Yikes....

I believe this, and I have been doing NONE!!!

Show me something cute!

This is how Ayelet has been responding when I say "Show me something cute". Funny girl!

When I tuck in Olivia and Josie, on my way out the door, I give them 2 "air kisses" each. (I don't leave Max out by the way, his routine is different.....I have to tuck love all around him....I do try to "bug" Lauren a little too before bedtime) Anyway, Ayelet is usually with me tucking in....so, she started air kissing too this week. Hers are big and juicy, sucking in her cheeks and giving a big smack. We'll call hers "air smacks"! She is such a little nut right now, lots of fun :)

Another GREAT performance, this time Lauren!

Once again I cannot get the video to upload and it is super Awsome! This really was so much fun for me to watch! Lauren is participating in "winterguard" this year, dispite my initial lack of support......simply because, she needs to get a JOB!!! I admire how dedicated she has been to color guard for 6 years, but it takes lots of time, especially saturdays when she could be working. (I am feeling some $$$ college stress!) But when I watched, I kind of felt a twinge of guilt....she has been able to accomplish something great. Colorguard with the band has been fun all these years but this, with just the guard. WOW! You can really see them and they are GOOD! The music is different and lots of dancing! They won first place in their class. I am happy she is happy doing this, and that she has learned such great dedication, I told her we would ALL come to watch.....I wish I had a picture of her face......I don't think she was too excited about that, wonder why?????

On wednesday night she is recieving her Young Women Recognition Award. We were asked to make a video presentation of her growing up. Tyler and I were up until 1:30 working on it last night. I sat and boo-hoood, where has the time gone? There is something about pictures with music......We have also been asked to each talk (our family) about her for a few minutes. I sure hope to make it through it with out being in a puddle.

Oh-dear......

Great performances

I have tried and tried to upload video from last week but I am having technical difficulties! I will keep trying but, for now here is the little pair after their violin recital.

Night and day they are, In so many ways. This is one of them...... Olivia's practices at home are lovely she plays her pieces with ease. In front of a crowd she struggles and often her nerves get the best of her. Josie on the other hand....her practices at home are, well, sloppy. We are left wondering, is this really for her??? Then she gets up to perform and we cringe a little after seeing her at home. Almost with out fail she belts it out like she's been playing the piece her whole life "what's the big deal"? We look at each other (Tyler and I) Who was that! Funny.

It was so much fon to watch them this week, Olivia opened her third grade talent show playing Starwars (even the boys cheered) She really did well, she hit the notes we didn't think she would make. She is one of those people who makes it look effortless. Josie played a wonderful Allegreto for their recital.....true to form! She was ready to go on to the second half and her teacher cut it off, she was a little disappointed but did great. Woot-Woo! Good job. We love you two!

What 'Snowkids' do at night!!!

Sledding with friends, the Smiths.

Snowdays!!!

After a long, but wonderful Christmas break, mother nature gives us a few bonus days. I am sure it seems unbelievable to some, but when it is super icy, super snowy or super cold...everything here shuts down including school and church!!!

This, is why we love our hill.....(not the mowing part!!!)

Little Dears

The little dears are back to school.

Boo-Hoo for me.

It is so bitter sweet every year. For me, and for them I think.....

A routine is good for us and the fighting and arguing ahhhhhh.

But every year I have a list of things big and small that we didn't get to,

that I know will be hard to do with homework, violin, soccer etc., etc.

And every year it is a new grade....another year older.

This year everyone but the two toothed monster are gone, all day.

Lauren, a senior (I wont even get into that today...I AM in denial)

Olivia 3rd grade, Mrs. Reineke.

Josie 2nd Grade, Mrs. Johnson.

Max Kindergarten (all day here)Mrs. Chase....bless her soul:)

Max got in the car after the second day of school and announced

"I am quitting school"

Someone at the pool with 1 daughter said to me the day before school started....

you must just looooooooooong for school to start!

I Love them and kinda miss them actually.

I am trying to get my routine down so that from 4-8

I am super available.

Dinner at 4:30?

Ayelet rock'n down the house!

Yeah Ayelet!!!

Our little Ayelet....she is in a hurry!!! 10 months old and she is walking!!! I said ohhhh Ayelet, and she turned her little lip down as if she had done something wrong and started to cry. We all cheered for her and she then realized it was a happy time and showed us her toothy little grin. She looks so tiny to walk. This could be trouble, she is already into EVERYTHING Ready or not, here she goes....And what a cute big Sister helper she has. Every baby should be so lucky!

A Family Picture at the Logan Temple

We miss you Lauren!

