He' s back!

We are happy to report that uncle jeremy has moved back to Utah!

After only seeing Jer a couple times a year for the last little while we are excited to have him around again! Adi was so excited to see him that we had to play "his song" as soon as he got in our car the other day.{Adi is sure that the muffin man lives on Jeremy lane} Mike is excited to have him working with him on his condo project {he's an extremely hard worker} Luke loves having someone to explore with, Paislee loves the attention, and I love having him call me stinky each time he enters the room {what good is a brother without teasing?}

And guess what? He came back just in time to celebrate his 25th birthday with us! {him and paislee share the same day} Happy Birthday Fuzz! We love you!

Sweet treats!

1st birthday fun!

Paislee hasn't officially turned one yet, but due to the fact that BYU plays tomorrow and that Mike's family bleeds blue, we had a bbq to celebrate Paislee's birthday tonight! It was a lot of fun! We were lucky enough to get all of Mike's siblings {that live in-state}, his parents, Chad, Jeremy, the Pickles and the McEvoys {my cousin's fam}, and new friend Piper and crew to join us! I had a bunch of fun planning and preparing all week {thanks Mike for letting me go a little crazy} Paislee wasn't quite sure what was going on with the candle and cupcake thing....

But she did manage to get a little messy {liked the cookies best}....

and she was so excited for the presents - she started without us! Very spoiled - lots of books, dolls, toys and adorable clothes and a new soft blankie! Thanks everyone! More celebrations to come tomorrow!

grocery fun!

Luke, Paislee and I went grocery shopping while Adi was in school yesterday! It had been a while so I had a very full cart so Luke was forced out of his usual seat in the basket. Fortunately, Luke found an even better place to ride....in the totes I was buying! I figured it was safe, he was happy and {most importantly} he wasn't getting into stuff so I let him stay. He was there for at least half an hour and loved every minute of it! The best part of the trip was watching people's reactions - some were horrified, others laughed, many moms told me how cute and happy he looked and the kids were sooooo jealous! It was funny to hear some of them tattle on Luke like he was doing something really wrong! Thanks to Luke, I was holding back a giggle my entire Walmart trip! {another first!}

Sandbox first!

Adi ran into the house to go to the bathroom today and when I asked where Paislee was, she replied "Oh, she's playing in the sandbox for the first time!" I figured this might require a little more supervision than was currently being given. What I found was way too cute...

exploring...
eating...{couldn't figure out why it wouldn't wipe off}
and {of course} smiling!

I'm a towdurl {cowgirl}!

WHATEVER, CRAZY LUKE!

Check out this cute kindergartner!

Yipee! Adi had her first day of Kindergarten today! She was so excited she woke up super early and was in the shower (with her room cleaned) before 7:30. When I asked why she was up so early - "cuz I got thinkin' that it was the first day of school and I just woke up cuz I was so excited!" was her reply. She had her outfit laid out last night and was ready to go pretty fast - she even had a "healthy" breakfast of toast and applesauce for the big day! The above pic was taken out in front of our house but the stinkin' sun was in her eyes so in most of them her eyes were closed! {can't wait for the west facing abode to be built}
Once at school, Adi quickly found her friends and waited for the bell. I would like to say that there was a tearful goodbye and she was sad to see me go...but I would be lying. She just wanted to "get to her work".But, I got a few pics before I went and as I got to the car Luke helped control the tears by telling me that "Adi's havin' fun right now!" What a sweet boy, so excited for his sister. So, no tears for Ads or Mom.

She had a fabulous day full of coloring, reading, recess, assemblies {anyone want a happenings book?} and a couple new friends - the best part being that dad got to pick her up from school and take her to lunch {we tagged along - McDonald's was full of kindergartners} Super proud of our growed up girl!

One last hoorah!

The count down is over - school starts tomorrow! So, Adi had a couple fellow "kindergarten girls" over for a party today! They had a blast hunting for school supplies, decorating folders, eating pizza and cookies and taking one last dip in the pool. Wish us luck on the BIG day - more posts {and tears} tomorrow!

