My Great Helper

Sarah is such a sweetheart. She loves learning new things and feeling like she is a big helper. And boy, is she a great helper. That's not to say that we don't experience some resistance and whining when it comes to helping out, but when it is something new and requires more responsibility - Sarah is always excited. I made some chore cards to explain what is expected for some of the more involved chores. One that I trained Sarah on recently was cleaning the half bathroom all by herself. She cleans the sink and toilet, scrubs inside the toilet, cleans the mirror, checks the soap and TP, takes out the rug and towels to the laundry room and mops the floor. I bought some more "natural" cleaning products so I wouldn't have to worry about all the chemicals I usually use - like 409. The other day she did the job all by herself without any supervision, it was AWESOME! I was so proud of her. A couple funny things . . . look at her cute sign she made and hung up. I got a kick out of it when she brought me down to inspect her work. The other funny thing . . . notice how many paper towels are in the garbage can above. Looks like we need to go over a few "greener" methods of cleaning to save a few trees! But what a great kid - she is such a cutie.

More Girls' Night Pics

Here are a few pictures I got with my good camera before the gymnastics show we went to a couple weeks ago. You can read my post from earlier to find out why I had to resort to using my cell phone camera during the show. What cute girls! The last picture is of Natalie's "sign" she made during the show to hold up for the gymnasts to see. (o: I'm sure they would have been very flattered if they could have seen the 4x6" size paper. (o:

Angela's Field Trips

This is our third time having the girls do Smart Cookies preschool. For the three year olds, the kids have one day of preschool (I had my turn this week) and a field trip that goes with the lesson topic for the week. Above: Costco was an awesome field trip. Look at the cool badges Kelly, our Costco tour guide, made for each of the kids! They got a tour of the bakery and then got to decorate yummy Costco cookies. Two thumbs way up - we already are big fans of Costco, but that put them over the top for us! (o:
This is a funny shot of the girls looked for clothing patterns at Kohls. Angela found some underwear with polka dots!
Angela still talks about and recognizes different clothing patterns since this preschool lesson and field trip. She especially loves stripes and polka dots. Aren't these cute fashionistas?
Today we went to Jackson Bottom Wetlands to see if we could find any bugs or spiders. That was my topic for this week. Most of the bugs were smart and stayed warm somewhere. We decided to do the same and had fun playing inside with the interactive exhibits.

Is it REALLY necessary?

I wish food were just for recreation and not a necessity. I could save so much time if my family did not have to eat three times (sometimes 4-5) a day! Why does life need to revolve around creating menus, grocery shopping, preparing, storing, cooking, eating (this part takes a particularly long time for my girls) and cleaning up the whole mess? By the time you're done with one meal, it's on to the next. I could get so much more done if we could just have food be for recreation. I love to eat, so I would make time for this hobby, but three times a day? What else (besides going to the bathroom!) do we do that many times a day? Geesh! I am jealous of people who actually like to cook - then maybe I wouldn't dread it so much when 4:00 hits each day. Well, I better go figure out what I'm making for dinner...

Who's Frank* Billy Bob* Mr. Magoo*

This is in response to my cousin's question in the comments on my last entry. I'm sure many of you have wondered who all these men in my life are! (o: I mentioned briefly in a past post that the love of my life, my best friend, the man I married - is not a big fan of blogs and his name/picture being out on the internet. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the girls pictures and names being on the internet either, which I understand. So we compromised and I am respecting his request to not use his name or pictures of him. We also agreed it would be good to avoid using our last name or any other info we don't want strangers to know. I wanted to keep our blog open and not have to do the password thing so that friends and family can easily view and follow our blog. Anyway, I am having fun with my mysterious husband and give him various names that suit my mood! We think it's funny, but sorry about any confusion this caused! (o:

Home Improvements

Two weekends ago, Frank* and I painted our room - we love the new color (it was white before) and now can't wait to add some fun stuff to the walls.
Above is a corner of our house that has been driving me crazy for a long time. This is actually what the girls dress ups looked like when they were "cleaned up". Usually they are spread out all over this corner and throughout the room. I absolutely love having little girls and I love that dressing up is such a big part of their existence right now. So I wanted to make it even more fun for them . . .
After a trip to Ross and with the help of Ned*, this is the much improved corner. Now the girls can find their princess shoes and jewelry. Ahhh, I am making order in my house one corner at a time. I have a LOOOONG way to go, but this makes me feel so much better!! The girls enjoy it too and like the mirror and knowing where to find stuff.
Lest you think that my house is always clean and organized, I took this picture on the way out of the girls' room. And this is no where near as messy as it often is. I'll try to take more "real" shots to put in here because a lot of people have the false impression that I am so on top of things. HA! I just get so excited when something IS in order that I have to take a picture of it! (o:

