Feeling like I needed this Today....

Things turn out the Best for the People who make the Best of the Way things Turn Out....

Halloween

This was our third annual Halloween Party. My kids always beg for one because of those cute little magazines at the store that show you how to make the special food for parties. We had:
Bat Wings- Black Tortilla Chips
Halloweenies- Cocktail sized pigs in blankets wrapped like mummies with mustard eyes
Monster Toes- Green dyed sugar cookies with red colored almoned slivered toenails
Witch's Brew- Ginger Ale and Ice Cream served with gummy worms
Snake- A salami wrap cut into a slithering snake thing
I should have taken pictures of the food...Sorry...

Here we have Indiana Jones, a cute little witch, Belle, and Cleopatra.

This is the annual dance off. Napoleon Dynamite was quite entertaining.

We bobbed for apples, and we had a costume contest and two pinatas. I love Halloween!
I Trick or Treated every year including my senior year. My kids are not as intense about it as I was. Not yet anyways...

So I came up to Olivia today and gave her a big hug and said, "Hey Sweet Pea!" She said, "Mama, I don't like potty talk." ;)

My Family Picture

Please vote and let me know which picture you think I should make big and put in my Living Room. Maybe its just me, but I think its the wrong lighting in #6 that makes my butt look big.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Karma: The beast and the blessing that keep on giving and giving and giving....

Ya know, I like being my own boss...What I DON'T like sometimes is being everyone elses boss. I got a call this morning that went like this...
"Hello, ya Lindsay, this is so and so from the office you guys clean every Wednesday night in Orem. Yes great, well when we came in this morning everything looked pretty clean but then we found a poopy diaper on the floor. We don't even allow children into our office during regular business hours and the only way it could have gotten here was if one of your cleaning ladies is bringing children with her, changing them here, AND Leaving their diapers behind. Thanks but we no longer need your services.........." As I sat there with my hand on the phone and my mouth on the floor.... That is when I thought of Jerry.....


Jerry was a humble man who never had much to say. He was about 45 years old, 5 ft. tall, and was maybe pushing 95 lbs. He carried so many keys on his belt that you never knew how he kept those pants from falling down around his ankles. He had big buggy eyes and always walked really fast from here to there. Jerry would be 'HAMMY' the squirrel if hammy was a man.
A younger version of Mr. Roper (3's company) to be exact. Ah Jerry, my first supervisor at BYU......

It was my last week of work as a Maintanence Engineer (janitor) at BYU. As a Freshman, I cleaned the Alumni House Monday through Friday from 5-9 at night. After my first week I realized that I could do the 4 hour job in 2 hours and I would normally talk on the phone or to the other girl that worked with me for the time that had left over.
Well, this was the last week of school. Finals Week. I had been cramming and I was really tired. So instead of doing the cleaning first and then taking a break, I decided to break for the 2 hours first and THEN do the cleaning. So I sat down on a nice comfy lounge chair and closed my eyes....
You know that feeling you get when someone is watching you...I felt someones eyes boaring through me as I slept..I opened them only to see Jerry standing over me with this evil look in his buggy eyes. I woke up and stumbled over my words for about 5 minutes. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.....I'm really sorry...Finals....I'm really tired....stressed out....don't fire me.....Jerry didn't quite know what to say. He must have had pity on me because he said he wouldn't give me a horrible recommendation for the future, but that he was no longer in need of my services...Karma is a beast.

Family Vacation

Olivia loves her Nana and Pops!

I absolutely LOVE going to Lake Hartwell in Georgia! I LOVE being with my family and playing with my kids. It is something that I look forward to all year. The food, the fudge, the weather, the lake, Helen, the birthday party, the smores, and the sun, and the doin nothin!

It could easily be on my top 10 favorite things to do....

Adam loved riding on the boat to watch everyone...

Amaya did enough kneeboarding to last a life time, I never could get up when I was little..... What a Cutie! This was the only active thing I did the entire time...It was wonderful!

We are looking forward to next year already!

Girl's Night Out

Rebeca came to visit for the weekend. We took the girls for a night on the town. We went shopping, then had ice cream, then came home had a pillow fight, and then did pedicures on each other and talked about boys. First one asleep... watch out for frozen underclothes....We had an official girl Party!!!

Moab

I went camping with Edgar and some friends to Moab. It was really windy. We had our own camp site and fire and we stayed for two nights. We went to Arches National Park. It was nice to get out of the cold in Utah County.

Watch out for ring around the Bum for Sitting on the Pity Potty too Long!!! It could always be worse.....

My Tax Refund

"A picture is worth a thousand words". That may be true too bad this one was only worth $1.00. Oh well, I guess it is better than paying...

Easter

So I took my kids to the same Easter Egg Hunt that we have been doing for 6 years now in Orem. Why do we always go to the same one? Free Breakfast and they have and Adult hunt with gift certificates, candy bars, eggs with $20 bills inside, big stuffed animals, snow boards, etc...So although I have never won any of these things I go to watch. It is hilarious! Besides, Olivia dominated the 3 and under category. She went through picking up all kinds of stuff in her age group with no help from me. I was so proud.

You can see in the picture that she is the one in the blue coat, RUNNING and she got the orange egg and was gone before that other little girl that is reaching for it in the photo.

The adult hunt is a site to see. They break up the groups between the men and the women. Adam took pictures while I ran with the ladies. All I got was a tootsie roll and a grass stain.

