THIRTY FOUR!

In honor of my 34th birthday, (YAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!) I thought I'd share with you a few gems about yours truly.  Get excited, this is some good stuff!

Ready?....

Here we go....

Aaaaah, what a coot widdle chubby wubby!

 I'm pretty sure I never did lose a few of those chins.




Seeing as though I entered the world with little to no hair, it's obvious I overcompensated throughout the years.  Let's have a look.

Here we are just a few short years into my life.  It's obvious none of my children:
 A) look like me when I was a child (probably an okay deal)
-and-
B) definitely didn't get my dark brown eyes I had as a wee one

 I think maybe I was entered to win the tightest curls competition.


 Like a lot of little girls, I enjoyed a few years of dance lessons.  This one in particular has to reign supreme among all my dance pictures.  Why's that?  Well, you see, I was certain I would look so very cute with dimples.  Here is my darndest attempt at trying to have a smile with dimples:

Ahha ha haa haa haa!  Seriously classic!  That is dismal dimple failure.  I think someone upstairs took pity on me for this one and blessed me with children who have naturally cute dimples so something like this would  never.  happen.  again.



Moving right along to 5th grade.  I am a product of the 80's!!!!  Hence the neon and the hair.  Jacob captions this with simply,

POOF!

 I think my theory of overcompensation has been proven.  Allie was sad to hear I no longer have those earrings.  Darnit.  And Kenna keeps asking me if I really did that on purpose.  I quote exactly from Kenna, "Mom, did you really know that was happening?  You meant to?!"  I have to be honest.  Yep.  Sure did.




Perhaps I had some post traumatic stress disorder from my fifth grade portrait, because here's what happened in 6th grade:

Puberty is kind to no one.  NO ONE I tell you.  HA!  Love it!


This last pic, however, is a culmination of my thirty four years of life.  I think it's pretty obvious I am one blessed individual.

 So grateful to have these ones by my side to celebrate my day because, well, it just wouldn't be me without them.  The first thirty four years have been awesome (despite a few hair mishaps).  Can't wait for thirty four more!

I looked out the window and what did I see........

.......Well whaddaya know?  It really does look like popcorn! 

I LOVE this tree in our backyard.  No, it's not an apricot tree.  Perhaps the song is a bit biased.  Spring must be here!

...If not for blossoms, at least for the anticipation of Easter.  Here is Ty fresh off the bus from preschool with all his Easter loot.  Oh, excuse me, here is the Easter Bunny fresh off the bus from preschool:

Apparently when you catch the Easter Bunny in a photo he pulls a really crazy face.

Speaking of Ty and crazy, here is what happens when he and Lexi come across a stray marker:

Hence the reason markers stay waaaaaaay up high in the cupboard and require a fairly large amount of begging and pleading for me to get them down.

Speaking of Ty and Lexi, I caught these two snuggling on the couch the other day.  It was one of those sweet little mommy moments that makes my heart just beam:

Of course when I pulled out my camera to sneak a picture Lexi jumped right up, but fortunately I got them to recreate the moment.  I love these moments.  Especially to help counter the moments when Ty thinks Lexi is his WWF opponent.  She is so patient.  And yes she managed to find a binky.  Fortunately she could care less if she loses it.

We had our first full family campout in the camp trailer!  Okay, so it was in the backyard.  Baby steps folks, baby steps. 

 I don't know about you, but it looks as though Kenna is picking her nose.  Maybe our backyard adventure wasn't as fun as we thought it was...



We even watched a movie on the large screen iPad.  Oh yeah.

Good thing it was only in the backyard because one certain little toddler decided she needed to roam the entire trailer while everyone else wanted to sleep.  Needless to say, Lexi and I ended up back in the house for the night.  I can happily report, however, last weekend we had our first official away-from-home campout in the trailer and Lexi did much better-- many thanks to the pack-and-play.  This time we even managed to get 10 miles away from home!  We are big time.  Sorry, no pictures.  But it was really fun!

And one last pic to send you on your way-
Ty has had a fascination with guitars lately, and would find anything he could to pretend to be a guitar.  So he earned enough stickers on his reward chart to go and pick out a guitar.  It's pretty much just a glorified noise-maker, but he's a happy camper with his guitar!  Rock on buddy, rock on.

