I'm Such Blog-Slacker!

When my friends don't blog for a few days, I get anxious for an update...so you would think I would try to be a better blogger since I know how it feels! Anyway, here's my attempt to redeem myself....


Grey's Anatomy
For those of you who have not caught on to this new craze...you should! Sunday nights 10 pm (for us). Tucker and I have watched this show since the first pilot episode, and are now completely addicted to it! Love it.


Steve & Greg
If you have kids, grandkids or are around kids...you should know about Greg & Steve (that is, if you don't already). They've been producing kids albums for over 20 years now. My kids LOVE them. In dance class, one of their favorite is "Listen and Move". So I sought out the CD a while back and ordered it for them. Come to find out, this is the same CD (or record back then) that my bi-lingual Kindergarten teacher taught us SO many songs from. Very nostalgic for me, and still very loved by kids today. They're actually coming in concert next week, so we'll try to take the girls.


McDonald's Playland

When we have bad weather outside (I know, those of you who have snow are thinking 'you don't know what bad weather is!'...but it really does get cold sometimes), the girls love to play at the McDonald's playland. If I can just get over the germs, they really have a lot of fun!

Venture Scouts

Tucker was recently asked to be over the 14-15 year old Boy Scouts as the Venture Scout Leader (which also includes my brother). He is so excited, to say the least. He is perfect for this! Tucker had a TON of scouting experience growing up AND he has the patience to deal with this age group. This also means that he is gone a little more than usual...like on Wednesday nights. So, I just got the kids bathed, in bed and I'm settling in for a little American Idol (and peace & quiet). Never hurts to have a little solitude, huh? :-)

Stylist

I just thought I would announce some great news about my sister Carly. She has been living down in Huntington Beach for about four years now, during which time she has been working as an assistant to different hair stylists (at high-end salons). She's been putting in a LOT of hard work and learned SO much from these different stylist along the way. Well, she's now officially a stylist at Images salon (where she's been assisting for over two years) now building her very own clientele. Very big step and very exciting for her. She's doing great work and I just wanted to say another "congratulations" to her. She's really earned this.

"Girls Behaving Badly"

OK, so for those of you who have not seen this show "Girls Behaving Badly"...don't get the wrong idea (the name may seem a bit questionable)! We are getting ready to watch this show tonight, so I thought I'd blog about it really quick. Let me first say that I am not the kind of person that can laugh out loud at the TV or a movie easily - at all. But this show never fails to make me bust out in laughter at least a couple times. This is one of those "prank" shows and we have loved it for years! Soooooo funny. It is regularly scheduled on the Oxygen channel, but if you don't have it (like us) you may be able to find it rebroadcasted on a different channel. Worth it if you want a good laugh!

Play Day

Don't you remember how fun it was to have a friend over when you were little? As my kids get older, it's fun to see them develop friendships with other children. Today we have my close friend Beth's kids over to play (also so she can run errands kid-less!). Lindsay is Jordyn's friend and Jacob is Lexi's friend. Makes for a bit of a crazy house, but the kids are very entertained and they love it!

Shots

I went with Lindy today to get Lyric's 1 year immunization shots. Always a sad day when shots are due! She did a really good job and calmed down pretty quickly. Lexi was with us and she watched VERY closely as I talked her through what was happening. Afterwards (while Lyric was still crying) I said, "OK, Lexi, do you want a turn??". She very quickly and passionately said "NO!". And made me hold her on the way out...just to be sure.

Strawberry

I just thought I'd put out my vote for the new Strawberry Delight Frosted Mini-Wheats. I really like 'em! They are more sweet than the original (I'm into sugar though) and the strawberry flavor reminds me of strawberry milk or the smell of Strawberry Shortcake (the doll) when I was little. You should try them! I've found them at Albertson's, but if they're not on sale you pay a small fortune for them, and at Target usually for $2.50. Give it a try!

Video Clip

Video Sharing at DropShots.com Just experimenting with video sharing! Let me know if you can or can't view this. This is a clip from yesterday before Jordyn's dance class. By the way, sorry for being so boring lately. I will try to get back up to speed on my posting for all my faithful fans out there! (ha ha)

Our Saturday

Today was a pretty full (and a beautiful 73 degrees) day. We went to a friend's daughter's baptism this morning, then Jordyn's good friend Lindsay's 5th birthday party this afternoon, and this evening I met my friend Shana (friends since we were 10!) in Visalia for a bit...she was down from San Francisco visiting family. Tucker spent quite a few hours trying to organize our garage (believe me, this is a big undertaking!). Now it's later in the evening and I'm trying to scrounge up the energy to finish the girls' bath and get them to bed!! Not moving from the couch sounds real good tonight!

Horsie Ride

The girls look forward with much excitement to when Tucker comes home at night. He has such fun 'daddy games' he plays with them and they have their little traditions already set. One of the all time favorites is having a Horsie Ride all around the house! I snapped this cute picture of them in action tonight.

Peacock Feathers

Tonight we went to visit Uncle Doug (my mom's bro) and his wife Chris on their "farm". They live about 30 miles from us on a couple acres and they have lots of animals. My kids were in heaven! They could have played there for 10 hours straight! It was me and the girls, plus Lindy and Kristy. We had lots of fun! And check out these peacock feathers they gave us! They have anwhere from 10-30 peacocks running around at any given time, so they collect the feathers. Makes for a pretty cool arrangement huh?

Tiff Flew Home

I had to take Tiff to the airport today. Always sad to say bye! She flew in from Salt Lake City for the weekend since the tickets were on sale. We keep trying to "fit in" trips before she gets Eliza (she'll travel to China sometime this summer) and before I get pregnant with #3....but we've been doing this for about a year now, so we've fit in quite a few visits! Tiff has been one of my closest friends since we were roomates at BYU Hawaii back in 1998. We always manage to have a great time hanging out (and eating a lot!).

