Springboard....

Thursday of last week, one of the young women from church had a dive meet at CSU. Being that I love swimming and diving I loaded up the kids (at 8:00 a.m.) and we headed off to Cleveland which is not far but I have never been to the city by myself before. We had a great time, the kids were great at being quite during the dive and then cheering like crazy after. Lizzie did a great job, she made it to the finals.

Special Delivery....

Last week we got a special box in the mail from Grandma Great....a box of hats that she made. Grandma Great is amazing and for all of her great grand kids that are in school, she makes enough hats for them to give to their classmates. Porter was so proud to take and carry the box into his school all by himself. I was so impressed with all of the kids when they chose the hat they wanted, no fighting over colors at all, they were all just happy to be getting a new hat. I was also very surprised at how many of the boys chose the pick and purple colored hats leaving more black, green, and orange for the girls.

Tessa was also very pleased with the box because it gave her something to put into her mouth when I was not looking....grose!

Tessa the resorted back to her teething ring when I took the box lid away, she is so funny.

FACE.....book

Okay, so I am totally freaking out about Facebook. I am sure that everyone has heard about it before. Anyway, the other night one of my friends from Utah called and mentioned something about Facebook and our high school 10 year reunion coming up. So the next day I went to Facebook and typed in my e-mail only to be reminded that I already had an account that I thought I had deleted. Andy and his sister Lauren made it for me forever ago as a joke. It had a picture of our old lady family friend Beverly and it said my occupation was State Street and that I was ovulating. After I had changed all of that and got over the embarrassment and fear that someone I know maybe saw that, I took some time to find people. First of all I cannot believe how many people have a Facebook page, it's crazy!!!!! But my overall opinion (not that it matters in any way) is that Facebook is cool. I think it is a great way to connect and in my case re-connect with friends. I have found so many friends on there that I have lost touch with over the years. Some are people that helped make me the person that I am and were there for me in the hardest times of my life. The point of this is, go and check out Facebook, it really is neat and a great way to find old friends.

President's Day = Day in PJ's

I love day's like today when there is no pressure to go anywhere and the kids can stay in their pajamas all day. We have officially declared today a game and laundry day. We have already played Little People, I ran on the treadmill (yeah for me), Disney Scene It, and High Ho Cherry Oh. Still on the agenda is Balloon Lagoon, one of the best kids games ever. We found ours at Toy's R'Us on Porter's b-day for $9.98, a total steal because it is listed on Amazon for $29.99. The kids also want to do play dough and read books, so we are very busy. I feel like it has been a while since I posted pictures of the kids so here are some from are going's on today....

Polly, we have a problem....

Carlee came to me yesterday in a state of panic because Polly's head had fallen off of her Polly Pocket doll. It took everything I had to not laugh as I tried to repair the doll, I have never seen such a thing. We were just about to leave the house to go somewhere so I put the doll and all of her parts on my dresser until I was able to get back to it. This morning I gathered all of the things that needed a little repair and hot glue gun action and went to my dresser to get Polly, only to find we were missing one of the arms. I just cannot put her back together with only one arm so it is going to have to wait until we are able to locate the missing limb.

When I was taking pcitures of Polly Pocket on my dresser, body in a complete mess, I somehow realated to this doll. There are times where I feel like I am being pulled in all sorts of directions and if it does not stop my arms are going to fall off. There are other times where I wish my arms could come off and go do something else for me while I am sitting and feeding Tessa or being forced to fold the laudry (one of the biggest time wasters ever if you ask me). I know I have told a few people this, but there are times where I can clearly visualize myself at the stove making dinner, feeding Tessa, folding laundry, mopping the floor, picking up toys, walking down the aisle at the grocery store, etc, etc, etc. And then after a few moments of this day dream, I take a deep breath and begin to do all of those things one at a time.

I am so lucky to have the opportunity to stay at home and be a mother to my amazing children, but there are times that prove to me that being a stay at home mom is the hardest job in the world (I don't care how many rectal exams Andy has to do in one day (love you honey)), and I would not trade it for the world.

The best Grandma gift ever....

Last week when Porter brought in the mail (that is his job), there was a Martha Stewart Living magazine. I immediately started freaking out and was yelling at Andy asking him if he got that for me. He kept on saying no, but I didn't believe him. Then I wondered if we got someone else's mail, but the front cover had a sticker with my name on it, just like a real subscription. I thought it was too good to be true, but it wasn't. Later that day I was talking to my mom on the phone and told her how excited I was about my surprise mail and she mentioned that it might be from my grandma Ruth. I was completely shocked and called my gram's right away. Grandma confirmed it was her and she was so calm about it "yeah, I got that for you, I thought it you would like it."

It is the best gift from a Grandma ever. Not that I have not enjoyed other gifts from my grandma's over my 27 years of life, but I don't remember being this excited about any of them. I am so a wanna be Martha. I love to flip through pages of the magazine at all of the cute crafts and delicious looking recipes and imagine making them, soon reality sets in and I am tired, I turn out the light and go to bed. But it sure does set the tone for a good dream.

Thank you Grandma Ruth.

My Grandpa Bufe, Grandma Ruth, and me when Andy and I went for a visit in 2002.