Happy Anniversary Chris!

One year ago today, you graced us with your presence, grace and super mad piano skilz (that's for you Peg). We love you more every year, please keep writing!

Love,

~Lelu and K

I Love "Mom Lazy Planning" Birthday Parties!

The tall boy next to Ari is her latest "crush". His name is Cannon and I told his mom that she had a little crush on him. She told me the feeling is mutual and when he found out I only wanted the boys to bring gifts for Mr. T. and the girls for Ari - he had a meltdown. He really wanted to pick out something for her. How sweet is that? Sweet right now anyway - however, I do realize I am totally in trouble in about 5 short years!

Finally! I planned and carried out the twins birthday party! And I made good on a summer activity promise that I had made. I love those inspirational cover-my-butt kill 2 birds with one stone moments.

There is this cute place that opened in town last spring called Young Chef Academy. Since Mr. T and Lelu are especially interested in helping me in the kitchen and I am a terribly impatient cooking mentor, I thought it would be great to take them to a cooking class last summer. I never got around to it. What a shock! So when it was time to plan an 8th birthday party and I am constantly in search of gender neutral party theme locations.....I thought of Young Chef. I sense my days of combined parties are coming to an end too - the boys and girls were polarized to opposite sides of the room the whole time.

It was so darn cute (or "stinkin cute" which is a common Utahism). They make their own pizza's and they teach them all kinds of good cooking protocol by first making a mess of flour, dr. pepper, dirty hands, sneezing into the bowl, dropping hair into it etc. Scary that some of them didn't pick up on the faux pas right away! Then she taught them about yeast and gluten and a few things that I didn't know. All I had to do was bring cupcakes, loot bags and take photos. Lelu got to be the apprentice chef too. And they clean up all the mess including wrapping paper.

This would be the perfect scenario if only I didn't have young moms in my neighborhood who do these really cool volcano themed parties in their backyard, complete with an erupting volcano homemade cake and volcano books from a science institute and volcano themed thank you cards along with those very educational books to take home. Stupid guilt - thanks heavens for rationalization! That's her first child and these are my youngest - I'm either more tired than her or smarter than her, depends on my mood I guess. In addition, it helped keep peace in my marriage. B reminded me at 10 am. that "oh yeah I'm going to the BYU game with Grant who is up visiting from CA". You see if I had a volcano theme going - he would have experienced his wife transforming before his eyes into an erupting volcano (or a werewolf in honor of seeing "New Moon" twice in 24 hours). So it's definitely all good!

TT Two Tone's Favorites:

Mr. T's Favorites at age 8:

Movie: "Monsters Vs. Aliens" or "Up"
Color: Blue
Restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes
Birthday Treat: Football Cupcake Cake
Food: Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich
Day: Saturday (only free day from school etc)
Holiday: Thanksgiving
Song: Viva La Vida
Musical Artist: Coldplay
Vacation: Hawaii (he imagines since he hasn't ever been there, he wants to go)
Book: Where The Wild Things Are
Animal: Lizard
Career Choice: Pilot
How many kids in Future: 5 (2 girls, 3 boys)
College: BYU (as long as he's a football player)
Dream place to Live: Beach house in Hawaii
Quote: "If you think you can win. You can win. Faith is necessary for victory"

Peanut's Favorite

Ari's Favorites at age 8:

Movie: "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure"

Color: Green

Restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes

Birthday Treat: Chocolate Cupcake

Food: Caesar Salad

Day: Wednesday (the only day she doesn't have any activities)

Holiday: Christmas

Song: "Only Hope" by Mandy Moore

Musical Artist: Taylor Swift

Vacation: Arizona

Book: Berenstain Bears and The Green Eyed Monster

Animal: Tiger

Career Choice: Veterinarian

How many kids in Future: 4 (2 girls, 2 boys)

College: BYU (as long as she's a cheerleader there)

Dream place to Live: White House - Washington DC

Quote: "I hope every day is the best day ever" by Ari

Little Boys, Birthday and Baptism

Last Tuesday, Dave, Shel and the boys came up to visit. I'm always very bugged that I didn't take enough pics. I don't have a single one with Dave in it. Maybe if they post some on their blog, I can steal one or two?? Sorry Dave, nothing personal I promise!

It is so fun to have them around. Taylor is hilarious. We all just love his personality. Last time he was up here, he had a little competition with Mr. T getting attention from his mommy. But this time around, they were total buds and were constantly playing together. Christian is such a little sweet smarty pants. He was fussing for Shel when I picked him up and then I asked him if he wanted some candy. He immediately stopped fussing and smiled at me and said "Yah". Good thing it was just Halloween and I have some candy. Score! Now he'll love me forever, because I will always have candy when they visit.

Saturday was the big day, birthday and baptism day. Two years ago, I bought Ari her dress in anticipation for this day. I had such an unbelievable hard time finding dresses I liked for Lelu and Aub, that when I saw this dress 2 years ago - I bought it. It is absolutely gorgeous! You can make fun of me if you like, but I've learned a few things in order to keep me sane and it works for me. I was also quite disappointed to learn that our new stake does their baptism's as a stake. That's how Aub's was. D and Lelu's were so much more personal, because my last stake gave each ward their own time slot. I tried to work it out that we could baptize them in my old ward, but they were doing their Nov. baptism on Oct. 31st and the twins wouldn't be 8 yet. I complained to the bishop and told him I thought it was like a cattle call. And then Karma bit me in the butt! Teach me to NOT to complain - because I had 2 kids being baptized, they asked me to speak. I assumed that the stake primary president or the stake president would speak too. Thank heavens I didn't know I was THE ONLY SPEAKER until I was sitting up on the stage and opened the program or I may have suffered a minor nervous breakdown. As it was, I waited until the night before to write it when I was completely exhausted because I had gotten up at 5 am. to go exercise so that I could stay on my workout program and still go chaperon for the kid's field trip. I did get up early Saturday and go over it again, and I had some time to tweak it while B and D & the twins were in a meeting before service started. I think it turned out okay.

It was really great to see all our family and friends support us for such a special day. Dave & Shel & Boys, Gma and Gpa, Aub, Roma, Cherie and Kenzie, Maxwell family, Kelly, Sierra, McKinley, Ari's BFF Aubrey, her sister Summer and their mom and their primary teacher too. Even D's really good friend Brittney came. It was also very cool that D was old enough to baptize Mr. T. He did an excellent job too except that Mr. T stuck his little hand out of the water the first time, so D got to do it again. Mr. T keeps telling me how peaceful and how much love he felt the whole morning. Ari loved the confirmation prayer. She told me it made her feel all warm inside. The primary presidency gave us these little books to have everyone sign for them. I thought Summer & Aubrey's messages to Mr. we so cute!

The rest of the day was spent consoling Lelu because Dave & Shel had to leave. They never stay quite long enough. Every time they leave she goes into a deep depression and will start crying at the drop of a hat. I think that means they need to move back to UT. We just need to convince THEM. I'm pretty sure Taylor would agree too, he loves us;D

I took a much needed nap and left my house a mess. It's still waiting on me to be cleaned up too.

The twins played and played and played, esp with the gifts Roma brought them. Mr. T slept with the Wolverine hand on, he loves it! Roma also built this really cool miniature apartment/loft for school and then gave it to Ari for her birthday. She promptly filled it up with miniture babies, furniture, polly pockets and littlest pets. She fell asleep next to it and started playing with it again this morning as soon as her eyes popped open. We dragged them away last night to go see "A Christmas Carol". Very scary for little kids btw. It's more true to Charles Dickens than most.

And now on to planning an actual B-Day party. Next year is all odd birthdays so this is my last party for at least 14 months! woohoo.

I Finally Made it To Chaperone a Fieldtrip!

On Friday, the 2nd graders went on their 4th field trip this year. I promised I'd go on as many as I could and this was the first I could make it to. A couple weeks ago, they went out to Bingham Copper Mine. I was in CA for a couple days, so B went along for that one. This one was to a rock climbing gym. They are studying rocks, so this somehow supports that unit. Personally, I think it's a bit of a stretch. My twins assumed that they were going to be climbing "real" rocks and wouldn't believe me until they saw with their own eyes, the rocks were not real. I learned how to belay for the kids. I got some awesome callouses too, but at least no blisters. Ari is quite the little monkey. She has been blessed with some amazing upper body strength. B and D each have pull up bars on their closet doors. They are in some kind of competition to do more and more pull-ups. I think B is up to like 7 and D can do 9. I could be wrong by those guesses, so don't quote me. Ari frequently hangs on it and can do 12 pull ups. Mr. T tries really hard too. He isn't blessed with that same strength. I catch him doing push-ups all the time, trying to build it up. I'm sure he'll catch up someday with that kind of motivation. At the climbing gym, he had the advantage of monkey toes that can grip anything. His BFF Caden is also very strong and made it to the top of every climb he did. Most of the kids petered out quickly, so it was a proud moment to see Mr. T, Ari & Caden persevere.

Halloween & My Twin Costume Choice is My Fav So Far!

I am still allowed to pick the twins costumes. I give them the story that I missed so much sleep taking care of them, that they owe it to me. They totally buy it too! Isn't that great?? I've told them that they can pick when they are in sixth grade, so I get three more picks. It's really the only thing I like about Halloween. they both said Thing One and Thing two has been their favorite. I think they got the most attention with this one. Lelu tells me that she will never be anything scary. She didn't even like posing with D because he looked too scary. The weather was the nicest I think it has ever been in our years in UT, so B wasn't suffering too terribly on Trick or Treat duty. D's friends all wanted to T or T, but I've rubbed off on him with my attitude that kids shouldn't T or T after 13, so he says he just hung back on the street while his friends all went up to the doors. It's a proud moment for me. I may just buy him a whole Costco box of his favorite candy!

Braces at 7!

Last week I was taking Mr. T and Lelu to the Orthodontist. Mr. T needs a spacer for a tooth that had to be pulled so the permanent one can come in. We keep checking Lelu to see if she's ready for braces. The last 4 baby teeth are very stubborn and won't fall out - so if they don't fall out in the next 6 months we will have to pull them. That will make 9 baby teeth pulled. Poor thing! Anyway, I brought Ari as an afterthought because I was worried about how big the space was between her front teeth. The ortho was quite shocked too, so we took an x-ray. The two teeth next to her front teeth were beginning to twist trying to come in. So he recommended pulling them together ASAP. SO we left with my littlest child sporting 4 braces. I threatened Lelu & Mr. T with their life to be very positive with her. So they said "Cute! You look cute". The girls in the office all told her how cute she looked and she left very happy. Her bff Aubrey (we call her little Aubrey) came over and said "Cool, you are so lucky! Come show my mom and sister". Now she feels like a little celebrity. It could have gone the opposite with her......she can throw a tantrum that can last a month if she isn't happy. I avoided a real headache, phew! The plan is to keep them on 2 to 3 months and then put in a permanent retainer to keep them together.

Halloween Dance 2009

This was girl's choice, her name is Kenzie. D is a sort of Indiana Jones that got his heart cut out by his Mayan Cannibal date. See she's holding his heart. I don't understand his facsincation with gore, but I guess they were quite the hit at the dance.

Our First Piano Recital September 21, 2009

I thought I'd be able to put a video on here. But I can't narrow down the dvd to just us. I'll just have to paint the picture for you with words:

Last year after I won the piano lesson with Chris Martin, the DJ asked me on the air if I play piano. "No", I say, "but my daughter does so I'll bring her." All my friends asked me the same thing. Do you play piano? No, but...... I started really thinking about it. I get that question a lot. When B bought me the grand piano for Christmas. People asked me all the time. No, but I really want my kids to. I love piano music!!! I finally decided I was NOT too old. I was going to learn how to play. Last March, I hired a teacher that comes to my house. She is so positive, I actually feel not stupid. She told me in June that we'd have a recital in September. I picked a duet for me and Lelu to play together. It's the Feather theme from Forest Gump. I love that song. I was blissfully unaware how hard it is to play a duet. I just knew I couldn't play the whole song myself yet. I must have practiced 100 hours on my part. Lelu really didn't get her part down until the day before, so I was quite nervous.

I tell Mom, Dad, Roma & Aub it's at the Piano Gallery at 7 o'clock. We show up at 7 on the dot. There must have been 50 people in the room and my teacher is standing up at the front thanking everyone for coming and she see's us come in and says "Oh the Taylor's made it. We have an encore." The whole room turns around and looks at us. I think it's a joke and am not quite clued in. I say "Doesn't it start at 7?" "Uh, no it started at 6, but come on up." I say "What, really? crap! Ari you go first". She's only been taking for a month but she confidently walked up there to play. And then my cell phone goes off twice and I start digging in my purse to turn it off. Mom & Dad and Roma are all calling me trying to find the place. I instantly start sweating and think I may lose my bowels. Ari's songs take about a minute and a half. It's our turn way too quickly. Lelu isn't even phased. B and D think it's hilarious and are relieved we don't have to sit through 20 other people. We get up there & I don't remember anything my teacher told me before especially if you mess up just keep playing. We start the song and our teacher is turning the pages for us. She turns the first page 2 measures too soon. I KNEW this by heart I played it so many times - but my brain froze! And I stopped! Just stopped! Lelu looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot. I say "you turned the page too soon, start here, no start here" My teacher says "Just start over". And we start over. I can feel sweat dripping down my back and under my eyes. The second time around we play it perfectly. Whew!!

