I'M ONE!!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Molly Baby!!!

All good things must come to an end

Another Round Up here and gone, I'm exhausted. It was so fun, as always, but it wears me out! Here's the low down on all the activities.

The Stock Parade was a stinker (probably all that horse poop), Molly loved watching all the horses. She sat on Josh's lap the entire time.

The boys were so happy to have their cousins there to hang out with. Even Heather & Torie (plus their families) joined us, we were so honored they came and sat with us, considering all the other friends they have with houses along the parade route! Ha!

Friday's children's parade was so fun. It is my favorite because we eat a huge dinner afterwards at my grandma's. There is good food and so much of it that we eat it again for lunch after the parade on Saturday! We had a special guest with us, my cousins little girl Belle came to the parade with her grandma & grandpa. She sat up on the curb with me and Molly. She was so into the parade and so excited. She asked me what every sign said, what the float was, who they were, the questions went on and on. Good practice for when Molly gets bigger and can talk! We hope she comes again, and maybe even brings the rest of her family along!

On Saturday I took the kids to the Chuckwagon breakfast while Josh went on a bike ride. I paid $4.00 for Owen to eat only eggs. Oh well! My one suggestion would be that they give you real orange juice instead of Sunny-D.

The parade was great, the bands, the floats, the candy, the bands. Did I mention the bands, they are my favorite. Molly took a nap during the first hour, she even slept through all the police and fire engine sirens. Let me list for you all the awesome things we got thrown to us during the parade. Candy (so much that I am considering saving it for Halloween time), a frisbee, a t-shirt, two pens, a water bottle, a reese's big cup, and numerous money saving flyers! SCORE!!

After the parade we headed to the park for some family fun. Owen had been talking about dunking someone, when we got there he decided to be dunked!

He was pretty shocked when he hit the water, but he liked it enough to pay another dollar and do it again. The kids climbed the inflatable rock wall, went down the huge shark slide and we were done and went home. There was not nearly enough carny folk at this party, we will have to wait until Steele Days for that. After taking a few days to re cooperate, we will be totally ready for next year!!

Here are a few more pics for those who care. Little baby cousins, Elle, Molly & Ava. This is the best pic I got, I hope Annie and Raquel got something a bit better! Chase & Owen with their candy bags.

Gavin & Makae sitting in the shade of a small bush, sharing a big pink cookie!
Molly and her look of concern/worry, all while never looking at the camera.

I married a Prince!

The year was 1983. The competition was fierce. Yet one young man triumphed, to become Lehi Round Up Days MINIATURE PRINCE!I would attribute his win to his stunning good looks and his definitions to these Round Up words:
It probably didn't hurt that he also was able to spell everything correctly. Some of the contestants (Bobby Bahr) had a rough time with that part of the competition.

Here he is: The Greatest Miniature Prince ever!

Way to go Babe, your reign was truly unforgettable, just like you!

*Just a note to let six year old, blue-eyed and blond-haired Natilie Kay Evans know, YOU WERE ROBBED!! If my scanner was cooperating with me I would have put your cute picture and bio up here too!!!

The Eleventh Commandment

Thou shalt set your chairs out early for the parades. And the twelfth is like unto it, Thou shalt attend all three parades. Check and check, I'm saved!!!

The Setting Out of the Chairs is by far an event in and of itself and one of the greatest things about Round-Up Days and the parades. I love to drive around the town and see most of the parade route covered with random chairs/benches/blankets saving peoples spots. I also love that they are left there for 3 days. The fact that there is not a large ring of lawn chair thieves just goes to show the true spirit of Round-Up Days. I took my chairs down to Grandma Billie's at 9:30 this morning and what a sight it was.

Chairs two rows deep at the park (I have never understood the desire to watch the parade from Wine's Park, all you get to see is the people lining up, two houses down from the park, now that's a different story!). Let the fun begin! Gavin & I were treated to a parade preview, there was a marching band practicing and they were headed back to the park. I thought it might have been Lehi High's band because it was on the smaller size, but when the director started giving instructions and pointing out the park on their left that they should meet him at tomorrow, I figured they weren't from here.

