whew!

the bar exam is over!!!! yahoooooo! now we just have to wait until sept and oct to get the results...crazy. i am just so pleased that kendall is done with that and he will be here tomorrow and then on friday we will be off to kansas city (on a friday, that's right, now go sing that song from Oklahoma!) to start our tour of church history sites! way to go kendall. be safe driving baby! and i found out that we were approved for the renting of the house we wanted in gilbert so audrey...we are going to be a lot closer now!! hey neighbor:)

i was going to get kendall this shirt...

but upon retrospect, did not want to freak him out!!!! today is the bar exam...send some good karma and prayers in your hearts kendall's way. he is nervous but we know he will do his best and it will all go well! he has studied so hard and we are so proud of him! good luck honey! he's in tucson...as of writing this post...the test starts in an hour and a half.....at 9am Arizona time!

wow three posts in one day...

i am trying to catch up before i get behind again with being out of town....

i got to go see WICKED!!! so good. if you ever have a chance to see it, SEE IT! so funny!!! i didn't expect it to be so humorous but it totally was! the music was excellent, the costumes were great, the way they worked elements of the traditional OZ story into it was quite clever and i want to see it again!!!!!!!!! thanks to katie and mom for taking elise and me for our respective birthdays! so fun!

Superhero Training!!!

spider man cupcakes...

amazing power wheels that grandparents gave ethan...avery will even sit in the trailer part!

the aftermath of the presents...

ethan by his superhero poster friends...

we had ethan's friend birthday party this last saturday and it was a lot of fun! he wanted a spiderman birthday party but to make it applicable to everyone we did superheroes and i think everyone liked it! i made the kids superhero capes (11 capes, whew! that's a whole other post!) and we did three activities so they could "earn" their capes. i had little cards printed out for them and they put stickers on the activities when they finished them. they did villain bowling; we made bowling pins out of two cups taped open ends together and taped villain pictures to them, then they knocked them down! we had an obstacle course outside to test their speed...we had a slide, tunnels to crawl through, a wading pool (sans water) with balloons in it and they had to find their name on a balloon and take the balloon with them and a T to hit a ball off of. it was fun and they wanted to do it more than once, even though it was so hot! and they decorated their treat bags with superhero pictures and stars etc. when they had all finished their tasks, they got their capes (with first initial on the back) and kendall dressed up as our very own villain "the party pooper," came out, stole a present and ran outside. the kids chased him down with silly string and let him have it! so fun! then we had presents and cupcakes and juice and playtime for what time was left. whew! it was fun and i am glad we did it!

i didn't get to take many pictures during the party, because i was the facilitator...hopefully those that did will send them to me!

we were so glad that our family could come to this party as well and help out! thanks to you guys and thanks to everyone who came and for being so generous....he is one loved and blessed little boy!!!!

the fourth and a fourth birthday...

this year we celebrated ethan's fourth birthday and the fourth of july with family in Surprise. it was such a fun day! sadly, i was coming down with the sinus infection at that point, but didn't know it, so i felt kind of yuck, but i think everyone else had a great time! we had a breakfast together and opened presents for eth, everyone was SO generous, we are truly blessed! we got to go swimming in Nana and Papa's pool, it is salt water and very nice! the kids took naps, we had lunch, we had cake and we went to see the fireworks later that night, it was a great day!!!! kraig and elise got a new addition to their family that day...howie the puppy! so cute! avery is in love with him as long as he isn't trying to bite her clothes and toes! he's a sweet dog and growing fast!

cute birthday boy!

howie with his stuffed lookalike friend

our cake this year

avery in the tent that ethan got

i'm a yankee doodle dandy, a yankee doodle do or die....born on the 2nd of july!!!!

so much to say...

i think that's a dave matthews song...ah...anyway....i need to blog about fourth of july still! ackkkkk! and ethan's family and friend birthday parties (they were lots of fun, thank you to everyone who could come to the party yesterday, superheroes had a blast!). but we are leaving on wed. to go to Utah to give kendall some time to stay up all night and bully his brain into even more hours of studying before the Bar Exam (dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnn....(dramatic music here))...so i may not get to it, or i might. i was also going to write up the superhero capes that i made...they were tons of fun to make and a pretty quick project as well! anyway..i'm scattered. i'm making lists about things i need to not forget when we go to utah...does anyone else do that list thing? i make lists for everything. i love to check them off (#1 reason) and #2 reason, i forget stuff if i don't write it down you know?

right.

should go to bed and conquer my monday tomorrow when i wake!

dentist trip...

today avery went to have a little surface cavity filled on one of her front teeth. she was such a trooper! she took the medicine like a champ and didn't even cry when they filled the cavity! i am so proud of her! she's still wobbly if she tries to walk...we are trying to keep her sitting as much as we can! i am so glad it went well for her today, good job baby!

banana bread update...

it's amazing that i should still be making banana bread...but i am!!! today we used the last of our frozen bananas, that made batches 10 and 11. this brings our total loaves of banana bread made to 33. whew! and then ethan said he wanted to make cookies today...how about tomorrow i said? because the oven makes our house HOT! yikes...melissa and alacey you'll definitely be getting banana bread today! the question is do you want more than one loaf?

whew!

i think i can safely say i am finally feeling better! saints be praised. i haven't felt that bad in a long tme. note to self: never get a sinus infection again, it kicked my bottom end! now, this week needs to be packed with things i didn't get done last week. we've got a friend birthday party to have for ethan among other things. should be a lot of fun, here's to a good monday people!

kind of like "where's waldo"....

where's the baby...how good are you at "reading" ultrasounds? i feel like i can tell mostly what's going on in them now...kendall is still a bit stymied sometimes but let's see how proficient you are...a couple of these are the 3D ones, he had his hands up by his face the whole time (obviously, because that's what we wanted to check:)) he's doing great. heartbeat good, due date still 29th of october, he's growing well...all that good stuff:) we've decided to name him Blake, the jury is still out on the middle name:)

going bananas...

the beautiful banana bread...(notice the bananas on the counter under the cooling rack...awesome. those will be ready to go into bread in a few days if we don't eat them....or i could freeze them but that's what got us into this predicament to begin with!)

we have made 6 batches of banana bread today. i make them in the small loaf size, one batch makes 3 great little loaves and i find that is easier to give to people and you make more in one recipe to give away, as we so often end up doing with banana bread. so that means we've made 18 loaves of bread today. three went to the in-laws...kraig and elise i hope you took one of those. we ate one already, the kids love it as do kendall and i. so that leaves us with 14 loaves and i have enough bananas for 4 more batches tomorrow, if i get to them, which will give us 12 more loaves. so i need to make a lot more friends quick right? who wants some? it's really good:):)


here's the recipe if you want to make some yourself (after you help me eat mine of course)

best banana bread ever....

1/2 C. margarine/butter (one short stick), softened.
3/4 C. sugar
2 eggs
2 C. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 very ripe bananas
2 T. sour cream (this makes it very moist and yummy!)

combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl and set aside. in a larger mixing bowl, combine margarine and sugar, and blend with a mixer until smooth. add eggs, blend until smooth. combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture, blend. add bananas (broken into small pieces) and sour cream, blend. spray one large loaf pan or three small loaf pans with Pam. pour batter evenly into three small pans or all into one large one. i have tried making these into muffins but didn't like them as well. you can give it a shot if you wanna. bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes for the three loaves, or 1 hour and 15 min. for the large loaf. times are subject to variance of acuracy of oven temps...as always:)

****on a banana note: i freeze my bananas, as i said in my previous post, so when i use them for this recipe, i put them in the microwave for about 2 minutes and soften them up. then they kind of ooze out of their skins but it's worth it:) or you could let them sit on a plate on the counter for 40 minutes or so...if you are making other stuff etc.

okay, don't laugh...this is my freezer.

this is after i took out 6 bananas (four from the door and two from the inner cavity). and it's kind of misleading because there are actually bananas behind that bag of chicken, all the way to the back of the freezer and some above behind my WW chocolate popsicles (which are actually very good by the by)...i just don't want to waste bananas!!!!

banana day...

since i have declared a hiatus on many things that i could be doing because i am sick and trying to let myself heal...i also declared today banana day. which means banana BREAD day. i make banana bread every christmas season, lately, because i freeze bananas and then by christmas they need to be used. well. it must be christmas in july or our bananas are multiplying like rabbits in there because once again, we have too many and kendall also made a declaration today...let's throw the bananas out!!! well, we can't have all that waste going on so, we made banana bread. the kids like to help so we have made two batches so far, using up 6 bananas and hardly making a dent. i see bananas...you are getting tricky on me, don't worry, i'll catch up to you today after naps!!!! i will post the recipe and the final tally when i've conquered the banana stowaways in our freezer.

three doctor appointments....

so avery was up last night with a fever...awesome. ethan had his four year appointment today anyway, so i got avery in at the same time and got her checked. we came out with 4 medicines to have filled and one to get filled in case ethan gets an ear infection because his ear is red...whew. avery has some bronchitis stuff again, just a virus with the fever, so we are back on the nebulizer and the elusive mucinex i have yet to find. and i am going to an appointment later today because i feel like my face is going to fall off, maybe a sinus infection. i really hope i can get some medicine because i feel like poo. and a partridge in a pear tree.

sicky...

there should be a law against moms getting sick. seriously. shouldn't i have some kind of special immunity???? honestly. kendall got sick a couple of weeks ago, with a raging sore throat that we thought might be strep but wasn't. the kids got stuffy and yucky coughs, ethan's already over his, avery is working on it and now i've got it too. awesome. we had a great fourth of july weekend though and i hope the rest of you did as well, celebrating our freedoms. we had a birthday party for ethan with the family (so fun!), we swam, we ate food, saw fireworks and i blew my nose about 80 times an hour:):) pictures to come when i feel up to that, but none of my growing tissue pile, yuck!:) hope all goes well with you and no summer colds are pestering you!

happy birthday ethan!!!

today, four years ago, ethan was born!!!! all the dates i had put his due date on july 1st, and the ultrasound but him just a bit later, on the 2nd. true to his personality form, i started having contractions on july 2nd, around 1am. we went to the hosptial and they kept me because my blood pressure was high, that was around 2:30am. so we spent the whole day in the hospital, in a bed with our (not) friend pitocin. my parents were en route, driving from WA to UT. they got there and he was born around 4:50 in the afternoon. whew! that was 2 hours of pushing to get him here! but he is totally worth it!!! he is such a sweet boy, he loves his sister and all his family. he is smart and curious. he loves to figure out how things work, he has boundless energy and he is very excited about everything that's going on. he loves to help me cook, he loves to paint and do anything with glue! we love you so much ethan, thank you for being such a great boy, the first in our family! you are a great big brother!!!

just a minute or two after his birth....

daddy, mommy and ethan

first birthday

second birthday

third birthday

today at breakfast!!!

strange....

we were eating some blueberries today and found this one. weird huh? mutations happen.
(click on it to see the full weirdness, sorry it's not the clearest pic)
sometimes i feel like we are staving off scurvy when we go to the store...we buy grapes, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, apples...half of our groceries are fruits...it's a good thing but it looks funny in the cart sometimes. we've always called our kids "fruit bats" because they love fruit almost more than anything else. it makes me smile:)