The Wonderful Weekend of Oz

Nate has every other Friday off, so this weekend started with a busy Friday full of errand running. We didn't plan on having Dad and Sis wear matching outfits, but when it happened, we had to take some pictures.

She has definitely taken to hamming it up for the camera.

Harrison wanted in on the pictures with dad, and also took the opportunity to show off the new "spacer" he had just gotten put in where they had to pull the tooth a few weeks ago. He was very nervous about the procedure, but very excited once it was done. Remember how cool it was to have glasses and braces and casts and stuff like that in elementary school? I remember making fake retainers to wear, having my mom wrap my arm up in a sling just for fun and praying that my baby brother would come out deaf. Thank goodness Heavenly Father disregarded the requests of an ignorant child.

Friday night we went to see Wicked! We got the tickets way back in June and the only reason I was able to talk Nate into going was that he kept deserting me to go on business trips to California when I was newly pregnant and it was our anniversary. So we celebrated our anniversary 5 months later and went on a really fun and really expensive date.

Here we are at the theater, but you can't tell because we are so far away from the stage. We were the first row of the balcony, which is as good as it gets for the balcony. In the future I would spring a little extra cash for better seats.

Notice how red my face is. It was SUPER hot in there. And, our server at dinner had been really slow, so we had about 5 minutes to scarf down our food and then walk as fast as we could to the theater. Between the fast eating, fast walking, being pregnant, being hot, dying of thirst and refusing to pay theater prices for a drink, and having very little leg room, I was a little distracted during the show. It wasn't nearly as bad as the time I saw Phantom when covered from head to toe in an itchy rash, or as bad as poor Dan, who had to run out and be sick in the middle of the finale, but really I'd prefer to be completely comfortable the next time I go to the theater.

Other than all that, we had a great time spending the evening with our friends the Welches and the Weavers. Here are Randi, Tiffany and me. I was sad there wasn't a big Wicked poster to take our picture by.

We were very entertained by Wicked (I might have had my hopes a tad too high after hearing such rave reviews from friends for the past 5 years, but I still really liked it). Elpheba's voice was incredible and Glinda was quite comical.

We loved trying to figure out how everything tied back in to the Wizard of Oz. So much so that we both agreed we needed to go home and watch it. I thought we owned it, but we don't. Well, what do you know? It was on TV last night. So we DVRed it and watched it with the kids. We pushed the couches together, which was very exciting for the children. We have had multiple requests to leave it like that forever. We are compromising by leaving it like that until tonight. So, Harrison was the only one who stayed awake for the whole thing. It was just so darn cozy in there all snuggled together. Before we all fell asleep, both kids kept giving us hugs and kisses and telling us they loved us the most. It's really the simple things that make life so sweet! Anyway, I felt a little bad that Harrison was left to watch the scary parts at the end all by himself, but he says he wasn't scared. We eventually got everyone put in their proper beds for the night.

Before our Wizard of Oz sleepover yesterday, Nate had some guys over to watch the BYU game. I was excited to have my kids wear their new BYU shirts that I made them last weekend at Super Saturday. Ashley taught a class on making freezer paper stencils that you iron onto shirts and then paint over the stencil and then peel it off (google it if you're interested, it's really pretty easy and fun). So instead of paying BYU bookstore prices for their shirts, I made these for about 3 dollars each.

Side Note: Here's a picture of another shirt I made using the freezer paper. Harrison has been DYING for some "character" shirts. Well, I must be the meanest mother on earth because I despise most character clothing and shoes. In general, I think characters should be reserved for pajamas and underwear. Ashley has made quite a few really cute shirts for her boys using the symbols of some popular characters, so I took a note from her and tried to appease Harrison. This is as close as he's going to get to a Bakugan shirt. It's one of the Bakugan symbols, "Darkus."

Side Side Note: "We" spent all morning making this on Monday. Which means, I made it while trying to keep the children from killing each other. After several warnings that he wasn't going to get to wear it to school if he didn't stop bugging Elizabeth, I had to follow through and relinquish his privilege to wear the shirt. You would have thought it was the end of the world. He cried for at least an hour. So hard he almost threw up a few times. He refused to eat lunch before school, didn't want to go to school at all, and was still sniffling when we got there. Thankfully, he snapped out of it and gave me a very loving goodbye. I am still learning to stick with my guns and follow through, so I considered this a victory.

Back to yesterday, here's a cuter picture of their faces, not showing off the shirts as much. Nate is not in these pictures because he refuses to wear his blue now that the Cougs aren't doing as well. I look down on fair weather fans. I'll proudly wear my blue no matter what. However, that could be because I don't care about the actual games very much at all. It's all about supporting the Alma Mater and brainwashing the children to want to go there from the earliest possible age.

We've gotten 6 inches of snow in the last 24 hours and it hasn't stopped yet. They canceled all church meetings, so we are having another low key day, spending more time in our comfortable couch creation, watching a little conference that's still waiting for us on our DVR and maybe a few other things.