June is for Birthdays!!!

Well, we have had lots to celebrate this month; Got quite a few birthdays in the family! So, in honor (and by request of one of the birthday persons), Bethany and I sat down to have a heart-to-heart about those in need of some celebrating. It mostly consisted of me coming up with questions to ask Bethany and letting her answer (with James piping in every once in a while.) She had so much fun. So, let's proceed to get to know a couple members of my family a little better (well, through the eyes of a three-year-old...can't quite slap a guarantee on these answers...) . . .

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY, MONICA!!!

How old is Monica?: Three! . . . No, mom . . . No . . . NO! She's not seventeen, she's THREE.

Her favorite food: strawberries (James - - snacks!)

Her least favorite food: throw up (?????)

Favorite things to do: see animals, eat lunch

Something that makes her happy: sharing toys

Something that makes her sad: taking toys...(James - -Laura is sad when we go swimming.)

Something that makes her afraid: bumble bees

Something that makes her excited: snacks

Something that makes her laugh: the sheep dance (Anybody that is not in our family will not understand that and I won't try to explain.)

Something about Monica that is pretty: dress...wedding dress!!! (???) (James - - Monica pretty.)

Her dad: Grandpa (James - - I like jumping!)

Her mom: Grandma (James - - I like jumping!)

Her sisters: Laura...Katie...um...Bonnie...and YOU, Mom! (James - - Bonnie?)

She will marry: Laura

Something she learns about at school: animals and flowers

Her favorite movie: (James - - BLUES CLUES!!!) Barney!

Favorite movie: Sheep dance movie!

Favorite books: I don't know... (James - - BOOKS! ...runs over to the bookshelf and brings back a bunch of books...)

Favorite color: green

Favorite toy: a snake

More things Monica apparently likes to do: eat bugs!

Kinds of bugs she likes to eat: snakes and bumblebees

Does Monica love you? (both) YES!!!!


We hope you had a great birthday!!! We love you!

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY, ANDREW!!!(pictured here with the best gift he's ever gotten!)

How old is Andrew?: Seventeen?

Favorite food: cereal

Least favorite food: throw up (she said this, probably looking for the same reaction she had gotten when she said it about Monica!)

Something he likes to do: go on a mission

Something that makes him happy: sharing toys

Something that makes him sad: not sharing toys

Something that makes him angry: hitting and pushing (I think she has decided that the same things that evoke cetain feelings in me carry over to all other adults)

Something that makes him laugh: the sheep dance!

Something that makes him excited: snacks! (and I think she has decided that the same things that evokes excitement in her carries over to others as well)

Something about Andrew that is handsome: black hair

His dad: Grandpa?

His mom: Grandma!

His sister: Bonnie! . . . Is Bonnie his sister???

Is married to: Oh, THIS one is Bonnie!

Something he learns about at school: No, Mom, Andrew goes to WORK . . . No, work . . . No, Mom, JUST work . . . NO, WORK!!!! (This obviously meant more to her than it did to me so I dropped it.)

What he does at work: learns about frogs (???)

His favorite movie: the sheep dance movie

Favorite color: pink!

Does he love you? (James - - YES!!!) No, Mom, he loves Bonnie . . ., no, JUST Bonnie. No, JUST BONNIE!!!! (getting quite teary at the notion of him loving anyone but Bonnie)

(We proceeded to move forward into the napping portion of our day as simple questions were bringing about mutiny.)

We hope your day was grand! (butter-less cake and all) :) Haha, sorry, Bonnie...it really wasn't bad at all! We love you! (Even if you can't love us back since you have Bonnie.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MASON!!!

As a family, we celebrate Mason, his life and the gifts he has given us every day of the year. All the things he set in place in order for our family's plan to unfold before moving from this life to the next leaves us feeling so blessed. The love we received from him on this earth and the love we all have for him never has and never could change. His legacy is our family. We love to celebrate all he accomplished on this earth . . . how could we not, with two precious children that are a direct result of his time on this earth? We love to speak of him and to laugh about things he said and did and marvel at the lessons he, his life and his passing have taught us. He lived his short life with more energy and enthusiasm than most do in long lives. And that is what we love to celebrate on the day he first came to his mortal existence. As our children grow, June 3rd will always be a joyous day as we do our best to pass on the spirit of excitement for life he had.

