Last week was our annual Terry Family Pig Out and BINGO party to celebrate my Grandpa T's birthday (the kids Great Grandpa), which so happens to fall on New Year's Day. We ended up celebrating it on the Friday before New Years, though. Since the party was down in Provo we thought we would make a day of it, too. We did a quick clean of our house and headed down to Provo--to BYU campus to be exact. We first visited the Monte Beane Museum. It is interesting to see all the different types of animals even if it is a little creepy that they are all stuffed. The kids liked seeing the hippo and giraffe.
Here's some more African animals:
While we were there they were doing a presentation on reptiles and cold blooded animals. It was pretty busy so we only stopped for a few minutes, but it was long enough for the kids to pet a live boa constrictor. None of the kids were even afraid of the snake--it makes me wonder why they are so afraid of dogs?!
We then headed over to the bookstore to check it out. Here's Noah trying on a hat thanks to Aaron.
We ran out of time on campus and we still had to wrap our stellar bingo prizes. Now usually for this BINGO party every family brings all kinds of white elephant gifts so you get a wide range of unusual prizes. Usually these prizes get re-gifted year after year because you don't have any use for them, but to bring them back the following year for BINGO. Unfortunately, all our BINGO gifts from last year are packed away never to see the light of day until we move for the final time. So I had to make a quick stop to All a Dollar to buy some high quality gifts ;). When Matthew had found out that we were going to BINGO that night all he could talk about is how he was going to help Grandpa T with calling out the numbers. Matthew loves anything with conducting a big group of people or using a microphone which is what Grandpa T usually does--Aaron and I just did a silent inward groan. When we got to the BINGO party we feasted on pizza and then the real party started. Matthew didn't even finish his dinner because he saw Grandpa T getting stuff ready and he had to run over to help--another inward silent groan. We tried to reign him back to sit with us, but to no avail. He had his heart SET on 'helping' and there was going to be no way around it. Luckily Grandpa T rolled with the punches and gave Matthew the job of handing him the number balls and that made him happy--which also made us happy because it thankfully kept him away from conducting and from using the microphone--phew!! For some reason I didn't get a picture of Matthew 'helping' but he was by Grandpa T's side for the majority of the night. In this picture it looks like Noah is Grandpa's helper for a minute. I am sure that was fun for Grandpa.
With all my aunts and uncles, their families and all that extended family there was quite a few people there--not as many as in previous years, but still quite a few. After all the bingo presents had been claimed, that's when the BINGO stopped and the present opening began. Now every year it is a running joke that amongst the presents there are some HIDEOUS macrames that make their appearance. We try not to get them because have I mentioned that they are HIDEOUS?! Unfortunately, when the kids get their BINGOS they search out the biggest presents to add to their booty--which usually ends up being those hideous macrames. And, yes, that is what happened this year as well except we had three kids picking out big presents so we got stuck with not only one hideous macrame, but three!! Eegads!! However, we were pretty sneaky and secretly stashed each macrame in different people's present stashes so we didn't have to take them home. We justified it by figuring we are moving in a month and that would be three extra things we wouldn't have to move, too--right?! I don't know how the people felt that ended up with their secretly stashed macrames felt, but hey, it's all in fun, right?! Occasionally you do end up with some decent prizes. This year Josh in addition to the hideous macrame he also got a DVD player and a FIVE pound (yes I said FIVE pound) Hershey chocolate bar. He was pretty excited about that gift as you can see:
I think it will take us the whole year to finish that chocolate bar off. Josh was pretty adamant that he didn't want to share it at all, but after eating a few squares of it he relented. He finally realized there was going to be no way he would be able to eat the whole thing by himself without getting extremely ill. Aaron was more than happy to help Josh out after hearing that.
Great Grandpa T was able to come to his 92nd birthday celebration. He has had some dementia start setting in, but he still remains pretty healthy. He has moved to a care center to assist him in daily living this year, but is still doing pretty well. The kids were excited to see Great Grandpa T.
