Birthdays Galore and Much, Much More!

We just celebrated birthday weekend! On June 4th we had family party to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday, which we happen to share (June 6th). It's kinda funny, but my grandpa decided to share his party with me, so we had our pictures taken together, people sang to both of us, etc. My little brother's birthday happens to be June 5th (and so is Jason's), but no one said anything to him. I mentioned it was Eric and Jason's birthdays too, but either no one was listening or no one cared (it was probably the first one, Eric). On Sunday, June 5th, we celebrated Eric's and Jason's AND my birthday. And then my birthday was actually on Monday. My birthday lasted for three days, which in the eyes of some doesn't seem fair. I, however, think it is fair. Yippee!

Here's photos from J's big day:

Addie and Jason, opening his first present.

A potato! Hooray! He didn't say it, but I could tell that Jason was a little disappointed...

until he opened his second present and got a potato shooter! Alright! This present turned out to be so cool that he went back and bought three more so we can have battles. Anyone interested in battling it out spud-style, let us know.

And then we presented dear Jason with an entire pan of homemade cannoli. Happy birthday, Daddy! You're number one!

And then on my birthday:

We made bananas foster for dessert! Here's Jason lighting my dessert on fire. I was so excited for my birthday dessert and was delicious! Then Addie and Jason left me clues around the house... (here's a few of my favorites)



...that led me to my presents! It was awesome! Here I am finding a watering can, which is just what I wanted. Am I getting old or what? I also got a book light, which I was (and am) excited about. Please see the sentence before the last one. We had some great birthdays this year. Thanks to our parents, too, for their generous and thoughtful gifts! And thanks to little sisters for awesome birthday phone calls and handmade gifts!

All of those birthdays in a row confused Addie and she woke up Tuesday morning convinced it was her turn for a birthday.

Last weekend was a crazy and fun one. It started with our big ash tree getting trimmed, which resulted in a beautiful tree and a bloody arm. One of the tree trimmers got injured and bled all over the back patio and our ladder. I'm glad they cleaned most of it up. Then Jason's mom and two sisters came to visit!

The girls (Tricia, Cami, Caitie, Addie and I) went to This Is The Place Heritage Park and wandered around. Caitie and Addie rode a horse. We all got free ice cream cones. And we rode the train. It was a good time. Afterward, we all went to our Family Stake Outing on Friday night. I had been asked a week prior if I would draw pictures of kids that they could then color. So I did. And I drew adults, and dogs, and entire families even. I almost made a little girl cry after I handed her the drawing I did of her. I quickly did another one to try and make it all better, but she had the same reaction. The funny thing was that I had just done a drawing of her twin sister and she loved it. Anyway, it was fun but I don't want to do it again.

Saturday morning Tricia picked up Colton, Nathan, and their friend Shandon from EFY. We all went out for breakfast. There happened to be a grand opening at the D.I. next door to the breakfast place so we wandered over. There was five minutes to opening and a line at the door. For the D.I.. And a clown and balloons. For the D.I.. Addie talked to the clown and got a balloon dog, then we browsed the store and went home. For a D.I. grand opening, it was fabulous. Later we all went to Provo and cruised up Provo canyon to see Bridal Falls. Addie waded in and found some rocks (see above photo). Afterward we went to Niccoitalia's Pizza and gorged ourselves on exceptional pizza and cannoli (you may be interested to know that "cannoli" is plural and "cannolo" is singular. Just something we learned that may come in handy some day when we need to impress important people with our knowledge of Italian desserts.) After that, we watched fireworks from the balcony at Aunt Linda's and Uncle Marty's. Caitie and Jason named nearly every kind of firework: "inside-out watermelon", "shimmer me timbers", and "Scott Bakula", just to name a few. What a great weekend!

Here's El Champion giving his girls a ride.

Addie Funnies

"I played with Aunt Clare so much I thought she was my mom!"

She calls Family Home Evening "Family O' Meeting"

Her favorite drink is "rootbeard"

She calls dandelions "dumbdandelions" thanks to dad

When the dolls she was playing with kept falling over she said, "Maybe it's an erf keck!" (earthquake...I'm not sure how she knows what one is.)

The other day she was laying on the floor when she suddenly, in a worried voice, said, "Mom! My brain is falling out!" It turns out, just her braid was falling out. Phew.

After church one Sunday I asked her what she did in nursery. "Fought mean guys." "Oh? Just for pretend?" "No. They were real. We fought them with knives." I'm still not sure where this came from, but her nursery leader assures me there is no knife fighting going on.

She made up this story: "Once upon a time there was a little boy. He turned into a fan and said, 'Oh no!' The End."

