Paper, Paper, Paper!!!

Paper just drives me crazy! It seems like everywhere I look there it is. I am surrounded by it and I can never get rid of it. The mailman always seem to bring it on a daily basis with bills, advertisements, coupons, etc. Alexa's backpack is always full of school work, calendars, upcoming events, etc. And lastly my girls like to write & color hundreds (well maybe not quite that many) of pictures every day. They hang them up on the fridge or have piles of them in their room and every other room in the house. I know I should just LOVE all the art work and want to proudly display it, but for some reason it just gets under my skin (sometimes literally).

This morning I lost it. Alexa had her hands full of tape, a sheet of tissue paper she found and....PAPER. I looked at her and said, "No! No! You are not doing that right now! Put that paper away!" She set it down and I got them bathed and ready for the day. Then I went about cleaning the house and when I came into the kitchen she just had this look on her face like she got caught. I looked down to see the tissue paper covered with pieces of paper all lined up numbered across the top on both sides. I must have given her the evil eye, because she said to me so sweetly, "Mom, remember I'm going to be an artist". How could I resist that cute face, comment and of course the story-book artwork she created???

Should I go "paper" crazy again and throw it away by chance, I decided to take a picture of it just in case. :)

Just Us Girls!

We celebrated my mom's 50th birthday with just us girls. It all started with traffic, then a race to beat the clock; zipping in and out and all around, finally finding a spot. It felt like we were in our own action film; running through the parking garage, up the escalators, through the theatre, plopping in our seats with 1 minute to spare...So intense! Ha-Ha!

We loved "Twlight" so much, we went and saw it again this past weekend. Maybe it was the thrill of getting there, or the crazy crowd, or the "not knowing what to expect", but I must say that the first time was by far more entertaining and exciting and ohhh so romantic! Bella's not crazy, I'd be in love with a vampire too!

We ate at CPK for dinner while Michelle got a little camera happy. Then we were off to Little America where I left "Mom Lindy" behind and "Crazy, fun Lindy" came alive. It was like we were all (mom included) teenagers again. Who knew swimming for 2 hours could be so much fun??? My arms hurt from all the stunts we tried, my belly hurt from all the laughing, and I think everyone's eyes there had quite the show. :) SO FUN!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This is the time of year where we are to give thanks and show our grattitude. I am thankful everyday for my husband, my children, my family, Brandon's family, our extended family, friends, a place to live, food to eat, air to breathe, etc., etc., etc. I am even grateful for (when asked around the table at thanksgiving what we were thankful for) Alexa's response: "Pets"-seeing that we don't even have any. :) However, I am not so grateful for the extra pounds I've gained.

Nothing says Thanksgiving like....

Working on lesson plans,

Snuggling and playing with Uncle Randy who's visiting from Colorado,

Having the Best Mother-in-law EVER,

The cutest girls you'll see,

A delicious feast that beats last years pizza and corn at the Golden Corral :),

A wonderful husband and great brother-in-laws,

A visit from Great Grandma Randall (aka "Gooma"),

And spending time with these beautiful ladies.

Grateful for my Little Darlings

The wonderful thing about pictures is that they capture some of the greatest expressions (refer to side). Thank you to Emily for taking these adorable photos of my girls. There are so many that are cute, it's hard to just pick one.

Look who's 50!

My mom turned 50 today! We surprised her with a night away with just us girls. This Friday we will be staying over-night at Little America (our favorite place), going to dinner and the most exciting of all...seeing "TWILIGHT"! Yeah can't wait! Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma!!! Love this lady!

HALLOWEEN!!!

Finally...pictures from Halloween. Alexa was Ariel. She's really into mermaids right now and Audrie was a "queen bee" which is very fitting of her personality. :) We went to Alexa's school in the morning to see the parade, then went by Grandma Child's pre-school and met up with Grandma Watts for lunch after. We spent the afternoon at grandpa and grandma Child's and went trick-or-treating out there that night. It was a warm and fun-filled day!

Ahhh Kids!

I seem to always be behind, which I hate to admit is the story of my life...always LATE! But better late than never I say. :) I really do try...I really do. With that said I will be posting pics from Halloween soon, hopefully before the next one. Ha-Ha! Until then, I wanted to write a quick post about my lovely children.

I love hearing and reading about funny things kids say (and do). I keep telling myself I should write it all down so I don't forget. So that is what I am going to try and do.

For example: There are some days where my girls will just get into anything and everything, like today. Every time I'd turn around it was something else; like very finely cut jelly beans and cookies on tea-party plates all over the top bunk (Rule Broken: "Food and Drink in the kitchen only"); like every single toy, book and dress-up strewn about the house (Rule Broken: "When you're done playing with something, put it away before getting out something else."); like puddles of water everywhere and wondering where it came from, only to find out that they decided to make potion with all their water-color paints (Rule Broken: "Please ask first to paint before doing it."); and like taking a book of stamps and thinking they're stickers and sticking them all over the musical chair (Rule Broken: "Do not get into my things! You have yours and I have mine.")

Then you add in some sister on sister hand slapping and kicking, yelling, crying, and dare I say...ATTITUDE; like when I told Alexa if she didn't stop the fit she was throwing I was going to call Santa and tell him not to come. Her reply (with her hands on her hips, butt sticking out a bit, head tipped to the side...you know the stance): "You don't even know his phone number!" My thought before laughing: "Oh no you di-int!"

Put it all together and what do you get?..."To hell (yes that's right) with this! Let's get out of the house and go ride the merry-go-round at the mall and have dinner with the Caton's. Much more fun...yes, much more fun.

We've Moved!

Well, we have finally found a place to live and moved in the weekend before we went to Chicago. We're just about settled, just the odds and ends left -which sometimes takes the longest to sort out. We feel lucky to have found this cute little house in Cottonwood Heights. It's in impeccable condition and in a great location and neighborhood. Brandon is about 15 minutes from work and the girls love living so close to their cousins and grandparents.

It's nice to have our own place to call home!

Fun in Chicago!

For Brandon's 30th Birthday I surprised him with 2 airline tickets to Chicago to go see his first NFL game. We are lucky enough to have our good friends, Jenava and John Tait, who happens to play for the Bears, hook us up with tickets to the game and a place for us to stay.

Brandon and I went without the kids and it was a wonderful get-away! We had such a great time and think we should do it more often. :)

It was our first trip to Chicago and there was a lot to see...