Rosie says some funny things

Recently Rosie has totally cracked me up. Here are a few instances where she has said some pretty funny things. Well, at least they're funny to me.

1) I was cleaning up after dinner and Rosie was discussing her new Happy Meal Toy with Carson. He held out his hand and asked if he could see it and her reply was, "No it's expensive, I got it at McDonalds!"

2) Have you seen the Smooth Away, hair removal buffer sold on TV? Rosie was watching the commercial and she said to me, Ma Ma, you could get one of those cause you have lots of hair on your legs like Daddy. She also said something like, look she is using in on her face too? I was like, wow thanks Rosie. Hey it's winter and I'm not shaving everyday if I don't have to. By the way, my hair is not as long as Kevin's.

3) We rented a sedan while our van was at the body shop having some work done as a result of someone trying to break into it on vacation. Rosie is used to our van and has not really ridden in a car before. So after we returned the car and got our van back she said, "Mom what happened to the blue squished car we were driving. Why can't we drive the squished car, I liked it?" I asked her why she called it a squished car and she told me that it was squished like a pancake and held up her thumb and pointer finger making a small gesture telling me that it was not tall like our van, but really close to the ground.

Happy Birthday Carson!

Carson turned 7 on October 25th. We had a great day at the Fall Carnival in Missoula, out to eat at his favorite restaurant (HuHot) and celebrating at Grandma's house with cake. Just one year until you're baptized son, can't wait! Here's what he's up to as a 7 year old.

*Carson loves to play Mario Cart Wii
*He is very talented at drawing
*Carson enjoys reading, he especially likes to read the Magic Tree House series and Frog and Toad adventures.
*Favorite Food: Apples and Cheese Pizza
*Carson has two pet toads, Clyde and Kona
*He is in the first grade at Lewis and Clark Elem., his teacher is Mrs. Seder.
*Favorite sport: Soccer

Cousin's Halloween Bash

It's great to have the cousins all together. They just love being with one another. We hosted a Halloween party for the cousins at our home and her are some pictures of our activities. We painted pumpkins in the front yard, had a costume parade around the block, played musical chairs, danced and snacked. It was fun to have them all together for such a fun holiday celebration.

Ward Halloween Party

Kevin and I are on the activities committee at church. Our second activity that we were involved in was this Halloween party. Janna (Kevin's sister) and her girls came over from Missoula and our niece Madison came to the party with us. Rosie was a ghost, so was Carson, Maddie was a princess, Laynee was Belle, Janna was Lumier and McKinley was Cogsworth the Clock. Kevin and I dressed up as Sarah Palin and John McCain but everyone kept asking who we were so I won't post those pictures. Next year we'll do a better job of putting together our costumes. It was a fun evening.

Family Vacation Slideshow

Family Vacation

The first weekend in October Kevin and I took the kids to Texas. My dad's side of the family generally likes to gather every year in Texas or Michigan or wherever we can meet up; this year we ended up in San Antonio. Even with high gas prices, rather than flying three children down, we decided to drive, yikes, it was a loooong drive, but great to have our own vehicle while there and get to stop and see things on the way back and forth.
My dad has 7 siblings so we have lots of fun when as many people can, join in. I love being close to my aunts and uncles and my cousins. All in all we had family from Portland, Seattle, the Detroit area, Houston, and Montana. In my family food is a big part of our getting-together. So we did eat great food while we were there both at my aunt's homes and at local restaurants. On our way down we stopped at an authentic BBQ joint that was so good. The smoke house was in back of the restaurant and the smells were amazing. Before leaving San Antonio we took the kids to Sea World. It was a reward for memorizing some of the Articles of Faith. I had always wanted to go too so it was really exciting for me also. When we left Texas we drove through Albuquerque, where we used to live just out of school. It was weird driving through there again for the first time since we moved to Las Vegas. I'd really like to go back though and see some friends and the local things we enjoyed while we were there. In Castle Rock, Colorado we stopped to see our friends the Whittens. We really miss our friends there, too. Allison threw me a baby shower when I had Olivia and her husband Kevin and my Kevin were home teaching companions. We also spend last Thanksgiving at their home, thanks Ali. They're a great family who we just loved getting to know while we were in Colorado. Emilee, their daughter was also a little friend of Rosie's and their two boys Jackson and Mitchell had a good time with Carson. When we stopped however they were in school so Carson was bummed to not see them.

It was a long drive, lots of miles traveled, lots of food, lots of people and things to see and lots of fun! It was a great break from the norm and our first official family vacation. I'm glad we made it.

