apey and i tended laurel and charlie yesterday to help my brother jason, who is wifeless this week and sounded a little desperate on the phone... anyway, i was so grateful for april who rearranged her schedule to help because it was a whole lot of crazy at my house today with all those toddlers. but between the two of us and including our own children we managed to survive four toddlers and a kindergartener, tons of poopy diapers, lunch time, time-outs, potty accident, nap time and everything else for one entire day! we actually had a lot of fun hanging out together even though it was one very long day.
i tried my best to document this day in photos but now that i'm sitting down to upload pictures i'm realizing that there is a lot that i didn't record. in the morning i had the kids alone for a few hours and i really enjoyed just sitting on the floor playing with all the babies, they all got along so well and charlie is such a smiler!
i love his mild-mannered disposition, and i've always said that i could take laurel home to live with me, i just have a soft-spot for this cute little girl - who i didn't take even one picture of! dang! at one point we were looking for a specific toy and laurel says to me,
"aunt wende, i think it's under your bootie." it was not and she got tickled for the suggestion! she always says the funniest things. it was strange to be combing little girl hair again and wrapping little baubles around the pig tails, i kind of miss this part of mothering. i am most sad about not getting a picture of her hair, i'll need to do better next time. lunch time is never boring with apey, she has a way of whipping up stuff, usually yummy left overs that she changes up to make a great lunch. i had to volunteer at the gap store at the jr. high today so on my way out the door she handed me this to eat on my way...
apey's chicken salad rocks! and then, on my way out the garage door (literally) karrie stopped by with some very good mail! (moment of silent please)
i love love love these cookies! in fact, i could devote an entire blog entry to how much i love these things, maybe another day. let's just say that it's a good thing that they're only sold once a year because of i had access to them all the time, my hips would be in trouble, ok
bigger trouble. i only shared a couple of cookies from the first box and the other box is hidden. thanks karrie! after jason came to pick up the kids we headed to the grocery store to grab some things for dinner, the babies were too cute in their little truck shopping cart.
these things rock and must have been invented by a mom because they entertain ethan every time we go! of course, so do suckers. i'll upload some funny video later, blogger video is kind of sticky right now. when it was time for apey to leave, we looked all over for makenna's shoes, we found them, where we usually find them, on ethan's feet.
thank heavens for helpful sister-in-laws who double as girlfriends! thanks apes!
**how do you feel about samoas! - the girl scout cookies i mean!
can you make a yummy lunch from left overs?
does your toddler like the truck-style shopping carts?**
i was flattered that he was comfortable enough around me to show some flair! i ended up enjoying the quiet time so much that i stayed up way too late -somewhere in the neighborhood of 3am. the cupcakes turned out super yummy and by the end of three different batches of homemade frosting - three different flavors - my whole kitchen was covered in a thin layer of powdered sugar. mmm, i love it when my kitchen is covered in powdered sugar because it means i'm baking and hopefully something yummy is on it's way to my tummy. i made more lemon cupcakes, because they were so divine at easter, then chocolate fudge with butter cream, and coconut with coconut butter cream frosting that i invented.
i love inventing frosting. they were big hits. the baptism was so great, i have developed a real love for kristy these past few years and it was really wonderful to be part of her family circle that day. the food was incredible! (patsy thought so too!)
the cupcakes were a hit. yay! kristy's boys love ethan and when we got back to their house they immediately turned on nemo for him to watch - they know it's his favorite because they read my blog! :) 
ethan LOVED seeing nemo on the big screen, the three of them were pretty much glued. when we got back home, i quickly grabbed a few shots of ethan in his easter suit since i blew it on easter sunday and missed my opportunity. doesn't the middle shot look a little GQish? sort of walking like a stud?
i just love little boys in easter suits. i closed my eyes for about thirty minutes on the couch before i headed to memory grove to take pictures of this cute couple. they were nervous but playful and luckily the weather was mostly cooperative.
i came home from the shoot just in time - ok late - to change into a skirt and zoom down to the church with allie for her first yw general broadcast. it was fantastic! i loved the talk about driving our "stakes" down deep. i'll blog more about this topic later. as i was sitting with all of those darling yw, i was thinking about how great camp is going to be and how i'm not as nervous as i used to be about it all coming together. i'm especially excited to be there with allie!
i had to talk her into the self portait which we got in one shot! on the way home i tried to take a photo of her "you're ridiculous" look that she was giving me for dancing to the music on the radio. i wanted to be able to show her proof of that look some day when she's my age and claims to have been an angel growing up. instead of proof i just got a flying pony-tail, she must have known it would come back to haunt her some day.
last but not least, rich and i had a yummy dinner at sizzler - i know, but i love that place. if rich were into self portaits i would've taken one but he would've just rolled his eyes. phew! you know, i was wondering why i fell asleep in the rocking chair putting ethan to bed, but now i think i understand.
i don't usually work him like a slave...well, ok, yes i do, but this week he worked particularly hard to earn some money to go to 
i wish i would've taken a picture of the two of them at the show, but whatever. i also wish i would've recorded their seriously nerdy conversation in the back seat of the van on the way to the show. i'm not really sure i even understood most of it, and generally i don't really love not understanding what my kids are talking about. it makes me feel kind of old. mostly scientific stuff, these guys are serious geeks, but cute geeks. when rich picked the boys up from the show, james said, "it was the best night of my life". taylor said, "well, it wasn't the best night of my life, but it was pretty cool." james is officially the bigger nerd. yay taylor! 
