3 things that I think are cool

Buddy Greene at Carnegie Hall



Iain MacHarg on the Smallpipes (ignore creepy spoon lady)



Finally...me in 1997. Bad bad things happened to video before the digital age. I wish it were better quality. I'm the dude...spinning the mace. Actually, after some review I think there is more explanation needed for this last one. I was the drum major for my highschool during the 97-98 school year. This means that I was in charge of teaching some things, conducting...the "leader" of the group. One of the things that my school did was participate in a lot of competitions where the group would be judged and given a score, and compared to other groups. We did street competitions as well as fields shows...normally same day. This is the street competition for Arcadia...which is big. You don't see it, but there are probably about 1000 people around watching each group compete.

I have a problem.

The first step is admitting it, right? Well, I have a serious bow problem! I'm obsessed, and can't make myself do much else the last few days! It wouldn't be such a problem if I was very good, but so far I've ended up with a lot of mess ups. I was even thinking how cool it would be if I could get really good and sell them or something. Slow down Rachel, you aren't good yet. So hence the need to practice lots! Here's my latest creation!
And you can't see it in the picture, but she has butterflies on the front of her shirt! Yay!
Oh, and one quick story while I'm down here. Today I got the boys their lunch of hot dogs, grapes, and graham cracker bees, then sat down to nurse Katy. Ryan came upstairs, went over to the table, and said "yum!" I started mentally patting myself on the back for serving something that he liked so much, when he said "Yum, ketchup crackers!" This then became a game of "Yum, ketchup _______ (fill in the blank with whatever random noun they could think of)!" Fun, fun. Oh, and I went over to look at his plate when I was done with Katy. He did, in fact, have ketchup on some crackers. And no, he did not actually think they were yummy. Silly kid!

Why you shouldn't take three kids to the store...

Okay, now that I've spent almost all of my free time on the computer, I'll just post one more thing. On Monday I had one more stop to make after picking up the boys, so I took them to Costco with me. Boy was that a mistake! I forgot how hard it is, since I usually run all my errands during preschool! I have found that when you have three to pay attention to, none of them get enough attention!

You'd think I'd have noticed Kathryn with her being right in front of me, but between trying to keep an eye on the boys and trying to shop, I didn't notice what she was doing! I didn't realize until I took this picture that the only cookies she's ever had are sugar cookies...chocolate chip cookies are far messier!
And the boys frequently lag behind a little or run ahead a little, and I guess I've gotten too comfortable with that. I was near the end of the next aisle when I went back to find out why Rynan wasn't coming yet, and this is what I found!

Katy has a tooth, and curly hair!

Okay Dan, I know you think it's dumb for me to post every single little thing, but some people (my mom & sisters) care! So there!
Little Katy Goo cut her first tooth a couple days ago! You can just barely see it in this picture.
And maybe it's not quite curly, but look at Katy's pretty hair! It's not totally straight!

Easter clothes!

One of my favorite things about Easter is that I "have" to buy pretty new clothes! Yay!

After several tries, I ended up with this pretty dress for Kathryn. And I learned how to make korkers - isn't her headband pretty?


My babies...aren't they sweet?

Look - Katy and I coordinate! Oh, and the boys look handsome, too!

My boys! Dan, you're right, you do need a haircut!

Our attempt at using the camera's timer for a family picture. Not great, but decent enough.

My girlie!

the Easter Egg...dash!

It seems funny to call it an Easter Egg hunt when it's just a big field with eggs placed all over it. There is no hunting involved, just running for your life! So we tried to do a little coaching. We told the boys to run past the first eggs, get out to the middle and start going crazy grabbing eggs. That way they'd be the first ones there and get the most eggs. It worked for David - he got lots! But Ryan, he ran out there...and just kept running around!

Both boys are in the center of the picture - Ryan in the dark blue jacket, David in the royal blue with stripes.
David putting eggs in his basket, Ryan just running around!

