Really?

Isn't there an animal that gives birth to their babies and then after a short time leaves them to fend for themselves? Today I am completely understanding that thought process. SIGH.
Mackenzee knows EVERYTHING. At three years old. I thought it was supposed to be the terrible two's... but she has apparently found the need to carry that on in exaggerated form.

Let me share just A FEW of the wonderful things my Mackenzee has done these last few days.

I gave up on naps a while ago. The one hour wrestling match was just not worth it anymore. Instead, Mackenzee has to have a 45 minute "quiet time" where she has to lay on the couch. She can read or play puzzles, but she has to stay on the couch. A few days ago quiet time was over and so we decided to go for a walk before the rain came. On the way back inside the house I noticed black lines on the back of her skirt. When I looked closer I realized it was a large letter "a". Where did she get a large letter "a" sticker you ask? From the wall in the basement. My vinyl letters that I had special ordered just for Jaysen that spelled, "The Man Cave" were no longer on the wall. They were stuck to the couch, the coffee table, blankets, the carpet.....you get the idea. I was livid. She was in SO much trouble.
Move to later that evening. I'm cleaning up the shreds of paper that Mackenzee cut up with scissors that covered the floor of my computer room. {She's not allowed to play with scissors}
I look on the bottom of my foot and there is a small letter "s" stuck there. The letter is blue. Kind of like the vinyl lettering I have in the bathroom downstairs......
If I was livid before.....you can imagine how I was feeling then. I just wanted to cry from frustration. I went downstairs and found that half of the letters in my cute little "Wash your hands, mom said so" sign were no longer on the wall. She let me know she did that part when she was supposed to be "thinking about it". That's the nice way I phrase TIME OUT around here. So, after she had gotten in trouble for doing it the first time, she decided she needed to continue on with the next room over.
Skip to the next day.....blue chapstick colored on the walls. Sigh. We go to work...she gets into Jaysen small tool kit that is in his office and tries to take a pair of wire cutters to the wallpaper. I caught her before any damage could be done. Jaysen thought she was playing with the putting mat that was in the same corner as his tool kit. Sneaky little girl......
Come home....quiet time again...
As paranoid as I am now, I go down to the basement to check on her. What has she done this time? Completely destroyed Landon's puzzle he was working on. Crumpled and scattered EVERYWHERE. I knew Landon would be so heartbroken about it too. :0(
I could go on and on with this stuff. She is just being so destructive lately and it's driving me crazy! Even Jaysen, who used to swear she could do no wrong, is getting frustrated with her. She is a whirlwind.
Sigh.
Maybe today will be better. {Keep your fingers crossed for me}
Now that I think about it.....I should probably go make sure she has broken something......

Olivia Alice Robinson

Isn't she adorable? This is my newest neice, Olivia. I'm a little late in getting this post up as she is now almost a week old, but I still had to share. I stole these pictures off of my brother's Facebook page, which means I haven't even been able to go down and see the cutie patootie. I'm dying to hold her.

Here she is not quite so angry with the pouty lip and all like in the other picture. :0) Look at all of her hair though! Holly....I need to buy you some super sassy hair barrettes for that baby! In every color! I'll even get you some in BOY colors. {They were positive that they were going to have a boy. So positive in fact, that they painted the bedroom blue. :0)}

Here's the whole Robinson clan....Austin, Alina, Holly, Olivia, Greta, and Cameron. Congratulations guys! I am so happy and excited for your new addition and can't wait to smother her with some good old aunty love! :0)

Fun in the Sun

We have had some seriously gorgeous days around here. Not today, of course, but last week....beautiful.
We went down to Shoshone Falls for some picture time and a picnic with some friends and had such a good time!
Well, except for when Landon was mad at me. He apparently found some "HUGE RATS" in the rock wall down at Shoshone Falls. I didn't see them, but he was determined to make them come back out by poking a LARGE stick into the cracks where they were hiding. Seriously, the last thing I needed was for him to actually have a RAT come out angry and bite him. Not on my top 10 list of fun things to do at the park. So, after about 20 times of me asking him to stop, he got in trouble. When I tried to take some pictures of him....he was a punk. So, he got into more trouble. Sigh. So, he stormed off to go and pout behind a tree.

Doesn't that glare look awfully icy? And, because I'm such a warm and fuzzy mom....I took pictures of him pouting. {I think it made him even more angry....} We did end up clearing things up....
See? Smiles! And, just so you know....there were NOT rats in the rock wall. They were little baby rock chucks. Four of them to be exact. :0)

Cole and Landon...

Kenzee Kaye

Kenzee and Maggie....

Landon and Kenzee
Like how everyone is squinting and shading their eyes? Did I mention the sun was really bright? :0)
After two hours spent having fun in the sun, we were all pooped. This was the scene walking back up to the car after going down to see the falls. Kenzee swore she couldn't walk anymore and so Landon attempted to carry her up the hill. His muscles weren't quite as big as he thought they were and so he had to put her down after just a few seconds of holding her. :0) But it's the thought that counts right?

