{My Rhyming Nightmare}

I think every parent has a funny story about their child mispronouncing a word when they were learning to talk, or can even recall some zingers when their preschooler was first learning to rhyme words. I have always found the stories entertaining and even cute sometimes. As a parent, you just hope your child never does the sing-song rhyming that is innocently trailed with lots of bad words. However, it's bound to happen...you just hope it's not a REALLY bad, bad word. Well, it happened to me yesterday....and it was a REALLY bad word in my book. I was cleaning up outside while the kids were playing in the front yard. It was a beautiful day and some of our neighbors were out enjoying the weather as well (yep, we had an audience for our rhyming mishap...even better). I said, "I need a bucket" as I walked by E. Well, guess what rhymes with "bucket"? As I passed E, he said, with his unusually loud voice, "You need a bucket and I need a _ucket." I was shocked...one because I don't hear this word on a regular basis, or ever, and two, I couldn't believe it was coming out of MY child's mouth. I said, "what?" which is the dumbest thing I've done lately. I was so shocked I wasn't thinking 'don't ask "what?" because he will repeat it!!' Duh! Sure enough he repeated it and then broke out the sing-song rhyming, "you need a bucket and I need a _ucket...." again and again. My mind was racing...do you react and say, "NEVER SAY THAT WORD AGAIN!", or do you ignore it, or do you calmly explain that is a bad word and hope they don't ask what it means? Given my neighbors were outside and within earshot of my child's rhyming song that seemed to never end, I chose to calmly say, "Please don't say that word because it's not very nice." Of course, he then asked what it meant. I love that E questions everything and I think it's a great quality, but I was really hoping not to go there. I just replied it was a mean word and I am hoping like crazy it never comes out of his mouth again. I feel like I need to go explain to my neighbors that I don't teach my kids potty words, especially to the neighbor who has never had kids. Time will tell. If the neighborhood kids are not allowed to come to our house again...I'll know why.

{11 Years of Greatness}

Twelve years ago I met this man. Little did I know his back side was famous and, little did I know he would soon steal my heart forever...

We first met in January of 1996 at a Randall Blithers concert. (Does anyone from those BYU days remember that garage band? I had a huge crush on the drummer and was a total groupie.) Anywhooo, I went to this concert with some girlfriends and we were having a great time. My girlfriend Kjersten was in the same ward as J and some of his friends who were also there that night. Everything was great until J got a little crazy on the dance floor and long story short, I left that night with a HUGE, swollen, black and blue knee because of him.

About 2 months later (after my knee had healed) I went to church with Kjersten and we ran into J. As Kjersten went to introduce us, she remembered we had already met and said, "Oh you guys remember each other from the concert, right?" As I said, "yes"....he said, "NO". I couldn't believe the arrogance. He said, "what was your name again?" and totally played the "cool guy" card. I was NOT impressed to say the least. First, he injures me, then he pretends we've never met. After church I was walking home with my friend Bill, and J was a short distance behind us. He yelled for us to wait up for him, but we politely declined. Somehow he still managed to catch up with us and made small talk. He was actually very nice and even a little charming during this encounter.

A short time after that, my friend Kjersten invited me to go with her to play games at a friend of hers house who lived in her ward. (She was trying to patch things up with her ex-boyfriend whom she thought would be there and wanted me for support.) So, we showed up and to my surprise J answered the door. He was the only one home and didn't know anything about the "game night", but invited us in to chat. After a while his roommates started showing up, but Kjersten was only interested in talking with one boy...who wasn't there. Before I knew it, Kjersten had gone across the street to see if this boy was there. I was left talking with J and his roommates. We talked for hours (not hard to do with J). I ended up really liking him after that night. In fact, after that night, not a day went by that I didn't see him or talk to him on the phone. We spent the next year dating and making some great memories. (Remember these times J?...motorcycling...the moose, our near death experience on our way to Moab, football championship in Vegas, playing catch in the summer, rollerblading, Great Harvest, fish tank talks, moose searches & hiking.)

