The Gee

I just thought this was cute. Abby decided to plop herself on the kitchen floor for her snack this day. Notice her blankie it closeby...it is ALWAYS close by. She is so attached to that blankie, she calls it her "gee". I wish I would have known that was going to be her favorite so that I could have gotten a backup before they changed out the patterns at Target! She drags it everywhere, and of course it is white (or it used to be) so it looks dirty almost instantly! Laundry day is always so traumatic, she acts like I've taken away a piece of her and will sit and bawl for several minutes next to the washer. Then, if I'm not sneaky enough, the whole scene is repeated when I put it in the dryer!

Today was her second day of nursery and she, of course, wanted to take it with her. Joe said that he tried to take the gee, but quickly learned that was NOT going to happen! She kept it with her, and from what I hear, did pretty well at nursery.

Good Practice

The other day we were all out in the backyard. I was doing yardwork and the kids were playing. After a little while, I noticed Sam was going down the slide with Abby in his lap. She normally just goes down by herself on her tummy, but was having a blast going down with her big brother. Sam noticed me watching and came over and said, "Mom, did you see that? Daddy just used to go on the slide with me when I was little, now I can do it with Abby. I'm just practicing for when I'm a daddy!" Then he gave a little matter-of-fact nod and ran off to play some more.

He really is great with his baby sister, it's very cute to watch how much they adore eachother. A few minutes later. I saw them sitting together watching Andrew play in "the wilderness" (a huge overgrown grove of lilac trees at the back of our yard). I tried to sneek up and get a picture from behind without them noticing, but I failed...still a cute picture, though!

And here's Andrew as he emerged from the wilderness...

This and that...

These are just some cute and random pictures that I thought I'd throw in. Of course I'm still playing catch up, so these were taken back in May, but for the purposes of my family blog books, I thought that I would include them. Here's a look of what the kids have been up to:

The boys LOVE playing with legos. Sam got some sets of the regular legos for his birthday, but they still love these. We haven't "graduated" them from the duplos yet, I suppose its time...Abby is a bit obsessed with winter wear. She can get into the box where is it stored and is always wandering around the house in various hats and gloves. This reminds me of some cartoon character, although I can't remember who....anyone else know?

Sam has not had much interest in learning to use his new golf clubs, but Andrew was willing to give it a try...for about five minutes. Poor Joe, he just wants to share his love of the sport with his boys!

Andrew Funnies

Andrew is at such a funny age, he's always saying to funniest and most random things! Sometimes, I have no idea where he picks things...and other times I know exactly where they came from (unfortunately....) Well, here are a couple of my recent favorites:

During church, we were in sitting in front of a woman who I'd never met (later, came to find out she is an investigator and it was one of her first weeks at church...). She told us this story after the meeting, I didn't actually hear it, but I can totally imagine it! She had a cane with a sculpted, marble-looking top that was leaning against our bench. Andrew was examining it very curiously, so she leaned forward and told him what it was. She said, "It's my cane, it helps me walk." He thought really hard about that for a minute and then seemed to figure things out, he said, "Oh, is that because you are old and weak?" She laughed very hard, thought it was the cutest thing. We've sat behind/in front of her every week since then and she always makes a point to say hi to Andrew.


The other day Andrew was helping me sort laundry. We got into a discussion about super heroes and who are the good guys, who work together (Batman does NOT work with Spiderman!) and what EVERY characters name is. I am NOT an expert on super heroes, I answered what I could be I had to defer to "ask your daddy when he gets home" several times when I didn't know the answers.

After a while, he seemed to give up on me. "Mommy, you just don't know as much as Daddy."

I gladly agreed.

He thought about for a minute and then came to a conclusion. "That's because your head is not very big. Daddy has a REALLY BIG HEAD (holding his hands out as far as he could reach them) so he knows lots of stuff. I have a kind of big head, so I know kind of a lot of stuff, but your head is just little tiny (said in a little squeaky voice) so you don't know as much." He put his head right next to mine and compared our head sizes with his hands, as if to prove his point. It was really funny!


Okay, just a few quick favorite sayings...

"I wuv Woo Woo!" (translated as I love Lou Lou, that's Abby's nickname!)

(With his hand on his head and shaking his head at me) "Honestly, Mom!"


Okay, that's all that comes to mind right now, I'll have to add more as I remember them!

Easter Morning

With church at 9:00, we are always running late...but I wanted at least a quick picture before we got out the door! Notice that my hair is still wet? Yah, it was one of those mornings! Not the best picture, but at least we got one!


