Another Fun Package For Charity

Charity got another package from her sweet teacher in Alaska. This one was just packed full of cute fun things for Charity (and her brothers and sisters too!). I just couldn't get enough of her cute face while she was looking at everything. She has some serious facial expression muscles. Anyway- just thought I would share the joy of her opening it with everyone! She sure can't get enough of her old class and teacher. They will be forever in her heart I think.


Here is the shirt they made for her- it's THE CUTEST thing EVER.

The kids in her class drew pictures of themselves and then wrote their names under them- she LOVED this! She keeps looking at it and reading the names. WAY CUTE!

Reading the letter and announcing to Kelly that she gets some of the stuff too :) How nice of her teacher!

"Just like the ones at school!!"

ooooooh, bubbles!!! Kelly's intrigued :)


kissing the star sunglasses :)


I love this picture :) Charity's fun to spoil cuz she gets way into it :)


ooooooooh play doh!!!

Kelly's picking which one she wants :)


and tatooes!! (THEY wanted this picture :))


Blowing their bubbles (got the back of the kids picture- thinking of you Julie)

blowing more bubbles


Then Brad woke up- so Charity had to show him everything she got and can I just say- she was SO SWEET TO HIM!! She was giving him stickers, and sharing her tatooes, and bubbles- everything!! I was SO IMPRESSED!! This package really brought the best in Charity that day.


And in the morning- she showed off her bubbles to Luke. He's catching bubbles on his tummy in case you were wondering (what a nut).
Charity's old class is already on Summer vacation- so she was totally bummed to not be able to send them all one more letter. She's been working on some ever since they sent the package with all the letters a few weeks ago. But this was so awesome for her. She LOVES her old kindergarten teacher.
Charity is almost done with school now too! Only one more day!! She had water day on Tuesday- she loved that, and today is Field day- don't you just love the random fun of the last week of school. I can't believe she'll be back to all day next fall! She's already thinking about school lunch again- yay! I just can't believe she's growing so fast. Kelly too- starting Kindergarten next year!! I'm gonna be without my girls!!! Anyway- enough of my ramblings for that post :)


oh just kidding, I forgot I put this picture on here. This is my brother. I told him I would take this picture and put it on my blog for him- there ya go steve- you're famous.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was really fun. Uncle Brent and Aunt Sarah came over and played with us. No park though since it was raining, but we sure had fun. This picture is when Charity was wrestling with Brent and he kept asking her to go get him some more Smoked Salmon.


Here's Kelly showing off her good "playing with baby" skills for Sarah. Kelly really is our little mommy here. She's excited for Sarah to have their baby.

I liked all the faces in these, sorry for the repeats if you're not as into looking at my kids' expressions as I am.

After Brent and Sarah left we went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had a really fun day even though there was no going to the park and no fishing :) Darn rain :) Just kidding. ACTUALLY- I have been wanting to mention that ever since we got the thunder and lightning back with the storms here in Utah, I have gone back to enjoying the rainy weather like I did before we lived in AK. There was no thunder and lightning (at least none to speak of anyway), and that I realized is one of my favorite things about Rain storms. Crazy too since it rained for like 2 months straight while we were in AK. ANyway- you should have seen my kids the first time they heard the thunder and lightning here- I thought Charity was going to jump out of her skin!! They were totally impressed! And while we're talking about their fears of natural disasters- Charity's totally convinced that we're gonna get sucked up in a tornado. The other day we had this huge wall of sand come and barrel us out of our backyard and into our house (it was seriously HUGE!! I was actually a little scared myself since we had all my kids and the cubscouts to keep track of and bring in-- nuts!!). Anyway. With kids everything's an adventure.
So anyway- Memorial day was nice.

Breaking in the new smoker

I gave Nate a meat smoker for our anniversary (when we would talk about how it's bad to smoke the kids - knowing that Nate likes to smoke his salmon- would say, "but it's okay if Daddy smokes salmon.") so we wanted to show off Nate's perfected smoked salmon recipe for everyone on Memorial Day, so this was Sunday night- fileting the salmon and soaking it in the brine- totally felt like we were back in AK, Nate used to do this like every other day!



My cute boys!

