american idol

i should not promote such a trashy show, but this kid is amazing and i have no problem promoting him. he is from murray, utah and he is only 17 years old. i'm sure all of you western folk have heard of him by now.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgA5qczQ210

xyz

just for fun... i stole this idea from someone

A- Attached or Single? married for 12+ years
B- Best Friend? besides my husband, mimi
C- Cake or Pie? cake- carrot or red velvet from indigo smoke
D- Day of Choice? saturday when papa is home
E- Essential Item? my water bottle
F- Favorite Color? pink
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? gummy bears covered in chocolate... i think i need some now.
H- Hometown? provo
F- Favorite Indulgence? diet cherry coke, but i have had to stop drinking caffeine because of the headache-when-i-don't-have-it factor.
J- January or July? january. i am allergic to heat and humidity.
K- Kids? 3
L- Life isn't complete without? my family
M- Marriage date? Oct 14, 1995
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 5 brothers, 4 sisters
O- Oranges or Apples? apples- honey crisp are my fav
P- Phobias and Fears? long toe nails
R- Reason to smile? lilo
S- Season of choice? FALL
T- Tag three people? melissa, kristine, benji
U- Unknown fact about me? it's a secret! (how's that for a lazy answer?)
V- Vegetable? beets, cabbage, celery
W- Worst Habit? snacking
X-ray or Ultrasound? ultra sound- i had at least 20 of them when i was prego with h
Y- Your favorite food? i love food and can't narrow that down
Z- Zodiac Sign? sagittarius

the central park zoo

h and jojo didn't have school so papa took the day off and we went into the city and went to the central park zoo. it is such a great half-day adventure. it is small enough that it isn't overwhelming but there are plenty of different animals to see. it is fun to go into the city every so often, but i don't miss living there a bit.




after the zoo we walked over to the carousel for a ride. jojo held on tight and cried the whole time. it was too fast for his taste, but he wanted to go again...silly boy. lilo loved it and cried when it was time to get off.

snow... finally

we finally got a few flakes of snow last week so we jumped at the chance to play in it. i think all of you western folk have been hogging the snow this year. it has been cold here but we have had very little snow so it's not quite as fun. i don't expect you to give me any sympathy. we are happy for the moisture.

clean hands and a sweet talker

lilo is sporting a new accent. he says "pay-ants" for pants and "hay-ands" for hands. i don't know where it came from but it is pretty funny. he is such a talker. he has always spoken quite clearly (at least i think so), but his vocabulary and sentence structure have exploded in the last few weeks. i think there is nothing cuter than toddler talk. i love to hold him and listen to him talk before i put him down for bed. he has so much to say. sometimes i don't want to say goodnight- it's that sweet to me.

final birthday installment- the "friends" party

jojo loves green and he loves frogs so it was a green frog affair. it was a very fun theme to work with. the invitations read:

leap on over to j's lily pad for to help celebrate his toad-ally awesome 5th birthday (or something to that effect). we also asked the kids to come dressed in green.




we painted frog piggy banks (i know, crazy of me to do with 11 children) but it worked out just fine.





then we played tadpole-tadpole-frog! (our version of duck-duck-goose)


mimi (my bff) made this cool frog poster and we played "pin the fly on the frog's tongue." she also made little black flies with spotted eyes and saran wrap wings- so cute.


after pizza and apples we had gummy toad cupcakes.

it was a simple party but i think all of the kids had a good time. believe it or not, jojo is already talking about his next birthday.

jojo's family birthday party

he is five!!!


i love this picture. it reminds me of some of the pics of papa when he was a little boy. sorry about the sideways thing- some things i'll never learn! his friend at school had a sponge cake a few weeks ago and he wanted me to make it for his party. i didn't have an angel food cake pan so i did it in a corelle bowl. it wasn't too pretty to look at, but it sure tasted good. it kind of looks more like a ski slope!



naughty children!

the jacobs are like family. jojo and ellie are planning on "getting married and having two kids," they say.

happy birthday jojo!

yesterday was the last of our little family's marathon of winter birthdays. one in november, two in december, one in january and one in february. we celebrated jojo's birthday with cupcakes at school during their weekly shabbat service



the birthday boy got to be the helper. shhh don't tell the bishop his kid is drinking wine! actually it is just apple juice or "appaloof" to lilo



lighting the candle for before the shabbat prayers



lilo was thrilled to sit at the big kid table with his brother

what is your favorite game?

sunday evening seems like game time. for the past several months we have had some teenage friends from our ward over and lately we have had a great time playing games. the problem is i don't have many of THAT age appropriate games. i have taboo, cranium, and catch phrase (which i just bought and we haven't tried yet). does anyone out there have any other recommendations?

i was looking on amazon.com for ideas and i was reminded of a few others from my younger years that i may invest in: othello, pictionary, skipbo, and scattagories. one thing that is nice about some of these is that h can join us in the play, especially when we play on teams (like in taboo).

i'm waiting to hear what you've got...

speaking of games, this evening i saw lilo hiding behind the refrigerator and i peeked back to see what he was doing. he knew he was being naughty. he had a pen and was coloring on a toy. when he realized he was busted he closed his eyes tightly to hide from me. i wish i had taken a picture. it was so funny. that boy is cute even when he is being naughty.

A new Prophet of God.

We watched the funeral of President Gordon B. Hinckley last weekend. It is sad to think that we won't hear his voice at conference any more. He was such a fixture. The kids were quite affected as well. H cried after the funeral. Death is such mystery to her. She is having a hard time understanding it all together. We have tried to reassure her that we will have a new prophet of God who will lead and guide us just as he did. Jojo has said, "I miss President Hinckley." Lilo said over and over again, " Hinckley died?" It is sad to see him go, but I can only imagine the reunion he must have had with his sweet wife and other family members. What an amazing life!

This morning I watched the press conference where it was announced that President Monson is the new prophet. I love that it is no surprise to us. There is no mystery in how the next prophet is chosen. It is an established process and we can all depend on it. We will always be led by a prophet who is guided and directed by our Heavenly Father. What a blessing....

lilo's latest lyrics...

cuz really everything he says is music to my ears. i love toddler talk.

"calca-lata" this his how he says calculator. the funny thing is that he says it randomly and out of context. i think he just likes that big word.

jojo loves the color green and insists that he have a green spoon, green plate, green cup, green everything. lilo doesn't know his colors but he has learned the words of the colors, so he likes to ask for a "lue" one or a "geen" one. (blue and green).

"ama didit" is how he says open it. i have no idea how he come up with that. he can say lots of big words very clearly, but not those two little ones together.

"ah man!" tonight i found him headed for my laptop and i took it away and he said "ah man!" the kid is two. little parrot.

"appaloof" is apple juice



jojo's contributions- for the books

"mama, when santa was a kid was his name santa?"

"mama, i miss jesus... and i miss baby tate." (tate is his cousin)

my little musician

Lilo came up with this on his own. He called it his vila-in (violin). He is a hoot. A few weeks ago I was flipping through the channels on tv and I stopped at channel thirteen (PBS) and he sat and watched the NY Philharmonic with me. He sat completely still for over 10 minutes. He kept saying, "what's that mama?" each time the screen switched to a musician with a different instrument. He loved it. He is also somewhat of a singer. He sits next to me at church (when he's not running up to the stand to find papa) with a hymnbook open and sing his little heart out. Mostly he just sings "Jesa Kist" (Jesus Christ) over and over again. This little boy sure makes me happy.

p.s. This afternoon Lilo was using that stick (the one he used as a bow for his vila-in) as a baseball bat- except he was calling it a "ball sword." Why does everything have to be turned into a weapon around here?