Blogger is driving me crazy

Does anyone know how to make hard returns work on blogger? It's so hit or miss. I just tried 4 times adding hard returns in so my most recent entry isn't one long continuous paragraph. I finally went into the html mode and got the hard returns, but have the align center words in the blog. Ahhhh - so annoying!

Last Weekend: The Great, The BAD and The Ugly

I wish so much I had pictures to document the first part of our weekend.

We had a wonderful day on Friday. We got to spend the whole afternoon and whole night with Kim, Allie, Luke and Kate. Friday morning, Kim called to see if we could help surprise Allie (one of Sarah's bestest friends) for her birthday. Unfortunately, her plan with the cousins fell through when they got sick. Kim's plans were hanging in the balance. She needed help, she needed some party animals to come surprise Allie. Well, we like to do service for others, so we decided to help out! (o: Wasn't that nice of us?

It worked out perfect because we had no plans and I wanted to do something fun with the girls. Bingo! Win-win situation. The girls were so excited. We hid at Kim's house and surprised Allie when she came home from school. Her reaction was so cute it made me tear up. She got a huge grin and hugged Sarah so tight for the longest time. Sarah was laughing and thought it was so funny how long Allie was hugging her. The reason why I got a little teary is because these two girls are such good friends and we recently found out that Kim and her family are moving to Texas. )o: Sarah and Allie are really sad about it and I am REALLY sad about it too. Kim is one of my most bestest friends. Anyway, let's get back to the fun and happy part...

After Allie got over the shock of her surprise she got another surprise - we were all going swimming together! Wahoo! We had such a blast!! Sarah and Allie were little fish and went off on their own most of the time - by the end they were doing somersaults and all kinds of tricks in the water. It reminded me of me and my cousin Megan when we were little - practicing our synchronized swimming routines for the Olympics. (o:

Natalie was very nervous at first - we haven't gone swimming for a while. By the time we left, not only did she go down the waterslide with me (something she has been scared of for a long time) but then she went down about a hundred times with Luke by herself! I was so excited! Those two just went up and down and up and down for about a half hour straight. Kim and I each got a couple turns too - we couldn't let the kids have all the fun. And Angela, even went down - another big triumph. She laughed nervously the whole way down and had a huge grin when we hit the water. She exclaimed, "I didn't cry! I laughing!" I immediately asked, "Do you want to go again?" I got a VERY curt, "NO!"

By the time we were done, we were all wrinkly and waterlogged. But the party STILL wasn't over. It was pizza time! We had a fabulous pizza and movie party at Kim's house until about midnight! The food was awesome (especially Kim's cream puffs - to die for!!), the movie was great (Bedtime Stories - I was very pleasantly surprised - Adam Sandler cracks me up.), but most of all the company was soooo great. I could hang out with Kim all day and all night. Oh wait, I guess I did. What a fun day! The only two sad things about the day were that 1. I left my memory card home and didn't get any pictures and 2. Bill* and Kim's husband both had a horrible day at work. We felt very bad for our poor slaving husbands while we had all the fun.

So that portion was the GREAT part of our weekend. The bad part has to do with that last sentence - the horrible day at work. Actually, by the time Bill* got home from work it was the next day around 11:00 a.m. If my calculations are correct, that is 28 hours straight at work. Oh and did I mention that he was only coming home for a two hour break? That's right. Oh and did I also mention that during his two hour break, Bill* mowed the lawn and then discovered that some little creature ripped off the metal screen over one of our crawlspace vents so he spent the next half hour crawling around in the dirty and hot crawl space to see if we had a raccoon nest down there? Luckily, he didn't find anything and we sealed off the opening with some bricks. But isn't that a great way to spend a break after working 28 hours in a row? After all that fun, Bill* headed back to work for 4 more hours. Poor guy. (He also got to go in Sunday for 6 hours. Yippee. The fun never ends!)

While he was gone, I decided to take on the yard by myself. It was our annual neighborhood barkdust weekend. The HOA orders several truckloads of barkdust for everyone to use in the front yards. Unfortunately, the closest pile to our house was gone - so I had to go on a block and a half trek with the kids back and forth 7 times! My cute neighbor came up with a creative way to transport the barkdust that was much easier than a wheelbarrow. I wish I got a picture of it. He had a cart that I just had to push with two humongous buckets/bins on top. I was so grateful he let me use it.

I worked my butt off (well, it's still there, but I burned a lot of calories off of it) - the entire time Bill* was gone. I wanted to surprise him. I weeded, pruned, planted a couple new bushes, pulled out bulbs of some flowers I HATE and laid out barkdust everywhere in the front yard. I wish I got a before picture, but the pics below show the after. I was sooo exhausted, thirsty, hungry, sore and a little sunburned by the time I was done. The girls were so good almost the whole time and Sarah helped me a lot. We were very excited to see Bill* come home and all got a Slurpee and a well deserved dinner at Pasta Pronto.

We ended the evening with a roller blade around the neighborhood. Our evening was so nice, it almost made up for all the hard work during the day. Our weekend was pretty extreme - we worked hard and played hard.

