December 2010

December 2010

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Lizard!!!

Pennie loves to chase lizards. She hunts them down outside and tries to catch them. Mostly she is unsuccessful. Simply chasing them is a self-esteem booster for her. Yesterday I opened the back door to put something in our recycling container right outside. She spied a lizard and began to chase it. It scurried to and fro, and before I knew it, it ran into MY HOUSE!

Okay, so I grew up in Texas, I have four brothers, and four sons. I am no wimp. But I really don't like creepy crawly things. I just don't.

Here is our guest - 



 I hope you aren't noticing the dust...

I ran into the living room to text Mark about this crisis. It's not like I expected him to run home to help me, but I kind of hoped he would. But he didn't. So, I went out front to see if any neighbors happened to be outside, maybe they could get it. Nope. I texted Derek. No response. Ugh. This is why I had sons, so they could get creepy crawly things! Jayce said he could do it. Our first plan was to position boxes around this speaker and then scare it into one of them. Well, it was a dud lizard and barely moved. Then Jayce said he'd get gloves on and get it. I was not optimistic. But I let him try.
Jayce is my HERO!
The lizard was safely replaced back outside! Happy day!!
Jayce saved the day!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Easter Fun at our House!

It's always fun to wake up to see what the Easter Bunny left in our baskets!

Some were more excited...

 ...than others...

 ...and some were kinda sleepy...but happy!
After church, while we were preparing dinner, Billy and Caitlin had the assignment to fill the Easter eggs for the hunt.
 Pennie really wanted to help!
Grandma and Grandpa and Jeff came down from Orange County to have dinner with us. So, of course, they watched the Easter egg hunt. 
We are down to only Jayce who wants to hunt, so we had to make Cody hunt, too.





 This was so funny...well kind of...Cody found the golden egg and Jayce really wanted it so Derek took it out of Cody's bucket and put it in Jayce's. Well, Cody still wanted it, so a wrestling match ensued!
 Cody had to climb up the water spout.



Soooo, there aren't many pictures of the day because I was busy cooking, but it was super fun to have everyone home. And we appreciated Grandma and Grandpa and Jeff coming, too.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Bill & Cait's Visit!

Billy and Caitlin came to visit in between their BYU semesters. And to make it even better, it was Caitlin's birthday, we went to Disneyland, and we got to have Easter together.

On Thursday, they were excited to go watch Cody participate in his track meet. Caitlin was able to see Coach Medlock, her favorite high school track coach. (Wow, that picture is really far away, but you get the idea :).)


And then the funniest thing happened! Caitlin's friend, Megan, (they have been friends since kindergarten and are super silly together!) saw Caitlin talking to Medlock. Then she sat a few feet away and hid her face when Caitlin and Billy came back. She then proceeded to grunt or make a weird noise, which got Caitlin to stare over there. It only took a second for Caitlin to realize it was Megan and they had a hysterical reunion!




We went to DISNEYLAND on Friday, for Caitlin's birthday. Here we are...beginning the day!


After leaving Town Hall to get Caitlin's birthday badge, I watched this Dixieland band. It was so cool! Grandpa Barrow would've loved it!

Main Street...yep, it was a little crowded. I guess it was the last day of Spring Break for some. It was fun in spite of the crowds!

Bill pinning on Caitlin's "It's my birthday" badge!

We rode the Disneyland train and talked to this Conductor guy. He even let Caitlin wear his hat! 

Jayce insisted on having cotton candy. I think it made him hyper for the rest of the day :). Caitlin was feeding it to him. It was way funny!



This was on the Bumblebee ride in California Adventure.
Jayce was SO scared to ride this ride for some reason. So, Billy was kind and rode with him. Billy was so calming...while cracking jokes. He told Jayce that the chairs were ketchup and mustard chairs because they were red and yellow. Jayce loves Billy so much.
And he ended up loving the ride! You can just see Billy and Jayson's double chair, with Caitlin in the background far away.
The birthday girl wanted a chocolate covered frozen banana. And the rest of us had frozen lemonades. Yum!
California Screamin! They rode it three times, I think, despite the lines.


My favorite picture of the day! This is at the bottom of the "ant hill" in "It's a Bug's Life". We watched the movie and Jayce was terrified of the 3-D bug shooting poison. We all loved it, especially when we had to let the bugs exit the theater first!

It looks very much like this similar picture taken 10 years before.


 And, of course, bug bathrooms! 

After a long, fun day at Disneyland, we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe for a birthday celebration dinner. If you've never been, you really need to go. We sat by the gorillas. My camera on my phone is not stellar, so just a few pictures.


 The stools have tails!! 

After dinner, Cait & Bill headed over to Billy's sister's house to spend the night and spend some time with their cute nieces. We headed home. I was so tired I barely made it home. I probably should've stopped and slept (even though it was only an hour drive) I was so tired!

When they arrived home on Saturday, and after Jayce's baseball game, we began some birthday preparations. Caitlin said she couldn't decide if she wanted a yellow or chocolate cake, so I experimented by making both! It kind of looks like something you'd see in a Dr. Seuss book. 


Licking the frosting pan...


I can get excited about tupperware!!
Pennie really gets excited about presents.

Birthday dinner...grilled chicken, potatoes, salad.

More Pennie help with presents...
And Jayce help...

Now that's a lot of candles!
Striped!
Billy's got the milk!

And Derek missed the whole thing because he was at his baseball game way up in Vista!

But all good things must come to an end. They left on Monday night to go up to Orange County. It was so great to have them, especially for her birthday!


We love birthday celebrations!! We actually have FOUR birthdays at our house in only THREE weeks! And then, our anniversary!