Bathing Beauty

Emily has "graduated" from her little bathtub.  Now she takes a bath with her big sister.  I thought that I ought to catch her last baby bath tub adventure on camera.  She is such a happy baby!  This smile was not just for the sake of having a cute picture.  I sure love this little gal.

First Visit From the "Tooth Fairy"

 Look at my tooth!

Our "Tooth Fairy" requested that Kayley put her baby teeth in a special box so that she could be sure not to miss any.  ;)

She has now lost two teeth.  She asked me point blank if I was the Tooth Fairy.  I asked her what she thought the answer was.  She said that she was pretty sure I was.  I didn't deny it.  My little girl, 6 going on 16.  Sigh.

Bear World Fun

At the end of July we went up to Idaho Falls to attend my niece's wedding. While we were there, we decided to go play at Bear World. It is a place that you can drive through and see the bears (thus the name), Elk, wolves, and other animals typically found in the wild in Yellowstone. I read that the bears there are mostly bears that have been in films, the circus etc... and their offspring.

They also have a pond where you can feed the fish, a petting zoo, and kiddie rides that are all included in the admission price.

Here are some of the highlights.





Jonathan and Kayley waiting not so patiently for the ride to begin.

My dad is playing the part of papa bear. Brad had to work, so he didn't get to come with us. Laurie is playing the mama bear with Kayley and Jonathan as the babies.


My sister Laurie came and played with us. She is a lot of fun. :)


Jonathan kept calling the deer Bambi.

We're Back (Finally)

This summer has been spent mostly in trying to get my knee to behave. Lame I know, but it definitely wasn't at the top of my list until it had to be. It is still not behaving totally, but the time has come to just exercise it when I can and just get on with life.

So, it is time to get on with the show. It's nice to be back. :)

Say It Isn't So Valassis

I just found out yesterday that Valassis is planning to pull out all of their coupon inserts out newspapers. I am a coupon shopper and have saved my family countless dollars using them. In the process we have tried and now love tons of products that we had never tried before. I personally get two Sunday papers for this very reason.

Here is the statement by Thomas Murray of the Valassis Corporation, which owns RedPlum, issued a press release stating:

"Starting in February, the RedPlum coupon booklet will now be delivered in Cleveland through consumers' mailboxes along with their weekly grocery circulars and other savings and deals. By using direct mail, the RedPlum insert will now be able to reach almost twice as many Cleveland households as in the past. In these challenging economic times, it has never been more important to make these essential savings available to as many Clevelanders as possible so they can stretch the dollars in their wallets." -Thomas Murray, Vice President and General Manager of Free Standing Inserts for the Valassis Corporation

While this may reach more people theoretically it does not do much to help the many families that buy in bulk using multiple coupons to keep their families afloat. I know of several moms who buy 5 or more newspapers because of the amounts that their family consumes and or stocks up on. The newspaper industry is struggling anyway as are many grocery stores. The Red Plum inserts being taken away via newspaper subscriptions will only put more nails into their coffins.

This company has coupons online, but I don't know if that will continue. Many people who have relied on these coupons do not have access to the internet and or a printer. I found out this sad sad news from a fantastic website that I frequent called Pinching Your Pennies. It is a great resource for families that are just eeking by to make the best of their resources.

I really hope that Valassis will reconsider their decision.

Silly Pictures

These unique pictures were created by my SIL. Enjoy! lol!

Back to Cyberland :D

On Friday, we bought our very first laptop as a family. We have really enjoyed it so far. I hope that I never take for granted the mobility of our laptop and wireless internet. I love being able to show my parents pictures that family have sent us without them (or me) having to trek up and down our stairs. It is a beautiful thing!

It's Officially a Gonner ...

Well, my computer has been trying to retire for several months now. It has finally gotten its wish. I hope to be able to replace it with a Macbook, but we shall see.

Lately I've ...

learned a lot about myself. This has come mostly from my experiences trying to recover and move past knee surgury.

1. A "crutch" can be really helpful right after you experience a trauma in your life, but it does more harm than good if you hold onto it too long.

2. I can still accomplish most of the things I need to in my everyday life. It just might take longer and require some interesting tactics.

3. I can do a pretty awesome Frankenstein's Monster impression.

4. I'm getting better at being on the receiving end of meals, child care etc... I do still prefer to be the giver though.

5. I can still keep my kids in line (for some reason they keep trying to take advantage of the situation), I just have to rely on innovative techniques.

6. My hubby and parents are real troopers and I'm very blessed and lucky to have them in my life.

Bedtime Story Jammy Party

For Family Home Evening (We try dedicated one night each week to spending quality time together.) we decided to have movie/slumber party complete with popcorn of cours. The kids totally dug the idea. What did we watch? Bedtime Stories of course.


The movie in the background.

Emily looking slightly like a frog.

The kids in their jammies w/ daddy in the background.