Natalie Natalie Natalie (o:

Look closely at this picture and you will notice that Natalie has a horrible rash all over her face and neck, yet she still looks so darn cute. The story behind the rash goes like this... The week before school started Natalie got an infection which required antibiotics. I was grateful that the infection cleared up before school started so she was ready to go. Unfortunately, her second day of school (the last day that she took her antibiotics - 7 days) she woke up with this rash from head to toe. It was the worst rash any of my girls have ever had. I kept Natalie home from school and made an appt. with Dr. Heichelheim. We had to go through the back entrance of the office just in case it was contagious - that was cool because we got right in! (o: No waiting. I suspected, but wasn't sure if it could be a reaction to Natalie's antibiotics. After all, she'd been taking it for over a whole week with no problems. Dr. H diagnosed it as an allergic reaction. Here's a cool hint she told me. If the palms of their hands have spots too, it is usually an allergic reaction. She said viruses usually spare the palms.

Natalie was excited that Dr. H was going to write her a note so she could go to school. I was proud of her - she had no thoughts of worrying what she looked like - she just wanted to be with her friends. Kindergarteners are so awesome. Natalie didn't care and neither did her friends care that she looked a little funny with all those spots. She got a big welcome at school and was happy not to miss the entire second day of school.

Here are a couple funny things Natalie said this week...

During the men's priesthood session of LDS conferences last Saturday, I took the girls to Craft Warehouse to get some fun "treasure" boxes for the girls to paint. We always do some kind of girls night when daddy has this meeting every six months. While we were at the store I found some prints from a local artist that I just love (Paul A. Lanquist, if you'd like to know... http://www.nwartmall.com/dep/paul_a._lanquist_art?&pp=2 ) Anyway, nearby, Natalie found a big picture of an old castle. She was fascinated with it and said to me, "Mom, I want to live in a castle, but I don't want to live with a prince." A lady next to me burst out laughing and quickly went to her friend, "Did you hear what that little girl just said?" Through giggles. She told her friend and they could not stop laughing. The other one said, "Smart girl!" and said I better write that one down. So I am. (o: It was pretty cute, but the comfort of knowing Natalie wasn't in the mood for boys yet didn't last long...

Yesterday at dinner, I asked the girls about their day at school. Natalie told me about how she learned about the body and started reviewing the amazing things inside our bodies - a heart, bones, and then she stopped quickly and said, "I have to tell you something secret in your ear." She ran around the table to me and whispered, "I have a boyfriend in my class." Oh dear. Not boyfriend stuff yet, PLEASE no!! Later that night Billy Bob* and I got a few more details. His name is Jackson and he is new in Natalie's class. Apparently, Natalie initiated the "relationship". I told her to let him down easy and tell him that they had to be friends until she was 18. (o: She just laughed. We'll see if that works. Sigh... what's a mom to do? Is Natalie going to be our boy crazy girl? What a nut!

"I Hate This Day"

I love General Conference. So the title of this post might not seem to fit, but keep reading. I have really enjoyed the talks and music given today and can't wait for more tomorrow. It was exciting to hear about the new temples being built in Kansas City, Calgary/Alberta, Rome/Italy and I can't remember the other two at the moment. I loved Elder Bednar's talk on prayer and the talk on following the Savior given by one of the quorum of the 70 whose name I don't know at the moment. Elder Wirthlin's talk about being happy and finding happiness, even in trials - made me laugh until I cried when he told about the time his daughter was waiting for a blind date and accidentally went out into a car with a man (who seemed a little old for her) who was actually coming to pick up her sister to babysit his kids so he and his wife could go on a date! Oops. (o: I LOVED the primary children singing in the afternoon session of conference today - they were so sweet and the girls were excited to see children their age at conference!

On the other hand, the rest of the time we had a few issues. Mostly because I didn't prepare ahead of time. We had the girls listen on the couch to President Monson and then told them they could play quietly enough to listen to the other speakers. Ha - they fought and ran around and threw balls and laughed and basically ignored our requests. We finally told them they had to come sit down again and listen to the last part of conference. They were mad. I quickly printed up some of the cute conference packet papers (should have done that sooner) to keep them occupied. This seemed to be working until Natalie asked me in a whisper, "Mom, how do you spell 'I don't want to do this?" She was all ready to write down each letter. Then she showed me another paper that Sarah must have helped her spell, "I hate this day." Soon after, Angela asked me very sweetly, "I pick another movie to watch pitty peese?" Oh boy, I guess we've got some work to do on helping our kids get enthusiastic about conference.

