My little 3 year old!!

Happy Birthday dear Ella - yesterday!! Ella's been so excited for her birthday ever since Emily's. She had to wait almost 3 months! She was adamant about wanting a Minnie Mouse birthday party. I think it was because Emily was Ariel for Halloween and had an Ariel party. Ella was Minnie for Halloween, so I think she thought that's how you do things!! I was all ready to plan a Minnie party for her until she and Emily got hooked on Pinocchio. Ever since then she's been demanding a "Pinocchio party with no 2 foxes!" There's a fox and a cat that are the bad guys and she didn't want them to come! I really wasn't excited about making a Pinocchio cake, so I found a cool cake set on craigslist and showed it to Ella. I told her we could make, "Pinocchio's castle!" Ok, so that's a huge stretch, but it worked! I found out about an indoor carnival/Chuck E. Cheese type place and told Ella we could go to "Pleasure Island" like Pinocchio does. She was very excited about that as long as the "two foxes" didn't come.

I make her huge cake (3 cake mixes) on Thursday afternoon and decorated in Friday morning. Since I had to transport it to Jungle Jim's amusement park, I couldn't assemble it. We got it to Jungle Jim's without too much trouble and I just had to take a few minutes to "glue" (with frosting) the towers and turrets on and stick in the windows. It was my first time using fondant. It wasn't as smooth as I'd like, but it worked. She loved it and I had a fun time making it. I've decided to take the Wilton cake decoration class sometime this summer. Since that's about my 5th decorated cake I've made and I still enjoy it, I figure it's time I learned something about that trade. It would be a nice talent to develop.




Saturday morning Emily and Ella woke up early (as usual!). Ella was excited to see the streamers hanging for her and jumped right in on her presents!! She got her big presents early - a Dora dollhouse w/assessories (from a yard sale) and a talking baby doll. She then opened some books, markers, coloring books, clothes, necklace, magnets, etc. She loved it and was very sweet to let Emily help her open them all. Emily was having a hard time not being the star and getting presents. But Ella shared everything very well! Ella was sad when presents were done, but we told her that her aunts would have more presents for her later and that appeased her! We headed out early to find a couple yard sales before heading to Midway to find Jungle Jim's.

We had a great time at Jungle Jim's. All my sisters and their kids were able to come too. I loved the place. Emily had a blast doing everything. Ella was a little wary about a few rides, but there were still enough things to do to keep her busy. We took a break and walked next door to Souper Salad for lunch. We used to love that when it was in Orem and even Emily and Ella were able to find something they liked!










Later that night we went to Toys R Us to get her crown, balloon and use some of her birthday money. She ended up finding some Dora dollhouse furniture for her Dora dollhouse. They had Wiis in stock and I've been thinking a lot about them lately since I've been seeing the ads for the new Wii fit that's coming out. Steve confided to me that he had purchased a Wii last week for my birthday, but had returned it because he figured I'd return it. I seem to return all his expensive gifts! But this time I decided to go for it AND buy Guitar Hero! That's a game I figured I'd enjoy when I first heard about it. When I got the chance to try out my nephews' game while I was in St. George, I realized I did like it and was GOOD at it!! So I've been playing that and the sports games that come with it today. I'm already halfway through Career mode on medium level. I'm really having fun. Emily's enjoyed the bowling and golfing games so far. So happy birthday to me!!

Preschool Graduation

I did it, it's done. Graduation's over and my little Emily is no longer my preschool kid! She's been so excited about kindergarten forever. Until the other day when she asked me how long kindergarten was. I tried to explain to her that it's a year long. She replied with, "That's SO long!!" I'm starting to thing maybe she' thought it was for a day or a week or something! So last night after she graduated we told her she's now a kindergarten kid and she said, "I don't want to go to kindergarten!" I think she's going to miss her mommy! I lose my Emily, but Ella gets to start preschool next year. But first, they both get to go to fairy camp! That will be a nice final hurrah/exciting beginning for both of them.

