Ward Carnival

Oh what a fun time we had.

Three-legged race

Hubby and Carter kickin' it

Tug o' war #1

Sack races

Tug o' war #2 - Primary teachers vs. Primary kids

Egg on spoon relay

Whipped cream eating contest

Brother G made all the kids say "ho ho ho"

Silly Harrison :)

Yep

Little Monkeys

We're having beautiful weather this week. Tonight we went over to the Fort for some Frisbee and of course there were trees to climb...

Shade! Ahhhh

Bella and Harrison received Red Robin gift cards for their birthdays and tonight they went out to dinner together. Harrison received some valuable "how to go on a date" training from his sister, and they both came home with major food babies.

I've been messing around with my family tree on Rootsweb. Feel free to browse (but it only has dead people so you won't find yourself there, unless you're surfing the 'net from beyond the grave... woooooooo)

Mother's Day

Oh just look

Breakfast in bed. Mmmm!

Mother's Day was great. Hubby and kids wouldn't let me do anything all day. Roz gifted me with a lovely card and a bag of gifts (her gifts are always something she had up in her room - so cute).

At church, Bella was the first speaker and of course I blubbered through her entire talk. The menfolk and young menfolk handed out Dove chocolate bars with a note attached. Righteous! We went home and had spaghetti for dinner, which I was not allowed to help with. It was a wonderful day.

School Prom

I told her to keep her watch in her purse. Such an obedient child ;)

One of her friends was on the Prom Court :) 

The Official Prom Pic

Priceless

One of our sons just tattled on his sister because she said he had stupid sounding hiccups. :)

Quiet Time

Mr. H

What he loves to do lately

Our boy turned 15 today. What the whaaaaa? Hubby stayed home and we took him out to Izzy's buffet restaurant for lunch where we ate like the wind! Later it was off to spend some birthday money on some new computer headphones. We had our usual cake and candles and little gifts to top off the night - no dinner (his choice), because we were still so stuffed from lunch.  It was a great day. Happy Birthday, you cute naughty kid!

"I now pronounce you cousin and wife"

I told Hubby about a weird dream I had about visiting Sacrament meeting in Missoula, Montana, and that was the line he came up with.

Remember That Time I Quit Facebook?

I think it actually worked.

I finally became thoroughly tired of the habit of it - as my sister put it, "I don't even think about looking at it anymore - it's like scratching my butt. I just do it."  Exactly, although I like to equate it more to smoking: when people ask why you quit Facebook, no one wants to hear that you quit because checking Facebook had become just as automatic as scratching your butt. (Know Your Audience 101)

And now, an update: Everyone's good right now at my house. Several people are getting over a nasty respiratory thing that Roz brought home. Bella caught it last Friday-ish and on Saturday went to LDS Prom feeling a bit under the weather and came home with a sore throat. By Sunday her ear was gunked up beyond all recognition (GUBAR) and she missed church and three days of school - the last one because it was her birthday.

Brennan is setting up an Etsy-type online shop for necklaces he's making and selling. I'm so happy that he's feeling good and motivated. He was one of the unlucky virus-catchers, but seems to be doing better.

Bella turned 18 this week and I am of course happy about the fact that she was born and lived this long, but MAN it is killing me that she is 18. I can't think about it too much or I'll cry.

Harrison is doing fine and growing like, seriously, this monstrous backyard weed that eats everything. Audrey II, more like. Some mornings I will look up at him and it seems like I'm looking up higher than I did the day before. Naughty kid.

Carter is great, still kind of finding his way in this new world of middle school, but loving soccer, and just being his funny self. He and Roz like to play out back, shooting arrows and his BB gun and jumping on the trampoline (not at the same time).

Rosalind is still our dolly. Just cute and funny and a little sassy but just a cute kid. She loves school and sometimes cries if she has to miss a day for being sick. She and her friend Emma have hit a good balance (or seem to) of who's the boss, when, for what, and why. Every once in a while they'll have a tiff, but it's much less frequent now.

Brian and I are doing marvelously. In February we celebrated 22 years of wedded bliss, but were a bit bugged to find that 22nd Anniversary doesn't have some cool traditional gift designation like emeralds or diamonds or jack crap. I guess the traditional gift list-making people figured that if you make it that far, it's only three more years till 25 and you're big kids now, you can wait that long. WHATEVER.

Two Adult Children

I am no longer responsible for these people. Technically.

Our Bella turned 18 today, the naughty thing. We had a fun day eating and shopping (our favorite birthday activities) at Pine Street Biscuits and IKEA, where she was gifted with a new chair for her room. Later we had Russian chicken for dinner (her choice), cake and more presents. Yay :)

LDS Prom

In our area, our church puts on its own prom night. This year it was held in Longview. Bella was asked to go by a good friend, Spencer, that she's known for years.

They ate at The Rock pizza restaurant with some friends, and then were (kind of unfortunately but it ended up being OK) driven to Longview by Spencer's parents, Frank and Shanna. Spencer turned 16 in January and still can't drive with anyone but family members in the car. Hubby and I went along for the ride and had dinner with Frank, Shanna and another ward mom, Donna (her son and his date ate dinner with Bella and Spencer).

It was a very fun evening. Shanna and I sat in the back of their minivan and talked chickens and chicken coops all the way up to Longview. :) Oh, and the kids had a good time too. Bella was very happy she decided to go.

Pyramid!

Roz is in the middle row, second from left

Ward Talent Night

Been a little busy.

Hubby and I went to the ward talent night tonight. None of our children were interested in going, so we turned it into a date. Our ward has some pretty talented people - the stuff they can do is impressive. We had a nice ham (me: ham-free) dinner and sat with the Turleys and chatted people up. Good times.

Prom Dress Shopping

We had so much fun shopping for her prom dress. She had a pretty specific idea of what she wanted - modest, with longer sleeves, and black (but she was okay with blue) - and we were able to walk right in and find it. Pretty amazing. The sales lady who helped us found shoes and jewelry that were perfect.

Bella's never been into the idea of prom but after getting the outfit, she was allll over it. I asked her what made the difference and she said "The dress." If only I'd known, I would have taken her prom dress shopping starting when she was about 12. :)

Churchy Selfie

Tonight the ward youth went to the Life of Christ exhibit put on by a neighboring stake. It's similar to our stake's Festival of Nativities but with Easter stuff instead of Christmas. Here's Carter having some phone fun in the back of our van on the way.

Weekend at Grannie's

Yay! Cousin time! Mel had a weekend free and she came over to Grannie's to visit, so we all met at Grannie's and had a good time.

Harrison, Demeter, Kiley, Roz, Carter, Zane

Po and Kiley

Hey, cutie.

Aw yeah.