Biggest Loser finale and CA trip

Where do I even begin??!?? We drove to LA and went to Sea World and at Sea World they had a ballerina that I told Katherine was the Sugar Plum Fairy and I'm pretty sure that was the best thing of the whole trip for her:

Katherine was just SO excited!! She was dancing and just wanted to follow her and be by her.

Here are the kids feeding the dolphins:

Katherine and I did this while the boys rode a roller coaster at Sea World:

The day before the finale we spent the day at the beach in 84 degree sunshine!! I couldn't believe it was the middle of December! I told Todd we were moving! There were flowers all over everywhere-it was so nice! I love winter, but only for the month of December, and then I want it to be spring.

The night before the finale everyone gathered in the hotel lobby for my dad's big reveal. His brothers and mother were there and they were so shocked to see him so skinny! I had seen him in AR for the "where they are now" taping, but I was still shocked at how much he had lost since then, and I am still not used to this person who sounds like my dad, but doesn't look like my dad! My dad was all smiles:)

The next day was the finale!! We left our kids with my aunt and uncle in the hotel room, with Avery, Violet, Tom's girls and Nancy's kids (though Nancy was there too). It was crazy with all those kids in one hotel room, I felt very bad for Nancy, Diane and Larry!!! But, we found out that while we were gone, Nathan had thrown up and the babies had cried the whole time. They said it was so crazy that all they could do was laugh. They deserve a big medal or something!

We had met a lot of the other contestants on Biggest Loser in the hotel lobby the night before, and even Sunshine and Oneal from the last season, which was really fun! When we were getting in line to go in the studio, we saw Sam and Steffanie and I cut in line in front of Amanda (on accident) and talked to her for a minute, and we were in line with all the other families of the other contestants.


We got in the studio and it was surreal! We were THERE! We had made alot of neon colored posters to hold up for my dad. Allison Sweeny came out in her curlers and flip flops to talk to someone on the stage before the show. Some fans of my dad had come with signs for him and sat a few rows behind us. We talked to them a little bit. There was a guy that was in charge of the audience, getting us all excited and telling us when to applaud and stop and stuff. He told us we couldn't be too excited and that we could holler and do whatever we wanted. I was so nervous that I would holler or do something when I wasn't supposed to! Then they said, "We'll be on live tv in 5, 4, 3, 2,...." It was SO exciting! It was so wierd that MY DAD was going to be on that stage on live tv!! All the hoping and wishing he would get on the show, and here it was--he had MADE ITON THE SHOW!!! He didn't tell us he was going to be in a tux, he wanted it to be a surprise. But he said Mark had won, I heard him tell my mom. I was so excited when he walked out on the stage!! That was MY dad!! I was/am so proud of him and all the hard work he did! I was really nervous for him- this was LIVE tv! He had lost the second most percentage weight of ANYBODY, except Mark, who had been on the ranch the whole time, and then didn't have a job and went to live with his cousin so that he could just focus on his weight. My dad had a full time job, a family, and was at home most of time. They were going to, but ran out of time, present my dad with the "biggest transformation" award. He had lost the most body fat percentage of ANYBODY! So to me, he was the Biggest Loser. He had worked so hard, and it is just amazing to see how this weight loss has transformed his life. He's wanted this for so long, and HE DID IT!!! I really can't say enough how proud I am and how happy I am for him! He was just so happy and smiling from ear to ear that whole night!

After the finale we went to eat dinner all of us at a restaurant in a separate room and they had the show playing on tv's in the room. Poor sick Nathan fell asleep in the pack 'n play we brought.

The next day was DISNEYLAND!! The night before, Nathan had thrown up while we were at the show, and then woke up and threw up again when we got to our hotel room, and Abbie had had a fever, so I was pretty sure we weren't going to Disneyland the next day. Not to mention all of the kids had gone to bed really really late and we had to be AT the gates of Disneyland at 7:30am. That would mean 5 hours of sleep for the kids. Todd said that he wanted to go to Disneyland, and if it didn't work out and the kids fell apart, we could just go home. I thought he was NUTS, but he goes along with my nut ideas most of the time, so I decided to go along. So, off to Disneyland. To my biggest surprise, everything went just fine! Nathan rode all the roller coasters with no problem, and the other kids were just fine, despite no sleep. About the middle of the day Nathan wasn't feeling well, so he fell asleep in the stroller and when he woke up he was fine. It was a very fun day. My mom and dad, all my brother and sisters and their families, my dad's mom, my uncle Jim and wife Terri, Robert, uncle Tom and his family, Mike and his daughter and her family all went to Disneyland. My dad tried to take turns spending time with all of us. It was so funny/wierd that people would come up to my dad and ask for a picture with him, or people would whisper and say, "hey that's Rick!!" He was a celebrity! One person came up to him and said, "You are a stud!" and walked off. He said that happened all day at Disneyland! Then when we went to dinner, a couple congratulated him and as they walked away they said, "that's so wierd we saw him!" Of course, I think it's cool that we saw Sunshine and Oneal, but it's wierd because, he's just my dad. I've always thought he was something special, but now the world knows, too!

