GRADUATIONS!!!

What a year this has been for academics! Dallin just finished KINDERGARTEN, and Kailee finished her last year in pre-school! They both learned SO much, created many friendships, and have become great little students!

DALLIN'S GRADUATION

Dallin has loved school.. from riding the bus, to playing with friends. He became a VERY good reader, and has even taught his little sister some things so she'll be prepared for next year!

 For their Ceremony, they prepared a Patriotic Program; singing songs and reading parts. A few students volunteered to memorize and read parts. Mrs. Morgan did an amazing job preparing the students. All sang loud, read their parts really well, and had so much fun performing for parents and family members!

Dallin and Mrs. Morgan

D and his Crescent Cub Award

Don't know exactly what he was doing with this face... but it's a pretty typical facial expression for our boy!

Dallin's part he memorized (and still remembers) was:

"In the United States of America we are free. This freedom has been protected through the years by many brave men and women. We won't forget those that have died to preserve that right for us."

KAILEE'S GRADUATION

Kailee finished her last year in pre-school! She has loved going to Mrs. Hammer's house (school in basement) this year. She made a few GREAT friends, and is very excited for kindergarten! At her program, they sang songs that were very animated. kailee, of course, acted a bit shy, and leaned back while singing.... We could see her moving her mouth and singing a few times, though. 

Mom and the little Graduate

Kailee and her best friend Ella. Ella lives just behind us, and they rode to and from school everyday this year (and then usually spent the afternoon together)!

These four girls are all in the same ward. It was nice having other girls in the class when it started that Kailee already knew.

(From left to right, Megan, Jane, Kailee, Ella)

Kailee and Mrs. Hammer

We're so proud of these two students! We love you Dallin and Kailee! Congrats on a great school year!

Happy 5th Birthday, Kailee!!!

Our sweet little Kailee is 5! I can't believe how fast she has grown up. She has been talking about her 5th birthday for months now!

She had a Luau Birthday party and, of course, the cake had to be a difficult one. Thanks to my mom, I was able to (somewhat) pull it off. 

All the girls she invited were SUPER energetic and I absolutely LOVED it!! Gus took D swimming during the party, so it was just us girls.

I hope her wish comes true! With the great singers, it should help.

The girls all thought it would be funny to hide under the table whenever a parent came. They never failed to giggle and squeal whenever they were found.

After looking at this picture, if I hadn't given birth to this beautiful child and held her in my arms right after, I would never guess she was mine.

The kids always wake up to their birthday presents. Kailee was so excited to see her My Size Barbie. Not only does she love to play dress up, but she has so much fun dressing up her dolls, "Tink", and anything else she can put her clothes on.

Kailee is also a very romantic little girl. She has been wanting a wedding dress for awhile now. My mom made this amazing dress for her. She LOVES it! 

What a beautiful bride! Thank you Nani and Grandpa!!

Happy Birthday, Kailee Girl!!! We love you!!!

Happy Birthday, Tylie!

I can't believe that my baby is 2!!! It seems like I just had this tiny little baby who slept perfectly, smiled all the time, and caught the eye of every mom with her abnormally long hair. Now I have a 2 year old who sleeps perfectly (once she's out), smiles when she's not scolding you, and catches the eye of EVERYONE with her abnormally long hair. Most of you know this already, but those who haven't yet met Ty, she is TINY!!! And when I say tiny, I really mean it. She is smaller than all other 2 year olds, most 18 month olds, and some 14 month olds. But with what she lacks in size she makes up with personality. I am not such a lucky mom to have a little 2 year who matches my attitude to a "T" (don't make her mad!!), but the luckiest mom to have a sweet 2 year old who is so adorable that I just want to squeeze her, makes me laugh ALL the time, and kisses and hugs me out of the blue just because. I love this little girl!!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, TY TY! WE LOVE YOU!!

So excited to see her presents!

She LOVES babies, so you can guess how happy she was to get lots of "baby things".

Most of you know how amazingly talented Gus is, but I had to show his latest task I asked of him. I just got regular cupcakes from Costco (YUM!) and asked him to come up with cupcake toppers and to no surprise they came out better than I could have hoped for!!

Drooling as she blows out her candles.

Obviously MY daughter... going straight for the frosting!

To be 2 again and be thrilled just to have a cupcake! 

The Big Yellow Beast...

I still can't believe that we have a two year old that's still afraid of the vacuum! Tylie runs when I turn it on. Although sometimes she is okay with it, there are times when she isn't running away to play "Come and get me".. she's running away with that look of "Oh No! Not YOU again..." I mean, it isn't like we vacuum any less than the average person (once every other month, right??? just kidding-gross...) We vacuum the house often, and she sees our big yellow vacuum enough that she really shouldn't be afraid. At least you'd think. Well, a few nights ago I was vacuuming, and she ran to the table and crawled beneath it with her sippy, whining... I tried nonchalantly pulling the chairs out to vacuum and take a picture at the same time without her noticing-but it didn't work. I had to stop, and take the picture which she noticed, and posed (the little "poser")! 

Adorable as she is, will she ever be alright with the vacuum???

Inquiring minds want to know...

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone! 

