Beautified by Becky

My friend Becky took my girls out for a little photo shoot and this is what she was able to capture in a very short amount of time. She also had her own daughters with her. (That's 6 girls and Sammy being the oldest.) I was totally impressed! She's been practicing with her new camera and although she's still learning I think she does a great job! So if you're looking for a photographer...

Ashley is so hard when it comes to pictures. She won't relax and do a natural smile.

(Sammy didn't know Becky was actually taking the picture, but she is so photogenic it doesn't even matter.)

Isn't this picture adorable? I LOVE it!!! Definitely a keeper!

Now I need to figure out which ones to get printed.

Marathon # 2

I didn't mention I was running another marathon since it was up in the air for awhile... but my friend Brook talked me into it and the two of us ran the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon yesterday (May 14, 2011). We've been doing some of the training together and to be honest I was not nearly as ready as I should have been. I told Brook that if she felt I was slowing her down to just leave me in the dust. Her husband, Jason, drove the two of us along with another friend, Erin, (who was running the half) up to the start. We said happy birthday, good luck, and goodbye to Erin and headed out. The weather was a little cool with a slight breeze. Perfect for running... if it actually stayed that way. Jason met us along the course about every 5 miles and gave us things we needed. The first half was great minus the amount of potty breaks. Seriously!!! I never had that problem till about a month ago. We stopped twice, but my stomach wished there were more potties. At about mile 16 it was time for ipods and Brook was a few steps in front of me till the turn around (I think it was around mile 19). After that I could see her in sight but I couldn't keep up. It was so dang hot during those miles since we were on asphalt and the sun was shining bright! The last few miles were a killer for me and it was all I could do to not cry when people cheered for me. When I turned the corner to the finish line I saw my cheering squad of my girls, Andy, Brook, and Jason. (My mom missed me by a few minutes because she accidentally went to the wrong park.) As soon as I saw/heard my girls cheer for me the tears started flowing... I couldn't hold them back anymore. I was so proud of Brook for finishing in 4:59! Our goal was 5:30. I came in at 5:06 which was still a heck of a lot better than I expected. My legs hurt so bad that I'm thinking, "What in the world is wrong with me? Why would I ever do that again... let alone in 5 more months!?" Oh well, it was an accomplishment still the same. It was so nice to have Brook run with me and to have Jason meet us along the course. The best sight to see were my girls and Andy! (Sorry about the dark faces above.)
Thanks for coming!

Oh yeah, did I mention the blisters?

The results are in...

Some time ago I posted about signing up for the St. George marathon. I mentioned that Andy even agreed to run it if we actually got in. So we signed up as a team with Sarah, Emily, and Nate. Emily got up at 5:00 am to find out the results of the lottery and we got in!!! It's official, Andy will be running his first marathon! I'm so excited to be able to run with him. I think he was pretty sure we wouldn't get in, but I'm still proud of him. (It's also Nate and Sarah's first marahton.) Keep your fingers crossed that everyone survives.

My first kiss went a little like this...

Okay, so it's not my first kiss. Today during art class Sammy ran up to me and said, "Mom, I have a secret to tell you... Blake kissed me!" I turned to where the little stinker was sitting and said, "Blake! You kissed my daughter?!" He turned bright red and tried to deny it, but there are too many 7 year old kids that will tattle on him. I went over to him and said, "You can't kiss my daughter unless you plan on marrying her." His response was a simple, "Fine." We teased them for a little while when I learned it was on top of her head. I think Sammy freaked a bit when I said, "What is daddy going to say?" Whoops! At least it wasn't on her face.

Oh, happy day!

There are three things that happened today that made me very happy and I thought I would share with anyone who bothers with the posts without pictures.

