Pretty Princesses

Aren't these princesses pretty?

Early Birthday on the Desert

Here are some pics of Jack's early birthday cake on the desert. It was too windy for the candles to stay lit.

Crazy Kids

I know. I'm posting another post. Have you ever read so many posts in so few days? I am enjoying hearing from y'all. I love your comments! Keep them coming. They make my day. Anyway...Here's a little about my afternoon.

This afternoon it stopped raining/snowing for a while, so I told the kids to get ready and we'd take their babies/strollers on a walk. I went downstairs for a second to switch the laundry before we left. When I went upstairs I saw the kids wearing some nice outfits.

Kate is wearing her leotard (today was dance class), dance tights with her new capris on top, her new shoes on the wrong feet and her favorite sunglasses. She started posing and saying things like, "awesome" and "yeah, man." Her sunglasses make her feel really cool (which I think she is). When I came upstairs Jack had his new shorts on (we bought some summer clothes this week, but it's been too cold for the kids to wear them). They were on backwards and not up over his diaper, but he thought they were pretty cool and started dancing around. He grabbed his shades and posed like Kate too.After our little photo shoot we went on our walk down the block and back. On the way home Jack fell (he falls every minute or so), but since he was wearing shorts he scraped up his knee. I guess it must have hurt because I had to carry him home and he didn't move off of the couch for an hour or so. I think I made the situation worse by putting a bandaid on his knee. He didn't like that so much.

American Idol

Okay, so I have been watching American Idol this season. I haven't watched it for a few seasons, but I watched it at Norm and Melinda's a while ago and I'm hooked. Anyway...So, Kate and I just watched this last Tuesday's show this afternoon (love the DVR!). And I really loved David Archuleta's version of Think of Me. It's stuck in my head right now. I've always liked that song and I thought he did a great job making it a little more modern sounding. Anyway...I thought that Simon was dumb for saying that is was "not a performance that you'd remember." What did you think? You can click here to watch it.

The Clean Team

Lately my kids have been a little more interested than usual in helping me clean. Kate's new thing to do is to clean her room on her own (which I think is wonderful). Most of the stuff that should be put away is stuffed between her bed and her dresser, but at least she's trying.

Jack loves to vacuum. I swept the floor and made little piles and Jack would vacuum them up. It was great. He's pretty efficient and get's all the dirt.

New Shades

The kids modeling their new sunglasses. I love The Children's Place! Hopefully the kids won't break their glasses anytime soon, since they always want to wear mine.

Successful Photo Shoot

This morning the kids and I were brave and got the kids' pictures taken. I usually have them taken once a year around the time of their birthdays, so it was that time of year again. The kids did really well. I was really happy! The kids kept their clothes clean, their hair still looked okay when we got their, we got a great photographer, and the kids smiled. And, no one cried! Hooray! After four years of being a mom, this was the best photo shoot ever. I had them taken at the Sear's in Fashion Place mall.

I don't think I've been shopping at a actual mall since we moved in August. I've gone shopping plenty, but not in a mall. And I've been to the Gateway, but we weren't there to shop. It was recomfirmed to me that I really don't love shopping because the kids don't like it. We were all ready to go get in the car and I realized that my earring was missing. I usually don't wear earrings, but I actually bought some the other day. So, we had to backtrack through the whole mall back to the Children's Place where, luckily, my earring was on the floor. But overall, our morning was a success.

I'll post some of the kids' pics on the sidebar. Enjoy!

Saturday Excitement

Kate had her first soccer game this Saturday. It was snowing on Tuesday, so she didn't have practice, so Saturday was her first time playing soccer with someone other than Dave. It was fun to watch her run around after the pack of kids. I videoed it, so I couldn't see her all that well, but tonight we watched the video and it was pretty funny. Every time the other team set up a "wall" Kate would line up with them. She is super excited about playing and she loves being on Tommy's team (her cute friend).

We loved having Anders' birthday party at our house after Kate's game. Thanks Melinda for letting us celebrate his birthday with you! We had a yummy lunch and cake, watched Anders (actually Ethan and Kate) open his presents, then a fun trip to the zoo.
Jack was trying out Anders' fun, bouncy horse and got embarrased. After a few minutes of having his head down we figured out that he'd fallen asleep.
A highlight of the zoo trip -- kettle corn! My favorite (and obviously Kate's since she wouldn't let go of the bag).
Cute cousins! We love being with cousins! I wish the rest of the cousins lived closer so they could all play. Maybe someday...

We loved having Derek and Meagan and Brooklyn stay and watch the Jazz game with us. We'll miss you guys when you're in CA! But, go Jazz! (Maybe I'll actually watch more of the Jazz game tomorrow night. I used to watch them, but not so much anymore since it's usually time to get the kids in bed.)

It's warm enough to swim outside!

Today was a beautiful day, about 80 degrees! We spent a few hours this morning at the park. Then this afternoon after Jack's nap we pulled out the swimming pool. The kids loved it! Kate lasted about 10 minutes and then was cold, but Jack played for quite a while. Our favorite neighbor, Braden, came over and went swimming with Jack. It was a good time! Apparently Kate thought that it was cold outside, so she requested some hot chocolate. I thought lemonade sounded better, but she didn't.

We decided to walk up to Dave's office, so we could walk home with him. It was really windy on the way home and I kept getting stuff in my eyes. Finally I couldn't take it any longer and took out my contact. Instead of being smart and holding onto it (or just leaving it in my eye) I tried to put it back in my eye and of course the wind blew it away. I was pretty sure that it was a lost cause since we looked for quite a while and couldn't see it. But, Dave is amazing and found it. He's found my contacts more times than I care to remember. I have a problem with dropping my contact. Hopefully it won't happen again for a really long time or hopefully never. Anyway...Thanks Dave! I need to give him a really good backrub since I can see now out of both eyes and I don't have to buy another contact.

Finally...

So, I went on a little trial run this morning to see how my ankle feels when I run and I was very happy when it didn't hurt at all! Hooray! I sure was out of breath from that really short run. I haven't gone running for almost a month and I've missed doing it.