60 Random Things... can you do this?

1- My favorite way to start the day is with a big glass of OJ (PULP FREE!).
2- Long, hot showers have a 100% de-stress result for me.
3- I hate to wash my hair because then I have to style it again.
4- I was a chapstick eater as a kid.
5- I have to hide my chapstick because Grace eats it.
6- I really like school...I just wish I had finished before I had kids.
7- I rarely watch the news and am probably the least informed person on the planet when it comes to current events.
8- Pigs are my favorite animals.
9- I hate to run.
10- I love to play sports of any kind.
11- I spend way too much time blogging.
12- I hate surprise parties that are for me.
13- I have read Pride and Prejudice over 10 times.
14- I love talking with Buck.
15- I really like reading teen fiction.
16- I hate writing papers.
17- I lived in Hawaii for 10 months and went to the beach less than 10 times.
18- Best thing I learned in beauty school was how to wax my eyebrows because there would only be one and it'd be twice as thick if I didn't. Sick!
19- I love the white noise of the furnace in the winter.
20- I would rather be hot than cold.
21- I like working out but don't make time for it.
22- I feel much younger than I really am.
23- I hate to drink water.
24- The ocean scares me.
25- I think it's funny when people fall down.
26- I think it's funny when little kids have grown-up sized farts.
27- I love organizing things.
28- I wish I were better at making cute things to hang on my walls, etc.
29- I wish I had time to figure out how to make cute things for my walls.
30- I ALWAYS lose to Buck in Parcheesi.
31- I love working with numbers.
32- My first job (after 16 yrs. old) was at a dry cleaner.
33- I love to shop online.
34- Raisins should be eaten plain or in cereal only.
35- I love hearing my kids laugh and I love to laugh with them.
36- I think I'm a great speller.
37- I love office supply stores.
38- I am going to plant a vegetable garden for the first time this year.
39- I love hearing what people are going to name their baby.
40- I have a patch of white hair on my temple.
41- I could spend hundreds of dollars at the beauty supply store every month.
42- I love spending time with friends.
43- I love spending time with my whole family (brothers, sisters, parents and all).
44- I have a fear of things attacking my neck..whether it be rodents, hand puppets or what have you.
45- I have a fascination with buying swimsuits and used to own 8 but don't go swimming enough to justify owning that many.
46- There is always room for pizza.
47- Remington Steele is one of my all-time favorite shows.
48- I love 80's music and movies.
49- I love Sunday visits to Grandparent's houses.
50- I want to be the kind of girl who wears a skirt more than just to church on Sunday.
51- Jeans are my favorite thing to wear.
52- I really love cutting hair.
53- I am desperately in need of a pedicure.
54- I really want to take a trip that requires an airplane to get there...soon.
55- I love traveling.
56- I have been to 8 different countries.
57- I really like to be outside.
58- I love family camping trips (ones when I was a kid and now too).
59- My new favorite mode of exercise is Yoga.
60- I love being a mom.
Whew! This was harder than I thought.

"Hey, you know what this place needs? A really large, oversize poster of Atlantic City."

"Oh, look! You've got one!"

Okay. It's not Atlantic City but it was certainly a huge painting on the wall of our hotel room in St. George this weekend. It was a nice place but this picture just made us laugh. We couldn't tell if the big tree up front was growing out of a rock or if that was lavendar dirt? And how were you supposed to get to the tire swing that's like five feet above the ground? Odd.

Grace broke in the room the first night by jumping on the beds. I missed her head here but I thought it was such a funny shot of her.

Mmmm... Butter for breakfast. After a while, Grace gets tired of all the extra pancake she has to choke down and just heads straight for the butter.

Because our swimming pool was not heated as advertised, we went to this Fiesta Fun Center and played there. Grace thought it was so funny when Buck would do the zip line toward her.

This place had bumper boats and Grace loved them! As soon as we would get out she would say, "more! more!"

She got to drive on the kiddie carts too. Actually, she sat and I drove but my thumb was sore by the fourth lap and since she was the only one in them, I cut her drive short. The cars were painfully slow too so it wasn't very fun for me.

We tried some minature golf.

Grace would hit the ball then drop the putter and run as fast as she could to pick it up and throw it the rest of the way into the cup since she missed the first time.

We only lasted 3 holes and there was such a back up that we couldn't keep her attention on the game.

We had lots of fun except for our cold swimming pool. We stopped in Cedar City on the way home and played with Benson and Hiley, got some lunch, and went to the coolest park ever. I should have taken some pictures. After coaxing Grace out of the swings there, we came home and crashed!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had a nice day (except for Grace throwing a fit nearly all through Sacrament meeting today at church...seems like she is the only kid the whole chapel that screams about being there...maybe she just screams the loudest???) Anyway, I wanted to get a couple shots of Grace in her Easter dress but probably should have taken them before church when she was wearing her cute sandals and a sparkly butterfly clip in her hair but these ones are cute too.

