Yeah for the Last Day of School!!! (oh and haircuts)

Hooray for the last day!!! My girls had a great year, and I'm sad to see it end (they aren't for sure). McKeznie's teacher Mrs. Smith actually knows Randy's cousin Deveney, they went to BYU-Idaho together. She is a great teacher and will be missed (her hubby graduated and they are moving.

Morgan's teacher, Miss Lynn is amazing. I wasn't sure if I would put her in Kindergarten next fall because she is so young, but after this year she is definitely ready. Miss Lynn and Miss Lindsay (her aide) put together a little program of a few of the dances they learned this year. they were pretty cute. Sorry about the chicken dance, I didn't realize that the camera couldn't be upright. (it doesn't last very long though).

This will be a long summer I think. Randy's schedule gets pretty hectic right after my brother gets married and we won't see him a whole lot, so we aren't planning on going anywhere except when my family comes down to help me caravan to Cali. Just lots of playing at the park and swimming lessons. I can't wait until we can actually plan family vacations again.

I forgot to mention the hair. So I loved my ward back in Vancouver, it was just awesome. The RS would have a service auction every year and I thought this is a great activity for the women to get to know each other, because usually you buy things from people you may not know very well. So last Tuesday was our 1st service auction and I had a blast. We had a best auctioneer who really got everyone really excited about it. I ended up winning a free babysitting and a haircut for myself. I have been needing a haircut for a while now because Malia keeps pulling my hair and thinks it's funny. So I chopped it (I'm sure I will get a pic uploaded eventually of me). I used the same girl, Buffy to cut the girls hair also, I let them grow it out in the winter and then we get a "summer cut" (sounds like they are little dog's or something), but they turned out really cute. They are really short in the back like wedge or stacked, whatever you wanna call it, and then an "A-line," so it little longer in the front. It's hard to tell in these shots but they are really cute.

Chicken Dance

Little Pig's Dance

Memorial Day and visit with family

Randy's family came to visit from Oregon for Memorial day. We went up to his sister Julie's home on Saturday and had a combined late bday party for his niece Sydney and sister Kristi. The kids had fun. Sydney like to play "makeover and this is what happened to Morgan. She looks like a southern belle. The close up may be a little easier to see the makeup they put on her.

Right before his parents arrived we put hand prints of the kids onto aprons for a late Mom's day and early Dad's day gift for the two of them. It was fun and they thought they were really cute. we hope they enjoy them.

On Monday we went and had all of the kids put their Easter dresses and out fits on and got their pics taken at Penney's. That was interesting, 8 kids ages 9 mo-11 years to look and smile at the camera at the same time. It was worth a shot, we'll have to do it again soon sometime.

We also all went to the Dinosaur museum. We haven't gone yet. It was fun, the kids liked the erosion table and the sand pit, of course cuz it was hands on. Micah was just amazed with the big dinosaurs. He would just stare at them all day. They also had a huge shark head that the kids had a blast with pretending that they were getting eaten by it. The shots I got were pretty cute. (the older boy is Julie's oldest son Tyler, he's a great kids)

So this week his mom and sis, Kristi, (or Dee Da as we like to call her) stayed with us and did some house hunting, just to see if this area would be a place they might like to move someday. It's been a lot of fun for us (especially the kids) to have them around. His dad flew back last night and is going on our ward father-son cam pout tonight with Randy and Micah (this is going to be their first, one, Micah is pretty excited). I'll post about it later if something funny or interesting happens. His fam will start driving home tomorrow sometime probably early afternoon. We will miss them.

Malia's 9 months

Malia's 9 Months. I can't believe it, that means she's closer to 1 year now than a newborn. Where has the time gone. She is hysterical though, her personality has really come out in the last month or so. She loves going up, but not down unless she is falling, the stairs. She really makes some funny faces and her chubby cheeks makes it that much funnier. I think she is teething (yes she's 9 mo. and no teeth, story of my life) that's what this pic is of, her playing with her gums. She had her doctors appt and she's 16 lbs and 27 inches tall. So she's starting to level out like the rest of my kids, long and skinny (she didn't start out that way). She also got her shots which wasn't fun for any of us and right after got another cold so we are hoping that it doesn't turn into another ear infection.


This is her the other day, we had steak and I was giving her small shredsof meat and she loved it. I eventually gave in and just gave her the strip I was already feeding her. She went to town on it. She loves steak, must be a Schmidt.

