Pig Pen

I was telling my mom a few days ago that I had heard women refer to their children as dirt magnets and I always nodded my head in agreement, because all kids get dirty. I now fully understand that concept. Madison is a literal dirt magnet. I am not kidding. Dirt searches her out and then just sticks to her. I can dress her and immediately take her out to the car and by the time we've reached our destination, she's dirty. How can a kid get dirty just by sitting in a car seat? Saturday was no exception. I got her all dressed in a cute little sun dress and bows in her hair to go to Connor's t-ball game. Well, this time she searched the dirt out herself, but it stuck none the less. I knew she was behind me kind of playing with some other little kids, when I hear clapping, so I turn around to see what's going on. She has proceeded to take her shoes off and is sliding, face first on her belly, down a little dirt hill! All the other good mothers that were watching their kids and would NEVER let their kid do that, were applauding her. So of course she kept doing. C'mon, she had a captive audience.

This is what she reminded me of. The hill she was sliding down was very dusty dirt and as she ran over to me after her "performance" a dust cloud surrounded her!


This is what she really looked like. She is her own little Pig Pen.

Amanda's party

Friday night was Amanda's 12th birthday party. We had a house full of 12 year old girls, so needless to say there was a lot of giggling and screaming! Probably the best part of the party (and the girls don't even know it!) was that Connor was sick and slept through the whole thing! Not good that he was sick, just good that he was willingly contained in his room. He gets around a group of girls and his primal, male "I have to show off" instincts kick into overdrive! Here's what the night consisted of:


Eating a little pizza.


Playing a little DDR.


Opening presents.


Indulging in the chocolate fountain.


Playing a little Guitar Hero, and yes Logan your name and your Guitar Hero skills were mentioned followed by a lot of "ooohs" and "ahhhhs"!


And playing a little more DDR!


Finally, we ended the night with a movie. They all look pretty calm here, but it wasn't long before a pillow fight broke out! What can you expect from a group of 12 year old girls?!

I am just relieved that the month of March is almost over and I have no more birthday parties to plan until June!

A plain, white T

My kidos are not usually allowed to watch TV on school days and most definitely not before school, but Mads is sick and got up early this morning so I turned Sesame Street on for her while we all get ready. All of a sudden I could here the Plain White T's coming from the television and went to check it out. This is what I saw:

It was so cute, that I rewound and watched it again! Come on, what's not to love about a T wearing tube top and a Tam o'shanter?!

Gotta have my pops

I'm not a big breakfast cereal eater, and if I do eat it it means I'm trying to eat healthier so I usually go for Raisin Bran or some variety of Fiber One. But a guilty pleasure of mine is Corn Pops. I just love 'em! Definitely one of my favorite things! I ran across the Corn Pops website. It is the craziest cereal website that I have ever seen. Not that I frequent cereal websites, but it just has to be. So if you have time to waste check this out!

Trees

I live in an old house. About 5o years old. Nine years ago when we bought this home we had two choices, a newer home with almost no yard or an older home with a bigger yard. The main reason we even wanted to buy a home was to have a yard so the decision was made. Lately I have been frustrated with living in an older home. Plumbing and electrical problems are a constant, never ending problem. Then I had a friend email me about the new home they live in and how boring the immature landscaping is. She's never seen my home and asked me what kind of trees we have in our yard. I get so caught up in the problems this home has sometimes I forget about the things I love about it and why we bought it in the first place. Here's a couple of the reasons:


Our palm trees. When we first moved to southern California I told Shaun that when we buy a home I wanted it to have palm trees. Growing up in Wisconsin and Utah I didn't see a lot of them. They seemed so exotic and tropical. I guess I figured that if I had palm trees in my yard it would be like I was on vacation every day. Well I got my palm trees, three very tall ones that I do love, but life is certainly not like vacation every day. And palm trees are messy. They drop tiny little dry prickly flowers that land all over the trampoline. Then they drop their seeds. They drop what seems like billions of peppercorn-like mushy seeds. We quickly learned to get our palm trees trimmed EVERY year to avoid this. And that is quite possibly the coolest part of the trees, watching them being trimmed. A man, carrying a large chainsaw, climbs up them with nothing but a rope and his spiky shoes to hold him on. Amazingly, for as tall and skinny as these trees are they do provide shade in our backyard. I love my palm trees!


Our olive tree. I really like this tree. It is the bane of Shaun's existence. He hates when it drops the olives because they are messy and they get tracked into the house. At one time he suggested cutting it down, but I love it. It's really pretty and adds character to my house. It provides shade for my front yard, and it's right outside my kitchen window so it shades that plus it provides a great view. The kids love the cool shape for climbing and posing for pictures in. On top of that it's just so Biblical.

I'm a winner!

I never really win anything, but I've started visiting a blog I found called Give Away Today. Every day they have a new give away you can enter to win. A couple of days ago I won! I was so excited! I won these cute earrings from Kira Ferrer Jewelry Design. Now I just need a cute outfit to go with them!

Splish Splash, It's Madison's 2nd Birthday Bash!

Yesterday we had Madison's 2nd Birthday party. It was a ducky theme complete with ducky games (most of which we didn't do!), ducky treats, including ducky chocolates, "quackers", ducky eggs,ducky candies, ducky cupcakes, and ducky rice crispie treats. We didn't have a great turn out, but we had fun with the friends we had there! Mads loved all of her gifts, in fact you'll notice she has two different shirts on in the pictures. Her friend Sophia gave her a cute new shirt and she immediately wanted it on! I think she had a great birthday and I'm relieved our March birthday's are almost over! (even though it was Amanda's birthday last week her party with her friends is this week!)After that I will breath a huge sigh of relief!

The party has really just begun!

