Today's Lovelies

So today Liam called a lady in our ward and talked to her for like 10 minutes and she thought I had had a stroke and was calling her because she was on my redial. When I told Adam he was almost crying and we were laughing so hard. Of course Liam has his own play phone but he HAS to play with the real thing and today he actually called someone, I was so embarrassed. She is a friend though so she understood. Really - I can't put EVERYTHING on top of my fridge, there just isn't room. And my kids would find a way to get it down anyway.

And since I posted a video of Luke and Liam, I thought I would put this precious gem on of Grace. I love my daugther, I really do. Keep in mind she is WAY better than she used to be. My favorite saying of mine about Grace is summed up in this poem:

There was a little girl,
who had a little curl,
right in the middle of her forehead
And when she was good
she was very, very good
But when she was bad
she was horrid.

I know I said I wasn't going to take pictures of her doing naughty things but this was AFTER the naughty thing and she probably won't remember it anyway since she was so mad. I hope...

Notice she still manages to say goodbye at the end. Always ready for the camera......

Genius Baby Reads a Book

So Liam thinks he can read. He probably can, except it's in a different language. Most of what he says we have no idea, but he certainly seems to know. He is so sweet, I'm glad we finally got his jibber jabber on tape for posterity.

Sweet Moves

Okay a couple of weeks ago for the Tuesday Tell All the question was "What Makes You Laugh?" Well here is an example. Once the camera was on Luke toned it down a bit but it is still funny. He has some pretty sweet moves.

TTA - Hometown Favorites

This weeks Tuesday Tell All is Hometown Favorites

Favorite Place To:
grab lunch
Cafe Rio -gotta love the salads.
go for Date night
Redbox - HA! Seriously, dinner and movie is nice but it doesn't happen that often.
pick up some creative goodies
Roberts or JoAnns - I have heard Dear Lizzy is good too, but have never been there.
keep the kids busy
Neighborhood park or the park at the library - the kids love it.
get wet
The kids love the Legacy Center, we don't do the pool thing lots yet though since it would be me chasing around 3 small children and I am already paranoid.
buy a treat
Jamba Juice, also our local market at the top of the mountain, it is so quick and easy. The Daily Freeze in Payson is yummy if we are there.
shop for fun
Imagine three kids dangling off this woman and then you will get a small picture of why I go grocery shopping while Luke is at school and Grace goes to playgroup. And I would not be wearing high heels. Anyways...

I don't shop for fun. I will shop anywhere ALONE and then it will be fun.
get some fresh air
Our neighborhood - if it's not too windy. The library - although it's inside we somethimes go to the park afterward.
splurge
If I could splurge I would do it online. Shoes, clothes, etc. LandsEnd & Eddie Bauer are my favorites.
drive for a weekend away
HA HA HA HA!! Now I am laughing hysterically.

Family Night- Olives and Bubbles

Ahhhh... the old olive finger trick. What kid doesn't love olives? Notice Luke couldn't help himself before I took the picture...and Liam was too fast for all of us - his were gone the second they got put on his fingers.

For our family night activity we went OUTSIDE!! The weather was gorgeous today, mid 70's. Adam chased the kids around the yard and they played freeze tag. We are so excited to have nice weather. Of course you know it is probably going to snow again but we are enjoying it while it's here! The weather this year has been so unpredictable. Even Luke said "How come the weather guy doesn't know what the weather is going to be?" I agree. One day he wears snow boots, the next sandals. What can you do?

The Work Continues....

I hope this isn't turning out to be a saga...we planned on finishing the fort today but of course that didn't happen. But Adam did make some good progress and we hope to be done soon.

Starting on the side railings...

The pulley and rope

The secret box

So the kids are loving all the fun things Adam thought to put on the fort. We just have to finish the railings and the climbing wall, and sand it all down and put some kind of protective coating on it. AND the big news is we talked Adam into putting a slide on the fort so Liam will be able to get down easier. Yay!!!

Snapshots from the Kids' Camera

Tuesday Tell All

This weeks Tuesday Tell All is What Makes You Laugh?

My kids- I am learning to laugh at them more, for instance, today Grace squirted half a tube of toothpaste of Liam's head. Luke and Liam make me laugh when they dance around, Grace makes me laugh when she makes up her own songs.

