Rain Boots and Crazy Long Eyelashes

Ryan has a pair of boots.  They are green froggie rain boots, and he is in love with them.  He wears them around the house, in the back yard, to and from the school (we have lots of to's and from's every day...), to Trader Joe's, and wherever else we will let him.  He wears them with onesies, diapers, church clothes, jammies....he isn't picky.  We think it's pretty cute:

Here is his "I crack myself up" face:

Oh, and here it is again....we see that face often:

Awww...and here is his 'just plain cute' face:

And in other news, Anna and I were talking make-up while getting ready the other morning and somehow got on the subject of Ryan's eyelashes.  He seriously has the longest I've ever seen.  You have to catch the light just right to get the full effect though because they are so blonde.  We wondered how long they'd look with mascara, so we did the unthinkable (don't tell Daddy...he would NOT be happy with us!)  Here are some pictures (don't be jealous ladies...) 

(click on the picture for a closer view)

Okay, I'm jealous....I guess it's true that the longest eyelashes go to the boys! 

Wicked

A few months ago I found out that "Wicked" was coming to Orange County.  The girls and I have been wanting to see it for a while now, and I couldn't resist getting tickets.  We don't do things like this very often, so it was a special treat.  The show was last Saturday, and we were not disappointed!  It was pretty fabulous.  The best part was going to see it with my girls....just the three of us out for a "Mom-Daughter Date."  I loved every minute of it!

Needless to say, I've been walking around with the songs in my head all week long. :)

And, Crystal....when it comes to Salt Lake, we'll make a trip up to see it with you guys!!!

Meanwhile, the boys spent the afternoon with Daddy....playing basketball, the Wii, watching Jimmer (we got home just in time for the second half of the BYU-Gonzaga game...whew! We've got Jimmer fever around here...despite what Uncle Marc says!)

Throw in the church clean-up we had that morning (the kids love cleaning the church) and we had a pretty great Saturday....fun for everyone! :)

St. Patrick's Day and Back to the Land of the Living

Wow, what a year so far.  We've spent the majority of it sick, which hasn't really been fun.  Everything from strep throat, to the stomach flu, to several different colds, to a bad sinus infection (that I'm still trying to fight off) has gone through this house.  I have been lucky enough to catch just about everything, which has completely thrown me for a loop.  I'm usually a pretty healthy person...but apparently I let myself get completely worn out and I crashed.  So, I'm turning over a 'new leaf' full of lots of water, healthy food (no brownies for breakfast), vitamins, as much rest as I can get, and slowly nursing myself back to health. :) 

In the meantime, life has not slowed down one bit.  We had a fun visit from cousins Bella, Ava, and Lexi in February and had some good times at Disneyland with them.  Before we knew it, March was here!  And already half-way done?!?  Nathan was excited to wake up to green milk again this year (that darn leprechaun!)  I thought maybe it was the leprechaun who left our house so messy, but he told me it was already like that.  Hmmm...two months of having a sick mommy?  We'll use that excuse.  It also happened to be twin day at school, so the moms of the boys in his class coordinated and they all looked pretty much like this:

I was in his class later that day for their "Potato Tasting" and the substitute teacher said that the Principal had announced over the louspeaker that anyone with green hair color needed to wash it out.  She called the office and told them that her entire Kindergarten class had green hair!  They decided to let it slide.....this time.  Oops! 

Here are the kids in their St. Patrick's Day gear:

Happy St. Patty's Day!

....and hoping for a healthy spring!

Eighteen Months!!!

