Things I Love About Sunday

1. 1. Attending Church.
   2. The privilege and Opportunity to take the Sacrament.
      
   3. Afternoon Naps.
   4. My Children all Dressed up in their Best.
   5. Quite.
   6. Sunday Dinner and Eating Too Much.
   7. Seeing Teri, Grandpa Nielsen and Matt. (Matt lives here but you hardly see him)
   8. How Excited the kids get to see Teri and fight over who gets to sit by her.
      
   9. Evenings just enjoying the family together.
   10. Board Games.
   11. Masterpiece-Jane Austin.
   12. Teri's Air popped Pop Corn.
   13. Putting the kids to bed and having actual adult conversation. Ahhh.
       
   14. Going to Bed at a Decent Time.
       

Like Mother Like Daughter

It cracks me up how much Jena is like me. This is why she frustrates me so.
At Ryan's kindergarten orientation he was the first to raise his hand, sit front and center and talk to kids he doesn't know.
At Jena's kindergarten orientation she won't leave my side unless she is with a friend she already knows, she sits in the middle and blends in, she is horrified if she is called on and will not raise her hand.
Ryan came with us and he could hardly stand it that Jena was not raising her hand to answer questions. He finally sat by her side, helped her raise her hand and told her what to say.
He also couldn't stand it that he was not the center of attention today at Jena's party. He was really making me crazy!
Funny how different our kids are although Ryan is just like Barry and Jena is just like me. I wonder how Sara will turn out?

PARTY!

Everyone take a deep breath with me........and now release! Ahhhhhh, the party is over! Who knew 8 5 year olds could be so wild! They started out at the table decorating purses in total silence. Next was the treasure hunt of total chaos! I forget that little girls squeal really loud! Games, presents, cake and ice cream and then Performances with the Hannah Montana Guitar (and a little fighting over the guitar. Eeek!) Overall a great party and Jena is so happy and I'm done with birthday parties for a few years!

Charlie Cooper

If you read Mel's blog you may already know about little Charlie Cooper. He is the most adorable little boy who contracted Meningitis in January and is now in Primary Children's Medical Center.

He has won a huge piece of my heart! I tune in several times a day to see how he is doing and I don't even know him or his family. This adorable little man has me in tears at one moment and my heart jumping for joy the next. I just had to share because he is in my thoughts and prayers daily. I can't imagine the heartache watching my own child going through these struggles.

Tune in, you will fall in love too!

http://www.charliecooperjackjack.blogspot.com/

It seems like I might have posted this before, If I did it just goes to show how much his is in my thoughts.

Hold The Sugar Please!

The birthday party is tomorrow...
Preparations started today.
We decorated the kitchen/dining with all sorts of crepe paper and if Jena had her way we would have continued in every room of the house. She finally agreed that we could just do the porch so then everyone would know it was her house.

I decided to make the cake today in case any natural disasters occurred we still had time to buy one.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with myself. Even half way through I was thinking it wasn't looking all that great. But here it is in all it's glory and even Barry says it's Awesome. The strings ended up being a little fat and crooked but I was squeezing every last drop of frosting I had left to get them done so they will have to do.

Can you feel the excitement?
The hyped up on pure butter and sugar 4 year old is turning 5 and she is and giddy and giggly as can be!
Dancing, twirling, singing Hannah Montana at the top of her lungs, skipping and just plain ecstatic!
We are all excited, there is no other option!

Jena also had Kindergarten Orientation so today was a big day! That's when I realized I forgot to schedule Jena's 5 year checkup and shots...Oops. We are going to have to get on that.

Good Times with Matt

We can't seem to find the battery to the jeep so Matt is dabbling in the child labor industry.

Ry and Jena both started soccer this week and they are SO excited! Jena wouldn't take off her uniform all day and Ryan tries to wear his soccer cleats everywhere!
Ryan has been begging for these shoes for months. They are like the ones Troy wears on High School Musical. I Hate Them! I kept telling him I would not buy them. Well, Barry and Ryan went shoe shopping today, since Ry's toe was litterally poking through the end of his toe, and they came back with these. 'Sigh' I guess they're not so bad, but I hope he wears them out really fast! He thought they were even better when Granny told him that Uncle Matt had a pair just like them when he was 6 years old.

