New and Improved!

Today is Sharmyn's official birthday! While she was visiting, we gave her a birthday present and a card that had 39 reasons why we love her. Today she is 40, so here is the list, new and improved! Now with 40 reasons! We could think of more!

1. You will “virtually” help decorate my front room.
2. You are the best cook evah!
3. You call me to talk just because.
4. You send me pictures of your wonderful front room.
5. You name your pets with fun “official” long names.
6. You sing me songs.
7. Like your birthday songs.
8. I really like your birthday songs.
9. And when you made me a birthday brunch even though you lived in NC.
10. You appreciate me for being me.
11. You are my #1 fan.
12. You are a great support and strength to me.
13. You have a strong testimony that is inspiring.
14. You wear cool jewelry and accessories.
15. Like when the wind blew that scarf around your neck just so. J
16. You love green - I love green.
17. You aren’t afraid to try.
18. You aren’t afraid to go to new countries and learn their customs.
19. You can speak Japanese fluently.
20. You have a great eye for unique and beautiful things.
21. You can see the beauty in everyone.
22. You are so helpful.
23. You give yourself fully in service.
24. You are beautiful.
25. You have your own floral business with a cool name.
26. You just adopted four new little kitties.
27. You work hard in your yard,
28. in your life,
29. on your spirituality
30. and everything that you do.
31. You are funny!!
32. I still remember going to your plays and dance concerts.
33. I thought that you were pretty cool! You STILL are pretty cool!
34. You love my babies.
35. When you made me Mother’s Day dinner on my first Mother’s Day. That really made my day!
36. You always have good music to listen to.
37. You are full of love.
38. You glow because you are so full of love and your spirit is so strong!
39. Because you are you and you are my sister!

and 40. You are the best person to joke with. You totally get it and keep playing along until I can't keep it up anymore and humbly bow down to your wittiness!

I LOVE YOU!! WE ALL LOVE YOU!!

Love,
Meg

Backpackin'

On the day before the day before the last day of School, Jake brought home to me:

• One homework tracker
• One library notice
• One Pokemon card
• One pair of socks (?!?)
• One t-shirt
• One set of gloves
• One basketball
• Three art projects
• EIGHT sweatshirts and/or sweaters!!
• and a huge pile of school papers!!!

That's not the end of it either. He cleans out his cubby today!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a pretty relaxed day. It was a very rainy day. No sunshine anywhere. We tried to visit friends, go shopping, get a strawberry shake and see a movie. All of them feel through. We had to just wait to go my sister's house at 3pm. It was Sharmyn's last day here and we all wanted to hang out. And that's exactly what we did. No agenda. We ate some barbeque, yummy potatoe salad and chips. Gave Sharmyn her birthday present early. Watched everyone play the Wii. Jake and Sammy loved it the most. I am not sure that Jake ever left it and Sammy loved waving the remote at the huge projection screen. We saw the pigs and chickens. We sat around. We laughed at my neice Chelsea when she decided to show us how she spells her name with her hips. She's a hoot! Mia got a trim from Kaylin. Lucky girl! Held baby Abigail and watched her roll over. Laughed at Mom and Dad when they gave Wii a whirl. Dad had sound effects when he served the ball to Mom and when the ball was missed, a little gray cloud appears over the players head. Mom says that she was saying bad words. They were quite funny to watch!
I missed visiting the graves with my family. It's been quite a few years since I have gone. I do want to try and go next year. It was hard to leave Sharmyn and we got the kids home and in bed way too late. It was hard for Jake to get up that next morning for school! Only two more days and summer vacation starts!
Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend!

Preschool Graduation

Today was Mia's graduation program at Preschool. I can't believe that we are already to the end of Preschool! She has grown so much this year. She has learned her ABC's and counting. I big accomplishment for her since order means nothing to her. When she was just three years old, she still didn't count right. We would work with her and sing songs and nothing seem to stick. It was hilarious when we counted "1,2,3" and she would reply "1,3,6!!" every time. Her energy was too cute! Anyway, her randomness with it was concerning so I am thrilled that she has it down. Kindergarten will be very interesting.

This morning, Mia decided that she did not want to have her program that day. She would not practice her part. She would not get dressed. She had a scratch on her face and was sure that she was not pretty. What? Is she really big enough to be worried about that?? I was getting nervous that she would really not go through with it. Fortunately, an hour before preschool, she changed her mind. She was excited and practiced her part. She's very serious on stage. She doesn't smile much, but when she does, it's soooooo cute! Here she is saying her part and singing the song. It's hard to hear her little voice. She is saying "Little Jack Frost must of come last night, for this morning, my windows were painted white."

Ryan, Grandma Desse and Papa were all able to come and see her program. It was fun to have everyone crammed in that room together. Sammy found himself a cute little girlfriend and played with her almost the entire time. He was quite the gentleman taking her toys to play with.

She is growing up too fast!! I can't believe that she will be in Kindergarten this Fall!

Tumbling Review

Jake's tumbling review was on Thursday night. He has improved so much since the last recital. I am so proud of him for sticking it out. I think that he honestly enjoys it now.

