Smushed: Holiday! Celebrate!

NOTE TO SELF: When photographing an event, take pictures of people doing something other than sitting around the same table eating.

This picture was taken right before we left to drive to St. Louis for Christmas. If you will recall, we decided at the last minute to go to St. Louis and surprise everyone there. My mom, Lauren and Sam came over and we had take out from Chili's. Then we opened presents and Santa even came early and delivered the kids gifts to them.

These pictures were taken right after we got home from our trip to St. Louis. This was New Year's Eve. We rang in the new year with banana splits and a rousing game of "Would You Rather". We had to play the store bought version since Farrah wasn't there to provide us with the home grown kind.

Valentine's Day. My mom and Lauren came over and we had a lovely red dinner and played games after.

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Smushed: In Good Company

So, we have been having a lot of company over to help break in the new house. We had a group of friends over way back in January.

Below: Bridget, Zac, Sara, Sam, Marquie, Addy, Rylee, Aron, Cammy

You will notice a lot of red in this picture. Something about the University of Utah in some kind of big deal game.
Below: Steve, Aron, John, Nathan, Spencer, Camilla

Sam, Aubrey, Sara, Rylee

Also in January my cousin Kathy and her husband Steve came from Texas for a visit.
Below: Steve, Aubrey, Lauren, Emily, Addy, Kay, Zac, Kathy, Steve

In February we had our friends Preston and Betsy and their family over.

Matt, Tori, Betsy, PJ, Zac, Steve, Preston, Meg, Aubrey, Andrew, Emily

Playing Rock Band

Betsy and me playing Flash Uno. I kicked her booty.

In March we had LaRee and Brent and their family over. We were able to scaredy cat LaRee on the ATV.

Below: LaRee and Kylee

Cole, Brent, Kierra

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Smushed: The Neighborly Thing To Do

At the beginning of April we had our first official neighborhood activity, type thingy. We had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. It was really a good thing to do. I felt very neighborly for the first time. We did it with the 2 other families that live closest to us.

We moved into our house at the end of November and then spent the whole winter holed up inside the house. So this was like our official coming out activity. It's been kinda hard for me since we moved here. We moved from the neighborhood we had lived in for more than 12 years. I can tell you who lives in every house in that neighborhood. I can tell you their kids names, pets names, grown children's names, what they all do for a living. What their talents are. Everything. My parents lived in the house I grew up in from the time I was 2 until just 4 years ago. This moving thing has been a big adjustment for me. It was nice to be with our neighbors and know that we are all in the same boat. We are all new. We decided to make the egg hunt an annual event so it is fun to know that we are starting traditions here in our new home with our new friends.

PS: Zac's not in the pictures because he and Steve were out of town. I think they were in Moab, but I can't recall for sure. Guess I should have blogged about it sooner.

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Smushed: The Birthday That Just Keeps Going

Aubrey and Emily both had birthdays in March. I promised Aubrey, long ago, that when she turned 6, she could have her ears pierced. And she did not let me forget it. So one Friday morning, we ventured to the mall (it was the first time I had been to the mall here at our new location) and got the job done. I warned her that it was going to hurt. She looked at me with a look that said, "Oh, save it mom! Don't ruin this moment for me!" I was like, OK. We'll see. The moment the first earring went in she got this wide eyed surprised look, but she was tough. When we got to the blessed day when she was able to change earrings (I say it is blessed because she asked me 10 times a day, everyday, how many more days it was until she could take them out) we went to the store and bought her several pairs of earrings. She now loves to change them at least 5 times a day, which requires my help. The fun just never ends around here! And sometimes I find her sitting on her bed, just looking at her earring collection.

Lauren's gift to Emily and Aubrey for their birthdays was a trip to see The Jonas Brothers 3D. She and my mom took the girls one Saturday and Addy and I decided to join them at the last minute. I mean, who can resist the Jo Bro's?

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Smushed: Kids Got Talent

The kids have all had end of the year performances. Here is Emily and her friend Gabby in the 3rd grade performance. Emily had a duet she and another friend sang together for part of a song. I was very impressed at how well she did. Way to go Emily!!!

Aubrey had a Kindergarten performance. She had a speaking part in the program and she did awesome! She is on the front row in the green shirt with white flowers and pink sunglasses.

