To Do List

At the risk of embarrassing Kendall, I had to post this list. Her new thing is to make to do lists. I love her last two items on her list. Monday night Matt was busy writing a brief for a huge case he has going on and did not get home until 10 p.m. He left notes for the kids letting them know he missed seeing them and on Kendall's he mentioned with word and picture what games they could play when he got home. Apparently, she is going to hold him to this every night now, but I know he will be glad to oblige. The best one of all is "cuddle with Daddy". 2 cute!!

My Inner Seamstress

So our ward progressive dinner was this weekend and we were hosting part of the group. Matt reminded me that the first couches we ever bought, which have seen better days, are the ones we keep in our living room. Well - we had to have seating, but it was time to take off the beat up, ripped throw pillow covers and make some new ones. Of course, I didn't consider this until the day before, so I had to do something quick. Luckily Joann was having a sale on home decor fabric. I covered the big pillows with some cute floral fabric and then had a great find at a Target clearance end-cap - these cute cream colored pillows with embroidered leaves. Believe it or not, they give the old beat up couch a brand new look!
Oh - I also found this quilt pattern on line and wanted to try it (not for the progressive dinner). It was fun because I had a lot of scraps I could use for it. It is machine quilted which I thought would take less time, but I was wrong. BTW - the pillows were done over the weekend, but the quilt was made over several weeks - definitely not a weekend project!

Open House

Open House was this week. Kendall could hardly wait to show us everything in her class, which is funny because I have already seen most, if not hung it up myself. She told me about her animal book that she wanted me to see and I didn't have the heart to tell her I glued everyone's pictures in their books!! This is a picture of her awesome teacher, Ms. McKnight. She is the kind of teacher who teaches because she enjoys the children which is very apparent whenever I am there. Last week when I was picking up Kendall, she ran out to my car to tell me that she had a secret for me. I wasn't supposed to know yet, but Kendall passed the GATE test. I loved that she was so excited for her accomplishment. Kendall is having a great year and seems to come out of her shell a little more every year.

We're Ba-ack!!

I've been neglecting my blog! Things got a little crazy for a while, but hopefully we are calming down now. This week I served on a jury and there is a week of my life I will never get back, but a little interesting seeing how Matt used to spend his work day.

A couple of weeks ago, Maelen had a tournament for her club team in Phoenix, so Maelen, Kendall and I loaded up the car and headed out there. Being a holiday weekend, traffic was hideous on our way there. It took about eight hours! We stayed in Gilbert at my wonderful Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy's house. Saturday's tournament was interesting. There were many male teams, which was different to watch. Since there was no U19 division, Maelen's team played other women's teams including ASU and her coach's women's team. On a break, we ran over to Dillard's and found a cute, modest and inexpensive dress for Maelen for Winter Formal. Yippee!!
Here is the view at night from the field. Sunday we went to church with my Uncle & Aunt and then we went to my cousin Julie's house for dinner. Everything was soooo delicious and it was fun to see so many of my cousins and their families.Here is Kendall at the game. She was so good considering what a long day it was.

And the Mother of the Year Award Goes To.........

So I believe I am in the running for the Mother of the Year Award this year. Thursday afternoon, Maelen came home from school and we were chatting when the phone rang. It was a friend of Jared's wanting to talk to him. When Maelen hung up, she had an odd look on her face and said, "Why wouldn't Jared's friend be in school too?" I looked at the clock and was horrified to realize that today, just like EVERY Thursday, was short day. Kendall had been out of school for a half hour! For most kids that wouldn't be a big deal, but Kendall is extremely shy (in public) and VERY clingy (in public). We jumped in the car and I had Maelen call the office while we drove since I didn't have the wherewithall to deal with a headset at that point. The lady in the office said she was just about to call and Kendall was right there in her arms crying. Way to make me feel better. We ran in and got her, only to have her break into uncontrollable sobs in the back seat of the car. I tried to make her feel better by letting her know we forgot Jared too. That got a little laugh. So then it was off to Dwyer to get Jared, who also has abandonment issues. Before we could get there, I was getting a call from an unknown number, which I knew had to be him. A friend of mine took pity and drove him home when she saw he had been left behind. What would Laura Bush say?

I wish I could say it ended there. Kendall was thrilled that she finally had a tooth come out AT SCHOOL. This means she was able to go to the office and get a special treasure box, her choice of color, to keep her tooth safe until it made it home. She was thrilled at the prospect of the tooth fairy coming last night. However, it was not to be. We have had no snow, the rain has passed, yet something kept that darn tooth fairy from making it to Kendall's room last night. She is hoping for better luck tonight. In the meantime, I am off to the store to buy some ginkgo biloba - if I can remember.

Lakers

Last Friday we had the awesome opportunity to sit five rows behind the bench at the Laker game!! The only bad part is when we got to Staples Center, I took out my camera to take a picture of Rick Fox, who was being interviewed outside, and found out my camera was no longer working!!! Ugh! Anyway, it was incredible to sit that close to all of the action. Also, we had several celebrity sitings - Diane Cannon, Penny Marshall, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucas Haas, Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas and Tom Arnold. Best of all, they beat the Kings - no love lost between us and our former short term home in Sacramento. We hope we have that opportunity again sometime.

Tickling the Ivories

Jared had his first piano recital this week. He played three different pieces including a jazzy version of Jingle Bells. I was amazed he could play so well without being nervous and with no mistakes!! Maelen and I noticed that he makes the same face Matt does when he is concentrating. Jared has informed me that next recital he needs gloves to keep his hands warm prior to his recital. Might this be getting out of hand???