My kids can clean!

Here are some fun examples of how well my kids clean. I am starting their training early. This is why we have kids, right?
Zoe was slacking in her chores a couple of weeks ago. We told her she could clean her room or lose her toys. She opted for the second choice. Anthony (He always has to do the mean part, I just can't) went into her room with a garbage bag and filled it up with Barbies, Polly Pockets, and My Little Ponies. After a couple of weeks without her toys, she cracked. When I brought the HUGE garbage bag of toys up to her for her to start unloading, I realized just how many toys she really has. This was not even everything, it was filled with all the little stuff. The horse corral and carriage, the cars, the storage bins of Barbies, the pony castle, and more were all still out. We have got to stop spoiling her.
This is a tragic yet adorable picture of Sam being a boy. He was playing the other day and hurt his mouth. We did not even notice until he started walking toward us with blood dripping from his mouth. He wanted to be a big boy and clean it on his own so Anthony just gave him a wipe. He was laughing and smiling the entire time. He is 100% boy sometimes.
This is Sam helping me clean the fridge. Usually he follows me around and shuts everything that I open. This was the first time he allowed me to keep the fridge open. He caught on very fast as to how it was done. He started grabbing bottles from the door and putting them all around the kitchen floor. Then he would get them and put them back in the fridge in different places. When we were done with the bottom half, he started standing in the fridge and telling me very elaborate stories. He was yelling and getting way into it. I did not find the remote to our DVD player in the fridge. This means I will have to keep cleaning for now. I am starting to believe that he really did throw it in the garbage. If he did, it would just be further proof of how good he is at cleaning.

Suckers + Cheerleaders + Sam = Pure Happiness

We took Sam to his first parade today. He was concerned in the beginning with all of the sirens. Then people started throwing candy. He was helping Zoe pick it up and put it in the bag.... until.... he found a SUCKER! Sam loves suckers! He would take a piece to the bag and put it in, but he kept grabbing a sucker when he was in there. We, being the spoiling parents that we are, gave him one. Then he saw the cheerleaders. We just found out today that Sam loves cheerleaders. He would stop and stare at them in a trance, then as if they were hypnotizing him, he would just walk toward them. The combination of music, dancing, and pretty girls was too much for him to resist. He had an advantage over the girls, because they all thought he was soooo cute. I love this picture of him with some of the Syracuse High School cheerleaders. He is already a ladies man, we are in for some serious trouble.

A lot has happened!

Happy Father's Day Anthony!
I love Anthony so much. The kids all love him just as much. He is a terrific husband and a wonderful father. I love watching him play with the kids. He gets on their level and has so much fun with them. Our children are very blessed to have such a great father in their lives. He is always growing and learning. He wants to do the best possible job and makes sure that he is on the right path. I decided to give Anthony nine days of Father's Day this year. I started last Saturday and gave him a gift every day. I think he has enjoyed it. I love him very much! Thanks for being my babies' daddy Anthony!


I received my endowments at the Bountiful Temple yesterday. I definitely had some forces working against me that day. Sam has never been cared for by anyone other than me or Anthony, so I was leaving him for the first time ever. That is a big deal, I cried when Zoe was four-years-old and Anthony planned a surprise sleepover for her so we could go out on a date. I left him with Kaytlyn and Maria (two of Anthony's sisters). I was not concerned with their abilities, I was more concerned with Sam's fever of nearly 103 degrees. I spent so much time hugging him before I was able to leave, that I forgot my entire bag of Temple clothes. We got there and I realized, so I had a total meltdown and decided that I did not want to go any longer. Anthony went and found out that I could buy garments there and just rent my clothes. So I got out of the car and arrived thirty minutes late to my appointment. There were a few other factors working against me also, but I will not go into full detail on all of the embarrassing facts. Anthony and I are planning to get sealed in the San Diego Temple in September. Everyone is invited!

Zoe finished her very own 200 piece puzzle! She has been doing 100 piece puzzles entirely on her own for about four months now. She is always willing to help us with our 1,000 piece puzzles, but she can get a little frustrated. We bought her a "last unicorn" (all unicorns are the last unicorn according to Zoe) puzzle to do on her own. She tried a couple times before putting true effort into finishing it entirely, but she did it! Now she asks to do it every couple of days.

The boys are now going to be spending the night at our house on the weekends. They have been too little to both come in the past. Now that they are a little older we are going to have them stay the night. Anthony bought all the kids new pajamas to kick off their first weekend at Dad's. The boys both have capes on the back of their pajamas, so I am sure you can imagine how wild things have been.

Anthony's cousin, Shannon, has started making hair bows. I read about this on her blog. She has two boys and a third on the way, so I commented that she should send some of those bows my way. Within a week she had mailed me a package full of brand new handmade bows for Zoe. Shannon is an amazing woman. She is always doing the nicest things for us. I have never even met her! She mailed me a ton of brand new clothes for Sam when I was pregnant with him. She always mails me things. She is hilarious, if I leave her a voicemail message she will return my message with a mailed (handmade) card. I love her ways! Thank you for being so wonderful Shannon!

This is a video of Zoe doing her Bella Dancerella dance instruction video. She gets so into it. All of the daycare kids just sit and watch her and are not sure what to do. This is her singing the Bella Dancerella theme song.

Democracy Field Trip

Ha Ha Ha! I made you think that I was so wonderful and I was exposing my children to the democratic process at an extremely young age. Nope! We really just went to see Dad at work. We took him out to lunch and then we walked around the capital after we went to see his office. For those of you who do not know, Anthony is the State's Bond Accountant and he works at the Capital building. Zoe is in love with the "stat-che-oos" (statues) so we had to go see all of them.

There is a really nice walking trail around the grounds that has tons of little gravel pieces on it. Sam is super excited to be a big boy and insists on walking wherever we go. Every time he took a few steps in the right direction, he would realize that there was gravel and stop. He had to touch it and pick it up and throw it. We spent about twenty minutes just stopping to throw the gravel. It is so funny to watch him learn new things. Zoe was rolling down the hills too, but after Sam tried a couple rolls he was just irritated that Zoe had convinced him to do something that required his face and hands to touch the grass. When we went inside to see all of the fun things in the building, Sam caught on to the echo very quickly. We were not able to stay long because he kept yelling to hear his echo. all together we were there for a couple of hours and the kids had a blast the entire time. Zoe always loves to visit Daddy at his "castle work".

Puzzle Time

I have convinced my amazing husband that yard sales are fun. We went to a few of them last weekend. Zoe is way into puzzles right now, so we bought her a puzzle that we found at one of them. It had 1000 pieces (not exactly easy for a four-year-old). It had a picture of a dog on it though, so that scored points with her. Zoe had a hard time learning the art of puzzles. We have bought a few more since (500 pieces) and had her help. She is doing better and really starting to enjoy larger puzzles. I think that this is going to be a fun activity for our family.