WWW award

WooHOO! Holly from 2Kids and Tired gave me this awesome award! I am so appreciative! I love blogging and receiving awards or any recognition of any kind makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks again Holly!

In turn I am passing this award on to other bloggers that I think are wonderful women of the web. Since I can't give to everyone (frankly, it would take me forever to type that all out), I am only giving to 4 bloggers that I know do not have this award. I give this to: Shannon, Her Royal Highness, Kim, and Cecily.


Hooray for blogging!

Daddy/Daughter Date and the poodle skirts

Okay....just remember...you asked to see it. And please keep in mind that the camera adds 10 pounds, plus it's like 3 yards of felt which has got to add a good 50 pounds. So really, I am only 105 pounds. Skinny really. *And apparently in a state of denial as well.

Rachel (left) and Meghan (right) in their poodle skirts.

Here is me (big fat hippo wearing the truquoise skirt) and cute skinny daughters all decked out and ready to go.We borrowed this "HOG" from a leader's husband and took pictures of each of the girls with their dads on it. It was so fun! All the girls LOVED this part of the entire night! Here are my cuties with their Daddy. He was a party pooper and did not dress up. Some of the dads really got into it. There were a couple of letterman jackets from Clearfield and one from Davis, a couple of dads with slicked back hair and rolled up sleeves. It was great!

And the best part? IT'S DONE! We don't have to do another until September when we do our Mommy/Daughter. And it's gonna be a spa day activity. Mani's and Pedi's and massages. WOOHOO!

Thankful Thursday #7

Howdy ya'all! What a magical time the last 24 hours has been for me. Really. My hubby rocks the house! He is all I can think about! WOOHOO! So I bet you know what I am thankful for...

WRONG!

Just kidding! I am thankful for him. Totally. I am also thankful that after tomorrow's recognition night for Activity Days, I can take a break. AAAHHH! I have been working my butt off (and yet it is still there- weird...) making little wall hanging things that we give the girls when they turn 8 and come in to Activity Days, as well as living up to my type-a personality and obsessing over every detail of the planned night. I'm sure it will be fun and fine. I hope so. I finally finished MY poodle skirt today. Oh yeah. Did I mention that? It is a 50's themed Daddy-Daughter Date, which should be a lot of fun, but in addition to all the things I already HAD to do for the party, I promised my two girls that are in A.D. that I would make them a poodle skirt to wear. AND then I stupidly thought that I should make one for myself. So that my waist and butt can look even larger and people will be utterly astonished at the amount of FELT that was wasted just to cover said waist and butt. Oh yeah! I am a dork! I freely admit to it.

But, alas, everything is ready and it will ALL BE OVER TOMORROW! Hooray!

anyway, that's what I am thankful for today!

9 Freakin' Good Years!

Mike texted me this morning and said "hey, wanna do lunch? I know we have to take kids with us, but still..." I said, "sure!" S0 here we are enjoying our Anniversary lunch complete with Jenny, Jonathan, and Sidney in tow at Marie Callendars. YUM! Then Mike gave me my present. HOLY CRAP!! He is taking me to NEW YORK CITY! (or as Jenny says to Yew Nork) We go in a couple of weeks and I am SO EXCITED! Check out the pictures of the things we are going to do and see while there.....Phantom of the Opera!
Legally Blonde, the Musical!
The New York Temple!
Wicked!!!

And the Statue of Liberty (or the Statue of Liverty, according to Jonathan)!!

Do I have a keeper or what?

Happy Easter pic

The annual Easter picture. They are all dressed in their Easter finery. Oh my! They clean up nice, huh! I even curled the girls' hair for church which is no small task since there is 3 of them and we have 9 am church! But they looked great so it was worth it!

The zoo!

