Chase me Annabelle!

Today we watched our niece, Lily(3), and nephew, Aaron (8). The boys played great together and the girls played great together. It was actually a nice day, noisy, but nice. The boys got the rockets ready for a second launch and I decided that us girls would stay home-not because I didn't want to go, but because I didn't want to deal with a screaming Annabelle again. We girls had fun though. They were twirling and chasing each other with high-pitched squeals only young girls can master. I joined in the fun and we had quite the tickle war-I LOVE hearing kids laugh!! It was really fun to stop "doing" all of the busy work and just enjoy being a mom, and an aunt. I love the looks on the girls faces.

Best First Haircut Ever!

Annabelle's hair has been getting longer and stragglier and we decided that it was finally time to give it a little trim. I have bad memories of my mom trying to cut my hair so I took her to my friend. Jaci wasn't sure if Annabelle would want to sit in the chair or have the cape around her, but both things were a piece of cake. She loved looking at herself in the mirror while Jaci trimmed her hair for a just a couple minutes. After we left Annie even mentioned sitting in the special chair. I know, you probably can't even tell, but it is a lot straighter in the back and my hope is that it will grow in more even. I was so proud of Annie, though I wish she would be as good when I try to do her hair every morning.

PIcture Tag

Here's how it works...for each question, look up the answer on google image search. Then choose your favorite image from the FIRST PAGE OF RESULTS ONLY. If you want to do this (which I would love it if you did) please post in my comments that you completed it so I can view yours. If you need clarification on any of them leave a comment.

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My college degree

3-2-1-BLAST OFF!!!!

What could possibly be more exciting to little boys than building and then launching a rocket? Probably not too much, at least not for my boys and some friends on Saturday. Nathan got a set of rockets for his birthday (in February) and has been working on them sporadically with Greg ever since. This weekend Greg finally decided to finish them up and launch them. I was really impressed with how high and fast they flew. The sound scared Annie immensely, but the boys loved watching the rockets soar into space (they were hoping they would hit a plane or a swarm of bees) and then Greg led them on a wild goose chase to track it down (he was just as excited as they were). Luckily these 2 rockets are reusable so I am sure that we will have a few more launches in our future. What fun! Thanks Carsen for a great present, that we finally got around to using.

T-Ball Season...

...is thankfully over for this year. It was fun for Nathan to learn the basics of playing, but the games were a little on the long and boring side. We lucked out and had a great coach who held practices and got to know all the kids names. We even had a little breakfast after our last game this morning (8am was a little tricky since the kids decided they wanted to sleep in). Nathan got better and better throughout the season. While it wasn't always exciting for Ryan and Annie, they came and cheered Nathan on from the sidelines.

Loose Tooth

I know, I know, not the greatest picture. I wanted to get a picture of how Nathan held his mouth open while his tooth just hung there, but Greg got this one instead. A couple days ago the boys were wrestling around and Nate got his tooth loosened. It looked awful! I hate teeth falling out anyway, but this was worse. Nathan was very sad about this one. His first response besides screaming and crying was, "I wish we could go back in time and this wouldn't have happened." Let me just state that this is not his first loose tooth, we have already dealt with 2 others, one of which Nate pulled out himself, but this one was apparently different.
It took 2 days and Greg sitting on him while I held his head for us to get this tooth out (oh and pliers-yuck). He wouldn't' eat, he'd wake up at night since he wouldn't close his mouth to breathe, and he was just really lethargic. We didn't want to force it, but I couldn't handle another day of gloomy Nathan.
Unfortunately though I "forgot" to call the tooth fairy last night so Nathan was a little disappointed in the morning. Good think she "came" while I had my presidency meeting, and good thing Nathan was ecstatic over the 50 cents he found. I do not look forward to more teeth issues, though I know have years to go.

