Bucket O' Drink

This past Saturday was a little busier for us than usual with Syd's soccer, church callings, baptisms and birthay parties. By noon, I was needing a soda to give me a little pick me up. Sheldon was out running some errands so I asked him to bring me home a drink. I was on the phone with my sister when Sheldon casually came up the stairs and handed me my "bucket o' drink" complete with a handle. He handed it to me and walked off like it was normal for someone to drink soda out of a half gallon bucket! When I laughed and asked him why the bucket, he warned me to never tell a drive thru at KFC that you want the largest drink they have. I wonder if they use these same buckets for their family meals. Even though I am a confesssed sodaholic, I didn't put a dent in this thing.

Happy 1st Birthday Avery!

Avery is one year old today!! I have no idea where the year went! I am a little sad about how fast she is growing up since she is my finale. Avery's not walking yet, but I know it will be in the next month or so. I am not looking forward to that stage since I have stairs all over my house. She is my first baby who likes to terrorize our dog, empty all of my cupboards, point her finger at me when I tell her no and then go back to what she was doing.....Wait, I'm sure my older girls did these things. See what a 5 year gap between kids can make you forget! Avery is definitely a handful, but we can't get enough of her. Happy 1st Birthday, Avery! We love you!

Little House on the Prairie

Sheldon and the girls have finally found a show that they all love to watch.....Little House on the Prairie! Sheldon says the show makes him reminiscent of how women used to be. :) I told him when he starts acting like Charles Ingalls, I'll start acting like Carolyn and bake him a pie.

My girls hurry and do their homework and watch the clock for Sheldon to get home so they can pop some popcorn and watch one of the 120 episodes we have recorded of Little House on the Prairie (we set our DVR to record one automatically every time it's on). Don't get me wrong, my girls love Hannah Montana and Camp Rock, but Little House has become one of their favorites. Sheldon makes the girls tell him what lesson was taught each episode and I have actually used some of the episodes to teach Taylor how to get along with a boy in her class. (Taylor has a boy equivalent to Nellie Olsen in her class)

Anyway, I am so glad that my kids have abandoned Spongebob and embraced Laura Ingalls that I thought I would blog about it. Cable does have some perks, I guess.

Back to School

Here are some of the pics I quickly snapped this morning as we frantically jumped in my car to beat the school bell. Taylor started 3rd grade and Sydney started her first day of Kindergarten.

What next?

I figure I brought this upon myself by trying to ban the color pink from her baby shower. Taylor thinks a little bit of pink makes everyone look better (even Sheldon in his pink tie). I've put up with the competitive fashion shows/contests that she and her friends put on with all of the clothes from her closet and the fact that every outfit she picks out is completely pink with a lot of bling on it. However, I 'm left wondering what's next when I find my daughter sleeping on the couch wearing a sleeping mask that SHE saved her money to buy. What next? Facial masks and lavender spray misted upon her pillow? The sleeping mask has freaked me out a couple of times when I walk into her room at night.

All Dressed In White

Taylor is getting baptized this Saturday!! I took a quick picture of her in her dress today in the park. We had to keep scattering the ducks away from us. I was a nervous wreck trying to keep Taylor clean so I wouldn't have to make a mad dash for the dry cleaners. The Ice Cream man happened to stop right by us while taking the pictures (imagine that!) and Taylor asked me for a snow cone. YEAH RIGHT!! A snow cone in her white dress! Didn't happen. We hope to see you on Saturday!

Ewww!

Today I took Sydney and Avery to our ward playgroup which was a guided tour of the animals (mostly reptiles) at Petco. I have really tried to be good and not pass down my opinions or fears to my kids so that they can form their own, but when they started pulling out the tarantulas and snakes, I was done. In fact, I couldn't even take a picture of the nasty tarantula climbing on the lady because I was too scared to get that close, honestly. It's probably a good thing I only have girls as I could never do the pet frogs and snakes. I wouldn't be able to sleep!

However, Sydney had a great time and was proud of herself for touching the lizard and frogs. She really liked the ferrets. I kept Avery in her stroller because she would either smack or try to eat the animals. Her two favorite past times.

Even though I was not about to touch anything, I do have to say that we have an awesome playgroup coordinator. This summer has been packed with fun activities for my kids.

Gone Fishing

Taylor asked Sheldon to chaperone her last field trip for the school year today. I was a little shocked when Sheldon took the day off and said that it sounded fun. (I didn't clue him in that chaperoning field trips is far from "fun") Taylor's class along with 3 other second grade classes went to Floyd Lamb State Park and were taught how to fish by the park rangers. I think Taylor was more excited about Sheldon riding the bus with her than any other part of the field trip.

Before they left, I reminded Sheldon to behave himself and not hurt any of the boys who have been teasing Taylor throughout the year. I had this strange vision of Sheldon casually squeezing the back of their necks while walking beside them. I also asked him to take some pics for me. He wasn't to keen on the idea of having to carry around a camera, but he humored me. I was so excited to get some pics of he and Taylor fishing or eating the sack lunches that I packed for them. Here are the pics that Sheldon brought home for me. He won.....I won't ask him to take pics again.



No idea who this boy is.......



I'm sure this kid's parents would be proud, but I have no idea who he is or who they are.......



