Lilly Burrito!

Lilly was playing on her blanket and grabbed one corner and then kept rolling over until she was completely wrapped up, eventually she managed to wriggle her little head out and was smiling the whole time!

Some fun pictures. . .

So I haven't blogged for a couple of days, I have been crazy busy and crazy exhausted from the paper route. Anyway, I have been taking some pictures for my blog, luckily for me, all of my kids are total hams, so it is never hard to get them to pose.

Emmy wanted to have her chance to feed Lilly, so I let her and she lasted about 5 minutes before she started complaining about how messy Lilly is!

Ashton has been wearing Emmy's purple hat around the house, and every time he puts it on he strikes a pose and says, "Lookin' Good!".

I don't know who taught him that, but I have one guess. . .

Daddy and his girls wearin' SHADES!

Caught Red Handed!

So Ashton knows that he is not supposed to get into Lilly's toy or her swing, and yet I keep walking into the living room when he thinks no one is looking to find him in one of said toys. Here are a couple of pictures I caught of him when he thought he was alone.


This second one shows him pouting when he realized that he got caught.

Demo Movies

Alright, so the kids were wanting me to take a video of them and their new moves they are learning from gymnastics. So here are some vids of the kids.

In this video you get to see Ashton do a "twisty-twist" and a somersault (and another unmentionable thing if you are observant enough). He is saying hi to the camera before he starts (read his lips) and then after he says, "I'm OK!".

In this video Emmy is performing for your pleasure: A bridge and her attempt at a front walk-over.

This video is a display of Carter's handstand and kartwheel. He is capable of doing much better handstands, but I suppose we will have to catch one of those on another day =0)

All the kids wanted to say hi to the camera, so here it is. . .

LoveBirds Tag

Kristine tagged me- so I tag Kristi, Trisha, Katie, Grandma Hamblin and Nicole Oh! And Tessy too! I didn't know you started a blog!

1. When did you and your husband first meet?
In a play in high school. He was in the play and I was a "techie" =0) He didn't go on stage until the last 20 minutes of the play, so we had plenty of time to hang out backstage together. He couldn't resist my incredible charms. . . and he was pretty charming to me too. Anyway, I was only 15 and he was 18, so he had to wait for a few months to take me out on our first date, which he did and then promptly dumped me afterwards. Let's just say we didn't get along so well at our job (we both worked at Arctic Circle at this point) or any where else where we ran into each other. I have to give kudos to Teresa here for putting up with me during my teenage heartbreak. She listened to me cry and took me out for my first Italian Soda ever, I just wish she would have told me that you were supposed to blow into it to mix the syrup with the soda water and cream (it sure makes it taste better ;) )



2. What is the first thing you said to each other?
I can't remember what exactly the first things that we said to each other, but I do remember him trying to teach me how to dance out in the hallway, and he said I was pretty good, so either he was lying, or he has just changed his mind since we've been married. I think I am a pretty good dancer, but he says I have no rhythm which isn't entirely true, it just comes a little slower for me than for some people =0)

3. When was your first date?
December 31st, 1996. I had just turned 16 the day before. He called me at the last minute and took me to his friends house where we watched some stupid movies and then went icing on the golf course (there wasn't too much snow) and then threw snowballs with the little snow there was. He was pretty much a brat to me the whole time.
Since that wasn't the most positive experience I will tell you about our second
"first" date. This one was a few years later, after he had been on a mission and I had gotten back from basic training and AIT in the Army National Gaurd. We saw each other again at Clinton's (his younger brother) Christmas choir concert. I told him we should get together sometime, just to be nice, I didn't really mean it, but he called me a few days later and he took me out to lunch at Perkins (I believe).



4. First Kiss?
That would have been about our 4th date (four days after our second "first" date)For the record, this was Jaron's first kiss ever and he was shaking he was so scared!

5. When were the first "I love you's" said?
Honestly, I can't remember. Probably about 3 weeks in, about the same time we got engaged =0) I think we both knew, but it was weird saying it outloud.

6. Long or short engagement?
5 months, from the first part of January to May 13th.

7. Where did you get engaged?
Cherry Springs, in hip deep snow. He blindfolded me and drove me out there, by the time I got there I was sick and completely disoriented. However, it was really beautiful and peaceful out there. There was a full moon and the snow was gorgeous.


8. Where were you married?
The Idaho Falls Temple, May 13th, 2000.


9. Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We went to a hotel in Idaho Falls then on to Island Park right after we got married. We waited about a month and a half to go on our offical honeymoon to Lagoon. It was great, aside from the fact that I was already unknowingly pregnant and for some weird reason all the rrides were making me sick!

10. Where was your first home?
Our first home was a basement apartment by ISU in Pocatello. Our upstairs neighbors smoked and had snakes and lizards loose in the house, and they fed them by just putting crickets loose in the house. Our cat, "Kiki" had a great time hunting the crickets. I was adamant that I get out of that place before I had the baby, so as soon as our six month contract was up we bought our first house at 743 Washington in Pocatello.

