Movies

One of the things we do at our weekend away at the cabin is "watch" movies. I say that in quotes because we really mostly listen to movies we've seen more than once and we do this while scrapbooking. It's fun to watch your favorites again. This year we "watched"
*Beaches
*Selena
*Wedding Planner
*How to Lose a Guy in 10 days - after the last 2 we decided we should have made it Matthew weekend. Maybe next year.
*Pursuit of Happyness
*50 First Dates
*Dream Girls - this was the only one that we hadn't seen before. I'd seen the second half on our trip so it was good to watch it from beginning to end. I really liked it and want to get the soundtrack.
I wish we could go up there for a week so we could really take some time to watch some movies. Maybe next year.

Primary story

So, while I was gone, Taylor was supposed to give a talk in Primary. His teacher sent a note home last week with the assignment but I never saw it so I left for my weekend away knowing nothing about the talk. Paul didn't get a reminder call about the talk. So when Taylor was in class on Sunday the secretary stopped to ask him if he had his talk ready. He said he hadn't remembered about it. Instead of saying that was okay and just skipping the talk or having him just say his testimony she went and found a story out of the friend for him to read. Now she would not know that was a bad idea! Taylor is not a very good reader, especially in front of people and with something he'd never read. Unfortunately his teacher was busy with their lesson and didn't really look at the story or say that's probably not a good idea to the secretary.
So they go into closing exercises and Taylor goes up to read this story. It ended up being quite long and he really struggled with it but made it through and didn't get too upset. When he was finished he came and sat down and said "Holy Crap! That was long."

I'm back

I'm back and I must say I'm not too happy about it. A weekend away is just not long enough. I know I should be grateful for that but I needed a couple of more days. I did miss my kids and was proud of how they survived and took care of each other. I loved spending time with my sister and my aunt. It was like going back to college days (although I never did this in college). We stayed up until 5:00 am two nights in a row and then slept in until around noon. We ate good food, watched great movies and did LOTS OF SCRAPBOOKING! Of course, I wish I'd gotten more done but we did our scrapbooks from our recent Disney vacation. It was good to do it now while it was still kind of fresh in our minds. We had to call Susan's friend at one point and have her look up some details on the rides at Disney World for us. It was very gratifying to come home and have Jared and Kamryn and my parents enjoy looking at the scrapbook. It will be fun for Jared and Kamryn to have it to look at for the next little while. Hopefully they won't wreck it.
Now I must go to bed and try to get back to a normal sleep schedule.

Weekend Away

I'm so excited for my weekend away. Dale started this several years ago by giving Susan a weekend away at the cabin as a gift for Mother's Day and her birthday. I was lucky enough to benefit from that gift. That was the beginning of an awesome tradition. We are going to the cabin from tomorrow until Monday sometime. It's such an awesome thought - no whining, no one needing you, doing whatever we want for a whole weekend. I told Brooke "No offense, but I don't think we're going to be ready to come home on Monday." She asked how long we'd have to stay up there to be ready to come home and I said at least a week.
I actually was up to the cabin for the day today with my aunt Sandra. We wanted to get our scrapbooking stuff up there and get set up. So we went up in her truck and took Jared and Kamryn with us. That really made me realize how nice it will be up there without them for a few days as they were whining and then getting into all of my stuff. For the most part they were very good up there and had fun playing and watching a movie.
I'll report next week on the big event.

GUILT

Yesterday I was overcome with the hugest amount of "mother guilt" ever.
I was at lunch with my friend, Cynthia, and she was looking at the pictures I had just picked up at Costco. She was looking at this picture

and asking me about different kids in the family. And then she said "where's Taylor?" (Now, she is his 2nd mother and also his primary teacher, so she would naturally ask about him). I say, "He's in there somewhere, probably by Jadon." She scans the picture and can't find him. I get a little stressed at this point. Now it's just a picture but I have that same feeling when you can't find one of your kids. What really stressed me out is at the time the picture was taken I didn't have that feeling. MAJOR GUILT! So I think, he must have thought we were done taking pictures and left, since this was the last picture we had taken and it was with a different camera.
When I got home I took out the other picture and look at it,

