The sleepover

So Monday was Ellie's official "first" sleepover. I blame Gina who told Kenzie that she could have a sleepover when she turned 4 because then Ellie got it into her head that she could have one when she was 4. So of course Ellie was 3 for an entire year and I was sure she would forget about it. She then made the mistake of telling Erin that she could have a sleepover when they were 4, and Erin never forgot.

Soooo, we had the sleepover and it was actually pretty funny. The girls played, went swimming, did the Banzai slide (I have sooooooo gotten my money out of that thing), ate pizza for dinner and then watched soem movies. I made the mistake of sending Dustin to the video store. He rented Valiant (lamest movie ever) and Little Einsteins (HELLO! Was there nothing with BARBIE in the title??). He obviously doesn't know 4 year old girls very well. I also told him Erin doesn't like popcorn, so he got chocolate covered nuts for a snack. Yuuuum, melted chocolate on my carpet.

We got the girls into bed at 9:30 after an hour or two of playing with every toy known to man. But for the next hour all you could hear was giggling. They were in there telling knock knock jokes. But not knock knock jokes like older kids tell, the knock knock jokes 4 year olds tell.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Silly Goose.
Silly Goose who?
Silly goose cookie!
And then they turned to potty humor as the hour progressed. At one point I went in there and they insisted on telling me a joke.
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Buuuuuuuuuu. . . (breaks into hysterical giggling)
Buu. . . (more giggling)
(continues giggling)
Buuuuuuuuttttttttttt (uncontrolable giggling).
I'm surprised no one wet their pants. But they did go to sleep, together, in the top bunk and slept form 10:30 till. . . 6:30. Luckily Dustin was sweet enough to get up with them.

It was totally adorable and fun though, and I'm sure we'll do it again sometime!

Pre-school graduation pictures (even though she's going BACK to pre-school for another year in the fall) that I promised my mom. Ellie did a great job at her part, which is good because we practiced and practiced that thing. It was fun, then we did the whole "brunch" thing afterwards. Nate and Dustin showed up late, so I think the waitress thought I was a little crazy when I kept ordering food and getting a high chair for a baby that wasn't there. You could tell she was relieved that he existed when he arrived and she excalimed, "He's HERE!!" Good times, good times.

Lola is gone to "Italy." She's actually in Virginia, but ELlie likes to carry around a little knick knack of the Duomo and point to the top and tell us that Lola is there. Sometimes Nate gets ahold of it and Ellie shouts out, "MOOOOOM! Nate is ruining Italy."

This week school is out and we are ready to relax. Well, she actually has Girl School two days this week, so I'm planning on getting my Visiting Teaching done. That means I'll get to eat the cookies they pass around 3rd Sunday. YEAY! Dustin had a root canal this morning -- FUN! Ellie is having a sleep over to night and Nate and I are planning on having some serious snuggle time. OK, I'm probably planning it more than he is. If he were to plan anything it would involve dare devil stunts like walking on the back of the couch. Gotta love boys!

No pictures, sorry to disappoint

Well, it's summer time and the heat is on. Ellie graduated from preschool on Thursday (wait, was that really only yesterday?) and it was ADORABLE! I have some pictures to share, but I'm waaaaaay too tired to upload them tonight. My dad and Lola are gone so the house is a little empty and sad. Luckily my kids are officially worn out from the family parties and sleepovers, so they have been sleeping like angels.

Tonight was the Stake Fair. Our Stake has the most amazing fair. We're talking real wooden booths with fun games, prizes, bands, pie, contests (limbo, jam, bread, chicken dance. . .), a talent show, pony rides, cart rides, a petting zoo. . . Just a great time.

We did the whole picnic thing and then headed into the fair grounds for an evening of allergies and animal germs. Ellie got her face painted, played basketball, drew pictures with marbles, threw apples into baskets. . . and Nate ate popcorn. And ran around. We did the whole pony ride thing. That was Ellie's favorite part. The line was killer though, so we took turns standing in line with some friends. Nate loved petting the ponies that were "resting" nearby. Apparently he has lost his fear of animals. Then the kiddos went on a pony cart ride. The line for that was muuuuch shorter. After that I headed off with Nate to get some pie while Dustin, Ellie and our friends went to stand in line for the petting zoo. I manage to balance 3 plates of pie to share, Nate, and a bottle of water when Dustin informs he's going to go get his own pie. About this time, Ellie decides she has to go to the bathroom. So now I have Nate, three pies, a bottle of water and Ellie doing to potty dance. So I put Nate down to set down the waters and pie. Michelle (our firend who is waiting in line) then offers to watch Nate. I then realize, Nate is not standing next to me. Of course then over the microphone we hear "We have an unidentified preformer on the stage. He's been dancing since the very young age of 3 months. He's pretty cute and has mastered the art of spinning. . ." You guessed it! Nate is on the stage dancing. The HUMILIATION! So of course I had to run up and get him and the announcer looooooved that. "It seems his partner has arrived. She's going in for the lift. . . PERFECT!" Luckily there were only a few hundred people watching since the talent show hadn't quite started yet.

