Happy Birthday Megan!!!

Today is Megan's birthday....4 years old! I know that it's such a cliche, but where has the time gone and why is she growing up so fast?? I love my little Meggie-Moo and just want to freeze time because she is such a sweet little girl. She is such a cute big sister to Jessica and she's my little buddy around the house when the other kids are in school. I just love her!
She had her party the other day. This is such a fun age to have a birthday party because all the kids are so excited. The inspiration for this party came from her favorite color PINK, and her favorite book, Pinkalicious. It was a very PINK party...everything was PINK! Thanks Taliya and Tierzah (my nieces) for coming down from St. George to help with the party. Here are some pictures...

Megan helped make the invitations...

And here's the party....

I love this picture of all these cute little girls!!! They all came dressed in pink! They are soo cute!

This is Megan a couple hours later. She was wasted on the couch!

Happy Birthday Megs!!! We love you so much!

Happy Birthday Dad!!! (and Rachel's little surprise!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!!! We LOVE you! I am in St. George on my sister's computer, so I can't post any pictures of the best Dad and Husband in the whole world! But today is his 34th birthday. He is in Provo with Tommy for a Father/Sons basketball camp at BYU. I'm sad that we don't get to be with him on his birthday to celebrate, but I know he's having a great time with Tommy.

Since Mark and Tommy were going to be gone this weekend, I decided to take the other kids up to St. George for a few days. We are staying with my sister Sandy. Chances are, when you visit Sandy, you come home with a different haircut or color. She does hair and is very good at it! Rachel has had the bug to get her hair cut lately so tonight she asked Sandy to cut it. Here is a before picture...
Then Sandy started cutting...And her cousins Taliya and Tierzah helped :)Aunt Sandy and Tiana styled it...
AND HERE SHE IS NOW!!! Rachel and her new haircut!!

She LOVES it!! Thanks Aunt Sandy! The only thing I don't love is Rachel now looks 5 years older!

HOT DOG AND FRIES

Tonight at pack meeting was the Father/Son Cake Bake. The boys were to decorate a cake with their dads and bring it to pack meeting to be judged. You could choose any theme or make any cake, it just couldn't be store bought.
Mark and Tommy were almost as serious about winning this contest as they were about winning the pinewood derby! They searched on-line until they found the right cake to make. I think Mark liked it because it was easy and Tommy liked it because the person who originally made it came in first place for his Father/Son cake bake. Tommy thought if it came in first once, it would come in first again.
So here is the cake.... Yes, it's a hot dog and fries! This picture was taken right before pack meeting. They are still feeling like they could come in first place. They are really proud of their cake!

It didn't end up as good as they hoped. There was no real 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. Everyone got either 1st or 2nd and it had nothing to do with looks, only taste. And because their cake was only a plain pound cake, it got 2nd place, along with about 15 other disappointed boys! Tommy was pretty depressed. He said, "Mom, they didn't even taste the good part of the cake! (You can see the corner of the cake that was tasted)
On the way home, Tommy said, "Dad, if I weren't your child and you were the judge, would mine come in first place?" That was a definite yes from Mark and then he went on and on about how their cake was so amazing. Mark's right, it was pretty a pretty cool cake! Good job guys!
P.S. Mark said the pictures don't do the cake justice! :)

First-time Pig-tails!

When I was doing Jessica's hair today, I noticed that it was getting long enough to do pig-tails. I've never done anything with Jessica's hair because it's curly and so easy to just wet and put in a little gel. But today I tried pig-tails and she was in HEAVEN! She held still the whole time. I think she was just so excited to see her hair done a different way. When I was finished, she couldn't stop smiling and admiring herself in the mirror. Here is the first picture I took. It's amazing how the flash can put a glare on the handprints that I didn't even notice before I took the picture. (Yeah, I'll blame it on the flash! :) With the help of a little Windex, I got rid of the nice hand prints...much better!


It's obvious that she loved her new look, but I think most of all, she loved that she could finally have her hair look like her best bud Megans...
So here they are, my two pig-tail girls!!

Shower Cap Beauty!

OK, so there are days that I don't wash my hair and I don't want my hair to get wet in the shower so I wear a shower cap. I don't know if anyone else does that, and I totally look so silly, but it works!! I keep this lovely cap in my top bathroom drawer. Yesterday I hadn't seen Jessica for a while so I went through my house trying to find her and I found her in my shower with the shower cap on her head....it was placed perfectly on her head, covering all of her hair! She must have gotten it out of the drawer and knew exactly what to do with it. When I grabbed the camera to take a picture, she suddenly got embarrassed and acted just as I would act if someone tried to take a picture of me with a shower cap on my head....she didn't like it!

Recitals and Candy Necklaces

Rachel and Megan are in a Children's Choir and last weekend was their end of the season performance. They did great. Thanks for the flowers Aunt Michelle and Tori(and thanks for the candy you fed Jessica throughout the concert to keep her quiet!When Rachel had her first dance recital about 6 years ago I made her a candy necklace instead of giving her flowers. She loved it and since then it's been a tradition. Here are Rachel and Megan after the show with their necklaces.Tonight was Tommy and Rachel's piano recital. Here are the students with their teacher..I didn't think that it was necessary to make Rach and Tommy the candy necklaces, but about one hour before the recital, Tommy asked if I had the candy necklaces ready. I said that I didn't make any. He said, "Mom, that is the only reason I have been excited about this recital!" So, I quickly dug into my Halloween stash (candy doesn't expire, does it?) and made two candy necklaces while he was in the other room practicing his piano. He was surprised and in heaven after the recital!

This morning I was taking the kids to school and we were talking about Tommy possibly joining the children's choir. He was excited about the idea and told me that he wanted to sign up. I thought it had a little to do with the fact that the advanced group gets to go to New York next year for a festival and he wants to go. But I was still surprised that he really wanted to join. Tommy was trying to talk his friend (who was in the car) into joining the choir too. This friend kept saying, "No Way!" And then the truth came out when Tommy said, "You know, if you sing in the choir, you will get a candy necklace!" So it wasn't that he wanted to sing, or go to New York, or any other reason except the candy necklace! It's amazing what a little candy will do!

Bubbles in my kitchen sink

I love my dishwasher! I rarely wash anything by hand, but when I have to, I just put some soap on my little scrubber brush and wash it that way. So basically, I rarely fill up my sink with soap water to wash the dishes. My mom would be so disappointed because that is all she does, even with a working dishwasher in her kitchen!
Well, the other day I was making jam and I had to wash the bottles. My dishwasher was completely full so I decided to fill my sink with hot soapy water and wash them by hand. Megan came into the kitchen and had the most excited look on her face and said, "Mom, why do you have bubbles in your sink???" I had to laugh! Have I failed as a mom because my kids don't know that it is possible to wash dishes by hand?? So sorry mom!