Nope, no clue who this is......


I think Taylor is the least visible in this picture....


AHA!! One picture of Taylor!

Little Miss Avery

I have had a couple people ask why there were no pics of Avery on my blog. Good question....here is one and there will be plenty more.

Pain Vs. Vanity

Sheldon got a phone call at work a couple of days after Taylor's 8th birthday. "Hi Dad, You know how I am 8 now and you said that I was old enough to make some of my own choices?" Sheldon said "yes" and then took a big gulp. "You know how I got some of my own birthday money?" Another gulp from Sheldon. "Can I get my ears pierced?" He sighed a bit of relief and told her that he would talk to her about it later that night. When he talked to her about it, he said she could get her ears pierced as long as she only got one hole like the Prophet has asked us to do. Taylor looked really upset and said "One hole! That will look dumb!" Sheldon's eyes bugged out of his head "What?!?". Taylor thought he meant she could only get one of her ears pierced.

I took Taylor to Wal Mart(never thought I would approve of getting her ears pierced here!), but a couple of different friends said they did a better job than Claire's boutique. It didn't take me long to realize that Taylor wanted her ears pierced so she can wear some big funky dangly earrings. Some of the hoops she was picking out were bigger than her head. She got so mad when I showed her the ear piercing stud selection. None of them were fabulous enough for her. :) We settled on some faux diamond studs after bantering back and forth for a bit. (I also told her the big dangly earrings would stretch her earlobes out and make them sag....mother of the year here)

I honestly thought that Taylor would chicken out when she saw the piercing gun. This is my child who the doctor had to have 3 nurses hold her down when she got her Kindergarten booster shots. She screamed so loud the doctor came back in the room and told us that she was scaring all of the other kids in the waiting room and she needed to settle down. She is so obstinate if she thinks there is some kind of pain involved in anything. However, I guess her vanity won over her fear of pain. She did get mad at the lady piercing her ears and wouldn't look at her when she was done. She was also mad at me that I had told her that it didn't hurt too much. However, when she looked in the mirror and saw her shimmering earrings, she got over it quickly. Now she sports pony tails almost every day in hopes that someone will notice her earrings. :)

Happy 8th Birthday, Taylor!

Taylor turned 8 this week. I am too young to have an 8 yr old! :) She has been planning her 8th birthday party since the day after her 7th birthday party last year. Even though I had to exercise some motherly love and bring her plans down a notch(Disneyland, ice skating, slumber parties, etc.), we still partied pretty hard. Her big party was at GO FOR IT USA, a gymnastics studio. I took her to get her requested pedicure on her actual birthday. Her birthday was celebrated all week. In fact, I think she is in denial that it's over. Here are some pics of the fun.



14 girls reloading their energy with pizza and sugar...

The foam pit...the hit of the party!

Taylor and Alaina

Cannon Ball!!



The girls had the whole gymnasium to themselves which was so awesome because....

Mom got to join in on the fun............



and Aunt Susie and Uncle Niels got to play.



But we had a hard time getting Aunt Susie to come home with us. :)



To finish off the perfect party, Taylor got to steamroll all of her guests. Whatever happened to the good old spanking machines where the birthday girl got it instead of her guests?

After a hard day of friends, cake and presents, Taylor needed a pedicure. She was so excited to have her first real pedicure, but had to hold the sides of the chair because her feet were so ticklish. She told me that she couldn't understand all of the women at the salon because they were speaking Spanish. We were in an Asian salon. :)

Taylor and Syd finish up the birthday week with their "big cliff dive. "

Dear Tooth Fairy....

I was making Taylor's bed the other morning and under her pillow I found a picture of a fairy that she had colored and cut out. On the bottom of the picture she has written "Letter on Back". I flipped it over and it read, "Dear Tooth Fairy, Can I borrow your wand? At first, I panicked and thought she had lost a tooth and didn't tell me, but that couldn't be the case because she already has all of her permanent teeth. So, I just laughed and put it in with her other amusing pics that she has drawn for me. NEXT, I went in to make Syd's bed and low and behold there is a letter under her pillow..."Dear Tooth Fairy, Can I borrow your wand? Love, Sydney"
I called Sheldon to have a good laugh with him and he asked an important question, "What do you suppose they want to do with her wand?" :) Please note the new addition to my daughter's stick figures. Her stick figures now have bosoms. :) Sheldon is so outnumbered

Syd's Graduation

Syd is FINALLY going to kindergarten! Even though she has been so anxious to go to the "big school" with Taylor, she loved her preschool teacher this year. She started Sydney reading and has been amazing. Sydney's solo part in her graduation was memorizing Little Boy Blue and spelling her name in sign language for the parents. I thought she would chicken out, but she made her mama proud.

Larry King Live

Let's be honest..this blog template is horrible. It reminds me of the board on Larry King Live. I'm only missing a pic of me with suspenders. Please help me with some websites with prettier blog templates.

Aunt Susie and Uncle Skittles house

For our family vacation, my kids did not choose Disneyland or the beach. They wanted to go visit Aunt Susie and Uncle Skittles.(Sydney could not say Niels when she first met him and decided that it sounded like her favorite candy Skittles) Here are some pics from our wild adventures.