Last Week in Pictures

I taught the girls how to make "dirt pudding" one day so we could have it for family home evening dessert later.  This is them before we even added the dirt.  Worms went in the pudding, came out, and into their mouths. 

Emma has decided that she wants to be just like Kenadi.  Shoes, backpack, princess coloring book, and all.  She is obsessed with Kenadi's shoes.

I took a little photography class from a lady at church.  Basically, she inspired me to start figuring out my camera.  So, after the class, I went around and took tons of pictures.  I think I came up with a few good ones.

I just love Kenadi's freckles and hair in this one.

Emma's sweet profile.  I really want to make silhouettes of the girls to hang in their room or something.

These are a few random shots of the family in action.

You might recognize that puppy on Kenadi's arm.  She still carries that thing everywhere.  She's such a good mommy to that puppy.  I have no worries about her mothering skills.  Not that I should even have them, but, you know.

And last but not least, I rode to the park in style.  I still LOVE this beauty.  One day I will have a cute picture of me on it. 

Tulsa

Sorry folks, I was sick most of last week, and we've been crazy busy.  So now I'm playing catch-up with my posts. I am starting this post with a picture of Emma smiling.  It is so hard to get one of her smiling because she moves so fast.

I finally got to run in my half marathon last weekend.  I've been waiting for a while for one to come in our area that wasn't on a Sunday.  This one was in Tulsa, it was the Aquarium Run, and I LOVED it!  I finished the race wanting to sign up for another one.  (to run on a different day)  It gave me the desire to run as many as possible.  I was so happy to do this.  

The great thing about the Aquarium run was that they gave me a free pass to the aquarium for the day.  We only had to pay for Kenadi and Randy.  I thought it was a neat place, but not as neat as it should have been considering the price.

Wow, this is like an overload of pictures with me in them.  I am always behind the camera, so I gave Randy the camera more often this weekend.  Anyways, we had a great time in Tulsa.  I loved that city!  It was more hilly, and so beautiful.  We stayed the night before in a hotel so that we could get some sleep the night before my race.  (it didn't work that way)  We also got to enjoy eating out a couple of times.  We planned on this being a mini vacation since we don't think we will make it home to Washington this year.  Those airplane tickets are sooo expensive!

This is a big shrimp under Randy's hand, cleaning it.  Those things just come right up to you and start cleaning away.  I thought that was neat.  Not neat enough to stick my hand in though.

Kenadi had no issues.  She was trying to catch shrimp and everything.  I was glad that she doesn't have my shrimp fears.  She loved it.

After we got done with the aquarium, Kenadi wanted to run across this foot bridge like I did in my race.  Of course she wanted me to run with her.  I felt a bit stiff, but she wanted to run so bad.  When I ran by the girls and Randy during my run, both girls ran out after me, and Kenadi cried so hard when she was stopped by Randy.  She just wanted to run.

The picture below is a rare thing.  Randy has been more cooperative in pictures lately.  I hope it lasts.

Happy Birthday Handy!

I mean Randy. He IS Handy. Anyways, he's a big 2-9 now, and lucky him, he doesn't worry about aging like I do. I love this guy. He is the best husband. So good to me and the girls. He's gentle and kind, and so manly all in one. =) I could go on and on, but you all know how I love and appreciate him. So, I am going to do a little questionnaire and let him answer them so you can get to know him a bit better.

1. What is your best feature? My ability to not take things too seriously
2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Copenhagen (I hear people ride cool bikes there)
3. What is your worst feature? Same as #1
4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Good question, I'm still a student so I don't have to answer this, but I'm thinking patent attorney for biotech stuff.
5. What is your favorite household chore? I don't have one, this is an oxymoron, chores aren't something I enjoy.
6. Who is your hero? Probably both my Mom and Dad. My mom because she's kept a positive attitude through huge challenges (being diagnosed with both multiple sclerosis and breast cancer, which she conquered). My dad because he has always stuck by me and been supportive of all I've done. I'm realizing that I am the way I am because of the way my dad taught me. I just wished I paid more attention to him when I was a punk teenager (sorry Dad). I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the idea. I love you Mom and Dad!
7. What is your biggest pet peeve? Leaving something for tomorrow that I could have done today.
8. What was the best day of your life? Umm, i think some of these are loaded. But I would definitely say the day I married my beautiful eternal companion and soul mate :)
9. Are you excited about life? Yip.
10. Do you snore or talk in your sleep and keep your wife awake at night? Of course not!
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Once, it was suppose to be blonde but came out orange.
12. Would you ever have plastic surgery? If so, on what? No. Weird question.
13. Who has the cutest feet in the world? I hate feet, they're nasty. But I would have to say Tara's for obvious reasons.
14. What is your favorite food? Probably lasagna.
15. Favorite color? Either blue or green.
16. Favorite hobby? Cycling.
17. How are you so talented at fixing things? I get it from my Dad. I love to know how things work and so I like to tinker. But I don't think I'm really talented, just curious and a bit obsessive compulsive.

Ok, there it is, folks. Hope you enjoy your Randy fix for the day.

Love you honey! Oh, and Happy Mothers Day to all of our Moms and any Moms who read this. I'll do a tribute another day.

Gardening

We've been doing a lot of gardening lately. It's something I love about spring. The girls like to help too.... most of the time it's not very helpful. Our local library has the greatest children's librarian who did a story time about plants and then let the kids plant the flowers in the beds. Kenadi and Emma loved digging in the library dirt.