At the viewing, the night before Mason's funeral, my sister, Katie, came up to me and whispered in my ear that if Mason had been there in spirit he probably had already gone because he was disappointed in the food . . . or he was swinging from the huge chandelier.

I didn't doubt it and I vow to make sure that every year, on his birthday, if he chooses to be with us in spirit, he will never be disappointed in the food and always be allowed to swing from our chandelier.

So, here is a little glimpse into our celebration this year, as each of the kids sent birthday balloons up to heaven to their "Daddy Mason" . . .

James, getting his balloon ready. He refused to color very much on his because I wouldn't let him use the permanant marker I used for the writing. But he did enjoy taping the paper onto the balloon!

Bethany, with her VERY colorful paper, helping Daddy get it all ready. She is the only one who really had a grasp of what we were doing, of course, and thought it was awesome that we could send balloons up to Mason, who lives with Heavenly Father and Jesus. She was pretty darn excited about the idea that they would see her coloring too.

And here is Ben's balloon. Minimally involved at this point, but his day will come!

Here they are, getting ready to send the birthday balloons to heaven! It was SO windy that day, the balloons are hardly in the picture, being blown around so much! I love this picture because the kids are laughing at the wind!

It was a lot of fun and we got some video of them letting their balloons go. As a side note, it was so very windy that one of the balloons got blown around a lot more than blown upwards and, well, there is a very large tree close to our house that shall henceforth be known as "heaven" . . . I'm hoping it's the thought that counts!!!

It's been a great month for celebrating birthdays! Sorry I was late with this, but again...thought that counts? :)

Love to everyone!

Strawberry Face Babies!

This is one of my favorite things - - to take similar pictures of the kids at similar ages and have them to compare and enjoy! And laugh at how BIG James was as a baby.

We've had the same highchair with all the kids (I say that like it's not a given, considering we only bought it less than three years ago!) and all our kids LOVE getting sticky and messy eating strawberries with their nifty little mesh contraptions. We ended up with these three pictures of the kids...they're all about nine months old in the pictures.

First, we have Bethany...notice how she is messy but it is a very contained and controlled messy. Also, notice that her little head doesn't even come up to the headrest part of the chair back...the part with the little hole in it! Also, notice that she is an ADORABLE baby.

And then we have Baby JAMES. A little more reckless abandon in his (HUGE) face, no? :) I can never get over how cute and chunky he was as a baby! Did you know that he weighs the same right now (at two and a half years old) that he did in this picture, at nine months old??? Haha, he finally started getting taller faster than he got wider! Ohhh, I love chubby babies!

And sweet Ben! He just has his little angelic face on, doesn't he? Size-wise, he's right in between Bethany and James. Eyebrow-wise, he takes the cake. Or the strawberries. I do believe he is our messiest baby!

They are all just so special...

Water Play

Here are some pictures of a Family Home Evening a while back...JC grilled his heart out on his (early) Fathers' Day present and the kids played in the water while I supervised both activities. :)

I just never knew such fun could be had with a sprinkler and random kitchen utensils!
Bethany decided to sample the water

And, of course, James followed suit...and hardly stopped gathering and drinking the water for the next half hour.
Ben gives it a try...

Hi baby!

He is ALWAYS smiling!
gathering...
sampling...
Well, maybe not ALWAYS smiling...

They tired of the water and set off to conquer the slide.

Such fun!

We had a fun time and dinner was DELICIOUS, as it always is when JC grills. Best present I ever got him. :)

The computer is fixed!!! So, on to the important stuff...

JC is a genius...we are back in business, as of this weekend, due to his dedicated laboring on the computer. So, I have gained back my Sunday evening blog-fests aka "Mandy's Me Time" and as I have the headache portion of my cold from this week still lingering on, I shall probably not attempt to catch up on much of anything tonight! Though I do feel a certain obligation to log every small detail of our family's everyday life on here since finding out you can turn these silly little blogs into silly little scrapbooks! With a three year old, a two year old and a not-quite-one year old, I have not ventured into the scrapbooking and doubted I would ever do so (I know, what kind of mom am I???) and this whole virtual gone hardbound thing sounds like the deal of a lifetime. Anyway, I just feel the need to document as much of our crazy life as we can so that the kids will have something to look at when they're older, in the way of a family journal or scrapbook, if you will. That being said, I will now proceed to do a post that has nothing at all to do with any of that...
I've been tagged by my long lost friend, Alissa, so...here we are...

