Rain, Rain, go away!

I feel like the rain is never going to go away! I am getting so sick of seeing the grey clouds and not being able to send the girls outside because it is soooooo wet!
We went fishing the other night and it was not warm at all, and had been doing light showers all day, but Ryan wanted to take the girls anyway. Alexis caught the very first fish and got it all by herself. It was a rainbow and a big enough fish that we could eat it. Elizabeth caught the smallest fish I have ever saw.... It was just a little bigger than a minnow. But we kept it and put it in Ryan's dad's pond.
Brytlee caught a fish like Lizzy's but it was two times bigger. (It also went into the pond)
After all the girls got a fish it started to blow, and rain harder, and so we packed up everything and left. We were only there for about a half an hour.
We went to Ryan's parents house and Alexis wanted to eat her fish right away, so Ryan cooked it up for her and she loved it. Elizabeth is our picky eater and the only thing that I could say to get her to try a bite was "It is a rainbow fish! That means it tastes like a rainbow" "Don't you want to know what a Rainbow taste like"? After she tried it, she would tell me what color of the rainbow it tasted like. She ate more than I thought she would and she really liked it.
Brytlee is a great eater, the only thing I have to do to get her to take a bite is pretend that she is a kitty, or a puppy, and she will eat anything that I give her. I think that it is really funny and I think that is why she likes to do it.
After we were done with the fish Alexis started to look at the body of the fish. (Ryan cooked it with it's head still on) And she grabbed the head and broke it off. Then she played with the eye ball and it came out. (I know this is my girl)! So then she came up to me and said, "mom, look at it's eye ball". Ryan said, "Hey, I will give you five bucks if you eat it". So without really even thinking about it she put it in her mouth, tasted it, and then bite down on it. She spit it out because it was as hard as a rock. (I always thought they would be gushy and pop in your mouth). She is pretty brave, and I was pretty impressed that she would try it.

Swimming

We went to a great little swimming resort last night that is a natural hot pot. It was about 50 degree's when we got there and raining, and everything is outdoors. I thought Ryan was crazy when he came home from work and said lets go swimming.... (as the rain is poring down, and lightning and thunder crashing) But ended up going, and I am so glad we did!
Ryan's dad and sister Hailey with her two boy's and we all had a great time. The girls all loved the water slide, and would go up the stairs as fast as they could and down the slide by themselves, and then back up the stairs. We all went at first, but after hauling Brytlee (who has to weigh close to 30 lbs) up all the stairs my legs were tired, and I was almost getting motion sickness from the twisty slide going round and round. So I let Ryan and his dad do all the work with the kids and sat in the hot pool. Then a little later Ryan came over so it was just his dad with three kids going up and down the slide. I had to think that there was something wrong with me. He is the grandpa and he was still going just as fast as the kids and I was being a lazy bum sitting in the hot pool..... but he is in great shape. He has been running in the 5k runs, and winning every time in his age group. I think he said he gets about 3.2 miles in 28 minutes? It could be less? He has challenged all of us to get into shape also, and run in the next one with him and try to beat him.... I am going to try, but I don't know how I will do yet?
Anyway, back to the swimming.... We had a great time, and the girls played so hard. It stopped raining and turned out to be a beautiful night. We stayed until 9:00, and I bet the girls went down the slide more than 50 times. Alexis and Brytlee took turns jumping off of the diving board, and Elizabeth really wanted to do it but couldn't get up the courage. Which is fine... two kids that are not scared of anything is plenty.
The best part about having the kids swim, and play so hard is how great they sleep! They all went to bed right after we got home, and then slept in till after 10:00!!!! I missed out on working out but I got a lot of cleaning done.

Made my day!

Brytlee woke up from her nap and said she needed to go potty! So I put her on, and she went number 2 for the very first time on the toilet!!!! This really made my day!

Life?

I think that I have something wrong with me? I have no clue what to do with myself, and have been so stressed out, and have not been enjoying my kids like I want to at all...... Alexis is going through a stage that is going to kill me if it does not end soon! She has such a attitude, and we have been fighting so much. She doesn't want to help me do anything, she has not been very nice to her sisters, and every day she tells me how boring everything is, and then she will cry about just about everything... I don't know if it is from being spoiled from her birthday, or if it is because she is out of school? (just now she came in and gave me a hug and told me she loves me... so I am going to stop venting right now because she is still my little girl, and I love her)
So besides going through the Drama with Alexis, we are potty training Brytlee, so I have to remind myself every thirty minutes to ask her if she needs to go potty, and make sure she is dry, and for some reason, she is having a very hard time figuring out the pooh part.
We are also going through the process of selling our house, and I am stressed out about showing our house, and trying to keep it clean all the time ( which is not easy with my little tornado's). (so it really has not happened yet, but I still try) We have had a lot of people look at it, and couple of people that want to make us an offer, but we have not accepted any thing yet.
We also are dealing with the City, and not having a permit yet for our house that I was hoping to have it started in May so that we could work on it all summer.... but of course the person that we need to help us is never in his office and only works one half day a week, and even on the day that he is suppose to be in his office... HE'S NOT!
So that is what is going on in my life, and there is a lot of good things that have been going on, but right now I just need to vent, and get it off my chest. So the next time I post I hope that I am in a happy mood again.