Nathan loves his Nana:

Katherine is a little apprehensive of some of the rides:

She liked Mickey Mouse, but was really scared of him in person. She was hugging me really tight in this picture. But she loves looking at this picture:

Katherine only watches the Nutcracker ballet and Signing Time, so she didn't know who the princesses were, but she thought they were cool:

Poor sick Nathan:

Katherine got a new fluffy pink skirt at Disneyland. Here she is on Daddy's shoulders with her new skirt:

It was really fun seeing all the Christmas decorations there:

We spent the next day at Disneyland again for Nathan's birthday, but it was just our family. For Nathan's birthday, he really wanted to go on a date with Nana, even more than going to Disneyland, but we told him that he could go on a date with her in northern CA because she couldn't that day.

Then we headed up to Northern CA where my dad's mom lives. We went to the Charles Dickens festival in San Francisco because every year we read "A Christmas Carol."

The kids made candles there:

Alex got fencing lessons:

They played old Victorian games:

Katherine rode on a man-powered carousel:

Abbie was so tired she fell asleep while I was holding her like this. I didn't even know she was asleep until someone said something:

The kids dancing on the stage:

There were people dressed up in costume and one couple had this carriage and baby that was so so cute!

The boys learning how to tie knots on London docks:

Katherine trying on a little Victorian dress:

The next day we went to a fancy restaurant to have a Christmas brunch with Nana (my dad's mom). It was really nice and we got all dressed up and everyone was ooing and ahing over the girls. In the bathroom some ladies asked to hold Abbie and told me I was very blessed. Yes! I am!! I have the best kids ever!

It was raining the rest of the time we were there, so instead of going whale watching, Todd took the boys to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. Another day we went with everyone to a trampoline place and watched my dad do a flip off the trampoline into the foam pit, which he could not get out of:) hillarious. My uncle Jim and wife Terri came over and blew up HUGE balloons with the kids. The kids wrote letters to Santa, tied them on the balloons and let them go to the North Pole. I was fascinated!

medals of power

I have the boys memorize scripture masteries and right now we're learning (all of us- I never memorized them in high school) Helaman 5:12

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

So, we're talking about what it means to build your foundation on Christ. We read a talk by Thomas S. Monson (click here) "How Firm a Foundation". He said the word "quest" and I HAD to capitalize on that! We talked about how our life is a quest and we are fighting Satan and all the obstacles he throws in our way. And usually when a warrior goes on a quest, a wise person gives him something for his quest. So I got these medals made (with a ribbon to wear around your neck) with the three things that Monson said in his talk: prayer, scriptures and service. They love love this computer game called Titan Quest, and I told them their medals are like the whatever in their game that gives them power, but this medal never runs out of power. So if they are running low of power during their quest, they use their medals (prayer, scripture and service) and get more power. We have been praying for what we should do for our New Years resolutions and we decided that it will be service.

Alex's horse riding lesson!

Today Alex got a horse riding lesson. In history we were learning about the Native Americans and how getting horses changed their life. And we read a few horse books. So I thought it would be fun to try out riding horses. The kids have never done it before. Todd said they had to choose between the horse riding lesson or pottery though (dang money! We need to win that lottery!) Nathan chose pottery. Alex liked his horse lesson even though it was DANG COLD!!

Katherine REALLY wanted to ride the horse, too. All day yesterday she kept saying she wanted to ride the horse the next day too. So the nice teacher let her sit on the horse:).

These pictures are in opposite chronological order, oops.

We're home!

We got home at midnight and I'm exhausted! I have a lot to do today, so I will write all about our trip and put up pictures tomorrow after we open presents!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Here are before and after pictures of my dad on the NBC website:
http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/photos/rick/6687/#item=150912

black friday

Today the boys were playing in the living room with Winston, all of them in armor and fighting with swords, and Katherine was in the middle of them in her dancing clothes dancing to the Nutcracker.

Last night at midnight Todd went to Wal Mart to get some black friday deals. He called me on the phone and said, "I now know what hell is." He said it was madness. When he came home he was empty handed. I said to him, "You let the chaos overcome you! The whirlpool of madness defeated you!" (or something like that) and he said, "That was the day I married you." When he was going to sleep he said that he had PTSD. "There were bodies everywhere!"