Back to graduation. I felt very prepared this year and I wasn't stressed at all. I figured, I've done this 3 times before, and I also got most everything prepared in advance so I could focus on getting ready for Ella's birthday yesterday. However, as I was gathering everything yesterday I realized I didn't have enough of anything. I'd forgotten this was my first year with 20 students. It wasn't too bad, I just had to make 4 more binoculars and buy 3 more fire hats. Later that afternoon I brought up the graduation gowns and decided to count them just to make sure I had them all. That's when I found out I only had 18!!! And that's when the stress began! My first thought was to use my big graduation gown to cut out two more. Then I realized it probably wasn't big enough. Then Steve got out a dark blue polo shirt and I got one out too. Right color, but definitely not the same look and feel. So I spent an hour searching online for party and costume shops that sold them. I found one place that had them but they were $40 each! Too much. So what do I do when I have an emergency? I called Jill at school. She has a million teacher friends and I figured one of them might have some kid sized graduation gowns. One friend said she had some material that would work and they could "whip" some up. I'd gotten in the shower by that point so dear Steve took measurements on the ones we had and emailed her some pictures. Based on that info they were able to "whip" them up! Poor Jill, who claims she is not a seamstress, got caught up in it cutting, pinning and ironing. While her friend figured it out and got it all sewn together. She had to rush home after that and made it to graduation just on time. What a lifesaver. They worked perfect, just not the same shade blue. Mason and Emily got to be the special ones that wore those!

Anyway, graduation went very well. The kids did their songs very well. Emily was the BEST singer up there!! All the parents/grandparents were very complimentary. I have 100% return customers next year. All my 3 year olds signed up for next year and all the 4 year olds that have siblings the right age are signed up as well. The rest of the classes are filled with referrals. Even those parents whose younger children are too young for next year all told me to save a space for them in a year or two! It's nice to be loved!

I'm ready for a little break now. It's Ella's birthday today, I'll have to write about that later. Next week starts cleaning/prepare for camps!!

Summer break?

I was just thinking today about how this is the last week of preschool. Summer break time right? Then I started thinking about all that's going on in the next month and realized it probably won't feel like a real break until July! In the next week, I have to finish all the preparations for graduation, prepare for Ella's birthday - including making her my most ambitious cake yet, and clean up the preschool. Starting next week I have to go into heavy duty summer camp preparation. I'm doing it earlier this year. That was supposedly so I could get it over with, but now it's just stressing me out! Then I have two weeks of camps and go straight into family reunions. I need to clean the house to prepare for a yard sale that I desperately need to have. That plus visiting teaching, teaching primary, and regular responsibilities seem like a lot right now. The good thing is that it will keep me busy and maybe I won't spend so much money like I seem to do every summer. Anyway, I was going to try to write this like a pep talk to myself - but I don't think it worked!

Anyway, we've been having fun lately. We went with Lynn's family and Jill's kids to Thanksgiving Point this weekend. I need to go one more time this week before my membership expires. Emily loves getting together with Mason and Braydon.

Last week we had FHE about obedience. I told the story of Nephi and we sang I will go, I will do. For the next few days Emily walked around the house saying, "I will do, I will go!" It was cute. Last night we talked about table manners and had a dinner role play. We really need help with dinner behavior, so hopefully we can figure this out. I told Steve as soon as Emily starts behaving at dinner, we need to focus on bedtime. Both are the worst parts of the day. And unfortunately both are when Steve is home - poor guy!

The other day Ella put on a new pair of pants. She often asks where I got things. Usually the answer is either Samantha or Grandma. This time they were from grandma and Ella said, "I love grandma. Grandma my best friend!" Glad she's learning appreciation!

Well, better go finish the graduation DVD!

Yup, I'm a mom!

Today I woke up to the sounds of Ella yelling for me amidst vomiting sounds. For the 5th day this week I ran to her and held the bucket under her head. Then Steve helped me strip the bed and change her for the 5th time this week. My mother's day had begun - around 6:30. After we got that cleaned up, I rested - not feeling too well myself, while Steve and Emily made blueberry pancakes. Steve helped out with bathing the kids, since it was, of course, Mother's Day. So as I lay in bed, trying to rest my aching body, I could hear the tortured screams all the way up to my room. I had to really go check to see if he was really bathing them or using thumb screws! I decided he'd not had enough screaming for one day when I took my shower and after soaping my my hair, opened my eyes and saw a bee staring at me. Luckily it was old, so he didn't require much of a fight. Finally, the rush for church had began and I was running around getting me and Emily ready. While I was in the middle of doing her hair, she announced, "It's Mother's Day...Are you relaxing??" Happy REAL Mother's Day to me.

