Is Anyone There?

Okay, so I realize I haven't been the best at blogging lately.  I don't really know why I haven't been doing it much, but it's something I still really want to keep up on.  I like to blog as a record for my family, but I'm curious to know if there's anyone out there still checking my blog.  So it's roll call - if you're reading this, please comment so I know if anyone's still listening.  I'll be catching up soon, but until then, here's a funny.

• Makenna wanted to fill up some water balloons and pretend they were her pets.  She announced to her sisters, "Water balloons for sale for free!"  Kasidee said, "I'll give you 50 cents and 10 cents...so here's fifty-ten cents."  Later, when she couldn't find the coins she had put on the counter, Kasidee exclaimed, "I lost my cents!"

Ha!

Okay, either I think my kids are super funny...or I'm just not taking the time to document anything else.  Anyway, here's some more funnies.  My last 3 posts were "Funnies," "More Funnies," and "Even More Funnies."  It was tempting to call this one "Even even more more funnies!"  Well, here you have it!

• Our girls have had a little summer job taking care of our neighbor's garden, watering the lawn, checking the mail, etc. while they have been on vacation.  One day we decided to swing by on our way somewhere else, so we were in the car.  Kiera and Kasidee jumped out to do their job but Makenna decided to stay in the car.  After about a minute Makenna said, "I better go see what they're doing - I know how they handle things!"
• Another time when we were in the car getting ready to run errands, I looked around and said, "Augh - I feel like I'm forgetting something.  What did I forget?"  And Makenna piped up and said, "It seems like I forgot something too.  Oh yes, my dignity!"
• One day I took Kasidee to her friend Libby's house to play.  As we were standing my the front door, Kasidee said to me, "I'm not afraid of Libby's cat anymore.  I want to overfear my scares."
• As Makenna was saying a prayer before dinner one night she said, "Please help us to be protected and nourishmented."
• Kasidee came up to me one day and very seriously said, "I know Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are real, but what about the Sandman and the... nose picker guy... what's his name?  Oh yeah, the Boogeyman."
• Makenna was practicing the hula hoop, and she said, "Mama, do you want to watch me do the Loopty Loop?"
• Kasidee had a stuffy nose one morning.  Pointing to one nostril, she said, "I can't breathe out of this nose [then pointing to the other nostril] or this nose."

Even More Funnies

So I haven't been very good at posting pictures/events lately.  But I'm pretty proud of myself for writing down things my girls say that make me giggle.  One day I'd like to put all of these silly sayings in a book.  Here's some more I'll add:

• After swimming lessons one day, I asked the girls to all get in the tub for a quick bath.  Kiera wanted to take her own shower but I said it would be faster and easier if they all just cram into the tub together.  Kiera said, "There's not enough room for the 3 of us in the tub.  Makenna's toots take up most of the room!"
• When the girls are with me when we go to Target, we like to get their free kid's cookies.  The other day Kiera and Kasidee gobbled theirs up within seconds.  Makenna held onto hers and said, "I'm going to save my cookie for the car.  That way you guys can watch me eat it!"
• Patting her tummy, Makenna said, "I'm feeling a little chunky."  Kasidee said, "Makenna, everybody has flubber."
• Kasidee said, "I saw a mosquito flying around and when I closed my mouth I couldn't see it anymore.  Can you check my teeth and see if there are any tiny legs there?"
• We've been getting invitations ready for Makenna and Kasidee's birthday parties.  Kasidee pointed to the envelopes and said, "When can we invitation them?"

More Funnies

• As a family, we are saving up for our new puppy that we'll be getting around February.  Kasidee asked if we could get 2 puppies.  I told her no, that one is plenty.  She said that 2 puppies would be too much money.  Then she said, "If one dog is $2,000 [which is not even close to how much I would pay for a puppy!] then 2 dogs would be 40 hundred thousand dollars."
• I called the girls inside as they were out riding their bikes.  I said, "It's time to come in - you need to have a bath and then we can do a family movie night."  Makenna said, "I want to do both of those, except the bath."

Funnies

• The girls have had fun playing with their dolls - the other day they planned a birthday party for them.  They told me, "They're turning zero!"
• One day, Kasidee was trying to whistle but for some reason a sound just wouldn't come out.  She exclaimed, "My whistle is out!"
• Kiera said, "Well, that was kind of freaky."  Makenna's eyes widened as she said, "Don't say that word!  It freaks me out!"
• Makenna said out of the blue one day, "I hope when we get our dog it doesn't bum-scootch."
• The other day when we were running a few errands, I told the girls we would go to one store to get something Kiera needed and another store to get something Makenna needed.  After a little bit Kasidee jokingly said as she laughed, "Well, what about me?  Is there candy involved?"