By the end, Sarah and Natalie were putting tally marks next to key words like "prayer", "prophet", etc. as they heard them being spoken. Whew - they got something out of the last 10 minutes at least. We'll do better tomorrow. (o:

Conversations with Sarah

Tonight as we sat down to eat dinner Mickey* asked if I was okay. Sarah answered for me, "She's overwhelmed." This answer made us both laugh out loud. I've never heard her use that word before and I never said I was overwhelmed as I made dinner. Then she went on. "I can tell because I hear her saying (insert big dramatic sigh) and by the way she talks." Wow! Sarah is very perceptive. I didn't realize she watches me so much - it's a little scary, even though it was hilarious. I better think twice about all those grumpy moments and realize that some little people are very aware of my moods.

Not Your Typical Soccer Pics

Natalie is getting a lot out of soccer this year, as you can see! The top picture is sooo Natalie. What a cutie. She loves to flaunt her style even when she's going to soccer. She still wears her cleats and shin guards and team shirt, but often she requests to wear one of her skirts with the ensemble. I think it's cute and usually let her do it as long as she has shorts to cover her underwear underneath.

The bottom picture is how I found Natalie and her team after making some rounds doing team pictures. Natalie hasn't been really into actually playing, although she thinks it is great when she gets to kick the ball. One night, Jonny boy* helped coach the kids and Natalie got a bunch of goals along with almost every other kid on the team!

NOT Recommended

I do not recommend washing a PullUp with the dirty clothes in the washing machine.

The Bridge House

Natalie and cute little Anna - best buds
Angela trying out her octopus kite!
Sarah took this picture of a BIG bubble! These were a hit!
We got soaked playing in the water.

The Bridge House - I LOVE the landscaping at Bella Beach
Adorable cousins at the aquarium.
Ready to fly some kites!
I love this picture - it reminds me of Lord of the Flies for some reason. (o:

The Twinkie and chocolate money treasure was found!

I am trying to play catch up from the summer and can't forget one of our most memorable summer events! Our trip with Kelly and Lisa to Bella Beach!! What a blast! Kelly and Lisa made the long trek to Oregon and we got a beach house together for a few days. We had such a great time and I LOVED watching the cousins bond and make some fun memories together. Since this was our first trip in August at Bella Beach, I couldn't wait. August is the dryest and warmest month of the year. I couldn't wait to enjoy the sunshine and packed all our summer and beach attire. I was pretty bummed when we arrived to rain and we had rain almost the whole time! Plus it was freezing! What in the world? Oh well, we had a beautiful house to hang out in and we had breaks in the weather that we took full advantage of. Some of my favorite memories from the trip were...

1. Shopping at Safeway and dinner prep with Lisa - sounds ordinary, but it was fun to hang out with my sister-in-law that I never get to see! I enjoyed our dinners around the big table together too.

2. Visiting the Newport Aquarium on one of the rainy-er days. Besides the fact that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fish and learning about ocean life, I loved watching the cousins experience it together. Sarah and Kelton held hands through the aquarium almost the entire time and were always pointing at something cool. I liked seeing the wonder as the kids looked at jellyfish, pet starfish and watched big sharks swim right over our heads.

3. I loved meeting our little nephew, Corban, for the first time since his birth in May. (I still need to meet little Sammy - drat these 1200 miles from family!) I loved getting to hold him and snuggling with him. -Sigh -

4. Doing art projects and games with the kiddos for inside entertainment. We painted ocean scenes, had a treasure hunt and did HUGE GIGANTIC bubbles on the porch. One of my favorite memories was when we all - adults included - played Sardines in the house. It was hilarious! We laughed a lot and had to be creative to find places to hide where everyone could fit!

5. Buying kites for the kids at an awesome kite store in Newport and testing them out on the beach during one of the dry spells! They each got their own kits and were so cute all flying them. Kelly and his brother I am married to* - tried flying a stunt kite for a while which was a bit entertaining.

6. Watching the kids all play by the ocean and taking zillions of pictures. At one time, I was the adult in charge of making sure none of our kids got swept off in the sea. It was so fun to just observe and get a glimpse into the world of being a kid. They were hilarious. I got a lot of bum shots of Cameron and Anna. They stood on their feet and leaned over playing in the sand, almost with their heads down between their knees. Then when the waves came, they'd jump up and run. One time, Anna didn't see the wave coming and it made her do a little somersault. She was soaked, but wanted to keep playing!