I loved Abby's Easter dress, so I had to get some extra pictures of her! These were taken at my parent's house after church. This girl LOVES accessories, it's so cute!

The Real Deal!

Here are some pictures from Sam's actual birthday. It was a very long and busy day, jam-packed with fun things for the birthday boy. We started off the morning by letting him open two presents from Mom and Dad.

These, of course, were selected especially by daddy...his first real golf clubs! It just so happened that the Kindergarteners were having lunch at school that day to "practice" for first grade. We went and joined them for lunch and brought balloons and brownies. Sam wanted to bring his lunch from home, but Andrew ended up eating school lunch when he saw that it was chicken nuggets! That afternoon we had 10 of Sam's friends (plus a few younger siblings and moms) from school and church over for a party. It was a LOT of kids! The weather was threatening rain, but with that many kids running around, we headed outside anyway! We played red rover, red light green light and then just let them run and play on the trampoline. Once they had gotten some energy out, we headed inside for cake and presents. Here's a shot of some of the kids. I forgot in all the craziness to get a shot of everyone at the party, these photos are as close as we got!The cake was an "Ice cream oreo cake." The middle layer is vanilla ice cream, with oreos crumbled on top. Very simple...and very yummy!

Then it was time for presents! This picture is with one his best buddies from school, Tess.

After that fun party, we had about an hour to recover before the evening events. We had an early dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches with "spaghetti soup" AKA tomato soup) then Sam and Daddy headed off to play laser tag. Sam got to invite one friend and he choose Jared. So, Sam, Jared and the dads went to LaserQuest. They had a blast (once they got over the dark maze, black lights and loud music) and came home with lots of exciting things to tell about the evening. Sam was EXHAUSTED...and so were Mom and Dad! It was a great birthday.

Happy Birthday to my big six year old. I can't believe how fast he's grown!

Sam's Pre-Birthday party

On the Sunday before Sam's birthday we got the family together for a pizza night at Grandma's house. It's our favorite way to celebrate any event! After dinner we played Bingo, it's a new favorite game for the cousins to play together!Then, it was time for cake...er, I mean...cookies! Sam asked for cookie/ice cream sandwiches for his birthday dessert. They were delicious!

And then it was present time! Andrew and Abby were more than happy to help and were waiting patiently to get started!


Some of his favorites were the Transformers, waterguns, and Lego HeroFactory. It was a fun kick-off for his birthday festivities.

Parade Time!!

Still playing catch up...this was back in May!

Once again, we braved the crowds (and this year, the weather!) to go to the Lilac parade this year. We had such a great time last year, we decided to go again. We actually ended up sitting in the exact same spot and meeting up with the same crowd...it was lots of fun!

Andrew was ready to go! Only about two hours until showtime...

Me and Sam!

Just hangin' out...killin' time!

It was a little colder than we expected, we were already bundled up with everything we brought to keep warm...before the sun had even gone down!

Me and Breanna, she's the one who got us hooked on the parades!

Megan was cute with Abby all night, eventually Abby warmed up to her!My boys!

Abby was a good sport, but she was so tired! This was towards the end, she just gave up, laid down and tried to get some rest!

"Excuse me, I'm trying to sleep!"

It was another fun (and late!) night. Just like last year, the boys LOVED the marching bands. Sam was especially smitten with all of the princesses who were waiving...just at him! It was fun to visit and just enjoy the festivities. We stayed until the very end...and the weather held out for us. We felt the first raindrops as we got to our van, perfect timing!

Accessories

Abby loves her accessories. Hair pretties, sunglasses, necklaces, hats, you name it...she loves it! She will find about anything around the house to be pretty, this day she wore this around all afternoon. It was very cute!

Pretty girl!!!

(It's a Wii nunchuck, in case you can't tell!)

The Hunt

This year we had BEAUTIFUL weather for the Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's a big tradition and always a great time. Mike and Madison came up from Salt Lake, so three of my four brothers were there with their families. We had hundreds of eggs, some filled with candy, others had prize coupons, and then there were the confetti eggs. It's a fun family tradition that my parents picked up when we lived in Texas years ago. It's always fun to introduce this tradition to our friends! We invited a few families from our ward, but somehow they are not in any of the pictures! Next time, I'll have to take a turn on the camera...but then, more than likely, I'd forget to take any pictures at all! Thanks to Joe and Bre for all the pics!

Once all the eggs are found, then the smashing begins!

Oliver wasn't quite ready to join in the action this year, but he (and his mom) were as cute as ever!