Lauren + Camera = self portrait. Look at all those adorable freckles, I want to kiss every one of them, and I just might.....
After tiring of herself as subject matter Lauren turned her sites on Katie, who at the moment is quite difficult to capture on digital image that is not blurry with her rapid fire movement. 
It was a cold day on Sunday. We awoke to temperatures below 30 degrees, blowing wind and falling snow. That however did not dampen our spring spirits. We decided to dress as if it were a balmy 60 degrees with the warm sun falling on our faces. We even threw caution to the wind and did not wear our coats! That will teach mother nature revisit winter at the end of March.
As I looked around the chapel on Sunday during sacramenting, I noticed many in dark colors, black and browns to be precise, reflecting the weather and the depression that accompanies a cold spring storm that is more appropriate for January. But on one bench, about 3/4 of the way toward the back of the chapel was a bring burst of spring, reflecting the hope of better weather.
Sharing, its been Mark's Achilles heal. His stuff is his stuff and he does not want anyone messin' with it. Seriously I have never met a boy whose has a stronger sense of property rights. Recently Mark's cousin Weston was visiting. Weston found Mark's magnifying glass and was keenly interested in it, much to Mark's dismay. Jenni, Weston's mom, in an attempt to mediate the slowing erupting war between the two said to Mark" "How about Weston plays with it for four minutes and then he will give it back to you?" Mark went over to couch, sat down and indignantly said "Four minutes. I feel like I am giving my life away." Yeah we are still working on sharing.......
If you had any doubt that Mark was all boy just check this picture out. This is his favorite position, whether it be watching TV or sleeping. If he is horizontal, his hands are resting down his pants. I'll admit defeat on this one. I don't get it and probably never will.
My neighbors across the street were kind enough several years ago to put in a pool, thus saving me the cost of putting in my own pool, as well as the time and maintenance of a pool. In exchange for pool usage, the kids and I watch their house whenever they go out of town. Its a win-win for all involved. As a result we have accumulated a number of pool toys that in the summer we just generally leave at their pool but come winter they return to our house. Two of the said toy are inflatable rings. 
Katie and Kallie discovered the rings were much more fun out of the water than for use int the water.
Crawling through is always fun.
Or just sitting and relaxing. For the after party for Lauren's baptism I ordered a bunch of pink and black balloons. When the party was over the Mark, Lauren and Katie divided up the balloons. Lauren had four balloons, Mark had two balloons, and Katie had one. Within minutes I heard the back door close and Mark came around the corner, absent his balloons. I questioned Mark about the whereabouts of his balloons, and he told me he set them "free" into the sky. Then he wanted to do the same with Lauren and Katie's balloons, and was quite disappointed to discover they did not want to "free" their balloons. After some persuasion Lauren agreed to give him one of her balloons with the condition the balloon was not to be "freed."
Mark managed to talk either Colin or Ciarran into tying the balloon around his neck. He told me that the balloon was going to carry him to heaven. If only it were that easy....because let me tell you some days I would like to return him for a more cooperative model. 
By the next morning the balloons had lost their lift and were no longer in danger of being "freed" at the hands of Mark but were subject to tossing, throwing, and sitting by four kids.
Katie, of course she had to have a pink balloon.
Kallie, demanded two balloons. 
Whether it was grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch,
or cheese crackers for a snack, these girls like to eat!
This is the completely CUTE hair clip I made for Lauren for a new church outfit she has that is yellow. She had black and white poka-dot shoes to coordinate. Hopefully my attention to church dressing detail will earn me some good karma with my mother.
The ingriedents.
The prepared product, ready to be baked at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.Upon returning home from church Mark immediately wanted to change out of his church clothes. Mark, who is not completely capable of dressing and undressing himself turned to me and said "Mommy dress me down." And I did.
Who would have thought that Kallie and Mark would have the cousin love for each other, but alas they do. Kallie likes to be chased and Mark likes to chase. Its a match made in heaven. Every morning Kallie would wake up asking for Mark. Upon seeing him she would start to run, and Mark, with his ever present "Y" chromosome controlling his conduct, just naturally had to follow her. Round and around they ran, leaving high traffic marks in my carpet, and increasing the decibel level in my house as Kallie squealed, and Mark in his big husky voice said "I am chasing you." Just in case it was not obvious.
