The Blaming Horse Rider

I think blaming things on other people to spare getting into trouble runs in the family. When I was a little girl my mom spent a lot of time making a pecan pie. The next morning when we woke up, amazingly enough all the pecans were gone off the pie! How could that happen? Well, my sister told me the cat ate them. It sounded logical to me. My sister told me that we didn't want the cat to get into trouble, did we? So tell mom that I ate them. I was about 4 or 5 and believed her, so that's what I told my mom when she came in furious wanting to know what happened to the pecans! My sister got off the hook for eating them and I got into trouble for supposedly eating them! Dirty trick! My mom later found out and took care of my sister! Fast forward 30 years to our house. Whenever I say something like, "Who left this out?" or whatever the case may be, inevitably, Averie is right there to say as she crinkles her nose, "I think Sydney did it."

So, yesterday I finally swept and mopped all the floor downstairs. Averie wanted to help mop, so I let her. She mopped all around and when she was done I said:
"Averie! Great job! When you grow up you're going to be a good mopper!"
She said, "No, mom. When I grow up I am going to be a horse rider."
"Oh, well then at least you'll know how to mop the floors in your house when you grow up."

Nothing much!

I don't have much to say. We just added our 3 favorite songs these days to this blog. Whenever we hear these songs, it brings a smile to everyones face and one or more of us starts dancing and singing! That's all for today!

JoBros!!!!

You know how much fun it is to have a teenager and an almost teenager in the house? Ok, it's not ALWAYS fun. Let's be honest! But one of the things that is so fun is going to concerts with them. So far we have been to Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Clique Girls & Cheetah Girls, Demi Lovato & David Archuleta, and by far, the best so far, is Jordin Sparks & The Jonas Brothers that we saw last night for Sydney's birthday!!! They put on a great show!!! I look back at alllllllll the concerts I went to as a teenager and I have to say nowadays they are so much more entertaining (well let me back up a minute and say the Red Hot Chili Peppers were pretty entertaining!) Last night at Jobing.com Arena, the whole arena was opened up and it was sold out. The stage was HUGE. They had all kinds of lasers, lights and video and toward the end Joe and Kevin got up on this "lifter" that took them out over the top of the audience and they squirt everyone within reach with foam! Of course the crowd went absolutely WILD when Nick was lifted up on to the stage with a white baby grand piano and played for everyone. I think he is definitely everyone's favorite.

Way tooo much...

I have been such a slacker this summer. I need to catch-up before the next school year begins. You ready? It'll probably be all backwards...but here we go...

Lego Master in the House!

Josh is soooo into Legos. Lego Pirates, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars and definitely Bionicles. I think he is so diligent in doing his chores this summer because he knows he gets paid at the end of the month and that means he has enough for a new Bionicle. Yesterday, he was on the Lego website and found that he can create something Lego or Bionicle that is original and post it and then other kids can vote on it and you can see if yours wins. So here is his creation of a few Bionicles combined together that I'll be posting when I am done here. It's all he thinks about these days!

Kallie and Jason went to a fun Daddy Daughter Dance for Activity Days. Jason bought this shirt a few years ago and people make fun of him in it. So he brought it out for the dance!

Our next to last fun summer event was going to the Demi Lovato and David Archuletta concert. I thought Sydney was going to have a heart attack!!! She was DYING! She is sooooo convinced he looked right at her and waved! It really did look like it though! So, whether it happened or not, we are saying it happened! So, Sydney just walked in and read this post and said, "Mom! What do you mean 'convinced'???? He did! He really did! Erase that!" Oops! Here's the new favorite shirt of the summer she saved her money to buy, that was actually $15 more than she had that I had to kick in. When did concert shirts get so expensive? Remember the good 'ol days when they were only $20??Help me out people!

We went to the Science Center to the Lego exhibit. I need Sydney to show me how to send the pics from my phone to the computer and then I'll post some. We had fun that day!

I am posting all this backwards...sorry! Here are our other two favorite games of the summer.

I already posted about Sydney going on the Trek. She'll post about her Girl's Camp adventures on her blog. We had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Jordan which is always an adventure. When we are not talking politics or health, we are playing Josh's favorite game called Who Said. It's just like Charades, just LDS style!

June 28th was Jessie's birthday. We have had the dog for 9 years and have never celebrated his birthday. How shameful. You all celebrate your animals birthdays, don't you?! The kids weren't going to let us get away with it this year, after all he is 63! So I did a search for a doggie treat that is both good for human and dog consumption. The treats were actually pretty good! I may make them again! It had honey, oatmeal, wheat germ, and egg...I can't remember what else. So here are a few pictures of the festivities!

We went to Slide Rock the Saturday the kids got out of school. It's always fun. Sydney brought her friend Erica and they people watched all day, laughing at all the people falling. Josh had other plans. He had to complete "missions" and by the end of they day, he dragged Kallie into it. Only Jason and Kallie were the brave ones to actually go down the slide. The water was FREEZING!