7. The adult time after we got kids to bed was so fun. Kelly and Lisa are so much fun. I can't remember all the things we laughed about while we played games and hung out together. With the kinds of subjects Kelly and Frank* bring up it's probably better I don't remember them. Oh I remember one conversation starter, "If there was one commandment you could take out of the original 10, which would it be?" That sparked some funny conversation.

8. Lunch at Arctic Circle in Newport and the snazzy sunglasses all the kids got with their kids' meals. Kind of ironic since we didn't need to use them. Simple things like eating corndogs together were so fun. I love family!

9. Seeing Mr. Magoo* having so much fun with his brother. They are pretty funny. I think a highlight for them was buying the live crab and cooking and eating it together. And we will never forget the look on Cameron's face when he saw the crab and then watched his uncle place it in a pot of boiling water.

10. Natalie and Sarah and Angela, for that matter, couldn't get enough of holding Corban. Natalie even preferred holding him to finding the treasure in the treasure hunt! The kids were all so cute together. I remember one time with all of the adults were downstairs with the baby and it was eerily very quiet. I decided I better check on the kids. They were all huddled in the big closet in the boys room playing Tinker Toys together. I think Anna had fun having some girl companions and she really bonded with all of our girls, but especially seemed to love to be with Sarah and Natalie.

Gardening at the Temple

Ha - I have to laugh after my last post - I noticed I am wearing my BYU shirt. Anyway, last Saturday I took the girls with me to a service project at the Portland temple with the youth in our ward. Daddy had to teach a class at church that morning. (You may have noticed the man to whom I married is not ever mentioned by name (o: long story, it's a little annoying, but I love him anyway!) So the girls and I got up early (after our late night at the gymnastics show) and traveled to the temple to plant pansies. The girls and I had fun with the "big kids". Natalie tagged along with Whitney a lot and some of the young women played with the girls and helped me out with them. All the girls, young and old, especially enjoyed when the gardener started pulling out a big patch of zinnias and let them have as many as they wanted to carry around.

During our visit, I had a conversation with my girls and one of the young women about why the temple is so special. I talked with one of the young women, who isn't a member, about how marriages performed in the temple are forever, not just in this life. And how any children born into the families of 'sealed' parents are also sealed to their parents. She was cute and said how pretty it must be inside and how she hoped she could get a "pass" to go in someday. (here's a link with more info if you're curious http://http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/membership-in-christ-s-church/temples-and-family-history#d)

I also talked to Angela about how the temple is Jesus' house. I forget how literal three year olds are and had a funny conversation. "Das where Desus lives? You see Him?" I explained that we don't really see Him in the temple, but we can feel Him in our heart. She replied pointing to her chest, "He in my heart in my body?" This was a tricky concept. (o: I told her we can feel the Holy Ghost in our heart when we think of Jesus. We feel love and happiness. Then she asked, "Where de Holy Ghost?" We continued this conversation throughout the visit and several times she said things like, "Is that the Holy Ghost over there?" pointing in some bushes. She was fascinated with this subject and showed that she understood the most important concept when she affirmed, "Jesus lubs me."

Go UTES!!

Last night the University of Utah played the Oregon State Beavers in Salt Lake (football, just in case you didn't know it's football season) Many of you might not know that even though I technically graduated from BYU (which many family members have hopefully forgiven me for "defecting"), I attended most of my collegiate years at the U of U and have been born into a family with deeply rooted love and loyalty to the U of U. I am proud to say that no matter where I went to school or moved in life, I never quite being a U of U fan. I was kind of a brat in college and wore my U of U paraphernalia at BYU - especially on game days. (For those not familiar with the deep rooted rivalry between these two schools, you may not appreciate how brave I was to do this. Honestly though - I think it would be braver to wear BYU attire at the U - those frat guys can be unpredictable!) I also decorated my car, etc. Good times.