My Mama Don't Wear No Socks: Volume 2

My kids went to Mexico for Spring Break to visit their dad's side of the family. As you can see from the two pictures above I have been very busy. I cleaned the sickest house I have ever seen. I thought I would post the pictures so that you could see that. yes, there are actual people that choose to live like this because me describing it to you doesn't do it justice. The other picture is of my kids on Easter in Park City. I couldn't figure out how to get it up there last time but now I think I am getting things under control.

I was telling my kids the other day about the "I love Bananas, Coconuts, and Grapes" song and explaining to them why it was funny and how it works. They are old enough now to realize why it is hilarious and why the funniest time we ever did it was to Granny Ann! They laughed and laughed!

So naturally, that conversation led to the "My Mama Don't Wear No Socks." It didn't take very long for my smart children to come up with some good ones.

My mama don't wear no socks

I saw her when she took em off

She threw them on the clock

Now look, It don't tick or tock

My mama don't wear no socks

I saw her when she took em off

She threw them on the bush

We all started spanking her tush.

Adam has my same sense of humor. He used to laugh, a heartily laugh, when he was just a baby and would watch Tom and Jerry. He has seen every episode of Tom and Jerry. Now he laughs and similarly funny things that, I too, think are hilarious.

To demonstrate, He was telling me about a Calvin and Hobbes comic he was reading. (You can check your likeness to our humor if you like this)

Calvin was outside playing and then comes to the front door and screams "Moooooooooommmmm!" His mom is in the kitchen but is utterly annoyed that he is yelling at her and decides to ignore him. He continues, "MMMMMMMMoooooooooooommmmmmmm!" She still waits a minute and decides to keep ignoring him, afterall, she is making dinner and has her hands full. One more time, he screams "Mooooooom!" She has had enough and yells back, "Calvin, I am in the kitchen making dinner. You Come Here if you need to tell me something"

So Calvin, walks through the whole house and finally gets to his mother and says, "Mom, I just stepped in dog poo."

Olivia's Birthday

So my baby is now 3. I keep asking her when her birthday is and she always says, "October Sixteen". No, its April Seventh, "ooohhhhh, April seven." And how old are you going to be, "Eight". And how old is Amaya, "She's two". She is just about the cutest thing that has ever walked the earth. She goes to work with me everyday as I drive the ladies that work with me from place to place. So the ladies and I threw her a birthday party the other day, which I had to talk her out of wearing her new swimsuit to.

She threw something at Amaya the other day and hit her in the head, not too hard, but enough to make Amaya come and tell on her. I told her to say sorry, and so Olivia says "I'm sorry Sister."

Olivia is always very sweet with other kids and babies and when she sees one that is not so much older than she is, she'll go up to them, grab them by the hand, and say, "Come on sweetie. This way dear."

We were at an office the other day and Olivia was talking up a STORM to the secretary. Another lady in the office turns to me after about 20 minutes and says, "My daughter talked a lot at three and I thought she was out going, but your daughter takes the cake! I have never seen such a friendly child! And she is sooo happy!"

That is Olivia. She wakes up happy, goes to bed happy, runs around in the car with me ALL DAY, and is still unnaturally happy. Sure, she has her moments, but they are so few that I can't even think of an example to tell.

This is her latest attempt at makeup. Not the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.

She loves to give me big hugs tight around my neck, when she sneezes she always reminds me to bless her. She loves to dance in front of people and loves to show off. Adam and Amaya still baby her and think she is the best thing since sliced bread. They always say stuff like "oh mama, look at her chubby cheeks and big eyes". She gives them running hugs when they get home from school. She loves to talk on the phone to anyone who will talk to her. She still naps, but sometimes when I ask her if she wants a nap she'll say, "No, I wake up". She loves to take her clothes off. Which is funny, because my other children NEVER did this. The other day I walked into my bedroom, and there was Olivia laying down in front of the TV without a stitch of clothing on just laying down on her tummy with her hands under her chin in the middle of the day, just hanging out.

I thought I would call her Livie when she was born. But it has turned into Oliviana instead. We even sing her a song, "Oli, Oli, Oli-vi-ana, Oli-vi-ana, Oli-vi-ana." Don't ask why because I can't remember why we started this.

My Kids

Well, I have such a big mouth and love to boast on 'my 3 GLORIOUS children' (we just saw Mrs. Doubtfire). So here it is. I have been blogging on a different spot for over a year, but since my family community is here I thought I would make it easier for everyone to see my pictures and brag, give advice, rant and vent. Having said that....

Adam- Came home from school the other day exclaiming that he would be the first one in his school to grow a mustache. He was soooo happy and he was talking to one of his friends about it at lunch. Apparently, this young fellow has blond hair and blue eyes. Adam came home and was telling me all about it and was laughing and said this, "Mama, Jackson said that he was gonna grow a mustache too. You can't have a BLOND mustache." Well, then we got into a deep conversation about Hulk Hogan...

Amaya- Just lost another tooth. Her two front teeth have grown in and if you can't picture it, Think: Lindsay 8 years old. I swear it is just like that. Amaya comes home the other day and says, "Mama, what do you do with our teeth? My friend says her mom keeps all of their teeth." I replied, "That is disgusting. What would I do with your teeth?" (Yes, I do keep them actually.) She said, "Well, she says her mom is really the tooth fairy." I replied, "Amaya that is ridiculous. How would HER mom get into OUR house." She just giggled....

Olivia- Helps me do everything. I have a car and an SUV. The car battery died the other day and I, trying to be independent, was trying to use the jumper cables from the SUV to jump the car. I was very intense and trying to concentrate, and not shock myself all at the same time. Olivia says, "Hey mama, right here." I look over and she has the hood of her BARBIE JEEP popped up and the most serious look on her face...

Man, I love my kids...