Abbey's Preschool program

Okay here is our little sprout at her Christmas program, I was so sad that the camcorder was out of batteries, we had just used it and for not very long plus since porter was sick and i spent the day holding him (literally) I just hadn't checked it until the morning of, oh well thank heaven for camera phones the quality may not be there but it is better than nothing!

Sorry I can;t get the volume to work, and Tim is busy right now so..... well it's still cute to watch her actions of course I'm her mom so anything she does is cute, well almost anything.

Thankful for the little things

Okay I've decided to list all the little things I'm thankful for since I last posted. I think we remember the small bad stuff so often and tell about it that we forget the little wonderful things too. Careful the cheese-o-meter is running high lately and I apologize!

• Thursday morning busy day ahead and my hair took all of 5 minutes to do, silly I know but it made my day easier
• Kids were ALL happy and got ready fast! and we were out of the house by 9:00
• Went to Tuckers school Christmas sing and Porter made it through the whole thing and it was over an hour long!!!!
• Stopped snowing just before we left the school.
• Cute little size 4 feet that stopped to step in every mound of snow on the way to the car I think it took 15 minutes to get to the car. But I couldn't pick him up.
• When I got home I had a little pity party & a few minutes later my honey spontaneously started dancing me around the kitchen to Harry Connick's Christmas CD it was just what I needed. (he was still home recovering from the stomach bug)
• Little people who understand that mommy can't pick them up right now (this one is hard for me, I've had to do this too much of my kids lives)
• Kids who help with the laundry and even some of it was voluntary.
• SINGING, my kids love to sing. And I love hearing them especially Christmas songs.
• hot chocolate (doesn't that make everything right)
• Tucker helping neighbors just because he wants too.
• Kids making Christmas crafts, they had sooo much fun.
• Hearing my kids having fun during their time-out together, at least they stopped fighting so I guess it worked.

I'm sure I'm forgetting many things here I know I am but isn't it sad how we (or should I say me) so often focus on the crap and not all the good, so I personally needed to do this one. I need to do it more often too.

Okay I'm shutting down the cheese factory, and hopefully I'll post some cute kid pics soon.

I want a new model!

I'm just saying this to vent not to have you feel sorry for me. It is kinda humorous too.

I'm considering trading in my current body model anyone have any good suggestions I would preferably like one that does not require any surgeries!!!!!!!!!! I'm really getting tired of them and one that doesn't have any other funky weird medical complications or procedures, I'm a current freak of nature. The only problem with getting anew one is I might possibly have to go through surgeries I've already done, so I guess I should just keep the lemon I have because I already know what problems it has had. For those of you who are confused here is a synopsis

• 12/24/98 Appendectomy hospital stay one week (this was our first Christmas after getting married, Tim still kept me)
• 12/19/00 gave birth hospital stay 2 days (this one was at least fun and planned)
• 9/1/02-10/24/02 spinal fluid leak for 2 months and birth(who gets these during pregnancy and not from an epidural, only ME)
• 12/04 beginning of major sciatica nerve pain (multiple injections to follow)
• 5/24/05 emergency c-section at least there was a great reward in a little 3 lb 14inches healthy baby boy
• 12/15/05 back surgery for the before mentioned leg pain

And to add to the list my c-section scar has been bugging me, the Dr. thinks it's either a pinched nerve or an incisional hernia. Most likely the hernia since it is slightly bulging. He gave me some numbing shots today and if it was a pinched nerve that could cure it completely if not it will give me temporary relief, well temporary is for sure it's already coming back :( Oh well at least none of it is an emergency just mostly an inconvenience. There are many worse things that could happen and I know this ,I just had to get it out of my system, so thanks for letting me vent.