I know in my last post I said that the party was over, but it's really just begun here at the Young household. It is birthday week here! Today is Mads second birthday! Last year we were in Wyoming for my grandmother's funeral on her birthday, and as sad as that sounds it was such a great time. Even though her first birthday was on the day of the funeral my family really went all out to make it a fun day for her. Uncle Matt bought a cake for her and my aunt Sharalyn really out did herself in throwing Mads a little party, presents and all! I don't know how we'll top it this year, but I do know her brothers and sisters are excited to get to celebrate with her this year! Happy Birthday to my sweet baby!

The party's over

Amanda's birthday festivities continued yesterday evening. The poor girl did not feel good at all, and since it was her birthday I let her skip her batting practice and go to Connor's t-ball game. What an exciting birthday treat! After the game Amanda got to pick where we went for dinner and she chose Rubios. I think she almost fell asleep at the table, but the rest of us enjoyed it. When we got home Amanda got to open her gifts from her family. She said she loved everything, despite the fake smile. Poor girl felt rotten!


Amanda does not like cake, except for Funfetti cupcakes, I know, weird! So we ended the festivities with these special "Amanda" cupcakes. Amanda today...(front view of the cupcakes)


...and Amanda 12 years ago, to the day!(the back view)

All I know is that I'm looking forward to the next twelve years with this girl!

Heart Attack

Today is Amanda's 12th birthday. I can hardly believe it! Since the day she was born she had a sweet easy going temperament that she still has today. Sometimes I think I don't deserve such a girl! In our church at age 12, the girls graduate from Primary and get to start attending Young Women's. The 12 year old program is called Beehives. This morning, before the sun was up, her new Beehive leader "Heart Attacked" our front yard! It was so cute, and Amanda was surprised and thrilled to walk out to it this morning! I'm so excited for her to be entering Young Women's, all the great girls and exceptional women that she'll get to be with all the time. Love you Meems and Happy B-day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Last night the Young household got a visit from Lucky the Leprechaun. She was up to no good. She left this note on Connor's easel: (This note is very sloppy and probably full of spelling and grammatical errors. It was very late at night and the Leprechaun was VERY tired!)




We followed her trail of Leprechaun confetti all over the house to all sorts of mischief!


The trail first lead to this, green milk, ewww! Even grosser was the green toilet water! (no pic's, sorry!)


The trail eventually lead to the girls hamper which had all of Madison's shoes dumped in it! That sneaky leprechaun had tried to hide all of her chocolate gold coins in it! I guess she wasn't so lucky after all because we found her stash!


The leprechaun that visits our house was wiped out before the night was over. After creating all that mischief she was up late baking these:


And then boxing them up into these:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Finally!

Yea! My brother Josh FINALLY proposed to his girlfriend, Kristy this week while in San Diego. We are so excited! It kind of already feels like Kristy is part of the family, but it's exciting to make it official! I had so much fun with them this week and can't wait for Kristy to be my SIL!

Hey Josh and Kristy, how about diet coke and Mentos at the reception? Just an idea.

Disneyland with Josh and Kristy

Yet another trip to Disneyland for the Young Family, this time with my brother Josh and his girlfriend Kristy. Shaun wasn't able to come, and Sam and Amanda each went one day, but the rest of us enjoyed two fun filled days there! Here are some of our favorites!

Grizzly Bear Rapids, Kristy's favorite. She LOVED rides that got you all wet!


Riding the tram back to the hotel, which is Madison's favorite ride and I think Josh liked it too, especially loading the big double stroller off and on over and over again!


Watching the fireworks show which BTW is really cool! Definitely my favorite part of this trip!


The teacups, which neither Josh nor I can ride or even watch for that matter!


A visit to Toontown, Connor's favorite this trip. I try to avoid TOontown most of the time, but I sucked it up, and the little ones loved it!

Opening Day 2009

Yesterday was Opening Day for softball and t-ball and what a day it was! It started bright an early with Connor's Opening ceremonies that Mads and I got to attend. During the ceremonies they announce each team and then the team rounds the bases with their banner while everyone looks on and claps. Wouldn't you know it Connor tripped and fell while rounding first base! He jumped right up and kept running. His coach dusted him off, high fived him and told him "It's not real baseball until you're dirty!" Thanks Coach Shawn! We then ran to Amanda's first game, already in progress (with a quick stop at Alberto's for breakfast burritos!) to watch her play. Her first at bat, first pitch, she got a double, way to go Amanda! Shaun headed off to Connors game while the girls and I hit their Opening ceremonies. No tripping and falling for them! We rushed back over to the baseball fields to catch the last 15 minutes or so of Connor's game. From all that I hear, from other mothers who have been through a t-ball season or two, that's about as long as a game should really last! I am sorry that I missed the first part of the game because Connor got to play catcher and I would have loved to have seen my little guy in all that gear! We had about an hour break so we hit our favorite hangout during any sport season, the Taco Shop. Finally it was off the Sam's game. I got to watch the first part of the game, see Sam step on home plate, and then it was off to my assigned duties at the snack shack. Since Shaun coaches Sam's team and I had to be at the snack shack I had to leave Amanda in charge of Mads and Connor for about an hour. I had laid out a blanket, and brought some toys and snacks to keep them entertained. Apparently that attracted a crowd! Amanda ended up watching an extra three or four kids while their parents were able to enjoy the game. I hope they appreciated her as much as I did! By the time we got home it was dark, we were all exhausted and sunburned, so we ordered in pizza and called it a night!

As a recap, here's our day by the numbers:

# of opening ceremonies attended: 2
# of meals eaten out: 3
# of games played: 3
# of games coached by Shaun: 1
# of shifts worked at the snack shack by Nicholle: 1
# of kids watched by Amanda: 7
# of times Nicholle loaded and unloaded the stroller out of the car: More times than I can count!

It all added up to a great Saturday!