We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake for Rachel's birthday on Friday. I must admit that we had not been for a while. Really, I just felt sad for all the animals that were destined to wither away and die as they "lived" there. But hey, they have redone a lot of stuff there and it is much better! No more dinky small Elephant exhibit. It is quite large and the elephants were actually outside and looking happy! And the wild cats (ie Tigers, Leopards, etc) have had their exhibits redone as well. They are no longer housed in little 5x5 cages. It was great! We did the math and we had not been since Jonathan was barely 1, so about 3 1/2 years. If you haven't been in that long either, then get to the Zoo! It's better now! Mom and the kiddos at the waterfall in the front.
Sidney reaching up and grabbing Jonathan during the train ride. funny thing, he didn't even notice.

Daddy and the kiddos in front of the Elephant statue. (this is new since our last visit) All the kids by the Elephant head thing. This is tradition to take a picture here.
with the giraffe in the background
the kids sitting on the tigers. (this is new also)
Meghan giving Rachel a piggy-back ride. It lasted just long enough for me to get my camera out and snap the picture. Meghan said, "she's too heavy". I said,"well yeah, she weighs the same as you!"

Happy Birthday Rachel!! She's 8!

WOW! It has been a busy few days and I have been a loser in posting. Friday was Rachel's birthday and we celebrated by taking the kids to the zoo.


Here are some of my favorite pictures of Rachel through the years.



Happy Birthday Rache! We love you tons! ;))

Thankful Thursday #6

I am thankful for my husband. He is my rock and my companion through thick and thin. Next Wednesday is our 9th anniversary and I can't believe that 9 years have already passed by. I love him so much and I am so thankful to have created a family with him and to know that it is FoReVeR! LOVE YOU HONEY! ;)

An update and a fun game-thingy

I hope you all have had a great week thus far. It has been pleasant weather around these parts and today is supposed to get up around 60 degrees. I just might wear shorts!

Sidney has mastered climbing the stairs. She can do it in like 1 minute. The only problem is...she doesn't even want to try to learn how to go down the stairs. Jonathan and I went to the open house at the Preschool that he will be attending this fall. He was in heaven with all the toys and puzzles and things. But now, he keeps whining that he has to wait to start school. Meghan has set a goal (along with her class) to read 30 minutes each day (they are supposed to do this anyway) for 4 weeks and see how much their reading levels improve. I told her if she could get hers up to a certain level - and it is going to be a stretch for her- that I would pay her $10. And Rachel has an animal report due by Monday. She chose Iguana as her animal of choice. So this week she is busy researching and using her best penmanship to write up a report. And Jenny starts Itty Bitty Hoops tonight at our community center. It is a co-ed basketball instruction and game program for Kindergarteners. She is so excited! I guess we'll see how well she listens to her coach because her meds might be wearing off by that point. Fun times! ;)

There! That's the update. Now for the fun!! I got this great activity via an email (just like the one I did last week). It is pretty cool. See if you can figure out how it is done.

Clicky on the linky-----

***Guess your number***

St. Patricks Day

Well, here are the kids all decked out in their green finery. It's St. Paddy's Day!! YAY! They were good sports this morning and ate the green oatmeal that I made them. Jenny wanted green ham and green eggs, and I told her that I didn't have access to a green pig or green chickens so she was gonna get what I fixed. She did. They liked the green milk. Apparently it didn't look as weird as green oatmeal.

So anyway...Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Shots of the week!

I love Spring! My crocuses are blooming and it is COLOR! No more blah white snow!!
We got down Jenny's old bike (which had been Rachel's before that) to see if Jonathan could ride it and look at him go! Now we just need to get some paint to change it from a girly bike to a "big boy bike".
Look Mom! Only one hand! I'm so big! *Really, where does the time go? Just yesterday she was born and now she holds her bottle with one hand. I hate that they have to grow up.

Not a Gap mom

There's this thing I have been noticing for as long as I've been a mom. Wanna hear about it? Keep reading.

When I was a kid, I watched Leave it to Beaver, and I thought that Mrs. Cleaver was the bomb-diggity because she was so put together. Not that my mom wasn't, she just didn't wear pearls while cooking and apparently when you are a kid that is just the sorta thing that impresses you.

