My baby sister is 19!!

My very first memory of Summer: I was ten years old when Summer was born. We went to the hospital to see her and we got to be in the nurses room as they did her post-birth testing/cleaning stuff. I remember them doing a test on her in which they took her itty bitty hand and folded it backwards and forward so that it completely touched her arm. I was weirded out!! Older people can not do that. But I remember the nurse telling me that is what babies are supposed to do and that it was good. 19 years later and I am still amazed by Summer's talents and skills!!
Surprise Summer! We came to crash your birthday!!!Although she later confessed that she heard lots of children in Krista's apartment as she was coming up the stairs...it was nice that she still gave a surprised face for us! We crashed the YSA of BYU having some good Sunday dinner. When we left Eric said,"Was it more awkward for the family or the single college students?" We decided the students! They were all nice and tolerant though. (And yes, that's totally Brenda and Ryan on the top right corner). We made sure Ram was at his cutest for Summer. They're bonded afterall.

The kiddos loved Kristas hammock!And they loved Elise! Who in fact made the delicious roast we had for dinner. You may think this is a picture showing that the children had the best time with darling Elise. But I really wanted to document a precious part of life as a single college student wanting nothing more than to get married an be a mother. Look closely...Closer...
Yes, that is Elise's pile of tissue from her heart-break that happened just the day before. When the girls asked her why she was sad and she told them she just broke up with her boyfriend Viana was quick to respond that she wouldn't have a boyfriend until she was 49 and get married when she was 100 and Brooke was not going to have a boyfriend (she claims) until she is 4292 (said: forty-two ninety-two).
We had fun with Sum and Kris, but Summer said her best birthday present was CharlyAnn learning to say "CHEESE!" for the camera. I'm pretty sure it's now everyone's favorite present!What a ham! (sorry for some chewed food shots...but when she says cheese it's all out!)We're so glad Summer lives close enough for us to make Sunday afternoon visits to her on her birthday!!!

Meadow Hot Springs

Eric was able to take some priests and teachers to a really neat hot springs about an hour away today. (But don't you have hot springs in your back yard? you may say. True, true...but you can actually go in these with full faith you'll be ok when you get out). You better believe he's taking me there next! He took pictures at sunset, and look how beautiful it was!

You can see the steam rising really well in this pic.If you look super close in this picture you can see a little green IFO. It's a glow stick they brought to throw around and to dive for in the hotspring. I guess the water is super clear so it's really neat. They had a great time and only came back with a few injuries!

Friday night in

The options were endless. Eric had a less than stellar day yesterday, so including a perfectly timed lunch date (thanks Melissa!), we offered Eric the pick of any family activity he could choose to cheer his soul and remind him that we are--and always will be--his biggest fans. He came home from work with a list...to Emery to watch the basketball team, to Meadow to find the Hot Springs, to Las Vegas for a night at Circus Circus (I know...how cool would that have been!), to Richfield for bowling, to Provo to party with Summer, and mumbled under our breath stayathomenanddonothingmuch. Well, as we were discussing and hosting all the neighborhood children I suddenly noticed that Eric had dozed off. So I left the room and came back two hours later and said, "Well, I guess we did decided to go with stayathomeanddonothingmuch." Truth be told we did venture in to Richfield for some ooey-gooey carmel brownie twix shake and blue moon ice cream with red cream soda and crushed ice. Then we got to come home and watch the basketball game through live streaming on the internet. And do nothing much. Why do little boys think this is what you should look like when you say "cheese"?

CharlyAnn spent some time emptying her favorite drawer.

Viana and Brooke played an played.Silly face! per Brooke's request of course.Eric and Ram played basketball for a solid hour. Eric squatted down, and so Ram thought he needed to as well. I love when kids do that!As antsy as I was to spoil my husband with some amazing Friday night activity, I really really liked what we did instead. And now I am off to snuggle down and watch some Star Wars with my extremly kissable husband.