Princess Festival

On Saturday we joined my sister-in-law, my niece, my SIL's mom and niece at Thanksgiving Point for the Princess Festival.  I think this is our third or fourth time going, and it is a fun experience. All proceeds go to a great charity, and the girls get to dress up as princesses and go on "quests" where they interactively participate in princess adventures.  This year was extremely hot so we didn't do as much as we probably would have, but it was fun being there and having the fun experience!

 

 

Perhaps the best part was getting all wet at the end!

 

 

Funnies

• After Kasidee washed her hands at the sink, she couldn't quite reach the faucet to turn it off.  Pointing to the water, she asked, "Can you undo this?"
• Kiera (who will be in sixth grade this Fall) said, "It's weird how the sixth graders are a lot smaller now than when I was in first grade."
• Kasidee saw that I had bought a new bottle of mustard.  She exclaimed, "Ew - why did you get hamburger sauce?"
• The other day, I bought a bunch of fruit to make a fruit salad.  Makenna started licking her lips when she saw it.  I told her that we were going to give some of it to my sister-in-law and her family.  Makenna, who likes to have food all to herself said, "So you mean you got all of this fruit for nothing?"
• The 3 girls have been playing "Princess School" with each other for the last few days.  One of the things they're practicing is poise - and they walk across the room with a book balanced on their heads.  After trying many times and not making it all the way across, Kasidee said, "Okay, I guess I have a slippery head."
• Kasidee told me matter-of-factly the other day, "I'd much rather have sisters than friends."

Summer So Far

Well, we've been on summer break not even 2 weeks yet and I just feel so giddy!  I wish summer could last forever - I love having my girls home with me!  So far we've had the perfect combination of relaxation/motivation to get "chores" done/time for fun stuff!  We went on our ward campout, 2 birthday parties for friends, a sidewalk chalk festival at the neighbor's house, had sprinkler time, 2 trips to the "big" Salt Lake library, friend time, lots of cousin time, took lunch to Mom and Grandma, went to the Church History Museum with Mom, library show & babysitting class at the library, crafts at Sister C's house, BBQ at Corbin & Nikki's, picnic at the park with Mom and Grandma, vegetarian potluck with neighbors, International Peace Gardens with neighbors...plus gymnastics class for Kiera and Makenna (with cousin Marina) and soccer/basketball/t-ball class for Kasidee (with cousin Isaac).  Whew - so fun!

 

Ward Campout (Kiera and Ashleigh's secret hideout)

 

 

Neighborhood Sidewalk Chalk Festival at Kate's:

 

 

 

Kasidee learning T-ball

 

International Peace Gardens

 

 

Kasidee playing soccer:

Cousins:

 

 

Catch Up

It's been awhile....  Here's some of what's been going on:

 

Kiera was nominated to be in the district-wide decathlon.  In each of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades, 2 girls and 2 boys were chosen - she was so proud!  They competed against about 30 other schools in 10 competitions (200 meter dash, shuttle run, basketball dribble, jump rope, cup stacking, etc.)  She did great - she loves anything athletic, plus she has a bit of her dad's competitiveness in her!

 

Memorial Day weekend - the girls with Nana:

 

Preschool Graduation - Kasidee was my special helper this year, and she still wanted to have a part in the program!

 

 

(Group preschool hug!)

 

Kasidee's REAL kindergarten graduation:

 

(Kasidee's BFF Sydney)

 

All of the third graders had to create a "grape smasher" using at least 2 simple machines.  Here's the one Makenna created.

 

The last day of school.  This is Kiera's "all time favorite" teacher:

 

The girls came home to a "Happy Summer" banner I made:

 

 

Funnies

• Kasidee got one of those long stick suckers from a birthday party she went to.  For weeks, Kiera asked her if she was going to eat it.  Kasidee decided she could share with Kiera so she told Kiera she could lick the top half and Kasidee would lick the bottom half.  Kasidee explained to me, "Even though we're sisters we don't want to lick each other's licks."
• It was particularly hard for Kasidee to wake up for church one morning after a late night.  I kept going into her room and trying to rouse her.  At one point, I saw her stretching and said, "Oh, are you finally ready to get up?"  She said, "I just need to get my eyes ready."
• For Father's Day, my mom gave Quentin a foam mat that we can use for camping.  It's in 6 pieces and goes together somewhat like a puzzle.  Kasidee remarked, "Hey, we could make a box out of that instead and you could put me in it!"  I exclaimed, "What a great idea!"  Then she jokingly grumbled and said, "I should've not've said that!" 

