Malcolm in the middle-Hal skating

Here's a little bit of Hal from Malcolm in the Middle to satisfy that funny bone!

Hal on the dance machine!

Here's a little bit of Hal from Malcolm in the Middle to satisfy that funny bone!

This has been such a fun week!! The weather has been absolutely GLORIOUS!! On Tuesday we went to singing time and TARGET. Keslie loves singing time. She's got the moves and danged if she's not going to show them off! I love going to Target when I HAVE to buy things. I really think it's fun to buy deoderant and diapers and q-tips. AND of course, I HAD to buy THE HOLIDAY. Such a cute movie! Anyway - after naps we whipped out our new bubble blower and went OUTSIDE!! YAY! The girls loved catching bubbles and running around. I tried to get a bunch of pictures but only a few turned out cute. They were much to busy to hold still and smile! Then that night I went over to my friend JJ's and we watched The Holiday and ate caramel corn. =)
On Wednesday we walked with some friends to the Science Center. We loved that! It's just nice to be able to be outside! Today we all dressed in sunny colors! Anika wore spring green, Kes wore BRIGHT yellow and I was in orange. We had a children's book playgroup today. The focus was on BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR WHAT DO YOU SEE? The kids LOVED it!
Here are some pictures of the girls playing outside and one of Keslie in her yellow shirt:







Anika does and says so many things I want to remember! Today she was in the livingroom doing her crazy giggle (like the one on the happy birthday video) and then she said "I have tickle bumps!" I think she meant goosebumps!
Today I was showing her some pictures that my mom sent and she said "OH! There's Papa and Brownie!!" It was actually a picture of my dad and GRAMMY! Anyway, I thought Grammy would get a kick out of that one!

Keslie is getting really good at saying sorry and then giving a hug. I don't know if that's a good thing though!! This means that she is getting really good at DOING things that make her have to say sorry! She is all of the sudden quite the little hitter! Hopefully we can put a stop to that before she is in nursery!

Well - I'm off to dreamland! I love dreaming. It's like watching a movie all night long! Tomorrow is going to be hectic. I am watching kids galore. Anika will be in heaven! See ya!

Happy Birthday Mom and Alyssa!!

We love you! Hope that you both had an INCREDIBLE day!!! By the way, I did finally get Keslie to say Happy Birthday after I quit recording. Thanks a lot Kes!! =) Anyway , Happy day!

Today

* I was 100% sure I had appendicitis for about an hour this morning.
* As a result of this, I dropped Nathan off at school. I was sure I was going to have to go to the ER. =)
* I woke up my mom in Idaho @ 6:00 AM to talk to her about my symptoms. She talked me out of my panic. Thanks mom!
* So - YAY - I'm not in the hospital!! Instead I went to Burlington Coat Factory. I had a bone to pick with them - plus I wanted to look at Easter dresses for the girls.
* The weather was AMAZING!! We rolled down the windows in the car! It was GLORIOUS!!
* I broke out my BACKSTREET BOYS MILLENIUM CD - and my girlfriends (Anika and Keslie) and I danced like crazy! Seriously, the girls were really getting into it. So was I! Oh - I do love the Backstreet Boys. =)
* I talked my sister, Brittney, into setting up her own blog. Welcome to the blogging world Britt!!
* I got to watch 24. Is it me or is this season just inching along? Don't get me wrong! I love it - I just wish they would pick up the pace!!

Anyway,I know!! Pretty lame day! But it was a nice one for us! Beautiful weather, healthy kids, an in-tact appendix. Who could ask for more? =)

Here is some footage of Kes saying some of her words. I know - there's chocolate on her face! She's a cutie though!

Jennaloo's Baby Shower

Hey all! I've got some pictures to post! My friend Jenn T. had a baby boy a month ago and he is absolutely adorable! Anyway - they wanted the sex to be a surprise, so we waited until after he was born to have the baby shower. It was so fun! I love having people over and I just love all of these fabulous women. I'm so proud that I actually remembered to take pictures at this shower! I always forget and it makes me so sad afterwards!! I regret to say that I missed a couple cute faces that slipped out early and I definitely didn't take as many as I would have liked - but hey! I'm making progress! So, here they are:

Here she is!! The fabulous Jennaloo! That's her nickname given by yours truly. I just know it brings joy to her heart everytime she hears it. =)


AND - here I am snuggling her sweet baby boy - Haydn. This is the best thing about doing showers after the baby is born! It was so fun to love on him!! Anika is looking on, begging for a turn.

