March into April

Time to play catch-up again! Here's Dusty Kitty getting big (this was taken March 18th).

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On March 21st, it was finally a nice, windy day and we had great success with our kites. When we got to the park, there were probably 25 other kites being flown!

Christian loved holding onto his for awhile, but then he wanted to play on the playground. Faith and Tony kept the kites going for a few more hours (!) and got them so high that they had out the entire spool of string. This was not the wimpy string that came with the kites, oh no, it was a separate spool that Tony bought for each that was much longer. It took Tony and I about 15 or 20 minutes to roll all that string and reel the kites in when we were ready to leave!

I took some of Faith's artwork off the fridge to put in her memory box and wanted to document it here also. Isn't she just the best little artist?


And this one made me laugh. In school they were supposed to make the cabin out of construction paper strips, but Faith had to add some extra flair to it! She made a door that would open, Abraham Lincoln, his mailbox (which opens and has a little pocket to hold mail), and a tiny envelope. When she got home and was showing it to me, she decided that there needed to be a mail carrier to deliver the mail, and she made him riding a bike because she knew cars hadn't been invented yet! The bike basket also has a pocket that holds the mail. I digitally labeled everything for your convenience :D

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Christian took this photo and I posted it to document Tony's new facial hair style--the "soul patch".

On April 1st, we didn't do much by way of April Fools pranks, but I did make Christian a turkey/tomato/spinach sandwich wrap for lunch. He enjoyed the heck outta that thing!

That night we went over to Joy's house for a homemade sushi night! Jordan was out of town for a business trip, so Tony wasn't too sad to skip it and stay home with Christian who was having a really late nap. Joy showed me how they make their own take on the California roll:

on seaweed sushi wraps she puts mayo, sushi rice (short grain rice cooked, then mixed with sushi rice vinegar), imitation crab, and cucumber and avacado cut in rectangular sticks.

She then rolled it tightly on the mat and sliced it. Before you eat it, you dip it in Kikoman soy sauce and then in toasted sesame seeds. I didn't know if I liked the flavor of the seaweed at first, but it grew on me and I really liked these rolls!

Faith and Sierra, after enjoying their dinner (that Sierra can put away sushi rolls like you wouldn't believe!!), ran around like crazy kids. Thanks for the fun girls' night, Joy!

April 5th was Noah's third birthday and Sarah threw a Thomas birthday party for him at my mom & dad's. Here they are playing "pass the Thomas" for a chance to win a striped engineer hat. (The kids LOVE that Eric's a good sport and always joins in on the kiddie games!)

They all ended up winning at some point! Here's Eric rocking his,

and my kids looking adorable in theirs.

They also played "pin the number on Thomas"

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and a relay of sorts where the little kids were train cars and they raced to shake (Brendon)Sir Topham Hat's hand. Christian got confused about where to run to and took off down the sidewalk! He finally responded to our calling and turned around after he got a couple of houses down the block.

On the 8th we had Ann & Natalie and the kids over for an Easter party. The kids first made cake pops. Instead of the cake & frosting mix, I food processor-ize a package of Oreos, then mixed in a block of cream cheese.
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They were so yummy! Here is Faith showing off her creations,

and Maddie assisting Christian with his.

They turned out so cute!

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Next, I had the kids put together some felt finger puppets that looked like bunnies and chicks, but had egg shaped bodies. Moms had to help a bunch (sorry moms!), but the kids loved the finished product!

Poor Brody thinks that most of our craft projects are too young or "girlie" for him, so he hangs out with the toys or just playing with Hunter while we do them.

I even had a mom craft this time--we made plastic egg wreaths!

After Faith took that picture, Christian wanted to take some, too. He got this great, albeit close-up, picture of Kynan.

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Then it was Ky's turn and he got this super-attractive shot of Christian! We had such a fun time playing and visiting.

The next day we had over my friend Brandy with her daughter Kelsie and twin boys Bridger & Garret. First we colored Easter eggs. Brandi's boys were so quick at egg dying, they loved plopping the egg into a color, pulling it out and moving on to the next egg. Christian, on the other hand, took 10 minutes to dye one--dipping it partially into one color, turning it, then putting another part into another color. It took forever, but his eggs did turn out awesome!

Then the kids decorated egg-shaped creamy Jello Jigglers with frosting.

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The boys all did big mountains of pastel colored frosting which reminded me of your windshield when you go through the carwashes that have the pink, yellow and baby blue foam soap :)

The girls took their time and turned theirs into masterpieces. We had a great time with Brandi & her family, we hope to get together with them soon!

