SCHOOL'S OUT!!!!!

I am so happy! We got lots of fun planned for the summer, I don't have to drive to the school 3 times a day, A can get good naps and not be interrupted constantly, and life is good. At least for awhile! Horray summer!!! We have lots of plans to go to parks in the morning, teach the girls to make their own exciting lunches, have plenty of reading and quiet time after lunch and then craft and workbook time in the afternoon. And of course plenty of playdates and other activities. Hooray for summer!

New Favorites

A few new favorites have turned up in life that I must share...

My grandmommy introduced me to these a few weekends ago and I am in heaven. It just happened to be on sale last week and I wish I had bought one more bag. I like dark chocolate but was not impressed with theirs. However their "milk chocolate with a meltaway center" is to die for...I can't understand why I'm not losing weight!!!

Another favorite

Our library recently had a used book sale and I was able to purchase the entire series - I read these as a kid and I still love them!!!! It has been a lot of fun rereading them (you can see my intectual level lately - "Little House on the Prairie" books and webkinz!)

A few week ago M brought home this book from her reading group - it's a 20ish page full color book with the text taken from the little house on the praire books. It's wonderful and she absolutely loves them! I was so excited! We then discovered our library has many of the books from this series as well as a chapter book series which is probably a little more appropriate for her reading level but right now she loves the pictures in these books - they are gorgeous! (don't click on the picture hoping to search inside - it's a picture from amazon.com - you can go there to look inside!)

And my last current favorite - a website my sister sent me

http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/

It's full of instructions and pictures on how to do little girls hair - and my girls and I are having lots of fun since we discovered it yesterday. She also has a link to "girly dos by jen" that we like. The websites inspired these "dos" for school today (I must tell you they were done VERY quickly this morning and without any practice but I was pleased for a first attempt and no time to make corrections!)...

A favorite activity of the girls to do at home is their new jump ropes. The pe teacher at the girls school was selling the speed jump ropes as well as the double dutch ropes so I got some specific for the girls size and they are having lots of fun trying all new tricks including the one E is showing here. She can even jump with a ball bouncing and M is mastering the "double under." Daddy and some neighbors even had fun the other night trying to jump double dutch (with two ropes)...M and E were both able to get in and do it (daddy did better turning the ropes than jumping!)

And last but not least we must share Daddy's new favorite thing...

He found some speakers on Craig's list that he has been wanting to buy for a year or two. His subwoofer gives him great delight as he plays computer games with his buddies on Wednesday night and he is a happy man wandering around with his cute little boy grin! :) Life is good!

Webkinz

E went to a birthday party a little while ago and her friend received several "webkinz" and everyone was VERY excited. Of course E wanted one and so I learned all about them and our home lived and breathed webkinz. Girls happily and quickly did their chores and life was good. I have to admit even mommy became engrossed in them. When we went to a store here in town to show them to M the lady at the store told me I was probably the last person in the city to learn about them. Wow. I guess I'm out of touch! If it's not at walmart or target it doesn't exist in my world!

Anyways, you buy a little stuffed animal and it has a special code on it's collar and you go to the webkinz website, enter in your code and your animal is now on the computer. It comes with a room for you to decorate and you can buy more rooms and decorate them and add furniture and on and on. You play little games to earn money for it and I have to admit I love it! It is geared for their age so they can do most of the website themself and it is a big treat in our house. The best part - M can use Daddy's old laptop upstairs and E can use our computer downstairs and their pets can visit each other's house! They can play games together and life is wonderful! We don't do that very often but they sure enjoy it!

E has a mommy and a baby black and white cat, M has a unicorn and Mg has an alley cat. E wanted one for her birthday and her birthday happened to be near "webkinz" day - if you bought $10 worth of merchandise at our local store you got to spin a wheel and get a free webkinz! So I bought her present early, spun the wheel and Mg got the alley cat. Actually - the alley cat (Lily) is the one I play with when the kids go to bed and I feel like wasting time :)

E was very excited about the mommy webkinz she got from grandma because the other grandma got clothes for it and life for my dressup princess was perfect!

When I was taking pictures of the webkinz this little one wanted a picture with her bunny...this child won't go to sleep without this bunny! She has loved it since she was very little. Like all good bunnies it has multiplied. I think there are about 6 in our house at the moment! This way we don't have to look too hard to find one!

I guess since we can't have real kitties here our virtual ones will have to suffice!

