was SO good to us, and it handled that accident like a boss! It was a 2005 Mazda MPV with only 116,000 miles on it. It was a basic van, and sometimes I miss that. This new van is a COMPLETE upgrade as the Mazda did NOT have automatic doors, leather interior, a sunroof, large trunk space, or a DVD player. (In fact, the heat in the back of the van didn't work, so in the winter, we let the van warm up for a little bit and then each kid had their own blanket to put on top of them.) But oh, that van was so good to us! It still breaks my heart to think that it's gone and no one else is enjoying it.

But I love my new Odyssey. Check it out!

The under van storage space behind the front seats--amazing!

Tea Party!

Dad and the girls had a Macey-inspired tea party one Sunday afternoon. Jemma even had a dum-dum (aka the church-survivor tool) she was finishing!

The Primary Program

Our Primary Program was a couple weeks ago, and it was Macey's first time! Because I'm in the Primary Presidency, it was my year to write the primary program. We had about 71 kids in our primary who came to say their part, so I had to make sure most parts were short and sweet. It turned out really well, though!

Macey nailed her part! She was a bit entertaining up on the stand, but when it came to saying her part, she meant business! With me writing the program, that also means that I got to sit on the stand--exactly by Macey. I saw her dancing around her chair, shoving her clips up her nose, and putting her shoes on her hands and making them dance across the stand. Several people came up to me and commented about how Macey was their favorite person to watch...which immediately made me want to run and hide. But I'm glad other people thought she was cute! 

A personal favorite, that I missed: whenever the music leader told kids to stand up or sit down with her hands, Macey would mimic her--with head cocked to the side and pouty lips. That girl. She sure keeps me on my toes!

Her part was "Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer."

A Potty Trained Cooper!

The day of the accident, I was all set to potty train Cooper. (Remember when I tried about 6 months ago, and even though he was doing a great job, just decided he didn't want to do it anymore??) We had been talking up potty training all weekend, and then the accident happened. That day was SO confusing! The first thing I said when I got home with the rental car was that potty training wasn't happening today! It was a crazy day spent on the phone and with new people, so the kids spent a lot of the day with each other and with the TV. It's okay, that happens in motherhood sometimes. I've come to terms with that. :)

The day after the accident rolls around, and Scott asked if I was going to try potty training before he left for work. I told him I didn't think so, but Cooper was SO excited...maybe we would try. I had ZERO expectations! After it was SO HARD to potty train Macey at 3 and 3.5 years old, I had come to terms that every child was going to be this way! I knew that the first thing I needed to do was lay the ground work--teach the basics, and as with teaching all things, he needs time to learn.

We went to the store the Friday before, and Cooper picked out his special drink--Root Beer (diet for mom's conscience sake and her carpet's sake) and he wanted (in a high voice) "little baby M & Ms". Every time we had a success (whether that's sitting on the potty or actually going on the potty), he got a cup of root beer and 10 baby M & Ms. The root beer moves the process along and makes for frequent trips to the bathroom. :)

So, I decided I would LIGHTLY potty train him. We got all excited, put on his Spiderman undies, went over the rules, and we got started. I couldn't believe how easy that first day was. We had ZERO accidents! In fact, I was so into lightly potty training that I would turn around and Cooper would be in using the bathroom. He just knew when to go in. He knew the process, and he did it like it was no big deal.

When the day was ending, we decided Cooper definitely earned his "Coolest Kid Ever" pajamas. He had an AWESOME first day!

Scott asked me after Cooper went to sleep if I thought he would be the same the next day. I just shrugged my shoulders and said we will take it one day at a time. I thought that first day had to be a fluke. He was making it WAY too easy to potty train!

Day 2 came and went with no accidents, so Cooper and Dad got to stay up a little later and watch "Avengers" together on the couch.

It has been a week and a half since we began, and Cooper has only had two accidents. TWO. Can you believe it? Because I can't! I ask a couple times a day if he needs to go, and he will tell me yes or no. He goes back when he has to go, and he takes care of things with out me prodding.

