Random

I am so happy to report that my life has been mostly boring, so today you get a random post:

1. Andrew has a new 1st grade teacher as of a couple weeks ago. It's his 3rd teacher of the year. At first, we were so unhappy about it, but now we are ok with it.
2.  I have a new physical therapist that I LOVE!! Happy! (o:
3. I achieved my goal of getting Spencer at least 100 cards for his birthday! Woo-hoo! Thanks so much to all of you wonderful friends for taking the time to write him! It means so much to me and him!
4. We are going to spend almost half our summer in DC this year. I am so excited to see all my family!
5. We may even take a quick trip to NYC while we are on the East coast. I haven't visited the city since we moved away 7 years ago.
6. I get to go to a girls' weekend at the end of May. I can hardly wait!
7. I love my ipod. I'm not a great singer, but I tend to sing at the top of my lungs anytime a favorite song comes on. For your ears sake,  I don't recommend coming near my house when I'm singing along.
8. Madeline is a fantastic little helper!

Madeline helping me make waffles.

    9. NOTHING makes me happier than seeing my little family play together!

Ok, so my brain isn't working well and I can't think of anything else to write. Life is good! I am so incredibly grateful for my amazing friends and family.

Yes, I realize I may win an award for the most boring post ever and I'm ok with that!

Scream Heard Around the World!

In case you heard blood curling screams coming from three little girls going into hysterics after seeing the world's biggest cockroach this afternoon, just know it did not come from my house!  I further assure you that I did not scream when I picked up a bag of sugar and saw that bug stuffing its mandibles silly.  I most definitely did NOT scream like a sixteen year-old girl watching a horror movie.  Absolutely not.

Now you know where Andrew's fear of bugs did not come from.

On an unrelated note, we made a super sweet Angry Bird Pizza for dinner last night that Andrew loved.

Andrew cut the pizza for us!

Disclaimer: This is the first cockroach we have ever seen here.  And it was definitely an "outdoor cockroach" not an "indoor cockroach," so at least we have that going for us. Ewww!!

Water Bill is Going Up!

Hard to believe it's "that" time of year again. Of course, in the past my kids didn't care if it was sunny or rainy, 50 degrees or 80 degrees outside, they always liked to play in the water. Thankfully with age, they've come to appreciate water time more in the warmer weather! It makes me so happy when my kids play together, even if it does mean our water bill will go up! HA!

I love this goofy grin! He is having so much fun!

Madeline trying to protect herself from Andrew's retaliation! (o:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love California weather? It is AMAZING!

Tom's Birthday

Happy Birthday to the world's greatest man! You have to agree, knowing he happily put up with this awesome birthday cake:

Yep, didn't come out of the pan right.

Frosting wasn't enough to cover all the falling apart. Nor is my ability to frost going to win any prizes ever.

I am also so cool that I didn't bother to get the appropriate candles for his cake. Tom turned "3" again this year!

What did Tom do for his birthday? He went to church then came home and took a nap. After his nap, he took the kids on an enthralling fieldtrip to the attic. It was the kids first time going up.

After the attic, we went to the park. As a consolation for a rather boring birthday, the cake did at least taste really good and we did make him a fancy dinner. (Steak, twice baked potatoes, and homemade bread.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite person in the whole wide world. And on a very happy note, Tom finally took the patent bar on Saturday and he did of course PASS! Congrats my love!

Birthday Card Request

Most of you know my 16-year-old nephew Spencer is currently undergoing intense chemo treatments in a fight to beat Leukemia. Spencer has been in the hospital for almost three straight months now and is currently suffering a lot of terrible side effects from the chemo. Spencer's 17th birthday is at the end of the month and in an effort to make sure he feels very loved, we are requesting that he be inundated with birthday cards. Would you be willing to take a minute and send him a card?  He could really use an encouraging word or two right now! If you are willing, please leave a comment, email me, or message me on Facebook and I will send you his address.

Spencer with his parents and four siblings
Adam, Cami, Lara, Ellie, Glen, Spencer, and Emma

Thanks in advance! It means a lot to me personally, but I know it will especially mean a lot to Spencer and his family!