Our weather last weekend was GLORIOUS!! I can't wait for summer! Actually, if it could just stay exactly as it is now that would be fantastic - not too hot, not too cold.

We get comments from everyone on our beautiful Wisteria in the entryway. It is beautiful this time of year and smells sooo good. It makes me happy.


Our Rhodies are in full bloom and looking beautiful.


Do you like my shaping? Isn't it lovely. (o: And notice the beautiful barkdust.

Our yard AFTER my loooong day of yardwork.

Student Led Conferences

The reason school was out last week, was so we could attend student-led conferences.

These are so fun. The kids get to bring us, the parents, to show us what they've worked on this year. I get to come in and help at school all the time, but it's so special for the girls to show daddy their classrooms, work and what they do every day.

We visited Natalie's class first. Her teacher had a little list for Natalie to check off and show us. It was so cute. We did a little craft with her, saw her artwork and got a tour of the calendar, word wall, etc. But our favorite was sitting down and looking through her journal with her. What a keepsake that will be. I wish I thought to get pictures of them while we were reading them. Her last 6 entries in her journal had very beautiful elaborate birthday cakes drawn on them. It must have something to do with her birthday being recently. We thought that was pretty cute. I just love Kindergarten - what a cute age!

Natalie looking through her journal with daddy. She's quite an artist.

Sarah's class was next. We got a really funny surprise and Sarah could hardly stand to see our faces. Her teacher is such a crack up. She had all the kids make "dummies" of themselves to put in their desks. Our job was to try and figure out which one was Sarah. I loved this! It made the room look so fun and whimsical. I loved seeing all the details the kids put on their dummies. What a fun teacher!!

Mrs. B, Sarah and dummy.

Once again, our favorite part of the conference with Sarah was reading some of her journal entries and other writing.

Here are a couple favorites...


The part that made us laugh and REALLY hit home this week said, "Every Christmas Eve I pick out a new ornament, with my mom only, because my dads always at work."
Funny... sad too - if we don't laugh then we'll just cry. So ha ha ha!

This was so adorable! It made me laugh so hard I cried. I love Sarah so much - and I LOVE getting to see inside her little brain through her wonderful writing. What a cutie pie.

"In 10 years, I will be 18 years old. I will be an arciologist when I grow up. I want to be an arciologist because I would like to go on adventures and study forbiden things. I would like to go to college. I want to go to college because if you do go to college you can study what you want to. That's why I really want to go to college. Maybe when I do go to college one of the days I'll order pizza to eat for lunch the next day."

Natalie and Angela tried to keep entertained while we visited Sarah's room. (o:

Angela has that pathetic, "I'm bored" look.

No School!

The girls got a break from school for a couple days last week. I can't wait for summer - I love when they are home!
Of course, they had to have a "sleepover" together on Angela's bed. I made it into a little fort with blankets all around. They are so cute. I love that they have so much fun doing this together.

The next day, we went to the zoo for a preschool field trip. Sarah had so much fun being reunited with her old preschool buddy, Paige! Now both of their little sisters are in preschool together. (o: Time sure flies.

Natalie LOVED the sea lions and thinks she wants to be a marine biologist. That was on my list of "when I grow" up for me for a LONG time - clear up until high school, when I realized I'd have to go to college where marine animals actually live. Then I chickened out. Maybe I can live vicariously through Natalie. (o:

Cute baby elephant.

Look at all those hungry little birds in the eagle's nest!

Sarah was taking pictures like crazy. I was so proud. (o:

Melanie and I got to sit and visit for quite some time thanks to this cool sand box thingy. What a fun time!!

The bears were so entertaining this time - unfortunately, it was really hard to get a good picture through the glare on the glass when the two bears sat together and one started scratching the other one's back. Very entertaining!

We also got to see the new baby elephant and some cool birds that the bird handler's brought out. Plus we had a picnic on the big lawn, of course. We always have to do that. On the way out we stopped at the souvenir shop and I bought a set of northwest animals. My friend has the coolest collection of all kinds of big plastic animals in a big bucket. I decided that I wanted to start a collection like that - so every time we go, we'll pick up a new set of animals to add. The girls have been playing with the badger, raccoon, black bear, gopher and lynx every day since. Who knew they'd be such a hit?

Randomness

The weather has been AWESOME this week! Lots of fun playing outside. The girls are getting creative on the swingset. You should have seen when they got Natalie on there too, standing on Sarah's legs - I wasn't fast enough with the camera. I think the girls are ready for the circus!

Here's a couple pics from our dance instruction night for youth night last Tuesday. It was fun and Brother Burke - the teacher, was entertaining as well as knowledgable. I think he was on the ballroom dance team at BYU. He was a great dance teacher.

Look at that form! Go girls!

Last week, it was our family's turn to help clean the church building. The girls think this is so awesome. I hope that lasts for a while. I love having the opportunity to teach them the importance of taking care of our building we are so blessed to have. I love that our church really emphasizes, starting at a very young age, that we all have work to do and something to contribute. We don't just get free hand outs, we all pitch in to help the family, the ward and the community to make them better places.