no Taylor. I couldn't believe it. Where was he? So I think back and remember that after the picture when we were gathering up our stuff to go on the ship he was sitting on a couch watching some Disney cartoon. He must have been there the whole time we were taking the pictures. I feel so bad. Mostly because I hadn't noticed he wasn't with us while we were taking the picture and then for not noticing he wasn't in then after we'd studied it quite a bit. Thank goodness for Cynthia noticing my son.
Later, we were at my mom's and she has an 8x10 of this picture on her kitchen counter. Taylor came in and looked at the picture. I'd decided not to say anything to him and try to scan him into the picture (with help from some great friend who knows how to do things like that - hint, hint). Anyway, first thing Taylor says is "Where am I?" I tell him he must have been watching TV and he says "No one told me we were taking a picture." How sad! The poor middle child that I can't keep track of.

Journal

Ever since I started blogging I have neglected my regular, hand-written journal. I haven't meant to, it's just happened. Last Sunday our lesson in YW was on Journals and our secretary taught the lesson and did a great job. She called us all to repentance and I vowed to write in my journal. The very disturbing thing was that when I opened it and looked at my last entry I couldn't believe it - March 2006! Yikes. That's a long time ago when it comes to journal writing. It really made me sad to think of all the things I had missed writing about - Jared and Kamryn turning one and all the growth they've had over the last 15 months, our trip back east, my walking days with Cynthia, etc, etc. At least I have my blog entries, which I have printed and put in a binder to save. So I wrote in my journal yesterday - for 17 pages! And that was only about our trip to DisneyWorld and Jared and Kamryn's 2nd birthdays. I'm really going to try to do better about writing in my regular journal on a regular basis. And keep up the blog. Wish me luck, or better yet, remind me to write.

IKEA

Thanks to an invite from my great friend Michelle, my aunt Sandy and I joined her and several others to go to the Friends and Family day at IKEA. It was great fun. Others disagreed with me, but I thought it was fun when we walked into the store and all the employees were clapping. I went straight to AS IS and picked up 2 lamps and a small table for the playhouse. We bought our items from AS IS and took them out to the van and started over again. FUN FUN! I didn't get much but it was sure fun to look and get ideas and make a mental list of what I want to come back for. I do love their little plastic dishes - they are great for the kids.

Go Jazz!!

We've got Jazz fever at our house. Thanks to Paul's work we were able to go to the first playoff game against the Warriors. (For that game we sat in the 4th row behind the basket - don't you feel bad for me. Justin hated me for it but only for a little while). We'd been to a regular season game the last week of the season (also for work and we had to sit in the Layton, too bad). So I've gotten into the playoffs and know all the players names and am reading the paper about the games. Couldn't believe the Jazz pulled off the win in CA on Sunday and really hoped that they would win last night. We watch most of the games at my dad's since he has cable. It's nice that he shares with us (we return the favor and let him use our internet anytime he wants). So glad the Jazz won last night! But then we have to start a whole new series and that means more games, more late nights and more time not getting anything done around our house. We're really hoping the Suns win their series and then it will be fun to have that match up after having lived in PHX.

When in need ...

My sister called today in a terrible bind and asked her I could help out. She is the team mom for both of her boys' baseball teams (she has 4 boys, only 2 play baseball so far) and tonight was the night for her younger son's team to man the snack bar. The parents are supposed to sign up for shifts of 2 hours and they need 6 volunteers at all times throughout the 5 hour night. She couldn't get anyone to really sign up and those that had volunteered were backing out. Her husband is swamped at work and wouldn't be able to help her at home or in the snack bar. So I took my youngest two to my mom's, took Brooke, her friend Emily, and Justin to my sister's to tend and then I helped Susan in the snack bar. This is more than a snack bar really - they grill burgers and dogs, cook pretzels, churros, chili, BBQ Beef sandwiches, nachos. And then there are all the drinks and chocolate and candy and really sticky messy snowcones. It was such a crazy night - the recommended amount of volunteers is six at all times - there were 3 of us in the snack bar and the coach was out at the grill. It was actually fun in an insane way. I felt like a teenager again working at the 49th Street Galleria. I was glad to help her out and it was actually easier than dealing with Jared and Kamryn, who are very much acting the part of the terrible twos.