On April 12, 1997 J finally proposed. I had no idea what an ordeal he had to go through to do this. Come to find out he originally planned for me to go horseback riding with a friend of ours. He was going to surprise me and come up over a hill on white horse dressed in knight armour and propose to me. Well, the white horse died just a few days before this was to take place. So, he went to plan B: a picnic in Provo canyon. But then he had to work late that day and it was dark when he finally got home. J was determined, so we had our picnic in the freezing cold dark night. J excused himself in the middle of our picnic stating he had to go to the bathroom. He was gone for a while. I was thinking, "poor guy...stuck out here in the cold with an awful stomach ache." Then I heard a loud clunk. I thought the poor boy had fallen and hit his head on the back of his truck or something. I yelled to him to see if he was okay and he quickly said, "I'm okay...just stay there!" Shortly after that, he came out from the darkness behind the truck dressed like a knight in shining armour and read a poem to me and then proposed. I was laughing and crying at the same time and the rest is history.

These past eleven years have been amazing. Graduating college, job searching, moving, backpacking through Europe, children...it's all been wonderful because I've shared it with you, J!!You are the greatest Dad... and my best friend!
I love you sweat heart!

Thank you for being my Knight in shining armour!

{First Birthday}

Our little K is one year old already! How time flies when you are watching your baby grow. She had a great time with all the attention & love she received on her special day...not to mention this great wrapping paper! Isn't it funny how babies LOVE the wrapping paper? I should have just wrapped up crinkled wrapping paper.

She loves this kitty!

I made cupcakes for K's birthday party. She thoroughly enjoyed every bite!

K loves to blow kisses

I love this face she makes! How adorable is that cute little crinkle-nosed smile? I eat it up. K is my little sunshine. Her happiness is contagious. We have loved sharing this last year with her and are looking forward to the many more to come.

Things we love about K:

E loves her laugh

L loves eating with her

Mommy loves her sweet smile

Daddy loves her giggles

Happy Birthday K-bear!! We love you!!

{Teddy Bear Picnic}

E's class had a Teddy Bear Picnic today. Unfortunately, we had rainy weather (go figure) so we had our picnic in his classroom. It was a lot of fun regardless. The girls always enjoy going to E's school to participate in little activities with him. L looks up to her big brother so much...it's cute.

{Ballerina}

L had her first ballet recital last weekend. She was a tooth fairy and did a cute little dance. She did awesome!! She knew every move and wasn't shy at all. I was a little nervous about stage fright, but she had none. I was such a proud Mom and even got a little tear in my eye as I watched her dance her little heart out. I loved every moment of this experience, eventhough it was a long weekend with a dress rehearsal Friday night and two shows on Saturday. I was able to spend a lot of time with L without her sibblings around and I realized how grown up she is becoming. It was a fun time to bond with her. Her Daddy and Aunt Sunny gave her beautiful flowers after the show. She loved it!

The following pics are all from dress rehearsal.

This is her talking to her Dad during the dress rehearsal intermission...what a little Diva.

This post wouldn't be complete without a shout-out to Teacher Mimi. L is in love with Mimi, who is also a good friend of mine so we get to see her more than just once a week at ballet. Mimi is amazing...not only is she a great dancer and teacher for these little ones, but she is just an amazing person all around. All weekend, L kept looking for her and asking me if I thought Teacher Mimi would be proud of her. It was darling! We love you Teacher Mimi!

{Great Wolf}

I know this will drive some of you crazy that I didn't correct red eye, but if I don't post these now, I never will.

So....this was the greatest little getaway. The kids had such a blast in the water park. I loved how handy everything was (towels at every corner, life jackets galour, credit card & room key info on your bracelet...genius). The craft room and arcade were a big bonus. The bedtime story was fun and the kids loved the hotel room with bunk beds and their own tv. My only wish was that I would have remembered my camera in the water park. There were some great photo moments...particularly our faces as we went down the Tornado slide...I had a mini heart attack as I was flying backwards in the dark tube and caught major air before being spit into a huge, brightly lit funnel. Great memories.