At least my honey doesn't want to trade me in!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUCKER

Well....for Tuckers 7th birthday he received the stomach flu from his brother what a great gift!!! and last year he received the chicken pox from an unknown gift giver! Porter came down with it first while at Aunt Janene's house and again when we picked them up (all over me) and again in the car and yet again in the tub Monday night. Tucker came down with it last night but informed me that he was not sick and would be going to school today, he didn't want to miss his school birthday party. Well after having a few more episodes he was convinced that he was sick. This morning he was feeling a little better than last night but we kept him from school anyway. He is now back to himself jumping off the walls and all the furniture and looking forward to his school program tomorrow. His cute primary teacher called earlier and is bringing him over a cheese pizza, they asked the kids what their favorite treat was and that's what he picke out, he'll be excited!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Today my honey is 32 years young. I told Tucker this morning that his dad is old and he didn't agree I told him that his dad was 25 years older than him and he said well I'm just glad I'm his kid. It was sooo sweet. They are such buddies.
Wow I just realized I've almost known Tim for half of my life! I'm currently 30 years young and we've known each other nearly 14 years and married for almost 10. And we've been through a lot in those 10 years and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything!! Not all of it has been fun but it's brought us closer together and I love him more now than ever! He has always taken such good care of me when I've had all of my crazy health problems and I appreciate it so much. I got a new appreciation for it after helping him through his back surgery, it's not easy being the care taker I prefer the patient roll, he says he doesn't like being the patient, so at least we agree on that. I'm most thankful that he is feeling so good these days with regards to his back, he sat for 2 straight hours last night at the concert we haven't been able to do that in years it was wonderful. I would still keep him even if he weren't doing better but this way is much more fun for both of us!
Anyway Happy Birthday honey!

BONKERS

Tim and I were able to got to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert last night. It was fabulous by the way. Well just before we left Abbey was twirling around and fell down on the edge of a table and smacked her forehead, I thought for sure it had split open and that we would need the babysitter for a different reason, well luckily it didn't, but it was close. We iced it up good and gave her some medis (medicine). This picture was taken this morning and I just couldn't get a picture that showed it very well, the camera hides it nicely it looks worse in real life! She took a little more medicine again this morning because it hurt still, and it is still slightly swollen, so she did a good job on it. At least she is smiling! and what a pretty smile she has, she used to scowl all the time and these days she is always putting a smile on her face, and when I get grouchy she says mom look and points to her pretty smile, who could grouch at that?

Happy UN-Birthday Party Tucker (Dec. 7th)

Okay So I'm behind in blogging this event!! We decide to let Tucker celebrate his 7th birthday early this year. Who wants their birthday 6 days before Christmas? What kind of parents do that to a child? well let's see umm us, my parents, Tim's parents. Oh well that's life right, and after trying for 7 months....Anyway this gave him time to enjoy his gifts before the Christmas day festivities. We invited our new neighbors and friends the Huber's over to celebrate with us, they were told NO GIFTS. But they didn't listen to these instructions and were kind enough to bring this awesome hot wheels motorcycle racer thing, it's pretty cool even I like to help Porter with it, and I do it a lot!!!

Not only that but Emily was nice enough to bring over a relish tray and ice cream (which she said she had but they went and bought that too the stinkers) it was fun for Tucker to have more people over for his UN-birthday Even is 8 and Eli is well 6 today actually, so they are just around him. For his b-day from us he got a K'nex roller coaster set he was soooo excited!!!
Tim found a great deal as usual on this, I think he was just as excited as Tucker! All the boys went to build it and Emily and I chatted it was really fun, I didn't get a picture of all those boys gathered around all those parts and instructions. (yes they used the instructions)

Here's the final project!!! He took this picture to school for show and tell yesterday!!!

We almost forgot to have cake and ice cream!!! We were reminded by the kids of course.

Abbeyism and other isms

Okay I remembered what Abbey said the other day. I was reminded this morning as she was
snuggling with us in our bed and she had her pretty smile on her face and Tim and I both commented on it at the same time. The other day she was grouchy and I asked where her smile was (we play a game of finding it sometimes) and she informed me that she had left it as school, she wasn't smiling as she said it either!!! I told her that was too bad since she didn't go back to school for 5 days. It's a good thing she found a spare one because it sure is pretty.

During church today she asked "Is today fast Sunday or slow Sunday?" I started to laugh and then she said "because I'm hungry" Lets just say it was hard to keep my composure during Sacrament meeting after she asked that question.

If you've recently read other posts you know that we celebrated Tuck's birthday last Friday (post coming) anyway Friday morning Tucker was getting ready for school and had presents on his mind when he said "I'm a Todd" I was thinking what is he talking about? "I'm a Todd so you need to buy toys for me." He was thinking of "Toys for Tots" I was laughing inside soooo hard, "I'm a Todd" So I explained what it meant and he pipes up "well are we going to?" I loved that he understood what it was for and immediatly wanted to help other kids, I think it's hard for them to even imagine that other kids don't have what they do.