The "Random Thing" Tag Rules...
1. You link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog
3. Share six random things about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry
5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs
6. Enjoy the results (though I don't like being expected to enjoy anything in particular...seems a rather personal thing to be instructed to do...you know, that kind of expectation really irks me...but...uh...now's not the time...)

All right, six random things about myself:

1. I love to laugh but rarely laugh out loud when I'm alone unless involved in the following activities: reading Jennifer Lancaster, or apparently the Harry Potter series (didn't know that until recently...surprised myself...), watching The Office or Ugly Betty, OR when laying in bed trying to fall asleep but unable to stop replaying images of my neighbor falling off his bike in our driveway. Or when I'm blogging and talking about said neighbor. Other than that, if I am alone I do not laugh out loud. I have very high laugh-out-loud-when-alone standards. (If you can use the words "standards" and "Ugly Betty" in the same paragraph...)

2. My feet grew a size with every pregnancy. Not pretty when you have Tyra Banks feet without the Tyra Banks body...Anne Shirley's lifelong sorrow was her red hair. Mine shall be my man-feet.

3. I admittedly love Dashboard Confessional, The Four Seasons, Jimmy Eat World, The Format, Shakira, The Beatles and Rascall Flats. I secretly love John Denver and The Pussycat Dolls. (The way I just phrased that made it sound like the two were somehow combined into one abominable act. By the way, I laugh out loud when I think about that too.)

4. I dream of someday scaling rocky cliffs with my bare hands and feet and doing meditative yoga for hours atop the mountains. And/or being in a rock band.

5. I cannot remember the last time in my life that I gave less than my personal best. I may not be at peace with much about myself...it doesn't seem to be in my nature to be very content most of the time...but I feel secure in the fact that I give my all in everything I do.

6. My newest venture in dancing (my first in quite some time) - - bellydancing! I think I finally found my niche in the dancing community. :) I am LOVING it and JC is even taking drum lessons from my instructor's husband and getting very good! Someday we shall take the world by storm!

And now I tag...
Emily
Pammy
Zonnie
Katie Wills
Bonnie
K to the T

Love to all!
I'll be back, with a vengeance, to catch up on things soon!

I scream, you scream...

We all scream for ice cream!!!
Well, actually, it's just one of us and actually...he didn't scream, he smiled...but it's all the same, right?

So, the other day, we were finishing up lunch and I decided to give Ben a little bite of ice cream to see what he thought. We were NOT prepared for his reaction! I gave him the first bite and he thought about it...looked at me...then broke into the HUGEST smile I have seen! You would think he would get over it, but I gave him a few more bites and every single time, the same reaction! So, naturally, we got out the camera and here is what we captured...

Baby before ice cream... (but after sweet potatoes...)

Baby AFTER ice cream!
2nd bite
3rd bite
4th bite
5th bite

6th bite

I figured if we kept going too much longer, we would have a sad-faced baby on our hands with a tummy ache!

Memorial Day Weekend

I am finally getting a chance to write about our remarkable Memorial Day Weekend! We are well into June and it seems quite a time ago BUT I am getting myself caught up on these entries slowly but surely! Our computer has been having ISSUES and therefore I have to schedule in time to leave the house and go invade one of my parents' computers (thanks guys!) to fulfill my need for some quiet, reflective time in which to closely examine all the fun, cute and exciting parts of my day to day life. Without it, I fear I would become entirely too desperate housewife-ish. (Well, not in the Wisteria Lane sense, but my own version of it! Not pretty either...) So, thanks to my parents letting me use their computer and JC holding down the fort (you do such a good job, honey), I am catching up!

So, Memorial Day...

