St. Patty's Day

All 4 of the kids went to bed last night wearing PJ's that specifically had some green on them. That way they were prepared for St Patrick's Day morning, to NOT get pinched. They crack me up!

So we started our green day off right with Green Milk, Green Scrambled Eggs, and Green French Toast. Aspen was convinced that the green milk tasted funny. I tried to tell them the Leprechauns dyed everything, but Phoenix was quick to point out that I'd just used the food coloring. Stinks when your 5 year old is too smart for his own good.

Oh! They spent Breakfast pinching all their silverware and the Maple Syrup Jar because they weren't wearing green. :)
So long story short. We drove downtown today to attend the largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the nation. It started at noon, so we got there at 11:00 to have plenty of time. But when 12:00 rolled around there was not a float to be found. I'd read it all in the Newspaper, checked the website like a billion times, found the parade route and parking lots close by and everything. So I was completely dumbfounded. Called Jared on my cell and had him check the web...the Parade was on Sat. March 13th. We'd completely missed it. AUGH!!! Apparently I didn't read everything.

So we made the most of it and had fun in the park, picnic and all.

Here's my 2 cute green girls sitting next to their self proclaimed "Pot of Gold."
It was kind of an Artsy Fartsy kind of park so they had all this cool sculpture, which the kids really enjoyed. This is actually functional art, it's the exit to the underground parking lot. Cool huh!

The park itself was pretty basic, but lots of fun. You can't go wrong with musical chimes.

This "trampoline" / Birds Nest was a good 15 ft off the ground. But I didn't get to play, you had to be under 10.

This dog was awfully friendly, and wouldn't lick of even look at Sicily when she pet him, so of course Sicily loved him. He was sitting at the bottom of the slide. I'm not sure if she wanted me to keep taking her down the slide because it was fun or if she just thought that was the only route to get to the dog. :)So after a nice little picnic in 70 degree weather they all stripped off their shoes, and then some, and had a little fun.

Phoenix used to be so afraid of stuff like this, I am so glad he's gotten past that stage.

The wind started to pick up and it was pretty cold. I FINALLY convinced London he'd be warmer if he took off his completely soaked shirt. Low and Behold about a minute later his teeth weren't chattering anymore.

Sicily even got in on the action. She did not want to get her dress wet (I don't know why she cared) so we stole Phoenix's shirt after he'd stripped it off. She wanted just her panties, but I convinced her otherwise.

Another piece of funky functional art. It's a bench and a water toy all in one.It's really hard to warm up on the sidewalk when your baby sister keeps coming over and laying on you in her freezing cold wet t-shirt.

And this is what happens when you PLAY all day at the park.

Cute Hair

Sicily's hair is getting longer and longer, and I love it. We are finally being able to do full pony tails, braids and even little buns. Here's the latest style. This keeps it out of her face and even lasts through a nap, where as pony tails don't. Braids are awesome! Plus it really make her red hair stand out, which is always a good thing.

Dogs on a Diet

Charlie has lost about 35 lbs in the last 6 months because we've cut back his intake a ton. No we are not starving him, the vet says what we are feeding him is just the right amount. But apparently Charlie does not agree.

We tend to put leftovers outside for the animals quite frequently. Breads and meats for the dog, veggies and fruits for the rabbit. Well ... Charlie thinks they are all for him. He must think he is absolutely starving to shove his big fat head into her tiny cage to eat leftover salad. And it doesn't even have Ranch on it!
Weird Dog!

Dead Bird

This kids came running inside from school today to inform me there was a dead bird under our window. I said, "Don't touch it," thinking it'd be all nasty like dead bird usually are. But they made me come out and see. I think it must have ran into our window or something. Looks like it may have just layed down and died. Poor thing.

Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?

1st T-Ball Game

Actually this was his 2nd game, but Jared forgot fresh batteries for the camera for the 1st game.

Here we are in the dug out, getting all psyched up to play.
I know, he looks so excited. But really he was. His coach kept telling all the kids to get into their ready position, and when Phoenix was the only one that did it he'd tell them all to look at Phoenix and do what he was doing. So proud!

Phoenix was playing Short Stop at this point and caught a grounder. They're instructed to throw it to 1st base which he did. His ball went clear from 3rd base, over the pitchers head and right to the 1st baseman. This kid was born throwing a ball fast and accurate. We're excited to see how far he goes.

Up to bat, I'm up to bat. Isn't he so cute!?!

This kid can slam it, but I think he went for the grounder just to confuse everyone.

We played against Zach's team. Zach's our little friend from church who lives in our neighborhood. I was so excited to get this shot of the 2 of them, they're just so little and so stinking cute.