Now the next commandment is just as serious, are you committed to attend all three parades? By far the worst offenders are my own parents. This runs in my family, as my brothers are just as bad. One of them even left to go work out of state during Round-Up week. Come on people! Maybe we need to read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", because I am pretty sure it mentions something about parades in there. Toni & Lew have not attended the stock parade for years (gasp!). While some may consider it the lesser of the three parades, it has a very important purpose. It starts off the Lehi Round-Up Rodeo, which I don't attend, but we can hear from Grandma Billie's backyard so that counts. This year, too make the sin even more egregious, my parents have chosen to go camping with old people. It breaks my heart this path they have chosen. The reasons are completely selfish, of course. See back in my younger days, there was an enormous tree in front of my grandma's house. It provided a vast amount of shade so you could watch the Saturday morning parade without completely melting in your seat. Then the great city of Lehi decided to put in curb and gutter. Good-bye shade tree. The parades that are in the evening are perfect, you get shade from my grandma's house, but Saturday morning we ROAST. There is another tree in my grandma's yard, maybe 20 feet from the road. This is where the old people congregate. And this is where my mom would take my hot baby or child, and hold them and play. All so I could continue to watch the parade and talk about the people in it. Now I'm going to have to take care of my kids all through the parades. I didn't sign up for this at all! These kids always ruin all my fun. Not really, they have so much fun grabbing as much candy as possible, sometimes I wonder if they notice the rest of the parade going by.

My cousin Annie (who is fully committed to 3 days of FUN) asked if Josh enjoyed it as much as I do. I think he does. He has taken to an early morning bike ride on Saturday morning and then makes it to the parade about half way through. You will need to come back tomorrow for some super fun info about Josh and parades! You won't want to miss it.

As for now, Go and sin no more. The stock parade starts at 6:00pm sharp!

It's the most wonderful time of the year......

Okay so Christmas truly is my favorite time of the year. But do you know what is a very close second? You betcha, it's the Lehi Round-Up Days. I love it, and anxiously await it's arrival every year. Not so much for the Rodeo part of it, but all of the parades, parades, parades. I love parades! There are also some other fun activities, my favorites being the Saturday morning Chuckwagon breakfast, and Old Farts in the Park. Seriously people, if Lehi's own Johnny Revill is performing, you don't want to miss it.

My Grandma Billie has prime real estate on the parade route, it is fabulous. I love getting together and seeing all my aunts, uncles, cousins, their kids, their cousins, their cousins kids, pretty much anyone from Lehi. We will be camped out there for 3 days straight, because getting to the parade on time is essential. This proved to be a problem last year, as Molly decided to be born the Saturday morning of the parade. Not that I wasn't happy about not being pregnant anymore, but I might to have liked to see the parade first, deliver a baby second. This is also why I am super grateful I am no longer working and living in Eagle Mountain. No one at the doctor's office appreciated the fact that I had to haul butt out to Eagle Mountain to pick up my kids and then haul butt right back in town and try to maneuver traffic to get a close enough parking spot to my grandma's as to not have to walk miles in the heat to get there. I always thought there were a few holidays I would be willing to trade in order to have Round-Up Days off.

So, how will you be spending your Round-Up Days?

My DH

Josh has been reading other people's blogs and noticed that some people don't like to use their real names or refer to family members as numbers, in order to maintain some privacy. He requested that I start referring to him as "DH". I quickly replied that I preferred "DA" in substitute of his real name. He did not laugh. If you don't not know what "DH" or "DA" might stand for, call me later. He truly is my DH, and he doesn't get enough credit. He works hard so I have the opportunity to stay home.
On Mother's Day/My Birthday, he woke the kids up early and let them help make breakfast. And as a bonus he took pictures of it.

He brought home a tramp the other day and I yelled at him to get her out of here! Just Kidding, he bought a trampoline and the boys have jumped on it every day. Gavin was jumping at 8 o'clock this morning and keeps saying, "Dad said he was going to get us a tramp and he did!"

He took some great scenic pictures up American Fork canyon while on a bike ride the other night. All so I could send them to the KUTV Channel 2 Fresh Air now in HD weather team, and show Laurie Crawford up. (Laurie Crawford is a thorn in my side, she constantly has pictures on during the weather and it drives me nuts.)

He is my Mr. Fix It, and can usually fix anything. Last night we had a little fight because I volunteered him to go look at some one's swamp cooler when he got home from work. When he actually got home, he was already working on someone else's air conditioner motor. He was tired and not happy. He did go and I am sorry I can't say no. I also can't help that his AC skills are legendary. I aplogize, babe.

On Father's Day I was totally going to take pictures of all the kids with Josh. Here's what I got:We love you and appreciate all you do for our family!
Love, Kellie, Owen, Gavin & Molly

Yes I Did!

