Fun-Filled Weekend!

I figured it was time for my quarterly blog update so "hello" to the two people that may read this. It has been a busy weekend so I thought I would post some pictures. Bryn's birthday is tomorrow (the 13th) but we started celebrating on the 11th. Instead of a big party, Bryn just decided to do some fun things with a couple of her friends - Lexi and McKaley. We couldn't have a birthday withotu Lexi - she and Bryn have been to each other's birthday parties every year since they were 3. Anyway . . . we took the girls to get pedicures and then we stopped at home and picked up Mason and they went to see the Hannah Montana movie.

Here are the completed pedicures -



Here are the girls with Jack who is the owner of the place where they got the pedicures -

At the movie theater -

Here is a picture of the girls in their new Easter dresses. Mason actually got a new Easter tie, but by the time I got home from church he had already changed his clothes so I just got pictures of the girls.

After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Jorgensen's for the annual cousin easter egg hunt, dinner, and another mini party for Bryn - here are almost all of the cousins - we miss you Luke and Kira!!!!! - and the newest cousin, Sophie was sleeping. They were lining up on the stairs from youngest to oldest getting ready to go to the backyard for the Easter egg hunt.

And, last but not least, here is Bryn with her ugly bunny cake. More years than not, her birthday is right around Easter and we always make this silly bunny cake.

Baby ?

My sister Stacey had a baby girl this morning, so as soon as school was out today I went straight to the hospital to see her (I had to be the first one there so she would know who her favorite aunt is going to be :-) ). She is so cute and she looks a lot like Anna (her older sister for those of you who don't know my sister and her family) - they have the exact same nose. If you have been on Mel and Stace's blog you saw pictures of her right after she was born, so here she is later in the afternoon. She is so cute and it is always so much fun to have a new baby in the family. Now if she just had a name . . . . Anna is already calling her Sophie but we'll see who gets to pick the name.

This is Anna's favorite picture - but keep going - the last picture is the cutest!

Anna has been waiting a long time for her baby sister and she is so excited she is here! I didn't get a picture with Thys and the baby - he had already gone home for his nap.

Here is a picture that shows all of her cute hair - she has a lot - it just doesn't stick straight up like Anna's did when she was born. And no, I didn't put the bow in her hair - it was already there when I got to the hospital!

If anyone even remembers I have a blog . . .

I know I haven't posted anything on this blog forever - things are a little crazy and updating my blog obviously isn't on my list of things that HAVE to get done. But, I thought I would post some pictures we had taken last week for our Christmas cards. The girls' piano teacher (who is also my sister-in-law's sister-in-law - so almost family), Cheri, was very nice to let us come to her awesome backyard of the house they just moved into and take some pictures for us (Cheri is a very talented girl who can do lots of things!). I didn't use any of these pictures on my card, but there were a lot of good pictures of the kids. Thanks, again, Cheri ! You are the best!

Cousin's Christmas List

Sorry anyone who isn't a brother or a sister - this is not an exciting post - here is the list for cousin Christmas presents.

Mason - Hugo
Sydney - Kambry
Bryn - Kira

Lauren - Ella
Tanyon - Owen
Autumn - Lily
Hugo - Luke
Kambry - Sydney

Anna - Lauren
Thys - Mason

Luke - Tanyon
Kira - Niels

Kail - Autumn
Lily - Thys
Niels - Anna

Ella - Kail
Owen - Bryn

It always helps to have connections . . .

Some of you may have read this story on Bryn's blog, but I am going to post my version of what happened. Yesterday Bryn had piano and dance - that doesn't usually happen - Cheri (the girls' piano teacher was out of town on their regular day). So, I had to pick Bryn up from piano and hurry and get her to dance. Well, I guess I was "hurrying" a little too much for the Sandy City police officer I passed and he thought we should have a little chat (I really was only going 11 over the speed limit so it wasn't THAT bad.).