Backyard fun!

Adi and Luke asked if Paizers could come out and play with them this afternoon, of course I said yes! But, I did not expect things to go quite so well...they took her down the slide, on the swing, jumped with her on the tramp and played house with her in the play house.

Precious moments like this make it all worth it!

This is what I woke up to this morning...

"Adi helped me!" was what Luke said. Thanks Ads!

Happy Thursday!

A sweet reunion!

Almost as cool as this stylin' dude are his Diego glasses! These usually come in 3rd (next to his flip-flops and hat) as his must-haves. Mostly these are just in his hand as he runs around the house and when we went to grandma's house this morning, they went too! As the time came to leave though, Luke's glasses were nowhere to be found. No biggie, grandma cleans her house from top to bottom each morning and night so I figured they would turn up eventually. They were not forgotten though and Luke was reminded several times that he had lost them at grandma's. Tonight, we decided to make a quick errand which took us right past grandma's neighborhood - Luke quickly piped up reminding me that his glasses were still at grandma's house. I gave a weak -we'll get 'em later - and went on with our errand. Quickly proving that his memory is almost as good as his sisters, Luke insisted we stop the second we got near grandma's neighborhood again. Luckily, grandma had been doing a thorough cleaning of the playroom and found them tucked nicely in a purse pocket! Thank you grandma for your insanely effective cleaning skills and for this sweet reunion!

iiiiiiiiiiiiii beeeat you!

If you have been to our house lately, you have heard this phrase from Adi or Luke. It is always said with a smile and is sure to bring more! {I beat you!} has become a staple....it can be heard around the clock and is quite motivating! The most common time is bath/bed time {which now goes much, MUCH, much more quickly} but is also said when someone wakes up first, gets their teeth brushed first, they beat dad with their seatbelts, finish their breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack before someone else, put something away...I could go on and on and on!

Me and my man!

Okay, so I saw this blog tag and couldn't wait to do it! These are fun things to think about and make me realize just how much I love this guy!

Basics:

1. Who is your man?

Michael Scott Bartholomew

2. How long have you been together?

8 years

3. Dating/Engaged/Married?

Started dating in May 1999, got engaged on Labor day, and married six weeks later on October 20, 1999. How's that for a quicky!

4. How old is your man?
six months shy of the big 3-0!

You or your man?

1. Who eats more?

Probably me! Sad but I really, really, really like food and I get excited about it. When we were dating it was super embarassing cuz he didn't care and I ate a ton more but in 8 years he has come a very long way and eating is one of our favorite past times!

2. Who said "I love you" first?

Mike - I think we were in granny goose's back lawn looking at the stars, sweet huh!

3. Who weighs more?

Him, thank goodness!

4. Who sings better?

Mike, he does a mean Eddie Vedder! {Pearl Jam}

5. Who's Older?

Mikey, just a couple months though.

6. Who's smarter?

Michael, once again, and he is very creative too!

7. Who's temper is worse?

I think it used to be me, but having 3 kids has calmed me and now he wins.

8. Who does the laundry?

Me, ALWAYS!

9. Who does the dishes?

Mostly me, but he is good to help. He almost always dries the pans though (:

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

Me, although this has changed from house to house. I think I just like to be away from the door, this has been really confusing to Mike. He comments every time we go on a trip but he just goes with the flow.

11. Who's feet are bigger?

Mike's, 81/2 or 9, I never get it right.

12. Who's hair is longer?

Definately mine!

13. Who's better with the computer?

Mike!

14.Who pays the bills?

Up until about a year ago it was me but the accountant in Mike wanted spreadsheets and budgets {still waiting} so Mike is completly in charge. Can I just say "ignorance is bliss!"

15. Who cooks dinner?

Mostly me, but Mike does a great job when he cooks.

{I am not claiming to do this often}

17. Who drives when you are together?

Mike, always.

18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?

Usually, whoever has the dc handy.

19. Who's the most stubborn?

That's a tough one...n/c

20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?

Mike, for sure, but he'll take it back if I don't cop to my part.

