What has gotten into me?

I am not naturally domestic... When I received a calling as "Homemaking" counselor at church (back in the day), my family and friends laughed. I am not crafty. My idea of making homemade bread is using the Rhodes frozen rolls. It even took me several attempts to figure out how to make those. If I have anything that needs to me hemmed, repaired, or otherwise mended with a needle and thread, I pass it off to Mom.

But for some reason, the past few weeks have brought out a new side in me...

For Charlotte's birthday party, I had the girls make cute frames to take home. And with Charlotte's thank you note, we included a picture of the girls to put in it. Scott was so disappointed he didn't get to make a frame that we had to go get more stuff for him to make his own. Frames are $1 at Michaels and we bought scrapbook stickers to decorate after paining. Go ahead and say it -- SHE'S CRAFTY! (Beastie Boys)


Then the other day, Charlotte brought a bread pan to me and asked to make bread. Why not? So I did, and it turned out pretty good for someone paranoid of yeast. The first loaf looked like this:



And the second one looked like this. Don't ask what happened. There is room for improvement, but I was very proud of my first attempt.


I tore out some boring bushes and Scott, Charlotte and I planted all these beautiful flowers.


Our garden is all planted and our seeds are starting to grow.


And I am now obsessed with the world of coupons! Thanks to my friends and some very helpful blogs I follow, I am saving a ton of money and my pantry, freezer and bathrooms are STOCKED! I know my stockpile would be put to shame by some of my friends, but I'm getting there! Anyone need body wash? I probably have 7 or 8 bottles that were all free. Same with Windex. It is fun game to play, and rewarding to get so much stuff for so little!



And if you are wondering what has gotten into me, no - I am not pregnant. There is no explanation for this madness, but I don't expect it to last forever.

Cheaper and more fun than therapy...

18 years ago this fall (I'm so old) I drove out to BYU with my mom and dad to start my freshman year of college. I arrived at Stover Hall in Helaman Halls and knew NO ONE! Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. But it took a total of about 2 days to find friends that I somehow instantly knew would be my BFFs. Kjirsten was my roommate and I will never forget her walking into our dorm room for the first time, and we just hugged and there was no question that we were paired together for a reason. And it didn't take long for us to find more amazing friends -- Kelly and Kari from Georgia, Liz and Becky from Utah, and Lindsay and Amy from Chicago. After our fantastic freshman year, we all moved into 2 apartments across the street at "The Riv", which was our beloved home for another 1-3 years.

Here are the 8 of us in our full, early-90s glory! Ok - my hair was large, but I swear the wind made my awesome spiral-permed hair look even bigger than it truly was. That's at least the story I'm telling myself...



This past weekend was the first time we have been able to get together with MOST of us since we started to go our separate ways after our sophomore year. We missed you, Kari and Linds! And although much time has passed and we have had so many significant life experiences, it was like we were just as close as we were back in our Provo days. I love these girls. They knew me before I was Drew's wife or Scott, Charlotte and Trevor's mommy (not that those are bad things...). I'm sure you can imagine our weekend was filled with talking, laughing, shopping, a little sleeping, more taking and laughing, eating, sightseeing, followed by a lot more talking.

So much has happened to us all over the years... Between the 8 of us, our experiences include marriage, 27 kids, careers, divorce, autism, illness, lay-offs, and even the death of a child. As much as we laughed during our days together, I mostly just was in awe of my amazing sisters and how strong they each are. And I would add that they all look fabulous! I came home with new ideas and a renewed motivation to be a better wife, mother, sister, and friend.

I can't wait to do it again next year! Right, girls???

And I must add a big thanks to Drew for being Super Dad while I was away... The kids clearly had a fabulous weekend and didn't miss me much. I think this was a WIN-WiIN-WIN!

Apt. 10: Kjirsten, Kelly and Stace

Kj, Amy and Kelly

Crashing a wedding at Pebble Beach

Super cool matching Target PJs

Go Giants!

