Game Night

Game night is one of our favorite nights. We get to go out and have such a fun time. Our little group of 3 couples rotate homes and we always have a fun time. This time it was at Dianne and Jeremy's house. We had BBQ'd hamburgers that helped it feel like spring. (yesterday was the first day of spring) After a few rounds of Scum we decided to split off and play our own games. Girls played rummikub and boys played carcassonne.

As a side note: I just wanted to point out that when we ended our scum game... I was the KING! Such an exciting thing!

Becky!

My super friend Becky came into town for a visit with family and friends this week. I visited with her yesterday for a couple of hours. I was able to cuddle with her cutie new 9 week old baby, Payden for quite some time. Becky and I got to chat and chat, you know, in between kid needs and lunch! I really love visiting with super friends! Since they moved to AZ, John and I have missed both Becky and Mike just tons. Thanks for visiting Becky!!

Happy Green Day!

Well, spring is still in bloom at our house with plenty of green. I've recently planted some tomato and summer squash seeds to see what would happen. As you can see the seeds are no longer seeds, but thriving seedlings. I put them in my bathroom window for warmth and light, that seems to have done the trick. In a few days I will transfer them to bigger pots, the roots are already out searching for more dirt. Probably in a few weeks I'll be thinking of transplanting them outside. I have to see how the weather is holding up freeze wise. No need to put them out too early and risk a frost.

Our peach blossoms are so pretty, but starting to fall off already. The tree is in full grow mode with leaves all over the branches. Sariah and Keira show off our tree with equally pretty smiles!

I have been feeling the "get it clean" bug the last few days. I've been noticing things everywhere that have a grime build up that's driving me nuts. So today I went to work and started scrubbing. I did laundry, washed dishes, mopped floors, washed curtains, cleaned bathrooms, scrubbed walls and a few cuboards. It was a whirlwind effort that leaves me feeling energized for the next project: The Garage. It's scheduled for this saturday. It truely must be spring when I feel like cleaning!

Spring!

After all this drenching rain, our little 1 year old peach tree is in bloom! Sariah here shows us how happy she is about peaches!
Of course we will have to pick off most of the fruit to prevent damaging the small branches with oversized fruit, but we do hope to keep a few to test out how yummy our peaches will be!!

ACK!

Look at all this fun going on in our front yard... Water meters are going in this week. Lucky us. We won't actually be metered until next November, drats... water meters. Though I can understand why they are installing them... I don't appreciate the extra cost. I think I agree with my sister when she says that the government would charge us for air and sunshine if they could.... ACK!

FHE Fun

Tuesday night we decided to take a trip to the mall. The Lego store has a free give-away once a month to any kids that come in between 5-7pm. The kids were pretty excited (except Jonah for a while) to see so many legos and were pretty good waiting in the crowds for their bucket of free legos. They all assembled their leprochaun and pot of gold with help from John, though Jonah did his mostly on his own. After a few pictures here and there we were ready to head off to the food court for dinner. Each child earned a quarter (by eating a red bell pepper piece from John's food) for a gumball. Katie John shows off her watermelon gumball here:

When we arrived home after such a fun time, we wrapped up our evening with an exciting game of Disney Scene it. To the boys' dismay, Team Mommy won AGAIN! What a fun family night!

Pinata Fun

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig4sYHV67gw&layer_token=c18a1bed10022b0

It's Paul my nephew's birthday, but the real question is: Can Jonathan hit the pinata after being spun 15 times around?

A trip downtown

Tuesday we bundled up and went out into the wild stormy weather. The wind was really whipping as we made our way 3 blocks to the Capital building downtown. The girls had to keep a tight hold of their umbrellas or the wind would have taken them away. We finally made it and met up with my sister who had driven all the way from So. California to attend the HR-5 hearings. Our little family met her there and listened to the comments from the basement overflow (you had to be there more than an hour early to get a seat in the actual room). For those of you who don't know, HR-5 is the House resolution to encourage the Supreme Court to set aside Prop 8. They voted, and it passed 7-3 I think. The girls were running around and getting a little boisterous so we decided not to stay for the second hearing (SR-7) for the Senate. Later I found out that the hearing had been cancelled due to the budget crisis and a special meeting had been called that required both the House and the Senate.
Here we are on the way home, the rain and wind had calmed enough for a picture. In the background you can see my sister, her kids and another blogger friend standing under that big rainbow umbrella... I thought it funny that our picture caught their little group in the background.

YAY!

Super exciting news... my brother Shaun is getting MARRIED!!! Yay, we are so excited here because he has picked a really great girl! Yay Katie!

100 Days of School

Here is Katie John showing off her 100 day crafts. She has the glasses on upside down...