Now, I consider myself a pretty well put together mom. Like June Cleaver, just not first thing in the morning. What gets me though is the moms that are driving their kids to school the same time as me and they are all made up for the day. And I mean ALL MADE UP! How in the heck are they doing this? My guess is that they are getting up at least an hour or more before their children in order to get their hair perfectly coiffed and make-up on like an expert had done it.

Really ladies, is it that hard to just drive your kids to school in your robe? I do it every day and the world has not fallen apart yet. And I don't even brush my teeth or put lipstick on first. *gasp*

Because the thing is, you make the rest of us look bad. And by bad, I mean horrible. I may not go out in my robe, but I do sport raggedy exercise pants with a bleach stain on them (oh and they have never been used for exercise either...), a threadbare t-shirt that has seen better days (like the 1990's), my slippers, no bra, and a messy ponytail.

It's not like anyone looks at what I am wearing anyway. Oh wait. I guess this whole post IS about what I notice people wearing, so maybe they do see me and think..."Sheez Jana, at least get dressed before leaving your house!"

I'll admit I am NOT a "Gap" mom. I don't look like I just walked out of the Gap store in the mall at 7:00 am. Never have been and never will be. But at least I clean up well for Sundays.

Thankful Thursday #5

(sorry no cute picture with today's post. I didn't think you'd want to see a picture on the topic at hand...)

Today I am thankful that Diarrhea doesn't last forever. And that is all that I am saying on that subject.

I'm also thankful for friends, both old and new. You all rock my world!

Colortest

You all HAVE to try this! This link came enclosed in an email that I got from a good friend of mine. It was so interesting how our brains work. I did it over and over again. Anyway, try it out!!

Colortest

Randoms thoughts of the day

I've had a pretty fun weekend doing things on Facebook and finding old friends and aquaintances long forgot.

Jenny gave a talk in church and did it almost all by herself. Then she apparently volunteered to give the closing prayer too. She just does it all if you let her and I guess that they were. Oh well, at least she wasn't being naughty!!

Daylight Savings stinks if you have young kids and early morning church. I'm just sayin'.

Joining up....

Okay, so I joined Facebook today. Why you ask? Because my sweet cousin Angel invited me to and because I like making new friends and lets face it...I don't have much of a life anymore, now that I have kids, so I am game for anything.

It looks pretty legit. Not crazy scary like things I have heard about Myspace. Anyway, I found a few people that I knew growing up that moved away and such. A couple of guys that I graduated from High School with, my husbands mission President and I also found a couple of my neighbors. How funny is that? I seriously cracked up!!

So, if you are a part of Facebook, look for me and add me as your friend. I rarely turn down a request. Well, unless you seem stalkery or something.

Thankful Thursday #4

Today I am thankful for.... a good night of SLEEP! Seems like a small thing, but for me- Woah!- I NEED my sleep. Sidney's tooth broke through a week ago and so she has finally gotten back into her groove of sleeping through the night again. Hooray for Sidney. And hooray for Mommy and Daddy not having to get up with her! YAY!

How much are YOU in to Star Wars?

Every Sunday for the past several weeks, my husband and kids have gone downstairs to the family room while I am taking a nap and watched Star Wars. See, I don't need to be there for that because Star Wars is not my cup of tea. BUT, they LOVE IT so they do it during a time that I will not be missing out on being with them (i.e. nap time).

I found this quiz today and thought maybe I should at least try to see what my Star Wars name would be. You know, for fun.

I am:

Jansp Brtwi, Yrrfiat of Byetta

here is the link so that you all can do it too....
Star Wars name generator

St. Patricks Day broccoli

Yesterday as we drove away from our house to go get Jenny from kindergarten, Jonthan spied the green sign with shamrocks on it that I have hanging on our door. This is what followed:

"Mom, why do you have broccolis on the door?"

"What?"

"Why do you have broccolis on that thingie on the door?"

"Oh, those are shamrocks for St. Patricks Day. They are like pieces of grass with little heart-shaped leaves on them, and people put them on different things when they celebrate St. Patricks Day. Okay?"

"Hmmm. They don't look like grass to me. They look like broccoli."