Day 121: April 30, 2012

It was a beautiful day out today, and for once, we were home to enjoy it (an hour of it anyway!).

The little girls and I jumped on the trampoline together, then snuggled in the sunshine.

I couldn't help but think that this must be what heaven is like - relaxing, peaceful, and surrounded by people you love, and people who think you're the most amazing person ever.

Then I looked to the sky, and saw heaven :)

Day 120: April 29, 2012

Wow.


13 year old girls are exhausting!


But we had a fun 13th birthday party with Lexi's friends today - Lucky 13, Vegas style!


Lexi blessed with a great bunch of friends, from all different parts of her life: old elementary school friends, new middle school friends, basketball friends, track friends. And they're all so nice to Lizzy and Morgan (and Jake!). Love them!


We had fun hanging out with them this afternoon - hope they had fun too!

Day 119: April 28, 2012

I curse the day I learned how to make cake pops.


I had no idea I'd be making them all the time.


They are time consuming, but the kids love them. How can I not make my daughter's (and her friends') favorite dessert for her birthday party?


And while I'm still no Bakerella, my cake pops are looking better with each attempt.


These, dare I say, are even kinda pretty and creative!


Yes, those are dice - in honor of the "Lucky 13" Vegas party tomorrow!

Day 118: April 27, 2012

Lexi's big 13th birthday bash is Sunday, so we spent this Friday night getting ready for the party.


It takes the whole family, plus Uncle Mat, to get ready for a party!


It's going to be so great.. I think I'm more excited than Lexi is!

Day 117: April 26, 2012

My grandpa says if you can't fix it with electrical tape or wire, it's not worth fixing.


He would be very proud of the project Brad and I just did.


I saw the idea on Pinterest (of course) and Brad took it from there.


Check it out... my new children's art display:

All it took was a little wire, a couple of eye hooks, and some Uppercase Living words. We had this bad boy done in less than 15 minutes.

I'm already wishing it was bigger - check out the artwork I found to fill it up already!

Day 116: April 25, 2012

A lot of people have been saying their allergies are out of control right now.

I'm so glad I don't have allergies!

I love this time of year, and the way these beautiful, flowering trees smell.

I'm also really glad l I got to spend some time outside (and alone!) today!

Day 115: April 24, 2012

Lizzy had her kindergarten open house today.


She was so excited - I think she thought she was starting school.


Much to her disappointment, it was a very boring power point presentation in a very hot gym, followed by a few minutes to scope out the kindergarten rooms and teachers.


Still, Lizzy and her friend Hannah took the whole thing very seriously. They even took "notes" during the power point presentation!


Look out Dorothy Moses Elementary - Lizzy is ready!

Day 114: April 23, 2012

Busy, busy day!


Work, track meet, speech, Lizzy's first day of basketball, and event at school.


I ran from 12:00 until 8:00.


At least it was nice outside.


But.. I have a ton of pictures to choose from today - track, yoga at school, basketball..


And the winner is....


Itty Bitty Basketball!!!


Lizzy was so excited all day - she wore her basketball clothes and shoes to daycare, and all afternoon kept asking me "when is it time for my basketball?"


She did great! She made a ton of baskets, dribbled, passed, and even handled the ball like a pro. Maybe she did learn something by watching her brother and sister play!


But, the part I'm most proud of, is how she listened. She was the first to do what the coaches asked, never cried or argued, and as she said "had good listening ears".


Even Jake commented on how well behaved she was - Jake never notices stuff like that!


Can't wait for next week!

Day 113: April 22, 2012

Lizzy insists she hates basketball, but despite her so-called "hatred", she is starting Itty-Bitty basketball at the Y tomorrow.


She must be getting nervous/excited, because this afternoon she begged Lexi to teach her how to play.


Of course, because she is Lizzy, she had to have just the right outfit, her hair had to be just perfect ("is this how Lexi wears her hair when she plays basketball?") and a water bottle.


I can't wait for tomorrow!

Day 112: April 21, 2012

My girls exhaust me.


