Piano

Abby had her 2nd piano recital a couple of weeks ago. She did really well. Piano has been a little bit of a sore subject at our house as far as practicing goes. There are some days that go over really well and other days that I have to put my foot down and make sure it gets done no matter what. Tears and all. I have high hopes that now that school is out she won't be as tired and grumpy about it........

Here she is waiting for her turn. She requested a side ponytail and loved it.


Abby had two songs to do and she enjoyed playing them.




She did a cute little curtsy afterwards and I tried to get a picture of it but it turned out blurry - boo! Anyway, great job Abby!!

Carnival!

Abby and Brooklyn have been waiting all year for this past weekend. It is "the" weekend. Lamar Days. Where we get to have fun all day long. We generally start the day out by going to a pancake breakfast (we skipped it this year), swinging by for the parade where we get loaded up on crap candy, and then head on over to the carnival which parks itself right across the street from our house.

So here we are just a ways down from the carnival where they were giving FREE pony rides. That's right. Thank goodness for something free on carnival day otherwise poor little Jace may just have had no fun at all! We got the girls all day bracelets but I just couldn't get myself to get one for Jace too. There were only two rides that he could have gone on and while I'm sure he would have loved it I just didn't want to the hassle. I would have had to go with him on both rides and they were making the adults pay to go with the kids (can you say rip-off?) and Darren was at a golf tournament so I was alone and you get the idea. Anyway, lucky for me Jace was just as happy watching everything that was happening around him as he was about any rides. (Until I broke down and bought him a few tickets to go on the carousel and then that's all he wanted to do - which I knew would happen so I waited until later in the afternoon. Smart move!)

Here are Abby and Brooklyn headed for their first time ever on the Pirate Ship. They were so excited and hadn't actually paid enough attention to it before getting on.



Like I said - exciting.

And fun.

Until the first really big swoop.

And then it was more like panic mode.

And relief at finally being done.

It was really funny watching it in person. The swore they were never getting back on that ride again. But surprisingly they both did. Abby ended up loving it and going again and again. But Brooklyn went just one more time to be "brave" and called it quits. She spent more time on the huge slide and the fire truck that went up and down slowly.

The girls had a blast as usual and Jace was a lot better than I thought he might be. I envisioned three children all crazy with excitement running in three different ways and me just standing there wondering who to chase first. Luckily, he was able to stay in his stroller for a lot of the time and just watch. Goodbye Lamar Days! We'll see you next year!

Mother's Day

In lieu of Mother's Day I decided that we needed to take a Mother's Day picture! Here I am with all my children. If you're wondering what Abby is doing she's gotten a hold of my necklace for some strange reason and I'm trying to get her to let go of it quickly before Darren takes the picture - he took the picture anyway.

But this is the best one we got (Darren is not one for trying for more than a couple....) and so here it is!

We celebrated by having all the women (me, my mom, and my grandma) cook a fantastic dinner - roast beef, mashed potatoes, strawberry salad, poppyseed salad, jello, rolls, cinnamon rolls. Delicious! And maybe some day the men will be in charge of it:)

These are the cinnamon rolls that I made and I couldn't resist taking a picture of them. Just to remind me. (And for lack of anything better to add.) They really are good. So good that I can't make them often. It isn't good for the system. Trust Me. I Know.

Happy Mother's Day!

Easter

Happy Easter! We made it to our annual Easter Egg Hunt at the park. The day, as usual on Easter Egg Hunt Day, was freezing but surprisingly not windy. Jace was in one age group and the girls were in another so I was unable to get "action" shots. So here they are after the big race (which took like 30 seconds!).

I wasn't sure how Jace would do and he wasn't sure of exactly what to do for most of the race. But he started running with me about halfway through and by the end he was picking up eggs with both hands! And then it was over!

I didn't get to even see the girls in their hunt but from what Darren said they did fine. Brooklyn didn't have a very deep basket and half way through looked down to see a very empty basket. She had been dumping them as she swung her arms to run really fast! She was shocked!

Here we are on Easter Sunday. This was taken after church and no one was really in the mood for pictures ( by that I really mean Darren - who is never in the mood for any picture taking. No matter what the occasion).

Shortly thereafter Brooklyn picked up on "someone's" sour mood. Brooklyn obviously didn't want to smile at this point (which was the 2nd picture we took.....) but since we were self-timing it we didn't notice until after the fact.

Now she's very upset that I would be showing the world her grumpy face:)

After we bribed Brooklyn with her Easter candy she was willing to try a few more shots with her sister. They wanted to show off their Easter dresses that Grandma Dena had bought for them.

We ended up eating Easter dinner with some friends. We generally eat with all my family but my mom was out of town helping my Grandma Hyde and my Grandma Lu wasn't feeling well, and my dad was happy to just watch Fox News so we altered tradition a little bit. All in all we had a great Easter and feel very blessed to know of our Saviour's atoning sacrifice for us.

Bubbles!

Lately, I've been trying to think of ways to be a better mom. You know, things like - "To heck with the laundry kids, let's play." Or "No, I don't mind if you don't want to eat the dinner I just spent 2 hours making. You are excused!"

And so I've made the leap from your "every day ordinary good mom" to "mother extordinaire". Want to know my little secret?

Bubbles!

A homemade bubbles solution that is. I know what you're thinking (or at least what my, dare I say evil?, twin is thinking). "I've been making my own bubbles solution for years ." Yes, I know that. But do you make bubbles that don't pop?

Ok, neither did I. But that was the plan. Hence all the research that went into my bubble making solution. And the reason I dumped glycerin into it (which I couldn't find at walmart and had to ask the pharmacist for help who then asked me if I needed it for laxative purposes....I forged ahead). Which is the real reason I have graduated to Best Mom Ever status.

