School Days, School Days...

Kyndi had a delightful preschool graduation. They sang songs, made some crafts, had a snack, and a treasure hunt thingy-ma-jigger...
She was so cute doing her little songs.
The Next day she cried cuz she missed her teachers already. Too cute.

Here are some pictures of her performance... (and a few of Dayton and Oaklee thoroughly enjoying the program as well..)

This kid was none too thrilled about being there!! (The bump you see on his head was a gift from the sidewalk when he fell onto it face first off of the porch... he was trying to walk down the steps all by himself and it didn't work out too well.)

Ew she's cute!!

Who's on 1st, What's on 2nd, I Don't Know's on 3rd...

So last night for family game night – we played “guess the Baby’s name”… (I decided I am no good at keeping secrets such as this – I keep almost totally blowing it – so I decided a game would be fun to reveal the name to the kids…)
This is how the game worked: Each person in our house (including Kimmi – who moved in yesterday – more on that later…) …each person in our house had a paper placed on their back with either one of the letters from the baby’s name, or a smiley face… (with one exception…one person had a random letter placed on their back that had nothing to do with her name at all…) (No worries, the kids were well informed that one of the letters was random…)

So…With letters on everyone’s backs (Oaklee and Dayton of course insisted on playing too…) they all wrote down the letters – the only catch was – they were not allowed to know what letter (or if in fact a smiley face) was on their own back…
They set to work trying to unscramble the letters they knew… they substituted letters in (guessing that perhaps that may be the letter on their own back…) and they subtracted letters (trying to guess which letter was the secret ‘throw-off’ letter.)
Is everyone following this game so far? It really was far simpler to follow whilst actually playing it… They came up with all sorts of random and hilarious names – and actually thought I would name a child that random word – HILARIOUS!

So – the letters that were randomly placed on each person’s back were: J, P, R, I E, S. Anyone have any ideas?? Remember one letter does not really belong…

Tyson and Morrissa were constantly showing me their papers in the hopes they had finally gotten it right. Kyndi can’t read yet so she just kept randomly scrambling the letters. Both Tate and Kimmi sat and did a lot of pondering… I knew they’d never get it – I had added too much trickery – I was all prepared to give clues when suddenly Tate showed me his paper – where clearly in his handwriting it spelled:

He got it right! That is her name. Jersi. I am completely in love with the name!! (Sharli by the way has loved this name since she was like 12 – which I was unaware of previously… sorry Sharli).
Tate wins a treat for guessing right (he had only written down 4 guesses total- pretty good guesser)
Tyson and Kimmi came somewhat close with Jirpsy (Tyson) and Jerpsey (Kimmi). Morrissa had the most hilarious guesses of Jipsy and Jesipee – hilarious! Also Tyson had Jirsper on his list – Kyndi had Jisear… The whole game was cracking me up, I am sad it ended so quickly.
Anywho – the cat is now out of the bag – Her name is Jersi (but her middle name will remain a secret)

School's Out For the Summer

So the dreaded day has arrived - summer break has begun. And on top of that - Kimmi (my step-daughter) moved in yesterday... wow - what a day! I was all sorts of anxietied out. What exactly does one do with 7 kids in the house all day everyday? And how exactly does one handle a civilized lunch and/or breakfast time?? And when exactly do I get to do my homework? Yikes. I am in for one exciting summer!! Woo-hoo!
Bring on the Nervous Breakdown!!

Look At This Stuff, Isn't It Neat? Wouldn't You Think My Collection's Complete?

Here's my other latest creations that I am so proud of...

Here they all are on the wall... (Ignore the pink paint - it is hideous - it was there when we moved in... Poor Dayton has to have pink walls...)

And here is the first letter of the New Baby's) (aka Princess Cinderella Petersen)

I Went To the Animal Fair, The Birds and The Beasts Were There...

Kyndi's preschool had a day at Hogle Zoo on saturday. What this meant is that everyone in her family got free tickets to the zoo - awesome! Tate and Kyndi were at Jeremy's for the weekend, but we took all the other kids.. in the snow!! It was actually quite sunny and warm here in Spanish Fork but by the time we hit Salt Lake it was raining - and as we parked the vehicular, the snow started. Blah. That's okay. Made for fewer crowds! We just bundled up real good and went on our merry way!