Anyway, back to the game!! What an awesome game. The Beavers had an awesome game last week against USC and actually won! We were excited because I like the Oregon teams when we're not playing them. And USC is one of the top ranked teams. It was an amazing upset. So the Beavers came to this next game with that exciting win just behind them. Utah has also had a great season - 5-0 and they have a pretty strong football team. (My husband would probably insert here that it is not as strong or ranked as high as BYU - blah blah blah (o; )

Almost the entire game was neck and neck and with just two minutes left to go the Beavs pulled ahead with a touchdown 28-20. Drat - it didn't seem good, but there was still hope. Lo and behold the Utes scored quickly and got a 2 point conversion to tie! That gave Oregon possession again with around 1 minute to go - plenty of time to make another touchdown. But the defense held them and the Utes got the ball back with seconds to go. They got the ball as close as they could for a field goal and in the last second of the game Sakoda, the local hero in Utah today, got the winning 28 yd. field goal! WAAHHOOOOOOOOOOOO! It was one of the best games I've seen in a long time! I had fun texting my sister who was there and the girls - during the part of the game they were awake - kept saying they could see Chris, or grandma and grandpa. Natalie even said that she swore she heard grandma cheering! (o: Who are we to doubt - I'm sure my mom was pretty loud at the game!

I happily wore my U of U shirt to the gym today and loved seeing the replays on the TV tuned to ESPN. No one made any comments, I guess the U of U and Oregon State rivalry isn't as strong as BYU, but I'm sure I ruffled a few feathers - surely someone there had seen the game. I am kind of a brat, aren't I? Go UTES!!

Lenka!!

In the last post I mentioned how much we LOVE music in our family. We listen to music together a lot and one of our most FAVORITE performers right now is Lenka. My music loving hubby discovered her album a little over a week ago on I-Tunes and we are all hooked. We've listened to her album all week driving around and at home and we each have our favorite 3-4 songs. She has an awesome voice and really fun and creative songs. We crank up the volume and love to sing along. Check out her website http://www.lenkamusic.com/news and you can hear one of our favorite songs, "The Show" and see the music video that goes with it. We heard this song for the first time on the radio today, so maybe some of you have heard of her. That must mean other people have discovered her... Happy listening.

Some Crappy Pictures From an Awesome Night!

My friend Angie called me about 5 weeks ago with an idea to do a girls night with our little girls and take them to a gymnastics show at the Rose Garden starring the recent U.S. gymnasts from the Beijing Olympics. I thought it sounded like fun and at the time the Olympics were still going on and I knew Sarah would be thrilled at the idea of seeing some of the "famous" people she had been watching on T.V. Well, as you can see from my dinky cell phone pictures, Angie got us AWESOME seats! We could see the color of the girls' fingernail polish and Angie even got to give several of the Olympians a high five as they ran past just in front of us.
This is Paul Hamm on the horse with the recent U.S. men's gymnastics team all around him. They each jumped up to do their thing. I thought it was a little cheesy that they had the guys with no shirts on, but the older ladies behind me sure loved it.
Sarah and Natalie were my fun little dates.
After several attempts and one "almost", the girls finally got the autograph of Ashley Amlick (I may be spelling her last name wrong - the last two letters of the last name could have been "ek" or "ch") She may not be an Olympian, but she performed that night and the girls were excited to get an autograph. She's a local girl that could be a future Olympian - wouldn't that be cool? (o: Anyway, she was very sweet to make our girls feel special and I think she had fun signing autographs. (o: Just before we found Ashley, our group of girls was one person away from, I think, Alicia Sacramone (one of the Olympians with brown hair (o: ) There were some very sad and upset girls until we found Ashley.

Some cute and annoying things from the night...

During the show, a Disney rock band KSM performed several numbers. When they came out with their punk rock hair and crazy outfits and started playing the drums and guitars, Natalie got a huge grin on her face. She thought they were so cool. Sarah loved it too. The other little girls plugged their ears and didn't care for those parts. I guess that made it obvious that our fam loves to rock! (o: We often crank up the music at our house and in our car and have many favorite songs from The Who and Aerosmith to Neil Diamond and Hannah Montana. (o: Rock on!

Natalie was so smitten by the "rock stars" and the gymnasts, she insisted, in the middle of the show, on making a sign to hold up to show her love. All I had were some small pieces of cardstock I brought for autographs. She worked for 5-10 minutes on a cute little sign with a picture that said, "I love you girls and boys". I helped her with the spelling even though I really didn't want to miss any of the show. She was so cute and held up her little sign as often as she could. (I had to tell her not to hold it up the whole time to cover up the people's view behind us. This made her pretty mad.) What a cute little thing. Sarah got really into the show too and liked Natalie's sign idea, so she made one too. What supportive fans they are.