Kitchen Aids

I don't know why, but I feel like bearing more of my soul on this blog this year. Maybe I figure I want the posterity that will look to this as my history to know me better? Anyway, today I want it on record that in the past two weeks I have used my griddle, my waffle maker, my blender, my quesadilla maker, my steamer, my crockpot, my (fake)George Foreman, and my bread machine. Woa! That's cool! A)because I have all those machines B)it means I'm loved because most of them were gifts C)we live in a world that has technology like that and D)That means I really branched out in my cooking!! I'm usually not very creative when it comes to food--but we ate good these two weeks!

Linguistical bRookie

Brooke continues to charm us with her humor and preciousness. We have been working on improving some of her speech, including her initial /s/. One cute thing she does is say 'henu' instead of 'hold'.
Here is one cute conversation:
Brooke: I want to henu the balloon.
Me: What do you want to do to the balloon?
Brooke: Henu it.
Me: Do what to it?
Brooke:Henu it.
Me: Do what?
Brooke(recognizing I wanted her to say it differently): Sssss...henu it.

hehehehehehehehehhe. IT WAS SO CUTE!!!

My Piano Recital

I held my first piano recital tonight. Is it normal to have refreshments at such an event? We did! (ps-I had a lot of fun making the goodies with my 3 kids today, it was the easiest baking I've ever done!) Here are my 4 students plus one who we let perform! Alex...

Lexi...Zairen...Mattie...Makenzie...I love my piano students so much. They each have their own strengths and personalities and I have so much fun with them!! The recital was simple and sweet and they all did SO GOOD!! I was so proud of them.

And just because...here is Eric relaxing while he is relaxing...he fell asleep while he was playing a little Batman :) What a cute boy. I am thankful to have such a hard working husband-he deserves every moment of down time he can get!

Boyified

Coming from a family of all girls, followed by three granddaughters, Ram the Man was like this unfathomable species entering into the Roy family. Now that Daniel and Billis are here boys are becoming much more believeable, but it used to go like this: Any sister, "CJ! You have a BOY!" CJ, "I know! WEIRD!"

But I sure love me my boy. He may not have known it though, since he used to sleep in the room with the pink Finding Nemo curtains (at least they weren't princess, right?) that was essentially nothing more than a storage room with a bed in it. NOT ANYMORE!
I give you: Ram's Man Cave.
(Spain's flag--Orion sent us that for Christmas. Keep Ram mission minded.)(R for Ram, much cooler than pink curtains--thanks Mom!)Hooray for the cutest room in the house belonging to our boy!

I made REAL cookies!!

Being the oldest I sometimes feel like I missed out on my sisters' childhoods. So I am always mesmerized when my sister Krista starts recounting childhood stories to me. Sometimes she asks what my childhood was like, and I don't always have an answer. Different than hers mostly. She can tell me about games like "Bob" and campouts with Sarah and shnikes on Taryn and movies made with Summer. Today I realized what I can tell her. Coming home to mom in the middle of baking cookies (how did she always time it so perfectly so that there was still dough, and some fresh cookies?), chattering on to mom while she finished, sneaking cookie dough, then sneaking again, eating around all the chocolate chips and having a baked cookie...then back to the bowl to sneak a little more dough. That is my childhood.


As such I occasionally long for mom's chocolate chip cookies. I've tried and tried to make them like her--but I am a miserable failure!! They're always burnt, or the textures wrong, or they're not soft enough, or they somehow taste nothing like moms.


Until TONIGHT!!!

(That's a cookie smile...)

That is right, I nailed it!! YUM YUM CHILDHOOD!!!! What finally did it for me? My mom giving me step-by-tiny-step instructions. Thank you mom!

And because what good would a post be without any cute kids, I give you: What 4 children do the day after you babysit an infant who used the pack n' play to nap:

How novel!! But CharlyAnn wanted in on it.(If you look close you can see the tooth she acquired during Christmas break)In she goes!!