After staying up until 2am painting (it was 3am by the time I finished cleaning up ), 7am came way to soon, but I promised the birthday girls they could get feathers in their hair this morning (the final birthday gifts for Lexi and Lizzy).


I kept thinking I'd get a nap at some point today, but I spent the whole day sorting through kitchen stuff, talking myself out of having a rummage sale, thinking of ways to sweet talk Brad into building me a new china hutch-thingy, and trying to put my kitchen back together.


I am just now sitting down, enjoying a nice cold beer, and hiding from the girls.


I'm currently looking for some toothpicks to hold my eyelids open.


I thought my picture of the day would be of the beautiful pink, purple and black feathers in my beautiful daughters' hair... but Morgan had another idea. 


Apparently she was feeling left out, and a little bitter, about not getting a feather. She totally took over the feather picture!

Day 111: April 20, 2012

You know you're getting old, and your life is way too busy, when spending a Friday night painting with a good friend sounds like a blast..and actually turns out to be the best part of the day!

I've been wanting to paint the kitchen for awhile, and for some reason decided I was going to do it tonight. So after sending Brad and Jake off to Boy Scout camp, the girls and I went paint shopping.


I started painting about about 8:30 this evening.


My long-lost BFF who lives a whole three blocks away came to help me a short time later.


We were painting fools. We rocked the paint, gossiped, drank, and had the best time.


Six hours later, my kitchen is freshly painted.


I really wanted to change it up and pick some new colors, but I accidentally bought the wrong color, and ended up with pretty much the same colors as before, just in a semi-gloss instead of a flat finish.


No biggie - I really liked the colors the previous owners had chosen for the kitchen.. and now my kitchen just looks clean!


But even better than the clean-looking kitchen, was the quality time I got to spend with my dear friend Jamie. I've considered her one of my closest friends for about 13 years, but we are both busy with work and our families, so we don't get to see each other much anymore, even though our houses are only three blocks apart.


And, for the record, we are amazing painters - at least we thought so at 2am and after having a few drinks.


I'm anxious to see how good it looks in the daylight!


If it doesn't look good, I'll "just hang a picture there"!

Day 110: April 19, 2012

There's a teenager in the house!


Yikes!


Lexi is 13 today!


We celebrated with cake and presents this morning. 


Then we celebrated again tonight with tacos (her choice), Mary, Madonna, more cake and more presents!


I'm not really sure which was her favorite part of the day: having the entire seventh grade class sing to her and her birthday buddy Emma at lunch today (I really wish I could have seen that!), the way her friends decorated her locker, the cakes, or the presents.


But I do know that Lexi is an amazing girl and I'm so proud to be her mom!

Day 109: April 18, 2012

Tomorrow, I will be the mother of a teenager.


I am tempted to get all sappy about how old I'm getting, how it feels like just last week I was changing her diaper, and how her first day of kindergarten feels like it was just yesterday - but I won't.


I'll save the sappy stuff for another day.


I do have to go on the record and say that I am extremely proud of the beautiful, thoughtful, caring, funny, and talented young lady my Lexi is growing up to be. She has been such a joy, and such a wonderful daughter to raise. I pray that continues, as we hit the teen years.


Meantime, it's time to think about cake!


For the past three years, Lexi has requested this cake:

It's nothing fancy - just a white cake mix with a carton of strawberry yogurt mixed in, frosting from a can and strawberries.


But it is delicious.


And the strawberries totally justify eating cake for breakfast - it's fruit - perfect any time of day!


If you'd like to make this yummy cake, click here for the recipe.

Day 108: April 17, 2012

Jake is obsessed with shooting baskets.


Morgan is obsessed with doing whatever the big kids are doing.


So this worked out perfectly - Morgan held the tape measure (kinda) for Jake while he measured out his free throw line and three point line.


He would really like some more permanent lines, but for now, sidewalk chalk does the trick!

Day 107: April 16, 2012

Technology is simply amazing.


Tonight, the kids Facetimed with their cousins for the first time.


Pretty sure Emma and Lizzy will be doing this many more times... I just hope they come up with some new jokes!


Although I do like Emma's sock joke:


What kind of socks does the band wear?
Tuba socks!

