Big Jerk = Me!

Today is 'Neekee's' birthday.

And being the great friend that I am, I forgot. I didn't forget that Nikki's birthday is the day before Christmas Eve, or that it is December 23rd. I didn't forget when Nikki's birthday is, I just forgot what today is. I thought today was December 22nd. So not only did I think that I still had 2 days to get ready for Christmas, I also thought that Nikki's birthday would be taking place tomorrow, which should have been December 23rd. When in fact, Nikki's birthday is today, which incidentally is December 23rd. Imagine what a big jerk I felt like when Nikki calls me and we talk, for oh a good 30 minutes, part of that being about how Seattle's birthday was, which as I am well aware is December 22nd and one day before Nikki's (not sure why none of this has clicked by now), and I say, "So what are you doing today"? Her reply, "Going to lunch with a friend, she is taking me for my birthday." In which I respond, "That's nice, but your birthday is tomorrow!" The jerkiness only then hit's me as Nikki's telling me nope it's today. So Nik, I public apologize for being so blonde and dumb. I hope you know how much I love you and appreciate having you in my life. You're such a great friend to me, even if you're my only friend... just kidding I really mean it. You know how much I like to be first and if I was all together I would have called you at 6:00 am, like I had planned to do tomorrow.

HAPPY FREAKIN' BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday 'attle'!!

Since I haven't blogged in so long and with today being my sweet attle's birthday, I though I would take the opportunity to not only add a post that isn't dated 8-2008, but also tell Seattle Happy Birthday! We love you Seattle and are so grateful to have you in our lives. You're a wonderful, daughter (2nd generation daughter to me, of course) sister, friend and clown! Have a super happy day today!

Nothing like a weekend in the canyon!

My family (including but not limited to - Parents, brothers, brothers girlfriends, some cousins, some other cousins, friends, etc. - because if you know my Mom she invited you) decided to do a weekend camping trip before it became too cold. This included 2 very large combined camp sites at Redmond Campground (possibly my new favorite local spot) a bunch of full size trucks filled with coolers, tents, sleeping bags, barrels and barrels of the best firewood not available for purchase, chairs, chairs, chairs, fishing poles, lanterns, the top 3 drawers in my Mom's kitchen, too much food, monopoly, cards lets see did I mention food we had so much food. This was the first time we (Nonda, the kids and I) have been camping together. This might be the first time Nonda has ever been camping in his life (camping on the beach at a lake doesn't count) We hiked up to Twin Lake one day to fish and let me just tell you that I have some troopers for kids. The trail head says 1 mile no big deal, right? It is almost straight up and made up of very loose rocks. They did so great! Fishing wasn't very exciting, however Jeff decided to wander out to get his line unstuck from a rock. He ended up falling in the water and getting his feet attacked by fish. That was priceless, thank goodness for cameras. We even saw lots of baby ducks. For some "Random" (see pic) reason almost all of they guys on our hike wore a red shirt, 5 out of 7. Even more "Random" Eric and Russell even wore the exact same red shirt. Needless to say this got us some strange looks, but better yet helped for strangers to give some of our group directions to where the rest of our group had gone when we got seperated. And we didn't even have to ask, the guy was just so proud that he knew we were together, he offered the information. We roasted lots of marshmallows and made lots of smores. Andy even broke out the ukulele. It was such a perfect weekend. I wish we took advantage of the mountains we live so close to more often.

6 Randoms...tagged by Nikki

6 random bits of information about myself...
My friend Nikki tagged me ...... I have to list 6 random facts about me...........

1-) I have to sing (not well, mind you) when listening to music, I CAN NOT just listen. Drives Nonda crazy.

2-) I have an obsession with the dictionary, I keep a copy on my nightstand. I will argue with you if you use slang when speaking. Even more so, if you try to find offense in a slang word. (No sense is being offended by words that aren't real) I have decided to refer to my children as progeny. I will pass my charm to my progeny.

3-) I secretly wish I was a race car driver, and every so often the urge escapes my control. Too bad, even with though the minivan has GPS. From NASA, it doesn't do 200 mph.

4-) I have a purse obsession and Nonda encourages it by buying me multiple purses at a time.

5-) I have a rather large accumulation of cookbooks/recipes and gardening books/magazines.

6-) I have A.D.D. hopefully this is not something I will pass on to my progeny.

now I tag..... Misty, Eric and Carrie.

Blog 'to do list'

This is more for me than anyone else. I need to blog about a few things so I am making myself a list. If there is anything else you feel I need to share, please feel free to add.

• Whatever it was that Nikki tagged me to do...
• The family camping weekend.
• The ALA fundraiser we went to, the celebrities we encountered, and of course the make you look (or at least feel) like a star sunglasses my brother got me in Italy. And I guess I should explain why these have anything to do with the fundraiser.
• Naia's birthday party...because she had the cutest cake...which will lead me to my aunts cake making.
• Getting ready for school to start tomorrow. And why it has been more about me this year than the kids. Getting them ready was a cinch.
• My torn thoughts about the possibility of going back to work full time.
• Jen's new car.
• High school reunions...mostly just because Ramsi gave me pics for my blog. Thanks Ramsi.
• The only reasons I am okay with Fall being on it's way. Because the thought of summer ending makes me oh so sad.
• My new hair cut.

