Madi doing The Wave

Madi came up to me yesterday and said, "Mom, look what I can do with my belly!!" I can't help but laugh and laugh and thought you all would too...enjoy!! (Sorry about her dress...hair...etc.....she's four.)

Madi had a Birthday!

I LOVE this picture of Madison. It couldn't be any better. She had pre-school on her birthday. So, I made her some fun cupcakes and took them over. When we walked in I heard a lot of giggling, but didn't see anyone. All the kids were hiding so they could jump out and surprise her. She thought it was great. I guess when it was time to come up for snack this is the outfit Madi had on. It doesn't surprise me....I see her in all sorts of things.....and if you don't believe me just scroll down to set the get-up she had on in the snow!! But, here you go, this picture sums Madi - at four- up pretty well. Crazy fun!

PRIVATE

Okay, so I went PRIVATE this last week. I feel like I have to explain......when I first set this blog up my father expressed his CONCERN that anyone could look at it. I felt like as long as I didn't put any personal information, about where we live or anything, I was okay. Well, the last time I was updating my blog I noticed this guy in my "followers" bar. I tried to find info on him...blah, blah, blah, but couldn't find anything. I wondered...why the heck is this guy following MY blog???? It made me feel uncomfortable that ANYBODY COULD LOOK AT MY BLOG. (Yeah, I know my Dad already warned me of this...but I had to do it my way first.) When I decided to set it to private a friend told me, most of the people in the blogosphere world are good people.... I agree, but there is a small percent that make it that we even have the concern....so, I hope you are all able to get on here okay. If you receive a notice one time when you log in that your invite has expired...try it anyway...I've noticed with some that I've been invited to that I can still log in even thought the invite has expired. Love, Amos

Signs

One of the women I work with in Young Women asked me to make these for a wedding she catered a couple weeks ago. I thought they turned out nice. She told me their colors were black, white and a little bit of red. So this is what I ended up with. If you can't see, I inked the edges of the white cardstock with red. I thought they turned out nice, and Pam loved them too. Yay!!

JELLY ROLL

I haven't posted in awhile, so here I sit at 11:20 pm blogging. I keep thinking I need to do this, and never get around to it. So, here we go. These next 3 pictures have no blog entry really to go with them....I just think they are funny and cute.


Madi got to lick the spoons after I made GREEN Rice Krispie treats for mutual.

I thought this was a good picture of Bailey just enjoying her Easter basket.

Kylie came out of her bedroom the other day with this get-up on. She said she was a super hero! She put her toast colored dance tights on over her leotard, and then put these pink underwear on over the top of them. I thought it was hilarious and she thought it was ingenious.

This is the pic to my Easter morning post that never attatched.....deal with it....ha ha.

Easter

Ok, I'm posting these a little out of order, but we'll all live won't we? This is Easter morning. Of course the kids just got out of bed, so they're looking a little wild. I don't know what this first picture is except that is shows I let the kids get themselves ready for bed. Kylie is wearing a DAD T-shirt, and Bailey is wearing some jammies that are a little too short. Oh well. The Easter Bunny hides the kids baskets each year....so they were off hunting first thing. They all really enjoyed the flarp....Bailey enjoyed it so much she took it to school the next day to show her teacher how WONDERFUL it was too. I'm sure Mrs. Olson LOVED it. Really. The Easter Bunny also hid eggs all over the house that the kids got to collect. Jon held onto Kylie and Bailey while Madison got a head start. I just noticed that picture did not attach so I'll attach it to my next post...grrrr......

Coloring Eggs

The kids love doing this, I mean, what kid wouldn't?? I still enjoy coloring eggs....and obviously Jon does too, because I always get pictures of him with the kids every year....none of me with them. Oh well. This year we tried the dye without any vinegar but were so dissappointed with the dull colors we finally broke out the vinegar. I can't believe what a difference it makes! I let the kids EACH color a DOZEN eggs!!! Well, eleven eggs each, cause three broke in the pan... My kids LOVE hard boiled eggs and I often will have a carton in the fridge that has "BOILED EGGS" written on it with a sharpie. I especially love to make deviled eggs out of the colored eggs cause they're always a little TYE-DYED! I told Jon that one year we used the hard boiled eggs for an Easter hunt in our house. I even reminded my mother of it. It brings back fond memories of the one that went missing for some time....until we could smell it. Someone had hid it in a little decorative shoe my mother kept in the window!!! YUCK!!
I didn't let the kids hide the real ones! :)

Where did you come from??

