Reliving Childhood

When I was younger, Cath and I made up a lot of games. Steph and Jenn would play Barbies and dolls but we weren't into that. We were Charlie's Angels, Nancy Drew, and any other thing that we made up. Our favorite game was "Neon Leon" and we would play this game for hours and hours. Growing up we lived in a split-level home so the top floor was my dad's office, my sisters' room and the playroom. My sisters, Jenn and Steph, shared the room and it was in the roof area so the ceiling was slanted and it was long and skinny. At the end of their room was our playroom. There were no windows in these rooms so the game Neon Leon was born.

For Christmas one year, one of us girls (there were 4 of us and my little bro) received some glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces in bright neon colors. These were even better than the ones you can buy now because they were rechargeable. One Sunday afternoon, we chose to play regular hide and seek upstairs but noticed those bracelets glowing. Thus they were added into the game and became the name of it. One sister would be "IT" and stay at the front of the bedroom with a lamp on charging the bracelet. The other sisters would run and hide in the playroom. When the lamp went out, the game was on. The object was to sneak past "IT" and get back to the bed without getting caught. Since it was pitch black in those rooms we could only see the glowing bracelet so we knew where "IT" was and could crawl, run, tiptoe, etc. to Home Base. The last person back was "IT". We loved this game so much and would seriously play for hours.

I have introduced it to my children. The first time we played was in St. George with my sister, Stephanie, and her family. It was a little difficult because Carlee kept talking to me while we were hiding, Jake kept telling everyone where he was, and Madi kept gooing and babbling. So we had to improvise and the young ones are now "IT" every time and do the seeking. Now my kids want to play this all the time. Our house is very open and we have a spiral-type staircase that goes up with a catwalk-type hallway connecting one half of the second floor to the other half so it is really fun. While "IT" is in one half of the house, we can sneak down the stairs to homebase. It is now our favorite FHE game and we play it on the weekends.

Another fun childhood memory is watching the movie, "Bye Bye Birdie". When my mom rented it and made us watch it we laughed our heads off and made fun of the entire thing. When it was over we watched it again and probably watched it at least a dozen times before taking it back to the video store.

My children were introduced to this movie today. I told them about it and the boys were NOT going to watch it. They wanted to go upstairs and play Pokemon. So I said, "That is fine. Katelyn, Carlee, Dad and I will watch it." I turned it on and they walked upstairs. Pretty soon, I see their heads peeking over the loft down at the TV and a few minutes later they came downstairs carrying all their Pokemon stuff with the excuse that they would play downstairs so they "could be with the family". I don't think Pokemon was played once. Every time I looked over at them, their eyes were glued to the TV. I have turned into my mom. She said we would love it and we did, eventually. I told my kids the same thing and when the movie was over, Kate and Jake were heard humming and singing, "One Last Kiss."

Awwww, memories . . .

Scary Store

I love to shop at craft stores. I don't always buy but I love to get new ideas and just look at stuff. It drives my husband (and sisters when I'm in Utah) crazy. I find it very relaxing and I like to just wander around and look. One store that my kids can not stand to go to is any fabric store, mostly because I love to mix and match fabric colors and patterns and I take FOREVER choosing cute fabric. When they were younger and could sit in the cart, I would make up games to entertain them. In the fabric stores, we would build forts with the fabric bolts. When they could sit in the back of the cart, I would pile the bolts of fabric on top and make a "roof" over their heads and they were stuck in "jail" with only their sippy cup. I would feed them snacks through the bars of the cart but they could not escape until the "roof" was completely gone. This was great because they were entertained and all of my fabric got cut without too many fits and tears.

One store that my kids actually like to go to is Michael's. Another game we would play when they were younger was walking through "the jungle" (the floral department) and trying to spy wild animals. When we would find a tiger it would chase us down the aisle and we weren't safe until we got to the next one. Now that my kids are older (except Carlee and sometimes, Jake) I still have to come up with different games in stores but at Michael's they are pretty good and just like to shop and try to convince me to buy crafts and projects for them.

The other night we went to Michael's as a family. Joe took off with the boys to check out the model cars and such and I was looking at scrapbook paper with the girls. We then met up and were looking at all of the Halloween decor. Now this is sometimes scary because they have the moving vampires, brides of Frankenstein, skeletons, spiders, etc. Carlee was very wary of these figures and leaning away from them with her big eyes wide saying, "Scary!" So we went down the aisle with the cutesy Halloween decorations. I felt something on my shoulder and I looked down and there was a bloody hand resting on my shoulder! I screamed, of course, and Clark laughed his head off. Because I screamed, Carlee started to cry and scream and he began torturing her with the bloody hand waving it in front of her face and trying to put it on her. We were causing quite a scene. I was trying to calm Carlee down and scold Clark all the while trying to shake that crazy feeling of that hand on my shoulder. EEEEWWW!

As we were heading out to the car, Carlee looked at me and said, "Scary Store!" I guess I better avoid that section of the store and just stay in "the jungle" with Carlee.

Fatal Attraction

My 21-month-old daughter is attracted to poison. That or we just do not feed her enough! When she started walking at about 13 months, she would dig for food out of the kitchen garbage can. She has also eaten a dishwasher soap tablet, and squirted Windex in her mouth. I don't know how she gets into these things because I'll hide them or tie the cupboards shut but she is a sneaky little thing and very determined. To top it off, she and her cousin, Tyler, decided to down half a bottle of pills last weekend.

My sis and her kids came down last weekend because Jim was out of town and Steph tends to get bored. Since she lives only 1.5 hours away, it is easy to make the trek. Joe and I decided to take advantage of her and go to the temple Saturday night. When we got home about 9:30 p.m., Steph was just beside herself asking why we didn't listen to her messages. We told her that we didn't take our cell phones and asked what was the problem. She told us the story . . .

