Disney On Ice

We surprised the kids and took them to Disney On Ice this past Wednesday.  It was Toy Story 3 and Kaden has been obsessed with Buzz lately, so we knew he'd enjoy it.

In case any of you missed the shows this year, don't worry - I've got you covered.  So, grab your kids and some popcorn and get ready for Toy Story 3!

(I'll try to keep the comments to a minimum, but, well, you know me...)  ;)

All ready to go!  I love that Ari knows to smile for the camera now.

We're here!

"Why isn't it starting yet, Mom?"

We had decent seats.  12th row!

Andy

A few of the army guys parachuted in and all of the kids LOVED it.

This was Kaden's face the entire time.  That made going totally worth it to me.

Kaden could see fine, but he kept getting so excited that he'd stand up.  :)

Jessie handing Rex the controller so that he could try, one last time, to defeat Zurg.

And whose help to you need to defeat Zurg?

Buzz Lightyear!

 (I took a couple of videos, but blogger says that they're too big to post.  I'm gonna see if I can find a way around that sometime...)

Woody's arm looks like it's missing, but he's just reaching across the front of his body for his nonexistent gun.

Ooooooooo......

Shane was convinced that Buzz was a girl.  I don't think so, but you never know, I guess.

The claw!

 After Buzz had his whole thing, it was Woody's turn in the spotlight.  They did an episode of Woody's Roundup.

Jessie accidentally lit a barrel of dynamite in the old abandoned mine!  Who will save her?!

Bullseye went to get Woody.  I thought this pose was hilarious.

 After Woody saved the day, a whole bunch of cowgirls came out to dance/skate with Jessie.

Girl power!

 There was a tall guy in front of us, so Lexi was on my lap the whole time.  When the cowgirls came out, they told all the kids to jump up and dance with them.  Lexi did just that.

Dancing in the aisle.  :)

Shane had the time of his life...  ;)

Barbie!

A whole bunch of Barbie's came out to "exercise."

Ari took over Lexi's seat for about two seconds until Shane realized that Ari didn't weigh enough to hold the seat down.  She wasn't very happy when it kept folding up on her.  hahaha

Woody escaping the daycare on the hang glider.

 I was wondering how they would do the kids at the daycare.  I thought they did great:

Kaden loved the octopus.

 I'm really, really sad that that blogger won't let me upload the video of when Ken and Barbie first see each other.  They completely stole the show!  They were, by far, the best skaters.  Barbie was incredible!  I'm going to figure out how to post that video if it's the last thing I do....

Ken's dream house!

Trying on outfits for Barbie.

This was when Buzz was switched to Spanish mode.

The grand finale!  Lexi was like, "MINNIE!!!!!!"

Everyone!

The kids loved the show.  (Ari liked the first half, then was bored and tired.)  Kaden said Buzz was his favorite part (of course).  And Lexi said the potatoes were favorite.  :)  It was a great show!

Goodbye

About a month ago, I wrote a country song for my lyrics class called, "Goodbye."

The teacher told me he loved it and that I had to sing it at the singer/songwriter festival Weber State has twice a year.

Like, in front of people.

What the what?!

A guy in my class, Gordon, plays the guitar so, so, SO well and agreed to put music to the melody in my head.

Unfortunately, because of a lot of things, we didn't get the music written until the day before the festival (which was last Friday the 2nd).  Gordon came over on Thursday and we practiced and practiced and I realized just how much music can take mediocre words and make a pretty decent song.

Gordon could tell that I was freaked out of my mind a little nervous about singing in front of people, so he suggested I go to The Copper Club in Ogden that night (Thursday) to their open mic night.  He is one of the hosts and said that he would be there and we could have a practice run-through.  I agreed and met up with some friends from our class around 10:00 PM at the Copper Club.

The problem was, when I got there, Gordon and his band were playing.  Oh my gosh you guys, you have NO idea how good they were!  I immediately chickened out.  Gordon spotted me and came over saying, "You ready for tonight?!"  

Nope.

I told him I don't sing after people who are really, really good.

He asked if I would agree to sing if he found someone who was crap not so good to go before me.

Like an idiot, I said yes.

He did it and the guy before me was a wannabe Bob Marley, except he was off-key and had the worst lyrics ever.

