Simon Says Lick

Lily:  Simon Says Lick!
(Licking...)

Lily:  Simon Says Stop!

Lily:  Simon Says Wag your tail!
(lots of giggling...)

Lily:  Simon Says Love!

Lily:  Cooper always does what I say when I say Simon Says.

Simon Says with the dog?  That's a new one!  Lily makes me laugh.

I love summer.  I love watching my kids play together.  They are so creative and funny, it makes me happy.  They play so well together (for the most part), too, that I have to count my blessings!  I can see why Alec loves to play with Lily, when in church last Sunday, Lily quickly took a paper, folded it into a perfect paper airplane, and then said to me, "I wish I had scissors so I could cut a place for the parachuters to jump out."  What a cool sister!

And Megan is just crazy.  She always is singing.  Her favorite songs right now are the ABC song, I Am A Child of God, and "American Flag."  Yes, she made up that last one.  It has great lyrics.  "American Flag, American Flag, American Flag, American Flag..."  I love it!  She is funny.

Megan:  Barbie in time out.  Her being a stinker.
I wonder where she's heard that one before??

Then there's Alec.

Alec:  When I grow up I want to be a doctor, or a pharmacist, or the cashier at Sam's Club or Walmart, because they get lots of money.
Me:  You know that the cashiers at Sam's Club or Walmart don't get to keep all that money that we give them, right?
Alec:  They don't?

Ha Ha Ha!

Addiction Confession

I love pictures.

There. It's out in the open. I know, I know. It's a surprise to most of you. I can't help it! I go somewhere, and I just have to take a picture. We go boating, and I have to take pictures! I have hundreds of tubing and skiing and beach pictures, but I just can't help myself! I find myself whipping out that camera hoping that I catch them crashing. It's my favorite. Wa ha ha! I love it when you can still see hands or feet sticking out of the water.

So it is with great pride that I present two of the latest crash pictures.

Danny, I have some awesome pictures of you flipping in the air, but I don't want to post those. I only want this awesome inevitable crash. The look of fear down at the water; no hands holding onto the rope; it is a priceless picture. His face says it all!

This picture is of Tim. I have to say that it is one of my very favorites! You can see his face; his hand reaching out for the rope; that wicked spray. YES!! I can't help it. You know I love you, babe.

Sleepless In Seattle 2010

Thanks to Coca-Cola & Zingers, we were able to drive through the night and arrive safely in Seattle the next morning. Now, why would I want to drive all night, you may ask? Because any drive is much, much, much better if that sweet little two-year-old Megan is asleep!!

So we met almost all of Tim's family (Mark & Amy & crew missed out- bummer) and had a mostly great time (mostly, meaning that it was a normal day with that sweet two-year-old... some good times & some temper tantrum times...)!! It was a little crazy with so many people, but wonderful to be together.

Here is our big group shot. Yes, I put my camera on a tripod and used the self-timer. Run, Celeste, run! We had a great outdoorsy spot picked out, and then it just kept raining. So this is the front of Rebecca's house. It worked beautifully! Thank you Alan & Rebecca for putting in so much for this reunion- including the mass chaos at your house! (Family: I'm going to try to photoshop in Mark & Amy & crew- so I'll send a picture to you soon if it works out. Cheating, I know!)

We had fun at Pike's Place Market, the Seattle Aquarium, the Pacific Science Center and the Space Needle. (I put most of the pictures in the slide show, because I wanted to include so many...)

I think the best part was just being able to hang out and be crazy!

These cousins are so funny to watch play.

Well, more Coke & chocolate got us home.

All in all, it was great! It was so nice to see everyone!

We sure love you all!

Sleepless In Seattle Slideshow

5th of July Boating

The crazy 4th of July weekend tradition continues!

Skiing and tubing so you can be super sore the next day! Woo Hoo!

Tim gets the best sprays!

This was the only way Megan would go tubing.

Those girls love their daddy!

Alec went out by himself. How did he get so big?

The water got so choppy, that tubing was a little crazy.

If you could hear me in this picture, I was saying "AHHHHHHHHH!!!"

And this is why my neck is sore this morning.

I am getting old. But I'm still laughing!

Boating Slideshow

Growing Old

It's my birthday. I figure I could actually post something. Yay! Happy birthday to me! As my sister-in-law, Jamie put it, next year I'll be half way to seventy. This year, I'm still young. I'd better live it up!

Side note: I'm laughing because the name of the font I used on my little note was called "Bottled Fart." Yes, I find joy in the simple things in life.

Purse Snatcher. Grrr!

A few days ago I took some pictures downtown. Tim was kind enough to come with me. What a lovely assistant! I didn't even bring my purse (thank heavens!) since Tim was driving, but I had my camera bag. My camera bag is really just a purse that fits my camera perfectly. So we parked in this busy little parking lot surrounded by lots of stores. I took my camera out of the bag (purse) and decided I would just carry my camera and not worry about the bag. I just stashed the bag behind the driver seat (we have a big SUV, so it's high up, and we have tinted windows, so I wasn't too worried about my mostly empty camera bag). I figured Tim locked the car, and we set off to take pictures.