Next, I think was our wonderful chore chart creation! Each kid gets a chart each week plus their "Daily" stuff. They have their assigned chores for the week so there is no confusion (at least I can only hope they won't fight about it) At the end of the week, we rotate the charts and they have a new chart for the week. This way if one person doesn't do a great job, hopefully it'll get done better the next week, if I haven't done it already! So far, so good. Hopefully it'll continue it once school starts with minimal murmurings from the kids! Everyone has their own system, this works for us.

Way tooo much...

Kallie and one of her best friend's Samantha went to Ridemakerz at Westgate for her 11th birthday. It was sooo fun! Have you ever gone? You need to! It's just like Build-A-Bear but for cars. It can come complete with remote control, lights, and sound. Design it anyway you like.

Kallie ended the year with being nominated "Student of the Year" for 5th grade! She was unanimously voted once they narrowed the voting down. She was SOOO excited. This girl is a HARD worker- tears night after night and all- and we were soo proud of her!

The Pioneer Update...

You saw the before picture of Sydney getting ready to go. Here is the 'during' and 'after' picture!She had the absolute BEST time! She was put with a great "family" and they laughed and worked hard! They walked 16 1/2 miles the first day and just got 2 biscuits and a tin cup full of broth! Each family killed 2 chickens for dinner, had a run-in the some Indians, the Mormon Batallion was formed, and when the men were gone, the girls had to push the handcart uphill. They decided to sleep under the stars every night, but on the last night, it rained so much and they got soaked! They all got up and sat around the campfire the rest of the night. They had a hodown (how do you spell that?) and played pioneer games. The rest of the time they hiked only about 5 miles the rest of the day. The Pony Express even came and delivered mail to them. She smelled like a big campfire and was pretty sunburned when she got home. She was sooooooo dirty!She didn't even wear the bonnet I made for her because she was afraid to get it dirty!!She was right! Thanks Syd, but that is what it was for!!! Kallie is so excited to go in 4 years. Sydney wants to do it again too. There were 14 families with about 13 people in each. She made some good friends and she'll always remember this experience!

The Pioneer

So, this is Sydney at 4:15 Wednesday morning getting dressed to leave for the Trek. She wasn't too thrilled I took her picture. When we got to the stake center all the kids were in their pioneer clothes and looked great. As we are walking up to the group she says, "I am not a big fan of this bonnet or this dress. I don't think I want to go anymore." Well, she instantly met up with a girl she knew from camp and she was a little apprehensive too. This girl thought her dress was too big. It was fine. Sydney and this girl get along really well and have fun together so I am glad they were together when they left. Anyway, all day yesterday I was thinking about Sydney and what a great experience this is for her to go. Ok, I worried a little about her too! Today and tomorrow I hear they are camping and doing alot of fun stuff. I'll let you know how it all turns out when she gets home on Saturday!

Brace yourself...

Have you ever before in your life seen a 4 year old and a 7 year old lift a table and chair over their head unassisted????? It is so effortless for them- they are smiling! This is how we spent our morning- practicing lifting things. I told Josh he's probably so strong because he ate 3 waffles with peanut butter on it this morning and drank all of his milk. Amazing.

Planets...

Josh loves learning about the planets. I even taught him the names of the planets to the tune of the primary song that teaches you the names of the books in the New Testament. My mom also made a solar system out of paper lanterns of different sizes all painted and labeled and they hang in the playroom. He has this huge book my Papa got at Costco about planets and he's always checking out books at the library on planets. So, this morning he says, 'you know... Pluto shares the orbit with Neptune'. So matter of factly. Ok, I really don't know much about the planets. He's a genius.

Lookie...Lookie!

Look what I found!!!How many of you are jealous?haha it's ok, raise your hand, if you want!! I am just kidding! I can't wait to see what New Moon is going to be like! I was excited to find this and add it to my blog!!!We are officially counting down!!!Can't wait!

Momedy...

So, I talked to my friend Candace today and she told me about her friend's amazing blog that she has. I love a good blog, so I checked it out. It is so amazing that people are now paying HER to advertise on her blog. Check it out- the link is on the left! It has so much on it and links to some really great things! How does she do it? She's a busy mom of 4 and has a million things to do just like the rest of us! That's it. I am dropping a few things today so I can read her blog.

By the way, she named it "Momedy" because she says being a mom is like being in a comedy because so many funny things go on. Hence, "Momedy".

The One Shoed Boy...

So, like every other Sunday Jason and I tell the kids to get ready and make sure they have everything they need. We tell Josh and Averie several times to get their shoes. VERY often Josh either cannot find his church sandals or doesn't say he can't find them until we are actually in the car. Up until this point we have allowed him to run back in and find them. This time he located one under one of the seats in the van, but couldn't find the other one. Of course we were all in the car ready to back out. So I made an executive decision and told him, "you are going with one shoe or no shoes". Off to church we go and he is searching high and low for the other sandal that I KNOW is in the van somewhere. We get out of the car and we go in and he goes in with only one shoe! He felt lucky that his pants were long so he could hide his other shoeless foot. I should have had him wear his other pants that weren't so long! On my quest to teach him a lesson in being more prepared, he says after church, "I wasn't embarrassed at all! Noone asked me about my other shoe, except Nathan Wilson that said, 'eeewww! Stinky!'"