GOOOOO ROCKIES!!!

And our favorite part of the game is the snacks. Can't you tell by that smile?

I Wanna Play

With all this baseball stuff going on, Sicily is frequently seen around the house dressed thus.
She has it in her head that she must have all 3 things on and with her at once in order to play...any position. It's really tough to bat when you holding your glove, and even tougher to catch the ball, or throw the ball when you're holding the bat and the glove. Oh! And the hat MUST go on backwards or it is apparently NOT on right. Crazy kid.

Opening Day

Baseball Season has begun. We had an official "Opening Day," with the first pitch thrown by some famous local Pro-Football/Baseball player guy. Sorry, didn't catch his name.

So here's the boys. London's playing AA Machine Pitch for the Angles, and Phoenix is T-Ball for the Rockies. Go Team!
If you really focus in on this shot Phoenix is on the front row on the right side, London is to his right and in the 2nd row.

So after the big line up (see above picture) we got to have some fun. I'd have to say Bleachers were the best invention ever. I think every play ground should have some installed. I swear kids have more fun on Bleachers than on Swings.Lots of awesome FREE stuff made this day even awesomer (is that a word?). We started with the snow cones. Sicily had one too, but was too occupied eating it to actually pose for a shot.

So after the sugar high we bounced it off on the Moon Walk. One for littlies and an obstacle course/slide one for the bigger kids.

And what good is an Opening Day without face painting. AWESOME!

"I do it myself!"

The Terrible 2's have begun. Sicily wants to do everything herself. Problem is, she's only 2. And when you're 2 you may think you're independent but really...you're not.

This is what happens when a 2 year old tries to get undressed on her own.
She doesn't realize Hoodies are hard to remove even for Mom. Don't think she had a prayer from the start.

Puzzles Here, Puzzles There

We haven't worked on our puzzles in quite some time. So one "boring" afternoon I broke out a few to entertain Phoenix (too much Wii lately). Surprisingly enough he was occupied for the rest of the day. I had to get after him to even come eat dinner he was having so much fun doing his puzzles. We may just have to add a few more to our collection.

And by the way, what's on the puzzle apparently does matter. He was not too big on the Pooh puzzle. :) Too much of a Boy, this one is.

Sugar Land Museum of Science

Pre-School Loves Museums, and any field trip possible. This time we went here. Isn't this old building amazingly beautiful?!?
They had these super cool satellite dishes that sat across the room from each other, when you talked in them you could hear even the slightest whisper from across the room.

And of course the Geodes. The best part of this tiny museum.

And they didn't get mad at us once for he kids climbing on everything. Don't worry, where was plexi-glass covering the tops.

But the main reason we came to this museum was for their Frog Display. We were studying frogs this week and went to see them all first hand. Here's our resident and expert, Phoenix, teaching his fellow students about the tadpoles.

And the struggle ensues for the best view of the 2 fatest frogs on display. Actually they weren't the fatest, they were just the most convenient to see when you're only 3 ft tall.

Don't forget the skulls of 100 animals. Well, probably about 12, but they were cool all the same. Note Pre-School Mom's face. We just never stop teaching. :) Love you Kelli.

One more Mommy, helping the kids get so excited about a Petrified Tree Trunk. "How many kids can we wrap around?"

We also got to watch a little video Hosted by Big Bird and Elmo. It wasn't on a normal movie screen. We climbed, literally, inside a blow up igloo then the video was shown on the ceiling all around us. So much fun, we went to the moon and saw the Big Dipper.

And last but not least we got another view of the Narnia Exhibit. Sicily once again FREAKED out with the fake snow. We had to skirt around it so none of it actually fell on her. All the kids really seemed to love the exhibit, and the parents too. But I think the parents loved it the most because with the School Group rate we saw all of this for $5 each vs $40 or so it would have cost otherwise.

Blue and Gold

London and Jared decorated a cake to celebrate the 100th Birthday of Cub Scouts for our Blue and Gold Banquet. They even won a water bottle for "Most Unique." Do you like the "UP" theme. There's even a little Cub Scout! Way to go boys, you're great cake decorators.

Laundry Day

All of the bedrooms in our home are upstairs, but the laundry is downstairs. We have developed a very technical way of getting all that laundry downstairs. Throw it over the banister.

Once the laundry is all downstairs you have to load it into the basket to be put in the laundry room. If everyone's helping this usually takes a rather long time. Due to things like this.But in the end it all gets washed, folded and hopefully ironed all in one day. 2 Laundry days a week. This is just the ironing pile. I'm lucky enough to have a washer that will hold a Queen sized comforter. I kept track of how many dryer sheets I used in a month and discovered I do 1 load of laundry a day, Queen Sized Comforter size. That's what you get with a family of 6, just imagine how much more I'll get when they're all teenagers.