21. Who's parents do you see more?

Mike's - they are super close and {single tear} mine are 700 miles away in AZ!

22. Who kissed who first?

A constant debate in our home...but definately Mike!

23. Who asked who out?

Mike asked me out first but I was headed to AZ for mother's day weekend to visit so I had to turn him down! I asked him out the next weekend though

.

24. What did you do?

We went to my girlfriends wedding - he was scared to death. Aja kissed him when they met {her usual} and then I wanted to dance, can you believe it! Afterward we went to dinner and a comedy show. As we walked to the car that night I spit my gum into the road, he about died! It is a wonder that we ever went out again!

25. Who's more sensitive?

Me.

26. Who's taller?

Mike, by like 3" is all.

27. Who is more indecisive?

Probably me.

28. Who has more siblings?

Mike - 7, me - 4

29. Who wears the pants in the relationship?

He would say me, so me.

30. Who has the best husband ever?

ME! ME! ME!

10 years!

Somedays it seems like just yesterday I was walking through the halls of GHS and others it seems like a lifetime ago. Over the past few weeks many memories and faces have surfaced as we prepared for the big 10 year reunion! {Some very dedicated former classmates put together a blog for the class o' 97 to post updates/comments on what we have been up to for the last 10 years, and got the excitement started to see long forgotten friends}

I had decided to go to the family thing for lunch in the park and bag the dressing up part later that evening. Mike was his usual supportive self but did voice that he wouldn't mind if we didn't go, so, me - thinking I am pretty funny sometimes - told him that Aja had been hounding us to go to the night thingy{which she had} and that I had given in and agreed to do a lip sync with the "girls" and our husbands to "Summer Lovin'" from the Grease soundtrack{which she hadn't}. Mike was hesitant to believe me, knowing my antics, and continuously questioned both me and the Pickles in the matter, thankfully they had joined the club and supported the story. I proceeded to put the song on each time we were in the car together to "practice" and got a babysitter for the night, figuring that we would do dinner and a movie, and this could only help support my story.I guess he bought it because as we got into the car on Saturday morning I found my ipod turned to Summer lovin' - he had been practicingon his own! SOOOO cute! Do I have the best husband or what? He even told other GHS alumni we ran into on the way that we would be there that evening. I was dying! So, once we were at the park I quickly told him of my joke - he was pretty relieved!

I had a great time seeing old friends and Mike was pretty friendly himself! The kids got to play games, get their faces painted and break a pinata.

Mike did a 4{instead of 3} legged race with Adi and Logan, since Pickle was hunting.

That is me, bent over with Luke!(not the best pic)

By the end of our afternoon, Mike had decided we should at least go to dinner with friends which quickly turned into most of "the girls" getting together for dinner and rest of the reunion.{credit to Mike} It was a fun night {we even slow danced (:} Here are a couple pictures of my girls - I've known some of them for over 17 years! (we missed you Em!)

The best dad ever!

Friday night, my wonderful husband agreed {once again} to watch the kids while I went scrapbooking up in my old WVC stomping grounds! It was lots of fun - I got a lot of super-cute kits {thanks to my mom and the fabulous SBEtc. and its Simplicity} put together, which I am hoping to fill with pictures this week! The much funner (is this a word?) part of this night was had by the rest of the family though! Mike being the super cool dad that he is took them all to McDonalds after dinner for ice cream cones and a movie from the Red Box! Then after coming home to find a broken DVD player (several tears) they finally started this movie around 9pm. Luke fell asleep during the fire house dog movie but Adi stayed up for the duration and when it was finally over at 10:30pm - Adilynn and dad proceeded to the front porch with cookies and milk to look at the stars. The night ended with Adi telling Mike "you are the best dad ever!" and heading to bed -FINALLY!

(BTW - Mike is being held responsible for any and all ill behavior by our children for the next couple days!)

Pretty in Pink!

