It's Raining Teeth!!

On Wednesday, Kenzie lost a tooth. It was the second of her two front teeth. Thank heavens! She was starting to look a little 'Hillbilly' with one baby tooth half in and one adult tooth half grown.
Today, Friday, she wiggled another one free! Check out this smile - yikes! Watching the kids lose their teeth is pretty darn entertaining (in a completely gross sort of way). Kenzie's first tooth was loose for at least 2 months before it finally came out. Towards the end she could twist it all around and make it stick straight out-we all did this. The thing never sat right (disgusting). Now she's a professional and just 'works it' till the tooth comes out. Growing up is SO much fun!!

Our Jade is 7 years old - practically an adult! All she wanted was to have a party on her birthday (March 25). So, guess how I spent my Wednesday? We kicked off the festivities with a high-power game of 'Butterfly Bingo'. Then, I let the girls each decorate their own cupcake. Next, the lighting of candles, singing of songs, and blowing out of said candles. When I do the cupcake thing I let each child have one candle to blow out. Of course, eating cake and ice cream was next. Followed by presents. Bowen was so jealous he couldn't function. Had to send that child to his room because he was killing the party atmosphere. I got Jade 'Thumbelina' and after the presents were done I parked the kids in front of the TV until the parents came to claim their young. My mom was the real hero of the day for coming down to hold the baby so that I could be crowd control with two useable arms and hands.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am capable of amazing things and that I have many superpowers. Decorating cakes is NOT one of them. I'm extremely impressed by people who possess this superpower, but it is not my gift. Jade said that she wanted a white cake with a big red daisy flower in the middle and small pink flowers in the corners. UGGH! My specialty is sprinkles. No shapes or elaborate designs - sprinkles. I drew the flower on a sheet of paper then cut the flower out. I placed the paper on the frosting and shook red sugar sprinkles all over it. Then carefully peeled the paper off and Presto! Big red daisy.

Jade is such a sweetheart! She's kind to everyone and extremely thoughtful. When she gets candy at school she always shares with Kenzie. She loves to play with Kenzie and Bowen and she ADORES Talia. When she grows up, Jade wants to write books for children. She already tells people that she is "an author of children's stories". She's constantly creating little books which she writes and illustrates. We feel so lucky to have Jade in our family - we love you Jade-Jade!

The Wild Monkey Ranch

This morning Rob embarked upon a grand adventure to work on the archery range on our land in Duchesne County. Last year, Rob started this 'Buck and Pole' fence for an archery range - hopefully to keep people from being shot by arrows.

Here's a self portrait of Rob to prove it's him doing the actual work. No migrant workers at the Wild Monkey Ranch : ) These are the cross bucks that Rob finished last year. Another grand adventure....

Fence. See we do have land!

More fence - it's a large archery range. Actually, this thing is pretty good looking. Mabey I'll see if Rob wants to keep going and do the whole perimeter. It's only 10 acres. Oh, Rob just said 'NO'.

Fence again. Check out our super cool Juniper trees! Cabin - no, water - no, power - no. Fence - absolutely!!!

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I'm told that this here thing-a-ma-jig is a power inverter. It runs the drill/microwave/toaster/TV/hairdryer whatever fancy thing (any 3 things at a time) you need to survive in the wilderness - as long as your car battery/gas holds out.

Springfest Bellydancing Festival

Kenzie could hardly wait for March to get here so she could dance in front of an audience. She is such a little diva! Rob said that the more people cheered the bigger she smiled. Jade danced the best I've seen her. Kenzie loves dance class and Jade endures it. She doesn't care for early mornings - she gets that from her dad. They both felt very fancy and looked beautiful in their costumes. They had a lot of fun - and that's the most important thing!!

Yes - that's me!! I don't know that these are the best pics of me - but my outfit looks pretty cool! I wasn't sold on the head scarf or the pants (yes, those are pants). But when you get the whole thing together it looks good. I do love my pom-pom hip skirt - I think it's the best one in the group. I dance in a Tribal bellydancing troupe as opposed to a Caberet troupe. The basic difference is more clothes & less jiggle. Tribal has stronger bolder moves and Caberet has smaller more delicate moves. It's like being Xena instead of Snow White. After our dance, while we were waiting for our group photo, a couple of Middle-Eastern women tracked me down and asked if they could take a picture. I knew they were from the Middle-East because one of them was wearing a Burka (spelling ??). She was the real deal, too. I could only see her eyes, she was even wearing black gloves. The other woman was just wearing a Muslim head scarf. They were so nice and I wanted to talk to them for much longer than I was able to. But - they said that I looked the best in my troupe - that my dancing was very good and that I looked very authentic. Talk about making my day!!! I figure, a girl in a burka probably knows her bellydancing - so a compliment from her is pretty awesome.

Talia Isabelle

Check out this CUTE baby! At 8 months old, Miss Tali is getting to be quite the little person. She is quick to smile and laugh at anything and everyone. She went from sitting to crawling overnight and now she's standing up to everything and walking around the furniture. Sunday we found her first tooth. I swear it wasn't there Saturday. In hindsight, I believe on Friday I put my cheek on her head and said, "I think you're a little warm today." Other than that, no warning. That's how the other girls were...no drama, no swollen gums, no runny nose, no fever....just one day - teeth. Bowen, on the other hand, YIKES!!! Otherwise, here's what's up with Talia...
Tali likes: being packed around, people food, white chocolate chips, her mom, the cats, Bowen, the cat dish, any sort of string, sleeping in mom's bed, climbing the stairs.
Tali hates: being put down, baby food, nap time, being taken from the cat dish, being washed after a trip to the cat dish, sleeping in her crib, falling down the stairs.

Snails ATTACK!!

These days, when I leave the house, I get the most interesting messages on my voice mail. Kenzie sure is good at using the phone. Yesterday, after my long run, the messages went like this..."Mom, what is cream of tartar? Call me." and "Mom, what sort of oil is vegetable oil? I need some. Call me." I got home to find that Kenzie had learned to make play-doh in Activity Days and had been whippin' up a batch for Jade and Bowen (supervised by Rob - I use the word 'supervised' lightly). Today, Kenzie spent a bit of the afternoon creating an army of snails - ready to do her bidding and conquer the world!