• This morning I got a message from Andy that read, "Tell Emily I'll do St. George." What?! For any of you that didn't know I ran the St. George marathon last October with 2 of my SIL and we're hoping to get in again this year. We signed up as a team and there are 5 spots. Nate, Emily, Sarah, and myself were already signed up and we were then pressuring either Sarah's hubby, Adam, or Andy to take the 5th spot. I was shocked that Andy agreed! He is officially registered and if we get in there is no going back, baby! I hope we get in so that we can run it together and cross the finish line holding hands. I know that's cheesy, but I think it would be awesome!


• The second thing happened this afternoon. I've been behind on taking my girls to the dentist... and dreading it. I hate, hate, hate, going to the dentist and the fear started when I was about Ashley's age. So naturally I've talked it up to my girls telling them that it is a good thing and keeping my fingers crossed it all goes well. The dentist happens to be in the bishopric in our ward and I think that helped a ton! When he came in the girls were excited to see him. He first checked out Sammy's teeth and said, "Well, Sammy, you've got 12 cavities." I gasped and said, "What?!" He laughed and said, "I'm just kidding... she doesn't have any!" Whew. Next was Ashley and the same good news! The dentist said, "They must have inherited Andy's teeth. Doesn't he have pretty great teeth?" Thank goodness for that!!! Andy has never had a cavity... knock on wood... and his dentist asks him every time he goes in if he ate fluoride when he was a kid. Yahoo for no cavities because I'm sure I'll have a different story when I go in for myself. I went to set up Katie's appointment and they told me I don't need to take her in for about another year. Plus, they let Katie take the goodies home, too. She's already excited for her turn!


• And the last thing that made me happy was about 30 minutes ago. I've been learning to drive a manual car. I know, I know... some of you are thinking, "What do you mean you're learning? You've been driving for how many years and you don't know how to drive a stick?" Sammy's teacher even teased me that I didn't know how yet. Anyway, it's been comical to say the least. But tonight as I was out practicing I didn't kill the car even once!!! That was huge to me! I came home grinning from ear to ear. Not only did I keep the car running the whole time of an hour or so, but I had a ton of smooth transitions from stop to start! 1st gear was not such an enemy tonight! I KNOW that is a silly thing to be happy about, but I am ready to drive out in traffic now. Clear the roads!!! :)

St. Patrick's Day!

Around here we don't just wear green on St. Patrick's Day to avoid getting pinched... Oh, no... we have a tradition. Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Leprechaun? I honestly don't even remember where I found the story... but the legend is that if you decorate a box of some sort in all things green and leave it in the moonlight for the leprechauns to find then one will come and fill it with "treasures". However, he always hides his treasures to the best of his ability... He's tricky, but no matter how hard he tries he always leaves a trail of green. Sammy was so concerned that her sisters were going to miss out on the fun in the morning since she leaves for school before they even get up. So she left a note for the leprechaun asking to leave clues for Katie and Ashley, too. This is what she found in the morning: There was green yarn attached to her door nob that she had to follow to find her treasures, but it wasn't easy. It was ALL over the house! Literally!!! It went from her bedroom, to the bathroom, to the guest room, downstairs to the living room, through the dining/kitchen/half bathroom, to the family room, and back upstairs to Ashley and Katie's room.

Along the way she found the treasure meant for her. It was a cup with green polka dots filled with stickers, silly bands, and candy. She also got a few new cute green shirts. Ashley and Katie got the same things, just slightly different to tell them apart.

After our fun on the treasure hunt we had some friends come over for a holiday craft. As they came in we sent them on the treasure hunt as well for a bag of Lucky Charms with a note attached that said, "I'm so LUCKY to have you". They thought it was pretty great. They each "helped" make leprechaun beards made out of pipe cleaners and orange yarn and then colored a few pictures of leprechauns, rainbows, and pots of gold! We had a great time and we hope that we can continue this fun tradition.

And of course I had to put a picture in of my darling girls in their matching shirts!

She did what?!!!

