Rainbow clouds and believing the impossible

Last week I received an email from my mom. It was one that she forwarded to lots of people of a picture. The picture was of this weird weather phenomenon where there is a rainbow in a cloud. I thought it was cool, but it looked SO fake. I totally thought that it had to be some kind of computer generated picture that some nerd cooked up just to get people to forward it all over the world.

Yeah. That's what I thought.

Until today when we were outside doing yardwork and I looked up and saw that very awesome thing in the sky right in front of my eyes! It was so cool and my kids loved it! The cloud was one of those cirrus (I think that is right) clouds that looks like stretched out cotton. It proceeded to stretch and stretch over the course of 45 minutes until it was just gone, but it was magnificent while it was doing it.

Photo fun!

Okay, so I am totally LOVING my new camera! It has so many different options that my old one did not have. Yesterday, the kids were outside playing and I thought I would try out the sepia setting. LOVE IT! Enjoy the pics!

Because I grew up in the 80's

Your 80s Hunk Is

Bill Gates

Who's" Your 80s Hunk?

That's. just. sick. I thought I would get John Stamos or Jason Bateman or someone cute at least. Now I feel violated.

Corn on the cob

I was noticing something tonight as we ate our first corn on the cob of the season. First, it wasn't very yummy. Probably because it was grown in a greenhouse somewhere and didn't just grow naturally in my garden. (Whatev!) Second, I noticed that we all have different ways we eat the corn off the cob. For example, Meghan and I eat it in rows down the length of the cob. Jonathan, Jenny and Mike eat around the cob in neat (well, Jonathan's isn't "neat") little rings. And Rachel takes bites randomly all over the cob until it is cleaned off.

Hmmmmm. So, it made me wonder.....how do YOU eat your corn-on-the-cob?

Memorial Day for us

Memorial Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. No school, and when I was younger we would travel to the cemetery to place flowers on the graves.

It's still very much the same. The kids had no school. And we went to the graves to put flowers...except we did it yesterday instead of today. I doubt anyone important noticed. I am pretty lucky that I only live 45 minutes away from the Willard Cemetery where my dad's parents are buried. We also go to the Ben Lomond Cemetery where my step-grandpa is buried.

That means that every year we have the opportunity to teach our kids about cemeteries and Memorial Day and why it is so important. What a great blessing!

The kids love it. Meghan did the math this year and finally realized that my dad's dad died 50 years before my grandma. No wonder she remarried. That's a long time to be alone waiting to be reunited with your loved one. And we love my (step) grandpa. He is the only grandpa I ever knew and my girls got to know him a little before he passed. I know that I am grateful for that time.

I wish I lived closer to where my mom's parents are buried. But that is a crazy 7 hour drive to that cemetery. It bums me out that my kids didn't really get to know those grandparents. They only have a couple of memories of them. I have a lot though and I try to share them every chance I get.

Fruit logic

After picking Jenny up from FIELD DAY at school today, she and I had the following conversation.

Jenny: And then they gave us ice cream.
Me: Oh, I love ice cream.
Jenny: Yeah and it was Strawberry.
Me: Yummy, strawberry ice cream is so good.
Jenny: Plus, it is a fruit so it is nutritious.

HA! I'm not so sure that it is actually "nutritious", but hey, I plan to use this fruit logic as often as I can. Cheesecake WITH cherries on top. Hey! There's cherries. They are a FRUIT! So...it's nutritious! :)

Mud bath and facial anyone?

Last night I was reading Fablehaven. If you haven't read it yet, then you must. It's so good! Anyway, my mom called. We talk every Sunday. I answered the phone and began to talk to her. I was not worried about being "unavailable" to anyone else in the house, because I thought that daddy had it covered. He had Jenny and Jonathan out jumping on the tramp, and he and the two older girls were playing on the piano while Sidney crawled around in the living room. Anyway, like I said, I didn't worry about what anyone else was doing. Probably my first mistake. Mom and I were talking and Mike comes into the room and whispers that I need to come see something. I whisper back that I am talking. He says,"No, really, you need to come see something." Whatever, it better be good.
I follow him outside and he points to Jonathan on the tramp who is COVERED in mud. Oh yeah, and since the kids were all ready for bed, he is also wearing his JAMMIES!
I couldn't help it. I started to laugh. My mom asks me what is funny and I am trying to explain the scene that I am seeing. She and I giggle together for a sec and then I say, "I bet that I know where he made the mud at. I bet he turned on the faucet in the flowerbed and made mud." I turn that direction to look at the flowerbed and SURE enough! That is where he made his little mud bog at. We currently don't do much with this small flowerbed. It houses the electrical box thingy for the sprinklers and we don't have anything planted in it yet, so we have just been letting Jonathan dig in there with his toys and stuff. Apparently he has moved beyond just digging.But the funniest was yet to come. The fence right next to the mud bog is also COVERED in MUD!! I couldn't help it. At that point I just bust out laughing so hard! And it's hard to be mad at your kid and enforce any discipline when you are laughing, just in case you all wondered. When I was explaining to my mom about the mud on the fence, Jonathan piped up, "I was painting it brown, Mom".