Scott is playing T-Ball this year and he LOVES it! To be honest, I think Scott and I are both enjoying this more than soccer. Drew is having a bit of a hard time with the fact that his first son is playing for the Giants, but he did cheer for the Black and Orange, even when we played the Dodgers. Scott has had a few games so far, and has done really well! In his first inning on the field, he played the pitcher position and picked up lots of balls and did a good job throwing to first base. And it has been really fun to see how much these little boys are improving in just a few weeks! Although my favorite thing is to watch a ground ball and see about 5 tiny boys sprinting to the ball...

GO GIANTS!

Cute craft ideas?

I am totally out of my comfort zone... I am the Relief Society activities co-chair and we are planning a big activity where women can pick from any of 10 or so crafts or projects to do on a Saturday. I don't have to tell you all that crafting is NOT my thing... Do any of you have any fabulous ideas for cute, relatively simple and inexpensive crafts or projects that you have done? If so, PLEASE share them with me! Our planning meeting is Wednesday, so anything you can pass along to me before then would be GREATLY appreciated!

Pink and Purple Princess Party

The party week continued and Charlotte had her first friend birthday party on Friday! It was a long week for her, waiting for the main event. And since she doesn't quite get the meaning of "tomorrow" or the days of the week, saying the party was on Friday meant absolutely nothing to her. But the big day FINALLY arrived!

Charlotte's 3 friends, Heidi, Courtney and Claire all arrived and were greeted with the most awesome pink/purple reversible sparkly tutus you have ever seen! Thanks, Grandma! Then the girls did a little project where they each painted a wooden frame, then decorated them with princess stickers. We have done this little craft a few times and it is cheap, adorable and super easy - even for little kids. So each girl went home with a cute frame, and when we send out thank you notes, I'll include the picture of the girls together to put in it. Aren't I creative? It doesn't happen often, so I have to make a big deal about when it does...

Can you tell Charlotte is a little excited to be 4 years old now?





(Melanie, sorry Charlotte saved her weirdest smile for this picture. She really does love the princess jewel fishing game!)

My 4-year-old Princess

Yes, it was Easter Sunday, but today was also Charlotte's birthday! She was very excited this morning that she could now say she is 4 YEARS OLD! Since we were lucky to have 13168 Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Michael here this weekend, we had her family party tonight. Of course it was all princess...

Everyone choose their favorite princess to eat on the cake. Charlotte chose Princess and the Frog (she never uses the real name). The only ones left over were Mulan, Belle and Cinderella. It is probably a good thing I didn't use this cake for her friend party this week because I could easily see 3 and 4-year-old girl tantrums over not getting the right princess.




And here she is with her exciting gifts! Now that I am done with this post I will go take her helmet off...

If there is another male Syphi...

Drew and I love to watch college football and basketball. And during the past season for both sports, we have used our white board on the fridge to record our favorite names. We may be done having kids, but Allison just found out she's having a boy. So Allison and any of my other friends expecting boys in the future, here are some suggestions!

Jamario
Jermajesty (Not a football player, but Jermaine Jackson's son. How could I leave this name off the list?)
Plaxico
Jovante
Jamarcus
Dinero (Cindy has called this one: Dinero Money Thomas)
Martavius
Tyreke
Javis
Jacquizz (my personal fav, especially with "Quizz" as a nickname)
LaMicahel
Rondavian
Ochocinco (Technically a last name, but also must be included since the guy legally changed his last name to match his jersey number)
Rantavius
Legerette
Charvez
JaMychal
Julysses (a new discovery, definitely in my top 5)
DeMario
DeMarcus
DeAndre or DeAundre
Johndre
Darshawn

I'd love to hear your favorite. And if you have any additions to add to the list, please pass them along.

Trevor is ONE

My baby is one... How did that happen? Seriously. His official birthday was last Thursday, but we waited to have the 1st Birthday Rager on Saturday. We did the traditional cupcake, and just like his big brother, he just kinda looked at it, poked at it a bit, and decided he wasn't too interested.