Finally!! Her turn and she was done after about two seconds! =)

We had a crazy arm wrestling tournament between Jenn (nickname=Jennalen) and April. This was meant to be a tie breaker - but it ended up being a draw because they are both so strong. Would ya check out those mucsles?!!

From left to right - Three of my favorite people - Amanda, Natalie, and Sumer.

Gorgeous June and her new baby Coltin.

Andrea - 8 months pregnant and just cute as can be (as always)!

Relaxin' and chattin'. Left to right: Half of Jennalen =, Rachel, Avelina, Emma, and Kelly.

Darling picture of Kelly, Jenn, Nancy, and April.

I LOVE these girls! Natalie, Jennaloo, Me, and April.

Congratulations Jenn! She is such an wonderful mommy!

How lucky am I to be surrounded by such amazing women?

Well - I finally took Keslie to the doctor today. On the coldest day of the year. Around the time I left my house weather.com said it was 6 degrees but feels like negative 18. Holy Moly!! Not my cup of tea!! Anyway - we braved the cold. Keslie had an ear infection - which was exactly what I thought it was! Poor baby! That's her 3rd this winter. The doctor said that if she has another one in the next 2 months she will refer me to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) Dr. I assume to discuss tubes. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I thought it was funny - I was just channel surfing in the car and ended up on a station that was playing Justin Timberlake's song (if you can call it a song) "What goes around comes back around". Anyway - there is one part in the song when he is saying around a lot and I looked back and both girls were twirling their arms around and around and dying laughing. The laughing is what got my attention in the first place. Such cuties!

Well - that's all I've got for today! Happy naptime!

ON A ROLL!!!

Good grief! I think I've posted more this week than ever before! I hope that everyone enjoyed their Sundays. We had a nice one. This was the first Sunday that we've all taken a nap in a long time! It was glorious! Church went well - for the most part. We were kind of short staffed in Primary so I ended up doing music time! Conducting is not my forte, that's for sure! I know the kids were thinking I was totally loco. Thankfully, one of the teachers in the back was helping me out with the hand motions. =) Then this evening we went over to some friends home for dessert. Lots of fun and good company. I always think back to some of the things I say after evenings like this and just shake my head in embarrasment. Why can't I keep my mouth shut sometimes? Oh well - no use dwelling on things I can't change. I am who I am and if that means that I will ALWAYS say something to make myself look like a DITZ, and inevitably spill something, and more than likely eat WAY more than anyone else - then so be it. =)

Anyway - here are the pictures:

Keslie brought these to me and then kept them on for the better part of the morning. She was so pleased.











Little pills!! Istead of busting them for climbing up on the table and eating out of the cereal boxes, Nathan took a picture. =)









Nathan took Anika on a little date last night. Actually, it was just to run some errands, but we called it a date and she was in HEAVEN!! He took her Toys R Us and just let her play. Dads are so cool. I never do that - I confine them to the cart whenever we go to that store. He also bought her purple peeps and gummi bears and I've never seen anyone be so excited about something. She talked and talked about their date and has been asking all day to go on a another date with Daddy.

Well - off to bed! I am CLEANING tomorrow. Woohoo!! G'nite!

FYI - Book Club is up and running

Okay - I started my book club blog months ago and then just never did anything with it. I finally tackled it today and by golly, this time I'll keep on it! YAY!!

A Sampling of Anika's Artwork

Click on the picture for a much better view. =)
In Anika's words - this first one is a Happy Face

2nd one is also a happy face

3rd one is spiders

4th is "An elephant or supping" (something)

This last one is a baby.

Ode to my stroller...and Forrest Gump

Hi all! I know! I'm on a roll with posting this week! I just HAD to give my stroller a big hurrah! When I was pregnant with Keslie I looked long and hard for the perfect stroller so when I found my sit and stand stroller I was thrilled!! It's not as long as most and it's so lightweight and easy to steer. Anyway - today just reconfirmed that I made the right choice. I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go on a walk with the girls. I have 3 girls on Thursday mornings so we bundled up and headed downstairs. I put Marri in the front seat and then Keslie climbed onto the bench seat facing forward with her feet in the basket and Anika stood on the step leaning against the strap. I wish I had gotten a picture - it was so cute! My stroller is AWESOME. I'm so excited that it works so well with 3 kids!! YAY!
Anyway - we set off for our walk. I was going to just go around the block but the girls were loving it so much that I decided to walk up to CVS pharmacy and by the time I got there I had talked myself into walking to Wendy's for lunch and on the way to Wendy's I decided that I had better go to Stop and Shop and rent THE PRESIGE. So I just kept on going!! (that's where the Forrest Gump thing comes from). =) By the time I got to Stop and Shop I sincerely regretted my decision. At this point the girls were DONE with the walk and we still had a good half hour. We did stop at Wendy's on the way home so that was a nice little break. The bummer about the whole thing is that I had the car today. For some reason I felt like it would be easier to walk to the grocery store than to load 3 kids up then unload them and then reload them again. I don't know what I was thinking!! Here's to all you marathon runners out there! I thought I'd die after my 3 and a half miles today!