NINJA Folding Skills!!!

So apparently, I have some pretty valuable skills, one of which is my speedy Ninja newspaper folding skill. The district manager at the newspaper I am delivering for called me to see if I could help fold some extra papers since I am so incredibly speedy. Of course I had to think about whether it was right to use my ninja folding skills to make a profit, but then I realized, "Hey, I already am. . . " so I agreed and now I am getting up at 2 in the morning and getting home around 6am. I folded over 600 papers this morning and I am still debating whether the extra money they offer me is worth it. . . Just because I have the skills doesn't mean I like to use them!



On the home front, Lilly is growing up so fast, I snapped a picture of her sitting up today (one of her newly acquired ninja skills- I can see she will take after her mother). The kids spent the entire day (after their chores were finished) playing in the swimming pool that Grandma Hamblin left for their enjoyment, and are they ever enjoying it! I swear they have turned into little fish!

Lilly is trying to crawl!

I always dread this day with my babies. . . when they first start trying to crawl. It's like I can feel my care-free days slipping away to the days of constant vigilance! It is so nice when all they do is lay there and smile and kick. Lilly began her first earnest attempts at getting somewhere on her knees today and I just managed to catch some on video for those anxious grandmas. *Sigh* Child safety measures. . . here we come!

Also, Casey e-mailed me some pics that he took while he and Sophia were here, so I am going to go ahead and post those.

Hillarious SNL Digital Short

Teresa, I posted this mostly for your sake! Oh no! Here it comes!

Family Bike Ride

So today was kind of a crazy day. Jaron and I have really been wanting to see the new Batman movie, so we got a babysitter so that we could go during the matinee today. We decided to take Lilly since she would need to eat and she really won't take a bottle, so the baby sitter can't feed her. Anyway, we get to the movie and get about 30 seconds into it and Lilly is terrified. All the loud loises, gun fire and buses crashing through walls etc. was freaking her out. Duh! What were we thinking taking our baby to that movie, she would have been scarred for life! Needless to say, we quickly left, got our refund and then headed home. The kids weren't too happy with us for cutting their precious babysitter time short.

We were going to work on putting our basement together and then go to Lagoon, but neither Jaron nor I were up to it, again disappointing the kids, so to make up for it, we promised them that for an hour of hard work in the basement we would go on a family bike ride to the church parking lot. This was an acceptable deal to them, so we wrote up the contract and got to work on the basement! We got alot done and at exactly one hour, Emmy was reminding us that it was time to go.

The church is not too far away from our house, but there is a pretty nice hill going down to the church that the kids were nervous to ride down. We, being the loving and caring parents that we are, who only want the best for our children, told them that if they didn't ride down then hill then they had to go home and go to bed. This provided sufficient motivation for them to suck it up and ride down the hill. I wasn't worried about Emmy, but Carter is still on training wheels, so I told him to use his brakes and when he got to the bottom of the hill where we were supposed to turn, to NOT turn, stop first, or he would tip with those blasted training wheels on.


Now those of you who know Carter know that telling him something can be about as effective as telling a brick wall to move out of your way. So off he goes down the hill, pedaling forward instead of using his brakes, and then at the bottom of the hill, as I repeatedly yell at him to "GO STRAIGHT, DON'T TURN!", he begins his turn of death, which logically is followed by a spectacular crash involving 3 "360 degree" flips by Carter (his bike only flipped once. . . nothing to brag about really). This is the first time that instead of cursing those annoying bike helmets that I never needed to wear as a child, I was kind of glad my kid had one on.

Amazingly, Carter came out with only a few scratched elbows which we immediately started praising and telling him how cool he was and how he could show off those scratches (this tends to stave off the annoying crying and whining that could last for days until the scabs disappear). He stood looking at us with a dazed and confused face for a few moments and then decided that he was pretty cool and tough, so he got back on his bike and started riding the rest of the way to the church. Of course, we couldn't let him go without chewing him out for not listening to us in the first place. I told him, "Carter, you HAVE to use your brakes coming down that hill! Just pedal backwards and you won't go so fast!", and then the real issue is revealed when Carter replies to me, "but Mom! My bike doesn't pedal backwards!" Yeah. So anyway, we spent the next few minutes practicing braking techniques (which was a review, I swear I taught him how to use the brakes the first day he got his bike!) Anyway, we all survived the bike ride and I took a few pictures of us out on the road.

Jaron is home to stay!

Yay!!! Jaron has finally arrived. He got in early this morning and we were all excited, but Ashton was especially happy to see his daddy. He could hardly sit still and his grin stretched from ear to ear. Jaron and I celebrated our reunion by going to lunch at the Cheesecake factory (thanks to Kristi for the gift card) and then to the GEEX convention which was extremely disappointing. We had gotten free tickets to it and we were expecting a gamers paradise and some really cool new technology displays. What we got was closer to the Spring Fair in Pocatello, only about 1/8th the size and none of the cool stuff. Let's just say we were glad it was free. Afterwards we came home and crashed for awhile. Lilly got to try some whippped cream at the Cheese Cake Factory courtesy of her daddy, she was making some great faces at first, but then she started to beg for it. This is the first time I have seen her actually chase a spoon with her mouth.