Clark and Jake were playing the Wii and Kate, Tyler, and Carlee were playing in the playroom. Steph was nursing her baby, Madi, and listening to all the kids. A few minutes later, Katelyn came down and told Steph that Ty and Carlee were just playing with blocks. Seconds later, it got really quiet and Steph got a little concerned. She sent Katelyn up to check on them. Katelyn came down with an empty bottle of pills. Steph freaked out because it used to be half full! Somehow those two little munchkins got the lid off and just popped those pills into their mouths. She thinks they each ate about 20-30. Since she doesn't know anyone and we didn't leave any info for her (She is very responsible so we didn't need to ;) Now we know better!) she called her cousin-in-law who is a family practitioner and read him the ingredients of the vitamins. She also called poison control. Luckily they were children's vitamins and not pre-natal pills because there wasn't any iron in them. If they had gotten a hold of the prenatals, they would have been at the E.R. having their little stomachs pumped. Kate and Clark were also freaking out crying and asking if they were going to die and what was going to happen. All was well when we got home but those two rascals sure wreaked of vitamin smell! All in a day's work, Steph!

Big Birthday Weekend

Saturday, September 6 was Katelyn's 7th birthday and Monday, September 8 was Clark's 9th birthday. With their birthdays being only 2 days apart, we let the kids plan a big activity to celebrate and since we live closer to family now, Grandma and Grandpa Holt came down for the weekend to help us. They arrived Friday afternoon and that evening we went swimming after dinner and had our weekly movie night with popcorn.

Saturday morning Kate opened her gifts--a brand new purple bike and a salon chair for her American Girl doll, Emily. Then we all headed to the outlets so that the grandparents could take Clark and Katelyn shopping for a birthday present and a new school outfit. The kids were pretty excited to shop alone without Mom and Dad's opinions and restrictions. Clark talked Grandpa into some Pokemon balls and more Bakugan and Katelyn talked Grandma into a Barbie kitchen set, some dangly clip-on earrings and some bangle bracelets (Thanks a lot, Grandma and Grandpa!). Jake and Carlee got to shop with Joe and me and they were great while Joe spent money at Adidas and I spent some at Ann Taylor. After some shopping, we went home for lunch and Hannah Montana cupcakes and ice cream.

We then got ready for the Tournament of Kings dinner show at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. Jake and Carlee were with a babysitter so it was pretty special for Clark and Katelyn (Thank you, Drew and Melissa!). They loved it. The knights jousted and fought with swords. The evil Dragon knight tried to take over the kingdom but good prevailed and so did our king, the king of France. We ate dinner with our hands and yelled and cheered for the knights. Katelyn was a little wary of the dragon's blood soup but after watching the rest of us "drink" it decided it was pretty good. Clark just loved raising his Sprite and toasting to the knights. When the show was over we took the kids out on the strip. It was the first time they've seen it in the dark and they were amazed. It was fun to see their reactions to all the lights of Vegas. We took Grandma and Grandpa to M&M World and the Coca-Cola factory. (Coca-Cola . . . so refreshing . . . Aaaah!)

Clark's birthday was also a great success. They sang to him at school and when he got home, he opened his gifts--a set of "real" golf clubs, and a new Wii game, Lego Indiana Jones. He got right to work on the video game while I made his favorite dinner, egg salad sandwiches. After dinner, we had Charmander Pokemon cake and ice cream and a night-time swim. The kids went to bed happy after a great weekend and good celebrations.

I think that last picture says it all. Happy birthday, Katelyn and Clark! We love you so much and are proud of what you bring to our family. Thanks for being such sweet kids!

Joseph Stuart, M.D. and Kristen Stuart, P.A.

Monday night was the usual routine . . . We got the kids to bed, I cleaned up last minute things, Joe was surfing the internet and watching T.V. I was just settling down to sit next to him when we heard the pitter-patter of little feet AGAIN!

We have a problem in our household that has been a problem for a few years now. Our little rugrats can not stay in bed! We have taken away privileges, made threats, given them spankings, separated them, grounded them, screamed and yelled at them, etc. For some reason, they think bedtime means sneak around and play in each other's rooms thinking that Mom and Dad don't know what they are doing. Unfortunately, for me, bedtime means I lose my patience. I am done being a mom at 8:00 p.m. Then it is "couple time with dessert and tv/movie" or "Mommy's projects without interruption". After yelling upstairs a few times and trying to ignore them, we heard the bang and the screaming. Kate and Clark came yelling downstairs that Jake was bleeding all over the floor. Joe went upstairs and they were right. A huge gash on the left side of his forehead. Great, another scar on Jake's face. (This makes 3 including his plastic surgery)

He needed stitches and rather than going to the E.R. Joe did it at home with me as his assistant. Jake was hysterical and we gave him the choice of going to the hospital or having Daddy and Mommy do it. He chose us and we just told him that Daddy was going to glue it closed. We had to keep the shot and stitches secret or we never would have made it. Jake laid on a towel on the counter and I had to sit up there holding Jake down with my legs and arms. Of course as soon as the lidocaine went in, Jake went beserk kicking and trying to pull out the needle. He finally calmed down and Joe was able to put in three stitches. The entire time Jake was asking if he was done yet and we just told him "2 more glue dots . . .1 more glue dot" "You're so brave, Jake!" "You're doing great." When we were done, it looked great and Jacob conked out in his bed. Five days later, Joe took the stitches out and Jake could go swimming. Dr. Daddy did an excellent job and it sure beat 4 hours in the emergency room.