Update on Rachel's Science Fair Project

I just wanted to let everyone know that Rachel's Science Fair Project, Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!, was very successful! (See the last entry.) She won first prize for her age group. I had to stay home with Ben, who's taking his turn having the stomach flu. (Rachel and Steven have already had it!) So, we didn't get any pictures of her accepting her award.
We also didn't get a picture of "Mad Scientist Steve" who did a demonstration of waves. This picture is from last year. For those of you who live around here, he'll be doing the "show" again at Lakeland Hills Elementary's Science Night in May, so you can see him in all his glory! (He'll "love" me for writing that!)

On your marks, get set, GO!

We've had a very eventful weekend. We started out on Friday with the Pinewood Derby. Ben had a great time making his super-speedy car, the Golden Flash. He insists that the little divot he made in the front of the car helped to streamline it and make it go so fast! Because Rachel wasn't feeling well that night, I stayed home with her, so we didn't get any pictures other than this video. The video clips don't show his car--but they do show how excited Ben was that night as his car raced down the track!
Saturday morning, the rain stopped for a couple of hours, just long enough for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. We were lucky enough to have been spread out in the age groups for our kids that we were there from 9:00 until 11:00. They had lots of luck finding candy!

Leia had fun, too!

I loved the picture of Sophie standing in the middle of all of the eggs at the beginning of the hunt. She had been having "practice" egg hunts with her friends, Sidney and Alexa the day before, so she know just what to do. We had to keep reminding her that she needed to wait to pick them up, though.

Steven had gone to the tween/teen flashlight egg hunt on Friday Night. He wasn't so lucky--at the very beginning of the hunt, in all of the excitement another kid accidentally knocked the headlamp off his head, and his headlamp and batteries went flying. By the time he rounded up all of pieces, all of the loot was gone. His wonderful friends, Zac and Colton, who he'd gone with were very kind and shared their treats with him.

After the hunt, we came home and colored our own eggs. Ben's favorite color is green, so most of his eggs ended up green. . .

Saturday night we finally celebrated Steven's birthday (his birthday was March 4th.) He had a "late night" with his friends, Zac, Kyle, Nik, Chris, Christian, Josh, and Austin. They each took turns showing off on Guitar Hero and battled each other on Super Smash Bros. They ate pizza and Steven's birthday cake, a "Steven Invention." The cake was sooo yummy. We made the bottom layer brownies. Then we topped it with a layer of ice cream and added caramel, chocolate, M&M's, and whipped cream. It was easy and a big hit with the boys. Finally, they calmed down enough to watch Star Wars: Episode I, until we made them turn it off at 10:00 and sent the boys home so the Easter bunny could come.
This morning the kids had fun doing a little egg hunt. Sophie is especially fun this year. She had so much fun looking for the eggs. She's had more chocolate in one day than she's had her entire life!

Rachel spent the weekend working on her science fair project. She has been working on it for about three weeks. The kindergarten and first grade students are supposed to display collections. She came up with the idea that she could collect pictures of dogs in the neighborhood. So she's been going around for the last couple of weeks taking pictures of dogs. Her favorite picture,(other than Leia, of course!) was the picture of the Andros' puppies.

We're saving the best news for last! Sophie's first day of Nursery in church was today. And best of all--SHE LOVED IT!!! We've lucked out with all of our kids. When it comes to Nursery, they've all gone happily. Brother and Sister Twiddy said her favorite part was "Ring Around the Rosies."

We had a wonderful day celebrating Easter and focusing on the life of the Savior. We had our friends, the Carman's and the Casey's, over for dinner. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, baked beans, salad, rolls, and for dessert, flan! (Lily Casey is from Columbia and made it homemade! Yum!) It was a dinner my mommy would be proud of! (I had to call her from the grocery store to get her recipe for the beans.) We were having so much fun, we forgot to take pictures.

A Little About Me . . .

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? I was living in Brookfield, Wisconsin with Steve and Steven. I was very pregnant with Ben. We had no cable, so all Steven had to watch was Sesame Street and Teletubbies. (Now that we have cable, suprisingly, the only shows Sophie likes to watch are Sesame Street and Teletubbies. The only difference is that I Tivo them so she can watch them whenever I need her to!) I was the Primary chorister in church. I still remember doing "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and the older kids laughing because I couldn't touch my toes.) For fun, little Steven and I would go to Barnes and Noble for story time and have play dates with his little friends--there were lots of little kids in our ward. Man, I thought I was busy then!

2. 5 Things on my To-Do List Today...1. Laundry--you know it's bad when your kids complain they don't have anything to wear to school and your husband has to go buy new gym clothes to work out in because there aren't any clean ones. 2. Cleaning my shower. 3. Watching Brandon Carman--this was on my to-do list until Rachel said she wasn't feeling well, so she's staying home and we're playing "school" instead. 4. Setting up a chiropractor appointment--my chiropractor sent a birthday postcard saying I could come in this month for a free adjustment! Yippee--thanks Dr. Dedge! 5. Calling Rufino and getting my hair cut! (Yes, Lacey sisters--it's even worse than when I was in Arizona--at least Kristy helped my avoid the total "she-mullet" by trimming off the back in the hotel room.)