Pictures went great. Came back later and reached behind the seat for the bag. No bag. WHAT?? Look all over the car. NO BAG!! Someone snatched my bag! The door must not have been locked, because there wasn't anything broken, and nothing else was even taken. There was $22 dollars in the glove box thing between the front seats, but they didn't take that. I had a really nice expensive flash in the very back of the SUV, but they didn't take that. Just my mostly empty camera bag/purse. Humph.

I still had an extra camera battery, memory card, camera remote, a tiny tripod and some cables in the purse, so I was hoping that whoever took it would throw it in a garbage close by when they saw it didn't have a wallet in it. But no. We filed a police report, but no luck. I'm not very happy about it. I hope their guilty conscience was worth taking my lousy camera accessories. Grrr!

Preschool Class of 2010

Lily graduated from preschool this week. She was so excited because now she is ready for Kindergarten!!! She is always looking towards bigger and better things.

Lily & Hailee- "Best Buddies & Friends Forever!!" (said while throwing hands up together, as in a team cheer) are so funny to watch. They are such cute girlie girls!

Lily loved to sing "Pitter pat, pitter pat, it's a rainy day..." and she did a great job playing the chimes for the program. Woo Woo!

She also helped sing "I eat vegetables everyday, but Simple Sal shoves hers away..." I love these songs!

Grandma & Family cheering her on.

Way to go Lily! We Love You!

Fat Mother's Day

I'm standing in the kitchen making mashed potatoes when Megan comes into the kitchen.

"You FAT, Mom!"

Whaaat?!?

I turn to look at her, ready to stand up for myself, and stop.

There's Megan looking at me through binoculars.

I have to laugh!

Later, I really did feel like a fat mom as I was eating my brother-in-law, Dan's (and Nick's, though absent) Cookie Monster Birthday Cake!! Thanks Jamie for having such a cute cake idea for me to steal!!! :) Way too much good food for one day!

I have the sweetest family! They treat me so good all year round, I know I'm spoiled. Lily tells me every night, "You're my best mom in the whole, whole, whole, whole, whole wide world. I never want any other Mom but you. How did Heavenly Father know that I wanted you for a mom? I just love you too much!" She melts my heart! Megan (when she's not telling me I'm fat...) snuggles up on my lap and tells me in the cutest little two-year-old way, "I lub you, Mom," as she puts her little baby hand on my cheek and smoothes away my hair. It is so tender it makes me forget the dozen temper tantrums we have been through that day. Alec is my big-little sweetheart. He still gives me lots of hugs and kisses and writes me nice notes at random times that make me so happy. One day after I finished folding endless laundry, he wrote me a note and left it on my pillow that said "Thanks for doing laundry and all you do." He's such a good boy. Then there's Timmy boy, that makes me strawberry and mango crepes (sooo delicious!), and always takes time to let me know that I'm still his favorite person. Thank you for being such a devoted husband! I love my family!

Madilynne is Born!!

I had to post a couple of pictures on this blog, as well as my Shot blog, because she is just to cute not to! I think I was a little bit too excited that my sister Chantelle asked me to take some newborn pictures. She is the cutest model that ever peed on her dad (a couple of times). Sorry Dan! Hope the pictures were worth it!

I'm experimenting with simple announcements. What do you think?

(Yes, I took off their last names just for my blog. They really will have last names... :) )

Tiara Sunglasses

Megan & her friend, Millie came into the kitchen just giggling.

I look down and this is what I see.

They crack me up! I had to take a picture!

They almost look like twins in their matching spring stripe sweaters!! -oh, except Megan is about four inches shorter (yes, they're the same age...), and one has brown hair, the other blonde... Okay. More like Twins- with Arnold & Danny Devito.

My Cute Pregnant Sister & Her Husband

This post is for family that doesn't live close by, and miss out on all the little details of everyday life here. My sister, Chantelle, doesn't blog, so I am taking it upon myself to post a couple of cute prego pictures! This little baby will be coming any day, and I can't wait!! It's much more fun waiting for someone else to go through labor & delivery!

Don't they look so cute?

They have a little idea that their entire life is about to change... for the very best!

My Wedding Cake was a Smash Hit!

My brother, Matt got hitched last month! Yay!! In Hawaii, without me. Boo!!! :) Okay, okay, enough pouting! They had an open house luau and it was a lot of fun. I got talked into making a little wedding cake. What's wrong with me? Have I ever made a wedding cake?? Well, I decided that simple is good, and fresh flowers are the greatest cake decor ever!

So, enter Matt & Amber.

Enter wedding cake.

(Yes, the corner of the cake got attacked by a sea shell...)

Enter Matt's evil laugh as he's holding the slice of cake...

And it's a smash hit!

As Amber was eating the cake off her face and hands, she tells me how good it was, too. That's a bonus!

Amber, we are so happy to have you in our family!

We wish you all the best in your life together!