Happy Mother's Day

On this mother's day I would like to pay tribute to my mother. She is the most selfless person I know. Her children and grand-children come first in her life - at least she certainly makes us feel like that. She is always there to help out and she has certainly helped me survive the first 2 years with twins. She has really made my life easy in many ways but most specifically lately by volunteering to be one of the nursery leaders while Jared and Kamryn are in the nursery. It was the easiest time I've ever had leaving my children in the nursery and them not crying. My mom helps me keep my sanity by watching my children for a few days at a time so I can get away and have a break and regroup. My mother never really complains and is always happy to serve and help others. She is a great friend. She is the greatest example I have.

Happy Birthday Kamryn

Kamryn with Jared and Taylor at the food court at our hotel in Disney World. That girl loves her food.

One of my favorite pictures from our trip. Pretty happy for a very early morning.

I cannot believe it is Kamryn's 2nd birthday already. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that I was going to the hospital after finding out a doctor's appt that I was 6-7 cm dilated and it was one week before I was scheduled for the C-section.
Time has flown by and she has grown up and changed so much in the last year. I call her princess but it doesn't always fit. She's tough and strong-willed and likes to have things her own way. She can also be very girly and likes to wear pretty dresses and look at herself in the mirror after I have done her hair. She loves to play with dolls and is a cute little mommy.
Kamryn is very ticklish and has the cutest laugh. I really love it when Brooke or Taylor get her really giggling. It just makes me laugh. Kamryn is usually more outgoing than her brother Jared but lately she is more of the shy one and hides from strangers.
She still loves her blankies and binkys and I just can't stand to take the binky away. She's so happy and anxious to go to bed at nap time or night time. She will talk to Jared in the morning and try to wake him up. She calls him "la-la" and I'll hear her say "La-La up!!!!" Then they will spend up to an hour in their cribs (which I plan to have them use them until they can climb out themselves) talking, jumping, playing and cuddling with their blankies and binkys until I come in to get them out of bed. Even then they'll sometime want to stay in bed awhile longer while I talk to them. Kamryn is almost always the first one to want to get out and then runs away so I can't change her diaper.
Kamryn loves to go for a walk but she has to be ahead of Jared. Several times this has caused her to fall. She also has a cute little walk which is hard to describe. She kind of run/walks and while doing this swings one arm back and forth and the other arm kind of flails around randomly. It makes for a pretty funny sight.
Kamryn loves dogs but is afraid if they get too close. She LOVES to go outside and can get out even when all the doors are locked. She has no fear and loves to swing high and go down the slide by herself at her grandma's. She also loves to swim and it quite the fish. She may be swimming on her own by the end of summer.
Kamryn's favorite foods are cereal (of course, she's an Adams), toast, JUICE, chicken, FRIES, hot dogs, crackers, yogurt (sometimes), applesauce, strawberries, almost anything I'm eating, most vegetables - especially cooked broccoli and green beans. On the cruise, the waiter brought her a plate of chicken nuggets, fried and broccoli and guess what she ate first? The broccoli. On the cruise she was also introduced to corn on the cob. She loved it. It occupied her for a long time. She would pick off one kernel at a time and eat it.
Kamryn has a gruff voice (like her sister's was at this age) but also has a very girly high pitched scream. She talks a lot yet isn't quite as clear as Jared. I'm sure she'll catch up and overtake him. She gets along with him most of the time but does her share of hitting and pushing him.
She is full of energy and quite the monkey. She is always into things she's not supposed to be and is always climbing.
I love Kamryn dearly and cannot imagine life without her.