After day 2 was done, I texted my mom and asked if this was what it was like to potty train a kid who was ready to be potty trained. We agreed that it helped that Cooper had basically been potty trained about 6 months ago--he had been taught and learned the basics--he just had to decide he was going to do it! I sit back and wonder how long he has had this whole potty thing figured out, but he just thought a diaper was easier--how many diapers did we waste?! But now is the perfect time to potty train, so I shouldn't complain! He isn't night time potty trained yet, but I view that as a separate potty training. After seeing how well this has all gone, I am not too worried about that aspect!

Yay, Cooper! I am so proud of this boy! Thank you for making this mom's life a whole lot easier...and, for the first time in 2.5 years to have only 1 kid in diapers right now!

Our Mazda

The Monday morning after Halloween, we were out of milk, bread and eggs. It's so much easier for me to go to the store with out the kids, so I decided to wake up really early, get to Wal-Mart, shop, and then get home...all before Scott had to go to work. I have done it several times! I still shop with the kids during the day, but on rare occasions, I enjoy those early mornings by myself. :)

So I woke up bright and early at 5:45, and I was out the door at 6:00. (That means I hit the snooze twice, threw my hair up in bun, put on glasses, and pulled on whatever pants were closest to me!) The roads are pretty bare that early in the morning!

I should mention, too, that we live in the country. We drive about 15 minutes to get to our Wal-Mart,  and the main road we drive on is a highway without street lamps. It was pitch black outside, and our headlights aren't the best. It's that lovely time of year when it gets cold on the mountain and it drives the deer down to the valley. I was well aware of the possibility of deer, so I kept my eyes wide open!

I was driving the speed limit--cruise on. I was wide-eyed, looking for deer. I literally blinked for 2 seconds, and when I opened my eyes, there was a deer a foot from my front bumper (remember it was pitch black and I was on a highway going 60 mph!). I learned from an accident  a little over 6 years ago, that you shouldn't swerve to miss the deer (you may spin out of control, drive through a ditch and hit a fence :) ) but you should hit it right on.

So that's what happened.

I hit the deer, it went under my car, I dragged it for a little bit, and then it went out the back. The good news is the deer slowed me down. Once the deer was behind me, and I was pulled off to the side of the road, my brakes didn't work. I had them to the ground, and I was still moving! My emergency brake didn't do anything. I put my car in park as I was moving, and it revved my van up to 9 rpms and smoke billowed from under the hood. I decided to throw the car in park and pull out my keys really fast (because I had to have the van in park to get the keys out of the ignition). It stopped me...I was just about 100 feet from the deer (or what was left) when I finally stopped.

So there I was, side of the road, smoke billowing from the hood, not knowing what to do. I hadn't hit another vehicle, so did I need to call 911? I decided to call Scott first. I calle,. I called, and I called. He would pick up, and then he would hang up. Come to find out, he was still in bed and thought he was turning off his alarm! He told me that I needed to call 911 and file a report, so I hung up and called.

I was an emotional wreck. The poor 911 lady! I was trying to hold myself together, but I couldn't get over the fact that our van was gone and I was stuck on the side of the road, in the dark, and Scott was home with the kids. She sent for a highway patrol and also a tow truck.

The tow truck got there about 15 minutes after calling. I decided, after getting off the phone with 911, that I probably shouldn't sit in my van...I didn't know how safe it was. I got out to see the damage--the smashed van, the billowing smoke, and a giant puddle of something under the hood of my van.

So there I was--standing on the side of the road. Six months pregnant, glasses, unshowered, randomly clothed, ugly crying Lisa was standing in the pitch black, waiting. A woman pulled up and stayed with me until the tow truck came--a complete stranger.

It was on the side of the road when I realized what a giant miracle this whole situation was!

