Grease Monkeys

Thatcher has shown the most apptitude to grow up to be just like Daddy. He loves cars and speed and getting greasy. Ian was just in it for the fun. However, these pictures incriminate those two boys for losing an important part to a tool that Rhett rented from AutoZone to change some break pads and we had to pay $50 to replace it. We looked everywhere in the yard for the part, we even had a family prayer, but never found it. Oh well, I'm sure it will turn up some day.

First Day of Preschool

Ian started preschool and LOVES it. He is so excited about preschool that he wakes up gets ready to go even before he has had breakfast. They read the Little Red Hen and then baked their own bread (I wish I had taken a picture). He was so proud of his little loaf of bread. Then they read Little Red Riding Hood and took some bread to a grandma's house. He thought that was so fun because the grandma invited them in and gave them cookies. Next week is the story of The Gingerbread Man, I wonder what they'll do!!

Surprise!!

My short lived and pathetic attempt at blogging is very much on hold for now as I am too busy trying to be Mommy to 4 kids and Police Cadet at night. Yes,it comes as a shock to many, I want to be a Police Officer for BYU. So far (2 weeks) I like it and it is really, really hard. I run a mile and a half every day (hopefully in under 14 min.)and I do 25 push-ups (no stopping) and 30+ sit-ups (in one minute) and hopefully I can jump 17.5 inches higher than my reach (I run around the house jumping all day). I'm getting lots of support from my kids and Rhett is still warming up to the idea. There are 32 "boys" and 3 other women in the UVU Police Academy. Those boys almost broke my wrists off in defense tactics the other night, but I let experience the Mommy death grip, and they learned not to underestimate women. I just scored a 96% on my first criminal law test and I was pleasantly surprised that my brain still works. Well, it's a new adventure for me and I am just excited to be out of the house (like a caged bird set free). Tomorrow I have another 8 hours of Criminal Law. YEA! NOT.

Way too much fun!

Digging through boxes of photos (we're talking like 11 years worth) is so much fun because of all the great memories associated with the pictures. I should totally scrap book (Ya think! Sheesh!) so my kids can have as much fun as I did looking at all the pictures. Halloween at LDSBC was a really great night for me, I felt like Prom Queen because I was on the arm of the Fraternity Pres. and we looked HOT. We won the costume contest, "Yeah Baby Yeah", and they had us come up on stage and we did a little spotlight dance out on the dance floor. Since I never really had a traditional american high school experience, I imagine it would feel like being crowned homecoming queen. It was so much fun and the pictures just make me laugh.

10 Year Anniversary!!!!

Russia Reunion

It's been 12 years since I went to St. Petersburg Russia to teach English to little kids. I went with a group of really great girls supervised by I.L.P.(International Language Programs). It was quite the crazy experience living there, with dirty water, unsanitary everything, nasty food, roaches and crazy little kids. It was fun to have a reunion after all these years and recall all the fun memories and adventures that we had. I wish I had remembered to get my camera out and take a picture of all the 16 cute kids we all have now. The ladies in this picture are some of the nicest people I know and I feel like the adventure of surviving Russia together has bonded us for life. Russia is a beautiful place to visit as a tourist, but I would not recommend living there.

MAX'S WORLD

Max keeps telling me he wants to grow up to be a photographer and he frequently asks to take pictures with my camera. Normally I delete the pictures because they are redundant and not well thought out. I was however pleasantly surprised by this last set, it seemed to show what his world looks like to him and what he values or finds interesting. ENJOY!

RACING to 34

Rhett's birthday was way back in March but it has taken me this long to find the cord (and time)to download the pictures off the camera. This birthday was the most FUN so far, and it took very little planning on my part. First I took Rhett to the Larry H. Miller Race Track for a private tour of the behind the scenes at the raceway.
My friend from Russia, Heather Neilson Miller married Brain Miller and he happens to manage the track, so she was nice enough to hook us up. It was fun and interesting (Rhett loves the Race Track). Later we had lots of friends show up to race go-carts and it was a blast! The wives all cheered from the sidelines and it was intense.

The top leaders competing for first place were....Rhett (of course), Wade Longman, Nate Simpson, and Tom Felt. The rest of the team put in some real good effort, but seemed to play the role of obsticles to pass.
After the go-carts we raced to CPK and got there just minutes before closing. It was good food and lots of laughs. I'm glad Rhett had a fun birthday because all my past attempts to make it a specail day did not always turn out so well. I love Rhett with every added year and he is worth all my "good intentions"

My Baby is One, Already?

