seventeen!

Today we chilled. We didn't go anywhere... except to Gayles but that doesn't really count. AnDee played with Gayles dog...

While Xavi boy ate mud..

And later Bug helped Poppy paint the swing set...

While the little man sat on the dog...

Pep acts all chill and mellow but he is deceptive... After the dog sitting we thought he was playing in the sand box but he was actually climbing the latter. By the time I noticed, he was to the top step. Little sneak... thats what he is.

16... You've had a birthday shout HOORAY!

Thats right, yesterday was the girls birthday. She is 3! 3?! What?! How did this happen?
We kicked the day off with her first ever trip to Seven Peaks. The girl was in heaven. Pep was a little hesitant about the wave pool at first but he warmed up to it quickly and in no time was giggling every time a wave hit him. It was quite the fight to get them to leave but naps were not an option after all the playing.

After nap time we had a little get together with some family and a couple of friends (Dave and Dyl of course.... we don't really have any other friends. But AnDee loves them so it works) We had donuts and milk and opened presents. I simply CAN NOT believe how spoiled this girl is. If you are looking for toys, I threw out a bunch this morning to make room for the new ones so I have some for you. Seriously... Im embarrassed by the amount of toys in our house. 

The boy tried to steal the girls chair...

And was quite upset when he got the boot.

15 Half way?

After Andrew got off work we ran down to Provo to get our Pass of All Passes validated and we convinced him that a stop at The Olive Garden was necessary. After all, we did have a gift card so it wasn't like we were out any money. My kids love to eat out. I am teaching them horrible things.

And as for Pep??? He still loves his puppies. 

14

Memorial Day was awesome. Amazing weather, awesome friends and great food. We played outside all day and then we had a BBQ with some family and friends.
AnDee got to play with her friend Dax... who we rarely see so it was a special treat. Dax and Zane are THE CUTEST boys and SO sweet. I hope that the sweetness will rub off on my kids a little ;)
After dinner we broke out the goats for a few rides!
Pep wasn't overly excited... he was more concerned with eating. His ride was short

This is Dax. Im seriously considering an arranged marriage...

 And Zane... Im pretty sure we made his day with this ride. He was less than pleased when his turn was over.

And of course no holiday would be complete without Dave and Dyl.... and a little game of catch??

We are so lucky to have such awesome friends and family!

13

I am in no way shape or form a fan of pics at the cemetery. I find it weird and slightly creepy when people make there kids stand behind head stones to pose for a pic. So I have no idea how we ended up with this...

But since AnDee does share this mans name Ill let it go. And in reality, the kids actually did have fun running through the cemetery... So. Strange.

warning

you know when you are so far behind on blogging that you don't want to do any of it because it just seems like too much? Thats me right now. So this is your warning... Im about to post more than my fair share of posts for one day.

12

Why do we have toy boxes?
Ill tell you why. Its so we can pull all the toys out, throw them on the floor and then sit in the box.

THAT is why we have toy boxes.

Eleven

AnDee and Pep have an Aunt (Aunt Amy) who teaches Zumba and while I have zero interest in dancing.. only because I have no ability to dance, AnDee makes up for my lack of enthusiasm. She LOVES to dance.
And so when Aunt Amy went to teach Zumba to the kids at Grandma Pams school AnDee got to tag along. I don't think I have seen her that happy in a while. Aunt Amy even let her come up on stage with her. She didn't even blink an eye at it. I am starting to wonder if the girl got an ounce of my genetics because you would be hard pressed to get me up on a stage and dancing in front of people now... but when I was three, there wouldn't have been a chance in this world you could have pried me from my mothers side.
AnDee however, was stunning and as always very capable.

After a long two weeks (almost... he was home for a couple days in between) of Daddy being away, he finally made his return!

The boy loves his Dad. He also loves sunglasses so the combination of the two was irresistible to him. He just kept saying "Dadadadadadada" over and over. Its so nice to have him home. Mom needed the back up and the kids just needed some Dad time, complete with wrestling and forts in the living room. 

double digits. day 10

I was over at the inlaws last night and was talking to Pam while she did some yard work. I saw AnDee walk in to the hay barn but didn't pay much attention to what she was doing. 30 seconds later I found her.

