My Pablo Picasso's

I thought it would be fun and super cute for the kids to create their own artwork to hang on their bedroom walls. So, I went out and bought some canvases and paint and let them get creative. I told them they could paint whatever they wanted...
Landon painted a picture of Spiderman swinging through the sky...

Mackenzee went a bit more abstract with hers :0)

They had so much fun and it was fun to watch them do it. I think their favorite part was when I hung the pictures on their bedroom walls. :0)

New Moon!!!!

I read the first three books in the Stephenie Meyers Twilight series in one week. That was two years ago. Sadly, it took an entire year for the fourth and final book in the series to be released. I read that one in a matter of days. Needless to say...I enjoy them. :0)
When the first book was made into a movie I was super excited.....that is, until I watched it. It stunk. Badly....
Still, I held out hope that the next movie would be better.
For any of you that live in Twin Falls...you realize there is not much to do around these parts....especially when it gets cold outside. Knowing there would be a whole evening at the movie theater revolving around the release of the second movie, New Moon, I knew I had to go. Not necessarily for the movie, because I had no expectations for the movie, but because I knew it would be fun to go and see all of the little teenage girls screaming over Edward and Jacob. :0) It was the event I was dying to go to....
I convinced a few friends to go with me to the midnight showing of New Moon on Thursday night and invited them all over to my house to watch the first movie, Twilight, just before we headed over to the theater. And, because I love nothing more than having theme parties (is that sad?) I made matching t-shirts for all of us to wear too. Who says "old" ladies don't know how to have fun? :0)
I was on Team Edward....Montay (who just so happens to be pretending to bite my neck like a vampire) was on Team Jacob. For those of you who have been closed off to the world for the past several years....Edward is a vampire...and Jacob is a werewolf.

I was going crazy with blood-hunger apparently. :0) Ellen smelled TOO good!!!

Here's the gang patiently waiting for the movie to start....Tiffany, Ellen, Rachelle, Crystal, Fonda, Montay, and me.

Nathan and Crystal....

Me, Montay, and Fonda...(yes...those are glow sticks and I swear EVERYONE else at the theater was totally jealous!)

Rachelle, Ellen, and Tiffany

This was Montay frantically driving us to the theater. See how excited she is? She doesn't even LIKE the books. Yet...here she is....wearing her Jacob shirt...with the Jacob pin on the front....driving her car that was covered in window marker with phrases like "Team Jacob!" and "New Moon!" And, because we are older than the tweenies...we totally parked in the bowling alley parking lot so we could be closer to the door (it was stinking cold outside!!!) and jumped over the fence to get to the front doors. We've got MAD SKILLS!

Do I look tired? This picture was taken at 2:30 am AFTER we had seen the movie.

Here's the group in our wicked awesome shirts....

Can you see how excited I was for the movie? (photo taken courtesy of Mackenzee photography "Say cheese AND smile mom!")

While I was making the shirts for us girls my kids decided they didn't want to feel left out and wanted me to make them shirts too. They both chose to be Team Edward (through no persuasion whatsoever!). We are baring our teeth like vampires in this picture. Don't we look fierce?

I had so much fun last night girls!!! Thanks so much for your willingness to be crazy with me. I've never been so loud in a theater in my entire life (and still had others be louder than me!!!) Can't wait for Eclipse to come out....I hear it's going to be released in June...you guys ready to stay up all night again?

Costume Parade

This year I knew that I couldn't be as involved in the class parties at Landon's school. As the years have progressed it seems like there is less time to put towards these kinds of things. This year I didn't sign up at all to help out with the Halloween party at Landon's school. I figured I could lend a hand during Christmas and Valentine's instead. Well....when Landon found out I wasn't going to be in charge of the party this year he was more than a little disappointed. {Which secretly made me feel REALLY good. I mean...come on...my FOURTH grader wanted me to come and hang out in his classroom STILL!!!!} He asked me if I would still at least come and watch him do his costume parade. How could I turn him down? The parade was at the same time as the class party, so I was able to sit in on a little bit and poke fun at all of his friends. Mackenzee came too {in her Dorothy costume}.

All of Landon's friends from his classroom {excluding girls....OF COURSE!}

What a handsome kid!!!!

