::welcome spring::

Are ya kiddin' me?!!?

This is NOT Spring!! Where's the green grass? The tulips? The birds? The rain?

I was kind of excited the other day when it was so warm and windy. I knew a storm was coming, but with it being so warm, I was hoping for a great thunderstorm! But then it got freezing cold (39 when I picked Chloe up from school today), and started to snow.

ugh!

And they're forecasting more through the weekend!

We can't have an Easter egg hunt in the snow!!

::yesterday & today::

Yesterday,

The kids and I went shopping. Not for anything in particular, just something "cute." We picked Chloe up from school and went from there. We found a hairbow, some kinda cute things for the house, and a few clothes. Nothing too exciting. We always go in through Quilted Bear (cause we love that place) and have lunch (cause it's SO good!). We were hoping Grandma Kitty would be able to meet us there, but she was stuck in Burley (haha, Burley) all day.

Today,

After I took the kids to the store while Matt golfed this morning (for the first time this year!!), we took the babies to see How to Train Your Dragon. And we loved it!! Port especially! Chloe, not so much. She was a little scared, and even cried in one part of it cause she thought Hiccup died. Coopie just walked back and forth between us and at popcorn and M&Ms and even tried to drink some Coke that belonged to the lady next to us! And he roared (he says it like this: "waah") at the dragons. He also fell asleep for a bit. But Port-Port loooved it! It's a perfect little boy movie.

When we were walking out, Chloe says "that's waaay scarier than Princess and the Frog." I just told her that yeah, but sometimes we have to see boyish movies too :)

Chloe, Matt, Cooper, Porter (behind Coop)

::wrinkles::

Yes, I have wrinkles. Around my eyes. I don't like them. I think they're multiplying!

I'm vain, and I know it. I'm always worried about how I look, my clothes, my weight, you name it! I noticed the wrinkles a few months ago, and I just thought I'd better do something about 'em before they get too out of hand.

Mostly when I say something about the wrinkles people say, "What? You don't have wrinkles! I don't see any" etc.

BUT...

When I mentioned it to my mom, she says "I hear Olay makes a good cream." haha Oh, Mom. Always the truth outta her :)

I thought it was so funny, and it makes me laugh every time I think about it.

So I took her advice...

This is my wrinkle cream. I can't believe I have wrinkle cream! I've heard it's pretty good stuff and rivals the fancier ones sold at cosmetic counters.

We'll give it a try.

::basketball tourn. part 2 & other stuff...::

The second half of Matt's basketball tournament was on Saturday. After we all went to his first game at 8 (church ball), we headed down for two more.

He did pretty good. They won the church ball game that morning, and won one of their two ATK games. He was pretty tired by the end.

The kids love to go "watch" Da-Da.

We had LOTS of games and snacks for 'em. They pretty much eat and play the whole time.

(when you're watching basketball for over 3 hours, you gotta have something to do)

(Addyson, Chloe, & Portie)

Then we went down to help Grandma & Papa move into their new house! The kids were waaay excited. It was a lot of work (they've got TONS of stuff). We got the kitchen all unpacked and organized (for the most part), did a lot of unpacking in their office, and some more in their bedroom. We were there 'til almost 10 that night, andwhen we left, it didn't look like we'd done anything! There were STILL boxes everywhere!

Their home is beautiful! They're going to love it there!

And I finally got to meet my baby neice...

(Chloe, Me, Mia-6 weeks old, Cooper, & Porter-in front of Cooper)

::this made me smile::

A couple of things I thought I'd share...

A lot of times when we're in the car, we'll practice counting or our letter sounds or something like that. We were doing "let's think of a word that starts with..." They pick the letter, and it was "A." So Chloe and I are saying things like "alligator, apple, always, around..." Then Portie pipes up and says "avacado!!" Every once in a while I'll throw something weird out there like "Adirondak" just to make them laugh-but this time I hadn't said anything like that. I guess Portie beat me to it :)

Today, we went to the store to get a few things. I was pushing a "boat cart" (those huge ones) with all three babies on it. This older man (probably late 70's early 80's) says "are all these children yours??" I said "they sure are" and then he says "How beautiful! What beautiful children!" It made me happy, and I almost told him I wanted one more ;)

::the princess & the frog::

It's finally here!!

We've waited months for this movie to come out on DVD, and today was the day!! We were SO excited to go to the store and get it, Portie brought his own pennies to pay for it (sweet boy)-we even used one of them.