If you happen to live close to me, I am even willing to provide a card to send him!

Happy 7th Birthday Andrew!

My sweet little boy turned 7 this week! It's amazing how much has changed in our lives since Andrew was born in a Manhattan hospital seven years ago!

 Things you need to know about Andrew:

1. He is 4' 3" tall and weighs 58 lbs.
2. He wears a size 3 shoe, 8 pants, and 6-8 shirts. 
3. He is super friendly and likes everyone! 
4. He doesn't love to do homework, but he is super smart. 
5. He is an amazing reader!
6. He loves school. 
7. He loves video games!
8. He is super high energy!
9. He is super fast!
10. His favorite colors are blue and green. 
11. His favorite foods are hot dogs, pizza, reeses peanut butter cups, popsicles & all other unhealthy things you can think of. (Exception-he does not like milky ways, but he does like milk.)
12. He is always a diplomat and will never admit a favorite. For instance, if you ask him if he thinks mommy or daddy is smarter, his response will be, "You are both super smart."
13. He is a master negotiator. 
14. He will correct you if you make a mistake. For example, if you say, "Andrew go put away the hammer." but it's really a mallet, he will respond, "but that's a mallet not a hammer."
15. He is deathly afraid of dogs and bugs. 
16. He is allergic to some cats. 

We love you Andrew! You are our favorite little boy in the whole wide world!

So, after adding up all our expenses from Madeline's party in January, we decided to take the easy way out for Andrew's party and went to Pump it Up. It was awesome! I did not have to do anything. WOO-HOO! We did a Star Wars theme and this is the super cool cake my friend Sarah made: 

Here are the kiddos from the party: (If we somehow forgot to invite your child & you're in the area, I sincerely apologize! It was not intentional!)

You'll notice there are hardly any girls at his party. He's at that age. (o:
Bottom row: Willow, Madeline, Andrew, Russell, Nathan, Jonathon, Edmond
2nd Row: Elijah, Sammy, Clark, Aidan, Andrew, Reise, Joey
Top Row: Michael, Nephi, and Zach

Everyone making silly faces. 

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Camping Schmamping

Back in college I used to LOVE to camp. My friends and I would drive up to Santaquin canyon in Utah, find a nice secluded campsite and spend the weekend in the mountains. I loved the fresh air, the amazingly beautiful surroundings and the silence of the night. I could not camp enough.

Fast forward 5 years to 2004, the last time I camped for real. Tom and I stayed at a campground surrounded by incessantly honking geese and I didn't sleep a wink all night. I have not camped since then until last night when we set up a tent in our backyard. My kids were beside themselves with excitement. I tried to be excited, but after laying in the tent for 6 long hours desperately trying to sleep, but being too bothered by the bright moon and the noise from the busy road a couple blocks away I finally got up at 5 AM and walked the 10 feet to the house and went to bed. I think my days of camping may be over. Sorry kids, but I need my sleep. Maybe in another eight years my memory will fade enough to try it again, but I doubt it.

Anybody else not love to camp?

Coming up next: Andrew's 7th birthday

HAPPY EASTER Everyone!

Conference Weekend

As much as I love general conference, conference weekend has always been hard for me since having kids. Sitting through eight hours of meeting is hard for me, but trying to make my kids sit quietly through EIGHT HOURS of conference at home in our bonus room (aka entertainment room, play room, office, and etc...) is nearly impossible. I never get quite as much out of conference as I'd like. Despite not enjoying as much of conference as I want and probably taking one too many catnaps, we still managed to have fun in between the sessions. For instance, my kids made a fort right at the bottom of our stairs:

Which made it tricky to get all the way down, so Andrew and I decided sliding down the banisters was in our best interest:

Then their was football time:

Andrew is getting a little better about catching the ball:

But my favorite part of the weekend was seeing Madeline's very colorful apostle pictures:

Yes, yes it seems a little blasphemous or something. 

Have you figured out any tricks to getting your kids to (let you) enjoy conference?