Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and my mom thought it would be fun to surprise him with a dinner at Rodrigo's. The food was yummy and it was fun to be together. We just hope it was a good surprise. I LOVE that the cousins like to be together! Here are Maelen and Emily hamming it up for the camera. Here is our traditional birthday picture. Luckily we were in a room big enough to accomodate our picture and closed off enough so as not to annoy other diners too much.

The Unity Tree

Kendall told me last week that the first grade would be putting on a play the following Wednesday night. My first response was to freak out - how can we go when Jared has baseball and scouts and Maelen has Young Women and it is Ward Temple Day? There is just too much going on! That night when Kendall said her prayers, she said "Please bless that we can be less busy next Wednesday so we can go to my play". After that, how could we not go? We rearranged our schedules and went to learn about unity through a play about cats and dogs getting along. Grandpa and Grandma even closed down the family history center to go support Kendall!! She did a great job and is getting a little less shy in public. Yea Kendall!!

FHE

Last Monday we were able to have Family Home Evening with Mom and Dad. Matt was out of town for work so we did all the things we can't do when he is here. We went to Souplantation for dinner and then went back to our house to play Apples to Apples. Don't get me wrong - Matt would do these things if we asked him, but these are not a few of his favorite things. The kids were in heaven in a restaurant where they can pick exactly what the want. Apples to Apples always gets us laughing. Kendall loves it because she loves games she can actually play, although we noticed she was picking out her card even before the description was read!! Apparently that is a good strategy because she won. Thanks Mom and Dad for sharing our FHE with us!

Legoland

While Matt had a couple of days off, we thought we would get in a family activity. The weather was perfect and it was not too crowded. Here are some pictures from our day:

I LOVED the art work done in Legos. They had Van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Degas, Munch, and Dali just to name a few.

Splash Battle was fun, but a little wet.

I love Jared's face as he looks down the first drop of Test Track.

This ride was more Kendall's speed while the others were on Test Track.

Matt and I always have fake celebrity sitings (people who look like a celebrity but are not really) however today we had an actual celebrity siting! Jamie Lee Curtis was at the park with her two kids and some friends. It was funny because we had just watched Freaky Friday the night before (the one with her as the mom).

Glamour Shots

Our ward did "glamour shots" for YW again. This time the person did the make-up more natural, which I loved. These girls are already naturally beautiful and don't need lots of make-up hiding that. Maelen loves doing this, but has a hard time being serious for pictures.

Jared Rocks

Today was the 5th grade talent show at Huntington Seacliff Elementary School. Jared has been looking forward to this for over a year now! He played Alice Cooper's "School's Out". He added his own little guitar solo at the end and did a really great job. His cousin, Todd, has been giving him lessons here and there which has been fun for Jared because he really looks up to his older cousins.

This week Maelen was able to go to a women in sports conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. She was one of 20 athletes from her school picked to attend. She had the opportunity to meet some of the women who played on the Rockford Peaches, which the movie "A League of Their Own" was based on. She was able to get several of the women to sign the t-shirt they received that day. It was a great experience.

Poor Kendall. The only thing of excitement that happened to her this week was that a bird pooped on her head at school. Her friends told her to go stick her head in the bathroom sink and wash it off. She didn't get upset until she came home and thought about hours later. Now I need to go give her a shower so she will stop crying!

Lizards & Crickets & Poodle Spiders, Oh My!!

You may or may not know that my sisters and I have a joke about poodles. I don't think a Christmas goes by that we don't give and receive poodle gifts. Well, Matt has decided that daddy long-leg spiders are the "poodle" of spiders. He believes they don't serve any purpose other than to annoy. So our family now calls them poodle spiders.

Poodle spiders I can deal with, but the occasional cricket in the house really freaks me out. Especially when Jared kills them and tells us what consistency they are (squishy or crunchy). Please don't pass that on to PETA.

However, I have now decided I can deal with either one after what happened yesterday. Maelen found a LIZARD in our house!! Matt mentioned that it was just a baby one. Somehow that does not ease the icky feeling I have about it. Luckily Matt was home to sweep it into the dust pan and send it on it's way outside. Hopefully we don't see it next in the pool!!