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.

Cycle of Life

My mom is down in San Diego right now with her oldest brother, my uncle Rob. He is in the hospital and has been fighting cancer. He was in remission for three years, but suddenly a month ago they found a brain tumor and the prognosis was not hopeful. Well, he is now having some bleeding on the brain and they think it will be a matter of days. Sad times like this always stimulate thoughts on the cycle of life and how short it really is. I wish it was easier to always stay in the mindset to cherish every single moment you have with those you love - the way it is when death occurs.
Uncle Rob's passion in life is music. He can play about every instrument. We will miss him and his unique, philisophical spirit!

INXS Concert Pictures

Here are a couple pics from our quick weekend getaway. Tucker & I, Katie & Ryan, and Tara & Bill all met for dinner at a restaurant in the Mandalay Bay called Rumjungle. It was pretty exotic and fun. I think the server was a bit dissapointed that none of us ordered any of their 150 rums (thus the name), but we had fun anyway. It was quick trip, but nice to have some quiet kidless time. Thanks to my family for watching the girls and especially my mom for taking care of Jordyn who was sick most of the time we were gone.

INXS

For those of you who may not know about INXS (in-ex-ess)...they are a band from the 80's and 90's. Their lead singer died late 90's and last year they did a reality TV show (Rockstar INXS) in which they were searching for a new lead singer. Well, Tucker and I got sucked into that show (not to mention that we both liked the band anyway). Sooooo, we are going to Vegas this weekend for the INXS concert! We're leaving our kids with my family Saturday and Sunday, so it's a weekend away for Tucker and I alone. We're excited. We're meeting one of my best friends Katie and her husband Ryan there, so that will be fun!

Sick Kids

It's amazing how all plans can be HAULTED by a sick child...or children in my case. Thursday mornings we usually run out the door to Harmony practice for a few hours and I was preparing this morning as usual, but both girls woke up with a cough and fountain-like runny nose - the persistant kind where the meds don't even stop it. Oh well, plans can change. So I'm sitting here with a box of wipes and a bottle of anti-bacterial gel next to me. I stand up once every 2 minutes to wipe a nose and then rub hands with the gel! Hope they get better soon.

No Luck Today!

Pictures did not go as well as I'd hoped today. Lexi was too upset and they didn't turn out. I guess the picture-angels were all busy today!

So, now I'm thinking of another option. We had family pictures taken on the beach in Hawaii, and there are a few that could possibly be cropped of JUST Lexi, so we could just use that for her 2 year old pics. The picture I posted is one of the possibilities (don't worry about the writing on it, it's from the preview-only CD from the photographer). What do you all think of it?

Photo Shoot Today

Well, today we're attempting to get Lexi's 2 year old pictures taken at The Picture People. Everyone needs to keep their fingers and toes crossed for us because Lexi has an adverse reaction to the camera!!! Every once in a while, a little angel will come down from heaven and help her smile! ha ha. Please let this be one of those days :-) We're going with Lindy getting Lyric's 1 year old pic taken too, so maybe Lexi will see her extremely SMILEY cousin and get inspired. We'll update after the event!

Universal Studios

While on a visit to California, you may as well visit one of the many exciting attractions, right? Well, Tucker took Maren and ker kids to Universal Studios on Saturday for the day and they had a blast. I stayed home with the girls because they're still a bit young to appreciate a park like that. Here are a few pics from their fun day...

Tucker and King Kong!

Shrek in real life!

and last, but not least, everyone's favorite picture of Jaden RIGHT when they started the huge drop on Jurassic Park the ride! He was NOT ready for it and Tucker was prepared with a camera at the perfect time! Jaden...hope you're not scarred for life! ha ha