Breaking News!! Kortni just posted twice in a day!! I'm really trying guys. I know that everyone in the world thinks I'm too busy for friends and family, but I'm really trying. It's just extremely hard for me to keep it all together and make everyone happy!
Well, we just did Alizah's hair and anyone that knows about our latest Alizah phase will recognize the green and teal headband. She wears it EVERYDAY...church, school, bed, probably swimming if the phase lasts that long! She always wants two pony tails and
then adds the headband herself.
WE LOVE ALIZAH and all her pizazz!!!

Again, no new pictures. We are home from State Gymnastics-a VERY long work weekend for me. We all crashed last night and have had a very lazy morning trying to get moving. Hanna went to school kicking and screaming this morning! We hope for her teacher's sake she calms down. She is soo tired. Well, I don't even have any pictures of Hanna at her first State meet. That's the breaks being a coach and not a parent. We'll have to see if anyone took pity on me and took some of her. She did great! She did the one trick that she has been struggling with all season, so that's all that mattered to us! The whole team did great. We only took home two medals, but it's really hard to explain to the girls that they are competing with girls who train twice as much as we do and sometimes even more. We train 6 hours a week and I heard that most gyms over in Seattle area are on average 14-20 hours a week!! WOW, what dedication and it sure does show!! We are uping our hours starting this summer to 8 hours a week! We'll see how it goes....Piper and Alizah were sure glad to see us. Brandon did fairly well without us, although the TV room showed the damage! He was mad I didn't give him a warning call befire we got home so he could clean it up!! Alizah had a funny story for us when she got home. There was a community demonstration for our Spanish singers, gymnasts, and our dance group that is at our building. Well, Brandon took Alizah to sing and do her Hot Shots (gym), but she is not involved in the dance this year because she absolutely refused to perform last year, so I wouldn't let her do it this year and she's never said a word about it all year UNTIL Saturday. Korbi was helping them and Alizah asked, "Where is my pink dance costume?" Korbi started to panic thinking that I had not given her all the costumes. Everyone assured her that Alizah was not in dance this year. Well Alizah was insisting that she was in Rosalie's "pink" dance and she wanted to dance. She kept saying, "Just let me dance!". She was heartbroken when she did not get to go on stage with the dancers. I'm almost wishing they would have let her dance just to see what she would have done!! That's Alizah for us! I'm so glad I'm home. I missed them for three whole days!!

I have no new pictures today, but Korbi informed me that I wasn't doing too good on my blog this week and that I can post without pictures. So what to write about? No one is sick. This is the major news of today! We are enjoying a quiet day at home and hopefully when dad gets home from work we can in the yard. The grass is green and our yard needs some major "dog repair". Our two dogs Jelly and Izzy dig the biggest holes, chew up the most things, and run some major pathways through our yard. So we need to cover some mounds, fill some holes, and pick up all our neighbor's shoes that have ended up in our yard! This will be our only weekend home for another few weeks. Next week we go to STATE GYMNASTICS!! I am waiting for Hanna's friend to email me some pictures, then I will post them of Hanna scoring high enough to go to state! She slid by, but definitely earned it after raising her scores this year over four points!! We are so proud of her. We will watch her compete next weekend. This weekend she has to give a talk in church that will probably embarrass me. We had a family home evening lesson on honesty and she decided to give her talk on an experience that happened last weekend at a gymnastic meet. I had promised her to go swimming in the motel the night before the meet. Well we arrived too late and the pool had closed to anyone 18 and under. Well my friend and I were talking about just sneaking the kids in and getting out when we were caught. Well Hanna would have no part in this lying and not being honest. She stood up for what she was taught (thank heavens she listens to me most of the time!) and wouldn't go in the pool and agreed to not be mad at me for getting to the motel too late. So I rented her a movie on the TV to try and make up for it. Well, she's such a sweetheart, it wasn't until halfway through the movie that she slipped and made a comment about the ending of the movie. She had already seen it at a friend's house! The little stinker was just trying to make me feel better by letting me rent her a movie she had already seen! So she's going to give her talk in church about how her mother tried to sneak her into a closed pool and she stood up for what she believed in! Way to go Hanna! I'm so proud of you....Ha, Ha. OH I also have to post something for those of you who are reading and not writing any comments....because I didn't know you knew what was going on in our lives...This is for Jana and Terry. Hanna was so excited when she opened an envelope that had $10 in it to go towards science camp and that Uncle Terry was a scientist too! That was extremely nice of you and we appreciate your caring!! THANK-YOU!! We are waiting for pictures from Wal-mart and will send you a picture showing her practicing being a scientist. The other day "cients center" (science center) had it's grand opening in our playroom. Anyone that was interested could sign up for classes that were posted on the door. They were all taught by Hanna and her friend Ella for 50 cents/week, 100$ for 2 months, 108$ for 9 months and 102$ for 3 months. I signed up Alizah and Piper for the 9 months session. It will be my cheapest day care yet!! So the playroom was filled with growing worms, "snow", changing colored crystals, and Alizah's favorite a growing alligator. I didn't know that I had been employed as janitor for the "cients center", but for the sake of science I completed my tasks. We just found out today that Grandma Dawn is flying into Seattle to watch Hanna at State and then come see Kiki's baby, so I'm hoping (I hope your reading this mom..) that Grandma will take Hanna to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle while I have to coach most of Saturday at other sessions of age groups. Did I mention that I had 11 gymnasts go to State??? Yeah, I feel pretty good. We are getting better....Good Luck to us next weekend!!

