Fall Fun

What is Fall without big piles of leaves? My kids LOVE leaves. They think they're the greatest thing about the yard right now. Here's Rissa in all her leafy cuteness.
How about an Audrey Makenna Cheesy grin?

Trent likes the leaves too. Can you tell?The kids had fun crawling through, leaping into, and throwing the leaves.
Even Ben got into the fun and let the kids bury him.

Ok, so I KNOW Halloween isn't until tomorrow night. However, it was Audrey's school party today and my parents were leaving and wanted pics of the kids in costume, so I decked them all out a day early and took pictures.

Red, U of U????

Blue, BYU?????
I feel so conflicted. Let the Ref decide!!!
Hehe, hope you enjoyed our theme this year!

The Saga of the Cart Wars

Ok, since Mel hasn't posted about this I am going to because it's WAY too good of a story to pass up. Some of you already know the story, but for those of you that don't, have a taste of humor in your day. One morning this summer a mysterious shopping cart appeared on our block. It is a red shopping cart from some store called "Bizmart." I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, back to the story. One morning around 6am when my friends and I were up to go walking we walked past Melanie and Cody's house. Cody had just come out on his way to work (Cody is a cop/jail security officer. I know that's not the official title, but oh well). The cart was near their driveway and I said, "Hey Cody, you're not supposed to steal grocery carts!" He replied, "It was Mel!!"
Well, a few days later the cart appeared on our lawn. We COULDN'T be the ghetto neighbors (we have a running joke going with the Laytons about being the ghetto neighbors) with a shopping cart in the front yard, so we took it and left it in Mel and Cody's yard.
About a week after that, around dinner time, I heard a knock on the door. I went to answer it and saw Mel running to the car while Cody was yelling, "Hurry Mel, Run!" She hopped in the car and away they sped, leaving the cart in our yard again.
We couldn't just let it stop there, so we took the cart and left it in the middle of their back yard. When they got home, they drove down the block looking for the cart and couldn't find it. When they pulled far enough into their driveway, There it was!! Smack dab in the middle of their back yard, staring at them.
So, another week went by and Mel confessed that she and Cody were going to bring it back and just hadn't gotten around to it. Ben, sneaky man that he is, decided he would get one up on the Laytons and took the cart from their back yard and left it on their porch, right in front of their door.
Needless to say, a couple days later when we got home from the doctor's office after Marissa fell down the stairs (See the, When it rains it pours post if you don't know what I'm talking about) THIS is what we found.

Yes, your eyes are NOT deceiving you. That is a shopping cart ON our ROOF!!!! While we were gone, Cody took the cart and wheeled it into our backyard. He tied a rope to it, climbed onto our Carport and hauled up the cart. Then he climbed onto the roof and hauled the cart after him. He then positioned the cart right on top an eave on the house. When we saw this we just started laughing. To add to the hilarity, the widow across the street was watching Cody as he put the cart on the roof and was REALLY confused. We told her the whole story and she just laughed at us. And there you have it, the saga of the cart wars. Ben and I couldn't top the cart on the roof thing, so the cart is just residing in our backyard until we figure out what to do with it. Manon (the widow across the street) said she thinks it belongs to a Hispanic family on our block. Guess we'll just return it at some point. Hope you all got a chuckle out of all this.

Social insecurities

Hello? Does anyone even read my blog? Am I just posting to no one? I feel so commentless. Maybe my posts just aren't very interesting....hmmmmm. What a bummer.

Tag: All about the 4's

Ok, so for this tag you go to your picture files and post the 4th picture in the 4th file. Here is mine...well sort of. My fourth file didn't HAVE four pictures in it so this is the third. A lthough, THEN I had to resize the image and resave it...so I guess it IS the 4th pic. These are our very good friends Jenn and Aaron. This picture was taken on the day that they took their two adopted sons Jacob (5 now) and Sam (2 now) to be sealed to them. This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever been a part of. It was so great to watch a live sealing. We are hoping to be there again soon with them if they can adopt their current foster-daughter Isabelle.

Let's see here...now I'm supposed to tag 4 people. Who haven't I tagged recently???
Joy, Ally, Heather P., and......Tracy.

