Christian's 4 Year Old Portraits

Warning: Health Hazard

Reading these books can become hazardous to your health. A certain percentage of victims suffer from insomnia and starvation during reading. Some may also suffer from neglect, either of themselves, or others they normally care for. If you do choose to read, be forewarned that addiction is probable and you will not be able to put the books down.

Stephenie Meyer writes an extraordinary tale . . . I personally cannot wait for the 4th installment in this series Breaking Dawn to be released this summer. I am a bit apphrehensive, however, for the movie. Can Hollywood actually meet my expectations of perfection? When Stacey first mentioned Twilight, I thought to myself, "uh, Vampires, not my genre." Then Lisa was reading it and loved it so she lent it to me and I read it on my plane home from NY. I was hooked!

I recommended them to my neighbor last Saturday. She went to the bookstore that night and bought Twilight and stayed up all night reading it so she went back to the bookstore the next day and bought the other two and had them finished by Monday. She saw me outside and said this was her all time most favorite book. I'm laughing because my neighbor is extremely well-read as she is a member of book clubs, doesn't watch TV (only reads), is a teacher and involved with the literary community. I didn't know if it would fit her bill, but it obvisously did and we had a lively conversation on the sidewalk today! Next I'm going to have John read it so I can see if it can be appreciated by the male gender!

Valentine's is for Locks

EIGHTEEN INCHES

of hair

Donated

on

Valentine's Day

We cut our hair to donate it to Locks of Love and Pantente Beautiful Lengths. This is something Brooke has been wanting to do since the last time she did it - 1 1/2 years ago. I'm so proud of her for donating two times (and she's only SIX!). I've been growing my hair out because she wanted me to donate with her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

68 Valentines cut out

You Make My Heart Glow

glow sticks included

Helping at the Class Party
Finding my car decorated - and driving it around town all day

Friday Night Fever and Randomness

I wish I had a picture of this, but tonight we went to our school's family party: Friday Night Fever - Disco theme- and we danced the night away. My feet are killing me, not used to being on them so long! Long after John took the two littlest ones home, Madison, Brooke and I continued to dance. We had a great time dancing together and the funniest was seeing the groovy duds people showed up in!

We have a great school, and the celebration, even though previously planned, was the icing on the cake after an emotional battle to save our school.

After a nice morning jog early this morning, enjoying the beautiful weather again, and then getting the kids off to school, I took my two littles to Old Navy for what I thought would be to pick out some new clothes for Madison's upcoming birthday. They were having a sale that was too good to pass up and I ended up doing serious damage. John showed up and needed to help me with the bags to my car (too numerous, big and heavy to handle with the stroller)!! Yikes. We had a quick lunch at Panera. I love that place! Then home to nap the kiddies and start making the several dozen cookies for Friday Night Fever's Bee-Gee Bake Sale.

My littlest littles took a too-short nap, so we had time to walk down to the school to pick up the bigger littles.

Double stroller.

Big hill.

More walking.

At the school, I accumulated two more kids and told them we'd stop at 7-11 on the way home (it's Friday). I felt like the pied piper with six little kids walking down the street. Near 7-11 is a dental office that I saw some people enter. Then I realized Madison had an orthodontist appointment at 3:15 (quick look at my phone: 3:14!). Hey kids - detour! We all went into the dental office and made her appointment just in time. The staff of course asked, "Are they all yours?" I'm certain that if we were in Utah my brood wouldn't have even received a second glance. However, here I always receive comments if I have all my kids with me. Why is that? Sometimes it's a look of admiration (wow! you must be amazing to be able to handle so many kids. Or, Are you nuts . . . pollution/overcrowding/expense/etc./get a bigger TV) either way it can pretty rude.

We didn't get home until 4:00 after the walk home. The kids (including the extras) played basketball and ran around the house until the parents came to pick them up. Put on the blue eyeshadow, wrap up all the cookies and head out the door to the Disco!

No wonder my feet hurt.

A Racin' Good Time!

Christian's birthday party was a success. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

We made a fabulous race track cake . . .

Painted and assembled pinewood derby-style cars . . .
Played "Pin the Wheels on Lightning McQueen"

and whacked a pinata . . .

Had to keep the activities indoors due to the still swamped backyard.

Happy Birthday Dear Christian, Happy Birthday to You!

Ice cream, cake, presents, playing and fun!

They decorated goody bags (white paper lunch sacks) to look like traffic lights. We filled them with a Hot Wheels car, Hot Wheels Fruit Snacks their painted car, a Learner's Permit, and the candy. The two girls also got a little Kelly doll.

The thank-you notes turned out cute, too. They match the invitation, and I created driver's licenses with their photos on them. I laminated them and put them in the note. Cute!