MAYLIN2007

Last Friday, at the kids' school, they had their annual Dance Festival. This year since my older two are not in ballroom (Kens was until she broke her wrist and we switched her to study hall), Alex was the only one to perform. His class did a line dance. It was so cute. At the very end, Alex jumped into his friend's arms and he held him. Maylin had the camera at that point, but she actually caught it. It isn't great, but still she got the moment!     The teachers and administration also preformed a dance! It was so great!!! The principle is on the motorcycle. Austin's teacher is in the red tie with the hat and bottle on his head. The audience was in screams over their dance it was so great.     At the end, everyone got down on the floor and did the Hoky Poky. Austin really got into it. You can tell from the tie on his head. The friends with him are Miranda and Estaban who is an exchange student from France. They had such a great time. I love this picture because it ...

Austin has been working on his science fair project once again. It is a continuation of the magnetic motor that he did last year. This time, he has figured out how to overcome the problem of equilibrium that he encountered last year. His project looks so cool. A BYU professor that is over engineering technology invited him to the university to spend a few hours. Austin showed him his project, got some pointers and then the professor showed him all of the electric race cars that they have developed. Austin had an amazing time!!!! Here is a picture of Austin...enjoying everything about the moment. He looks so grown up. He is wearing his school uniform by the way. Austin turned in his project to the school and he is worried he won't win this year and won't make it to state like last year. I am not sure either. The girls that won the top spot at his school did the same project again. They didn't do anything at state....kinda weird. But we both feel they will do well again on th...

Today is our 21st wedding anniversary. As we were in bed last night, talking, with Maylin between us, we went over where we started and where we have ended up. Jay asked "Did you ever think we would have 4 kids? I asked if he could believe how old we were now. We decided somethings were as we imagined, others not so much...like having a four year old sleeping with us most of the time. Overall, we decided that even though it has been different and harder than thought, we wouldn't change a thing. In fact, it has been wonderful!! We love each other more than we did the day we got married. I have to say I would not want to spend any of the past 21 years with anyone else, but Jay. He is my better half.   We did have a good laugh trying to figure out where all of our wrinkles came from. I have this huge one on the left side of my mouth. We decided it is because I spend a lot of my time with this perplexed look on my face that causes me to squiggle my mouth over to the left side. Jay...

Maylin got dressed up the other night. She said she was dressed up like Kenzie. I do have to say that Kenzie has NEVER dressed like this, so not sure where she got that from. Maylin does look pretty cute though.    

Whiskers : Born August 2000 - Died January 21, 2011 Our sweet little Whiskers passed away today. We were all there at his passing. We are sad. We are worried about his sister (the grey kitty). The vet said she would look for him for a few days. The funeral will be held tonight. He was a darling cat that was loyal and true. He would follow us when we would go walking, but would never go past the corner and would be there waiting when we would come home. He loved milk and yogurt. We called him the "Stealth Bomber" because he was so big and walked with a swagger. He was a great mouse and bird catcher. He was our friend most of all.    

We went to a Japanese steak house for dinner. The server, a darling girl, kept watching Maylin while taking our drink order. I don't think she took her eyes off her the whole time. She then started to talk to Maylin and asked her where she was from. Maylin told her China. The girl said, "I am from China too! I am from Beijing. What part are you from." She said a few words to her in Chinese and at the point Maylin totally shut down. She wouldn't look at the waitress again. I told her Hubei and she said another waitress that was off that night was from Hubei. She told us that most Chinese people look the same to Americans, but Chinese people could tell differences in each others' features. She said Maylin had very big, wide eyes especially for her age. She said this was a sign of beauty. She also told us her chin was different than most and was considered a beautifully shaped chin. I agreed with her that we too thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world. ...

  "Do I have hair in my arm pits? How about in my leg pits?" (She shows us the area behind the knee!) While playing church/school with her dolls and Jay and I are her audience: "I have to go get sumping. Pause game." While playing Barbies: "Its okay if Barbie sees Ken go potty cuz they are married." "To me, Kenzie's face isn't very cute. Mine is the cutest." We told McKenzie that she had to change her plans for the evening. In her disappointment she said, "That stinks!" Maylin turned to her and said, "Let me smell."