I would start tonight, however the basement is way too cold and Nonda is gone with the laptop. I want to be upstairs, where it is warm, pretending fall is not coming.

I'm Back....

Now that I have officially returned from Forks, WA I realize I have some blogging I need to catch up on. But, considering that my 1st journey to Forks began about one week ago and I managed to completely finish the entire trip tonight (while still attending to reality in between) I have some major sleep to catch up on first. Blogging will have to wait until tomorrow.

Signs of a toddler...

Recent signs that my baby is no longer a baby and is quickly turning into a toddler.

Tantrums..the kinds that should require a helmet.
McDonald's..not only eats full chicken nuggets and fries (the official Mcd's toddler food) without needing them broken into pieces, but figures out how to climb and slide down the baby slide all by herself and does it over and over again.
Dolls..knows how to rock, burp and love her babies.
Railings..stuck head in between rails and got it stuck, then figured out how to put head and body through without getting stuck. (this is frowned upon for obvious safety reasons, my other kids were too big to fit through these narrow openings so not sure how to handle this one)
Copycat..copies my yelling at the other kids and joins in.
Bossy..has progressed from mimic yelling, to actually yelling at other kids on her own terms, especially when being ignored.
Crib..cries for a good amount of time when put down for bed at night, then laughs when picked up, thinking she has tricked me.
Violence..has moved from 'play' hitting to hitting or jumping on siblings when upset with them.
Careers..is working on picking her future career and used a combination of skills listed above such as tantrum, hitting, yelling, etc. when taken out of the mail truck while mail carrier was delivering our mail.
Hair..brushes own hair.
Phones..thinks she owns my cell phone, she makes calls to people in my phone book and when it rings she can open it and say 'hi'.

Things I like today...

• crush
• iggy's
• pineapple express
• seeing old friends (knappy)
• my co-workers
• fitting into one of my favorite pairs of jeans
• james franco
• jonas brothers
• twilight (i realize i am a few books behind the rest of the world)
• swiffer - anything swiffer
• dave ramsey
• my birthday jewelry from nichole
• seeing jen

Things I dis-like today... (because we don't say hate)

• sorting socks
• road construction
• spiders in my kitchen sink
• achy body parts
• picking up and sorting playing cards
• weeds
• excess pens
• lack of closet space
• my hair
• 27 new voicemails
• signs of summer ending

The mohawk! Baby come back!

1 year old comparison

After Naia had her one year old check up I thought I would look to see how much the other two weighed and compared at one. Naia weighed 21 lbs. Mikayla weighed close, I can only find her 15 month check up and she weighed 24. Demitri weighed 28lbs! He was and still is a big kid. But I think Demitri and Kayla had teeth by the age of one. Poor Monkey Naia has no teeth and no sign of any teeth.

People tell me all the time how much Demitri and Kayla look like Nonda and how much Naia looks like me. I don't know if I think they look like either one of us but they each look like one another. These are all of our pictures at one, or at least as close to it as I can find.

Chronia Pola to moro! (Happy Birthday Baby!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAIA! I can't express how grateful I am to have you in my life. You are always happy and always loving. You have shown so much strength since the day you were born. Even though you still seem so itty bitty you have the personality of a dinosaur. Thank you for reminding us all that we can't wait to be happy tomorrow but must laugh and be happy now. You put a smile on everyone's face. We all love you monkey, and can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you!

Oh how we love the pool...

Okay so maybe this is not the pool, but it is right outside and her swimsuit is adorable.
She really does get in the water she has even mastered an underwater backfloat and a face dive. Not sure why I don't have any pics of her in the water. Good thing we will be at the pool tomorrow!
This is how much we love the pool, when they close for a storm we wait it out in the locker room.

Diving Lessons!

Diving lessons payoff! This is just from 2 days! Look at that back dive. Go Seattle!

Typically we (the moms) watch while the kids are jumping off the diving board. No more. Misty and I both agree that if you want to know how old you are spend 2 hours doing front flips off the diving board and then come morning... you will know. How you ask? Because you will feel like you have whiplash, your back will ache, ribs will hurt, oh and did I mention the welts and bruises on the back of my legs? (Which sadly to say are not from age just stupidity) We were having so much fun, the kids were crying that they wanted to leave and we kept saying, "One more, I promise just one more" Sadly to say the pool closed, but don' t you worry we already have a play date scheduled for tomorrow. I hope the kids don't have plans, better yet they can stay home. I do have to apologize to Nikki, since she has such a tiny one and wasn't able to get in the water. She was stuck taking the pics. What's so sad is we live in Utah and the pools will be closing up shop soon. Maybe living in Vegas will have it's perks, pools year round!! Yipee!