When all's said and done, and the clothes are all out of the way, we have a little fun throwing other things over the banister.

So Sad

Let's just say we've had some long weeks with Jared being away lately. And when Jared's gone, emotions run just a little higher than normal.

London dropped his favorite cup and in shattered along the top. I didn't know whether to laugh of cry because he just burst into tears, "That was my favorite cup!" was all he said. But he really wanted me to take a picture of it so he could remember what it looked like. :)We used to have this cup in red, yellow, green, purple and blue. But now we're just down to red. We bought them one at a time in Australia, they were jam jars that you could use as cups once the jam was gone. I'll let you know how long the red once ends up lasting.

Sisterly Love?

Now I know you all think Sicily is the sweetest little 2 year old to ever walk the planet, but she does have her regular 2 year old moments every now and again.

Phoenix was being a rather sweet brother for dinner a few nights back and was trying to help her into her seat. Apparently she did not want his help, because when I turned around she had a very firm grip on his harm and was biting down as hard as she could. I immediately ripped her off of him and put her naughty little butt straight in Time-Out. She was non too happy, but she new darn well why she was in that corner.

Phoenix was so brave. I wasn't sure how bad this was till 2 days latter I realized he had a perfect circle bruise leftover from his little sister. Man! Girls sure are mean sometimes.

You think it's cold?

Last winter we had about ten 3 inch icicles on our house. The kids carefully broke them all off put them in a Ziploc and we STILL have them in our freezer. Well, I just don't think we'll be able to put this one in our freezer, not too sure it'll fit.This is at Jared's cousin, Tenill's house. Not sure what our neighborhood kids would do if they saw an icicle this big.

Lewiston

As you drive North of Logan you will eventually hit the last city before the Idaho border. This is Lewiston, Ut.

And this is where Jared and I really began our married life.

This is our first little home. Jared did AMAZING work on this house. He redid the siding, added that beautiful Bay window, and opened up the attic to include 2 more bedrooms and 1 more bath. We only lived in this home for about 18 months. But it has a TON of wonderful memories for me. London turned 1 right before we left this home and started our life with Schlumberger. As you'll notice, the home is for sale. I would honestly like to buy this home just for sentimental value. You never know.

2nd Dam

This is Second Dam. As you drive up Logan Canyon you will pass 1st, 2nd, and I think 3rd Dam. If you keep going eventually you'll end up on Beaver Mountain and have a ton of fun skiing. But that's not why I took this shot.

Do you see that sweet little bridge over there? Well, this is where Jared took me on our first date. It was after an Institute Dance, and I'd asked him for a ride on his new motorcycle. This is where we ended up. It was a beautiful warm night in May, a full moon was just rising over the Mountain, and yes...he did try to kiss me. :) But I held out! Not for too long though. ;) He was such a cute boy...could you blame me.
For those of you that are unaware, Sicily is NOT a fan of the snow. This was her reaction when we open the car door for her to get out. She saw that snow falling and that was that.But eventually we all made it out of the car safe and sound. These Mountains are just so beautiful. Some people think it's crazy to living in freezing cold Logan, but Man do I ever miss it.

Favorites in Logan

The Wedding Luncheon was held at Logan's famous Blue Bird Cafe. In my 4 years of college at Utah State University I never had actually been to the Blue Bird. It was really nice, much nicer than I thought it'd be. Directly across the street is the Logan Tabernacle. We had Stake Conferences here a few times and I got to sing in the choir. It's a very, very, very old building and so beautiful.

Right next to the Tabernacle is this statue of a family of early Pioneers. They are looking towards the Temple, towards an eternal family. So neat.And then of course there is the Logan Temple itself. One of the first 4 Temples to ever be built, my kids thought it looked like a castle. It's built on a hill, so no matter where you are in Cache Valley you can see it's spires rising above the trees. It's so inspirational.

So many things I miss in Cache Valley, I'd move back here in a heart beat if Jared's job would let us.

Best Buds

Liam and Phoenix are only 4 months apart, guess who's older?

Liam, crazy huh!

As soon as they figured out the other one liked to wrestle there was no keeping these 2 apart. Man! I wished we lived just a little bit closer to family sometimes. Cousins are just built in best friends.

So Cold

Proof that it was a bit cold today! One of the latest additions to the family, Colt. With his cute little bald head he looks a lot like Jared's Dad. :)

This is our little nephew Liam. He was FREEZING enough to steal his blanket back from his baby brother. Weddings in Logan in February are not all they're cracked up to be.