Well Porter didn't have anything to quote but he did try to excape from nursery more than once I'm told, they refered to him as an escape artist, I didn't think he was tall enough to open the doors but they reassured me he did it quite well, and that every man he saw was his daddy, I can assure you that HE is wrong in that respect!!!!

Information

For all you out there who read our little blog feel free to comment on things, I would love to know who's reading about our family. All you have to do is click on comment on the bottom of a post and login with a google account, if you have GMAIL that works if not it's easy to make one. Thanks for reading!!!

We are still here!!! Somewhere

Well it's been busy, but I've got to write down the funny things that kids say. So last night I'm getting ready to go to Enrichment Night and I didn't have any pockets so Tim put my cell phone down my shirt as a joke (well we all know I couldn't hide it there if I wanted too!!) Anywho Tucker asks "did he just put it down your boob thing" We were laughing soooo hard I think Tim almost started to cry! The fun part is when I got home they had been doing paper crafts Tim had printed out pictures of their favorite Disney characters and then the kids had cut them out (which i have to say they did a fabulous job of) and they made them into standing characters. They were so proud!! Porter's new thing to say is "oh crap" he says it when someone drops something, it's really quite cute. I just had him evaluated today for speech therapy and they got him to qualify by using his 30 months old that he will be in 2 weeks. He's a great talker don't get me wrong he copies everything, BUT he just isn't making his own sentences so I hope this will help give him a boost, better now than later!!! Abbey is still our little princess and she said the cutest thing the other day too and now I've forgotten, bad, bad, mommy! If I remember I'll post it. I know it was post worthy cuz I put it in my post file in my brain I guess that file has since been deleted or put in another directory. Can you tell I'm married to a computer geek. We are going to celebrate Tucker's Birthday tomorrow since it's so close to Christmas that way he has some space between gifts. He's pretty excited!!!

Stitches

Well Porter's stitches were a success until the next morning when I noticed it gaping back open. i couldn't believe my eyes! So I called the Dr's office and they said bring him back! Well come to find out it opened up because there was infection in it and that's why it popped open. So he gave him a prescription to clear up that and also for his cold and ears so it was a good thing I took him in before we went out of town. It definitely wasn't what I had planned for the day before going out of town but since when do "mom's" plans count? LOL

stitch stitch here stitch stitch there

CHEESE

Adventures in the life of Porter continue. He decided to be the first of our children to require stitches today! He only needed 3 of them, He was a true little fighter while they did it, it's a good thing they strapped him down. The nurse said "we have to strap him down" and I said "GOOD!!!"

The kids were running and playing and getting out all their energy and we thought let them run for a minute and get it out of their system, right? Well Porter's little legs couldn't keep up with his body and he bonked on the bottom edge of a book shelf at Aunt Janene's house. We had gone over so Nene and I could swap coloring hair. All I can say is it's a good thing that we hadn't started yet, I don't know what I would look like right now if we had. We just kept saying "we need to start" but I think it was one of those tender mercies that we didn't.

Isn't it supposed to be Christmas soon?

So tonight while Porter slept forever I decided to have Tucker help me bring up the Christmas tree. Next week will go by too fast and then we'll be out of town and before you know it Christmas will be here and gone!!! The kids had soo much fun, they even had Tim help them get most of the lights working, I was too tired to even mess with that part since the tree was so mangled after the move. Tucker even made home made snow flakes for it, I guess I'll have to make sure they find a home on it, even though I'm picky about my tree!!! It's about the kids, right?

It really seemed extra weird this year getting it out and I couldn't put my finger on why.... then Tim got home and said it's too warm to be almost Christmas and that's when it hit me, too warm!!! Then I talked to Jo (my sister) later tonight and her kids have been wondering why she hasn't been in the spirit yet (she's a Christmas nut) and she told them "it's kinda hard when it's 60 outside!" I agree, but oh well there's not much we can do about that now is there?

So how do people get in the mood in warm climates? I don't know about it, it just doesn't seem right!

So Merry Christmas everyone and happy sunbathing!