She told me, "Daddy's at work helping people stay in their beds." That's close to what he does...

She says, "Yes-ah", "No-ah" and "what-ah?" instead of "yes", "no" and "what?"

She was having a bath when she pointed and asked, "What's that, mommy?" "A shower head, "I said. She laughed and said, "But it doesn't have a nose!"

We were at the library when she saw a man with a tattoo on the back of his neck. "Mom, "she said, pointing, "he colored on his neck!"

Our neighbor, Patrick was out working on his sprinklers without a shirt. When Addie saw him, she pointed and said, "Mom, he's a little bit naked."

"You can eat a banana, even though you're not a monkey."

She often says, "What you say?" with attitude after someone asks her something.

"Aw, what a cute mom that I have!"

We were waking down a hall at church a little ways behind the bishop when Addie said,"Poor bishop. He's old. He needs a wheelchair because he can't move very well." Our bishop is a grandpa, but he walks just fine.

A lot of her sentences start like this: "I have a plan..." She really does plan everything out. Here's a real life example: "I have a plan. Let's go out the door, close the door then lock it, then go down the stairs and play on the swings and then run down the hill and jump on the trampoline and then come inside and have a snack. Is that a good idea? Let's do it!"

She often puts her arms around our (J and I) necks and says, "We're famee! (family)"

She calls popsicles "ice popsicles"

We love this kid!

EasteRichfield

Well, as is my habit, here comes a late post on Easter and all the other things we've been up to.

Here's my pretty Easter girl with her rabbit in a headlock. The night before Easter I could not get Addie to go to bed. Running out of patience, I told her the Easter bunny wouldn't come unless she went to bed. "Okay," she said, and then climbed onto the couch. "Okay then. I'll call him up right now and tell him not to come to our house this year." I picked up my phone, pretended to dial, and then had a conversation with Mr. Bunny. Then Addie reached for the phone and asked to talk to him. She may have been on to me. I told her he had just hung up. I didn't leave anything out for her to find in the morning, and she didn't care. I ended up coming home during church to put out her basket and leave some floury rabbit prints on the floor just because I cared if she got something or not. She was pretty excited.

Jason's family tradition is to roll hard boiled easter eggs down rocky hills, so we have decided to do that in our family, too. Not having his family around for Easter this year, we invited my family to come along. It was a lot of fun!

We had an Easter egg hunt in my parents' backyard, and my brothers hid the eggs for her. Throughout the entire hunt Addie kept saying things like, "Thanks for hiding these for me!" "Good job hiding these eggs!" She's a sweetie.

We went to Richfield a few weekends ago to do some fishing. Due to large amounts of rain and snowmelt, the river has flooded over into a lot of the fields... along with the fish that usually live in the river. We went out into the cow pasture armed with bows and an atlatl (an Australian spear) with hopes of getting a carp or two or twelve.

This photo shows how incredibly deep the flooding is. Eric is over 6 feet tall.

Colton and the atlatl. Unfortunately, is was too windy and too overcast for successful fishing, so we didn't get anything. Except wet and poopy (thanks to the cows).


We went for a ride on one of the back roads to see a few of Uncle Eric's fields/ lakes. Addie was excited to sit by the window and look for birds and fish.

Uncle Nate taking Addie for a ride around the farm. Addie's got some really great Uncles. Seven, to be exact.

She's also got some really great aunts. Here's Addie, the goat, and Aunt Meagann. This is the goat that Addie tried to ride last time. This time she's pregnant, so we're looking forward to seeing the baby goats next month.


We were out in the field when Addie decided she needed to go potty. Not being very close to a functioning potty (the power was also out in all of Richfield and Venice for most of the day, which also made the water stop running for people with wells), we told Addie to pee like a goat. We leaned her against a fence and she went, only getting a little on the bottom of one pant leg (see photo). She was very proud of herself and told everyone for the rest of the day that she "peed like a sheep!"

This is Addie's Great Grandma Utley. Addie really wanted to play with her and went so far as to find her shoes in her closet so she could go outside. She held grandma's hand and led her outside to sit in these chairs. Then the cat came and jumped on her lap. It was pretty cute, I thought. It was also funny to hear these two have a conversation since grandma doesn't hear too well anymore.

Also, we taught Addie how to play kick the can. She loves it and is so funny. If she sees you, then she'll yell, "Busted!" and kick the can over herself.

We took Addie to a Blaze game (indoor football). She did well for five minutes and then started saying, "It's burring. Let's go home. It's too burring!" It took us a few minutes to figure out that she was saying, "boring". Having a toddler is a lot like having a tiny foreign exchange student.