American Idol, Here Comes Simon!

Lee rolled in for 2 seconds in time to check the Internet for a couple of pictures of Simon from American Idol. He serves as Simon tonight at the combined activity for the youth (age 12-18) of our church, so he grabbed Nellie and asked her to help him "Simonize" himself very quickly. It looks like he raided my jewelry, threw on some jeans, a track jacket and some glasses, and headed over to the church . . . and is of COURSE displaying his cool gang signs :) That's my guy ;)

Thanks for the help Nellie.

Tanner's Birthday Shopping Trip (a little late)

Mr. Tanner and I had a date today to go shopping for his birthday gifts. We invited Mom to come along for re enforcements . . . just in case :). He was SO excited to go shopping with me that this is the way I found him when I went to pick him up "). Actually Braden goes to afternoon preschool so we waited until his bus came to get him to leave. I guess Tanner was a little "bushed" from Easter yesterday.

If you look close you can see that he has a tie on for the big event! He did look quite stunishing if I DO say so myself.
Here we are after waking him up - right before heading out to shop (Mom encouraged him to lose the tie). The main item that he kept talking about was a "Thomas backpack", so that was the first thing we put in our Tarche' cart :).

He also wanted a "drink" so this is what he ended up with. I got a demonstration, compliments of Jen, on how to properly fill the icee cup - I've lived a sheltered life I guess "~

. . . with the "goods" - lots of noisy cars/trucks!

At home with the "goods". there was another little airplane but he had put it in his Thomas backpack of course. It was a fun occasion.

Hippity Hoppity Here Comes Easter Time . . .

We can't find our old faithful camera after the zoo trip last Monday, and I wasn't sure if this new one would work because the battery keeps going dead - even though we've hardly used it - so this is my ONLY picture of today . . . pathetic I know. Anyway, Em & Paul and co. went to the Kevin's, Tyson & Calley and co. went to the Redd's, Kaisa & Billy stayed home, Scott had to work, which left Lee, Chad, Nellie and I up at Jen's for an Easter feast - it was a taste DE-light of course. Here's Gracie and Braden with Mr. (minus his bottom - and grass w/jelly beans) and Mrs. bunny cake that we ate for dessert along with some Easter ice cream.

Nellie asked me why Mrs. Bunny was bigger than Mr. Bunny; to which I replied "I'm bigger than Dad" - she goes "NO you're not". Lee, overhearing, goes "what's THAT supposed to mean?", to which a very smart (and tactful) Nellie said "you're taller than Mom" . . . anyway, the moral of the story is that I only had one round cake pan so I had to guess how much batter to put into the first pan, bake it, and then use the rest for the second cake - I guess I wasn't super accurate at approximating :). I'm sure life will "ease up a bit" in the stress level for me soon, but for now - I DO look like Mrs. Bunny - a little "fluffy"! In the words of Clairece (on Rudolf) "there's always tomorrow for dreams (of taking off a few lbs.) to come true . . . "
Hope your Easter was great ")

General Conference and Billy's Birthday

Today we got to stay home and watch General Conference on TV. It's always a good excuse to get the family together for that occasion. We have good food and good fun. We took this opportunity to celebrate Billy's birthday while we were all together. Here is Tyson - "bushed" after frolicking in the back yard on a nice day.
Tanner showed up today in his cool soccer uniform which, according to his Mother, he wears constantly. He looked PRETTY darn cute in it.

A big hug for Grandpa!

Billy the birthday boy with his "goods"

A real golf towel from Em, Paul and co.

A cute candy poster from Jen, Ryan and co., and fruit snacks and cash to support Billy's eBay habit from us.

Notice that ONE candle still burning . . . DARN IT!!

Then after the festivities (The Stokes had to go home), we went for a good ole conference walk. It was simply BE -UUUU-TIFUL weather today! Some did a little toe dippin',

. . . and baby dippin' :). Kaisa and Billy's dog, Lucy, went along too. She hated Tyson, or something about him. Catch the videos below to see the live action - it was pretty funny - maybe you had to BE there. I think it was annoying to Kaisa, but it kills me how Lucy chooses someone and does her patented hound dog howl. Last time they were here Lucy chose Chad's girlfriend, and she didn't taunt her at all, so even though Tyson DID, it was his turn today apparently.

. . . and a nice "random" pose from our VERY shy son

Summer took a little "sip" of river water and had a little residue on her lips afterwards

Down where I used to take the kids swimming in the Tolt River, when they were younger, there is a TON of debris from our last big flood. Here is just a sampling.

The debris goes very far down (what used to be) the road

All in all it was a very fun day. I have much to be thankful for.

Birthday Party Videos

I'm not sure if all of these videos will turn out or not, but watch the bottom right one first of the birthday boy and his cool gift :)

The last of the 2009 March birthday parties

The handsome birthday boys. Notice Ryan's authentic jersey that his family gave him for his birthday.
Grandpa getting the kids all wound up waiting for the opening of gifts

Jen helped me with Ryan's gift (sounders tickets) this year, by ordering them for me, when she thought would be a good time for them to go - so I tricked him by taping them to the jelly belly container - and he thought he was only getting jelly beans!

Tanner gets to go shopping with me this year for his gift(s) but I wanted him to have SOMETHING to open at the party - so Jen suggested getting him a pack of gum. We wrapped up 2 packs and he was very excited!

Emilee's family gave Tanner some $ for his birthday, and boy was HE happy . . . just a chip off the old block!! Maybe he'll be an accountant when he grows up just like his Dad :)

Jen and Ryan bought Tanner a nice drum set for his birthday and decided to give it to him here tonight - it was the hit of the night, that's for sure. All the kids had a great time dreaming about being a "star". I have 3 videos to share but every time I try to get them on here (I've been trying forEVER - either I get the same ones twice or something happens and they're gone), I lose the entire post, so I'm going to do the videos separately. Stay tuned for the next post - they're pretty funny.

Happy Birthday!

Tolo 2009

Tonight was Cedarcrest High School's Tolo Dance. The theme was something like Jungle Fever or something like that, so here's Emily and Chad sporting their wild animal head gear. I think I got the reflection of the light fixture on Emily's head - OOPS!

And without the "hats"