-The deer went under my van, not over my van, where it would have smashed in the windshield on me.
-I didn't feel any after effects of the crash. I never experienced a head ache or whiplash--and I stopped very quickly after hitting a very large animal!
-My air bags didn't deploy. Which, in every other case, would be a terrible thing, but with me being 6 months pregnant, the airbags might have hurt the baby and put us in the hospital.
-I was the only one in the car. I didn't have to worry about little kids or someone else getting hurt!
-There was a lady who stopped to stand with me on the side of the road. I had never met her before, and I don't even know her name! She just came and stood with me. She told me that she had woken up early that morning and couldn't sleep, so she decided to head to work early. She was able to stand with me because she was early for work. (She had even previously worked for All State Insurance, and even though that's not who we have for insurance, she could help answer my questions. She had also hit a deer once in her life, and she was at a spot with no cell reception, so she stood on the side of the road for over an hour before anyone stopped--she saw me and didn't want me to go through the same thing. She really was the perfect person to calm this scared mom!)
-When I went to get in the tow truck, the thought ran through my mind "I wonder if I was protected--if angels were protecting me". As soon as that thought came into my mind, the thought came in "Of course they were". I began to tear up. I thought back to the impact of the crash. I can still feel an invisible pillow that was between me and the steering wheel. My pregnant stomach, which was close to the steering wheel before, didn't even touch when I hit or stopped. Something was stopping me.
-The tow truck that came brought my car to a collision shop and rented me a car right on the spot. I was able to get home right after 8:00.
-We have great car insurance! We have never gotten in an accident before and had to use our insurance. To be quite honest, we had no idea what our coverage really was, it was just what they recommended when we signed up, so that's what we did! (To be quite honest, I don't think I could tell you exactly what our coverage is even now!)
-Because we live in a small town, people were able to move quickly and get our claim processed. We heard back in 4 days that our car was a confirmed 100 percent loss and the amount we received back paid off the rest of our Mazda's van loan and gave us a little extra for a new van.

This was an extremely stressful experience, but it has all worked out better than we could have ever planned! As stressful as this was, at first, we knew immediately that this was the Lord's way of taking our Mazda out of our lives and giving us better opportunity.

Halloween Night!

We had a crazy Halloween Saturday. We got a lot of done around the house and outside our house, and by the time the evening came around, Scott and I could barely bend over--let alone get everyone ready for the night! But it all worked out!! We made it, and we had really happy kids. :)

Scott, Macey and (at times) Cooper helped draw Halloween pictures to decorate our front door! Macey is such a good little artist, and Scott is so good at teaching her how to draw shapes and pictures. Most times, I sit there with my mouth open, thinking "Oh...that's how you draw a bunny!"

We went and bought a Halloween dinner from Papa Murphy's (to help keep the night easy!). We bought their featured jack-o-lantern pizza. The plan was to surprise the kids, but it turned out to look like a pretty gruesome jack-o-lantern, so we cut it up into slices before they could really look at it! We also had some cheesy bread, hot drink (cranberry sprite!), and orange chocolate chip cookies!

We got the kids cleaned up and dressed up in costumes! We took some pictures, and then we were out the door! Poor Jemma was tired from the get-go, so she rode in the stroller the entire time!

Macey and Cooper walked around the majority of the night, holding hands. It melted this mom's heart!

Jemma wasn't very interested in looking at the camera, but she had to have a piece of candy in her hand at all times (even if it wasn't opened) or she wasn't happy!

We didn't walk too far, but Cooper got tired quickly (Plus, it's hard for him to eat and walk at the same time. Seriously. Multitasking can be hard.)! Scott got to carry him around on his shoulders. I love this picture--this is the epitome of our Halloween experience!