I apologized and told him my story about trying to get my daughter between lessons and he didn't seem to have a lot of sympathy for that story and asked for my license and registration which I had ready to hand to him. When he looked at my license he asked if I was related to Sherriff Winder so I had to explain that Wynder is with a "y" not an "i" (which he should have been able to see on my license). But, since he seemed to be interested in who I was related to, I used the "my brother was a Sandy City police officer" card. I asked him how long he had been with Sandy City and he said about 6 years and asked who my brother was. When I told him Gary's name he said he did know Gary but he kind of looked at me funny and asked if he was my brother-in-law or my "real brother". I don't know if he thought I looked to old to be Gary's sister or was thinking that we look nothing alike (which is true). I told him Gary was my "real" brother and he asked how he was doing and if he was still doing his military stuff. So, we had a nice little talk and he very nicely handed my license and registration back to me and told me I really should slow down and walked back to his car - with me yelling "thank you" out my car window.

So, yes JaNae, being related to Gary does come in handy. And, if Gary reads this, or you can tell him, JaNae, the officer's name was R. Nielsen (he looked about the same age as Gary) and he said to tell you "hi". Other than Bryn being about 15 minutes late for dance everything ended happily!

Being the "Favorite Aunt" is work - but it is worth it!

A couple of weeks ago my niece Anna was at my house and was crying because she didn't want to go home, and I told her that we would have a sleepover one night with her and my other niece and nephew. When you tell a smart little 4-year old that doesn't forget anything something like that you better prepared to follow through. So, last Friday night we had our "little cousin" sleepover at Aunt Steph's. I didn't do it by myself - Bryn and Syd helped a lot (Mason was at scout camp). We had pizza, made cookies, walked to Snoasis (the best snow cone shack in town!) and got snowcones (we had to walk because I didn't have car seats - luckily it is just a few blocks up the street), made a craft - we always have to have a craft, played games with prizes for the winners, watched a movie and had popcorn, slept for a few hours, had pancakes and waffles for breakfast, and played some more. Little Thys came for part of the activities but didn't sleep over. So, here is a picture of my family room around midnight. Anna - the one with the green pillow is playing like she is asleep for this picture - it may not be such a good idea to give 3, 4, and 5-year olds snow cones at 9:00 at night right before you want them to go to bed! But, we all made it through the night and nobody woke up crying for their mom in the middle of night - which I was happy about! We had a lot of fun and we will probably do it again (but don't tell the kids that just yet, Jan and Stace).

E was really sleeping with her little hand on her cheek - this picture isn't posed!

Sweaty little O - he had to sleep in a sleeping bag even though it was a little warm.

Here is what Anna really looked like at midnight - wide awake!

Here is E with her lunch box we deocrated for our craft.

O with his lunch box.
Although it doesn't look like it in this picture - I think everyone had a good time.

Stace came to get Anna for her dance class and she wasn't happy about leaving.

Aren't they cute!!!!!

So, little cousins, thanks for coming and we love you!

Catching Up

This is my monthly (or bi-monthly) posting session. We have had a busy end of summer and we are sorry to see summer quickly coming to an end! The last few weeks we have been to a family reunion (see post below), Mason went to scout camp, I cleaned out and organized every one of our kitchen cupboards, we have finished our school shopping (I wanted to get it done early for a change!), we are watching as much of the Olympics as we can (I have always found it amazing that I get so excited to watch sports I have never watched or even heard of before), and with the exception of Dru (who has to go to work every day) and Sydney who is an "early to bed early to rise" kind of girl - we sleep in every day we can! We also got to spend some time with my sister and her family which now includes cute little baby Kira. Les and Jake adopted Kira and we are so lucky that she is part of our family! The only bad thing about Kira is that they took her home to Montana and we miss her (and Luke and Les & Jake)!

These are the two pictures we used for Kira's baby announcements.

Luke is such a cute big brother!

A few posts ago I blogged about our trip to Chuck E. Cheese for Anna's birthday. Just to refresh your memory - O totally freaked out when we walked in the door and the first thing he saw was Chuck E. Cheese. He ran screaming out of the door and did not want to go back in. Here is the picture of a traumatized O. While O was outside crying, Anna was hugging and posing for a picture with Chuck E. Cheese.