Funnies

• Kasidee said, "I know zero is the shortest number...so what is the tallest number?"
• The girls bought snow cones from some neighbor kids on the last day of school.  Kiera and Kasidee got cotton candy flavor.  Makenna had wanted the pink lemonade flavor but the kid accidentally put cotton candy flavor on hers too.  As we were going home, Kiera said, "Those kids are pretty smart doing a snow cone stand on the last day of school."  Makenna said, "Well, they're not THAT smart - I asked for pink lemonade!"
• The night before Kasidee's kindergarten graduation, she asked if Daddy would be able to be there.  I told her that he wouldn't miss it - he took the whole day off.  She said, "Oh good.  It just wouldn't be the same without him."  Awww....

Funny

The other day I put our bathroom rug back after washing it - Kasidee always loves how fluffy it is after it comes out of the dryer.  She promptly put her feet on the rug which made 2 little footprints on the fluffy rug.  I teased her by saying, "Oh no, Kasidee - now it's ruined!"  She laughed and said, "I'll fluffin' it back up.  See, now it's all fluffined." 

The Piano Guys!!

Quentin, the girls and I are HUGE Piano Guys fans.  We just think they're brilliant!  Anyway, a couple of months ago (mostly from being inspired by Steven Sharp Nelson, the cello guy from The Piano Guys) Quentin decided to buy a cello and learn how to play.  Quentin knows how to play the clarinet, saxophone, violin, guitar and piano...so why not teach himself how to play the cello too?  Anyway, last week The Piano Guys were in Salt Lake doing a "Meet and Greet."  We of course had to go.  We met Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Al van der Beek and Paul Anderson and they signed our Piano Guys CDs.  After we got through the line Quentin realized he should have brought his cello bow to have them sign it.  He decided to go home then go back...and he not only got his cello bow signed but his cello (on the back of the scroll) signed by the 4 of them too.  How cool is that?! 

 

Quentin and I were also so excited to be able to go to their concert last Saturday.  Best concert EVER and something we'll never forget! 

 

Funnies

• We went to the school playground the other day and Kasidee said she wanted to show me that she can do the monkey bars forward and backward.  I was a little worried as I pictured her trying to look behind her as she grasped the bars in back of her, but I was curious to see how she would do.  So she started out and went forward on the monkey bars...and then she turned around and went the other way.  "Backward" to her was going one way and then back again!
• Kasidee tried on some shoes that had been slightly big a few weeks ago and exclaimed, "Mama - these shoes are actually growing into me!"
• Kasidee woke up the other morning and said, "I can't breathe out of this nose (pointing to one nostril)...it's foggy."
• We went to the Meet & Greet for The Piano Guys the other night.  When we got in the car when it was over I asked the girls if they thought it was worth it.  There was a resounding YES!  I said I was glad they had fun because I had wondered if I should have dropped them off at Granny's while Quentin and I went.  Makenna said, "What?!  You mean we had other options?"
• Before Kasidee went to one of her friend's birthday parties, she insisted on wrapping the gifts herself.  There were 4 small gifts which she wrapped individually and then stacked them on top of each other, the biggest on the bottom and the smallest on the top.  She said, "Look - I stacked them oldest to littlest!"
• Kasidee's kindergarten class did "Graduation Pictures" where they each got to wear a cap and gown.  Kasidee showed me the proofs and was so excited.  When she got to the page of about 10 wallet-sized pictures all on one sheet, she said, "Wow - there's a ton of me's!"
• The other night as we were getting ready for bed, Kasidee said, "I've been waiting all day for bedtime!"  (That's how I feel every day!)

Kiera's 11th

I seriously can't believe Kiera is 11.  One more year until she's a Young Woman.  Crazy stuff - it just is going way too fast!

 

Kiera wanted a "Sweet Shoppe" theme for her birthday party (the Saturday before her birthday.)  She had gone to a birthday party at the Lion House a couple of years ago and really liked the idea of doing that for her own party - but she admitted her favorite part was making taffy.  I told her we could make our own taffy at home and she was thrilled at the idea.  So she invited a dozen of her friends over to celebrate her birthday.  They took a little quiz matching taffy flavors with the taffy colors, made bracelets with jelly bean beads, made cars out of candies, pulled their own pieces of taffy, decorated their own cupcake...it was a fun and busy day!