I have a feeling that, once down on paper (entered in cyber space - - same thing), it won't all sound as spectacular as it was but OH it was. It was just lots of little things. First of all, three day weekends are wonderful things. A three day weekend carries with it some kind of natural high as it approaches. A FOUR day weekend is that much better and that's what we had. JC doesn't work Fridays right now so the kids and I were pretty darn excited that he would be around for so much time. We don't tend to be without him a whole lot but it never does get old. So, it was the Thursday before and I had planned to meet my sister, Katie, at the mall with the kids and let them play (yes, I know, those play areas are probably so germ-ridden...I used to swear I would never let my kids play there. I can't explain what happened to change my mind but I think it had something to do with...um...survival.) Anyway, she called me and let me know that it was going to be like, 70 degrees that day and we should play at an outside park instead. Halleluia! We will take outside play whenever we can get it! So, we loaded up that morning and went to spend some time at the park with Aunt Katie and Grandma Trudie. We had so much fun and the weather was GORGEOUS. It started getting cloudy and everything. For anyone who doesn't live in Arizona or anywhere similar, this is another unexplainable natural high - - cloudy weather! Woohoo! So, park play was great.

That afternoon, the heavens opened and we got RAIN!!!! Hip-hip-hooray!!! I got the kids up early from their naps (yes, you heard me right. No, I would normally never even think of doing that. It was RAINING, people!) and we played outside some more! They loved it. Looking at the pictures I took, I had to laugh. We are such Arizonians. (??) My kids had on hats and jackets to keep them dry...and bare feet. Classic.

Yes, even the cat got to go outside. He's scared of the rain so I knew he woudn't run away. :)
Later in the day, JC had golfing plans with his buddy, Ben (hey, we have one of those...) and so, in an effort to enjoy the glories of the weather and keep the kids occupied for a while, I dressed them in their pajamas and piled them in the triple stroller for a stroll around the neighborhood. Usually a fun thing but not necessarily life changing but oh boy...this time, we got to see our neighbors' dog, Reggie (who the kids absolutely adore and include in their prayers daily...so cute), ran into a family from the ward out flying kites (which the kids find fascinating since we did it not too long ago), met a mom and her little boy on their walk and made a new friend, and saw our bishop and one of his counselors out on their Harleys which the kids thought was the coolest thing EVER. The counselor's wife is the nursery leader so when we stopped to talk to them the kids were so excited to see her and his bright green "momercycle" didn't hurt either! Along with all this fun stuff, the weather was to die for...it even started raining on us when we headed back home! Not sure Ben appreciated that on his baldish head but he had fun nonetheless! On top of all that, JC had a great time golfing at a new indoor place he discovered. Fun evening for all!
Friday morning, we were just hanging out and glorying in the weather, not sure what to do with ourselves and all of a sudden we decided to clean out our garage! I have NO idea where this came from and usually I have my whole 'to-do' list in my head and things are all in order and the garage was not the next project to be tackled which would usually prompt me to swear it off until the other projects ahead of it were squared away but apparently I am growing as a person and we were spontaneous! (Apparently I am NOT growing as a writer because that was definitely a run-on sentence in the worst way.) So, with the kids happy playing in the on-again off-again rain, running in and out of the garage as we worked, we cleaned the whole darn thing. There were boxes out there that we hadn't even unpacked since we moved to this house two years ago! Heck, there were boxes out there I hadn't unpacked since I moved from Queen Creek three years ago! So, anyway, needless to say, we worked very hard, found a lot of treasures (and a lot of trash) and at the end of the day...it felt GREAT. Maybe I'm alone in this but when you can look at your garage and run from wall to wall without tripping over boxes, knowing you could eat off the floor if you wanted to (never underestimate the joy in mopping your garage floor)...oh, it just doesn't get much better than that. Though, as an afterthought, I would not recommend doing the running I just talked about AFTER washing the floor, as Bethany tried this and got a very impressive bump on the back of her head...poor girl.
I feel like we did something on Saturday, but it's been a while so I guess I will skip it...hmmm...I apologize to anyone who that day involved. I'm sure it was very memorable...though, apparently not as much as cleaning the garage...haha, I am so ridiculous.
Anyway, the rest of the weekend was just lovely...the weather was so fantastic and I was dreading the return of the heat! Monday we went grocery shopping as a family and I made up some turkey burgers (Oprah's favorite things, summer addition...) which we took over to my parents' house. My dad grilled and we all "swam." Really, it was too cold!!! Most everyone piled in the hot tub but since the kids are scared of it, they stood on the steps of the big pool and we shivered while my siblings and husband had breath-holding contests. This disturbed the kids very much. It would get quiet and then..."Where DADDY??? Where DADDY???" and then that episode would end and I would hear one of them yell "Where MONICA??? Where MONICA???"...silence..."Where BONNIE??? Where BONNIE???"...silence... So, we didn't get a lot out of the actual swimming part of the get together other than a complex or two about going under the water but it's all good. We had a lot of fun just being with family and enjoying the last bit of our long weekend.
Speaking of long...
I'm out.

