First Day of School

Davis and Meg

The kids were so excited for the first day of school. They had their clothes out last night. We double checked backpacks and supply lists. When I opened my door
this morning, they were sitting in the hall all dressed and ready to go!

I hope they'll always be this easy to get ready for school.

After a nice breakfast of waffles and chocolate milk, we took some pictures and headed off to school. It looked like it might rain, so Davis grabbed his jacket.

We were lucky that it didn't rain on us. The afternoon turned out to be great.

As part of our first day of school "Tradition" we went to Training Table for dinner. Yumm..... I think this stems back from when I was teaching. I'm pretty sure I never wanted to come home and cook dinner on the first day of school. It's a great tradition...one that I hope never fades.

I'm published!!!

As some of you know, I recently submitted my list of 10 things that hurt worse than a mammogram to Good Things Utah. Much to my surprise Marti Skold replied to my email and read my list the next day! She just posted my list on her blog. So now that makes me a published writer, doesn't it?

Here's a link to her blog, in case you need a reminder.
http://www.abc4.com/content/blogs/martiskold/story/Marti-Skold-Ten-Things-That-Hurt-Worse-Than-A/b6vvBqShVUCTyOPLaA4XoA.cspx

I hope this counts as telling my friends. :)

10 Things...

...that hurt more than a mammogram.

Sorry to those of you who were blindsided by this post.

This list is by no means in order of importance--these are things that I have experienced in the last year.

1- Breastfeeding
2- Burning your hand/arm on a hot pot
3- Plucking your eyebrows
4- Falling down the stairs
5- Falling up the stairs
6- Stubbing your toe
7- Hitting your knee on a trailer hitch
8- Not stretching enough before running
9- Getting a papercut
10- Pinching your finger in an air compressor attachment


Just in case you were wondering, my mammogram came back fine. I'm just "of age" now to get regular screenings. After the screening was finished I looked at the lady who worked the machine and I asked, "Is that it? That's what I've been worried about all week?" She said, "That's it, go tell your friends it's nothing to be worried about." Okay friends, you've been told. Seriously, it didn't hurt--at all. Really.

I guess you could consider this a public service announcement.

Image was taken from: www.ngdc.com/NGDC/pages/mammography.gif

Woobies

Garrett and Davis both love to have their woobies right up against their noses.
Is it because it's soft? Do they like the smell? In this picture, Davis has one of Garrett's blankets, but he does the same thing to his.

Our New Puppy

Scott and I have been talking for a couple of years about getting a new puppy--Labrador Retriever, of course. I decided that a yellow male would be perfect since we already have a chocolate female, Cocoa. Well, here's a few pictures that I snapped of our "yellow male" and Cocoa getting acquainted.

Cocoa is not sure about Garrett being in her kennel.

This was the first time he crawled in it.

I think he likes it.

Notice how far back he is sitting.

After a few minutes he came out. We had to keep the basement door closed because he kept going in the kennel. A few times Cocoa climbed in there with him. That was a tight fit! Every time Garrett would leave the kennel, Cocoa would go right in and lay down. I guess she wanted him to know that this is her spot.

I hope this post doesn't steal the thunder from Lynnette and Keith and their new lab. Dora is a real dog and absolutely aDORAble!!! She could live at my house....really, she could. :)

I'm so crafty...

Okay, I saw this on a blog and I had to steal it!!!

That was wrong, I know.
It made me laugh so loud that Scott asked me what was so funny.

I'll do some actual blog posting later of the "crafts" that I've made. :)

Two-Wheeler School

Meg is such a great big sister! She often has "Baby School" for Garrett where she reads him books and asks him questions. He's very smart and always points at the right answer.