Shoshone Falls

If you haven't been down to Shoshone Falls yet you need to make a break for it. The falls are HUGE right now and totally gorgeous! I took the kids down the other day and we had such a good time.

Mackenzee was more than a bit petrified of how high up we were when we went out on the landing. She had a serious death grip on me. After a while she decided it wasn't so bad, and she finally let me put her down. :0)

Landon, being the big brave boy that he is had no problem at all. :0)

Photo Shoot

I did another photo shoot this last week and was so excited about the pictures! Maybe it was the gorgeous weather that made me giddy, I don't know. But the kids I photographed were sure cute, and so it made it fairly easy for me too. :0)

With the sun so high in the sky, we did end up with a lot of frustrating shadows, but I'm still in love with the shots.

Spring has Sprung!

At least I'm hoping it stays this way and we don't get another snow storm! :0) Kenzee and I went flower shopping yesterday and bought a carload of gorgeous flowers in every color of the rainbow.

My front yard flower bed hasn't been touched really since we moved in 1 1/2 years ago. We moved into this house in August 2007. The yard was kind of....well....let's just say it looked like it hadn't been tended to in quite a while. So, with the help of Jaysen and the kids we pulled out the majority of the rocks in the front flower bed so that it would be ready for flower planting that next spring. It was A LOT of rocks. :0) Last year we were knee deep in house remodeling and so I had absolutely NO energy for the yard. So, it sat all summer looking bad. I did plant lavendar and a delphinium at the end of the summer though.

Anyway, that meant that this year I was READY to get my flower garden groove on. I had fixed up the yard at my old house with lots of pretty flowers and was really sad to leave them all behind. Kenzee and I unloaded all of the flowers yesterday and, just the two of us, planted every single one of them. Of course, Kenzee had to get "prepared" first by putting on her Dora gardening gloves, knee pads, and visor. We planted pink, red, yellow, orange, blue, and purple flowers of all sorts. Mackenzee was especially fond of the "pink heart flowers" she had found when we were out shopping. How could I not add these to our collection? Pink bleeding hearts.....they are hers. Not mine. Just so you know....

We even filled up the flower pots with lots of pretty colors....

My favorite part of these babies?.....The majority of them are perennials and so that means they will come back next year and I will just get to enjoy them instead of planting them. :0) And, they wil get bigger and bigger every year....so eventually this flower bed will be overflowing with gorgeous flowers. For those of you that have seen my yard....this pile of dead stuff is what is left of my old rose bush. I started trimming away the dead parts and realized that the majority of the plant was just dead. So, we dug it out and I planted a new one there instead. :0) Cream colored roses with pink tips.....gorgeous!
Now.....I just have to focus on this flowerbed in the front yard.....The rocks are still there....and I'm not loving the brick pavers....there's a bunch of dead undergrowth and the bush on the side is OUT OF CONTROL! That will be for another day though.....My hands are still healing from the rose bush. :0)

Cute things Mackenzee said while bought and planted flowers:

"These ones will be gorgeous!"

"Girls hafta stick together, huh mom."

"I love you flowers!"

"All these flowers mine mom?"

"If it snows we just take all dem inside, K?"

"Hurry! Hide them from dad!"

"I'm tired of digging. I ride my bike?"

Puzzle Mania!

Landon loves doing puzzles. In fact, he has loved them since he was 2 years old. I have always been amazed at his ability to do them. In order for me to put together a puzzle I need to see the big picture. I am constantly referring to the front of the box so that I know which piece goes where. Landon doesn't need the box. I swear he looks at a piece and just KNOWS where it is supposed to go. Putting puzzles together has been something we have enjoyed together for years. Over the years he has progressed past the 100 piece puzzles, the 300 piece puzzles, and even the 500 piece puzzles. So, I promised him that I would buy him a REALLY hard one and we would work on it together. Landon and I started to do this puzzle just before Conference weekend. Sorry for the sideways picture. For some reason it won't load horizontally. Wierd, I know. Anyway....

We are quite the puzzle team him and I. I put together the "easy" parts and he puts together the harder parts that I don't want to have to deal with. :0)

When that puzzle was done, it just so happened that he had a couple of days off from school. So, we went and bought a second puzzle to get started on.

And then, when we finished that puzzle, I went and bought another one to start on.....

We are currently "in process" but managing quite well. :0) It has been nice spending time next to him hovering over the puzzle and trying to figure out where the pieces go. I have really enjoyed the one on one time. Landon is such a smart kid and likes to tell me how wrong I am when I have tried to put a puzzle piece in the wrong spot. I mean....duh! So obvious! :0) No matter. Honestly, I have found that puzzles are quite addicting and I have to actually pull myself away from it at night to get some homework done. I'm thinking we're going to be building up quite the collection....