But the kids did get to do the petting zoo. Nate looooooooved it. He was all about chasing the big old turkey and letting the goats eat him. He would just laugh anyti,e he got near an animal. Ellie was more into petting the bunnies and chasing the chicks. Then we watched a little talent show and headed home for our very tired children to go to bed. Dustin's off with a friend at a movie, so I'm checking out and hitting the sack.

One more picture

Because I *do* have a son you know! I also have some pictures of him in the buff walking around in Ellie's dress up shoes, but I'll save those for blackmail later on down the road!

Not sure why Ellie's birthday pictures formatted all wonky, but I'm waaaaay too lazy to figure it out. If you click on the individual pictures, you can see them a little bit bigger.

The Party's Over . . .

PHEW!

It's funny how the party seemed to last forevvvvvvvvvver, but as soon as everyone was gone, I was wishing they were all back again. I admit the kids were a handful, but it was so much fun! I can't believe what a good time we had. I'm seriously wishing we could do it all again today.

The theme was "luau" but that was mainly just because we wanted everyone to wear their swimsuits. We did it outside and had a whole water thing going on. The biggest hit was the Bonzai slide of course. I was surprised at who liked the slide and who didn't. Two of the boys wanted nothing to do with it, but little tiny Hannah and shy little Ashley loooooved it. In fact, all of the girls loved it. There was smaller pool, too, which the kids warmed up in -- the water in there warmed up all day, while the water on the slide was always new and a little chilly. And we also did a slip n' slide, which was hysterical to watch. Preschoolers do not get how to do a slip n' slide. I had a bunch of games planned -- some of which were hits and others were not. For instance, the water balloon toss -- not such a great game. The balloons rarely made it past one throw, and there was waaaaaaay too much bickering over what color balloon they got. Duck Duck Goose on the other hand -- bit hit. Although sometimes the chase would be all over the yard, around the slide and through the circle, but hey, whatever keeps them occupied. We did squirt guns, tatoos, leis, blow up beach balls, cake, presents. . . it was the never ending party. Soooooooo much fun!

Shortly after cake and presents the parents all showed up. YEAY! I had told a couple of moms that they could bring their older kids back for a couple of turns down the slide once everyone left, so the party continued on until 5:30. Two moms even decided to go down the slide fully dressed. So basically, we had a FABULOUS time. . .until about 7.

After everyone left we got McD's and noticed that Nate wasn't eating and was burning up. Sure enough the poor kid ended up throwing up 3 times before we took him to Urgent Care. Turns out he has a massive ear infection and the fever was causing him to throw up. I'll save you all the fun middle of the night details, but we're happy to say he isn't throwing up anymore this morning and his fever is down. In fact, we all slept in until 8:40 this morning! So of course Ellie was late for school. When I dropped her off one of the boys yelled, "HEY ELLIE! Remember when I went to that party at your house? That was AWESOME!"

It was totally worth it. :)

Happy (late) Easter

We hope everyone had a great Easter. We started off the weekend with an egg hunt on Friday for all the kids in play group. Jacque did the BEST job. She had a little easter egg craft for them to do while the moms hid eggs, pin the tail on the bunny and she even made rice crispie treats in the shape of egg baskets with little jelly beans. Dang that girl is cute! Nate found Ellie's easter basket and kept himself busy for the next half hour emptying all of the contents of her basket into his mouth.

Friday night Dustin and I went to see "Much Ado about Nothing." We like to get a little culture in every now and then ;p

Saturday was just busy. Ellie had a birthday party in the morning, so I ran down to visit a friend in the hospital. When we got home, Dustin took Ellie swimming while Nate and I did some cleaning and then we had friends over for dinner. We *were* going to dye easter eggs, but after thinking it over, decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

Sunday morning we did the whole egg hunt thing. Ellie had so much fun. Then I *tried* to get pictures of the kids. Once again, they totally would not co-operate. I know it's really sunny out, but OPEN YOUR EYES!!! Nate had an adorable little vest to go with his outfit, but it was just too stinking hot to stick him in it. I tried to curl Ellie's hair (like a princess), but of course it all fell out. Ellie was the star of Primary (I was subbing for an older class). She got to say the prayer, help with Sharing time AND she was the spotlight. Lucky little girl.