Alexis turns 7

Alexis is a seven year old now. She has been counting down the day's until she had her birthday party for a very long time. And I think that she had two very nice parties and had lots of her friends and family come and play with her.

We started our first party with just her girl friends from school and our ward, they came over at 10:00 and they all stayed until 1:00.



Alexis had some music on and was entertaining the girls with some of her dance moves.... I got most of it on video tape and it was pretty cute! A bunch of the girls kept saying, "how did you learn to dance so good". I had to bite my lip a little because it was mostly just crazy dance moves that we do all the time.....
Brytlee loved the party. She played so hard, and kept up with most of the bigger girls. She could climb up the big water slide and go down all by herself. She also loved the slip and slide.
After Alexis's friend party, we also did our family party at 4:30 and it went until around 9:00. We had a lot of fun watching all the kids play on all the water toy's while most of us stayed dry and just talked and had dinner.
I wasn't going to make a cake until her real birthday which was Sunday, but at the last minute I decided I had better. So this is what I came up with for her cake.... It is crown if you can't tell....


Denton and I got into a water fight, and I have to say that he is a lot faster than I thought he would be.... I still soaked him and if you were to say who was the winner.... it would be ME.
then after he got some dry clothes on all the kids wanted to have some more water fights so he joined in with that also. The kids all loved it and I think that grandpa did to.

Alexis loves animals! Hailey found a toad in her garden and sent it to our house for my girls. They played with it for two days until it started to slow down a little so we told them they had better let it go before it died..... Elizabeth was really sad that they had to let it go and cried but I really didn't want to see it suffer.....


Now that things have slowed down a little Alexis has been acting just a little spoiled... I am really not liking the attitude that she has going on, and hope that it won't last very long. I don't know if it from getting so spoiled from birthdays or what, but girls can be such drama queens!

May is CRAZY

Now that May is almost over, I guess I will write down all that has been going on. The biggest news of course is that I am one year older and wiser to!!! Yea, I had a birthday, but this year it only lasted of one day :( I usually take advantage of the whole getting presents and spoiled and everyone being really nice to me for the whole month of may, but this year Ryan told me that I only get it for one day, and that is it! So for my Birthday I had a volleyball game, so Ryan and I went to town a little early and bought some flowers for the pots I have and then I had to go play our games, and after that we went and ate some yummy funky Chinese food, and then went and watched Star Trek. I am not into the shows but I did like the movie! After that it was late, so we went home. I had a great birthday, my sister in-law Sara and her family sent me some BEAUTIFUL flowers, and got some really cute clothes from Ryan's family, and my BFF Stephanie also gave me a cute outfit. (I felt so loved) (and I still do)
There has been a lot going on and I have been running around like crazy all the time that I have not had time to write anything down, so I am going to try and catch up on everything now.
The weather is so nice, and the girls have been in their swim suits as much as they can. (almost 24-7) They were playing outside one day when they found a baby bird that couldn't fly very well so they caught it and played with it. It was really cute, and they wanted to keep it as a pet so Ryan built a little bird cage for it and when it was time for bed, they went outside to check on it and it was gone. They were sooooooooooo upset, and cried and now they want us to go out and buy them a bird! I don't know if we are going to hear the end of this any time soon....





Brytlee is so funny, she loves to be outside, and loves to push around her little baby's in the stroller.
Brytlee has learned how to ride her trike and she is all over the place with it. If you don't have a close eye on her she tries to go around the block on her bike, and she doesn't care that you are not with her. She has taken of so many times I am ready to put a leash on her.



This last weekend we went to the Thomas the Train in Heber City with most of my family. We had so much fun with everyone, and the girls loved to see the Thomas Train and get to ride a real train.
After the Train ride the girls, (me, my mom, Annette, Summer, and Sara) went shopping at the Park City outlets. It was so fun, and we found some great deals. my sister Annette bought Alexis a really cute outfit for her birthday, and I bought a few also, and then my mom bought me a couple really cute tops for my birthday which I LOVE, and Annette gave me some cash to get something else really cute. (I guess I did get another great day for my birthday after all!!!)
While we were in SLC we went swimming, went to lots of great places to eat, and took the kids to Temple square and walked around, and then also took them to the Joseph Smith movie. I had not ever watched it before and it was so amazing. I had such a great feeling in it, and it was such a great experience to watch it with all my family, and to have my girls with us. I was really surprised with how well all the little kids did in the movie.
On the way home, our kids were so tired and so spoiled that they cried almost the whole way home.... I was ready to jump out the window, or start screaming really loud just for fun.... but we made it and everyone went straight to bed!
Elizabeth has graduated from Pre-School!!! She has learned so much and is such a smart kid. She loves to be social and make friends. She can write most of her letters and loves to color EVERYTHING, including her walls, doors, arms, legs, books, and other things that need to look pretty with some colors.... (we are working on that one, and I hope that this little habit is over)

They had a cute little program, and she was so shy. She sang a few songs and just smiled so cute. The whole class was singing very soft. Elizabeth is going to miss the school deadline by only nine day's but she is going to go back for another year of pre-school next year.
Alexis also had her First grade Graduation. I was so impressed with all that the kids had memorized. They are such a smart group of kids. It is so crazy all the things that Alexis has learned this year. She can already read at a second grade level, and is really good at math. The things that they learn in first grade is what Ryan and I learned in third grade or even older.

