APPARENTLY I HAVE BEEN TAGGED

The book--#5 Spiderwick Chronicles: The Wrath of Mulgrath

page 123 5th sentence--"Had the ogre been the worst-or just the worst yet?"

Parker and I have been reading this series to prepare for the theater version.

YOU LEAD I FOLLOW

Our family likes to hike to Wind Cave at Usery park. It takes about 30 minutes to climb up to the top....but, well worth it. We usually take a lunch and always share with the local population of chipmunks. Kamarin leads and Mom follows.

BLUE AND GOLD

This Wednesday was the cub scouts Blue and Gold banquet. Parker completed 3 achievements in his Wolf handbook and earned a bead. He is sooo excited to be in the scouting program and wants to get his wolf as soon as possible. A good time was had by all!! We enjoyed pizza, salad and cookies. We are so proud of him. Keep up the good work Parker!!

HE'S ON FIRE

Everett and I visited the firestation with his preschool this week. He is such a darling firefighter. He was very nervous as we toured the building. He was worried that a loud alarm would go off. When it came time to check out the inside of the fire truck he didn't want to.....only after all of the other kids in the class had braved it, did he finally do it too.

POINT AIM SHOOT

One of the great things about Branden is that he loves taking pictures and editing them. Unfortunately, that means that he is in very few of our family pix. He is always behind the camera, instead of in front of it. This is a rare occasion when I had my camera too.

ALL ABOUT GENERAL GRIEVOUS

A CRAZY WEEK

Our internet went down on Tuesday. I tried all day to fix it. I did all that Branden told me to do and then some and never could make it come back on line. Then Branden comes home and makes a phone call, pushes some buttons, unplugs cords and...viola, it worked again. He must have the magic touch, or some kind of computer degree or something!!
I have to say that after the craziness that day, (which btw, I forgot to go to Parker's Parent/Teacher conference...and yes, it was even on the blog) Branden saved the day and brought home dinner to our hungry gremlins. My hero!!!
Wednesday was not much better. I had to reschedule the conference for that afternoon. Parker has been getting out of school early this week. So, I picked up Park, Mauri and Carl Crist (our good friends) and dropped them off. Then drove back to the school had the conference, which lasted 2.3 seconds...Park got all A's, again. He is a genius!*wink* *wink* After, I jetted home to make rice crispie treats for cub scouts. We loaded up in the car and drove to the church. We cleaned all of the nursery toys for the primary. That goes really fast with 10 cubscouts hard at work. The boys enjoyed playing kickball with Brother Hoopes for the rest of the time.
Thursday was a great Valentines Day!! Branden and I went to lunch...alone. Everett stayed with a sitter. It is sooo nice to visit without kids in tow. I gave Branden a digital frame for his desk at work. Now all of his co-workers can admire his family. He had given me my present earlier in the week, Photoshop Elements. It is way more user friendly than his Photoshop.

And, then suprised me with roses.

We will all go our separate ways this weekend. I plan to meet up with my girlfriends from junior high school tomorrow, for lunch and a movie. Can't wait!!

MAKING GREEN CHILE

When Branden and I started dating he introduced me to green chile's. I had never before seen these....my mom did not use them in her cooking. At first I thought they were stringy fish, because they looked kinda slimy. Since then, I love all kinds of chiles. I remember my first time eating Green Chile at Tim and Lisa Hoj's house. It kinda resembles a soup or stew. Everyone was soooo excited to eat this delicious dish....I thought, "how good could this soup really be?" It was really yummy. So, as tradition goes Branden has been passing it along to our children. The recipe has pork, diced tomatoes, onion, and garlic....and lots of green chiles. Here is a picture of Park learning the art of chopping onions with his Dad. *Note the goggles to protect his eyes from the onion fumes.

TINY: AND HIS LOVE OF ME-ME'S

Everett is 4 years old, but is turning 5 on "April seven"...just ask him.

He attends preschool at Ms. Becky's on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Everett has 2 great loves....(which we are trying to dissuade) his me-me's and his sippy cups. When he is tired or needs a snuggle, he promptly YELLS, "me-me and sippy cup!" We are down to only one me-me and it is in such a sad state. The dentist told him that he needed to be done with his binkies. I had heard that if you cut the tips off of them, then the child would lose interest. Um, it hasn't quite happened like that. He, himself cut the tip off with his very own scissors. Yet, he still likes to suck on what is left. Go figure! But, the date has been set, and that me-me will be gone for good. The magical date is his birthday. So, you too can begin the count down to this monumentous occasion.