Uncles, a Sleepout, and a Recital

So you heard my lament about not getting any pictures with Aunt Marlene and Aunt Maria when they came to visit, so I am pleased to say I did not repeat the same offense when Uncle Daniel and Uncle Seth came the following weekend!  Yes, we somehow managed to get family to come down and visit two weekends in a row.  We loved it!  When someone will drive 5 hours to come see us, we feel pretty darn special.  And when someone will drive for hours through less-than-scenic central Utah?...

  

Well, that's love folks, love.

Okay fine, I actually only got one picture when the Uncles were here.  And it's fuzzy at that.  Better than nothing, right?  Besides, if Uncle Seth found out he didn't get on the family blog, he just might disown us.  For life.  We can't have that.  Of all the projects they got up to over the weekend, this is the only measly picture I came up with:

 yippee!

Contrary to the vibe coming across in the picture, we really did have fun!  Jacob kept them busy with tractor work, vaccinating cattle, hanging up a basketball hoop....and who knows what other little projects I never heard about.  Ty loved having some extra testosterone in the house for a while too.  Thanks Uncles for a great weekend!

 ----------------------------

So we recently added a new addition to our backyard in the form of a travel trailer.  We haven't taken it out for an actual campout yet, but hopefully will soon.  In the meantime, the girls decided to take it upon themselves to have the very first sleepout in the trailer.  Of course they had to take out every pillow and blanket they could find in the house.  Don't forget every girl has to have a change of clothes available at all times, so they had to take out a new wardrobe as well.  After all, those closets in the trailer aren't there just for looks!  I honestly thought they would only last about 10 minutes out there before they were scared out of their minds and wanted to come back in, but those two ladies stuck it out the whole night.  They proved me wrong!  Here they are getting all settled in for the night-  with their reading material, of course:

Sorry Lexi, you have a few more years before you can stay with the big girls:

---------------------------------

 Kenna started taking piano lessons last October, and Sunday evening had her first piano recital.  Thank goodness she was third in line-  that was about the max amount of time we could keep Lexi and Ty quiet before they had to be politely excused.  Oh the joys of having young children...

Kenna did a SUPERB job!  Here she is performing:

     

And here with her fellow piano students- she is the really really cute one in pink on the far left:

And with her great teacher:

Way to go Kenna!  We are so proud of you!

The Past Little While

What have we been up to, you ask?  Well here's a little update for you.

KENNA
Kenna got an outstanding student award for the month of February at school and Jacob and I got to go and beam with pride as she was presented in front of the school...with about 15 others, but she most definitely was the awesomest!  Not a real word, but just for now it is.  Behold, the Tiger of the Month:

She also likes to let the creative juices flow and came up with her own creation.  In a very Kenna-like fashion she left a note with it (we get many notes from Kenna).  The note says:

Do not

throw

away!

To:  Dad 

and 

Mom

My secret 

sauce 

ingredients

honey

&

mustard!

I think she's on to something.....


ALLIE
This little lady finally lost her third tooth.  It wiggled and jiggled for almost a week.  She refused to let me tie some floss up to it and hook it to the door knob.  What?  Trust issues?  It was literally hanging by a mere thread of skin.  Here she is demonstrating the old push-your-tooth-out-with-your-tongue trick.  A clear indication it is time to just yank the dang thing out: 

Thank goodness for goldfish crackers which finally facilitated the popping out of the tooth!  I love her new toothless grin:

And that wonderful, beautiful, awesome, talented, beloved tooth fairy is so wise, she brought Allie a new toothbrush instead of money.  It even had Hello Kitty on it.  It was a win-win situation.


TY
Ty man is so funny.  He says the silliest things!  He is so full of life, it is so incredibly enjoyable.  Of course let's not forget he is definitely ALL boy and comes up with some of the craziest, rowdiest things as well.  He LOVES his daddy and wants to be just like him.  Jacob found a pocket knife sitting around that, thank goodness, mostly just folds out into a pair of pliers.  It even has its own little case just like Jacob's does.  When he gave it to Ty, it was almost as though Jacob handed him the moon!  He was so excited!  He even had to sleep with it that night.  Here he has on daddy's shoes and a belt with his knife and case attached, just like daddy:

We got him this belt when we were down in Vegas and it has his name on the back.  He always manages to lose it for a week or so, but then we he finds it again he gets so excited and says, "Hey, it's my T-Y belt!"  Not his name, just the letters, T Y.  You can take a wild guess what his two favorite letters are.