First Day of Preschool

Rosie loves her new preschool. Two sisters from the other side of the river run it from home. Rosie's friends from Nursery, Jackson and Emma attend too so it's nice to meet new friends as well as having familiar faces to see each week.

Grandma and Carson, Playing the Wii

Turning "29"

My birthday was September 3rd. Just a few days after Olivia's. It was a great day, my mom drove over from Missoula to spend a few days with us and brought a yummy carrot cake that she made. She saved the frosting for Rosie to help her with. We sat around the house most of the day chatting and playing with the girls. It was so special to have her around on my birthday. That evening she watched the kids so Kevin and I could go out. How nice! So, my 29th Birthday turned out to be a great day. Thanks Mom!

Birthday Girl

Olivia turned one on August 26th. We celebrated quietly at home, we did not have a 5 foot tall cake or fireworks just her siblings, mom and dad, a home made cake and a few gifts. It's a good thing we did not go out somewhere on the town to celebrate because she was not feeling great, she was fussy from a 6th tooth and getting over a cold.
I can't believe that I had her a year ago. Oh Boy! The first year just goes so quickly. I love to be her mom. She's a good little girl and makes me laugh each day. She loves to flip through books, play in the spice rack on the kitchen floor and sit outside in the grass and watch the birds. She puts up with her older siblings picking her up and moving her away from whatever they're building so she doesn't knock it over, she gently folds her hands during family prayer and generally wakes up very happy. So much of her reminds me of each of my other children, but she's so uniquely Olivia.
Happy first birthday Liv!

Liv with Grammie

While visiting my mom at the end of August Olivia decided to show off her balancing skills. She stood up and sat down and played and laughed; she should be walking on her own any day now.

Cute little McKinley

When Janna, Kevin's sister came to visit in August we had a great time. Kevin was around more than most visits when family comes to town. Our little niece McKinley just lit up around Kevin. It was cute to see the two of them together.

Reading outdoors

The kids love to read, but we generally don't make a date of it to go somewhere to read. This Sunday afternoon in July we took the kids near the Missouri River to lay out a blanket and read together. It was peaceful to be outdoors with some good books. Pioneer Day was approaching so we checked out some Pioneer books from the library and brought them along. One of the kids favorites was, "Papa and the Pioneer Quilt".

An afternoon at the pool

I had been wanting to take the kids to the neighborhood pool and spray park for weeks. The park doesn't open until 1pm, which is generally nap time so we just didn't go. Last week it was so hot that despite being a little anxious about taking 3 kids by myself to play in the water I did it. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. We started off at the spray features and I let Liv sit as the water pooled up around her and she loved watching Carson and Rosie run through the sprinklers. Then we headed to the pool. Carson swam in the shallow end and the girls and I sat on the edge and splashed our feet. It was fun and even thought it's not as convenient as it used to be I'm glad we went. Summer just goes by so fast that we'll try to go once a week before it's too cold and snowy to even be outside.

Caution, contents under pressure!

Those of you who know me well, know that I love sweets. Yes, I like to spend time in the kitchen, however rather than following my mother's example and making tasty meals you can generally find me whipping up some sort of dessert.
We invited the missionaries over to our house for dinner Friday night. For dessert I decided to mix up a chocolate sheet cake. The recipe called for baking chocolate. As I opened the container of cocoa it popped and shot a brown powder all over my kitchen floor and all over me. All I could do was laugh. I thought, darn it's just too bad this chocolate is unsweetened.

Just Like Dad

So I had to add some pictures of Kevin and Carson today after church. Carson asked his dad what shirt he was planning on changing in to and after Kevin said his red and white baseball t-shirt Carson raced downstairs to his room and put his on too. Then he came up and asked what shorts he was planning on wearing, and Kevin replied that he'd probably wear a pair of white basketball shorts. Carson raced back down into his room and returned wearing an outfit similar to Kevin's. However, Carson was wearing a white pair of socks and Kevin wasn't wearing any, so he got Kevin a pair from the drawer So, here are the results, Kev and Carson wearing red and white shirts and basketball shorts as they lounged on the couch together to watch a movie. Carson just adores his dad and even loves to dress like him.

Check out my Slide Show!

Kids Fish Stories

So Pelican Point is a great little fishing spot to take the kids for an easy catch. The guys did not get a chance to fly fish like they would have loved, but all of their nieces and nephews and their own kids absolutely loved the time they spent together. Here are pictures of each of the kids with the fish they caught.