This time Meg focused her efforts on Davis and the bike. After about half hour or so, Davis came in to tell me the good news..."I can ride Meg's bike without training wheels!" I had to see this for myself. After showing me that he could indeed ride Meg's bike without training wheels, we decided we should make a movie of it. I hope you enjoy the two clips. Please excuse my commentary. (Do I really sound like that?) I think it's not bad for a low budget "film." Maybe Sundance will pick it up. :)

I told Davis, once he finally stopped, that we'd get him a bigger helmet the next day. He looked and me and said, "I like pink." Then he got back on Meg's bike and was ready to ride again!

Just so you know, Davis did get a new helmet the next day. Scott also took the training wheels off of his bike. He's now covered in bruises and scratches, but he sure is having a great time!

We're Under Attack!!!

As you can see, we've been invaded by toy soldiers.

One afternoon I came downstairs and had to chuckle.

Davis was playing with army guys and they were strategically placed around the front room. This clearly gives them the best vantage point.

They stormed all over the "Welcome" sign.

Apparently it was serious business!

Scott and I noticed that each row has a different group of army guys.

They are sorted very nicely, don't you think?

Garrett's First Birthday

Garrett's first birthday was great. We had spaghetti for dinner--which is his favorite. I'm just sorry that I didn't get any pictures of that! We had cupcakes for dessert and we practiced blowing out the candle. I wanted him to be prepared for his party that was later in the week. Let's just say that we were going to need another practice session!

Yummy cupcakes!

Garrett knows this is a tasty treat. Look at that smile! He quickly tried to grab the candle and Meg and Davis were VERY WORRIED that he would get burned. Please rest assured that I did NOT let him touch the flame. He also did NOT blow out the candle.

Good thing we had more time to practice!

The Cake

I thought Garrett's cake turned out so cute! You know, your baby only turns 1 once, so I thought it would be okay to put a little more effort in to this cake. Once his cake was frosted and assembled, I panicked and thought, "What if this is not enough cake?" Well, I made some cupcakes and frosted them with all of the extra frosting. (You'll be able to find that recipe on our recipe blog--but I don't know when.)

The Leaning Tower of Pickett

My skewers didn't do a great job of holding my cake upright so by the time we were ready to have cake, we had a leaning tower. I'm really glad we made it to the kitchen before it toppled!

As you can see, Garrett enjoyed his cake. And no, he didn't blow out the candle.

It's great to be one!

Slacker Extraordinaire

Well, at the beginning of this whole blogging thing, I think I mentioned that my goal would be to post once a month. I think I may have fooled you all by posting several things that first week. I think I was a little over zealous. Mostly because I'm a slacker...please forgive me. :)

As you can see, there's no picture for this post. Maybe I'll add a picture later.

Oh, my baby!

Okay, he's not much of a baby anymore. Somehow he made it to one! I'm not sure where the time went, but I'm pretty sure I spent most of it just staring at him. I still do that--a lot! He's so darn cute and loveable!

I took a few pics at his birthday party and will get those posted later. How much later? I don't know. It's anyone's guess at the moment.

Hopefully I'll get them posted before May. :)

Garrett enjoying Davis's soccer game.

Green Dragons Soccer

Saturday was Davis's first soccer game of the Spring. True to Utah Spring weather, it was cold! Of course, at 9:00 a.m. in March, what did we expect? Most of us were bundled up while we watched the game. Meg, on the other hand, was moving at the speed of light! I think she was secretly trying to stay warm.) She ended up at the park before the game ended.

Davis is the green #3

Davis will say the Red Dragons won because they scored more goals, but I think the Green Dragons won because they had more fun! It's not always about the points...or is it?

Giggles

Tonight while I was making Rice Krispie treats, Davis decided to give Cocoa some marshmallows. This just may be one of Cocoa's favorite treats. She can hear a marshmallow bag crinkle from anywhere in the house. While you can't really see how happy Cocoa is, Garrett's reaction is quite entertaining. I'm going to try to attach a video. I hope it works!