Teri and Matt took our kids to the BYU vs UofU Gymnastics meet. They got their face painted and had a good time. Jena was so tired when they got home at 10:30 that she was begging to go to bed and would barely let me take her picture.
Ryan wanted to talk my ear off about 'Hobbit-ville'. Apparently Matt decided to take them on a little field trip to Sugarhouse to see where the 'little people' live. Honestly Matt!

Pottery Barn now sells fish

Teri gave Sara that little blue fish from Pottery Barn for Easter and it is a hit! It has taken over her love and she no longer wants her yellow ducky. You can wind it up and it swims, she loves to chase it across the tub. Funny thing is now the older 2 think they need to take baths so they can play with the fish too.

She is so quickly becoming a toddler and I love it and hate it all at once. The last 2 days she has been letting go of walls and chairs and taking off walking on her own! It is so Adorable!

Jena's bangs have finally grown back long enough to do our favorite hair-do. I Adore little girls in braids! She has begged me for braids for over a year now since her little hair cutting episode and this was the best punishment she could have gotten. I think it did the trick and she is so happy to be able to braid her hair again. Me Too!

Talk nicely to your computer

While standing in the kitchen Ryan shouts to me from the office, 'How do you spell Please?' I shout the letters back to him, P L E A S E.
He continues with SHOW, READING and WRANGLER. I spell them all and then start wondering what his is doing.
I come into the office. 'Mom, it won't work!'
I look at the computer. He has the Internet open and has typed into the address line, "Please show me the reading wranglers".
He is trying to find his schools home page.
Trying to think of the best way to explain it to him, I say, 'You have to use the right words.'
He replies, 'But I used nice words Mom, I said please!'

I love you Ryan!

The Men

My handsome men and their spring haircuts.

I'll tell you what, my husband is a hotty!

The Tudors

Showtime apparently has a show called The Tudors about King Henry VIII. I want to see it, but it looks a little...risky/showtimish. I'll have to see one episode to see if it's worth seeing.

New Arrival!

I am so excited to share with you my new nephew!
Matthew Warner Hunt
7lbs. 1 oz
20.5 inches

The best part is Karen did it all-natural! Your Rock Karen!

The Big Brother Spencer

The Big Sister Allie

I've Been Tagged

Melanie Tagged me, I'm not very interesting but here it goes.
The Rules: Tell 10 interesting/weird things about you, when finished, tag 3 other people!

1. I am the best driver on the road. You can laugh but it's true, I have excellent driving skills and I would rather drive than have my husband drive, unless I'm tired.
2. When I was a kid I wet the bed until I was 8 years old. I am a very deep sleeper.
3. I knew I would marry my husband 5 days after our first date.
4. When I was a senior in High School I left my prom date and went home at 10pm. Long story...
5. I am the worst dancer! I have no rhythm or creative moving skills at all.
6. I love to paint. Walls that is. If someone is painting a room, count me in to help out. It's weird but I do, it must be therapeutic or something.
   
7. Little kids terrify me! I had a calling in the Primary Presidency for a year and doing Sharing Time never really go easier for me. All these little people starring at me...Ahhhh!
8. My favorite food as a kid was Spinach and still is. I also love cauliflower, asparagus, artichokes, tomato and all the ones most people don't like. I don't like cooked carrots, yuck.
9. I barely graduated from High School. I had to take 2 night school classes, 27 'U' Classes and pay $750 in fees before I could graduate. I did it however and attended graduation too. I had a bit of an attendance problem, too many other interesting, fun things going on and besides school was not challenging enough, very boring really. I still came out with a 3.2 GPA. Not bad for only attending 1/3 of the time!
10. I hate to cook! I can cook, but I rarely enjoy it. I would be completely happy eating out 5-6 days a week. Or a personal chef would be nice, in my dreams!

OK, I tag Melissa, Tori, Megan, Natalie and Ashley.

Easter Dinner

My mom and I decided to get a little fancy for Easter Dinner. We found the cutiest Jello molds at Target and just had to try them. They remind me of my Grandma Mae, she would have thought they were wonderful. Did you know that Jello or Gelatin is made from ground up horse hoofs? Just a little fact of the day for you.

Here is my first attempt at Chocolate Trifle. It was ok, the pudding part wasn't really great but it looks pretty! And the kids got to eat on Granny's dishes 'from China' that are so easy to break. Ryan wanted to give us a demonstration on how easy they are to break, luckily I stopped him just in time.

