Buy this house!

This fabulous 2,230 sf Twin Home - located in Springville - is for sale by owner!

Knotty Alder kitchen cabinets (plus Knotty Alder trim & casing throughout the home)

plus large dining area to the left of this picture

Such an inviting living room - just off of the kitchen

One of the 3 bedrooms

Master bedroom (with private bath)

Outside the Master bedroom window

This house can be found on CraigsList at this site

"You must have a ticket"

Pappy came on Monday with a surprise! But before the girls could find out the "surprise," they had to create a ticket. "You must have a ticket," Pappy told the girls. He drew a house on Mary-Gail's paper and wrote the word "chic." On Becca's paper Pappy started to draw a duck - but Becca doesn't like anyone to touch her papers - so she banned Pappy from finishing the drawing. "I can do it!" she emphatically told Pappy. And Pappy had Reese draw a bunny on her paper.

"What do you think we're going to do today?" Pappy asked. Let's see...there is a house w/a baby chick in it, a supposed drawing of a duck (from Rebecca), and a baby bunny. Hmmmm. Pappy then announced that he was taking the three girls to Intermountain Farmer's Association (IFA) to see the baby chicks, ducks, and bunnies! The girls quickly handed in their "tickets" so they could go!!

Mary-Gail's ticket; Rebecca's ticket; Reese's ticket

IFA had lots of baby ducks, but the baby chicks were gone and there were only a few baby bunnies left. Pappy said he went to IFA on Saturday, and there were tons! Looks like some families got baby chicks and baby bunnies for Easter presents. (I'm so glad Pappy didn't bring home one for our girls!)

Reese and the baby bunny - she could live with animals!

Becca ever-so-carefully holds the baby bunny

Reese is so good at handling little animals - she's had practice with her little kitty "Peanut"

Becca loves anything soft & fluffy and always rubs whatever it is against her face.

In this case, the "soft & fluffy" is a baby duck

Becca follows up her love-rub with a sweet little kiss for the baby duck

Pure happiness. Nothing lights up a room like this little girl!

The store kept the baby ducks and baby bunnies in separate large feeding troughs. There is such wonder and interest in these little animals

Pappy loaded the girls in the 'Burb and treated them to lunch! He was so thrilled all the girls ate their lunch, and then when they got home, they asked for more - they were still hungry! This is a side of my girls that Pappy's rarely seen - hunger.

Becca & Miguel are checking out the sack to see if there are any fries left

Eating lunch on the lawn downtown

Pappy is full of surprises, and Monday's adventure was a surprise! He showers these three little girls with a tremendous amount of love and affection. I'm thrilled and thankful that Reese, Rebecca, & Mary-Gail are the recipients of Pappy's love and time, and they love their "Pappy-time!" Pappy's been watching these girls since March 15th - he's starting week 3 of Pappy DayCare. He's cooked with them, colored and read books with them, and he's helped glue sticks to an empty can and turn it into a pencil holder.

TaylorBug & Reese love me

After our church let out, Lovey & I + girls hurried home to change; we had plans to have Sunday supper at JoJo's. Lovey and I loaded up and littles (plus our furry littles) and headed to Springville. He packaged up the chicken tenderloins he had marinating, and I packaged up the fruit for our fruit salad and the greens for our green salad. On the way to JoJo's house, I rehearsed with Becca & Mary-Gail were everyone lived.

Me: "Where does Becca live?" Girls, in Unison: "In Provo"

Me: "Where does Mary-Gail live?" Girls in Unison: "In Provo"

Me: "Where does Aunt JoJo live?" Girls in Unison: "In Springville"

Me: "Where does Grandma Pink live?" Girls in Unison: "In Springville"

Me: "Where does Uncle Jason & Norman live?" Girls in Unison: "In Springville"

Me: "Nope, Uncle Jason & Norman live in New York City" Girls in Unison: "...in New York City!"

Lovey set to work on the grill, and I set to work chopping, slicing, and dicing. Who knew there were so many ways to cut up fruits and veggies? Becca & Mary-Gail were somewhere in JoJo's enormous yard - we all call it Chrisman Park - and Pixie & ArlaMae were making friends with Jed's dog, Coco. And then Jo's little critter's came home!

Jo's four beautiful children filed in from the garage, and JoJo hollered, "Honey, I'm home!" Followed by, "You're the best wife ever!" And I responded, "You're the best sister ever!" I love all my sisters and I seriously cannot think of growing up and living life without Jo, Car, & Kris. JoJo's daughter, Taylor-Bug, and Reese were wearing the dresses I gave them in December - so Cute! I liked the green because they could also be worn during March and still be OK. And aren't they so just so perfect?! I love them so much - so much.