One of the guys in Gordon's band came up to me a couple of songs before I was up and he looked like he should be hanging out in a biker bar (a.k.a. he was slightly on the scary side).  He was the bass player and turned out to be such a sweetheart!  He put his hand on my back and said, "So, I hear you're going to be singing tonight?"

Me, "Um...I guess so."

Him, "Well, don't worry about it.  You'll do great and you'll have a whole band to back you up."

That's right.  Gordon got his band to play my song!

I had a guy on the keyboard, a drummer who was CRAZY loud, the uber nice bass guy, and Gordon on the main guitar.  It was the most fun/scary thing I've ever done!

My only complaint (and the reason why I'm NOT posting the video I have of it), is that the band was SO LOUD behind me, that I couldn't hear myself at all, so I sounded completely tone deaf.

It was partially my fault.  If I had been singing closer to the mic, I would have been able to hear myself a bit better.  But I didn't want to be eating it!  Gordon told me after that you HAVE to practically eat the mic.

So, yeah. I "sang" my song and got applause (people are nice), and then got a few high-fives and "great jobs" from some guys afterwards.  It was fun!

SO.  On Friday at the festival, it was just Gordon and I (doing the song.....that sounded weird....there were lots of people there-including my mom and her hubby!).  I could hear myself, obviously, so the song was a little better.  I'm not posting that video because Gordon accidentally went into the chorus instead of the bridge, so it sounds like I messed up bad.  

Anyway, I will post a video of Gordon when he came to my house and we were practicing.  He re-did the bridge (it's much better than what I had come up with) and I recorded him singing it so that I could practice.

Just some background really fast, it's a song about a woman who sees her husband/boyfriend with another woman.  Now the bridge will make better sense to you.  Enjoy my buddy, Gordon!

  Isn't he fabulous?!

Blessing

My friend, Brent, had the opportunity to bless his first baby this past Sunday!

For those of you who have no clue who Brent is, he and I met in 2003 right when I had graduated from high school and moved to California (I was 17).  Anyway, we hit it off right off the bat and he's honestly like a big brother to me.  When we were hanging out 24/7 in Cali, everyone was saying that we were going out (Brent told me this one time when we went to In-N-Out).  No one understood the completely platonic relationship we have.  He told me that his mom was SO disappointed when he told her I was engaged to Shane.  haha

We've been through a lot the last 9 years.  Brent is five years older than me and was really feeling the pressure to get married (not to me...well, I guess that depends on whom he was talking to) when we met.  He didn't end up getting married until 2009 (old fart) and they just had their first baby (a girl) this past December.  I always tease him that I met and married Shane, bought a house, and had two kids before he even got married.  ;)

Anyway, his daughter's name is Elora and she is so, so adorable!

Proud papa

 Let me tell you, she has him totally and utterly wrapped around her little finger.  ;)

The kids got to play while the grown-ups munched and chatted:

Ari the firefighter.

Lexi was thrilled to find a coloring book (even though I hid the colored pencils from her).

 Lately Ari has been such a little ham for the camera.  This is her new "cheese face":

She scrunches up one eye and looks like a pirate.  haha  She cracks me up!

After spending some time with Brent Elora, we headed to my friend Emily's house.  The kids got to hang out and play some more before heading home for the day.  Thanks, M, for letting us crash the place!  ;)

It was a really great day.  It was so special to see Brent bless his first daughter.  

He's such a good dad and I'm grateful to call him my friend.

Lady A concert!

On Valentine's Day I ditched Shane and the kiddos and left to the Lady Antebellum concert with my friend, Kim, whose hubby, Kevin, had no interest in going to a chick concert, either.  ;)  We stopped at In-N-Out (YUM!!) for the best burgers around and then headed for the Delta Center Energy Solutions Arena!  Earlier in the day, I found out through Facebook that my friends from Fillmore would be at the concert, too!  Kim and I met up with them really fast before the concert started.

Me and cute preggo Kenz (Chad was there, too, just not in the picture)

Kim and I

 There were two openers for Lady A.  The first was Thompson Square.  They are best known for the song, "Are you gonna kiss me or not?" and they did a fantastic job! I didn't realize that they are married, but I'm so glad they are because they are just adorable together.  :)  At the end of their short 25 minute set, the guy (don't know his name...) had someone bring roses out on stage for his wife for Valentine's Day.  Awwww....