Our Little A (that does not stand for "angel")

I love this baby! She is growing up SO fast - most of these pictures are alrady outdated but here they are anyways to show you what she is up to (and why I am SO much busier lately!!!)...

This child is obsessed with food. Want to see her throw a temper tantrum? Show her some food and then don't give her any! She knows when you open anything and has mastered how to crawl fast so she can get there in time for handouts! She loves water as well. We gave her her first piece of watermelon - she LOVED it! She quickly figured out which is the better side to eat and it kept her entertained for a long time!

My favorite stage for babies is when they can sit up and play, but before they can crawl. Since she loved her tummy so much she was a little slower to sit up but was so cute!

However, this stage was short lived...a few days later (literally!!) she figured out how to crawl!!!! It was crazy...and my life changed since now I have to keep track of her so much more and make sure the floor is always picked up. The first weeks of her crawling were really difficult for me. She is so happy crawling though!!
Whybother crawling when you can walk? After she figured out the crawling thing she decided it was time to start pulling up on EVERYTHING. I'm not kidding...this was all in the span of 2-3 weeks! She has been so happy moving and pulling up though...it's cute!! (she's not walking (yet) just likes to pull up on anything she can!)
Then the dreaded happened...she discovered the stairs. And, as with everything else, quickly figured them out. For awhile she only climbed them when she happened to find the stairs (which is hard since they hide at the back of our apartment) but one day I quickly went to the bathroom (am I even ALLOWED to do THAT anymore?!) and freaked out when I couldn't find A afterwards. E calmly said "oh, she's upstairs." WHAT??!!! Sure enough that little monkey had found and climbed the stairs to the top and into the bathroom upstairs (where there is a stool that she can pull up on!). This kid is so quick!!! I have a gate for the stairs now but I still let her climb them when I am behind her (I'd rather her know how to safely do it!). But when she climbs she is SO fast! She is also very happy and proud of herself!!! (little monster!). She laughs and giggles and if you come up from behind her and she squeals and tries to scramble even faster. If someone is at the top cheering her on (a favorite sister activity) she laughs and gets so excited!

(A's disclaimer...look at me...I'm sweet and innocent can't you tell!!!)
Don't let her fool you!

Random Pictures

I have lots ot catch up on but here are a few that I meant to get up earlier. We had a ward karaoke party - M loved it, except she was disappointed that she didn't get to be on the stage with the lights on and everybody watching her (they just stood on the ground in front of the tv while everyone else sat and chatted). The next day Daddy found an old tape recorder karaoke machine we bought years ago for them to have fun with...even daddy sang a duet with E from high school musical! :)

We're back in hair business again! A few Sunday's ago I stayed home with two little sick girls. Since I didn't have to have us all ready early in the morning I had more time to spend on their hair and they enjoyed that!

Tweety

We are really enjoying our pet, especially Mg. Since she is home the most she has had the most time with him...that reminds me...we found out that Tweety is a BOY!!!! Daddy has a little company in the house now!!! Anyways, Mg loves him and always asks me to take her picture (it's the only time she wants me to take her picture!!!). Here is Tweety's new hang out place...
Mg has gotten really good at "petting" Tweety - she rubs her little finger against his cheeks and he just melts and loves it.
Daddy of course still really loves having a bird again and as soon as the kids go to bed he'll get Tweety out and Tweey gets to hang out on Daddy's shoulder the rest of the night...except this time he was interested in A's food :) (can you see him on Daddy's wrist?) A likes him a lot, too but just grabs him so they visit from a distance :)
The poor bird had a little cold the last few days (he's been really sleepy and sneezing) and hasn't come out much at all but he seems to be better today and we're really grateful! I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the time he was sitting on E's shoulder and accidently flew into the barbie pool (filled with water) that E was playing with! Never a dull moment!!!

random photos

These are just some random things we've been up to lately, and since this has become my main family journal I figured I'd share them!


We went up to the temple and had a nice time together (the girls loved watching the brides!!!)

One of the free things we got at picnic day was a bag of 300 ladybugs. One night for family home evening we talked about the creation of the earth and taking care of the earth and then let the ladybugs take off - it was lots of fun to watch the girls giggle and watch the ladybugs crawl out and take off! Although eventually it was time to go to bed and we had to debug everyone (and some ladybugs still made it into the house!!!)

