2, 4, one birthday party

I have never had the desire to have twins, I am not that organized or responsible, but I do like the idea of streamlining things. So when the chance comes to combine two birthdays into one party, I am all for it. Every year, for the rest of our lives, we will be celebrating Maddie and Lucy's birthdays eight days apart. So I figured that I'd better take advantage of the one year where they are both interested in the same things, and are happy to share their special day. They loved it! We had their two little cousins over and we celebrated princess style.

I made some superhero/princess capes,
and two special birthday crowns

And we read the "princess and the pea" book, so that they would understand the significance of their cakes.


This picture made me laugh. Ever wonder what Dopey would look like dressed in Snow White's attire? Now you know!

Lucy needed a little help figuring out how to blow out the candles.

And Maddie soaked up every second of her moment in the spotlight.

So much personality crammed into such little bodies!

1-800-toothfairy (for Johnny this time)

Yesterday afternoon, Johnny lost his first tooth. It has been flopping around for the past two weeks, but no amount of persuasion could get him to let me pull it out. He did, on occasion, let me do some "tooth exercises", but not for long enough to do any good. As always, when a tooth comes out at our house, we call the tooth fairy to let her know that she needs make a pick up. John always does the calling because he is much better at talking to her new automated system, or her thick skulled receptionist (whichever happens to be available.) Last night, his call was sent directly to voice mail, so he left a message. She must have received the message and fulfilled her duties, because this morning Johnny had a shiny gold dollar in place of his tooth. I woke up to a beautiful experience this morning. When I walked into the living room, I saw a very serious boy playing with his new shiny coin. When I said good morning to Johnny, I noticed that he looked like he had been crying. I asked him if he was okay, and he said that he was. Then he told me about what had happened when he found his coin that morning. He said that he had thanked Heavenly Father that he found a coin under his pillow, and that it made him feel really good inside. I hugged him and told him that he had felt the spirit, and that Heavenly Father was letting him know how much he loved him. His eyes started to tear up again, and so did mine. I was reminded by this experience, how precious and sweet these spirits are, and how Heavenly Father will take any opportunity he can, to let them know he loves them. I am so happy that Johnny felt like he could pray to Heavenly Father, and even happier that he was able to have a spiritual experience which will help sustain him as he grows.

I'm 32!

I can't believe that I am 32, time has flown by so quickly! Sometimes I feel like I am in a dream and when I wake up I will be 12 again. How could I have already gotten married and had 4 children in the short amount of time I have spent on this earth? I'm glad that I was born and can experience all of the things that life has to offer; love, peace, chaos, joy, grief, inadequacy, accomplishment, and the list goes on...

You'd never be able to tell by the smile on my face in these pictures, but on this day I was experiencing exasperation. I'm not sure if it was because it was my birthday and I had unrealistic expectations, or if my motherly duties really were 10 times more difficult than usual. Needless to say, when John came home from work, he found a wife who was about to have a meltdown (because, after-all, if my children can do it, why can't I?) My day got much better from that point though. John brought home all of the fixings to make a yummy strawberry shortcake, and we had takeout from Bajio Grill (one of my favorites). John, seeing that I was having a tough time during dinner said, "now let's go around the table and each one of you can say something that you are thankful for about mom." We started with Hannah, who said "she's nice." Then we came to Johnny, who said "what is that part of you that grows babies?" John and I looked at each other a little confused as to why he would ask that question. John said "uterus?" Johnny looked at me with his sweet, serious face and said "I am thankful that you have a uterus." John and I laughed hard over that.

Then we moved on to the strawberry shortcake, John couldn't find fresh strawberries, so we took the frozen route, but it was still delicious. And yes, that is a backwards 5 on my cake to make a 2. But, hey, it's much easier to decipher than my 28th birthday cake which was lit in binary. I love my family, they make me laugh.

Another peek into the mind of Maddie.

The other day, I realized that I was saying "not yet" a little too much when Maddie asked, "Mom, is it YET now?" (of course, I replied "not yet" ;)

And another word from the Dictionary of Maddie:

Splocx: (noun) The residual dirt clinging to the roots of a plant when you pull it out of the ground. As in Ewww, splocx got all over me!

5K with Hannah

Hannah's principal is heading to Uganda this summer to help build houses for needy families. All of the 3rd graders participated in a 5K run/walk to help raise money for her to take along books, pajamas and hygiene supplies. It was such a fun experience to run and walk with Hannah, she has great endurance, she didn't get that from me! With every lap, she got more and more excited, and on one occasion said "I didn't realize I was still running!"

She was so proud of herself at the end. She was able to earn $14, and she enjoyed her rootbeer Popsicle very much.

