Kaitlyn, and her Conversations

I thought I would share, mainly for my journaling purposes,a conversation Kaitlyn just had with me.

Kaitlyn: Mom, how did you and dad fall in love?

Me: Well we wrote letters and dated. We went to basketball games, dinner, snow shoeing and we fell in love the more we got to know each other

Kaitlyn: Maybe, I will do that someday.

Me: I bet you will.

Kaitlyn: Did you and dad meet each other while you were growing up?

Me: No we met each other when we were grown up and bigger.

I thought it was cute, she has been having fun conversations like this with me for a while. like a while back she asked me when will she meet the boy she will marry? She is really growing up into a beautiful little girl.

Easter 2008

We had a really fun Easter. It started on Saturday when we went out to the Richmond Egg hunt. We met Johnson's out there and the kids had a lot of fun hunting with their cousins.

We stayed home for Easter Sunday this year. Kaitlyn gave a talk about Christ's Resurrection in Primary and did a great job. We had the traditional Easter Dinner and decided that it would be fun to pull the China out and actually use it. The girls thought it was very beautiful dishes. After dinner we enjoyed Kaitlyn giving her talk to us again and another egg hunt. Brad and I were so tired that night that we decided not to dye Easter eggs this year, the kids weren't asking for it and we didn't want to clean up the mess. All in all we had a fun quiet Easter here at home.


The best picture we got of the kids in their new Easter outfits
The girls kept saying, "I'm a princess!" I must have them really trained too, as soon as we got home from church they both went and changed into a play dress. It is a rule around here to change out of our nice Sunday dresses so that we can keep them nice. Notice that Melanie just changed into another Sunday dress, I didn't have the heart to make her change again.


Easter Dinner on our China. This was my Grandma Burton's China. She gave it to me as a wedding gift right before she died. It is very special to us.

Dad and Melanie loved the whole Dinner.Kaitlyn couldn't get enough of the ham, Matthew was asleep, he didn't take a nap at church and was very tired.Ready for an Easter egg hunt!


Look at all the eggs we found!!

Sleeping Problems: sloved, unsolved, solved and unsolved again!

OK, we have always had sleeping problems with our sweet Melanie. When she was a baby we let her sleep in our bed with us and it was downhill from there on out. When we moved into our home, we made it a big deal that she sleep in her own big girl bed. She loved it and it worked for a little while. Then she gradually started to come in our bedroom to climb in bed with us. We had decided that she would not get into our bed ever again with us. So I started getting in her bed with her. It gradually got worse and worse and worse, to now I just start in her bed with her. I figure I would rather get a full nights rest in a small bed than to be woken up at 2 am every morning. Anyways, it has become a bad habit! Now that you have the background story I will get to the point. The other night I came upstairs to climb in bed with her and this is what I found when I walked into their bedroom:

Isn't it great, she woke up, I am assuming she couldn't find me because I was downstairs and decided to climb into bed with her sister Kaitlyn. Side note to this, little does Melanie know that she really is the comfort to Kaitlyn. A few weeks before this happened, Brad and I were downstairs and all of a sudden we hear both girls screaming their guts out. We both ran upstairs and calmed them down. We later found out that what had happened was that Kaitlyn had a bad dream about a pigeon bird (that day they had a primary activity that they got to pet and see real pigeons, which totally freaked Kaitlyn out). They couldn't see us in our bedroom, so she woke Melanie up to yell for us. For some reason Kaitlyn thinks she has to have her little sister call for us whenever she needs something. So when we didn't come when Melanie called for us they both freaked out and started to scream. The night before that I had told Melanie that I would always come when she calls for me to try and reassure her that if I was in my bedroom sleeping and she woke up I would come. I told her this in hopes that I would be able to go in my own bed again. This completely backfired on me when I didn't come that night and I am still sleeping with her. If anyone has any suggestions we would welcome them. I think Brad enjoyed the bed to himself for awhile, but is starting to miss me. I do love it how my girls find comfort in each other they are such sweet and cute sisters.

Notice the stuffed animals all around Kaitlyn in her bed. For some reason she has to sleep with a ton of dolls and stuffed animals each night. I remember doing this when I was little too. Maybe it is inherited? who knows, but I think it is really cute. She must find some security with them surrounding her.

Disney Princess on Ice!

This last weekend we took the girls to the Disney Princess on Ice show at the Energy Solutions Arena. We let them dress up as princesses and they were so beautiful. Kaitlyn was Belle and Melanie was Cinderella half of the night and Barbie Princess Analese the other half. We had great seats on the 10th row. The girls had the best time. The whole way there they both kept saying I just can't wait. When we got there we told them they could buy one thing. To my pleasant surprise they both picked two of the cheapest things that was offered. Melanie fell in love with this Cinderella plastic doll and Kaitlyn didn't want anything but the bright pink Ariel t-shirt. After the show we asked the girls what their favorite part was. We were very surprised to hear that Melanie's was the Sleeping Beauty Dragon that blew real fire. She continued to say that she like Cinderella too. Kaitlyn just kept saying "Mom, I loved all of them." I personally think that she liked the Ariel part the best though, because she seriously didn't stop smiling through that whole part. One hightlight of the night was one of the times that Ariel skated right past us. Kaitlyn decided to wave at her and Ariel waved right back. Kaitlyn seriously thinks that Ariel was waving at her and only her. After the show they both just kept saying, "Mom, that was so fun, I loved it!!!" I am so glad we were able to go, the smiles on my girls faces were priceless.