Day 106: April 15, 2012

Happy birthday to Lizzy!


I really can't believe she's five.


It was a great day - starting with church (and baby Tesslyn's baptism). The doctor that delivered Lizzy was singing in the choir, so after mass I went to say hi and remind her what she was doing on this day five years ago. She and Lizzy had a very nice conversation about how Dr. Perk was the first person to hold her. I'm sure that conversation will spark some conversations later.


This evening, Lizzy and about 30 of her closest friends and family (and by closest I mean distance wise.. you know she loves all of you who live far away too!) celebrated in style. 


Lizzy's choice: pizzas on the grill (she crossed her fingers all day that the rain would stay away.. it worked! Brad was the grill master!), pink and purple cake (purple cake.. actually really pretty and delicious too!), friends and presents.


I have a ton of favorite pictures from today, but I choose this one as my picture of the day:

So many personalities here! 

• Cooper is so serious, 
• Grady is smiling because his mom is hiding behind Cooper's chair,
• Morgan is wondering why Cooper has a nookie and she doesn't, 
• Big Jake is trying to keep Baby Jake out of the cake pops, 
• Baby Jake is thinking "yay... cake pops!", 
• Lexi is just smiling and ignoring it all, 
• Jorja is happy to have Big Tess to herself, 
• Tess is happy she's not related to any of these people, 
• Lizzy is thinking how cool it is to be 5, 
• Kaitlynn really just wants to drink her lemonade, 
• Kaleb is wondering why he wanted to come over, 
• Aubrey is just looking beautiful, 
• Karli is picking her nose.

Whew. Oh yeah, and baby Tess slept thru all this!


Love these kids, and their parents! Thanks for making Lizzy's day so fun!

Day 105: April 14, 2012

This is my last picture of Lizzy as a four year old.


Sniff, sniff.


She will be five tomorrow.


Where have the past five years gone?


And what would I do without this beautiful, curious, honest little girl?

Day 104: April 13, 2012

Brad, Jake and Lexi all ditched the little girls and me tonight, so we headed to a friend's house to play beauty shop.

Michelle is amazing. Not only did she make my hair look good, she even taught me how to fix it (but even though she is amazing, my hair will never look like this again... I have a lot of skills, but hair and make-up are not my specialities).

And... while she claimed she could see my halo when my girls were testing my patience, I'm pretty sure Miss Michelle has her own halo. She let Lizzy and Morgan try out her makeup, fixed their hair (even Morgan, who screams when I try to put a barrette in to keep her hair out of her eyes), and even put purple eye shadow on Morgan.

Yep, this lady is a saint.

And my girls have never looked so beautiful!

Day 103: April 12, 2012

I'm so far behind this year... I just started planning Lizzy's birthday party on Monday. Her birthday (and her birthday party) is Sunday.


I ordered her gift on Tuesday - it won't be here until next week Tuesday.


I took pictures for invites on Monday - didn't get them printed until today.


And... the "c" on "celebrate" got cut off, plus Lizzy didn't like my design anyway.


So I did what I should have done in the first place: I had Lizzy make her own birthday party invitations. I gave her a stack of pictures, a pair of scissors, pink scrapbook paper, and a pile of stickers.


Each invitation is special, unique, and blinged out - I call them "Lizzy-ized". But Miss Lizzy only had enough energy to make 11 invitations.. which is ok, because with this short of notice, I'm not even sure how many people will be able to attend!


At any rate, the invites are pretty cool, kinda like the girl who made them :)

Day 102: April 11, 2012

I usually have words to describe exactly how I'm feeling.

Today, I do not have words.

I only have one word: TIRED!

I am apparently not alone - Lizzy feels the very same way!

She fell asleep early, in the midst of the evening chaos that is our house.

I'm so jealous.....

Day 101: April 10, 2012

Today was Lexi's second track meet.


She did shot put and discus, and promises to try high jump next week.


