Papa and Mer Mer Come Again!!!

Alberta Zach snagged Papa's hat right when we picked them up at the airport. This would have been perfect for his costume last year! Where were you then?! :)
What a cowboy.

I loved how the kids just jumped right in saying hi to Papa and Mer Mer. I LOVED having them here and having extra hands. Please come again, SOON! We all miss you!

Kara LOVES to be held and LOVES to cuddle. 2 reasons why she LOVES when grandmas come.

The favorite activity the first night. Fishing I think, but more like tug of war. Pretty sure mom's scarf doubled in length. :) That is why I love her so much. She didn't even mind. She said it'll shrink again in the dryer. It was all about them playing, him being happy and having fun. I love you mom!

PULL!!!! Look how red his face is! He is working hard!

The after math. Look how sweaty!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

To start it off we had green 4 leaf clover pancakes on green plates! Lucky!

Kate loved Zach's new rain boots! Thanks for the cute outfits Carrie!

Movie time! And yes, all of my kids have green on...some where.
They are eating what we call baby pop corn. Puffed wheat! It is really good! (and only 50 calories and lots of fiber and protein in 1 cup!)

And what is St. Patrick's Day without corned beef and cabbage!? They didn't have the real corned beef roast up here AND we couldn't find cabbage at the store! So, we found corned beef sandwich meat and a pickled cabbage. You only live once, right?! It actually made a pretty good toasted sandwich. Mom said it was better than horseradish! Yay for St. Patrick's Day and Green food!

All the kids went up for a bath in our jacuzzi tub. I totally remember doing this with my friend Jolene when I was younger. My mom and dad had one of these tubs. We filled it up, poured tons of soap in, and got lost in the bubbles. Sometimes there were so many bubbles they'd go out of the tub onto the floor. We had to feed the bubbles into the "bubble eater" on the tub. Remember that Jolene? FUN!

Zach loved it...the girls didn't. They were afraid of the jets.

Scrub a dub dub.

We celebrated Zach's birthday early. He had a chocolate mint chip ice cream cake...YUM!

The pictures on the wall need updating, so I thought I'd take a few pictures after the kids were ready for church. It ended up being a joke...Yes, she does have a little clip in her mouth. Silly Kate. Portrait for the show "Your kid ate what?!"

I REALLY wish this had a better background, better lighting, and no plug. I LOVE their little faces in this one!! So sweet. And Kate's head turned to the side. So Kate.

Zach's photo shoot. Zach was so crazy and acting like a nut during the whole thing. Here are a few of my favorites. HA! (p.s. You can totally still see Zach's angel kiss birthmark!)

Wouldn't you love to see this one on your wall every day!

Little stinker.

The night before they left. Boo hoo...

Mer mer and Papa with the girls.

Mom, what do you think about Grandmary? I heard that recently...

Ah, amore... aren't we cute.

Happy Birthday Cody!

Ladies and Gentlemen...He's 21!

This is my little brother Cody. Isn't he cute. He is on a mission for our church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His birthday was on the 16th. Jason and Kamry were driving right by the mission office, so they kindly agreed to drop some goodies off for him. I made him a birthday cake, his favorite cookies, and even a special tie. :) Happy Birthday Bro.
What's cookin?
Here are the kiddos all excited about the delicious cookies in the oven. I love this.

Sweet tie. I know. I'm taking orders...Crocheting is totally in. Justin would have modeled, but he was asleep...whoops. Leslie helped me figure out the pattern, the Crochet Goddess that she is...

What lovely texture. And yes, I did tie that all by myself. One of my talents.

All the goods. Turns out he got about 3 birthday cakes that day. Oh well, I bet mine was the best. Yellow cake, chocolate frosting, white chocolate letters...yum. It was supposed to be his missionary name tag...then I got lazy. Oh well. :)

Hats, Big Mouths, and Play Dough

Shreddies...they're THAT good.

I love that big bottom fishy lip hanging over.

I took out the camera and she says "Cheese." They learn so young!

So funny Kate.

(Side note: she did have a bib on. Several times throughout this meal I put her bib on. She simply will not have it.)

Closed.

AND OPEN!

She opens SO big. Whenever you feed her anything, or if she sees something you have that she wants, she does this. So funny. Such a big mouth for such a little girl.

ATTACK!!!

I was on the treadmill and Zach was watching "Dinosaur Train" and playing with his play dough. All of a sudden I look up and he is doing smash art. Fun I guess. Pink is done, now on to the purple.

The artist at work.

Voila! I am most impressed with the straight purple line in the middle. Nice detail.



Play Dough Recipe!

2 C flour

1 C salt

4 tsp cream of tartar

2 C colored water

Mix the dry stuff. Add the wet stuff. Cook it in a pot greased with 2 TBS oil, stirring constantly until it looks like play dough. This is great, soft stuff and lasts a long time without getting dried out! Takes minutes to make.

Friends!

We got together with 2 of my friends from last year that DESERTED me. They lived so close. Now they live so far. It was SO fun to see them again and CRAZY to see how much they've grown. Especially Teya and Macen. Macen went from nonexistent to 6 months old! Cute little man. Thanks Sue and Jordana! I miss you guys!

Kepler, Kara, Kate, Zach, Jayna, and Teya...reunited and it feels so good.

Oops, we forgot Macen! Here he is on the right by Teya. Plus, I had to include this picture because of the wicked action shot I got of Kepler throwing the ball...Mid-air!

My 3. Yep, Zach's hair is always like that right now. Just sticking up off the crown of his head. I am trying to grow it out to see if it will weigh down or not, but so far it isn't happening. You should see it after naps!

Sunday Bums

We don't have church until 1 pm on Sunday afternoons so since the kids wake up BY 6:15 6:30, we have a lot of time to bum around. Today they wore coordinating dresses that I had to iron. I NEVER iron and I hate doing it, but the dresses lost like 2 inches in the wrinkles and they looked too short, so I had to. I stripped them off and went to iron, but I couldn't help myself from taking cute bum pictures. Little white tights and colored bloomers/briefs/panties...whatever they're called! They looked so cute! I love having 2 little girls. If you are lucky you can catch a glimpse of Zach in his cute diaper too. Ug. That is his favorite outfit!

Yes, those are dried shell noodles all over the floor. I made them noise makers (shells in a bucket) one day to occupy them for a few minutes. Well, somebody opened theirs. They had fun playing with those too and putting them back in the bucket though. Whatever works!

Run Kara!!

Here we see Zach peacefully reading his little sisters a story. I am sure that is what is happening.

It really is so cute to just watch them run around together and play (nicely most of the time).