Growing, growing, growing…

One year for Christmas, Jake and Liz gave us each a birthday board. It had Joe’s height already written on it from him growing up. Each time one of our kids has a birthday, we measure them too. Colin is growing by leaps and bounds! It’s fun to compare our kids to Joe, what a cool gift!
Beau is creative and was hiding under the laundry bucket. Joe put his foot on top of the bucket and Beau completely freaked out. He ran upstairs and came down a few minutes later with this picture he drew of the situation. Joe is standing on top of him, Beau is trapped in the bucket, and Joe is crossed out. I guess that’s how he interpreted the events.

Maybe one day Beau will draw as well as Colin…cute boys. We went to visit Jake and Liz in their newly remodeled (completely beautiful) home! Camri and Alex had fun dressing up, and Camri LOVED invading Alex’s closet. They did a little fashion show for us. Cuties!

Everyone keeps growing up! Slow down!

3 Things I know for sure…

Number one: Annie is hilarious and creative.
Number two: Annie is very loving and cuddly.
Number three: Annie is very stubborn and headstrong. She was mad at me and told me she was going to her room. After a minute, I went to check on her…this is as far as she got. She was fast asleep.
My little sunshine-girl!

Baby Annie

Okay, whatever, she’s not a baby anymore.  But with everyone else in school, she’s my baby.  All day, every day!  So there. 
She makes me smile every day, from trying to go to school with the kids, to climbing to the driver’s seat every time she gets out of the car, to being cute when she’s sick, to sleeping with her buddy Emma, to taking selfies on my phone.

Is it any wonder that I saw this license plate a couple weeks ago?  Perfect.

I can’t get enough of this kid! Especially when she asks me to take her picture, how can I resist?

Disaster

We have a family pass to Cottonwood Heights this year and have gone there often… you gotta get your money’s worth, you know?
Anyway, it’s right next to Butler Middle School, so we’ve been watching the demolition progress.  When they started knocking down the school, I said, “Kids! Look what the tornado did!!”
The younger ones believed me, the older ones saw the bulldozers.  Either way, this is picture-worthy, no?
Goodbye old Butler, hello new and improved Butler!

Words from Camri

Camri is always writing little messages on the board. She is very sensitive and grateful! We love you Camri!

White and Nerdy

We were playing some Weird Al Yankovic the other day.  Annie and Beau really got into it…dressed up and everything, so they could sing along. 
Nice.

Jake’s Home!!

Wow, two years sure flies when your nephew’s in Philly!  Elder Jake McBride came home and we went to celebrate with his family!
We actually went to our Sacrament Meeting first because Dakota so generously offered to speak!  She did a great job and it was fun to hear her.  When our meeting was over, we headed to Orem to see Jake. 
He spoke and I was so impressed by this man that stood before us.  Every time he spoke of someone he taught or encountered on his mission, his eyes lit up and his smile grew.  I could tell he really loved the people he served! 
Welcome Home Jakey!!
In case you couldn’t tell, we were in Utah County….
Two Sacrament meetings in one day make for a quiet ride home…except for our energizer bunny, Camri.  Peek-a-boo!

A little wrinkle…

There’s nothing like a small home renovation project to keep the winter blahs at bay.  Right?  Joe and I decided to give our kitchen a facelift by staining the cabinets and putting up a backsplash.  Luckily, we know a guy who does great work and he had some time right now…so we got started. 
I emptied out all of the kitchen cabinets and put the contents in the sitting room just off the kitchen.  We had piles of stuff everywhere, but it only had to sit there for two days, tops.  I took a picture because it reminded me of the day after Christmas.
Day one, we were out and about for the kids day off of school.  Day two, the kids went back to school and I had Beau and Annie.  I went into the office, just off the sitting room to grab some stuff for Relief Society, when I heard “Mom!! Emergency!!”  and a loud shooshing sound.  I ran out to see a giant cloud of green smoke.  I quickly determined that it wasn’t coming from the fireplace, opened the door to let the smoke out, grabbed Beau and Annie, and took them upstairs.  I was asking Beau what happened, and after some encouragement, he finally told me, “I made the red thing to do a back flip”.  Huh?  What red thing?  I was thinking maybe he got into some equipment that was there from the guys doing the kitchen.  After the dust settled a little bit, I went down to check it out.  There it was, covered in yellow-green dust, was our fire extinguisher.  He had pulled out the pin and it sprayed everywhere, doing a back flip as it fell to the ground. 
This is what it looked like:
That’s where it fell, right behind the chair.  Right on top of our new curtains and right next to my open purse.  Awesome. 
Did you know this is NOT like dust?  It does not just wipe off, it takes warm soapy water and lots and lots of vacuuming.  It took me four and 1/2 days to wipe off everything from our kitchen individually.  Plus, the walls, the pictures, the furniture, the fireplace, the books, and everything else that was nearby.  Did you also know that it floats in the air and settles?  I still come down every morning (over a week later) to a new, fresh layer of yellow dust on our counters and shelves.  To be fair, it’s getting to be less and less dirty, so maybe after another week and good carpet cleaning, we’ll be done.  I hope. 
I had to lean on the couch to plug the vacuum in, this handprint actually made me laugh out loud.  
Beau felt bad and helped me a lot with the clean up. He is going to do great things someday, I’m counting on it. He has a curious mind, this one.
Despite this little wrinkle, the kitchen cabinet update took place and looks great.  We just need to add the backsplash, then I’ll post some pictures. 
In the meantime, here’s a peek of the before and after…we went from oak to cherry…