She also, if you haven't noticed already, has the biggest cheeks ever. You can really see them in this pic. Just look at the outline of her face, I just want to pinch them. She's just soo cute, we are soo glad she joined our family.

I FOUND IT!!

For the past few years I have been looking for a pizza dough recipe that I liked. To start out, I am not good at making any kind of bread recipe, (my mom's crescent rolls I wish I could make). I just haven't made it enough to understand yeast or something. When I lived in Washington the coolest grocery store (WINCO) sold balls of fresh dough for 98 cents and it was good, for one reason, I didn't have to make it. Anyway, leaving there also meant leaving the fresh cheap dough, so I had to figure it out and have tried many different recipes out, in the bread machine, in my mixer, but none of them were good. They were heavy, never browned, (even when I brushed it with oil) and just not good. (Randy would always say he liked it, but I knew better). Until today. My neighbor Julie had told me about a month ago that she had the best pizza dough recipe ever and I kept forgetting to get it from her until today. So I got and made and it and Oh My Gosh, the best pizza we have ever had, I even prefer it to going out to pizza. It was chewy and soft with just the right amount of crunch to it. It even browned and I didn't brush any oil on it at all. It was heaven in my mouth. Thank you soooo much Julie for sharing this recipe with our family, we are truly indebted to you because we like pizza and have it often. (now more probably). So I want to share it with all of you, (hope it's ok Julie if not I will take it off). Enjoy

Julie's Pizza dough
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 C warm water
1 tsp salt
2 TB olive oil
3 1/3 c flour (you'll need to add more till it's a stiff dough)
1. Dissolve yeast and brown sugar in water and let stand 10 min
2. Stir in the rest and knead
3. Put in greased bowl. let rise 1 hr. (or until doubled) punch down and let rest before shaping
4. Preheat oven to 425. Shape and put in pan. (I used two pizza stones) Let dough rise in pan for 15-20 min if not using a pizza pan/stone (I actually used a pizza stone and still let it rise for a bit). Add toppings and bake for 15-20 min.

Morgan's Mom

Morgan came home from school today and gave me the usual papers to go through, and one caught my eye. At the top it said, "My Mom." On it had fill-in-the-blank kind of questions that she had to answer about her mom. Here is what she said
*My mom is 12 years old. (People have told me that I look younger than my real age, but this is a little too young).
*My mom is (she changed it to was) the prettiest when she was outside getting married (there is a picture of us at the temple after we were sealed on our wall going down our stairs).
*My mom likes to make cookies (which is funny cuz I don't make them that often but apparently I don't make anything else).
*My mom always says,"thank you" because I give stuff to her like my toys
*My mom is funny when she makes funny faces (don't really know what to say about that.
I had a kick reading this, I kinda want to try this with my other kids just to see what they say. I love them they are just soo stinkin cute.

My mother's day

My mother's day was pretty good, considering the lack of sleep I have had the last two weeks dealing with yet another failed attempt at antibiotics to clear up an ear infection. We went in last Friday to find that augmenten didn't work and so we gave Malia a shot that started with an "r" to clear it up, only she is still in pain and screaming in the middle of the night, lucky me. I slept on the couch starting at 3 this morning cuz I was soo tired and couldn't handle it anymore. The doctor said her ear looks a lot better today but it may take a while before she's 100%. Anyway, back to Mother's day. After my girls seeing some of our friends kids have curly hair this week (they braided it the night before) the girls wanted to do it to, and since I don't know where I put my little kid curlers, after baths on Saturday night I braided their hair.

This is what their hair looked like Sunday for church. To me it looks more like an 80's do, just very poofy. I let them keep it in one more day so they could have it curly for school and then I couldn't take it anymore and they got shower's tonight. Am I the meanest or what?

So in the morning about 7 ish the girls came running in my room where I was attempting to sleep and couldn't wait to give me their gifts. They had gone to a primary activity on Saturday and the primary presidency had taken their pictures and put them on tiles with modge podge. They are sooo cute. My neighbor Mindy who is in the presidency has a few extra tiles and she is the one who took the pics and said that she could take Micah and Malia's pictures in the same place. I am going to attempt to make some kind of wall hanging, I'll post pics when I get it done. (thanks Mindy) They also decorated cookies and gift bags for me. Oh soo cute. Then in primary, Morgan's teacher (the coolest person ever Trisha) that them make hand bouquets and put them in little vases filled with jelly beans and the hand prints poem, oh soo cute. Randy got me a food processor, I've been wanting one for a long time so now I want to get the book about how to hide veggies in your meals. (my kids eat their veggies really good, but I figure it can't hurt to add a few more). Theses pics are a card McKenzie made for me at school. I thought it was really cute especially what she wrote inside.

