Lunch With The Principal

Eva's teacher chose her for the honor of having lunch with her principal today. Her teacher recommended her because she is "such an outstanding student". Eva will be honored for doing her personal best. I wanted to take Eva's picture but she didn't want me to. She doesn't like the spotlight being on her which is typical Eva. She'd much rather lay low. I still want to say Congratulations anyway! We are all proud of you, D'Eva D!

New Song

I added a new song that Lee wrote for the girls. It's called "Can't Take My Love Away". It's off to the right if you want to check it out...

CAUTION!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES CAN BE FLAMMABLE!

Emma and Eva always love to put cookies in the microwave just for 10 seconds to soften them up. Well, since Ella wants to be just like her big sisters, she decided to put her cookie in the microwave too. It was right after school got out so I was preoccupied with going through backpacks. The next thing I know my darling, sweet, innocent, could never do anything wrong, two year old was yelling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" I looked over to see smoke billowing out of the microwave, quickly filling our whole kitchen. I think Ella put her cookie in for a little longer than ten seconds. I quickly opened the microwave and was surprised to see the cookie completely engulfed in flames! I immediately grabbed the plate the cookie was on and put it under running water which took care of the fire. But now what to do with all the smoke? I opened windows and doors, but even today the pantry, the whole house, even clothes that were in closets upstairs wreak of smoke. All from one two year old and her chocolate chip cookie.

After the smoke had died down, Ella came up to me and said very seriously, "Promise I will NEVER do that again!"

Lee, The Graduate

Last Thursday was Lee's last day of school! Yesssssss! No more long nights of homework! Now his family can see him a little bit more! We are so proud of him. It's been a long road. Since we were first married he decided to slowly take classes at night so he could still work full time and not take too much time away from his family. Now, 10+ years later of college, he has finished! He now has his BS in Marketing and Business Management!

Grammie came down again this weekend to help us since I am still crippled, and she picked up a cake for Lee. With her help and help from the kids (I supervised from the couch) we threw Lee a little surprise party. He certainly deserved it. When he came home from work we yelled "Surprise!" and "Congratulations!" Ella didn't want to say either of those so Lee got some "Happy Birthdays" from her. Thanks to Grammie for the party idea and all her help and yummy food.

Now, we will be able to have Lee home more often...that is until he decides to go for his Masters. We will just have to enjoy him while we have him!

Ben's New Talents

For those of you who read my Round to Rad blog you know that I just had a little surgery around my hip. I have to now be off my feet as much as possible for two weeks. I was getting Cabin Fever pretty bad. Lee helped me get outside and it felt so good to just sit on the driveway in the sun. While I was out there Ben showed me his new skill. There was no learning involved. He just got on his bike and started going! He's such a cutie! Congrats Ben! No more training wheels for you!

While we were outside I decided to capture Ben's other new talent. There really is no need to explain this clip...

So, then of course Ella insisted we video her doing the same thing. What makes this one good is you can see if you look close enough that she has quite a bit of snot on her upper lip before she tries to get her tongue to her nose...and then she doesn't. I guess that's one way to wipe your nose. Also the way she tries to push Ben away at the end without anyone noticing is pretty funny too.

"Have Faith and Always Believe"

Lee submitted one of his songs into the American Idol Songwriters Competition. I am so excited that lately Lee has gotten back into playing guitar and songwriting. He wants to continue to brush up on his skills and maybe even start entering more songwriting competitions. THIS song, the one he submitted, he wrote quite a few years ago but is such a good one. If you'd like to hear it just click on this link (make sure your volume is turned up) and it should start playing automatically...

http://files1.mailboxdrive.com/freemp3s/l/lziebarth@gmail.com/734347.mp3

Our Easter Weekend

This weekend we went up to Grammie and Papa Rex's for Easter. On Saturday it was such a nice day that we spent the majority of the day outside.

Papa showed us how he keeps up with his surfing skills in Malad. The kids got the hang of it really fast. They will be ready for the waves in no time.

We also took advantage of the last of the snow that was in their yard. Lee had Eva going so fast she nearly got air.

Later that day, we loaded the kids in the back of Papa's truck and took them to the park. We just couldn't push the kids high enough on the swings. They are all little dare devils.

This is what the kids woke up to Easter morning. Lots of yummies from the Easter Bunny.

We tried to get a decent picture of the kids before heading off to church. If you take certain parts of each one and piece them together, you could get a really nice picture.

Ella got a "mini me" from the Easter Bunny and Emma and Eva got "puppies in my pocket"s. Ben got some cool cars. Wait, I thought this was Easter, not Christmas.

After church we posed for a quick family pic before the REAL fun began...

Every year, Grammie and Papa Rex go out of their way for us. They hide lots and lots of plastic eggs for the kids to find. They have a nice big yard so it is so fun to watch the kids hunting for all of the eggs. This year Grammie and Papa Rex hid around 170 eggs, all of those filled with candy! Plus the Easter Bunny hid the real eggs that the kids colored. So there were close to 200 eggs for the kids to find. As if that wasn't fun enough, all the eggs with faces had money inside! It was so fun to watch them runnning around, searching high and low. Grammie and Papa Rex really out did themselves this year. We had a blast! To top the evening off Grammie made an amazing rib dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It just couldn't have gotten any better than that!

I Can't Wait!

We are finally going to see him!!

This family LOVES Jack Johnson!!

We all have pretty much every word to every song memorized...even Gal knows her share of the words.

We debated wether or not to take the kids and decided against it. (boo, hiss...I know we are so mean) Although Jack is pretty chill, you never know what concerts may bring. So they are pretty bummed at us right now.

Anyhoo, Lee and I cannot wait until August 18th!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Ben!

On March 18th, 2003 Benjamin Rex was born to our family. We were so happy to have a BOY! And that is exactly what he is. ALL BOY! He is such a breath of fresh air and we love all his energy. He takes care of his sisters like a good brother should. And he even lets them dress him up on occasion although sometimes we think he likes it a little too much. When he was a baby he was so mild mannered and sweet and that has definitely not changed. He is a really good boy who is SO excited for kindergarten next year. We love him!
Happy 5th Birthday, Ben!!

Birthday Boy!

On Saturday Ben had a birthday party, A Race Car Birthday Party! He invited his best buddies and they all had a great time!

They started off painting their own race car. There were some creative kids in the bunch!
They played lots of games, like "HOT" Wheel and Pin the Tire on the Race Car.
They also got to pick a hot wheels car and then take turns racing them down a track to see whose was fastest.

They made some really good attempts at smashing the race car pinata...
...but ultimately Lee beat it to smithereens.
They sang Happy Birthday and Ben blew out his big 5 candle.I thought it was so cute how excited his friends were for Ben to open his presents. I could hardly take a picture.

This was Ben's race care that he painted. It is very sleek and stylish! I hope you had a wonderful day Ben!