Here's the mama elephant and her baby... the next picture is better of the baby...

So cute, right?

The little man walking through the zoo (That's Tyson up ahead of him with no head...)

I must've said something funny.

Lunch time for the tigers

A whole bundle of live bats in the tree just inches above our heads... (In the "creepy Crawly" (or whatever they called it) exhibit.) ...They warned us upon entry to this exhibit that the bats may be free flying throughout the building with us.

Oak's got a ride on the merry-go-round... she chose the Eagle - at first I was just standing next to her - then she decided I needed to "ride the fish" (it was a dolphin)

Cheese!!

Here Sharli - this one's for you. A skunk.

My favorite are the penguins...

Apparently this one is the only one brave enough to swim in the frigid water...

Baby Siamese Crocodile - he's seriously like only a foot long.

Moe getting eaten by the Lion Drinking Fountain that's been there since I was little. (that was the best "scared" face she could come up with)The Cutest Exhibit at the zoo... (and checkout Kamron's hands in the picture - he cut his finger open on a saw - and his solution is duct tape.)

Oaklee on the slide (obviously)

Tate and Kyndi actually were there with Jeremy - and we ran into them as we were leaving - I took a picture so they'd remember they were at the zoo too.

A way gorgeous Flower they had in their "Creepy Crawly" Exhibit

That wraps up the pictures... I actually took a picture of the big ol' ugly orangutan - he was hideous!! Somehow his ugly mug didn't wanna work with my camera... it's so blurry you can't even tell what the big brown blob is. Oh well. But there was a point where Kamron was crouched near to the ground looking through the glass and the hideous creature came right up to the glass and stared Kamron down, face to face. Pretty funny!

Looking in the Mirror - What Do I See?

When Dayton was born we thought he looked nothing like Oaklee. In fact, other people often commented that he looked more like my side of the family and Oaklee was identical to Kamron. Now days the roles have reversed somewhat... we have pictures of my granny and pictures of me that look just like Oaklee - and Dayton, he is 100% the spitting image of his dad (even down to his thundering walk, his brute-ness, and his love of sports...) BUT...

Check out these two pictures... if it weren't for the boy colors and girl colors pictured - wouldn't you think they were the same kid??

Crazy right? I located these two pics whilst doing my recent spring cleaning of my scrapbook stuff... They are my favorite baby pictures of the two of them - and they look alike! Crazy!

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

Reason #47596083 that I love Kamron. He did a 100% absolutely thorough check of the cornbread mix for weevil before proceeding with his baking (and I didn't even ask him to!!)


(Reason # 47596084 - he does occasional baking around here... cornbread... cookies... brownies...)

The Name Game

Ever since I was little - I've always loved names - had some weird fascination with them or something... I was always coming up with names I wanted to name my kids... I remember when I was like 13 I wanted to name my kids Anastasia and Fantasia (And Jonathan (my brother) still gives me crap over this...) In highschool I had a list of 16 names I wanted to use - one of which was Tahita Dakota. I'm serious. Another was Kemyr. Ya, good thing I've moved on from there. So if you think my children's names are a little off, just be glad none of them are named Tahiti! Ha ha! For reals. Just know that this new baby's name is different and I love it. I'm so thrilled over it I just wanted blurt it out now - and I almost have a couple times by accident. Chances are by the time this little one comes, I'll have accidentally blurted it at least once!! Hopefully I can keep it under wraps for 12-14 more weeks (wow - is that really all I have left? - Awesome!)


Let it be noted... Morrissa informed me today that she wants to name her kids April and Jasmine. Apparently she is a tad more down to earth on her naming skills than I was at her age...

Another Openin' Another Show...

Tate recently had his second grade program - those are always so much fun!! I loved watching Tate be so proud of himself as he sang each song and did all the little fancy manuevers...

This is the girl he "secretly" has a crush on (I believe her name is Bethany)
(Ha ha Tate - I got a picture of her and you didn't even know it!!)

Here are a few of Kyndi (Who was in attendance with me... the rest of them were at Moe's softball game...)

Here she is doing the manuevers with Tate...

And then they get odder than that.....

Oh Wow - she's lovely!