We went back to the horse stable and our friend showed us around and we were shocked to find that the baby horses had grown so much!!!! The horse M is petting (the one in the pink shirt with brown pants) is the little one she was petting in the previous picture!! It was lots of fun to see the fuzzy little horses!!!

I was laughing one night when I looked over just before bedtime and saw Daddy plopped on the floor surrounded by lots of girls :) I just thought it was cute! I love my family!!

What a nice simple life we have. I love it! I was at a meeting last Sunday (directing a youth choir) that was honoring the young women in the stake who earned their medallion (similar in many ways to an eagle scout award). AFter hte choir sang there was a video with a segment for each girl with pictures of the girls as babies and growing up. I sat there looking at these beautiful young woman and tried to picture my little girls up there and especially as I enjoyed the pictures of these young woman as little girls I found it amazing that my girls will grow up!!! I was almost in tears thinking about it - it happens so fast!!! How sweet and innocent they are now! I am looking forward to them being older and doing fun things together but I'm grateful for the time I have with them now and want to cherish it as much as possible!!!! (how was that for sentimentality!!!)

Bike riders!

We have been having so much fun now that everyone is on a big bike. Mg can ride all the way to one of the parks close by and loves it. Since her bike is smaller she is slower but it is a huge open space so the bigger girls can take the long route (and I can see them) while she takes the shorter route and everyone is happy. On Saturdays now we put Mg and A in the bike trailer and we're starting to go further and explore more now with the big girls very confident on their big bikes without training wheels. It's going to be a good summer!!!

Cute little A!!

I asked Daddy which one to put up of her and he couldn't decide either so we put them all up!! Isn't she adorable!!! I have more pictures of what the little imp has been up to lately but for now we'll enjoy how sweet and happy she is!! :)

Picnic Day, 2008

Picnic Day is one of our favorite days of the year here in Davis. It is a campus open house for the university and it is a HUGE event with tons of people everywhere. Most of the departments and clubs have booths and displays and activities, there are all sorts of dog competitions and horse shows and parades and band competitions and food and it is lots of fun. We did well this year - we didn't have any nappers and we got there early and stayed much longer than we have before (and it didn't rain) and had a great day. Here are a few highlights...

One of our favorite activities is where they have big tanks with all sorts of ocean critters (star fish, etc) to pick up and touch. We always spend a lot of time in there. We also really enjoy the entomology exhibits where they can hold all sorts of neat bugs and such.

We also rushed over to watch the life flight helicopter land (that was awesome...we were SO close!!!) )we thought about you grandpa!!!) Afterwards the girls got to sit in it. E was REALLY nervous (and didn't do it last year) but decided to be brave and sit in it - and was SO proud of herself afterwards! (We also visited the fire station and police station and got badges and fire hats and popcorn and lots of free stuff!)

Our first Picnic Day picnic!! We used to live so close to campus and usually had to worry about someone's nap time so we always ate lunch at home but this year we packed a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine!
Another place we HAVE to visit is where the small animals are. This was a new one exhibit - it was a baby kitten rescue program where vet students bottle feed abandoned newborn kitties until they can go to a shelter. The kitties were SO tiny - it was adorable!! We also loved getting to pet the larger cats waiting for adoption as well as the snake and lizard rooms.Face painting is always exciting - especially when it involves butterflies and glitter!

Dr. Chicken meet Mr Chicken!!!!

We also like to visit the building with the chickens - you can usually see one cracking out of it's shell or see a freshly laid egg by a hen. This year we got to meet Mr Chicken...this was especially exciting because when Daddy plays computer games his screen name is "Dr. Chicken" (since he works with chicken embryos in his lab) so I made him take a picture (he grabbed the kids to join him!) (notice little A is eating her foot!)

Of course we love the seeing the large animals! There is a petting zoo of farm animals and cows to milk and such. Inside the barn they had lambs and lab rats - the girls had so much fun holding those! The people there were really impressed with how well the girls did with the animals - even Mg knew how to handle them (thanks to having a hamster!)

But by the end it was time to go home! They had walked so much that day and seen so many things (and been up late most of that week due to back to school night, talent shows, etc) and so they crashed on the way home!!! This does NOT look comfortable!!

Well, they didn't ALL fall asleep - this one was quite wound up and reminded us that SHE wasn't tired and told us her favorite things and was as happy as could be! What a great picnic day!!!