Emily in first grade.

Emily found a spiral bound book that she made in first grade. Apparently she drew pictures and had an adult help her type out her words. It was some sort of journal/story book for the kids. We just wanted to share some hilarious words from "first grade Emily." (If only you could see the artwork that accompanies each entry.) (You also have to picture the most adorable little girl with big, beautiful brown eyes, a cute ponytail with a bow and a Hannah Anderson dress with leggings.)

Okay. . .she's about 5 years old in this picture. . .but we don't have any first grade pictures on the computer right now. It's pretty acurate, though. . .she was just a little taller in first grade.

"We are going to have a fun time at school, because it is fun." 10/1/99

"My brother went to buy some balloons at the store. Then we brought them in the house." 10/18/99

"I am going to have a good Halloween when it is Halloween. I just like Halloween. I like Halloween." 10/21/99

"The hamsters name is going to be chicken. Because it is a good name for her." 11/9/99 (I'd like to know what hamster she was talking about. . .we didn't have a hamster when she was in first grade!)

"I like my friend. She is a good friend. I like my best friend. She is a good friend." 11/15/99


"I am going to get my Christmas tree today with my sister and my brothers. I am going to have fun and my brothers are going to my house. I like Christmas. I like my mom." 12/6/99

"I like reading my books because I like reading books. You should read them. I like to read. My sister likes to read. I do too. Do you like reading? I do too. Do you like reading? Are you reading? Reading is fun." 12/10/99

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST--

"I am happy today. I am not bad. I am happy, you should be happy. My sister is good. I am happy, she is not bad. She is good. I am not liking this. My sister is not good, she is bad. She is bad, I am not." 12/15/99

Now that I have humiliated Emily on the internet, I have to go through my old first grade projects. Boy, there must be some really ridiculous stories in there. I don't think I want to look. . .

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations to Philip and Kaylee Rayner -- They're going to be having a cute little baby boy! We are so happy for you guys! We love you!

Spring flowers.

Here are some of the pretty things around our yard. Our tulips and hyacinths haven't bloomed yet. . .they always bloom so much later than any other yard around the neighborhood. Hopefully I'll take some pretty pictures when they finally decide to bloom.

Lazy bones.

I forgot to post these pictures a couple of weeks ago.

The silly kitty thinks any bed in this house belongs to her!

Enrichment.

We had a fun Enrichment Night last Thursday evening. Tari told me to not post pictures, but I couldn't resist.

We learned the hula from Brother Mossman. I can't tell you how funny it was to see all these grown women try to dance.

There's Tari again!

You can sort of see her again in this one! (Way over to the left.)

Sorry Tari. :)

P.S. I am going over to the Tingey's tomorrow to take pictures of their cute new baby. Hopefully they turn out okay. I might post a couple of my favorites tomorrow.

We did it again.

Last night Emily and I performed our "Chopsticks" duet at the LDS Performer's Concert. We have never performed in front of such a large audience. We weren't nervous during the first half. After the intermission we got totally nervous. We were 4th from the end, which at first I thought was great, but we got so nervous waiting. Mom was worried Emily was going to have a panic attack. She kept saying, "Mom, my throat is closing up and I can't breathe." I guess that would be the definition of a panic attack! Once we got up there, we turned towards the audience and put on our "Groucho Marx" glasses. Everyone started cracking up. That helped us lighten up a bit. We had it memorized so we didn't have to worry about page turns. We choreographed the whole piece with swaying back and forth, jumping up and down, looking out at the audience, trading places and much much more. Emily and I could hardly contain our laughter up there because people kept cracking up at us. I guess it was the silly glasses. After we took our bow, we couldn't believe the applause! We even got some whistles and woot woots. It was so much fun. (After the fact.)

Lap cat.

Our cat is definitely a lap cat. This is what I saw when I walked by Emily's room the other day. Emily was just working at her desk and the cat thought it was okay to be on her lap. (Where there was practically no room whatsoever.)

Later that evening Emily pulled down her covers in preparation for bedtime and walked out of the room for just a second. The cat quickly jumped up on her bed and plopped herself right on Emily's covers. She knows exactly where to lay herself to make it the most inconvenient situation for you. Emily got in bed, yet she couldn't pull her blankets around her. She had to wait for the dork cat to move. We get so fed up with the cat's behavior we've gotten to the point where we have to physically remove her from her resting place and put her on another family member's bed. Then they can deal with her.

Valentines.

I was going to post several pictures from Wednesday evening but something weird happened with our camera card and some of the files were "corrupted" but I don't know how to fix it. So here are the 2 pictures I could salvage from Wednesday night. (The first picture isn't too good. It has Emily up front and then Sophi and Kathryn blurry in the background. The second picture is of cute Sabrina.)

The Young Women's had Valentine deliveries for a Girl's Camp fundraiser. Emily and her group came over with half-inflated balloons and they sang funny songs. (The valentine was not really from the fundraiser, they just wanted to be silly.) Then another group came with real valentines and they were actually serious when they sang the assigned songs. I wish the pictures were okay, because there were some funny ones of the girls dancing on the front lawn and singing at the door.