Tuesday Tell All

Graduation Day- Abravanel Hall, June 1998

This is the night of Senior Dinner Dance

The topic for today was GRADUATION. At first I was like- huh. I'm not gonna do this one. But then I got to thinking about my graduation. I realized that my memory of it is fading, so now is probably a good time to record some of the few things I do remember. Sorry if it's boring- so was the ceremony, so I guess it works :)

I remember that 2 weeks before graduation I still hadn't received a grade from BYU on the homestudy stuff I had done to make up for missing school my Sophomore year. (Yes, it took me 2 years to finish a history and english class that should have only taken me a semester) That whole mess is somewhat of a long story- I'll spare you that. Let's just say I was a little on the unmotivated side in High School (not that much has changed since then, just clarifying :)). So anyway- about 10 days before graduation I received my grade, and had a bit of a Chris Farley moment when I saw the C and realized that "I PASSED!!! I'M GONNA GRADUATE". This is all a little embarrassing, so I'm not sure why I'm announcing it all to the world, but whatever. So anyway- I was glad I was going to be able to walk across the stage. AND I also found out that I was actually going to have a couple honor cords! How cool is that- barely graduating, but wearing cool honor cords :) (I thought they were cool anyway). I think my two were for Social Studies, and Citizenship (no N's or U's- that's me :))

I remember the day of Gradution- school was crazy, we did yearbooks, and then my friends and I did something else, I don't remember what though- Andrea or Natalie if you can help me out on this one- I'd appreciate it :). Then I remember going home to get ready for graduation and having some big blowout with my mom. Who knows what it was over. But we were almost late getting to Abravanel Hall. (you can tell I had been crying in that first picture of me on my graduation day- how lame) My dad dropped me off while they parked. I remember walking around taking pictures of all of my friends with the fountains going off. Then we went in and sat down for graduation. I remember someone giving a talk about Twinkies, and then that was all I remember of the ceremony other than that the choir sang- it was REALLY long and REALLY boring to me. I remember walking up through the door in the back of the stage and Mrs. Li standing right by the door telling Natalie that she got a good grade in our Biology class and then telling me that I didn't get as good a grade as Natalie, but that I did "okay". (unfortunately I remember that moment all too well :) I was bummed :)) So then they said my name and I walked across the stage and received my diploma. It was one of those moments in life where you're like- "that's it?".

Then after graduation I remember my parents and I went with Andrea and her parents to Della Fontana (I have no idea how to spell it, and it's out of business now). We were really excited to eat there, it was a Prom restaurant! One of my favorite memories of this occasion was when Andrea's dad found a fly on his lettuce. LOL. He was so disgusted, and I teased him a little about it since it was "just a fruit fly". So he told me he would pay me a dollar if I ate the piece of lettuce with the fly on it and that if I did he wouldn't complain to the waitress :) So I did!! (it really wasn't that big of a fly) I think he really gave me a dollar too- it was so funny. Good times.

SO anyway- after dinner we (Andrea, Natalie, and a bunch of other friends, I can't remember who all was there) went and did something else- I have no idea what it was. I do remember driving up to the canyon to watch the sunrise. That was fun. But we were totally wasted (just tired- don't be thinking I drank anything!), so we went back to my house and fell asleep on the trampoline in my backyard (I think we had taken our pillows and blankets with us wherever it was that we went- I still can't remember!) So there ya have it. I really don't think any of this is all that fascinating or important, but it's what I remember :) Like I said- feel free to fill me in on anything I missed Natalie and Andrea- you were both there! How crazy that that was 10 years ago too!! That's hard to believe! Those were fun times, but I'm glad I'm not in High School anymore, or college for that matter. I do like looking back though- good times!

Big Boy Haircuts

Brad and Luke were in desperate need of haircuts so I finally just gave in and took them to the nearest place. I just love how cute my boys look after their haircuts. For some reason I'm sad about the old hair being gone, but at least they look way cute afterward :) Here's Luke getting his- he was REALLY good. Although even though he just sat there pretty calm the whole time- the constant turning of his head at all the sounds he hears and whenever something happens, I don't know how they can even make it look decent :)

Here he is smiling for the camera :) Love that cheesy grin


Brad got done before I remembered I had my camera in the car. He looks way cute though. I'm so happy to have that ducktail gone! :) He lets me rub my hands on the really short part on the back- love it! I'm savoring the moments since I know he probably won't let me when he gets older :)

Just some sweet little artists :)