Okay, so 2011 started off a bit rocky with the broken wrist/car wreck thing. Well it has just got better.(sarcasm) It is to the point now that I am just laughing. The latest is this: Jay got a ticket because his tags on his car had expired. He has been working 24/7 so it has been hard to get it inspected. He finally did and it failed inspection. $800 later, it passed. Then Austin got sick and missed 3 days of school. Then poor, poor, McKenzie fell on the glacier we call our driveway and broke....yes people she broke her tailbone! Now, Maylin has the throw ups. She has been throwing up since last night. It went on all night long and now all day long. Jay is out of town too. Been gone since Thursday. Do me a favor.....pray, send well wishes, throw salt over your shoulder or what ever in our behalf.

It has been C.O.L.D. here. We get snow....duh, but it usually warms up enough that it melts after a few days and then we will get more and then it melts. See the routine? Anyway, for the last few weeks it has been too cold to melt the snow. It has been too cold to melt anything. The highs have been in the low 20's for weeks. Seriously, the other day with the windchill it was 8. EIGHT. That sucks. I am not a cold person, so I have been spending A LOT of time at home, wearing a sweater or under a blanket. I only go out to drop off/pick up from school and I go to an exercise class, but that is it. We have been eating our food storage because I don't want to load groceries into a car when it is FREEZING! Please 32 or warmer degree weather come for a visit. Please!!! Yesterday, we went out to feed and water the chickens. Our tap into our house was frozen solid. We have a safety value on it so it won't do that, but it still did. Makes me nervous that a pipe could break. Thus, I a...

Austin had the BEST b-day party ever two days after his b-day....yea, Dec. 17. I know, almost a month later, but I wanted to make sure that it went on here since I make this blog into a family book. We had about 25 kids at our house. Austin cleaned the basement perfectly. I should have a party for him more often! We had a taco bar, pop, dips and chips and of course, B-day cake. After they ate, the kids played various "M@nute to W@n It" games. They were hysterical!!!! Then we took the kids over to our church and they played human fooseball. One kid got into so much he split his pants right in two. He borrowed a pair of Austin's shorts which was funny because he is about 4 inches taller than Austin. They also watched a movie "Dispic@ble Me". Kids left about midnight. They had a fabulous time!!! He has some great friends.        

This week has been a whirlwind. I swear I have been to more doctors lately than most of last year. Jay had something removed from his arm....its gross looking and don't know what it is yet, Kens had her cast put on (No surgery!!! Happy dance!) and Austin had a dermatology appointment. I kind felt bad for Maylin. I think she has sat in the car seat more than not. So, to make up for it today we had a tea party. We made fancy PB&J sandwiches, drank cocoa and had wafer cookies! It was so fun. She said her name was Sally and her honey's name was Joe. They had 20 kids. The oldest was 17 and the youngest was 2. She said she was from Idaho and all her kids had yellow hair. She said her hubby built houses and churches. We had a great time pretending. She then wanted to go to the mall and have a pretzel! I defiantly had to comply. Who could pass up her cuteness and a pretzel with cheddar cheese sauce!     Kens is enjoying her cast. I hate that I have to help her dress, do her contact...

What is the best way, ever, to start a new year? Its having a minor accident which involves a trip to the ER so you can hit your deductible right off....yep, 3 days into the new year. There really isn't anything better, that way you know you are free the rest of the year to have anything done. It really takes the pressure off and you know what kind of year it is going to be. It won't be 2010, where I listed no major health issues....it will be just the opposite or at least that is how it appears in just the first few days of 2011. So what happened you ask? McKenzie was putting her backpack on after math, by the way it weighs about as much as she does. I told her it felt like there was a dead body in it. Any way, the teacher asked her a question just as she had thrown the backpack up on her right arm and she turned only to have that force pull her to the ground landing on her arm. I was called to the school and she was in serious pain. In the end, she has fractured two bones in ...