So a few updates on Trevor's current tricks:

• He is pretty darn close to walking. Every time he takes a few steps and I pull the camera out, he's done.
  
  
• We have stalled out on 7 teeth.
  
  
• Ever since we got home from Christmas in St. George he has been a sleep champ. We can put him in his crib, close the door and with few or no objections, he can fall asleep on his own. I was going CRAZY in December because he was constantly waking up like a newborn, but a couple of nights of letting him scream did the trick. It may have been cruel, but it saved my sanity.
  
  
• He LOVES throwing balls. Can't get enough on balls of any size. And he does a pretty good job playing catch, which is of course adorable.
  
  
• He has the BEST curly hair! I will be very sad when we have to cut the curls off.
  
  
• The kid is into EVERYTHING! We never put cabinet locks on when Charlotte was a baby because she was only mildly interested in getting into stuff. That is not the case with Trevor. He is SO busy -- speed crawling everywhere, opening anything he possibly can, screaming when he can't get something he wants.
  
  
• He is a great eater. I'm determined with my 3rd child to feed him whatever we are eating for dinner. No more making 4 different dinners each night... So far, seems like he is allergy-free, so that goal may not be impossible to accomplish.
  
  
• He absolutely loves playing with Scott and Charlotte. A few times he has wrestled with Scott, which was hilarious. Scott better live it up while Trevor is smaller, because I have a feeling Trevor will eventually pass him up in size.

We have his check up at the doctor on Thursday, so I'll update this post with height and weight. I would guess now he is about average for both. It seems like just this week all of the sudden his 6-12 month clothes are too small and we are ready to move on to bigger sizes.

Here are a few pics from the party. And once I learn more about iMovie, I'll get some video on the blog:

Let the birthday season begin!

In our family, Scott kicks off the birthday season with his big day on February 26th. Then it is Trevor's turn on March 18th and Charlotte follows on April 4th. Can you tell that I really didn't want to be pregnant during the hot summer? That, and I really enjoyed watching college basketball games while preparing for and recovering from my c-sections... Anyway, our birthday celebration plan is that we will do big parties with friends on the even years, and family parties on the odd years. Scott has been debating for MONTHS what he should do for his party: BounceU, Chuck E Cheese, John's Incredible Pizza... But after I showed Scott all the Super Mario Brothers party accessories that were available online, his mind was TOTALLY made up. He would have a Mario party with the main entertainment being playing Wii games. How easy was that to organize? Thanks, LH, for the idea!

I'll give you my synopsis of the evening, but first here are the highlights as written by Scott:

My Birthday by Scott

It was February 26^th and

It was my birthday.

With balloon’s wii and

I got noise putty and new super Mario Bros. Wii

Super Mario Bros. super show showdown in Brooklyn

And carnival game’s mini golf

And boom blox bash party.

And 7 kid’s and 5 adult’s=12 people.

And there you have it...

To prepare for the party, Scott and I had fun searching the internet for cool Mario things. We ordered a Happy Birthday banner, balloons, plates, cups, wall stickers, invitations -- all sorts of great stuff! But I think my favorite discovery of all was this edible cake topper. I bought it on eBay for about $8, including customization. It came as a flat sheet and we just had to peel it off and lay it on fresh frosting. After a little while, the image melted into the frosting and it looked SO cool! The boys all wanted a piece of the fireball, because -- who wouldn't? Scott requested yellow cake, so Aunt Holly took care of that. She found a couple fantastic recipes for both the cake and the frosting, and it was super yummy. BTW, if you are interested, click here to go to the site where I got the cake topper. They have just about every theme you can imagine.

The boys all arrived about 5pm, and we had 2 Wiis set up and ready to play. We managed to pull them away from the Wii for pizza, cake, and presents, but it was pretty obvious the boys were all in heaven... And most importantly, Scott thought it was the BEST birthday ever! What else could a 6-year-old want?