Trouble, Trouble, Trouble

Well where do I start?..... This little man sure lives up to his new T-shirt which reads "Trouble is my middle name." Well if you read previous posts you know what he did to the computer monitor, his latest escapades include breaking the door off of the entertainment center and putting nice scratches in the kitchen table. He even hid the evidence, I have no clue what he used to scratch the table, one of them he did one day and the other the next, I still don't know what he used, I hope I don't find out by finding more scratches!!!! I sure love this little guys cute personality, when I was telling him no no about the entertainment center I almost busted up laughing at the faces he was making!!! How could I not love the little huggable guy. I had such conflicting emotions of being so furious to loving him to death talk about confusing!!! He definitely keeps me hopping. Let's just say that today when I showered I kept him in the room with me and brought in lots of toys to keep him occupied. My sister asked if he gets in as much trouble as Tucker did and I said worse because he's learning from the older two, I hope I'm still standing at the end.

Where there's SMOKE there's FIRE

The kids woke up early on Sunday as I'm sure most everyone's did. Well I was laying in bed listening to them when the smell of something burning came wafting through the heat vents (it was very strong since our bedroom has 4 vents in it). My first thought was okay so they burned a piece of toast....well the smell kept getting stronger. So of course I dragged myself out of bed to investigate. When I got downstairs all three of them were in front of the TV as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. So I asked Tucker what happened (I won't say the exact phrase I used :-) ) He said we tried to cook a piece a bread in the microwave, so I opened it up and whoa if I thought the smell was bad before!!! Inside was the plastic plate cover with a fist size black melted hole. They had put the burnt bread in the garbage. Come to find out if you cook bread for 3 minutes on high it starts on fire. Tucker said I think it might have been on fire when I opened it. GREAT I thought. So I spent the rest of the morning trying to get the smell out of the house and the microwave, I'm sure it will take days to completely clear.

A Saturday Out

We called Grandma and grandpa and asked if they wanted to go shopping when they were done with the conference center. Grandpa called us back and said yes
before even asking Grandma hehehe good thing she likes us! So we met them and took them to a park where we made sandwiches and watched the kids run around. It was really fun
The kids had a great time exploring, and it was quite entertaining and nerve racking to watch Porter get really close to the fish pond there. We had a budding photographer, I took the first pic of Tucker and Porter and then I never saw the camera again!!! Tucker did a pretty good job! I guess that's why there is actually a picture of me!

After shopping Porter was tired and fell asleep. We had promised the kids we would ride trax around downtown. But first we got ice cream and Grandma and I stayed in the car

with sleepy head. Then we dropped everyone else off at the trax we were near and picked them up by the conference center where we then left Grandma and Grandpa to get their car. Porter didn't get to ride the train which is a shame I think he would have love it! Plus he woke up soon after we drove to get everyone and screamed the entire time!! The train ride would have much more fun. Overall though it was a GREAT day.

"TORNADO"

Well we had a "Tornado" hit our house yesterday evening, TWICE! The said "Tornado" took a pencil and scribbled all over our nice LCD computer monitor!!! So a "time out" was had and then later .... well I saw new scribbling on the monitor. The first set of scribbles came off with water and vinegar and left a few marks that you wouldn't notice if you didn't know about it. However the second "Tornado" left a bit more damage, there's a few spots of grey still left and definitely some scratches. I know there are worse things he could do but AHHHHH. It sure is a good thing he is CUTE and that we LOVE him!!!! I will try my best to make sure none of you experience the damages of said "Tornado" only the cuteness of the "little man with his own langauge"!

Little Man

Well our "little man" finally made it onto the growth chart for weight!!! He is a whopping 24 pounds at age 2 years and 4 months, he is in the 5th percentile, is anyone surprised at the 5th? I think Tucker was that big at age one. He is also still wearing size 4 shoes, what other 2 year old has that small of feet? I know I know I can still fit in little girl shoes but I'm a girl! He is still 2 inches away from making it onto the growth chart in length, coming in at a whopping 30 1/2 inches tall, that 1/2 is important too! He's our little shorty!!! It doesn't stop him from getting into trouble though. The other day he was being a little tornado and the name "nado" came out, we'll see if it sticks! He is just constantly on the move and you never know when he's coming. I'm starting to think tornado is the perfect name for him, he definitely leaves a path of destruction.

Pumpkins????