Now an explanation for the crappy pictures... Did I, the picture crazy-woman forget my camera? Was I having so much fun I forgot to pull it out? No. Not only did I bring my nice digital SLR camera, I also brought my mini camcorder. I wanted coverage of this event! As we went through the part in the line when the guys check your bags for dangerous things and food (so you are forced to buy a drink and a hot dog for $10.00), the older gentleman took interest in my camera slung around my neck. He started taking off the lens cap and fiddling with the lens. No one touches my camera and fiddles! This really, really bothered me and made me feel a little violated. I pushed his hand away and told him to stop touching my camera and tried to grab my lens cap. He called a younger guy over and pointed at my camera who told me that "professional" cameras were not allowed. Then he looked in my purse and saw my video camera. It hadn't even crossed my mind that either would be a problem (I guess I don't get out to these sorts of events very much). It was not clear on the tickets and I have never heard of the rule that point and shoot cameras are okay, but SLRs are not. The camcorder thing, I'll admit, I should have known.

So it turns out that three of us in our group brought SLR cameras and we were all escorted over to a counter where we were told to turn them over. We all had some very valid concerns with this request. Where will our cameras be held? Was there a tag or official way to sign them in to ensure we got the right ones back? Who had access to our $1000 cameras? The answers were basically, behind an itty bitty, easily accessed counter. No tags to keep track of whose camera is whose and basically any employee or sneaky patron could do some camera shopping behind the counter. LAME. We were not about to turn over our cameras. Then we were asked to return them to the car. We rode the MAX. Hmmmm. Finally, we found a very sweet friend in our group who did drive and took all the cameras to her car. Grrrr. It was all very frustrating. So that is why I have crappy cell phone pictures. Man, we were sitting so close, it killed me to think of the awesome pictures I could have gotten. Shawn Johnson's eyeball, for instance. I laugh when I think that I almost brought my telephoto lens with me too. So much for those plans. (o:

Despite this little setback - the night was sooo much fun and we had a great time hanging out with good friends and each other. We did get some cute group shots with Kelly's "legal" camera. I'll have to post those later. The main parts of the night that stand out were watching Sarah and Natalie's faces during the show - priceless, eating hot dogs, nacho chips and ice cream on the floor at the Rose Garden with our big group - almost priceless, KA-Ching$$$ (I'm going to invest in stadium food courts - they seem to be doing well), watching the awesome athleticism of the Olympic gymnasts with my jaw open half the time. I especially loved when the men's team did the number at the end doing tricks on the uneven bars to some hip hop music and adding tons of personality to their moves and dismounts - amazing and funny at the same time. The ride to and from the show on the Max with Shannan and Angie and the girls was fun too. The girls were sooo hyper on the way there I wondered if there was applause when we got off. (o: Good times.

Angela's Antics

Angela is always cracking us up. Three is a funny age. As we drove to the gym one morning Angela was saying out loud, "Those are nummy." And I asked what she was talking about. She replied, "Those things that in my nose are nummy." Great. I told her "Those are boogers and they are gross, not yummy! We use a Kleenix for those!" Then I went on and on about all the foods I give her that she turns her nose up to. What's the deal with that? Hmmm. .. Maybe if I put those foods in her nose she would try them? It's a creative solution...

Speaking of her nose, Angela is suddenly very keen on sniffing the air and commenting on smells constantly. It makes us a little self conscious these days when we talk close to her. We often get interesting comments on what our breath smells like. "You breath smell like mac an' cheese!" she told me one day - but I hadn't eaten any mac an' cheese and I don't think that is something I want my breath to smell like. Sometimes we make a game out of letting her smell our breath because she is very specific. Angela doesn't just say it smells good or bad - she states something specific that it smells like. "That smell like banilla (vanilla)" or "that smells like yucky" on a more generic day. (o: She'll make comments if she walks in a bathroom after someone or if someone toots - so look out - there's no getting anything by the olfactory policegirl in our house. She is not subtle in her observations with her nose. She can sometimes call someone out with several fingers holding tightly to her nose, "That smell like stink."

Angela can also use her sense of smell to catch me sneaking gum. I have to chew it often on the way to somewhere because Angela has given me a complex about my breath. Okay, not really, but I chew minty gum for social reasons. My girls, on the other hand, chew minty gum and tic tacs like they're going out of style - they can't get enough. (I buy the Trident with xylitol, so it's actually good for their teeth - he he he). Anyway, sometimes I just want to have a little more confidence in my breath and not have to pass out three more pieces of gum when we're driving somewhere. No matter how quiet or subtle I try to be, within seconds I hear Angela behind me, "You hab gum?" and then, "I hab a piece? I want a piece too." Then sure enough Sarah and Natalie hear this comment from the way back seat and so much for saving my gum for bad breath emergencies. (o:

Angela says things so cute. A few examples - "That's lily hot" = "That's really hot", "That's lily hard" = you can probably figure it out using the last translation, "Awwwwight" = "Alright" with a long drawn out dramatic flair which means, "I don't really want to go along with your idea, but I guess I will if I HAVE to." "I small like lunch" = "I smell something that smells like lunch", "You hep me?" = "Will you please help me mother dear."