Happy Birthday Jared

It is officially May 12 and I wanted to wish Jared a very happy birthday. (I know I won't have time to do this tomorrow).
I cannot believe he is 2 already. The last year has just flown by and he has grown up so much. As his dad put "he thinks he is so cool." Jared has this very boyish walk where he almost marches and his arms are bent at 90 degree angles and he just marches along. We were at the mall today and so many people got such a kick out of him and his walk. Unfortunately there is no way to describe it accurately.
Jared is all boy but at the same time very sensitive (very much like his big brothers). He loves to play with cars and all kinds of sports balls. He loves his siblings and frequently asks me where they are during the day.
He loves Kamryn about 90% of the time. He will give her a hug when she's sad and pat her on the back. And then turn around and hit or pinch her. They definitely deserve each other.
Jared loves to be outside and loves to "play" basketball with Justin and Taylor. He tentatively tries out the trampoline for a few minutes. He loves to play on Grandma's play set and will go down the slide if I hold his hand.
He talks a lot and is more clear than Kamryn ( I think that is due to the many ear infections she had). He calls her Kamryn now but used to call her La-La. She also calls him La-La. I have no idea where that came from. He points out birds, planes, dogs, stars when we are outside. He has a comment on the weather every day. He knows sunny, windy, cold, snowing, raining, dark. We're trying to teach him warm and hot now, considering our weather of late.
Jared is very loving and loves to give out hugs and kisses at bedtime and to grandparents when they are leaving our house or he is leaving their house. He loves his "bln" (blankie) and his "doodle doo" (binky). I was really going to try hard to take away his binky a long time ago but I just can't do it. He sleeps so good and wants to take a nap and go to bed at night. Why would I want to mess that up?
Jared loves to read books and watch Disney movies and shows on PBS. He loves having a bath but can't stand having the shampoo washed out.
His favorite things to eat are cereal (of course, what else do you expect from an Adams boy?), toast, hot dogs, FRIES, juice, hamburgers, my sandwiches, yogurt, applesauce, spaghetti, corn, burrito casserole, and "nandy" (candy). He thinks he likes gum but whenever someone gives him a piece he chews it for a second and then spits and says "guck".
I love Jared very much and can't imagine life without him.

Jared snuggling with Justin on a very early morning on our trip to Disney World.

















Jared playing with his cousin's lion after going on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom in Disney World. I think he thought it was real. It was fun to watch him growl at the lion and then attack it.

Trouble with Two Two-Year-Olds

The trouble with 2 Two-year-olds is they go in different directions. Yesterday I was out working in the yard and hadn't finished before they got up. So I figured I'd get them up and they could play outside while I was finishing up. Well they weren't happy with that - they wanted to go on a walk in their cars.














I wanted to finish so I brought their little ride on cars they use inside outside hoping that would appease them for a little while.

I went back to my weeding mound and soon I couldn't hear them. I knew where they were headed - to their grandma's. I went out front and could hear Kamryn inside calling for me. I got her and Jared was nowhere to be seen. So I put her in her push car and headed out to find him. He had ridden his little car out of our circle and across the street - BY HIMSELF! Scary. Taylor used to do this too but he was more like 3 at the time. I tried to convince Jared to go back home but he would have nothing to do with that. He was headed to Grandma's. So we went there and played for more than an hour and then came home.

Life Boat drill

Memories of the life boat drill from when we went on the cruise 7 years ago were still vivid in my mind - Taylor bawling and all of us being confined in those huge orange life vests for what seemed like forever. So needless to say I was really dreading the drill - this time with TWO toddlers. I guess when you dread something it usually isn't as bad as you expected it would be.

This time around they had infant life jackets for Jared and Kamryn - they were more like rain coats and Kamryn actually liked wearing hers, as you can see.

It was another story for Jared though - he hated it and was bawling, just like Taylor 7 years before. Luckily if they cry enough, one of the Disney employees comes over and tells you to take the life jacket off so we can all have some peace.

So, we all survived and it seemed much shorter this time around.

Can you stand some more pictures?

Most of the 20 grandkids that were on this trip.

The Shingleton family (minus Kyson who was asleep and baby Meaghan who didn't come) in front of the model of the Disney ship.

Even more Disney photos

My family in front of building where our room was at the Disney Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Very nice place and would like to have spent more time there.

My mom and dad at the bus stop waiting to go to Animal Kingdom on our last day at the parks. Thanks to them for providing this wonderful family trip.

Jared with Mickey at the Restaurantosauros in Dino Land at Animal Kingdom. He actually was much happier than he looks. He loved seeing the characters and would give them big hugs.

