Saturday fun!

We had some cousins sleepover this weekend while their parents took a getaway and my kids were so excited! The second they arrived, the kids ran to their rooms to play and thats where they stayed the whole day. Since the kids were occupied and Eric was in Phoenix for an NRA dinner, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I had plenty of things on my to-do list, but none of them sounded very fun. So, I got out my sewing machine and found something fun to do. I went through Paul's old clothes and found some shirts that would be perfect to reconstruct. Here are the shirts before:

And here are the shirts after:

This was such a fun, easy project and took less than an hour for each dress, since all the harder stuff was already done.

Mail from Grandma

When we were at Grandma English's last weekend, Jack left his DS, Gameboy and all his games. I thought: "Oh great! We finally get a break from the gaming!" But even I started missing those darn things. Especially when I heard "I'm bored!" over and over. Especially when Jack woke me up at 6:00 a.m. and wanted to play on the computer next to my bed. Especially when he started teasing his sisters because he couldn't find anything else to do. So, like a really good Grandma, she saved the day by mailing it to us. Of course, Grandma didn't just mail the gameboy. She sent something else for each of the kids so they know she loves them. Today's package had, of course, the games, but also swimsuits for the girls, a Lego Star Wars shirt for Jack and Flip flops for all the kids.

You have to know Liberty to know how exciting this was for her. She is always in a swimsuit. She has tons of fancy dress-ups, but she wears a swimsuit everyday and pretends she is a ballerina or a cheerleader. They are all too small for her. I think she is still wearing one that is 18 months and the top of the suit always come below her "beaks" as she calls them. So we finally have some that fit and boy, were the girls excited. They kept saying "We look fabulous!" (with lots of attitude).

I know this is a lot of pictures of them in their swimsuits- but they just kept on posing and I couldn't help myself.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Aaaaahhh, Prescott weather...

Before we moved to Prescott, our realtor, Karyn, sent us some information on the community profile. I was really excited when I saw the average weather chart.

After living in Phoenix for so long, 80 degree temperatures in the middle of summer sounded really good. There is a downside to the nice temperatures however that I was not aware of.

It is really windy in Prescott. Almost every day. It sure makes outdoor outings a little less fun. Here are some pictures of the kids on a windy day at the park last week.

As you can see in the picture of Jack, his eyes are red- which brings me to the other downside. Allergies. Jack's allergies have been really bad since we moved here. At first I gave him children's claritin daily, but that was just too expensive and it was not really working. What was worse, was his barking cough- all night, all day- that would not go away. Since Eric's new insurance doesn't kick in until next month and since Asthma runs in our family, I thought I better use my own extensive medical expertise as a mother to treat Jack because his cough was driving me nuts. I borrowed a Nebulizer and some Albuterol and Pulmocort and started treating him right away. The first time he used the Nebulizer, the girls were so worried about him. They couldn't figure out what this strange mask with smoke coming out of it was doing to Jack. They sat there and stared at him the entire time and Tommy kept asking "Is Jack going to be alright?" And yes he is. His cough is completely gone.

Okay, so even though it is windy and our allergies are worse, I would take Prescott weather over Phoenix anyday and I am loving Prescott.

Grandma's house

We went to Grandma's house on Saturday. The kids had a blast- like always.

Paul is here!

Eric's son Paul is on Spring Break this week and is visiting from California. The kids are always so excited when he comes. He is such a good sport and plays so cute with them even though they are so much younger than him.

My kids love to cuddle up next to Paul and watch him play DS or play a game next to him. I dont understand it really. It doesnt seem like very much fun or quality time with their brother, but they love it and it is hard to peel them away to do something else. Jack gave Paul his old DS so that added to the gaming addiction this week.

We did break away from the gaming long enough to go out for ice cream last night.

We love Paul!

Notes from Jack

Since Jack has learned to read this year, he has become quite the note writer. He often has a note in his pocket that he wrote for me during school and is so excited to give it to me when I pick him up. Here is the one I got after school today:

He is so sweet to me. He always says things like: "Mom, you are so beautiful" or "Mom, you are the best mom in the whole world."

