January 29, 2014

Happy 100th Day of School!

January 28, 2014

The perfect addition to morning face/hair?  A grape juice mustache and cereal in the teeth.

January 27, 2014

Oh my goodness!!
  Please ignore my new mom loveliness, and get a good look at that tiny little baby Shelbi.  I remember thinking how crazy it was that this baby was MINE.

January 26, 2014

  Whenever I open my photo files to put a picture on this blog, these are the pictures that oddly load first.  These are from a random day when we were messing around with Photo Booth on my computer.



January 25, 2014

  I had really good intentions to take pictures of Jeff helping the boys learn to ride their bikes today.  But that didn't happen (the picture-taking, not the riding lesson). The day was so nice we spent a little extra time at the school, getting basketball shooting tips and mastering the hopscotch.



January 24, 2014

The Cha Cha turns three!



Three things I don't want to forget about Bailey at this age:
1. If you call her anything besides her name ("Cha Cha," a "good girl," "Goofball") she'll say, "I not ____, I just Bailey!"
2. She can't say her Rs.  If the R is at the beginning of the word, it sounds like a Y (Yian for Ryan); if the R is in the middle of the word, she skips the R sound altogether (imagine how uncomfortable it gets when she talks about her shirt in public).
3. She has made up a game with me where she'll sing a question in an imaginary microphone, then hand me the microphone and expect me to sing the answer back.
  Despite being utterly spoiled and adored by all in this family, she is very sweet and good-natured.  

January 23, 2014


January 22, 2014

  Yep, my memory card's still in the computer.
  On our drive back to New Jersey from Utah the summer before Jeff's second year of medical school, we stayed with my sister Jill's family in Michigan.  We decided to drive a little out of the way to see "The Big House," the stadium at the University of Michigan. When would we ever be that close again??

January 21, 2014

  Okay, I know I took a picture today, but my memory card was in my computer, not my camera.  Oh well.  Here's another oldie, but goodie.

  We were living in Provo when the Olympics came to Salt Lake City.  Provo held a celebration when the Olympic torch came through town. We went with my mom and dad.  The three things that stick out in my memory of that night are 1) seeing the torch being run down the road was pretty ant-climatic, 2) it was freezing, and Shelbi's shoes/socks kept falling off her little feet, and 3) because of Shelbi's poor frozen toes, we left early, but could still see the fireworks from our apartment window.

January 20, 2014

  I sat downstairs this evening listening to the kids play "office" upstairs.  It must have been some sort of government agency, as there were lines forming to the left and permits being granted, along with all kinds of office politics.  Here are the kids at their various work stations:





January 19, 2014

  This little girl has a miserable cold, with a runny nose and watery eyes.  But you wouldn't know it by her attitude.  The only time she got upset today was when she found out she couldn't go to church.
  On the other hand, when Erik heard that Bailey got to stay home from church, he promptly invented a stomachache.  And as a testament to Erik's mind power, his stomachache turned into him throwing up in the chapel before church began.  I'm sure I didn't look like the most sympathetic mom.  But if Erik was going to pretend to be sick, I was going to go right along with it.  Only dry crackers and water all day, even if he was "starving!"

January 18, 2014

  If Jeff is going to be in Oklahoma City and have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, he might as well bring home some Godiva chocolate cheesecake.

January 17, 2014

  This is where Jeff is tonight.  He and some friends from work have been planning this Oklahoma City trip for months (mostly so they could all have work off.)  Of course, Jeff was cheering for the Warriors, not the Thunder.

January 16, 2014

  I pulled out my basket of chocolate chips today to make cookies.  This basket stays on the top shelf of my pantry.  I can't actually see into it without a step.  For some reason I always think I'm about out of chocolate chips, so I'll buy another bag and toss them up into the basket.  I think I'll stop buying them now.

January 15, 2014

  If you get a recipe for manicotti on the internet, and many of the commenters for that recipe say that you can skip the boiling of the noodles before baking if you add some water to the sauce, don't believe them.  Even if that's how you make lasagna.  It won't work.  It will be gross.  Dinner will be ruined.

January 14, 2014

There' nothing like fresh Play-doh.



January 13, 2014

  This little mole popped up on Bailey's shoulder a couple of months ago.  She's obsessed with it.  Any time I'm changing her shirt, she'll touch it and say, "Still got my mole."

January 12, 2014

  I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite child, but this guy volunteered to help with Sunday dinner dishes, and sang Primary songs as he did it.

January 11, 2014

  Watching the U.S. figure skating finals.  I should have gotten a picture of the girls doing their very graceful carpet ice skating routines.  

January 10, 2014

  Tonight, I'm glad I'm me.  Put the kids to bed, grabbed my current favorite snack, popcorn and peanut M&Ms, and watched Netflix in bed.


January 9, 2014

Ironman, May 2011

January 8, 2014

Erik, January 2007
  The girls called this "Bink in the Ear."  When Erik would fall asleep, his binky would fall out and end up squished to the side of his head.

January 7, 2014

  Most mornings we have two extra guests at the breakfast table.
  These are Bailey's "best friends," Monkey and Ghost.  She sleeps with them every night and brings them down to breakfast. This is where they sit next to her.  She forgets about them all day, until it's bedtime and then she asks for Best Friends again to snuggle with her in bed.

January 6, 2014

  I got a package tonight that was insulated with these bubble-things.  The kids promptly popped them.  All except Bailey.  She tried standing on it, jumping on it, smacking it between her hands, sitting on it.  

Nothing worked until I offered some extra muscle to squeeze it.

January 5, 2014

Also from 2000.  You might be seeing a lot of these early photos on days I forget to take a picture.  Some of these I forgot even existed.

January 4, 2014

  My project lately has been to scan to my computer all of my photos that aren't digital.  These are from fourteen years ago.  Jeff was establishing his reputation as The Fun Uncle early on.



January 3, 2014

Tonight Jeff and I did something that we probably haven't done in five or six years.
 We browsed through a video rental store, looking for a movie to watch.  Honestly, I'm surprised these places still exist.  I guess when there's nothing in the theater, at Redbox, or on Netflix that you want to watch, this is what you're left with.

January 2, 2014

  I had to go to an appointment at dinnertime tonight, leaving the kids to finish dinner on their own.  When I came home, I saw this:
  I was confused at first about all theses random dishes on the countertop.  Until I realized that these are the clean dishes that were in the dishwasher.  Ryan, whose dish night it was, unloaded the dishwasher and loaded the dirty dinner dishes.  What a guy.

January 1, 2014

   Here is proof that I wasn't always such a dud when it came to NYE:
 Jeff and I went to an actual party with some friends.  Granted, this was 2000, probably the last time we did anything fun for the holiday.
And here's my nephew Pepper, also enjoying the new year.

December 31, 2013

  Having banana splits was about the only thing we did to celebrate New Year's Eve.  Shelbi and Sydney made an effort to at least stay up until midnight (Sydney didn't make it.)  I, on the other hand, went to bed at 11:something.  These poor children of a boring mother.

December 30, 2013

If I had done a few pushups it would have been a pretty good workout.

December 29, 2013

Plush carpet + Legos = Heaven for this little boy