Well, there's nothing like sick kids to really make you feel like a mom. When Ella woke up on Tuesday, the first thing she said was that she needed a bucket. About 20 minutes before preschool started, she threw up. So I ran around cleaning that up and getting her settled on the couch with movies so she wouldn't have to go to the babysitter. I had to run up once during preschool to change her clothes, top AND bottom! Poor girl. She slept through most of afternoon preschool. When it was over I found that she had gotten out of bed and sat on the couch. I picked her up and held her on my lap. Within seconds we were covered with vomit! And a preschool mom had just walked into ask me a question and here I was running to the kitchen! She had an awful night, but was fine all day Wednesday. I assumed she had the 24 hour flu, but Wednesday night it started all over again. Poor girl has been so lethargic with no appetite. Steve said she was perking up today during church, but later fell asleep on the couch. Now she's just laying there doing nothing. I hope she gets over this quick! Especially since I may be catching it from her. She was pretty much potty trained before all this, but we've put her in a diaper lately since all she's been doing is laying on the couch. Hopefully we'll go back to underwear easily enough. Emily's been very sweet to pray for her. One time she said, "Ella as soon as you're done throwing up, I'll pray for you." :) She also started out being very sweet to her at the beginning of the week. She's over that now, but she does like to know what color everything is! Maybe she'll be a doctor or nurse!!

I just went to Sacrament meeting today. I helped lead the boys for the Mother's Day song. The music leader is new and only practiced one time last week with the Senior primary. So it didn't go very well. Emily wanted to stay for primary, so the president drove her home. She had a great time!

Couple of cute things I remember from this week:

Emily got dressed and then looked in the mirror. She said, "Man, I look like a NERD!" (I thought maybe she was starting to figure out that the outfits she picks are less than fashionable sometimes - but it turns out that she was commenting that her pants were above her belly button - a sure nerd sign for sure!)


Emily knows how to call her daddy now and likes to call him up on mornings that she doesn't get a kiss and a hug. She's really adorable to talk to on the phone, so if anyone wants to call her - I'm sure she'd love it!

Emily has a toy cell phone. One day she took it to the store with her and was taking pictures of everything. Then she would type in "DAD" and push another button that makes noise. She said she was emailing the pictures to her daddy. That's mostly impressive because we don't own a cell phone that takes pictures or emails or text messaging of anykind. She was amazed that the pictures would go to daddy's phone. He's playing along and tells her everyday that he loves the pictures he emails to her!

Emily made a Mother's Day flower in preschool. They all wrote I (heart) U MOM. Now Emily is constantly telling me, "I heart you mom!!" So cute!

Emily's been anticipating Mother's Day all week. She'd ask me, "Is it Mother's Day - are you relaxing?" Apparently that's what she remembered from my explaining to her what mother's day was.

I took Emily out one night because she'd been stuck at home so long. I asked Ella if there was anything I could get her - thinking a Popsicle or something. She said, "I want a baby doll!" Too cute to resist - so we stopped at the dollar store to get her one. (Which she hasn't looked at since! She just covets Emily's balloon that she picked instead!)

Emily picked up a book that we have and read almost 1/2 of it to me before she got tired!! Woo Hoo - what a smartie!

Well, that's it for now about me! Happy Mother's Day to my mom!! I love you so much and continually wonder how you went through all these childhood stages with 6 kids! You're amazing, Happy Mother's Day!

I'm tired!

So, I was all excited about getting the video to work, but apparently it only worked on my computer. I seriously haven't had a minute to figure out what's wrong with it. I give up for now, life's been WAY too crazy! And I'm not even sure why. I feel like I've been running like crazy for two weeks now. I'm starting to think that the vacation put me way behind and I still can't catch up. Every room in my house is cluttered. Piles are stacking up everywhere! Yesterday, I had nothing scheduled - first day in a long time. So I decided to tackle cleaning. I ended up getting the downstairs bathroom spotless. But that's it. How could I have an entire day and only get one bathroom clean? And on a day when I had nothing else to do? It's amazing how "nothing" takes up so much time. I ended up visiting primary kids for their birthdays, figuring out a preschool field trip today, going out to eat with Steve and then rushing everything else I needed to do. But I did spend an hour or so just playing with the kids. They were so good yesterday. Nice change for me. However, Ella seemed to have a bit of a bathroom problem yesterday. Guess where she decided to have her accident? Right in the middle of my barely cleaned and sanitized bathroom floor! Looking on the bright side though, the rugs were in the washing machine, so it was actually pretty easy to clean.

The beginning of the month is pretty hectic for me, preschool-wise. I have to have the newsletter all printed up - which means having the month all planned. I have to have the parent informational article printed up (this month I couldn't get it done though). I have to have the book orders all ready. I have to have the parent/child home activity done (also didn't get it done this month). I had to have my end of the year comment sheet ready. We had an outdoor field trip planned today. Forecast looked cold and I woke up to snow today. I had decided to just go ahead with it, but wasn't loving any of my choices. Luckily Jill called with the idea to go ahead with the field trip, just move it to a different location instead. Cabelas instead of Thanksgiving Point farmland. Just like a big sister to solve all your problems! It turned out great and I think all the parents were glad not to suffer outside in the cold and, yes, snow. This afternoon it started snowing again and I told the girls to go outside and spank the snow. They thought that was hilarious and had a great time!