3. What snacks I enjoy...anything! I especially enjoy peanut butter crackers--at 200 calories a pack, not the healthiest snack...I also love peanut M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers--anything with peanut butter in them.

4. What would I do if I were to suddenly be a Billionaire? Of course I would pay my tithing first, man that would be a huge check! (Sorry to plaguerize, Cherilyn!)Then I would hire a maid to clean my house every day--especially my shower!

5. 3 Bad Habits...1. Having too many projects going on at once. 2. Leaving my clothes out at night--it means I have to pick them up in the morning. (I wonder why my kids do the same thing?!? It drives me crazy when they do it!) 3. Not cleaning as I cook--it drives Steve crazy--but he's learned to live with it.

6. 5 Places I've lived...1. Drummond, MT 2. Provo and Sandy, UT 3. Austria 4. Austin, TX 5. Brookfield, WI

7. 5 Jobs I've had...Kitchen help and waitress at the Wagon Wheel Cafe 2. Telemarketer for Eagle Marketing 3. BYU Bookstore- I was a secretary/receptionist/sales floor. For 3 years, I was the voice of the BYU Bookstore who would page everyone who needed to be paged. 4. Novell/WordPerfect--Sales manual writer/intern (I never did know what I was doing while I was there!) 5. Megahertz/3Com--Internal Sales Rep --I talked on the phone all day to people about modems. I hadn't even used one before! It was back in the mid-90's before the internet.

8. 5 Things People don't know about me. . . I talk so much that most people already know everything about me! Let's see. . .1. I've never colored my hair. 2. I showed a heifer (baby cow for those of you who don't know what a heifer is) in 4-H when I was Ben's age. 3. I would love to go rock climbing some day if I ever get in shape! 4. I hate shopping (but almost all of you know that!) 5. I'm still in my PJ's (and so is Sophie) and it's almost 10:00 a.m.! I need to go get to work!

Ok, so I did this when I read my sisters, Cherilyn and Shannon's blogs. I am supposed to tag 5 of you, but you can just do the survey if you would like.

Pacific Science Center Playgroup

Friday, the kids were out of school, so we entertained them by taking them to the Pacific Science Center. In January we went to the OMSI when we went to Portland and paid for a year-long membership. We figured we'd get our money's worth out of the deal by going to the Pacific Science Center, where we can get in free by showing our OMSI card.

We were already planning on going to the museum when we heard that some of the moms and kids in our ward's mid-day enrichment play group was going, too. We met at 9:00 and carpooled up to the museum. There were 7 adults and 26 kids (if I did the math correctly!) There were more of us than most of the school groups that came. And the best thing is--we didn't lose anyone--at least not permanently, anyway . . .They've changed a lot of the exhibits since we were there last. One of the favorites was the tree house, or as one of the kids labeled it, "The Jungle Gym." They had butterfly and bird outfits for the kids to wear as they played and danced against a green screen that made them look like they were in the forest.Sophie's favorite part was playing in the toddler/preschool area with the water and bubbles. (I didn't get any good pictures though because I was afraid of getting the camera wet!) She had so much fun playing with all of the "big" kids like Lydia, Abigail, Chloe, Sienna, and Emma. It was the perfect spot for me to be so I could keep and eye on Ben and Rachel as they explored around the science exhibits. (Steven had to stay home with Steve because he'd been sick the night before.)Here we are at lunch time (well, about 1/3 of the kids, anyway. . .) Some of us had brought sack lunches and didn't want to eat in the designated outdoor picnic area, so we ate in a hallway.

Ben's favorite part of the day was the science show which was all about air pressure. He had fun showing off all of his science facts. (The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, if you know what I mean! Dad would have been so proud.)At the end of the demonstration, the "scientist" let the kids ride on a homemade hovercraft. They had a lot of fun.

Rachel's favorite part was the butterfly house. A butterfly even landed on her! Ben had fun taking pictures of the butterflies and flowers with Steven's new camera. (Ben was sad that Steven couldn't come, so he documented the ENTIRE day on camera--he went through 2 sets of batteries!)

Don't feel too badly for Steven, though. He was feeling fine at home and got to play video games all day. He got a new game for the Wii called Boogie, so he spent the day "boogying!" (Here he is playing Guitar Hero. He's getting really good at it!)

Sisters' Retreat

A couple of months ago, my sister, Kristy, who lives up in Alaska, were talking about how we really get depressed in February after not seeing the sun for months, so last month, we decided we would go somewhere warm and sunny in February. We decided we'd meet our sister, Cherilyn, who lives in Pinetop, AZ, in Mesa.

