Moments That Make Me Smile

Yesterday we took the kids around town and while driving to one of our destinations, broccoli came up in our conversation. Evelyn told us she liked broccoli with cheese... Samuel told us he likes broccoli with hot dogs! Didn't see that one coming!

We Won the Lottery!!

Evelyn is officially registered for Kindergarten! We are soooo excited!! Evelyn has been accepted into Harmony Science Academy! For those of you not familiar with the school/application process, it is a Charter School and is very competitive to get into. There is only 1 kindergarten class (24 kids) and last year there were 500 applicants!! :0 Yeah.

Because of the demand, there is a 'lottery' to decide who gets into the Kindergarten class... we got an email telling us we WON THE LOTTERY! YAHOO! We are very excited and feel very privileged and blessed to have Evelyn get in! Thanks to all those who helped us/gave us pointers in the application process!!

One Year Together and Still Inseperable...

Today is Hyrum's 2nd Birthday!! Comparing Hyrum & Lion now (top), with Hyrum and Lion one year ago (bottom), it becomes obvious how 'well loved' Lion is... I think it's sooo cute to see Hyrum love something so much and for him to have something that brings him sooo much comfort!


Unfortunatley, Hyrum was sick on his birthday and even went to the doctor. While Children's Advil helped, nothing helped to perk him up like opening his presents!!




After all the presents were opened, the kids got right to work, testing them all out. They had a blast! Too bad it was almost bedtime!


Before the night was over, Hyrum even shared his new remote-controlled car with Samuel and Evelyn - WIHTOUT BEING ASKED!! Way to go Hyrum!!




HAPPY BIRTHDAY HYRUM!! WE LOVE YOU!

For All the Penny Picker Uppers of the World...

Thursday night I thought we would have leftovers, but when I looked in the fridge there wasn't any... Hmmmm, well there went that idea. So when Thayne got home he suggested we go out to CiCi's - who can resist an offer like that?

Well, as I previously wrote about here, the closest CiCi's to us has switched thier breadsticks; HOWEVER, we have found that there are still many locations that are not part of the "test market," so we went to the CiCi's on Forest Hill.

First thing I see when I get out of the car is two pennies!! WAHOO!! Who knew this was just the beginning. Some CiCi's are rewarding the Penny Picker Uppers of the world by putting stickers on pennies and putting them in their parking lot. Well, needless to say this is my kind of contest! I am always on the lookout for coins of all kind - although my friends know my ultimate goal is to find a crumpled up dollar bill!


We spent a good 10 minutes searching for pennies. We all found some. And ended up only paying for one buffet! We probably could have all eaten for free, but we didn't want them to know that we had sooo many pennies ;)

So the pennies are good till 30 June 2009, and with our stash, we can have many more meals for free!! THANKS CICIS!!

Never Assume...

For Christmas, the kids got some 100 piece puzzles from Grandma and Grandpa Stancliffe. I just assumed they were too hard for the kids and thought we would save them till they got a little older.


Well, the other day the kids saw Princess and McQueen puzzles in the game closet and got all excited - - so we got them out. To my astonishment, not only could Evelyn fix them, but Samuel could too - all by themselves. Way to go kiddos!! - - (They never cease to amaze me!!)

Easter Eggs & Easter Morning

We had such a busy day that we didn't get to coloring eggs till after dinner! The boys didn't even really get proper naps, I didn't even think Hyrum would make it to color eggs, but once we got started he LOVED IT, as did Evelyn and Samuel.



The only sad part of the evening was that I didn't color one of Samuel's eggs to his specifications... He wanted a yellow egg, then he wanted to dunk it in green - so I thought he wanted a 2-tone egg...oh no - he wanted the egg green - I guess I just couldn't understand why you would color an egg yellow just to dunk it in green - and so there were a few tears about that - - but remember Samuel had no nap also...



Easter morning was fun for everyone! Evelyn (who could easily sleep till 10:00 am), was the first one awake!! She told me she couldn't sleep because she was just sooo excited!



We expected Evelyn and Samuel to know just what to do, but suprisingly, Hyrum looked like a pro, picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket!


Evelyn was moving so fast the camera couldn't focus on her!


Samuel couldn't waste time picking up his basket, he was determined to hold all his eggs!


About half-way through the Easter Egg Hunt, Hyrum decided he was done HUNTING candy, and needed to EAT some candy!

Jam Time!!

This week, Tom Thumb had their strawberries on super sale and that meant it was time to make some more FrEeZeR JaM!! It's a good thing too, because we were on our last jar from last year!


Here are the stats from this years' Jam -

44.5 Containers of Jam:
16.5 of the cooked pectin kind - more sugar, fewer berries
28 of the no cook pectin kind - more berries, less sugar

16 pounds of Strawberries

8 pounds of Sugar

7 packets of No-Cook Pectin

3 boxes of Cookable Pectin

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree...