Fun With Family. . .Then Friends

In January, my mom-in-law, Jeanne, called me to see if I would be willing to come up to Idaho in March for a church womens' conference, that she was planning, to sing with 3 of my other sisters-in-law. We have sung together before and it's always good fun, even if we happen to be singing at a funeral. So, of course, I said "sure, can't wait." It gave us a good excuse to come and see everybody, even though, we'll be back in June for my 10 year class reunion. . .YIKES! On the day of the womens' conference, Maurny, April, Megan, and I sang a song called "Great Things, Small Things." Three of us have sung that song together before and it was good then, but I have to say, this time seemed even better! I'm usually pretty good at picking up on sympathy compliments. Luckily, we didn't get any of those. We had great feed-back on how well our voices blended together, which considering we only practiced all together about 3 times, that was amazing! We even had a few people say that out of all the musical performances, they liked ours the best. Okay, so one of the people happened to be my dad-in-law, Bruce. . .but if you know Bruce, it still counts like a compliment from anyone else!! It's like getting a "good job" from Simon on American Idol. We felt good about the performance and our only regret was that we should have recorded it somehow.



Before we went to Payette, we first made a stop in Nampa to see my mom and Doyal, and my sister Randi. We stayed a night with them, and the girls got plenty-o-attention seeing as how they are the only grandchildren. It's fun, so I of course had to take a few pictures. . .

This is my momasita with Rhy. . .Rhyan didn't feel like holding still!


My sister Randi and Rhyan

Randi and Emmie

Randi and Morgan

Me and the handsome man I fell in love with. . .eh, well, that's not exactly the face. . .

That's it!!

Me and my little, but taller sister. She really is, I was just wearing tall shoes that day . . .

"How do you DO that grandma?"

Like my other girls, Rhyan loves it when Grandma plays the piano!

Next stop. . .Grandma Johnson's house. Morgan and her cousin Grace were e-mailing back and forth for a month before we came just getting excited for the weekend they got to FINALLY see each other. In this picture Emmie was saying, "na-Na-NA-na" because she didn't want her picture taken, but I got it anyway. . . HA-HA-HA

Is is just me or does Morgan look like she's 14?

On our way home, we stopped for an hour to see Israel. Mckay actually baptized him on his mission in Mexico, but now he lives in Boise of all places. . .small world! And Israel is married with two adorable little boys.



On Sunday, Marcee followed us home with her kids to stay for a few days and we had a G-R-E-A-T time. On Monday, we took the kids to a place called Kangaroo Zoo (highly recommended). It's just a big warehouse full of jumping houses and other funness. We, well, the kids had a blast!


Gracee and Morgan getting eatin alive!!!!

Sliding down the slide at break-neck speeds. . .with matching pants!!

Tired and weary chilluns. . .



Olivia playing "mommy" to Rhyan while we were freezing our rear-ends off at the park.

The Cutes



Grace and Morgan . . .again

Morgan is such a good big sister and she loves making Rhyan smile.

Fuzzy picture. Cute baby.

Hot Water is NOT Over-Rated!!

Would ya look at that? Just look at it. . .have you ever seen anything so wonderful in all your life? I have never been sooo excited for an appliance in my whole 27 (almost 28) years on this earth.

Last Saturday afternoon, our not-so-good ol' water heater started leaking. It leaked good size puddles. Fortunately we caught it and were able to get it drained, the right way, after a call to Marshall (Mckay's plumber bro. ), and our local good neighbor plumber T-ROY. Shout out to our buddy Troy, thank you sooo much for all your help.

Even with advice from knowing plumbers, we still needed to wait until Monday afternoon to get the kind of water heater we wanted/needed. Thus began our two day journey into cold showers, and never ending boiling water on the stove for showers/baths/dishes. I tell you what, there was a reason I was born in the 20th century. . .I just can't hack the earlier ways of living. By Monday afternoon I had given myself two "spit baths," because I would've needed many more pots to actually boil enough water to consider it a REAL bath, and I was a greasy-haired woman on the edge! I am incredibly grateful for modern plumbing and technology. Warm water never felt sooo nice. . .


*And thank you to all my good friends who offered their house for bathing purposes. If it had been any longer between water heaters, we would've taken you up on it, for sure!!!!

Oh REALLY?

The last couple of days, Emmie has had some hilarious points of view in our conversations. To preface the first conversation, on Monday evening, Rhyan rolled on to her back and had her left arm awkwardly underneath her. We knew from experiences with our other girls, that she probably got nursemaids elbow. If you don't know, it usually happens when a child is being held by the arms and they pull away (i.e. tantrum extraordinaire), or if they fall while their hand is being held. It's when one of the forearm bones dislodges itself off a little in the cartilage of the elbow region. There's no way I can remember the REAL medical names, but you get the idea. It's extremely uncomfortable for them and oddly enough it is way more common in girls ages 1-3 and almost always in their left arms. Interesting stuff. So, on Monday after we figured what had happened with Rhyan, I tried to put it back in place (which I did one of the times Emmie had it). Unsuccessful! Off to the doctor-Mckay took her while I finished dinner and stayed with Morgan and Emmie. Here's the chat the 3 of us had over dinner. . .

Emmie: Well, Mom, maybe since Rhyan's arm isn't so good anymore, we should just buy another baby. (very matter-of-factly)

Morgan: (without missing a beat) We can't BUY babies Emmie. . .they come from mommies tummy!

me: Why do you want a new baby? Don't you want to keep Rhyan?

Emmie: Well. . . (with serious thought) Hey, I KNOW! We should buy baby Mia! (my friend Marrya's daughter)

me: Don't you think Marrya will miss her?

Emmie: OK. . .well, what about baby Bailey? (my other friend Christie's daughter)

me: Christie will miss her!

Emmie: Well, I don't know. Rhyan just doesn't work very well anymore. . .

Morgan: Ohhh, that's sad Emmie. I love Rhyan!

me: Me too! Sorry Emmie, it's just not gonna happen.

Emmie: Ok mommy.

Story #2

Yesterday, Emmie came into the kitchen in full princess attire, and asked if she could have some money (meaning pennies). What you need to know is that I give her about 3 pennies once a week or so, for her purses, so she can feel like a "big girl." The reason behind the "once a week or so" penny allowance is because she always loses them, therefore, she needs more. . .

Emmie: Mom, I need some money.

me: What did you do with the pennies I gave you a couple days ago?

Emmie: I lost 'em.

me: Well, I don't think you need more, I think you need to look for the other ones in your purses

Emmie:Well. . .Mom, give some money!!

me: Excuse me! You don't talk to me like that!

Emmie: I'm sorry. Mom can I please have some money now?

me: Try and find your other pennies first.

Emmie: Mom, I'm a princess. . .princesses have money! I need the money. . .

me: (under my breath) I know how you feel and I'm the queen!

*A new favorite saying from Emmie:

"ice cream exploded"

This morning, Emmie came down stairs and asked if she could have ice cream exploded. Obviously, I had no idea what she was talking about, so I prodded her with more questions until, finally, she said, " you know, what we had yesterday, with the pop." Then I got it, she meant a root beer float. I have no idea where the word exploded came from . . .but in her defense, it does look a little like something exploded in a cup of fizzy root beer. She makes me laugh, that kid!