McKenna was able to spend two nights at our house, and we had so much fun! Grandma Sanders also spent the night, and then went to Janene's house some of the time too. McKenna loves to scrapbook so she was in heaven at my house!!! She spent a lot of time learning how to use my little Cricut machine, I think she wanted to move in! Well she did miss her baby sister a bit.
McKenna and Tucker braved the land of gooey pumpkin entrails. Abbey wasn't even remotely interested, she spent the evening playing and singing with her new toys. Porter however wanted to be right in on the action a little too much! None of us could figure out how he managed to keep getting hold of the knife!!! Maybe that night he could have been a magician.
McKenna was so great to let Porter help her with the carving, she was a great helper! Maybe she can move in!
The finished products!!!
McKenna was bumbed, we forgot to bring her pumpkin to take home. I told her it can look cute at our house.
Do they look proud or what?

A Huge Celebration!

Sunday afternoon we went to Janene and Chris's house for a combined Birthday party. It was soo fun, we celebrated for Spencer, Tony, Abbey, Bryson and Braden. Abbey was a little confused about it! I think she thought she had two birthday's. Plus it was Grandma Jenkins' birthday that day too and when I told her she said "you said it was my birthday." I tried to explain it was a party day for her, she'll get it eventually.


Abbey and Bryson's birthdays were the closest in proximity, well and Braden's but I don't think he really cared about sitting on the counter and cutting himself a huge piece of cake. Abbey was a little apprehensive about using a knife and being able to cut the cake. Uncle Chris was sooo cute with her. He plopped her up on the counter and gave her a huge butcher knife and tole her to cut as big of a piece as she wanted!!! Well she cut a big one!! Earlier that night she had told me that she was shy of Chris, well I think she has started to overcome that now, it was just so fun!

While everyone else was busy watching gifts be opened Porter snuck over and started helping himself to someones cake, he was a pure mess from what I hear. Dani McAllister was nice enough of do the cleaning off.


He is becoming so demanding these days. Tim and I were just talking about him needing a new nickname. Tim was thinking about tornado, I though maybe hurricane Porter. It still hasn't been decided, maybe it will depend on whether any liquids are involved in the act of crime!!!

Halloween Parade

Tucker's school had their Halloween parady on Friday, they thought that maybe it would cause less interuptions on the actuall day, well I guess they'll find out tomorrow! Super boy was tired of waiting for the parade to come by.
Tucker didn't see us for awhile. They were walking by so fast it was hard to get a good picture.
Porter's little cape blowing!! He was so cute walking with it on, he was so proud!

Abbey's Birthday!!!

Abbey was so excited to turn 5 she had been counting down for days!!! In fact one day at Grandma Sanders house she asked how many days it was until her birthday, I told her 13. She replied with "is that two 5's?" I told her it was two 5's and a 3 then she said "a 3 and a 2 and a 3 and a 2 and a 3?" My mom and I looked at each other in shock and replied yeesss. Tim was convinced it was a fluke until she did the same thing 2 days later when I told her it was 11 days until her birthday. I'm sure it's because she knows there are 5 people in our family and 2 girls and 3 boys, or 2 parents and 3 kids, we do that a lot. But it was still impressive!!!

Abbey only wanted to have Island Princess for her birthday, it's the latest Barbie movie. Well I thought she had plenty of Barbie's but since she talked about it non-stop who was I to decide what she got! She sings all the songs all the time, in fact she even copies the vabrado in the song, it's sooo cute and pretty amazing too.

I think her face says it all!!!

My attempt at making an Island Princess cake, she was supposed to have peacock feathers, and Abbey had the idea to use the candles as the peacock feathers, it worked pretty well.

I swear I didn't buy trick candles, but those things wouldn't to out!!!

A little frosting anyone?

Abbey and her new Island Princess doll, which did I mention it sings too. Porter carries it around pushing the button non-stop!!! It can be fun!

bub you!

Porter is sooo funny. He put on Abbey's shoes (over his PJ's) grabbed his sunglasses (gyasses)and his car that he never leaves behind (thank you Melanie he loves it!) and headed for the front door saying "Bub you glglglg bye glglglgl later" translation - love you, bye, later. I don't know the translation to the glglglglg maybe someday we will all know what he's been saying all this time! Soon after this Abbey's carpool came to get her and he was sure he was going too. He cried and cried after I closed the door.

