while you were in. . .

In the shower that is. I just wonder what power the shower has over the forces of the universe. Usually I try to sneak into the shower while the kids are all busy and no one seems to care where I am or what I am doing. The shower seems to trigger something in the home that makes all the kids come and start banging on the bathroom door, cry, wake the baby who then also cries; bedlam in other words. Today they were calm but I missed a call and someone came to our door and was ringing the doorbell and knocking just as I stepped out of the shower. Its hard to pretend that you're not home when your kids run to the window and look out at them, but that's what I did. I just hope it wasn't the publisher's clearinghouse guy.

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with the post. I just think posts are better with pictures and this is one of my favorites from a few years ago.

kindergarten roundup

Cali is already nearly finished with kindergarten. It seems like only yesterday that she was Kimi's age, but Kimi informed me that was 250-thousand years ago. Time flies.

We just got to go and enjoy Cali's kindergarten program. What a show. Here is a video of one song we have heard a few times at out house in the days leading up to the program. I was zoomed way in so the quality is a little poor, but the video to me is priceless. And the chuckling you hear is me, of course. This ends up in a lot of our videos. I can't help it.

Great job, my little buckaroo.

mother i looove you, mother i doooo

That is the line of one of the dreariest sounding primary songs that I think there is, but it made my throat clench up and brought tears to my eyes to see my own two girls standing up in Sacrament meeting singing it to me today. At times like that I realize that I have all I ever really wanted out of life. I felt like I needed to also pay homage to my own sweet mother since I don't get to get up in Sacrament Meeting and sing that tribute to her anymore. A few weeks ago I got a hankering for one of my all time favorite treats, Jiffy brownies. One of the reasons I love them so much, besides their fudgy goodness, it that they are the first thing that I remember ever learning how to make. I remember every Sunday afternoon when I must have been in about the second grade (we were still living on Lincoln), mixing it up, chopping up the walnuts before I figured out what "optional" meant, and putting them in the oven so we would all have some to watch "Our House" with Wilford Brimley together. I remember feeling so proud that I got to know the recipe by heart. (Now I know that 1 egg and a tablespoon of water with the mix isn't all that tricky.) It wasn't until a few weeks ago when I was thinking about it that I realized that every Sunday all those ingredients were ready for me and that that hadn't magically happened. Something so little like that, that I never really thought about, helped to foster my love of cooking and in part, homemaking. Mom probably didn't think that was what she was doing either, she was just being a great mom.
So when I wasn't able to find the mixes anywhere for sale down here I asked her to bring me some when she came down for Natalie's blessing. She arrived with a whole case. (Which I secretly hoped would happen.) There she was, keeping me stocked with brownie mixes still, and still just being a great mom. Thank you for all the ways you loved me, Mom.
Happy Mother's Day.

kimi doesn't get mad. . .

I went out for round two of me vs. the bishop's weed yesterday. I decided to rip it all out because I don't really like it. It turned out to be a tough job; we may need a priest to get rid of it. Maybe thats where this stuff got its name. Anywho, Ian was my helper with his little garden trowel, eating dirt. I didn't know that until some neighbors walked by and pointed that out to me. One more vote for "mother of the year"goes to me. Kimi came out after a while and Ian started playing a little game of "dump-a-little-shovel-full-of-dirt-on-Kimi-and-say, 'ha, ha, Ki-mi.'" He did this multiple times with Kimi tell him to stop. I kind of just ignored it because I tend to get really focused when weeding. Kimi came and asked me if I had a little shovel she could use. I told her that Ian had the only one. She went to the storage room and came back with a kid's full sized shovel. You can probably all see where this is going, but I truly didn't. The next thing I knew, Ian was standing next to me sputtering dirt out of his mouth with a pile of dirt on his head, in his eyes, etc. He wasn't crying though, at least he can take it as well as dish it. I sent Kimi inside for a little time to reflect on what she had just done.

Here's a better idea of what Ian might look like with facial hair someday.

go to bed

I just laid Ian down for a nap for the second time. The first time he really wanted to sleep on the bed in his room instead of the crib. I thought that might be good because if he could sleep in that bed then we would actually have a crib for Natalie. After a while I heard him thumping around in there and went to go see. When I opened the door this is what I saw peeking back at me from behind the door:That is Ian with "Banks" as his blanket is called. It also doubles as a smashing headdress.

I put him in his crib for the second try. He chooses random things to sleep with. Besides Banks and "Meow" the cat who are the regulars, he took a diaper to bed because it had Elmo on it. I found that Barney snow boot you can see hiding under the bumper pad when he got up this morning.