This has taken me some time to post because I needed a time out. About a week and a half ago the girls (Ashley, Katie, and Gracie) were being great. They were all so obedient, playing well together, and we were even doing a few activities. They had been by my side most of the day and I told them to quickly clean up the bedroom and we would play with the new preschool CD ROM. I walked into my room, put away some laundry, and within about five minutes Ashley came running in saying, "Mom! Katie cut her hair!" I GASPED and said, "What?!!!" Ashley then quickly added, "Only a little bit, Mom." I found her downstairs with a pair of kid scissors (I have no idea where she found them) and had cut a big chunk. All of my parenting classes flew out the window! I said, "This is not a little bit!!!" Seconds later my friend, Sarah, came over and asked what was going on. I told Katie to turn around and Sarah gasped and said, "Yeah, that's noticeable."Her hair was down to her waist and this is how much she cut (notice the hair in her hand). I realize it could be much worse... but it was SO long... and I loved her hair! Of course it was the one day Andy happened to take my car to work. So I was very glad Sarah was there... and I'm sure Katie was, too.
Sarah drove us over to our friend's house (she has a salon) and she fixed it. I think I might go back and have her cut it a little shorter in the back so I don't constantly see the big chunk (you can't tell unless you saw it before).

This was the after picture.

Sarah mentioned to Amanda that she thought she saved Katie's life since she showed up right after it happened. And if I had caught her with the first snip it would've been just a trim... but it was a little snip... then a little more... and then another big snip! I still love my baby, but it sure took some time to get over it and be able to snuggle with her again. In fact the other day I was talking to someone about it and she was listening and said, "Yeah, but you still love me, mom."

Mickey Mouse Birthday!

A few months ago I took some cupcakes into Sammy's class to celebrate her birthday. Because it was just before Christmas I made them look like ornaments. Sammy told her teacher all about the fun cakes I've made for her as well. Mrs. Massimino then asked if I would be willing to make a cake for her son's birthday. Of course I was up for the challenge. So last Saturday this cute little boy had his second birthday party with a Mickey Mouse theme!
(Blowing out the candles)

The final result! I was pretty happy with it... but it was more satisfying knowing that the whole Massimino family LOVED it! I told her to get my name out there and that I would love to be able to make more cakes and expand my creativity.

New Beginnings

We had our New Beginnings and I am so happy how it turned out! Our theme was, "Your Happily Ever After" based on Elder Uchtdorf's talk. The idea was to have each of our young women walk away feeling that they, too, can have a real life happily ever after and that it's not just for princesses in fairy tales. We had a table display pictures of the leaders and their families to show "our happily ever after" and that it can be achieved. Along with tools to help us get there such as scriptures, journals, church magazines, and our personal progress books. Our guest speaker was Sister Carleen Tanner. I've talked about her before with her parenting class and it was such a joy to have her there to talk to the girls. She did such an amazing job and we were so happy she could make it. We had the 3 white dresses to show the steps we need to take and that they have already done 2 of them. And now their goal is to make it to the temple and wear the 3rd. We also put together a video of each of the girls' pictures. It started with them as babies, then current pictures, then a few of them from an activity, followed by a picture of the Savior, ending with pictures of temples. The song that played was Happily Ever After. It starts out, "Once upon a time a child was born..." and then ends, "...Let the Savior lead you to happily ever after." As the last words were sung it showed a picture of the Savior and then faded into a picture of the temple. It was absolutely perfect!
And then we served little cupcakes with crowns on top to our little princesses. The cake below was supposed to be a castle cake, but it was so pretty I hated the thought of possibly messing it up. So I turned it into a mini wedding cake... and then nobody even wanted to cut into it. I was so happy about all of it and I so appreciate those that helped out that day.

Number 2!

Tonight Sammy was showing me how much she could wiggle her front tooth. It was loose, but not enough I was really willing to pull it out. I asked if she wanted it out and her eyes lit up as she said, "Yeah!" I told her it might hurt and she replied, "I don't care! I want it out!" So then I asked if she wanted me to pull it out or if she wanted Uncle Bryce to pull it out... He is always telling her he'll pull her teeth out. Her eyes lit up even more and she grinned from ear to ear. So we called Bryce and he came right over. He pulled it out and she didn't even cry. Bryce said, "That's the phone call I was waiting for!" It made Sammy so happy, but I think the fact that Bryce gave her a dollar was even more exciting! How cute is that toothless smile?!

