God save the Queen

God save the Queen.

Yes, we are British today.

I gave Lauren the day off of school and we stayed up late watching the royal wedding.

We are speaking "British" today.

We might even have some tea.

For future reference.

Just in case you wanted to know......

Sticking your sisters bracelet in your mouth is not the best choice, especially when it gets stuck in your teeth, and you can't get it out. Dentist mommy to the rescue.

Rock Hound

The 4th grade project for the month of April was to be a rock hound. The assignment was to hike around and "Collect rocks of all shapes and sizes. Look in yards, canyons, parks mountains, and just about everywhere." Lauren was to collect the rock, and note the date and place where she found the rock.

Now I had scheduled this project to be done April 16, 2011 with Rick. However I forgot to clear that with Katie, who chose that weekend to be sick. (I was out of town, so Rick had all the kids.)

So last weekend we had to do the project. On Friday I was complaining to my neighbor about having to spend a chunk of time on Saturday collecting these rocks and then trying to determine if it was igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. My neighbor said to me "Oh, don't do that, I have a ton of rocks from when my boys had to do rock collections, just come to my house and pick them up." HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH.

Now these were not just any old rocks, she had gone to a rock shop and purchased rocks, and they came in little clear baggies individually labeled. No fuss, no muss, no guessing what the hell type of a rock it was. The assignment was done in the 15 minutes it took to make the labels and slap them inside the egg carton.

Do I feel guilty? NO WAY, NO HOW, NO GO. We technically completed the project within the guidelines. The teacher did say we could find rocks "just about everywhere." And she never specifically excluded your neighbors house. Lauren put a tag in that she found all the rocks on April 23, 2011 in the foothills of Provo, which is technically correct. Assignment completed.

Assignment for May.....a county in Utah. The rumor is Lauren will actually have to travel to the county she is assigned. Does this teacher not understand that in May, I have Marks' Birthday, Katie's birthday, two dance competitions, a dance recital, a piano recital, Mother's Day, and a seminary graduation????!!!!! Seriously. Oh, yeah and I work FULL TIME.

I wonder if Rick rented an airplane and we flew over the air space for the county......I mean technically that is a visit.....

Easter 2011

The Easter Bunny did not have enough fun with us on Saturday he returned again on Sunday.

Sunday morning the kids woke up to find they each had a basket filled with fun treats and a Pillow Pet.

Of course I made them pose for the obligatory family picture in our new Easter outfits. Well.....what can I say this picture perfectly sums up the picture taking experience......

Here they are posing with their Pillow Pets.

Finally Katie came home from church with a super cute Easter treat from her Primary teacher. Too bad she is not a sweet as the treat.....Yep it was Easter with attitude.

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

Saturday morning Rick and I with the assistance of Matt were working on cleaning out the garage. Its been a mess for a while and both Rick and I still had stuff in the garage, so it seemed appropriate we sort it out together. After two hours of working, it was lunch time. Rick decided to take the kids out to lunch, while I continued to sort through stuff. (It was justified, because most of the stuff was mine!)

While Rick was gone with the kids, that sneaky Easter Bunny made a number of deposits in my back yard.


It did not take long once the kids arrived home to discover what the Easter Bunny had done in the absence of my children. Squeals of delight came forth and jumping ensued. They could not get their Easter baskets soon enough.

Here are Lauren and Katie making a quick run.

Katie was very aggressive. Don't get in this girls way, when it comes to collecting eggs, otherwise she will mess you up.

Now Lauren is an old pro at this.

Mark even got aggressive this year.

Here is the final haul. As you can see they all got about the same amount, and the Easter Bunny was very generous in the depositing of eggs.

Now the fun begins, see what is inside those eggs.

Lauren's favorite egg color, Yellow.

Mark scored in the dollar department. The Easter Bunny left 10 eggs, each with a one dollar bill. Its usually Lauren who manages to sniff out those moneyed eggs, but this year the final tally was Mark $6.00, Lauren $3.00 and Katie $1.00.

This is going to gross you out.....

Last week it was spring break. In honor of our CRAZY schedule during the school year, we decided to do something for spring break that we never do. STAY HOME. It was sooooo nice. I didn't have to force my children out of bed in the morning. I didn't have to yell at my children to hurry and eat, bathe, and get dressed. I didn't have scream at them to get their shoes on and get in the car so they would not be tardy to school. I did not feel exhausted after my morning routine. And then there is the whole after school routine......

By Thursday we had enjoyed being home for several days and we were getting cabin fever. I decided a trip to the mall was in order. After doing a few errands at the mall I went to the play area and let the kids run wild. Now in this play area is a tree house with a slide and several other things the kids and jump on, swing from or hang on to.

Next to the play area is a big marble ball that rotates on water. I think it is supposed to be like a modern art sculpture, because its not part of the play area, but adjacent to the play area. Well as you can imagine with the water it is a kid magnet. It was the first thing Mark headed for. He placed his hands on the wet marble ball, until he was soaked. A few minutes later I see Katie placing her hands on the ball. I look away for a minute to check on Mark's whereabouts, and then when I turn to see Katie again, now she has her face in the pool of water at the bottom of the ball. SHE IS DRINKING THE WATER.

