Piano Recital

Wednesday night was our piano recital. Picture 35 people crammed into my living room. It was fun, but WARM! Everyone did a great job, I have 10 students, so it went pretty fast. We were done in about 20 minutes. Perfect. My favorite student (Ainsley, of course) did a great job! I was so proud of her, she is awesome.

Easter Weekend

Wow, what a busy week! It started Friday, with us saying good-bye to our not-so-dear pet Snowflake. I finally had enough of her eating my plants. The kids stopped taking care of her months ago, so it was basically mine and Ryan's. I posted it on a message board, and she was gone that night. Sadly, the kids could have cared less. I hope the new owners give her some love.

That night, Ryan finished painting the nursery. Check it out. Much better, huh?

That man is awesome! He worked so hard all night just so I could have it look nice for the shower in the morning. What a sweetheart!

Speaking of shower, that was Saturday. My great friend Kary, from Buckeye, threw it and it was SOOOO cute. Everyone had a great time, and great food. Thanks Kary! (And everyone else for the darling gifts.) It's funny to see all of the stuff they have now that they didn't have when Brandon was born.

Ryan's sister Julee and her husband Aaron came to vacation this weekend, too. We met them later in the day to see Horton Hears A Who (I fell asleep!)and then went out to eat. They brought two of their daughters, Katie and Megan, and the kids were so happy to see their cousins.

Easter followed this LONG weeked, and shockingly, the Easter Bunny brought NOOOOO candy. So disappointing. :) He did bring a tennis racket for Ainsley, and a softball mit for Brandon. He also brought a couple of Webkinz (a family favorite toy)and a couple of squirt guns. Perfect. We ended the day with our friends, the Harrisons, coming over for dinner. Brett works with Ryan, and they don't have family here, either, so we combined our holiday dinner. The food was great, and the kids were so happy.

As I sent Ainsley off to school today, I felt the Spring Break went WAY too fast. I loved having my kids here all week, tiring as it was. I am really looking forward to summer!

Butt-on Butt-on who's got the Butt-on

I know you will all think I am gross for posting this, but I feel the need. It's not very often that you get to talk about FUNNY things a 7-year old does, you know? Especially my very serious 7 year old.

Friday, Ryan, Sara my neighbor, and I were in the living room watching the kids outside. (Brandon was NOT involved.) Logan, Rebecca and Ainsley were crouched over in leap-frog position, lined up. It looked like they were just doing some silly, made-up game. Then, I VERY clearly saw Ainsley put something in Logans butt crack. What??? I sent Ryan out to investigate. He came back laughing. And they stopped playing. He said they were playig Button, Button with a quarter, but they were putting it in each others butts cracks! Yuck!

Whitney's painting woes :(

Maybe in my subconcious somewhere I have been hoping to not live in this house very long. Maybe I have been expecting this business venture to fail? Well, it is most obviously NOT going to fail, and we are here in this house. Even though we have bought a ton of furniture, this house still is not MINE. You know when you feel a sense of belonging? I've decided it's because it's tan. The WHOLE HOUSE is tan. BORING!!!!We haven't painted a darned thing except my bedroom. That, by the way, is my favorite shade of blue and is my favorite room in the house.

So I, in my maternal nesting instincts, have decided to personalize this house a little. One room at a time. We decided to start with the nursery. The previous owners left us NO indication of the brand or shade of tan they painted this place. So, I peeled some off and took it to the local Sherwin Williams (my favorite brand of paint) for some color matching. Oh my. Not Good.

Look at this pic! Isn't it horrible? We have places all over this house that need touch up, and it looks like my room-by-room paint job will have to be sooner than we thought. Ryan ran around touching up everything, and now we have a horrible splotchy house.


We will be painting a lovely light pink around these baby stripes this evening. Any ideas on colors for my living room?

Brandon's Birthday

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Today is Brandon's Birthday! Yay! We had him open his family presents last night since he really wanted to go to the Easter Pageant tonight. That kid cracks me up! He was opening his Planet Heroes from my mom last night, trying to figure out how to work Neptune. He asked Ryan for some help, and Ryan said, "I don't think Neptune's ship does anything." "Oh, but dad! You pull back and release the lever on his vehicle for a liquidy blast!" He was right. That darned DVD they sent us for free from Fisher Price was a terrific 24 minute commercial. And obviously, it worked!