The librarian put Popsicle sticks into the ground where he wanted the kids to plant. Each stick had an "O" or a "Y" on it for the color of flower that goes there. I thought that was a good idea. Today Kenadi gave me a flower for mothers day that she planted in Joy school. I asked her if she knew what kind of flower it was, and she said, "a "Y"!" It was a yellow marigold.

This was our garden a couple of weeks ago. It has grown since then. We almost have ripe strawberries! We planted corn, green beans, peas, cilantro, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and spinach.

What we DIDN'T plant is these:

Some mystery plant that has sprouted up all over the garden. I know it could be one or all of these things: Crookneck squash, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe, or cucumber. I know this because we have grown these in past years and probably have seeds in the compost pile or in the garden dirt. If I remember right, all of those VERY LARGE plants start out looking the same. About like this. We also have voluntary tomatoes from last year too. Since I've taken this picture, Randy has dug up most of the mystery plants. It was a sad day for me, because this was my chance at getting more pumpkins this year. (I had reluctantly agreed with Randy to not plant any squash or melon plants this year, just because they take up so much room) Luckily Randy has agreed to keep a few of these plants. It's kinda fun having a mystery garden!

Princesses and Mud

I must start this post by first saying a big thanks for all of you morale boosters. Thanks for the comments. I forgot to mention that my initial pity party started when I checked the Pioneer Woman's blog and saw her mere 20,000 comments in one day! I know, I can't compare to that.

We had a primary activity ( for church children) last Saturday, it was a talent show for the kids. This was also Kenadi's first Primary activity, and she wanted to dance. I tried to help choreograph an easy dance for her, but she just wanted to spin and twirl and watch her pretty dress fly. I even had Randy ready to dance with her on stage ( a miracle, huh?), but she wanted to do it all by herself.

She was so cute. She just spun and spun. She did it to the music in Cinderella, "So this is Love". She was beaming the whole time. I was a little surprised that she didn't chicken out and decide not to do it.

At the end there was a group "performance" where all of the kids could get up on stage and do the chicken dance, whatever that one is called. She loved every minute of it. I was so glad that it was a good experience for her. There were some cute/good performances, and we enjoyed all of them.

My original idea for a post always grows, and I think, "I could do multiple posts and save these pictures for another day", but the problem is that I would most likely not do that post. So, you get a whole bunch of posts in one. You're so lucky.

One day when I was gardening, Kenadi and Emma decided to make a mud pit. Kenadi decided to lay in it. I wondered where this came from, since my little girly girl is usually not into getting messy and dirty.

Then I remembered her asking me a question the day before, "Mom, did you like laying in the mud? Why did you do it?" I answered, " Yea, I liked it. It was just to be silly and see what it felt like." She asked me that question after seeing the picture below go across our screen saver.

Me and one of my CRAZY cousins, Ash. I say ONE of my crazy cousins, because they are all crazy. And I'm normal. Anyways, we were laying in a nice, squishy mixture of mud and cow manure. Smelled nice. This was after branding cattle, which is a favorite past time in that family. I loved it too. Getting kicked in the shin, the smell of burnt hair/flesh, and calf pee running down my leg. Sorry, if you're not used to this side of me. I do like to get dirty. I don't know why this photo turned sideways when I uploaded it. I guess you'll just have to tilt your head to the side to look at it.

Next subject. Our dishwasher broke, and handy Randy got to install our new one. He was so lucky to have really good helpers when he took out the old, and installed the new. The girls where there for all of it: up front and center. They really thought they were helping. Kenadi held the flashlight and pointed it at the ceiling for Randy. Emma would make little sighs and look under the dishwasher, stand up, sigh, look under the dishwasher... over and over again. I enjoyed the show.

Ok, I guess I will leave this one for last. Then I will try to post the rest on another post. And not forget. (I know I'm not supposed to ever start a sentence with the word "and". Oh well)

This is one of our latest trips to the park. We have been loving the weather lately. Except the wind today. That was a little too much. Normally it is so nice. So, we've been taking advantage of it.

We slid, swung, and ran. This is how we got there: On our bikes! I LOVE our bike trailer, my bike, and family bike rides.

Game night at Our House

I have officially ended my blogging strike. I had a bit of self-pitty, and now I'm over it. Lets just say, I like comments and haven't gotten very many lately. Haley ( my sister) told me to basically get over it, and I am. So, in honor of my new blogging self, I have posted 3 posts in one night. 2 recipe's, and this one. I have many more up my sleeve, so keep checking.

Have I shown you this yet? It's our "new" computer/tv set up. We don't use it as a tv, just our computer( except when American idol is on- you can't really watch that on the internet). I love it. I can have 2 or more screens up at a time, it's faster, and just plain easier to use.
Kenadi and Emma love it too, which is dangerous. Kenadi loves to do the activities on the Friend website.
I think that we got Kenadi this candyland game for Christmas, and both girls love it. We had a game night a while ago, and this is how it goes: Kenadi always wins (even when we don't rig it), I always loose bad, Emma sits on the board and takes our men, even though she has one, Emma stands or sits on the box, and Kenadi always gets princess frosting. We always have fun though. I love game night with the girls.

And now, on to a game of my own. Indoor soccer. It starts at 11:40 tonight. Late. I love it, though. So, I'll catch up on posts another night. I must go visit with my hubby (who is out in the shop making picture frame clamps for our crafting group on Tuesday night) before I go.