Crazy Busy

Last weekend was the Fathers and Sons Camp out. This was the first year Kameron and Tyler have gotten to go. We've always had other things going on when it rolled around. Kameron was SO EXCITED to be going.

And they're off...
Look at this GORGEOUS setting for the camp out. This is also where our Stake has Girls Camp. THIS IS WHY WE LIVE IN THIS AREA. When it's not raining and cold it is GORGEOUS!!


Our tent is that teeny tiny blue and green one. Tyler and I bought it with some of the money we got for our wedding. It is still in good shape 13 years later. Now it doesn't get much use. We have a tent trailer that we use when camping as a family. Kameron and Tyler had a fun time. Check out Kameron's dirt smeared face. Oh the fun of not having a mother on the camp out. He came home absolutely filthy. He was in stinky little boy heaven.



While the boys were away...the girls had a fun Girls Night Out with friends. We had a wild and crazy fun dinner at Red Robin with over 20 of us. Then it was off to the mall to go to Build-A-Bear. I hate stuffed animals and last fall I had my kids pick out one each that they wanted to keep and I got rid of the rest...they have never missed them. Therefore my deprived children had never been to Build-A-Bear and thought they never would get to go. I have to say that Build-A-Bear is SUCH A CUTE STORE. Reilly decided to save her cash allotment for a Webkinz (again a stuffed animal and heretofore avoided) but she had fun helping Ailey who was in little girl paradise. Her eyes were wide with amazement the whole time and she is still talking about it.

The store really is magical to a three year old. She picked out a pink and white bear and dressed her in a pink ballet outfit. Ailey named her "Christine". I don't know where she got that name? But it is a step above her other dolls who are named "Sister Holland" and "Baby Jesus". My girls have always named their dolls the strangest names. Reilly had two little girl dolls that she named "Rosie and Dar" (the names of Tyler's aunt and uncle) and then when I was pregnant and knew I was having a boy my mom got Reilly a little boy doll and she named him "Sal". Hilarious.

Ailey and Christine have been having a great time together. Ailey came with me to go visiting teaching today and she brought Christine. Ailey was explaining to Christine the importance of visiting old people. It was so funny.


THESE PICTURES HAVE BEEN BLOGJACKED FROM MY FRIEND KARIANN'S BLOG...I hope you don't mind Kariann!! But...my camera got left at home accidentally that night.

What a cute bunch of girls!!

After all the excitement we were off to Justice For Girls (FINALLY one has opened in our area), Claire's, and Bath and Body Works for Reilly...heaven to a preteen. We had a fun girls night!!

The Lilacs are blooming!!

Lilacs are my favorite flower and I have a bunch of them blooming in my yard. It smells heavenly. We have been doing a bunch of yard work and planting our garden. Things are finally coming together in our yard after a long and destructive winter.

Attn: Staci (blog reader):

A while ago you asked me if I could suggest a good vegetarian cook book. At the time I couldn't think of one as I get most of my recipes off of the Internet. But I have since found a FANTASTIC vegetarian cook book. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Dinner Alert: Garlic Mushroom Quesadillas with Tomatillo-Chile Salsa, sweet potato fries, and fruit.

Book Review #31


Did I really think this would be a great read? No. But I have been basically doing everything I can to avoid reading the book I am actually reading Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron. I just can't get into that book. Several people I know LOVE that book and HIGHLY recommend it so I will persevere in reading it albeit with a few short fluff reads in between.

I decided to read this book after catching the Oprah episode where she was interviewing Barbara Walters. Egads. Can Barbara Walters have tanked anymore in my estimation? But that is another book review for another time. But on Oprah...Barbara Walters kept referring to this book written by Rosie shortly after she quit her gig on The View (a show I absolutely loathe). Barbara felt that it was filled with anger toward her and The View.

Now it was a total fluke that I just happened to catch the infamous political fight between Rosie and Elisabeth Hasslebeck. It annoys me that there is only one conservative on that show and that the one conservative is Elisabeth who although likable is sometime not the most eloquent. She gets flustered, she gets cornered, and then she gives up trying to get a word in edgewise. She reminds me of myself discussing politics or religion with my Uncle Steve. Now the day of this infamous fight she actually was standing up to Rosie and the rest of the ladies (and I use that term loosely) on the View. I was mesmerized. I rejoiced. I cheered her on. The result: Rosie left the show in a huff a few weeks early and didn't renew her contract. No loss there.