To celebrate New Year's Eve and New Years, we had another family over to eat dinner and play games. Also nothing else says celebration like potty training, too. Aaron decided to redeem my last year's birthday present and start potty training Sarah Saturday morning. I had been pretty resistant to potty training her because I just didn't want to deal with it, but surprisingly enough she did really well. Her first day she only had two pee accidents. To reward her for staying dry Aaron gave her some oranges which she loves. Needless to say she got a LOT of oranges that day. Anyway everything was going great that day and we had everything ready for our party that evening. Our guests came over and everything was fun and going great until we all sat down to eat. We had a baked potato bar and croissant wrapped hot dogs. Matthew LOVES baked potatoes--um let me rephrase that--he LOVES some ranch with a small side of baked potato. Matthew prepared his potato and stuffed the biggest bite in his mouth causing him to choke on it. All the choking caused him to barf, but luckily he made it to the bathroom. Unluckily, he didn't make it in time to lift the toilet lid so he splattered everything all over the bathroom floor. YUCK!! Aaron, who is an awesome husband, cleaned it up for me while I helped everyone else get their dinner plates ready. Everything else went smoothly until after we had all eaten. I was cleaning up and Noah needed loves. He needed loves bad enough that he let someone else hold him besides me. While Erin (our guest) was holding Noah cuddled in his blanky, he decided to spew forth all his stomach contents all over her. How embarrassing!! I heard the sickening cough and ran over to help and he also got me pretty splattered as well as the carpet, too. YUCK!! I thought our barfing days were behind us since the stomach flu had already gone through our family the week previous. Anyway, I scooped up Noah and threw him into the shower. About this time we discovered Sarah had eaten so many oranges that her digestive system was in fiber overload and that's when her first small bout of diarrhea started in her new underwear. Aaron and I decided to make it a shower party and threw her in the shower along with Noah. While Aaron was cleaning them up in the shower I had to get the carpet cleaner out and clean the carpet of the Noah barf which did contain all of his unchewed food he had eaten for dinner which was a lot of hot dogs--YUCK!! It'll be a long time before I can eat another hot dog that's for sure!! Anyway, after these episodes we laid Noah and Matthew down for bed--Noah because he was sick and Matthew because it was after 7 pm and he is such a routine kid that's what he wanted. We spent the rest of the evening playing games and letting the kids play. It was lots of fun. Surprisingly enough most of the kids lasted until midnight except Sarah who fell asleep about 10 minutes before midnight while sitting on the couch holding her Ariel doll.
The next day Sarah came out of her room dressed in her princess dress up clothes. She was pretty pleased with herself:
Hey, princesses need to potty, too:
I also need to say that due to all the oranges she was given the day before, she mastered going diarrhea in the potty, too...or so we thought. Once we stopped giving her oranges she finally stopped having diarrhea and never went #2 in the potty for over 5 days. Now if you know Sarah you know that this particular behavior is never heard of. When she was a diaper wearing girl she was a regular, at least a two timer a day kiddo if you know what I mean. I kept asking her if she needed to go poo poos in the potty and she kept telling me no. Well she finally waited until last night when she had her "sleeping underwear" on aka pull ups to have her bowel explode. Noah joined in the fun and had his own bowel explosion last night, too. I woke up to one HUGE mess in her room this morning. Their room was a toxic disaster zone!! I think I emptied a whole can of Febreze and it still didn't touch the smell--YUCK!! Anyway, let me just say sometimes being the Mom is not a fun job. After the world's longest shower, scrub down and load of laundry I think we will attempt the poo poos in the potty. I got some oranges last night so we will see if that might help her along...
In other happenings our house is coming along. The kids like to visit and see the progress and test things out. Here is Josh and Daniel testing out the pantry shelves without us knowing. Good thing the shelves are strong enough to hold an 8 and 6 year old kiddo!
Here's Sarah window seat/toy box that is strong enough to hold an 8, 6 and 2 year who you can't see at the moment.
Sarah climbing on her closet shelves:
Sarah climbing on the linen closet shelves:
Checking out the railing outside of the bonus room:
Here's Noah and Sarah checking out the flooring being put down:
They told us we have about a month left until our house is done. We are so excited!
Lastly don't you love it when the kids get a hold of your camera without you knowing? I found a whole bunch of surprise photos of Daniel I didn't I had. I chose his pouty look to post:
What a crazy kid!!
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