A couple of years ago I was spending day after day in bed, ridiculously sick.  It was all for a good cause though.  I distinctly remember the tangerines on our tree (which produces the yummiest tangerines...but only every other year) started to ripen in the middle of February, and I was so sad.  One of my favorite things to eat in the whole world, and they smelled and tasted horrible in my pregnant state.  My mind fast-fowarded two years to when we would have another new crop, and I thought to myself, "This baby will be eighteen months by the time I can enjoy those tangerines again!"  That seemed like forever into the future, and I was in denial that my baby would ever be eighteen months, so I tried to forget about my beloved citrus and pretended that the day would never come.  Well, I looked out my window a few weeks ago and saw a tree full of those delicious, juicy, almost-ripe tangerines and knew what was coming.  I am really not very good at letting my kids grow up.  Shouldn't they come with a pause button?  I have to say, I think I'm handling it all pretty well.  It's hard to be sad that Ryan is growing up when more of his cute personality emerges every day.  He is SO FUN!  And so cute, and smart, and funny, and talkative, and flirty with the girls, and energetic, and sweet, and happy, and independent, and did I mention cute?  We are so lucky!  So, the good news is that I can enjoy my tangerines and my eighteen-month old.  Because I really do love this age.

The other day I had the camera out taking pictures of Nathan and Ryan came out and started posing for me!

It was hilarious.  Eighteen months of mom taking pictures...he's got it down.

He got a little carried away...

Ry-guy loves the sandbox.  He and Nathan spend lots of time out there!

One of Ryan's favorite things to do is to pretend to cook in the kitchen.  Here he is mixing candy hearts and flour.  He'll take whatever he can get his hands on!

This is very serious stuff:

It was cold and rainy on his "big day"...you know, when he turned eighteen months...so we built a fire (another one of his favorites) and spent the evening around it.

Nothing like a fire in the fireplace and a good book to read:

Ryan loves watching Nathan shoot hoops in the backyard.  Here he is enjoying the view from the safety of the supply box:

Oh, another favorite is "Elefun."  I heart this game (so does Ryan!)

Ah, yes, cooking again...I had to banish the bar stools from the kitchen for his own safety.  He climbs like you wouldn't believe.  We call him our little monkey. :)

Love you, Ryan....you know you'll be my baby forever, no matter how big you get! :)

Year of Service

A few years ago Scott came up with the fabulous idea of writing our family's goals for the year on a big poster board and then reviewing them each month to evaluate how we are doing.  We have a few "family" goals, and then we each have a section for personal goals.  It's pretty great....we've been doing it for five years or so now, and we've been able to accomplish some very cool things.  Well, this year we wanted to do something service-oriented, so we thought we would try to find someone each month that we could do service for.  Just a couple of days after we decided on this goal, Scott came home from work and announced that he had our first service project...should we choose to accept...

A sweet lady he works with (the kids call her their California Grandma) needed a big dead tree in her front yard removed, but couldn't afford to have it done.  Scott was more than happy to volunteer his chainsaw skills and said we would be there that Saturday morning, bright and early!

Here is the tree (can you find Anna?):

Scott and the chainsaw (a.k.a. "Wild Thing"...the saw, not Scott...)

Everyone working hard:

Nathan, so excited to use Daddy's tools!

Ryan's favorite part was pushing around this cart with the cut-up logs:

Aimee slaving away:

Ryan supervised the whole process:

Anna showing that tree who's boss:

This is too easy:

Okay, Mom, enough with the pictures...we have work to do!

Loading the logs into the firewood pile:

Awww...the kids are always saying how they would love a tree to climb...they thought it was a shame to cut this one down:

Anna climbed up into the tree to snap a few shots of Ryan:

Finally a tool Ryan can use!  We let him play with the rake, but snatched up that hand saw that he was eyeing in a hurry!

Anna taking a little break from all the hard work...

Still sawing...

Ah, the moment we've all been waiting for...everyone waiting for Daddy to take the actual tree down (from the safety of the Suburban)...

Ready...here it goes...

Timberrrrrr......

Yessssss...

Anna was a little sentimental about the fallen tree:

....actually all three of them were...

Goofballs.

Oh, good, all better:

These are some random pictures, but Ryan's face had us cracking up.  He was trying to blow some of the sawdust off of the logs:

Almost done...just a few more loads...

Stomping down the smaller branches...we filled three large garbage cans!

I don't know how this happens, but Annalyn ALWAYS ends up the dirtiest of anyone in the family:

Wow...all done!  It was a morning well spent and we all had so much fun working together.  We're going to remember this for a long time.

Oh, and here is Ryan enjoying his In-n-Out on the way home.  Good times...

Hmmmm...we're wondering what the next project will be...