the birthday girl

Meg has been asking me to get her pink tulips from costco for months now. Every time we went there (which is unfortunately to often) she would ask. So Aunt Mandy asked me to get some for her. So we went and they didn't have tulips. So these were her 2nd favorite.

It's official Meg is getting big. She turned 4 this week and reminded us repeatedly that she could do things now that she was 4 that she couldn't do before when she was 3. Such as, buckle herself in the car, say the prayer by herself, open the garage door. The girl is growing up. She has also started riding a bike, with training wheels of course (we are Wallace's and you've read in earlier post how successful we are at riding bikes).

*Funny thing about the cake picture. It was from Costco and had a princess and frog on it. She was so excited. she was standing on her chair trying to reach the cake she wanted and hand out pieces. Daren and I were both starting to say Sit down when she fell on her cake! she squashed the frog and a part at the top. She started bawling. She couldn't pull her self together until Daren started joking that most princesses don't drop and elbow on their frog prince. She started laughing and retold the story about how she karate dropped on the frog on her cake.

I think I did finally learn my lesson about birthdays though. It seems that birthdays sneak up on me. I don't really start thinking about them until a week before and I don't take action until just a few days before. Which is how it went this time. So I had no clue what to get her. So I went to target to just look and find something. I'm lame I know. It took 1 1/2 hours to pick something and when she unwrapped everything I was remained how easy she is to please. She would have been happy with this little fur-real dog that growls and barks when you play tug a war with it. I got that at target in April on clearance for $6. I let Abby buy it from me to give to her and she loved it. I didn't need to by the $25 barbie and horse that I also got her. She likes it and plays with it but she loves that dog. So I am vowing right now (and this is written down so I can't go back on it) that I will look ahead for birthdays and be prepared from now on. No more impulse birthday gifts!

Anyway, here is our tribute to Meg. She can be so sweet and unselfish. Usually if someone wants something she has she gives it to them. She has done this since she was a baby. So sweet. She has always been my laid back girl, she has a stubborn streak in her but if those flags aren't flying she is just happy to be alive. She loves to "play" with me. Which consists of telling me exactly what to say and where to be with my Polly pocket/my little pony/barbie. She is also very smart. I will ask Abby and Lizza a question and she will answer it. You don't even think she is paying attention because she's in her own world of make believe but she is there. She wears a dress at least 5 days out of 7 regardless of the weather. Best of all she loves us and tells us all so frequently.

Here are some random pictures of Meg what would we do without her?

So after the birthday bash, which is still going on we have one more with Grandma and Grandpa Wallace, we also celebrated the last day of school. YAHOOO!!

We had a good year but I am excited to have my children back. We started our summer program of "taking care of ourselves" today and I am excited.

We have had an action pack week full of birthday parties lots of cake and ice cream, Grandma's cousins, and not enough sleep. So tonight they were in bed by 7:50 reading in their beds. But working up to that point we were doing baths and clean up. It never goes well and tonight here was the result.

Yep Lizza got whipped by a fake pearl necklace that promptly got thrown away. If you use it as a weapon it's gone. You can see the round marks from each pearl across her cheek. We were exhausted and out of control! So on that note I am sure this post is jumping all over the place and spellcheck is picking up some words it doesn't even have suggestions for, which all means I need to go to bed.

the things they say

In the past week we have heard some pretty funny things come out of our kids mouths. I thought I would share a few. We walked into church today and there was a man sitting there with an eye patch on. Meg says oh great look mom we have a pirate at church today. I was laughing so hard I couldn't walk into the chapel for a few minutes. We have a ditch that runs through our property. We use it to flood irrigate the back of our yard. When we don't have our dam in it flows through on certain days to our neighbors. Anyway Abby and Lizza were playing back there and put a flip flop in on one end and thought it would get caught on the other but it wasn't so it went through to our neighbors. They came and told us and we told them to go ask Steve if he found a flip flop. They of course were scared. So later I found this note they had written to him, (this is exactly what it looked like) "um Steve, have you seen a flip-flop that's pink and say's lovely girl in white? If you haven't ask your neighbors. Remind them if they haven't to ask their neighbors. heart(they drew a picture of a heart) Lizza." Abby had written this for Lizza. Neither of them had the courage to give it to him, hence finding it in their pocket. In case your worried he did find it and threw it over the fence the next day. What a guy.

one last thing

This isn't worth it's own post but I forgot it in the last one. It will only be good for Kirst but you'll enjoy. So at Oaks park we go on this little train ride around the park. Fine and fun. We come up to this older laday waving to everyone as we toot by. It was nanny K! and John no less. I could not belive it. I called sheryl as soon as I got off the ride.