What a Ham

Marissa can sometimes be one crazy lady...kid...whatever. Here is one of her latest escapades documented in picture. I was going through all the 3T clothes to pull out the winter clothes for her and she found the black tights. Next, I wanted to figure out which snow gear we needed for her this year, the 2T or the 3T. I had her come over to me to try on the 2T snow suit and coat. She willingly got INTO them, and then refused to take them off. So she ran around the basement, looking like a snowbeast (in snow suit, coat and boots), running into things, and spinning around until she fell into a padded lump on the floor. It was 80+ degrees outside at the time by the way. THEN she decided she just HAD to have the black tights on. She came over to me and made me take off all the snow gear to put the tights on. However, she did not want the tights on UNDER her shorts, she wanted them on OVER her shorts. She then proceeded to put the boots back on. At this point I just HAD to run upstairs and tell Ben to go check out Marissa, and it wouldn't hurt if he took the camera with him. Puzzled, Ben went downstairs. When he saw her dancing around in this get-up, while Audrey played the keyboard, I could hear him laughing all the way upstairs. He snapped a coule pics of her for teenage blackmailing purposes. So here she is in all her silliness, posing for Ben, with her black cotton tights OVER her shorts, giving her a ghetto booty, and snow boots. Crazy kid. She makes me laugh, too bad we didn't get a pic in all the snow gear too.

Stealing Katie's Idea

Ok, so today has been a rough day with children. It's now naptime, and I need to get into a better mood to deal with the kids when they wake up. I decided to steal an idea from my friend Katie. A couple weeks ago she posted 100 things she loved about her kids. So, Katie, I'm stealing your idea. Hopefully it will make me more grateful for my children right now.
100 things I love about my kids

1. How Audrey will help Rissa, just because
2. Rissa's smiles
3. Trent's laughs
4. When they all play nice together
5. How Audrey loves Preschool
6. How Rissa always gets sad when Audrey goes to school without her
7. Trent's wide, one-tooth grin
8. How Rissa and Audrey can play outside forever, especially with friends
9. How Audrey is learning to think of solutions to her own problems
10. Rissa's scar on her forehead
11. How Trent cries whenever someone goes outside without him
12. When the girls play dress up
13. Audrey letting me do her hair every morning even though she hates it
14. Rissa's red, curly hair
15. Trent's little bald head
16. When the girls do things just to make Trent laugh
17. How Audrey likes to take pictures with the camera
18. How Rissa loves to have her picture taken, then has to see it
19. Trent's gurgles, coos, and raspberries
20. How Audrey loves TV, even though I hate her watching too much
21. How Marissa could care LESS about TV
22. How excited Trent gets to see his bottle
23. How they all suck their thumbs
24. How Audrey cuddles her princess blanket
25. How Marissa has to have her puppy AND her blanket
26. How Trent just loves ANY blanket
27. When Audrey acts silly
28. How Risss talks
29. That Trent takes 2 naps a day
30. How they climb and crawl all over Ben when he lays on the floor
31. How Audrey can swing by herself
32. How Rissa learned how to work the glider by herself
33. How you can see in Trent's face that he SO wants to do what his big sisters do
34. How the girls love to go watch Ben play basketball and me play volleyball at church
35. How Audrey loves dresses
36. How Rissa loves pockets
37. How hard it is to get Trent dressed because he wiggles so much
38. How the girls like to help cook
39. When Audrey makes up her own songs
40. That Rissa has to do whatever Audrey does
41. That Trent will go to anyone as long as you play with him
42. How Audrey rides her big girl bike
43. How Rissa just learned how to pedal her trike
44. That Trent pulls up to stand EVERYWHERE
45. When they say their prayers
46. How Audrey sleeps all night long
47. How Marissa gets mad when her trike goes backward
48. How Trent sleeps all night long
49. How much they all love the pool
50. That Audrey makes friends everywhere we go
51. Watching Marissa go down slides at the park
52. That Trent wants to go down the slides too
53. How they all look when they're asleep
54. When Audrey rocks out to the Tarzan soundtrack
55. When Marissa plays with her babies
56. How Trent's curiosity gets him stuck in unlikely places
57. How they love to go visit their grandparents (both sides)
58. When Audrey tells Rissa stories
59. When Marissa doesn't have any peeing accidents
60. How squishable Trent is
61. When they race to be the first person buckled in the car
62. When Audrey is a good sport about losing a game
63. How Marissa want to play too, but makes up her own rules
64. That Trent's favorite toys are odd objects like bubble wands, and foam curlers
65. How the girls fight over who gets to do things first
66. Audrey's silly faces
67. That Marissa loves to read books
68. How Trent follows me around the house
69. How the girls love the library
70. How much Audrey LOVES to play with friends
71. The way Rissa runs
72. Trent's big blue eyes
73. When they get excited to go someplace
74. Audrey's snuggles
75. Marissa's snuggles
76. When Trent falls alseep at church
77. How they all love to go to church
78. How Audrey says "I'm just a little bit cranky"
79. When Marissa wakes up happy
80. How Trent plays in his crib when he wakes up
81. How Audrey wears her swimsuit around the house
82. How the girls love to have their nails painted
83. How tiny and petite Marissa is
84. How Marissa and Trent will be the same size fairly soon
85. That Audrey always wants to go to Lagoon
86. When Marissa cries because I leave
87. When Audrey says "Mom, guess what?!"
88. How Rissa will just play by herself
89. When Trent just happily does his own thing
90. How my kids will try new foods
91. How they get excited to see their daddy
92. How Audrey and Rissa "play" the piano
93. How they have to "pay" Ben for things with hugs and kisses
94. How they giggle and talk at bedtime (as long as they stay IN their room)
95. How much Audrey grows up every day
96. How sweet Rissa can be
97. How Trent just wants to be held when he's tired
98. How Trent explores EVERYTHING
99. All the hugs, kisses, and snuggles
100. How much they love their mommy, even though it doesn't always show