My husband - This is one of the reasons why I fell in love with Adam. He is hilarious, just ask him to do his snooty English accent.

Funny movies- "Just Married", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" - you know the scene where Jeanie kicks Mr. Rooney in the face? Hilarious.

Playing games with our friends, the Hardcastles - We have such a good time, it's nice to be yourself around people and laugh at each other and ourselves. Good times, good times...

Funny Books- The only one I can think of right now is one I literally cried while laughing when I was pregnant "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy: Or Everything Your Doctor Won't Tell You". I love reading books that can make me laugh out loud.

More Work

For Family Night we worked on the fort again. It is nearing completion!

The climbing wall in progress...

New handles and the ladder to help the kids get up.

A lizard Luke found in the grass. Poor thing, I think Princess got to it before Luke because it was barely moving. It did manage to climb on to the house though, so I guess it wasn't completely dead.

Luke

Luke has a new post on his blog and loves the comments so if anyone gets a chance, he would love the attention.

Progress

So today we have been working on the fort. It is coming along and we are all so excited. Adam is putting all kinds of cool things on it that the kids are loving.

Reminder: You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Here is the "secret" window.

The sandbox underneath - the kids have been in it already all day long.

Another view of the secret window.

There is still much to do but we got a lot done today!

Hogle Zoo

Yesterday we went to Hogle Zoo with Emily and her family - Our kids are all close in age and love to have fun together. Here are some snapshots of our day.

Grace and Luke posing by the wooden elephant.

The real thing....

One of MY favorite exhibits, the giraffes. We got to go inside the building and go upstairs so you can see their faces close up while they are eating. There was also a baby giraffe that was so cute!

Luke, the medium gorilla.

Grace, the small gorilla.

The kids waiting for the train.

Grace, Luke and Jacob on the train. This was Grace's favorite part of the zoo.

Is that a prarie dog? Oh wait, it's Grace.

After the zoo we went to visit Adam at his work and then went to eat at Litza's Pizza. We were all famished after a long day at the zoo and it was fun to see Adam's new office.

And thanks to Dad for the Photshop help. If you can tell which picture I Photoshopped - then I guess I didn't do a very good job! But it was my first real try so be nice!!!

Ring Around the Rosies

Here is some of the action at the playdate.

PINK!!

So hopefully I have only 2 more orthodontic appointments until I get my braces off. I am so excited. So far I have been getting silver rubber bands to go along with the braces but I told the kids once it gets to the end I would do colored rubber bands. So today they chose pink. Yahoo...I feel so girly.

Playdate

Yesterday we had a playdate with Grandma, Aunt Dianna, Seth and Noah. The kids love hanging out with their cousins!

This is the beautiful dress that Grandma Linny made for Grace. She is so talented!

What big eyes you have, Noah!

A moment of peace - Luke helps Grace do Brain Quest - Farm Animals.

Seth and Dianna

Ring Around the Rosies in action!

The kids had a great time and we even had a tea party with real cookies made by Grandma. Thanks for coming to play!

Tuesday Tell All

This week's Tuesday Tell All topic is "For what activity would you want professional lessons?"

Well I have thought a lot about it and I am going to go with cooking. I am always trying to think of new things for the kids to eat and also Adam, since we have to be careful about what he eats. Trying to accomodate all of the wants -and needs- of each person in our house can sometimes be interesting, although I have to say my kids are pretty good eaters and don't complain that much. I would love to learn how to cook certain things or the best way to do this, etc. in the kitchen. It's such a big part of our lives, and I think it would be fun!

A Taste of Sunshine

The last couple of days have been glorious! Hallelujah for the sun! Unfortunately there is a storm coming and so we might see some more snow, but for now we are enjoying the nice weather when we get it. Today we went to the park with some friends and then the kids had a water balloon fight. Soak it up, kids!




This is Liam and Grace loving the car we are "borrowing" from Grandma and Grandpa. The kids have absolutely loved it. Grace is a speed demon and Liam hangs on for the ride!

Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

So of course the kids say they want to help with the fort, but they really just run around and get excited about it while we do everything. Which is to be expected. Here are Grace and Liam "helping". They are actually pretty good about sharing and playing together....MOST of the time.

So today was the big day to start building the fort. See Adam's Blog if you want more background info. Adam got all the stuff we needed and he cleared out the garage and got to work. This could either be really good or really bad. Below is our first Saturday's progress.

Liam actually helped more than the other two kids...he handed us the wood screws. He was fascinated with all the power tools, mostly the loud noises that they made. He would say "WOW!" after every screw went in.

Adam using power tools...once again - really good or really bad? These are borrowed tools, we don't have lots ourselves, thank you Brad!

Grace helping....

Liam shows us where the screws are.

When we first set the basic frame up in the yard I thought - this is like 10 times bigger than I thought it was. It was actually going to be bigger, but Adam scaled it back, thank goodness. Once we got all the wood on it was very heavy.

This is Adam digging the holes for the fort. Somehow we got it over to where it was supposed to be, and we actually got it standing up in the holes - I don't have the picture of that yet. The rest is for next Saturday, hopefully we can finish it then. We are supposed to have nice weather all this week so wish us luck. The kids are so excited and so are we! All in all it was a very productive day.

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo

Well Luke's latest thing is to pick everything by saying the "Eeny meeny miney mo" chant. I am just laughing because he always picks things up from school, or we hear him say things and I think - "Where did he hear that from?" This can be good and bad. The other day he said he didn't want to wear jeans to school because they were uncool. And it begins....

The funny thing about the eeny meeny miney mo chant is that he mysteriously always lands on exactly what he wants....hmmm.

Crazy Day

Well today has been a crazy day so far. Grace was off to playgroup and Luke was supposed to go home with his friend, Beau after school. Well I guess Luke forgot and went home on the bus instead, and Beau's mom was frantic trying to find him. Luke got off at his normal stop, and I wasn't there to get him since I was running errands. So he went home with another friend that rides his bus. Poor Suzy (Beau's mom) finally tracked him down and took him back to her house. So all this was going on while I was shopping with Liam. Thank goodness we have good friends and neighbors that help each other out! Hopefully Luke isn't too stressed out about the whole thing. I will get his version of what happened later when I pick him up. For now I am glad my kids are all safe and sound and where they should be.

TTA - Livin' on the Edge

This week's Tuesday Tell All is "If you could do something dangerous just once with no risk what would you do?

So I was reading Shari's answer and I have to agree that I am not a thrill seeker. Especially now since I have had kids, I seem to be worried that something will happen to me so I try to stay as safe as possible.

But if I knew there was no risk of anything, I think I would go sky diving. That teeny tiny chance that the parachute wouldn't open makes me shiver but if there was no risk I think it would be awesome. And probably bungee jumping. Well let's be realistic, the Lady Bug Drop at Lagoon made me a bit queasy so if I could get over knowing that I was going to fall I would do it.

One thing I would also like to do is go para-gliding or whatever it is that those people are always doing at the point of the mountain. I have always wondered what it would be like to be able to fly, to be a bird....

But not my kid's favorite bird......

The Blue Footed Booby

Family Night...the Treat Wins Again.

One of the highlights of every family night is the treat. Luke shared his bubble gum this time and we all had fun.

Sometimes you just take for granted that you can blow a bubble.

Luke tries...and tries. He knows the logistics of blowing the bubble, he can tell you how to do it, but his mouth just won't work the way he wants it to.

Grace settles for a push pop.

Liam thought it was the funniest thing in the world to watch me blow bubbles.

And I don't have a picture of Adam but I promise he was there!

Conference Weekend

This weekend was General Conference where we watch our church leaders speak to us on TV on Saturday and Sunday. Every April we have a luncheon at our house where anyone can come and have lunch and then we watch the last session of Conference together. It has been a really fun tradition that we hope to keep up for years to come. Here are some pictures from this weekend and during Conference.

Dough Boys

Saturday we made banana bread - a favorite at our house- and like their mother, the kids love the dough.

Grace had to wear her church dress to watch Conference, a true girl - Adam and Liam relax in their pjs.

Anna & Luke - in his pjs. He would really wear them to school if I let him.

Grace loves to color lately - and she is turning out to be a lefty.

Kimmy and Grace watchin' Conference.

Liam, Luke and Tyler doing puzzles. We always have to have lots of activities ready for the kids. We do a "Conference Bucket" filled with fun things and treats.

Last but not least, a decent picture of me and Adam. Can't wait to get those braces off!!