Kids

Kids

Sunday, January 15, 2017

30 before 30 UPDATE

I have been plugging away at my list. Here is where I am at!

1. Read the Harry Potter books. UPDATE I have read books 1-3 and am about a quarter of the way through the 4th one. I am not much of a reader but boy, these books are awesome! If you haven't yet, you need to read them! I am a huge fan of the movies and the books are filling in plt holes that I didn't even know existed! I have been loving it!
2. Start my personal history: complete my history journal. I have purchased at history journal from the church bookstore. It is filled with questions about my life up until now, so I'm going to fill it in.
3. Complete a triathlon.
4. Take a family name to the temple. In my 12 years of membership, I have yet to take any family names to the temple. It's about time I do that!
5. Learn how to braid my own hair. UPDATE I can now successfully french braid my own hair!! I can dutch braid Nola's but have yet to really master it on my own. I will keep practicing!
6. Significantly reduce my wardrobe. UPDATE COMPLETE! I gave away 37 pieces of clothing out of my closet and boy, did it ever feel good!! All of the clothes I have now I love and they fit great. No more trying on 100 different outfits and feeling gross in all of them.
7. Take the family on a luxurious vacation. UPDATE COMPLETE! Edmonton was amazing!!!
8. Try 30 new recipes. UPDATE I have tried
1. Gingerbread cheesecake dip. Verdict - not my fav. I don't really like the taste of molasses.
2. Baked Cranberry Brie. Verdict - this particular recipe had vanilla and brown sugar with the cranberries, so it was quite sweet. I will make it again, however without the sweetness.
3. Broccoli Chicken Divan. Verdict - yum! My mother-in-law makes this, but I had never. It was pretty yummy! This recipe has curry and i love that flavor.
9. Print my blog books.
10. Organize a service project. We often do these within our church, however I would like to do one on my own, inviting my own circle of friends to assist me.
11. Learn how to play 30 songs on the piano. UPDATE This one is going to be harder than I anticipated. Because I play music by ear, training myself to actually read the music has been so hard! I have 2 songs now that I can play ONLY when I follow the music. I do not have them memorized, which has been super hard for me not to do.
12. Write a new song.
13. Host a fancy dinner party.
14. Bring my children to see live music.
15. Explore Lethbridge. There are tons of little shops, little restaurants, museums and galleries that I have never stepped foot in!!! Let's see what our town has to offer!
16. Take a spin class.
17. Write a letter to each of my children for them to open on their 30th birthday.
18. Climb a mountain. It doesn't matter which one, where it is, or how big it is. I just want to hike one.
19. Wear no make up. UPDATE This really is a blog post in itself. I have not worn one stitch of makeup since Nov 21st. It has taught me so much...again, that will be another blog post :)
20. Complete a full pull up, unassisted. Wish me luck!
21. Watch my favorite movies from my youth. Wayne's world, biodome, sword in the stone, the great panda adventure, Beethoven's second, Dracula: Dead and loving it.
22. Play scatagories with Ali.
23. Grow a herb garden.
24. Read a history book. I know very little about any kind of history, so it doesn't matter what kind of history I read about.
25. Face a fear: shoot a gun.
26. Write a letter to President Monson or any General Authority.
27. Ask 30 different women about their 'story' and record them.
28. Watch a live sports event.
30. Play my guitar and sing for some of my friends.

There are my updates! I am still going strong! I love having these little goals to work on :)

December Randoms

Just relaxin'


Veggie straws with Dad!


New picture wall


The pull-up clan


John's ineffective undie wearing


Baking with Nana


Setting up the Christmas Tree


Celebrating Christmas with the Malmbergs


Naps


Play doh. Lots and lots of play doh!


West Ed Vacation!!!

Dougie and I ended up with a little extra money this past year, so we decided we would use a portion of it to take the family on a vacation!! At first, we toyed with the idea of going to Disneyland and began looking into it. We were pretty serious about that being it, however when Halloween came and it was a total gong show, we thought 'How on earth are we going to take these three kiddos to Disney when we cant even make it around the neighbourhood?!?' With that we scrapped Disney and decided on West Edmonton Mall. We booked it for the week before Christmas. Doug and I had planned to surprise the kiddos and keep it a secret, however I could not wait!! Only 2 days after booking the trip, I told the kiddos and we spent an afternoon looking at all things WEM on the internet. We made a countdown calendar and marked off the days until it was time to go. In hindsight, I am SO glad we told the kids! Their energy and excitement for it all was awesome!!