Then for easter dinner we headed over to Floyd and Karen's. It was fun to be with family. Lola was there and of course brought MORE candy for my kids, and then there was another egg hunt. WAAAAY too much candy in this house right now. But I'm slowly chipping away at it ;). The kids ran around and we played cards. Not a bad way to spend Easter.

And that was our official weekend!

Ellie says

This conversation happened yesterday, about an hour after lunch -- which Ellie couldn't finish because she was "*soooooooooo* full" and "ate too much."

"Mom, do you know what my tumach says?"
"No Ellie, what does your stomach say?"
"My tumach says, 'I'm hungry'."
"Hey Ellie, do you know what my stomach says?"
"What?"
"My stomach says, 'You just ate lunch, so no more food, but I love you'."
"Moooooooooom, tumach's don't say that. They're just tumachs! They're either so so full or hungry. They don't love anybody."

I'm back

Well, only time will tell if I'm really back! Buuuuut, I am trying to get on this computer more often now. I've missed my e-mail and shopping on-line!

The holidays were crazy and it just seemed like one thing after another. I promised once we got back from Tennessee (which was really fun by the way) that things would settle down and we'd get back into the swing of things. Well, they didn't! They got crazier! The kids seems to be continually sick, we had all sorts of overlapping plans, baby showers, play dates, parties and then we were asked to teach a class at Youth Conference which shortly became all time consuming. But now it's April and things have since settled down. I can't complain though! I'd rather be busy than bored.

Ellie's birthday is coming up. The countdown is on -- 2 weeks. She is really excited about her Hula party -- I wish I could say the same. Planning it is so much fun, but the idea of entertaining eleven 3, 4, and 5 year olds is a little scary. This is the first "drop them off and leave them" year. It is also the last BIG party year. Next year I'm only letting her have 4 friends.

OK, now I'll give you the rundown of the photos.
1. Lola -- my sister who I adore dearly. She babysits my kids for free, brings her computer over every weekend with a virus, and keeps me entertained. The picture above is her FABULOUS hairdo. After a practical joke went awry, I spent all day one Friday running her from hair dresser to hairdresser so we could get her bangs ot look like bangs. I actually think it makes her look much older now. And I think Jill did a great job. I also think my sister is going to kill me for showing this picture.

2. Superman -- We got Nate these really adorable (and cheesey) super hero PJs -- one is superman and one is spiderman. They were a STEAL! So then we get them home and we're about to dress Nate in the spiderman ones and Ellie starts putting on the pants. So we can't figure out how Ellie could possibly fit in the pants. We then look at the tags and the shirt is 4T and the bottoms are 5T. No wonder they were cheap! Superman luckily is the right size.

3. The cape. I just think it's so cheesy that it's cute. Plus you can see some of my pillows Mer made for me.

4. Ellie doing her "Nastics." She started Gymnastics a few weeks ago and loves it. This is her version of a head stand. I just think she likes any excuse to wear a pink ballerina outfit. She's taking it with one of her friends and they have matching outfits. The mom and I take turns carpooling so everyone thinks the girls are twins.

5. Ellie's wild hair. Ellie's big thing now is that she will not let me flat iron her hair. She wants it to be wild because princesses have curly hair. The other day I was doing it and she kept telling me she wanted it in diamonds like Brianna's. After avout 5 minutes of frustration, I finally figured out that meant a braid.

You can also see Nate! I do have a son afterall. He's just as adorable as always.

OK, so hopefully I'll be around here more often -- Easter is coming up, so I can't promise anything. M-

My New Year's Resolution. . .

is to blog less. Looks like I'm doing a good job of it. I actually do mean to get on here more often but it has been sheer craziness getting back into everything. I've been working on a huge scrapping project that isn't going to get finished in time, planning a baby shower, helping friends move (jerks -- who moves back to Utah?), doing Girl school, teaching Art lessons, having play dates, making cards, putting together a Ward Party, nursing two sick children, and dealing with Dustin's back. If you don't know, after a visit to the ER Dustin is now on a lower back cocktail of percocet, neurontin, flexoril and Ibuprofen. His L4 and L5 are jutting out 8 mm. Tomorrow he gets the cortizone shot, so cross your fingers it will relieve some of the pain.