Lovely Lauren is on the TREK right now and we have been missing her! Hoping she is doing well, the weather has been favorable and she is tough.

I hope it has been a wonderful experience for her!

We can't wait to have her back home tonight!

I thought I would post a few of her April Prom pictures

Lauren has such cute, good friends.

She is absolutely gorgeous!!!

Ready for Summer

The last days of school. Here comes home back packs full of a years worth of collections. I started going through pencils, keeping the ones that had at least 1/2 of an eraser left. I threw away handfuls before I thought to take a picture.....this picture of little pencils with no erasers represents lots and lots of hard work!!! Each of them have learned so much this year. Lauren had such a difficult line up of classes for her Junior year, a math class that is known as "the hardest math class in high school". Studying and stressing for the ACT test that she did great on. Not to mention keeping up with early morning Seminary. This year has been pretty demanding on her. Olivia has had a teacher with really high expectations for 2nd graders. She will be well prepared for 3rd grade. She came home through the year saying "did you know" all the time. And lots of times I didn't know! Or thought "they are teaching you that in 2nd Grade"??? Josie, finishing 1st grade, is the chapter book monster!!! She can plow through a chapter book. I don't think I read like that until 3rd or 4th grade!!! She says she doesn't like math but I think she "GETS" it really well, she just seems to understand the concepts easily. Max really worked hard at following the rules at school! He also already reads....this is amazing to me!!! His teacher has given him such a head start for Kindergarten.

We have been busy painting rocks while they have been home!!! You can paint as many rocks as you want!!! They are free and we have and unlimited supply!!! We are all looking forward to a fun filled summer!!!

Olivia Bliss wins 50 meter Dash!

Woot-Woo! Miss Olivia Bliss Won the 5o Meter dash at her track and field day!!! No small thing when there are twelve 2nd grade classes!!! Who Knew??? Must be those long legs!!! We are pretty proud of her!!!

Give me 5

Max is 5 years old on May 20th!!!

We had such a fun day!!!

I have kind of banned friend birthday bashes this year.....birthday partied out last year. Because we don't have family around for a big family party I feel the need to have a big friend thing. Although we have had some successful, fun times they are a lot of work and seem to make our family and this day stressful (O.K. me stressful and irritable, thus every one else!)

SO, this year I am trying to focus on making the person feel loved and important to our family....simply....

We started off with everyone singing and serving Max breakfast in bed!!! He didn't really get into the breakfast part....I think he ate one sausage and pured syrup on his pancake BUT he did respond WELL. He got out of bed and hugged every one saying thanks to each and then said group hug. It was really nice.....

Then we opened presents at about 7:30 AM. I knew everyone except him would be off to school and he would just be home all day asking to open them if I made him wait. I took the girls to school a little bit late so they could play a few rounds of his new WII game with him.....
I love the look on his face in the picture above.
Like he is trying to peek in and get surprised!!!
In the evening Max got to play in his 1st T-Ball game.....
When we got there they were handing out shirts and hats. We thought it was cool that his shirt was #5 just like him!!! We made sure we were ALL there cheering for him!!!
We ate from the concession stands, a novelty for us......
When we got home and everyone was cleaned up, we read two new stories he got for his birthday starring Max the duck, and tucked the little 5 year old in with his new stuffed animal duck "Max"

We Love him! He is such a little fire ball. He certainly adds "ALOT" to our family:)

A Happy Mothers Day for Me!!!

5 little sweetpeas!

Thunderation!

As for me....I'll be doing laundry this week to catch up....I have 3 more of these, this is a laundry basket under here!!!!

Wow....I am not sure what they will call this storm....Tornado? Flat wind? What ever they choose, it was frightening! The damage was not as severe as the tornados typically leave behind but this was so wide spread. So many people with out power and trees down every where. At our house we were with out power for 4 days. Some of our friends and neighbors are still without.

In the picture of Lauren's car, in which she was DRIVING home from seminary during the worst of the storm, (while we all sat in the dark basement).........you can see the splattering of leaves. They are all over everything, like a blender full of cilantro that exploded! I was so worried for her. She just pulled over and sat as she couldn't see. I drove by the spot where she had pulled over later in the day and saw debris and branches all over......

The tree down in front of our house became the neighborhood play ground with the kids out of school for the day. Max was out there, literally ALL DAY! Fun stuff! It is amazing to see the root system and layers of dirt that come up when a big tree comes down. We lost three others in the back.

AYELET TYLER BLISS

my little lovie. 6 months old. She is such a little gift to our family!

Lauren, Olivia, and Josie!

Welcome Spring!