The whole thing was over in about 1 minute, and Ryan was very sad! It's too bad we have a whole year until he can try again!
We got Ryan to cheer up, and David got an egg with a prize ticket in it! So much fun!

Easter Festival

A couple years ago we went to a Halloween party at the Lehi Legacy Center, and it was really fun and had lots of stuff to do. So we (I) decided to spend the $5 a person to go to the Easter Festival this year. And...it was disappointing. They said there were games, but there weren't very many. The dinner was outside, and it was windy & we hadn't brought coats, so we ate in the car. But hey, at least the Easter bunny was there, right?

Eeek! Have you seen a creepier thing in your life? I'm pretty sure David is just blinking, but I'd close my eyes, too!

We waiting in line for AN HOUR for face painting. Katy entertained herself by sitting on the floor being super cute! And check out the bow - I made it!

After all that waiting, we finally got our faces painted (which they were super excited about!). Now we are spidermen!
Little Ry Ry wanted me to get a pink butterfly, so I did. I figured we should get whatever we could after waiting so long! Oh yeah, and this is the day that I forgot mascara. I put on all my other make up, but forgot mascara. Good one, Rachel.

David's submarine

Yay for David! He finally got his submarine! He found it when we were shopping shortly before Christmas, and I already had more than enough for him, so I told him he could buy it. The problem was that it cost $15 and he only had $10 (birthday money). So he had to work to earn money to buy it. And he was really uninterested by that prospect. He earned a couple dollars, and had his first Tithing paying experience (he was NOT happy to have his money go away!). But he got $1 from Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa Smith for Valentines day, so he was up to like $4.15 I think. Then he got another $1 from Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa Smith for Easter, and he had enough! So he was able to buy it from me! We filled up the tub, and they had a grand old time playing with it!

Katy's first ice cream cone!

What an exciting first for sweet little Katy Goo! Every time I start a baby on solids I think how weird it is that within 6 months or so they go from sloppily eating some mushy rice cereal to eating most normal foods (with some modifications, like cut into tiny pieces). Well, two Sundays ago (3/16) we were having ice cream cones for FHE snack (Dan works until after bedtime so we do FHE on Sundays), and I decided to try making one for Katy. I had to kind of force her to taste it, she was not sure about it at all. So she got some in her mouth, contemplated it for a moment, then said "book!" Which, we all know, means "I like/want that!"

The scattered thoughts of my mommy brain...

Okay, so I haven't blogged for a week, and even that one was pretty short & quick, so I have much to write about. I'm going to print all our posts out (once I figure out how to do it how I want it) to save as a journal, so I want to write lots of stuff! And at this moment the boys are at preschool and Kathryn is asleep, so I am totally undistracted at the moment! So be prepared for lots of posts!

It's 1 AM...do you know why I am awake

Really quick...I just wanted to get this uploaded....then the easter bunny comes.



Also, I wanted to post some of the pictures from this video so that you can have a good look at them. I took all of them and am rather proud. We are VERY happy that we spent the money to get a good SLR camera. What's the point when you are old and rich...no one wants to see 25 year olds kids anymore...TOO LATE. And, I know some of them are raw pictures with no editing yet (red eye and the like).

Look what I made!

Okay, so lately I'm indulging in the joys of finally having a baby girl. Easter dresses, hair bows, and cute little pony tails. And now I made a bow board! There's a website with instructions for how to make bows (I'm working on that, it's pretty tricky), and there's also instructions for this bow board. I finally remembered to buy the stuff to make it, and tonight I did it! I love it! Now I have somewhere to put all those cute little hair bows when they arrive (I went on a mini ebay-spree last week)! Sorry the pic is a little blurry, I just took it with my cell phone, and I figured it didn't really matter.

Fine....I'll do it!

For some reason ever since I heard the word "blog" I hated it. It seemed to me that the term itself oozed the teenage paradigm of "Hey everyone! Look what I'm doing...I'm so important you have to care what I am thinking at every moment." Hate it. Yet, here I am. Writing....so that you (for some reason) will read what I have to say.

At any rate, this is nothing more than a test of my ability to actually get something posted. And, I made a realization that if I choose to, I can put pictures of the little people on here so that I can stare at them at work while rich people with little more to do than burn gobs of greenbacks scream at me because they were stupid enough to buy an OTC BB stock that then declared bankruptcy 2 days later. It's fine if you don't get that one. It's a broker thing...you wouldn't understand. Unless you did.

But, so as to justify my time online, I will now post a video of one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I promise I'll be watching it a lot tomorrow and in the days to come.

Another trip to Thanksgiving Point!

I was such a good mom yesterday. I took the kids to the farm AND to the dinosaur museum! And since it was Monday night there was all kind of good stuff going on!

We got there at the right time to help milk the cow! David looks a little nervous...

But Ryan seems to like it!

And Katy is freaked out by the cow. Ignore the weird look on my face - I was trying to take a picture while making sure that nothing bad happened between Katy & the cow. Or she could have tried to eat the cow's hay or something. So I was distracted.

Katy was afraid of the baby calf, too. I guess it was trying to lick her, and that's kinda scary.

Then we got to make cool St. Patrick's Day crafts!

Katy had her first pony ride!

She was NOT excited about it! But she actually stopped crying and smiled when it started. Which is backwards from what Rynan did when he was a little Rynan.



We also got to see some cute chickies and duckies, and one tiny baby goat. Katy tried to poke it in the eye. It was exciting. But it was pretty windy, so we wanted to leave before we were done having fun. So we headed to the Dinosaur museum! We got to do a scavenger hunt & make paper bag puppets & "wind socks" (paper plates with crepe paper stapled to them). It was so fun!

I got a haircut!

I finally found a time to get a haircut! Yesterday Katy wouldn't take a nap before preschool, so she fell asleep on the way there. So I dropped off the boys and went strait to get it cut. And Katy stayed asleep the entire time! Yay!

Our crazy Utah weather!

So it's been pretty sunny and nice lately, and I've been meaning to take the kids to Nolan park (just so there's a bit more room to run than our neighborhood park). It was still looking pretty sunny today, so I loaded everybody up and drove to the park. I even brought their bikes so they could ride on the trail. And they had lots of fun! For a little while at least...



Katy absolutely refused to look at the phone to get her picture taken. She was too busy playing & watching her brothers play!



Then it started getting really windy, and wimpy Mommy made us leave. On our way home I noticed that half of the sky was mostly blue with some puffy white clouds, and the other half was gray and yucky. Rude weather! Then a short time after we got home, I got this picture of our backyard (don't mind the upside-down pool, I keep trying to prop it against the house or something, but it likes to blow around the yard)! It's snowing! Not cool!




Oh, and as I type this, my little Ryan is at his first ever Primary activity. David's there too, but it's just not as big of a deal. He's been to several. My baby Ry Ry is growing up!

Our trips to the farm!

Last Friday was one of the first nice days we've had around here, so I decided to take the kids to the farm (Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point). They had so much fun! In fact, yesterday on the way to preschool Ryan asked if we could go again. I try to run all of my errands while they're at preschool (1 kid is soooo much easier to handle than 3!), and was planning on getting some perishable food at my last stop before picking them up. So I asked them "Would you rather I go shopping while you're at preschool and we go straight home, or go to the farm and have to go grocery shopping afterwards?" They both immediately said "Go to the farm!" So we ended up going again! It meant going to Albertsons with all 3 kids, but it wasn't too bad. I'm glad they like the farm so much (Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Smith for the membership!)!

Here are some pics from Friday


The calf tried eating/licking Ryan's jacket, and he thought it tickled!


Ryan was a little nervous about the pony ride, but David thought it was great!

We got lucky enough to see the peacock with his tail feathers spread! He was so beautiful!

So David said "I want the white one to show his feathers" and I was like "what do you want me to do about that?" Right then, he did!


And here are some from yesterday! It was even nice enough to leave our jackets in the car!

Silly Ryan, what a cheesy...can you even call that a smile?