So there you have it. Apparently we needed a brown fence and Jonathan gave himself a spa treatment!

What can I say. He is ALLLLLLLL BOY!

Sarcasm, or not...

Because I am.

You Have Your Sarcastic Moments

While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge. In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead! And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in. Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious.

How Sarcastic Are You?

Obsessed and loving it

I have OCD. I admit it. At least I am not in denial. I fully embrace the fact that I do obsess about things and OVER do it with other things. Whatever. There are freakier things I could be. And you all KNOW what I am talking about!

I love crafts. Sometimes I get so hooked on a new craft that it is the only thing I do for DAYS on end. Oh yeah. I am SOOOOO not kidding. Just ask my husband. I do the same thing with fun computer games, and well, blogging.

Ahem.

Anyway, my friend Shannon showed me this new fun craft the other day that she has also been obsessing on. I love it! I made one today for Jenny's teacher as a gift for being a great teacher. It took me about 2 hours. So easy.

Here's the pictures.

So, here's what you do....

You go to Roberts or Ben Frankin and buy these little metal container things that they sell in different shapes and sizes. I chose this lunchbox style. Then you cover it with either scrapbook paper or in this case, cardstock. Next, you put stickers and letters on it and modge-podge over the entire thing. This makes it all adhere really well and gives it a great glossy coating. The last step is putting ribbons on the handle. I think it turned out CUTE! It is so much fun!

Tomorrow I am making one for Rachel. And the day after that I am making one for Jonathan. And the day after that......

Happy Birthday Sidney girl!

Can you believe that I FORGOT to do a fun little post about my baby complete with pictures for her 1st birthday! What a loser, right? It's okay, I am a cheater and I will just post-date this one and no one will know....wait, I just told you. OOPS!

My little baby turned 1! It's crazy to me how it feels like forever that I was pregnant and that was only 9 months. And the first year of her life has gone by in a flash and it was 12 months.

BIG, FAT mommy all pregnant with Sidney. Eight months and counting.....
Miss Sidney just one day old. What a cutie!
I love it when she smiles. She brings such sunshine into our home.
And she has been known to make some pretty weird faces too. Maybe it's just gas?
Already playing with Barbies. Yikes, they start early don't they!

Just for fun...this is me at 6 months old. Quite a resemblance to Sidney!! (And check out my mom's hairdo! LOVE IT!)

This is what I live for. Kisses from my baby! We'll work on the fact that she uses her tongue when she's older. :)

What a day!

I'm not talking about today. Yesterday was busy, busy, busy! Well, actually, the whole week has been busy. But now it is over and next week looks to be less occupied with "stuff to do". So what made it so busy?

Here is the rundown: My two oldest are off track. They think I need to entertain THEM. Jenny had end of year Kindergarten testing this week. I had Activity Days to do on Thursday and since it was also the beginning of the month, I had to get typed up the newsletter for the girls. Rachel had a party with her soccer team to celebrate being done with soccer. WOOHOO! We had to go to the church and pick up the baptismal clothes for Rachel. I had a Cookie Lee jewelry party at my house. I had to clean my house. YUCK! And I had to make some food and go to Costco to get the rest.

That was the preparatory stuff. Yesterday was the culmination of what we prepared for. My sweet Rachel was baptized by her dad! It was an awesome day and I am so proud of her.

And since we had Stake Conference last week, it worked out well that this week was Fast Sunday and would be her baptism, since today is Sidney's FIRST BIRTHDAY and so our family all got to be here to celebrate that as well! So much fun! She loved her cake. After she fully woke up and people helped her a little to taste it. That's when she really got into it. She's getting closer to walking too. She takes a couple steps at a time. I think she is about a week away from full-blown on her own. YIKES! I am not ready for that!!

What a day!

It's not just for laundry anymore...

I thought this was fun. I heard Sidney giggling and came out of my room to see Meghan and Rachel pulling her around in the laundry basket. You would have thought that they were the only kids in the world to think it up when they said, "Look Mom! Look what we are doing with Sidney"!
So, of course, then I HAD to show them that pulling a baby around in a laundry basket has been done by older siblings since probably the dawn of time! Here is my older sisters Amy and Marni pulling me around. And I was even the same age as Sidney is. Funny!