We didn't get any Walmart deals, but todd and I went out tonight and left the kids with a babysitter and got most of the kids' Christmas shopping done. It was fun spending money with Todd:)

what i do

I've been wanting to write about what I do during the day, you know, the boring day to day stuff that I'll forget about but want to remember about this time in my life. I'm going to keep track of what I do for about a week.

Today, I woke up to the sound of Todd doing math with the boys. Katherine is sleeping in her big girl bed now, so she'll wake up and "do math with Daddy" too. Then I hear her screaming (the Carlson banshee scream) throwing a tantrum (this is every morning) and I'm too tired to go get her, so I yell, "Katherine, come here!" and try and say something like "Come give me hugs!" or "Look at Abbie! Come play with her!" Then she comes in and we play and then she says, "I'm hung'ee". So I go downstairs, change the girls' diapers, get Abbie a bottle and get Katherine breakfast. By this time, the boys are usually ready for breakfast too, because they're done with math.

For breakfast, we lately have been eating Todd's homemade granola for breakfast,  lunch and dinner, but it was gone so Alex and I made scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms (but no mushrooms for Nathan). Alex likes to cook. He cut the mushrooms and cooked some of the eggs.

Then we did scriptures. We're on chapter 60 of Alma. I read scriptures, and had to tell Nathan about 5 times to put down his sword, or come back to the rug. That child! Then we always say the scripture mastery we are working on 3 times each. They are on Alma 41:10.

Then we did spelling. We kind of did a lot of spelling, because we were finishing up last week's list, and starting this week's. They said, "too many letters!!" They were saying too much spelling. Nathan at the end of the day said, "the most fearful part of the day were all those words!" We're trying to work on spelling a lot.
After that we had lunch- pastrami and swiss on rye with leftover butternut squash. Yum! Todd is an amazing cook. He went in to work today. He goes to work on Mondays and Fridays.

Then we had to hurry really fast to go to the boys' art class. It is a lot of work getting everyone ready and in the car. Bottles, diapers, stuff, stuff, stuff, getting me dressed, the girls  dressed, telling the boys what they need to do, etc. We were only one minute late, surprisingly. Right now the boys have a reading thing for their school they go to every Friday where they have to read 300 minutes in the next two weeks, but if they read 600 minutes (Nathan's age) and 1,000 minutes (Alex's age) they are "star readers" and get an award. So the boys read all the way to the art class in Highland, and most of the way back. We stopped at Target in Orem to get Alex new glasses. Katherine broke them the first few days he had them. Then we looked around at toys, girl clothes and lamps. I ended up buying a cute black pea coat, sweater and shirt for Katherine, and a "baby's first Christmas" footie jammies for Abbie. The boys each got a sword with their allowance. Then we got home and I read the boys their science (about sharks) while they played Titan Quest on the computer (Nathan) and Sonic on the Wii (Alex). I ask them about what I read to make sure they are still listening, and they actually listen BETTER while on their games. Katherine kept standing on the book, so it was cut short, so we could give her attention.

Then we did writing. I had the boys write about going to the football game with Daddy for their newspapers. They have a newspaper paper (each) and we've been adding stories to their newspapers. That was for the "sports" section.

Then the boys played their video games for a little while, and then Todd got home and we had dinner-- pastrami and soup again. Since we ate pastrami for lunch, Todd had to go to the store and get more stuff for it. Then I put Abbie to bed (7pm). After we ate, I took the boys to the Covey Center in Provo to watch the Utah Valley Youth Symphony. The last piece they played was the Carmen Suite and the boys LOVED it (that's their favorite song; they love to play it on the computer and run around to it). We found out that they have an elementary aged orchestra! The older kids get to travel- this year to London. The younger kids get to go on a smaller trip-- this year San Francisco. Right now the boys want to practice to get in that orchestra. The conductor said they have to be in at least the Suzuki book 2 first.

When we got home we had to practice violins. Nathan was getting frustrated because he wasn't doing it perfect. I did some dishes, then told the boys to go to bed so I could have some alone time on the computer (checking email and writing this!). It's 11:18pm. During the day Katherine runs around wreaking havoc on the house while I do school with the boys. When I'm not teaching the boys, Katherine and I play, or she helps me do whatever I'm doing. She's a great helper. She always wants to help! She likes to bring me books now for me to read to her, and she likes to pretend she's doing what the boys are doing. So when we were doing spelling, she got a pencil and paper and sat at the table and said, "do spelling" and scribbled on her paper.