It's a great day!!!

Today my dear, dear friend, Sarah, and her husband adopted this beautiful baby girl! It was a long and bumpy road to get her here, but it's finally official! They were able to go before the judge and make her a part of their family this morning. It was a very sweet experience to be there with them. (I have no idea why all of this is underlined and I'm not savvy enough to fix it... sorry.)

We love you guys SO much and we are so glad you are finally able to have a child! We love you, too, BryLeigh, and we are so excited to see you grow! (You've already grown and changed a bit.)

Fondant!

I've always wanted to try and use fondant! So last week my friend, Sarah, and I decided to experience it together. The cakes were falling apart completely just trying to put a light layer of frosting on them so we set those aside and practiced with a bowl. Later I used the last little cake that was frozen and this is what became of it. It was so much fun just to play around with it. And now I can't wait to try homemade fondant and a much larger cake! I'll be trying to do a three dimensional Mickey, and then a castle cake.

Later, however, I noticed two very tiny little cracks in my fondant. From about two feet away you couldn't even notice them, but if you looked close you could see. So to all my friends who are experienced with fondant how do you fix that? Or what causes the cracks? Am I rolling it too thick or too thin?

Also, I want to use rice crispy treats in place of cake for Mickey's shoes and I was wondering if I can lay fondant over that as well?

Happy Holidays!

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying the New Year! To all of our blogging friends and family here is our letter we sent out about our past year...

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s that time of year again when we sit and ponder this past year. Looking back we can hardly believe it’s nearly gone. We just wanted to take a few minutes to share what we’ve been up to.

Katie (3) loves her baby dolls, Barbie dolls, her “big, soft blanket”, her stuffed bunny (named Coralie) dressing up, and anything else that is girly and sparkly. She is constantly singing around the house. Mostly it’s random songs she makes up that go along with whatever activity she is doing at the time. Other times it’s her favorite primary song, Follow the Prophet. We love her little voice and hope she never stops singing or talking. She loves doing anything with her sisters and loves that she can go across the street to a friend’s house, too. She is growing so much right before our eyes and brings such joy to our home everyday. Andy says she gets away with whatever she wants because she is too darn cute for mommy to say no (it’s true). And we can hardly believe she will be in primary in a few short weeks.

Ashley’s (5) favorite thing is still her Diamond Castle movie. You would’ve thought it was the end of the world when a sister broke the DVD. She loves her Barbie dolls, ponies, her monkey (named Monk), and dresses. She is always wearing a dress or skirt and it’s quite the battle to get her to wear pants sometimes… even if it’s snowing. She LOVES babies! Anytime she is near one she is constantly touching and kissing him/her. She is so smart and says things that catch us off guard. Mommy tried to encourage her to play with Katie one day and said, “Go play with your best friend.” Her response was, “She is not my best friend, she is my sister.” Mommy told her, “Brigetta is my best friend and she’s my sister.” Without missing a beat Ashley said, “Yeah, but you don’t live with her.” She can’t wait to go to school and Mommy (secretly) is, too.

Sammy (7) is a big 1st grader this year! She loves her teacher and is doing very well in school. She loves reading and doing math, but mostly she gets excited to eat in the lunch room. She loves when mom comes to help in the classroom every week. This year she learned to tie her own shoes, ride a 2 wheeled bike, and most recently she lost her first tooth! (Her cousin who is 11 days older than her lost the same tooth 4 days later and it made for a cute picture.) She loves playing with her cousins and friends and enjoys every minute with them. She is already quite the fashion girl and has to have things “her way”. In the morning she doesn’t want any help with getting ready for school. She likes to babysit and asks regularly if she can be in charge wile mommy is busy. Only a few more years and she can do it alone. (Mommy is definitely counting down!)

