In the Spotlight

I'm feeling like a bad blogger mom, because one of my kids seems to get more blog time than the others, (and mom has to be fair in everything!) So this one's for my girls.





This week, the girls in Bailey's school class earned enough AR points for a swim party at her teacher's indoor swimming pool in her house. Yes, she is pretty much the coolest teacher EVER. Not to mention she also has a room full of Webkinz, just like her students. It's going to be hard to get a teacher any better than this! Bailey loves school and reads a book a night thanks to this wonderful teacher who motivates her.



Since I'm spotlighting my girls, here's the pictures I took several months ago when I said I was going to take something that showed "personality". Beautiful Bailey is at her most favorite place, a horse barn. And just love the expression on Avery's face, it is one of her many quirky ones. Some people talk with their hands, Avery talks with her eyebrows. She wanted to visit the painted horses, and she thought this one was the prettiest!






This weekend, Bailey had her monthly horse clinic where she is fortunate to get instruction from one of the best English riders, who is from England. This instructor has ties to our valley and likes to visit every month, so the 4-H program benefits from that. We affectionately refer to these clinics as "Equestrian Boot Camp" because this instructor is very disciplined and runs the clinics like a drill sergeant. But the lessons Bailey learns from her are so essential, and she cannot wait for them.

And Avery had her big dance recital this week, which was very entertaining. She's the one who wadded up her white gloves and decided to carry them. She also had a wardrobe malfunction with her skirt hitched up the whole time, due to her spinning on the floor while she awaited her turn.

Although she's not much into the dancing part of it, she really enjoys the spotlight on stage and would rather make people laugh.

Honestly the most exciting part of this for her was the fact that we got these costumes the day after we got back from Disneyland, and she said "It's Minnie Mouse's dress!!

Come in to my bathrooms

It all started with these pretty little paintings I found on clearance for $2.50 each. How could I pass them up?
I love love LOVE poppies, they are such happy flowers!



















I thought they would brighten up my boring laundry bathroom.

























Then I got looking at my other bathroom, and it occured to me that I have not changed one thing in my main bathroom since we moved in eight years ago. EIGHT YEARS!!!! How could that be? I have changed every other room in my entire house at least 3 times, but somehow have overlooked this bathroom. So I had to get to work. I wish I had taken a "before" picture, but I didn't, so just imagine lots of lavender and plum colors. I had an arrangement with lavender in it, and a iron rod on the wall with lots of (ugh!) dusty dried flowers on it. The whole bathroom was kind of tired and outdated. So I used some of the plum colors that were already in there, but gave it a more modern look by adding red and changing the accessories and here's the new and improved bathroom. Ta-Daaaaa!

Now it's more Pier-One-ish I think. You must know that all the accessories are thrift store/garage sale finds that I already had.

I really wanted a cool tassle on the towels to complete the look, so I went to Michaels and it must be my lucky day cause they had just one tassle left and it was on clearance.

And I absolutely had to buy new shower curtain rings because I had those ugly plastic ones on. Then I spraypainted my shower rod a bronze color, because it was sage green and that wouldn't do.

My favorite addition to this bathroom is this funny picture of a cat who needs "to go" that I cut out of a magazine and put in a frame. It makes my kids laugh, (and it is their bathroom, after all).

Poppy artwork: $5

Shower curtain rings: $9

Red towel: $8

Tassle: $4

Cat that needs to go pee-pee: priceless

Ahh, I feel much better about my bathrooms now. I hope I don't let it go for another 8 years.

For Nat "Queen" Cole and my Book Club Girls . . . . .

Got this from Mandi's blog and I think it's hilarious!


VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

We had a rare treat this weekend and got to hang out with our "girl" cousins from Arizona (woo-hoo!) We don't get to see them often enough, so we tried to maximize the 36 hours we got to spend together. These three cousins are so much fun, and absolutely beautiful to boot! All the girls in the Lund family (10 of us) spent Saturday doing what girls do best- shopping!