Once upon a time I actually liked Rosie O'Donnell. I was a brand new mom at home and wondering what the heck I was doing trying to take care of a baby and the Rosie O'Donnell show at 11 am was a bright spot in my day. Now...I'm no Rosie fan. We differ on too many things..important things. Politics being the biggest.

But I was curious as to what her take was on the whole debacle at The View. This whole book is hyped up to be all about her time on The View and what lead up to the "big fight". So I decided to give it a read.

BORING!! BORING!! BORING!! It was all about her love of Barbra Streisand, her pain of losing her mother at a young age, and her hope that Barbara Walters would take her mother's place, and her feud with Donald Trump (raging loser). The only parts that I felt any kind of connection to were the parts about her mother. Very sad. As a mother and as a woman who has been blessed to grow up with a mother those parts were truly heart-breaking. But the rest. Pure crap.

The whole book seems to be building up to the fight with Elisabeth. Rosie's take on the fight...nothing. She says not one word about the whole incident. Bait and switch.

My View: SKIP IT...It's a dud.

Sunday Dinner Alert: Homemade Sushi and Danish Dessert Strawberry Cake.

What's Good For the Goose is Good For the Gander


Since I've documented the many humorous moments as Reilly "matures" it is only fair that I document the ones about Kameron. This could be TMI for some of you faint-hearted. A couple of weeks ago when Kameron was at baseball practice his coach came over to where the parents were watching swinging something around and around on his index finger. "Parents... I think we all recognize these...I need the boys in them by our next game." As I struggled to identify what that bit of fabric and elastic was (I grew up with only one brother...much younger) it FINALLY dawned on me that it was none other than a jock strap!! Really?? At seven? You've got to be kidding me. The coach wasn't.

This necessitated a trip to the store to purchase this little item. How difficult could that be? DIFFICULT! First of all, finding such extremely small ones was a problem. Luckily one mother found a store that had an abundance and I decided to head on down there to pick one up. The second problem...my sheer mortification. That completely blindsided me. I'm not that easily embarrassed. I like to think of myself as an evolved woman. Please. I have no problem buying condoms...even with a male cashier...I can plunk them down on the conveyor belt thing without batting an eye...even if it says in large letters "ribbed for her pleasure" I can make eye contact and tell them to have a nice day. But buy a jock strap for my seven year old and I am reduced to quaking jello.

It started off so normal...me and Ailey walking into the sporting goods store. It was a new one in our area so I decided to look around. Well, the help there is "uber-helpful" and I was asked about 15 times if they could help me find anything. "Nope. I'm just looking". As I went through all the aisles it became obvious that these were impossible to find. Crap. I was going to have to go ask for assistance. All of the sales associates just happened to be buff manly men sportsmen. Everywhere I looked they were in groups of two or three. No--my evolution as a feminist woman does not include me sauntering up to a group of manly men sportsmen and saying "Hello boys! Could one of you manly men point me in the direction of the jock straps?" Yeah that wasn't going to happen. So I roamed all the aisles again looking for a female sales associate. There wasn't one. Crap. Then a brilliant idea struck me. I would call Tyler at work, have him call the store asking if they were in stock, and where they were located and then he could call me back. So I went over to an aisle free of men and called Tyler. He agreed to call the store after much exasperation as to why I didn't just ASK SOMEONE.

Well if you want to be left alone and keep a low profile while waiting for your husband's call don't by all means wait in guns and ammunition!! Big mistake. Apparently nervous females with whiny 3 year-old girls aren't usual browsers in that particular aisle. Enter umpteen helpful men. So I quickly headed over to womens shoes and was left blissfully alone. After a LONG TIME and no call from Tyler. I called him back. He "claimed" he couldn't find a number for the new store. Hmm...baloney. I thought I detected some snickering in the back ground. He told me I was just going to have to go ask someone and to get over it...after all he's been buying tampons for me for years. Crap. Just as I was hanging up and about to look for an elderly male worker to assist me one of the manly men walked by and joy to behold while it appeared to be male it was infact female!! Yahoo. Mission accomplished. Guess where they were? By the ping pong balls because that makes perfect sense right?

After I brought it home and gave it to Kameron I thought I would do my own little psychology experiment. A downside of a mother with a psychology background. I get amusement out of things like this. My experiment was two-fold. Number one...what would he do when encountered with something he has never seen in his life and number two...occasionally for the fun of it I like to look for evidence that we actually descend from a higher being rather than having evolved from hairy apes.



I gave Kameron the package. He opened it, pulled it out, sniffed it, and promptly put it on his head. Score one for the hairy apes. He then dangled it off one finger as he ran around the house chasing his sisters and trying to swing it in their faces. Reilly was appalled and told him to to "Get that disgusting thing out of her face!!"

