Friday, July 31, 2009

Moms, Jobs, Babies - such fun!

there is no time to blog when you are the mother of seven - at least a temporary mom! (eight if you count kyle) i have a renewed respect for moms with large families - especially those with teenagers!my sisters have been pretty good for the most part. last week, i bribed them with tickets to harry potter, this week it's sunsplash. a few of them lost their tickets and had to earn them back with a chore. thanks to that, my mom's room and hall closet are getting very organized.

this week, kyle stared his new job at bank of america. since compass bank had to lay off all employees in az back in march. kyle applied for jobs and heard back from several places and found this job with balboa insurance. just in time for school, thank goodness. kyle was really excited in march when he was able to stay home and be with addison and i, but the excitement wore off quickly when i put him to work helping with addison, cooking, cleaning, or when he got real bored. i miss him though.

remember me saying i wanted to be more crafty? well i got down to business with my sister kenna and made addison (and me) some serious flowers clips for her hair. prolly like fifteen. but i have a problem with addison finding the flowers and bows and pulling them off. any suggestions on how to get her to stop? my sisters and i shopped and bought some of the cutest ribbon too - clearance! i can not wait for that.

speaking of babies and bows, my cousin stacia just had her baby girl saturday morning at 6:50. breckyn ray rogers was 7 lbs 1oz, 20 1/2 in long. what a sweet baby! she is so tiny and has beautiful dark hair at the back of her head, a cute pointy nose, and itty bitty wrists. stacia and i have been close cousins for our whole lives and i am so excited for her and what a great mom she will be. when i got a phone call telling me about the birth of breckyn, i remember how happy i was for stacia and reflected on the special time when addsion was born. i miss those first days and can't wait to have them again some day. the precious babies grow so fast.
last saturday, my parents ward had a slip n' slide day using billboard signs and a fire hydrant. adults and kids got in line to slide down the steep hill for several hours while others liked to just watch from the shade and eat watermelon. it was a blast. we had a short scare when kyle lost his wedding ring, but it was found. the last hour, they poured soap on the slide and it was fun to watch to little kids fly! Kyle even took Addison down a few times. She liked the slide, but didn't like the water spraying on her.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What are We Up To?

eight things i did today:

*slept in until eleven thirty (kyle is so nice to take care of addison for me in the morning. i am going to miss that when he goes to work monday)
*cleaned the house (more or less delegated the cleaning)
*went grocery shopping (yeck!)
*loved on my baby (funny thing. in the shower today i bit her cute, little butt. and then i made a little growl. don't worry, it was a clean BABY butt. and i didn't bite it hard, but she made the cutest little pout and then cried. so i comforted her and then shaped my fingernails like my mouth and pinched her butt. at the same time, i growled again. i made sure i was softer than before, but still her little lip came out and she cried. maybe it just scared her, but it was so cute!)
*made dinner (lemon chicken: DIVINE)
*made homemade ice cream (peach, also divine)
*more cleaning
*cuddled with my hubbs (love him!)

kyle and i are babysitting again. this time for my parents. my dad gets home friday, but maybe we'll stay a few extra days and help out with my sisters until mom returns. they can be hard. speaking of them, i am very proud. they have seen my chore chart i made for them and have helped to keep the house in shape with hardly any sass. they want to see harry potter this weekend too much too sass or not do their chores. threatening their ticket does wonders. nice.

i think that tomorrow i am going to make orange rolls. delicious. in my opinion, which is the only opinion that matters, orange rolls are the best and are WAY better than cinnamon rolls. don't get me wrong, i love a good cinnamon roll on christmas morning, but the sugar on those things can be overpowering. besides citrus is the way to go in the summer. i have been craving them for a while. want to join? if you are near sossaman and the 60 tomorrow, come on over. you can finish off your hot roll with leftover peach ice cream. homemade, i swear. imagine. hot and tangy, then cold and sweet. perfect. dang, i just remembered that i am about a pound away from my weight goal. not that i have been dieting OR exercising. in fact, i don't even know why i am loosing the weight. but i am not complaining. nor am i going to start eating better tomorrow, so come over.

oh, and just a random thought. i have come across many craft ideas lately and want to try them out, but i need a crafting buddy. anyone want to help me out with that? i admit i am not the most creative, crafty person but i would love to try. ladies, you all know that it is more fun to do this kind of thing with someone rather than on you own. so come on over and we'll break out the glue guns. bring a friend or two with you and we will have a party.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Photo Shoot

Sorry to inform everybody, but Addison won the "CUTEST FREAKING MOST ADORABLE BABY IN THE WHOLE WORLD" contest. Here is the trophy to prove it.
Brittney did a photo shoot of Addison in her blessing dress at her parents house. These are some of our faves. Addison had Grandma McCleve and some of her Aunts there to make her laugh and give big smiles.


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Little Helper

Addison may be just a little over 4 months, but she has become and an active part of the family. She loves helping her Mommy and Daddy around the house as you can see.
From doing laundry to washing the car, she's always there lending a helping hand.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Wicked Weekend

Back in April on Mother's Day I surprised Brittney with tickets for the Broadway musical "Wicked". We have both seen it before and were very excited to see it again. We went on Friday, July 3rd and we decided to dress up formally just for fun. Brittney wore one of her favorite prom dresses which she still fits in quite nicely. (We were the only people dressed up formally and got quite a few stares but it was great. Sometimes it's fun to be different). We went to Carrabas Italian Grill and Bar for dinner (yummy ravioli and salad. plus you gotta love the bread and oil!) and off we went to Wicked at Gardy Gammage. The show was great! Fantabulous! Brittney got a lot of comments on her dress and how beautiful she looked and I agreed full heartedly. She looked great!!
Yesterday for to celebrate Independence Day we went to Basha High School's pool. This pool was awesome!! It had 2 big slides, a lazy river, a whirlpool, and a play fort for the kids. The water was perfect too. Addison loved swimming with mommy and daddy, going in the whirlpool and the lazy river. She smiled and kicked the whole time. Afterward we went to the Grandma McCleve's for BBQ and plenty of good food . Brittney's great salad was a total hit! Out side we shot Dad McCleve's and Grandpa McCleve's potato guns. Some of the potatoes and cobbs hit or landed in neighboring yards, houses, or sheds. The cousins went into a neighboring field and we shot the potatoes straight up and they would run to try and catch them. It was really entertaining. After eating all the good food and drinking HOMEMADE ROOT BEER, we sat down and watched a movie or took a nap. (aka: i was the only one who took a nap besides Addison. Sleeping allows my food to digest better.) Around nine, some of the fireworks were going off and we went in the back yard to see some. The kids all had poppers and were having fun putting on their own show. i left when it was time to clean up.

I'm grateful for the bravery of those 56 delegates that signed the Declaration of Independence. I'm grateful for the opportunity we have to live in this country and the freedoms that we enjoy. I pray for those that are in the armed forces as well as the leaders of our nation that they will continue to uphold what the founding Fathers started nearly 233 years ago.

While reading the Declaration of Independence one line stood out among all the rest which comes at the very end.

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

May we live to that same standard to protect those sacred freedoms for future generations.