The Great Cookie Tragedy of '10

One day when the kids were climbing the wall and I was about to go crazy, I decided to make cookies with them. Because THAT wouldn't be stressful at ALL. We decide to make chocolate cookies and top them with some leftover Hershey Kisses that we had. They helped get all the ingredients and we mixed them all together. I let go of my grossed-outness and let them help me roll them into little balls and put them on the cookie sheet. We baked them and when they came out of the oven, the chocolate was still super wobbly on top. I didn't want to put them in the fridge because I didn't want the chocolate to seize. So I walked out to the garage looking for something to set it on since it was cooler out there. As I was contemplating, one of the babies let out a scream. I hurriedly set one of the potholders I was using on the entry rug I was standing on and set the cookies down. I helped the baby, (who had gotten stuck under a chair) and by that time another sheet was ready to come out of the oven. I grabbed it and opened the door to the garage and then

SQUISH!

Complete and utter tragedy. I stepped on the cookies! I'm a complete idiot.
As Andrew said "sooooo saaaad." hangs head

Andrewisms

Oh this kid.

A few funny things about Andrew. He thinks he lives in a old school Disney cartoon. He watches them all the time. He says things like "Hey, what's the big idea?". When he gets ready to run, he runs in place first and then takes off, like he's Fred Flintstone or something. When he wants kisses, he kisses both cheeks like he's European.

Funny Story
Daddy is putting Maddi and Andrew to bed at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He is giving them a stern talking to about going to bed and to stop messing around.

Dad: " If you don't go to bed, I'm going to put you in time out, in the car. And it's like a refrigerator out there."
Andrew: " NOOOO! I don't want to go in the calculator!"

Another Funny Story
The other night we were all hanging out and Andrew was joking around with Richi. They kept calling each other silly names, when all the sudden I heard Andrew yell " Oh yeah? Your MOMMA!"
Now where did he learn that?

Maddi's Award.

On the last day of school, I got a phone call from my friend April. Her daughter is in Maddi's class at school. She asked me if I had gotten a phone call from their teacher telling me that Maddi was going to be getting an award at the Awards ceremony in a few hours. I hadn't been called! I hurried as fast as I could to get showered, find somewhere for Andrew to play, tricked my neighbor that watching two babies wasn't hard, and ran over to the school, camera in hand. When I got there, there were a bazillion people there and half of the school (the other half had their awards ceremony earlier in the day) I had no idea what award Maddi was getting, none of the parents did. But I was SOOOO excited when Maddi got one of the four academic awards they handed out!!! I was so proud of her! Ok, I know this is just kindergarten, but I was SOOO happy for her and just so grateful she didn't inherit my lackluster zest for schoolwork. ( don't tell her I said that :) )

Here's Maddi getting up and shaking the principals hand and accepting her award.

There were four academics and four citizenship awards. Here's the rest of the kids in her class that got them.

Maddi and her Teacher after the ceremony.

She must have gotten her smarts from her Dad.
Thinking about it, I'm sure that she did because he's a smarty pants.

Maddism

Every so often, Maddi asks if she can type on my notepad on my computer. She left it open yesterday and this is what I found:

dear kadnice you are the best frend iv evr had i wish you were my naber good thing theat you dont live were tornatohs atac that ohnliiy hapins in missisipppi you kohw that renebr how kaliiy told us i am exidid for that we get to do our danse residl i knohw that ist done oh and renebrit is on dsembr 9th ok ok seaa at the danse club from madalyn

Translation:
Dear Kadence, you are the best friend I've ever had. I wish you were my neighbor. Good thing that you don't live where tornados attack, that only happens in Mississippi. You know that remember when Kali told us? I'm excited that we get to do our dance recital. I know that its done oh and remember is on December 9th. ok ok see ya at the dance club, from Madalyn.


I wasn't sure if I should be impressed that she did this herself or if that was actually good spelling of words she's never written before. And when did she learn about tornados attacking, what brought that up? And why does she think they only happen in Mississipi? But apparently she felt the need to remind her of when the dance recital was.
I find this all very endearing...

Throwback picture to preschool graduation.