Kameron: "Do you know what this is for?"

Reilly: "Yeah and I could puke if you don't get it out of here".

Kameron: "It's for protection...for my "family nut"!!

Hmm...apparently there is some confusion and a mixing of labels between the other seven year olds on the play ground. But hilarious all the same. His team is now quite enthralled with this whole new piece of attire and routinely check each other to see if they have them on. Score two for the hairy apes. Nature versus nurture. You be the judge. Oh by the way-- if you find yourself in my position and need to purchase one of these don't ask where the jock straps are...they have a new PC name that will save you MUCH EMBARRASSMENT. They are called "Athletic Supporters". Who knew?

Dinner Alert: Since nothing kills an appetite like talking about athletic supporters I apologize. BUT... we are having lime coconut jasmine rice with edamame and leeks for dinner and egg rolls. YUM.

Catch Up

The month of May is passing by in a blur. It's time to catch up on some of the things that have been going on.

Mother's Day

Me and our CRAZY bunch!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!! I have the greatest kids and husband who show lots of love and appreciation. I am very lucky. I got spoiled with lots of sweet hugs and kisses, presents, cards and brunch. At church all the kids went up on the stand to sing to all the mothers at church. It's hard to believe that all our kids are in Primary now. Ailey the newbie sunbeam and her BFF Elly were so darn cute. You could barely see their heads above the railing but they were singing away. After the chorister told all the kids that they could go back to sit with their parents Ailey and Elly didn't budge. They just stood there grinning at the congregation. Reilly tried to motion them off the stand but they weren't going anywhere. They were up there by themselves with HUGE GRINS and Reilly ended up going back on the stand to retrieve them. It was so cute. My good friend, Jayni, gave a great talk...and then things got bittersweet. Jayni and her family left right after sacrament meeting to move to Utah. Sad for us but exciting for them.

We spent most of Mother's Day out at the lake. The weather was rotten but the day was fun.

My grandma and three of her five children

The girls

Earlier this week I got to go the Kameron's class for a Mother's Day lunch. He gave me the sweetest card and gift and I of course was bawling much to his embarrassment!! He didn't want me to take any pictures "too embarrassing Mom!!" But Reilly came by to say hello and she took this picture of us eating our lunch. Kamers is such a little rule follower...he didn't want to turn around and face the opposite way at the lunch table or do anything that would get him "in trouble" with the lunch helpers!!


Here's my boy looking a tad bit stressed and said we could only take "ONE" picture! ;)

Baseball

We've been to LOTS and LOTS of baseball games and practices.



Here are some pictures of him playing different positions. Isn't he the cutest little catcher you have ever seen?


New Beginnings

Wow! I can't believe that we are already to this stage in Reilly's life. She doesn't turn 12 until the fall but she got to attend New Beginnings as an incoming Beehive. She was THRILLED!!

Molly and Reilly two SUPER EXCITED Beehives-to-be!!

While we were at the dinner one of the ladies from our ward leaned over and asked me how I felt with Reilly about to enter Young Womens. Hmm...excited, old, freaked out, proud, emotional are just a few words to describe my feelings that night. I am so glad I was just in the YW Presidency myself because I have such a love and excitement for the YW program and it will be fun to share all the excitement with Reilly.

First Picnic of the Year

We had a beautiful day last week and we just had to go to the park, play baseball as a family and have a fabulous picnic.

It's FINALLY starting to feel like SPRING!!

Dinner Alert: It's another double-header of ballet and baseball. I'm packing my cooler with pasta salad and fruit.

Who ARE You?




It's Friday!! Yahoo!! I'm about 12 posts behind and I may never catch up. I have a 101 things to do...BUT...I saw this on a blog as a "Tag"... and I thought it was fun. Those of you who know me in "real" life know how inherently noisy I am. I am naturally curious about other people. I like to know how people live, what they eat, what they do etc. People are quite fascinating. I have thought for years that you can tell a lot about a person by the music on their Ipod play lists. Very revealing.

So...put your Ipod on shuffle and tell me the first 7 songs that come up. Music says a lot about who we are. Surprise me.

Here's mine. Judge me as you will.

1.) Numb ( Linkin Park)

2.) Let Go (Frou Frou)

3.) Chemistry of a Car Crash (Shiny Toy Guns)

4.) Your Heart is an Empty Room (Death Cab For Cutie)

5.) Radio Nowhere (Bruce Springsteen) My current FAVORITE SONG!!