T is all grown up and so beautiful! She let Avery play her DS and now Avery thinks she needs to own one.

Dave's siblings . . . .

Such a fun gang!

These girls are from Arizona, so of course they are all tan and never see the snow. These nuts were thrilled to play in the snow and were doing cartwheels and snow angels out in their swimsuits and screaming all the way to the hot tub. (Again, sorry to the neighbors. Again.)

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! And yes, Cade was completely comfortable hanging with the ladies in the hot tub.

Day three- still can't get enough of the SNOW. Little M kept eating it. Good grief she's pretty!

SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!!

Have I mentioned how pretty they are? Their mom needs to lock them away from the boys. I am glad we had snow for you guys, but it all melted the day you left and I am thrilled that it's gone! (The snow that is. Wish you guys were still here!) Love ya.

A Total Blast

Well we're back from our week of fun and sun, and I am having California withdrawal already! My kids are having withdrawals from being with our great friends that we went with. We spent 8 days together and it wasn't long enough! It was too much fun for words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. (There are a lot of them, how could I narrow them down?) I love the look of pure happiness on all the kids' faces.

The hotel we stayed at had a Pirates Cove swimming pool that dumped huge buckets of water on your head. It was a big hit with the kids!

Look at baby Mallory in the corner, oblivious to the wave of water all around her!

The grown ups liked it too.

Sea World

The Shamu show always makes me and Dave cry.

Of course we were always in the SOAK ZONE

Avery and Reagan are like twins, they always wanted to dress the same and have the same hairdo. We called this hairdo the "Mickey Mouse ears".

Tyler making a friend . . . .

At the dolphin show, the trainers asked one little girl to pet the dolphin and describe what it felt like. She said "A hot dog". Hee hee!

Bailey looks so solemn, but this is a dream come true for her! She's decided to become a dolphin trainer when she grows up. (Hmmm, I guess we'll have to move to California, dang.)

The Boys . . . . .

DISNEYLAND

The girls . . . . . . .

We had three jam packed days of fun in Disneyland. How did we get so lucky with the week of sunshine? We just went until the kids pooped out, then the adults took turns taking the kids back to the hotel while the other couple got to experience Downtown Disney without the kids. Now that's fun too! Dave and I had a fabulous meal one night at Tortilla Jo's.

The Anderson gang. We love these guys.

Good friends like these share everything, even their suckers!

This is the autograph Bailey wanted. No more princesses for this big girl (sigh). But she did enjoy being called a princess by all the Disney staff!

Our littlest princess. She actually didn't care too much to get the princesses autographs, so that saved us a lot of time not having to wait in THAT line!

"To Cade, from one goofball to another. Love, Goofy"

Avery told me many times "I'm so happy!" She was such a joy to watch and to see everything through her eyes. She would often say "Whoa, look at that! That's a MIRACLE!"

And I was amazed at how BRAVE she was! This picture cracks me up because she looks terrified on the roller coaster, but as soon as it stopped she said "I wanna go AGAIN!!"

L is for "LOVIN IT!"

While the little kids played in Bugs Life, Bailey and I watched this street performance.

Avery loves this place!!!!!

Cade was my ride buddy, we loved to go on all the "big" rides together.

The best ride for me and Cade was hands down, the Tower of Terror!!!
Cade had to psyche himself up to go on it, but once he did, he couldn't get enough. I've lost track of how many times he went! What a great ride.

And Toy Story gets a big Thumbs Up from everyone too. Amazing. I keep saying "How do they DO THAT?!?!?"

Cade just HAD to build his own lightsaber souvenir. Um, don't we already have about 15 other light sabers at home?!?!?

All Avery wanted was a sucker for her souvenir. Okaaaaaaayyy. She's too good to be true!

NEWPORT BEACH
We thought we'd let the kids dip their toes in the water before we headed back, but who were we kidding to think they would stop with just their toes. Before we knew it they were all in their swimsuits and body surfing.

We are all sad it's over, we must do this again soon! We enjoyed every minute of it!