How Do They Do It?

Are you one of those people who can take pictures of themselves and actually get a good picture? HOW DO YOU DO IT? Today was my dad's b-day and we had a little get together/party for him and my sis-in-law, Valerie. After the party and after the boys were in bed I thought it would be fun to try take some pictures of Julia and I together....cuz she was being soooo cute. Well I know I'm not photogenic and I obviously don't know how to take pictures. I see pictures other people take holding the camera out in front of them and they come out fine and dandy. Maybe it's just a lack of practice?

Our first attempt...and probably the best?

Anyway, Happy Birthday Dad! we love you! (These were the best pictures I had of the night. I took the camera out when it was dark so they didn't all work. I posted the best ones)

All the grandkids that live around here...minus A'Lyssa

(we missed you!)

If my math is right, there are 28 of these rug rats (30 total w/Cheri's twins)
Yup, dad! That makes you REALLY OLD!!

(0: Yes, Kandice does have teeth under there :0)

It's Back, They're Back, I'm Back

I've been without our computer for that past week so I've been using our old one...which doesn't work like it should. I couldn't follow any links that I clicked on or print any coupons that I couldn't pull up--doesn't make sense? Doesn't matter-The computer is fixed and back! I can't believe how dependant I am on it. So that's the "It's Back" part.

My parent are finally home after serving their mission in Nauvoo for the past two years. I haven't seen them yet but talked on the phone with them and so happy they're home. I think I'm most excited for them to see Julia because they haven't seen her (well besides the pictures). So, there's the "They're Back" part.

I've had a few things happen that I wanted to blog about and I could have pulled out the journal and wrote them down but what about the fun pictures?? Where would they go? So I decided to wait until the computer came back to blog about life. Julia is getting so good at sitting up! She can't really roll over and hates being on her tummy but she loves sitting up if there are toys to play with. She doesn't want anything to do with food yet--unless it's a little piece of bread from mom's dinner plate.

Easter came and went and this is the best picture of the three Calico Kids together--couldn't get Julia to look up. We went to Todd's G-ma & G-pa Wittwer's on Sunday for a great dinner and egg hunt. Sunday morning was cute because Payton brought his Easter basket in the house and said, "How did Grandma Wittwer get here so fast?" He knows she's the Easter Bunny (at least at her house she is).

The boys had been fighting a bit last week and I got to the point that I needed to take action. I just hope the action I took isn't considered child abuse. I told them if they were going to fight again I was going to tie them together and give them a chore to complete and they would have to work together. It wasn't five minutes later that I took some drawstring from a pair of shorts (not sure what shorts they're from yet) and tied their arms together and sent them to get the mail. Porter was bawling! He didn't want to be tied together! They came back from the mail box laughing with each other and told me about the ant that tried to bite Porter on the way back. Seemed to work, right? Well, the next day I hear them fighting again and then I hear Payton say, "We better stop fighting or mom's going to tie us together again." The fighting stopped for a moment and then started again. If it hadn't been for Payton's comment I would have forgotten about my plan of "tying them together". So I got the "rope" and tied their ankles together (kinda like you do when you're going to run a three legged race--Brenda and I were the best together) then I told them to walk around the house together and they had to work together. They were both crying this time. Sad thing is that they didn't figure out they could have easily slipped it off their feet if they wanted to--or had thought about it. It wasn't tied that tight. I had to video tape them coming around the house because I thought it was so funny that something I loved to do as a kid is turning into punishment for my kids...how does that work?

One Last Thing...

Happy Birthday Brenda!!

I consider Brenda my best friend growing up because it seems like we did EVERYTHING together! Today is her b-day and I hope she enjoys every minute! If I had a scanner that worked I would have some awesome photo's to post of her but we'll save that for another post.

5K Fun Run

This year I ran my first 5K. You runners out there are probably thinking...ha! Piece of Cake! Well, you just go ahead and think that! The fun part of this race was that I ran with all four of my sisters. We usually do some kind of a girls weekend and Tiff got the brainy idea that we should run some kind of a race or do some kind of physical event together this year--of course not to take the place of girls weekend but to add to it.

They waited a month after Julia was born to start training--and unfortunaltley she's the only excuse I had for my performance. I didn't train like I should have and the furthest I ran was the week of the race and it was only 2. something miles, but I was pushing Julia in a jogging stroller so I thought I'd be just fine!