A couple funny things.

Emily and I have been begging Mom to let us get another cat. She keeps saying no but that doesn't keep us from asking. We were driving by Petsmart where they have a cat adoption center and I told Mom we were going inside to see if "Albert" was still there. Albert is a cute little Russian Blue just like our kitty. He was there a few weeks ago and if was still there tonight, I was going to get him. Mom kept saying "We're not going in there!" and my response was "Hey, I'm the one behind the wheel. . .I have control of this car and where it parks!" I also said, "If Albert is no longer there, we will not walk out with a new kitty but if Albert is still available. . ." Well, you get the point. Mom kept making it clear we were not going to get another cat. (Of course.) I told her I had prayed about it and I received an answer to go ahead and get a cat. (ha ha) Emily quickly agreed that she prayed and got the same answer. Mom just laughed and said, "Okay Emily. . .that might be believable if you actually prayed!" Emily responded, "Hey! You don't know my life!" It was so funny we just couldn't control our laughter. Lately Emily has been coming up with these HILARIOUS one-liners that keep us laughing every day. Now whenever Mom asks "Why didn't you clean the bathroom?" or "You should get the trashcans out" we respond "Hey! You don't know my life!" (And by the way. . .Emily keeps telling us she really does pray. She's not a bad person. We believe her.) :)

We also had family night tonight. Emily was in charge. Usually not a good thing. :) The first thing that came out of her mouth when we all gathered in the living room was, "Okay. I was looking through the New Era trying to pick an article to discuss and I only read ones with pictures I liked. They're not worth reading if they don't have good pictures." Mom had to have her stop right there. She is too funny. This is why she probably shouldn't be in charge of family night too often. She finally said, "I actually picked the shortest one. We can get this over with quickly."

Everyone thinks Emily is so cute and adorable and so quiet. They can think again.

Here you have it...I hope it was worth the wait.

Okay. . .I guess I'm going to have to explain a few things first. On Sunday afternoon we were playing this Nancy Drew computer game Emily got for Christmas. (Yeah, I know...we're pretty pathetic...while all these teenagers are playing "Battlestar Galactica" and "Age of Empires" or whatever all those dumb games are called, Emily and I are playing a Nancy Drew mystery game.) You can "search" through certain things like bookshelves or street vendor tables and pick them up. We found this silly book about Kung-Fu or something like that. We were cracking up so hard because the pictures were hilarious. They went through instructions on how to perform certain moves and the "battle cry" for each of these moves. Really. . .it was so stupid. . .but oh so hilarious. We decided we wanted to make our own instruction pamphlet for Kung-Fu but one thing led to another and it kind of morphed into this "A Day in the Life of a Kung-Fu Master" type thing. So, in the next month or two Emily and I will print these pictures and make a "scrapbook". Now you have to keep in mind, Emily and I usually don't dress up and do stupid things like this (although Mom begs to differ). We thought it would be hilarious because we were both wearing our grey sweatsuits. We also mock and make fun of anyone who likes Japanamation (or whatever you call it) at every opportunity possible. So keep these things in mind as you view these ridiculous pictures. . .

Now, a Kung-Fu Master has to start her day off with a good dose of meditation. . .


(Yes, we have a pile of logs in our garden. . .Brother Merritt brought them over to chop up for our fireplace.)

Then, a Kung-Fu Master has to do some yard work in preparation for battle.

And then it's time for a nutritious (invisible) meal.

(Yes, we have a stove/oven in our back yard. We are soooo cool. No, actually we just got a new oven and that's our old oven that will slowly be taken apart and put in the recycle bin. Everything that isn't metal will go to the dump.)

Then we burn off all those calories with some exercise. (Actually those bricks were ridiculously heavy and my hands were too small to really grasp them. . .I was in pain. I kept yelling "Emily! Come on! Take the stupid picture!")

(No. . .the garden hose was not heavy. Emily was just being stupid.)

And then a Kung-Fu Master has to have a log throwing contest.

Master Emily was the winner. (Yeah, real far, I know.)

Shhh. . .the tiger is coming. . .HIDE!

Hide some more!

Now it's time for battle.

This move is called the upper right chop. I know...very creative.

Here it is in action! (Whaaaam!)

This move is called the face punch.

In action! (Hee-Cha!)

What's that I hear? Is that a baby tiger in trouble?

A Kung-Fu Master always has time to help the helpless.

The battle resumes.

We call this the chest punch...still...very creative. (Okay, maybe we'll have to come up with new action names for the actual book we make.)

In action. (Foo-Shaw!)

The belly punch.

In action. (Eee-cha!)

All in the day of a Kung-Fu Master.

Okay. . .do you see what I mean? We are so ridiculous. At least making this "scrapbook" will give us something fun to do some Sunday afternoon in the future. And I am very sorry if we've offended anyone who likes "Kung-Fu", "Tai-Chi", "Tae-Kwon-Do" or anything that has to do with ancient Japanese "art forms."