Junie B. Fan

Sarah does a reading log every night for school. She is currently reading approximately her 20th Junie B. Jones book. This is her log from last night, "Junie B. Jones is the most hularyos person I have ever read of. She says some sayings that crack me up. I will never forget funny Junie B. Jones."

I love Sarah's sense of humor - she laughs a lot and loves jokes and cracks up during movies at all the right times. I took the girls for a "girls night" to Wall-E last weekend and I thought the movie was great, but my entertainment came more from listening to Sarah's reactions and belly laughs at the funny parts. Cute kid.

A Fun Summer Visit!

So one of those fun summer activities I mentioned earlier that we thoroughly loved, was a visit from my mom and sister in the middle of August. It was so fun because the day they arrived was Chrissy's 18th birthday, so we got to celebrate with her! Yahoo! The girls made cute decorations for the door with balloons to welcome her. We had a fabulous dinner celebration at Cheesecake Factory - food and celebrations go hand in hand in the Thorup family! We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed giving Chris a hard time when we asked the waitress to find a cute boy to come sing Happy Birthday to her. She found one and when the group came to sing the boy came and plopped right by her and put his arm around her. Chris is a good sport. (o:

Saturday's market was our big adventure and outing the next day. The Max was our fun means of transportation - which the girls loved and it dropped us off right in front of the market. We always have fun seeing the fun variety of goods people make to sell there. I found a snazzy purse, Chris and mom found some cool clothes and the girls brought their allowance money and bought some cute whistles that played three different notes. The lady that sold them taught the girls to play a song on it and they loved it. We went to one of our favorite downtown resaraunts, Rock Bottom Brewery and rode the Max back home.

On the ride to the max earlier in the day, the girls' allowance envelopes that I had brought sparked a funny conversation with the girls. Sarah informed grandma, "Mom's the richest in our family, but not as rich as fancy people." I asked Sarah, "What kind of fancy things do fancy people have that make them fancy?" To which she replied, "They have a swimming pool inside a swimming pool and they don't have to go to school."

A few minutes later, when Natalie was counting her dollars, she threw one into my mom's lap in the backseat and exclaimed, "Have a tip!"

That night I took pictures for a girl who used to be one of my young women in our last ward and now she's married! She had an open house that night. It was fun to see friends from the Quatama ward, as always. That was the third reception I shot in Merrilee's backyard and I am sad that she is moving in a few months to Utah. She is great and her backyard is gorgeous. She was always so gracious and sweet to share her home. Anyway, I had lots of fun and the kids had fun swimming with daddy, Chris and my mom(!!) while I was gone. What an awesome sport mom is! I am sad I missed it. The girls thought that was pretty cool. Sunday we went to church - I loved having mom and Chris there with us and it was fun to bring Chris to Young Women's even though I got stuck leading all the youth in a musical number we had to practice that I didn't know. Long story. The young women said it was funny to watch me and Chris giggle and joke around together during parts of the lesson - like sisters. I'm not sure if that meant they thought I was being immature or I am usually serious. (o: Either way, we had fun.

That afternoon we had more family join us! Kelly and Lisa very sweetly made a trek out to see us. Not an easy task with four kids. (We had to laugh at the fact that it took them four days to get out here because they only drove about three hours a day. But they had a nice relaxing journey.) It was so fun to see their cute family and meet sweet baby Corbin (I hope I spelled that right, Lisa!!) We all headed to Hagg Lake for a fun Sunday afternoon outing. The kids (and adults) enjoyed the timeless sport of throwing rocks in the water. Kelly tried teaching us how to skip rocks and Chris did a bit better than I. (o: Supposedly, Kelly said this was a surefire way for her to win over guys - so she was motivated to learn! We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery together, it was a fun afternoon.