Abbie just learned how to sit up on her own. She still takes 3 good naps during the day and goes to sleep about 7, so she's pretty easy. She's a happy baby. Today the boys and Katherine were all running around in a circle around Abbie sitting on the rug. It was cute.

boys' art

Alex and Nathan are going to an art class once a week for four weeks. Today was the second week. They did watercolor Christmas cards. They put salt on them to make the "snowflakes". Here are Alex's two cards:

 Here are Nathan's 3 cards:

boys' surveys

The boys filled out surveys:
Alex:
Name your favorite...
hobby: building legos
sport: swimming
car/vehicle: motorcycle
color: blue, gold
movie: Toy Story 3 (because we just watched it)
TV show: Spongebob
animal: horse
food: anything my dad makes
dessert: daddy's eclairs
music: primary songs
school subject: math
book: Fablehaven
Do you collect anything? seashells
What do you do for fun? Play with my friends
What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know
What are your special talents (filled in by mommy): music, running, helping mom and dad, art, being kind, karate
What is your dream vacation? going to Hawaii and snorkeling
What is something about yourself that you would like to change or improve? self confidence! just joking, I don't even know what that means. Maybe doing stuff when my mom asks.
How would your mom or dad describe you? cute
How would you describe your personality? loveable
What else would you like to say about you? I like to play with friends.

Nathan:
Name your favorite...
hobby: riding my bike
sport/activity: jumping on the tramp
car/vehicle: hot wheels
color: gold
Movie: toy story 3
tv show: spongebob
animal: dog
food: pizza
dessert: cake
music: Carmen (the Carmen Suite No. 1 Les Toreadors, or as my boys call it, the "run for your lives" song)
school subject: art
Book: Timothy of the Cay
Do you collect anything:? seashells
What do you do for fun? boys club
What do you want to be when you grow up? an astronaut
What are your special talents? art, legos
What is your dream vacation? go to get a gold brick at Fort Knox
What is something about yourself that you would like to change or improve? be better at legos
How would your mom or dad describe you? cute
How would you describe your personality? cute
What else would you like to say about yourself? I have a crazy mom

Proud of my boys!!!

This cold, cold morning all 3 boys ran their first official 5K! (But not Todd's first official 5K). I was signed up, and was going to push Katherine in the stroller and have Abbie in the front pack. I got started but the girls were freezing cold and Alex said he lost my cell phone, so I went to look for that, then took the girls back to the car and turned on the heater. Next time, I'll get a babysitter for the girls. (The phone was found, by the way!) Todd finished in 27 minutes, then went back to finish with Nathan, then went back again to finish with Alex. In this picture Todd is running with Nathan:

 Nathan coming up to the finish line!

 A sprint to the finish! His other hand is holding up his pants. Poor kid, the whole race he was holding his pants up (literally):

 While Nathan and I were waiting for Alex to finish, Katherine and Abbie were in the warm car. I turned around to see Katherine getting into my makeup. I went to open the door, and she had locked the doors!! So in this picture, she and Abbie are locked in the car and she is getting into my makeup. Crazy girl! She's at a very CRAZY stage. She finally unlocked the door for me. I love this picture- you can see me and Nathan in the relection, and Katherine in the car with my makeup open, trying to hide from me:

 Here's her makeup job:

 And she also dumped out her cracker snack all over the car:

 All while cute Abbie slept. Yes, those are gloves on her feet. She had socks on but it was really cold, so I put my gloves on her feet too.

 Here's Alex and his friend he made. He walked most of the way with this friend, but here they are running to the finish line. I love the look on this other kid's face:) (click to enlarge)

 Nathan resting after his first official 5K!

I'm so proud of my boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

abbie got earrings!

For girl day Katherine got new earrings:

 And Abbie got her ears pierced but Blogger is being really dumb and will only upload Abbie's picture sideways even though it wasn't even taken sideways.

 One night we put the girls to bed and Todd and I and the boys painted. Here the Alex is doing his sketch and Nathan is making transfer paper to transfer his sketch to watercolor paper: 

Christmas gifts that help out charities

Wouldn't it be cool to purchase Christmas gifts and help out a charity at the same time?? You could even include a note with the gift about how their gift is helping people in the world. How cool is that??

AND YOU CAN!!

Here are the links below to purchase Christmas gifts AND help out a charity!!

uganda jewelry

native american education charity store

hamlin fistula shop

give a heifer

 sponsor an ethiopian school girl

purchase a book and the money goes to ethiopia

boys' watercolor pictures

The boys did some watercolor pictures in their art class. Alex's teacher just did the outline of the wolf and he did the rest:

Nathan did the whole thing himself: 

 Nathan just drew this one day with his crayons. It's his violin. I love this picture:

Christmas poem

This poem sounds like us getting ready for church:). I like the part I highlighted best:


T'was the night before Christmas


When there rose such a fuss.