 

 

The day before Kiera's birthday, her Grandma Stephens took her out to dinner at Dairy Queen - just the 2 of them.  Then they came back and had cake and ice cream at our house.

On Kiera's real birthday (the 30th) we gave her the choice of going to school or staying home.  I think every year she has stayed home and we've done something fun but this year she wanted to go to school - I think because one of her friends in her class shares her birthday!  She woke up to streamers on her door, a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" complete with musical instruments (something Kasidee had been planning for almost a week!), and pancakes for breakfast.  At lunchtime, I checked her and Makenna out of school (Kasidee was already out of kindergarten) and we had a pizza picnic at the park.  After school was over, the 5 of us went to dinner at the Olive Garden (her choice) with Granny then had cake and ice cream at Granny's house.  We ran out of time to go ice skating that evening, so we'll have to do it another day!

 

Zoo Day!

On April 15, Kasidee went on her kindergarten field trip to the zoo!  Of course...it was cold and rainy!  She had so much fun riding on the school bus.  Quentin had the day off and he and I drove up to the zoo and were able to join everyone there.  In our group, we had 3 girls and 4 parents!  (There's lots of parental involvement at our school!!)  They endured the cold weather and had a lot of fun.  The plan was to eat lunch at a park but it was so cold so they quickly made arrangements to eat lunch at the state capitol.  What a fun experience!

 

April 15 was also Quentin and my 16-year anniversary!  Since Quentin had the day off, we took the girls out of school early (after getting home from the field trip) and went out for an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.  We had planned on going up to Park City to browse and see the Lego exhibit but it was just such miserable weather we decided against it.  When we got home that evening, Quentin had decorated our downstairs kitchen with balloons and a "Sweet 16" banner - and he had yummy strawberry shortcake for us!  Quentin and I decided early on that we want to involve the girls when celebrating our anniversary because it's kind of a family event, plus it will help the girls learn how important anniversaries are!  Besides, everything is more fun with them!

 

 

 



California!

During Spring Break we went to Southern California!  It was one of those trips that we've been thinking about doing for a couple of years but were waiting for the "right time."  I was nervous about going during Spring Break because I thought half the world would be there, but it was the only time that would really work for us.  And the crowds really weren't that bad...and the weather was absolutely perfect!  We went 4 years ago and had fun, but the girls were more "into it" this time, and Kasidee was tall enough to ride pretty much all of the rides.  I'm so glad we went - we made lots of happy memories!

 

We left Easter afternoon, after church and dinner at Mom's house and drove to St. George.  I think the St. George Temple is one of the prettiest temples.  On Monday we drove from St. George to Anaheim.

 

 

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland! 

 

                                      

 

(Giving singing lessons to Tinkerbell's friends....)

 

 

                                      

 

The highlight for Kasidee was being able to meet Minnie and see her house and Mickey's house - Kasidee just adores anything Minnie!

 

 

 

 

We met my Aunt Loreen for dinner at a cafe in Disneyland - she lives just a few miles away from Disneyland.

 

 

On Wednesday we met my aunt and cousin Kanevin for breakfast, then we spent the day at California Adventures.

 

 

(Sharing a Mickey Mouse-shaped pretzel)

 

 

On Wednesday night, Kasidee's tooth (which had been hanging by a thread) finally came out.  At about 4:30 in the middle of the night, she came over to my hotel bed and woke me up.  Thinking she had to go potty, I led her into the bathroom.  She spit into the sink and her tooth was there - it had fallen out while she was sleeping and she felt it floating around in her mouth.  It's amazing she didn't swallow it!  Anyway, she wanted to keep her first tooth and wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy explaining that - the Tooth Fairy let her keep her tooth and gave her 2 golden dollar coins too!  Lucky girl! 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we visited the Downtown Disney District (the pic below was at the Lego store)

 

Then we drove from Anaheim to San Diego.  In the late afternoon we went to La Jolla Beach, just minutes away from our hotel.

 

On Friday we spent the day at Sea World.  The girls loved seeing all kinds of animals.  I think they're favorite part was being able to touch and feed a dolphin - something I don't think they'll ever forget!

 

(Getting ready to get wet in the "Soak Zone.")

Saturday we drove from San Diego (we stopped at the San Diego Temple on our way out) to Las Vegas.  We made a quick stop at the M&M Store and then relaxed in our hotel room (which was actually in Henderson, NV - it was so nice to be away from The Strip!)

 

Sunday morning we took a dip in the hotel pool and visited the Las Vegas Temple before we began our 7-hour drive from Las Vegas to home!  It was a fun trip full of fun memories!