Just in case you can't read it, it says, "Dear Mom, mom I really really really really really love you. If you go on a cruise I am going to be sad. but I will see you, Happy Mother's day." I laughed sooooooo hard. Randy wants to go away somewhere when he graduates and we are planning on going by ourselves and having his parents come and watch the kids. It won't be for a long time but as you can see she is already getting worried about it. How cute is she.

Randy and the girls then made me breakfast in bed (an omelet yummy) and then made steak and artichokes for dinner. My favorite. He's getting really good at grilling, makes me happy. We then had the ice cream cake I made (it's really evil). I unfortunately didn't get a nap only because we have 1 pm church which I hate. Also it's during Malia's nap time and since she was already exhausted from dealing with her ear infection, let's just say, Church + Malia's ear infection = no on gets to listen. All in all though it was a great day and am grateful that I am a mom and get to raise my kids and hope I don't screw it up too badly. So to all you mother's out there. Hope your day was wonderful and I hope you understand how important mother's are. (yes mom that means you to, I love you)

Here is the cake my lil bro (Will) made for my lil sis who's serving a mission. I made the flowers/leaves and he wrote the lettering, we shoulda made the hole a little bigger for the frosting to come out. We held the family calendar up and pretended that she was right there with us. Even one of pictures of her looks like she getting ready to blow out canldes, how perfect.

Here are the kids doing the best thing after blowing out the candles, licking the candles, what else. Wish you coulda been her Meg, cuz "aunt Bacon is the coolest." Love ya

Happy bday Bacon

Here is my lil sister birthday celebration without her, she is on a mission in Taiwan. We miss her terribly and my bro made and cake and I helped decorate it and we sang to her and blew out her candles. I am posting this in hopes that she can watch it when she does her email, so if Meg you are reading this, we love you and hope your birthday was wonderful. We can't wait to see you.

Happy Birthday Meggie

Sickies Update

Just when you think things are going good, something happens to screw it up for ya. So Malia is on antibiotics, right? Saturday we were going through the motions, I was trying to prepare a Relief Society lesson for Sunday, Randy was at a class and the kids were trying to occupy themselves so I wouldn't hurt them, (I told them to play upstairs nice or they would be grounded to their beds for the rest of the day, it was a good day can ya tell?) Randy gets home from class and I was still in my PJ's as well as Malia and I asked him get her changed and dressed while I finally de-stinkied (that's a word right?) myself. While he was changing her, noticed her whole body covered in little red bumps, I immediately thought she's allergic to amoxicillin. She's had an ear infection in January and this didn't happen. So I called her ped's office and talked to a nurse. She assessed the situation and we both thought that I would try Benedryl and if it worked then we knew she was allergic to the medicine. So we gave it to her and nothing really happened, and during the night, she woke up in an uncontrollable fit. She kept arching her back and just being really rigid and nothing Randy or I did made it better. It was a great night. The next morning (Sunday), we noticed the bumps were gone but her skin was still splotchy. So I called the doctors office and after much waiting finally got to talk to a nurse and she said it sounded like an allergy and that she would call the doctor and get a new prescription faxed into the pharmacy, luckily the one we use all the time is opened on Sundays, in Utah no less. After church and my wonderful lesson (or something like that) Randy went and picked it up. It's a 5 day antibiotic (hallelujah, I don't understand why we even use 10 day ones anymore) and she seems to be doing better, still early though. So apparently she will not use amoxicillin ever again, which is fine with me. Ten days usually ends up to be like 12 because of missed doses.