With all these packages to wrap,

It was just 'way too much'.

Family was coming,

Food was a must,

And, with so many people,

It was either be ready or bust.


"Get up from the TV,

Get off your fat butt!

If you don't get movin',

You'll sleep with the mutt!"


"Kids, get back to bed!"

"Pitch the dog outdoors!

Get goin', buddy,

And sweep up the floor!"

T'was an annual event

And everyone knew

Voices would rise

As the tension grew.


Mom wasn't happy

And Dad was mad.

And with all the noise,

It made the little ones sad.

Nope, Christmas wasn't merry.

It wasn't CHRISTmas at all,

In spite of painted faces

Once guests entered the hall.


What was the point

In all the pretense?

Could Santa and reindeer

Come to their defense?

Could packages and ribbons

Make a home of love?

Would settling for presents

Still be enough?

But, how could it be Christmas

Without the fuss;

Without all the presents,

Wrappings, and such?


Could Christmas come

Without exhaustion, just bliss?

And should we appreciate

Whose birthday it is?

And, if at our front door,

Would we let Him in?

And would He know


The party's for Him?



I must admit I had been

Sort of selfish, myself;

In attempt to mend

My own inner self ...

Creating Christmases

To fulfill all my dreams,

Only for others to live;

Or so it does seem ...

Forgetting whose birthday

It really was

And even the joy

Of His tender touch.


And so ...

T'was the night before Christmas

When I changed all my plans,

To let the Christ-Child in

And place my heart in His hands.

Poem Author: Joyce C. Lock©;2008

pics

Todd bought some size L shirts!!

Fri. "Fun Girl Day" (with a guest):

We went to library storytime for the girls' age

Then Todd met us for lunch (wehad Applebees healthy menu)

 The boys' violin class:

 Tonight Abbie ate food for the first time! Only a little actually got in her mouth:



pumpkins gave me a new perspective

In Oct., we got some pumpkins, and I let each of the boys pick out "their" pumpkin. At our first feast activity, I brought the pumpkins for decorations. After the activity, I was just going to leave them in the woods for the animals to eat for the winter:) since we didn't need them. Another mom asked if she could take them to roast the seeds and I said yes, because I was going to leave them anyway. We didn't need pumpkins after Halloween. When the boys saw the other family's kids carrying "their" pumpkins into the other family's car, they got so mad! Todd and I tried to tell them that we were just going to throw them away anyway, so we said they could have them. Todd was trying to be nice and offered to give them money for the pumpkins. The boys said that all they wanted was the pumpkins and went on whining and complaining about it for a while.

That night Todd and I were talking about how the boys have ALL these things we do for them, and instead of being grateful, they were SO upset about these pumpkins. They couldn't just move on. I asked them if they had fun at the first feast (Todd and I spent a lot of time and money on that activity, and so did the other families), and they said no, because they lost their pumpkins.

Little did they know that the pumpkins weren't really "their" pumpkins anyway. They were given to them, but I decided when it was time to throw them out. They would have rotted in the snow outside anyway. I know more than them. I know when it's best to take them.

That's when I thought, maybe that's what Heavenly Father feels like with us. I had read a blog about a mother whose little 18 month old girl had died and thought about this post she wrote: http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/2010/09/answers.html
Maybe Heavenly Father thinks that we don't see all of our blessings when one is taken away. But it wasn't ours in the first place, it was His to take away, because He knows what is best.

That's one of the lessons I get from the pilgrims and indians thanksgiving story. Here half of them had just died, and they were having a feast of thanksgiving for the blessings they had received.
I love Thanksgiving and being able to focus on gratitude. I want to try and keep the gratitude spirit through Christmas as well. We'll write thank you letters to Santa.

First Feast

This year we had a "First Feast" with our homeschool group. First Feast is where we have a feast like the pilgrims and indians did for the first thanksgiving. We have authentic food and activities. It was a ton of fun, and the weather was perfect!!

You should have seen the food! Tons of food, with lots of variety!!

 Playing stool ball (with a bale of hay instead of stools). Katherine is sitting on our "base":

Playing stool ball:

Alex got cut on his finger and wailed:

archery:

corn husk dolls:

Nathan writing with a quill and ink:

Nathan's man corn husk doll; and Katherine eating the raw corn cob:

Lots of fun!!!

the fierce dragon

The boys just got on their knight armor, helmet and swords and were "defeating" a bee that got in our house. They smooshed it and said they defeated the fierce dragon! Silly boys.