Memorial Day

Since we don't have much time off this year because Daren changed jobs, we are maximizing what we have. So for the long weekend we went to Portland. I love Oregon. Just driving through all the green makes me smile. It wasn't has bad as a drive as I had envisioned. It took us 7 hours I think to get there. But we survived that part. We went to the OMSI because with our membership to the discovery center we get in there for free. It was lots of fun. We spent almost the entire day there.

Pretending to be squirrels, Max wrestling the dinosaurs, and playing with the balls. This thing kept him busy for a good hour I swear. He loved it. The girls were running around him to all the different exhibits and he was still there.

Meg playing with the water and learning about sound

Sunday we went to church, ironically it was the same church I went to when I lived up there. Kind of fun. It was right next to the temple which is why Daren picked that one to go to I assume. I didn't bother to ask I guess he was in charge of the planning. Afterward it was pouring rain but I love the Portland temple and meg and Lizza wanted to see it so we went over and got out and walked around. It was fun. I love that temple.

Next Daren had found a county fair that was free so we headed over there. It was awesome. It was at Oaks Park, Which I didn't know until we got there again Daren planning me implementing and being happy that is how we divide and conquer. It was so fun. We got ride passes and rode some rides at the park and went rollerskating, which happened to be include with the ride pass. the girls had such a good time. Abby of course was scared of every ride at first but by the end she had done everyone that the others had. Daren didn't feel great that day so I was going on all the rides. I was starting to get sick. The last ride I did I thought I might throw up so that was it for me. But by that time they girls loved the rides and just started going on them alone. there weren't any lines and they went crazy! Meg and Lizza rode the kiddie roller coaster probably 30 times, at least!

So this was the first time on the rockin'tug but I promise Abby went on it with out me several more times.

ROLLER COASTER!!

I know there are a lot of pictures but a picture says a thousand words, right? So then we have the rollerskating. Meg was the best out of everyone. I am not sure if it is because it is her thing or because Daren taught her while I worked with Lizza and Abby cried about being scared and she was going. Who know but she was cute. The all were and Abby said that was one of her favorite parts of the day.

You probably have noticed there aren't pictures of Daren. He was sick pretty much the whole time. I felt bad for him and he was a trooper. He wasn't grouchy he just followed us and would find and place to sit and even took over Max off and on. But I did feel bad for him. The one snag we have with this whole vacation was that is was so short we really were trying to use our time wisely, hence the Sunday activities. Well while I was on one of the rides with Abby she said this is the best Sabbath day ever! It was such a fun day but We could have hung out at our hotel room too and had fun. I don't know how to really justify this one but it was a great day. I need to work on making our "sabbath days" more fun. It usually consist of some go play and let me read the newspaper. Can't you girls play that outside? So if you have any great ideas let me know I am always open for suggestions.

P90X is killing me

I have been meaning to write for days but haven't made it. So last night was to be the night. The girls were going to bed on time, I made sure of that and I was going to write after P90X of course. Now here's the background. P90X is this intense workout program. I gave it to Daren on our 9th wedding anniversary (may 15th). So we started Mon. with the fitness test to confirm we could handle it. We passed with flying colors except I am currently struggling with pull ups. I should be able to do 1 and I can do 0 unless I have a chair to help me. Anyway Tues. time for the arm work out. this is about 55 min of push ups done in several different styles and pull ups done in different styles. So we muscled through I was dying on the last round of push ups I could only do 3 and it was all I had in me. But we finished we were cheering and didn't have to do this DVD for a week I could handle that, but then it went straight into abs. There were no normal crunches it was crazy stuff. By the time that was done I was sick. I just had to sit there and breath and concentrate on not throwing up. It was hard for Daren don't get me wrong but we finish and he goes and makes himself and smoothie watches a little ESPN hangs out, while I am thinking I am going to throw up seriously I am going to throw up right here on the carpet. Needless to say no blogging last night. Today my arms are hammered. They don't just ache but they are still just worn out I cannot lift max above my head unless I hurl him with momentum. They are weak. So moving on. Lizza was our winner for the week during FHE. She worked really hard this week at being helpful, she got all her obedience beads over to the good side, and she has been very gracious to others, Saying thank you. Next we have dance recital pictures. Abby and Lizza have had a love hate relationship with dance this past semester but finished and loved dancing the recital. I asked Meg if she wanted to dance like her sisters and she told me she doesn't need lessons she already know how to because she is like Genevieve (12 dancing princesses). I asked but wouldn't you like to be up on the stage and wear a pretty costume she said no I just like being down here doing this (she claps and says whoooo). So Meg apparently isn't ready for dance. Max also enjoyed the recital. I have been trying all day to add a video of him dancing to the music at the recital and it is not loading . So someday I will figure out how to do that in a timely manner and you will get video clips. If you have any tips on that please let me know. Also tell me this, is this outfit ridiculous? I had Max in this for Church and Daren came home from his meetings to get us and was like no no way what are you wearing and went and changed him. I think it is cute Daren says defiantly not cute what do you think? Next we have Meg : I love her and listening to what she tells me. Yesterday she brought out a dress she wanted to wear. so we put it on and she said I need a shirt to go underneath it. Meg always wants to wear a dress so through the winter we wore leggings and long sleeve shirts underneath. So I said no your okay it is supposed to be warm today. She says but you can see my breast in this dress. Daren says you don't have any your fine, "yes I do see there right here." So Daren says if you think its immodest than you can wear a shirt underneath it. meg, "no I like it this way, I like immodest." She is the one that will give me a run for the cloths she wears. She has always been the most particular. This is the dress .

