Memorial Day Weekend in St. George

Lovely Sunday morning spent at the St. George Temple grounds . . . family photo op :-).

Happy Birthday Caroline - 11 years old on May 25th!

Fun in the pool - Ryan and Grandma having a "treading water contest" (they finally called a truce after 20 minutes . . . don't mess with competitive Howicks ;-), and Liza and Caroline splashing around.

Sophie jumped off the diving board for the very first time - EVER . . . Way to go Soph!!

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's pool is always the highlight of our vacation.

Frog hunting at night with Grandma - take a look at our spoils: THREE frogs!!

THANKS Grandma Janice and Grandpa Terry for a great weekend - we love you!

"No Thank You"

"No Thank-you" is Elizabeth's latest favorite statement when asked to do anything, anything at all. You say, "Liza, will you pick up your shoes and put them away." She responds in an ever so cheerful voice, "no thank-you," and goes merrily on her way doing whatever it was before you so rudely interrupted her with your request.

Just yesterday while playing with a little friend over at our house, her friend wanted to switch games and play something she picked out. Liza, ever diplomatic, sweetly told her, "no thank-you," and continued playing what SHE wanted to play while her friend looked ever so confused. We are trying to explain to Elizabeth that, although she is so polite, saying "no thank-you" DOES NOT mean you have a free pass to do whatever you please! Sadly to say, it's not working - Chris just asked her to pick up a toy here at my parent's house before going outside, but instead she chirped, "no thank-you" and skipped out the door to go for a ride on her scooter.

Pre-school pics

Well, today the pictures arrived home in Liza's pre-school bag and I have to say that my worst fears were realized (for those of you new to the blog - you'll find the whole story in my April 25th entry). Not only was she posing with her latest "i did it myself" hairstyle, but she was wearing her favorite dress-up OVER her regular clothes - thus, the polo collar poking out of the blue princess velvet dress added just the right touch.

When Caroline saw the class photo, she announced, "She looks hideous - I can't believe you let her out of the house looking like that!" I just grinned and replied, "yes, I did - just be happy it wasn't you."

"I'm the MOM . . the Mom, the Mom, the Mom!"

This is the GREATEST!! Oh, and thanks to Andy for showing me how to put in videos - we're having loads of fun now :-).

Mother's Day 2008

MY HAPPY CREW

The BEST part of Mother's Day has got to be all the homemade cards and gifts the kids pile up each year in anticipation of this special day, and I have to admit that Liza's green rock turtle recipe card holder was the winner this year - hands down! I'm pretty sure I still have every poem, letter, and homemade card from each Mother's day since Ryan was in pre-school . . . I can't give them up.

Speaking of these "made at school" treasures, take a look at the coolest functional Mother's Day gift I've ever received:

This is the yarn/cardboard trivet Ryan made for me in 3rd grade - i LOVE it and use it practically every day for miscellaneous hot food items taken out of the oven. I wonder how many parents from Mrs. Westover's 3rd grade class still use their trivets?? Every time Ryan sees his creation he gives me this look and tells me, "I can't believe you still use that thing!" And why wouldn't I? It's about the coolest trivet around and reminds me of my sweet son at an age when giving your mom a gift that you actually made yourself was really neat :-).

Other Mother's day festivities - Pat receiving her digital camera - sweet, now we can have pictures from the mission when she figures out how to use it. You can do it Sister Pat, we know you can!
Aunt Laura and Sophie . . . is Sophie all Cantera or what?
Caroline keeping the cousins entertained with fun items from the dress up chest.

Our favorite youtube . . .

Need a laugh? The kids can't get enough of this clip, they think it's hilarious!

Come again?!?

If any parents are at this moment wondering what in the world they were thinking having children, just remember that we have them solely for their entertainment value. Really, we do, because it's during the times they make us laugh that make all the hard work and gray hairs worth it. Let me recount one such moment from this evening.

Sunday dinner was winding down and Elizabeth was dying to get back outside with Sophie and all the neighbor kids, so she jumps out of her seat as soon as Sophie leaves and announces she's headed back outside. Chris, who never can resist teasing anyone within earshot simply states that "no . . . oh, no you don't - you're too little, you have to go upstairs and get in your pjs and climb into bed." Alright, that did it - Liza didn't catch any humor whatsoever in his tone and immediately flew herself into a tantrum, jumping up and down and screaming at the top of her lungs at this injustice (how dare he, right?). As soon as she could somewhat compose herself, she turned to Chris with a look of pure disgust and screamed, "you're a stinking . . . . you're a stinking . . . . oh, you're a stinkin' WOOD CHIP!!"

We all burst into laughter and Caroline pointed at Chris and through her giggles said, "did she just call you a wood chip?" Really folks, it's got to be the funniest insult i've ever heard. Ryan laughed and announced that it's just another "random comment" from our Liza.

After the laughter died down, I thought for a moment if it really was all that "random." Maybe it wasn't - after all, one of the most annoying and irritating items in the life of a 4-year old are wood chips . . . really, they get inside your shoes when you are playing at the park and they hurt like crazy if you step on them in bare feet. So, there you go - Elizabeth wasn't being random, she was actually being quite observant and comparing her father to the most frustrating thing she could think of - a wood chip. Way to go Liza!

Washington DC

Here are some pics from our recent trip to DC in March. We spent five wonderful days with Ryan and Caroline visiting every monument, musuem, and memorial in that great city. Thanks again to grandma Pat for taking the little girls so we could surprise the big kids with an educational and enjoyable spring break get-away. For those of you who didn't hear the story, we had the car packed with our bags and told the big kids we were going out for a late movie (U2-3D) . . . so they jumped in the car and before they knew it, we were at the airport and hopping on the red-eye to DC! Nothing like a little surprise to keep the kids on their toes - and we did keep our promise about the movie, we had tickets to see it during our stay at the Museum of Natural History :-).

Happy May Day

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? This was what greeted us this morning . . . Dave and Carrie, we'll be to your place by dinner ;-).