Ashley & Courtney

My little girls are not so little anymore, on March 30th they turned 14. Talk about little they have been taller than me for over a year now and still our growing, they think they are slowing down though. So in honor of their birthday I thought I would share one of their talents with you, it's more of an obsession with them, but I'll take it. They love art, every year for birthday's and Christmas all they really ask for is sketchbooks and art supplies ( what parent would complain about that?).

So here is some of their work.


Ashley's Art





This was Ashley's first attempt at painting. As you can tell she's a Star Wars fan (I wonder where that came from?)

Courtney's Work:

This is Courtney's second painting that she has ever done.

This is Courtney's first painting, she painted this picture of me for Christmas. I told her I love that she made me youger and thinner :-)

Our Possessed Car

This happened last Sunday, but I still thought it was funny enough to share. So Sunday afternoon we were just sitting around reading, napping, you know the usual Sunday activities, when all of a sudden the alarm on our van started going off (you know the annoying horn). I scrambled and found my keys and turned it off. We all looked at each other, asked where Kaleb was (our first thought of why it went off). Found everyone to be innocent and sat back down. A minute later it started going off again. I turned it off and it immediately happened again. I started the car up thinking that would help (David thought it was a silly idea but at least it wouldn't go off while it was on). Then the sliding door opened and shut on its own (it's electrical) so then we started really wondering what was going on. Then the alarm went off again and the door opened again.

David went and found the other set of keys, it was sitting in a pool of water on the counter. Amazingly enough when we dried it up no more weird electrical problems, imagine that. Well we had a good laugh, it was the most excitement we had all day.

Happy Campers?

So it's spring break, the girls birthday is coming up and they say they want to go camping for their birthday. We thought sure, that would be nice get out of the city for a couple of days. Courtney wanted to stay the week, but since I'm not a camper agreed to 3 days 2 nights. The closer it came to leaving we were all getting a little excited to go, even me, believe it or not. So we buy a camp stove, a little tent to make into a bathroom (my biggest complaint in camping) and plenty of food. So Tuesday we left, found a nice little place at a site called Mormon Grove by Sycamore Creek, just an hour from home. We set-up camp close to the stream and put up a couple of hammocks that Micah lent us (Thanks Micah, we loved them). Anyway, we had a nice evening, we were hoping Lyndzi and Micah were going to join us, but the dang insurance company prevented them from coming (long story, if you really want to know ask Lyndzi, on second thought she might be a little sore still about it, maybe you should wait :-) )

Anyway, we went to bed early, when the sun goes down you might as well go to bed early. It didn't get too cold, we brought plenty of blankets, however you just can't really get a good night sleep camping can you?

Wednesday morning, wake up, make breakfast, get to relax all day. After lunch still relaxing,,,getting kind of boring relaxing, can only skip so many rocks in the creek. Tried to go on a little hike, couldn't make out any good trails. About 4:00pm the girls say, can we go home. Sure, camping is nice for little while but we found out we like camping with other people better.

I still think I like my mother's motto about camping best, she always says, "My idea of camping is opening the window in my motel room!"

Kaleb's Bad Day :-(

Mom: Kaleb, how was your day at school?
Kaleb: Good, but not the bus ride home.
Mom: How come?
Kaleb: Because me and Sara (name has been changed to protect the innocent)are mad at each other.
Mom: What happened?
Kaleb: Do you remember when I told you I kissed her?
Mom: Yes, but we don't do that anymore remember?
Kaleb: It was a while ago and I found out she was cheating on me.
Mom: Cheating on you? (I'm not sure if he knows what that means)
Kaleb: Yea, when she kissed me I found out she was kissing another boy too, so she was cheating on me. So I broke up with her.
Mom: (hiding the smile) Well that's good because you're not suppose to have a girlfriend until you're 21.
Kaleb: I know, so me and Sara aren't talking to each other any more. That's why I had a bad bus ride.

I guess it's hard being 5.

February Hike

Our goal for a hike a month is on track, okay so it's only 2 down 10 to go, but hey, by February most of my other resolutions are out the window so we are doing good. We hiked Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain. We didn't quite make it to the top, Kaleb was getting pretty tired but we didn't have to carry him at all, course we had to walk at least half a mile just to get to the trailhead so we did wear the little guy out. It was fun though. It was a bit rocky so we got our exercise, the first hike we did was easy this was a little harder and it was pretty popular, but we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. All in all it was a good day.

What Did You Do The Last Day of January

This is how Kaleb spent his day.


Boys will be boys!

Day One of Needs vs. Wants

So it's only day one and I want to cheat already. I know, weak. So I dyed my hair last night. My kids kept teasing me about all my gray hair. So I bought me a golden brown color kit. I even knew better than buying anything with the word golden in it because it gives me a weird red hair color - yuck! So can I buy a new color, is that a need or a want? I need to feel better about myself don't I? I also wanted a haircut but since it's a want I have to talk someone into giving me one, Kellie, I wished you lived closer, David won't do it.
Alright, enough of the whining, my hair color will fade in a few weeks and I will be happy that I can go without buying something just to make me feel better about myself. It's good for me right, thats what we tell our kids to make them feel better.