I need to get some video footage of Keslie talking! It's just so darn cute! Her voice is so husky and she holds the last syllable for as long as she can. When Nathan is leaving for school she chases him to the door saying byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyouuuuuuuuuuuu. It sounds like bye eee you. It's her attempt at bye, love you. She's also doing very well at being polite - she says please and thank you.

Anika is in the kitchen busily coloring on her new easel from Nana and Papa West. She's quite the little artist. I think I will scan some of her drawings and post them. She's an artist, a singer, and an aspiring dancer (I'm afraid she got the Kivett dancing genes - so she's REALLY going to have to work at that one!!).

Poor Nathan thinks he might be coming down with the flu. Please no please no please no. He carpools with a friend and on the way to school yesterday morning his son threw up in the car. They've had the flu at their house all week and it is a MONSTER flu bug. Everybody that gets it out here has had a hard time getting rid of it. It just keeps coming back. And it's SO contagious. We've managed to avoid it so far so wish us luck!! Anyway - happy National Anthem Day! G'bye!

Will Ferrell sings at the Oscars - Very Funny!!

I don't know if any of you watched any of the Oscars - but I had to share this funny clip. Our rule is no TV on Sundays - but I have a weakness for the red carpet - so the rule is usually broken about 3 times a year - THE GOLDEN GLOBES, THE OSCARS, and I guess I should count the season premiere of 24. I know. I should have recorded it. No lectures please. =)

Watching the garbage truck

What is it about garbage trucks? When I was a kid and I'd hear the sound of the garbage man coming down the ally I'd drop everything and run to the window. Now my girls do the same thing! They have a much better view that I did though. Anyway - I thought this was a cute picture even though the lighting is terrible and the viewer (you) gets a little peak at Anika's Cinderella panties! I hope everyone is having a great week so far!! See ya!

Pictures from WINTER FORMAL

Well - here are a bunch of pictures from the Formal we went to last Friday! Hopefully I will get some more pictures and videos from everyone else - so there might be more later! If you want to see them better, you can click on the picture and it will pull it up in a bigger size. We had such a fun time!! The DJ was pretty pathetic so Nathan and I didn't have the opportunity to REALLY show off our hip dance moves. Haha!! Thank you thank you Natalie and Scott for watching the girls!! It was such a nice break and we appreciated it soo much!


In other news:

My girls are STILL sick. Will it ever end??? Anika had a fever all day yesterday - but it's gone this morning. Just a lot of snot and coughing. We had a fun weekend - On Saturday we took the girl's to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses. Then that night we went over to our friend's house and played some Nintendo WII. Pretty fun!!

Anika and Keslie were in love with this "hat" last night. It was handmade special by daddy!




These two just really love eachother. I wish that I had gotten this on video instead of just pictures. They were SO giddy and cuddly. It was hilarious!



This was Keslie's first experience with RICE KRISPY TREATS and she was NOT a fan.



It's so fun to wake up to snow. It makes winter so much more tolerable. I think. The trees don't seem so barren when they are covered in snow!

Anika's Fashion Statement

Well - this morning I sent Anika in to get some clothes and she emerged from her room wearing this snazzy little number. Notice that her pjs are still on underneith? She was so proud.


Another one - just because I think she's cute even when she's a ragamuffin.


One of Anika's favorite hangouts.


The other day Keslie was being sad and sick and I needed to get going on dinner so I asked Anika if she would take care of Keslie for me. They got all snuggled up under the blankets and were happy as can be. A couple minutes later I heard them laughing and giggling and I just thought it was so cute that they are such good buddies.


Anika told me yesterday that her boogers were all gone and that we needed to go to the store and buy some more. =)

Nothing much more to report here - still trying to get rid of this cold the girls have had for months! Eagerly awaiting warmer weather! Nathan and I are going to a FORMAL dance on Friday night. I'm wearing a RED dress! Pretty excited about that! I'll post some pictures afterwards.

Have a happy day!