Real Soccer

In a moment of, what do you call it...pure insanity...I decided to take the kiddos to the Real Salt Lake soccer game at Rio Tinto Stadium. Luckily for me, my cute niece, Erika, agreed to come with us. We had fantastic seats! We sat on the fourth row on the side where Real would score the only goal (that we would see). Leo the Lion even stopped by for a visit. Meg drew him a picture and we snapped a few photos. After a quick vote at half-time, we left and had a nice lunch at Wendy's before finally making it home.

We had a great time and really appreciated Erika coming with us.

It was nice to have an extra set of helping hands. Thanks Erika!

The Kids

Erika and Meg

See how close we are to the field!

Leo the Lion with Meg's Drawing

Self Portraits

I love to take pictures...of...um... myself.

I must confess, I've been self portrait-ing for a while.

At least now I can try to get my kids in the picture with me.

Garrett needs practice looking at the camera.

I think we better work on that.

Christie and Garrett

Apparently, I'm not the only one getting in a little self-portrait action.

Davis

Captain Huggy Face

Who knew Captain Huggy Face liked self portraits, too?

Red Rocks!

Last Friday I took the kids to the University of Utah's gymnastics meet at The "U". The kids had a great time! Meg's friend Gracie came with us. There was a special opening presentation of the athletes--complete with Top Gun music and fireworks. This was the last home meet of the season and the two seniors were honored. Nastia Liukin--the Olympic gold medalist-- was there to support her friend, Nina Kim, a U of U gymnast. How cool is that? I didn't get a picture of her, but I did see her with my own eyes. The kids didn't get too excited about her, but I felt pretty special. There were only 15,000 people there, surely she noticed me. :)

Gracie and Meg

We had to leave before dinner to get to the meet early, so I made sandwiches to eat before we left home. Well...Davis didn't want to eat his. Let's just say he got hungry...really hungry. Below is how he looked about 20 minutes after we got there.

"Mom, I'm starving...to death."

Don't worry, Gracie shared her snacks with us and Davis was able to survive. He made it through the meet. You can see in the next picture that he was feeling much better after the first rotation. I took this picture of us and I think it turned out okay.

Davis and Christie

Meg-a-rooski

This is a picture of my sweet Meg. She's an awesome big sister and will always help whenever I need. She loves to make things and draw pictures. She's becoming a great reader and likes to have "baby school" with Garrett.

Bob

For the longest time, all Garrett would say is, "Dada." It was Dada this and Dada that. Eventually he branched out to include Mama. We were proud parents. Now Garrett keeps saying "Bob." Scott will ask him to say "Dada" but all we get is "Bob." He has us all wondering, "Who is Bob?"

The Prodigy

Here's Davis doing what he loves...playing games on the laptop. He's very good at getting to PBS Kids--all by himself. I'm talking about pulling the laptop out of the bag, plugging it in, turning it on, opening Internet Explorer, and searching for pbskids.org! Davis can be pretty resourceful at figuring out how to find things he likes on the computer. For instance, one day he brought his Batman pajamas to the computer so he could spell "Batman" and find a Batman game! He's brought movies, games, clothes, and books to the computer so he can play those games. I wonder where he gets this love of video games from? Hhhmmm....

Amaryllis

I took this picture of our Christmas Amaryllis. Who knew the little flower button on the camera could take pictures like this? I guess I better read the manual! I really like this picture, so I'm sharing it with you. Enjoy!

Under Pressure

I've been feeling some pressure from unnamed sources (you know who you are) to actually post something on our blog...so here goes!

**Disclaimer: This will probably not be the best written or most current blog that you ever read, but I will try really hard to not sound like an idiot. There may also be future disclaimers.**

Pensacola, Florida

This is one of my favorite pictures of Scott and me. It's December 2007 and we're in Florida on the beach! Oh...I love Florida. We made a whirlwind trip to Pensacola during our trip to see my Dad (who lives in Plaquemine, Louisiana).

That's it for now. I'm going to make it a goal to post at least once a month. (I like to set realistic goals.) So, don't be surprised if there's not another post until April. :) Anything sooner will just be a bonus!