Little Miss Tough Guy

Our baby girl is not much of a princess.  We tried dress-ups, but she took the princess dress off and put on a Batman mask and cape.  Dad gave her this jersey and she puts it on whenever no one is looking.  Don’t mess with her, she can hold her own!
Jammie pants and boots complete the ensemble. Even if she’s not a princess, the shoes are still important to her!
I love my little superhero!!

Drawing

Camri loves to draw, she has a great imagination.  She likes to use different mediums, but her favorite is permanent marker, on parts of the house.  We have a smiley face on our banister, a note on our rocking horse, a little girl on the bathroom cabinet…
But my favorite is on their bedroom door:
No boys allowed.  I’m leaving it up, it may come in handy when she gets a little older!

Naps

Annie goes to bed like a champ.  No fussing, no crying, no drama. 
But,
She must have each baby in order, kissed by her and by me, and tucked in the blanket. 
Dog Baby, Tigger, Cow Baby, Tangled, Pink Baby, and Annie-Baby. 
All set. Night-night sugar-pie.

Beau, wake up!

I was out of town this weekend with my sisters, so my trooper of a husband held down the fort.  For example, he did lots of fun things with the kids and came up with a strategic way to let them have some Halloween candy…..white elephant candy game.  Everybody gets a turn, you can pick one out of the bag unseen, or steal something that’s already been chosen.  Once a candy has been stolen twice, it is frozen and can’t be stolen again.  So, he turned it into a game and the kids didn’t care about quantity.  This is a good Daddy!
More evidence:  he took all the kids to church and stayed for the entire Sacrament Meeting.  Folks, we have this meeting last, so after the kids have been in Primary, singing, moving, coloring, and talking for two hours, we ask them to sit quietly for an hour.  It’s not an easy thing, even when we’re both there.  Unless they fall asleep, like Beau. 
Did you have a nice nap, sweetie?  Joe snapped this picture as Beau woke up and they were getting ready to leave…
Good morning Sunshine! 

Grown-ups?

In all our married years, we’ve never been to a couple’s Halloween party…we always bring the kids.  We went once as a couple once to a family party, but that’s because we were engaged and pre-kid. 
Not this year.  Our grown-up friends invited us to a grown-up party. Kind of.  We were old enough, sure, but we’re really just big kids….all dressed up. 
Beauty and the Beast….if anyone else calls you beast, I’ll kill ‘em….
Emeril and Paula Deen…Bam!
The Tooth and Fairy…
Neo and Trinity…
Batman and Catwoman…









Father and Mother Superior?….
Groovy lady and gent…don’t ask.  We played Minute to Win It and he had to throw a ping-pong ball that she had to bounce in the bucket.  And Mr. and Mrs. Biker…
We had to shake the ping-pong balls out of a kleenex box strapped to our back. 
We had to organize m&m’s by color, using one hand.
We had to knock down water bottles using a nylon with a softball in the bottom…using only our heads.
We had to balance a slinky on our heads.
We had to move empty soda cans using a dry noodle. And we had to flip a tortilla onto a plate on our heads using swim fins.  (For the record, I did it on my third try…yes!)
Grown-up parties are fun.  I’m pretty sure I laughed so hard I cried, I ate some delicious food, and had some interesting conversations…these are some great people!  You know how they say “When the cat’s away, the mice will play”? Well, when the kids don’t come, you have some fun!!
So thank you, Des and Phil, for helping us all feel a little more mature on our night out without the kids.  Let’s do that again!!