Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls in this family sure get spoiled......for Valentine's day we all found ourselves with beautiful bouquets of flowers and candy!  Ryan got the girls carnations.  And it was very confusing.  And now I'll tell you why. Shayli came downstairs in the morning holding her flowers.  I had just dropped Lexi and Kendri off at school and they hadn't said anything to me about flowers. I was sure they would have said something about their flowers if they had seen them before I took them to school. And I knew they couldn't have missed a bouquet in their room.  And that's when I got suspicious of my husband who was supposed to be at work.  Ryan had left at his usual time (4:30 am) and the car wasn't in the driveway. But I knew he had to have put the flowers in their rooms while I was dropping them off at school.  I started searching for him.  He was actually texting me while I was searching.  He finally popped out from the garage where he had snuck his car in before I got home.  It was a fun surprise!

But the surprise's didn't end there......He had a massage scheduled for me in the morning.  Ahhhhh. And then I left the spa sore and feeling like I needed another massage.  Those darn knots.

That night we took the kids with us to the UOP vs BYU men's volleyball game. Go Cougars! It was a fun night.

The best part was when Kyson decided to bust out his dance moves during half time.  He went to the empty stairwell you see in the above picture. The music obviously spoke to him....and boy, did he answer!  He even hit the floor with some "break dance" moves, people.  It was a musical looove connection.

Kyson and his cousin Reese

We are talking about some serious dancing.  He had lots of cheers from our section! And if you are wondering about the "ink art" all over my son, those are his teenage mutant ninja turtle tattoos that he got for Valentines Day.  We couldn't wait to use them.  Happy Valentine's Day! (from the Hood)

Happy Real Birthday Lexi!

I know, I know.  I just posted Lexi's big Par-tay.  And here she is with more Par-tays.  I just feel like you have to do something on your actual birthday.  You have so much anticipation and if you've already celebrated it's a big let-down.  Like celebrating Christmas early.  Blah!  So these are pictures on February 15th. The day she turned 10!  She had mentioned something about Kyson's wrapped doorway so we went ahead and did it for her too.  

We had cake and presents that evening and that was pretty much it.  But she had fun.

We love Angel Food Cake!  Happy happy birthday, Lexi!

At 10, Lexi is now in the double digits! She also:

loves to mother

is a great big help

very mature

gets straight A's

weighs in at a whopping 56 lbs

finally has her eye-teeth coming in after losing her baby eye teeth almost a year ago

can be very moody :) (fingers crossed this is as bad as it gets!)

wants to be a doctor or orthodontist assistant

We love Lexi!

Happy 10th Birthday Lexi!

Lexi was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday a week early since it was a 3-day weekend.  She also had a family party on her actual birthday. We decided to take a mini vacation up to Angel's Camp and let her celebrate with a few of her friends in Valley Springs.  To say the day was full of excitement would be an understatement!

Gammi was kind enough to let us take over her house for the day and turn it into a party house!

Here are the party animals.....they are soaking their feet in preparation for pedicures.

I decided to do mini cupcakes for the occasion.  It was a tea party/spa party.  The mini cupcakes were perfect.

Bracelet making.

Make a wish!

The party was a success and everyone left with cute toenails!

Night Time Ninja

She looks cute and sweet.  But don't let that fool you. Because in the dark of the night, she becomes the "Night Time Ninja."

Why, you ask? Because in the dead of the night, she sneaks out of her room and soundlessly (okay, maybe not so soundlessly) makes her way to my bedroom.  Where she proceeds to karate-chop her way over my weary body and roll into the middle of the bed.  If you think it ends there you would be naive.  Because at this point she will shove me over onto my side so as to better use her "wax-on, wax-off" skills.  In my hair.  Both little hands twirling and dancing through my hair while she lulls herself back to sleep.  Now is when I mistakenly drift off to dreamland instead of staying on guard.

 Because the Night Time Ninja does not sleep.

While I'm ignorantly sleeping, Shayli is now flailing in bed.  Karate kicking her blankets off and doing aerial helicopter moves in the center of my bed.  Now most of this movement gently jogs me to the edge of consciousness.  Which is good because at about this time, the karate kicks are coming dangerously close to causing serious injury......such as a nose bleed.  (Okay, maybe not "serious" injury but you get the gist.).

 I'll tell you about one time I was  playing peek-a-boo with sleep. Shayli was already comfy-cozy in my bed.  I instinctively jerked my head to the side just as her little foot arced out and slammed into the side of my head.  Better than the nose. Which is where it would've landed had I not moved.

 Now at this point you may be wondering why I don't always take her back to her own bed the second I hear her little ninja footsteps.  And the answer is.....I have gotten very lazy.  I don't want to leave my bed unless there is no other choice. Back to dreamland.

I think I may have gotten an hour or two of sleep before the next attack.  And then I was jolted awake to little hands in my hair again.  Nothing to worry about there.  Until she twirled my hair so tightly around her little fingers and then chose to jerk her hands back.  I heard the RIIIPP more than I felt it.  I decided to wave the white flag.  I shoved her over towards her daddy and I crept to the edge of my side.

And in the morning I checked out my new bangs.

Happy 5th Birthday Kyson!

