Boy Teagan...7 years old!

I have a child who is seven! Wow! Time really does go by fast!

I usually let the birthday boy/girl choose the meals for that day. For his birthday breakfast he wanted "cold oatmeal" (one of my favorites too).

I told Teagan that for his birthday I would take him and one friend out somewhere. Like to a movie or out to eat or somewhere fun. He choose to invite his 2 cousins (He couldn't invite one without the other) Gunner and Easton and we went to Jeepers, a small indoor amusement park that we took the kids to over spring break. We headed over after lunch. The other boys had never been there. They went on some rides, played a few video games (actually, just one, a dinosaur one) and played on the big playground. They seemed to enjoy themselves. That is, until they went on a spinning ride that spun REALLY fast and every time they went by I could see poor Teagan's face and he was not looking well. They got off the ride and I thought he was going to throw up. (Luckily he didn't) And his cousin Gunner didn't feel all that well either. We just sat for a little bit and then played a few more minutes and then headed home. I dropped the boys off and got home just in time for my mom and dad to come over for Teagan's birthday BBQ dinner. Kevin cooked up some turkey burgers and turkey dogs.

Kevin and I were planning on getting Teagan a Gecko for his birthday up until a few days ago. He is always asking for a pet of some sort, well, another pet that is. :) But, he ended up with walkie-talkies, which he has played with for almost the past 24 hours straight. I am glad he likes them.

Here are a few pics from Jeepers.

The bumper cars were thier favorite. They rode on them 3 times. And only 3 were working so they got the whole thing to themselves. (Not the best picture, not sure if the flash wasn't working or what...)

This is right when the ride started, Teagan looks happy so far.

After a few spins around, Teagan is not loving it.

Happy Birthday Teagan!!! I am glad that you had a fun day!!!

No one mourns the Wicked...

OKay, so it was AMAZING! I loved every minute of 'Wicked!' After about the first 10 or 15 minutes, I looked over and Kevin was just staring at me..."What?" I asked. "I am just going to watch you the whole time." It was probably because I had a huge grin on my face.

I have listened to the soundtrack for a few years now that it was nice to see the whole musical so I could get all the dialog between the songs...Now I know the Whole story. :)

I loved it so much, I didn't even care that my belly is huge and my feet were the size of GIANT marshmallows! (Seriously...I have never seen them so swollen.) It didn't help that I wore my nice, not-comfortable shoes that my feet actually got stuck in. I had to have Kevin help me take my shoes off during the show.



A few of my favorite quotes...



"Are people born Wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"
-Galinda

We all have difficulties in our lives...but we Always have a choice!



"I'm through accepting limits, cause someone says they're so. Some things I cannot change, but until I try, I'll never know." -Elphaba


We don't know what we are capable of...unless we try.







I was planning on taking ALOT of pictures but this is the only one we got...

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

Mine and Kevin's first 4th of July together, he jumped into Keri and James's pool and split his head open. We had a similar experience this year with Teagan...like father, like son. :) It wasn't nearly as bad (no stitches required) but it was still not all that pretty. And this picture doesn't do it justice. (I wanted to get a close-up of it but he wasn't thrilled with the idea).

Teagan was playing with the girls, chasing them. Well, he ran into their room and pushed the door open with quite some force that after hitting the door stop it came right back and the doorknob hit poor Teagan right in the face. He came out screaming and it was sticking out an inch! I have never seen anything like it. Poor kid! We put some frozen peas on it but he didn't like that so much, so I got a cold wet rag and he held it on there all night.

Our ward had it's annual parade and breakfast. It was pretty darn hot so the parade was probably the shortest there ever has been. And my kids were not as fancy as I was hoping they would be...I had big plans for them, but trying to make it to the park by 7:30 am was enough for me. But hey, they were all in red, white, and blue! :)

Okay...sometimes I get a little carried away. (This is at my mom's house) But I couldn't help it, there were red and blue markers next to the cups. You can't see in the picture but each cup has stars of fireworks on them. :)

Watching the fireworks with Calvin and Izzy, Teagan is in the middle. (Mom and Dad came with us too) There was a show at Mesquite High School so we headed over to Islands Elementary and sat in the big field. They were nothing too special, but you can't have the 4th of July without fireworks!

Any Day Now????

Just a few weeks left until baby arrives. Is it a boy or a girl, you ask? Well, we just don't know. Another boy would be good...2 boys, 2 girls., sounds nice. But another girl would be good too. We of course have a boy name picked out and absolutely no idea for a girl name. (That's why I think it's a girl, The same thing happened last pregnancy.) SO, the last few days I have really been racking my brain trying to come up with something. It's hard enough for me to think of a first name, but then to think of a middle name too...Ah! Too much pressure on my brain right now. But, I am feeling pretty good. Ready, for baby to come. I am getting past the I am so miserable stage and getting to the anxious, I can't believe it could happen any day stage. I know as it gets closer to my due date, if I still have not had the baby, it will be back to the miserable stage. (Hopefully I have the baby before that) But...I can't have the baby before July 8th (which I really don't think I will) because I have "Wicked" tickets and I am Super excited about going! And Kevin and me were wanting to go to the midnight showing of "Harry Potter"
which comes out the 15th. But I am not sure if baby (or me) can wait that long. And I would definitely be okay with missing that, not because I don't want to see it...I love Harry Potter (used to be anti...long story) but we could go see that a few weeks later. But Wicked I can not miss.
It's hard not having ANY idea when the baby will be born. I was a week over with Teagan, 2 days early with Maylee and one whole week early with Livia, but you just never know. All this waiting can be very...exhausting. (I am hoping that this one sticks with the pattern of coming a week earlier than the previous one.)
If I could pick a day to have the baby I would say July 10th. Because you know the baby always comes whenever YOU want it to. :)