Cause why wouldn't my almost 3 year old be scaling the walls of the barn? Seriously, she just stuck her fingers in the little cracks between to wood and went straight up. 

And a kiss from Pep to you..

That is all.

day 9

Pep loves to drive. As has been mentioned multiple times, he loves anything with wheels and/or a motor. Apparently even just a steering wheel is enough for him cause this one makes him very happy...

Im excited to see his reaction to the boat this summer. He is at that age that is just SUPER fun. Where they amaze you everyday with the stuff that they pick up on. He is starting to talk a lot more and is loving his sign. He waves at EVERY car that passes by him and almost always, the people in the car will wave back (which he obviously thinks is awesome) He blows kisses and dances for no real reason other than he knows it will make the people around him happy. And even though he has been working on getting his 4 (yes... 4!) molars in, he is still such a pleasant and easy kid.

Did you ever see that episode of Friends where Joey puts on every item of clothing that Chandler owns? You know... the one where he walks in with 900 layers of clothing and announces that he is going "camando"?
Well minus the camando part, AnDee did that today. She was playing with her cousin Jayne in her room then suddenly appeared in the kitchen like  this..

I counted them as a peeled them off of her. 12. 12 shirts. She is too funny. Yesterday I put her in her bed for a nap and about 30 minutes later I could hear her laughing hysterically. My first thought was that she was laughing in her sleep because she has done that before but when I got to her room she was wide awake just giggling. When I asked her what she was doing she said "I was just laughing" so naturally I asked "why?" She giggled a little bit more and said "I said BUTT!" and then burst in to another fit of laughter. Maybe she read my "Ash Cheese" post and picked up on the toilet humor? 

day 8

My kids love their Aunt Gayle. They love destroying her garden and stealing the pin wheels out of it. And sometimes... they even love each other.

Day 7

This morning we went with Dave and Dyl down to our new house to mow the lawn and weed a little. (oh and we met one of our neighbors. She seems completely crazy but may or may not be the nicest crazy women I have ever met) Since we were in Santaquin and for some reason I feel like its ok for me to eat out when Andrew is out of town, we HAD to stop at The Family Tree for lunch. I don't know if you have ever been to this restaurant but if you haven't... you need to go. My friends and I used to drive from PG down to Santaquin just to eat there. Its that good.
What makes it so good??

If heaven were a bread... these scones would be heaven. And the honey butter? Oh. My. GOSH. Plus the fact that they give you little tiny plates to put these giant scones on... just makes it even better.

Good food

Pep loves him some scones too!

and then we got to watch Dave and Dyl drive off like this...

All in all, today has been a pretty good one and we still have half the day left! The only thing that would make it better is if Andrew was here to share it with us. Maybe next week??

Days 5 and 6

When Andrew is at home, I don't blog. What I am essentially saying is that every Monday I am going to be catching up on Saturday's and Sunday's picture of the day posts. So here they are.
Saturday we went to a party that Andrews work puts on every year. They fly in insane amounts of crawdads and boil them all up, there are hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, cotton candy, snow cones kettle corn... pretty much any kind of carnival food you can think of. Because if we get right down to it, thats basically what it is. U.S. Synthetic's own little carnival. With bounce houses, pony rides, face painting, a live band... the works. And its all free! Needless to say, our children enjoy it immensely.
Im not sure why but when every time we go somewhere that offers pony rides AnDee is adamant that she NEEDS to ride a pony. I don't understand... we have horses at Grandmas, she can ride any time she wants. But I guess ponies are cuter? Im not sure but here she is on her pony..

This pic of Pep isn't from Saturday. I have to confess that Pep didn't have his picture taken that day. Poor kid. He gets forgotten.

This is from a week or so ago. He has figured out how to blow the little seeds off these things and he walks around the pasture picking them and blowing the seeds everywhere. Im sure Poppy loves that he is spreading dandelions all over :) but I sure think its cute.

Last but not least on Saturdays events. Someone randomly left a duck in a cage next to our house. What the??? Here is our new pet? (it bites) duck.