Night-night, buddy.

blessing day

Here are a few pictures from Natalie's blessing day on Sunday. Natalie was looking cute, of course.Natalie with her Aunt Tino.
She spent some time talking to her Great-Grandma Colton.
We even got a family picture. (Yea!)

Here's how we all felt after everyone left our house, but Ian was the first to crash. (He never does this.)
Thank you to everyone who helped make this a special day for our family!

dig it

Finally, some really nice weather! I was digging out some new flower beds and Cali and Ian were my helpers, and good helpers too.

Kimi's contribution was to come over and ask me if I was tired of all that back-breaking work and to inform me that what I needed was the "awesome auger." Christine already knows this, but Kimi can quote infomercials to you; it's just one of her many talents. She was busy giving Mrs. Frog (our garden statue) a makeover in her makeup trailer.
I went back out to finish the job the next day and gave Ian freedom to play in the dirt. That was a first for him. He decided to shove the dirt into the holes on his sandals.
Now we just need to get back out there and plant something. Yea, Spring!

what 500 looks like

You can't see it all here, but a new box of q-tips has just covered the floors of the rooms upstairs. I was feeding Natalie in my bedroom and didn't know what these two were up to until Kimi came in and threw some up in the air like confetti. One box goes a long way.

easter sunday best

It is a dream of mine to have my children all dressed up and looking sweet for the camera in the same frame. I tried again and it is still a dream of mine.

Natalie wasn't so happy about the sun. Ian just doesn't know about smiling and holding still for more than 1 nanosecond. Here he is walking away.

Thank you, Cali and Kimi, for humoring me.

I did get some of the littlest lady once we were inside.

She knows she's a pretty girl.
Sorry to brag, but I think my kids are pretty cute.

come listen to the prophet's voice

Were you guys listening as carefully as Cali was during conference?

She didn't want to miss a word. Especially a few key words.
Here's why:
I wish I could say it was the love of the word that I have instilled in her, but I think it was more the reward that Grandma Colton had offered for people to pick a treat when they heard a word off a list she came up with. That got Cali's attention.

egg-stra fun

Ah, the smell of boiled eggs and vinegar. I saw an idea for sticking foil star stickers on the eggs and then peeling them off after you dye them. It turned out to be pretty cute. It also took the girls longer to go through all the eggs so that was a bonus. (We did this while Ian was taking a nap because he believes eggs to be balls and that could be bad for obvious reasons.)

Smile! (They were too busy for me to take more pictures so this is what I got.)

game boy

I don't know if it is because we talk about football games, soccer games, basketball games, or what, but two days ago Ian woke up with some kind of game switch flipped in his talking. He has begun talking a lot more (finally) though when he is excited it is mostly gibberish. Anyways, most things he labels end with game now. I am "mama-game." We change his "diaper-game." He drinks his "water-game." He reads a book about a "kitty-game." You name it, it's a game. It probably only will last another day or two, these things usually do. Ian has been so funny lately. I believe he is starting to pay us back for not giving him away in the first two years.

terrific two

Here are a few moments from Ian's birthday.

He still doesn't like to rip the paper off of presents, but his sisters were happy to help. We got him a golf set so I could have my kitchen spoons back.
When I saw this at the store I knew it had been waiting for me. Especially when I saw it was on clearance. Its his "football bike." By the way, the way Ian says "football" sort-of sounds like "poopball." That's really not relevant, I just think its funny.
After blowing out the candles on his cake, (I made a post about the cake below) he was ready to eat. Scott grabbed it just in time.

That's definitely my boy.

icing on the cake

Okay, so its not the prettiest cake I've ever made, but for some reason I am more proud of this than any wedding cake I've ever made. Here's how we did it.

I made a banana cake. For the recipe head over to our food blog. After baking the cake and making the frosting (some plain, some chocolate) I got my helpers and we layered the cakes.Then we measured 2 inches in the center of the cakes and cut it out. This is what we were left with.
Then we took a break to eat some of the cake we just cut out. If you're pressed for time I guess you could skip this step. (if you are that pressed for time maybe you should prioritize)

We frosted the cake with chocolate frosting.
Last, I piped the lacing and other white stripes onto the cake. Here is my very high-tech decorators bag. This was the final product. Ian loved it and Scott wanted to know why I have never made him one.

Flashback Friday: that's my boy

Here's a glimpse at what happened two years ago today:Here's the family. (Kimi was looking a little rock-starish, I must say.)Happy Birthday, Ian!