I think I'm on a kick with this free handouts idea because I just read an amazing essay this morning entitled "Live Free or Die". It's very sobering. I believe very strongly in helping others. I was raised to be service oriented to look for ways to help others in need. Our family donates a lot of time and money to humanitarian aid and welfare. I believe in Christ-like service and love and I try to teach my kids the same. There are definitely times when people genuinely need help.

But there are more often than not, these days, people who feel entitlement to things they haven't even worked for. The attitude of wanting the government to take care of everything has always made me leery and this guy says so eloquently what can happen if we let our country turn to socialism like Canada and Europe.

I remember a friend talking about her 18 months living in Sweden on an LDS mission. She talked about the lifestyle there - mediocrity and laziness were prevalent everywhere she went. 70-80% of the citizens were on welfare and didn't work because they could make more money from welfare than they could working. The tax burden on those who did work was so huge it wasn't worth the effort.

Sorry to get on a political kick, but this was too good not to pass on - I don't want our country to keep heading in this direction . . .

Here's a link

http://www.hillsdale.edu/images/userImages/mvanderwei/Page_4221/ImprimisApril09.pdf

My Favorite Preschooler

Preschool is back at my house this month. I really enjoy the preschool that I've done with Natalie and Angela. For those who might be wondering, I have used my good friends' Kim and Julie's Smart Cookies preschool curriculum. It's so great. (FYI - Recently, they changed it to Kidgenuity and are currently working to get a website up and running. I'll add a link later.)

I've had lots of fun getting to know Kayelynn, my teaching buddy, and the other moms in our group. I love having the kids in my home and making fun memories here. I'm so glad to have these fun times with my kids when they are little. Plus I save a ton of money not sending my kids to a preschool AND I get to keep the cute lessons I buy forever.

So anyways, (I always think of Nacho Libre when I say this.) I taught one of my favorite lessons, Birds and Eggs last week. Above, Angela is making a "nest". I told the kids when they were done that I would put a special egg in their nest if it was nice and cozy. Apparently, I should have explained that the egg would never hatch. Some of the moms told me the kids kept asking when the bird was going to come out!

This little activity was so fun. The kids drew faces on an egg shell that I filled with dirt. Then they planted some wheat grass "hair" inside. Angela's already needs a hair cut and it hasn't even been a week. I love the eyelashes she drew!

Some of the fun stations the kids can choose from during Discovery Time.
I always set up more than we need to so the kids have lots to choose from.
This particular day, I had Natalie and Jayda helping before they went to Kindergarten. (o: They liked being the big kids and were very helpful.

We didn't do this at preschool, but it seemed to fit in with this post the best. I have posted some of Angela's art before. I just love how she colors. It is so bright and unique. She chooses colors you wouldn't normally pick, very Andy Warhol-ish. I also likes how she uses several different kinds of colors within the lines - like in Tinkerbell's hair and wings. She colors in the lines, but she uses such interesting combinations of colors. Of course, as her mom, what I'm trying to say is that I think she's brilliant! (o:

Nacky Tack

Some cute Natalie expressions...

This one's my favorite.

But this one makes me laugh ...

Natalie can do KILLER crusties.

I think she is ticked off that I asked her to come inside. I interrupted her fun play. She was collecting blossoms that fell from the neighbor's yard and making bouquets.

Her crusty got even more evil when she saw me grab the camera to capture her crusty.

I am so mean. Love you too, Nat. (o:

Good Morning Angela

Kids are so cute in the morning.

At what age does this change, I wonder?

I most definitely would not be described as cute in the morning.

Angela was making some funny faces.

I get this eye-roll a lot from her.

She's only three for heaven's sake!

And another. Imagine a big huffy sigh coming out of her mouth and that's what I get from Angela any time I do something horrible like ask her to eat a grape, put her shoes on the right feet or to help set the table. (o:

I love Angela. (o:

Turkey Cabbage Casserole

This is a quick and yummy casserole we have about once a month. The girls will eat the meat, but hopefully will appreciate the cabbage more someday. Ned* and I LOVE it!

This was originally Hamburger Cabbage Casserole, but I hardly ever use ground beef anymore. I always replace it in any recipe with ground turkey. So here's the turkey version...

1 lb ground turkey

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

1/2 cup uncooked instant rice (brown or white)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed tomato soup

1/4 cup water

4 cups shredded cabbage

sour cream, if desired

chopped chives, if desired

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Cook turkey and onions in skillet until browned. Drain. Stir in rice, salt, pepper, soup and water.

Place cabbage in ungreased 2 quart casserole dish.

Spoon turkey mixture over cabbage.

Cover and bake 45 minutes or until hot/bubbly.
Top with sour cream and chives if desired.
Serves 6

Pretty Hair

We're starting up the pretty hair Sundays again - Sarah got a turn this week. I couldn't quite pull off the Weaved Tiara look I was going for from the hairstyle website, but did this instead. I love how it turned out.