This is kinda weird to put this on here, but it was really special to me. The kids and I were all outside. Brad had brought me the mail. I had opened up the grocery store ads and was looking at them, when Luke came over and sat down right next to me and started commenting on all the things on the ads. (it's a rare occurance for him to just come and sit by me for no reason since he is such a busy-body, so I got a little excited and wanted to find something to keep him there :)) I quietly asked Kelly to go get me some scissors and glue (didn't want to distract Lukey :)), and when she brought them back I just started cutting out all the things that Luke would point to and get all excited about. It was SO NEAT :) The kids and I always talk about our likes and dislikes at mealtimes. To entertain ourselves we will go around the table and say what our favorites are, and Luke will ALWAYS just repeat what someone else has said, so it was just really neat to kind of get into his head and find out what HE really likes. I also learned that he doesn't like suggestions :) I would suggest something that I KNOW he likes, and he would quickly come back with "nope" then a couple of seconds later he would be right back there pointing to the exact same thing telling me to cut it out :). It was cute to see him finally getting into the whole gluing thing too- whenever we do crafts his attention to it lasts about a half a minute and then he's off doing something else- so it was really fun for me. I had to put this on our fridge to remind me of how fun it was, and he has gone over and pointed to each thing about a million times. He especially likes to point out the "Monkey Chips" or "Chippy Munks" (depending on the day those both mean Chipmunks) and the "orn dogs" (hot dogs). He had various types of "juice"- basically anything liquid that comes in a plastic bottle is juice to Luke :) He couldn't get enough of those. And all the fruits and veggies- I was surprised :) But anyway. This was fun- just wanted to remember it.

Another letter from Charity. She is THE SWEETEST little girl!! I think this is one of my favorite things about her learning how to read and write :) She'll write me sweet letters until the paper runs out :) This one was ESPECIALLY special to me- how could I possibly feel bad about myself after this one! "even when I'm mad I look pretty!" :) nothing beats THAT! :)

and here's one of cute Kelly's little masterpieces- she is so creative I think :) I love how she writes "I Love You" now. She's a sweetie.

"Kelly Time With Mommy"

I've mentioned before that in the afternoons after we get Charity to school it is time for Luke to go down for his nap and Brad and Kelly to go down for rest time. Normally Bradley falls asleep, so Kelly and I decided that as soon as Brad is asleep she is done with resttime and can then come up and have what she calls "Kelly time with Mommy". Well on Tuesday when she came up she said, "Today for Kelly time with Mommy, I want you to watch me ride my bike and take pictures and put them on the computer" :) So that is what we did, and I am finally "putting them on my computer". She's so funny. Always thinking one step ahead of me :).

She was pretty excited to finally have training wheels on her "new" bike. She's tried the whole riding without training wheels thing and she decided that that's not for her :) So she's gonna keep them on a little longer "even though she's gonna be five soon". Apparently she thinks that since Charity could ride her bike when she was five, that she is supposed to. I'm glad that she is okay with being different from Charity though. I would hate for her to feel slow or something just because she's not doing it the same. She sure is growing up to be a cute girl. I love my Kelly.



When Luke and Brad were awake they decided to just chill on the porch- I should have backed up more for this picture- they looked so funny just rocking away :) Like a couple of old men.

My Hero!

I keep wanting to post this, because it was so stinkin' cute. The other day I was standing in the kitchen cooking, and Luke was standing on a chair up to the bar watching me (this is his FAVORITE thing to do :) "Watch mamma, WATCH!"). So I guess there was a fly on my back, and Luke saw it so he screams out "FWY!! Mamma!! FWY!! BAACK!" And he's totally got this worried look on his face, and I'm like- "It's okay Lukey, Mommy will be okay." But no, he wasn't going to have it, he starts calling out, "I get it!! I get it!!", then he jumps down from the chair and comes waddling over to me, reaches his hand up and totally wacks my behind!! Then he's all, "GOT IT!! Got it Mamma! Save you??" SO STINKIN' CUTE!! He's my little hero :)

Family Talent Show

Last night we had our first Family Talent Show! It was so much fun! The kids were way cute with which talents they picked (with no help from mom and dad!). Here is Kelly telling us her name and how old she is and that she is going to "do a handstand". She's all nervous and shy and everything :) so cute!


This is her doing her handstand talent (I've never actually even seen her do this before, so way to go on the improv Kelly :))


This is her doing her bow at the end.


Here's Charity doing her "jump roping"- Nate got some great action shots of this :)




Bradley's talent was "playing with his toys" :0) He is really good at that!



He's so cute!


Luke's talent was way cute too- he did "spinning around" for his.


Daddy did a magic trick for us! The kids made him do it like a million times :) This is everyone looking at the quarter to make sure it's a real quarter :) Look at how seriously Luke is taking this :)


Blowing on it


and look, no quarter! What? you didn't see it? Okay let's do it again...


Luke's face in this is PRICELESS :) Daddy is so cool!


I love how Nate can't keep a straight face in this one :) My husband's the cutest Dad!


This is Brad plugging his ears so that Daddy can't find the quarter in his ear :)


This time he let them find it in his ear :)


Noah and I did our talents together- it was changing a diaper in less than 30 seconds. Surprisingly we made it! I even have it on video to prove it :) (Course if I had done Luke as he had wanted, it definitely would have taken longer :) diaper changing is such a different sport on a 2 year old!)