Tay-Bug calls me "Manna;" Reese calls me "Aunt Amanda"

(and so does my own daughter Rebecca!)

Meet Michael Jordan

He was named "Cy" when he was born almost 3 years ago. But he's known now as "Michael Jordan."

He's quick. He's fast. He can handle a ball. He can run. He can jump. But this time around, he's white.

I'm in love

Lovey & Becca - "dream potty" time

Becca's Peacocks

Becca's drawings are plastered on my refrigerator. She uses only markers - what? why? - and has to use a "clean, new piece of paper Mom!" OK, so Becca is very particular about how she draws and what she uses to draw with. But each time she finishes her drawings, she proudly marches to the refrigerator and puts it up for display. Then, Becca stands back and admires her work and says,

"I drawed that one, and that one, and that one, and that one. Oh, they're so pretty - Mommy, you love them!"

I do think they're so pretty, and I do love them. And when I ask Becca to tell me about her pictures, she gives me the same answer and says,

"I drawed a Peacock for you."

Here is a great book for all those budding artists. I really like this author ("Love You Forever"), so when I checked out this book, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. What I didn't know is how big a hit it would be - with Becca & Miguel AND my niece, Reese. She checked it out and took it to Kindergarten for her storytelling time!

Brigid loves to draw and wants to get new markers.

She proves to her mom that she won't draw on anything but paper,

so her Mom gets the newest and greatest markers -

the "Super, Indelible, never-come-off-until-you-die-or-maybe-even-later Markers" and then...

well, it's gets crazy!

The letter U, number 12, color Green, and shape Octagon

I wanted to do something unusual for the Letter U ("unusual" has 3 letter U's!). So I thought about Sea Urchins - these little critters are very unusual, and they would be fun to create. And that's just what we did. When all the girls arrived at our home Monday morning we scurried downstairs to look at real pictures of Sea Urchins. I pulled up several pictures on the Internet, and we watched a short video of Sea Urchins scurrying across the ocean floor (in "quick time" of course). We talked about the Sea Urchins defense - their spines, or "pokey's" as Becca called them, and talked about what Sea Urchins ate. After everyone had a good look at the Sea Urchins, we marched upstairs to create our own type of Sea Urchin. (It's amazing that even on our 22" computer monitor I heard, "I can't see!" {We rotated the front row spot so everyone could "see"}).

These little critters were busy making their own Sea Urchins using a Styrofoam ball (spray painted green since we were learning the color 'green'), and 12 pipe cleaners (because we were also learning about the number '12'). We glued on googly-eyes after the Sea Urchin's pokey spikes were in place.

Mary-Gail was so into this little project! She created TWO Sea Urchins, and then promptly dismembered them. Poor little guys!



I couldn't get a picture of Mary-Gail's two Sea Urchins before she plucked off all their spines; Becca seemed to have acquired more than 12 spines on her Sea Urchin...must have taken them from Mary-Gail's dismembered urchins.


Reese's Sea Urchin

We got a snack - large marshmallows and pretzels - and headed outside for some good 'ole fashioned hopscotch. (I had hoped the girls would create an edible Sea Urchin with their marshmallows & pretzels, but they were starved and quickly devoured them). Mary-Gail found some flowers for me - lovely dandelions (already?!) and I savoured every last one she plucked - all 9 of them.

"Ma, this is for you. It's so pretty"

Hopscotch was just having the girls hop to the number/letter/shape that I called out. I had drawn large letter U's, large number 12's, and large Octagons on the driveway Sunday afternoon in preparation for Monday. I really liked that game, and so did the girls. Although my heart snapped in two when I hear one girl say to Mary-Gail, "I don't want you by me." Mary-Gail doesn't care what people think anyways, so no biggie, but I was stung by those words. So, we changed games and I pulled out the Bouncer (I had plans on using this for the Letter O, but the Bouncer was wet from being outside!), and everyone enjoyed the Bouncer. I was going to play hide'n'seek and have the girls count to 12 before finding everyone, but I quickly X'd that idea since everyone was having fun jumping. We'll save hide'n'seek for next time.

Becca & Reese go down the slide.

That's my Mary-Gail: happy, carefree, and oh so loveable!

This is what DayLight Saving Time did to my little girl

Shhhh, the Princess is sleeping...

...on the floor...

Mary-Gail fell fast asleep, on the entry-way floor into Becca's room. It is hard work being a true princess: princess gown, glass slippers, and purse (it's hidden under her left arm/body), still dressed to the nine's. I didn't move her to her bed until it was time for her & Becca's "dream potty." And only then did I reluctantly remove Mary-Gail's gown, slippers, and purse, but the true "Princess" remained and was tucked snuggly in her bed.