Alanya has continued to enjoy running and accomplished her first full marathon in St. George! It was one of the hardest things she’s ever done and had some major stumbling blocks along the way. She finished strong in just barely under her goal time and hopes that maybe someday she can conquer another one. (It’s still a little early to commit Andy to her training.) She is so grateful that she had such an amazing support group and that she was able to run with 2 sisters-in-law. She has loved every moment of her calling in the Young Women presidency… if she had it her way she would stay there till the day she dies. It keeps her busy, but she loves all the young women and the amazing ladies she works with on a daily basis. She tries hard to enjoy her moments at home with the girls and has recently taken on another cute face twice a week. Our neighbor has been such a joy to have over and we all love the play time together.

Andy has been with St. Luke’s now for nearly 4 years. It keeps him busy and he’s gone long hours, but he likes the challenges it brings. He enjoys the summer months when he can go play tennis or golf. Unfortunately, this year they were few and far in between. In the off season he likes to play indoor soccer and dodge ball over at the church. He is glad that Alanya’s marathon is over and that there isn’t another race in the near future. It seems he spent this year’s Saturdays or weeknights at home during training, or traveling for yet another race. He handles his calling of the Cub Scout Master very well, especially considering he doesn’t even have a BOY! He keeps his hope high for one someday, but adores his little girls and loves that they still welcome him home with lots of hugs and kisses. He enjoys spending time with them and even took Sammy to a BSU game. He’s trying hard to convince one of them that football is fun!

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Love the Wyne family,
Andy, Alanya, Samantha, Ashley, and Katlyn

Look Who's 7 today!

I know this is a little past due, but my Sammy is 7 years old! She is growing up way too fast and she reminds me of that every single day. We celebrated with our family the day before her birthday and she was so excited as you can see. All year she asked for only one thing... an ipod! I was not about to spend a lot of money on something she was likely going to lose within the first few months. So, we gave her my old one... sort of as a trial period. If she can take care of it then maybe we'll think about getting her a new one. I told her right away that it will be used as leverage and if she is being disobedient or unkind I have the right to take it away. So far it's worked well, but we're barely a week into things. And of course she picked out a cake to match her wish!

This was definitely not my best work. I didn't have time to let the cake chill and then the whole thing split right in half. Whoops! She was still very pleased with it, though.

On her actual birthday we decided to through a pizza party. She invited a bunch of her friends over and we had pizza (thank goodness for Monday night deals) and then they watched Despicable Me. Afterwards they had cake that looked like pizza, and ice cream. Then she opened presents and the kids were all ready to go home and crash! It was the easiest, low maintenance party and a huge hit with the kids!

This year Sammy has changed a ton! She is doing very well in school and loves to read and do math. A few of her favorite things at school are recess and eating lunch in the cafeteria. She LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Massimino and comes home smiling on a daily basis. She lost her first tooth this year and has also learned to tie her shoes. Some of her favorite things are Bratz dolls, drawing/coloring, playing the Wii (mostly Just Dance), playing with her friends, listening to her ipod, and bossing her sisters around. She loves to babysit when I need to get things done around the house. She tells me weekly that she wants a baby brother, but would be fine if she had another little sister, too. She is so great about getting up and ready for school. I don't ever have to fight her to go to school and that is such a blessing. (Last year it was quite the regular battle.) She can be very helpful around the house and loves to do extra especially when she can earn some money. We love her dearly and she has brought such joy into our home. Happy Birthday, Samantha!

"Achmed the dead terrorist"

This is for you, Becky! Last night Sarah called a few of our girlfriends and we all went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. We had a great time and Achmed was the funniest topic of the evening. Becky had never heard of him so I told her to look on youtube and type in Achmed the dead terrorist. She asked, "How do you spell Achmed?" I couldn't resist... "A-C-Flem." We were laughing so hard we were crying. Thanks for the fun girls night out! So, Becky, please pause the music to the right and enjoy a good laugh.

***This does have some swearing so please don't watch it if it's going to be offensive.