This is just for my 2 brothers...Bum Rolls. Matt even demonstrated to my kids at dinner that it looks like a bum and then made it talk. Aren't Uncles great?

After dinner festivities.

Sara would much rather ride the bike kids bikes than push her little toys around.

Jena hangin' on Uncle Matt.

Easter all ready?

Am I the only one that about missed Easter this year? I totally missed daylight savings and showed up an hour late to church. I had to scramble the morning of St. Patrick's day to make sure our Lepracaun made his visit. And then here is Easter! I can't keep up!

Our neighborhood does a Easter Egg hunt each year and the Easter Bunny makes a visit too. I tried to get some pictures but they are so washed out they all look white. Here are a few half visible ones.

Ryan was not about to sit still for a photo session.
Sara just stood in the middle of the yard fascinated with all the commotion.

And none of the kids would sit for a picture with the Easter Bunny. Though Jena did admire her beautiful flower hat from afar. Then on Sunday the Easter Bunny made a special deliver to our house and they finally got enough courage to shake her hand. But wouldn't you know, my camera batteries where dead! It comes in pretty handy that the Easter Bunny is also my mom's visiting teacher. :)

Bring out spring!

We made a trip to the storage unit, where it seems all our life is packed away in boxes. Winter was packed away and out came Spring! Bikes, sand toys, Jena's jeep that we can't find the battery for, swim toys and summer clothes. The back patio is now my dad's biggest nightmare, kids stuff everywhere and trees shedding pods all over his backyard!

Sara is ecstatic to be outdoors! If the kids go out without her she stands at the back screen door yelling for them.
She also adores riding this big wheel. She can't reach the peddles and it is 3x too big for her but she gets on and walks all around the patio happy as can be!

Wee Little Leprechans!

My kids LOVE St. Patrick's Day! Every year those sneaky little leprechaun's turn our milk green. Barry can't bring himself to drink green milk.
We also have a leprechaun who send my kids on a treasure hunt for his gold each year. He leaves little green hats full of 'leprechaun money' at each of the clues and the clues are written in tiny green print that you can barely read. Jena was so pleased to have chocolate gold and hats for her little pony's and girls.

Drama

What does this little boy plus...

A Box of Tic Tac's equal?

Drama !
And One Very Sad, Little Girl.

This one is just trying to figure out what the big deal is.

Not that any of it lasts all that long.
Once the tears start big brother knows it's time to quit.


Then you get this face...'What? What did I do?'
He spends 90% of the day proclaiming his innocence to anyone who will listen.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt turns 26 this year. We got him a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. I don't remember a birthday when he hasn't had one of these. We Love You Matt!

Shoe Love

Mudd, Rocket Dogs, Steve Madden, Franco Sarto, Nike just to name a few. I love shoes! My friend Natasha told me a few weeks back that I have a thing shoes and hair. It's true. My girls have ridiculous amounts of shoes and hair stuff. And I could buy more and more and more. I really have to limit myself in the shoe department. My favorite Lately are Mudd shoes.

Here are my new ones.Jena got these from Granny. Totally Jena, all girly with sparkles. Like me she would live in flip flops all year if she could.
And Sara's are so cute! Thanks Teri and Matt! You can see all the different colors here.
She also recently got these and these.

I'm totally having a struggle with flip flops this year. I want these, but they are little girls and I can't find anything like them in my size! HELP! I will probably get these too.

All in a days work

I am currently still in my pajama's. But in my defense here is my list of things I can check off as done-

1. 3 Children Bathed, dressed, teeth brushed, rooms spotless, hair done, fed 2 meals and off to school. (well 2 off to school anyway, 1 is asleep...ahhh silence)
   
2. 3000 square feet all vacuumed and mopped. Sara and Jena helped so pretty much everything in the house has now been wiped down with a Clorox Kitchen wipe thanks to Jena. And Sara helped me mop the floor with her belly, which is totally black from thinking she was swimming on the slippery, wet kitchen floor. Sure wish I had a video of that, very funny.
3. 2 Bathrooms cleaned top to bottom, including baseboards.
4. All Beds made.
5. All dishes washed.
6. All laundry washed.

Not sure if I will get out of my pajama's. I picked up The Boleyn Inheritance at the library yesterday and now I'm torn if I should finish Harry Potter first. Hmmm.
Notice I didn't say the laundry was folded-I hate folding laundry!