So as I walked into the dreaded Wal-Mart this afternoon, I noticed they had Eclipse right by the entrance of the store. I paused, thinking "could this be the "Special Edition"?" So I grabbed one just to check. Sure enough, it was! I could hardly contain myself as I tried to push my cart while frantically flipping to the back of the book desperately looking for the first chapter of Breaking Dawn. Don't worry, I found it by the time I got to the jewelry counter. Then I started to read, completely wishing I was at Barnes & Noble where they have actual places for you to sit and read. My apologies to the people (three to be exact) that had to ask me to move so they could look at whatever it was that I was standing in front of. I wasn't pay the least bit of attention to anything but Chapter One. I kept switching aisles afraid that a store employee was going to rip the book out of my hands and I wouldn't be able to finish it. Don't worry (again), I finished it and it was FABULOUS!!! I kept laughing out loud and then had to pretend to be talking to my baby, acting like she just did something funny. I had the biggest smile as I walked back to the front of the store, ditched the book, and paid for my items. I was my greatest Wal-Mart trip, hands down. I'm thinking of going back again tomorrow, wanna meet me???

Happy Birthday Shane!

Or as I sometimes like to call you, Subway Man and/or the Unibomber.

Mess Maker, Mess Maker, Make me a MESS!

Here is a sampling of messes I have found Molly in since last night.

She pulled out every single nicely folded blanket from her dresser cupboard. You might say " If only that cupboard had a door on it, you might have avoid this mess."To that I would say to you, "I painted that dresser while quite pregnant and hurt so much the next day I couldn't have cared if it ever had it's door back on it. I have started to care if it has a door, but since then I have been too busy, tired, exhausted, lazy, and/or tired to do it." Pick your excuse. She had so much fun with those blankets, she'd pile them all up and lay on them, then rearrange them and lay on them again. What fun! I have changed my mind about the possibility of her climbing out of her crib. She climbed right up into the dresser once the blankets were all out and she has made a bee line for the stairs all day.

The next mess occurred this morning. She was following me around in the bathroom while I dried my hair. I left for a little while and came back to this:

I recalled a time when she was a cranky baby and I told her that there were fun things to do like unroll the toilet paper. I am eating my words. So when you come over and use the bathroom and the toilet paper is rolled a little crooked, this is why.

This last mess is what happened as a result of being left in the basement with the boys while they were busy playing video games and left the TV cupboard open.

Those Sega Genesis controllers are so much fun to play with, even when their not plugged in. These are such minor messes it makes me a bit nervous about what is to come!

11 months

I know, and I'm not even going to say it. But I think it every day. This month I have seen glimpses of the little girl you will become. You are so busy! Since figuring out the crawling/scooting business, you know no bounds.

Scooting this way not only causes your bum to be constantly dirty, but also the left side of all your pants and shorts are getting worn out. You explore the entire house, leaving no magazine unthrown into the tub, and no videos left on the shelves.You have even made it up the stairs all by yourself, never mind that I was 2 centimeters behind you. Your favorite place to be is outside. You love it. If we walk past the back door you get mad and scream to go out. The other night at dinner, your brothers finished eating and out the door they went. You dissolved into tears since you were still trapped at the table. You love to see the dog and can tell us what the doggie says. It is too cute. He licks your hands and feet and face and you don't care. I care, I hate the smell of stinky dog. Your father totally appreciates that you like Cockleburr (yes this is our dogs name, but he deserves his own post so I won't get into that here), since your brothers are still semi-deathly afraid of him. All this playing wears you out. Your naps are longer and earlier than they used to be. You don't make it much past 9:30 before your ready for your morning nap, and in the afternoon you usually go down at 3:30. This is because we watch the first of Ellen together, then I like to watch Oprah by myself. You are so happy when you wake up from your naps, you are always talking to yourself or peeking out of the bars like your in jail. Don't ever go to jail. You finally stood up in your crib and we moved your mattress down to the lowest spot. I don't think you will be one to try and climb out of your crib. You don't seem to enjoy that kind of adventure. You hate to be thrown into the air, you don't like going down slides, and you just barely started to walk when we hold your hands. You used to just try and sit back down. You still love to eat and now we know when you are done. You spit it out of your mouth and swat your hand across the table so the rest of the food flies to the floor. You could just learn to say all done. You still let me snuggle you while you drink your bottle (which is now half milk, half formula), you jabber non-stop, you point with your finger, and you will even watch TV for a few minutes. You love to read books and I try to read them to you everyday. Grandpa Harris took video of you reading and we put it on You Tube so the whole wide world could watch it. You make us laugh and smile everyday. I love watching you learn to do new things and I am so grateful I have been able to stay home since you were born. Being a "full-time mom" is not an easy job, but I am trying everyday to be a better one. Part of my job is to give you advice, which is this: Any day is better with a Pepsi.

Love,

Mom

Breaking Dawn Preview

You can read the first 10 sentences of Breaking Dawn here. Only 60 more days, Yeah!!! You do get the whole first chapter if you buy the Eclipse Special Edition.
P.S. Did anyone see the movie clip that was played in the MTV movie awards pre-show? I recorded it, but it too was not enough! I want more! You can see it here.