Slide + toy dump truck= 37 stitches

Yes, 37 stitches! 17 visible and 20 dissolving stitches. It all happened last Saturday evening. I was ignorantly enjoying dinner with my brothers and sisters in Las Vegas (at an amazing Chinese restaurant, might I add) while my Johnny was in the ER getting his forehead stitched up. My return flight came in on Monday night, long after bedtime. So when I got home, I peeked in on all of our sleeping children, and then last of all, my sleeping husband. When John heard me, he rolled over and said " I have to tell you something...Johnny has stitches...I didn't want to tell you while you were away because I didn't want you to worry."

After thoroughly looking over my little boy and asking John about a thousand questions, I got the story.

It turns out that John was working in the yard Saturday evening while Maddie and Johnny were playing on the neighbors playground, kiddie corner to our own. John had told them three times that it was getting dark and time to go inside, when suddenly he heard screaming. Johnny had taken one last slide down the slide, tripped and fell right onto a big, metal, toy dump truck. (Or as Maddie would say "He slid down the slide, flipped over and landed on a truck...and then I saw his brain!") Luckily, she didn't really see his brain, but the sharp edges had cut through all seven layers of his skin (down to the membrane...EEEK!) and he had a gaping wound because it was in a right angle shape instead of a straight line.

As John led him inside the house, Johnny lamented "I wish I would have come when you asked!" Poor kid! Such a huge consequence for such a common childhood offense. I felt so sad that I wasn't home to help, but at the same time, I'm not sure that I would have handled the situation as well as John. Not only did he get him to the hospital without fainting, even once, but Johnny came home thinking that his wound was awesome and that all of the girls would love it.

John really does have a talent for making any situation seem lighter and funnier than it actually is, and in turn, it does make it better. I'm glad that he was around at this time, and that Johnny didn't have to witness his mother fainting, crying or panicking. Johnny is much better now, and he gets his stitches out tomorrow.

Vince's Graduation

My Brother, Vince, graduated from Med school last weekend. We are all incredibly proud of him. When his wife, Michelle, asked him what he wanted for his graduation present, he told her that he just wanted his family to come and celebrate with him. The more I get to know Michelle, the more I realize what an amazing woman she is. She knows how to get things done! It is a big task to get my family together, but she did it! And I am so glad that she did. The whole weekend was one wonderful moment after another, I came home with some "favorite" memories.

My Family

My sisters and mom.

My brothers

Vince, Michelle and boys after Vince was promoted to Lieutenant. Such a beautiful family. The sunglasses were dual purpose, to make them look cool and to hide the tears.

Dr. Ackerman

We couldn't let him start this next phase in his life without "the manuel" his official copy of Obamacare (wrapped in red tape, with some teeny tiny scissors attached.)

Dinner was a blast, my family can be hilarious! fun times!

Times to remember

Today was filled with so much emotion, our children swayed from extremely happy to extremely sad and back to extremely happy...over...and over...and over again. Luckily, I was able to keep my cool through most of it. I just keep thinking, if our house is this emotionally charged now, how will it be when they are teenagers? Here are just a few tidbits of drama from our home today:

Hannah (almost in tears): "I never get to do ANYTHING with Johnny anymore! He is ALWAYS reading!

Now, what should I say to that? He has been reading a lot, but I am definitely not going to get mad at him for reading. I am so proud of this little boy! A few short months ago, he had little desire to read for pleasure, especially chapter books. Now, half of his morning is spent reading (it's only frustrating when he tries to brush his teeth, tidy his room, and put his backpack on with his nose in a book.) He walks to the bus stop, reading, he reads on the bus; he reads at the end of the school day while walking home; and if he hasn't finished his book by then, he plops himself down on the couch and not a word is said until the last page is read. Sometimes he will go through two "big" chapter books a day. And to think that I was worried about his reading last year...tsk.

Tonight, while I was trying to get some baking done, Maddie and Lucy were fighting over a chair so that they could "help" me. The problem is that all of my supplies were in a small corner by our fridge where there was just enough room for me, and frankly I didn't feel like accommodating the help of two small girls. After about 10 minutes of wailing girls, I was at my wit's end. Then I realized that it was John's turn to put the kids to bed. Happily I handed Lucy over to him while I finished my batch of granola. Maddie, who was a big ball of tears just seconds before, became all smiles as I let her mix in the oil and honey. I just had to laugh as she put her hands in the sticky mess and said "Now I'm happy!" I'm sure there was a better way to handle that sibling rivalry, but at the end of a long day, sometimes I am just happy to survive.