On the evening of April 9th, the kids enjoyed some cantaloupe after their bath.

They were eagerly awaiting a visit from the Easter bunny! Here are some of their cute eggs. (By the way, Christian tried really hard to hold his towel closed and showcase his eggs at the same time, but it was too hard and I guess he just decided "what the heck!" Luckily I edit all these pics before posting!)

I know I'm a bit video happy today, but there may be one or two people left in the world who didn't see a clip from "Britain's Got Talent" this week on a news/talk/entertainment show. I love the simple underlying message of not judging a book by its cover, and Simon's reaction is priceless:


Susan Boyle Stuns Crowd with Epic Singing - Watch more Funny Videos

This reminded me of another performance a few years ago:


Phone Salesman Amazes Crowd - Watch more Funny Videos

(If you'd like to watch them in high quality, click here for Susan Boyle and here for Paul Potts on YouTube. Currently embedding is disabled on these.)

I saw this on Ikeagoddess's blog and, although it starts out pretty slow, ends up being kind of a fun Twilight parody:

WARNING: this post features pictures of hot abs!!

I want to preface this by saying that I'm not a huge Robert Pattinson fan--he is not Edward from the Twilight books, in my mind. That being said, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this poster for New Moon on Rachel's blog:

I've since learned that it's not the one put out by the film company (theirs is just the bottom fourth of it), but photoshopped together by a fan! I will concede, now that I've seen the movie twice, Robert is looking better and better to me :)

Of course he's still not at the top of my "vampire hotties list". I definately have a penchant for bad boy, bleached blondes after becoming enraptured with Spike (James Marsters) from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel TV series' many moons ago (and yes, I did enjoy James in the Twilight movie).

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And although Angel wasn't as hot as Spike in my book, this picture of David Boreanaz certainly sizzles--am I right, girls?!!?

And since this has started out as a "hot guys I've been noticing lately" post, lets keep it going with some more eye candy! This is Ryan Conklin from the latest season of The Real World. A cutie, great singer/songwriter/guitar player, and soldier (who already spent a year in Iraq before the show, who just got called back for another deployment there).

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Because he looks so young (he's 24 now but was only 19 or 20 when in Iraq before), he reminds me that our babies are across the sea risking their lives for us and that absolutely breaks my heart. Whatever your political views, lets work on getting these heros back home!!!!!!!

I haven't seen him in the Sex and the City movie (& don't plan to since I've never had an interest to even see the series), but French actor Gilles Marini sure has been heating up Dancing With the Stars lately! Check out his Samba, and especially this week's Tango for proof of this.

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Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is certainly a sexy Henry VIII in the Showtime series The Tudors,

this season he even has a menacing goatee! Which vampire character could we petition for him to be cast as in one of the upcoming Twilight movies????

And, since I'm me, I have to throw in one baffling, eclectic choice: Russell Brand. Trust me when I say that it's only safe to watch American television interviews with him, and not his BBC stand-up specials! Because he was politically insensitive and also made some snide remarks about the Jonas Brothers' promise rings, I was one of the few who really enjoyed his hosting the MTV Video Music Awards last year.

Lastly, I just happened across this pic of Christain Bale and felt that any post of hot guys would be incomplete without him!

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Sorry mom, I know this is far from your favorite type of post (which is chuck full of wholesome pictures of your grandchildren)--I'll get another one of those up soon, I promise!

And in conclusion, speaking of cravings, Tony and I have been eating healthy and excersising a lot these past 3-4 weeks and are losing some weight! Officially, Tony's lost 12 lbs. and I've lost 12, yay us!!! Still, I just had to post this darling idea and beg my friends and/or family to make them with me soon (and then take them all away so I don't eat them):

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They're cakeball pops from Bakerella's awesome blog (see posts from March 25-April 1 for how-to's).

We've had some nice weather, off and on, but occasionally it's rudely interrupted by spring snowstorms. On the nice days, we've been spending time at Angel Street Park Soccer Complex. This was taken Feb. 28th. (Tony's wearing his "hunting" wear because he spent the morning shooting clay pigeons with a buddy from work)





The kids loved getting out and swinging, playing on the playground, and just running around.






Christian even found some mud to play in!

I've just started giving Faith some early beginner piano lessons. Although she's quite stubborn and doesn't like me to correct her, she's a quick study and is picking up some basics!