Mom, Dad & Roma show up after it's all over, so we played it again for them. Aub apparently fell asleep after work so didn't even try to make it. I think I've almost recovered from my complete and utter humiliation and am enjoying learning more every day. Lessons learned: Next time - It'll just be me and Chris!! & we'll be on time to our recital! I figure by the time I'm 50 I should be pretty good.

Family Picture Event August 14, 2009

This one is not my favorite. We're all squinting - esp me! You'll have to wait til x-mas season to see my favorite.

I've been debating whether or not to blog about this or just write it up and send it with my Christmas cards. It's a story that I believe needs to be recorded for posterity. I've already told some of you about this, so you can just skip this one if you want.

Last February I was in a place of trying to accept myself and how I look because I am not in very many of our photos. My little kids are complaining loudly. Sometimes just because I'm taking the photo but mostly because I am not photogenic and I can't stand looking at myself in them. I have not scheduled a family picture since D was a baby, and when I've done "All About Me" posters for the kids for school I can't find any pictures with all of us except including Donald Duck at Disney World. Sad, but very true. I've also had this dream of having our family picture on the beach, so I've thought I need to do it in CA. One of my friends had a beach photo and it was taken at the Great Salt Lake. So I called this photographer that my friend Connie had used last year (I really liked her photo). They told me they only do Salt Lake photos 5 days out of the year in August. So I scheduled it for Aug. 14. Five months in advance!

The photographer recommended we wear khaki and white. I told B this and he says "I don't wear white, I will not wear white!" So I say, "Well, what color will you wear?" "Blue". Okay, I decide the boys will wear khaki and light blue and the girls will wear white. I found Lelu and Ari's dresses before Easter and they wore them as Easter dresses. A proud moment for me!

Of course, the week before the photo I am frantically searching for a light blue shirt for B to wear and white shirts for me and Aub. D was in charge of finding his own. I know I had 5 months, but that's the story of my life it seems. I tried on khaki pants that I liked but they were too long and I didn't have time to have them altered, so the saleslady tells me they have them in petites. So I go over to petites and sure enough they have them, but another saleslady tells me that I have to get a size bigger in petites. Which I totally refuse on principle! The principle that I will go into a deep depression if I have to wear a size bigger. Keep in mind that there is a good reason I haven't scheduled a family photo before - it makes me a total lunatic! I also scheduled all the girls to get their hair done, so I didn't have to worry about it. The day before I settled on 2 shirts for me and Aub. She and I both wore our old khaki pants.

August 14th opens with pouring rain and I mean pouring! I call the photographer and she tells me we'll just still plan to go, maybe it'll break. Me and the little girls get our hair done, it's still pouring. There is a girl at the salon that has done my make-up for various special occasions that I just loved, so I scheduled her to do mine that day. I get a call the day before saying "I'm sorry Mindy no longer works for us, but I have a new girl I can set you up with". I hate salon's policy that they won't tell you where their people go! Aub shows up last to the salon and is mad at me because she doesn't get a hair cut too. I go ahead with the new make-up girl and she puts more make-up on my face then if I were on Broadway (on the stage or the street). I run home to get the rest of the family. I'd bought 3 shirts for B to choose from. He hates them all and then asks me "why aren't the boys wearing white like the girl's?" I almost choked the life out of him, then and there!!! He'd apparently forgot our Feb. discussion. So he grabs a striped shirt out of his closet and says he'll wear that. And then he says to me "All that make-up really makes you look older. It's all settling into your wrinkles". Please kill me now!

We pick up Aub from the salon and she says "this shirt is ugly, it's like the puffy shirt Seinfeld had to wear". It's still pouring! I had to really hold back the tears at this point. Instead of crying I just started yelling. Lelu is in the back saying "Please don't fight. It's family picture day." Aub yells at her "Family picture day is not a holiday!" All of this in the car driving (it's still pouring) to Salt Lake where miraculously it looks clear!

We arrive and the photographer promises me that my make-up will look fine in the photos - I will not look old or freakish. She also says B's striped shirt is fine. It stinks to high heaven- there are the biggest spiders all webbed in the rocks we are sitting on-dead fish everywhere-flying bugs-and dead birds in a very strange trail across the sand out to the water.

BUT - the sunset was absolutely beautiful and the pictures turned out amazing! I already have my Christmas cards FINALLYwith a real family picture on it. Please don't expect another one like it for at least another decade. I think I could have skydived with less anxiety than this caused me. Nevertheless - I HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT!