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.