Kyson woke up on his big day to being wrapped up in his room with balloons bouncing everywhere! We wrapped the whole doorway up while he was sleeping.  It seemed like a fun idea at the time.  But since it was a last minute decision, we had to use our left-over angel wrapping paper.  So that's what Kyson woke up to.  Christmas angels blowing their trumpets wrapping paper.  Which may have led to some confusion as to what exactly was going on.  But I decided that because he couldn't read, and I wanted a picture of the doorway, we should put the birthday wishes on the outside of the door.  (That way at least the girls would understand what was going on.) 

Anyway, I slept lousy the whole night worrying that Kyson would get up in the middle of the night and walk smack into the wall of wrapping paper which would then lead to confusion and panic and in the end wake the whole house with his terrified screams.  None of that happened by the way.

What did happen was I heard him at 6:00 am giving the paper a  little "tap, tap". And then I heard his actual door slam shut and the lights flick on.  And then a few more "taps". At this point I decided I'd better check on him and see if he had any idea what was happening.  He had no clue what any of it was for.  He couldn't figure out how the balloons got in his room and the wrapped door made no sense.  But he was a good sport about it and played along.  Eventually I told him he could pull the wrapping paper down and that it was supposed to be like unwrapping a giant present to start his day off.  He was more than happy to get rid of that irritating paper!

Lexi and Kendri surprised him by bringing up breakfast for him!  It seems like that's their little forte, doesn't it?

We met the family at Menchie's for frozen yogurt and presents later that night.

The owners were nice enough to bring out a little treat for Kyson with a candle on it.  We had a great time partying with the family and Kyson was certainly eating it up!

On Saturday Kyson invited a few of the neighborhood boys over for a little friend party.  The girls helped him plan the party and took care of  pretty much everything including the invitations, the games, the magic show and the general entertainment. You don't hear me complaining, do you?  Kyson was set on having a "bomb" cake.  Don't ask me.  I don't know.  And the bomb cake sort of "bombed" if you know what I mean.  All I can say was, I was given strict instructions as to what it had to be and I followed them to a "T".  Even down to the licorice fuse.  I have to be honest here.  I was looking back through my pictures and was trying to figure out why I had a picture of a chocolate dipped apple.  The End.

Moving on.  The girls did a fantastic job putting on a magic show. The audience was left stumped and delighted.

And the boys were all easy to please and they couldn't care less what the cake looked like.....they all came back for seconds!  And that cake was rich.  I couldn't finish one piece much less two!

Happy birthday Kyson!

He also insisted on one candle that "never goes out" and the number "5" candle.  As long as we are all happy, happy, happy.

At 5 Kyson is still our active little dare-devil.  He loves to push the limits but is the sweetest little boy around.  He showers people with love and can't get enough kisses and hugs from his sisters and mommy.  He also is quite debonair and while there is music playing will come find me or one of his sisters, strike a "princely" pose and say, "May I have this dance?"  But don't let that fool you.  He loves to wrestle and has taught Shayli the finer tips of body slamming. He has a fun personality and brings an excitement with him wherever we are!  We love Kyson!

A Hairy Situation

Shayli has become aware of her growing hair.  And she loves it.  As you can see.  She has never had a "real" haircut.  (Those of you faithful followers will recall the unfortunate incident of gum, Kendri, and my little babe's newborn hair.  I suppose that would qualify as a first haircut. But we aren't going to count it.) 

But really, somehow her hair has grown in with side bangs and trendy layers.  (Please don't shatter my naive mother illusions if you disagree.) Yes, there was the MacGyver stage.  And the mullet stage.  Or perhaps they were the same stage.  And this picture has a little Fabio flair to it. But overall, when it's dry and not slicked back, it looks pretty decent.  Compared to what my other kids hair have done at this age, that is.  So I have yet to feel the need to do anything with it.  And as you can see, she's pleased as punch.  

Now on to Kyson.  As you can see, he is NOT pleased as punch.  He came to me very disturbed the other day.  (See his face? Disturbed.)  He had just been in the bathroom for a little while checking himself out in the mirror apparently. (Now this comment leaves the door wide open for any of you who know his daddy.  I will take the high road and refuse to state who I believe Kyson is taking after in this respect of self admiration.  The rest of you are left to your own guilty consciences for "jumping" to conclusions....) Now back to the story. Kyson came to me after being in the bathoom, very concerned.  He asked me if I had ever noticed his "baldness."  Ahem.

 "Your baldness?" I asked. "I don't see any baldness."

His answer, "YES! I just SAW it in the mirror!"

Well, obviously we weren't on the same page, he and I. So I asked him to show me what exactly he had seen.  This was the problem.  Go ahead and take a look.

His BALDNESS. Right there in front of me and I had never even mentioned it to him.  How dare I?  He thinks his scalp is baldness. It's sort of cute.

I still haven't figured out if he wants to be bald or if he's terrified of it.  He was obsessed with our neighbor Frank, who was bald.  He had many a conversation over our fence line with Frank about his bald head and mustache.  That's the other thing Kyson can't stop thinking about.  When his mustache is going to grow.  (Not as long as you keep up that shaving routine, boy. He, he, he!)  I'm sure in time all of this will get worked out.  Until then I'll just have to assure Kyson that being bald is in!