he also joined the track team, this week was his first day of practice. here comes the mastercard commercial: new nike running shoes: $30 (found a great sale!) fee to sign up for track: $30. co-pay to get a physical to join track: $20. hearing your son say, "i hate running" on the first day of track practice: priceless. hello? did he know what team he was joining? then he clarified by saying, "i hate long distance running, i'm going to be a sprinter". phew! today's practice as a sprinter was reportedly much more fun. (huh?) it's all just running right? none of it sounds fun to me. he was a ton of fun to take shopping for shoes that day though. he found this cute pink microphone that he really wanted to take home. so much that begged and begged for it, but i said, "no, you're a boy!"
just kidding, he really begged me not to post the photo on my blog, but hey, you pose, you're at risk for super information highway exposure that's what i say. but he really did love this pink microhpone, it lit up and everything. he he he. i love this kid, he's such a goof ball, a geeky goof ball.
thank heavens for dvd players in vans for days like this. why am i not posting a photo of kristy and i? because i'm lame and forgot to take one, we will before the project is over. although the last few days i've really been feeling tested by the two year old getting into everything, and being a genuine PILL while we were trying to get some lunch, i'm grateful for his good natured personality and how easily he can nap anywhere, including in a stroller and on the run. 
i have to admit that i was kind of disappointed in it. it was on the right track, funny characters and wonderful animation and an obviously good message, but there was just something missing. i found it rather short and kind of dull and i kept waiting for to do something big that never happened. the kids of course loved it and they're the experts any way right? so there you have it, our big not so egg-stra special spring breakness.
she sent me these darling spring candies and cupcake papers and encouraged me and allie to try again! i have been craving lemon cake so i decided to make lemon cupcakes for easter dessert. i chickened out and made the cupcakes from a lemon cake mix because i am still leery of trying any new recipes at the moment (do you blame me?). but, i definitely wanted homemade frosting, but i couldn't find any kind of lemon butter cream, only lemon icing and that definitely would not do - i am definitely a butter cream kind of girl. so, i invented my OWN lemon butter cream recipe! yup, i did. and let me say, oh my heavenly goodness, they were fantastic!
i will definitely be posting this frosting on the cooking blog for any other lemon lovers such as myself. and the decorating, with help from kristy's package, was like something store bought! thanks to all my decorators, who were lauren, emily, allie and makenna. ok, and i piped the frosting. lemony goodness. 
they tasted even better today when i wasn't so full from easter dinner. so kristy, thanks for the good mail package and for having faith in me to pull off some cute AND yummy cupcakes.
yum. we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and time together and then of course the tradition egg hunt in our backyard.
we waited a little too long so instead of harsh light for photographs like saturday, we didn't have quite enough light and almost every photo needs a little photoshop help. yuck. i also am kicking myself that i didn't get a photo of ethan's entire ensemble, i bought him his first suit and he looked so dang cute in it.
the babies were more interested in "mowing" our lawn with ethan's little mower. 
but while they mowed, the little girls made out like bandits.
i love holidays because they are this great excuse to get together and spend time as a family and that's really what it's all about right - family..JPG)
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i should start taking more photographs of her creations, there have been many clever characters adorning her nails which rotate depending on the holiday. her only complaint is that she has a hard time doing her right hand. .JPG)
so besides just getting a plain old polish job, i got super cute flowers for some extra happy in my open-toed shoes tomorrow. lucky me. cutie girl.
the moms made an effort to have less candy this year, don't feel bad for tthe kids, there will be plenty by the time this holiday is over, and so the eggs were filled with fun little prizes instead. the favorite prize was provided by ann - these gross teeth, and were worn by the oldest children with a little too much pride.
grandma says they should wear them to the dentist next time they go. gross is all i have to really say about them. 
as much fun as the oldest children had, the little guys were my favorite photos of the day, especially the egg that was too big for joey's mouth.
i was also thrilled with how the cousin picture turned out, everyone is looking at the camera! this never happens! 
as cute as this photo is, we sure missed the rest of the family not in attendance. we can't wait until christmas when we're all together! yay!such a handsome group! i also really appreciate this family picture taken today because my husband is actually smiling in it, with his teeth. 
this picture alone made the years of braces worth it. look at my family, they're not so little any more are they? this photo is a little surreal for me, but i'm enjoying this stage of our family too much to feel too sad about it. 
i made myself some poached eggs and toast, something i remember my dad making for himself almost every saturday morning. 
the egg cooker was a wedding gift for him and my mom from his mother. i think the story goes that she got them the egg cooker because my dad loves poached eggs so much, but this must've been a premonition because before the wedding, he'd never had a poached egg in his life. the toast is an important part of the meal because you use it to soak up all the runny yolk stuff. 
(sorry patsy) so so so good. i also remember saturday mornings being sort of a party hour because my dad was nice enough to let my mom sleep in. we watched cartoons of course, while he made his famous french toast for us. some mornings we would wake up to a variety pack of hostess cake donuts which some how managed to jump into the grocery sack during his early-morning milk run.
or POPS cereal, which we loved because we weren't allowed sugar cereal growing up. what i never understood was, why the variety pack of donuts dad? all of us only ever wanted the powdered sugar ones, i mean, what the heck is the point of a plain cake donut anyway? i can't see one.