Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Real Preschool

Avery started preschool! 

She never looked back when I dropped her off and has loved every day she has gone so far. 

She is going to Park Hill South preschool. This is the kind of preschool where the high school kids teach.

Every time I go to pick her up, she is hanging and bouncing on one of those high school kids.

Maybe this will teach those teenagers abstinence?

Here she was on her first day!



Our dear old Aunt Cici

My sister Letice (yes she is a white girl) came to visit us. She goes by Tice, so naturally her name evolved to Aunt Cici. 

She is my older sister. I have fought many fights with this girl. Once she punched me in the nose for waking up our younger sister while she was babysitting. I gushed blood. Being the manipulative older sister as she was, she quickly apologized and told me to lay by my blood stain on the carpet and pretend I was dead. She quickly called our aunt who was our next door neighbor over and we pulled the, "Milli is dead" prank on her, and everyone was happy. Did you see what she did there? That is what I grew up with! 

I was so happy when I finally convinced her to get her butt out of Phoenix and come to visit. Just as manipulative as the scenario above, Tice always convinces me to go to Phoenix to visit, and she always gets me there! But not this time! 

Oh my Heavens, can I say how great her visit was! I really needed it. I really needed an extra hand with my kids, I needed a friend, I needed to laugh at dumb things, I needed to vent to someone. Aunt Cici delivered, big time! I'm thinking that doing away with the whole "sister wife" thing was a big mistake. I loved every minute she was here!

Since she thinks Kansas City is just a huge farm land in the middle of nowhere, I decided to take her to an actual farm the first day.

We went to Deanna Rose Farmstead and I think Tice had more fun looking at the animals and feeding the goats than my kids did.






Brooklyn Mae was still sick so she wasn't in the best of moods the whole trip. She had hand, foot and mouth disease... worst sickness so far of my momhood!



Other things we did:

We did makeovers... on my kids... is that abuse?







Can you see how long their eyelashes are? I have been wanting to put mascara on them since they were babies! They loved it!

We also went to Parktober fest. They had fun dress ups, a hay maze, pumpkins, etc FOR THE KIDS



The highlight of Parktober fest was Brooklyn's 12 minute tantrum
 

It was General Conference weekend, and Travis had to work both days, so we were on our own with the kids. I think we heard 3 talks! I was feeling cooped up, so I took Tice and the kids on a drive.

It was breath taking!



And we found our dream farm house for when we really do become sister wives.

One night, Tice and I escaped and drove to the temple. 

Then we drove on the back roads home, you know, the ones that are like roller coasters that make your stomach jump. Who needs 6 flags?

We also crafted it up

Just look

We decided to open up a new business called "the leftovers" because when we finished one craft, we would use the leftovers to make another craft and so on.

We are pretty savvy.

One night, we went out on the town. Tice and I went to dinner to a new restaurant called the Golive Orden. It was amazing.

Then we met up with Trav and the Muirs to go see a play called Pippen.


 It was a good date, a little awkward with the third wheel, but good.

The best night she was here was actually during the first presidential debate, when Romney pummeled Obama. That wasn't what made the night, it was our hilarious Facebook status's like this.

Oh and I don't know if you have caught on to the trend yet, but Travis thinks it cool to "like" your own comment.

I've never laughed so hard in a presidential debate before!

When it was time for Tice to leave, I was in denial. It was by far the most successful family visit to date for me. I kept telling her not to leave, but alas, she did. 

Thanks for coming sister, you are the best friend a humble farm girl like me could ever have. Maybe one day I will be a big city girl and live close to you?

I sure love you!






Travis and the mid 30's

Travis just entered the mid 30's. If you ask him how he feels, the truth is, he's got arthritis, an injured knee, a busy work schedule, not nearly enough sleep and three pretty demanding women at home. But his answer would be, "I feel like a million bucks."

This man never complains about anything. He is happy in any situation. At times, I have been bothered by this, because in a sense it can tend to make the guy a tad complacent, but really, we all should be a little more like Travis Charles.

His best friend, Chris Johnson, calls him Simpleton.

Its kind of true. Travis is simple. OK, he's not a dummy or anything, he is just easy. Easy to please, easy to love, easy to have around.

So, I asked Simpleton what he wanted to do for his birthday. All he wanted was to be with his girls. So that is just what we did.

His birthday was on a Sunday, so on Friday, the 27th, we went to the Cheesecake factory.

We had an ipad, an itouch and went on about 4 walks with Brooklyn, but we did it without causing a scene. (We have really busy kids.)


On his actual birthday, we surprised him and took him to the new Kansas City temple for a pumpkin pie picnic. Well it was supposed to be a surprise, until Avery shouted out in the car that we were going to the temple. Don't tell that girl anything!

It was the saddest thing, because Brooklyn was really sick that day! She just laid there while Travis and Avery frolicked around.

It was a nice and simple birthday. I like simple. Thanks Trav! We love you.