Back at the end of March, Zac was in the 5th & 6th grade production of Oliver Twist. He had several speaking parts. He also did a lot of dancing and singing. He went to many early morning and after school practices. This is the first play he has been in and he loved it. He didn't really like to sing before and I had a hard time getting him to sing in church or Family Home Evening. This experience has changed all of that, and for that I am very grateful. He sings all the time now. He did fabulous!

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Smushed: Kristy's Visit

My sister Kristy and her kiddos came for a visit over spring break. We had so much fun with them. Her husband Scott came for the first few days of her trip. We had Kristy and Scott and Scott's parents and brother and sister-in-law and their kids and of course my mom, Sam and Lauren over to our house for dinner. The dinner which my mother so graciously provided. The above picture is Kristy and Baron and my mom Kay. Below is Scott's family, Sue, Cheryl, Scott, Dennis and Dan.
Of course we got our Rock On
Addy, Baron and Kay
The kids playing out back

One of the days Kristy was here, we took the kids downtown to see the sights. While there, I drove my van, with the luggage carrier attached, into a parking garage. That was a great experience. The below picture was taken at the Beehive House.

Baron, Aubrey, Tia, Emily, Zac, Owen and Addy

The kids at the Christus

Kristy, Tia and Owen

Tia and Aubrey

It was very, very sad to see them leave. The last day with them I got very emotional. You see, Kristy and Scott are about to pack their little clan up and move clear across to the whole other side of the world for 2 years. When we were about to part ways the day before she left, it really hit me that this was going to be the last time I would see them in a long time. I'm starting to get emotional now. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if Kristy would join Facebook or update her blog every now and then (HINT, HINT). The thing that made me the most sad was watching Aubrey and Tia together. They are only a few weeks apart in age. They were so cute together the whole time Tia was here. They held hands and whispered to each other and giggled. They were the best of friends. It makes me sad to think how much older and different they will both be the next time they are together.

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All Smushed Up

I tried to find a picture that would go along with this post, but when I googled Smushed pictures all it gave me were pictures of cats and dogs with smushy faces. Being the animal lover that I am, ummm, those just really held no appeal for me.



So then I thought, smush. Smush...... Then I suddenly broke out into.....Ahhhh, smush it. Da da da da da da da da da da da. Ahhhhh, smush it. (although I think they are supposed to be saying push it, it sounds to me like smush it) Ooooo Baby, baby. Ba ba ba baby. So I thought about embedding the Salt N Pepa video. But I couldn't stand to watch or listen to that video for more than about 30 seconds (it sounds way much better in my head) (too bad ya can't be here. in my head) (it's so totally awesome inside!) Anyway. So.....yeah. No picture. Or video. Just me! Oooo Baby, baby. Try to contain yourself.



OK, on with the post. I'm about to smush a whole bunch of stuff on up in here. All those posts I've been meaning to do for the last...oh....I don't know....five or six months. Sigh. Yep. I'm just gonna knock 'em out. They are weighing heavily on me. They are things I feel like I need to post for posterity's sake. Remember. We've gone over this before. I just need to get it done and over with so I can go back to happy blogger land with.....♪ ♫AHHHHHH♪ ♫....the weight lifted.



It's gonna be pretty boring for some of you. But my blog's been pretty boring as of late anyway so no big diff, right? Why you would be bored with my dang cute kids, and my dang cute self, and my dang cute honey, I don't know, but some of you are just down right rude that way.

This is my goal. Smush 'em all up and get 'em all done by the end of May. 'Cause once June is here, there ain't no lookin' back. Jack.

Oh, my gosh. Speaking of Jack. Hello! Steve and I just watched the season finale of 24 last night. Like, uhmmm. I have to wait until next season to find out if Jack lives or dies? You have got to be kidding me.

Sorry. I got a little side tracked.

OK. What's today? I don't even know. But I think I only have a week left. Maybe less. Prepare yourself. There's gonna be a lot of smushin' going down around here.

Shrek Meets Girls Day Out

So it's like this. Steve took Zac and went with some friends to ride 4 wheelers today. So the girls and I decided to have a Girls Day Out and spend all of his money. Personally I think it's a fair trade. He takes the boy and does what he wants to all day, we take his debit card and do what we want to all day. So this is what we wanted to do. We wanted to have lunch at the Olive Garden and go to the mall. And while at the mall, we wanted to get pedicures. So we did.

