Science Center

This year on St. Patrick's Day instead of doing the normal fun "green" things we decided to head down to L.A. to take the kids to the California Science Center. We headed out late morning and hit a little traffic but got there in good time. The museum was a little busy, I think because of the rainy weather. But the kids LOVED it. There were so many different things for them to see and do. It was a little difficult with Claudia because she was not big enough to totally run free but the didn't really enjoy being in the stroller either. In several of the areas there was a discover zone which was geared more towards smaller children so those places worked out great for her. Overall it was a great inexpensive way to spend a family day.

This magnetic board with the insect body parts was great! Charles just learned about this a few months back and did a project on an insect.

 

Charles, putting on a puppet show for Claudia.

 

And Madison doing a puzzle with daddy. Puzzles are one of her favorite things to do.

 

 

  

 

   

   

  Using a "simple machine" (another thing Charles recently learned about in school) to lift a truck! The kids (and Daddy) thought it was Awesome!

A NEW bed

Since we have a new baby coming soon I decided to start looking for bunk beds for Madison's room. I want to transition Claudia into a big bed before the baby comes to try and make life easier once the baby arrives. Claudia is a HUGE climber and I was afraid she'd climb up to the top bunk and then not be able to get down. I searched the Internet for bunk beds with a slide thinking that would be a great solution. But they all were made of metal, and I'm not really a fan of the metal bed look. So I kept searching and finally found one that had stairs up the side. I thought that would be Perfect, Claudia knows how to do stairs so I thought this was a great solution. Well then I saw the price tag.....$1200. Yikes!!!! I knew there was no way that John would let me spend that much money on a bed for the kids. And we don't even have that kind of cash lying around anyway. So I started periodically checking Craigslist just to set what else was out there. While searching one day I found a listing for bunk beds with the stairs that I loved. And it was only $400. John was still Not sold on the idea of getting bunk beds but I emailed the seller anyway. And luckily she still had them. Long story short, I was able to haggle the price down to $300 and my dad so kindly took some time away from work to help me pick them up because they were moving that evening and needed them gone ASAP. 

So I got exactly what I was looking for at a fraction of the cost! 

Now we just need to buy mattresses for the top bunk and trundle.

    

Firsts

When you have multiple kids I think that some "firsts" happen quicker than they did for the oldest child. Madison loves to paint and we just recently bought some new paint so she was very happy to get started painting a picture. 

 

Since Claudia was awake I decide to be brave and let her try to paint. She actually really enjoyed it and only tried to eat the brush twice. She really wanted to paint on her hands instead of the paper but when I tried to paint her hand so she could make a hand print she was NOT happy.

So at almost 18 months Claudia just experience her 1st time painting. And it went pretty smooth.

♥ Someones in LOVE ♥

Or maybe it's just obsessed!!! Has everyone seen the movie Rio? 

Claudia is in LOVE with it. She loves everything about and will watch the whole movie from start to finish. Now I know there are lots of people out there who may say I am a horrible mom for letting my almost 18 month old watch T.V. for that long. But I'm not ashamed. She is happy and content and it's helped us get through her tough teething. She's been cutting 4 molers (2 top and 2 bottom) for a few weeks now and this is one way she will stay still and got scream. And it's given this prego mama some time to rest. 

If you have NOT seen this movie go RENT it, no don't rent it, go BUY it TODAY! It s awesome! She watches it at least once a day and I have yet to get sick of it. The other kids know almost all the words but hey it's a GREAT movie.

http://www.rio-themovie.com/#/video

Christmas in a nutshell

Since it is almost February I decided I better get some Christmas photos up on my blog or they may never make it up. 

We had a great Christmas. We were SPOILED by our family and really enjoyed being able to spend time together. 

 On Christmas Eve the kids like to leave "reindeer food" so the reindeer will find our house. But every year they fall asleep on the way home so we end up putting it on the lawn for the reindeer.

 The kids at the top of the stair anxiously waiting to come see what Santa brought.

Our traditional coming down the stairs pose. Wow they all look alike!

Santa brought Charles the Smurf dancing game for the Wii and Madison got a new back pack.

Claudia was excited to see Mrs. Potato head waiting for her and utensils in her stocking.

 A few years back I made quilts for each of the kids and had to carry on the tradition, so above you see Claudia sitting on her quilt.

Daddy in the background looks more excited about Claudia's car than she does. But it's actually become one of her favorite toy. 

I got more photos of Claudia than the other two because they just wouldn't look at me.

After we opened gifts and had breakfast we got ready for church. It was nice that we only had sacrament meeting. 

On the way to my parents house we stopped at the Garthe's for a quick hello. The kids had a hard time just stopping by, they wanted to stay and play. 

Then we headed to my parents house for more presents and good company. 

The kids were very spoiled at the Anderson house this year. 

As the day was winding down daddy, Janelle, and the kids enjoyed playing twister. It was pretty funny to watch, especially since daddy is not very flexible and Madison does not know her left from her right.

I really need to get out of this LAZY funk, I just can't shake it.

I have neglected my blog for quite a while but we have been a little busy. December filled up quickly and then it just kept right on being crazy through January. Now that I've completed the editing of my two weddings I feel like life is starting to get back to normal.

John started his new job two days after Christmas and LOVES it! And we are really LOVING it too. He now works in Corona which means he is about 20 miles away. He used to have to leave the house at 6 AM to hit the train and get to work in Anaheim before 8 AM. Then he would leave work right at 5 PM to hit the 5:20 train and be home by 6:20. Which made him gone over 12 hours a day for an 8 hour work day.

Now that he drives to work in Corona he leaves the house around 7:30 AM to get to work at 8 and then leaves work around 5 to get home around 5:30ish. So his 12+ hour days have turned to 9 hour days.

It has been WONDERFUL. We truly feel SO BLESSED!

Merry Christmas!