My kids have been tagged...

I think this is a fun twist on the ol' blog tagging! I think I will just list some fun facts we love about our kids.


Wes, Kiddo, Crazy

1. When he grows up he wants to be a Policeman, firefighter, someone who works in an office, train conductor, a teacher, and a "fixer" among other things.

2. He loves to ride his bike, ride dirt bikes (motorcycles-he has only done once), playing the Wii, bowling, helping me bake, play with his friends, LOVES trains, trains, trains.

3. He would really love it if I came home with a pair of Heally shoes for him, a bigger bike, his own Wii, or even a Gameboy.

4. His favorite foods are pork burritos with green chille sauce, "ah moni cheese" (mac and cheese), watermelon, sprite, chocolate milk, eggnog, ice cream.

5. Wes loves school and learning. He loves classical music and plays the piano. He prepares his room as a class room and teaches Dave and I. Our last classes were on "respect" and "money".

Brooke, Seaka, Bonita

1. When Brooke grows up she will be a Princess, of course! She now refers to herself (with no help from Dave or I) "Seaka-rella" !! She loves all the princesses. She sometimes calls Tinkerbell "Seakabell" and Snow White "Snow Wipe". I am impressed that a 2 year old knows every single princesses name when you point to them.

2.She currently "loves" everything. At least that is what she will tell you! We do know that she loves Little Einsteins, Princesses, Charlie and Lola, shoes, dresses, having her picture taken, anything her dad is eating, and jewelry.

3. Her favorite foods are anything her dad is eating, suckers, and things that have a lot of flavor or spice.

4. She would love if I brought home shoes and earrings to her! She would say, "Ah, beautiful, I love it, I love it!" and then spin around with it in her arms and do a princess dance.

5. She is still learning to use the potty. After doing her "business" the other night, we celebrated by getting ice cream at McDonald's. Then we came home and yes, I let her look in her potty again before I flushed it in the big potty so we could celebrate all over again. She kept telling me "Seaka a big girl"!!!

***I am now tagging all children whose last names are Pulham, Newman, Jones, Stanton, and Audrey's boys!***

Easter Activities

Yeah!! The Easter Bunny is coming tonight! Brooke and Wes can hardly wait since we ran into the real live Easter Bunny at Costco on Friday after Suzanne's Easter Egg Hunt at the park. Brooke ran right up to the Easter Bunny and gave him the biggest hug. Everyone around was laughing because all the other kids in line were crying, afraid of him. She totally cut in front of them-eyes locked on the bunny. Do not stop her, she must hug the bunny.

All day Wes has been waiting to color Easter Eggs, so at 7:30 tonight I finally gave in to possible semi-permanent rainbow on my kids clothes, hardwood floors, tables, counter tops, white sink, dog, carpet, etc. I am not sure what we are going to do with these beautifully colored eggs yet. He will want to keep them for many months to come. Somehow Dave and I will have to devise a plan to slowly pluck them off one by one.

Brooke loved it. She told me what colors she wanted. Like how I made her exchange her dress for an apron?!

Wes is letting his eggs take a long bath in there colored water. They need to be nice and bright! We had cool crayons that you can color on the egg first so that the dye won't stick to the egg. It was pretty fun to see what Wes wrote on his eggs.

He wrote "Good" and his name on most of them! He is a good boy. He just had his parent teacher conference on Friday for the 3rd term. In kindergarten they get 1-4's instead of A-F's. He got all 4's! His teacher wrote "Wes is brilliant"! His reading is off the scale for kindergarten. He really is amazing.

I love this picture. And Brooke loves her eggs! I asked her what she wanted me to write and then she would dunk them into her water bathes. She said "Seaka" (our nickname for her, Wes named her that when I was pregnant), one says "Seaka Shoes" (she has a real shoe fetish), "CANDY", and then she drew on the others.

The kids didn't make a mess at all!!! Yeah for me!!

This is the Easter Egg Hunt that Suzanne (my cousin, Richie's wife) put on in her pack yard park. The kids loved it.

It was Brooke's first hunt. At first she didn't know what to look for and Wes was off and I had no idea where he was to take his picture until the end.

We stayed to play at the park and all the kids gathered at the merry go round. Wes was the official pusher.

Soon he had a helper, Andrew did a great job and kept up quite well! I think he only fell due to lack of leg length once!

And can you tell that Brooke absolutely loved the ride! Wes and Andrew must have been doing a great job. That smile says it all!

Happy Easter!! So I want to know whose idea it was for the Easter Bunny to come and have Easter baskets in the first place! Since Dave is working the night shift tonight, we can't have our egg hunt that the Easter Bunny leaves in our house down stairs in the morning. So he (she) had to be extra sneaky and put it in their rooms! She was total stealth tonight. Didn't make one single noise in their rooms. I wonder how long it will take for them to notice that they have their own individual Easter Egg Hunts in their rooms! I hope they have fun when they wake up!

Crazy 8 Brand Kids Clothes

Have you ever heard of Crazy 8 brand? I just did from my friend Kim's blog. It is another line of Gymboree, like Gap and Old Navy are. They have stores in California, Texas and New Jersey I think. Anyway, their website is www.crazy8.com

Today I just ordered a couple of things for the kids for this summer and used the promo code "SAVE20" that I found on the Internet. You will save 20% and have free shipping. Shipping is only $5 anyway, but $5 is $5!

They have t-shirts for boys that are only $5 that are fun under Crazy Deals, the girls Crazy deals weren't that cute (I don't think). They have some things that were 50% off too.

Spin or Not to Spin

For the past 2 months my friend Jamey and I have been going to a spin class twice a week and I LOVE it! Except for all the sweat and burning of the muscles that I didn't know my body even had! The last time I went to a spin class was when Wes was maybe 1 or 2 years old and I hated it. The teacher was so mean. She would twist the nob if she didn't think it was at a hard enough tension for you! I know, you want to smack her, but then you would fall off your bike, yes the stationary bike!

So about 4 years later Jamey talked me into taking this class with her and I completely love it, the only problem is, it is over in two weeks. I only have 4 classes left.

So that means I am going to have to sign up for a gym membership...again. I hate going to the gym. I feel so dumb there and out of place. You have to be so perfect to go here in Happy Valley with all the college students.

One of the Gold's here has a Cardio Cinema that Dave is trying to talk me into using since I have been liking the spin class. And I would be able to get back into yoga. hooowwwwmm......Not sure how to spell that, but it's me meditating!

And yuck, the thought of gym babysitting. Help, advice?! Well, now it is time for my class...Yeah! Have you ever been so excited to excersice?

New Easter Tradition - Tomb Buns/Balloon Buns

So from the Scribbit blog my sister pointed out this recipe and then I took the picture from Lizanne's blog. I think I will be trying this with Wes this year and hopefully we can start to do it every year. Depending on how hard it is! I think if you use the Rhoades Rolls like Lizanne did, it should be pretty easy. Just thaw first.

For the Dough:

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon fast acting yeast

Mix the dough as you would any other bread dough (either in a bread machine or by traditional hand methods). Once you have the dough ready, separate it into 18 equal pieces and roll slightly into a round of dough.

For the rest of the recipe you'll need:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

18 large marshmallows

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Dip one marshmallow in the melted butter, covering it completely, then roll it in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Take one of the rounds of dough and wrap it around the marshmallow, sealing it carefully. This is tricky with the greasy butter but if it doesn't seal the marshmallow will leak out during the baking.

Once they're sealed, dip the tops in melted butter then again in the cinnamon and sugar! Place them in greased muffin tins (not lined with papers). Let raise until doubled.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly browned. The marshmallow melts, leaving a cave inside.

Best while eaten warm with a cool glass of milk (so they say!)

**I am going to try them with Rhoades Rolls first***

30? No Way!!

Happy Birthday Pam! I think your parents have it all wrong, you are only 29 this year! I mean look at you, there is no way, really!

I wonder what Andrew will do this year. How can he top an Escalade? You are one lucky girl! I hope you are pampered all day by the Andrew and the girls.

Have fun (it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I live in here, not there)! You can come back to this if you want! Yeah, it's a pretty glamorous life in Happy Valley if you ask me.

I hope you have a great day, 29 for life!

Our Romantic Anniversary Date

So who is dying to know where we went for our anniversary? I know everyone is!! Let me just set this up for you.

For, oh, I would say 5 years or so, I have been wanting to try this cafe/restaurant that I heard about from a friend of mine. All I know about the place is the name of it and that he really likes it. I don't think his wife likes it all that much, but he sure does and he told me several times that I had to try it. The problem was, it wasn't convenient to where we lived at the time and then I totally forgot about it until Dave's crew went there for breakfast last week and he kinda liked it!

So we decided to go there for lunch on our anniversary. We were going to go while Wes was at school and take Brooke to the neighbor's to play. That way I could eat long before my spinning class, because spinning and eating don't mix! And most of all, Dave and I could have a quiet lunch together, ahh, quiet! Nope, didn't end up working out that way! So here is our secret lunch date, go ahead and LAUGH til you fall off your chair!!!

Yep, the Family Tree Restaurant in Santaquin, Utah! With kids and all. No doubt about it. Dressed in our very best jeans and t-shirts. Parked right on Main Street so we could keep an eye on the car while we eat. Don't want anyone peakin' in our car windows now do we? And what if we want to make that important phone call during our meal? We just walk right out that front door to the pay phone, pull out our hanky to hold the phone cause we don't want any foreign germs, drop in some coins and dial away (maybe we forgot our cell phone in the car which happens to be parked directly in front of the payphone). Oh, and if you want the $7.49 breakfast special, you'd better get there before lunch starts. Do you drink Pepsi with your breakfast? Yuck.

I told Dave we needed to celebrate this anniversary "right" and take a self portrait of our family in the Family Tree restaurant. He must not be a Newman. Obviously he felt a bit foolish! I was taking the picture and couldn't get it centered. Brooke and I were trying to get in there! Oh well. We were only one of two customers in the restaurant the whole time. As the others left and we were about the be the only ones, another group came in. Phheeewwww....

Later that night, just before bed, Brooke decided to read Roxy her bedtime story from her potty chair! Dave called me over with my camera to quickly take a picture of how Brooke was sitting with her legs crossed! I like her expression, "What do you want, I am in the middle of this Mom". (Brooke's hair was in ponytails so it has extra volume on the sides!)

So, Pam, I want to know how you and Andrew are going to top this anniversary with your 11th coming up?