Come race morning, which was Easter Saturday (yup that rainy morning) I had to drag my bootey out of bed to be at the race by 7:30 to get our packets and stuff. Kandice made matching shirts with a saying that Cheri made up. You can't tell from the pictures so I'll tell you what they said:

Running Shoes....$70

Custom T-Shirt....$10

Running with your sisters...Priceless

and then on the front they had whatever number of sister we were (I'm #4 out of the 5)

It was a fun race and we all stayed together...until I hit the Mile 2 mark. I had to take a breather and walk a bit while Trudi, Kandice and Tiff kept going (thank goodness Cheri stuck with me). I won't give all the details of the race but that's pretty much how we finished. Trudi, Tiffani and Kandice came in under 30 minutes and Cheri and I finished 20 something seconds after. My time was 30:22--I figured that was alright for my first real race :)

They gave awards for the different age groups. Trudi, Cheri and Kandice all took one of the first three places in their age category so they won something. Tiffani and I...well, just won the fact that we ran a race together.

No More Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed

You all know he cute little song we teach our kids about the monkeys jumping on the bed. Now I know it was made up by some mother who had a child bump their head while jumping on the bed. Here's Porter's new song...

One little Porter monkey jumped on the bed

he fell off and bumped his head

Aunt Tiff called Uncle Kory who rushed him to the doctor and the doctor said,

this kid needs five staples in his head

I guess he won't be jumping on the bunk beds for a while...probably the next time he's at Tiff's he'll be back on the top bunk jumping again. I'm wondering if it's a second child thing. What's your stats on stitches, staples, broken arms etc. Does the second child get more bumps? I think the best part was afterwards I took him to get a slushy for being such a brave boy and when his older brother saw Porter had one and there wasn't one for him he pouted a bit. Payton asked Porter if he would share a little with him and this was Porter's response, "Sorry Payt. You have to fall off the bed and go to the doctor to get one." I hope that doesn't mean every time he wants a slushy he'll do this. It's one expensive slushy!

Oh how we love this little monkey!

Happy Birthday Julie!

Julie & Payton

(thanks for bringing the cake Tara!)

Julia

Blair & Tressa

Baby Riley

Poor G-ma had to sit at the bar at the boys request (sorry)

Yesterday was my mother-in-laws birthday. She always cooks dinner for us on Sunday's (well since we moved to La Verkin we decided every other Sunday--to save gas)...Anyway, we decided to have a little party for her Friday night.

tREY & tODD

tARA & jORDAN

We invited all of Todd's family over for dinner and dessert. Thank goodness we split up the meal so I wasn't overwhelmed. It was so fun to have everyone here and the food was great! I only took pictures of us eating and then the b-day cake cuz that baby was blazing!

buRn bAby buRn!

BloWing OuT tHe cAndLes!

Here's a few things I love about Julie...

-She's a great cook! She's always got new recipe's to try and I can't think of any of them I haven't liked.

-She loves my kids (could be cuz they're her grandkids)! I think it's great that my boys love to go to Grandma's house! Even if we're just driving in town they ask if we're going to Grandma's that day. They're bummed out when I tell them no.

-She's always busy--by that I mean I don't see her just sitting around much. She's either going running or cooking or sewing or stuffing animals for the D.I. I don't think she knows how to sit still unless it's bed time and she's going to sleep for the night.

-She loves her family! I think the best part about this is that I'm part of that family!

Happy Birthday Julie (well the blog's a bit late but you know what I mean!)

We love you!

(sorry Tav & Amie...for some reason there is no pictures of you two. You must have been around me when the camera was not in hand?)

Things to do on a Rainy Day

What could you do on a rainy day? Well, here's what we've been up to while the rain has fallen outside our house...maybe you could do it too!

You could read a book...or two

You could watch a movie...or two

You could have a nap...or two

You could sing a song...or two...or just the same one a couple times (I thought he was sitting on the toilet before I went in the bathroom. This is just as good)

You could ride a bike...or two in the garage

You could fold a towel...or two along with other laundry

You could update your own blog with what you've been up to lately, or You could read someone else's blog...or two...or three or four! That's what I've been doing to pass the time :0)

There's just so much you could do on a rainy day! (Thank Goodness we had been to the library earlier this week so we had a few things to do!)