But alas, there are some things that are too good to be true. I followed the recipe exactly......after dividing it by 5 and converting tablespoons to ounces, and gallons to tablespoons and, ok you get the idea. My point is there could possibly have been conversion mistakes made - even with using my 1997 texas instrument t-83 calculator.


Anyway, here we are just starting our bubble blowing fun.




Abby blowing a big bubble with babies in the middle!

Now here's where the real fun begins. Because I have just promoted myself for Mother of the Year Award I thought it only fitting that I demonstrate how to make the biggest bubbles ever. Here I am concentrating. In case you were wondering, a certain amount of skill is necessary when using a gun to blow bubbles. Abby is now the photographer.



Here I am realizing just how fun bubbles can be.

And the fun continues! For me anyway. Notice thatBrooklyn is in the background and could care less that I have found my second childhood. And for the record I am not posing. My face is just doing that on it's own.

Abby decides to get up close and personal - without me knowing.

It's truly enlightening to allow your 6 year old to take pictures of you with reckless abandon. I'm pretty sure we won't be doing that again......

I finally took a look at what kind of pictures we were producing and took the camera back.

And what were Brook and Jace doing while Abby and I were having so much fun? Well, Jace was trying to figure out how spill our new "no spill" bubbles container.

And Brooklyn was building a nest.

And because of our afternoon of fun I didn't have time to make dinner. So we ate at Quiznos. (I am pretty sure that doesn't affect Mother of the Year Award.)

Off to School

We had a power failure last night. My alarm clock doesn't have batteries. Imagine my dismay when Darren woke me up at 2:30 am to tell me it was, in fact, not the middle of the night but was actually time to get up......6:50am.

Anyway, I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and popped them open to see my little Jace coming to snuggle. Which by the way, for those of you who remember my last post about Jace and snuggling (or not snuggling), I'm happy to report a repentant little guy who has definitely come around to the warm embrace of his mother's love:) I guess he read my post and took offense! Or maybe he just finally figured it was easier to succumb rather than fight my hugs and kisses. Either way, no complaints here.

So back to my point. Jace and I snuggled a few minutes too long which meant that Abby was left to get ready for school - alone. Which is not a very good idea. And had my clock not been flashing 2:34 I would have recognized that I needed to get out of bed and hurry my day-dreamer along. But as it was, I had cuddled away precious minutes. So began my "You need to hurry, Abby" mantra.

So Abby was hurrying as fast as Abby can hurry when from the bedroom I hear "Well, he**, I can't even find a shirt to wear."

My head snapped up and my peanut-butter sandwich making stopped. Did my foggy morning brain just hear what I thought it heard? Surely, not. Possibly this was just a rhyming game? And those two words just happened to form a sentence? I listened more closely.

Gasp! There it was again! Where had she heard this? I'm pretty sure Max and Ruby didn't use language like this. I had no choice but to address the issue. Hopefully it wouldn't take longer than 15 seconds otherwise I could plan on seeing the school principal in my pajamas during drop-off.

"Uh, Abby. What did you say?"

"I said I couldn't find a shirt to wear."

"I'm talking about the words before that."

"Oh." Pause. "Is that a bad word?" She stared at me with big round eyes. I stared back with my stern mother look - but not too stern - and nodded my head.

"Sorry, Momma. I didn't know." * Hopefully that will take care of the problem - until she hears some little "Jimmy" swearing up a storm at recess one day using words she's never heard before....

March Madness

Go BYU Cougars!! Last weekend my family got caught up in March Madness and headed up to Denver to see the 3rd round of the NCAA basketball tournaments! BYU happened to make it there and we all caught Jimmer fever!

Here are my brothers Daniel, Travis, and Philip and my dad before the start of the game.

And here is the other side of the group - my dad, me and my mom. If you've noticed that Darren is missing....it's true. He was awesome enough to stay at the hotel with the kids and watch it on the big screen. And just as a sidenote, I did offer up my seat to my good hubby and he declined. He wanted me to be with my family:)

The people in front of us are looking for a wad money - he informed us that he doesn't lose anything - especially not money and was blaming the student section from the last game with whom he had "had words" for taking it. He was also anti-BYU and even more anti-Jimmer. It was pretty fun just to watch him sit and stew as Jimmer knocked down 3's all game! Ha!

The BYU flags.

Cheerleaders I took a picture of solely for my little Brooklyn. If you're wondering just how close we were let me tell you......row 5!!! We actually started a little higher than that but made our way down to a student section that had emptied out the game before - how awesome is that!

My brothers with the sign they made before the game. They were so hoping to get on TV and it so didn't happen! But the good news is that their sign made it on the Top 10 Signs of the Thursday, Saturday games! It came in at a respectable number 5!

On our walk back to the car I snapped this picture of the city.

The next day we went swimming at the hotel. The kids looooove to swim and the whole trip was worth it just to get to swim for an hour or so. Proof that Darren was here!

The girls with Uncle Philip. They can't believe they had to leave all of their fun, fun uncles and come back home with boring mom and dad.

The pool was pretty cold for little Jace and his lips kept turning blue but he refused to get out of the pool. So I turned on this pool shower for him and once he got in the warm water he never left it. In fact, I started to feel bad about all the water that he was using but he let me have it if I turned it off! I had to wait for everybody to get done swimming and then shut off the water, wrap him in a towel, run out the door and to the elevator. Lucky for him, he needed soap, so he got back in the shower once we got to the room........

We didn't pack anyone's suits so we ran out and bought the girls new ones for the summer the day before (which they needed anyway) but poor Jace just got stuck with a swim diaper. He didn't mind:)

What a cutie! The only thing that could have made this post better was if BYU had won their last game!!!!!!!!!!! Too bad, so sad. We had fun cheering them on while it lasted!

Fredette About It!