Baby Reid~

Our Extra Child, Reid

Justin, the girls & I are so lucky every once in a while. We get to have a "loaner" son! Well actually, he's our nephew, but we like to play house and pretend. Reid Charles Merkley, Melinda & Rod's son is so much fun to be around. Man, I tell you what.... If you are having a crappy day, just spend a couple minutes with that boy and it's like you don't have a care in the world! Rod had an appointment and Melinda was in classes on Wednesday afternoon so the girls and I got to have Reid come up and hang out for a while. He was so much fun! Reid is really funny when he's here. He loves to play with Genevieve's squeaky balls. And actually Genevieve is a really non-hyper, super gentle dog when Reid is visiting. Reid will hold on to the 'wugga' and talk in secret talk to Genvieve. So she backs up and waits. Well Reid then knows what to do. He either throws it while saying secret words or he just sets it down in between his legs. Then Genevieve knows it's her turn to squeak it a bit and give it back to Reid. They do it over and over! It's pretty fun to watch! Reid is starting to move FAST! He crawled under the table and started to push the chairs around. Keep in mind, he's not even 11 months! Then I was worried about how fast he was crawling. So I went and got the baby gate. I put it up by the kitchen and about 2 seconds later, he was climbing UP the gate and leaning over the top!! WOW! Melinda, you've got your hands FULL!!! We love having Reid around! He makes us all a little younger at heart!

One Whole Week!

Well Everyone, can you believe it - it's been a week & I have not posted a thing! That first week of the blog-thing I was posting at least one thing each day! I've now come to the realization that it's more practical (well, maybe) to just do it one in a while!! So- let's see...Last Friday was Tika's "Wax Museum" at school. It was actually pretty cool. Each student in her class had to choose a famous person in History, write a biography about them and make up a costume that they would have wornin that time, on their own. They were set up in a classroom and in front of them each student had a stand. You could "press the button" and they would say a "clue" about who they were. If you couldn't figure it out, they had a "cheat sheet". Well, I used it on a few of them. Funny thing was, on the page you opened to it said, "Are you sure you want to cheat?" So then it made you feel like...uuuuhhh! Anyway, it was a really fun idea on her teacher's part. Her teacher, Mrs. Phillips, had a picture of herself at her "Wax Museum" from grade school. She was Dolly Parton! Way cool to see! Some of the famous people included; Johnny Appleseed Sacagewea (sorry if I spelled that one wrong...I'm sure I did!!) Betsy Ross, Albert Einstein and about 24 more. Can't remember all of them!! So here we go - this was Tika's speaking part... "People say I didn't give up my seat because I was tired. But that isn't true, No. The tired I was, was tired of giving in." Think about it and we'll see if you're right in a bit! Here's her pic~

Saturday, cleaning did not go as well as I had hoped. But that's okay - sometimes we all get bored of the routine! I took the girls to a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese in Orem. Lovely LOUD fun! And I mean LOUD! That place is ridiculously LOUD! I also took my mom and she got to spend some MUCH NEEDED chat time with her "Sista", Vicki. The kids all had fun and they played and ate and played and spent all of their tokens on cotton candy & a big rainbow spiral sucker. mmmmmm... When we got home, our two extra children (the neighbors who practically LIVE here) came over and had what we like to call a "late night". That was also a whole bunch of little sqealin' girl FUN!!

Check out this picture of Chance! He was HILARIOUS! When Chuck-E came out to sing Happy Birthday, they did a "shout out". So the worker people and Chuck-E would say "we say happy-you say birthday" ~~ Happy!! ~~ Birthday!!~~ and so on and so on...well Chance thought it was WAY too loud! He just kept his little ears covered!

By the way... Tika was ROSA PARKS. (I know, I should have thought before it was over to put cocoa powder on her skin....duh crusan!!!)

"Blogger Help Desk"

Okay, Melinda, This one's for you! I got home from work today and since the kids are having a "play-date" I decided it was the perfect time to do the blog-thing. Or so I thought. As soon as I turned the computer on, Genevieve thought I needed HER assistance! So Melinda, if you need a night off from helping Tymber & I, Maybe Genevieve will spell ya!

Night out

Last night Justin, Tika, Carsun & I took Tymber out to dinner before she leaves for Texas! We had such a fun time! The evening began with Justin driving like a maniac and getting all of us girls a bit car-sick! When we finally made it to AppleBee's there was a Nacho war...I think Tymber let Justin win because he was "girl trapped". After catching up and laughing a lot, we headed to ColdStone. Take a look at how GI-NORMOUS Tymber's Ice Cream was! It's almost as big as her head! We had a great night together. Good luck Tymber! Don't forget all of the pre-marital advice!

Farewell to Tymber!!

Want a little more snow?

I think this says enough!

More Snow?

Today is April 15th! I am so sick of the snow I can't stand it! Isn't April supposed to be bright and sunny? Today was windy cold and SNOWY! This shot of our backyard proves that Mother Nature is not done with winter. Or is this just another Utah Spring??

Dreamin'...

Okay, so funny thing happened last night. I decided that since Melinda "invited" me to do a blog-thing a month or so ago, I would. Now, what made me think I could handle it last night? Who knows. For anyone who knows me, you are aware that by the time the girls are in bed, my brain is in the gutter. (I know what some of you are thinking...it usually is, right?) Last night I must have felt like She-Ra or something. I started doing the blog-thing. I know I called Melinda at least 3 times in less than 30 minutes. I was waiting for her to answer the phone, "Blogger Help Desk, how may I assist you?" Anyway, I finally went to bed about 10:30 (way past my usual) and told Justin all about the blog-thing. I don't know if he was too impressed, but as soon as I hit the pillow, I was out. The girls didn't sleep very well because the wind was horrible last night. Tika came into the bedroom a couple of times last night but each time I tucked her back in bed I'd fall right back into a deep sleep, and even luckier, I kept dreaming the same thing ALL night! I'd fall asleep and pick up in the exact same spot of my dream where I left off! So now I bet you're wondering what I was dreaming about, right? I drempt about this BLOG! All night, no joke! I felt so stressed out by the time I woke up! So that's why I've worked on it a bit earlier tonight. It's going to haunt me until I have stuff posted. So all I can say is that tonight I better dream about pink & purple jellybeans!

Genevieve

For those of you who don't know our little "lady" Genevieve, she is an amazing part of our family. She is a Boston Terrier. We got Genevieve Afton when she was 3 days old. Now when I say "got", I mean bought. We got to bring her home when she was about 6 weeks old. So for 6 weeks we drove to American Fork at least once a week to visit. She has brought so much fun and hyperactivity to our home! (Sometimes a bit too much!) Genevieve is 2 years old and spoiled rotten. Genevieve's favorite thing in the world are squeaky balls. We like to call them "Wuggas". These pictures are of Carsun playing "Where's the wugga" with Genevieve. They only played for about 5 minutes, but she was super tired after it all. Justin & Tika even got in on the fun by putting her wugga into the sleeping bag and then showing Genevieve where it was. Well of course you can guess what happens next, they closed the bag with Genevieve and the wugga inside! She's a pretty fun dog!

Way TOO Tired!!!

Okay , I have proven to myself that I am NOT a computer wiz!!! I have called Melinda 3 times in the past half hour trying to figure this blog-thing out. I usually go to bed right after the girls, but you're right Melinda, it's addicting! Someday I might get better & faster!!!

"Someday I might be Miss Utah!"

I checked Carsun out of school so she could watch Tika graduate. After the program, Tika asked Miss Utah, USA if she could have her autograph. I took a couple pictures, and snapped this one of Carsun trying on "the crown".

D.A.R.E.

Today Tika graduated from the D.A.R.E. Program. Miss Utah USA was there and talked to the 5th graders about resisting drugs & alcohol. Tika was chosen from about 80 5th graders to read her D.A.R.E. Essay during the program! Pretty cool beans.