Easter Pictures at Last

Marci's Stats According to Kayley

In preschool, they talked about how great mothers are (I really like that subject.). They asked the kids some questions about their mothers. The bold print words and numbers were her answers.

My Mom is 60 years old.

My Mom is 18 inches tall.

My Moms favorites color is green.

My Mom's favorite food is cereal.

My Mom loves to go to her mom and dad's house.

My Mom weighs 17 pounds.

My Mom's best friend is Cindy.

My Mom loves it when I wash the dishes with her.

The Academy Award Goes To....

Kayley and Jonathan have been taking a theater class through an organization called Up With Kids. They have learned all about staging, singing, dancing, cooperation, and so many other things. After all of those classes, they got to perform their production, "Enchanted...starring YOU!) for Woodstock Elementary and then for all of the people they invited at Bonneville Junior High.



They are the two little "coneheads" on the far right of the front row.

Afterwords, they had the presentation of the Academy Award. It turns out they all won one. They were each presented with a statue that resembled Oscar. Jonathan couldn't keep his eyes off of it. He still carries it around everywhere.





Jonathan was studying his award as we were leaving McDonald's (Guess who got to pick the restaurant after the performance.) and exclaimed, "He has a golden bum!"

Easter Egg Splash

We like to do things that are a little bit different or quirky around here sometimes. One of our favorites is the H2O Easter Egg Hunt/Easter Egg Splash at the Murray Rec Center. This is our second year doing it. In case you were wondering, and I know you were, they do not actually put candy in these Easter Eggs. Afterwords, they show their stash of Easter Eggs to the staff and they get a bag of candy. :D



Kayley, Jonathan, and their friend Logan checking out their stashes before they get to play in the swimming pool during the open plunge.



Got their attention. Not!



Can you spot Kayley?

***WARNING*** Graphic Medical Pictures!!!!!

That having been said. Here are a few pictures of my knee at one week after surgery. If you are sqeemish, turn back now.

Here is Kayley trying out my crutches on for size.



This is what my actual leg looks like in my "immobilizer" that I get to where for another month. YIPPEE!



Here is what my leg looks like now. I do bruise easily, but still....

Adventures in Knee Surgery

I had knee surgery last Monday (April 20th. I actually had injured my knee for the eighth time about this time last year. Since my last injury I had been wearing a brace that looked very much like this:



The brace that I am now supposed to wear for a month looks like this:



It is a little bit annoying because I have to mostly walk with a straight leg. When I wear it under pants it looks really funny. I then refer to my re-cooperating leg as my "Michelin Man" leg.

I can now walk with the use of one crutch. Kayley has been trying hard to make my crutches "fit" her. Her solution is to use the hand holds as her arm rests. I will try to get a picture of it for you. :D

Hurrah for Susan Boyle

I have always been a major fan of the underdog. It is just part of who I am. I couldn't help cheering when I saw the video of Susan on Britain's Got Talent. She did not give off the best first impression. Most people were seen sneering and thinking that she had no business being there. Boy did she show them! Good for you Susan. If you want to check it out you can see it on YouTube following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0h1NNk1Ik

Enjoy!

Our Wonderful Children's Museum

On St. Patrick's Day, our local The Discovery Gateway Children's Museum let us (and anyone else who wanted to) discover all the fun things it has to offer for free. Kayley had been there before with her Aunt Kim, but it was my first time. What an amazing place it is! I took a few million pictures while I was there. I won't bore you with all of the them, but here are a few.



Kayley and the rock wall. She kept on wanted to try it until she was satisfied with what she could do.



This is a random cool jeep that you could pretend to put gas into. Jonathan and Kayley just thought that it was cool.



This is part of the "grocery store" they had set up for the kids to experience.



Here they got to use teamwork to help "build" structures.



This was in a structure that resembled a beehive. The kids loved it because you could send balls into these tubes where they would go flying off. The bonus is that you would get hit with a small blast of air. This of course, was Kayley's favorite part.



They had this cool defuct helicopter that the kids could explore.



Here is a "Mad Scientist" making "Leprechaun's Brew". The kid's found this absolutely fastinating.



Jonathan had fun building with these unusual blocks.

Today I'm Grateful For...

Today hasn't been a particularly wonderful day, but still there is a lot I have to be grateful for. Here are a few things:

A shed to put our fruit trees in on this SNOWY spring day.

The fact that we didn't plan our fruit trees already thus they are still alive.

We went home before doing errands, so Jonathan's pull up blow out happened at home. (Sorry if that's TMI).

Having a childproof lock on our door so that Jonathan couldn't open the door for the person that rang the doorbell during my bath.

I'm grateful that it was just our next door neighbor and they phoned me later.

I'm grateful for baths in general (I must say though that I miss the uninterrupted kind).

Warm clothes on this very chilly day have been much appreciated.

Finally, I'm grateful to have yummy cinnamon rolls to eat that my wonderful husband made for us yesterday.

More Pictures

I thought I would add a few more "recent" pictures. They were taken four weeks ago.