Now for our Sunday pics. Went for a walk up to Grandma Pams Sunday evening. AnDee apparently does not trust her dad to drive the stroller safely because she would not leave the garage without her helmet on.... backwards.

The boy was so excited when dad let our new duck friend out to swim in the ditch. Grandma brought out some rolls for the kids to feed to the ducks. AnDee was all dainty, breaking little pieces off and throwing them in. Not Pep. He just hucked whole roll after roll in to the water. He doesn't joke around. He just gets things done.

Just a little snippet from AnDees prayer that evening: "...and thank you for our new duck. And thank you that he is all white"

I don't like the duck... but Im afraid he is going to be around for a while.

Story Time

I have a story... but first I have to tell another story so you can get the full understanding of this story. In order to provide some privacy I will change the name of a person in the first story. We will call her Kara.... Kara Lark. :)
So Kara was my absolute best friend and we did everything together. We were even in the same 6th grade class and somehow we pulled off sitting next to each other at our 6th grade "graduation". Well the Mayor had been invited to our graduation. The Mayor, Mayor Ash was  a rather large man and really didn't appear all that important to us 6th graders. The person who was conducting the ceremonies was up at the microphone going on and on about how excited and honored we should be that Mayor Ash had graced us with his presence. "And now, lets give a big hand for our Mayor! Mayor Ash!"..... Kara leaned over to me "Yeah" she said "Mayor Fat Ash"
I lost all control.  The giggling began and I couldn't stop it. You see... Kara NEVER said anything even remotely like this. She was quiet and respectful to everyone. In fact... in all honesty I was a really good kid myself but when I was next to her, everyone saw me as a bad influence. I COULD NOT believe this came out of her mouth "Mayor Fat Ash" and I have never forgotten it.
Flash forward to a few days ago. May 17th 2012. Andrew was entertaining a couple of guys that had come in town from Texas for a work conference. He was taking them out to dinner at a fancy smancy restaurant  and I got to go along! I have never eaten at a place like this before. My one little tiny steak cost $45 and that didn't even include the salad, the drink, the really weird appetizers or my dessert. If Im being totally honest, it seemed like a huge waste of money to me but since we didn't have to pay for it... I was definitely game. We ate, we chatted, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that these men were really quite hilarious. At times I wasn't sure if they were actually trying to be funny or not but they were none the less. The one (Zack) explained that the mountains were kind of "ominous" and that the only thing that came to mind while driving through Provo canyon was Jurassic Park. A few minutes later Andrew was having a little conversation with the other man in our party but I could hear Zack in the back ground very softly humming the Jurassic Park theme song.
After our main course was finished the waiter brought out the dessert menu. Zack decided to try the "Beautiful cheeses" for his dessert. They brought out a plate full of all kinds of cheese... most of which I would never want to taste. He took a tiny little bite of one white cheese that had a little grayish line in the middle of it. He was less than pleased with the taste. He asked the waiter what the grey line was and he explained to us that when they make that particular cheese what they do is they milk the cow in the morning and lay out the cheese to age but then they cover it with a layer of ash to kind of protect it and then when they milk the cow in the evening they put the next layer over the top of the ash. So essentially, the grey line is ash. So Zack decided he was going to pass a little bit of this cheese around for others at our table to try. I was sitting next to the wife of one of Andrews co-workers and her husband was of course on her other side. He took a little bite and let it sit in his mouth in order to get the full effect of the cheese, I suppose. His wife tipped her head to the side and said "well??? does it taste like ash?" Again... I lost all control. The giggling would not stop. Especially with everyone else talking about "ash cheese"
I know, its SO inappropriate. But after Kara's "Mayor Fat Ash" comment all those years ago, thats all I could think of. I sat with my napkin over my face, laughing hysterically with tears literally streaming down my face in a restaurant where a single meal cost more that a weeks worth of groceries for my family for probably 5 minutes, all because someone asked if the cheese tasted like ash. Ash cheese... bahahaha!

day 4

AnDee put on her own pants after nap time....

She has started to write... well... she has figured out how to draw the letter A and the letter D. Hopefully she will keep going with it. Right now our sidewalk is completely covered in A's

Im not sure what kind of face he is pulling but I think it resemble an expression of joy? He has taken a real liking to the "jumpoline" as of late and his hair is always amazing while he is jumping... that is until I touch it and it falls completely flat, instantly.