On March 6th, the kids got to go to thier new dentist's! Christian has had two dentist visits, but this was his first cleaning. Other than refusing to get his dental x-rays, he did wonderfully! He thought that the blue, cookie dough flavored toothpaste was cool and he loved getting a token to put in the "gumball machine" style toy dispenser! Faith had to see the orthadontist there a week later where we found out that she will probably get braces in September--eek!





After the long winter, Buddy needs some practice at putting his sunglasses on by himself :)





Faith couldn't help but follow this awesome new style trend.

Baby Dusty is growing so big, so fast! He's a little mischief man and better never do this when I'm not looking!!! He had a big day on March 16th when he went to the Vet's for neutering & declawing. We didn't know he'd have to spend the night, and that morning when we found out that we had to wait until the next day to pick him up, Faith started to cry :(


On March 11th, I watched Sierra and Lily while Joy got her house ready to be shown. (Update--they accepted an offer this week and now have to hurry to find a new house!!) I thought it was so cute that Lily enjoyed teasing Dusty with his green boa on a stick. It was much later, when she started to get mad, that I realized that Lily actually wanted to play with that toy by herself and was upset that the cat kept pouncing on it!

On the 13th, Natalie came over with her darling girls for a St. Patty's party. Unfortunately, Ann couldn't make it because Brody didn't feel well :( Nat brought over this cute craft as well as leprechaun hat cookies made from an upside down striped shortbread cookie, mini Reese's peanut butter cup on top, and green icing buckle.

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Immediately after the party, I took Faith & Christian over to Braegger's where they were having a sleepover with Zach. Tammy gave them new jammies as a surprise, then they got to eat Chinese take-out and chocolate fondue! The next day, she made them green pancakes & green scrambled eggs for breakfast, then took them indoor miniature golfing at Fat Cat's. They had so much fun! And Christian actually slept over this time instead of coming home at 11:30 pm!!!!!!

On the 14th, Tony shaved his beard that he'd been growing out for a week or so into a "Hulk Hogan" mustache and goatee. I told him that it looked absolutely ridiculous and that thing just had to go, so he went in to shave it. (He was halfway done whent this picture was taken, so you can't get the full effect of the craziness) Faith thought it was so funny that she immediately grabbed some paper, tape, and her markers and made herself and her brother some crazy mustaches! (I love how Buddy put his on upside down!!)

Faith then decided that they just weren't big enough, so she made a couple more.

March 15th was Zach's 10th birthday, so we went over to his house to celebrate. He got a Wii Fit and some awesome golf clubs!

When Tony got off work a little earlier than usual on the 16th and it was windy in Salt Lake, he took us out to fly kites when he got home.

Too bad that it wasn't windy at all in Kaysville! We still had a lot of fun trying to get the kites up.

Then the kids enjoyed the park for awhile until we started getting eaten by mosquitoes. I thought it would be too early in the season for those little buggers!
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Here are Faith and Christian in their green on St. Patrick's day getting in some "Elefun" after picking Dusty up from the vet.

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I love how well the kids get along together!

That night I made a special dinner of corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes, green rolls (from Bowmans-they have a great bakery) and green milk. We had a lot of fun with St. Patty's this year!

Although I love "American Idol," I rarely do the phone voting. For one thing, I never watch the show live (only on Tivo), and for another, I don't think my few little calls have much power against the tweens and teens who call 87,000,000 times for their fav. But this week, I not only voted, I voted for FOUR different contestants!

Pause the blog music over on the right --> and check out my picks. Here was my favorite, I've nicknamed him "Cutie Pie":
(the performance is from 1:10 to 2:54)



Click here for a surprisingly sexy Anoop Desai ("Anoop Dawg"), then scroll down to the black rectangle & click the play button.

I also loved this performance by the one I call "J.T" (because his looks, especially his hair, remind me of Justin Timberlake):
(1:05 to 3:00)




I didn't include the performance by "Salt Lake" (Megan Joy Corkrey) because I couldn't find it, and she didn't sound very good because she was so sick. But I still had to vote for her because I like her voice, her quirkiness, and because she's our hometown girl!

I think I even showed some restraint because I also love "Teacher/Widower" (Danny Gokey) and "Broadway" (Adam Lambert). Just so you know, I always have to give "Idol" contestants nicknames because I'm TERRIBLE with names! I'll finally start to remember my favorites' names when they're down to the top four or five :D

Family Pictures

At the end of December, just in time to be Christmas gifts for the grandparents, we got some family and individual pictures taken at Target. Tony & I both hate having our pictures taken, so our parents know that this is truly an act of love for them :) They didn't turn out too bad, and we used a coupon that made each photo sheet just $3.99: