March Madness

I'm feeling a little homesick writing about this. I grew up in a family that loved watching college basketball and spent the weeks of the tournament with our bracket picks taped to the fridge, dinner: take out and my whole family + friends parked in our basement. I have to admit, we don't watch much sports in our family now and I don't follow the teams the whole season anymore, but I feel obligated to particpate in this March ritual and get excited each season by filling out my bracket and making my best attempt to get a few games in. Richard can tell you that I have to stay up late championship night until they play "One Shining Moment". I just can't help myself. I always think that if I were still living in Utah, I would be getting together with Anje, Derek & Dane and their families and still be parked in the basement. I just have so many memories of tournaments past and, of course, so much of that is tied to my mom, who always made it so fun. I filled out my bracket today and enjoyed remembering all the good times in the past! I think my Jayhawks have a really good chance to go all the way. . .and I am hoping BYU does really good this year too!

My Morning

This morning got off to a good start. After the principal called yesterday to send a friendly reminder that Savannah wasn't getting to school early enough for her CRCT boot camp, she made a remarkable effort to get going without me having to tell her twice. I tried to play some hymns to keep the mood good and it seemed to work. When I came home from taking the girls to school, I cleaned up breakfast and mopped the floors. I got in a quick pilates workout while Porter sat on me or drove trucks all over me, only to get up to see he also smashed a banana into the fresh mopped floors. Just thought I'd paint a real picture of my life at the moment so I can remember someday that I just moved from one mess to another and I am ok with that.

Cardyn: 6 at last

My little fireball Cardyn turned 6 yesterday! She has been asking me all year long, "how many more months 'till my birthday?" Last Friday we celebrated with an "It's Sweet to be 6" party and invited 7 of her little friends and 2 of Savannah's. I blew up our swimming pool and put it in the living room and then filled it with balloons. My intention was to use the balloon's for a bingo game I had, but, thought better of it (since they would pop) and used the little balls kids jump in to put the BINGO numbers on. Porter woke up from his nap that day to a pool full of balloons to jump in and couldn't believe his eyes. Lucky for me he stayed in there and played which allowed me to get the rest of the party ready. They ate bagel bites, grapes and chips and then we set up BINGO. I had the big girls reading the numbers and the little girls all in unison would say it back while they looked to see if they had the number on their card. After BINGO we made ice cream sundaes and blew out her candles on her cupcakes. We finished up the party with presents and then we just turned the music on to let them dance and play with the balloons. Cardyn was wiped out by the end of the night and asked to go to bed early. Monday night when I tucked her in to bed I told her all about the night she was born. I guess us moms get so sentimental about our babies getting older. She was so happy to hear her story and woke up still talking about it. Yesterday was so busy with school, two soccer practices and YW's. She took in a treat I made to her classmates and when she got home we went and picked out her bike. Daddy surprised us by being home when we got there and then we hurried and made her a cake and cupcakes and hurried off to soccer and YW's. We are so thankful Cardyn is in our family! She is such a sweet little girl that likes to give hugs and snuggle. She plays so good with her sister and her brother and is really growing up. She likes to be given responsibilities and I just really appreciate her little spirit in our home. I also love her energy. She's the type that can turn on the sweet or the sour. We see less and less of sour tantrum's and instead is using that toughness in good ways. She is fearless on her bike and when she plays soccer or tennis she gives it all she's got! Happy Birthday Cardyn! We all love you so much!

Soccer Season is here!

I just realized that I don't have any pictures from them actually playing in their first game. I guess the camera never even came out of the bag for Savannah's game. All this is to be blamed on a really cute 20 month old who only wants to run on the field and get the "ball, ball, ball"
The girls played really good and I am looking forward to watching their games this season.

Sweet Tooth

Crazy Cardyn had the flu this week and has been really cooped up. She came across her swim suit in her dresser and put it on. She kept running around the house in it and every time I saw her I made her put clothes over it since it so cold outside. However, when I wasn't looking she would take the clothes off and I'd find her again with just the swim suit on. I went upstairs and saw her and Porter on the couch and it looked like Porter was attacking her. I thought maybe she had a toy he wanted or something. Turns out the beaded tie on the neck of her swim suit looked like one of those necklaces with candy on it and when Porter thinks there is candy around Watch Out!

Weekend

We spent the weekend at Richard's parents house so my kids could get a little of Grammin and Pa snuggles.



Branson was leaving for Alaska and we celebrated a late birthday for Pa and an early birthday for Stephen. Carolyn must have been out of birthday candles.




I was homesick for playing games with my family so I suggested we play Catchphrase and Buzzword with the brother-in-laws.



There was lots of Wii competitions between the brothers.


And a covert operation, that was hush hush. (Carolyn called out a hit on a pesky garden critter.)


We got to play with our cousin Jordan.


We even got a surprise visit from the Boland's!



We came home to face a busy week of YW activities, Cardyn's birthday planning for Friday night and the kids having the flu.

Rockin to the Beatles

Last night we got a tip on Facebook from our friend Derek Stotts that Beatle's Rockband was $65.00 at Target. So after Richard "encouraging" me to go get it ( it's a long story!), I got the address of the Target off of Camp Creek Pkwy and went up there to get the last one. I was super glad I did after seeing that it originally sold for $249. Richard came home and set it right up!