Jumping Beans

Now, I realize that perhaps this is and maybe should be against the rules in many households but...gotta say...my kids love throwing pillows in front of the couch, getting them set up just right, and . . . bounce . . . bounce . . . bounce . . . JUMPING off the couch onto the cushions! Oh, and it's just so fun to watch them and there is such a limitation to the things that toddlers are actually allowed to do that they want to do, I figure I'll keep the dangerous things off limits and concede to a little couch jumping!

Ready? Set? . . .

Go! Haha, she is totally a girl...so graceful as she effortlessly leaps onto the soft pillows below...
And James is all boy with his cannonball-esque form!
Ben doesn't get to do a lot of the fun stuff the older kids do, so I thought I'd help him get some hang time in! A bit of a blurry picture but who cares, with a smile like that? Wheee!!!

Ballard Brunch at the Park

Every once in a while, JC's Mom puts together a brunch for the family and there is always yummy food and lots of fun for the kids as they get to play with their cousins! Last month, we met up at a park near our house and enjoyed the mid-morning (nice and sunny but not yet SCORCHING!). The kids, of course, did very little eating because once the playground is in sight...who wants to eat?

James enjoying a swing in the shade

Bethany also found a shady spot.
Psyching himself out for the adventure...
Bethany and Brittney!...again, in the shade...hmmm...think it's hot?
Hi, Carrigan!
Ben, diving right into some raspberries. We have some of those hand-held mesh thingies for babies...you can put fruit or vegetables inside and they get to gnaw on them without biting off chunks that are too big. All three of our kids have loved these things because they get to eat all kinds of stuff they wouldn't otherwise have yet, at that age! So, here's Ben going to town on the raspberries. He got so messy!
Messy but SOOO happy!!!

We had a fun morning...probably one of the last we will spend at the park for a while! I am working on finding lots of indoor things for us to do this summer so I don't roast my babies! That day our air conditioning had actually gone out! Luckily, it got fixed again pretty quickly but while we let the house cool back off, we went to swim at Grandma and Grandpa Hawkes' house which was VERY refreshing. What a fun summer day.

Bingo with Dad

One weekend a while back, JC pulled out the kids' Bingo game and they had a great time. It's a really cute Leap Frog version of the game that has several different game boards and spinners you can use - - colors and shapes, animals, numbers and even addition. They had fun choosing what kind of game they wanted to play, taking turns spinning the spinner (though I don't think that lasted very long...Dad became the keeper of the spinner) and learning when to say "Bingo!" They had played before with Grandma Trudie so Bethany felt like an expert, explaining to us all "You don't say Bingo with just four, it has to be four in a ROW." Here are some cute pictures...

Getting all set up

Bethany poses for a picture while James is way into the competition...classic.
James, not understanding what to do with the tokens
There you go, James!
Dad, having lots of fun. :)

They are so lucky to have a daddy who loves to play with them! He is always willing to sit down with them and play a game that is on their level. The best part is...he enjoys himself! He truly likes being with the kids and interacting with them...plus, let's face it, getting to play games is a treat for him since he has a wife who is terrified of most board games! Haha, but that's beside the point...

The Real American Dream

We've all heard about it - - the white picket fence. I find myself among the Americans who have one framing my front yard (or at least a corner of it!) . . . it is, after all, one of the reasons I knew I HAD to have this house when it practically fell into our laps. Who could pass up a white picket fence?
Well, anyway, two years later I have discovered that there is one thing more American than the All-American White Picket Fence - - a white picket fence strategically turned into a rainbow picket fence by toddlers who have discovered the joys of sidewalk chalk (who are we kidding..."sidewalk chalk"? Try "everywhere chalk".) Gazing at the "mess" I decided that it wasn't actually a bad thing. To have a free and happy family...yes, one full of children who can giggle together while they color on something other than the sidewalk...isn't that what the American Dream is all about?
I think so.