First Day of Summer?? Daddy "fixed the sun" today so we could run through the sprinklers. I know, I know we have an amazing daddy!! Alizah woke up this morning (after sleeping with her swimsuit) and was INTENT on running through the sprinklers. I don't know where she got the idea, but for anyone who knows Alizah once she has an idea in her head, you might as well make it happen or you'll never, I mean never, hear the end of it.
I said that daddy had to fix the sprinklers and even if he did, he couldn't fix the sun-meaning make it hot enough for summer fun. So, Alizah went around asking every 3 seconds for daddy to fix the sun. She truely enjoyed the sprinkler fun today and that's what it's all about right?? Piper wouldn't run through the sprinklers, but we had to take a picture of her cute new bob haircut. She even wore a bow in her hair to church! I know it's so impressive we had to document it today! Piper's new things are gum, "go away" phrase-even if she wants you to hold her, bouncing her babies while telling them to "shhh". Her birthday is in two weeks and she'll be two years old. I can't believe my babies are growing up too fast. Oh, the running girl above-just threw up. Piper also threw up last night, so it looks like we might be going on round 2 or is it 3 or 4 or round 5 of sickness? It has hit us hard this year. After she threw up, Alizah was kind enough to tell me that I was stepping in it. I guess you had to be there, but it was the funniest thing that happened all day!

My gymnastic team finally took a FIRST team trophy!! They did so great at the gym meet last weekend in Spokane. Most of the girls got their highest scores of the year. I hope this spirit carrys over to this weekend as the girls go to their Sectionals meet. If they score a 32 they move to state. Good Luck Team!! So the next pictures are of two adult competitors for AIM Gymnastics. Jamie (a friend and mom of one of my gymnasts) and I competed in our first ever adult competition. We took either first or second on all the events in the 30's and over category!! It was actually a little nerveracking, but fun in the end. I got first all-around which made my gymnasts envious over my tiny trophy! HA, HA. I hope I made Hanna proud with my pointed toes!! Next year we decided we are going to practice more than just 20 minutes the night before.....

Baby "Paiswee" (as Alizah would say) is finally here at our house. Hanna is such a proud cousin. She actually gets to stand up when holding her. Yes, mom holds her breath. Korbi is more laid back then I would have thought. She lets all the kids touch her hair and hold her. Paisley looks the cutest when she shows up at our house in clothes that my girls wore. Its fun to see their outfits and think about when they were that small! Just yesterday, I gave Korbi garbadge bags of Piper's 12-18 months clothes. It's hard to let them go after 3 girls, but what am I to do with them? At least, like I said I get to still see them. Korbi always dresses Paisley so cute with a matching bow. I also remember when my girls just sat there while I put bows in their hair. Now they run and hide under the bed when they see the comb! Actually poor Piper never got many bows, her being the third on the list. I guess I need to start doing hair from the youngest to oldest instead. We love having a girl cousin, but poor Beck has to put up with another girl......

Here is Alizah and her fire hat. This is her newest thing. At any point during the day she'll tell us the "cover your eyes and roll, and roll, and roll" story. Just last night she wanted to make sure that Piper knew how to cover her eyes and roll! She also remembers from the fireman talk at school that if a dog is in the house, you don't go back, "you let em' burn"! No, that's not what the fireman said, but that's what Alizah got! She loves her escuela....Some cute things she's said in the past month are that her belly button, "sucks" (meaning it sucks in). "It sucks, it sucks, look it sucks" she's telling all the other kids. Maestra Korbi had to figure out what she was saying. She also tells me when I forget to "drowned" the water. (drain the water from the bathtub). Does anyone remember the leewlo (leotard) phase? Well technically we are still in it, but now we've added the red sweatsuit phase. Heaven forbid if I don't get it washed fast enough. Notice in the picture, she's wearing the red shirt to the suit, but the pants were dirty....sad day!!
Piper's picture is showing her "shoe, shoes" . She is obsessed with shoes and has been for some time. This day we've started the "do my self" stage. So now we are seen with them on the wrong feet or even wearing our sisters shoes. As anyone who knows me I pick my battles and most of the time I don't pick any battles at all!! Piper's second haircut to fix her mullet that is growing in the back is on thursday. This should be interesting. Her hair is growing faster than Alizah's! Does anyone notice that this post is actually less than 12 hours since my last? I actually organized my pictures in folders on the computer (Yes, this took me most of the day on Mon) so it's easier to post pics. Yeah for us, it probably won't happen again until next spring break!