We went to the Wall 'O Polish to pick out our colors. The girls all picked various shades of pink. I chose a very lovely purple. The whole time I was sitting there having my callouses scraped off I was staring at that boring bottle of purple polish. And ya know what I thought? Why am I so freaking boring? Every time I paint my nails, I paint them red, pink or purple. Red, pink or purple. After 30 some odd years, that becomes rather boring. While sitting in that vibrating massage chair I made a decision. I decided that my boring toenail polish days were over. I was kickin' that purple polish to the curb. Just as the lady picked up the bottle of purple boringness, I said, "I think I might want to change my color". So I did.

I went over the Wall 'O and thought, I want to pick something I would never ever in my whole life before today pick. (did that sentence make sense?) (who cares) Anyhoo. So ya know what I picked. Green. It was such a lovely green. In the bottle. I thought, YES. I am steppin' out and I am pickin' this fabulous funky green polish. It is hip, fresh, young and full of summer fun.

Yeah. Really. When it's out of the bottle and on my toes, it just looks like Shrek threw up on my feet. Sigh....pretty bad. 'Cause who wants to walk around with feet that look like an ogre tossed his cookies on them?

The thing is the lady painted these beautiful silvery flowers on them. I had to pay extra for that. I would consider painting over them if not for the flowers. So I guess I'm steppin' out in my own special ogreish way. If you see me comin', ya might want to put on your sunglasses.

Boring purple never looked so good before. I'm sorry I turned my back on you, purple. You've always been so good to me.

My Magical Disappearing House

I love where I live! I think it is the most beautiful place on the whole face of the earth. We have gorgeous views out of every window. That's why we have 70 some odd windows in the place. If we could have afforded a glass house, we would have built one.

I go for a walk every morning and Steve and I go for a walk together every night. I took this picture this morning on my walk. If you look close, you can see my neighbor jogging in the distance. I however, could not see him when I was taking the picture because the sun was in me eye. He now probably thinks I'm a freak. Yeah, I'm just waitin' here on the trail, behind the brush, waitin' ta take your picture when ya come by.

Anyhoo, as some of you might know, I am horrible with directions. So one of the things I really love about where I live is that it is really easy to give people directions here.

*DIRECTIONS REMOVED*

And then they always say, "OK, that sounds easy enough". And I'm thinkin', yeah, you would think so. But just wait. You'll be callin' me all dazed and confused and sure you're not at the right place. And I'll be all irritated saying "NO! You're on the right street. Just keep driving. No. Really. Just drive. I promise. It will be OK. Come on. Just a little farther. You can do it."

Like the other day. When this lady came to give me a physical (I was applying for life insurance). She calls me. This is how the conversation went:

Lady: I'm on ______ but I don't think this is right. I must have passed your house.

Me: No, you're on the right street. You haven't passed my house.

Lady: Yeah, I think I must have.

Me: Have you come to the ______ yet?

Lady: Yes, I'm in front of it right now.

Me: OK, you still have a ways to go. Just keep driving straight. The road will curve around again and my house is right past the curve.

Lady: OK, I'm driving, but now I'm at a really weird street sign with 3 different streets on it.

Me: Yes, that is because the street changes names there.

Lady: There are a few houses on this street that turns off of it. Is one of those yours?

Me: No, don't turn. Just keep going straight.

Lady: I really don't think I'm the right place. I see two _____ ______ in the distance. Am I coming the right way?

Me: Yes. Keep driving.

Lady: OK, I see a big brown house. Is that yours?

Me: (sigh) No, my house is still grey. With the black chimney.

Lady: Oh, I don't see any other houses out here. I'm at the last one.

Me: No. You're not. You can't see my house because that house is blocking it from your view. You're almost there though. The road is about to curve and my house is the GREY house with the BLACK chimney right past the curve. OK, I can see you now. You are about to go past my house right now.

Lady: Where? I don't see a house out here?

Me: You're in front of it RIGHT now. You are looking out your left window. You need to turn and look right. You are in front of my house NOW!

(I can see her frantically looking everywhere but at my house and I'm staring out the window in dumbfounded disbelief thinking "What, did Benjamin Linus go down into my secret arctic lair and turn the big wheel and make my house disappear?" Honestly.)

Lady: Oh, do you have a red van in front?

Me: (sigh) No. That's my neighbors (brown) house. You just passed my house. I am across the street from the house with the red van.

(At this point I am thinking I should probably just hang up the phone and not answer it when she calls back. 'Cause if she's this stupid, do I really want her sticking a needle in my arm and removing my blood from my body?)

Lady: OK, now I'm at a dead end and there are no houses.

Me: OK, you need to turn around and drive back the way you just came.

Lady: OK.

