They melt...everywhere

Yes, her mouth is full of melted M&M's.  Yes, her dress is covered with drooling chocolate. Yes, there are even more chocolate candies in each hand.  Now you might ask..."Annette, why did you give her so many M&M's?"  Let me assure you, I did not.  I had left an open bag of M&M's on the counter, safely out of McKenzie's mischievous reach (or so I thought).  A few minutes after I left the kitchen, she came and found me looking like that.  She had pulled her a chair over from her little table, and by using it and the drawers managed to climb up high enough to tip the bag of chocolate close enough so she could have her fill.   Ah...what do I have in store for me?

Little Artist Gallery

Cambrie has recently told me that she wants to be an artist when she grows up.  I think that's fantastic.  When I told her that her great-grandpa was an artist, she got really excited and wanted to see what kind of pictures he painted.  It sounds like we need to stop in Ogden on our next trip out to Utah.  

These are some of her more recent pictures that I thought were worth mentioning.  The first four are from Conference weekend.  I realize it was more than a month ago, but they're here not so don't complain :)  To keep her listening during all of the talks, we had her listen for a word that she wanted to draw a picture about.  Then we told her we would make a book out of all her pictures.  She has also been practicing writing words.  Most of them are just a jumble of letters, but for her Conference book she wanted us to help her spell the words.  And she did a great job. 

 

 

The Temple

"I love to see the temple"

Jesus (she had a hard time getting the beard just right)

And the scriptures (that's Angel Moroni on the front)

The next picture was from a couple of weeks ago.  It's Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  I thought the fin interpretation was great! 

And finally, the picture that has made me smile the most lately is this one....can you guess what it is?  If you guessed a T-Rex, then you're right!

Mischievious

Things Cambrie never did:

• Color on the walls
• Color on the couch
• Rip pages out of books
• Rip the covers off a book
• Dump all of the hair elastics, bows, combs, clips, and toothbrushes out of their drawer every night
• Pull every blanket off the shelf daily
• Open the dishwasher and empty it for me
• Eat crayons
• Eat batteries
• Color on the computer screen
• Color on the keyboard
• Carry a stool around the house for easy access to top shelves of treats, and papers, and markers...
• Empty the desk drawer full of permanent markers, pens, and scissors...then play with them
• Unroll a new roll of toilet
• Throw away bowls and sippy cups
• Pull earrings out of my ears
• Purposely hide then reproduce remotes, toys, and cell phones
• Eat lotion
• Climb on the top of tables
• Throw food from her high chair

Things McKenzie does:

• (See above list)  Yes, she's a handful, but an awfully cute handful.

The day after Mother's Day...

Things you don't want to hear after your perfect Mother's Day:

C: "Mom, I made a lake in the basement." 
Me: "What?  How?"
C: "I used all of my buckets.  Then I splashed in the puddles like this."

C: "Mom, this is bad, this is really, really bad.  Kenzie colored on the walls." 
Me: "Yes, this is bad.  We can't leave any pencils where McKenzie can reach them okay?"
C: "Okay.  Because if we do, she'll destroy things."

C: "Don't worry Mom, I cleaned up the drawings."
Me: I go check to see and find a pile of ten soaking wet dish clothes on the floor. "Ah, you did huh?
C: "Yes, but I need more wet rags."

C: "Mom, don't I look beautiful with your make-up on?"
Me: I see lipstick all over her lips, blush on her cheeks, and eye shadow on her eyes.  "Yes....you do...."
C: "Can you put the mascara on for me?"

C: "Mom, I gave Kenzie a shower with the hose."
Me: I walk outside and definitely find a freezing, wet, crying McKenzie.

C: "Mom!  There's a scary bug on the stairs!  I think it's a spider.  You have to kill it!"
(Note: I am not the spider killer in our house, that's Jeremy's job.  They totally creep me out.)
Me: "Okay, let's go take a look."  We both nervously walk over to the stairs.  "Oh, don't worry Cambrie, it's just a fly.  Do you want to zap it with Dad's bug zapper?"
C: "Yeah!"  I zap it.  "Zap it again!"

My Perfect Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was fantastic this year.  While I was still lying in bed, Cambrie walked into my room and said, "Mom, you need to stay in bed while I make you breakfast.  Okay?"  Man, what a way to start my morning!  So she and Jeremy went downstairs to start cooking, while I stayed in bed and read a book.  Ahh, can you say relaxation?  For breakfast Jeremy made delicious buttermilk pancakes topped with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream.  I ate my entire double-sized triple stack.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for good pancakes.  Cambrie hadn't quite finished her breakfast before she started jumping up and down asking if it was time to give me my Mother's Day presents.  She has been waiting for three days, and miraculously didn't spill the beans on what she and Jeremy and bought, although she did tell me she had hidden the sack in her tent, so I couldn't play there.  Cambrie was so excited to give me my gift because she had picked it out herself.  I opened the sack and saw a beautiful necklace holder.  I could definitely tell that Cambrie had picked it out, because it looks a bit like an umbrella.  I was very excited for this gift because my necklaces have been stored on my dresser in a P.F. Chang's take-out container.  I think this looks a little better, and I don't have to untangle my necklaces whenever I want to put them on now. 

Before... 

And after...

Next Cambrie got the gift from Jeremy.   As she was handing it to me she said, "My present is the prettiest.  Not daddy's."  I was curious, then saw why she was biased, it was a hat.  I've been getting into hats lately since it's such an easy way to hide my lazy hair days.  And this hat is great, Jeremy did a really nice job picking it out.  I was feeling very satisfied with my morning when Jeremy told me that he had one more present.  His disclaimer was that this was a practical gift, and doesn't really count for my main Mother's Day present since it's for the kitchen.  He got me a cupcake travel Tupperware container.  I've been needed one for a long time and I was impressed that Jeremy remembered.  Yahoo!  Now I need to make cupcakes!

After the morning celebrations were over, we all got ready for church and to take Jeremy to the airport.  He is away for the next three days on a Comfort Dental golf trip, being totally spoiled and playing a lot of golf.  The girls and I got back part-way through Sacrament Meeting.  We had just returned from changing McKenzie's diaper when I saw all of the Primary kids walking up to the stage.  How could I forget?!  I've been looking forward to having Cambrie sing up there for years and we totally almost missed it.  Cambrie didn't know why I told her to walk up front, but she did anyway and even found a space to stand where I could see her.  They then started singing, "Mother, I love you."  She knew most of the words and did such a great job.  I was so happy to see her singing up there.  She got lost on the way back down and one of her friend's dad brought her back to me.  She climbed up onto my lap and said, "Mom, that was my first time ever singing up there!"  I told her how proud I was of her and what a great job she did singing.  Then she gave me a big hug and said, "I love you Mom."  Aw, it totally melted my heart.  The girls were angels during the rest of church and I couldn't have been happier.  It was a fantastic Mother's Day.

Super-size it!

For our entire marriage, Jeremy and I have been sleeping on a double-size mattress.  He had bought it just before he met me, so it was brand new and we decided to make do.  Yes it was slightly cramped, but not unbearably so...unless I was pregnant and then there was definitely not enough room for all three of us.  Well, Jeremy has started to complain about neck pain that he blames on the mattress and not having enough room.  So last week we did what I didn't think we'd do until we actually owned a home with a bedroom we'd be in for awhile...we bought a mattress.  A king-size memory foam mattress.  It was delivered just a few days ago and Jeremy has been in heaven ever since.  It is incredibly comfortable.  But more than that, Jeremy actually wakes up cheerful because he's well rested.  I feel bad because I didn't know it was that big of a problem.  So now we have a very massive bed and Jeremy seems so far away on the other side.  "Helloooo over there!" 

When it was delivered, it was all rolled up like a tortilla and our instructions were to walk on it to help it release into its full form.  Our girls happily complied.   Who can say no to jumping on mom and dad's bed? 

Even McKenzie thought it was quite comfortable.  Because of the memory foam, she actually couldn't get up from this.  It was pretty entertaining to watch.

A little bit of Cambrie

Cambrie definitely has her own little personality.  When I'm busy folding laundry, or just taking care of other random house things, she can get creative.  This is what she's shown me the last few weeks: 

Bridal Cambrie.  Later she even put on white tights and found her white princess shoes.

 

Scarecrow Cambrie.  Notice the hands, feet, and neck...it is even holding her bridal bouquet. 

And my little fashionista.  I'll let this picture speak for itself.