I yell at her to get her face out of the water, and hope she has not ingested too much.....

At 1:39 a.m. I discovered that Katie had ingested too much water. She threw up all over her bed. She continued to throw up for the next two hours. I finally got her to back to sleep around 4:00 a.m.

The next morning the diarrhea set in. Yep it was now coming out both ends. This continued on for FIVE days. Yesterday was the first day that we were vomit and diarrhea free.

Not going back to the mall anytime soon......at least that will be good for my checking account.

Another bedroom?

In early April Arianne came to visit. It was wonderful! She brought her girls, she stayed for over a week, and she helped me do some things around my house. Not to mention all the wonderful sister talk.

Now my original plan was to have her and her girls sleep in my guest bedroom. Only problem I did not clear that with Kallie and Charlotte. They don't do well together in the same room. So after the first extremely sleepless night I decided that we should move Charolotte's play pen into the storage room, where she could have all the peace, quite and darkness she desired. Worked like a charm.

Now my only question is should I now consider myself to have a six bedroom house????

I'm a Barbie girl.

My three year old is obsessed. Obsessed with Barbie. Now considering my mother's rule was no Barbie until you were eight years old, I am quite sure that Hertha is having a fit. As you can see the Barbies are all lined up, quite neatly I might add, including their shoes and vehicles. She has been spending hours dressing Barbie up, showing Barbie off, and creating the world for Barbie to live in. And her favorite song is of course "I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world." I get numerous requests for that on a daily basis.

So at the risk of eternal damnation by my mother, I am going to let this continue. I anticipate a Barbie birthday on or about May 16......

Moving on up....

You might recall that about four weeks ago "Bob" the fish came home from primary and I was none to happy about his arrival. Well I anticipated that Bob would last about a week before I sent him to his happy grave in the Provo City sewer system. THREE weeks later Bob was still alive. Rick took pity on Bob and his humble abode and upgraded Bob. This is Bob's new home. To go with his new home the kids upgraded his name as well, he is now "Bobolopogis." The good news about the new home, it came with a filter, so I don't have to clean the tank every two days like I had to do when he lived in more humble conditions. I also informed Rick that when it came to tank cleaning, that I thought it was a wonderful activity to engage in when he is here spending time with the kids. And last but not least, after giving Bobolopogis a week to adjust to his new home, this last weekend Rick found friends for Bobolopogis. Somehow I don't think this was the outcome Katie's primary teacher envisioned.....I'm just saying....

Welcome to sprinter.

On Saturday it was 73 degrees. The kids spent all day out side riding scooters, coloring on the sidewalk with chalk, and swinging. Lauren got sunburned. Sunday morning, this is what greeted us. No scooter riding, no swinging, no sidewalk chalk. The kids were too depressed to even make a snowman. We are sooooo over winter.

Katie wants one of these.....

This is baby Charlotte. She is my niece, Arianne's daughter, and Katie's cousin. Katie is obsessed. Katie follows her around the house. Katie gives her the pacifier. Katie gives her toys to play with. Katie talks to her and smiles at her. In short, Katie want to be her big sister. (Quite frankly I think that might be ok, with her actual big sister Kallie...)

Katie is under the firm impression that she needs a baby sister. In fact a few days before Charlotte arrived, Katie was having a conversation with me and asked me when I was getting a baby. I told her I was not getting a baby. Katie told me I NEEDED a baby. I told Katie I was too old for a baby. Katie told me I was not to old for a baby I NEEDED to get a baby. I asked Katie where I should go to get a baby. She proceeded to give me directions on where you go to get a baby. Then she drew me a map.

humm.......how am I going to get out of this one........

Ancestor Report

Lauren had an assignment from school to do an ancestor report. The guidelines were simple, any ancestor at least two generations removed. In addition to the report, a poster was also required. Lauren chose Grandma Ison, due in large part to my pulling out the published history of Grandma Ison, which made research convenient. Lauren focused her report on how different it was when Grandma Ison grew up. She loved reading and retelling in her report some of the fun stories from Grandma's childhood. But as different as their lives are, Lauren realized that they had a common thread in sewing. Lauren talked about how Grandma sewed, and that skill has been passed down through the generations, and now she sews just like her Grandmother. I have to say I really enjoyed working on this project with Lauren. Next project, a rock collection. I am thinking this is a great project for daddy......

Warning: This picture is gross....

This lovely growth on Mark's foot is a Planter's wart. Isn't it delightful? I ignored it as long as I could but it continued to grow and Mark told me his foot was on fire. At that point I decided my strategy of ignoring the wart was no longer working. Off to the doctor to have said wart burned off.

Mark was a real trooper. As you can see this wart is deep and large, and burning it off was not easy. Mark didn't even cry. Although there was some flinching. Only problem he will have to go back for at least one more treatment, probably two. But I guess that better than your foot feeling like its on fire.