dancing queen

ellie LOVES to dance. i think she must get that from me. the only difference between us is that she actually looks cute doing it! one of her favorite things to do is "go daddy! go daddy!" and move her arms out in front of her...you know, the cheer that we all did in the 90's. its pretty cute to watch. unfortunately i havent been able to video her doing it, but these clips are a good example of her moves.

a birthday wish!

We wish the BEST grandma ever the BEST birthday ever!

WE LOVE YOU JANIE!

shh-shh-shugah!

we had a fun time decorating sugar cookies for easter today! i started uploading some of the photos and got a little carried away.... these little easter peeps are just too cute i guess!

"hey mom, where'd my jelly bean go?"

"hey, what the...?!"

"mmmm, that looks good, i think i'll have that!"

when i first saw this photo full size, i couldnt believe how grown-up jack looked! unfortunately, these pictures are much more fun to look at blown up on a 27" imac monitor... :)

here is my attempt at icing sugar cookies. once i figured it out, it was pretty easy. it just took a dozen cookies to figure out what i was doing!

i made these with the intention to deliver them to some friends. when i was checking out different icings online, i read a tip that said to put the cookies in the freezer to help the icing harden faster. BAD IDEA! when we were ready to deliver them, i took them out of the freezer, set 'em up on the plate, took a picture and ran out the door. as soon as we were in the car the icing started to melt...all over the plate... there was NO STINKIN' WAY i was taking those for someone else to look at! after a short freak-out, i made chris run into the store and buy some cupcakes that we tied a ribbon and a note around, and dropped those off instead! oh yeah, and we ate some of the cookies on the ride home!

new neighbor

two mornings ago jack was up bright and early (along with chris, but chris is usually up around 6:30). jack informed chris that there was a "striped animal with a tail" in the backyard. he said it several times so chris' curiosity was piqued. he took a gander. sure enough, it was a striped animal with a tail! and he even managed to take a picture for proof.

we have two burrows in our yard that i am positive are homes for this little booger. i dont have anything against armadillos except the fact that its spring. and love may be in the air for this creature and heaven knows i dont want those holes to be a little nest for some armadillo offspring. could you imagine!? i'll be outside before sunrise for my morning walk with larissa, and we will be chased down and mauled by this momma trying to protect her babes! what a terrible way to go! or worse, the kids and i will be outside using sidewalk chalk, covering our entire driveway with drawings of fish, farm animals, and aliens, and ellie will run off for 2 seconds and before i know it, i will watch her as she's being dragged down one of these humongous, 12 inch deep holes, to disappear! probably forever! as dinner for this armadillo family!

alright, so i dont really have any idea if they truly are armadillo holes, but it is a little creepy to think about at 6:30 in the morning waiting for your walking partner!

... jack cant say armadillo by the way, so he calls it "the striped one"...

.... do armadillos really chase or maul... i'll have to look into that...

one year

i took these photos almost exactly one year ago, on the 26th, when i was babysitting cousin everett. the kids had all just woken from naps. i know i posted some of them back then, but its fun to see how much they've changed in such a short amount of time!

campout

every year, our stake holds an annual father and sons campout. here are just a couple pics of jack and chris' big adventure.

when jack came home i asked him how it was. he was ecstatic to tell me that he ate a marshmallow and saw frank. for those of you in or from the stake, he is referring to frank fernandez. franky is jack's superhero because when the boys go out fishing, frank is usually the only one to bring back fish. this doesnt necessarily mean that frank is the only one to catch fish, but that he is the only one to bring his catch home to eat. but in jack's eyes, frank is THE MAN!

* puzzle palooza *

not a day goes by where we dont spend at least an hour doing puzzles. my kids are puzzle FrEaKs! luckily, their cousin everett loves them too! ev came over yesterday morning and we spent a solid two hours doing all 5 puzzles that we own.... over and over again. of course, the favorite of all three is our giant thomas the train puzzle (thanks grandma janie!). i cant help but smile when they are all working on a puzzle together and yelling, "all aboard" "chugga choo" and just plain "CHOO CHOO"! they are so cute...when they play nicely :)

ev and jack are pretty good little buds