The first picture is of Hanna and her student of the month award with her first grade class. Hanna is a great student who tries so hard to do what her teacher asks! It was great timing too because the kids got called up to the office right after celebrating her birthday in her class. So the next picture is of her "Scientist labcoat and safety goggles" that she got for her birthday, so we can say a big THANK-YOU to everyone who is supporting this budding scientist go to her science camp. The next two pictures are of Hanna's Cleopatra party. We had a fun friend party with an archeological dig to find gold things, a treasure/present hunt which the kids had to read the Egyptian code to read the clues, and of course we ate the pyramid cake. This pyramid cake took me all morning and three tries to make it acceptable. It was a big day, but the 5 time birthday celebration is finally over!! Now we are on to the rest of our Spring Break. Hopefully mom can get some cleaning done and it will be warm enough for the kids to get some outside playing time on their bikes. We are currently getting enough viewings of "Boom chicka wow, wow" in (a.k.a.... Alvin and the Chipmunks) to last us a lifetime!! I guess it's better than the Max & Ruby kick we were on for the past few months!

Question of the day....WHO STEALS A SEVEN YEAR OLD'S BIRTHDAY CAKE??? So the story goes, we were RUNNING to the hosptial to make it to the birth of Paisley, so we put Hanna's ice cream cake outside under the car (it was night/cold/the only choice I had) and made it to hear the screaming as I was running down the hall (no epidural for Korbi), then rounded the corner and saw Paisley..Anyway which I'll give more details later-back to the cake. After we got back to the car Hanna's birthday cake was no longer there! It was 10:00 at night and the cake was gone. So Hanna had to open her presents from her family without a cake. Remember the goodness that I told of Hanna? Well her response to the absence of the cake was, "Well I guess Dairy Queen was out of cakes, and somebody else needed it." We've really had enough cake in Idaho so the missing cake wasn't really the issue. I tried to use it as a teaching moment and say remember how you feel right now when someone has taken something of yours-so don't ever take something that doesn't belong to you. So I guess in the end i hope some other little Hanna who is turning seven enjoyed our birthday cake!! So back to the Paisley story. I knew the screams belonged to Korbi when I heard them. I just didn't know she was going to try the birth without drugs, so the piercing loudness of them surprised me. Paisley is a little bruised, but beautiful! I thought right away she looks like Beck. She is smaller-only 7 lbs. 4 ozs. which again surprised me! Korbi did great though. She was wonder woman and seemed in really good spirits. Beck got to see his sister and blew her and his mom kisses the whole time. We will go see them today. Hopefully my children will be well enough to hold their cousin soon!

So I said yesterday I would add more birthday photos, but this little incident this morning takes precedent! This picture shows my two beautiful, sweet wonderful girls in a battle of the will. They both have to take anitbiotics. So Piper got held down and gargled hers, and Alizah said she would take her own to my bribe of a visit to the fire truck (which is her newest thing), a present at Hanna's birthday and a swig of Mountain Dew at 8:30 this morning. Well, we tried to presuade for 1/2 hour. She ran and hid under the bed and claimed I couldn't get her under there because I was too big to fit, and she cried and pleaded not to take it. So I tried my best to hold her down. Well, I don't know what I'm doing at the gym every morning at 6:00 a.m., but it is not making me strong enough to hold down a four year old! She kicked and pulled my hair and put Britni (my sister's fights when we were little) to shame!! The medicine was in a syringe and got shot clear across the room, up the wall, in dad's shoes, and in the key rack, plus all over Alizah and in her hair. It took me 10 minutes to clean it up and another 1/2 hour to bathe and wash kids. She continued to gag herself until she threw up the tiny taste she got of it from her lips touching the syringe. Now do I let her go see the fire truck????? This is all we've talked about for a month. This to me is a lesson in what to bribe kids with because a strong willed child such as Alizah will not do anything she doesn't want to do and no matter what I bribe will not help. SO off we go to see the fire truck......

New question for anyone reading.... HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU THINK IT TAKES SOMEONE SAYING "PUSH THE BUTTON" TO MAKE A TWO YEAR OLD ACTUALLY PUSH THE BUTTON???? So the story that goes with this one again happened with Piper. Poor Piper, the things she has to do to get attention!! So as in my previous blog, we've been trying to get home for three days and couldn't make it. Here's one more of the reasons why. I'm running to the pickup, putting Piper in (the pickup has been running to keep warm because of the freezing cold Idaho weather), and turn around to pick something up. Piper hit the button and locked me out. So for the next forty-five minutes I say "Push the button, please push the button, where's the button, push the button for mommy, PUSH THE BUTTON, go get the button, etc., etc., you get the idea. Piper was probably enjoying watching me jump up and down in the freezing cold screaming excitedly everytime she got even near the button!! She finally had climbed in the back seat and happened to push the right button and in I go to find her sweating in the heat and at this point crying with the green snot (that I previously mentioned)running past her chin. Oh what a memory for me!! So we make it home today to run into Hanna's classroom do the birthday celebration, run to the doctor for anitbiotics, and run to work to teach gymnastics. It's 10:00 at night and I'm glad to be home and hopefully we are on the uphill of our winter colds battle. As sick as everyone was we sure enjoyed seeing family with the three new babies that were added into the family! We just pray we did not get anyone sick! I guess if we did, you can payback us if you come visit!! I'll add some more birthday pictures soon.....