It has been so warm here!! Seriously, it got into the low 80's about a week and a half ago! But, of course Spring likes to tease us and grace us with a little more snow!! YUCK! Jon and I were getting ready to go somewhere and Madi decided to go outside, looking like THIS!!



I said to her, "Madi, where did you come from?" and she just simply said, "From you mom!!" I love all the silly things kids say, and do, I mean....look at this outfit! AND, she's blowing bubbles. When they're not being stubborn, I just love these little people in my life.

KIDS

I think I'll be seeing more of these little people as the weather continues to warm up!! These are some of the kids that live in the homes right around us. They all get along so good, and play until they can't anymore. How fun!!

Shoshone Falls

The weekend of the 19th my niece and nephew (Logan and Whitney) called and asked if they could come visit. I was thrilled to have them here. They are great company and they have the cutest little girls. We heard Shoshone was running really good, (from the McQueens blog) so we decided to take them down. We got everything ready for an AWESOME picnic at the falls....crescent rolls, chicken salad, cottage cheese, canned peaches from last summer, chips, ummm.........pretty much the works. So, off we went!! We got down to the turn off and there was a HUGE line of cars backed up for TWO MILES!!!! There were even signs up that said to expect a 45 minute delay. We decided to go to the Twin Falls park instead....so they never got to see the falls. I'm sure they'll be over again, but the falls don't flow like this that often. We did have a great time though and the kids loved every minute of it. On our way back I told Jon he should call his parents to come over and see them. I called. And 2 1/2 hours later they were over!! They spent the night and then we took the kids out of school a little early. Here are a couple pictures we got while we were down there. The only time I've ever seen them they just have a trickle going over them, but this time....WOW!!! They are so majestic. It reminded me of a time I drove up to Ashton, Idaho and we were looking out at the Teton Mountains, and one of my friends made the statement, "How can someone see something like that and doubt there is a God?" It is SO true, and it makes me so thankful for all the beauty our Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I'm glad we were able to go and enjoy all of it.

Another giveaway from the Meanest Mom!!

Okay....I now my last post was about the Meanest Mom blog, but if you haven't checked it out yet do it now!!! Just follow this link.... http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/04/mothers-day-giveaway.html

This giveaway is for Mother's Day...and don't we all deserve it!!??

CHECK THIS OUT!!!

I found one of the coolest blogs ever a couple days ago. The button to this blog...The Meanest Mom, is on my right sidebar. I don't remember how I actually stumbled across it, I'm just happy I found it. This woman just says it how it is....and I LOVE IT!!! I've spent way too much time on her blog reading through her hilarious takes on life and kids. And it's great to know that I'm not the only one to tell my kids I'm getting rid of their toys, or, umm, other things that you'll find in her blog. You ALL have to check it out. Right now she's giving away a Modbe swimsuit too!!! The link to the giveaway is http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/03/swimsuit-giveaway.html .

Fish Frenzy

Can you tell I'm loving the collage feature from Picasa? I just figured out how to use it!! I'm sure most of you are thinking it's about time, but, I'm on a learning curve here!! Last week was spring break so the kids had a full week off of school. We've been telling them we would take them fishing forever. So, we took them up to Dierkes lake. Jon rigged up Madi's princess pole with a fake worm and threw it out in the lake. It wasn't in the water for 10 seconds and he had a fish on the line!!! He let Madi real it in. (picture of the two of them on bottom) We fished for about two more hours without even a bite!! I was mentally preparing myself for the LONGEST day of fishing ever when Jon said, "Oh.....my.....gosh! Do you know what that truck is over there???" Me, "duh, No!" Jon, "It's a fish and game stock truck." Can you believe it?? Fish and game came and dumped 3000 planter fish in the lake while we were there with the kids! We put spinners on all the poles and after about 20 minutes (we had to let the shock wear off the fish) I caught a fish. After that we couldn't keep the lines in the water long enough!! The kids were fishing by themselves with their own poles.....this usually doesn't happen because we have to help everyone out and watch so if they get a bite we can help secure it on the hook. We caught about 80 fish (catch and release)!! We stunk terrible but we had so much fun!! All of Jon's buddies at work said that he ruined his kids for life because they'll never have such a good fishing day again!! I told him he ruined his wife too, because I think fishing is terribly boring if you're not catching anything. But, this was a fun day and we'll probably remember it often as we're sitting on the rocks waiting for hours for the next fish to bite!!