Apples, Apples, Apples

Okay, so Kevin bought me a dehydrator a few Christmas's ago and well, umm, I have never used it. Kevin was getting a little annoyed so he finally pulled it out and put it to work. He really loves apple rings so we got a bunch of apples and we borrowed my sister-in-law (Jennifer's) apple, peeler, corer thing.(?) It's really cool! I have seen it demonstrated before at a few Shar classes that I have been to. (Cooking and baking classes for those who don't know). It is truly an amazing contraption. The kids couldn't get enough of it so pretty much all Sunday that's what we did. The kids also really liked the peel. As the apple was being peeled, they would yell..."The skin!" And they would grab it and eat it like it was candy licorice or something. We probably went through 10 apples that day. (at least!) The kids just loved it!

Here is Kevin showing us how it is done...with his hairy arms. (Funny side story) We were driving in the car the other day and I glanced over at Kevin and his arm hairs were "blowing in the wind" from the AC. I started laughing and then Kevin told me how his brothers have been teasing him lately.
I was downloading this pictures onto the computer and Teagan walked in and said "Oh cool, the apple thing...is that daddy?" "Yes," I said. Then Teagan said "He's hairy!"
Then a few minutes later Kevin came in and saw this picture and said "Dude, I'm hairy, you can't put that picture on there! I am going to shave my arms right now."
We shall see! :)



Here is Teagan grabbing "the skin."



The apple peeler turns the apple into a slinky. My kids like to call it "boing, boing."
(Notice "the skin" hanging out of Maylee's mouth.)



Here is my dehydrator. Doesn't it look brand new? Pretty good for being a few years old, huh? :)

Maylee's Birthday!

Maylee had her 5th birthday this past week! I can't believe how fast time goes. My little Maylee-Moo will be going to Kindergarten this coming fall...so crazy! Well, she had a little birthday party with a few friends. She and I had came up with alot of different ideas, but we decided to go with a "Garden Party." It turned out pretty cute. We just did a few simple games and crafts that had to do with bugs or flowers...something garden-ish. We played pin the bug on the flower, and we had a bug hunt...I hid pretend bugs in the living room while Teagan read the girls a story about Lady bugs. Oh, and they each got to decorate a little pot to put all their goodies in. They also painted sun-catchers that were different bugs. I was going to have them each make a flower pen but I figured I would probably just go around helping them anyway, so I just made them ahead of time and put one in each of their pots to take home. And no birthday is complete without cake and ice cream. Maylee wanted a chocolate-zucchini cake (which I used the zucchini from our garden, not that any of the 4 or 5 year olds cared). And then I just put a few pink flowers on the top.

Here are some pictures from her party...

If want to see some more cute pictures, look on Mandy's blog :) She was my official photographer. She was a huge help with the party! Thanks Mandy!

A few of the girls coloring different pictures...

Kaylie, Maylee, Sydney, and Amberlyn.

Opening presents...this bag matches her party perfect, not to mention Maylee's shirt!

A fairy Barbie...one of many girly things that she got for her birthday.

Blowing out the candles...it took a few blows, but she finally got them all out.

(Cute little Bethany watching in anticipation)

Her actual birthday was 2 days later, so Grandpa Lichlyter came over to help her celebrate. I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she said "fry bread." So, I got out my wheat dough from the freezer and made some fry bread. We sang "Happy Birthday" again and ate the rest of her cake.

I decided to make her an "Artwork book" to put all her pictures in. She LOVES coloring and making pictures and cards. She really likes her book and has already put a few papers in it. :)

Happy 5th Birthday Maylee!!! :)

Craft Time

During the summer I try to keep the kids busy with different activities. On Mondays we have craft time, Tuesday is school time, Wednesday is water/swimming time...stuff like that. When I said it was craft time, Teagan asked if they could do his finger painting kit that he has had for awhile. I said sure and he was very excited. It's been awhile since the kids have painted and it was fun to watch them.

After the paintings were dry we decided to hang them up somewhere. I thought the back door would be a good idea, and it was. I love how the light shines through and brightens the pictures. It's really pretty. You can't really see the kids in this picture...they are pointing to their pictures that they painted.

A few weeks ago it was Kevin's birthday. The big 34! I made him french toast with strawberries for breakfast and made him wear this new birthday hat I bought. The kids each picked out something for him at the $1 store. Livia picked out Fiddle Faddle...so Kevin thought she deserved a kiss. :)

Okay...so here it is! The pool I wanted. I finally found one when I was at the store this past week. Since it wouldn't fit in my van, I called Kevin and asked him to come pick it up in his truck. He was in the middle of studying, but he knew how much I wanted it, so he came and picked it up for me. The kids have played in it everyday. It's not Huge...but it keeps them busy for awhile. It's something for them to do during the hot summer days.