I'm so impressed with her throws - she hasn't placed yet, but she's gotta be close, and each time she gets a little bit better. Today, she had a great throw in discus, but scratched :( 


I'm also so jealous that she has such great coaches. I guess the benefit of going to a big school is there is more than one track coach. In fact, they have four track coaches, which means, she has a coach who specializes in throwing. I never had that - I learned from the upper classmen, and despite their very best efforts, I still sucked. I'm really hoping Lexi does better than I did at track. And I'm pretty sure she's on her way!


But still, the best part about track is getting out of school early, and getting to hang out with friends!

Day 100: April 9, 2012

No school + no work = fun day!


We took a little road trip to McKenzie, to take some fun pictures of Alexis McKenzie :)

Day 99: April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!


All I wanted was one nice picture of my kids.


This is not that picture.

Day 98: April 7, 2012

I hate dying Easter eggs.

We don't eat them (gross...hate hard boiled eggs!), it just makes a big mess, clothes get stained, kids fight, I get stressed.

But every year, I cave and let the kids dye Easter eggs.

This year was no exception.

Jake lost interest after one egg and went outside to shoot baskets, but the girls stuck it out through all 17 eggs (I know eggs come in 18-packs, just like beer, but for some unknown reason, we only had 17).

I'm actually pretty impressed with their colorful, although cracked, eggs.

Day 97: April 6, 2012

The perks of beng a government employee: holidays off.

Today was not really a relaxing day off, but it was still a day off.

The highlight: watching Morgan entertain herself (and Bob) on the deck this morning. I just wish I would have gotten a picture of her with her face squished up against the glass!

Day 96: April 5, 2012

My bookends.

Hard as I tried, Morgan would not cuddle with me while we watched a movie tonight.

She only wanted "issy"... that's Morgan for "sissy".

Day 95: April 4, 2012

This, people, is why I love North Dakota:

A beautiful sunset - that I was lucky enough to enjoy tonight.

You see, you can take the girl off the farm, but you can never take the farm out of the girl.

More and more, I find myself making parts runs for my dad. Tonight, I picked up parts in Mandan for him, and then met him in Glen Ullin.

It was an unexpected drive, but it was a nice drive.

Brad kept all the kids at home... so it was also a peaceful drive.

Just me, a Diet Coke, and a beautiful sunset.

Oh, and for about five minutes, I got to see my dad :)

Day 94: April 3, 2012

I had some really great pictures today.

But then my memory card broke.

Yep.

Broke.

In half.

I have no idea how.

Anyway, the pictures from today won't show up (although all the other ones will.. so weird). So, you won't get to see a picture of Lexi's first track meet today, or of the little girls being terrors at Lexi's first track meet.

However.. for some reason, I did take a picture on my cell phone today... and, by default, it is now my picture of the day!

Now, the story behind the picture:

As I mentioned, the little girls were complete terrors at Lexi's track meet today. In their defense, it was an indoor track meet, it was beautiful outside, there was nowhere to really sit, it was hot in there, and we waited a very long time for Lexi's event.

All of this, led me to do something I never do.

I let them pick what they wanted from the concession stand (not really a concession stand...it was more like a fast food joint on the campus of the University of Mary).

I was quickly reminded why I never let them choose what they want: six chicken strips, fries and an apple juice cost me $9.92!

Ouch.

But, I have to admit, I would do it again - $9.92 bought them supper, and me a few minutes of rest... I spent the rest of the three hour track meet chasing them...aside from the time they visited with our old neighbor and ate m&m's another old friend bought them (I am so going to get you back for all that sugar, Darren!)

Day 93: April 2, 2012

You just never know what you might see at the grocery store.

If you're lucky, you might even see a princess.

Lizzy inheirted a new princess costume yesterday. She immediately put it on, and has worn it pretty much non-stop since. She wore it to daycare, to speech and to the grocery store. I think the only reason she ever takes it off is because it's "kinda itchy".

It is a gorgeous dress.. hopefully it will still fit (and still be in one piece!) when Halloween finally gets here!

Day 92: April 1, 2012

Poor Clifford the Big Red Dog.

He fell off the couch and got, as Morgan said, an "ow".

Lexi helped her sisters bandage up his wounds. They also signed Clifford's cast, and Lexi's pants. Lexi was a little upset with her sisters!