THAT Behind. "Wicked" at Fair Park

For my birthday (a little early) I received tickets to "Wicked" with Kyle and my two sisters, Erin and Rachel. I had been dying to see it for years and couldn't even describe to you my excitement! Seriously, I hadn't been this excited about anything in a very long time.

The much anticipated night finally arrived, we dropped the kids off at my parents house, and were able to get a quick dinner at an awesome taco place near Fair Park.

The play was superb. Our seats were the best seats I've ever experienced a play in. I loved every single second of it! The next day I bought the soundtrack on iTunes and neither the kids and I can get enough of it!

Happy Belated Love Day!

We had a nice Valentine's Day weekend. Kyle and I were able to go out for lunch on Saturday to this fabulous tapas place in downtown McKinney. We ate ourselves silly! On Sunday we had Stake Conference, so we had a leisurely breakfast, played, dressed up Ally, went to church and then had dinner with my family. Kyle even made me homemade lava cakes for dessert...they were divine! Mmmmm...

Introducing...

Annelyse Krista Mammen
(Ally)

Born: Friday, October 9, 2009 3:23 PM
9lbs. 12 oz.
20 1/2 inches long

Labor Story:

I had no such luck attempting to go into labor on my own, despite my miles and miles of walking, eating spicy foods, pressure point massages and umm...other recreational activities. :) Fortunately induction day finally came and we happily showed up at the hospital at 5am on Friday.

I got started on pitocin and spent the morning in easy labor. I really wanted to try and go natural this time. I figured this was my third baby and things are usually a little easier the third time around, plus I've heard recovery is a lot easier without drugs. I had high hopes the whole morning until about 11:30am when my contractions started getting extremely painful. Not that I've ever gone into labor naturally so I can't really personally compare, but from what I hear pitocin-induced contractions are more intense and frequent than they would be otherwise. So at 11:30 I decided (much to the relief of Kyle) that I needed an epidural. The anesthesiologist (who had come in to meet me earlier "just in case") came in and said, "All done going natural?" Ha ha! I was in too much pain to respond.

I got the epidural, which was a much more painful process than I remember, but worth it in the end. I was a happy camper for about an hour when I started getting nauseous. I knew this was going to happen because it happened the first two times I'd gotten an epidural, so I was prepared and the nurse handed me with some barfing supplies. (Sorry if that's TMI...but labor stories aren't supposed to be pretty!) With Janelle and Spencer I threw up a few times and then was fine afterward. Unfortunately this time I threw up a lot of times and was very nauseous for a lot of the afternoon. About 1:00pm they gave me something for it and it lasted an hour or so and then I got sick again and was nauseous all the way until they wheeled me into recovery. NOT fun.

At 2:30 I started getting some major back labor which I'd never had before and could totally feel despite the epidural. Also not a good feeling! But apparently it was a good sign that it was almost time to start pushing. The nurse told me to push the "happy button" on my epidural to help with the back pain while I had to push. My doctor showed up at 3:00 and had me start pushing at 3:18, and 5 minutes later, Annelyse showed up! Despite the nauseousness and major back labor, she was my easiest delivery! I didn't have to have an episiotomy this time around (which I'd had with my other two), which makes a WORLD of difference! Plus she came out so fast, she came out with a perfectly round head. :) I have to say, after seeing how big Ally was and all the back labor I felt, I'm perfectly happy with my choice to get an epidural. I'm pretty sure it could have been a LOT worse.

The second Kyle and I laid eyes on Annelyse, we fell in love with her! She was as beautiful as ever and the sweetest little thing with her round squishy cheeks and strawberry blonde hair. I think we'll keep her!

For more pictures go to: our365.com, and fill out Oct. 9, 2009, the first three letters of our last name, and McKinney, TX

BYU-OU Game

On Saturday Kyle and I (sans kids) ventured out to the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington with my family for the big BYU-OU game. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun! Probably the best football game I've ever been to! Not only was the stadium amazing, but the game was awesome! Nobody expected BYU to pull off such a close victory...again, awesome!

Pre-game...admiring the stadium from afar.

The newlyweds.

...my favorite line came from Daniel that night after the game had ended and we were trying to get out of the parking lot. Monica and my cousins Maren and Mike weren't in the car yet and were just talking to the rest of my family when Daniel shouts out,
"Hey Monica, get in the car, we can celebrate at home!"

Ha ha! Too funny coming from him!

