Wordless Wednesday

Our 10 Year Family Anniversary

Naki has always been really sweet about making sure the girls know that when we have an anniversary it doesn't only mark another year as a married couple but in fact it celebrates another year since we started our family by being sealed in the Jordan River Temple. This year we had a blast. Aunt Katie came and babysat while Naki and I went out to our annual celebrate-our-anniversary restaurant, Tucanos. We think we first started going there because a couple years back Ginny gave us a gift certificate for there, and we've always gone back every year on our anniversary. After the girlies got out of school that day, we surprised them by taking them bowling. Since Christmas they've loved playing bowling on the Wii, and we thought it was high time they got a bit of real bowling under their belts. They were so surprised to get to go. We picked a great time of day to go, no wait, and hardly anybody else there.


Because of their Wii bowling experience, they knew how to read the screen and what all the numbers and scores meant.

I had two favorite parts about the bowling. First favorite was watching all of their different approaches to the lane. Line approached with excitement, confidence, and focus.

Malia had an altogether funky approach, by running and then sliding on her knees.


Lose was convinced that she could do the run/walk approach, and it was so funny I have pictures of that in sequence.


Eli tried two different ways, and at the end stuck with the little ball-guide-thingy, as did Eva. Otherwise, the ball rolled so slowly it lost it's momentum before it ever reached the pins!




My second favorite thing about the family date was watching the girls celebrate together when someone was done bowling. It didn't matter the amount of pins knocked down, they were just constantly thrilled for whomever had just bowled. It was so cute to see the girlish hugs, squeals, and high-fives. I love seeing them happy for each other.

After bowling we left to enjoy some Macey's ice cream cones and ice cream sandwiches. Anyone who doesn't live close enough to a Maceys to have that store as part of your family life, we feel so sorry for you! We visit that store far too often. We can feed our whole family delicious cones and sandwiches for under $5.00...can't beat that. We all thought it tasted yummy, and Ane was by far the messiest one. We are so happy to be celebrating this milestone with our adorable munchkins. We love you girlies!

A New Kind of Drink. . . eeeew

Well, I was so proud of the girlies. They had worked really hard on cleaning their room so that they could paint. I was busy elsewhere in the house, attempting to clean while holding Ane-boo at the same time, and could hear Lose taking responsibility for the watercolor painting going on in the kitchen. Eva was desperate to be involved, and so I told Lo to go ahead and get her some water and paints as well.I walked through the living room periodically to check on them and make sure they were getting along and no one was painting the walls, and would then go on with my cleaning. On one of my check-ins, I decided to stop in and look at all their beautiful work. As I looked over Eva's head, I saw that her water cup was empty, and asked Lo why she hadn't given Eva any water, to which she replied that she had. Oh no. Anyone who knows Eva knows she just can't resist the lure of a drink or a bite of any kind. So I asked her where her water went, and this was her reply.

Well, who can blame her. I suppose it is a tad bit confusing. Every time during the day when she comes and tells me she is thirsty I tell her to go get a drink of water. I can hardly blame her for taking the initiative and doing it on her own this time!


We haven't seen any lasting effects from said drink so far. . .we're watching her closely to see if she starts to turn any strange shades of green mixed with yellow and red.

Lost Duck

Back in November I found this picture taped to the wall, and these all lined up close by. It took me a minute to process, but we started out with 5 this past Halloween.

Not sure if a reward is being offered for the return of the Lost Duck, but he could be anywhere by now.

Just for Lizzie

You must know Liz, that I NEVER do this tag kind of thingy, but for you, anything. :) I'm not going to do all the instructions for the tag that are listed in the beginning of the blog, but I will tell you 6 random quirks about me, plus a couple extra. I noticed as I made the list that most of them sound like complaints instead of quirks, but oh well. They're the things that came to mind first.

1. Like many others in our family, I cannot stand the feeling of the crumbs in the kitchen on the bottoms of my feet. I know, you're saying just sweep the floor already. But I also cannot stand the feeling of most anything on my bare feet, like the floor of the garage, or my laundry room, or the sidewalk, or even the floor after I get out of the shower. I deal with most of those things fine, but find myself snapping at the kids somedays, only to realize that I just need to sweep the kitchen floor and then things will feel much better all around.