I am hoping to get a photo of her 100 board... but haven't yet. The whole school, especially the 1st graders, celebrates the 100th day of school. They practice counting by 10's to 100 all week. What a good activity!

Jonah's first Pinewood Derby

Jonah's car has been sanded, painted, sanded some more and painted and painted. Finally after weeks of work by both John and Jonah the car weighed in at exactly 5 oz. Perfect! They applied Cars stickers and Jonah named his car Lightning and put on a #95 sticker just like Lighting McQueen. Jonah's car is the red one in lane 3.

Our stake has the aluminum pinewood derby track with a sensored finish line. They have a computer program that tracks the cars and rotates them through each of the four lanes 8 times for a total of 59 heats. So by racing different cars each heat, we got to see how well Jonah's car was doing. We were hoping to place in the top 10 out of 29 cars because of how good his times were.

At the awards ceremony Jonah's car placed 2nd in his wolf den. Yay Jonah!! Overall John thinks that his car was between 5th and 7th fastest. I think that's pretty good for a 1st timer.

Proof positive of #24

Have you seen my random list?

Keira ran by our 100's day project and tripped on the glue gun cord. Of course it was a big wild amazing connection of cheek and gun as both flew through the air and connected in true slow motion movie magic. Lucky us the burn isn't horrible... but still was painful if you ask Keira. I am hoping for no scar.

25 random thoughts, goals or things about me

I posted this on my facebook page... I thought it might make a nice addition to my blog since not all of you are facebookers.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I really like gardening, seeing things grow. I feel sad when my plants die, like my Christmas cactus.
2. I would love to feel that burning motivation to be organized and then actually BE organized.
3. I am working on up-keeping two blogs.
4. I learned on Sunday that wishing for a better tomorrow is not as satisfying as appreciating what you have in the here and now. I want to apply that more in my life. It was a good reminder.
5. I am glad to be a stay-at-home mom. Thank you John for being a good worker bee!
6. My favorite colors are green and blue.
7. I like the number 3, probably because my birthday is on the 3rd.
8. I believe that big backyards help compensate for a small house.
9. The tv show LOST ... BLEH! It's such an aggravating show.. who can watch it?
10. I have a birthmark on my arm shaped like Australia.
11. I tend to make up words and use them in everyday settings. Such as: melty, sneezy, dustpanner, huggles, squeezy or speedy as in speedy fast
12. Sometimes I'll change the definition of a word that others don't understand. Such as Hefty: meaning strong in my world... but most people think I mean heavy or chunky. Example: I need a hefty guy to come lift this heavy box. You've seen the Hefty bag commercials... Hefty hefty hefty... Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy... Makes sense right?
13. I worked a sub-contracted mail route for 4 years.
14. I really like donuts... it's hard for me to not eat many at a time.
15. If we are having a conversation and you say something and I give you an example of a similar thing about me or someone I know, I'm not trying to one-up you... I'm trying to relate with you the best I can. I think many people in my life misinterpret that about me.
16. I really like instrumental music from movies. The Lion King, the man from snowy river and Armageddon are a few of my favorites.
17. I really liked seeing Celine Dion and Josh Groban in concert. Their voices are divine!
18. I've been to more Chicago concerts than you can guess.
19. Sometimes I vent in the way of complaints... I'm trying to have less complaints, and more thankfulness.
20. I appreciate my many AWESOME friends. A few which I've had for many many years.
21. When I was younger, I used to dream all the time that I could fly. In my dream, I could actually feel the physical elation like I was actually flying. You know that feeling when you go over a hill a little too fast and you get that tickle in your tummy...or that first second of a drop on a roller coaster? something like that... I can still remember the feeling.
22. If I could have a special super power? It would be to find things that were lost. (or fly)
23. I have been a sleep walker my whole life. It drives John a little nuts sometimes.
24. When using a hot glue gun someone always get burned, no matter how careful you are.
25. I am durable.

How is it?

I'm not sure how it happened, but after Keira took her bath, had a clean diaper and pajamas put on and then was running around playing with the other kids 1 hour before bedtime that she ended up back in the bathtub fully clothed! I was filling up the bath for Sariah when I stepped out of the bathroom for just a moment. Then a concerned call from Sariah alerted me to a problem... Keira back in the tub. I don't know how she did it, but boy was she soggy and surprised.

Now I have a baby running around in just a diaper while her jammies tumble in the dryer. How is it that things like this happen? Hmmm, it makes you wonder what is going through her mind moments before the big splash. Silly, Silly Keira.

Recipes

I would like to put together a cook book filled with easy yummy recipes. It would be great if they didn't use a ton of ingredients, and if they used food storage items it's a bonus!! Please send along any recipes that your family loves and wouldn't mind sharing. Thanks! You can email them to me at sherryanne77@sbcglobal.net