You guys, I don't like animals. This is common knowledge to all who ask. Scott has lovingly adopted this opinion, and our children have too. We had a black cat follow us around for about 15 minutes--it followed us about 5 or 6 blocks. It was fine...until it tried repeatidly to jump up on Jemma's lap. She didn't like that, and neither did her mom and dad. We did everything to scare it away and ditch it. In fact, at one point, Scott ran after it with Thor's hammer. After one house, we caught Cooper hitting it with his hammer (sorry, animal lovers!). It still followed us! Scott threw small rocks to scare it away...it was the worst/creepiest black cat ever! The thing that scared it away? My yelling in my "mom-voice" at it. Ha! I didn't know the power that I held. :) You can see how Jemma kept an eye on that thing.

We got home with 3 exhausted kids...who then consumed sugar and went crazy! It was a Happy Halloween!!

For Mace!

Macey is really good at tracking down my camera. She is also really tall, and she can now officially reach all the heights and surfaces in my bedroom. So before I hide my camera really, really well, I thought I would post a couple more pictures she took, just for Mace. :)

Costumes at Preschool

While we are on the topic of preschool, I thought I would quickly share a Macey story (because she never seems to disappoint!). Macey got a new dress for preschool, and she was SO excited to wear it! She danced around the house like a princess for an hour before preschool. (Well, minus the 25 minutes of crying at lunch time when I made her eat one of her peanut butter crackers before leaving for preschool. Who knew that eating your lunch, or one cracker from it, could invoke so many screams, complaints and tears? :) )

Didn't she look so cute and grown up?!

When I left her at preschool that day, we were both ready for the break. (Seriously? All over a peanut butter cracker? You had better believe it.)

When I came to pick her up, it was like every other day. All the kids poured out onto the front porch to meet their parents in the round about. And like always, Macey was the last up the stairs. (I asked her about it once, and she told me she likes to take her shoes off at Ms. Carma's because it's just more comfortable that way! So everyday, Carma helps her put her shoes back on or waits for her to get them on and up the stairs!)

All the other children were pausing on the front porch, looking for their parents. Macey didn't miss a beat! She walked right up the stairs and leapt off the porch! As I was walking around the van from the driver's side, I see this pretty new dress flying through the air (with backpack on). She dove right into a pile of leaves in the front yard and just rolled around for a bit. I just watched and laughed! 

She got up, walked to the car and said, "Oh hi, mom. Did you see those leaves?!" When a bruise appeared on her side, I asked her where it came from. She told me she hit a stick when diving for the leaves ("but it will be okay..."). 

Macey was so excited to dress up as Elsa at preschool! It was such a rough day, though! Jemma had been battling stomach flu, again. We had to go pick up Macey at 2:30, instead of 3:00, so we could see the kids' costume parade. I woke Cooper up, got him ready and put him in the van. When I got Jemma up she was covered in diarrhea. I cleaned her up with about a hundred wet wipes as fast as I could, and we took off. I had five minutes to get there, so I may have been speeding. About half way there, I saw Cooper's look of terror in the rear view mirror, and then heard Jemma throw up repeatedly. 

We were running late, so I didn't grab wipes. I grabbed the only thing we could find to clean her up, so when we got to preschool, I used Macey's church cardigan to clean her up as best as I could. We were late, so I parked in the mud. I jumped out into a big pile of mud (because it had been raining all day). The younger two stayed in the car (Jemma still covered in throw up and whimpering...) and I turned up the "Frozen" soundtrack. 

I ran over as soon as the kids came out. Macey was VERY concerned with the fact that it was raining, so she had grabbed the front of her dress, and was holding it up above her waist, using her other hand to cover her white hair...because she didn't want it to turn back to brown! She looked adorable, Elsa underwear showing, walking around the front yard. She made standing in the front yard, in the rain, shoes and pants covered in mud, hands and shirt covered in throw up, totally worth it! 

I was so busy lifting Macey over the mud that I forgot to mention to her about Jemma throwing up. She had a mild freak out in the car, and then held her nose the entire way home because the car stunk.   Luckily, I did get a few things out of her about her Halloween party at preschool before we got to the van. :)