2. This one definitely bugs, because I can never change it. I hate that usually within seconds of me making my bed, and pulling the comforter straight and tight, someone sits, jumps, or scoots on my bed and the tidy look has disappeared.

3. I treasure my time alone at night, after the kiddies go to bed. I treasure it so much that I stay awake much much longer than I should. The trouble with this is that when I wake in the morning I'm of course very tired. However, you'd think that on the days I can sleep in a bit I'd be able to compensate for the staying up late, when in fact, I'm just walking around all day feeling behind. So, my #3 is that I love to stay up late but hate to sleep in.

4. I have never ever ever enjoyed talking on the phone.

5. I am extremely competitive in most everything, and sadly poorly skilled in most everything in which I feel competitive. . . not a good combo.

6. I am enthralled with diet and exercise. I love to read about it, watch shows about it, watch athletic events, and talk to people about it. But I have never maintained a long term commitment with either one.

7. Here's my extra one. I love love love plants, greenery, flowers, you name it, inside and outside of my house. I love planting them, seeing them grow, but do a terrible job at watering them. I can't manage to keep hardly any of them alive. Sad, huh. I just need to get rich so I can afford my very own landscaper and gardener. Either that, or have Scott come live with me so he can do it!

Okay, there you go, Liz. Love you, and hope that you're feeling okay. You're in the final stretch! You can do it, I know you can. Love you and Albert, both.

DanceKicks

Follow me here. . . several several months ago I got a phone call from a friend in our ward asking if we would be okay with having the girls participate in a photo shoot for a friend of hers. Her friend was developing a line of dance clothing and was trying to put together a catalog and needed some older girls to help out with wearing the clothes for the shoot. She assured us that they were cute clothes and modest, so we said that we would be glad to help. Knowing Naki, I thought he would want to be present to make sure things were handled appropriately and that the girls weren't put in any uncomfortable situations. So he headed off to the shoot with Line and Malia. What a great Dad. He was the only male in attendance, with all the other girls and their mommas there, the girls stripping down and changing in one big room. He said that he just tried to stay in one corner, turned from all the girlies and only focusing on helping our girls so as not to make the other girls uncomfortable. He came home so proud of the girls and the way they carried themselves. As compensation for their time, the owner of the line said that the girls could come by her office and select a set of the clothes for free. We've stopped by several times but since it's more of an office for storage rather than a store for shopping they don't keep regular hours and we had difficulty crossing paths. Finally two weeks ago I stopped by with Line while Malia was at dance class. We knocked on the door, and were surprised to find someone there! I was trying to explain that the girls had participated in a catalog shoot, and that we weren't just trying to get free clothes! Line saved the day, when she spotted one of the catalogs on a table and said, "That's me!" Sure enough, she was on the front cover. What a fun thing it was to see her there. We grabbed the catalog in excitement, flipped it open, and were giddy when we saw our Malia, striken' her own pose on the inside. Man, do I have the cutest girls or what?! Inside and out! There was an insert to the catalog that showed the different materials their line came in, and along the bottom were some of the models in different poses. It was so fun to play "Where's Line and Malia?" with the insert. What cuties! I wanted to show all of you, and tried to get on their website, but it's in the beginning stages and so instead scanned the pics from the catalog onto my computer. Hopefully you can see them good enough. So Fun!




See if you can "I Spy" the girlies in these ones.

Happy 10th, Babe

On March 27th Naki and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary. How does the time pass so quickly? It seems like just yesterday that we were at Ricks, having the best time getting to know each other.


(No comment on any of my marvelous hair styles or outfits, understood everyone?)

After spending time apart while we served our missions, we were so excited to start our new married life together.

I readily admit that we had absolutely no idea what kind of a ride we were in for. It has been a fast and furious ten years, but I can't imagine having enjoyed the experience any more than I have, and all because of the person I was blessed to enjoy it with. Naki has always been the person that I can rely on to cheer me, lead me, love me, console me, entertain me!, infuriate me, tease me, love me some more, cuddle me, understand me, laugh with me, and love me some more. Lucky for us, we acquired a couple of fun additions along the way.




And along the way, poor guy also found out the hard way that perhaps, just perhaps, he got more wife than he bargained for. What can I say, I'm a little crazy these days, and he is the one that gets to deal with it.

I love you so, Naki, and wanted to tell everyone that I am the most blessed woman because I met and fell for you. Happy 10th, Honey. I love you.