He wants to be so big!!! I'm sure going to miss his little language when he grows out of it and those cute stubby legs of his. I hope he loses the stubby legs eventually though so he can be tall like his daddy. He still has time to catch up they say it can take up to 3 years for them to catch up to their peers and some even longer. It's amazing to me to think that what they miss in the womb can take years to achieve. There are some things we can do with technology but recreating the comfort of the womb isn't one of them, although I'm so thankful of what they can do!!!!

The following pictures are of Porter's escape outfit and Abbey her last time being 4 going to pre-school. She is sooo excited for her birthday!

Coupons

Here is a link to a coupon for $5 off any Tylenol product. I got kids tylenol for .78 cents today, so I think I will stock up and be prepared for the worst, at least in the tylenol area that is.
http://www.tylenol.com/page.jhtml?id=tylenol/news/subpcccoldmed.inc

I will also be prepared with lots of Polly Pockets, here is a coupon for $5 off any Polly Pocket toy. It is straight from mattel. The registers don't seam to like the scanning of it, but Target took it today. I got $16 woth of stuff for $1 it was GREAT!!!!
http://www.mattel.com/pollypromise/

http://i.slickdeals.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=58277&d=1192824404

Kids can be surprising!

Well last night Porter slept in a big boy bed, (and he is there right now too) well actually on the end of a big girl mattress but that's just a technicality. Since we are just renting there are simply mattresses on the floor for the 2 bigger kids and a crib all in one room, no one wanted their own room. Anyway Porter slept all night, I did hear him crying in his sleep at one point and found him on the edge of Tucker's bed all snuggled up next to Tucker freezing. He even woke up early in the morning and as I raised my head to see who it was I saw this little marshmallow pj guy walking back into their room. At nap time he even slept on the mattress, so I guess we can take down the crib this will be the first time in almost 7 years that we haven't had a crib up.


Tucker was being a little snort earlier today ... the details are unimportant but later he brought both Tim and I a little note he had printed out on the computer and here it is...

Hi mom and dad I love you a lot I m saroy that I was pil I very saroy wil you vr giv my love tucker Jenkins

saroy=sorry
vr giv=forgive

Not bad for a first grader, now if I teach how to use spell check he should be good to go! We never even called him a "pil" tonight he so I thought it was cute that he used that word.

Bijous

I watched Nene's kids today while they took care of "business" (or bull *^#@) which ever way you care to look at it. Anyway Briley was soooo cute with this baby doll and so grown up!! She is changing a ton everytime I see her.

She would look at the baby doll and then kiss it. Then she would do it again!

"Muffalo" Island

We went to Antelope Island with cousins on the Jenkins side back in July. The kids had so much fun!

I should give background to the name "Muffalo." When Tim had his back surgery G'pa Jenkins took the kids to Antelope Island where they saw buffalo. Abbey referred to them and "Muffalos" and thus Muffalo Island was born!

A Trip to the Fire Station

Porter thinks he is part of Abbey's class. He just marched himself on over and stood in front of Abbey. When they were on the floor watching the show he squirmed his way into the little circle. He'll be ready for pre-school before his mom is ready for him to go!

Look at my cute "fire people"!!!!!!

Here is Porter being "MR BIG" in the fire truck. He plopped down on the floor he was sooo excited! Abbey wouldn't get it. Who's field trip is this anyway?

Here is Abbey's pre-school class sitting on the front of the Fire Truck, Abbey didn't want to get on and it was all I could do to keep Porter out of the picture!!

look-alike-meter

I found this web site where it calculates who your kids look like more, the mom or dad. So here are the results.



And we always thought Tuck looked like Tim



Tim always says Abbey looks like me.



Here's the shocker, Porter looks sooo much like my brother and my uncle, who would have guessed.

Field Trip

Introducing Smokey and Mrs. Johnson's 1st grade class.

This is the little group of kids I was in charge of for the day. They were all so much fun.

Hallie & Kelli

Trey, Max & Tucker

Here are some cute pics of Tuck

Julie and Tucker

We had so much fun, Tucker was sooo excited that I got to go with him on his field trip. I was just glad he was finished with that dang flu bug so he could go!

Here is Tucker and Max on the bus ride back to school. They have become such good friends!