Lately...

We are entering this picture of Nicholas in the Bonnie third grade largest cabbage contest. I think it's a pretty big cabbage. It's not necessarily the best picture I took, but the cabbage was heavy and it's the only picture in which Nicholas doesn't have a look of pain on his face. Anyway, we'll keep our fingers crossed. (I think having a chicken in the picture will help immensely.)

I wanted to record a couple of cute things that have been said in the last few days. In first grade, Maddie has been studying ants. Last week, Maddie and her friend, Cambri, were outside playing and both were stung by a bee. Or maybe it was a wasp. Or possibly it was a Fire Engine Red Ant! After deciding she had been bitten by a Fire Engine Ant, Maddie asked very seriously if they wear hats. We all paused a minute, and then everyone started laughing, including Maddie. But I'm not sure that she was kidding...

Pet Rock (This is to remind us that she wants a bunny for Christmas, which she is NOT getting.)


Yesterday at lunch Emily asked, "Where's Jordan and Tasha?"
"Jordan and Natasha? At home," I said.
"At Mammas' (Grandma's) house?" she asked.
"No, at their house."
"Where's Mammas?" she asked.
"At home."
"Go Mammas'!"
And she brought this up again today. Good thing we're going tomorrow.

Pants--the new hat.

Swimming

This morning when Darren was leaving for work Emily told him to wait while she went to find her backpack; she wanted to go with him. Luckily, she decided instead to walk Madison and Nicholas to school with me.
This weekend we went swimming with our neighbors at their grandma's house. The weather was perfect and it was a lot of fun. Madison has decided we need a swimming pool in our backyard. We all agree.

A messy pizza face, plus there's a whole cookie stuffed in that mouth.

Good Thoughts

Okay, I'm going to put these two quotes on here, because maybe typing them out will help them sink in. I am happily looking forward to the day when positive thinking is a habit, and I don't have to be reminded to do it every 10 seconds.

"But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all-- such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor."
--James Allen

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased."
--Heber J. Grant

(This second one, it just dawned on me a few days ago that it means the bad things we do too, like being impatient with our kids or letting our house become a disaster, in addition to the good things we want to accomplish.)

We Love the Library

Emily is lying horizontal across my lap as I write this today. She makes a good elbow rest. Yesterday we went to the library. Maddie and Emily love going, though I think everyone else is glad when we leave. Emily has not learned how to whisper yet. Well, that's not true. She can whisper "Yes" when she is asked "Can you whisper?" But then she goes on to talk non-stop in a very loud voice. Each time I promise myself I am going to leave her home next time, but then, how can you say no to a girl who loves to find and look at stacks of books. (Which all have to be put back, of course.) Maddie is displaying her good library manners here.

Nicholas started football practice on Monday. He really loves the uniform. I think it's a guy thing. He was ready for practice, with the helmet on, an hour and a half early yesterday. Enthusiasm.

Princess Emily

Darren gave me a new camera! I'm so excited. Just what I wanted. I already took a couple of pictures of Emily with it this morning.
Emily has been my little shadow since Maddie and Nicholas started school. This morning I cleaned the house and she was right there. I did my Pilates on the Ball exercise dvd (third time, ouch) and she did too. She even camped out in the bathroom while I showered and did my hair.

A Night at the Salt Lake Bees Game

We celebrated Darren's mom's birthday on Pioneer Day. Everyone met at Chuck-A-Rama for an early dinner, and after the kids ate a couple of desserts and ran around a small amount (okay, that might be a bit of an understatement) we headed to the Salt Lake Bees baseball game. It was great. The kids had plenty of room to play, we all had a good time being together, and afterwards we were able to go down to the field and watch some spectacular fireworks. I always say you can never see too many fireworks!

We love each other dearly...

The Bee signed our yellow papers! These will stay somewhere in our rooms forever.

Good times--luckily it only sprinkled.

Asleep?

Maddie was shy, but the Bee wasn't.

The Summer of Lagoon

This is the first year we have had season passes to Lagoon, and the kids have had a blast. They love going to the water park and riding the rides with their cousins. Is it possible to have too much fun?

The Cousins--Maddie, Mikayla, Alyssa, Nicholas, Tanner, Kyler

Emily's favorite ride--the cars

Candy, candy, candy please!

A new school year

It's the first day of school! Maddie is a little nervous to go all day, but she is excited too, because her teacher has a loft! Everyone who's had Nicholas' teacher loves her and says that she's the best teacher in the school. One kid even said she makes school funner than it's supposed to be. So of course, Nicholas is excited! Even Emily was ready to go this morning with her backpack.

Saturday morning cartoons

Jordan--the quote on your blog reminded me of this:

"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before."
-Steven Wright

Emily is ready to go bye-bye

I am in a philosophical mood this morning--but instead of contemplating the meaning of life I am wondering why a certain dog would eat grass, causing it to throw up its dog food, and of course the grass, too, in the middle of the night. Not only waking me up, but making a nice mess for me to clean up.
Here goes the positive thinking. I know that my day is going to start out beautifully and smoothly tomorrow.
Today I am going shopping because Maddie and Nick start school on Monday. It's coming too fast!

Emily woke up feeling all better today, and celebrated the fact quietly in her crib by taking off her pajamas and her diaper. She takes off her clothes all the time, but has only removed her diaper twice, luckily with no accidents. Not so lucky today. This is going to put me behind on all that laundry I have to do.

Emily is sick today! She has a fever, but of course, since she is two, she won't sit down and rest. Acutually, she was sick yesterday too, and did sit down for a while to watch her first episode of Sesame Street. She seemed to like it. She's never seen it before because Sesame Street comes on at 1:00 p.m. The most looked forward too time of the day because it's nap time. Not T.V. time. But now that I have a DVR I can record it. Yeah.
By the way, this is my first ever blog. In fact, I was just telling Darren last night that I had no desire to blog. But I changed my mind. Since I already keep a journal, why not do it here? Where it's private. And even my sister in Alaska can read it. Cindy, you will read it every day, right? Now I just need a new (and expensive) digital camera and I'm set. Oh, and a new printer. And probably wireless internet would make writing this a little more convenient. Darren, are you reading this?
For lunch today Emily wanted a juice box, took one drink of it, wanted applesauce, took one bite of it, then wanted bread and honey, took one bite of that, wanted a glass of milk, took one drink of that, wanted a yogurt, took one bite of it, and then screamed GET OUT! I got her out, she burped twice, saying "scuse me" each time, and started crying to go "night, night". Oh she it too cute!
It took me all day to do one load of laundry today. I put the towels in the washer around 10:00 this morning. Rinsed them about 2:00 because they had that 'smell'. Rinsed them again about 5:oo. My husband came in from working in the garage all evening, getting it ready to paint, asked me if I could bring him a towel please, he wanted to shower, and oh, yeah--I was just putting them in the dryer--at 9:00. Good thing for me they have invented amazing things like washing machines so I can get the laundry done so fast!