We left early Monday morning and were on the road by 6:30AM. Even Buddy, our elf came along for the ride!!


The roads were good, aside from wind between Coalhurst and Calgary. We stopped in Airdie for a quick Timmy's break and then drove to Leduc. Earlier in 2016, Doug did some training in Leduc and ate at an authentic Mexican restaurant and wanted to take us there for lunch! The food was phenomenal!! The restaurant was decorated like a cantina and the kids loved that.


After lunch we were back on the road! The kiddos did SO amazing on the car ride - barely any complaints!! We pulled up to the mall and the kids were vibrating with excitement! To be 100% honest, Doug and I were too! We were there!! Vacation was happening! Yay!

When we walked into the hotel, the kids zero'd in on the thing that brought them the most enertainment while there...the touch-screen directories. Haha! They LOVED them!!


We were able to check into our room right away. This was what Doug and I were most excited about...to show the kiddos our themed room. It did not disappoint!


The first thing we did was walk around the mall and see exactly what we wanted to do. It was so fun to show the kids all the cool stuff WEM has to offer - we had to pick their little chins off the ground a couple times. Nola just couldn't believe there was an ice rink in the mall!

First activity on the docket - build a bear! We have never done it before and Nola was SO excited! Truthfully, the boys didnt really care, but Nola was on cloud nine. She picked a pink reindeer named Sparkle and the boys got matching dragons. They had fun filling them up, washing them in the bath area and then picking some accessories. It was really fun to do it as a family.


For dinner that night, and pretty much every other night we were there, we ordered pizza to our room and had a 'jacuzzi-pizza party'. The kids were NUTS about this!! They play in the water, hop out, take a bite of pizza and then hop back in. I think that jacuzzi in the room was the best part of WEM :)


The next day we walked around the mall, killing time before Galaxyland opened. We went to my favourite place in the mall...Chinatown! The T&T market is my favourite!!! We walked around there for quite some time. After a while, the kids complained that the market was really stinky and they wanted to leave. Haha, I guess I cant blame them - that smell is so nostalgic to me, however for those who haven't lived in China, I could see why that smell would be totally disgusting. We did have time to pick up some of my favourite Asian snacks before we left :)


Once Galaxyland opened, we were in there full force! We had the most amazing time there!! Doug and I had so many amazing and mind blowing moments, like watching all three of our kiddos on the bumper cars while we stood and watched. How on earth have these kids grown up so fast?!?!?! Another was watching Nola AND Robbie go on the little rollercoaster...what?!?! Nola LOVED it and Robbie said 'It's not my favourite and I dont want to do it again'. No problem, Son! While Nola was obsessed with the rides, Robbie was obsessed with the arcade games. John, in his usual 3rd child self, was happy doing whatever!! We spent the whole afternoon there, went back to the room for a quick dip in the jacuzzi and then went back to Galaxyland until is closed. It was an epic day!


We finished off the day with cupcakes in bed :) (Poor John missed out. He passed out in the stroller as soon as we left Galaxyland)


The next morning we had breakfast buffet at the hotel and then went shopping. The kiddos had money they were earning for vacation and it was time to spend it! Nola bought Mickey Mouse ears, a stuffed panda she named Pandi and a stuffed sea turtle she named Shelly. Robbie bought a new Wii games and a panda like Nola's. John bought a pack of Mater trucks from the Disneystore. We then went to the aquarium. We got to touch sea urchins, enemanies and star fish. WE loved watching the penguins play and even got to watch the divers feed the sharks! After thatm we headed upstairs to watch the sea lion show. We all LOVED it! It was a Christmas Grinch theme. Afterwards, we got our picture taken with one of the Sea Lions and a cute little penguin named Douglas :)


Our last day was wonderful as well. For the morning Dougie took Nola and Robbie to mini golf while John and I went shopping!! John was so good. He sat in the stroller, ate veggie straws and complemented me on the clothes I tried on. It was priceless...'Oh mom! That dress is beautiful!' Haha, too cute. We finished off with lunch, one last trip to the arcade and yet another visit to cinnabon.


The kids traveled great on the way home. It really was the trip of a lifetime. We still cannot believe how big our kids are getting. It wasn't very long ago at all that even taking them to the grocery store was an event we had to gear ourselves up for! I loved having infants and toddlers, but boy, does it ever get better the older they get. Yay for family vacation!!!