 This little kiddo has taken off lately with his sign. In the last 2 days he has added 4 or 5 signs to  his sign vocab. It so fun to see them learn. Its like once something clicks, they can't get enough of it. He is currently trying to cut 4 molars.... not the most fun but we are dealing with it and he tries his best to be happy.

Slacker

I know its only day three but Im already breaking (my own) rules. Im suppose to be posting a pic of each kid... well that didn't happen this morning.
these are the only pics I got this morning.

Now I know you're thinking... so what? Its an egg in a frying pan. But what you don't know is that that frying pan is a mini frying pan. Normally I can only fit two chicken eggs in it. THAT is a quail egg my friends. Look how cute it is!

Next to a chicken egg you get a better idea of how little it really is. AnDee's "cheep cheeps" Started laying this week! She just adores her cheep cheeps. She checks on them every day and makes sure they have food and water and she gathers the eggs. It so fun having something that is her own to care for. Pep likes the cheep cheeps as well but once he decides there is no way to get in to the cage, he quickly gets distracted  by the mini four-wheelers my parents have parked behind it. That boy and his fascination with anything with a motor and wheels.

this morning..

This morning Aunt Gayle spoiled my kids and took them to the dollar store. They each got to pick out 5 things to buy (10 toys from the dollar store... wahoo???) AnDee was quite the little shopper and had a blast picking out her own things... and most of Peps too.
Here she is with some of the loot

When we got home we played in the yard with some of the new high quality toys. But Pep was mostly just interested in making weapons out of sticks and climbing in to the back of his truck. He is definitely a boy.

Later tonight we get to go down and work on the yard at our soon to be house! AnDee is SOOO excited about her new house.... I might be a little excited as well.

Im a thief of ideas.

So Im stealing my friend Jessica's idea to post a pic a day for a month. I know Im probably kidding myself and this will never happen especially while we are trying to pack up and move but Im going to pretend I still think it can happen.
I am however, adding a little bit of my own idea to it... I plan on posting at least one pic of both my kids from the day (or maybe the day before?) that I post it. So this is me, diving in to this challenge.

Pep loves him some puppies! He is still in love with our dogs. He is constantly climbing on them and loving them and his new favorite word is "puppy" and when I say word, I actually mean sign cause he can't say it yet but he walks around signing "puppy" all day... Im pretty sure that any animal qualifies as a puppy in his book though.

AnDee has gone crazy with this being a good big sister thing lately. The last few days she wants to help Pep do everything. I often see her dragging him around by the hand with him screaming at her the entire time. If I tell her to stop though... it breaks her heart. But at least she is being helpful instead of mean. Right?

Hi,  my name is AnDee and Im a climb-aholic.

Seriously though... She has been climbing to the top of the swing set since before she turned 2. Scary.

This pic isn't from today but this is her new hobby, it has replaced gymnastics and I simply can not believe how good she is. Definitely takes after her dad. 

The first time we took her to the quarry she climbed to the very top 8 times in a row. Like NO break in between, just up and down and up and down. Then she went upstairs to boulder and climbed halfway up and then went sideways all the way across the wall. I wish I could be like her.

Gymnastics

Or "nastics class" as AnDee would say. She had a performance of sorts a few weeks ago and Im just now getting around to posting about it... not that that is unusual in any way.
AnDee is a rock star when it comes to gymnastics. She was in an advanced class where all of the kids were at least a year older than her but most of them were about 2 to 3 years older. No one in the class, including all of the coaches but one, knew that she was younger because there wasn't one thing that the other kids could do that she couldn't. In fact Im pretty sure she was the only girl in the class that could do a pull up. I don't know where she gets her freakishly strong muscle, but I sure wish I could say it was from me.
Sadly we have decided not to go back to gymnastics. AnDee says she wants to do rock climbing instead. So as soon as her new harness arrives in the mail (we lost the old one) we will be doing that a few times a week... at least until we move and then we will weigh it out and decide if its worth the drive.
Anyway... Here are a few pics from the performance. She thought she was a movie star with all the attention she was getting.

LOVE her!