If he gets mad at me he says: "Mom, I am not going to call you beautiful!!"

My Cool Rider

While I was attending Eastern Arizona College years ago, my roommates and I sat around one night discussing marriage and how we would like to be proposed to when we found the “one.” Some of my roommates wanted a big announcement in a public place. Another roommate wanted her knight in shining armor riding up on a white horse on the beach. We all had very different ideas.

I grew up in the days of Grease. I loved the Grease movies. My sister and I would hold a tape recorder up to the TV to record the songs so we could sing and dance to them later. I think I still have every word of those movies memorized. So, my ideal proposal was probably influenced by these movies- especially Grease 2. I wanted to be proposed to just like the mysterious Michael Carrington swept Stephanie Zinone off her feet.

I mentioned the conversation that I had with my roommates to Eric, years later after we started dating. But I didn’t think he would remember when it came time to propose.

A couple months after we started dating Eric showed up at my door- dressed exactly how I pictured he would years ago. He was mysterious just like Michael Carrington. He cut out all the small talk and simply said “Wanna go for a ride?” I looked past Eric to see a Harley parked in my driveway. I hopped on the bike behind Eric, held on tight and we were off.


He drove out to the White Tank Mountains and pulled into a secluded place where I saw a table for two all set up with flowers and food. We got off the bike and walked over to the table. Eric bent down on one knee, pulled out my ring and recited a beautiful poem he wrote. The whole thing was just perfect and better than I had imagined.

On the way home, the Harley ran out of gas. We had to call my parents to help us and Eric was so embarrassed. I didn’t care. I smiled so big the whole ride home and got a mouthful of bugs. It was a ride to remember.

If you know the "Cool Rider" song from Grease, Eric was definitely it.

Office Romance

I was tagged by my friend Jessica to tell about me and my husband. Instead of answering the list of questions, I thought I would just write about it- at least the most interesting stuff anyway.

About 9 years ago, I was working in Phoenix at Swift Transportation. I had a boyfriend, but was beginning to realize that our relationship was going no where. I heard about the “LDS guy” that worked at Swift and I saw him around the office. He was so outgoing and was known for the jokes he played on other employees. Everyone seemed to know him and like him. It was a bonus that he was so good looking and he was LDS. We exchanged flirty glances across the office often, but he knew about my boyfriend and kept his distance. This went on far too long.

Some time later, while I was away from my desk, a mutual friend of ours sat down at my computer and sent an instant message to Eric’s computer that said:

“I want your body!”

I was horrified when I got back to my desk and saw the original message that was sent to Eric from my computer, along with Eric’s reply that said:

Message from KATIE: “I want your body!”
Reply from ERIC: IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!!

Although I loved his reply, I was totally embarrassed. We had never even talked and now he thinks I sent him this totally inappropriate message. I took a minute to catch my breath and clear the redness from my face and walked over to his desk to tell him the message was not from me. He already knew it wasn’t, but it began conversation between us. We started instant messaging each other throughout the day and finally he asked me to go to lunch with him. My boyfriend was eventually history....

Okay Jessica, I will get to the other questions, but those will be future posts. I tag Emily (yes- that means you need to get started), Kari, Adrienne, Megan, Nicole, Dawn, Amy, and Kelly . Tell us about how you met your husband, your first kiss, how he proposed, and who wears the pants in the family.

Kid of Character

Jack had a great first week of school. He was chosen to be the "Kid of Character" for the week and got a reward, along with his name announced over the intercom during the morning announcements. The Kid of Character is a student who listens, follows directions, obeys the rules, etc. and all students that are nominated have their name put in for a drawing at the end of the week. His name was drawn and he was so thrilled.

The drive also got better. I figured out that the earlier I leave to take Jack to school, the less congestion there is around the school and it only takes me about 15-20 minutes to get there (if I leave really early). He gets to school with about 20 minutes to spare- but the drive is alot shorter and Jack loves to be able to play on the playground before school.

He also started reading the Spiderwick Chronicles this week at home since his cousin Carter read it and loved it. He is hooked and I cant believe he can read and understand it. Yeah for school!