Happy birthday to me :)

Well i am officially 28! i had a great birthday this year. I asked for a sandbox for my birthday and Justin of course built me an awesome one. Me and Justin went to lunch alone which was great because that doesn't happen often, and the girls picked me out a cute little cake and all day they were trying to plan me a party and they kept inviting neighbor kids to my "party" so i finally had to tell them to stop so i wouldn't have 20 kids at my house. It was so cute though, the whole day they were so excited about my birthday, they even decorated their room for me. So here is the sand box, the kids couldn't wait to get in it.

First day of school and Kylers new blanket

Well my little Sydney started school(two weeks ago, but i am a slacker).I can't believe she is in kindergarten already. She has been doing great so far. They do all day kindergarten and the first week she told me school was too long, but now she seems to be doing fine. Every night she get's so excited to do her homework and I can't believe how much she has learned so far. Madi started preschool too. She did half a year last year so she is a pro at it already, she insists on doing homework too when Sydney is doing hers. They are so fun and I love being their mom. I feel like life is already going too fast for me though, my little ones are not so little anymore and it makes me sad. Here are some pictures though.





I also moved Kyler in to a toddler bed and I didn't want to use his crib bedding anymore so I decided to make him a blanket. I get a little out of control when I make things, it is too fun to have endless possibilities with all my fabric samples. I had a little left over so I made a matching valance too. I love it and Kyler loves his new found freedom of being able to get in and out of bed when he wants. Now if I only had some artistic ability I would paint a giraffe on his brown wall but we all know that isn't possible for me to do so I will have to think of something else.

what would you do?

So i have always tried to be an honest person, but last week I ran into a little bit of trouble. The house next to me isn't sold yet and the guy that is building it decided to do a stamped concrete deck on the back of it. So they had been working on it and it was his first time doing a stamped concrete so he was experimenting i guess. He finishes up and comes over and tells me that they just finished so to make sure i keep the kids off and i told him "oh sure, no problem". there is no fence between us and the house so the kids kind of just wander around all the houses. So we go in and eat lunch and I put Kyler down for his nap and i start wondering where the kids are. Just then I hear loud, excited voices coming from outside and i think- oh no... I go outside and sydney is out there with four other neighbor kids JUMPING ON THE CONCRETE DECK! I lost it- I start yelling for all the kids to go home and I am pretty sure I scared all of them pretty bad and all i can think about is how this is going to cost me thousands of dollars and plus humiliate me for not being able to keep track of my kids for longer than ten minutes. So i am just in panic mode and so i go get my little swiffer broom and start sweeping off the dust and i really don't see any footprints, but it is hard to tell with the texture. So i go inside ready to just die and a while later i see some guys out there so i go out to confess to them. It is just the concrete guys and they pretty much say to keep my mouth shut. So I go back inside my shop and then the contracter pulls up. So i am hiding in my shop looking through the window trying to read his body language and I decide I need to just go talk to him and quite acting like a kid. So I march out there all ready to confess and he says "it looks great, don't you think" and i just smile and say "yah it looks great!" and I walk away feeling like a coward, yet somewhat relieved. So what would you have done is my question. I really couldn't see any footprints so there didn't seem to be any damage, but if i was on a hidden camera show I totally would have failed the test. So coward or maybe I just got lucky, call it what you want but I think i got pretty lucky.

Ok, now a bat

As if weird spiders that look like scorpions, large snakes and tons of other insects were not scary enough, Justin finally found out what has been leaving strange droppings in front of my door.... seriously could the creepy animals just leave me alone! Justin hunted it and killed it though, so I can rest in peace now.

just a little snake...

Our neighbor found this snake in her yard and asked Justin to come kill it. It was a little bigger than your normal snake that is hiding in your garden, kyler didn't seem to be too bothered by it, that's a boy for you i guess.

I need help

So as most of you know I am in charge of planning enrichment activities for our ward. We are planning a super saturday for october and the only problem with that is I have never even been to a super saturday. I guess avoiding extra church activities for my whole life has come back to bite me in the bum. So if any of you have any great ideas for me I would love to hear them. I need help... what is the funnest or most useful thing you have done at one of these shindigs?

How I got Sydney to eat pea's

So parenting is kind of one big guessing game for me. You have to pretty much try to outsmart your kids or they outsmart you. Getting my kids to eat has always been a challenge, especially foods they say they don't like even they have never tried them. So one day we had pea's with our dinner and Sydney refused to eat them. She told me she hates peas and she doesn't want to eat them. So I say- Ok that's fine, but I want to tell you a story about a princess who didn't like peas. She kind of perks up and says she wants to hear it. So I proceed to tell her about a princess that didn't like pea's and one day she decided to try them and she noticed her hair grew just a little bit. So she ate another pea and her hair grew a little more. And pretty soon the little princess had ate so many pea's that her hair grew all the way to the ground. THE END I look at Sydney and she say's "I think I like peas mom" and ever since then she begs me to have peas with our dinner. I would have to say I won that fight and she didn't even know it. The funny part is now she wants to know what every food "does". So I have to think of something new with every meal, Carrots make our eyes sparkle, noodles make us strong, spinach makes us run fast.... etc. They are really funny about it though, and they always remember what I tell them so that when a food overlaps with another foods super power they know it and they tell me- no mom, that's not what it does.When they eat their carrots they close there eyes while they are chewing so I can see how sparkly they are when they open them, it is hilarious. But I have to say it worked. I also told them that junk food just tastes good but it doesn't do anything for our bodies. I have to admit that most the time as a parent I don't have a clue what I am doing, so it is great when a crazy idea actually works! It will just be so sad one day when they are sitting at the lunch table with their friends telling them how there hair grows because they eat their peas and all their friends start laughing, and they will realize that I am a liar....