The other day I was cutting up some strawberries and he grabbed a strawberry, looked up at me so serious and said, "Hey Mom, can you cut the weeds off?"  Ha!  So here he is demonstrating strawberries with and without the "weeds."

LEXI
Last but certainly not least is Lexi.  Ty's little sidekick.  Those two are quite the combination.  However, when Dad is around, she loves to be right there with him.  He took her out for a little 4-wheeler ride the other night and she could've stayed on that thing forever!  She was in heaven!

Friday night at our house has become "Family Movie Night."  Here the kiddos are getting ready to settle in for another rockin' Friday night at the Israelsen Home:

Kenna and Allie are practicing their acting skills by pretending to be less than enthused.  Sometimes a mom just doesn't ask questions.  No acting here for Lexi, she is overjoyed to snuggle in!

And I am so ashamed to say that I didn't even get a single picture from last weekend when Aunt Maria and Aunt Marlene came down to visit.  Such a shame!  We had such a fun time with them.  Please come back!  We need some picture redemption! 

Shoes

Shoes.  Lexi loves shoes.

At any given point during the day, Lexi can usually be found sporting someone else's shoes.

She is the cutest little stinker.


For example, here she is wearing Ty's boots:

What?  You don't walk around the house without pants wearing boots and a hat?  Weird.


And here she has on Kenna's shoes and Allie's helmet:

Really?  You don't put shoes over your pajamas and then wear a helmet on your head?  Hmm.  That's odd.


It's a good thing Lexi wore Allie's boots to help Dad fix the kitchen table.  He couldn't have done it without her!

]
We love you Lou Lou!

Valentine's Fun

Anybody who is anybody knows that during the week of Valentine's is the biggest, best, and most anticipated event of the whole year...

...(drumroll, please)...

.... the Farm Show in Tulare, California!  Um, there's a place in California called Tulare?  

Jacob and his dad had been long awaiting their big adventure, and headed out on Monday afternoon for the big show.  I really really wanted to go.  Really.  Being the loving wife I am, however, I decided to sacrifice and stay home with the kids.  You know, school and such.  So I managed to convince Mom Israelsen to ride down with Dad and stay with me for the week while the boys were off on their farming adventure.  Yay!

The girls always get so excited when Grandma and Grandpa Israelsen come.  Not only do they know they get showered with plenty of love, but Grandma always manages to bring a fun treat or two.  They certainly weren't disappointed!  One of the favorites was when Grandma planted some ju ju hearts and we got to watch them grow.  How do Grandma's come up with such great things?!  Here Allie is being ever so vigilant at watching them grow.  You can see some little hearts starting to pop up out of the dirt:

 
Sure enough, on Valentine's Day they grew into a heart sucker!  The kids were so excited:

We of course can't forget the many games they played with Grandma, all the books read, and the yummy sugar cookies they got to decorate.  I am so ashamed to say I didn't even get a picture of Grandma and Grandpa when they were here.  I guess I got so busy enjoying myself I forgot to capture any of it.  It really was so nice having Mom here during the week.  Thank you again!!  I think I can speak for all of us in saying we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Perhaps the Farm Show wasn't quite as anticipated by the kids, but Valentine's Day sure was!  Here are the girls sporting their Valentine's boxes.  Kenna got to make hers at home and Allie did hers at school with her class:

Ty even got in on some Valentine's fun with his preschool class on Thursday, but once again, I didn't get a picture.  Sorry Ty Man.

And I must add that the two pictures Jacob took while at the farm show are still on his phone.  Yes, two.  Neither of us scored on picture taking it looks like.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great week!  It was a perfect Valentine's! 

Reward

For the month of January, we decided to make a family goal of having no soda (seeing as though over Christmas we all had more than our fair share).  We all came through with flying colors, and the girls even mentioned they didn't even miss it.  The reward for reaching our goal was a trip to the aquatic center, and the girls couldn't have been more excited for it!  What, hold still for a picture?  Oh please Mom:

At first Ty and Lexi were a bit water shy, but of course right as we were getting ready to leave they warmed up to it.  Guess we'll have to venture out to the aquatic center again.  The pictures of them didn't turn out, so just imagine two cute little wet kiddos.

Kenna specifically requested a picture of her under the water, so here she is sporting her amazing skills:

Way to go us!