I do believe in an earlier post I addressed the issue of the tent and how much fun Katie and Mark were having playing in their fold up tents. Well one afternoon Kallie and Katie commandeered the Thomas tent from Mark and began to make merry.
Of course you have to go in the tent.
Then you must stick your head outside the tent.
Posing for a picture is always nice.
Then you must exit the tent only to re-enter. This must be repeated over and over and over again....
Well if cousin Katie is sticking her head outside the tent, I must as well.
Could these two be any cuter????? NO!!!!
The invitation.
The program.
The girl in her white dress.
The girl with her grandpa
The table decorations.
A chopstick
An ear.
The culprit.
The Damage.
More damage.
Damage to my stuff!Recently I traveled out of town for a family function. Living in Utah is unique enough as it is, but Utah County is a whole world unto itself. Whenever I do leave the state I am amazed there is a whole world beyond the borders of Utah that looks and acts very different, and it reminds me I need to leave more often, in order to maintain balance in my life.
As I sat waiting for my flight I enjoyed the people watching. One of the first things I noticed was a young girl around 25 with bleached blonde hair walking from one airplane gate to the next. She was wearing a short, tight, black dress with black tights. Her skirt was too short and she kept tugging at it to pull it down. The black dress and tights were not as striking as her accessories. She had on neon pink stiletto boots that went about half way up her calf, with a matching neon scarf and hat. I was surprised she was not boarding the flight to Vegas, because she looked like a billboard you would see there.
Once arrived at my destination, I headed to the car rental counter only to find eight customers ahead of me and ONE clerk working the counter. I quickly surmised that I was going to be there for a while. I started looking at the customers in line ahead of me to pass the time. Directly ahead of me was a man I dubbed “Mr. Florida” He was a retiree, with silver/gray hair slicked back, with his aviator style glasses on. He wore tan polyester leisure pants with grey patent leather shoes. His wife, a similar looking retiree was with him.
As I looked ahead further in line I noticed one of the best female mullets I have ever seen. The lady was in her late 40’s early 50’s, but her hair was stuck in the 80’s. It was a dark red color, short and curly on top, with straight kind of side burn looking pieces by her ears, and of course long and straight in back. As I sat there I pondered if I could get a picture of this fine piece of time warped hair without being too obvious and having her husband come and physical remove my cell phone with a camera from my hand. Her back was to me, and so was his so one quick shot and I would be done. By the time I got the courage to take the picture it was their turn at the counter, and while I tried to get a picture, they were too far away for you to appreciate the fine specimen of hair she was sporting.
Finally a few minutes after I had joined the back of the line, and individual got in line behind me. I dubbed him “Mr. Cue Ball” due to his shaved head. He was kind of a Telly Savalas character, only weighing about 60 pounds more. He wasn’t fat, just thick. It was clear he worked out. He was not happy about the long line and lack of counter help, surmising as I did that it was going to be a long wait. As I stood in line and we moved forward he too moved forward, making comments under his breath about the lack of speedy service at the counter. He kept inching forward, closer and closer to me. Was it my perfume, did he think I smelled good that morning, and wanted more of my flavorful aroma? Maybe he was trying to “hit” on me, looking for a date while in Vegas, perhaps he wanted to say my long flowing curly locks smell terrific. NO. He was under the impression that if he violated my personal space to get closer to the front of the line that some how this would make the car rental clerk move faster and he would be on his way to his appointed destination sooner. By the time I got to the front of the line he was within 6 inches of my personal space, and I was feeling pretty uncomfortable to be unnecessarily violated by a complete stranger who clearly had room to step back a foot or two. I considered saying something to him, but then I looked at the size of his arms and recalled his already edgy state of mind I decided my personal space could be violated a little longer.
Too bad you can’t pass a deadly but silent one when you need it….that probably would have cured the problem! Note to self, eat more beans before next trip to ward off people who feel it necessary to violate my SPACE.
Recently my friend Sue and I hit a warehouse scrapbook sale. Our neighbor owns a company called "Oscrap" and will be moving to a new warehouse in a few months. Rather than pay to move some of the product, she decided to sell it at deeply discounted prices.
These cute gift boxes were .20 cents a piece.
Bag-o-tags $1.00 (Sue & I are going to share the tags)
Chalk $3.00
Die cuts .10 cents each.
Paper, packs of 50 sheets, .50 cents per packet.
More paper, at that price who could not go a little crazy?