(btw, this photo was taken by Jordyn Maxfield - age 3, she's too-much!)

Hair

Whenever Carly comes to visit, we are lucky to get at-home services on our hair! So tonight Tucker had her chop off about 6 inches off his hair! A full year worth of growth! He was sad, but said it was "time". I got my usual highlight touch-up (note the foil in my hair!). Very nice to have a hair dresser in the family!!

Alyson's 5th Birthday

So tonight we celebrated Alyson's 5th birthday party at my mom's house. This is our traditional group "birthday photo" with everyone who was there. In addition to my entire family, we had my Uncle Doug, Tiffany and my mom's new dog Bernice there! Dad barbequed his famous steaks and we had Sleeping Beauty birthday cake for dessert (I love making birthday cakes and she is Alyson's favorite princess!). It was a fun night. I love family get-togethers. And it's fun to see the cousins play more and more as they get older.

I Have A Request!

OK...to all of you faithful readers (and lurkers!) out there: This is an official request for MORE email and picture updates on your lives! Kudos to my fellow bloggers (I'm telling you, more of you should try it!) but to the others, I miss the occasional picture update in my inbox! I seem to not get those much anymore (except you Tara, you're great at it! Love 'em!).

I'll be waiting... :-)

More Creativity

Sometimes, the more upset I am, the calmer I react. It's sort of a coping mechanism for me. For example, when I'm in labor, I stay perfectly calm on the outside to try to balance the torment I feel inside. This should explain why I may appear calm in this post...because I feel really upset inside. On to my point....it finally happened. One of my children cut her precious hair. I was beginning to think maybe I'd never have to deal with that part of raising kids, but Lexi just now proved me wrong! Ugh. It's so sad. She cut it at the very top and she cut too much to make bangs (which I've purposefully NOT given her bangs before this). It sort of looks like a mullet now - long in the back, spiky and short up top. I wanted to scream, but I stayed really calm and assessed the damage. I'm going to have to get really creative to hide this one. Maybe this is just another way she shows her creativity, sort of like the drums, right? Unfortunately, I don't find this one as cute...

Creative Kids

The girls are always entertaining me with their creativity. One of their latest is to put this big hat box around their neck, grab the maracas and pretend they are playing the drums in a marching band! C'mon Lexi....left, left, left-right-left!

Tonight

Before

After

We've been wanting to put up crown molding in our bedroom for a few months now. In fact, it's been sitting in our garage. Since we had no idea how to do it (particularly cutting the perfect angles on the corners) we had some friends from the ward come put it up for us! So exciting!

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I also had to post this picture of the cat and dog from tonight. No matter how much they can get on my nerves...who could deny how cute this is???

The Bachelor

I don't have anything exciting to post about, so I thought I'd admit to one of my guilty pleasures in life...I have watched every season of "The Bachelor" TV show. So I'm looking forward to the two hour episode tonight. By the way, this is the perfect place to insert my props to the wonderful DVR (same as TIVO) because we record our favorite shows, and then watch them in 1/2 the time w/o commercials! Love it love it!

Tonight my mom, me, Lindy and Kristy (we missed you Carly!) went to dinner at Chili's, my favorite restaurant. We had a "girls night out" to dinner, and since it was getting late we resisted the strong urge to 'run into' Target afterwards. I knew very well that a 'run in' would be at the very least an hour! ha ha. Anyway, it was fun to eat and talk!

Nemo on Ice

Tonight we took the girls to see Disney's Nemo on Ice in Fresno. And thanks so much to my mother...she wasn't able to use tickets she bought, so she donated them to us! The girls LOVED it! They were mesmerized and very sad to leave when it was over. They know the story of Nemo by heart, so they were following the whole two hours without hardly a flinch! It is SO fun to see things through the eyes of a child. I probably watched THEM more than the show!

Family Picture

Well, tonight we are finally ordering our family picture from the photographer we used in Hawaii. We decided to go with this one, a more candid photo of us. We also love this one of the girls hugging!

My Cat is Driving Me Crazy

So today the girls and I ran to Home Depot. I LOVE this store, but today's trip wasn't as 'fun' for me. We went to buy an exacto knife and carpet adhesive. Why, you ask? Well, our 6 month old kitty thinks it's a fun past-time to claw UP our carpet at night while we're all asleep. That's right, claw UP...meaning an entire spot is BALD in the middle of my living room! Well, this was last week and I was so mad. So I cut out the spot and replaced it with a square from an extra piece in the garage. Looked semi-decent. But the next day I glance over to see Belle (the dog) chewing on the same new square of carpet! UGHHHHH. So, I will re-attempt to fix the problem today. I just have to wonder if things like this will get better as the cat gets older.

He's very cute and the kids love him so we're not giving up yet (and to that, Tucker would say to me "speak for yourself")

Our Trip to San Diego

I just put together a little collage of some pictures (click to enlarge) from our memorial services yesterday for Uncle Rob. It was a so nice to spend the day with family and to share memories of Rob and to reunite together. It doesn't happen enough, and when you lose a family member, it helps remind you how much you love the ones that you still CAN see and talk to and how important that really is to do while you can!

Making Pizzas

Thought I'd post this pic of a couple nights ago. We made little pizzas for dinner. The kids thought it was really fun!

Uncle Rob is Gone...

...or should I say he's in a better place with no more pain! He died this morning at 5:05. He was only 57 and in fairly good health (aside from the cancer!). I guess when it's your time to go there isn't much you can do. My mom and Uncle Mike are going to make the plans for funeral, etc, so we may be going down to San Diego on Saturday.