Me: OK. STOP! You-are-in-front-of-my-house. Do you see the grey house with the black chimney?

Lady: OH! It's kinda' modern looking?

Me: (celebrating) Yes, that's it.

Lady: OH! I thought it was an office building. I didn't think it was a house.

Me: Nope. (because this would be a pretty dumb place to put an office building) That's my house.

Lady: OK, I'll be right in.

Me: YIPPIE!

If You Need Me, I'll Be In The Pantry. Just Standing, Gazing, Admiring. Maybe Hugging A Can Or Two.

Since we moved into the house back in November, my pantry has been this big gaping hole, with food piled in it, just waiting patiently for shelves. Well, dear, dear pantry...sigh....your wait is over. Ahhhhh.....I love you dear, sweet, beautiful, exceptionally organized pantry.....

Here is a picture of Addy helping Steve put the shelves together

WebCam Wednesday - What The Hail?

When we were camping in Moab we had a little hail storm in between our rain storms. It probably lasted about 8-10 minutes. It was so loud on the roof of the trailer we had to yell to hear each other. And when it stopped all our ears were ringing. By the time I decided to pull the camera out and take a video, the hail decided to let up, of course.

Where The Streets Have No Name

One of our family's favorite places to go is Moab. It is beautiful and some of our bestest memories together took place there. Steve has had the camping itch for a while now but we have been too busy or the weather has been too bad for us to be able to go. Last week, we were trying to decided on a date that we could go camping and we realized that every weekend in May was full for us except the first. So we put it on the calendar and started to make preparations to go. We had such a fun time. My brother Sam went with us. It did rain most of Saturday. And we even had a little hail storm to add to the fun. We did have a few breaks in the rain and when those came, we headed out of the camper and made the most of it.

Monday Morning Musings - Bringing The Dirty Dishes Out Of The Closet

We went camping over the weekend and arrived home late last night. I cannot tell you how nice it was to be away from the world for 3 days and to not hear the words "Swine" or "Flu" for a whole weekend. However my joy was short lived when Steve turned the TV on this morning and those words were flyin' out at me. Also, as of this morning, Emily is pretty sure she has Swine Flu. Mmm hmmm. What better way to get a free stay home from school pass than to fake the symptoms of a "pandemic". The symptoms which her brother so kindly looked up for her on the internet.

There is a radio station here and on the weekend they play old broadcasts of American Top 40 radio program with Casey Kasem from the 1980's. It is so much fun to listen to. There is something so magical about hearing his voice. It is like I am automatically transported to a simpler time. We were listening to it a few weeks ago when we were on a date and it was kinda like we were teenagers again. Excepting that we couldn't stay up long enough to hear the end of the countdown being that we are so old now.

We were listening to it on the way home last night from camping. The week they were replaying was from April 23, 1988. We were listening to it and Steve made the remark that 1988 must have been a really bad year for songs. He doesn't know much about songs from 1988 because he was serving a mission for our church back then. I started thinking about 1988. Ahhh....1988. That was a good year for me. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing on 8/8/88. The last half of 1988, I was a freshman in High School. That was a fun year! But listening to the songs, I must say, Steve was right. I guess we didn't realize it back then, but we got jipped on music that year. At least that week we did. Listening to the songs, I came to a conclusion. It must have been really popular back then to write a few lines of a song and then repeat them over and over and over and over again until the future listener, in the year 2009 wants to yell, "SHUT UP! YOU'VE SAID THAT 100 TIMES ALREADY!" Funny. I don't remember wanting to yell that in 1988.

So. Emily. This is what I found out last week about Emily. When people in our new neighborhood ask her if her mom has a job, she tells them that I am a waitress. Yep. A waitress. Not that there's anything wrong with being a waitress. It's just that, ya know, I was a waitress. Over fifteen years ago. Why the heck is she telling people that is my current job. I guess in her eyes, that is a pretty good description of my current job.

One morning last week, my visiting teachers were coming and I was trying really hard to get the house clean. I loaded the dishwasher and started it but I still had a sink full of dirty dishes. I was thinkin', how is that gonna look? To have the dishwasher going and all these dirty dishes still sittin' here. They are gonna know that I didn't do dishes at all yesterday. And heaven forbid they know that. It's not like I'm gonna put it on my blog a week later so that the whole world can know. So I did the only thing I could. I went to the garage, got a box, loaded it up with dirty dishes, put it in the pantry and closed the door. Whew! Problem solved!