wisdom

really quick I am not sure what I am doing on here in the middle of the day. One of the things Daren did for me for Mothers day was burn me a CD with songs from singers from American idol this year. So we have pretty much been listening to it non-stop. So today in the car we are listening to it and Meg says "mom Brooke just said speaking words of wisdom, what is wisdom?" So I tell her it is someone who is smart and makes good (smart) choices. So fast forward an hour. We are making lunch and she orders eggs like Max's. So she ask Lizza if she wants some she doesn't answer right away and I say I am guessing no. Lizza finally says no and Meg says "hey your speaking wisdom. Mom has wisdom. Good job mom you have lots of wisdom and your smarter than even me!" Who knew?

catch up

This is starting to look like my journal. So we are playing a little catch up here. First off we decided to post each week who was the gold medal winner for the week. This is something we present in FHE each week. We came up with a family theme (I can't think of the right word) ours is Wallace's Win. Since we are winners we have a gold medal we pass around to the one who did something exceptional/noteworthy that week. Well last week it was Max finally! I am embarrassed to admit this but it was the first time he had slept through the night for the whole week since January! I know I never thought I would have a kid like that but as luck would have it I did. So here is max..... Sorry he is not really into standing still these days this was the best one we got.

So next on the list the bees. Yep bee's. Daren was working in the yard on Saturday and saw this cloud of insects surrounding our tree. He got closer and it was a swarm of bees. They made a hive in our tree. So we were just going to spray them and be done. Daren was a little scared to do it and I wasn't doing it, isn't that Daren's job? So he call an exterminator. He told us they won't kill bees because they are dying at an unusually alarming rate. So he referred him to the national beekeeper association. Who told Daren someone would contact us within 24 hours and come and get the bees. So until then no playing by or climbing in the tree.

Then the weekend. Another great weekend of yard work, picnics and bike rides. Lizza is cruising on her bike (as meg would say) her training wheels are disintegrating beneath her. Abby on the other hand, no cruising. She just cannot handle the stress. she cried pretty much the whole bike ride. I am not sure how to help with this one. So we just keep trying. Sunday we went again and there was only crying for half of it. I walked beside her instead of riding my bike. She has training wheels on still but still thinks she is "tippy". Lastly mothers day. I love mothers day. Daren has done a great job making it enjoyable. I hear of many moms who don't like it because they have expectations that aren't met or they don't feel recognized. Daren is awesome at doing that even when it's not mothers day. But this year my girls are really into the holidays. They had warned me to stay in bed even if I heard noises. So I did what I was told and was just sleeping away. Abby and Lizza made me breakfast (Daren was still in bed) of toast and yogurt. They brought it in on a trey with a glass of water. it was 6:50 am. They woke me with a rendition of Mother dear I love you so. It was great. I was showed with "art" from them all day. I took a picture of all the papers they made me. Then this morning I found 6 more that hadn't been in the picture. they really are fun. Daren made me dinner it was great.

Last of all a picture of meg because one of her gift to me was she "let"me curl her hair for church and didn't even "skeem or cry" about it. Isn't she great? My life is complete.