Here is the one picture that I got that night and it's pretty bad. I only had the choice of video or pictures at the review so I chose to video him. It's too long to post, but it sure cracks me up. He is such a HAM! Jake is on the left. Those boys talked through the whole thing. He did a cartwheel that didn't go so smoothly so he hopped up and down holding his ankle. At the end, he ran over to his spot and flopped down pretty obnoxiously. Guess we will have to work on his stage presence! I am not sure that we will ever get him to control his urge to be the class clown. Still love him though!

A phone call

I got the best surprise today! Sharmyn, my sister that lives in North Carolina, called this morning. Nothing unusual for her to call me. She was just chatting about what I was doing that day when she asked if she could come over. "ARE YOU IN UTAH?" I screamed! "Not yet." she replied. "I am in Denver and will be over to play with you after 1pm." And played she did, but not long enough. I sure wish I didn't have to "share" her.

Bring home baby...what's her name?

Ryan and I were so excited about the birth of our daughter. She was beautiful and healthy. She nursed like a champ and everything was going well accept she just did not look like the name that had picked out for her. The name, Taylor Brynn, that took months for us to agree on. I am sure that I drove Ryan nuts coming up with lists of names and he drove me nuts shooting down every single name on my list. Then he would say a few names that I did not like and I would shot his down.

On and on for months until we both liked Taylor and I loved Brynn thus Taylor Brynn. I never had a middle name and always wanted one so of course she would have one AND all my sisters had "y's"in their names and I didn't and always wanted it. This name served both purposes and put a "y" in both of her names. Darling. Cute. Done! Until she was born. After they put her on my chest and I looked at her sweet little face I knew that she was not Taylor. It did not work for her at all. I knew and Ryan knew it as well. Now what were we to do?? We obviously weren't working well together on the name game.

That next morning, I began bugging Ryan again and he went through his usual names that I tried to consider but nothing seemed right. Ryan casually said Mia. Bing!! That's right!! That's the name! That's her name!! I know it!! Oh happy day! We are going to name her Mia! But then Ryan did something horrible. He took it back. He said he didn't like it. It reminded him of somebodies last name or something. That Mia wasn't a proper name. I don't remember all the details, just the gist of it. Ick. No name.

The nurses kept telling us that we had to have a name for birth certificate and that we couldn't leave until we named her blah, blah, blah. I obsessed over naming her. Thinking of every name possible but I didn't like any of them. When I was alone with her in the hospital, I sat and called her every name in the book but nothing fit. (Doesn't that sound funny?? I called her good names - not naughty names!) I went back to Amelia several times. It seemed right to me but how to convince Ryan?

We did leave the hospital without a name. It wasn't the end of the world but we did have to do a name change on her birth certificate. "Baby Girl" as the certificate said, just wasn't quite right. Hah!

She was known as Baby Bobo for the first 4-5 weeks of her life. Yes, Bobo. Jake named her that. When I was about 4 or 5 months along, I asked Jake what we should name the baby. He innocently said "Um, Bobo?". I thought it was hilarious and it stuck! We still call her Bobo to this day. Anyway, finally after several weeks without a real name, I cried to Ryan that she needed a real name and he finally agreed that she should be Amelia. It felt so good having her officially named! It fits her and even when Jessica would give me fits of doubt about not naming her Taylor, I always came back to the same content feeling with her name. And funny to say, after all that drama, she did not get the "y" in her name and she did not get a middle name. Funny how things work, eh?

The Best Mother's Day Present Ever

I like to joke that I have already gotten the best Mother's Day present ever. Don't get me wrong, you are more the welcome to give me wonderful Mother's Day presents. Just know that it will never top Mia, the best Mother's Day present ever received. You see on Mother's Day, five years ago around 11:30pm, Mia was born. She was a beautifully perfect, 8lbs 15oz - 21 inches long, lots of dark hair, rosebud lipped baby girl. We were so excited to meet her. Jake and I were at church alone since Ryan was working that day. My contractions started during the 2nd hour of church. I didn't think much of them at first and tried to listen to the lesson. I realized that they were real contractions and they were starting to get painful. After the class was over, I quickly went to get Jake out of nursery so we could leave. It felt like it took forever to get out! The nursery was on the 2nd level the church and there was lots of people clogging the halls and stairway. Finally home, I put a movie on for Jake and took a bath to see if they would slow down or progress. They weren't backing down coming harder and faster than I thought. I called Ryan and of course, he was stuck at work. He had to get someone to come in for him so he could leave. Next call to my parents who came to help as fast as they could living 1/2 an hour away. I still laugh when I think of my father's face as he rushed into my house. He looked just like the panicked, father-to-be in the movies! I asked for a quick blessing and Mom assessed that the contractions were close enough to go to the hospital. Another call to Ryan, and he was still stuck. Admitted and dilated to a five, I seemed to be going really quickly. Worried that I might have the baby before Ryan got there, I called him again pleading for him to come RIGHT NOW! I was most definitely having a baby TODAY and if he didn't get there soon, he was going to be in the dog house forever for missing the birth of HIS baby that was sure causing me a lot pain right then! Fortunately for him, he was just leaving but still had the 40 minute drive ahead of him. I was a 6 1/2 by then. She was coming fast!

