Forts and Friends

One of Olivia's favorite pastimes is fort building. What a perfect thing to do on a sick day home from school!

My favorite part of this one is the fact that made it feel like home by 

HANGING HER ROBE ON THE WINDOW!

Just the perfect little spot for my baby girl.

You gotta have some space for your friends in your fort. This reminds me so much of myself at that age. I used to love to surround myself with my stuffed animals.

There she is, enjoying her own space.

Chillin' with her stuffed buddies and dollies.

She also spent some time with her real live buddy, Lou Lou!

What is better than a fort for you? A fort for your furry friend!

She made this one out of stuff from the recycling bin and would fill it with treats, paper towel to shred and even a bowl of water for Lou Lou to enjoy.

Lou Lou is getting bigger and glad to have a fun place of her own!

Liv's Last Game and Party!

Getting warmed up before their final game last Saturday! Olivia wore her lucky socks and although she scored 10 points, they lost the game.

Olivia had a great game and the best part was near the end where she got the ball stolen from her, stole it back and then headed down on a fast break and scored! 

Their loss didn't phase them long because a party awaited them outside!

Thanks Jenna's mom for the yummy cake!

Allison, Breggany, Jenna, Olivia, McKenzie B. McKenzie M., Ashlie, and McKenzie P.

YES- 3 McKenzies!!!

Coach Russ handing out their adorable team pictures (thanks Gastony!) and their cool trophies along with compliments to each girl about her b-ball talents.

Even Olivia gets in on the fun with Coach Dad!

Olivia loves her trophy, her friend Kaitlyn who came to watch the game, and...

her daddy, who is the best coach ever!!

Way to go little Champ! I mean Chimp!!!  

Ha ha, they were the Monkeys!

TESS LOVES LAX

Tess's lacrosse season has been going great with only one loss to the best team in the state, Horizon. Most of her games are at night so the photos don't turn out well but here are a few from the lightest part of the game. 

Love that colorful stick that Tess lovingly named, Saquajawea, because American Indians invented lacrosse.

Tess gets tons of playing time and starts every game. She is always  where she needs to be and doing what she needs to be doing. 

These last few games she has really been happy to get the ball more and made some great plays!!

Most of all she loves her teammates and is excited to head to BYU lacrosse camp in the summer with some of them :)

My 100th Post!

Knowing that my one-hundredth post was fast approaching it has been on my mind. I keep wondering what special thing will it be about?? I posted two late last night to bring me to the magic number and then I went to sleep and had the funniest dream!

I was at Dawn Foutz's house (which is funny cuz she doesn't even live in AZ anymore but is a fellow blogger, but that's not the funniest part, Hi Dawn!) and we were on her back patio reaching down for something when my arm and leg started burning

REALLY BAD!!!

I looked down and two big scorpions were clinging to my wrist and stinging me like crazy! There were more stinging my leg! When I shook them off they ran and stung my other arm and other leg a LOT! Dawn and I were finally able to shake them off me and stomp on them. Then I inspected my arms and legs and started counting all the big red welts that were killing me and disfiguring my limbs!  I had 40 stings, about 10 on each arm and leg. As soon as we finished the first thing I said was, 

"NOW I know what my 100th blog will be about!!"

I think I have a blogging addiction!!!

Love you all! Here is the quote for the day from Olivia-

I was telling Russ that I had not yet paid Janae for violin and piano lessons. Olivia was surpised to learn we paid her.  I said, "What do you think, she just did it for free?" and Olivia said,

 "I just thought she was following her dreams!"

Rustin's Alphabet Poem!

School

Always splitting nerves

Because they have to

Control the authority.

Discipline is being

Extremely and overly

Forced onto students.

Great amounts of stress

Has a harmful affect

In daily lives.

Jocks, bullies, and nerds keep the status quo

Keep the status quo

Living and,

Mean girls who

Need all the fancy clothes

Operate by splitting up

Partners. This keeps the status

Quo up and

Running around.

Suspension can be a

Treat but can

Unwind a great

Variety of scholarships

Without warning. Fights lead to

X-rays of broken bones,

You don’t want to be a

Zebra in the jungle we call “school!”

Seriously Funny Tess

Those of you who are not blessed to live with Tess have no idea how funny she can be. While making dinner tonight, we had some fun conversation. Here are my favorite quotes:

"You buttered my butt!"

Explanation: She was helping make the garlic bread and stole and ate one end of the bread (the butt) before we finished making it and said that was her tradition to eat it before I baked it. When she wasn't looking I buttered the other end so I could eat it toasted. She turned around and saw I had done it and said, "Hey, you buttered my butt!"

"Pigs are jerks!" 