Everett loves his big brother and big sister. He loves to follow Parker in all that he does. We can't get something for the one, without including the other. Pokemon cards are the new fad at our house and together they spend hours comparing cards and pretending to be different Pokemon. Pikachu is the character of choice. Everett crawls around at Parker's feet pretending to be his Pikachu. "Pika, pika....pika, pika....now pretend I am a baby Pikachu...and I got lost...and you have to find me.....pika."

One of the things that I love about Everett is his smile. As you can see from his picture, his whole face lights up when he is happy. He is such a joy to have around. His latest activity is to write letters....or I should say dictate letters to me. He loves to send them to his grandma's and grandpa's. Everett is quite an artist and likes to create a picture to include with his correspondence. He also loves to get mail. So if you are one of the lucky recipients of his letter's...PLEASE write back.

The other day Everett asked me if dragons were real. I replied that dragons were not real, but only pretend. "Oh.....well they must live on another planet." He is darling!!

WE LOVE YOU EVERETT!!

BOO: OUR WILDCAT FAN

Parker James is such a fun addition to our family. We call him our deep thinker because he asks very hard questions for a parent to answer. He is very bright. In fact, his 2nd grade class has been raising some mill worms. A mill worm resembles a maggot in my opinion....but they have been lovingly attending to this small colony by housing them in petre dishes and feeding them apples and celery. A diet fit for any king! Well, unfortunately some...okay, most of the mill worm family have turned brown and are no longer frolicking in their sawdust habitat. Which brings me to why Parker is just so brilliant....Yesterday morning we were all getting ready...Branden was climbing out of the shower and I was helping Kamarin with her hair. Parker runs into the bedroom and announces "Dad, Dad....I went to google and typed in "why do mill worms turn brown?" it said, because they are DEAD....that is what it said on the computer." He is 8 years old and somehow he had figured out how to use the google search engine to answer his question about the classes beloved mill worms. I would have loved to have been there when he announced to his class that the mill worms were not in cocoons (as previously thought), but that they were actually dead!

Parker recently won the grand title of 1st Place winner at our cub scout pinewood derby. Here is the car, in all its glory!!! Branden and Parker spent lots of time sanding, painting and graphiting it to perfection. He was so proud and really excited to have done so well his first time competing. (Dad was kinda excited too!)

I should probably explain the picture of Parker at the top....for all of you AZ Wildcat fans, you will no doubt recognize the colors in his hair as blue and red. Branden and I took Park to a basketball game between the Arizona State Sundevils and the University of Arizona Wildcats. These teams are rivals, to say the least. He was decked out head to toe in U of A colors. The spikes took about 15 minutes to perfect, but were well worth it.....he got a lot of attention. Sad to say, even after OT the Sundevils did win the game...but it was a night that all 3 of us won't soon forget. When we got home, it was really late. Parker, although dead tired, had to get in the shower to wash out his hair....the spikes were "annoying" to quote Parker and he couldn't lay down on them to sleep.

Parker turned 8 years old at the end of October and was baptized in November. He was the first to be baptized in our stake. Afterward, he said "I am glad that I got to go first....I wouldn't have wanted to be baptized with all those other kids' sins in the water." He always keeps us on our toes.

WE LOVE YOU PARKER!!

OUR LOVE BUG: KAMARIN

She has a bit of a flare for the dramatic, (which I contribute to her Weeks heritage.) Kamarin loves to write and has begun to fill notebooks with her own poetry. She is very organized and likes to make lists....something, I am afraid she gets from her Mother. Her favorite things to do are listen to her Ipod and go shopping. She always has her eye on what she wants to get on her next shopping excursion. Her sense of fashion is very trendy. She loves to shop at Aeropostale, Hollister, and American Eagle. If she sees a trend that she likes on someone at school, she loves to come home and tell us all about it.

Kamarin is very active in Young Womens at church...she is the First Counselor in Beehives. She is always looking for missionary experiences...she recently gave her best girlfriend (that is not a member) a Book of Mormon and asked her to read it. She actively defends what she knows is right. After President Hinckley passed away, she said "I am glad that he is able to be back with his wife now...but, I am sad that my children will never get see him." She and I talked about how her kids would come to know him through his teachings.

Kamarin also enjoys thinking, talking and dreaming about boys! She will kill me that I am sharing this with you....but, in order to have a well-rounded view of her, I must also touch on this subject. "GRIN!" There is a guy that she pays special attention to and he is in quite a few of her classes! She and her friends have been able to map out his class schedule. Their spying abilities really do surpass that of the FBI.

Above all, we enjoy having her in our family. She has a big heart and always tries to do her best. We couldn't be prouder of her in school....she has straight A's and works very hard to complete all of her assignments. She often goes the extra mile to get extra credit. She is such a big help to me with her brother's and around the house. Her chore is to empty the dishwasher....and although, she doesn't love to do it, she always does a great job!!!

WE LOVE YOU KAMARIN!!