When Ryan finally made it to the hospital, everything slowed down. The contractions weren't as hard and I wasn't progressing as fast. It wasn't so exciting anymore. My mother was getting pretty bored and asked if I could have the baby before 8pm because there was a TV show on that she would like to watch. I thought that was absolutely hilarious! Sure mom, I'll get right on it! I knew that I had to have her before the day was over. First because it was Mother's Day and second, it was my best friend's Jessica birthday too. She had Megan on my birthday so it had to work out that I had Mia on her birthday. I would have been so disappointed if she was born even a minute past midnight!

Gratefully and calmly, she was born around 11:30pm that night. Ryan and I were so amazed that we were finally going to meet her. Just a few pushes and she was born. Amazingly beautiful, most definitely feminine, perfectly healthy, dark haired baby girl. We were thrilled and blessed and have been so happy to have her in our little family ever since!

We had a busy day with church, making her own cake, birthday parties with both Grandma's and Mother's Day hooplah. Happy birthday baby girl!! I love you so much and I am so blessed to have you in my life! You are the best Mother's Day present that I have and will ever receive! And a big Happy Birthday to Jessica!! I love you too! You have been my best friend for almost 18 years! Happy Mother's Day to my family and friends! I hope you had a wonderful day! I know that we did!

FOUND!

FINALLY! After a year of searching the thrift stores, I finally found a chandelier for Mia's room. Isn't it purty??

Big bucks spent on this little gem. A whole whopping $3. Needing inspiration, I emailed chandelier collector extraordinaire Sarah and she sent back tips and a link to the best chandelier ever! Seriously cute! I so wish that I could do green, but I finally decided on just white and flowers and beads and gems and lots of girly goodness.

I am so excited to get started on this project! It will be so fun in her room. I hope it's not too big in there. We really are going to have to hoist it up high so Ry-Ry the big guy in the house doesn't knock himself out on it. I have been reading up on the how-to install a chandelier.

First step finished! Cleaned and primed.

Did I mention that I am so excited?

Proud to be a Bobcat

Pack meeting was an exciting one for Jake. He got his Bobcat badge and his face was painted with the symbols of the Bobcat. Now he can start working on his Tiger. He loves scouts and has the best leaders. They are so organized and do exciting and fun stuff. I am proud of him for learning the way of a scout. Can my little boy be this big already??

Spring has Sprung

Ahh, the sun is shining and the temperatures are lovely. It's finally feeling like Spring. However, I can't really see the nice weather because my allergies are killing me. My eyes are swollen and itchy and my nose is going crazy. The plus side is that I can't really see all the work that needs to be done in my yard. The negative side, I really can see all the work that needs to be done in the yard and don't want to do it. Anyway.....

Since it was so nice yesterday, I set up the new table that I just got from IKEA for $9.99. $9.99!! And the chairs were only $10 each! We have been looking for a table set for the patio for a while now and this one will work just fine. The kids and friends loved it and Sammy thought it was too much fun to be part of it all. Grill cheese and lemonade just taste better when eaten outside don't ya think?

Adventures way back when the weather was good

Thanks for all of your suggestions on my clutter. I really appreciate it! I got some good ideas for weeding out clothing and the gobbler coming to visit is too funny! I really should try it but I have to be able to have a straight face when I tell them and that will take some work.

Way back on Tuesday, when the weather was nice for a half a minute (last night and today - snowing!), we went on a the preschool field trip to the Dinosaur Park. We have been there many times for Jake's field trips and we used to live so close and visited several times over the summer, so we weren't too terribly excited. Still, we thought it would be nice to enjoy some fleeting sunshine.

During past trips with Jake, he was mostly excited to play in the park so there wasn't too much exploring. Mia, however, was completely different. She was excited to look around at the dinosaurs. She got herself a map and picked out two different dinosaurs and set out on an adventure to find them. It was fun to follow her around. She wanted to learn about the dinosaurs that we found and laughed and ran to the next one and cooed over the baby dinosaurs. She loved the presentation about the dinosaurs and was completely entertained. We did play in the park too, just not the whole time. Mia didn't really play with the other preschool kids. Every once in a while, she would run after someone or talk to another, completely different from Jake who has a friend all of the time. It turned out to be a nice little trip and we most definitely enjoyed the sunshine!

Sam slept for the first hour of the park. He was very surprised when he woke up. He immediately started pointing out dinos and 'meowing'. Every animal meows according to Sam . Dinosaurs are no exceptions. No matter how much we tried to teach him to roar, he just smiled and laughed at us. Silly baby! At least he recognizes that it was an animal! He wasn't too thrilled about the park either. He would just stand and stare at the other kids and then come back to snuggle on my lap. Such a shy boy he is.

And we found the world most dangerous creature........oooooo scary!