Everybody's favorite Aunt Katie

Lucas ate the newspaper while his daddy read it...thus the mustache and filthy hands.


My little outdoors girl playing in the bushes and on the swing. We went outside to go on a walk and she ran immediately to the back yard. I dragged her to the front and when she saw we were going somewhere other than the driveway, she started running and didn't stop. Literally. She RAN around my parent's block twice. I would let her get ahead and then I had to run to catch her before she turned the corner out of sight. I guess she's training for her first marathon early or something. Twice around the block is a mile (according to Nana). I can't even run a mile but my 2 year old can. I need some of her energy just to keep up with her!

our little hunt

Grace had to miss all 3 of the easter egg hunts she had invites to this year so I planned a little one for her in our backyard on Saturday. Here are some of the pictures I got of the fun.

A little game of under the legs with Grandpa and Aunt Katie in the front yard while we waited for everyone to get here.

Lizzie cornering the market on eggs against the house.

As you can see there are not many places to hide eggs in our yard so we let the youngest kids get a head start but there were lots of eggs for everyone! I ran out of places to hide eggs quickly so some of them were just dropped in the middle of the lawn.

Grace got a hot lead on some eggs here and I wasn't fast enough to catch her in the middle of the camera lens.


Going for that one last egg...

Here are all of the hunters with their goods. Benson, Eliot, Averee, Lizzie and Grace. Benson was a little under the weather and didn't feel like having his picture taken!

Emptying all the loot from the eggs.

We had a rousing game of London Bridge after the hunt was over.


I'm not a great hoster but we had so much fun that I am considering another one next year!

ready for Easter

I had to put away our Easter baskets because Grace kept strangling herself with them. These pictures were taken last week before the sickness began and there were happy times in our house. I'm planning to get them back out on Saturday for the Easter Bunny to fill them. I think he's bringing us Girl Scout cookies. Yum! Maybe some jelly beans too. Happy St. Patrick's day too. We totally forgot and Grace just happens to be wearing green pants but the rest of us are completely susceptible to pinches!

Quarantined...again

So we made yet another trip to the doctor's office today. I thought Grace was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic she was on for another ear infection but it turns out that she has a viral infection causing these bright red cheeks and a rash all over her chest and tummy. This is accompanied with a high fever and pounding heart (due to the really high fever). Poor little thing. I'm ready for this season of sickness to end! Anyway, I have put her in lock down as she is most hazardous to pregnant women right now. The doctor said that she could cause miscarriages or other problems if she were around them so rather than harm any unborn children, we're at home for the next few days.

if you're an idiot like me...

My new favorite things are the Ziploc Zip and Steam bags because they are idiot proof. Has anyone else heard of them? I have to assume somebody has because I have gone to 2 stores to get some and both times they only had 1 pkg. left! Anyway, they are the coolest thing ever made for cooking vegetables and meat! I tried to share my excitement with my mom about them and she said she doesn't microwave things in plastic because it gives you cancer. So call child services on me cause I'm giving us all cancer! What I love about them is they have the instructions on how to cook everything right on the bag. I have yet to have something turn out wrong when using them. It even got our broccoli right and that's a hard one for me! Anyway, I am trying to convert to healthier cooking around here (instead of pizza rolls or corn dogs for dinner every night) and these bags are very helpful!

In like a lion??

We LOVED the warm weather last week! We played outside almost every day. Grace is able to climb up on to the teeter-totter herself and also get herself going so it has become her favorite swing (and mine!...much less pushing!)

I think my favorite addition to our yard was the fence that Buck and Boyd installed. It allows me to sit on the blanket with Lucas while Grace runs everywhere BUT the road! It's a win-win situation if you ask me.

We also went to the Discovery Kids place up at the Gateway with Michelle and Barrett. We had lots of fun! This picture is awful but I threw it on to see if anyone recognizes the girl sitting in the background? I was about to delete it and then realized I had captured the stranger who I could not remember how I new her until she asked me was I Katie's sister and ta-da... she is Shelby D. of the Mike and Shelby D. pair. (I'm not including last names because certain Nana's are so worried about the information shared on this blog.)

We learned lots of important things about our bodies there.

Grace and Barrett visited Grover's Dance Party. Basically Grace just followed Barrett everywhere and did what he did. It was funny. I have a video clip of him flopping to the floor and Grace doing the same right after.

This was Lucas at the dance party. His favorite part was the disco ball.

Grace built a tower "up, up, up" and of course had to make it "crash" too.

Grace was trying so hard to see out the other side of this tube. It never really worked out for her.

Home again, home again. After the museum, we played in the yard again while the weather was still warm. We found a new friend coming up for some air from the saturated lawn. Grace is just thinking of following in her Uncle Chris' worm business footsteps!

She toted her new friend all around the yard.

Meanwhile, Lucas just hung out on the blanket with me!

Anyway, I hope that one little snow storm on Saturday qualifies March as coming in like a lion and will leave like a lamb so we can get started on our warm weather!! Rain all you like, just no more snow!