More Disney photos

So here are some more pics from the Disney trip:

Paul with Jared and Kamryn on the carousel at Magic Kingdom.

I have never had two kids so sensitive to the sun - they freak out when we leave the house and it's sunny. So I got them sunglasses for the trip and they wear those hats most of the time at home. They always wanted their hats and glasses on during the trip.

And Disney World can sure wear them out. Thank goodness for a double stroller that they could lay down and nap in.

Disney Photos

I just went through my photos from our Disney trip - over 400 and narrowed them down to 55 (for this project I'm working on and probably for the scrapbook too). I won't bore you with all 55 but here are a few:

Our family in front of the Orlando Temple.

Me and my husband

Our kids in front of the Nemo ride - the very first one we went on at Epcot.

More to come later.

We're Back

We actually got back late Sunday night but it's taking me awhile to get back into the swing of regular life.
With the wonder of digital cameras, I ended up taking over 400 pictures on our trip and I've been in the process of sorting them out and getting them on the computer. Hopefully I'll post a few later today. I've got to narrow the over 400 down to about 40 for a project my sister and I are working on.
So Typhoon Lagoon was AWESOME!! I would fly back to Orlando just to go there. Jared and Kamryn had so much fun and we loved watching them have that fun. The rest of us also had a great time. The best part was going on this new slide "The Crush 'n Gusher" - basically a water rollercoaster, quite a thriller. I went 4 times in a row with Paul and Taylor. That day was worth every penny we had to pay ($200 for 5 admissions, quite a disappointment and frustration to find out that our 7 day hopper pass did not include the water parks!).
The cruise was fun but challenging. It was actually easier to be at the parks with Jared and Kamryn. There isn't a lot for 2 yr olds to do on the ship and dinners with them were pretty much a nightmare. But we still managed to have fun. The big disappointment on the ship was that Jared and Kamryn couldn't go in the mickey pool - and that was what I was so looking forward to doing with them.
We boarded the ship Thursday afternoon and after dinner my sister's kids went swimming, even though it was very windy. Paul and I were out for a walk with Jared and Kamryn and went by the pool. Kamryn immediately wanted to get in. So we put a swim diaper on her and let her get in just like that. She had a great time and LOVED it until the man dressed like he's in the navy (ship officer) came up to me and told me she couldn't be in there in a swim diaper! I looked at him like he was crazy and said WHAT?!! He told me they didn't allow swim diapers due to 2 girls dieing in Atlanta because some child had some diarrhea leak out of a swim diaper. I couldn't believe it. The one thing that I thought would be so fun and great for Jared and Kamryn and they weren't going to be able to go anywhere near the pool. The officer pointed out that they had a splash area for children in diapers on the other side of the water slide. But that wasn't going to work - all my two would want to do is climb out of there and go in the pool. So we had to stay clear of that whole area the rest of the time. I was very upset about this whole incident and complained but that got me nowhere!! (You can tell I'm still bitter about it).
So the day at Nassau where we didn't get off the ship because we were just going to hang out at the pool all day was kind of bummer day. Brooke and I took Jared and Kamryn into the kids club for awhile and we wandered around the ship and just hung out. I watched the last hour of Dream Girls and Jared and Kamryn loved having disney movies on the TV 24/7.
The shows were really good and Jared and Kamryn loved them. They loved seeing the characters and everything was made worth it when I watched them hugging and kissing Mickey and Minnie. So cute!!
Justin sprained both ankles playing basketball on the ship - one the first night not too bad and then the other ankle much worse the second day. We had to buy him an ankle brace and carry him around the ship (no wheelchairs available).
The food was fabulous and I'm sure I gained back (and more) the weight I lost while we were tearing around Disney World. I even tried Escargot (Justin could try it and get extra credit in French, so I told him if he tried it I would too). Not too bad - just don't think too much about what you are putting in your mouth.
We had awesome service from our waiter and his assistant and I wish Christina could have come back home with us - our stateroom hostess.
It's nice to be back home but not fun to have to get back to all my chores and list of things to do. Very overwhelming.