Sweet Little Finds

I have a thing for cakes.

Truth be told I don't really even like Cake.

It started with my Mother-In-Law. She made those Wilton cakes for her kids birthdays when they were little, so naturally I felt a little pressure and started making them for my own kids. I'm glad I did, they make birthday's a little more festive and special when the kids get to choose their cake and mom makes it special just for them.

That said, I'm no pro, not even close. I would however love to be. You know those cakes with Fondant Icing that look like they should fall over any moment but they are a masterpiece, flowers that look so real your not sure if you should eat them. Yet I've not found many great cake shops locally. Where do you go to get one of these magnificent desserts?

Well I finally found one shop in American Fork, check it out here. I plan to go there soon for no other reason than to just see and taste a little sugared goodness.

What little girl wouldn't love this Hannah Montana cake?
I would love to be able to make that!

I have also discovered a fun little site called Your Heart Out. Just some local gals blogging about the newest, best, funnest stuff to do on the Wasatch Front. I love getting a view of local life from all those artsy, trendy, in-the-know, Sugar House Type People.

Happy Birthday Barry!

The kids made Barry a giant Birthday Card. They had a great time making it while daddy slept in. I don't think you can read it, but Ryan wrote 'Do you still love your kids?' I have no idea why but I thought it was pretty funny.

Barry got some baseball cupcakes. I had way to much going on today and they ended up pretty Sad, but they tasted fine and that's all we care about, right?

Things we love about Barry...

1. He is a very caring, attentive father.
2. His children adore him.
   
3. He is a wonderful, understanding husband.
4. He is very forgiving.
5. He is his mother's 'Golden Boy'. This means he can do no wrong by her, it's not a bad thing, just a fact. :)
   
6. He Loves Baseball, mostly the Dodgers.
7. Did I mention he Loves Baseball?
8. He also loves all other sports EXCEPT Soccer!
   
9. He Loves Star Wars and and I wouldn't be surprised if he and Aaron Bean start up some kind of Star Wars club!
   
10. He is a Nerd and proud of it. :)
    
11. He Loves Transformers.
12. He Loves the Avatar Cartoons.
    
13. He Loves Pepsi.
14. He Loves Golf.
15. He Loves Movies. He can remember any line from any movie he has ever seen.
16. He Loves Computers-Apple Computers that is. Is there another kind of computer?
17. He teaches Defensive Tactics and Pressure Point Control so you want to be on his good side!
18. He is very smart. He remembers facts about everything and hardly has to study.
19. People think he is 'scary' when he has on a beanie and sunglasses.
20. He is one of the least 'scary' people I know.

We Love You Barry!

Happy Birthday Sara!

We had a very fun party for Sara's First Birthday. She loved being sung to and danced along. She was very entertaining eating her first cake and had a great time opening her presents.

Thanks everyone for helping us celebrate!

Sara, Ryan, Jena and Sydney (cousin)

Sara's cake was a Big Cupcake. Ryan couldn't figure out what it was and Jena said 'that's because your a boy!' I'm warming up for making Jena's cake. She wants a Hannah Montana Guitar Cake! We'll see how that turns out!

Things We Love About Sara...

1. She is so loving and cuddly.
2. She is very determined and strong willed.
3. She is mostly a good sleeper.
4. She has beautiful blue eyes.
5. She is going to be a baseball player. You should see how far she can throw her toast!
6. She loves to try and make animal noises, especially moo.
7. She loves to share her food.
8. When she hugs you she pats your back.
9. When she gets mad she stiffens up and shakes her fists at you.
10. She loves to take her shoes and socks off.
11. She loves Pepsi cans but not the Pepsi.
12. She Loves her Binky
13. She Loves to Brush her teeth.
14. She can walk, but doesn't want to.
15. She still can't make it through 3 full hours of church.
16. She won't let anyone else touch her car seat.
17. She loves to hug and cuddle baby dolls.
18. She LOVES to dance to music.
19. She loves all the logos on Barry's shirts.
20. She can splash water 6 feet out of the tub!

Here is a video from her party. Jena is so excited about her upcoming birthday she could hardly stand it, you would have thought it was her birthday! And by the way I love the Leap Frog Toys. We have owned 2 of the fridge magnet collections and they are so fun.