Notice the blowing out of the birthday candle? Brandon did NOT want a birthday cake, just birthday ice cream. Yum! So, he came to the table, we sang, he blew, then he returned back to his planet heroes. "I don't actually need ice cream today." Geez, where does this kid come from? Since when do we actually NEED ice cream? I thought we just ate it anyway!

We are so grateful to have this birthday boy in our family!


We also dyed our Easter Eggs last night. Whew. How many activities can we handle in one week?

Let's go fly a kite

Because we are having a baby shower at my house next Saturday, Ryan and I decided to do a little yard clean-up for our Saturday project. We shopped for flowers and were excited to get planting. After we came home, we decided to scrap most of our afternoon and play with the kids. It was so gusty, we gave Brandon his birthday kite (from Costco, I LOVE those!)and took off for the park. We debated for about 1/2 hour which we should do. Be good parents, or be responsible. What will they remember? We ended up with a group of 7 kids, and I think we made the right choice.

P.S. I did get 1 of the 3 flowers beds done.

Spam!!!???!!!

Do any of you have problems with spam on your blog? Lately I have been getting these crumby messages! I'm sorry for having to monitor comments, but what the heck!

Brandon's Birthday Party

Today we had Brandon's birthday party at Build-A-Bear. Was it expensive? Yes! Was it worth it? Yes! The last thing I wanted to do right now is entertain 8 5 year olds. And then clean up after them! Yuck!
It was actually very fun. Everyone had a great time and it was so low-stress. Whew! We are done with birthdays for a while. (Except that big one in 4 weeks!!!)

Happy birthday Brandon! We are so happy to have you in our family!

Busy Day Ends with a Shaq Attack!

Wow! What a day I had yesterday! Brandon's preschool class went to the World Wildlife Zoo. It is over an hour away from our house, so I was a little nervous and decided to chaperone. The Phoenix Zoo wouldn't let his class come, as they were "overbooked" with school groups. Weird! Anyway, the positives of this zoo are that 1)it is small and takes less time to walk around, and 2) you get to feed the giraffes. That's about it. It's dirty and crumby otherwise. Here are some shots of the giraffe feeding. Those suckers have such HUGE tongues I got slimed pretty bad. Brandon wouldn't hold his hand out. It grossed him out. :)

This crazy day began at 7:45. We got back at 1:15 (no lunch), when Brandon and I had to go to Ainsley's school for her star student presentation. (Another thing in the life of my child at school!!!!!) We got home at 2:15, gulped down some lunch, taught a piano lesson, picked up Ainsley, went to the grocery store, baked and frosted some orange rolls I made dough for the night before for the YM/YW auction (by the way they were SOOOOOOOOOO good), brought them to the church, made a concious decision to skip soccer practice, then took off for the Suns v. Jazz game. Whew!!! I was so tired!

Ryan was planning on taking me to dinner (the kids were having a sleeepover with some wonderful neighbors), but I was just too tired! So we did the El Pollo Loco thing. I LOVED going to that game! Ryan got some great tickets from a client, and after about 2 minutes I came to the realization that Shaquile O'Neil plays for the Suns! Wow! I wasn't super close, but close enough to see his face and recognize him! Being from LA, I have ALWAYS wanted to see him play! He is amazing! We were cheering for the Suns (you HAVE to cheer for where your underwear drawer is, right?) and lost. But I didn't care. That was so cool.

Student of the month

Ainsley was student of the month for February, and here is a shot of her this morning at the awards ceremony. They try to pick a kid that exemplifies the value of the month, of course it was Self-Discipline. Her teacher said to enjoy it while it lasts. :) She was furious at me for taking a picture. I'm so embarassing!

So Hot!

No, I'm not talking about my 34 week pregnant body (shocking!)
It's the weather. Saturday was SOOO hot (what like 85?) the kids were DYING to go swimming. Since Ryan was away at the camparee (or whatever they call those nerdy scout things) I let the kids go swimming. Why not? The pool temp was 70. But I thought it was freezing in there! If 85 is Soooo hot, I can't wait until August. :)