Later that night mom and Chris and I made Oriental Chicken salad with cabbage from our garden and homemade cinnamon rolls. Kind of a weird combination of food, but it tasted good! The next day was our last day with mom and Chris - in the morning the girls were sooo excited to have Chris and grandma join us for swimming lessons. They loved having an audience, even though we had to sit quite a ways away. I enjoyed having company that day and Chris enjoyed checking out the life guards. (o: When I saw the one she thought was the cutest the next week, I got homesick for Chris. (o: After all the swimming, we had a final lunch with mom and Chrissy at Sweet Tomatoes. We were so excited they got to come see us, but just for the record Natalie was especially sad that grandpa didn't come too. We all missed grandpa who couldn't get away from work - boy do we know how that goes.

Back on the Saddle!

Here is a random cute picture of Sarah and Angela in the morning. This is a typical outfit that Angela sleeps in at night - SpongeBob's and a pink tutu. Even my girls' sleepwear is creative! Angela is taking after Natalie in the fashion department. Their creativeness is so dang cute and so dang annoying all at the same time. More on that later. On with the latest post...

Things got a little busy in August and haven't slowed down. Busy or not, it's time to get back on the saddle! So over the next little bit I'll be reminiscing our last few weeks of summer and first couple weeks of school. We have had a lot of fun. The last couple weeks of summer were memorable and part of the reason I took a break is because I didn't want to spend time on the computer that could be spent having fun with the girls. We played and played and then school started . . . I have been trying to hang on to the roller coaster that our daily routines have turned into with all three girls in three different school schedules. The last couple weeks have been lots and lots of running around to doctor appointments, 4 birthday parties in one week (3 within two days), shopping for birthday gifts (o:, going to the gym, piano lessons, young women's, field trips, volunteering at school, playdates, soccer games, more doctor appointments - (Natalie had a reaction to her antibiotics and a follow up ultrasound after a UTI), church meetings, photo sessions, etc. etc. etc.

I am having to get used to planning a strategy on how to fit in everything and how to organize my traveling around time and making sure to be home for Natalie to get on the bus in the early afternoon every day and back again when she and Sarah get back in the afternoon. The new half day every day Kindergarten has been fabulous for Natalie, but it is very tricky to have every single week day broken in half with only a two and a half hour window between kids going and coming. And the other thing that makes things extra crazy is that it seems like I am the most forgetful when I have the most going on. I leave my wallet places, or the referral paper that we need at Natalie's ultrasound appointment and I have to run back and get these important things.

The referral paper mishap was one of those mornings when I really had to plan out my day - I had to get Angela to preschool and bring her backpack and my camera to take a picture of one of the new kiddos in her group, I had to bring lunch for Natalie so she could eat on the way back to school and her backpack too, I brought a sticker book to entertain Natalie in the waiting room, a big water bottle for Natalie to drink (she had to have a full bladder for the procedure), I had to remember to check Sarah's shoe size before we left so we could look for some white baptism shoes in the limbo time between dropping off Angela and going to the appointment (why hang out for an hour when we could get something done in that part of town?) and I had to remember to bring the checkbook so that I could get some money on Sarah's lunch account - while I was dropping off Natalie at school.

That hour of limbo time turned into running back home to pick up the referral paper I left sitting on the counter where I set it down to pick up everything else I was taking. (Amazingly, we still had time to look for shoes and found some at the first store! A 'tender mercy' for sure.) I really did make a nice and neat pile in the morning when things were calm. We hit a few roadblocks that day with the forgotten referral sheet and an accident that happened on the way to taking Natalie to school because, poor thing, she had to drink so much water before her appointment. She went at the radiology office, but had to go again on the way to school and didn't make it. We had to take a detour to home to have a quick bath and change. Then I couldn't forget to pick up my youngest child at Julie's house who sweetly helped by watching Angela after preschool for a little bit.By the time I had lunch that day it was 1:45 and had just a few minutes before the girls got home. Plus I had YW that night. This makes me tired just remembering.

(o:

It feels like this is pretty typical lately. I've actually had even crazier days - the day with two birthday parties on top of the usual stuff was a good one. Afternoons and evenings are no better ... homework, piano practice, chores, soccer, dinner, young women's, and on and on... Yikes. I hope I can survive this year! I also hope I can just learn to enjoy the ride because when things are calm I know I will miss this. (o: I am trying to get a grip and say no to as many unimportant things as I can so we can have some time for the occassional bike rides, trips to the park and the fun stuff. And I don't write this because I feel sorry for myself or think that this running around is unusual. I am just amazed at how many things come up and see myself entering this phase of life I've seen other friends do with older kids than mine. The taxi cab phase. (o: It's all good - I love that I am so lucky to do all these things and be so involved in my kids' lives. It really is fun, for the most part! (It's just unfortunate that this taxi cab phase of our lives cooincides with the gas crisis!)