But other than that, we're just as happy and busy as always. In less than 2 weeks, we're headed off to Tennesse to see Dustin's older brother and his family. I am going to be so happy to get away, although I'm not sure about the cold. I posted the only two pictures I've taken since Christmas -- I kept getting weird messages on my phone from Grandparents demanding pictures. One is the perfect picture of Ellie -- crazy. And the other is of Nate and his first buddy Jackson. They get together and hang out while the bigger kids are off at school. They spend most of their time spreading germs to each other or fighting over the phone, but it's a start!

Don't expect to hear from me for another month ;)

Christmas Morning

Ahh, nothing beats sleeping in until 7:30 and waking up to happy kids on Christmas morning. We seriously had the best Christmas. The kids were adorable and loved each and every gift. It took us well over an hour to get through them all, but I cherished every minute.

The kids looked adorable in the their PJs from Santa and as you can see, Santa did manage to bring Ellie both a Sleeping Beauty Barbie AND an Ariel barbie. Although, getting the Ariel barbie resulted in me going to every Target in the East Valley and being suckered into carrying $300 of tools through Home Depot and scanning them through the self check-out lane. But that's a story for another day. . .

Enjoy our SCADS of Christmas pictures! :)

Just like last year, we had to beg Ellie to open more presents. Both of the kids were perfectly happy with what was in their stockings. I think Nate would have sat there all day running his cars over the carpet making his little "vrrrooooooooom," noise. And Ellie would have been in heaven if all she had gotten was barbies.

Nate seriously would have been happy getting boxes for Christmas. He was so cute wandering all over the house carrying presents and laughing. He would go from box to box lifting them. Then he'd go back and play with one of his trucks for a minute or two. He kept himself pretty well occupied while Ellie did all of the unwrapping for him.

One of the "big" presents we got Ellie this year. We gave Santa credit for all of the toys we got them for the back yard, but we wanted credit for the kitchen. Little stinker keeps telling everyone that Santa got it for her though. I keep trying to explain that it's from mommy and daddy, but I'm pretty sure she thinks all of her toys were Santa.

I seriously could have eaten Nate on Christmas morning. He was laughing so hard. I'm not sure he understood what was going on, but he was high on a Christmas spirit. I couldn't believe how much fun he was. Great Grandma, Beaney and Dave sent the kids Book of Mormon Story board books. They are so cute. We took them to Church on Christmas day and Ellie loved them.

I'm glad I didn't open them on early even though Kristine was prodding me to. It was so nice to have a little present from my Grandma under the tree. Even though she passed away a few weeks ago, it was neat to have a little part of her there with us on Christmas.

Nate loves all of his toys. He got a lot of cute stuff and I think he's just happy to have things that are just his (try telling that to Ellie). He was seriously giddy anytime he got to open a present. Then he would just hold the box and walk around.

This particular bath toy is from his cousins in Tennessee. He loves it you guys!

Ellie got quite a few nightgowns for Christmas, but the one from Grandma and Papa Walkem is her favorite. It is "sooooooo beauitful" that I had a hard time convincing her that it was for sleeping in and not a dress up dress. As a compromise, it hangs on a hanger on the dress-up rack in her closet, but we still wear it to bed. I also had to convince her to take the robe off when she sleeps. The second she wakes up, she puts it back on.

Sweet Nate. Still perfectly content to just hold a present. Even if it is for his sister.

Our house is now over run with Barbies. Ellie got SIX barbies for Christmas -- Ariel and Sleeping Beauty (which you've heard about multiple times by now), a "n"ermaid barbie from Fairytopia, Cinderella and two "Highnesses" barbies from Barbie's Pegasus movie. To say she was thrilled would be an understatement.

She also got a matching Cinderella dress up dress as a hand-me down from a friend. But I still wrapped it and put it under the tree for Christmas. Moms can do whatever they want.

Ahhhhhhhh, Princess Alexa. A gift from Ellie's cousin Alex Anne. She's actually much cooler than you would guess from looking at her. She makes these really adorble noises, and you can even burp her. Ellie absolutely loves her, and Nate tries to steal her whenever possible. He has an obsession with babies (maybe because they are smaller than he is), so he thinks Princess Alexa is pretty neat.

However, on more than one of ocassion, we've gone in search of Nate only to find it is Princess Alexa making the noises.

We've played with every toy every day since Christmas. My one rule is that I will only do Bella Ballerina once a day though. It is far more work for me than it is for Ellie. She's so darn cute when she does it, though, so it's totally worth it.

I'm starting to think I'm going to be forced to add one more activity to our schedule and put her into dance.

Please not how graceful she looks though. You'd never know she was one of the clumsiest children on earth (I can only blame myself -- Dustin was never called Maddy Boom Boom as a child).