Prom...

So Grace and I spent the afternoon on Saturday getting our hairs cut. Always an adventure...but this time more of a princess story. For, you see, the high school had prom on Saturday and the salon was just filled with lovely high school princesses getting their hair and make-up done. Grace's eyes just about popped out of her head and she may need to be treated for whiplash from all of the necessary quick head turning from 'do to 'do. Her favorites seemed to be the curly up-do variety. At dinner on Saturday night she told us all about her future prom look and I thought I'd share it with you. Grace's hair will be pulled back and covered in flowers. She will be wearing blue eyeshadow and dark red lipstick. Which is great because the blue will match the blue in her blue and purple gown. The gown will have a huge purple flower on it (she draws a circle on her chest and tummy covering the whole area) and tiny blue flowers all around the purple flower. She will wear blue and purple shoes with pom-poms on the toes. Her neck will be adorned with a necklace which says Eli, Noah, Mommy and Daddy all around it. And on her ears will delicately hang HUGE hoop earrings that go down to her shoulders. Daddy says that look sounds just fine to him. After all, he plans on being her prom date, anyway!

Eli Dances to 80's Tune

Noah's Splits Walk

Thankful Thursday...Let's just pretend it's Thursday, shall we?

I am thankful for...

• Grace's fever going down, for catching that she had the flu in time to give her medicine and that the rest of us haven't caught it
• Esther! I spent the last 1/2 of the week doing the Beth Moore study on Esther...Amazing!
• Steve's hard work in building the new fence which will allow the dogs to wrestle, run, and be crazy labradoodles without tearing up the lawn, the flowers or any people.
• Snuggle time!

What are you thankful for this Thankful Thursday (we're pretending, remember?)?

And we've got talent...

Yesterday we had a family recital/talent show. It was pretty darn fun and hilarious. Everyone in the family including the great grandparents had to come up with a talent to share. Our little (and big) pianists shared their hard work with us. Grammy has been teaching Grace, Caleb and Uncle Matt piano for the last few months. Each of them did a fabulous job on their little duets with Grammy. Eli played I'm a Little Monkey on his violin. Noah played the We Will Rock You rhythm on his drums. Joshy played on his drum. Joey sang I'm a Little Teapot and counted to 10 and Levi showed us rolling over. Papa Joe taught us about sculpting and Grandma June taught us about finding inspiration for art. Grandpa Lou taught us what different tools are for and about the best tool of all (the Bible). Gigi read a poem about a shadow to us. Aunt Brooke shared her scrapbooking skills, Steve did magic tricks, I did two minute poems and Auntie Mimers played the water flutes. It was awesome. Can't wait until the next one in the fall!

You've Got Talent...

I don't know how many of you have watched Susan Boyle sing I Dreamed a Dream on YouTube but if you have not...DO IT!
Here's the link if you haven't seen it...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY.
Today, when I watched it for the first time, it had more than 12 million views. I watched it with tears in my eyes and then immediately watched it again...once was not enough. Why do you think 12 million plus of us are drawn to watching Susan sing?
Could it be that we each have the hope that there is something secret inside us that is valuable? Could it be that we dream that we've been gifted in something in such a way that it would make people stop and take notice? That we hope that the real could be much more important, much more beautiful, much more valuable than the reconstructed, the repositioned, the skin-deep beauty that greets us from billboards, television shows and magazines over and over again. I think it could be, friends. I think you are gifted in that way. I think God has something in you that the rest of us severely need. And I think that in fear, we all hide that very thing away. Afraid it wouldn't be enough. We allow the jeers of the crowd and their contemptuous glances at us to paralyze us and keep that something hidden. What if we, like Susan Boyle, stand up in all of our human glory with our scary flaws that petrify us and go ahead and share with gusto whatever it is we've got? I can't imagine anything that would make God smile more than that!

Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful for...

• Crazy, amazing opportunities to do last minute really fun things...like, for example, going to Argentina in May to lead a women's retreat! I'm so excited I can't stand it!
• Claire and Marc who will come to team up with Steve while I'm in Argentina to take care of the three amigos.
• Noah is napping. Noah needs naps. When he has enough sleep and enough of the right stuff to eat, Noah is a super fun, amazing, wonderful kid. When he doesn't, he's a bit of a bear. This morning was rough but HOORAY! he's sleeping! Looking forward to a great afternoon!
• Eli's annual review...for him being able to have another year of services in preschool and for some special education teachers that really get him and love him! Thanks, ladies!

And you?

Noah's New Star Wars Room

Here is Jedi Hoan in his Jedi room. Thanks to Mr. Jason for letting him borrow the super sweet posters! Noah and Eli both were so excited to get to choose how to decorate a room all by themselves. Eli's is forthcoming (and a bit more labor intensive!).

Thankful Thursday...

I'm thankful for...

• Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs...yum!
• the silliness that is fractured fairy tales and the opportunity to create some with very funny, silly and creative first graders
• dinnertime spelling bees...favorite word tonight - pototo (potato)
• a surprise thanksgiving dinner in April
• the kids' senses of humor...Noah just walked in brushing his hair and asking, "Mommy, do I look like Elvis?"
• EASTER! He said He would and He did it. And it's done.

Grace is thankful for...

• Jesus rising from the dead (AKA Easter)
• gymnastics especially being able to get stronger because I couldn't climb the rope when I was little
• two silly brothers who make me laugh

He is risen!

Yay, Gracie!

Grace was chosen by her class as student of the month this month and was just thrilled! This has been such an amazing year for her at school. Here's what the great Mrs. Goad had to say about her at the awards assembly...

Yummmmmmmmmy!

Because we have very good buddies named JZ and Linds, we got to spend the last day of spring break on a behind the scenes tour of Hammond's Candy Factory. We got to sample all sorts of yumminess, watch them make their famous ribbon and art candy (the process they use to make a Santa face inside candy is pretty amazing) and they gave us lots of yummy treats to take home. It was the best way to end spring break ever! Thanks Linds and Jer!

P.S. Linds...don't think I didn't notice that you totally cheated and still looked cute even in a hair net. Not fair. :)

Noah-isms...

All of our kids have had or currently have their own version of the English language. When Grace was Gretl in the Sound of Music, she had a line "I have a sore finger" which was pronounced "I have a sore thinger" at every show. Eli calls Grace and I "gwoils" (girls). And Grace wrote the word "yoinked" as a synonym for took in a story in kindergarten (okay, that one's my fault!). Right now my favorites are Noah-isms. When you have two jedis battling, they are going "bagainst" the bad guys. And if you'd prefer not to do something you've been told to, you should say "butcept I don't want to." So...there you go. Feel free to add those to your own vocabulary. I'm sure Webster will add them to the dictionary soon.

Thankful Thursday...

...also, today is Thankful Thursday so without further ado...

• road trips with seemingly unlimited talking and laughing time
• the sun! and swimming pools!
• Noah's giggle which is super contagious and just the most bubbling, joyful sound in the whole, wide world
• being married to my best friend and one of the funniest people I know. Really makes road trips go by quickly when he can find humor in most anything.
• my mom who took care of our pooches even better than we do while we were gone

And you? What are you thankful for this sunny/snowy spring day?

The Family Who Went to Phoenix by Grace, Noah and Eli

Last week we decided to take an impromptu trip to Phoenix for the kids' spring break. Steve had to go to Phoenix for work on Monday and Tuesday and the idea of swimming pools and sunshine (especially in the face of the blizzard hitting us at home) seemed super inviting. So we packed everyone up in Ruby and off we went on our adventure. My guest bloggers will tell you all about it...

By Noah...Noah and all the family had fun driving in the car to Phoenix because we were on Spring Break. And we had fun driving in the car eating candy stuff because we were laughing and being funny and that's all. That is our house, all the snow at our house, and it was full of snow. We were excited to go to Phoenix so that's how it all happened out.That's the traffic we had when we were driving in Colorado. We had a blizzard and we drove a long time.That's me being funny in the car. (Editor's note...he was wearing these as we went through the car wash. Photo of Ruby being evidence of the need for the car wash. Hee hee). We watched movies.
That's fun time tents. We builded them in the car when we were almost to the desert. We were very excited to see the desert.

By Grace...In Moab, me and Eli hid in the teepee. We drove through Native American reservations. They were just mountains and prettiness.



Eli and Daddy love each other very much. We got drinks everytime we stopped (except for when we had to go to the bathroom).
While the boys are still in the bathroom, Singing Bird (Grace) is in her tent.

We went through four states and this was one of them...UTAH! We also saw Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.


By Eli...I like to swim. I go under the water and kick and dive in the pool with my goggles on.By Noah...That's "Daddy surfing!" You just stand on my dad and then he moves and you're surfing.By Grace...Poor Grace couldn't read the tongue twister right and she got water ballooned. It was freezing!By Noah...This is me. I got the answer right so I got a slime balloon. It was fun and it was cold. So we went to go get in the water and WARM UP!By Grace...I LOVE SWIMMING! I made new friends named Grace II and Maddie. Me and Maddie just swam around and also Maddie taught me how to do handstands in the pool. And we played frisbee. And then we went around the lazy river 200,000 times with her sisters and also her dad.

By Noah...We were laying down. We got out of the pool and Mommy told us it would be warmer if we layed in the sun. By Noah...I had a double burger and I told the guy that we ate from at In-N-Out Burger that I ate the whole thing. I ate more than Daddy!By Grace...Stylish Grace coming through. We were going to In-N-Out Burger but I got a tummy ache.By Eli...We danced with Sponge Bob and we take a picture with Sponge Bob during our breakfast time. I like Sponge Bob. (And Steve at lunch with John Elway...see him in the background?)By Eli...We are floating with Daddy and Gracie and Noah.
It was a great trip! We can't wait to go again! Who's coming next year?