Ads and I had us a "girls night" tonight! {Steph came too cuz she's an only girl} We got ourselves some pedicures and then went to a favorite store of ours {Target} to spend a little tooth fairy money! Adi scored some adorable Littlest Pet Shop stuff! Happy almost weekend everyone!

sit back and relax!

That is exactly what I spent most of last weekend doing! We took a quick trip up to the cabin on Friday night with the Pickles. The plan was let the guys take the kids boating, fishing, 4wheeler riding etc. and then have them so worn out that they slept the rest of the time so that Steph and I could read our, {just arrived from my awesome sis-in-law, beth (who I have great plans of blogging about in the near future) because they were sold out everywhere in Utah} Eclipse books. Things did not go quite according to plan but I did get a couple hundred pages in...the problem with the cabin is that I just want to take naps when I am there...and I did!

{but I did finish Eclipse last night, yippee! and yes, I still heart Edward!)

We did take a trip out on the boat on Saturday morning, the wind kicked up like it always does but the boys were able to get a little tubing in before eating lunch on the lake. Luke thought this was sooo fun -he is a huge fan of the boat and thought it was pretty cool that him and Logan got to tube together. Adi was content to sit in the boat and eat treats(mom forgot her swimsuit and getting her clothes wet was unheard of) and Mom and Pais enjoyed the sun! Dad was busy with the boat stuff, you know, all that boat stuff!

Later that afternoon, Mike, Adi, Mike P, and Logan went on a long 4wheeler trip while the rest of us napped! Delightful! The rest was just a blurr of eating, reading, sleeping and a few kids running around like crazy but a very relaxing weekend all the same!

{I know this post was a little late, cuz like its almost a whole new weekend, but things like showers and tooth fairies kept sneeking in and I never found time to write, so better late than never - as my mom says - and trust me she knows! :)}

Wow!

Turns out the Tooth Fairy pays pretty well these days!

cuz i had a bad day!

This delightful little lemon drop cookie (see the Smart Cookie blog below) was dropped off at my door by my amazing friend Steph this morning. A super sweet act in itself but, unbeknown to her, this came in the middle of a very stressful morning.{I was in tears} She quickly made it all better! {actually, there were a few more tears first but they were happy ones} Thank you Heavenly Father for this small miracle/angel!

Anyone know the going rate for teeth these days?

We shall soon find out cuz she did it again! Adilyn has taken another step toward growing up! Today we were at grandma b's for a quick visit and in the middle of playing with her cousin hannah, adi turned to me and said "mom, somethings wrong with my tooth!" and there was her tooth-sticking straight out of her mouth. I pulled it out quickly and both grandma and I started to tell her how exciting this was! Adi was in tears! For the next 20+ minutes we tried everything we could to get her to stop crying but she did not want to lose her tooth! We had no idea this tooth was even loose so there was no preparation for said occasion(I thought the Aurthur episode might have helped, but no). Needless to say, she was pretty upset for quite a while even after we got home...."that was my favoritest tooth on the bottom" and "my tears look like teeth and they just keep reminding me" are a couple of my favorite comments that she made during this drama fest!

But then enters the "hero" of our story - good ol' dad! Somehow he said the exact same things and changed her mood instantly. She jumped into his arms and then ran to get the tooth and show him. She was still fighting me on the pics though, she didn't want them on my blog. Finally dad became the hero again and bribed her with a dollar to let me post them. So we can all thank Mike for these pics of our beautiful girl and her new toothless grin!

P.S. Her mighty whistle was unharmed in the loss, just in case you were wondering. We checked it out!

I love parties!

Tonight the sis-in-laws and I get to throw a baby shower for my cute, little (i say little because she was just 12yrs old when we met, and she is the youngest) sister-in-law Tiffiny! She is expecting little baby Parker toward the end of September (the best month ever!) I have had a blast doing the invitations and favors for this said party and thought I would share these simple treats with the rest of you! Nothin' fancy but I am always happy when I can finish something in a not so crazy, stressful sort of way...anyway here they are! Love ya Tiff!

Remember when?

Remember when you got to play ALL day long? Remember when you like to get dressed up and play "princess"? Remember when you didn't worry about being embarrassed because you were to busy having fun?