Cute husband and wife!

I loved her dress!

 It was during Thompson Square that Kim and I noticed something....annoying.  These girls near us would NOT sit down.  They were standing there dancing when EVERYONE else was sitting and trying to enjoy the show.

So distracting.

 Anyway, after that, Darius Rucker came out!

He's one of my all-time favorite country artists and I was SO excited that he was opening for Lady A!

If you don't know who he is, YouTube him.  He's so, so talented.  His set lasted an hour (I think?  Or close to it) and he even busted out an old Hootie and the Blowfish song.  It was awesome!

Darius!

I can make anyone look tan.  haha  (The blond girl's expression behind me is cracking me up.)

 After Darius, it was time to get ready for the main event!  WOO!

LADY A!!

 It was SUCH a good concert!  

All of the bands were fantastic!  A fun, fun night!!

Out to eat

Shane and I normally go out to eat (not counting Little Caesars like Shane does) maybe twice a year.  

And even when we do go out, we always take the kids and we always go to Red Robin.

Well, this last Saturday we went with our friends, Kim and Kevin, to the Cheesecake Factory!!

WITHOUT KIDS!

It was my first time ever leaving the kids with a babysitter that A) we had to pay and B) was under 20 years old.  I've been babysitting since I was 11 years old, but after Kaden was born I looked at the 11 and 12 year olds in our ward and thought, "Who in their right mind would leave their children with a 12 year old?!?!"

Anyway, Kim has connections with the child whisperer of babysitters (she's 12).  

And nothing bad happened!  I think Ari only cried for a few minutes after we left.  It helped that we had all of our kids (so there were 5 kids total) together - they didn't even notice we were gone.  ;)

So, we headed down and were told it was a two hour wait.  

What do you do with that kind of kid-free time and no hotel room?  

Shopping!!

We walked all over the mall and Kim even got the people at Godiva (chocolates) to give her a free sample.

Yummy!

It was Shane's first time at the Cheesecake Factory and I laughed at hearing him say how huge the menu is, because that is exactly what I said when I had it in Chicago.  It was delicious food and I told the waitress that it was Kim and Kevin's anniversary (it really was-I didn't lie!) and all the servers came and sang to them.  

It was so fun.  :)

 

I think Kim liked being sung to more than Kevin.  hahaha

It was a really fun, kid-free night!

 

Monday, Shane and I celebrated Valentine's Day since Tuesday I would be gone. 

My mom had given us a gift certificate to Flemings Steakhouse (at the Gateway).  She watched the kids while we ate steak!  Good trade off, I think.  ;)  It was really good!  SO expensive, though.  But the steak was just so, so tender!  Anyway, so that's TWO kid-free, non-Red Robin meals this year (for both of us)!  

I'm keeping track because I think last year we had ZERO.  :)

Rapping

In my Wednesday evening lyric writing class we always have a "themed" song that we're required to write. 

(Like, a couple of weeks ago was blues, then folk, tonight was pop songs, you get the idea...)

Anyway, tonight the teacher said that next week was country (YAY!!!  And, yes, I actually cheered....and I was the only one since the rest of them are heavy metal guys) and someone asked what genre we would be doing the following week after that.

The teacher said, "Rap."

(And I nearly died of dread...)

Everyone immediately casually glanced at the one black guy in the class and he goes, "Oh, so y'all just automatically look at the black guy, huh?  I see how it is."

(He was joking, if you couldn't tell.)

After class the black guy (I feel really bad that I don't know any of the boys' names in the class, but I know all of the girls) was reading a book and I glanced at it and saw that it was written about Jay-Z.

Me, being the super white girl, asked, "So....he raps, right?"

The black guy literally smacked his head and was just laughing at me.

I was laughing at myself and told him that he will never meet another girl as truly white as me.  

He was still laughing and sang/rapped a couple of Jay-Z's songs to me (thinking I would recognize them once I heard them....I didn't).

I'm kind of freaking out about having to write a rap song.

When I think of rap, this is what immediately comes to mind:

Yes, I have that memorized, and, YES, my class is in for a real treat when it comes my turn to rap.  ;)