After a little down time in the afternoon I got looking at my boys and their shaggy little heads. I swear I just cut it and I turn around and they need another hair cut- grrr! I have been cutting their hair myself, but I really didn't feel like doing it, so I called around and everybody is charging $12 to cut little boys hair! I wasn't about to waste $24 on something I could do for free, but I didn't feel like putting the usual amount of time into it that I do (I am really slow), so I whipped out the clippers and buzzed the boys heads. They have never had buzzes before and Carter cried for about the first 20 minutes after I did it about how he didn't want to be bald. Ashton was excited about having it done. Emmy couldn't be left out of our little hair parade so she got pillow curlers in for church tomorrow.

YuMMy PiGGies!

Lilly has discovered her toes and that delicious toe jam flavor as well as her thumb. Now, none of my kids have ever been thumb suckers, and she isn't really addicted. . . yet. I do have one nail biter on my hands (Emmy) so I wouldn't be surprised if she did become attached to her thumb, but here are a couple of cute shots of her eating her toes. Ahhh. . . it's so cute when they are little, but for some reason, the image of an adult, like Jaron sucking his toes just isn't as appealing! (Love ya Honey!)

Picture Worthy

So today we cleaned the house and just tried to get ready to welcome Jaron (Daddy) home. I also finally got around to making the raspberry jam I have been meaning to make for the last week or more, of course I have to post a picture of my first batch of jam ever! The other pictures are just cute so they are being posted as well.

Ashton Dancing

So Ashton was watching Noggin today and they have a Backyardigans music video that teaches kids how to do a dance, and Ashton was dancing away with them, so I had to get out the camera and record him doing it. Unfortunately I don't have any sound on my camera, but it is still cute.

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Geneology - Black and white photographs

Simonson Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Family history

Carters First Day at Gymnastics

So Carter got to start gymnastics today (thanks to my lovely paper route) and he LOVED it! Here is a picture of him working on the little kid bar, it is kind of dark, but you can see him if you look close.

BroCCoLi

Well, today I did my first broccoli freezing ever! I picked it, blanched it and froze it and it was much easier than I ever thought it could be. Thanks to Grandma Hamblin for her quick instructions, my family will have delicious home-grown broccoli for the next several months I am sure. It is so satisfying having your own garden and preparing your own food, even though it is a little overwhelming having such a big garden and so much to be done with it! Next on the list of things to be done (besides the continuous raspberry picking) are the peas. They are ready to be picked and frozen. I am excited and a bit daunted by that task, but I have to get it done before the peas get too big or too old, so wish me luck!

Shopping Spree!

Emmy got to go shopping today for her new Webkinz, a shopping spree as she called it. She was able to get a lil' kinz bunny and she named it Marshmallow. We went to the library afterwards and we all picked out some books to read or movies to watch. Here is a picture of Emmy and Marshmallow, and another cute one of the boys watching cartoons this morning.

Feeding Lilly

So at the end of our long day at Lagoon we came home and I started to make dinner, but Ashton didn't want dinner, he wanted "sugar". Anyway, after his fit he ended up in my room for timeout and it wasn't 10 seconds later and the poor kid was snoring!

Lilly was being pretty fussy so we set up her high chair to feed her cereal and she was loving it. Carter tried to take a turn feeding her, but she just grabbed the spoon from him and tried to shovel it in by herself. We tried to get a video of her doing it, but this was the best we could get. . .

LAgOOn

So my day started out at 3:30 am with the paper route. Lilly slept through the whole thing and waited till I was just about to go back to sleep at 6:30 and then she decided to wake up for the day. By the time I fed her and changed her etc., the other kids were up and wanted to get started on their chores that I had told them they had to do before Casey and Sophia came to go to Lagoon with us. Luckily for the kids, they managed to get their chores done in time and we all got to spend the day at Lagoon.


The first ride we went to was Wicked and Casey tried convincing Emmy to ride with him and Sophia, she kept refusing until he upped the bribe to $10.00. Those who know Emmy well know that money is very hard for her to resist =0)

Let's just say that Casey is $10.00 poorer and Emmy is planning her own little shopping spree! She LOVED the ride and after that she made quick work of all the scary roller coasters she had previously been avoiding.




We were able to fit in a ton of rides and I think that everyone had a good time. Here are some more pictures of our fun at Lagoon!




















































Ashton was the literally the only kid at Lagoon who wanted to ride Bulgy the Whale, so he got to have the whole ride to himself and he just stayed on each time the ride was over and waited for the operator to start it again.

Oh, and by the way Casey, thanks for the fart machine, just remember what goes around comes around and I can't wait till you have kids!

Lilly's first bites of cereal. . .

Lilly got her first taste of baby cereal today and she seemed to enjoy it. Emmy was so excited that she was actually eating with a spoon!