I was explaining to her that Barbara Bush had a heart valve transplant today where they gave her a pig's valve. She immediately responded, "I don't like pigs anymore, pigs are JERKS!" She just finished reading Animal Farm and said that in the book when the animals take over the farm, the pigs turn into the evil dictators and she'll never look at them the same.

A few minutes before that I was singing some songs from Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat (I am always singing and lately these songs have been stuck in my head because the high school just performed it). Tess said "Mom, you should have pretended like you were 16 and tried out for the part of the Narrator."  WOW! Either she thinks I have a great voice, or look young or she's just delusional... but it was so cute!!

That made me feel a lot better because just a few minutes earlier I was telling her about a blonde moment I had this morning: I was getting ready to go to the school and teach Chloe's class about Abigail Adams (my other persona) and was blow drying my hair while trying to read a new book about her. I could see it better if I propped it up so I put my blow drying brush under it and picked up my blow dryer to finish my hair. Not one second later I was like "Where did that brush of mine go?"  Duh!! I had JUST put it under the book! It didn't take me long to figure it out but I had to laugh at myself!!! 

Maybe it was my first senior moment instead of a blonde moment but Tess sure made me feel good again regardless! 

Love you honey!!

From Cookies to Musicals

My parents are far away on a mission and I just updated them on life real quick and thought I would add it to the blog. 

Had an awesome Stake Conference today! Got to sing in the stake choir while Russ wrestled with the kids for a change. I was funny for me to be on the stand smiling down at him instead of the other way around. I even had meetings tonight until 10:00pm. Talk about "Freaky Sunday."  Pres. Bush (not George) asked about you and how you were doing. Had a nice Sunday making and frosting sugar cookies. 

Made good family night treat and gift for the new neighbors but lots of work though. 

Also rollerbladed in the 80 degree weather. 

We have had a blast with Olivia's new rat, Lou Lou. She is great tempered and fun. 

Tess's lacrosse team is undefeated but she is frustrated because she hasn't got the ball at all in the last 3 games though she starts and gets a good amount of playing time. 

Tues. night they play a good team they barely beat before but this time some of their best players will be gone. 

 Rustin has a playoff game also Tues. night against the best team around. Probably won't go well either. 

Finished some papers for my parenting class 

(that just reminds me of all the things I know I should be doing better!!) and waiting to take mid-term. Am getting excited and nervous about being in charge of 90 girls (YCL's) at Stake girls camp in a few months. Plus I got a new calling as the Merit Badge Counselor for our ward. Super busy and scary. Still doing Activity Days with Chloe's age group. 

Chloe had a field trip the other day to the Halle Heart Center and LITERALLY showered me with factoids about the size of different animals hearts, how fast they beat per minute, how many grams of fat are in a zillion different foods and everything else you ever wanted to know about the heart, for at least a half hour and then did the same for Russ when he came home from work. It was sooo cute!!!

Olivia had another great basketball game on Saturday. She made 10 points. One of them at the very end of the game was so funny because she was heading down for a basket and the girl kinda made her loose control of the ball and stole it from her which is kinda legal but kinda like stealing which isn't legal and the ref didn't call it. The girl took the ball to the other end of the court super fast where Olivia did the same thing to her, bumped the ball with her arm and then grabbed it when she lost control. She ran it down and made a shot right as the whistle blew. That kid is a riot and I can't wait to see how she does next year after some basketball camps this summer.

Have been having fun with Rustin's lacrosse friends and other girls their age coming over and hanging out on the weekend. Played some fun games (pshhhht, and the chair game) ate food, wrestled with Russ. When Tess came home from babysitting she immediately commented on the smell from sweaty boys. Oooh, yuck, why does the house smell weird? 

Watched two musicals. The high school put on "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat." 

It was FANTASTIC!!! Our bishop's son, Harrison, was Jacob's son LEVI and had the solo part in the song, "There's one more angel in heaven." He did FANTASTIC!! The boy who played Joseph was really good. He is a freshman who is in a lot of Tess's classes. But the guy who STOLE THE SHOW was the brother who sang the French-ish song "Those Canaan Days" It was sooo well done, his singing, acting, gestures, and the choreography with the other brothers was genius! I wish I could watch that part again!

The other show we saw was put on by Gilbert Fine Arts Association and it was 

 It was good. We saw it with our activity day girls because one of our girls was in it and two beehives from our ward. A little racy of a musical, complete with kids acting drunk etc. but most of the jokes went over the kids' heads. Saw it again with Rustin's buddies and all their mom's. 

Had tons of fun at dinner before and dessert afterwards. The boys just had to support the girls in the ward. 

They had fun watching them on stage, waving at them, and giving them FLOWERS afterwards!!!

 Yes. It's true! My son gave a girls flowers, bought with his own money.

Don' t tell anyone!