Ferguson/Platt Family Tailgating

Our tailgating neighbors were some friendly OU fans and cheerfully raised blue jell-o shots in our favor. They said they'd offer us some if they'd made more. Ha ha!

Platt Girlies.

BYU's grand entrance...notice the sea of red in the stadium.

I know it's kind of small, but on the bottom of the screen it says, "Tonight's attendance: 75,437" (the stadium holds 80,000 people). So about 15,000 of those people were BYU fans, the rest were OU, we were VERY outnumbered. However, I have to say, most of the OU fans were SO nice and polite after the game. We heard well wishes like, "Congrats," and "Good game," and "You guys played great" as we were walking to our car. What a polite school!

My cousin Maren and her husband Mike after our victory!

...and then Kyle and I celebrating the victory!

I'm SO glad we got to go!

Spring Breakin' It.

This last week was Spring Break, and even though we didn't travel anywhere, it was the perfect break! I'm still not feeling the best ever, so we took it easy and did stuff while I was feeling good and then crashed at home when I wasn't. It worked out perfectly!

We started off the break the Saturday before at the Dallas Science Place (a hands-on kids museum). The kids loved it there. We were there a total of 2 1/2 hours and that's only because I was more than ready to go by then. The kids could have easily stayed 2 more hours.

I think we all had the most fun at the bubbles exhibit!

The fossil digging exhibit was Spencer's favorite by far, he probably could have stayed there all day long in that sand!

Building.

After the Science Place we had lunch near the Northpark Mall and then walked over to Sprinkles for some ridiculously over-priced but sinfully delicious cupcakes. I felt guilty buying them until I saw the looks of sheer joy plastered over my kids' faces as they were eating them!
Spencer picked chocolate marshmallow.
Janelle picked strawberry.

On Monday and Tuesday my parents took the kids for a two-day grandparent retreat. I didn't hear a word from them until I picked them up on Wednesday! They were having a ball building a bird house with Grandpa, helping Grandma, and spending every waking moment outside in the backyard. While the kids were gone Kyle had Monday off so we spent the afternoon at Lake Texoma hiking. The weather was GORGEOUS. It was a very spur of the moment decision, but it was so much fun to just be able to pick up and go somewhere like that without having to worry about all the kiddie stuff. Tuesday Kyle headed back to work and I spent the day running errands until it wiped me out. :)

The Lake Texoma Rock Lochness Lake Monster

Kyle leading the "Mammen Way" back to the trail up and across the rocks instead of back up the stairs to the dirt trail. I love that about him!

No I'm not hanging from the tree, just a goofy shot of me jumping up to try and touch it. :)

The pretty rocks in the water.

Wednesday my friends and I decided to take the kids to Lake Ray Roberts for an afternoon of sun, sand, and water. It was the perfect day! The kids had a blast playing in the sand and picnicking on the shore. They even braved the ice cold water while all the moms comfortably watched from the recesses of beach chairs and toes buried in warm sand. We went home happily tired and sandy!

Thursday and Friday we took it easy...played with some friends, watched some tv, went to the park, and swam at Grandma & Grandpa's.

Hooray for Spring Break! Next week is going to torture having to wake up early and get Janelle back to school!

Happy Belated V-Day!

I've been having a little photo/computer-trouble lately, but never fear, we're up and running once again. (Thanks to my tech-savvy husband who stayed up 'til midnight fixing it last night!!!) Here's how we spent our splendidly sweet Valentine's Day.

The kids managed to talk Daddy into taking them out for a breakfast sugar-spree at the doughnut shop. I was all too happy to oblige and patiently waited on the couch curled up with a book in my nice peaceful home until they brought me one back. The kids are pretty sure they got the best end of the deal, but I'm pretty sure I did. :)

We took it pretty easy the rest of the day, we did a little cleaning in between lounging and playing sessions. It was great! Then we decided to get out of the house and chill for a little while at Trade Days until it was dinner time. The kids were nice and tired by the time we got home and went to bed like angels, then Kyle and I started our at-home date night. We made homemade pot stickers, grilled pork chops over yakisoba noodles & of course chocolate covered strawberries. It was deeeeeeelish! I just love, love, LOVE that Kyle is such a great chef!

The master at work.

My beautiful flowers Kyle surprised me with on Friday.

Our amazing dinner.

And dessert...

Then we snuggled on the couch to "Battlestar Galactica." It was the perfect Valentine's Day! Thanks honey!