The Sickies Part II

In my attempt to try and widen my children's food repertoire from things other than chicken nuggets, spaghetti, and steak, I have made a few different foods for my family to try. Earlier this year we did beef and lentil soup, which Randy and I loved, and the kids tolerated. Recently I tried Salmon (again, we've had it about a year ago but the kids don't remember it so it was new to them again). I cooked what I thought was really good, good flavor, & texture, Randy agreed and the kids of course tolerated. I bribed them with ice cream afterwards (which I usually do when we try something new just so they have something to look forward to while they are forcing the new dinner down). They did good, Morgan probably whined the most but gave in and finished. We had a good evening and got ready for bed later and everyone went right to sleep. Well later than night Will brought his girlie over to watch Kiterunner (very sad movie), and in the middle of it I hear a weird noise and so I run upstairs and there's Morgie with barf all over her. I go in her room and it all over her bed, (luckily the only place) and so I quickly strip the sheets, change her clothes and put her into the toddler bed we had left up while we were trying to get Malia used to her crib all night. I gave her the infamous ice cream throw-up bucket and told her to puke in there. Went downstairs to start the laundry and finish the movie, when not more than 10 minutes passed and I hear her again. I run and she missed the bucket and hit herself and the blankets, luckily not the sheets. So we changed again, got new blankets (more laundry), went to finish the movie, well anyway, this went on through the end of the movie, all of which never made it into the bucket, don't ask me why. So we had a ton of laundry, and Morgan in the midst of this whole ordeal says "Mommy, I don't want to eat fish anymore." I laughed pretty hard, even though I had touched vomit more times than I'd like to count. Luckily that only happened 4 times and she was fine the next day, even though I kept her home from school just to be safe. No one else got it (knock on wood) so I think she has a weak stomach for new things (she also puked up the lentil soup I made earlier with no other sickness symptoms). This pic is of her being a penguin, apparently one of her favorite animals along with a dog, horse, cat, pig, monkey you name it.

Malia had a flaming high fever this week and last night I was starting to get worried, cuz she was acting pretty lethargic and the ear thermometer we have was registering at 104- 105. So I called our after hours clinic and they told me to come in right away. By the time we got there, the Motrin finally kicked in and her temp went down to 102 and the Dr. checked her ear and said "We've found the culprit." Poor thing, her right ear looked horrible and her left ear was at the beginning of one. The weird thing is she didn't have a cold before or any other symptoms (other than the fever) before. So I wasn't even thinking ear infection. It took about 15 hours for the antibiotics to get into her system enough for us to see a change. She's happy now, hallelujah and not as clingy or crabby. I love amoxicillin. (I know Rachel you don't for other reasons). I really hope this is the last episode until at least next winter. (Crossing my fingers) This pic is classic Malia, she likes to bite her lip which makes the cutes face ever.

Wedding Tag!

1. What date is your anniversary? November 27, 1998
2.Where did you get married? Portland, OR Temple.
3. Who proposed and how? Randy, of course, on the 4Th of July after the local Prineville fireworks (or should I say the annual lighting of the hillside so the show gets cut short and firetrucks have to come and put it out). Anyway, we went back to my house and set off the cheesy firecrackers (his parents even came out for them). We were on my parents deck watching my little brothers having a ball when he got down on one knee and popped the question. He had given me a really nice CTR ring and then we went out to go ring shopping, he knew I wanted to shop for my ring, it was fun. The first ring we saw together that I tried on was "the one." We went to a ton of other stores but couldn't get the 1st one out of our minds.
4. How long were you engaged? 4 months.
5. What was the favorite part of your wedding day? It was such a jam packed day, but I do remember looking at Randy in the mirrors and thinking wow. Eternity is going to be awesome.
6. What would you change if you could? Like Amanda, wish I would've spent money on a photographer, (Sam you did awesome) but I've been lazy about blowing any of them up, wish it was just done for me.
7. Wedding colors? Navy and white (it was more of a themed wedding, nautical)
8. Do you remember anything special from your ceremony? Any good advice? A comical moment? I had the worst headache ever so I don't remember a lot of what was said but I do remember Randy accidentally stepping on my bustled train popping off the button, he totally felt bad. The best advice I have for LDS weddings, ladies DO NOT get your endowments out the same day you get sealed, hence the headache.
9. Were you clean or messy when you cut your wedding cake? Heck ya we were messy, it was a blast, especially since cake seriously got up my nose.
10. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Newport OR
11. How long have you been married now? Almost 10 years, I can't believe it.
I'm not going to tag anyone but this is a great way to journal you wedding experience. I didn't even do this almost 10 years ago. So if you need to record this event so if you haven't, you're tagged.