Well, thanks to these two cute girls I remembered today! Adilynn and Bailee played for almost 6 hours today and they were adorable the whole time. {quite a feat for a couple of 5yr olds} They played dressed like this the whole day but the best part was when I came down to find them "dancing" to Adi's "Bella Popstar" dance DVD. They were moving their heads from side to side when I first walked into the room and this is what I heard soon after...

A: do you want to warm up anymore?

B: Na

A: Me neither, I'm always warm.

The next was even better...

B: Can she really see us?

A: Yeah, but she can't talk back to us or else she would be distracted.

B: Oh...is she really real?

A: Who Bella? Yeah, she is a real popstar dancer.

B: I wish I could be on tv, it would be so fun!

A: Me too!

Thanks girls for making me smile all day long!

Hurry up Mom!

We have made yet another baby step toward the looming and monumental landmark that is lurking close by...{Adi's 1st day of kindergarten} Today was the day that Adilynn found out who her teacher will be! I know this sounds pretty silly, I was thinking this was no big deal too, but as we approached the school I was feeling a little emotional. This was only made worse when - after reading her class list several times - I realized that not one of the 5 little friends she plays with were in her class, not even one person from our ward is in her class and this brought tears to my eyes and made me nervous for my baby girl! Adilynn of course paid this no mind and I quickly cut back the tears. Since then, I have heard that Mrs. Christensen is an excellent teacher and I know that Adilynn is great at making new friends on her own{despite her telling grandma Stippy that I am always forcing her to make new friends} And will do great - news on our next step coming a little too soon! YIKES

As of about a week ago...

this,


and this,


and all this...is all ours!
(we hope to have it looking a little different by next summer!)

super swimmer

Adilynn has become a professional superman glide swimmer in the last couple weeks! This is a favorite move of hers since starting lessons and any chance she gets, she can be found in the backyard pool (8'x4' and maybe 2'deep) doing these "glides" back and forth, back and forth, back and forth! Well, yesterday she was able to go all out when we went to the BIG pool and she had free reign! Thanks to Steph's extra pair of goggles and the lack of small children, Adi could be found - face down, arms out and feet just a kickin' for almost 2 straight hours! She has gotten to be quite the little swimmer and we are so proud! ;) Love ya girl!

swimmin' stud

So...for the last 4 weeks, adi and luke have been taking swimming lessons. This has been super fun except for the first 2 days when Luke actually cried and refused to get in the water. Then, 3rd day enter Jade, swimming teacher/angel! She took him in spite of the small fit he was throwing and within minutes he was fine. The next day - he went running -to Jade, took her hand and has been smitten ever since! My little boy has his 1st crush! And two weeks later, when we started the new session, of all the luck, Jade was once again luke's teacher. Luke is in heaven each morning when he gets to go swimming with his "durl" (girl) teacher, as he affectionatley refers to her!

cookie please

Alright! Although cookies are one of my very favorite treats...this post is mostly for the benefit of my mom. Each time she comes to Utah to visit we are forced (sometimes) to make several/daily trips to Smart Cookie. This wonderful store has dozens of different kinds of cooies (snickerdoodle, sugar, milk-semi-white chips, toffee, nuts, m&m's, coconut, peanut butter...and any combination of the previously mentioned! My all time favorite is lemon drop{TDF}) They sell the milk, ice cream...to go along with it too! Anyway, we usually make the 30min+ trip to the BYU campus to purchase these yummy treats - until today! At 1pm (not at 11:30 when our movie got out :[ ) a new Smart cookie opened in AF, a mere 5 minutes from my home! Yipee! And being the Smart Cookie fanatic that I am and being BFF with Steph, the 2nd biggest fan (next to my mom) - we made sure that we celebrated this monumental accomplishment and partook of the Smart Cookie tonight! Fun was had by all!

little mess, BIG FUN!

One paper cup - 5 cents, 30 white paper napkins - 25 cents, Keeping Paislee busy while mom cooks dinner - PRICELESS!