Not only is it the beginning-of-the-month stress. It's the end-of-the-year stress. This year I've created a completely new curriculum. It's been very time consuming and I think I'm burning out! I can't wait for next year to go back to the curriculum I've already developed and practiced 3 times! I just have to get Mother's Day, Zippidee-do-dah what a wonderful year theme, and the graduation planned. Then a couple weeks of break before I go into summer camps.

Paige wanted to have a yard sale soon. Unfortunately we can't find a week that works. I'm all for getting RID of stuff. I think clutter stresses me out. (Me and probably 99% of the rest of the world.) We have SO much stuff. I'm hoping to be brutal while getting ready for the yard sale. Unfortunately, I still have the teacher mentality ("I'm sure we could use this saved up dryer lint someday..." - Actually no joke, I did see a craft idea using lint to make Halloween ghosts." And unfortunately, I think I like some of my girls toys more that they do. ("How could I get rid of that doll they've never played with - it has buttons, zippers, snaps and ties - what a great way to learn!") Of course, they've learned how to button, zipper and snap all without the doll's help. Anyway, time to declutter my life a bit.

Last night I forced Steve (and convinced Lynn and Dustin) to go get a free dinner at Magleby's. Forced because it was a sales pitch. Yes, there was good information on fire safety, but in the end they started showing us the products they sell. By that time I was tired of listening, hadn't liked the food, and needed to go get my already cranky kids. Paige was nice enough to watch them, but she seemed pretty stressed out when we got there. Since they were both crying, I can't imagine why she would be stressed out! Ella was mad that Paige had flushed the toilet for her and Emily was mad that we had arrived to get her! Luckily they fell asleep pretty fast. They woke up like clockwork at 6:45 again today, so they've been pretty cranky today.

Ella's been great at potty training since we got back! She's only had 2 accidents (plus the one that wasn't her fault yesterday.) She was getting stickers on her chart for everytime she was successful and she quickly filled out her second sheet this week. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate. I used coupons and only got a small pizza but it still cost $24! I think it will be awhile before we go back. But the kids had a ball. They both can just run off by themselves and figure things out. Paige and Natalia came by for a while too.

Steve's work has been really slow lately. He's come home early several times the last two weeks. Friday morning he knew he didn't have anything to do, so he called to check. They told him just to stay home. We headed out and stopped at a couple of yardsales on our way to Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum and Farmland. I decided to try out their 30 days free membership. We took Mason with us as well. They loved running through the museum. They loved digging through the sand for bones at the end. We went on a pony ride at the Farmland. It was a really nice day and nice to have a family activity on a less-busy Friday, rather than a busy Saturday. Saturday morning was a lot cooler, but I went out yardsaling anyway. I've been waiting for this season (you know Fall, Winter, Spring, Yardsaling) all year. I got a few fun things, but I'm much more picky than I used to be.

We bought a treadmill last Monday off Craigslist. It's a really nice one that you can download personal training programs into. The girls wouldn't let me near it the first couple of days, but Steve and I have both gotten a mile in everyday since. You'd think this would give me more energy, but I haven't found it yet!

We went to the library for FHE this week. They were having a Mexican celebration. We made a paper flower, jumped with a jumping bean to Mexican music, make a toy, got our faces painted, danced the Mexican Hat dance and hit a pinata. The girls loved it and loved playing at the park afterwards.

Well, I've been rambling and I've probably "Lynned" you all out. (No offense, Lynn!) So I still haven't figured out how I can be so busy and so behind with only two kids and a part-time job. Guess I should make myself a schedule or something. At least I would feel better crossing things off. Which reminds me - that's Emily's favorite game with me. When I need her to help me with jobs, she hands me an imaginary list. I write what I need her to do on it. She'll go and do it and check it off. Then she'll give me the list again so I can give her a new chore. Whatever works, I'm just glad for the help around here!

Here's a few pics to share.
Stick legs to go with a stick horse!! Barrel racing.
Lassoing a cow!
Milking our cow!
Preschool fieldtrip!
Spanking the snow.
Yee haw!
Yippee!
So cute!
Biggest smile in the west!
What'd we do?
Watch out!
Look out behind you!
Digging for bones.

Perfect size for her.
Yee haw! Grandma made the vests - aren't they adorable!
Chicks in a nest.

Dang cutest cowkid I ever saw!
Roasting marshmallows by the fire.