Today was a great day. The kids and I have been a bit anxious for it to get here. There's something about having a special day set apart for Becky (and all moms) that is fun. Dallin made a crown for a her at school that she was to wear all day, along with a card that had a poem explaining that it was her day and that so long as she wore the crown, we had to do everything she said... well, he was quite excited to give it to her. Early this morning-around 6:45-7 I woke up and glanced over Bec to her side of the bed. Dallin was in our room trying to find a spot to place the crown and card... I don't remember actually seeing him, just his hands reaching to place the duo on our dresser that heads taller than him! He then went back to bed and back to sleet! Cute Kid... 

But what would Mother's Day be without a few... shall we say "exciting incidents" ? We were on our way out the door to church this morning when Bec saw something on the ground in the garage. She stopped over by the suspicious droppings, beneath our water hose, and starred at it. Her thoughts were that it looked like bird poop!  (I'm laughing just thinking about this) Earlier that morning, I went in there to throw something away, saw the same thing but didn't think anything about it, went back inside and continued getting ready.

(the kids and car in relation to the water hose and mysterious droppings beneath it)

Well, Bec stood there wondering how (what looked like) bird poop got in the garage. She lifted her head only to find that she was face-to-face with the bum of a pigeon!!!! Literally, her face was about two inches away from the bird! She was on her way to buckle in Tylie in her car seat when this happened. She screamed and ran back to the  stairs FREAKING out.. literally. She handed Ty to me and jumped in the car! It was HILLARIOUS!!! Freaky (even though it was JUST a pigeon), but funny! 

The darn thing stayed in our garage all morning. We ended up leaving the garage door open all day, and eventually it flew the coop (and left the poop)! Figures...

The kids really wanted to make Bec breakfast. But since church is at 9, and the kids didn't wake up until almost 8:30, we opted for bowls of cereal for breakfast and REAL breakfast (Fraffles and Scrambled Eggs) for lunch. Here's the Queen of the House enjoying her breakfast for lunch.

NOTE: Bec mimicking Kailee's  "smile @ the camera" face; cheesy grin, accompanied by eyes looking off into space and not at the camera.

Later that afternoon, the kids came in the house screaming that they found a snake! Wasn't much-just a garden snake, but it freaked Bec out (again). We went out and I tried catching it with a shovel so I could throw it over to the swampy area, but it crawled into a car's tire... couldn't get it out. The kids watched and kept an eye on it for about an hour and half, and finally somehow got it to SLITHER out onto the grass. At one point they were throwing treats to it, trying to lure it out!

A little while later, Kailee came in the house saying Dallin had it in his hands and was trying to teach it tricks! How do you teach a garden snake tricks you may ask??? Well... a little girl form a few doors down was with Kailee and told me "the snake came out of the car! It crawled on the grass and then flew home! It got up and flew way up into the sky!" (Yeah, my thoughts exactly!) I didn't know what to say, I just stood there and thought "Dude... you're crazy little girl!" About 5 hours later (Dallin asleep in bed) Kailee told Bec and I that D was taking the snake and throwing it up in the air, and letting it fall on the ground!!! THAT was the trick he was trying to teach it! (I guess I need to teach my son that only cats land on all fours-if we're unlucky) Turns out that little girl wasn't crazy after-all!

All-in-all, it was a great Mother's Day, setting aside the two freak-outs Bec had. Meals prepared by dad and the kids, mom with a crown that gave her Queen's power, kids that slept in (always nice), and visit from some unannounced guests.... Please don't be mistaken-our doors are always open for friends to stop by whenever they want-as long as you aren't a reptile or fowl!!!

Daddy's Little Princess

This morning at church Kailee was sitting next to me sounding out words in the Book of Mormon. She got to one in the book of Mosiah that was King Benjamin, and said, "I know what that one says; it says CAMP." I said "No, not camp..." I tried figuring out how to get her to guess that word. Here was how that conversation went...

Me: Who's the daddy of a princess?

K: You!

Me: Okay (that didn't work as I had imagined).... What is a princess' daddy's name?

K: Gus!

Me: Yes, you are my princess... but that word is King.

She is my little princess-that's for sure, and always will be! She's been so cuddly and loving lately (not that she normally isn't, just MORE). She'll come to Bec and I and pucker up her lips so cute, wanting us to give her a kiss at some of the most random moments!

She melts my heart...

Love you Sweetie-Sweetie...

Cali Trip Part VI

Grandparents

They sure are special! They love their grandchildren like no one else. It's funny, and I know don't understand it yet, but grandchildren bring a different side out of our parents that we've never seen before. It's like they become completely different people than those that raised us... either way, they love our kids, and our kids sure do LOVE them!

Grandpa at the piano, Ty at his feet watching and listening-with an occasional tap on a key 

Kailee and Grandma

Ty and Grandpa Cliff

Ty with Nani. I'm guessing drinking a slurpee from Sam's Club. I'd MUCH rather her have a slurpee than whipped cream on her cereal!

The kids at Grandma's house

No matter how you look at it, a trip isn't a trip with a visit with grandparents. They make it complete. Besides, how could we go to Cali, and NOT visit someone like this???

We love you Old Folks!