Who said babies could grow this fast? He certainly didn't have my persmission. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in our family when a baby turns 1years old we let them smash a cake so we can laugh at them. It's lot's of fun!

He really liked the big horsey his Aunt Stephanie gave him,

 

and the singing shapes cookies jar from Grandma Longman.

POTTY TRAINING SUCKS!

This is my 3rd attempt to potty train a child and it still sucks as much as it did the first two times. Once you go down this road there is no turning back. Tell me which is worse cleaning a nasty poopy diaper that's caked on because they didn't tell you they needed to be changed, OR cleaning up a poo smeared bathroom where most of the poo did actually make it in the toilet? Ian has eczema on his legs (poor kid) and sometimes pee gets on his legs and irritates his rash. We stuck him in the sink and he liked it, so we took his picture.

The ANNUAL Valentines Party

So I've had this Valentines party about 3 times now (last year I had a baby on 2/9/07, so no party) and it's pretty fun. This year I tried to go all out and have crepes and a chocolate fountain, and it was too crazy stessful for me. But the FUN part is that we play the Newlywed game, with prizes and everything. I actually took pictures this year! About half the party left right after the crepes and didn't stay for the game part, but all the important people stayed and it was fun.

Valentines Day is my favorite!

It's been 10 years since Rhett proposed to me on Valentines Day on the Tower Bridge in London. So I had to quiz him on what he remembered about that day (he passed). I love this holiday because my husband goes all out to express how much he loves me. My favorite is the Card of course because I get it in writing. I have a treasure chest full of them. It's fun to see how things change through the years. This year Rhett tricked me with a box of Foot cream (thoughtful but...) I really thought that was all he got me, because we had already gone out to lunch and gone shopping together and decided that we didn't need to get cards, etc. I always give him a box of chocolates the day after because they are 50% off the next day, it's just my thing. Well, we decided to catch a late night movie ("P.S. I Love You", I cried the whole movie) and there on the seat of the car was a big Victoria's Secret box and Hallmark card. And that's why I married Rhett, he always goes all out for me.

The Valentine Fairy visits our house and leaves gifts on our kids beds while they are sleeping (this is to replace the magic that we are missing from not beliving in Santa). Madeleine got a Beadazzler and immediately did her jeans, shoes, and then started on her brothers before I caught her and had to unbeadazzle Max's jeans. The boys got these tiny little Marvel X-men action figures and spend all day playing with them, and fighting over them, and losing them, and then finding them (I don't get it?). I just felt proud of myself for not forgeting this year and then having to run to the store while saying I was going to the Gym and then telling the kids that our door must have been locked so the Fairy left them in the mailbox.

Noteworthy Memories

There are too many dating stories to tell, but my favorite is my 20th birthday and it should be told. So I wake up on my 20th birthday and start getting ready for school and my roomates got a crown from Burger King for me to wear to school that had a 20 on it and I bought a big bag of candy to hand out in each of my classes to spread the joy. As I'm getting ready theres a knock at the door and a flower delivery service has a gigantice bouquet of flowers for me and the card is the first few lines of a poem written by Rhett. Then I go to my first class and there is another bouquet with more of the poem attached. This continues all day in every class I have, however in my religion class the bouquet is delivered by the Student Body Pres. (who is a giant Polynesian guy) and his friends who all do a Somoan Slap Dance (very loudly) for me in honor of my birthday. And it doesn't stop there, at lunch the NewYorker Janitor from the Bronxs? (accent and all) sings me some kind of serenade and then gets everyone in the vicinity to sing Happy Birthday to me, oh, and of course he flowers for me. I think the total bouquets by the end of my college day was 6 (I think I had only 4 classes). The poem Rhett wrote when finally all put together was beautiful! The fact that he could sing to me like Harry Connick Jr. and did so frequently, and now I discovered he wrote fantastic poetry, who can resist that? I tried to (that's why I ran away to London). But my birthday got even better after school when Rhett took me to all the antique stores he knew I had been dying to explore. And after I had changed into a fancy (ultra tight, ultra short) red chinese dress, he picked me up in a 1964 silver-blue Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors, but the best part was it came with a Chauffer for the evening! So we rode in the back together as he supprised me by taking me to La Cia (a very expensive and fancy french restraunt). The atmosphere and food was amazing and I felt very much like princess. However I totally devastated Rhett when during dinner he asked me what my dreams were and I said "I'd rather not tell you, because I don't think your the kind of guy who can fufill them". After all he did for me to make my birthday one of the most fantastic days of my life, I thoughtlessly crush his heart and ego. Luckily he overlooked that comment and never gave up on his quest to make me his wife.