California Feb '10

Ok, I have my computer back so I can now catch up on my posting! Last March we met Jesse's sister and her family in California at Lee and Maria's house. It was so fun! We loved hanging out with everyone, we laughed a LOT. It was so fun to see the kids get to know each other better.
Maddi helped Papa a lot with planting his garden. They planted so many thing I couldn't even begin to name everything!
She had a LOT of fun.
Uncle Jared is Mr. Super-handy. So he helped finish putting together the play set they got for the grand kids.
We spent a LOT of time in the pool! It was so nice to swim after all the cold weather in Utah! It was so relaxing. I think the kids just lived in their swim suits.Maddi wanted me to take pictures of her on the slide? She didn't want to go down it, but she was a very brave girl and climbed up.

Here she is on the diving board.

Don't ask me, I'm just the photographer.
They wore life jackets the whole time but Andrew hung out in the floaty thing a lot.

Jared and Edward

Maddi and Nana
Emily really liked to chew on the handle.

I could NOT get a picture of Ellie looking at the camera. She was too fascinated with the water! I couldn't find any swimming suits in their size in March so we just put them in some onesies Maria had. They were boy ones, but the looked so cute.

Andrew and Papa hanging out in the deep end.
While we were there we celebrated Edward's birthday. Becky gave him a Curious George party. It was so cute! The kids had fun.
Yummy Yummy cupcakes Becky made.

Andrew played a lot with the Cars Geo Trax they had.

Hijacked

Well, my laptop's been hijacked. Not because I crashed it this time. But because Jesse needed to use it. So.... that pretty much takes care of that. Check back later!

24th of July and Cherilyn's Birthday

This year July got so busy that we weren't able to celebrate Cherilyn's birthday right ON her birthday. So instead we combined it with the 24th. We met my family for the Handcart Parade. I hadn't been for YEARS! It was fun. Jesse had been working CRAZY hours and wasn't able to come to the parade. But he was able to meet up with us later.

Here's the hangin out part. We were able to get a nice shady spot.

Seriously, whenever my kids learn how to smile for the camera, that will be a happy day.

Babies hangin'

And look who I ran into!!! I seriously freaked out and ran over to Sherri and attacked her. I made her and her family come sit by us and we chatted and caught up the whole parade. It was AWESOME! It was sooo good to see her!

Here's a picture of Sherri's kids and Maddi standing on chairs to see the parade better. Julie acted as chair stablizer. Andrew just wanted to stand on Rebecca. I loved how our kids hit it off!

After the parade we went to the Red Iguana in down town. Sooooo goooooodddd. It was featured on Diner's Driveins and Dives on the Food Network, so I just looked up on there what they featured and I got that. I'm still thinking about it, it was divine! Man, check out Cherilyn's drink!

Yay, Jesse got there! Good day of food, folks, and fun.

The 4th

Aside from Christmas (cause everyone LOVES Christmas) My absolute favorite holiday is the 4th of July. This year the 4th was on a Sunday, and so Jesse had Monday off. It felt like we celebrated forever! Saturday Morning we went to the Provo Parade, the kids loved it. Later that day we all met up on the Provo Temple Lawn and ate dinner, played games, and waited for the fireworks to start from the Stadium of Fire.

Here's the sweet set up we had on the Temple lawn. We had pulled pork sandwiches and then we all brought stuff to share. It was yummy.
Julie and Andrew hangin' out.

Ellie and Dad hangin' out.
Emmy is content to just smile and roll around.

On another day we got together with our neighbors and set off some fireworks in front of our houses. It was fun!!!

Jesse lighting sparklers.
We made the kids get in their pjs :)

I have NO idea why we are all looking up!

Again! Why are they looking up? huh....weird....

At the end of the night the kids roasted marshmallows. They loved it!!!

Strawberry Days '10

This year we were actually able to participate in Strawberry Days! We had a ton of fun at the carnival. We took $20, bought as many tickets as we could. And then when they were gone, we went home. The kids LOVED it.

The first ride went on was the Ferris Wheel. (Please hide the glare of my legs from your eyes.)
Here's a picture of the kid that threw up and had to get off. Sad.....
( ....but totally gross for the guy below him that he threw up on.)
The kids lovvvveeed the train!
Emmy and Ellie had soooooo much fun. Can you tell?

Ellie always had the same kind of look: " What are we doing here?"

"Hi, I'm cute. No matter where we are."
Merry Go Round!

And finally, checking out the Fire House and the Fire Engines were way fun.

We can't wait to do Strawberry Days again next year!!!!