6.) Airport Song (Guster)

7.) Two Sisters (Fiction Plane) The lead singer of this group is Sting's son. My undying
love for Sting is now being carried over to his son. This song is currently playing on my blog. Enjoy.

What are you listening to?

Dinner Alert: We have ballet, baseball and a birthday party tonight so we are eating on the run. I HATE fast food so I will be packing a cooler. Cheese and tomato on croissants sandwiches for the kids and Janyse's chicken salad on croissants for me and Tyler. Served with fruit and veggies.

Thanks for the Memories

Joy School is over. Jayni is moving to Utah this weekend. We are sad. We love their family!! As a result Joy School ended a few weeks early. What a fun year our girls have had. We were a small Joy School group. We started with just Ailey and Elly...then London joined. It has been so much fun watching our girls grow, learn, and build friendships with one another. I don't think Ailey has any idea how much she is going to miss her best friend Elly. I'm so glad she has still has London. We are going to continue having a regular Friday morning play date with London. I think that will really help Ailey.

Thanks Jayni for getting this whole program going. I was hesitant about starting it and Tuesday nights when I was doing all the prep work I dreaded it...but in the end it was so worth it. Ailey has really blossomed and learned so much. She has loved every minute of Joy School!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this year:

First Day of School

Ailey, London, and Elly

The girls sporting the hairdo called "The Elly"

"Oh Boy I've Got Joy!!"

The Last Day

For the last day of Joy School Jayni had a Princess Party at her house for the girls. They LOVED IT!! Ailey was so excited to go to the Princess Party and to eat PINK POPCORN!!


When we got to Jayni's not only were the little girls dressed up but so was Jayni!! She was a purple princess too!!

Here's our mascot...cute Toby!!

It's Been A Fun Year!!

Dinner Alert: Angel hair pasta with fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Happy 13th Anniversary!

Obsessive



This is how I get when I learn about something new that REALLY interests me. I have to read all I can, learn all I can, see all I can. My latest obsession...the Navy. Well, really any of the armed forces. It's that darn book Lone Survivor that has done it to me. I am oozing patriotism. I saw some poor man in uniform in Albertson's the other day and I literally had to restrain myself from hugging him and gushing about how much I appreciate his service to our country. You can't even imagine the kind of books I have lined up to read...non-fiction, armed forces, delta force...who am I?

Imagine my literal GLEE when flipping through the channels on TV on Monday I came across this documentary by PBS. It tore me away from Dancing With the Stars!! I KNOW!! Crazy. Well...this documentary has been running all week. It's 10 hours long. PBS would play a couple of episodes a night. I have been up until the wee hours of the morning night after night completely absorbed by this amazing documentary.

Did anyone else see it? If not... you can go here and can watch it. It's fascinating. This reminds me of the last PBS documentary I got obsessive about...it was around 1997 I believe and it was called The Farmer's Wife.


Also life changing. That launched me on a gardening and preserving frenzy I have yet to recover from. If you haven't seen the Farmer's Wife I highly recommend it too.

Now I need to go crank up some Lee Greenwood and belt out "Proud to Be An American", say the pledge of Allegiance or go sew a flag or something.

Dinner Alert: Taco Time drive-thru

Is it May?

This question is posed for two reasons...it barely feels like it...although today is sunny and it should hit 60 degrees. I won't hold my breath though. The second reason is that somehow...someway...the calendar for May is nearly full and I have yet to rip off April. May through the end of June is a crazy busy time around here.

Here's what we've been up to lately:


If we aren't at home chances are we are at baseball or ballet. It is a busy season for both. Kameron is having a a great time playing baseball. He absolutely loves it. Even if is his just a tad hesitant to catch a fly ball. Go White Sox!!

We had a fun weekend filled with baseball, outings, and fun at the lake. Kelley picked up the kids after Kameron's baseball game for a fun pizza night. Our kids had an absolutely blast hanging out with their fun Aunt Kelley. She spoiled them rotten!!


My Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Mike where in town so we spent all Sunday with them. It was so good to see them. Great news!! The ice has finally melted on the lake. Yehaw!! Open water!! BIG EXCITEMENT!!

The kids befriended two Canadian Geese:



They had fun playing on the beach and I actually got into the water for the first time this year. End of April...not as impressive as February...but it was still cold. I didn't swim...just waded. That was enough.




I can't believe that it was the last weekend in April and that there was still snow on the beaches across the lake. Brrr!!

Another Reilly milestone...

She just got her invitation to New Beginnings. Her first official Young Women's event. She is THRILLED!!

P.S. Happy Anniversary Stacey and John

Dinner Alert: Baked Potato Bar