Like last year, Landon was super excited to take Mackenzee with him as he paraded around the school. Mackenzee ate up the attention, and I think Landon enjoyed showing off his sister too. :0)

Our neighbor Whitley was in the parade too....isn't she a scary witch?

Genea dressed up as a witch this year too...

I don't know what's more scary....Landon's "gun" {he was pretending his hand was a gun}, or Mackenzee's finger up her nose....

It was a fun afternoon for all of us. I am still beaming over Landon wanting me to be a part of his school activities. I figured by now he'd be embarrased to have me hang out with him. Instead, he made sure all of his friends knew that I was his mom. I've still got the title "Landon's mom".....FOR NOW anyway. :0) I'll take it as long as I can get it!

Still got it!

My sister-in-law, Holly, and her kids came to visit us this summer and we had so much fun. We took them down to Bass Lake for a little swimming and I got both Holly and Crystal to have a cannonball contest with me.
Here we are getting ready for the big jump...you can see how excited Crystal was. :0)

One, Two, Three....ready....GO!

Who says moms don't know how to have fun???

(August 2009)

Winning the Mommy of the Year Award.....

What do you do when you hear your daughter crying outside and find her stuck LIKE THIS....

You make her stay in the hole and grab your camera to take some pictures. Such a nice mom I am right?

(August 2009)

Mother's Day

I am such a lucky mom! Not only did my kids get me a huge box of yummy chocolates, but we went out and played all day long. I love spending time out and about with my family. Especially when there isn't a time frame to deal with, or a schedule. Just enjoying the day together.
I told Mackenzee that we could walk underneath the bridge after last weekends outing. She was so scared! I'm not sure if she thought that the cars were really going to drive right over the top of us or what. She was relieved to see that there was a path that we could walk directly underneath the bridge. :0) You know, I drive over the Perrine Bridge fairly often but don't really pay much attention to it. It is a MASSIVE structure! Of course, to connect the sides of the Snake River Canyon, it would take something rather large. :0)

This is a fairly new statue out by the bridge called "The Twins". I think it is just gorgeous, and sadly, this is the first time I've seen it up close.

Here is Mr. IB Perrine himself. I didn't know this statue was here either. Kind of sad when you don't even know what interesting features you have in your own home town! I told my kids we were going to make it a point to go out and see everything we possibly could this summer. I think they are more excited than I am. :0)

As promised, I took Landon over to walk behind the waterfall at Centennial Park.

He was so funny about it too. I'm not quite sure why he would think he was going to stay super dry around a waterfall, but the water falling on our heads was not something he enjoyed. :0)
It was a fun afternoon spent outside in gorgeous weather. We did have to get back home for a bit so that I could write a paper for school, but it was nice to take this time and not worry about anything but enjoying the company of my hubby and kids.

Thanks for a wonderful day guys!

taking it when we can get it

The weather changes have been driving me crazy. It's 70 degrees outside one day, and then all of a sudden we're back to wearing coats. I need the sun to stay. There's something about a sunny day that just makes me FEEL better. You know? So, when the clouds broke on Saturday afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the glimpse of blue sky and get outside. We, meaning Mackenzee and I anyway.....Jaysen may have had to be dragged out to the car and forced into going along for the ride. :0) Amazingly enough, he did end up enjoying himself once we were out amongst "nature".
We drove down the canyon towards Centennial Park and stopped off at this waterfall. After watching from the sidelines for a bit, we decided to jump the cement barricade and climb down to the area behind the waterfall.

Because it had rained SO MUCH that day I was worried about the path being too slippery for Mackenzee or even Jaysen holding Mackenzee. So, I went down first to check it out. See that pink dot? That's me. :0) And my muscles. :0)

Here's the up close picture just in case you were wanting to see my magnificence a little better. :0) OK....so being out and climbing around gave me a bit of a natural high. Nothing wrong with that. See the waterfall behind me? I was getting more than just a little bit wet standing there.

Kenzee wanted to get close to the water too, so Jaysen took her over. She didn't want to get down though.....there was mud. :0) She was very proud that she "walked" underneath a waterfall though. She bragged about it to Landon when he got home the next day. I promised him I'd take him back over there so he could do it too.

I'm itching to go out with the kids and Jaysen and do more stuff like this. I used to hike all the time in my "pre-children" era and I really miss it. Now, if the weather would just WORK WITH ME I could really get back in touch with my young and sassy self. :0)