So after Bubb went down for a nap, the big kids and I made some popcorn...

...and cozied up to watch the movie.

We laughed, danced, cuddled 'cause we were scared, and I even got a little teary (Weird, I know, but that's me.)

And what a great movie!! We love it!!

(even Port! He likes the shadow man 'cause he likes "scae-wy sings.")

::what's in a name::

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet"

We're big on nicknames around here. I was working on my next blog book, and came across a post where I called Cooper "googie." I completely forgot we ever called him that. So, I decided I'd better do a post devoted to our nicknames since we have so many.

Chloe

aka

Moogie, Baby Girl, Gogie (she called herself that when she first started talking), Googie-Moogie, Moo, Missy Moo, Tootie-Bootie, Tootie, Toot-Boot, Chloe-Bowie, Nowie (Porter's), Giggoo (Porter's), Sweets (Matt's)

Porter

aka

Porter-Torter, Port-Tort, Portie-Nortie, Tatey-Ratey, Tate-a-moe (his own when he tried to say tomato), Porter-Potater-Rater, Tater-Rater, Tater, Tates, Port, Port-Port, Poten-Taten, Portie,

Cooper

aka

Coopins, Coopenhagen, Coopinstock, Coopie-Noopie, Coopie-Roopie (Matt's), Coopie, Googie, Noogie, Googie-Noogie, Noo-Noo, Nuggie, Nee-nah-noo-nah, Bubba, Bubb-Nubb, Bubb-Nubb-Nubb, Bubb, Bubbs, Bee-bah-boo-bah, Bubbie-Nubbie

::matt's basketball tournament (part 1)::

Matt had his annual ATK basketball tournament this weekend. He played with one of his brothers (Adam) and a few other guys from work. Jared doesn't work there anymore, so we missed him and Sarah down there this year. I love watching him play ball. He's pretty good, and just fun to watch. The games started at 8 in the morning, so we all got up and, of course, had a McDonalds breakfast :) The kids love going to these games too because the gym's really big and there's lots of room to run around up above the bleachers.

I got a couple of action shots

(he's in the black and blue shorts and a black jersey-#24 of course)

I can't remember if that one went in...

He always thanks the refs afterwards. He's just that way :)

They won both games, and they play again next weekend. I'll try to get some more "action" shots for him. It's always good to see yourself on film-that's what the pros do, right? :)

In other news...

Cooper has a few new words. My favorite one is "eeew." He says it all the time. Everything is "eeew."

::"po-uh liddow Coopeh"::

Sorry, Bubb, but you are too liddow and it is too cold.

...But I bet you're glad Portie came in to make you feel better :)

(Porter 3 1/2 Cooper 16 months)

In other news...

Chloe hyperextended her knee in tumbling yesterday. She was doing some back handspring drills and another kid hopped on the trampoline and bounced her, and she landed on it weird. She cried. A lot. She seems to be ok now though. She just says she can't "push her knee back" which basically means she can't lock her left knee. Papa Guitar says maybe a couple of weeks, and she'll be good as new :) (I bet a little sooner though, cause she's already back on the tramp)

After it happened, I told her ya gotta be tough to tumble!! She giggle-cried. I told her it's only going to get tougher and about how her cousin (Keely) broke her foot doing tumbling. Was that a good idea? Probably not, but now she kinda feels cool 'cause she got hurt doing tumbling just like Kee :)

::all in a day's work::

We cleaned out the garage on Saturday. It was SO messy! We had all kinds of stuff in there we didn't really even need, plus it was really unorganized.

The kids just thought it was fun. They ran around, drove the Barbie Jeep, colored with sidewalk chalk, rode bikes, rode scooters, pushed lawnmowers, fell and scraped faces (poor Bubb), and were just so excited to be outside. They didn't even notice that it was COOOOLD and windy.

Matt built some shelves (which we desperately needed!!)

They look pretty good, don't you think??

And here's the finished product. It might not look a whole lot better to the naked eye, but it really is. There's a HUGE trampoline in there that will be leaving as soon as it warms up some more, so that'll free up even more space.

After we (and by we, I mostly mean Matt) cleaned it out, we went for a little ride to return things we found in there that didn't belong to us (tools, battery chargers, etc). Someday I hope to have at least a 3 car garage, but until then, we'll just have to try to be more organized in our little one. Next step...painting the garage (maaaah!).

And that was our Saturday.