Alexis and Mrs. Elgan. We have really loved Mrs. Elgan as a teacher. I hope that we get a good teacher for second grade....

Elizabeth said the cutest thing in her prayers last night. She always blesses her toys and her room and bike, but last night she blessed "that a baby boy could come safely down to mamma's tummy and then get out safe". Kids are so much fun, and say the cutest things!

Mothers Day Weekend

We had a great Mothers day weekend. We all went to Idaho Falls and stayed with my family for two nights. Saturday afternoon my friend Shalee had a baby shower that my mom and I went to together. It was a great shower, and a lot of my friends were there. It was really nice to get some time with no kids, and just talk with Adults. I have such a great group of friends, and I wish that I could spend more time with them! Most of them live close and get together with their kids but I only make it to the showers and other partys we have. But every time I get together with them, I can just pick up where we left off! They are all so great!


Shalee is going to have her baby in five weeks. She is so tiny!
The girls went outside and had a little tea party Sunday afternoon. They had such a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's house.

Alexis has become a pyromaniac!!! She loves camp fires. She begs and begs for a fire every night. So of course when she is at Grandma and Grandpa's house she gets everything she wants. My dad is so nice. He had then roast marshmallows and everything.
The night we arrived my mom asked the girls if they wanted anything. (it was 9:00 at night) and Lizzy shouts out that she wants cookies. So my mom just whips out a batch of cookies for them. My Parents are so great, I just love them so much!!!


Saturday after Shalee's Baby shower my mom and I were able to go shopping and spend time together with just the two of us. It was such a great day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. We went to so many stores and just looked around at everything. We had some great laughs, and talked. I was so happy that I was able to have my Mom all to myself on Mothers day weekend. I don't get to spend as much time with her as I want to, and so it means a lot to me when we get to have time together. I have such a wonderful Mother and I love her so much. She is one of my best friends, and I have so much fun with her.
And Thank you Ryan and Dad for watching the girls all day so that we could have a great day out. I think that some day's you need to spend a little time away for yourself so you can go home and be a even better mom!

Ryan's broken nose :(

Tuesday morning Ryan woke up early and went and played basketball at the church with a bunch of guy's. While he was playing his cousin had the ball on a fast break, and Ryan was right behind him. Somehow there feet got all tangled up, and they both fell down. On the way down the other guys elbow went right into Ryan's nose. It went completely out of place like a V to the left. So Ryan went into the bathroom and reset his nose by himself.... (ouch)
When he came home, he told me about it like it was no big deal, and was in no pain at all. But then that afternoon he was feeling it, and it was giving him a headache and it had already started to turn black and blue. I am a little worried because he feels like on of his airways is a little tight and just feels different. He thought it might make him snore, but nothing yet!!! (yea)
I hope it is alright, and I hope when the swelling goes down that he doesn't have a nose like Owen Wilson.

What makes you look old?

I have been thinking a lot about why I look older? Have I really changed that much? I look in the mirror and I don't see that big of a difference? So why is it that three years ago people would ask me how old I was, and then guess I was 18??? And now when people ask how old I am, they guess I am 30? I don't know if it is because I am turning 28 this year and I thought up till a couple of days ago I was going to be 26...... (Ryan had to tell me how old I really was) But I feel a little weird about my age? I feel like I should still be just out of High School.... but that was 10 years ago!!!!! That is so crazy to me! I see all the High School kids now, and they all look like baby's to me. They are so little.... and even kids in College look 16. So I guess that is a sign that I am getting older.
I was playing volleyball the other day and a young checha gave me a comment like I did pretty good for a old lady.... I didn't really know what to say.
I think that that time has gone so fast and don't really think it will slow down any time soon.

Elizabeth's new favorite word...

Elizabeth has been making me laugh a lot the past little while with the new word that she likes to use a lot... (WHAT) But she doesn't use it like most kids do it at her age.
With Alexis she would say "What" after ANYTHING I would say like she couldn't hear what I was saying. So by the third time I repeated myself, I was yelling really loud. (I think that is something a lot of kids do right)
But this is how Elizabeth uses it.
"What, I didn't do it"
"What, that isn't mine"
"What, I'm not hungry"
"What, Brytlee just hit me"
"What, I'm fine"
Ryan can do a great impression of her doing it, and it is very funny! She is such a sweet heart, and"What, we love her".