Sew, sew, sew.......

SEW.....I found this cute pattern over at the quilt shop in Rupert. I thought they would make cute "church" bags for the girls. Sew I made these for them for Christmas. Except, they didn't get them "finished" for Christmas. On Christmas Eve I only had two seams left on these cute things sew I borrowed a serger from a woman in my ward..........and broke it. ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!!! I gave the girls the bags literally pinned together. How sad :0( I fixed the machine awhile ago, but I've been kind-of afraid of it. (It cost $50 to fix and I didn't want to break it again.) This weekend I finally pulled it back out and finished the three bags!! AND, I made another one for the ward auction. (the one in the center) I love this pattern though and thought everyone might like seeing them actually sewn together. They are a little time consuming to put together but I don't care because the are SEW adorable. Hope you enjoy them!!

Grandma Esther's visit!

My mother was just out here for a couple weeks. I had NO idea she was coming! My sister Juli surprised me the day we baptized Kylie. I was showing them the house we just moved into and my mother was in the kitchen!! Completely took me by surprise! Juli brought her out here for Kylie's baptism!! What a fun surprise! Sisters are great!! She was able to be here for Kylie's baptism, and then she came back down for a week to spend with us. We made a cute buggy barn quilt for Madi's bed while she was here. Well, actually she made it. We also went over to the quilt store in Burley while she was here and we were in there for 2 1/2 hours!! It was an awesome store, so it didn't seem like we were in there that long. Grandma was here for the girls Valentine parties and helped with the craft at them. It was fun to have her here. Grandma bought these cute little princess things for the girls. They're wooden and the girls were able to color them. They also had sparkly things to glue on that the girls thought were great. Grandma helped them put these together. Kylie was at dance while we took this picture. I'm really kicking myself that I didn't take more pictures than this, but unfortunately this was the only one from her whole trip. Hopefully she was able to get more than I did. I hate that Kylie isn't in the picture, and that this is the only one. The girls loved having Grandma out though. Kylie loved to go down in the morning and see her before school, and Bailey's teacher is still talking about how excited Bailey was because she talked about it at school all the time. I think Madi loved it too. She was thrilled Grandma was making a blanket for her and jabbered her ear off the whole time she was here.

Strike a pose!!

Okay, I love these pictures of Madison. Not because they're the best pictures ever, but because I think Madi is so stinkin' cute!! (Yeah, I know I'm partial.) Every picture I have of Madi, she has one of these quirky poses in it. I don't know where she came up with the idea of this particular pose, but, it's in every one. I don't know where we picked her up??

Kylie turns eight!!

Kylie turned 8 on January 24th. I can't believe I actually have a child this old already. Where has our time gone? She had a pretty fun party. We let her invite a few girls from school and we took them to Hop 2 It. They loved it! Afterwards we came home and had pizza and cake and icecream. These girls she invited are adorable and I'm thankful she has made such good choices in friends.

Yearly ornaments from Grandma Esther and Grandpa Dave

Every year my parents give us a new Hallmark ornament. The girls look forward to this every year, well, I do too. They always pick out adorable ornaments for the girls. Here they are from this year........



This is Madi's. There is a button on the chimney so that when you push it, it sings, "I want a Hippopatamus for Christmas..."

I love this one too!! This little drummer boy beats his drum to the beat of 5 different Christmas songs. Kylie is the proud owner of this one.

This is Bailey's. Can you guess what this one does? It plays the Chicken Dance. Sooooo cute!!

All of us got one of these from Grandma and Grandpa this year. My maiden name is Horton, so we all got one of these and a stuffed animal of Horton which is adorable.

Christmas

Okay, looking back at this I can't believe I didn't take more pictures of Christmas. How sad that we don't have more!

We made a gingerbread house before Christmas. It was fun to make with
the girls. They really enjoyed it too. If you look close enough I'm sure you
can tell which one each of the girls made.

Kylie was invited to her good friend Megan Buckley's house for her annual Christmas party.
This is Kylie's creation of her first gingerbread house. I thought it was a fun idea
for Megan to have this little party and thrilled she invited Kylie.