Waiting paitiently!

Hightlight: Popcorn! Melanie thought it was really neat that she got to have popcorn while watching the princesses skate.

Some of our favorites:

Sleeping Beauty

Ariel

Cinderella

Happy 50th Birthday Mr. Grinch!!

So Friday afternoon the kids and I went to a surprise birthday party for Dr. Seuss' Grinch. We had a blast. When we got there the girls entered their names into a drawing, got a sticker and was given a sack that said, "I Love Books" with a kazoo in it.

We went and sat down on the gym floor and waited. Karren the story lady at our library then came and read them a Dr. Seuss book. Following the book she helped the kids practice yelling surprise and blowing their kazoos. Then we heard a loud knock on the door. I couldn't tell if the girls were scared or excited when this happened. They opened the door and it was the Grinch. Everyone yelled surprise and blew their kazoos. Luckily the girls soon had big smiles on their face and enjoyed the whole party. The Grinch then read another Dr. Seuss book to the kids "Green Eggs and Ham" Even Matthew listened to this one, or maybe he was staring at the big green person at the front. They then gave everyone a book and did the drawings.

When I told Kaitlyn this morning where we were going after the kids naps she pulled out her markers and paper as fast as she could to make the Grinch a Birthday card. So I let her take it with her and she was really excited to give it to her. I don't think the grinch really was prepared for this but was really cute with Kaitlyn.

The kids with Mr. Grinch looking at Kaitlyn's card.

Sister's/ Mom Weekend!

This last weekend my sisters and I enjoyed a little bit of much needed R and R, or maybe I should say a lot of much needed R and R. It was so much fun. We were all there even my sister from Texas was able to fly in for the weekend. Lisa is 30 weeks pregnant and on bedrest, so she joined us for the parts that she could. We laughed until we were crying. Oh what fun it is to have sisters. I don't know what I would do without them.

Julie, Mindy, Annette, Mom, Kristi, Lisa


Mom, Mindy and Annette picked Julie and I up in SLC and we started all the fun at Tai Pan Trading, which by the way is such a great store. After we were all done shopping and got to our car, we found our first girls weekend dilemma: fitting EVERYTHING into the car! The trunk was full of all of our luggage, but we solved it quickly by stacking it on all of our laps. The car was packed, lets just say I was glad I was driving.

To save money we decided to just stay at moms this year and it worked out great because dad was out of town anyways. We enjoyed a great dinner from Panda Express and all of our food was hot while we were eating it. Wow, not having to feed kids first before I could eat was heaven.

We then played a new game and found out some new and interesting things about each of us and topped off the night with a chick flick.

We headed up to the Park City Outlets the next morning and had a really fun day filled with lots and lots of shopping. Watch out Outlets here we come! Girls weekend second dilemma....finding time to hit all the stores we wanted to!!! We also solved this one as Mindy made lightning fast decisions! Mom was a really good sport because she really does not enjoy shopping, but hung in there and was a great bag holder. The rest of us I think just love to find a good deal.

After we were done shopping we headed back down through Provo canyon to visit our Grandma Blake. We had a really nice visit with her and were glad that we could all see her together with no interuptions of kids.




When we got back to moms we piled our bags together and added up our savings. Between all of us we saved over $1000. Some of us stayed within our budget and others went over, but all in all it was such a great shopping trip. Mom was just shocked in how much money we all really spent. We then did footbaths, painted our nails, and used amazing foot cream.



Who bought ALL this stuff...and who "saved" the MOST?!!! I only saved $145, compared to some of my sisters who saved $400-$600.

This is mom when she found out how much Annette spent, little did she know that Annette spent the least. After this reaction we were all kind of scared to tell her how much the rest of us spent.

Nail night!

Lisa's got the right idea: footbath and icecream!

Brad and the kids came and joined us for church on Sunday. Man do I have cute girls. I hope they can always be as good as friends as me and my sisters are. I am glad I have sisters, it is nice to know we have each other to laugh with, to grow with and to help.

A work in progress

So two weekends ago my sisters family, and my parents came up to help us lay our laminate floor. Families are great we had so much great help. Goodness they worked hard and got almost all of it done. We worked late into Friday night, mom had a pj party with the girls while I helped vacuum the areas so they could start laying the floor. We were up bright and early on Sat. Those poor men worked until about 8:00 that night. When the kids and I got back from Johnson's on Sat night we went downstairs while the men finished up one thing, Matthew crawled right back up the stairs and sat on the edge and just watched them as they finished. The stillest he had been all day. Now all we have to do is the finishing work. I will post before and after pictures when it is all complete, but here are some of the pictures I took while the men were laying it. A big thanks shouted out to the My parents, the Johnson's and of course the Taylor's, especially Bryan, I think we over worked him.

Demolition

So here are some pictures of tearing out the hallway and kitchen. All I have to say is that it is not fun living in a mess. Doesn't Brad look great using his new saw? We couldn't have gotten it all ripped out without the help of my brother-in-law Dave.