There is a nursery tale that we used to sing all the time when Sydney and Kallie were young that reminded me of Josh. Can you guess what it is? It goes like this:

Deedle, deedle dumpling, my son John

Went to school with his stockings on

One shoe off and one shoe on

Deedle, deedle dumpling, my son John!

The Humorous One...

If you know Sydney, you know she is always smiling or laughing about something. She wants to be an actress, so I pretend she is practicing her facial expressions. When she is mad I say to her," I am glad you are practicing being mad. Good job on the serious, grumpy face. Keep practicing, you look really mad!" So, she can't take it and just starts laughing.

So, here is a riddle Sydney just asked:

A cowboy rides into town on Friday. Then rides home three days later on Friday. How does he do it?

For the answer go to Sydney's blog on the side bar to get the answer! It's pretty good!

The Lazy One

Let's just be honest people.

So, this is a follow-up to Averie's excuse of being too busy to put the silverware away because she was eating popcorn. This morning I said, "So, who will volunteer to empty the dishwasher?" Like someone will voluntarily volunteer for a chore. So, Kallie says so matter of factly, "Well, I am not going to do it. I am just lazy." So, she is my best cleaner, she does stuff WITHOUT even asking. If she knows I am stressed out, she'll just start cleaning because she knows that will make me feel better. So now that she declared, "I am just lazy." is that the end to my helpful child? I should have known this was coming. The other day she told me that she didn't like to clean so much anymore.

This month's round-up...

We have had a lot of things go on this month. The most recent was the sad event of my Papa passing away. I can't say to much right now- the emotions are still riding high- but to say the very least, he'll be greatly missed and we had so many great times together. I'll never forget him.

About a week ago a song kept running through my mind that we sing in Primary:
I lived in heaven along time ago, it is true
Lived there and loved there with people I know, so did you
Then Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan
All about Earth and eternal salvation for man.

I know I'll see him again some day.

How lucky we were to get a family picture the week before with all of us.




I came home to the kids playing with this gooshy toy. They took out the blinking eye inside it and decided it could be put to better use! Kallie is having a tug-o-war.







Sydney sporting a new look. Kinda cute?

I spilled some pancake powder one day and took a little too long to clean it up. No worries though! Averie made good use of it. I came into the kitchen and she got out all the kitchen tools she needed!

Josh and his friend Matthew make these books. He really gets into it. So far he has a Pirates of the Carribean book and an Astronaut book he has finished! I type out what he tells me and he adds the pictures.

One night we took my sister, Mark and Summer over to Westgate to walk around. Josh wanted to run in the splash pad. As soon as the water stopped, all the kids would try to make it to the other side before the water started again. This is what we left with! He collided with another boy. Poor kid! After a day or so, he became proud of it and liked it when people would ask him about it.

My sister, her boyfriend, Mark and our niece, Summer came for a little visit a few weeks ago. Here is Sydney and Summer. They are only 3 weeks apart.

My sister and Josh doing a little jogging on Wii Fit!

My sister, Tiffani and Mark.It was so great to have them come for a visit. Hopefully, we'll see them again this summer!

We have been finishing up some much needed painting and a little decorating. (Ignore the Mountain Dew on the desk- you aren't supposed to see that!) You can usually find Jason at his desk doing paperwork and he just can't contain himself sometimes and busts out and starts singing like he is on stage with millions of adoring fans. Anyway, I posted this to show what color we painted the den!

We went with a lighter neutral color in the entry and both halls upstairs and downstairs.

This is Kallie's room. She really wanted a conversation table and some comfortable chairs.

She wanted lots of dots!

Little Averie's room. Just need some cute curtains, a picture and a rug!

Sydney's room is a work in progress! She has been decorating her walls for the past 2 + years. There is another wall you can't see with pictures. I told her we'll paint when she's ready! We finally got her a comforter set, real window blinds (goodbye paper shades) and curtains.

Josh had his 7th birthday party on March 21. It was a Bionicle party with some slippin' and slidin'.

Wildlife World Zoo

It all began with a fun trip to the Wildlife Zoo! We have been a few times before, but we did a few new things this time. We got to feed the Lory Parrots twice and went on the brand new log ride! Averie definitely didn't know what she was getting herself into when we got on the boat! Needless to say, she won't be going on that again! Feeding the parrots was soo fun. The kids loved it. When you walk in you get a piece of an apple to hold out and if your lucky the bird will land right on your hand and eat the apple! They only let you stay in there for about 20 minutes due to the bird's fast metabolism. It could get a little messy in there, so they herd everyone out at a certain time! We loved it!

So what is next? A few more birthdays, a play, a concert, swim lessons, diving lessons, summer movie days, acting camp, and visits from friends and family!