Some Things are Just NOT Meant to be Together

I love cookies. I try a new recipe about every week and a half (sooner if I run out). I have two friends, Anne and Whitney, who provide many of my recipes and then Family Fun or my ward cookbook provide the rest. Most of the time I love them. This time however, let's just say that the recipe will not be added to my box of favorites. Greg found this recipe online somewhere and I figured we should try it out. Well, for those of you who have ever wondered, bacon and chocolate chip cookies do NOT go well together. My children and the neighbor kids loved them, but I am sure they won't miss them since what remained is now in my garbage can. Feel free to come by any time for a taste of my weekly treat. I promise meat won't enter my sweets again.

Father and Sons 2008

This year our ward camp out and Greg's brothers' camp out landed on the same weekend. Greg opted to stick with his brothers and as far as I can tell they had a wonderful, yet dirty, time. Two brothers never made it up the canyon and as they were missed, there will always be next time. Greg said the boys were pretty tired and went to bed easy after their foil wrap dinners. The morning was nice and cold and the guys enjoyed some eggs and bacon before they headed out to fish-our boys first time.

While everyone tried to fish, Greg caught the only one. Our boys were very excited, though it was pretty gross when he brought it home and gutted it. I am guessing we will cook it sooner or later. I am not sure if I have ever had fresh fish from a lake (from the ocean with my grandparents YEARS ago). When they arrived home they were tired, hungry and very dirty, but with big smiles.

Annie and I had a girls night with a couple of other moms and went to a little bakery. Yummy treats and girl talk made for a fun evening. It always amazes me how quiet my house is without the boys. It is eerie almost. Which is probably the reason why our baby-sitter tonight (and like most baby-sitters) had ALL of the lights on when we got home. It is cute, I think. I remember being scared at other people's homes as well. I would let the kids stay up later than the parents said, just so I wouldn't have to be all alone. Anyway, we had a fun weekend and now tomorrow we finally get to find out about how our ward is splitting-it is the talk of the neighborhood!

Gummi Bears

Tonight at my neighborhood recipe swap I was amazed that so many women had not heard of Gummi Bears. Both Greg and I have happy memories watching Disney Afternoon cartoons and Gummi Bears was one of our favorites. I found a DVD at the library today and influenced the boys to pick it. I think they enjoyed it tonight, at least I enjoyed hearing the theme song. Anyone else remember this show??

"Make a Funny Face"

Annabelle loves watermelon. I think this cute shirt is now tie-dyed, but at least I got to eat my dinner in peace. She makes some funny faces for me and loves to be in a picture, so I thought I'd share.





Here are a couple more:

4th of July-PM

After nap time we headed to Greg's brother Mike's house and had a BBQ and watched fireworks. The kids LOVE going over there to see Aaron and Lily and are always asking me, "Why don't we go over there more?" The kids all got along beautifully and ate peacefully by themselves while us adults got to enjoy our food.

Annie and Lily had fun playing in the sand and blowing bubbles. Aaron is now old enough to light the fireworks and he was so proud of himself and my boys thought he was so cool. All three of them had a blast playing with and cleaning up all the fireworks. Annabelle did NOT like the fireworks and was like this whenever we brought her outside. She would scream, "Don't! Stop! Inside!" It was sad but I remember the boys didn't like them either when they were little. Maybe next year. It was a fun night and everyone was well-behaved and had fun. Though, it did make for a long night and tired bodies the next day, me included.

Fourth of July-AM

We started the Fourth at the Freedom Festival's Balloon launch. I guess we left later than last year since all of the balloons were in the air when we got there at 6:30am. The weren't phased, they enjoyed watch the "jousting" and beanbag toss. I am not sure if we will continue this tradition, it is just a little too early. Though all three kids were happy and excited all morning long-they were even well-behaved as we braved IHOP for breakfast-delicious food!

Back home before lunch we pulled out the pool and had some water fun. The boys didn't care that it was cold and were drenching each other, and of course crying about it, right away. Why can't kids understand that if you are in your swimsuit and in a pool, it is okay to get wet??
Annabelle on the other hand wanted to sit on her towel for a bit and then would only get the water from the pool to water our wild flowers. It is amazing how opinionated a 23 month-year-old is. Daddy even joined in the fun and got his feet wet.