When our sisters, Natalie (San Diego) and Shannon (Provo), heard we were meeting, they made flight plans, too. Our brother, Brent, lives in Mesa, so we invited our brother, Paul (Las Vegas), to come, too, but he wasn't able to come.

I got up at 4:00 a.m. and flew out at 5:20 (cutting it close at the airport!) I got in at 9:00 a.m. and within an hour all of our flights came in. We converged on Brent's house and played Guitar Hero and changed our clothes.

We checked into our hotel and sat in the sun for awhile. We were a little cozy in the hotel room with 5 of us plus Cherilyn's 3-month-old baby, Amie! At 5:00, we went to Massage Envy for massages. (Brent opted out! He watched Amie while Cherilyn got her massage.) Needless, to say, it was one of the highlights of the vacation!

Brent "waiting" for us to all get beautiful. . .

Kristy's husband, Brett, sent flowers and a balloon to Kristy at the beginning of the weekend for her birthday.

Every night we were there, we stayed up late talking. We all get along so well and are so chatty, that we didn't want to go to bed. I felt like I was back in college talking to my roommates!

Saturday morning, Brent met us to go hiking. We had so much fun. We enjoyed Kristy's rendition of the Little Mermaid and Natalie and Cherilyn's impersonations of a cactus and a lizard.

It was in the 80's that day, so we were loving life!

That afternoon, we tried to get into a spring training baseball game, but it was sold out, so we went to see Vantage Point, instead. I'd highly recommend it. Kristy said she looked down the row and we all had our hands by our mouths biting our fingernails or covering our mouths in suspense. While we were waiting for Cherilyn to feed her baby, we posed with a promotional cardboard cutout of Patrick Dempsey. This is Shannon--isn't she adorable?!?

After the movie, we went shopping. Again, Brent was very patient and went his own way while we helped Natalie pick out some new outfits.

Sunday was one of the highlights as we invaded Brent's singles ward. It was the largest singles ward I've ever seen! We promised Brent we wouldn't embarrass him enough to damage his social life. We were so tempted in Relief Society when they introduced us to say that we were taking applications for Brent to find a wife for him. There were tons of beautiful, talented, and sweet girls there. After church, we gave him our input as to which girls he could try to "get to know." (Poor Brent--I feel bad for him having 5 sisters teasing him--He was SUCH a good sport!)

Sunday was also Kristy's birthday, so we made lasagna dinner and cheesecake for dessert to celebrate. While we were waiting for the lasagna to cook, we went to the Mesa temple and walked around the grounds. There is a really beautiful cactus garden that we took pictures at on the grounds. Inside the visitor's center, there was an amazing photograpy exhibit of the life of Christ photographed by Mark Mabry. The man who portrayed Christ is the same actor for the Easter Pageant at the Mesa temple. Here is a link to Mark Mabry's videos of the process of taking the pictures: http://www.youtube.com/user/reflectionsofchrist

We had a fun dinner after we got back. We teleconferenced with our brother, Paul, and his family. We really, really missed having Paul this weekend, so it was really fun to have us "all together."

Kristy loved her cheesecake. She even blew the candles out on the FIRST try! Way to go, Kristy!!! (I should have put more candles on the cake.)

After dinner, we were sad to say good-bye to Shannon and Natalie Sunday night. Monday morning, we went shopping (again,) this time to stores that accomodated our post-baby/mommy bodies. We also spent a ton of money at kids clothing stores--but Kristy and Cherilyn found cute Easter outfits for their kids. While Kristy was trying on clothes, I went to the furniture stores next door to try to find a bedroom set I liked. (Still, no luck! I'm too picky!!! I'll do another post another time to get input from everybody.)

My favorite part of the day was when we went to the pool and just lay in the sun. (Sorry--NO Pictures!!!) It was only 70 degrees, but to me it felt comfortably hot. I got just enough sun for Steve to say that he could tell I'd been on Arizona.

After an uneventful flight, I walked off the plane and FROZE! I could see my breath as I walked from the plane to the airport. (I was still wearing capris and sandals.) Steve laughed at me as he pressed the seat-warming button on the car. I'm just glad it was sunny today, so the adjustment wasn't so bad.

I'm so thankful for my kind and patient husband who allowed me to go guilt-free. I didn't worry about anything while I was there. He was amazing! (I even came home to a clean house!) He even taught Sophie to sleep until 7:00 a.m. and got rid of her bottles while I was gone. One morning she awoke too early (probably 4:30 or 5:00) and he made her stay in bed without giving her a bottle. In her sweet, little voice, in between sobs she said her first sentence, "Where. . .is. . .Mamma!" Needless to say, she didn't leave my side all day today. I'm also thankful for wonderful friends who watched Sophie Friday and Monday so I could play. I'm ready to be a mom again. (I think!) But I'm already planning our next sisters retreat.