Build it, and they will come

Recipe for an awesome sandbox:

1 superfluous window well from the neighbors walkout basement project.
100 feet of re-bar
1/2 yard of concrete
90--Cherry wood timbers
700--6" long nails
5 yards of sand
A whole bunch of dirt
1 ambitious husband with a vision



It was swarming with kids before we had even finished shoveling all of the sand in. We will soon be planting creeping thyme and various other plants on top, but in the mean time it makes a great diving board :)

Lively Lemonade

What do you get when you mix two young girls, some "country time lemonade" food storage, some markers, some cardboard and a weekend? You get a Lively Lemonade stand, of course.
Hannah and Macy worked hard on their sign, all Friday afternoon, and handed hand written fliers out to all of the neighbors. Then they met early Saturday morning at Macy's house to make cookies.

They were such great little business people and earned a whopping $10! I have to say that the cookies were my favorite. They decorated them all by themselves. Way to go girls!

Mothers day 2010

Call me crazy, but I think that Mother's day is one of my favorite holidays. I didn't live it up this year like I normally do by requesting it to be a full two day holiday. This year I didn't want to be coddled and take time off from my motherly duties. This year, to celebrate, I wanted to be a mom. Although, John did let me take a nice Sunday nap while he held down the fort after church.

I loved that the first words out of John's mouth Sunday morning were, "Happy Mother's Day, can I get you breakfast in bed?" I told him that I would rather take a shower while he woke the children up and fed them breakfast. That was a wonderful shower. I loved the homemade gifts and I especially loved the Primary presentation. Why does that always make me cry? I love being a mother to my children. I think I am the luckiest person alive to have these 4 beautiful children in my life, and my wonderful husband as my companion through it all.

Here are Hannah's thoughts on motherhood:

M-Makes me smile

O-organized

T-Teaching me not to do bad things

H-helpful

E-entertaining

R-really, really nice

Helping to promote a more sober world, one bike at a time.

I found a bike! I looked on KSL classifieds two weeks ago and found this beauty for $85. Can't beat that price for a brand new bike, only ridden once. The only problem...well...It was a "Cruizan Rum" bike. And it wasn't shy about advertising it. The guy who I bought it from was about 25 years old and didn't seem to be the bike riding type. He told me that he won it in a bar raffle. Anyway, I looked beyond that and tried it out, it rode beautifully and fit me perfectly. Yes I realize that it is a man's bike, but that way John can ride it too.


I brought it home and got to work. After-all I couldn't, in good conscience, advise my children to stay away from alcohol while advertising rum on each bike ride. I decided to try my skill in uncharted territory--refinishing bikes.

Here it is after disassembling, sanding, priming, painting, decorating, lacquering and re-assembling. Thankfully, my sister-in-law told me that the front fork was backwards, so I changed it soon after I took this picture. That was a little embarrassing, but I was just proud that it didn't fall apart during that first bike ride. It still rides beautifully, and I think I am in love with bike riding again. It brings me back to my college days where I lived on my bicycle between classes.

Since I didn't know how to do "fancy" I decided to settle for "inspirational". I found a quote from Albert Einstein that worked perfectly. "Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving." It's hand written, but I think that adds to the effect that I wanted. I can't wait to get a trailer someday so that I can take my girls with me on my long bike rides.

Time to plant...soon!

It is a good thing that it is almost time to plant our garden, our tomatoes are outgrowing their pots and are getting too tall for our light box. This is the first year I have used a light box to grow things from seed, and it has worked beautifully. The plans were given to me by my friend Julie who is a master gardener, along with her husband. The big plant in the front is a giant cabbage that Hannah brought home from school last month. In a few months she will be able to take a picture with it and enter it into a competition to recieve a $1000 scholarship. We'll see how that turns out. At any rate, it will be fun for her to see it grow.

Johnnys Birthday wishes

On her student's birthdays, Johnny's teacher has each class member write a note to put into a booklet as a gift. I love children's artwork, I loved the pictures and notes in the booklet. Here are a few of them. " I like you because you like monsters"

"I like your hair" (notice how spikey it is)

"I like you because your funny!" (I love the look on Johnny's face next to sweet serene Anne.)

Johnny is 7!

It is the beginning of our Birthday Marathon again! It comes so fast. That can only mean one thing, our children are growing. Such a happy thing, but it makes me feel sad that I will never have my six year old boy again. This is why I keep a blog, so that I can remember life when they were small. I tried my sister's recipe for marshmallow fondant this time. It was awesome, but I didn't have much time to work on it so it is a little sloppy. Johnny insisted that we celebrate his birthday on his actual birthday, which was the morning after John and I returned home from our cruise.

He got plenty of outdoor toys this year because we are trying to persuade him that outdoor, active, activities are super fun. I think we are making headway in that area. The problem is that he gets hot very quickly, hence all of the water toys.

We told Johnny that he could have a big party at home with lots of friends, or he could invite 2 friends to go someplace fun with him. He chose the 2 friend option. He decided that we should play rollerball at Boondocks and invite his cousins, Cody and Elena. Johnny loves spending time with Cody and Hannah, they are the two people who he can really relax and be silly with.