Well, there you have it. 100 things I love about my kids. I really DO love them.

Sheesh, what's with the Tags....it's like Tag Fever!!!

Watch out, it's contagious!!!! So here goes yet another Tag. This is one is courtesy of my friend Kristie.
8 T.V. Shows I Watch
1. Amazing Race
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
4. CSI: (Vegas) When I can
5. Cold Case, when I can
6. Criminal Minds, AGAIN when I can. The kids have to be in bed for me to watch any of the last 3
7. Funniest Home Videos, because Ben LOVES it
8. Smantha Who? My FAVORITE new comedy!!!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Any GOOD Chinese Restraunt
2. Chilis
3. Cafe rio
4. Arby's
5. Sensuous Sandwich
6. Sizzler
7. Wendy's
8. Olive Garden

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Got up
2. Took the kids on a field trip with Audrey's preschool
3. Cleaned the kitchen and front room
4. Checked out the great kids hairstlye site I got from my friend Alana
5. Made dinner
6. Played women's and co-ed volleyball
7. Watched survivor for lack of anything better to watch before bed
8. Went to Bed

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to
1. Halloween
2. Fall weather
3. Leaf Jumping
4. Thanksgiving
5. Christmas
6. Snow Sledding
7. Marissa not peeing her pants anymore
8. My Band concert on the 7th (Hint, hint, you all want to ask me about it and to come listen to all the John Williams music)

8 Things on My Wish List
1. New Kitchen
2. New Bathrooms
3. Finishing the Basement
4. Moving the kids into 2 separate rooms, after the basement is finished
5. A good nights sleep
6. 2 Cars
7. Losing 30 pounds
8. A Vegetable Garden

8 People I'm Tagging
1. Alana
2. Tami
3. Sara
4. Katherine
5. Heather R.
6. Melanie L.
7. Melanie S.
8. Heather P.

Tagged Again. All about Audrey

Ok, so my friend Elise tagged me tell you all about Audrey.

Name and Meaning: Audrey Makenna Stephen. No special meaning. I just really liked the name and convinced Ben that he did too.

Age: 5 years old
Nicknames: Sissy (for sister, not because she's whimpy), Princess, Audrey Kenna-kee, Audrey Mack-a-nenna, Babe, Sweetie, etc.

Favorite Activities: Playing dress-up, going to preschool, playing with friends, riding her bike

Favorite Food: Ramen noodles and mac and cheese (some taste huh)

Least Favorite Food: hhhmmmm...last winter she woudln't eat oatmeal, but now she thinks it's cool

Favorite Toy: Well, it's more a posession, and it's her blanket

Favorite Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Favorite Item of Clothing: ANY dress!! She's even tried to wear Rissa's!

What makes her Happy: watching TV. I admit, she's a TV-a-holic.

What makes her Sad: Other kids being mean to her (though she's no angel herself)

I Tag:
Kristie with James

Katie with Michael